I like to play any new NPC's I'm planning to add to my mods as characters, to get an idea of their quirks and stuff. So I created a Nocturnal race.

Nocturnal has a night-eye lesser power like a Khajiit. Low strength, and agility, but high Magicka, or she'd have no offense at all! She takes sun damage at a lower rate than a vampire, but unlike them, has no way to turn it off. I gave her white (Order) eyes for contrast.

My character is born under the Thief, of course, and I gave her the Skeleton key as starter equipment so she doesn't raise Security or Alteration. High Sneak, and having really dark skin (darker than shown in the picture of the outfit), and a black outfit, makes her hard to see. That also makes for poor screen-shots.

She's currently doing the Mages Guild Recommendation quests, as access to spell-making will be useful. I considered giving her a way to do that without joining a mortal's guild, but decided it was too much effort, and the quests were a useful test. She's been caught out by the dawn a couple of times, but she can let herself into any building quickly enough not to get too badly hurt. Fast travel needs planning, but she's at the stage where she hasn't found most places yet.

She's still picking up her arsenal of spells as she goes around the Mages Guild chapters. Since the game gave her Flare and Absorb Health, and summon skeleton, she's used those so far, but will consider Illusion spells when she gets them.

I know I may have to reconsider the sun damage, but so far I haven't found any quest that she wants to do, that is prevented by it. I'll keep going until I hit a road-block with that, and figure out something when it happens.

Her cape is still being worked on. The sides between the arms and the body are proving almost impossible to weight to the standard skeleton, and may will require extra bones. She's currently using a makeshift one with those sections removed, which doesn't look quite right, but isn't too glaring an anomaly.

The sun damage thing may also mean I need to make her immune to Vampirism, but I'll just keep taking the Mandrake rather than build it in. I haven't played a Vampire character for long, so can anyone who has point me at the quests where the sun damage makes it difficult?

I really love that you do this! First creating a character and playing like normal and later re-create him/her as an NPC in your regular game!
Please, please mr ghastley, can you make a Buffy NPC??? Lothran would be so happy!

ghastley - Neat idea, and the cape looks great so far - good luck with it.

mirocu - Awww. . .

No doubt me too. Buffy as a companion? Sign me up!

Even Daedric Princesses hang out at the Wobbly Goblet Inn!

Nocturnal at the Inn

Ok, maybe she's hanging out a bit too literally. But at least her cape's looking better, at least in that pose. I still have a lot of work before it looks right in most others.

I'm starting to reconsider giving her sun damage, without any way to turn it off. She can heal herself as fast as she takes damage, but only until her magicka runs out. That lets her run in from a fast travel landing to the nearest shelter when there is one, but there are a few quests that aren't possible for her. One is the Forlorn Watchman, where she can't wait for him to appear, as the wait would all be in daylight.

I may decide to have her cape/cloak protect her from the sun damage, but it needs to be a limited effect, or she'd just keep it on. She only takes 2 damage, versus a vampire's 8, but it will still kill eventually. Maybe half the damage with the cloak?

Wow! That looks amazzzing!

She looks great! But doesn´t she miss a piece of clothing or two?

WOW, ghastley! Great idea, and she looks amazing.

I think her cape should halve the sun damage. It’s one of her signature items, so it should do something useful. (Besides looking awesome, which it already does.)

Sorry I don’t have an answer about the quests. I don’t remember playing a vampire in Oblivion.

How fun to see Nocturnal at the Goblet! Hanging out indeed, lol.

The problem with her cape is getting the part between her arm and her torso/thighs to collapse properly. I'm spending all my time trying to adjust the bone weights. Too much arm makes the cape slice across her body when she drops her arm, too little makes parts stick out to the side.

That's one reason for reducing the front. I don't want the same issues with that part as well. The outfit may evolve into something more like the Skyrim version under the cape. The cape will also likely add the hair slot, as some hair options poke through the hood. That means adding some hair to the mesh, so that putting it on doesn't make her bald. It could use a jeweled clasp at the throat, too.

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At present, she's reached Master Thief, and just has the Ultimate Heist left to do in the TG quest line. However, she doesn't want to risk getting in a fight with Evangeline Beanique, as she already had to get reinstated into the Mages Guild after Fathis Aren attacked her when she entered his tower. So she's currently looking for Chameleon gear (and may have to enchant copies of her own outfit to do so.) That means raising her stats so she can cast the spell, and raising her level, so that she can find decent rings. She doesn't wear armour, so the cuirass options aren't for her.

