Large upcoming oblivion Mod

[avianmosquito]

I have a new mod in the works right now, beta will be posted for public testing on May 1st. For now I have to finish it and iron out the bugs. Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine were used in their creation, I haven't tried it without and don't know if they'll work that way.

 

The mod has three components, none of which will work properly if used without the other two:

 

Children_Chargen.esp

GoddamnRats.esp

Realisticfatigue.esp

 

I'll be releasing them as .esp files. The order presented is the order they must load in for them to work as intended. (Otherwise, some race descriptions may not appear, Aureal and Mazken males will not be balanced, grummites will have iron bows and various other minor issues will crop up.)

 

Effects:

 

Health:

 

Player and NPC health is now 10% that of the original game. This will only work properly if you create a new game after installing the mod.

 

Armour:

 

The cap on armour rating has been removed, and armour now provides much more protection. Heavy armour has 10x but only 1% of the health, letting it completely absorb one or two hits, but nothing beyond that. Light armor now has the same health as heavy armour of the same quality and half the rating, while weighing 25% of what the heavy armor does. Shields now have half the armour rating, but twice the health, that they otherwise would with this formula. This makes them have the same rating as greaves but last longer than any other armour.

 

Armour's protection is independent of skill until master in light armor, where it increases 40%. The perks making armour wieghtless only reduce its wieght. At expert, heavy armour wieghs 85% of normal, 70% at master. Light armour becomes 50% wieght at expert. The rate at which armor wears out is also different. Heavy armor takes double damage at novice, while light armor only takes 140%. However, heavy armour degrades at 70% at journeyman, while light armour degrades at 85%, making heavy armour more dependent on skill but longer-lasting at higher levels. All armour with the exception of the blades armour in chargen is now playable.

 

Encumberance:

 

One's max encumberance is now equal to one's strength, as opposed to 5x strength. Weapons, ammunition, potions and ingredients now wiegh 10% of what they used to, everything else remains the same. This makes usage of armour dependent on strength and skill. In order to carry and wear heavy armour you must have enough strength to carry it, which the wieght-reducing perks can help with. Light armour doesn't have as much of a problem, and allows you to carry more weapons, ammunition, ingredients and other items while moving faster, burning fatigue slower and jumping higher, but heavy armour is more protective and (at journeyman and higher) lasts longer. However, you must be a master of heavy armor with a strength of 100 to wear a full set of ebony or daedric armour, even though the latter is now the same wieght as the former, and even then it only allows 0.75 units of wieght after it, so feather and fortify strength are almost a requirement. (Dremora now have feather 50-170pt added as an ability dependent on their level to compensate.)

 

Fatigue:

 

Fatigue is now burned at a base of 5/s when running, while regenerating at 2/s. This means that every second of running takes 2.5s of walking to recover from. This is multiplied by encumberance, so travelling light has its advantages. In fact, if you are not encumbered at all, (which means naked, unarmed and carrying no items) you lose no fatigue from running whatsoever. (This was not intentional, but now I can't figure out how to change it.) Jumping now takes 1/3 of the fatigue, but is now affected by encumberment. At full encumberment it's just as exspensive as it used to be. Restore fatigue is now an invalueable spell effect, and potions of respite are much more common as loot.

 

Magicka:

 

Same quantity, but regenerates slower.

 

Potions:

 

Slower, but more powerful. It's impossible to make a user-created potion with more than 1pt/s in any category, but the maximum effect length ranges from minutes to hours depending on the power of the effect. Built-in potions can no longer be bought from any vendor, but most are now much more powerful. For instance, the weakest potion of respite is now "Restore fatigue, 5pt for 900s." (It actually cancels out the default running expenditure for 15 minutes.) Sedative poisons can put enemies out for hours at a time, allowing you to bypass enemies without killing them. Drain/fortify effects are now matched by a weaker damage effect of the same type, even though they last long enough for this to only matter to the player.

