Anyone want to help with a mod idea ?

[KashiwabaTomoe]

Ok, I know some of this has already been took care of by mods, but a general RP enhancement would be neat to get.

 

I myself cant mod, not that I've not tried to learn, but programing just isn't my strong suite.

 

In essence what Im wanting to do is a set of mostly non-quest changes to improve gameplay.

 

In my mind

 

1- Magic. It's mostly just a quick way to heal, or do ranged damage, as without mods it mostly is not that effective due to the way the NPCs level up with you. What Im thinking is an across the board reduction in spell cost and/or boost in the mana/inteligence ratio. In addition to that, rework the way a mages staff works. Rather than the staff being a stick that shoots stuff, make it an actual staff. It gets held and animated like a stick held in the off hand and used like a walking stick in normal walking. When casting spells, it casues spells to have enhanced effects and reduced magicka costs. Past that, enchanting and spellmaking should be avalible to anyone skilled enough to do so. Enchanting should rely on a combination of stats, and spellmakng should require a minimal level in the school that the spell comes from, with the altar cost of making a spell/enchantment being removed. It seems silly that even once you're the head of the mages guild, you still cant make a spell on your own.

 

2- Towns and NPCs. They need more life to them, all the main cities seem rather unpopulated. While yes there are mods that fix this, they still seem half dead. What I'd propose is adding new interactions (some possibly adult scenarios, prehaps optional, for added realism). Interaction between the NPCs in towns, as well as NPCs interacting with the player. Prehaps config it when installed, so you can tell the mod basic atributes for your characther. These atributes, combined with your stats, effect how NPCs react to and treat the player. They could range from a wealthy characther being treated with scorn in slum areas, to a female characther being harrassed in shady bars. Simply adding more NPCs isn't going to cut it if they are as bland as the generic oblivion NPCs. Past that, anything that adds to interaction, and semi random events, is a good thing.

 

 

Anyone interested in assisting ?

[MarkInMKUK]

1. Magic. You probably want to look at LAME (Less annoying Magic Experience) as a starting point. You want to also differentiate between "common cantrips" like the healing spell, and more complex magic which would require a book, and the advanced stuff that would require training and experience - or you are just over-powering every character rather than enhancing gameplay. Not everyone in THIS world can build a laser on their kitchen table (which is perfectly possible - I've done it), but there's nothing fundamental other than training and knowledge to stop them - same should apply to magic.

 

2. Towns and NPCs. There's a slight problem. Oblivion is a single-core program, which means you can't just hang more and more onto it by upping the processor power, only the speed affects it. It's also a non-64-bit application, which means you get about 2GB to play in, then the rest of your RAM is more-or-less useless (OK, 3GB with the memory patch, but that's it). Compared with programs written for multi-core, and potentially 64 bit, it struggles with extra npc's actually DOING anything. You can increase the total number of npc's animated at any point a little, but an ini file tweak, but you're still limited to how many will actually be active at any point, and hence if you make more crowded cities you see a few npc's "frozen" in place til the numbers drop. The complex AI and interactions you mention COULD all be scripted, but you'd be into a massive task - and without voice acting for your add-ons it would seem somewhat of a letdown.

Edited June 13, 2011 by MarkInMKUK

[KashiwabaTomoe]

1. Magic. You probably want to look at LAME (Less annoying Magic Experience) as a starting point. You want to also differentiate between "common cantrips" like the healing spell, and more complex magic which would require a book, and the advanced stuff that would require training and experience - or you are just over-powering every character rather than enhancing gameplay. Not everyone in THIS world can build a laser on their kitchen table (which is perfectly possible - I've done it), but there's nothing fundamental other than training and knowledge to stop them - same should apply to magic.

 

2. Towns and NPCs. There's a slight problem. Oblivion is a single-core program, which means you can't just hang more and more onto it by upping the processor power, only the speed affects it. It's also a non-64-bit application, which means you get about 2GB to play in, then the rest of your RAM is more-or-less useless (OK, 3GB with the memory patch, but that's it). Compared with programs written for multi-core, and potentially 64 bit, it struggles with extra npc's actually DOING anything. You can increase the total number of npc's animated at any point a little, but an ini file tweak, but you're still limited to how many will actually be active at any point, and hence if you make more crowded cities you see a few npc's "frozen" in place til the numbers drop. The complex AI and interactions you mention COULD all be scripted, but you'd be into a massive task - and without voice acting for your add-ons it would seem somewhat of a letdown.

 

 

Magic: Yeah, agreed. To be honest the whole mechanic needs re-working on effect by effect basis.

