The Night Stalker

[eyk003]

The Night Stalker

A Skyrim Vampirism Mod Proposal

 

Table of Contents

(use “ctrl + f” to navigate)

 

1-[The Night Stalker: Vampires in Skyrim] [TNS01]

 

2-[Overview of Changes] [TNS02]

 

Powers & Abilities [tns02power]

Vampire Infamy [tns02infamy]

Vampire Hunters [tns02hunter]

 

3-[Changes Explained] [TNS03]

 

Powers & Abilities Overhaul [tns03power]

Vampire Infamy Explained [tns03infamy]

Vampire Hunters Explaiend [tns03hunter]

 

NEW-[Variant Gameplay: The Gluttonous Beast] [TGB00]

(a variant gameplay mod for The Night Stalker. Vampire grows stronger as it feeds, weaker as it starves. Dynamic blood-management as core of design)

 

Mod-in-One-Sentence: Overhaul the experience of playing a vampire, while keeping true to Bethesda’s vision of vampires in Skyrim

 

Design philosophy: immersion through depth of gameplay; hollistic respect for game balance

 

The Night Stalker: Vampires in Skyrim

[TNS01]

 

Vampires. The night stalker. Bethesda gives us a chance to play as one of these predators of the night, yet I found the experience lacking in depth. Still, I think Bethesda was on to something when they designed vampiric gameplay, only they were not able to fully employ this potential. With this mod, I hope to fully develop the gameplay of vampirism.

 

What are my goals with this mod? I wanted to create a vampire experience in Skyrim that was highly immersive, engaging and compelling, and balanced in respect to the rest of the game. I wanted to do all of this while remaining true to Bethesda’s original vision of vampires in Skyrim. It is not my intent with this mod to turn vampires in Skyrim into vampires of some other already established lore of another intellectual property, such as World of Darkness.

 

What is Bethesda’s vision for vampires in Skyrim?

 

They must avoid sun light and fire. Both are crippling to them. But beyond that, what kind of vampires did Bethesda envision for Skyrim?

 

My interpretation comes from a study of the bonuses and powers given to the player as a vampire. Abilities such as Night Stalker’s Footsteps (+25% sneak), Vampiric Sight (night vision) and Embrace of Shadows (invisibility & night vision 180 sec) hint at the vampire as a stealthy predator.

 

Champion of the Night (+25% illusion spells) and the Vampiric Seduction (calm human up to lv. 10) power show that vampires in Skyrim are meant to be manipulators of men’s hearts and minds.

 

Vampiric Drain (absorb 2/3/4/5 health per second) reveals the vampire’s nature as a parasitic being, who steal the life force of others.

 

Finally, Vampire’s Servant (raise corpse to fight with you for 60 seconds) power presents to us a vampire who can command the dead through an innate affinity to them, being the undead.

 

As vampires in Skyrim starve, their strengths and weaknesses both grow, while at the fourth and final stage of vampirism, the player is revealed to be a feared and hated monster to all. This particular interpretation of vampirism (note that it’s a modified version of Oblivion’s vampirism) reveals a final facet of Bethesda’s vampires. Vampires hunger for and drink blood in order to retain their humanity. When they go for long without human blood, they grow ever more monstrous and ever less human. Once they have had human blood, they are able to blend in with human society, where they can take advantage of all the resources that a town or a city offers. A dangerous parasitism.

 

Vampires are always threatening to become ever more monstrous; they are night stalkers, predators who are able to enthrall and beguile the minds and hearts of men, life-stealers and the lords of the dead. They are feared, and rightly so.

 

The following changes are planned to reinforce precisely this vision of vampires.

 

 

Overview of Changes

[TNS02]

 

Vampiric Powers & Abilities

[tns02power]

 

Passive

 

Champion of the Night (Unchanged): +25% illusion spells

 

Night Stalker’s Footsteps (Unchanged): +25% sneak

 

Sun Weakness: addition of health damage-over-time effect, begins after 4/3/2/1 in-game hours in the sun

 

Weakness to Fire (Unchanged): 25/50/75/100% weakness to fire

 

Unholy Existence (New): Restoration magic does not heal vampires

 

Spell-like Abilities (Spells unaffiliated with a school of magic)

 

Vampiric Sight (Unchanged): night vision for 60 sec, able to toggle

 

Vampiric Drain: [single cast] absorb 3/4/5/6 health per second, mana cost remains the same; [dual-cast overcharged] absorb 7/10/12/15 health per second, healing 2x damage dealt per second, mana cost 2x (meant to replace the healing function of Restoration spells), chance to stun the target for the duration of the spell, can be resisted

 

Vampire’s Servant: [single cast] medium-range, sustained spell-like ability. Cast on a corpse for 5 seconds to raise it for 60 seconds. Costs 5/8/12/15 magicka & stamina per second to sustain. Higher stage vampires can raise more powerful corpses. [dual-cast overcharged] raised corpse lasts 250% longer, costs 10/16/24/30 magicka & stamina per second to sustain.

 

Powers

 

Vampiric Seduction: projectile is colorless and travels slightly faster, medium to medium-long range. If vampiric seduction successfully hits the target, time will stop for three seconds for everyone but the player and the target. The target NPC will display visual cues of mental battle, such as grabbing their heads and staggering. The result of vampiric seduction will be contested depending on the overall power level of the player and NPC, as well as their current status.