 

Destruction:

 

Health-damaging effects are now 10x as expensive to match the new health scale. (Magic bypasses armour, so this was 100% neccesary to balance gameplay.) Other effects remain the same.

 

Restoration:

 

Much more expensive, especially health restoration. The starting spell heals 1pt per cast, while the default starting health is 8pts. The "resist" effects remain unaltered, however, so restoration still has merit.

 

Conjuration:

 

Much less expensive, allowing longer summons. You may summon up to five creatures, but they cannot be the same creature from the same spell. (Although multiple-creature summons are possible.) Scroll and power conjurations now last several hours, and permanant versions are available, but have a blood cost. (Permanant Lich being the most desirable scroll in the game.) This is most evident with the dunmer "ancestral guardian," which now lasts an entire day. (Unless it dies, but this is consistent amongst all summons.)

 

Illusion:

 

No changes.

 

Mysticism:

 

Reflect damage is much more exspensive to avoid abuse, while dispel is now cheaper. No other changes.

 

Alteration:

 

More expensive in general. Burden and feather are 5x as exspensive to match the new encumberance scale, water breathing is 10x as exspensive in order to make the enchantment more attractive, while water walking is 100x as exspensive and more common amongst creatures.

 

Weapons:

 

Formula is now "Base Damage*Attribute*(0.5+0.5*skill/100)." This also extends to hand-to-hand, which has a base damage of 10. This means a weapon with 0 skill and 100 attribute does 50% of maximum, and a weapon with 0 attribute and 100 skill does nothing. Hand to hand now does 80pts fatigue damage for every point of health damage, meaning that an enemy with the average starting health of 8 and fatigue of 160 will fall down after loosing 1/4 of their health in hand-to-hand. However, the damage is less than before and the reach is slightly shorter. (It's overall more effective, but a weapon is still a better option.)

 

Bows&Arrows:

 

Arrows now have 1/2 damage to keep them balanced, while most bows add nothing to them. (High level bows may add 1-2 damage.) This makes bows a weaker, but safer, weapon to use. Arrows move faster, but speed is dependent on wieght.

 

EDIT: Bows have also been renamed. You don't make bows out of metal, and the new names reflect that. Iron bows are now self bows, steel bows are now composite bows, and silver bows are waxwood. Other names are unchanged.

 

Ranged magic:

 

Ball-type projectiles have the original range, fog and spray-type projectiles have 10% the range, bolt-type projectiles have 10x the range.

 

Sneak:

 

Slightly better base, but the penalties for boots, running and so on is much higher and maximum detection range is by far higher. Running around attracts all sorts of attention, so don't do it. Sneak attack power has been altered, putting more emphasis on melee attacks.

 

Block:

 

Now blocks a maximum of 50% with a shield, 35% with a weapon, and 25% bare-handed. Otherwise unmodified.

 

Movement:

 

Minimum is 0. Characters with 0 speed are immobile. Maximum movement speed with higher. (200 instead of 130) Horses have higher speed.

 

Jumping:

 

Minimum is 0: Characters with 0 acrobatics cannot jump. Maximum jump hieght is higher. (200 instead of 130)

 

Skills in general:

 

Skills progress noticably faster, how much varies from one to another.

 

Levels:

 

You now need to increase 35 major skills to level up. This makes the highest possible level cap 15. Many creatures and Daedra will be higher than this, so some enemies will always be stronger than you. For instance, a Dremora Valkynaz is now level 35, making them FAR stronger than you will ever be. This is fitting, as they are now used entirely as bossess, and bossess must be stronger than you. Jyggalag's highest level is 100, his lowest 85, making him incredibly difficult to beat. (But he's the final boss, he's supposed to be.)

 

Playable races:

 

Dremora, Aureal and Mazken are now playable. Aureal and Mazken now have male and female characters balanced. (In the original, males had an attribute total of 235. They are now 320 like everyone else. A new playable race entitled "Daedric Berserker" and another entitled "Unmer" are now available. The former is a minor daedra that is powerful but cannot wear armor, the latter is a replacement body for souls that have lost their own.

