An Allignment mod?

[TerraMcCloud]

I was thinking, could there perhaps be a mod that adds the 9 alignments from older RPGs to oblivion? I mean as in Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, True Neutral, Chaotic Neutral, Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil, Chaotic Evil?

 

Was just a thought, if such a mod exists, I would love a link to it.

[cfh85]

and what exactly would these alignments do?

[TerraMcCloud]

and what exactly would these alignments do?

 

I suppose different alignments would make NPC disposition either higher or lower, depinding on the NPC and their alignment. Thats all really.

[cfh85]

this is done in game via faction disposition and the faction evil flag. Also you have responsibility and aggression. There are already a lot of variables in game that effect how a NPC acts.

[Maskar]

The first thing I thought of was the type of spells available to the character. Also, you probably would need to extend on chaotic/lawful and good/evil (doing something evil while being ''good'' like a paladin type character could result in losing abilities). You can donate to shrines which would give ''points'' to execute abilities, etc. There's a clear difference between how Oblivion works and for instance ad&d. Edited August 20, 2012 by Maskar

[cfh85]

so you'd like abilities based on fame/infamy ratio maybe?

 

have some abilities based solely on the amount of fame or infamy or both.

Have some based on purely the ratio and some based on a combination

 

I think that could make a very interesting change to the game, especially if the pilgrimage was changed so that it resets both fame and infamy, instead of just infamy (though I may be mistaken and it may already do this) as you could lose some very powerful abilities. Also it would work in great with a mod I've seen, that I can't seem to find, that alters the deadric quest requirements to being based off of famy/infamy/renown.

Edited August 20, 2012 by cfh85

[bben46]

The actual mechanics for this are completely missing from the game engine. You would need to plot the alignment of the player as multidimensional - and the game engine only allows 2 variables (Good-Evil) represented in game as fame/infamy. You can get a sort of neutral by balancing them.

 

The old RPG games required you to state your alignment at the beginning, then try to play that alignment. By staying in alignment you might get some in game perks - a few points on a saving throw, a plus on damage against certain monsters - by failing to act according to your alignment you would be penalized by losing any advantage that a particular alignment gave - A paladin who stepped out of alignment would automatically revert to a plain fighter with none of a paladins special abilities UNTIL they performed some penance - and might lose their abilities permanently and have an involuntary change of alignment. (DMs choice)

 

How would the game reward or penalize for going with or against your alignment? Especially if the action you perform is the only way to accomplish a necessary quest?

 

Another way of looking at it is alignments are partly covered in the class, sign and skills attributes. If you work with your class, sign and skills attributes they will increase faster. If you work against them they will increase slower. :thumbsup:

[cfh85]

but none of the classes are evil or good. Picking locks isn't evil, and restoration isn't good (you might only be concerned with fortifying your strength to better bring on the pain to innocents).

And would the Nine or the deadra care what you declare your alignment as? (since it would be more lore friendly that they give you the bonus') or would they simply reward you based on your deeds - fame/infamy/renown. Also there are other things you can bring into play, like murder.

Edited August 26, 2012 by cfh85

[Maskar]

I don't think using fame is good enough. Summoning/raising the dead would be considered evil and would affect your alignment. Doing quests to help uphold the law would affect your alignment, etc. This would result in having (no) access to certain abilities, spells, quests, etc. The main issue I can see is how to keep track of the spells/abilities a character can use and quests he/she can do. Edited August 21, 2012 by Maskar

[Xenavire]

I have a small note to make here, the Paladin mod (can link if needed, but it is pretty much the only one on the whole nexus) has a similar idea put into motion, making a count of certain deeds as good and empowering a certain ability.

 

It has certain flaws and is mostly based off stats/skills/quest line to give new abilities, but I think if you used some of the code as a base for something more in depth, I think it would be pretty much perfect.

 

The main issue is that you would have to place every ability seperately into your script, meaning other mods would mess up your balance (new mods could introduce new evil acts that you cannot track unless you specifically update for each one).

 

As a concept though, it doesn't sound incredibly hard to do, I am sure a more experienced modder than me could put together the core of this script in hours, depending on the finer points.