 

If successful, the player gains the target of the power as a fully-fledged companion for 24 hours. During this time, the target becomes the player’s loyal guard and companion, an enthralled slave. Thralls gained in this way will take orders from the player, trade with them, and will feed the vampire his/her blood. They can also be dismissed.

 

If highly unsuccessful, the player will experience a backlash from the failed mental invasion, and fall to the ground, paralyzed for 1 second.

 

Vampiric seduction can be used multiple times during the day, as long as the player does not already own an enthralled companion. At the end of the 24 hour period, the thrall will immediately run back to its home.

 

Embrace of Shadows: Usable only once a day, embrace of shadows will immediately render the player completely undetectable (100% invisibility, 100% muffle) for 30 seconds, even if used in the midst of a battle. Additionally, the player will move 50% faster. The effect will break if the player stops sneaking, takes any actions besides jumping (activating objects, looting chests and bodies, using a weapon or casting a spell), or runs into an NPC. If used while detected or in combat, the player’s enemies will immediately lose track of the player until the player is revealed, but remain alert and searching around where the player was last seen.

 

Night vision effect removed.

 

Vampire Infamy

[tns02infamy]

 

Vampires are feared and hated by the people of Skyrim. For good reason—vampires prey on men, for their blood as well as to enslave them with their vile powers. The people of Skyrim know of vampires and know to fear them, and to watch for them.

 

The more active you are in a region, the more you draw attention to the presence of a monstrous being within the ranks of normal men, and this is reflected by an invisible vampire infamy rating in the region that grows with vampiric activity. Higher vampire infamy ratings will result in the major settlements of the region hiring progressively tougher vampire hunters who will guard the settlements and occasionally patrol through the wilderness of the region.

 

Vampire infamy ratings will decay over time and vampire hunters, expensive as they are to hire, will disappear once VI ratings have decayed to a low enough point.

 

Vampire Hunters

[tns02hunter]

 

Vampire hunters will be humanoid NPCs that appear in towns and cities of regions where the player has accrued enough Vampire Infamy. They will guard key locations, such as houses of the slums (where vampires often go to feed) and stores. They will guard the town 24 hours a day. Occasionally, vampire hunters will organize a hunt. They will have a significantly reduced presence in the town , tipping off the player that the vampire hunters are out in force. For the duration of that night, the player will encounter vampire hunters throughout the region in groups of 1~3 (randomly placed in front of areas-of-interest).

 

Ever higher infamy will force settlements to hire ever more experienced vampire hunters up to tier 3 vampire hunters. These hunters will be distinguished by the quality of their gear, the extent of their abilities, and their ever-increasing awareness of vampires.

 

Even the weakest vampire hunter is able to detect the presence of vampires more readily than normal folk. Through training and experience, the strongest vampire hunter is able to recognize a vampire even at stage 1 vampirism.

 

Changes Explained

[TNS03]

 

Vampires are monstrous and predatory creatures, strong at night and weak during day, with a thirst for humanoid’s blood. The blood makes them more human and allows them to blend in to society. They manipulate the minds of mortals and command the dead to fight for them.

 

From a gameplay standpoint, how does this play out?

 

Let’s say you’re a human player who has just become a full-fledged vampire. How does the game change?

 

The single biggest change in gameplay perspective is time mangement. This manifests in two ways.

 

First, a vampire player has to manage their time so that outdoor adventuring happens only at night. With the severe debuffs from sunlight, a vampire (even at stage 1) is strongly discouraged from being active under direct sunlight. This means having to wait from time to time.

 

Second, vanilla vampirism gives vampire players a 72 hour period in which to safely interact with civilization, benefits of which include the ability to trade with vendors, conveniently placed crafting stations, and a majority of the quests in the game. Each 24 hour period without feeding progressively strengthens the player’s vampiric abilities, until the fourth night in which all the player’s vampiric abilities are maximized, but in return they are considered hostile to all law-abiding citizens as a monster.

 

Once you are at stage 4, you are a powerful vampire and so long as you remain away from civilization, you are free to exercise your power for as long as you desire. To return to civilization, you must find a way to sneak a drink of blood from a sleeping humanoid and then you are given another 3 days to blend in with human society.

 

This core concept, of a 3-day window in which you grow progressively more powerful and hated at the same time, leading to a period in which you are a powerful monster is a compelling addition to the gameplay of a vampire: your powers come at the price of always watching the clock and calendar, and eventually having to spend long periods of time away from civilization.

 

Practically though, you are given two extremes: feed always and remain at Stage 1 vampirism, or manage your in-game time and take care of your errands (buying, selling, crafting and questing) during the first 72 hours (Stages 1~3), then spend as much time as you can out in the wilderness taking advantage of your Stage 4 vampire powers.

 

What are these powers, how are they used now, and how will they be changed?

