[WIP] Belua Sanguinare Revisited

[MofoMojo]

So, I don't think there really needs to be a cooldown. For starters, because Masters, Progenitors and Sire's all have negative speech modifiers Forma is not only their mask but also acts as their ability to enthrall (temporarily raise speechcraft). For this reason, Forma requires magicka to use. Because Fledglings and Risen don't have to worry about detrimental speech impact, they get to use forma for free as long as they aren't hungry. So take this to the next step.

 

If the player is starving, regardless of whether they're a Fledgling or a Sire, forma takes even more magicka to keep up. Since right now, Mist Form takes magicka as well, I say let's just leave it alone. They both consume the same resource so you'll be vying for the same resource if you leave them both up, and I suppose if you're a mage, then you deserve to be able to channel both for longer periods. I was just thinking about it, hadn't done it! :) lol. Let's leave it alone.

 

So on to proximity to shrines. We had already ruled that you can't get the blessings of the nine (which currently ISN'T implemented) so this is technically just an extension. If you just stay away from the shrines you'll be fine. Please note. When I say a "Shrine" I literally mean the little "Shrine of Talos" statue in Whiterun, or other small statues you find that convey a blessing. I don't, currently, mean cell spaces, such as the inside of the church in Solitude. So while you could still enter a temple you would have to keep a safe distance from the statue itself. And by safe, we're talking roughly 20 feet.

 

I'm going to leave Forma alone. There's no need for me to keep making these little changes till we have some broader level of input from actually playing the game. That being said, I found one BIG thorn in my side today.

 

So I have multiple boxes and have been plagued with some odd problems. I finally figured out what it is. Steam's Cloud Sync + Mod Load Order differences between boxes. On one of my boxes, I use it almost specifically for testing and tweaking builds. It's not that powerful, I use it during lunch and some breaks at work and steam has been synching my saves between it and my primary development/game machine at home. What I've found is old traces of old code still loading and executing causing VERY odd behavior because my load order on my work machine has about 4 mods on it, and my home machine about 15. This has resulted in the corruption of 2 character saves so far, so once again, tonight I had to start a new character. I cheated and took him up to 9th level and made him a master so I could continue testing where I left off last night. Such a pain! So, to anyone with similar situations, I suggest turning off Cloud Sync unless you have the exact same mods loaded and in the same load order.

 

Nskin039, so I thought about draining the highest stat first and then that got me to thinking. Exactly why is the stat higher? It's higher because the player is a mage. If I was a mage, what would I want to drain first? My magicka which is my main source of power, or my stamina? To me I'd want my stamina to drain first, not my magicka. But I think I'll leave things alone for now. It's just going to drain Magicka. Since the drain is purely script based, it is possible that I can make that configurable. It just gets a little more involved because there's two things the spell checks for.

 

• Are you a Master, Sire of Progenitor - use some mana
  
• Are you marked as Attack On Sight - use some mana
  

 

Many of the abilities are lesser powers. Sense Blood, Sense Dead, Forma, Mist Form. I chose them that way because they're things that turn off and on. This does get in the way of shouts and other lesser powers, but I think a majority of people would rather do that, than to use up a hand slot just to turn something on or off.

 

Nskin,

As for the beta, we really wanted dedicated people testing it, which is why I think Jakisthe limited it. And I know that you'd be dedicated to providing it once you had the time and got your hands on it so even if it were full, I think we'd find you a slot. You've been more than helpful. As it stands, I'm pretty sure it's not full. The vampire crowd is a fickle bunch. :) And I have to agree with Jakisthe. I don't know when we'll be launching (hopefully VERY soon) but I'm sure it'll still be active. I think we need more than a week of baking in other peoples ovens before going back into hiding with the suggestions and making additional tweaks.

 

Thank you all for the suggestions, and support!

 

-MM

 

Edit:

 

Cooldown idea: As long as you don't mean power (once a day). If it works like a shout where you wait so many seconds I am fine with that. But if you go to all that trouble I'd rather it not drain magika or stamina. Once it is toggeled off you have to wait X number of seconds before using it again. But when it is up it can stay up until disabled.

 

The other alternative is that we implement it as a shout and it lasts X # of minutes for Fledglings, Y, for Risens, Z for Master, A for Progenitors, and B for Sires and use the built in cool down system because it's the only visible form of "cooldown" in the game. The problem with that implementation is that a 10 minute cool down would stop you from using any other shouts for that time frame as well.... but.... chances are you wouldn't be needing those other shouts. And of course, it doesn't have to "look" like a shout. It would simply be implemented the way it is right now using Shout Mechanics to take advantage of cool down.

 

-MM

Edited March 29, 2012 by MofoMojo

[FranzLiszt]

So are we going to leave the name of Mist Form as "Mist form"?

I think that Forme de Brouillard is kinda cool, but thats because I like French lol :happy:

formă de ceaţă Is also cool I think because it is Romanian and, as I am sure we all know, Transylvania is a province of Romania.

Mist form is cool though and it might be best to just leave it. Any thoughts?

[nskin039]

Nskin,

As for the beta, we really wanted dedicated people testing it, which is why I think Jakisthe limited it. And I know that you'd be dedicated to providing it once you had the time and got your hands on it so even if it were full, I think we'd find you a slot. You've been more than helpful. As it stands, I'm pretty sure it's not full. The vampire crowd is a fickle bunch. :) And I have to agree with Jakisthe. I don't know when we'll be launching (hopefully VERY soon) but I'm sure it'll still be active. I think we need more than a week of baking in other peoples ovens before going back into hiding with the suggestions and making additional tweaks.

