[WIP] Belua Sanguinare Revisited

[MofoMojo]

On Bats - Those bats are actually all combined into a single animated .NIF. I use them for the teleportation/blink spell.

On Thralls - We will have the ability to create vampire loyalists/thralls in that regard. Just not in there yet.

On Holding Down Keys - Well, we don't really know when a player is holding a key down. You hold down say, SHIFT for sprint like I do, and nothing happens until you're also moving forward. Here's what I've done to maybe meet half way. You know what...here's the source code. It's probably more self explanatory than I could be:

 

int level = BeluaGlobalCurrentVampireLevel.GetValue() as int
currentSpeed = caster.GetActorValue("speedMult")
float previousSpeed = currentSpeed
Trace("CurrentLevel: " + level)
Trace("CurrentSpeed: " + currentSpeed)

if(!caster.IsInInterior())
	currentSpeed = 1.20 * currentSpeed
EndIf

if level == 1
	; 10% Increase
	SprintMod = (1.10 * currentSpeed) - previousSpeed
elseif level == 2
	SprintMod = (1.25 * currentSpeed) - previousSpeed
ElseIf level == 3
	SprintMod = (1.50 * currentSpeed) - previousSpeed
ElseIf level == 4
	SprintMod = (1.75 * currentSpeed) - previousSpeed
ElseIf level == 5
	; 50% Increase
	SprintMod = (2 * currentSpeed) - previousSpeed
EndIf

 

Edit: Fixed some math logic...

 

Alright you talked me into it. I'll describe it. If you're outside I apply a base 20% modifier to your speed out the gate. Then I apply another set of modifiers based on your Vampire Stage. Another 10% for Fledgling, 100% for sires. But BECAUSE I apply a base modifier first, this is how it works out.

 

Base Speed Multiplier is 100

 

Fledgling outside sets this to 120

Fledgling then sets this to 132

Fledgling inside would be 110 (same speed as before)

 

Sire outside sets this to 120

Sire then doubles this to 240 (instead of 200 previously)

Sire inside would be 200 (same speed as before)

 

Finally, CONCEPT TIME.

 

Alright, telekensis + knowing we targetted a weapon + reanimating that weapon, just not going to happen. Not at my current level of knowledge.

Jakisthe and I were discussing having some spells automatically cast Soul Trap, such as BloodRend (if the victim died while it was active). We discussed that auto Soul Trap can be problematic because some people like to be very selective in when they use soul trap (because souls are stupid and will use a ridiculously large soul gem if no other gem is available...yes...there's a mod to fix that). So I was thinking that so far, all of the re-animated corpse stuff is a spell you cast POST combat on a dead corpse, or even in the case of "Feed Attack" you have to KILL the victim with the bite (almost a guarantee). So how about a fire and forget corpse reanimator? i.e. you cast it on a target and if it dies while the effect is still active it reanimates it.... and then I got to thinking what if you didn't just reanimate the corpse, but you entralled the soul of the victim and IT did your bidding, wearing all the equipment of the dead victim before you. So....enter Soul Servant.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKc97QfPlac&feature=youtube_gdata

 

Basically since I couldn't figure out how to do Telekinesis the way I wanted to, and we wanted to have some sort of "soul trapping" like behavior but maybe not in a gem, I worked up this POC. Let me know what you think. The question of course, is while some of these concepts are pretty cool... I don't want to just be throwing stuff in because it's not necessarily....vampiric in nature. It's more necromantic.

 

-MM

Edited March 17, 2012 by MofoMojo

[nskin039]

Im hoping that the teleport is not the only bat transformation. I was hoping that you could fly around the world in bat form like you could in oblivion. There were several bat models in oblivion. could you contact a modder and see if you could port the oblivion mod to skyrim? Edited March 16, 2012 by nskin039

[Darksun45230]

Quick questions:

 

Those Summoned Axes, specifically the amount you summoned, were just for show right? Having that many followers would be a little OP, no? Though, I am forgetting the weaknesses applied to Vampires of that level.