 

Towns: Indeed, however a LOT can be done with existing NPCs even, with prehaps 5ish more per town, all you have to do is change how the pre-existing ones act.

 

Two examples of what I mean by the adding of flavor: The slums at the IC docks. You have a NPC going around asking NPCs and the PC if they want to play dice. It's one small addition, but it adds a lot of flavor to a dockside slum. Another example would be adding some lines for some of the patrons of the bloated float (and most other lower class bars too, to be honest) were a NPC triggers a %chance trigger, and makes advances towards another NPC or the player. It's doable with minimal preformance hit (I know, I have a crap box), and I've seen it work in the barfight mod.

Both of those examples would not do much more than have a tad more realistic flavor for the behavior of NPCs, that is were the enhancement will come from.

[MarkInMKUK]

Thinking more on the magic side, how about a % chance of a magical backlash which could take the form of a fatigue hit (exhaustion), or physical damage and a personality hit (burned you and wrecked your looks), or additional; infamy, or whatever? Vary it from spell to spell, and you get a penalty for tinkering in stuff you are not supposed to do, but also a chance (rising with magical ability) to get it right, learn a spell properly, and gain the benefits. You'd probably want to make some backlashes fatal, to warn that a spell is too powerful for the character's current level - they'd have to reload.

[KashiwabaTomoe]

Markin. thats pretty much some of what Im thinking. Past that, it really needs a BIG overhaul, think midas macik, execpt done in a way that applies in a fun AND believable manner for magic characthers.

[JCP768]

Personally there's already dozens of magic mods out there, but there's like no mods dealing with NPC interactions, diverse schedules, animations, more dialogue, etc. So I think that you might want to focus more on that one. I've had ideas for this before like there's some cheating couples in Oblivion and rather than justseeing them behind a stable standing there it'd be much cooler ifthey actually acted out what was implied. Also stuff like people dancing in bars, performing out in the streets, smithing in their weapon shops, etc.

 

The mod that I've played that does this best is Integration: The Stranded Light. The NPCs in that mod actually use animations a lot, they have diverse weekly schedules, and overall they're just like 10 times better than any vanilla NPC just by having increased dialogue, and a few extra scheduled actions.

Edited June 15, 2011 by JCP768

[KashiwabaTomoe]

Agreed, if we could get even one moderately skilled modder to help out, and a number of people to do voices and/or write dialougies or at least come up with ideas it could make for quite a bit of fun.

 

The main problem will be voice acting, because otherwise it wont be able to have NPCs chatting to eachother in a way that blends in.

 

Way I see it, first state will be the inital setup for the mod (either at the start of a new game or upon mod load). You set the RP atributes for your characther, how she/he/it looks, age, etc etc. Have a LOT of options in this, same as some of the alt start mods do.

 

add a few NPCs here and there in the various bars, prehaps add a few dives outside the gates of each city (or in the case of the IC and towns with docks, multiple dives).

 

First stage will be interaction when the player talks to someone, from actually immersive lines that are semi unique to unique to that characther, to a chance for the NPC to force a discussion tree on someone (IE: you play a young and cute female/male, a drunk bar character will flirt with you, possibly obnoxiously. Prehaps also script some of the reactions to possible choices so you can have a bar fight, and as long as you only use fists noone cares and guards dont care. (prehaps script it so in those situations extra fatigue damage is done, and when someone hits 0 fatigue, that person gets KOd and combat ends and doesnt resume when they wake up).

 

Thats just one set of examples, I'm sure if we get this going there would be a lot more that would make the bars a place to go to for more than a cheap bed, or to buy all the food to make restore fatigue potions for quick cash :P .

[KashiwabaTomoe]

So anyone intersted in helping do this ?

 

I'll do what I can, but dont really (as of yet at least) know that much 'bout oblivion modding, never gotten into it.

[JCP768]

Sadly most (like 85-95%) requests for modders to make mod ideas that someone else has.... well, they don't get done; and depending on how complex the mod idea is it becomes all the more unlikely. You'll probably be best getting some knowledge of your own first. if the person with the idea can at least share 50% of the work then it becomes a bit more likely because it's a joint thing and not just some guy telling you what to do.

 

bg2408 made a resource that makes it easier to set up animations for NPCs when people are making mods.

Try searching here for it:

http://theelderscrolls.info

 

I'm on a Job Corps computer right now and that site is blocked for me because it's "gaming"... which is weird because tesnexus, gamestop, gamefaqs, bethsoft forums, etc. aren't blocked.

[KashiwabaTomoe]

Yeah, you're right of course, I'd be able to do some of the work and learn more, but simply GETTING an intersted modder is the problem.