 

Powers, Abilities, & Weaknesses Overhaul

[tns03power]

 

Passives

 

Night Stalker’s Footsteps: sneaking vampire is 25% harder to detect

Champion of the Night: illusion spells 25% more effective

Sun Weakness: debuff to health/stamina/magicka while in direct sunlight, increases in magnitude each day you go without blood

Weakness to Fire: increases in magnitude each day you go without blood

 

Abilities (multiple uses)

 

Vampiric Drain: novice-level destruction magic, absorb health from target

Vampiric Sight: a visual effect that sharpens vision through desaturation and increased contrast

 

Powers (once-a-day)

 

Vampire’s Servant: raise a corpse to fight for you

Vampiric Seduction: calms an enemy humanoid (Stage 3+)

Embrace of Shadows: invisibility/night vision for 180 seconds (Stage 4)

 

I’ve already talked about what they are meant to be lore-wise, but how do they play out in practical terms?

 

Night Stalker’s Footsteps: it makes all vampire characters 25% harder to detect when sneaking. It represents an attempt to reflect that vampires are meant to be stealthy predators. It does not scale with stages of vampirism.

 

This buff has the most consequences for those who are investing moderately into sneak (30~70). It is at the range of 30~70 (with varying level of perks in the sneak tree) that a 25% boost to sneaking is most noticeable. If you have a sneak skill of 20, no perks, and you wear heavy-armor and use a two-handed weapon, a 25% increase in sneak is of little consequences. Of course, there is always the possibility of stacking fortify sneak on an armor set along with the nighstalker buff; in this case, the vampire’s aptitude for stealth can be used on otherwise unstealthy characters to lend more flexibility. On the other hand, if you are investing heavily into sneak, this buff will mean close to nothing once you hit 100 sneak with a fully unlocked perk tree, since you will be undetectable to most foes anyway.

 

By itself, this passive ability is a solid part of the vampire’s core arsenal—while it affects each character build differently, it plays nicely with the lore and lends flexibility to all but the sneakiest of characters. I plan to leave this ability alone.

 

Champion of the Night: Another passive benefit of vampirism, this effect improves all illusion spells cast by the vampire by 25%. It’s meant to reflect that vampires are masters of manipulation.

 

Makes sense lore-wise—vampires are supposed to be able to control the hearts and minds of men and mer. Gameplay wise, it’s a flop: due to the nature of how magic is handled in Skyrim, this buff does next to nothing for anyone who isn’t investing into illusion as a skill. What’s worse, this means investing perks into illusion in order to make any use of illusion spells. Since the buff is a percentage, it really only becomes useful as you unlock more powerful illusion spells. In other words, this passive ability is only noticeable for a small percentage of builds (those who are investing moderately/heavily into illusion).

 

In general, it fails to immerse vampire players into the vanilla lore of vampires as manipulators. I haven’t planned any particular change to this effect, and it does little harm being left alone. I plan to change Vampiric Seduction to better interpret the vampire’s reputation as a manipulator of minds.

 

Weakness to Fire: Unchanged

 

Sunlight Weakness: I’m quite happy with the way vampire players are punished for being out in the sun. I think Bethesda did a fine job here of balancing lore with gameplay. The most significant punishment for vampires out in direct sunlight is that health, stamina, and magicka do not regenerate. This makes the vampire fragile and makes direct sunlight a dangerous place for vampires to be.

 

One thing I would like to add to this weakness is a sense of urgency which is somewhat lacking with current mechanics. As a vampire, being out in sunlight in a city has little practical consequences, and you can easily wait 12+ hours in direct sunlight for night to come without consequences. I plan to address this by adding a damage-over-time effect to sunlight weakness, which only begins to drain the player’s health after the player has been standing out in the sun for more than x number of in-game hours. As vampirism progresses, the player is given less time before he begins to take damage-over-time. This way, the player is still given ample time to participate in civilized life as a vampire, while further immersing the vampire player in his/her fear of sunlight as a vampire.

 

Vampiric Drain: Theoretically one of the coolest part of the vampire’s repertoire (and one of the coolest looking to boot), this is a spell which just kind of falters in a practical setting. This active ability is considered a novice-level destruction spell, which is sort of a medium-range spell thqat drains the health of your enemy and gives it to you. It looks great when used, and works wonderfully with the theme of vampire as a parasitic, life-stealing monster.

 

Practically, there’s really no reason ever to use this spell. This is one of those vampiric abilities that progressively improves as the player delves further into blood-starved vampirism. At its weakest state, the spell is pathetic; at its strongest, the spell is still lackluster.

 

At stage 1, the spell steals (game terminology is “absorb”) 2 points of health per second, while costing 5 magicka per second. At stage 4, the spell steals 5 points of health per second, and the magicka cost increases accordingly. I’m not sure if it is increased in effectiveness, but you are able to overcharge the spell by dual-casting (the animation changes once you unlock Destruction Dual-Casting perk), but it doesn’t seem to make the spell much better. From here on, I will speak only about stage 4 version of the spell.

 

Let’s compare this to another novice-level destruction spell, Sparks (its very similar mechanic-wise): Sparks does 10 points of health and magicka damage per second, for the cost of 7 magicka per second.

 

Since you gain 5 HP every second that your enemy loses 5 HP with Vampiric Drain, this can be translated into a 10 HP differential per second. On paper, this sounds balanced. Sparks creates the same HP differential, does not heal the player, but does magicka damage at the same time. The two are equally effective but in different ways—theoretically what you want when balancing various skills and spells against each other.

 

In reality, the difference between 5 HP and 10 HP/sec is huge in terms of damage, while 5 HP/sec gain is almost negligible.

