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Another Hearthfires Mod, with added Dremora |
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ghastley |
Jan 29 2016, 08:04 PM
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Councilor
Joined: 13-December 10
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I put together a Nordic Tower home for my latest Dremora character, and have started making it into another Hearthfires mod, so you can find the tower empty (except for a workbench and anvil) and start making it more comfortable by adding furniture etc. The location is between Valthume and Lost Valley, near the Cradle Stone Tower, but closer to the edge of the map. So close, that you can't fall off the back side as "you can't go that way".
I've managed to squeeze in all the crafting stations, and a double bed. There's no room for kids, which avoids having to support adoption. It has an observation platform on top, copied from one at Valtheim.
I'm thinking of providing a spell book that teaches "Summon Dremora Housecarl" which combines the long duration of the elemental thralls with a bit of the Dremora Merchant and Butler powers from Dragonborn. To make it useful, I'd select one of several "builds" according to the player's skills, so a mage gets a tank, and a melee character gets a mage or archer, etc. However, the gender of the summoned Dremora may need player selection, somehow. Maybe two spell books, and reading one destroys the other?
The reason for summoning, rather than just using a Dremora NPC, is that the Dremora can be levelled when summoned, so re-summoning when the player levels will keep them in step without re-equipping. Since a Dremora can't wear most armour, this would offset the inability to swap out their gear, and also provide the in-game reason for not doing so.
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Mods for The Elder Scrolls single-player games, and I play ESO.
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ghastley |
Jan 30 2016, 12:39 AM
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Councilor
Joined: 13-December 10
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QUOTE(Grits @ Jan 29 2016, 04:04 PM) For the summoned Dremora, are you thinking spell or power? I think being able to choose their gender is especially nice. Do you have a quest requirement in mind?
Yes, I'm considering both. Spell would be OK if the duration is a long one (999 days?), so you get the Magicka back before needing it again. The location isn't easy to reach. The usual route is through Lost Valley Redoubt, but you can bypass the Hagravens at the top. So I'm thinking that a quest might not be needed. Finding it will be hard enough. However, there probably will be a quest in the CK setup, just to be able to notify the player that they could go look for it. That might get level-up initiated, and I'm tempted to use a Dremora courier, and make it dependent on the Daedric quest at Dagon's Shrine being completed. The Kyn were impressed, even if Dagon wasn't. I'm thinking "summon housecarl in bedroom area, and armour is not needed." Lover's Comfort perk without the whole marriage thing and all the CK setup requirements for the home. That makes gender significant. Edit: Pieces of the Past requires level 20. I don't think I'd want to wait that long. This post has been edited by ghastley: Jan 30 2016, 12:48 AM
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Mods for The Elder Scrolls single-player games, and I play ESO.
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ghastley |
Feb 4 2016, 03:06 AM
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Councilor
Joined: 13-December 10
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I just finished nav-meshing the tower. It's been a real pain, as it's an exterior, so I have to connect to the existing, and I didn't realize that I'd put it at the junction of four cells, so there are a lot of cell-edge joins. That's on top of the need to nav-cut each piece of furniture. Still I do have a prototype spell for conjuring the housecarl, and here's proof that she's a real one. Just look where she chose to stand!
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Mods for The Elder Scrolls single-player games, and I play ESO.
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ghastley |
Feb 4 2016, 04:09 PM
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Councilor
Joined: 13-December 10
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The summoned Dremora Housecarl has given me a whole bunch of quirky problems I wasn't expecting.
First off, I cloned from the summoned Dremora Lord and changed from a fixed level, to "player level multiplier" using 1.0 as a start point, although I suspect it will need to be slightly higher. What I didn't notice was that the Lord had a health level offset to avoid him being OP, so he gets -200 off his calculated 600+. The housecarl was getting the same 200 taken off hers, and I'd summoned her at a level where she got about 205, so nett 5. Colliding with a butterfly could kill her! Presumably at lower player levels, she'd have spawned dead, and immediately disappeared again!
Fixed that, and now she groans all the time. Discovered that all commanded humanoids with a playable race voice do that. Had to change her voice back to CrDremora, but now she has male battle cries. She's due for a custom compilation as a new voice type. Males are OK with the standard voice, of course.
I gave the base NPC template a levelled weapon, and discovered that I hadn't checked the box to inherit inventory on the summoned one, so she got an enchanted Daedric Battleaxe at level 5. So I set it, and it switched her to L1EnchWeaponDremora1H and she spawned with a Greatsword! Discovered that the list is not 1H, as it's named, but allows all melee weapons. Made my own list. Now it will be a levelled mace (always with fire enchantment). I've given them a left-hand shock spell, but I suspect I'll need to change the combat style before it gets used, as I've not yet seen it in action.
The next issue will be outfits. You can't interact with a summoned character to swap out their equipment, so her Daedric-like armour is the same downgraded Dremora gear that they all get. I need to create various levels of it, and make a new levelled list of outfits. I might as well try and make visual variety at the same time, for both male and female. That could be just clones of regular armour as Dremora versions, which is what Bethesda did with the Daedric, but I'd prefer it all to look "not from Nirn", so I'll likely be adapting a few custom ones.
This post has been edited by ghastley: Feb 4 2016, 04:10 PM
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Mods for The Elder Scrolls single-player games, and I play ESO.
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ghastley |
Feb 8 2016, 03:03 PM
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Councilor
Joined: 13-December 10
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I keep running into more "gotcha's" with the housecarls. I just discovered that you can't summon a leveled NPC, so I have to create a spell for each one, and a scripted meta-spell to cast the right one. Not a biggie, because I needed to do that anyway to make style selection work.
