Melee Weapons Shoot Energy Beams When At Full Health

[RextheRobot]

ok, this is a pretty cool idea I had while playing today. I've been doing a melee focused character using the Shogo Heavy Industries mod's tesla katana and thought of how cool/appropriate it would be to launch an energy projectile from my blade. thinking about in-game integration, I imagined a perk that when taken, would add an equippable item. The item would cause standing power attacks to shoot the projectile when the PC is at full health. Would this even be remotely possible?

If so, you could get extremely creative with it! For example, I imagine my blue tesla katana shooting a similarly colored blue projectile. a recoloration of the vanilla plasma projectile would be pretty suitable I think, but if possible it would be excellent to use a custom projectile, something resembling a horizontally oriented slash beam. There could be different "paths" and multiple perks, such as an incendiary skill or a perk that adds an explosive effect.

 

any feedback or ideas or suggestions are appreciated! I lack the modding skill to do anything this complicated but would certainly love to collaborate in a creative sense :)

[devinpatterson]

Would this even be remotely possible?

Yeah it's do-able. It would be set up similar to the ballistic fist I made, and you'd need NVSE for a hotkey function to fire the bolts. Everything else should be fairly copacetic. Vid;

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52IZYnvZPUY

 

 

[RextheRobot]

^interesting mod! i notice the character is sort of holding an "invisible pistol" so do you think it would be possible to fire a projectile while still using a melee attack animation? ideally the projectile and melee hit should both count for separate damage.

btw thanks for the feedback dev :) you're always massively helpful

[DaemonGrin]

I think he means something like the Bloodskal blade from Skyrim https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=8&v=zdux4VA3nX4

 

As a suggestion instead of relying on health make it cost a lot of AP and use as a power attack like in Skyrim Dragonborn. I think by doing it as such making the power attack use a projectile would be easier otherwise I think you will need a second sword you equip to send out the projectiles and switch back?

 

Good luck,

Geoff

[RextheRobot]

^exactly

[devinpatterson]

so do you think it would be possible to fire a projectile while still using a melee attack animation? ideally the projectile and melee hit should both count for separate damage.

You can force an animation (like a melee attack animation) while a ranged attack weapon is equipped and you can *probably* use the fireWeapon function in conjuction with it to get a projectile......but I haven't personally done it, and I probably wouldn't be the best person to tackle that project. Also if your forcing an idle or special animation, aiming is going to be pure cr*p (if I understood correctly what fallout2am has conveyed to me). Plus the weapon would only have projectile damage when functioning that way, no melee damage (the sword swinging animation wouldn't be a real, bonafide melee attack).

 

An alternative might be to keep the sword a equipped melee weapon and simply have it use the fireWeapon function as an attached effect script or obj script, whenever one attacks. The fireWeapon function's projectile will come from the center of the actor though, unless there is a projectile node.....but it might be possible to add a projectile node to a melee weapon without repercussions. If so, then the fireWeapon function's projectile might come from the sword. The advantage this method has is that the swinging of the sword would be a real attack, so you'd potentially have a melee hit and a projectile hit with the tap of a single button.

 

And of course you'd need a custom nif for the projectile if you want something that looks like the bloodskal blde video.

 

If you like I can look into the second method for you. I can probably explore the first method as well, but I don't really work much with animations in general, so it would take me longer to muck around with that game plan.

 

I think this is one of those requests I'd have to play around with for a while before I could give you any kind of reliable information. At this point, I'm expressing what I think may happen, but it really is only an educated guess.

 

btw thanks for the feedback dev :smile: you're always massively helpful

NP

[devinpatterson]

OBTW the the second method would probably also have poor aim, but swinging a sword as a projectile shouldn't really be a the height of marksmanship anyway.

[DaemonGrin]

OBTW the the second method would probably also have poor aim, but swinging a sword as a projectile shouldn't really be a the height of marksmanship anyway.

 

Oh yeah for sure. it goes whatever way the sword swings! if it hits something YaY! if it doesn't YaY it was pretty!

 

BTW this is just my brains method which means 99% it's wrong. But a script attached to the weapon that checks for IsAnimPlaying or w/e that function is and if anim is playing for a power attack it could generate the projectile. The timing however would need playing with probably by adding a float timer depending on when the script registers that the anim is playing and how long the anim is. IE a second to recognize it sends out projectile but anim is still gearing up to swing. Could take a look at the Bloodskal and see how they have it setup.

 

My 1.5 cents,

Geoff

 

EDIT - A projectile node would be the way to go and creatiing a projectile for it I believe.

[RextheRobot]

Devin I think your second idea is good, from my limited understanding. really I wouldn't even be too concerned about whether there is a projectile node, the center of the actor would work fine just to test the mod out. perhaps before attempting to get a custom nif for the projectile and attaching a node you could just start simple with the projectile firing on que.

Idk about the accuracy thing but personally it wouldn't be much of a concern as I always have the crosshairs turned off and aim with the middle of the screen itself

[RextheRobot]

BTW I fully support the notion of the beams using AP as opposed to dependency on full health, especially if that's easier for scripting