 

Also, are Thralls going to replace the spot of followers?

[phil11]

Ok I think we're under the same impression just using different semantics. Yes, technically the slow time slows EVERYTHING, but then the game engine does speed the player back up so it feels like they're moving a relatively similar speed to before the slow time kicked in. I haven't touched that mechanic at all. So when I say making speed multiplier adjustments I'm not really taking into account the ones the game engine does FOR YOU when you kick in slow time.

 

Ahhhhh. Okay.

 

Phil, when time slows via non-sprinting vampire speed/that shout, I think you're right...it slows everything down, including the player, but not quite as much. The way it's set up now, I think, will have the effect you want; just slow time, and THEN start sprinting. That'd have them going fast and with superfast reflexes :thumbsup: . If you reverse that order, you simply run REALLY fast..which might be what you want, hence why it's implemented like that. Two options from the single vampire speed power: super fast running (on top of the inherent sprint modifiers) or super fast reflexes (and able to use the sprint modifiers while slowing down time).

 

You're right, that would probably work just fine. Eventually though, it would be nice to have a version that could work with SKSE that would do it upon pressing a button. Maybe after the next few patches have been released and Bethesda aren't planning another patch for a while- then SKSE and constant updating wouldn't be an issue.

[MofoMojo]

Quick questions:

 

Those Summoned Axes, specifically the amount you summoned, were just for show right? Having that many followers would be a little OP, no? Though, I am forgetting the weaknesses applied to Vampires of that level.

 

Also, are Thralls going to replace the spot of followers?

 

So the axes are still a POC. I'm not sure if they'll be included or not. They actually scale in Hit Points, etc,. with the player. But Vampire's are going to scale the number of summonable/conjurable creatures total.

 

At Fledgling it will be 1 (or 2 if you have the appropriate conjuring perk Dual Souls I believe)

Risen 2

Master 3

Progenitor 4

Sire 5

 

Right now they don't take much mana to create, but that's going to be scaled up significantly...it was more for show and to quickly kill something. We really haven't fleshed out the Thralling and Siring yet but I think we'll stick to one thrall and one sired vampire.

 

In Game Followers have their own "slot" so however many the game supports (which is Generally just one) you'll have that follower.

 

And finally.....we support commanding animals. Which have a maximum of 3 at Sire. Animals supported at Sire level are Skeevers, Wolves, Sabres, and Bears (right now). I'm thinking of just supporting Wolves and Skeevers but Jakisthe would have to back me on that as it was her idea and I don't want to tramp all over it. I just don't see Sabre's and Bears as "creatures of the night" like I do vermin and wolves.

 

So yeah...as a Sire you could command a small army. Let's see

 

5 Summoned/Undead

3 Animals

2 Thralls or 1 thrall and 1 sire

1 Follower

-----

11 things in tow.... wow.

 

Granted animals have limitations. They can't go through doors in game and I'm not going to give them the ability so they stay in the wilderness.

 

The Summoned Creatures and Undead all have time limits and consume mana to cast. Although one thing we could do with some of our undead summons is to actually have like a maintenance cost. Not where it consumes magicka but where it say....modifies your maximum magicka pool DOWN with each creature active. This might help even things out a bit to keep warriors from creating a lot of summoned and make mage vampires think more about whether they want accessible magicka vs. reduced total magicka with 5 summons in tow.

 

Think of it this way. I have a total magicka pool of 300. Let's say it takes 50 for upkeep so we could lower magicka by 50 for each summons. The only problem is that would only be enforced on our summoned creatures that we create in the mod, not to the ones in the game...

 

We could of course allow only only a more creatures of our type but there's a .... game play issue .... with doing that. If I allow you to control say, 5 undead, but not 5 Flame Atronarchs, then if you have 4 undead creatures in tow if you summon a flame atronarch those 4 will die immediately. It's just the way the game handles it. I didn't like it, but if people are OK with that then I can turn it back on so it's only supported for undead and our creatures.

