MofoMojo Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 in the video it showed how the vampire could use objects to protect him from the sunlight,does that mean that depending of the daytime the shadow that provides protection will also change direction:? Hi Avare, Yes. Shadowing is built into the game engine, so unless you have shadows disabled (which would be a real drag) shadows are cast based on the direction of the sun. How often shadows update and how the shadows transition is controlled by custom .ini settings for Skyrim. I hope I answered your question! -MM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nskin039 Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 (edited) You need to increase the carrying capacity. +10 plus +30 etc is like nothing. If vamps are super strong they should be able to carry more than that. I think by the final level they should be able to carry +200/300. They have superhuman strength after all. Also can you rename sire to Ancient. Not a fan of the sire name, doesn't that indicate a new vamp? whereas ancient indicates one who has been around for a long while. Edited March 12, 2012 by nskin039 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FranzLiszt Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 (edited) Great work on the Journal. I absolutely love it!!Some things to think of though... Generally, an explanation of the journal. How you acquired it after being turned out in the wild. Might you want to include some sort of signature at the bottom of the journal? Like a "sincerely vampire clan" or some such thing that is much cooler than what I put down? Also, what is the Lore explanation for getting the journal? Will it be mailed to you after your first vampiric kill or something? Edited March 13, 2012 by FranzLiszt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil11 Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 (edited) Phill11 and ElricShan, You both bring up good and valid points. I think for now I'll leave it on. I really have to stop thinking too much about this myself. I've got enough to finish working on :). Playtesting will give us a lot of feedback on where it is. I will say this. I just created a level 1 vampire (gave myself the disease while I was in the starter dungeon and rested for 3 days) and it's certainly no cakewalk as a level 1 Vampire Fledgling so removing regen during daylight could be murderous. Ironed out most of the bugs I had with reworking the vampirism script, along with problems with keeping the Vampire Journal in inventory and populating with the correct text on restart of the game. Bugs I didn't realize I had. lol. A little more play testing, and then perhaps try to check off the sleeping requirement for progression regression and player choice. Here's a sneak peak at the journal text. Let me know what you think: <font face='$HandwrittenFont'>Hello, <i><Alias=Player></i>, my <Alias.Race=Player> <Alias.ShortName=VampireTitle> friend. During your adventuring you were turned at <Global.Hour12=BeluaGameDayTurned>:<Global.Minutes=BeluaGameDayTurned> on the <Global.TimeSpan=BeluaGameDayTurned> of <Global.Day=BeluaGameDayTurned>, <Global.MonthWord=BeluaGameDayTurned> <Global.Year=BeluaGameDayTurned>. It is currently: <Global.Hour12=GameDaysPassed>:<Global.Minutes=GameDaysPassed> on the <Global.TimeSpan=GameDaysPassed> of <Global.Day=GameDaysPassed>, <Global.MonthWord=GameDaysPassed> <Global.Year=GameDaysPassed>. Current Vampirism Stats:Level: <Alias.ShortName=VampireTitle>Satiation: <Global=BeluaSatiatedLevel> out of <Global=BeluaMaxSatiatedLevel>.Feed Kills: <Global=BeluaSatiationKillsInCurrentLevel>Health % Drained: <Global=BeluaSatiationDamageInCurrentLevel>Days Starved: <Global=BeluaGameDaysStarvedInCurrentLevel> Next Level Requirements:Satiation: <Global=BeluaSatiationDamageRequiredForNextLevel>Feed Kills: <Global=BeluaSatiationKillsRequiredForNextLevel>Health % Drained: <Global=BeluaSatiationDamageRequiredInCurrentLevelForProgression> If you starve yourself for <Global=BeluaGameDaysStarvedForPreviousLevel> day(s) you may regress into a previous state. Some notes I have taken for you, the rest you will need to figure out on your own. Within our ranks there are five stages of metamorphis possible as a Vampire. The weakest is the Fledgling, followed by the Risen who strives to Master their abilities. As a Master Vampire, they have left all humanity behind, a force to be rekoned with and even still they may grow stronger. Through greater effort they may become a Progenitor and ultimately a Vampire Sire, who's only limits are bound by their own personal progress and skills. As a simple Fledgling, you will begin to notice certain changes in your abilities. You'll have a slight edge over those that you are in combat with, a mere shadow of your potential strength. You still hold on to much of your humanity and thus your latent dark gifts will not be readily apparent. While holding onto that humanity and our blood coursing through you veins, you'll have a much sharper tongue when speaking with others. You