 

Most encounters pit you against multiple opponents at once. You will be pelted by spells and arrows while you fend off multiple enemies in melee. What’s the best way to handle this situation, which is what you face most often in Skyrim? Cut down enemy numbers quickly. The longer your enemies are alive, the more damage is done to you per second.

 

What this means for Vampiric Drain is that there is almost no reason ever to use this skill even at its most powerful stage. The health it heals is completely negated by the amount of damage you take due to your enemies being alive longer.

 

I plan to remove this spell from the Destruction tree and change it into a power, the kind I call spell-like abilities, or spells which do not belong to a school of magic. It will still be usable whenever you want. Players will be able to automatically overcharge this spell without unlocking any perks. Single cast, the spell will remain unchanged except for gaining +1 magnitude at all stages (absorbs 3/sec at stage 1, 6/sec at stage 4). Dual cast, the spell will heal twice as much HP as it takes from the enemy. For every 1 point of health damage done, you will be healed 2 points. Assuming a 250% effect from overcharging, it will deal 18 points of damage/sec while healing 36 points of damage/sec at stage 4 as a dual cast spell. Dual cast, the spell will also stun an opponent for the duration of the cast, an effect which can be resisted.

 

In order to balance this powerful ability, vampires will be unable to cast any Restoration spell which heals health. This will force vampire characters to rely on stealing the life of others as a main source of healing, while the buffs make the spell a versatile combat tool for any build. Dual-casting the spell will have a different strategic purpose compared to single-casting it, compared to not casting it at all. The new Vampiric Drain will add a unique and powerful tool to a vampire’s arsenal, while strongly encouraging its use for all vampire characters for the practical reason that it is the only quick way to heal without potions. It will make the ability useful for both magicka-heavy players and non-magic using players. It will also encourage vampire players to approach combat strategically and devour the life force of others as a resource (a definitive trait of a vampire, no?).

 

Vampiric Sight: Bethesda took a smart approach to this power’s design; it does a great job of making things easier to see, and at the same time making the player feel as if he really is looking through the eyes of a predator.

 

I dislike it for the following reason: vanilla Skyrim is bright as hell and you never really need to use torches or night vision. Second, its lack of sense-life ability assumes all players will use dragon shouts. Players who wish to play without dragon shouts (and by the way, this is how I prefer to balance Skyrim’s various mechanics) lack any life-sense ability whatsoever.

 

I’m sure that not long from now, someone better suited to it than I will create a darker-nights and darker-interiors for Skyrim. Once this is done, my first complaint with Vampiric Sight will be fixed. I’d also like to add a moderatey effective life-sense effect to the sight.

 

Vampire’s Servant: Like Vampiric Drain, this is another one of those powers that are, in theory, great. It plays deliciously to the lore of vampire as the lord of the dead, able to raise a corpse to fight for him/her. The once-a-day limit, on paper at least, lends the decision to use the skill some weight.

 

In application, it’s severely underpowered and not practical to normal gameplay. At stage 1, the ability is basically a “Raise Zombie” spell that can only be used once a day and does not cost magicka. The magicka cost being somewhat neglicible, Staff of Zombie or a simple novice conjuration spell (which anyone can use almost from the very beginning of the game) makes the stage 1 version of this spell redundant.

 

What about at stage 4? The spell can reanimate even the most powerful of enemy corpses to fight for you. Except that by the time you kill a powerful enemy you can only raise using stage 4 Vampire’s Servant, you don’t really need an Ascendant Destruction Mage to help you clean up the 2 remaining Novice Conjuration Mages. At the same time, AI and pathfinding limitations mean often times, your vampiric servant spends most of its relatively short unlife (60 seconds) running against a wall. And guess what? No more retries until you sleep or wait 24 hours.

 

The result is a spell which is unreliable and mostly ineffective. It certainly does not make you feel like the vampiric lord of dead things. I also think that shooting a small blue ball from your chest is not an immersive or compelling implementation of a key power. What do I plan to do about it?

 

First, Vampire’s Servant will become a spell-like ability which can be used more than once. It will be listed as a power, but wielded like a conventional spell. The new Vampire’s Servant will be a medium-ranged sustained spell instead of a projectile. It will take 5 seconds of sustained casting on a corpse to bring the corpse to life, after which the corpse will fight by your side for 60 seconds. If the spell is broken before 5 seconds have passed, the corpse will fail to animate and an additional 5 seconds is required to animate the corpse.

 

During those 5 seconds, the spell will drain 5/8/12/15 magicka AND stamina per second (note that at stage 4, the spell costs 75 magicka & stamina to cast fully, meaning that even if you invested nothing into either of those stats, you will be able to make use of this ability). To reward players who have invested in both magicka and stamina, players will be allowed to dual-cast Vampire’s Servant for double-cost of both magicka and stamina (150 magicka & 150 stamina at stage 4), with the result being a reanimated corpse which lasts for 120 seconds.

 

What’s the intended effect to gameplay?

 

As the new Vampire’s Servant will be usable more than once a day, players will have more flexibility in experimenting with this ability. Players will be able to more freely employ a corpse servant, greatly improving the immersion into his/her role as the lord of the dead. The added stamina cost works nicely from a lore perspective—reanimation is an exhausting dark art that drains you not only of magicka but physical strength. From a mechanics perspective, the added stamina cost increases the cost of using this powerful spell without making it inaccesible to players who do not invest heavily into magicka.