She's been shopping by making sprints across town while frantically casting a healing spell. She tried breaking into shops and waiting for the merchant to arrive, but they often turn up before they do business, and kick her out into the sunshine. I'd originally intended for her to steal everything she needs, but some items are rare in the wild. Repair hammers, for example, do drop from some Marauders, and chests in their hideouts, but not enough. You may be wondering why she needs repair hammers if she doesn't use armor or weapons, but she does use a dagger (for the backstab bonus) and she needs to raise her Endurance for the health points. Block practice with a summoned skelly and her dagger helps, and Armorer goes with it, or she keeps needing new daggers.

Mostly, her offense is magical, using destruction spells at range, and absorb health up close. She needs gold to pay for those spells, even if she makes her own, and so she needs to sell things. She uses the TG fences a lot for selling things, even if they're not stolen, as they buy a wider range of goods.

It's a fun build, though. Having to watch the clock is a different way to play. She can escape into dungeons to avoid the sun, but she can't escape from dungeons to the outside world without checking the time o day.

I love the look of that cape!

She's just paid a visit to the Shadow Stone, instead of working on her illusion. Since she doesn't use light spells, and her night-eye lesser power doesn't raise any skill, it's the easiest way to have Chameleon available for enchanting.

She picked up a Ring of Shadows when she did the Temple of the Ancestor Moths for the TG quest (lots of restarts needed for that). She's just done Meridia's quest to get the Ring of Khajiiti, and located Fort Istirus while she was in the area, in case she doesn't go to the Dark Fissure. Next up is a trip to Chorrol, to pick up some Grand Soul gems, and buy Soul Trap from Alberic Litte.

The cape has progressed to the point where she doesn't feel too uncomfortable wearing it. It still bunches up behind her back, instead of folding properly under her arms, but each iteration of weight-painting is making it a bit better. Raising her arms to cast spells helps, so she does that a lot.

Finally found Sergius actually inside the Three Brothers store, and was able to furnish the shack.

Later:

Soul trap + Grand gems + Fort Istirus = 2 black soul gems
2 Black soul gems + 2 Bandits + an amulet + a pair of sandals = enough extra chameleon!

Nocturnal has given Corvus back to Millona, and has a new place to sleep during the day!

GAAAAH! I didn't know going to the stones would make that power available for enchanting! That was a great tip! I've always used Sigil stones for the chameleon enchantment early in the game (because they are random you can keep reloading a save right before you take the sigil to get the stone you want).

Before level 4 the sigil will only give you 10% chameleon, but the Shadow Stone gives you 15% - much easier to cover yourself that way!

I've tried reloading saves in the Temple of the Ancestor Moths and could never get the ring to randomize! I've heard it can be done, just never happened in my game, lol.

I hope you'll post screens of this, I'd love to see more of that robe in game!

PS - The Wizards Tower has both spellmaking and enchanting stands if you have it. On the sun damage - I played one game as a vampire (just to have tried everything in game possible) and fried so many times it wasn't funny - fast travel was definitely out, but I've never used that much anyway. It was really bad for me, I tried hiding under bridges (still fried), etc - and not a lot of people want vampires dropping in to get out of the sun, lol.

Well, I couldn't wait to do the Vampire Cure quest, everything worked with no glitches till I got to the Lost Chamber in Skingrad Castle (which I had modded already, meaning Rona's comatose butt was long gone). Fatal crash when Janus went to give her the potion. I ended up having to start a new game after all that, lol.

I found that she could fast travel under a few specific circumstances. It only worked during darkness, so it was typically done just after 8:00PM to go somewhere she'd arrive at in darkness, or else just before dawn to get home. I use Map Marker Overhaul, which adds markers for player-owned homes, and she was able to fast-travel home, as she could immediately go indoors when she arrived. A Vampire should be able to do the same. However, she still has to check the time before leaving any dungeon.

She's now reached a stage where she can use the starter healing spell continuously, as she regenerates magicka as fast as that spell uses it. So she can walk across town in daylight if she keeps casting as she goes. I ended up not giving her cloak any powers other than looking good on her. I haven't finished with that, it still clips when she casts, with her hip poking through.

