Idea: portable portals

[iceroyale]

(Don't shoot me if it's been done before)

 

I had an idea recently: why not create a set of portals that you can drop on the floor? This would allow you to set up a portal to anywhere you wish. Teleport location would simply be added to the B portal when you drop the A portal and vice versa. You could also include a dialog allowing you to name the portal. Ofcourse this wouls require several unique sets of portals since they'd probably get messed up otherwise.

 

Now before you say 'do it yourself', I must admit I have no experience in scripting whatsoever.

[bben46]

This looks like a variant of the mark and recall mod.

http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10985

 

Never saw the need for this with fast travel allowed in the vanilla game. Although it could be useful for mod locations that don't have a fast travel marker.

[Kuraikiba]

Or, if the area is away from a marker, or inside, like in a house, or in some place like test cells.

[iceroyale]

Yeah, but all the existing mods seem to use spells, while I think it would be more logical to actually have a portal 'item' that you can drop

[Kuraikiba]

That would mean you'd drop a door...

[fg109]

That would mean you'd drop a door...

Not really... You could just create a "clutter" object that uses the portal mesh. So when you drop it, you have something that looks like a portal. The object would have an "OnActivate" block with a MoveTo function.

[Astymma]

Yeah, but all the existing mods seem to use spells, while I think it would be more logical to actually have a portal 'item' that you can drop

 

Just curious how, in a world steeped in magic, would an item be more logical than a spell? I would imagine they would be equally

plausible in the Oblivion world. When things are equally plausible, modders tend to look at convenience next. In this case, spells will

win over an item.

 

With an item you would need to open your inventory and then drop the item on the ground and then z-grab it and move it into position.

 

With a spell you could hotkey it and aim at the intended location and press your cast key.

 

I think that's why most modders have chosen the spell approach.

 

Edit to include link to an example mod using the summonable portal approach: Septim Mansion

Edited May 30, 2011 by Astymma

[iceroyale]

Yes, I have the septim mansion, and also several castable portal mods. The only thing that bothers me is that there's no way to close those portals, only to move them somewhere else.

[bben46]

I have seen the castable portal used in several mods. Usually as a door into a private universe or separate worldspace.

In order to use it, you must have already set up the other end of the portal in some location. As far as making a mod, it would work exactly the same as a door. And a door has 2 sides. So any one portal will only go to wherever the other side was set up in advance. I think for what you have in mind, you would have to have a separate spell for each portal that goes to a separate place. Cast the spell for that particular portal, activate the portal to go there. Much simpler to just cast the spell to go there and bypass the portal. That is what mark and recall does. It allows you to set a 'mark' anywhere. Then cast a spell to 'recall' you to the mark. You could have several marks to port to. And could replace any one mark by recasting that mark spell - it would remove the original and replace it with the new location.

[MarkInMKUK]

The reason to use an object not a spell is - an object can be dropped by anyone, no matter what their magic ability. A spell has to be cast. Much like a scroll in pen and paper RPGs may be cast by anyone, a droppable portal object would be more in keeping for a thick-skulled barbarian type.

 

Of course this kind of thing is far more use in a world with working teleporters (example: Antaloor from the Two Worlds game).