 

As a spell-like ability of great cost which must be sustained, Vampire’s Servant becomes a strategic tool and adds greatly to a vampire player’s gameplay choices rather than serving as a frustrating ability of little consequence.

 

If possible, Vampire’s Servant should be further differentiated from Conjuration spells in the following ways: corpses raised through Vampire’s Servant glow red rather than blue, and the player is allowed to have both a Conjured corpse and a Vampire’s Servant corpse at the same time (to avoid intentionally punishing a conjuration oriented player).

 

Vampiric Seduction: In vanilla Skyrim, this spell is a once-a-day power which shoots a green projectile that may sometimes calm an enemy. From a lore perspective, it combines with the Fortify Illusion effect to reinforce the fact that playable vampires in Skyrim are innate manipulators, and feared because of their ability to bend the will of mortals.

 

From a gameplay perspective, Vampiric Seduction is lackluster. It’s a once-a-day power which has to be aimed, works just like an illusion “calm” spell, and is resisted far too easily for being a once-a-day power. Unlike Vampiric Drain which has a great visual design, this power has little visual flair.

 

With the goal that vampire players make full use of their vampiric abilities (or at the very least not punished for doing so), I’d like to completely overhaul Vampiric Seduction in order to reinforce a vampire’s fearsome powers to dominate another’s will.

 

It will remain a power (activated by the default ‘z’ key) and not a spell or spell-like ability. The medium-range projectile will become a colorless blur (essentially the same visual effect, except the green ball is without color). Once the projectil hits a valid target, time will stop and color will grey out except for the player and the target (same effect as what the Psijic Order does during the College of Winterhold quest line). This effect will last for 3 seconds, during which additional visual cues will occur (the target staggers and grabs his head as the player dominates his mind).

 

The results of the power will be contested, and the exact mechanics will have to be figured out once the Creation Kit is released and the game’s system is more closely studied. Here’s an example of what I am thinking of:

 

If the target NPC is 5 or more levels less than the player, the power will be an automatic success. Any higher and the player’s combined current health + magicka + stamina pool will be checked against the NPC’s combined current health + magicka + stamina pool in a straight battle. If the player wins this check by more than 50, the NPC will fall under Vampiric Seduction. If the player wins this check by less than 50, the NPC resists and nothing happens. If the player loses by more than 50 points, he will fall to the ground, briefly paralyzed (1 second) and be detected and flagged hostile to the target and his/her faction.

 

At the very least, the victim of the ability should follow the player around for 24 hours and defend the player.

 

If possible, I’d like an NPC that is successfully seduced to become the player’s full companion, able to take orders and share inventory. This effect will only last for 24 hours, at the end of which the NPC will become free of this influence and attempt to return home. The affected NPC will lose its faction tag for the duration of the spell, allowing the player to bring seduced necromancers and bandits to towns and cities without fear of reprisal. If possible, I’d like to allow the players to order their thrall to sleep in the nearest unowned bed for feeding, or even be allowed to feed on the NPC through a conversation command. This power will be available for use as long as the player does not already own a thrall through the use of Vampiric Seduction.

 

The change will have to be tested extensively to weigh the risk vs reward factor. Enthralling a shop owner should not give player free reign over all of his wares, and certain NPCs should be immune simply in order to avoid breaking the game through use of this power.

 

The power will become available once the player reaches stage 3 vampirism.

 

This power will be balanced partly through a new Vampiric Infamy mechanic, explained later on.

 

Embrace of Shadows: The final ability which unlocks as players reach stage 4 vampirism, this once-a-day power makes players invisible but not silent and gives enhanced night vision for 180 seconds (3 minutes). It’s a nice buff for players who do not wear noisy, heavy gear, but as an ultimate ability it’s a bit lackluster. For one, it compliments characters who have invested at least moderately into sneak, while doing little for the rest. The enhanced night vision is fully redundant with Vampiric Sight.

 

Lore-wise, the power extends the theme of vampires as nightstalkers, difficult to detect until it is too late, sneaking into the bedroom of unsuspecting victims in the middle of the night to penetrate them (with their fangs, you perv). Unlike Oblivion, invisible players can be detected and engaged by NPCs.

 

Gameplay wise, it’s a cool distraction at best for many character builds, but does not add a significant layer of depth to vampire gameplay. 100% invisibility does almost nothing for noisy, unsneaky players, and even for those who can use it succesfully, what’s the ultimate reward for a successful sneak? A sneak-attack (easily possible without using this power, even with a heavy-armor wearing unsneaky characters with bows) or a free meal of blood (again, quite easy to sneak up on a sleeping man/woman without this ability).

 

What do I suggest?

 

The new Embrace of Shadows will cause players who are sneaking to become 100% invisible and 100% muffled. In other words, the player will become completely undetectable. In addition, the player will move 50% faster. The power will last only 30 seconds. The power will be usable even in the midst of battle, and enemies will be unable to find and engage the player until the effect is broken (but they will remain alert and searching for a while).