That was probably my issue, not timing things correctly. The witch Melisande threw me out of her house (got really mad I was lingering) - I was just waiting for nightfall. Well, I burned to a crisp trying to find shelter there on that river. Everytime I fast traveled I fried.

There is a ring (quest reward, I think you get it from the "Order of the Virtuous Blood" quest) - The Ring of Sunshine? Anyway, like an idiot, I put it on without looking at the description. It gives you sun damage. I traveled overland by night to Echo Cave to take on Mannimarco, now it is daylight so I'm trying to get into the cave quickly.

Well, Echo Cave has a "doorman" that won't let you by without a fight. All he had to do was look in my direction and I was dead, I couldn't figure out what was going on!

So after several times of hitting "Continue" I got looking into my active affects and was taking Sun damage at an unbelievable rate! It was like Vault 87's original door in Fallout 3 with the radiation - through the roof.

Well, (it took a while, but I finally realized it was the ring + full blown vampirism causing the issue). Took the ring off and made it into the cave anyway, lol.

My son was in hysterics when he found out, "Didn't you read its effects?" (...er, no?). He likes watching me play so he can call up his friends afterward and get them all laughing at the stupid things I've done in game, lol. Urk.

The Ring of Sunfire does Resist Disease 35% and Reflect Spell 25%, but so far Nocturnal hasn't got the quest. That may be because she did the TG questline first, and racked up 29 Infamy from it. She's been trying to balance it out with Fame, but has so far only broken even, with MG quests, and as many misc ones as she can find. (Aleswell, Odiils, Aleron Loche, Henantier, etc.) The Order of the Virtuous Blood quest says it just needs 5 Fame, but it looks like that's Fame > Infamy + 5. She's done the pilgrimage, and has the Pilgrim's Grace power, but without KotN, it didn't reset Infamy.

Once I get the ring, I should then be able to check out whether it's a specifically Vampire effect, or part of the Sun Damage.

Her current rings are the Circlet of Omnipotence, and a Ring of Retribution, with a Ring of Feather in reserve, as her strength is only 20 (from her special race). She also has rings, amulet and sandals to give her 100% Chameleon, but only uses that for special events. Then that's all she wears, as nobody can see her

My memory messed up on that, it wasn't the ring of Sunfire that caused it. I was wearing the ring of Sunfire before facing Mannimarco to reflect his spells (the only way I've ever been able to beat him) and because I got it in a vampire quest remembered it wrong and thought it was what caused the sun damage. It didn't.

I think it was the gauntlets I got from the Dark Brotherhood, Hands of Midnight. They give Sun damage 30 points. (I probably put them on for the 10% chameleon and didn't look any further in the list of enchantments on it, lol).

Nocturnal is a very demanding character. I've had to build her a realm of her own, and create Daedra Seducers to guard it.

Daedra Seducer from Daggerfall

My Oblivion version (I had to post-process the Oblivion image to crank up the brightness, as it's dark in Evergloam!)

Once I have a set of clawed hands made for her, she'll also get demon wings with them as her "armor".

This is where they will live

Evergloam Castle 1
Evergloam Castle 2
Evergloam Castle 3
Evergloam Castle 4

That last one shows how much I brightened the shot of the Seducer!

Really nice work there, ghastley!

But honestly... let me come over with a bunch of flashlights, that place is dark!

In Evergloam, it is always midnight, with 100% chance of fog. There are only two light sources in the entire castle - the two fires either side of her throne. Everything has an ambient light of RGB(25.25.25) so that it's not completely black.

The Nocturnal character I'm playing as a test has the same Night-eye lesser power that a Khajiit has, so it can be used all the time. The denizens of Evergloam will behave the same way. The visiting player will want night-eye or a light spell - although the ambient is just enough to work with.

Currently looking for clutter - there are no plants growing there in permanent darkness, but I'm thinking that maybe fungi (SI dementia versions) would not care about it. I also need furniture for the castle that suits a Daedric princess. She has a black lace version of the Anvil bed, but needs her own unique style that differs from Tamriel ones, and should not use wood, or plant-derived decoration (leaves, vines, etc.) unless it's fungal.

Ehm, ever heard of the Nirnroot? Originally it grew underground in total darkness but spread to the surface as a mean to survive. I think it also changed color then. You could use some of those, but not too many. The loud singing of 100 Nirnies can be a little too much

Ah, but this isn't Nirn. I'm also reluctant to add to the supply of an item that's supposed to be limited.

