jawa9000 Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 A huge number of games (e.g. "World of Warcraft") have a variable assigned to the player that is essentially an NPC "Target", which is the default recipient of magical attacks. This target is typically selected with a mouse-cursor roaming the field of battle, under the players' control, and then the player selects a target, and no longer has to worry about aiming (sometimes not even line-of-sight) but can focus on just timing the attacks and moving their character around, rather than focussing on aiming (which is more of a melee function anyway, rather than fitting a Mage's playstyle). A basic mod that would do this would also create issues for players that use the mouse to move their camera around (which is 99.99% of players...) but with the recently created "Keyboard View Controls" mod (thanks for that, btw) it would be quite possible to play the game without using the mouse to move around, so that functionality would need to be included in this mod in some way. As for extra features, having multiple "hotkeyed" targets would enable a proper healing class to be played, so, for instance, you could get an NPC that is essentially your tank, then you could focus on healing him from a distance, and not worrying about keeping him lined up as a target. Or tag three NPCs as separate healing targets, and you could, say, press hotkey1 to heal yourself, hotkey2 to heal your Tank1 (think of him as group member 2), with hotkey3 healing Tank2, etc. This would also require some modification of the hotkey system (which may be covered by other mods already, I haven't looked that up yet), but it would be a very nice addition. I know the above is asking for a lot from a mod, but it seems the mod system provided by Bethesda would actually make the above possible, and if so, it's something I'd really like to see come to light. Hopefully others will agree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paladicprince Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Trying to turn Oblivion into World of Warcraft are we? haha On consideration I'm not sure of a way to disable mouse look and enable a cursor while walking around the world. Conveniently a cursor is enabled during the console menu and even returns references when clicked on. You could use that to select a target pretty easily through scripting. And even a script commmand to reset your target to nothing on your current targets death. Using a combination of that and mofier keys it is equally possible to set a couple friendly targets for healing spells etc. And it wouldn't require modifiying the current hotkey system at all, just a quest script that changes your target when you press a certain key. It becomes a slightly bigger issue to cast a spell directly at your target. I think it's possibly to summon an invisible activator to your location and force it to cast a spell at your target. Thinking of it I know that's possible. So all in all the biggest issue I see with implementing this is somehow enabling a regular mouse cursor in regular game mode. It may be possible though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paladicprince Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Or. It would be possible and easier to simply turn your character and face the current target when you hit cast or attack. I still haven't found a decent alternative to using the console screen to set targets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slawter500 Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 How would you intend to cast things like "Fortify skill" on self. Or self heal? Surely if you just have a spell with a wider area you wouldn't have to worry about aiming either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paladicprince Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 It's an extremely simply check to determine the "range" of a selected spell, and it would only aim towads your target if it was a target spell. And possily a touc as well, but the on self spells would still easily be on self. And yes spells with AoE don't have to hit your target directly, but the way this script would work why not? Plus AoE spells are expensive so single target would be preffered most the time. Note: I am NOT currently atempting to make this mod. Too much going on. I am simply offering good ideas on how to implement it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S4INT Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 A free roaming mouse would ruin TES:IV. Its an FPS not a point and click... sorry to burst your bubble buddie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paladicprince Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 A free roaming mouse would not ruin Oblivion at all. Maybe you wouldn't like it and as such you wouldn't have to download a mod that implemented it. And Oblivion is an RPG (Role Playing Game) plenty of which (as mentioned in the OP) have a free roaming mouse. While it is "typically" played in First-Person it is NOT an FPS (First Person Shooter) and could easily be played in third person (as the OP does) and just as easily played entirely without the mouse (as the OP does with the mod he mentioned). Therfore adding a free roaming cursor would do nothing but enhance the OP's game experience. I'd imagine that their are also other people that would find this game a bit more to their personal tastes if it was modelled his way. This particular mod could also be a benefit to people who are tired of casting target spells only to watch their inended target walk out of the way (depending on how exactly it is implemented). Is a free roaming cursor what the original game designers intended? Obviously not or it would've been in there. Are any of the mods created by the modding community what the original game designers intended? Obviously not, but that doesn't mean they ruin Oblivion. So the problem here is you stated you opinion as if it were fact. Next time try saying, "I personally wouldn't use a mod like this as I think it wuld ruin the feel of the game for me." That is a statement I can respect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S4INT Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 Point and click ruins the game play, makes it boring. The point i am trying to get through is that its basically an aim bot... Why bother using spells if its just going to track the enemy? Where is the fun in that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jawa9000 Posted October 10, 2009 Author Share Posted October 10, 2009 In truth, I do play this game almost entirely without the mouse. I use a PS3 controller plugged into the USB port and key-mapped using Xpadder. I actually started playing this game on the PS3, but the game frequently crashing and the ability to mod the game on the PC are what made me switch to the PC version. I played EverQuest many years ago, and loved that game, then I played World of Warcraft a couple years ago and loved that, but for various reasons I stopped playing it (mostly because of the timesink it turned into). And just for the record, I used an Xbox360 controller almost exclusively to play WoW (with R1 & L1 mapped to Ctrl & Alt I could pull off 56 different commands with that controller) since I really like using a gamepad. I happen to have a very severe case of carpal tunnel syndrome (thanks in large part to my EverQuest playing days combined with bad genetics...) so any keyboard or mouse control for me causes severe pain after only a short while. For some reason I can use a gamepad to play for many hours pain-free, though, so that's how I do it. I think my OP states what I'm looking for clearly enough, but I'm not a programmer, and am incapable of making this mod myself, or else I would. I'm going to try to learn both programming and modding in my spare time, but it'll take years. Anyhow, as stated above, if this doesn't appeal to you personally, just ignore it. Not all mods are for everyone. Judging by WoW's 10,000,000+ subsriber base, though, you must admit they got a lot right, so what's the harm in copying what works? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paladicprince Posted October 10, 2009 Share Posted October 10, 2009 So you're saying that games like Diablo and Titan Quest are boring because they are point and click? Or that World of Warcraft is boring becaus you don't have to manually aim your spells? The fun in having a spell that tracks a character is it's one less thing to worry about. Instead of making sure your character is facing the correct direction (which is extremely hard in third person) you can spend your time making sure you use the appropriate spell or dodging his spell etc. Also in my opinion it makes the game more of an RPG as spell casting is based a less on how much you (the human) screw up and miss and more on how skilled your character is. Could it be considered an aim bot? Well in some ways yeah, but aim bots don't exist because everyone hates using them. As I said before you're entitled to your opinion, but because you feel one way does not make it fact. And obviously the OP feels differently from you. And why I decided to randomly rant who knows haha. :) At any rate hope you're having a nice day! :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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