 

Thank you all for the suggestions, and support!

 

-MM

 

@MM Glad you feel that way. Just trying to help where I can. Be happy to help with the testing in about 2 weeks. Meanwhile I will watch the forums. And if you post videos I'll be sure to give any suggestions that I can see. Keep up the awesome work!

[FranzLiszt]

Hey don't know if animation slots are a problem at the moment, but I found this which it seems would make animations easier.

[MofoMojo]

So are we going to leave the name of Mist Form as "Mist form"?

I think that Forme de Brouillard is kinda cool, but thats because I like French lol :happy:

formă de ceaţă Is also cool I think because it is Romanian and, as I am sure we all know, Transylvania is a province of Romania.

Mist form is cool though and it might be best to just leave it. Any thoughts?

 

Haha...right now I'm calling it Quasi Caligo. We've gone with a mix of Italian and Latin so far on some of these names, but "Mist Form" is easier to write and have people keep up until release. :)

 

Actually, come ot think of it, and I have no idea why I haven't until you mentioned it, I have a personal friend from Romania. I should see what types of names she might be able to come up with for some of these and see how they sound and fit in with the theme.

 

-MM

 

P.S. and on Fore's post. I've been watching it since day one (see post #3). I'm surprised more modders haven't jumped in to discuss this. At least those that are into the animation parts. This was a big breakthrough if you ask me. Theru has also done a lot of breakthrough work too.

Edited March 29, 2012 by MofoMojo

[MofoMojo]

So, I spoke with my romanian friend and gave her a copy of the beta documentation which describes all the spells. Thankfully she's also into Vampire's. So she's going to spend the weekend getting familiar with the spell descriptions and concepts and hopefully get back on Saturday/Sunday with some potential names for various spells in romanian. We're going to try to limit the names of the spells to two words at most. If the sounds of the new names just don't fit we'll leave them out, but figured I'd let you know that I went ahead and am following that path to wherever it may lead. Thanks for the idea Franzliszt.

 

Made a few more tweaks at lunch time today, got the timing redone on sneak feed ... again. Tomorrow and througout the weekend I will have a lot of time for play through and tweaking. Jakisthe has been keeping a lot of notes on tweaks and bugs she found through some playtesting that she's been holding onto until we got to a more stable build. We've been at a pretty stable build for a week now so I've asked her to go ahead and shoot me the list so I can hammer on these this weekend. If all goes well, it's going to be Ketel One time next week for me and hopefully we can yell INCOMING. :)

 

-MM

[chow404]

So far ive seen things that help both more mage and warrior style builds, but if you go a more rogue style build you seem to not get nearly the same amount from the buffs. Vampires are masters of darkness, it would make sense to me for them to have some more than silent walking and invisibility in the fog, one of which you can get with an aproprate sneaking level. Also, since vampire's reflexes are so good, a boost in lockpicking, or something along those lines, would make sense.

[nskin039]

So are we ditching latin in favor of romanian? That's fine but imo all the spells should use the same language.

 

"If the sounds of the new names just don't fit we'll leave them out," by this statement you mean the new spell name correct? not the entire spell.

Edited March 29, 2012 by nskin039

[MofoMojo]

So are we ditching latin in favor of romanian? That's fine but imo all the spells should use the same language.

 

"If the sounds of the new names just don't fit we'll leave them out," by this statement you mean the new spell name correct? not the entire spell.

 

Nskin039,

 

Just the spell names... there a mixture of latin and italian as it is. I'll see how the romanian names sound and we'll go from there. Heck, I may just post all the names here and let you guys have some input.

 

Chow404, you bring up a good point and in honesty that's exactly what we were pitching for, making it play to mage and fighter, and didn't really give much thought to rogue's short of muffled movement. The reality is that I don't like boosting skills just because you're a vampire. It doesn't make you a better swordsman just because you're faster and stronger. So I tried to implement things like added damage rather than bonuses to those kinds of skills. Similarly bonuses to magic have kind of fallen off the radar except for bonuses to illusion simply because the vampire's sway over the mind SHOULD improve their illusion skills. Destruction, Alteration, and other skills, I can't agree with boosting. So similarly...I have a hard time increasing a bonus to sneaking or pickpocketing just for the sake that you're a vampire, althought technically if ANYTHING should improve it should be pickpocketing since you are faster but does that translate to less likely to get caught? I don't think being a vampire means you should be any more "sneak" worthy than what the muffled movement allows for. If you're a vampire in the light, you should still be just as easy to spot as some other fool skulking in the same.

 

But.... I definitely understand your point. Can you give me some ideas outside of just boosting those skills? Like, I dunno what's possible, but reduction in broken lock picks because you're more able to sense the tension, or perhaps improving the offset of the lock because you attuned to the vibrations, or reducing pickpocket chance of detection. I guess it depends what we can do with the perk system and secondary actor values but I'm willing to invest some cycles if you can give me some ideas outside of just boosting those base skills.

 

-MM

 

-MM

[FranzLiszt]

MM, I am very glad to be of any help. I have not really been posting to much lately because of my school work but I try to help in anyway I can.

In regards to sneak, maybe you could have slightly increased sneak while in the Forma/ human guise spell. The reason would be that to disguise as human (or elf or beast) would be one of the sneakiest things possible. It then follows, as it is a disguise spell, that it might increase sneak.