 

Children:

 

Player only as of yet, but a child version of every playable race exists. They have reduced strength, while their 1/2 scale gives them a slower movement speed and lesser reach and their skill bonuses are now 15pts, but this is compensated for by increasing their speed (30pts) and personality, (15pts) while fortifying acrobatics, (15pts) athletics, (15pts) sneak, (15pts) health (2pts) and fatigue. (165pts) They also now have an "embrace" greater power that varies from one race to another, varying from a calming effect to a healing one. (Although it always has a powerful charm component.) They may be better or worse than adults, it simply depends on your playstyle.

 

Starting equipment:

 

You now start wearing only your wrist irons, and with four new spells. (Dispel, light, shield and summon rat)

 

EDIT: Also, the rough leather armour in chargen is now rough fur, because fur is on the same tier as iron. Renault's sword breaks and is unusable, and she no longer carries a shortsword. You need to use the equipment you find as you go, which is all rusty until you start meeting goblins, which all use regular iron weapons.

 

Creatures:

 

Now have 1/5th health. The reason their health has been reduced less is to compensate for their inability to wear armour.

 

Daedra:

 

Daedra are now MUCH tougher compared to the player and always yield grand souls. High level daedra can flat-out smite you if given the opportunity.

 

Atronachs:

 

Flame, Frost and Storm atronachs are now balanced and appear at the same level, while all inherit the "stunted magicka" effect. Flame atronachs move blindingly fast and can walk on water, but the others are more powerful and durable. All have two spells with identical power, both 1pt/s elemental, with the target spell being for 5s and the touch spell for 10s. The flame atronach has a 5pt melee, the frost atronach has a 40pt melee, and the frost atronach has a 25pt melee. The highest starting health is 22, (daedric berserker child) meaning if you let the latter two lumbering behemoths near you, they will often kill you in a single hit.

 

Guards:

 

Now locked at level 5, 10 or 15, depending on their station. Basic guards are now level 5, soldiers (guards outside of cities) are now 10, elites and captains are five levels higher, and the soldiers of Kvatch are all 15. This makes it hard for a low-level player to kill them, but a high level player won't have to worry about it.

 

Ethereal undead:

 

All ethereal undead now have half the health in proportion to the bones and flesh undead in order to balance their resistances.

 

Bones undead:

 

All bones undead now have stronger elemental resistances to make up for their low health.

 

Rats:

 

Rats are now much smaller and exist in four different sizes. This has a minimal effect on their stats, and mostly serves to make them harder to hit.

 

(EDIT) Group Combat:

 

Group combat. Get used to it. Your enemies are not stupid, they always move in numbers. Large numbers. You will frequently enter a chamber and find it's standing room only. Dozens of zombies, scamps, low-level dremora or other weaker creatures are always present and are frequently supported by smaller numbers of more powerful creatures such as lichs, spider daedra and so on. You will almost never fight 1-on-1. Most encounters will require creative thinking and possible assisstance.

 

"Resist normal weapons" ignoring weapons:

 

Silver weapons have been weakened to balance their ability to ignore the "resist normal weapons" effect. Elven weapons now ignore "resist normal weapons." No other changes.

 

Enchantments:

 

Follow the same rules as the spells they are based off of.

 

Apparati:

 

New apparatus, entitled "crude mortar&pestle" is now available, and replaces the novice mortar&pestle found in character generation. Noticably less effective.

 

Spellmaking&enchanting:

 

Less exspensive, all effects are available.

 

Kvatch:

 

Kvatch, by Talos Kvatch... Kvatch will curbstomp you. Kvatch was overrun by an entire army of daedra, and now IT'S STILL THERE. The entire thing. An entire company of daedra. (Mostly scamps, but what can you do.) Don't let your guard down, use cover, and don't be too proud to scramble up the side of the nearest building. This will not be fun, this will be long, slow and terrifying.

 

I accept questions, and desire feedback. Will give any and all details.

