Ok. Lets say I want to add a sneak attack damage to Fireball.

My idea is attaching another effect to the Fireball spell, which would deal additional damage but only under certain circumstances. One of the conditions would be 'caster is sneaking' for sure. But I'm not sure about other conditions related to the enemy behavior towards the player.

For example, I want the player to be able to deal sneak damage only on the first cast when the enemy is idle. Don't want the sneak to work after that, when the enemy is already searching for the player, etc.

Any idea which conditions should I use on the effect?

Since ActiveMagicEffect scripts aren't bound to an object, they'll not retain any variable or property values between castings. You'll need to keep track elsweyr, like with a quest or some GlobalVariables. You could set up the spell to OneOfYourQuestAliases.http://ForceRefTo(akTarget), then deal with the opponent(s) from their ReferenceAlias script(s), storing the variables there and then http://www.creationkit.com/Clear_-_ReferenceAlias 'em when they're toast/no longer in combat.

on the magic effect that deals extra damage:

IsSneaking == 1 AND
IsInCombat == 0 AND
GetGlobalValue AlreadyCast == 0 AND



(AlreadyCast is just an arbitrary name, you would need to create a globalvariable and use this in its place)


create a constant effect ability that tracks the value for the global you created, use these conditions


IsInCombat == 1


and these events for your script

OnEffectStart

AlreadyCast.SetValue(1)




OnEffectFinished

AlreadyCast.SetValue(0)

Hmm, from what I saw in some tests I don't think this will work. I noticed that as soon as a spell approach an enemy (a few meters), that enemy already starts looking for the player (the eye opens a little bit) and you enter combat. So, when the spell hits, the player will already be in combat. Seems the enemy see or listen the projectile itself and immediately becomes aware before being hit, spoiling the IsInCombat condition.

What about the GetDetected condition? Anyone know how exactly it works?

is your spell set to silent cast? enemies should not be alerted if your spell is silent

Yes, I had Quiet casting. I believe this perk makes your spells make no sound when cast, but enemies can still see the projectile itself and react to it before being hit. If you pause the game just before the spell hits, you can see the eye is already open and player.isincombat returns true.