Idea - Alternative to Death and Reload

[BlackCompany]

So I was sitting here at working, thinking about how a real "Alternative to Death and Reload" mod is possible in Skyrim. I am currently looking at the CK wiki, for scripting help, so I can learn to write quests scripts. I want badly to make this happen, but if someone else beat me to it I wouldn't exaclty have my feelings hurt, either. The community deserves this mod.

 

In my mind, it goes thusly and begins with What We Will Need:

 

-1 quest script to monitor combat status of the player

-5 "diseases" (called wounds) with a range of effects, each one progressively worse than the last:

 

-Wound, Mild: -50% of health, stamina, magicka regen

-Wound, Serious: You no longer regen health, stamina, magicka. At all.

-Wound, Severe: -10 health, stamina, magicka

-Wound, Grievous: -25 health, stamina, magicka

-Wound, Deadly: Constantly Damages (not ravages/drains, but actually damages) 1pt of health & Stamina on self. Constantly. Untreated, it WILL kill you.

 

-**New consumable, bandages. When applied, bandages can remove wounds. Each bandage will remove 1 wound. It is then used up (patching your wound.) Bandages CANNOT be used in combat.

 

-Recipe for creating bandages. It should require some work for the player. Also, bandages for sale at vendors (separate container) and fairly pricey to buy.

 

-***Modify the vanilla cure disease potions so they DO NOT work while the player is in combat (isincombat == 0). Already tested. It works fine. Still cures when outside of combat, NOT while fighting. Alternatively, add two checks:

 

isweaponout == 0

ismoving == 0

 

If both are true, we can cure a disease. Otherwise, it does nothing. ***The reason for doing this will come clear shortly.***

 

 

 

How this Mod Will Work (and why we must edit a vanilla potion):

 

-The quest script will make the player essential when in combat. You could just make them essential all the time, but it MIGHT conflict/cause issues with the brawling. Studying the brawling script would help ascertain this, and likely help write the quest script for this mod, too.

 

-If the player is not in combat, the script returns, doing nothing.

 

-If the player is in combat, and their health is greater than 5 (>5) the script returns, doing nothing.

 

-Otherwise the script checks to see which wound, if any, the player has. If they have no wounds, it adds the level 1 wound to the player. Otherwise it progresses through wound levels until it has applied ALL 5 wounds to the player, which affects WILL STACK, making the player's life very rough unless they can cure the disease debuffs. THIS is why we MUST make Cure Disease potions function only OUTSIDE of combat, for balance.

 

 

FAQ:

 

Q: Why Diseases? Why not just cast debuffs on player, especially using CIOS (if its still around.)

A: Debuffs in past Beth games were tricky. They got even worse with the inevitable Custom Level system mods. Often, leveling mods do not work with non-disease debuff spells. Thinking ahead here.

 

Q: Why not use ModAV/SetAV to "wound" the player?

A: Again, incompatibilities and save game problems. If we mod the player's stats with a script, NOTHING can reverse our changes except console commands or another scripted change. IF the player decides this mod is too harsh, or not to their taste, and they FORGET they have scripted wounds, uninstalling can wreck their game. Also, game crashes/freezes could potentially stick them with scripted debuffs. Not good either way.

 

Q: I know you are working on other things, When will this mod be released?

A: As of now, my other mods are backburner to this one. That's the good news. The bad: I don't know papyrus. If this were Fallout/Oblivion, and I could still make the player essential, it would be done by now. But I just don't know Papyrus. I plan to study any scripts that govern the player's status while Brawling; hopefully, this will expedite the process somewhat. Any scripting assistance would be appreciated here.

 

Q: Is this cheating, or unbalancing?

A: That is so highly subjective I won't even try and speculate. I can tell you that, in my opinion, this is far, far worse than a simple save and reload method with no penalties. Now, combat can have lingering consequences beyond the need to use a couple of health potions or reload your last save. Which was likely 5 mins back anyway. For me, this increases challenge, as opposed to lessening same.

 

 

If anyone has suggestions, thoughts, caveats, please let me know. The wounds may not be tough enough, especially early. They may be too tough. Don't know. But I really want to see this mod happen. I will make it in time. If someone else beats me to it, and we get it sooner...well, that's why we have a community. Thanks be to them, cause learning algebra and papyrus at the same time ain't exactly easy anyway.

[6Domino6]

It seems fairly well thought out, but if you wish to keep cure disease from removing it, perhaps you should look into turning it into an ability or spell instead? And I'm a fan of the "weapon must be sheathed" idea for potions, it seems silly that I can have my weapons or magic out and still be able to chug potions. Shouldn't the fireball in my hand melt it?