 

As a side note, I am also releasing a group of superjump mods. I find them very entertaining, and will upload them all to the nexus if any desire for them is presented.

Edited April 23, 2011 by avianmosquito

[avianmosquito]

I appear to have posted this in the wrong place. Could an admin please fix that for me?

[David Brasher]

It is an okay mod idea, but I don't imagine I would use it. The grievances it addresses are not my pet peeves.

 

Your guards sound pathetically weak. In one of my mods I updated the other day, Oblivion Crisis, I set the guards to level 40 because they were going to be fighting daedra all the time. I ran some experiments, and it appears that one level 40 guard is roughly equal in strength to one high-level daedra.

[Deleted1848331User]

I can't say I'd use it either, due to 1. I use OOO, and 2. it makes too many changes that I don't really like/want.

[avianmosquito]

It is an okay mod idea, but I don't imagine I would use it. The grievances it addresses are not my pet peeves.

 

Your guards sound pathetically weak. In one of my mods I updated the other day, Oblivion Crisis, I set the guards to level 40 because they were going to be fighting daedra all the time. I ran some experiments, and it appears that one level 40 guard is roughly equal in strength to one high-level daedra.

 

The reason I set them like that is because 15 is the level cap. It's the pinnacle of human capability. A bunch of idiots trained for a couple weeks two years ago to push the weak around, handed low-grade armour told to stand still or walk in big circles all day while quietly chanting "Just six more hours, just six more hours, just six more hours." and put on a pleasant face for every idiot tourist who doesn't know where the castle is couldn't possibly be anywhere near that.

 

The level cap is now 15, and since enemies are leveled the extremely high level daedra only show up as bossess now, and you wouldn't want the guards wiping the floor with a boss.

 

I've tried it with an only slightly modified version of Kvatch, and they did just fine. Granted, I was healing them as I went along, but they did still do an impressive job considering they were up against all three forms of atronachs, (lv.15) a number of scamps, (5-10) a couple clannfear, (5-10) two dremora caitiffs, (10) one kynval, (15) one Kynmarcher (25) and one Valkynaz. (35) I only lost two of them, both against the female valkynaz archer I added to the throne room. (She got one of them right through the heart, that surprised me.)

[Darkasus]

mmm... Didnt like the armor thing :/

[avianmosquito]

mmm... Didnt like the armor thing :/

 

It's a little more realistic, (only a little, unfortunately) and makes the combat much more frantic. It also keeps low level armor from being useless while preventing high level armor from making you nigh-indestructible. In real combat, a swordsman would have to break an enemy's armour anyway, so it makes more sense and adds value to the armourer skill, which was almost useless in the original game. In the original, one suit of daedric armour got my orc through sixteen oblivion gates without breaking. SIXTEEN. Now I'll be damned if it lasts one, but it helps a lot more while it's intact. If you can carry the weight, keep your battles short and try to avoid getting hit as much as possible, armour is your friend. Unfortunately, it also makes all of those things hard as hell.

 

The epitomy of this is glass armour. Full set wieghs 20pts, current total rating is 650. Current total health is... 8. Every hit breaks at least one armour piece, but every piece absorbs most, if not all, of the hit. Hope you have a lot of repair hammers, or are willing to carry a second set.

Edited April 21, 2011 by avianmosquito

[avianmosquito]

DELAY:

 

I have run into two unexpected issues. First, the voices of some characters stopped playing. This turned out not to be mod-related, but it still threw off the schedule. Second, many characters stopped providing services. The reason being that when they were set to auto-calc, it unchecked all of the boxes relating to services. I will need to correct the second error before finishing up the mod. (I'm about 1/3 of the way through the guard overhaul, the last thing on the agenda.) The delay should put the beta release date on TESNexus on either May 7th or 8th.

 

~~~~

 

 

[avianmosquito]

Abandoned. I got ambitious, and I am now going to create a mod that wipes the slate clean and creates a new game using the CS. Sorry, but this idea has been dropped.