Mark, Recall, and MultiMark

[Abramul]

I've developed a mark/recall spell set that:

-should be compatible with all possible mods*

-doesn't use some elaborate quest-script

-isn't broken if a savegame is loaded**

-is eco-friendly (doesn't litter)

 

*If a mod assumes that the player will NEVER re-enter a cell, or if it moves pieces around after the player leaves, that might be slightly problematic.

**I'm not sure if it's loading a savegame, or starting Oblivion up again, that causes some teleport scripts to break.

 

 

What I'm considering doing is having one mark/recall set added per mastery level, as follows:

Level		M/Rs	Highest Cost
Novice		1	50
Apprentice	2	100
Journeyman	3	150
Master		4	200
Expert		5	250

 

What I have yet to consider is who should sell these, or if they should be automatically added or a quest reward.

EDIT: Also, Mark 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or Mark A, B, C, D, E?

 

I have yet to test whether multiple sets work at once, but I see no reason that they shouldn't.

[Povuholo]

I think A,B,C,D is best. Will this mod be different from this one? Or its remake?

[Marxist ßastard]

Why not name the spells like so?

1. Mark Antony
   
2. Mark Chapman
   
3. Mark Hamill
   
4. Mark Twain
   

[Abramul]

I think A,B,C,D is best. Will this mod be different from this one? Or its remake?

The method is similar, but the approach is quite different.

 

He has a detailed list of situations where the player is not permitted to use the spells, where I simply assume a moderate level of intelligence. The result?

 

Timboe's Mark script: 102 lines*

Mine: 5 lines

Timboe's Recall script: 124 lines

Mine: 5 lines

 

As for the MultiMark functionality:

VenomByte's Mark script: 211 lines

Mine: 5 lines x5**

VenomByte's Recall script: 257 lines

Mine: 5 lines x5

 

Additionally, some of his code appears to be absolutely unnecessary. However, I haven't tried mine while outdoors yet, so I'm not entirely sure of this.

 

(I should note that my scripts started out as (don't think any original lines remain) the PeaceRoom teleport script)

 

*Includes white space (minimal) and comments (also minimal). So, my script's five lines includes the name and a blank line.

**5 separate (nearly identical) scripts for mark spells, and 5 for recall spells.

 

Having looked those over, one thing I realized I should add is a casting effect. Think I'll use the Bound Item one.

 

One thing I need to test is whether or not mine preserves Z position.

[SickleYield]

Looks very interesting.

[Abramul]

Works fine outside, and I've confirmed that

Recalling to a Mark which was cast in the air moves you to the ground directly below where the Mark was cast.

 

 

I should like to find a better way to say this:

If you think you aren't supposed to leave an area during a quest, or aren't supposed to return after a quest, avoid using these to achieve those ends.

EDIT: "If you can't exit/re-enter a cell normally, don't use these to do so."

 

 

The one thing remaining is whether or not to have an NPC sell these.

[Abramul]

I've been playing with this active for a while, and have hit two or three problems. They're fairly rare, but it would be nice to eliminate them.

 

*Sometimes a spell will send the player to, if I remember correctly, south of the east fork of the short river south of the IC.

*Sometimes casting Recall misfires the first time, but works the second.

*Other times, it fails entirely, forcing me to use other means to return to the Marked location.

 

All three of these are fairly rare, but apparently common enough for one person to notice. I would prefer that they be fixed before, or very shortly after, I release this.

 

The weird thing about this is that not only does it normally work perfectly, but also the two times it switched to the mentioned position, the failures don't apply to all of the Marks.

[Povuholo]

*Sometimes a spell will send the player to, if I remember correctly, south of the east fork of the short river south of the IC.

If you can't find a fix for this one, maybe you could let the npc who is going to sell it (if there's going to be one) warn you that the spell can isn't completely stable and could teleport you somewhere else? Magic is unpredictable...

[VinceBly]

I've been playing with this active for a while, and have hit two or three problems. They're fairly rare, but it would be nice to eliminate them.

 

*Sometimes a spell will send the player to, if I remember correctly, south of the east fork of the short river south of the IC.

*Sometimes casting Recall misfires the first time, but works the second.

*Other times, it fails entirely, forcing me to use other means to return to the Marked location.

 

All three of these are fairly rare, but apparently common enough for one person to notice. I would prefer that they be fixed before, or very shortly after, I release this.

 

The weird thing about this is that not only does it normally work perfectly, but also the two times it switched to the mentioned position, the failures don't apply to all of the Marks.

This is strange. Since, in your previous posts you've mentioned that the scripts are quite short, it seem very unlikely that it's a logic error in the script. It seems that your script does what it should most of the time, but every once in awhile, it doesn't. I had a similar experience with the weather scripts for my Top of the World mod. Almost all the time, they would work as they should. But, every once in a while they would not. Like yours, each script was short enough that I was confident there wasn't an error in logic. I wondered if every few seconds when some quest updates is it possible that that could cause a script to miss an instruction? My solution was to have a backup script check to see if the first script did what it was supposed to, if not, the backup script did it. Using this scheme, it hasn't rained inside for hundereds of weather cycles. Of course, I don't know if this approach could be used to solve your problem. If you do find a solution, please post what you did. Good Luck. :)

[Abramul]

Thanks. I think I'll change it to a 1-second spell, and have a ScriptEffectFinish block check whether the player and the marker are in the same cell. I'll have to release this version for testing after making sure all the spells work properly, though, since it may work. Quite hard to verify the NON-existence of a bug...

 

EDIT: If I move a named reference that has been moved around in the course of a savegame, will it retain the position it was in in the savegame, or revert to the new starting position? It probably wasn't entirely a good idea to stick the markers in a dummy cell...