So, Nocturnal's moved on from the Wobbling Goblin Tavern and has her own castle now! Her Daedra Seducers look great. The dark is ever so appropriate for Nocturnal. And she's gonna get wings! How does she get to/from Evergloam? I presume it is a separate world space, perhaps accessible by some form of portal or such?

The Daedra Seducers will get wings, but I don't imagine Nocturnal will, although her cape could transform(?)

The Castle replaces the Sigil Tower in a clone of Random Oblivion World 5, with the climate changed, all plants and creatures removed, the textures changed from Deadlands one to Ordered ones, and the lava switched to regular water. The Gate is replaced with the magic portal used at Peryite's and Boethiah's shrines (the blue one), and will connect to one like it that I'll add by Nocturnal's shrine near Leyawiin.

The quests in the new mod, which continues the Thieves Guild, will have the player called to Evergloam by messages passed through Amusei, who will act like the Listener of the DB. He'll get details from the Leyawiin shrine, and come find the player. Nocturnal will set the player theft quests that take him/her to locations in Tamriel, SI, or other realms. That will allow re-entry to the Deadlands after the MQ is over, as the portal for that will be in Evergloam. I can also create other Deadric realms to steal items from, and make the connections in Evergloam, via portals opened by Daedra Seducer agents. The Seducers are associated with multiple Daedric Princes, so they have wider access than most.

I'm working on the first quest to steal the giant crystal ball from the Imperial Palace basement. It was next to the giant hourglass that forms part of the Ultimate Heist quest. Nocturnal wants it as the viewer for her eye (as used in the quest that gets the player the skeleton key) to spy on other realms. Clearly, that needs a magical bag to put it in. You can't hide that in a regular jacket pocket!

Azura's supposed to be Nocturnal's sister, so she may also make an appearance in Evergloam, and the player could also visit Moonshadow on a non-stealing quest, maybe a delivery?

I am getting very excited about this mod, this is epic! Loved the Daggerfall Dark Seducer, with the blurry image I couldn't tell if I was seeing a nipple or not, lol. You are doing some amazing things with this mod, really exciting to watch you making one from day one!

Things I have discovered:

An NPC will not use a lesser power given to them by race. If you want a spell used, it has to be in the individual's inventory of spells.

An NPC will happily go topless if their armor covers only the lower body, but will not wear their armor if it only covers the upper body. So the seducer's wings armor has to be full-body to replace the regular outfit when provoked.

Editing terrain is tedious, and the editor always crashes when you have a lot of unsaved work.

---

I've cloned another island from Cheydinhal's Oblivion world, which has the entrance at the top of the mountain, and the tower on an island off the shore. I've replaced the tower with Mankor Camoran's palace, and I'm turning it into a piece of Moonshadow (Azura's realm of dawn/dusk). That means replacing all the textures, and rocks, etc. and it takes forever!

I couldn't find any decent-looking claws for the Daedra seducers, so they'll use magical attacks only. At the moment, they are set up with will-o-the-wisp combat style, and the same drain spell. Azura's guards are redheads (wearing red outfits, too), with green imp wings. Nocturnal's will probably sprout red wings, more dragon-like.

Azura herself is the Daggerfall one (and very similar to her statue, too). There will be no doubt whether you can see her nipples!

I live in the wrong world, it seems!

I´m really impressed by your work, ghastley! Such devotion and skill in making all these things

*


I know you make a lot of your own textures and meshes - I've never been able to, so usually use modders resources (all are use with credit to author). Example:


This one is all the sections to make Ayleid ruins, but have a full set made in darker textures and cleaned up:


http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/38868/



I've used this Obsidian resource in one Oblivion tower residence I made, it is beautiful in use over a floor or wall/behind a metal screen type thing for a dark glitter:


http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/30174



Clutter resources:



Here is some black or dark Ayleid clutter:


http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/20644/



Strotis has a few really interesting pieces in his sets, clutter first:


http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/41558/



And Strotis ayleid furniture:


http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/41670/


***


I ran across this while digging up these links - This is the results of one modder using the first link at the top of this message (the New Building Blocks resource), They did a beautiful job in setting them up, and it has more pictures of the blocks in use to view as an idea springboard on how you want to texture your own:


http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/41076/


***

I would give anything if I had the creative talent and ability to make my own textures and meshes like you do, Blender is even more frightening to me than NifSkope and Wrye-Bash, lol.


