WIP - Thunderbolt Shout Package

[EnaiSiaion]

You might already be using Apocalypse, the pack with 170 spells that may or may not be balanced depending on who you ask. But Skyrim has another form of magic, one that isn't really touched upon in too many mods so far.

 

Quoth the wiki:

"The thu'um can be used for a wide variety of purposes, anything from sharpening blades to quickly traveling across the land, even controlling animals or killing enemies. Some stories suggest that the ancient Tongues even had the power to "sing Shor's ghost into the world". The most powerful Tongues must be careful when they speak and are often gagged for safety, as their voice can cause great destruction"

 

The objective of this package is to add a dozen or so...

Lore friendly

Useful

Balanced

High skill cap

...shouts to the game.

 

Because there aren't 170 of them, I can micromanage their effects and power level. To prevent ennui, most shouts will have different effects depending on the number of power words you use. One shout may contain three separate effects. Each shout consists of recombined default Skyrim syllabes (for reasons of having actual shout sound effects to go with them instead of silence). Also, they all have custom visuals and sounds.

 

The shouts will do what Tongues are supposed to be able to do anyway, ensuring lore friendliness, and reward player skill in some way - there are no dumb buffs, and getting the maximum effect requires good aim and positioning etc. They also will not outright replace regular magic.

 

--

 

I haven't decided yet how to acquire the shouts: either there will be a ton of new word walls scattered around the world or there will be a way to research a shout by sacrificing something precious when you know each of its words as components of other shouts. I'm leaning towards the latter. Let's call it the Scrabble approach.

 

--

 

This thread will get updated in a week or so once I've made some more headway. I already implemented the first batch of 5 shouts (= 12 different spell effects) and am currently increasing their production values.

[TheUninvitedGuest]

Looking forward to the mod - I thoroughly enjoy Apocalypse spells.

 

On the note of acquisition - have you considered perhaps having the words appear on the ground (In the style of the greybeards teaching) when you kill a dragon priest ? That might make some sense, and I always felt the loot from the dragon priests was a bit dull (even the masks were of limited use bar a few). The other advantage to that would be that players who had defeated all the dragon priests could perhaps learn the words from a word wall in the building / portal with the dragon priest busts.

 

Just a thought.

 

Otherwise looking forward to these a lot. How are you handling voicing ?

[seanxx]

Sounds great Enaisiaion,

Why did you decide to go with new shouts rather than upgrade and embellish the current shouts that are a bit lackluster ?

I like the idea of the shouts being difficult to get but adding lots of new locations to the map might increase the incompatibility no ?

Looking forward to trying it out.

Edited November 8, 2012 by seanxx

[EnaiSiaion]

Shout of the Day:

 

Shroud of Snowfall

FEIM - KRAH - DIIN

Fade - Cold - Freeze

Summons a snowstorm that grants makes you harder to hear or see while you are in the area. Both effects are lost when you attack or interact with objects, but are quickly regained. However, the cold prevents you from regenerating health. All three words have a similar effect, but the duration and cooldown increases when you speak more words and the stealth is more thorough.

 

Shout of Yesterday:

 

Earthquake

LOK - KLO - UL

Sky - Sand - Eternity

Triggers various harmful effects related to earth. Speaking LOK causes an explosion at the target point that stuns targets and deals 30 physical damage. Adding KLO changes the effect, causing the caster to emit shockwaves that deal 15 physical damage per second for 10 seconds to nearby targets. Total damage is high, but reduced by armor. Finally, adding UL changes the effect to turn targets to stone, disabling them until damage is taken but also rapidly regenerating their health.

 

Item of the Day:

 

Amulet of Tongues

When you cast Fire Breath or Frost Breath, a gout of fire or frost deals 20 damage per second for 2 seconds in a small radius. (You can rapidly turn around to hit multiple targets with the blast)

[KingsGambit]

I like the idea of this, and I do not mean to seem harsh, but I think it's being a little "over thought" and over balanced.

 

- The game already offers us ways to learn new words, either through dragon walls or being taught them. We unlock them with Dragon Souls or having them unlocked automatically. It seems strange and not in keeping with the current system to try and invent a third way. Particularly if no new words are actually being put in. Why does one need to learn the same word twice? Unlock it for the second shout I can understand, but not learn it.

 

- A personal pet peeve of mine is the "over balancing" of things, usually and as is the case suggested above, by a harsh penalty. None of the original shouts include penalties, and ultimately new ones will be competing with existing ones for being on my Z key. Why would I equip something the disables my health regeneration? Why would I petrify my enemy for him to regenerate his health, when I can put them on ice without the penalty? Balancing is lowering or raising the positive effect to keep it in line with other similar/competing effects and threats against the player, not adding unnecessary penalties. I wouldn't use either of the illustrated shouts in lieu of vanilla ones.

 

- How come you use Sky for earthquake? Surely Force or Statue would be more in keeping with the desired effect for quake and petrify?

 

Please don't misunderstand me, I love the idea, and getting more shouts is welcome. These are just suggestions I'm making. As they are, two of the four aims of the mod are already not being met (they aren't lore friendly or balanced).

 

I do love the sound of the AoE shockwaves though....not enough AoE in the game.