 

The effect will break if the player takes damage, loots any item, takes off or puts on armor, or take an offensive action (weapon switching and potion quaffing is allowed and will not break invisibility). The effect will also break if the player stop sneaking. In addition, the effect will break if player runs into an NPC or vice-versa (you can become completely invisible and silent, but once they touch you they should know you’re there). Player’s attack from Embrace will count as a sneak-attack.

 

It will remain a once-a-day power, unlocked at stage 4 vampirism.

 

The design behind the overhaul is as follows. The new Embrace will be a powerful tool at the vampire player’s disposal, usable once a day. The power is primarily intended as a way for stage 4 vampires to strategically “reset” an encounter once a day. Once activated, the player can choose to run away from the combat all together, or reposition themselves to restart the engagement from a favorable position.

 

It is a powerful ability balanced primarily by the fact that the player is easily revealed. For example, if there is an arrow or a spell about to hit you just as you activate the spell, the arrow or projectil will most likely reveal you right away. If you are surrounded by melee fighters, the ability will again break immediately as the opponents are in direct contact. However, if the player is able to get away for a brief moment, stage 4 vampire players will have a powerful new tool at their disposal.

 

Since it is a once-a-day power, players will be encouraged to use the power carefully instead of abusing it every chance they get. The overhauled power will reward intelligent planning and accurate control over the player’s movement.

 

If this power is witnessed by law-abiding citizens, the player will be flagged as a vampire, adding to Vampire Infamy, a new mechanic to be discussed below.

 

Vampire Infamy Explained

[tns03infamy]

 

The goal of the planned Vampire Infamy system is two-fold.

 

1. Add an additional layer of depth to the experience of playing as a vampire

2. Balance the new and more flexible powers of the vampire

 

It will be an invisible rating similar to how the game tracks “fame”, called Vampire Infamy, or VI for short. Like bounty for crime, VI will vary from region to region, and decay over time.

 

Players gain regional vampire infamy for the following actions:

 

*Feeding on law-abiding citizens, whether detected or not.

*Being seen with stage 4 vampirism by a law-abiding citizen of a region

*Using the new Vampire’s Seduction in front of law-abiding witnesses

*Unsuccessfully using the new Vampire’s Seduction on a law-abiding citizen

*Being seen by law-abiding citizens while activating Embrace of Shadows

 

Note that even if a vampire successfully feeds on a victim without being detected, he or she accrues a little VI. This represents an abstraction of the idea that the presence of a vampire, whether consciously detected or not, has an unsettling effect on a human settlement. Bob the carpenter, once a vigorous man, seems dizzy and tired all the time. Strange.

 

Being seen using any of the vampiric powers nets you VI. Using Vampire’s Seduction in front of witnesses nets you a little VI. Perceptive bystanders may or may not feel that something strange had just occurred. Unsuccessfuly using the new Vampire’s Seduction on a law-abiding citizen of the region results in a more severe penalty. Your attempts at invading another man’s mind has failed. What’s worse, your would-be victim knows it. Without being able to prove it, he is convinced that someone was trying to invade his mind. Being seen using Embrace of Shadows is an even better indication that a vampire is infesting the town and needs to be cleared out. But none are as damning as being seen while feeding.

 

Vampire Hunters Explained

[tns03hunter]

 

Vampire hunters will appear in tiers, with higher tier vampire hunters being more powerful than lower tier vampire hunters. Lore-wise, these are the few, determined men who have decided to take on the fanatical task of rooting out and destroying vampires. Some are from the countryside, where they witnessed their loved ones snatched into the shadows by a raiding vampire coven. Others are from big cities, and have seen their loved ones turn pale and grey and then wither away. Still others are inspired only by the fame, and others by some dark perversion. One thing is for sure: these are dangerous men, feared by common folk and vampires alike. Most work as a team—to hunt vampires alone is foolish at best, and usually suicidal.

 

Vampire hunters will be placed at locations such as inns, in front and inside of stores, and patroling major streets. If the player is at a detectable stage of vampirism and they come too close to a vampire hunter (a small area around the vampire hunter), the hunter will be alerted to the player’s vampiric nature. The player will be flagged as hostile at the town for a week. The player will also accrue vampire infamy.

 

Tier 1 Vampire Hunters

Gear: Leather & Steel Armor, Steel Arrows/Steel Weapons (weak enchantments)

Magic: Up to Apprentice

Vampire detection: Stage 3+

 

Tier 2 Vampire Hunters

Gear: Leather/Elven & Steel/Dwarven, Steel Arrows/Silver Weapons (medium enchantments)

Magic: Up to Adept

Vampire detection: Stage 2+

 

Tier 3 Vampire Hunters

Gear: Elven & Dwarven/Orcish, Elven Arrows/Silver Weapons (strong enchantments)

Magic: Up to Expert

Vampire detection: Stage 1+

 

The Gluttonous Beast

(The Night Stalker Variant)

[TGB00]

 

Some vampires practice restraint and straddle the line between humanity and monstrosity. Some fall deeper into the hunger than others. They take pleasure in the kill, and the more they feed the deeper they fall into the jaws of the gluttonous beast.