*

Moonshadow is already using Stroti's Ayleid furniture and Meo's Ayleid clutter. The obsidian texture might be very useful for Evergloam.

The furniture set didn't include a double bed, so I stretched a single one. I also borrowed the idea of Ayleid steps to add a teleport connection from the living quarters to the sun deck.

I need to do a lot more cluttering, and landscape texturing before any of it's really ready for screen shots, but I may post a few in-progress ones soon. Right now, I'm trying to convert the crows from Nocturnal's statue into ornamental pieces I can scatter around her castle.

Please do let us see the progression, this is really exciting to watch you work on it!

Ok, just one, as this part's looking fairly decent (or suitably indecent).

Clark arrives in Cheydinhal Oblivion World Moonshadow.

This is where I started with the foliage and texture changes. I got the whole island repainted with Gold Coast grass (the yellow stuff) and replaced all the Oblivion rocks with GC or Great Forest ones, but the CS keeps crashing on me when I paint sand on the shorelines. I'm also having fun trying to put a waterfall down the side of the island, without blocking the path.

That statue is incredible! I also love the pad Clark is standing on, you did an excellent job with that!

I wonder how the sand cover could be making it crash! Are there 9 high mixtures in that area? I had to delete a lot of the smaller percentages when I redid that Black Marsh village, they just had too much stuff layered there to add anything more. I brought it down to about a mixture of 4-5 and then spread my landscape painting, lol.

That statue looks a bit like Azura, holding that crescent Very nice, though

The top half of the statue is Azura, (and those were Meridia's legs.) - it's an island in Azura's realm.

The pad came straight from Camoran's Paradise, without any changes.

This needs more clutter but the retextured ayleid architecture, Strotis furniture, and Meo's clutter are working well together so far.

Azura's bed.

And this is where she puts her face on in the morning.

Those interior shots are dark because they just have ambient lighting. I'm tweaking the welkynd holder into a desk light and standard lamp for highlights.

They look Awesome in game! I am very excited about watching you make this mod piece by piece!

Yeah, I´m impressed too by your work, ghastley! Very nice indeed

Hope you have time to enjoy it when it´s done

Nocturnal has a new throne made from a Strotis piece, with added ravens pulled off a statue, and using that Obsidian texture (thanks, mALX!)

Azura's Beach Hut shot during the ten minutes between sunset and dawn in Moonshadow.

That's so cool, ghastley!

Ooh, I love how that looks with the Obsidian! You've even inlaid it on the risers of those steps, what a great look!

Somewhere in my resources I have the entire set of Ayleid building blocks cleaned up and in a dark purple color (Drow look) - couldn't find it yesterday when I was giving you those links or I'd have posted it too. I have a copy of it somewhere, probably on my external hard drive.

Absolutely LOVE those ravens behind her!

Some more screenshots as I add things:

Azura shows you her pink portal

The next one was just a serendipitous one from the same session. Clark had just done a run down the mountain, checking for floating trees and rocks, or gaps in the caves, and was approaching the hall in the early mist.

Misty hall

I love the pink portal, but the shot of Misty Hall is absolutely stunning, you are really making such an Awesomely epic mod!

Nice portal!

Azura has a nice pink portal. And nice puppies too!

That portal that Peryite uses for the PC to enter/exit his realm is a fabulous resource. And pink works fine for Azura - in a ghastleyesque kind of way.

I love watching your progress, ghastley. This looks fantastic!

I ran into a small problem with testing the new quests. The only character I could find in my archives that had done the whole Thieves Guild quest-line was Nocturnal.

Then I dug back a lot further, on an older machine, and came up with Burk gro-Balrog. He follows the Lum example by never wearing a shirt, carries a huge enchanted Ebony battleaxe, and relies on magical, rather than physical defense (rings and amulet instead of armor). He's just been woken up in his bed in the Guildmaster's quarters by an apparition of a Daedric Princess, and gone to her shrine at Leyawiin for more information.

I should probably move this discussion over to the mod announcements forum, now that Nocturnal's moved over to being an NPC at last.

And with shirtless Burk on the job, we'll definitely need a lot of pictures.

WOO HOO! I wondered when we'd see it over there! Much easier to find, lol.