[EnaiSiaion]

Shout of the Day:

 

Lightning Shield

STRUN - SLEN - NUS

Storm - Flesh - Statue

The first two words grant a shield that increases armor by 100 for 20 seconds. The basic version does 15 damage per second to nearby enemies; adding SLEN replaces this with lightning breath that deals 25 damage per second to anyone in front of you but is harder to aim. Three words replace the whole thing with 10 seconds of straight up invulnerability.

 

--)+(--

 

I like the idea of this, and I do not mean to seem harsh, but I think it's being a little "over thought" and over balanced.

 

Apocalypse has about 150 balanced or weak spells and 15 overpowered spells. Common feedback: "this mod isn't balanced, it has overpowered spells". I'd rather start at the low end and buff them where needed than start out with broken shouts and then try to nerf them before everyone uninstalls.

 

Shroud of Snowfall

The health regen freeze is now 100% with one word, 50% with two words, and removed entirely with three words.

 

Earthquake

I made a couple of changes.

• It now uses FUS (Force) as its first word. The Sky word was meant to go with the fissure effect throwing enemies into the sky, but this was replaced with a knockdown.
  
• Epicenter effect now deals 20 damage per second, up from 15. It does have a huge radius and no longer hits non-hostile targets.
  
• Petrify effect is now broken 5 seconds after damage is sustained, rather than immediately. Sure, it is weaker than Ice Form against enemies, but who says you have to use it against enemies? It is also a full heal for any allies in front of you.
  

 

Chaos Dunk!

http://i50.tinypic.com/2vtt7ao.png

 

Learning words

This is still in flux, but the current idea is something like this:

 

You will be able to "research" the new shouts at High Hrotgar for a price. In order to research a shout, you need to know each of its component words, then buy swipe the Ancient Tongue Writings™ telling you how to combine them.

This goes for every shout except Spectral Avenger (FIIK - LO - SAH) which is based on the Greybeard shout and will be acquired through currently unknown means. Though its derivatives Curse (FIIK - ZII - GRON) and Living Shadow (KRII - LO - SAH) are acquired the usual way.

 

Is this acceptable, lore/balance wise?

 

I do love the sound of the AoE shockwaves though....not enough AoE in the game.

 

About the sound of the AoE shockwaves, the ability does have a nice "subwoofer oriented" sound. (Because there are 16 shouts, I can micromanage them, including custom sounds for everything)

[Strigvir]

But how shouts can be interesting, when you can use only one at time?

I mean, if you'll add a shout with 5 mins cooldown, I'll need to wait 5 mins to use another shout after this one.

Which means no potentially interesting combos like in your spell package.

[Deleted1308005User]

I am using mods which reduce shout cooldowns, not because I want to be OP, because I am Dragonborn, I know the meaning of "self-nerf" and "stupidity", I don't need to spam all the things just because I can.

:biggrin:

People should keep this in mind everytime they use spells from spell packages or anything like that.

 

Anyway, I really love Spell package, and I think I am going to love this too.

Bethesda made shouts the be purely one-type.

Drain vitality is probably only shout which has "different" effect on every word, others are just boosting the basic effect.

Considering Thu'um is after all ancient form of magic, it should work like that, but aye, these look like they really are Ancient Spells.

 

Just.. Maybe, adding magicka cost to shouts too? It could work as nerf, but it would probably cause issues among the sword-wielding-shouters.

Anyway, looks really good, keep it up!

[EnaiSiaion]

Shout of the Day:

 

Stormblast

LOK - BAH - QO

Sky - Wrath - Lightning

Empowers a single melee attack with lightning. Speaking LOK causes your next attack to electrify the target for 25 damage, followed by a lightning bolt that deals 75 damage around its impact point. Add BAH to increase the lightning bolt damage to 150. Finally, QO eschews the lightning bolt and just blows people the hell up with 250 damage to the initial target and a 100 damage blowout in a large area that does hurt yourself but scatters the enemies all over Tamriel.

(Don't worry, not all shouts are combat oriented...)

 

 

Item of the Day:

 

Amulet of Rapture

Animal Allegiance is a nice shout, but somewhat too situational because even though humans evolved from chimpanzees (and mer from cockroaches) they are not animals. This amulet fixes that, turning your Animal Allegiance shout into an All Living Things Allegiance shout.

 

 

--)+(--

 

But how shouts can be interesting, when you can use only one at time?

I mean, if you'll add a shout with 5 mins cooldown, I'll need to wait 5 mins to use another shout after this one.

Which means no potentially interesting combos like in your spell package.

 

Good question!

 

Firstly, there is the new Tongue-oriented gear that synergises with your shouts in various ways.

Secondly, the idea(l) is that each new shout works well as the cornerstone of a character, affecting gameplay. This will require some iteration.

 

I am using mods which reduce shout cooldowns, not because I want to be OP, because I am Dragonborn, I know the meaning of "self-nerf" and "stupidity", I don't need to spam all the things just because I can.

 

Note: don't do this with Earthquake 2 or Trueshot because if you stack them the blur effect will stay that way, like your face when the clock strikes twelve.

[EnaiSiaion]

Shout of the Day:

 

Arcane Helix

YOL - NAH - KEST

Fire - Fury - Tempest

For 20 seconds (30 for the full word), your spells are more effective. Speaking YOL reduces the magic resistance of enemies in front of you by 30%. Adding NAH increases potency to 50% but increases the cooldown. Finally, adding KEST completely changes the effect: instead of affecting enemies, it instead summons a Magic Apparition each time you cast a spell for the next 30 seconds, with a max of 4 spirits alive at any time.

 

:devil: