SSE Help: Newbie modder, running into a weird problem with a custom concentration spell.

[Zazulio]

Heya! I've been playing around with the creation kit for the first time over the past couple of days, and I've been having a blast with it. I've obviously still got a lot to learn, but I was able to make a couple of simple spells that I wanted to have, and they work perfectly, so that was a nice little confidence booster!

 

Unfortunately, I've come up against a wall with another spell that I thought would be very straightforward! I'm trying to create a concentration-type spell that boosts my character's movement speed while active, and I just can't seem to get it to work correctly. I know there is a similar spell (Longstrider) in the Apocalypse spell pack, and I tried looking at the data files to see how that modder did it, but I'm having trouble making sense of exactly what he's done. I tried messaging him, but either his inbox is full, or he has disabled private messages.

 

I was hoping ya'll could give me some insight on this. I created a magic effect with the following, and attached it to a spell:

Effect Archetype: Value Modifier (SpeedMult)
Casting Type: Concentration
Delivery: Self
Recover, No Area, Painless

The casting effects are working properly, but not the actual boost to movement speed. I concentrate the spell and start moving -- and no change! I tweaked the magnitude and such, but no dice.

 

So, I hit google to try and figure out the problem. I read that speedmult works, but not until it receives a signal that some other effect has changed your speed, such as sprinting, or a change to your inventory weight. To test that, I started channeling the spell, then entered my menu and dropped an item. Voila! Fast movement until I stopped channeling! I went back to the creation kit and tried adding a secondary magic effect to the spell that raised my inventory weight by one, figuring that would solve my problem. All other factors were the same: casting type, delivery, recover, no area, painless, etc.

 

Sadly, this still didn't work. I channel the spell, and my speed does not change while channeling. Instead, when I stop channeling, I see a very short (fraction of a second) burst to my speed. When I go into my inventory and check the weight of my carried items, I can see that the spell *does* correctly change the carry weight while being concentrated on, and reverts it once concentration has ceased. So, it seems that instead of the speed multiplier noting that my inventory weight has changed at the beginning of the concentration, as I had hoped, it's only detecting the change at the end, when my inventory weight reverts back to the original figure.

 

That basically stumps what I know about how to use the creation kit, so I was hoping ya'll could enlighten me on the best way to get around this little eccentricity. I know I could just go use the Apocalypse spell pack to get the same basic effect, but that adds a lot of content I'm not too interested in. I'd also like to tweak my version to add a waterwalking effect to the spell. Besides that, I'd simply like to how to deal with this problem, so that if (when) I run across other weird hiccups as I continue to learn and practice, I will know more about the quirks of the kit and be better prepared to work around them!

 

Thanks, dudes.

[Zazulio]

I still haven't cracked this one. If anybody has any advice to offer, it'd definitely be appreciated!

[Jebbalon]

I think there is an engine quirk that like you said something has to change to affect speed on player.

 

I've noticed this when I want to jump on a character real quick, toggle god mode, then check out something in game real quick. - If my character was encumbered, then toggling god mod would remove that restriction so I could run normal. But, for that to happen i have to first equip/ready my weapon then I can run normal.

 

Also, when I want to use console command - player.setav speedmult 250 - to run real fast, Same thing I have to bring hands up and then it works.

 

So, try that with your spell. Which might not be ideal since you have to stop casting in order to ready weapons/spell.

You could try jumping, attack with opposite hand while casting with other. Anything to make that change happen.

 

You might also search on the Old Skyrim page of Apocalypse, search comments for when that spell was being worked on, way back.

[Zazulio]

I think there is an engine quirk that like you said something has to change to affect speed on player.

 

I've noticed this when I want to jump on a character real quick, toggle god mode, then check out something in game real quick. - If my character was encumbered, then toggling god mod would remove that restriction so I could run normal. But, for that to happen i have to first equip/ready my weapon then I can run normal.

 

Also, when I want to use console command - player.setav speedmult 250 - to run real fast, Same thing I have to bring hands up and then it works.

 

So, try that with your spell. Which might not be ideal since you have to stop casting in order to ready weapons/spell.

You could try jumping, attack with opposite hand while casting with other. Anything to make that change happen.

 

You might also search on the Old Skyrim page of Apocalypse, search comments for when that spell was being worked on, way back.

 

Thanks for the reply! I'll be sure to go check out the thread for Apocalypse on Oldrim to see if anybody has some insights. As far as your suggestions, how would you set that up within the creation kit to make the usage of the spell as seamless as possible, if you were to tackle it? Since it is a concentration spell, I cannot lower my hands or sprint. I can try jumping, to see if that helps, but it's obviously not ideal to have to take every time I cast the spell to make it work properly. :D

[Lisselli]

I always make a constant effect ability that changes my speed, but I always have to do some kind of action to "activate" it.

[Jebbalon]

Have to just trial and error your way to finding solution.

If you know the quirky limitation - that you have to change something to get the speed bonus - and we know an action like bringing up your hands will 'activate' the effect.

Maybe the act of casting the concentration spell can be the activating action?

So maybe try adding a small item to the player inventory - or No, better would be a Perk, hidden from the player. The Perk would watch for the Casting of your speed spell. That way you have two things needed to get speed bonus. The perk, the spell and then the Action of casting to activate the effect.

Still might have to double tap the casting. That's where the trial and error comes in.

[Zazulio]

Interesting! I'll see if I can figure out how to do that today! I haven't played with perks yet, so that should be fun.