should enjoy this passive gift, as it will not last. You will find over time that you gain a thirst for blood which can only be satiated by feeding upon the living. It is through the act of feeding that you empower yourself to become stronger. When you have fed enough and perhaps even drained enough victims, you must enter a deep sleep in order for the metamorphis to take effect. These are our ways. If you are weak of mind, courage or desire, you may resist the metamorphis but only the weak would choose to not embrace the change. Stay mindful of how satiated you are. If you allow yourself to drop too low you will gain a blood lust and will sense the blood of the living everywhere you go as a constant reminder to feed. If you starve yourself completely, your true nature will be revealed to others, and fearing our kind they will attack you on sight. As a vampire you should always be wary of the sun. Our dark gift cannot survive the radiance of direct sunlight, our blood will boil and eventually it will kill us if we are not quick to escape into the shadows or the safety of indoors. Similar to the radiant sunlight, we are weaker to fire. Even Dunmer blood provides no safety. Again, be wary of encounters with fire and flame and know too that fire can amplify the radiance of the sun. Where you may find yourself in the safety of the shade on a sunlit day, fires and magical sources of light can amplify the sun and force harm upon you. Like fire, we are also weak to silver weapons. Silver weapons will burn like fire and do additional damage. This weakness, and our weakness to fire, will only get worse as your dark gifts get stronger and you progress to the higher ranks of Vampirism. The last of our weaknesses is Garlic. Those who carry garlic will be protected by our dark gifts. You will be aware of it's presence by the stench that rises from those who possess it. It is so pungent to our senses that the odor is practically visible! Be aware, that as you progress through the ranks of Vampirism that even the act of carrying garlic may kill you. </font> -MM Awesome. I really like the journal entry, too! It really adds to the immersion, and it's very cool that we'll be able to track our progress. Forgive my slight obsessiveness about spelling and grammar (I was an English TA in college, lol), but I proofread it. I feel like an ass when I nitpick stuff like this, but at the same time I want it to look as professional as possible. Plus I'm itching to be of any real use at all. Just a few things I saw, hardly a big deal, but I've highlighted/bolded them. I hope you don't mind. Some notes I have taken for you, the rest you will need to figure out on your own. Within our ranks there are five stages of metamorphosis possible as a Vampire. The weakest is the Fledgling, followed by the Risen who strives to Master their abilities. As a Master Vampire, they have left all humanity behind, becoming a force to be reckoned with; yet even still, they may grow stronger. Through greater effort they may become a Progenitor and ultimately a Vampire Sire, whose only limits are bound by their own personal progress and skills. As a simple Fledgling, you will begin to notice certain changes in your abilities. You'll have a slight edge over those that you are in combat with, yet you'll still be a mere shadow of your potential strength. At this stage, you still hold on to much of your humanity and thus your latent dark gifts will not be readily apparent. While holding onto that humanity and our blood coursing through your veins, you'll have a much sharper tongue when speaking with others. You should enjoy this passive gift, as it will not last. You will find over time that you gain a thirst for blood which can only be satiated by feeding upon the living. It is through the act of feeding that you empower yourself to become stronger. When you have fed enough and perhaps even drained enough victims, you must enter a deep sleep in order for the metamorphosis to take effect. These are our ways. If you are weak of mind, courage or desire, you may resist the metamorphosis, but only the weak would choose to not embrace the change. Stay mindful of how satiated you are. If you allow yourself to drop too low you will gain a blood lust and will sense the blood of the living everywhere you go as a constant reminder to feed. If you starve yourself completely, your true nature will be revealed to others, and, fearing our kind, they will attack you on sight. As a vampire you should always be wary of the sun. Our dark gift cannot survive the radiance of direct sunlight. Exposure to it will make our blood will boil, and eventually it will kill us if we are not quick to escape into the shadows or the safety of indoors. Similar to the radiant sunlight, we are weaker to fire. Even Dunmer blood provides no safety. Again, be wary of encounters with fire and flame and know, too, that fire can amplify the radiance of the sun. Where you may find yourself in the safety of the shade on a sunlit day, fires and magical sources of light can amplify the sun