 

What: a variant of The Night Stalker overhaul for players who want to reverse the vanilla feeding mechanic while retaining some of the core changes of The Night Stalker Mod

 

1-[The Gluttonous Beast] [TGB00]

 

2-[Lore] [TGB01]

 

3-[Gameplay Changes Overview] [TGB02]

 

4-[Changes Explained] [TGB03]

 

Feeding [tgb03feed]

Blood Points & Vampirism Stages [tgb03bloodpoint]

More Monster Than Man [tgb03monster]

Blood Harvest & Vampire Infamy [tgb03bloodVI]

 

Lore

[TGB01]

 

Tamrielic vampires come in many varieties (source: Immortal Blood, Skyrim & Oblivion). They range greatly in powers, skills, and habitats. Yet the different varieties of vampires seem to be related, and it follows that some are more related than others. The Sanguinare Vampiris causes a strange mutation in some of its victims; these cousins of Skyrim’s vampires suffer a ravenous hunger for blood. Stranger still, they grow more monstrous as they fulfill the hunger that pervades their being.

 

Yet the more they feed, the more the hunger grows; for the glutonnous beasts, the feast will never end, and their hunger chases these wretched monsters for all of their existence.

 

Gameplay Changes Overview

[TGB02]

 

For base attributes and abilities, please refer to The Night Stalker Overview of Changes (ctrl + f [TNS02])

 

The gluttonous beasts are different from the night stalkers in the following ways:

 

1. feeding on blood makes vampirism progress

2. abstaining from feeding makes vampirism regress

3. gluttonous vampires can feed during combat by using the power of Blood Harvest (1/3 as effective as feeding on sleeping NPCs)

4. gluttonous vampires gain progressively stronger health, stamina, and magicka regeneration bonuses at stages 2, 3, & 4

5. gluttonous vampires must expend blood to use Embrace of Shadows, Vampire’s Servant (magicka & stamina cost is removed from this ability, and the ability is reverted to being a power, but can still be used multiple times a day), & Vampiric Seduction

6. gluttonous vampires can regress in vampirism through excessive use of powers that require the use of blood (3 times per stage)

7. gluttonous vampires are feared and hated at stage 1 and stage 4 (can interact with society at stage 2 & 3)

8. gluttonous beasts retain stage 4 sun & fire weaknesses no matter what stage of vampirism they are in

9. gluttonous vampires loses a blood point every 6 hours (regresses in vampirism stage every 18 hours instead of 24)

 

New Abilities

 

Passive

 

Parasitic Regeneration: Health, stamina, and magicka regenerates 10/20/30% faster, applies to stage 2+ vampires.

 

Active Powers

 

Blood Harvest: short-range, targetted ability calls forth a weakened enemy’s blood to the vampire, violently draining the blood from the target. If successful, kills the target and awards the vampire 1 blood point. Can only be used on humanoid NPCs who have been disabled or are at less than 10% health. Can be resisted (level based contest with a random change modifier slightly favoring the vampire). Can be used multiple times a day. Successfully using this power accrues a small amount of vampire infamy.

 

Changed from Night Stalker

 

Vampire’s Servant: no longer a spell-like ability, reverted to being a power (does not require free hands to cast).

 

Changes Explained

[TGB03]

 

Two principles guided the design of The Gluttonous Beast variant of The Night Stalkers vampirism overhaul:

 

• 
   
  
• A gluttonous vampire grows stronger as it feeds, weaker as it starves. More feeding options and blood becomes a valuable and micromanageable resource.
  
• A gluttonous vampire is more monstrous than the night stalker: vampiric advantages and disadvantages are both amplified
  

 

Feeding

[tgb03feed]

 

For gluttons, feeding works on a different principle. The gluttonous vampire grows in power as he feeds, reaching the height of his vampiric abilities only when he is fully gorged on the blood of his prey.

 

Gluttonous vampires can feed on sleeping victims and this will progress vampirism by 1 stage, or 3 blood points.

 

Gluttonous vampires can also feed on NPCs using the Blood Harvest power. Blood Harvest will allow gluttons to finish off a weakened foe and gain a single blood point by tearing the blood from the victim’s veins.

 

Gluttonous vampires will accrue an invisible rating called Blood Points as they feed.

 

Blood Points & Vampirism Stages

[tgb03bloodpoint]

 

Blood point rating will range from 0~12, and as the vampire gains and loses blood points, he or she progresses and regresses in their vampirism stages.

 

Blood point rating 0~3: Stage 1 Vampirism

Blood point rating 4~6: Stage 2 Vampirism

Blood point rating 7~9: Stage 3 Vampirism

Blood point rating 10~12: Stage 4 Vampirism

 

The glutton’s vampiric body consumes a single blood point every 6 in-game hours. As gluttonous vampires suffer from a ravenous hunger, they must continue to feed in order to avoid the maddening, weakening pain of blood starvation.

 

In addition, blood points fuel the glutton’s vampiric powers. Embrace of Shadows, Vampiric Servant, and Vampiric Seduction all consume a single blood point per use.

 

As soon as the vampire’s blood point rating reaches an appropriate range, the vampire regresses or progresses in vampirism stage accordingly, losing and gaining bonuses on the fly.

 

The intent with the feeding and blood point system is that the gluttons’ expanded feeding options and the ability to power up more easily is balanced with the fact that the glutton’s vampirism is more dynamic in its progression and regression. Rather than the slower-paced management of vampirism stages, the glutton’s blood point management is fast-paced and dynamic. During the course of a single dungeon run, the gluttonous vampire may likely progress and regress in vampirism stages more than once as they use vampiric abilities and feed on their opponents.

