The Ancient Powers

[Stitched0]

Formally known as the "Spear of the Hunter" this mod has expanded it's scope almost continuously as the planning and testing of theories has been successful, and with the addition of another dedicated 3d modeler, the mod now promises a vast range of experiences and changes to gameplay. I will first list the known and currently under construction parts of the mods, and then I will list features that we are still trying to get working using the tools we have (the creation kit may be the thing we need or they may turn out impossible) and finally the features we have planned for post release or simply hope to get around to.

 

Current Content:

3 new armor sets

5 new weapons (4 of which are obtainable as 2 are exclusive)

A new faction (or not, if that is your choice)

A new home

Daedric Blessings (Permanent game changing buffs)

 

2 main quest lines:

"The Spear of the Hunter" will have you exploring skyrim in search of an ancient relic of power and reveal the deep ancient secrets of the land.

 

The other "Line Long Since Lost" which is a sad tale of an exile with a dark secret and perhaps a darker gift.

 

6 minor quest lines, these are optional quest lines that reward the player with a variety of rewards and some even help the main quest lines.

 

At least 3 new settings with multiple cells, 1 of which will become very important as the quests tick along.

 

Possible Content:

Changes to vampires in a large way, we're talking complete overhaul if we can get our system working, this isn't simply swapping some values.

 

New "Ancient" animals that you can hunt for pelts for unique armor configurations.

 

One handed crossbow for stealthy types, sort of works but also sort of doesn't at the moment.

 

Hopeful content:

A plan to give the player the choice to merge the thieves guild and the dark brotherhood into a single entity with a dual code of conduct: The Rites of Sithis and the Embrace of Nocturnal. Will rehouse both the guild and the brotherhood at a new location and give a variety of quests to make all this possible, this is currently a pet project of one of our members but it looks promising and if the content of the main mod gets done (which so far we are ahead of schedule) then this is the next feature.

 

A reworking of werewolves to make it mandatory to relieve yourself of the curse at the end of the companion quest line and open the doors for other were-diseases such as bear, rat and boar. These have basic models but are nowhere near ready so this may be a future feature. Werewolf will still be available although it will be through disease as with the rest.

 

New finishing animations for unarmed and dual-wielding, including staves. Another pet project but again looks promising, possible future release.

 

Obviously with a mod this size, conflicts will be inevitable but we already have a dedicated compatibility guy ready and waiting with his rubber gloves to make sure the mod is compatible with as much stuff as possible. Although at launch there will be no compatibility planned so far so take care on initial release.

 

Any situation updates will be posted here, so remember to check back from time to time.

Edited January 31, 2012 by Stitched0

[BelgarionNL]

very cool

[Esteris]

Looks very promising ^^ I hope you guys manage to include the "maybe" content as well!

 

How many people are working on this?

[Stitched0]

usually 5, sometimes 6 depending on uni workload

[Jakisthe]

What were you planning on changing for your vampire mod?

[Stitched0]

The spearhead of the vampire interests wants a flying bat/human beast form for vampires that allows a 50% chance kill animation that also acts as a feed, also allows you to feed from corpses and finally changes the way the stages work entirely, instead of simply growing weaker but more vamparic as you go without feeding you instead lose the ability to go into your beast form but gain advantages from it.

 

So if your at full strength then your fully in control and can turn into your bat form at will, although if anyone sees you transforming you gain 1000 bounty, you also cannot transform indoors. As you go without feeding you lose the ability to transform but gain abilities like improved unarmed combat and degraded armed combat, you also take a hit to all magic skills as your intellect takes a hit, further on you start losing your connection to magic as your magicka lowers and you start growing weak to sunlight, the final phase leaves you with little magical connection, a huge boost to unarmed combat and massive skill negatives to armed combat and other skills, you also gain the ability to feed on corpses at this stage, you will have to feed quite a lot to get back to full strength at this stage though.

 

This stuff may be subject to change as this is all I have written down from our resident vampire in the team, the bat form isn't small by the way, from the sketches it appears to be the same size as a person but with much longer arms and a membrane stretched between the legs and the arms and with a huge over developed jaw, our main modeler says he has made it already but hasn't detailed it but we've yet to get it animated so we'll have to wait and see.

[ubba8]

I love it so far. What I would love is an in-combat finishing move that operates as a feeding act as well when you're just in "normal" form, maybe as a healing effect or something. Enhanced unarmed combat too, like the Khajiit claws, something that feels more vampiric, more Volkihar.

[Stitched0]

We've made progress with the mod and I can confirm the vampire changes now as far as planned and tested, it will be a case of putting it all together with the kit come this Tuesday as to whether it can be totally implemented. We also have some improvements to untransformed were-people which are currently in testing.

 

Other changes include the hand crossbow is currently on ice due to everybody getting frustrated with it, this also includes the wrist mounted version we were working on, but hey that wasn't announced anyway so no loss there.

 

Theres also another possible magic reward thats currently being tested, I won't go into huge details as it's very rough at the moment and bugs out a lot but basically allows you to create a new animal by using pelts and bits of animals (or dragons) with a shrine to dictate its abilities and form and then gives you a spell to summon your new life form in it's spectral form for a short time, will it be useful? or will it destroy your foes with magic? will it fire spines at your enemies or use its massive dragon claws to leap at them? or will it simply shiver, whimper and then explode and freeze everybody, including yourself. It's something that everyone is working on off hand but we'll see when the kit comes out as to whether it can be fully implemented.

 

There may be a third main quest line in the works as well, involving a short journey to one of the lesser explored planes of oblivion: Mephala's Web.

 

The rules set down in this mod are thus:

 

Do not interfere with established lore eg. do not go back to the battlespire battle and grab one of those lovely daedric crescents

 

Do not interfere in a way that overly changes the world eg. do not make cities disappear or kill established characters

 

Do not invent artifacts eg. one of the early items planned was hircine's mask, but this has never before been granted to a mortal and so was rejected

 

Do not leave lasting impressions in places not yet shown eg. if you make a trip to valenwood, don't cause anything of comment, we're talking time traveler level of care here

 

Do not invent new daedric creatures, that's the daedric princes job eg. do not make candy floss atronachs

 

 

Bonus Side Note:

We've altered the main quest line that will open a lot of this mod up so the short synopses of the beginning of the mod that can found in the old posts is now incorrect.

Edited February 4, 2012 by Stitched0