SSE Help... Oak|Stone|Iron|Ebony Flesh in one spell. Cost compounds...

[tyrewb2]

Edit: 12112016 2251: Issue resolved, Autocalc does not care about the boolean value of conditions for spell cost (calculates at load). Splitting the cost between main magic effects and a lot of math to factor the exp correctly works... or zero out all but one and gain no exp after that effect starts reading false. :EndEdit

 

Title says it all...

 

Working on a small mod to combine the Skin Spells into one with a sense of growth and changes visually with Mage Armor Perks (subject to change) I want to make a skin spell that grows and develops with your skill and perks

 

After some fiddling, I found that you can use the conditions to display the Cutting Room Floor visual shaders for the Oak, Stone, Iron, and Ebony spells under one base spell BUT I have run into the problem of the Spell cost skyrocketing from a cost of 68 Magicka to 109-244 (armor depending)... any help would be greatly appreciated...

 

So far:

-magic effect ArmorSelf00-75 have been copied

- Shaders changed to match the cut shaders (noticeable with CRF or Mage Armor Retexture) (working)

-new entry copy of oakflesh (testing)

-effect armorself00

-condition magearmor30 = false

-effect armorself25

-condition magearmor30 = true

-condition magearmor50 = false

-effect armorself50

-condition magearmor50 = true

-condition magearmor70 = false

-effect armorself75

-condition magearmor70 = true

 

Tested by console commands multiplies the base cost for each magic effect bringing it from 103 to 412 in creation kit and I'm not sure why. Seems like the conditions work for the shaders but the spell cost compounds as a constant.

 

Should I disable AutoCalc? (downsides?)

Hard Math the cost multiplier in the magic effects?

Zero out the shader based magic effects and create a base magic effect for the spell to work off of?

 

-_-,

Edited December 12, 2016 by tyrewb2

[Laydor]

So are you trying to keep the cost of the spell constant? Or are you wanting to have the increase but at a smaller rate?

[lofgren]

Move your conditions to the magic effect instead of the spell.

[tyrewb2]

So are you trying to keep the cost of the spell constant? Or are you wanting to have the increase but at a smaller rate?

 

For now, I would like to keep the cost of the spell to increase with each visual step. Problem is that the cost of the spell starts high due to the base cost stacking for each armorself**. Regardless of the condition tree being true or false the base cost (103) is added to each (autocalc at 412).

 

So instead of its currently

armorself00 = true 103 armorself00=true 103

armorself25 = false 0 armorself25=false 103

armorself50 = false 0 armorself50=false 103

armorself75 = false 0 armorself75=false 103

 

total cost 103 total cost 412

 

Ideally I would like a natural step up to the vannilla cost of Ebony Flesh

 

Move your conditions to the magic effect instead of the spell.

 

Moved the conditions with no effect in the base cost autocalc to 412 instead of 103. Spell still works with visual changes at each mage armor perk increase though...

[ishmaeltheforsaken]

Move your conditions to the magic effect instead of the spell.

That's not a good idea. Who knows what other mods a user might be running that rely on the vanilla effect? I'm also not sure it would have any effect on the spell cost, though I would like to know for sure on that count.

 

@OP: Disable auto-calc and set your own cost. If you want to change the spell cost at various levels, you can add a mod spell cost entry to the Mage armor perks conditional on it being your spell and also with similar "has perk whatever" conditions to the ones on the spell itself.

[lofgren]

Don't use the vanilla effects. Use copies. Put the conditions on the effects. Only the effects whose conditions are met will be factored into the cost. Check out the summon Atronach spells for examples. Do not disable auto calc. Experience toward the skill will be calculated based on the auto calc value (so it will be astronomical unless you modify that as well), the effect cost will not scale with your skills, and the magicka will be drained after casting instead of during (like vampire lord spells).

[ishmaeltheforsaken]

Ah, good to know!

[tyrewb2]

Ok so.... this has become a headache and a half...

 

-Made copies of armorffself** effects

1.Inserted perk conditions in magic effects

Release sound sticks on MagAlterationIronFleshSD

2.Inserted perk conditions in spell for each armorffself** magic effect

Release sound sticks on MagAlterationOakFleshSD

 

-AutoCalc seems to be ignoring the armorffself conditons bool state for cost

-Disabled AutoCalc (will need to figure out Skill Mult and Base cost adjustments for proper experience later) (I think autocalc factors experienced gained from mage effect costs that are true... )

 

 

Under both setups

Shader effects work as advertised when each armorffself** conditions = true

Each armorffself** condition set cancels the previous (visually at least) (again forgot to check armor rating... should be though)

 

Still working on ironing out Perk Spell conditions for Mod Spell Cost

HasSpell = All Alteration costs changing to Mod Spell Cast Value

Haven't had time to test EPSpellHasKeyword (will need to add Unique keywords to each)

 

 

Will using EP SpellHasKeyword - MageArmorSpell - Mod Spell Cost - Mult Value cancel out Cost reduction perks or modify prior/after?

 

Quirks, costs, and headaches aside you all are a great help. Creationkit Wiki... not so much.

[lofgren]

So I just checked in-game, and though I would have sworn up and down it had worked previously it does appear that the conjure atronach spells do not adjust their casting cost based on which perk you have but rather have their cost split across their effects.

 

This seems like the obvious solution for you, too. I would still advise against disabling autocalc as it will create more headaches than it will solve.

[tyrewb2]

Thank you all again. I almost gave up on this today... almost. A combination of perks, effects, and spell face palming headaches over documentation, creation kit quirks, and rereading all the suggestions made over and over again... it has come together and working quite nicely.

 

The flesh spell evolves quite nicely along side each milestone perk and seems to scale decently as well.

 

With not a clue on balancing...

100 Alt w/master perk = 320 Armor Rating (38% reduction)

100 Alt w/master perk + Mage Armor 1 = 400 (48%)

100 Alt w/master perk + MA 2 = 480 (56%)

100 Alt w/master perk + MA 3 = 560 (67%)

Dual cast at 100 Alt w/master perk +MA3 = 620 (80%)

Min duration 2 min... Max w/o stab = 7, w/ =11, DC w/stab = 37

 

Dragonflesh (Dragonskin?) gives a momentary boost to 85%? (stacks?)

 

Might play around with investment effects on Alteration and Conjuration spells next.

Invest Magicka for flesh armor and weapons (energy to matter, energy to sustain, matter to energy on release)

Invest Health (stamina?) for Summons (life for life + deadra need something for their time)

 

A few things I noticed:

 

Magic Effect and Spell conditions are finicky as balls....

 

Sound FX will pull from the first audio file in the list (seems like file list, not condition?) regardless of condtion bool.

 

Autocalc does not care bout the boolean, disabling it only disables the auto sum of effect and remains intact for calculation of experience (Algebraic fun balancing base cost and skill use mult.)

 

Boolean Conditions do factor into experience calculation... if cost = 0 on a condtion true Magic Effect, you get 0 Exp for that Effect. (probably why the atronarchs have their cost split between base and potent)

 

Certain Shaders love to hog priority, (tried the vannilla glow pre novice perk and the shader would steal priority over the ones for oak, stone, iron, and especially ebony)

 

The creation kit spell system makes no sense unless you think of it as something like dropped feature. A test of alchemy in a program that flips a coin every time you need to adjust a magic effect.

 

Tesvedit/SSEedit are godsends..