and force harm upon you. Like fire, we are also weak to silver weapons. Silver weapons will burn like fire and do additional damage. This weakness, and our weakness to fire, will only get worse as your dark gifts get stronger and you progress to the higher ranks of Vampirism. The last of our weaknesses is Garlic. Those who carry garlic will be protected against our dark gifts. You will be aware of it's presence by the stench that rises from those who possess it. It is so pungent to our senses that the odor is practically visible! Be aware, however, that as you progress through the ranks of Vampirism, that even the act of carrying garlic may kill you. Stuff I thought would make it sound a little better I bolded in purple. Stuff that is merely grammatical is bolded in light blue. None of the content, which was great by the way, was altered at all. It was well organized and well written. Speaking of the content, I'm curious. Are you going to make it so that Dunmer blood will not slightly counterbalance a Vampire's fire weakness? Edited March 13, 2012 by phil11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MofoMojo Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 (edited) You need to increase the carrying capacity. +10 plus +30 etc is like nothing. If vamps are super strong they should be able to carry more than that. I think by the final level they should be able to carry +200/300. They have superhuman strength after all. Also can you rename sire to Ancient. Not a fan of the sire name, doesn't that indicate a new vamp? whereas ancient indicates one who has been around for a long while. Sire has several meanings. As a transitive verb it means to father an offspring which is probably the form you are used to hearing, as of late. i.e. "Who sired this vampire?" As a noun, it is a formal way to address a King. But Sire has never meant to be a new vampire. Strength is easy to alter, we'll get playtesting feedback during the beta on what people think. I agree it could probably stand to be a bit stronger. As for the name change.... That would be up to Jakisthe. I'm happy with the names , if not because they are technically acurate then because they are uniquely our implementation (At least Sire and Progenitor and Risen). Franzliszt, DOH...I lost my signature in a COPY/PASTE accident!!! It used to say "Sincerely, A friend of the Darkness". Drat it. Eventually (Post Alpha) it'll be delivered via courier rather than just popup in your inventory. My hope is to have him give you the journal, and the nervously cower in fear before darting away. Ultimately the origins of the journal depend on where we end up heading with the quest lines. Prior to joining with Jakisthe it had been my intent to trigger vampirism as a part of a line of quests where you were the vampire hunter, and you were commissioned by someone to do the hunting. Go read Immortal Blood in the Skyrim library if you haven't. It was going to be modelled after that story. He (refer to the story) would have given you the journal if you had chosen to be turned, rather than be killed, a choice the victim did not have in the story. -MM Edited March 13, 2012 by MofoMojo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MofoMojo Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Awesome. I really like the journal entry, too! It really adds to the immersion, and it's very cool that we'll be able to track our progress. Forgive my slight obsessiveness about spelling and grammar (I was an English TA in college, lol), but I proofread it. I feel like an ass when I nitpick stuff like this, but at the same time I want it to look as professional as possible. Plus I'm itching to be of any real use at all. Just a few things I saw, hardly a big deal, but I've highlighted/bolded them. I hope you don't mind. Some notes I have taken for you, the rest you will need to figure out on your own. Within our ranks there are five stages of metamorphosis possible as a Vampire. The weakest is the Fledgling, followed by the Risen who strives to Master their abilities. As a Master Vampire, they have left all humanity behind, becoming a force to be reckoned with; yet even still, they may grow stronger. Through greater effort they may become a Progenitor and ultimately a Vampire Sire, whose only limits are bound by their own personal progress and skills. As a simple Fledgling, you will begin to notice certain changes in your abilities. You'll have a slight edge over those that you are in combat with, yet you'll still be a mere shadow of your potential strength. At this stage, you still hold on to much of your humanity and thus your latent dark gifts will not be readily apparent. While holding onto that humanity and our blood coursing through your veins, you'll have a much sharper tongue when speaking with others. You should enjoy this passive gift, as it will not last. You will find over time that you gain a thirst for blood which can only be satiated by feeding upon the living. It is through the act of feeding that you empower yourself to become stronger. When you have