 

-MM

Edited March 17, 2012 by MofoMojo

[MofoMojo]

Im hoping that the teleport is not the only bat transformation. I was hoping that you could fly around the world in bat form like you could in oblivion. There were several bat models in oblivion. could you contact a modder and see if you could port the oblivion mod to skyrim?

 

Hey Nskin039,

 

Bat transformations are planned, just not for the initial release. I have flying working but it's still a bit buggy or I'd go ahead and keep Mist Form built in the current builds. So right now, it's the only form of transportation. I'm going to revist mist form shortly .... I go through these spurts where I just want to do some polish and then I'll spend a few hours on a POC, then go back to polishing.

 

-MM

[Darksun45230]

I am satisfied with that response. As long as there are detractors preventing Vampires from just sweeping with a small army.

[phil11]

The Summoned Creatures and Undead all have time limits and consume mana to cast. Although one thing we could do with some of our undead summons is to actually have like a maintenance cost. Not where it consumes magicka but where it say....modifies your maximum magicka pool DOWN with each creature active. This might help even things out a bit to keep warriors from creating a lot of summoned and make mage vampires think more about whether they want accessible magicka vs. reduced total magicka with 5 summons in tow.

 

Think of it this way. I have a total magicka pool of 300. Let's say it takes 50 for upkeep so we could lower magicka by 50 for each summons. The only problem is that would only be enforced on our summoned creatures that we create in the mod, not to the ones in the game...

 

We could of course allow only only a more creatures of our type but there's a .... game play issue .... with doing that. If I allow you to control say, 5 undead, but not 5 Flame Atronarchs, then if you have 4 undead creatures in tow if you summon a flame atronarch those 4 will die immediately. It's just the way the game handles it. I didn't like it, but if people are OK with that then I can turn it back on so it's only supported for undead and our creatures.

 

-MM

 

I'm okay with it. It seems like Vampiric summoning should be separate from regular conjuration anyway, otherwise you'd have too many summons and it could get very overpowered. The only thing is that regular conjuration wouldn't decrease your total magicka pool like vampiric stuff would, so you'd need to make it worth being able to conjure more Vamp minions- otherwise people will just use the vanilla conjuration to retain that extra magicka.

 

Your POC for Soul Servant looks very cool! I like how the guard's equipment is taken off of him and his soul gets up with all of it on. What do you think about making him look more... ethereal?

 

Balancing all this will just come with playtesting, and I'm very confident that it will all get worked out. Just from keeping up with this thread alone, I know you and Jakisthe care about gameplay too much to let any ability get too overpowered. It'll just be tweaking variables in the end I think.

Edited March 17, 2012 by phil11

[MofoMojo]

 

I'm okay with it. It seems like Vampiric summoning should be separate from regular conjuration anyway, otherwise you'd have too many summons and it could get very overpowered. The only thing is that regular conjuration wouldn't decrease your total magicka pool like vampiric stuff would, so you'd need to make it worth being able to conjure more Vamp minions- otherwise people will just use the vanilla conjuration to retain that extra magicka.

 

You bring up a good point here... for now I'm not implementing the magicka ... tapping...? I don't know if that's what you'd call it, or upkeep cost. Anyway, I decided however, it's a good point that if the undead aren't any more powerful than the summon's they'll just use summons, so I reworked the perk.

 

Fledling you get 1 undead (unless you have twin souls)

Risen you get 2 undead total, but only 1 conjurable. If you have twin souls you can have 1 undead and 1 summons, or 2 summons.

Master you get 3 undead, but only 1 conjurable. If you have twin souls you can have 2 conjurable or 1 conjurable and 1 undead.