 

In order to retain the stealthy aspect of Skyrim’s vampires and reward the more tedious process of sneaking up to a sleepingn victim, feeding on a sleeping victim will award the glutton 3 blood points as opposed to the 1 blood point gained from Blood Harvest.

 

More Monster than Man

[tgb03monster]

 

An important design philosophy governing changes made in The Gluttonous Beast is to create a gameplay experience of a vampire more monster than man in comparison to the night stalkers.

 

The gluttonous vampire gain additional benefits from being blood-gorged, in the form of Parasitic Regeneration, which awards progressively increasing regeneration benefits to all three vital statistics (health, stamina & magicka) as they advance in vampirism stages.

 

The gluttonous vampire also benefits from the fact that they can use certain vampiric abilities multiple times a day, but they expend blood points each time they do so. Fully gorged, the gluttonous vampire can use the Embrace of Shadows ability three times in rapid succession; however, the third use of the ability will regress the vampire to stage 3 vampirism until further feeding.

 

To balance Parasitic Renegeration & the ability to use vampire powers an unlimited number of times a day provided the vampire keeps well fed, the gluttonous vampire suffers from more exagerrated vampiric weaknesses.

 

Sunlight weakness & fire weakness are both locked at stage 4 intensity for the gluttonous vampire. This means that the gluttonous vampire remains just as vulnerable to sun light and weakness at stage 1 as he does at stage 4.

 

Another important part of The Gluttonous Beast system is that a gluttonous vampire is feared and hated by the general populace at stage 1 as well as stage 4. The gluttonous beasts suffering from extreme hunger are no longer able to hide their unholy thirst and reveal their monstrous nature. At his strongest at stage 4, a blood-gorged vampire is filled with too much unholy energy to hide his vampirism. This adds another dimension of blood as resource management, and combined with the slightly faster blood drain (1 stage/24 hours for the night stalker, 1 stage/18 hours for the gluttonous beast) helps to add to the sense of enhanced alienation from human society.

 

Blood Harvest & Vampire Infamy

[tgb03bloodVI]

 

Successful use of Blood Harvest, even outside of the view of witnesses and even against unlawful NPCs accrue a small amount of regional vampire infamy. Death by Blood Harvest is noticeably unnatural. Any traveler or hunter may suspect vampire activity in an area when coming upon a bandit whose corpse is drained of blood with no sign of where the blood went to. To balance out the fact that a gluttonous vampire will be doing a lot of feeding through Blood harvest, the amount of vampire infamy gained for Blood Harvest will be a fraction of succesfully feeding on a sleeping victim without witnesses.

 

Using Blood Harvest in front of lawful witnesses will accrue a large amount of vampire infamy.

 

Feedback & Discussion

 

Thanks for reading. I appreciate feedback and discussion.

Edited November 23, 2011 by eyk003

[jackichan101]

I can't read all of this now, but what I have read seems reasonable and would make vampirism more realistic, I have two main things to add though, harder to detect in shadows (i.e. 50% sneak bonus while in a shadow) and hand combat does not seem to be very realistic (from videos Ive watched)

[OblivionBurditt]

Love the Idea. If you make the mod, I will Download

[mackb83]

Awesome concept and very well thought out. Watching this post. Hope you make something of it.

[kuro1n]

Yea I cant read it all right now but i do feel the vampire part is quite shallow in skyrim.

[CyanRaven]

Read all of it (MY EYES!!!) and fully endorse this. You obviously put a lot of time into thinking this up and balancing it out and it sounds fantastic. Bethesda gave us a great canvas for vampirism and this sounds like it'll give it the much-needed colors :thumbsup: Edited November 20, 2011 by CyanRaven

[subzeoreo45]

If you make this, I will love you forever.

[eyk003]

Thanks everyone for the encouraging feedback. I'm happy to see there's interest for this mod.

 

I definitely plan to make this mod happen so keep an eye out on the progress. I'll be bumping/updating the first post as soon as I begin making progress.

[LunaWolve]

Sounds awesome! Exactly (well.. nearly) what i was looking for. Make it happen pls! Ill download it instantly.

 

 

But I have some suggestions:

 

- Make the Vampire jump higher. Sounds a bit creepy i know, but everytime i play a vampire in a TES game its making me sad, that they jump so tall. Its just... like.. it feels bad. Vampires should be able to jump higher, due to the unhuman strengh they have.

 

- Vampires should get attacked by Werwolves, due to the natural aggression between these factions (that includes the companions). Means you cant join the companions if you are a Vampire.

 

- Vampires should get extra damage while sneeking, making non-sneak-skilled characters able to actually be a night hunter. (Wouldnt change anything for sneak-skilled characters, cause they already kill everything instantly xD)

 

 

 

Well ... suddenly my brain is empty... damn thing. I had much more, but ... cant remember them right now. Ill tell ya if i find them again.

[Asdow]

Read it, good ideas.

 

For the vampiric sight, I'd say get rid of the 60 sec timer and make it simply toggleable on/off. As there's no cooldown, it can be cast repeatedly which makes it pretty much a constant effect anyways, except the timer just makes it a nuisance for the player.