fed enough and perhaps even drained enough victims, you must enter a deep sleep in order for the metamorphosis to take effect. These are our ways. If you are weak of mind, courage or desire, you may resist the metamorphosis, but only the weak would choose to not embrace the change. Stay mindful of how satiated you are. If you allow yourself to drop too low you will gain a blood lust and will sense the blood of the living everywhere you go as a constant reminder to feed. If you starve yourself completely, your true nature will be revealed to others, and, fearing our kind, they will attack you on sight. As a vampire you should always be wary of the sun. Our dark gift cannot survive the radiance of direct sunlight. Exposure to it will make our blood will boil, and eventually it will kill us if we are not quick to escape into the shadows or the safety of indoors. Similar to the radiant sunlight, we are weaker to fire. Even Dunmer blood provides no safety. Again, be wary of encounters with fire and flame and know, too, that fire can amplify the radiance of the sun. Where you may find yourself in the safety of the shade on a sunlit day, fires and magical sources of light can amplify the sun and force harm upon you. Like fire, we are also weak to silver weapons. Silver weapons will burn like fire and do additional damage. This weakness, and our weakness to fire, will only get worse as your dark gifts get stronger and you progress to the higher ranks of Vampirism. The last of our weaknesses is Garlic. Those who carry garlic will be protected against our dark gifts. You will be aware of it's presence by the stench that rises from those who possess it. It is so pungent to our senses that the odor is practically visible! Be aware, however, that as you progress through the ranks of Vampirism, that even the act of carrying garlic may kill you. Stuff I thought would make it sound a little better I bolded in purple. Stuff that is merely grammatical is bolded in light blue. None of the content, which was great by the way, was altered at all. It was well organized and well written. Speaking of the content, I'm curious. Are you going to make it so that Dunmer blood will not slightly counterbalance a Vampire's fire weakness? Sweet Phil11! I was just refreshing a reply that sat a little too long before being submitted and noticed you're reply. I just wanted give a quick thanks for the feedback (I'll go through it shortly) and PLEASE, I if you find any grammatical mistakes or such don't hesitate to correct me. My mind usually thinks faster than my fingers can type and what sounded good in my head doesn't always translate well while I'm typing. To quickly answer your question, Jakisthe suggested in a private PM conversation that because you're blood is no longer "Dunmer" it shouldn't protect you. I agreed, so I removed the additional protection that Dark Elves get from fire once they become a vampire. You literally switch races when you become a vampire (don't know how many know that) so there's a seperate vampire race for each playable race. -MM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MofoMojo Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 (edited) @Phil11, I stole it all. Thank you for the help!!! Ok, more feedback and I hope you guys are OK with this implementation. The easiest way to deal with sleeping and ensuring that vampires can go through their "metamorphic stage" either for progression or regression via SLEEP is this - I have to effectively disable/override the hunger mechanics during sleep. More appropriately I reset their satiation levels to what they were before they entered into sleep. This has two affects. Sleeping becomes a bonus to the vampire. You do not lose your satiation when sleeping, therefore it becomes a method to wait around, but you have to find a bed to take advantage of it. I like to tell myself, when they're sleeping they're practically hybernating and don't consume as much energy. That's what it takes to keep me asleep at night. :)It keeps vampires from going into the staved state while they are sleeping for the purpose of progression. For regression it has no effect. So to me, I think this is acceptable, and not really a loss. I want to know what others think. Off to wire up the progression messages and then kick the tires so to speak. Edit: Oh, and I see I can do this conditionally too...i.e. Satiation not drained but only if the player INTENDED to sleep more than X hours. -MM Edit: I could use some help on these messages. Here's what I have. I need some lore friendly(ish) linguistic wizardry here: Vampire Regression:Your starving body is struggling to maintain its current state. You can feel your strength slipping. Do you...<button> Regather my senses and resist the urge to change. <button> Give in to the struggle and allow my body to be free of this level of burden. Vampire Progression:You sense that you're feeding has made you stronger, feeling a surge of power struggling to break through the surface do you...