Progenitor 4 undead (and twin souls works like it did with Master)

Sire 5 undead (Same effect as Master w/Twin Souls)

 

So just so everyone understands. The way twin souls works is it checks your summon spell for keywords and modifies your command actor maximum WHEN YOU CAST. I hate the implementation Bethesda did for this because it doesn't allow for supporting like 2 conjurables + 3 undead. The net effect of this, is that without Twin Souls, the minute you cast a Conjuration spell all of your undead will disappear. With Twin Souls, if you summon a conjurable, all but 1 undead will dissappear. The description above isn't 100% accurate on maximum counts. Because it's done at cast time, if you cast a conjurable first, you can then turn around and raise 4 undead and have 5 in tow. It only matters when the LAST spell you cast wasn't a reanimate/undead summon, etc,.

 

I hope that's clear. Hopefully it's not confusing in game play.

 

Your POC for Soul Servant looks very cool! I like how the guard's equipment is taken off of him and his soul gets up with all of it on. What do you think about making him look more... ethereal?

 

Actually, if I continue working on this spell I want a visual effect played between the corpse and the reanimated soul, something along the lines of the visual when you absorb a soul from a dragon for a few moments until the soul is back on it's feet. As for making him more etheral, that's a possibility to make the skin look ethereal (i.e. mostly transparent) to represent their formal selves.... when they die, I want them to complete fade though leaving just the armor. I'm not 100% up on effectshaders so that may take some time to work out right.

 

Balancing all this will just come with playtesting, and I'm very confident that it will all get worked out. Just from keeping up with this thread alone, I know you and Jakisthe care about gameplay too much to let any ability get too overpowered. It'll just be tweaking variables in the end I think.

 

Thanks Phil11. It's posters like you and the rest on this thread that really keep me pushing through...

 

-MM

[MofoMojo]

Status update and then it's off to bed.

 

Did some more polish tonight, adjusted the animal factions like Jakisthe and I discussed rather than granting outright wolves, skeevers, etc,. at Master, I made Skeevers friendly for Fledgling, Wolves at Risen, Bears at Master, and Sabres at Progenitor. There's varying levels of each of these but generally I think of their order of strength in that manner, let me know if I should switch around anything.

 

List:

 

• Adjusted animal factions...
  
• Sleep Feed continue to work like they did in regular vanilla for now...
  
• Sneek Feed now triggers against your sneak skill and if I can figure out how to know how many commanded actors are in your presence I'll have adjustments to it. I'm not sure if sneak alone is enough. Not many people really work on sneak, so I might combine the two values of sneak and pickpocket just to give you a higher base skill? Or maybe I should add something unique.... like... take an average of major skills and add a base modifier depending on your vampire level. Anyway, if you aren't successful you'll raise an alarm. Oddly guards on patrol outside Whiterun just yell at you.
  
• Touched off a few of the spells with more appropriate magicka costs
  
• Went ahead and added Soul Servant to Master along with Summon Spectral Axe in it's single cast form
  
• Created a special perk for dual casting certain vampire spells and undead spells (that part is planned). Added this at Progenitor so that you can now dual cast certain spells without having to be a conjuration expert. This also opens up Dual Cast Spectral Axe where it's duration is doubled and it attacks with two axes instead of one.
  
• I've wired up support for Siring and Thralls....just support (ok, I did that the other night)
  
• Hooked in Vampire Sprint to the quest script so that it's given at Fledgling. Had to fix my math in the script as it wasn't adding the percentage amounts I discussed in my previous post
  
• Setup the global variables that control when you can progress to reflect our actual requirements....and think these need to be higher. Started discussion with Jakisthe on numbers for these values.
  

More polishing needs to be done. Hook up casting art, and other things for some of the spells.

 

Question, on Vampire Sprint where you go faster just by sprinting. Do you like the color change to a green hue or should I leave that completely alone and just give the additional blur effect?

 

We're getting close all....

 

-MM

Edited March 17, 2012 by MofoMojo