LE Battle Staff - Mages, fight like Saruman !

[Zerbulator]

Hi there

 

Please forgive me, but I'm not a good English speaker, so you'll have to deal with a random grammar.

 

I was playing as mage, when I suddenly realized that magic staves were absolutely boring. If an ennemy stands just in front of you, you just have to wait for the lynching. So I thought there was maybe a way to improve that.

The problem is I am not really a modder. I have no skill for that, so here's what I imagined.

 

Staves should be 2h weapons. I mean, actual 2h weapons ; left click to swing (long click for power strike), right click to block. How to cast spell ? Simply by holding the block, then left click to cast. Instead of a stagger attack like other weapons, the staff would cast its spell, whatever it is.

 

Controls :

 

- LEFT CLICK => Swing (as any other 2H weapon)

- (hold) LEFT CLICK => Power strike

- (hold) RIGHT CLICK => Block

- (hold) RIGHT CLICK + (hold) LEFT CLICK => Cast staff's spell

 

 

So, as you see, magic attacks stay easy to cast, but the staff even becomes a fast 2H weapon to attack and protect from your ennemies. It doesn't have the stagger attack, so it remains less powerful than a real weapon.

 

Maybe melee hits should do zero damage, and only stagger the opponents - or do weak damages, not be overkilling.

The problem is that staves would be 2h, so you can't use any weapon or spell with it, but it would permit to be more effective in melee combat. I don't think it is possible to make stand alone staves with new combat mechanics, but I'm not a modder.

 

So, I hope someone will find it interesting. If you are, just go and do it :)

[Lord Garon]

I usually play mages and that's one of the best ideas I've seen in a while. :thumbsup: +1

 

Even Gandalf whacks people with his staff now and then.

 

EDIT: And Zerb; you needn't apologize for your English, its better than many native speakers.

Edited December 19, 2014 by Lord Garon

[SkurgeDrakken]

Maybe on a strike it could act as an enchanted weapon ,conveying a portion or all of the staffs effect.Could also have two enchantments one offensive and one defensive,but, I guess that may need a full-on battle-staff mod.Modular staves would also be a good one,so You could add enhancers and amplifiers,unique totems and so on.

[VanKrill]

A good idea, and something I am already working on as part of my Manna Magic Mod.

 

If I get it to the point of publishing the mod, which depends entirely on getting permissions to publish based on meshes and textures from other's mods...

 

Then I will document and publish, and make available to all, my scripts and game weapon objects for all to use in other mods.

 

The basic problem is one of the difference between a staff presented as:

a Staff of Magic, casting a spell,

a Staff set as a Shield object used for defense in the left hand

a Staff used as a Battle Axe, using those melee animations, used for attack.

a Staff used as a Ring with an enchant which provides a non-active controlled magical buff effect.

 

The trick to the technique is to use scripts based on the SKSE key stroke detecting options to actually swap out and equip the Staff from one of four separate objects, and when those Not currently equipped, and moved to a chest in a hidden interior vault created for expressly the storage of the unused objects.

 

The Staffs all look the same, and have almost the same in-game name, but different Object Form IDs.

 

They are tied together by an object stored in the Players inventory as a "Key" object, which stores the information of which of the four staffs are currently active and equipped.

 

A script running on the "Key" or "Core" object does the tracking for the swapping key command, and changes out the equipped item, placing the non-equipped into the chest.

 

It works, I've been using the scripts for some time, though there are a few bugs to work out in the "Cover" animations used to transition between the modes, and what happens when an attack occurs during the transition.

 

The key bug seems to be the event of a player "Knock back" or "Knock Down" occurring when the transition is ongoing.

 

In that instance, the current active device is sometimes just lost into the byte-Bucket, and becomes un-accessable.

 

I have several theories to a work around, but have not finished testing.

 

I hope these notes help your endeavors.

 

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Edited December 19, 2014 by VanKrill