<button> Resist against my dark nature and remain in my current state<button> Give in in to my dark nature and become a stronger Vampire Thanks, MM Edited March 13, 2012 by MofoMojo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nskin039 Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 (edited) Prior to joining with Jakisthe it had been my intent to trigger vampirism as a part of a line of quests where you were the vampire hunter, and you were commissioned by someone to do the hunting. Go read Immortal Blood in the Skyrim library if you haven't. It was going to be modelled after that story. He (refer to the story) would have given you the journal if you had chosen to be turned, rather than be killed, a choice the victim did not have in the story. -MM Please please make a quest like that. When I read that book I thought the same thing. Maybe when you find a copy of the book it triggers the quest. And at the end of the quest you meet a vampire that gives you the option to be turned or fight him. How cool would it you chose to accept the dark gift, the camera changed to third person where you could see the vampire come up to you and see him bite and turn you. EPIC! Please. that would be amazing! I always thought you when you meet certain vampires they should offer to turn you if you are alone. If you say yes to the bite you see them turn you and if you say no they attack you. Edited March 13, 2012 by nskin039 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jakisthe Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 (edited) You need to increase the carrying capacity. +10 plus +30 etc is like nothing. If vamps are super strong they should be able to carry more than that. I think by the final level they should be able to carry +200/300. They have superhuman strength after all. Also can you rename sire to Ancient. Not a fan of the sire name, doesn't that indicate a new vamp? whereas ancient indicates one who has been around for a long while. We need to be careful to not make them too powerful. As it stands, there are quite a few people saying we can already carry too much, even in vanilla. Still, as MM said, it's easy to alter and the best balance will hopefully be revealed via playtesting. As far as sire and related naming goes...actually, sire has a few definitions:-Forefather-A man of rank or authority-OriginatorYou're thinking of the action of siring a new vampire...which refers to them originating a vampire, using the more specific connotation of "creation of a wild animal", as vampires were sometimes known to be. As far as the journal goes...that's MMs domain much more than it is mine. I really like it though! But I can't be as loquacious about it :/. That said, hopefully quests will prove to be a large part of the experience down the line, to give people an incentive to actually become a vampire, but for now, we're nailing down the basics. Edited March 13, 2012 by Jakisthe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MofoMojo Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Sigh.... What a night of wonderful advancements and utter failures all wrapped up into one. I've got progression working via sleep now, just need to add some special effects, I got the journal fleshed out, and now I think I've gone too far and need to devise a solution. I have no hair to pull out but... Up to this point, adding in new features, spells, etc,. through the game required a simple update to the VampireQuestScript.PSC file and recompiling. Occassionally, the feed attack perks would unhook and they had to have their script fragments regenerated and recompiled, or worse case scenario rebuild the fragment completely from scratch. All you had to do in game was STOP and START the vampire quest in the console. STOPQUEST EAFD5STARTQUEST EAFD5 Very simple... no problems ever up until tonight. Now I am finding that all manner of things break when I do this. The quest aliases go unresolved, and the ... failsafes.... I implemented to re-resolve them aren't working, Hunger Management stops working, and feeding even seems to stop working as do progression and everything else. I don't know if it had to do with the utter re-writing of the script (I imagine it did) but it has left me in a bad place tonight not knowing how to circumvent this latest issue. This is a big one for me. If I can't figure out how to repersist the journal, I'm fine with that, strike it out for now or I'll put it in a different quest as a workaround, but not being able to add a simple spell or change a small part of the current script without breaking the entire thing is really a big downer. I am utterly confused by why this just started happening. To stop tonight on a positive note. Here's the progression at work. I need to add in visual screen and sound effects when it happens otherwise it's a little....easy to miss. :) Well, not Fledgling to Risen since you're granted a Shout but .... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwItLlANZ_U&feature=youtube_gdata -MM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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