Hulk, A separate thread just because.. Options

[ghastley]

Another revision to the script to try and get health to revert properly. This one looks more stable.

Version 0.4

I still haven't found the Old Orc to see if he has the book when he dies. I can't find a way to force the random encounter, and it's way too uncommon. That's making me think I need another way to get the spell book that's more under the player's control. I could have the "wise women" at the strongholds sell it, a a high price, or create a new dungeon to get it from, and have them tell you where.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Apr 21 2014, 03:26 PM

[Grits]

Oh yeah. I’m out of time today but Bannor is ready to Hulk out tomorrow!

He had a hell of a time with the fight. At first the O.O. nearly killed him then walked off saying Bannor was not worth his time. Bannor healed up and went at him again. The second time NPC Lildereth (who was following) got in gear and shot O.O. while Bannor was *cough* strategically repositioning. Bannor got the dual fire kill-cam with not much red or blue left in the bars.

[ghastley]

Oh yeah. I’m out of time today but Bannor is ready to Hulk out tomorrow!

He had a hell of a time with the fight. At first the O.O. nearly killed him then walked off saying Bannor was not worth his time. Bannor healed up and went at him again. The second time NPC Lildereth (who was following) got in gear and shot O.O. while Bannor was *cough* strategically repositioning. Bannor got the dual fire kill-cam with not much red or blue left in the bars.

It makes sense that a character that will benefit from hulking would have problems going toe-to-toe with a melee opponent. At minimum level he's a tough battle, and that was one reason I thought a better reward was appropriate.

I may give my male Bosmer a bit of play time to see if I can find the Old Orc with him, and go find the Longhammer, or the Steel Battleaxe of Fiery Souls, which would be easier to obtain. I need to experiment with perk choices, to find out what's best for a character that only does two-handed once per day.

[Grits]

I’m planning to get the first two Barbarian perks plus Champion’s Stance. I like the idea of extra bleeding damage and ignoring a percentage of armor, but I’m not sure how many magic school perks these two characters will want. Training Two-Handed seems like a good idea, too.

I love the Longhammer. Great idea! That’s a place I’d hesitate to go without the option of hulking out. The new aspect to these mages is lots of fun. Oh, and the fiery souls axe, I forgot all about that! Bannor is right by Ironbind Barrow and he loves the big axes. That’s a great place for his first hulking.

[ghastley]

The quest to get the Longhammer is marked as minimum level 18 on UESP. The other one suggests 6.

[Grits]

Whoa that was exciting! Bannor vs Ironbind Barrow at Level 6. Good thing I’ve suspended DiD for now since he died twice before he could hulk out! Third time was the charm. He grabbed the good axe while running past and still had to do a great deal of maneuvering to survive. To be fair to NPC Lil she got hung up somewhere outside the door and missed the entire fight. The Redguard chick took a knee early and wasn’t worth much after that. Bannor transformed back pretty much while the Argonian was hitting the floor. It was awesome!

[ghastley]

I imagine the extra speed from the size helped with that strategy. It would appear that the balance is OK, and I didn't make the Hulk Power OP. I might have been too stingy with the benefits, but there are probably ways to exploit it that I haven't thought of.

A melee player can treat it as a way to get a 50-point temporary boost to Health and Stamina, but they lose their armor while they're hulked. A mage is more used to having only magic defense, but they don't get much added to two-handed without building up themselves. I'd imagine archers, thieves etc. would find the same benefits as a mage would.

I'm thinking that I'll toss it into the fray at the Nexus soon. I've made the meshes/textures/scripts into a bsa, but no further changes. I want feedback on the Old Orc method of getting the spell tome. I suspect the entitled kiddies will whine that it's too hard to find him, and can't I just give it to everyone, but I can ignore them.

[Grits]

Also it’s very easy to type Help Hulk into the console and get the spell tome code for those who are unlucky with the random encounters.

I should mention that I had a little trouble getting Bannor’s 04 hulk to work until I did save without the mod and then added 04 and gave him the tome. I had re-started him from outside the Helgen cave but forgot that step. D’oh! I tried to get the dead Old Orc to reset his inventory to get the tome back, but it didn't work.

I’m looking forward to hulking out against some mages with Ninette’s Breton magicka resistance. Bannor needs to work on his passive defenses. He just got the first Mage Armor perk so that should help. Would the Lord Stone armor bonus apply in hulk form?

[ghastley]

Those bonuses should not be affected by hulking. It's not clear if the armor bonus affects Mage Armor perk, but since some actual armor doesn't, it's probably OK.

Mage Armor is definitely a perk to aim for, as hulking gives you a "flesh"-equivalent that's boosted by it.

I put 0.5 (with resources as .bsa) on the Nexus. - several people have reported that they can't get the transform to happen. I may have to have them try the 0.4 version.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Apr 24 2014, 09:07 PM

[Grits]

Unbelievable luck – I took Ninette on a walk and she found the Old Orc on her third random encounter. NPC Jerric and her summoned sabre cat took him down. He had the book, she read it, she hulked out. Awesome. I was totally going to give her the book if she didn’t find him, and I hadn’t planned to play but had a few minutes waiting for Mr. Grits to load the cooler. Fun!!