And I need some feedback on that. In order to provide a housecarl that suits the player's style, I need to decide between Mage, Missile or Melee. I'll first identify the player's preference for their own play-style by checking highest skill. If it's Archery, they're an archer. Then if their Magicka is higher than Health or Stamina, they're a mage. The rest will be assumed fighters (as sneak-thieves etc. need the same follower, or none at all.)
I'll pair a Melee tank with an archer, a Mage with a fighter, and an Archer with a mage. The logic is that an archer can fire around a rushing-in tank, but a mage would have to hold off from using area spells, and would prefer someone who stand back. The fighter gets a mage as a more versatile ranged partner. There's a big difference between human intelligence and AI so the human/computer match-ups don't work so well the other way round.
Are my assumptions valid in your experience? For example, does Buffy count as an archer or a mage? And if the logic gets it wrong, does it still select an appropriate housecarl for that style?
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Mods for The Elder Scrolls single-player games, and I play ESO.
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ghastley |
Feb 9 2016, 03:14 AM
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Councilor
Joined: 13-December 10
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Well, the summon spells now seem to be working. My test character is a two-hander, and he gets a mage housecarl of an appropriate level. If I boost his magicka via console, he casts an archer housecarl, etc. I still have a few issues with the weapon rack in the tower to sort out (which may be due to UKSP trying to fix them), and get the story part sorted out. I.e. why you get pointed to the tower in the first place, and how you get the summon spell. But the hard work of constructing the mod is done. Kothet, my test Dremora, is the resurrected former owner of Prizna from the Gweden Brothel, last seen dead in an Oblivion realm connected to the gate outside Bravil. He's forgiven her for killing him, as it was exactly what he'd have done if the roles were reversed, but he's a bit miffed at Dagon for setting him up for it. That's why he's wandering Tamriel at the moment, figuring that Prizna must have seen something about the place that she liked. Aranxa, his female counterpart for testing the male summon spells, has no real backstory. She's having fun wearing the outfits I'm trying out. Basic Armour (and on a male) is mainly retextured imperial with the top removed or replaced. Medium Armour adds a plate top extracted from the full daedric cuirass. Mage robes - this is the "skimpy" version. Standard will just be a re-texture. (I'm thinking of a third spell that summons the female in skimpy stuff if you just want eye-candy, so I'm playing with outfits.) The Daedric armour at higher levels is the same visually as the player armor, but has the lower stats that all Dremora get, so it comes in a bit earlier. The boots and gauntlets shown in my images gives way to those items before the cuirass gets replaced. No helmets are worn, and the mage robe stays at all levels, with the mage armor spells doing the same job.
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Mods for The Elder Scrolls single-player games, and I play ESO.
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ghastley |
Feb 12 2016, 07:50 PM
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Councilor
Joined: 13-December 10
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The spells all seem to working as intended now. Including fixing the problem of multiple Active Effects that I had for a while (needed a flag set not to show the initiating spell in the UI). My progress is getting slowed because Kothet is enjoying his time in Tamriel, especially as his housecarl is a hottie! He's just trying to complete his set of Legendary Daedric Armour, because he's clearly trying to impress someone, and all he needs is one more Ebony Ingot to temper his cuirass. However, he mined out Gloombound making Ebony bows to grind up his Smithing, and he's had all the ebony from Northwind Mine (found two dragons at the summit afterward - the resident one had company). We found at least half the veins in Blackreach, and his game doesn't include Solstheim, so not many sources left. The housecarl is mute right now (maybe that's why he likes her! ) I need to put together a voice for her, with lines from another housecarl, maybe. Aranxa's male housecarl uses the regular CrDremora voice that the summoned Dremora Lord uses. He's vocal, even when she's trying to sneak. We're not sure if he resents being in the complete control of a female, as he's too dutiful to suggest it. Aranxa loves it, and his lines just crack her up.
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Mods for The Elder Scrolls single-player games, and I play ESO.
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ghastley |
Feb 14 2016, 03:01 PM
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Councilor
Joined: 13-December 10
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I think I have a reasonable way to start the whole thing off. When the Oblivion Crisis ended, and the gates were all abruptly closed, many of the Kyn (the Dremora) were left in Tamriel, cut off from their path back to the Deadlands. Even when they fall in battle, they are now returned to Tamriel. Dagon is not the caring type, who'd go out of his way to bring them home, and they didn't expect him to do so. Their loyalty to him was based entirely on his providing the opportunity for battle, and the chance to prove themselves (to each other).
The Kyn in Tamriel have seen evidence that the player is Dragonborn, and likely to be involved in fighting the great beasts, as they return to the skies. The Kyn would like to participate, and offer the services of one of their number as a companion in the player's quest. If the player will make a home in the tower, as a show of good faith, then the bargain is struck.
If I adjust the build conditions for the house parts, then the bedside table where the spell tome is found will be built after the bed, and enough of the place to make it a home. I'd originally intended a choice of spell tomes, but can probably adapt the Oghma Infinium method to have the player choose their housecarl from a single volume.
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Mods for The Elder Scrolls single-player games, and I play ESO.
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ghastley |
Feb 15 2016, 11:53 PM
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Councilor
Joined: 13-December 10
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It's ready to roll! (I think) Try it nowNote that only the female housecarl has the glowing eyes. I may do that for the male later, but I'd like feedback first. The place probably needs a bit more clutter, but I'm not sure what. The doc contains a copy of its homepage.This post has been edited by ghastley: Feb 15 2016, 11:55 PM
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Mods for The Elder Scrolls single-player games, and I play ESO.
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ghastley |
Feb 16 2016, 04:56 AM
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Councilor
Joined: 13-December 10
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Not in the one you have, but coming soon.I was wondering what to put on the dining table, and then this happened.
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Mods for The Elder Scrolls single-player games, and I play ESO.
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