Oh just saw your edit-This is with 04, argh I have to run this instant but will try 05 later!

[ghastley]

05 is the same content as 04, just packed into a bsa, and apparently something went wrong, as some folks are reporting it won't work. Don't rush to get it.

Edit: It looks like I got the technical problem fixed. Now I just have to deal with all the complaints from kiddies who expected it to be just like the comic!

This post has been edited by ghastley: Apr 25 2014, 03:57 PM

[Grits]

I’ve updated just to keep up with the cool kids. Now both Bannor and Ninette are in full, glorious 05 hulkage.

It’s been fun to play two different mages at the same time. And both are different from Darnand who uses Destruction and Conjuration. Yay mages! Now with bonus berserker butt-kicking rages!

[Grits]

Ninette clobbered Morokei in hulk form and then had to take on Ancano as her little Breton self. She did great, but she kicked herself all the way back to the dorm for not waiting a little longer to return to Winterhold. She does enjoy being green. Follower Jerric helped out with Estormo at the end of the ruin. Ninette’s hulkout ended right as he attacked.

I want to try something a little different with my elf Hulk guy so I restarted Bannor as an unarmored archer. He was originally a Destruction mage. He’ll use Alteration and Alchemy with the Lord Stone. I’m thinking that Fortify Two-Handed potions will help in hulk form if taken before hulking. Ninette was too preoccupied with college matters to get very far with Alchemy, so she never tried it. I have to see how it works out but he will probably also perk either Sneak or Block depending on if he’s stealthy or a combat archer. The second option would be a lot of fun and work well with a temperament that lends itself to hulking. I’ll probably put a lot of points into Magicka in case he turns out to be a summoner too. I could easily see that happening!

Training Two-Handed was a must for Ninette. Also she found a Drainblood Battleaxe right when she really needed it. That’s what she used to cleave Morokei. She mostly hulked against dragons. Tremendous fun!

[Grits]

Bannor 2 found the O.O. exactly where he did the last time! Now he’s ducked into Forsaken Cave to look for some trouble. Ironbind Barrow is right there too, so hopefully he’ll soon have a nice axe.

This time he has a more orc-friendly hairstyle. Bosmer and Hulking.

[ghastley]

I took the Bosmer mage I'd created for testing (Brunor) off to confirm the problems I'd been having with Orc Hearthfires, and of course we encountered the O.O just as we were approaching the Greenspring Stronghold site. I didn't want to waste the opportunity, so we got it on with him, and discovered he's a bit of a challenge for a low-level mage.

Brunor ran off towards Halted Stream Camp, summoning a Flame Atronach to take pot-shots at the pursuing Orc. The Bandits at the camp joined in the affray, sending arrows at everyone, and they all chased Brunor over to the nearby giants and mammoths, who also got involved fighting everyone else. Since Brunor had mainly been running away, they were all mad at each other rather than him, so he was able to stop and watch it all play out from the top of a rock.

The O.O finally fell to a Sabre Cat who was wandering past. A bit ironic, as you always meet him with a couple of dead ones.

I remembered to save the game after collecting the spell tome, which was a good thing as the game crashed when he tried to lay down the hut layout at the stronghold site. Which is why he went there in the first place, to confirm that it wasn't just a problem with Gol gro-Molag's game.

I'll probably put out a 1.0 final release soon, with a couple of minor cosmetic changes, like the fix for the active effects display. I also noticed that Brunor's inventory showed the wrong icon for the tome (note one, rather than book) so that needs to be fixed.

This post has been edited by ghastley: Jul 7 2015, 03:01 PM

[mALX]

Bwaahaaahaaa! Hulking out! This is Awesome!!!!


*Wonder what made Ghastley think of this?*

[ghastley]

I just had Athla experience a "permanent" (I had to fix it with the console) loss of magicka after hulking. It seems that the issues I had with health during the beta stage also affect the other stats.

It's all to do with figuring out what the "normal" value is. The game lets you get the current level, but that's affected by buffs, enchantments, and leveling up, and hulking removes some of those, but not all, because it removes potentially enchanted equipment, and dispels anything you have active. I probably have to change the sequence of the process, so that all external influences are removed before determining the stats.

Since this script runs only when the transition is happening, it should be possible to fix this for existing games, once it's figured out.

[Grits]

OK, weird. I checked Ninette and Bannor who are using 0.5, and while they got their magicka back after Hulking they had issues with their greenness. Ninette’s face turned green at the beginning of the transformation but then went Breton-colored right away. Also her Hulk form panties are purple, which I thought had been fixed but don’t actually remember seeing. Her non-Hulk form panties are the right color.

I’m using SKSE 1.7.2 now, which is the only thing other than unofficial patches that I think has changed in their games. Oh, and LOOT instead of BOSS for load order.

[ghastley]

I reviewed the code, and it's all happening at the right time, in the right order. It may have something to do with multi-threading, which would make it possible for the code to get a magicka value that still has an equipment boost applied, even though I've made the call to remove it. If that call just fires off a separate process and returns control before it's done all the work, it would make sense.

It's only happened once, and of course, trying to make it happen fails. I'll have to leave it until I get inspiration.