[Alexis Estrada]

I'm sorry but fantasy and difficulty have no relation.

To pluto, I'm not too savvy on some of the language. Therefore I would like you to explain what this dilemma is in layman terms. thanks

Let me try in layman terms..

Depending on location and what settings the encounter zone has for that location

If you enter that location say at lvl 6, when you come back to it later on at say lvl 16, the level of the npcs / creatures etc are going to be locked at lvl 6 and not adjust to your current level. So thus you have weaker npcs/creatures for the rest of game in that location. Because it does not "reset"..

What Pluto is changing will fix that and allow for certains locations npc/creatures etc to reset in level. And when you come back to location after you have already visisted, things will level up to current lvl..

Hopefully that helps..

[Kelly James]

I'm going to be a bit lazy and not answer each person specifically, but I do, very much so, appreciate the thoughts. I'm taking it all into consideration.

I'm extremely fond of Prateem's and rangda's posts and thoughts (and I know they weren't the only ones to entirely mention it, but it's described in more detail there so I can build more thoughts off of it).

I *think* I'd like to try and implement that. However, it'll most certainly take a type of scripting.. And honestly, I'm not sure if I can do it that way. Each spawn point is a localized point, so the other spawn points are interdependent.

My idea is that, using DLL as a base (it'd be a requirement for it, really) to get the encounter zone, parse the editor ID for the type (or have an array of all the encounter zones, but parsing the type would be better), and determine if it should potentially have different types of spawns through an array of the zone types. If it does, it sets a global variable with a random value, which is then used to set the type of creatures spawned. There'd have to be some checks to make sure that happens before the new creatures are spawned. Through some object oriented scripting, maybe we can refine that further..

At the moment, though, my decision is to not change the reset tags on the encounter zones; I think it'll be too unrealistic when moving around. The minimum levels should provide more than enough of a base difficulty level for each area. Any further editing will require more advanced scripting, but these are very, very interesting possibilities to massively increase replayability and variety in the game.

This'll also come tagged in with leveled equipment list changes, so there won't be any thieves in full glass/ebony, for example. And actually, that happens because several of the lists were flagged incorrectly; it should only be a 1 in 4 chance or so by default anyways.

*If* Dave can get encounter zones up in SkyEdit (should be easily possible), I'll later throw out an optional for zones to reset, because of his nifty batch edit feature.

And of course, this is also assuming that flag does what I assume it does..

Edit: The only annoying thing I see occurring is that DLL could erase all of the custom placements; no draugr sitting in a tomb. Could possibly mess with those hunters sunbathing, for example, too. Not sure how much that'd bug people.

[SHAWNNA-KAY]

What Pluto is changing will fix that and allow for certains locations npc/creatures etc to reset in level. And when you come back to location after you have already visisted, things will level up to current lvl..

Are there not specific level ranges for each encounter zone? I'd like to see this maintained; though increased in some cases, but I wouldn't want every encounter zone in the game to scale directly with the players level, as this was annoying in Oblivion; it would be great to have a varied range of encounter zones that some would always be harder/higher level then others. Currently though in vanilla a lot of the level ranges are too low for how fast you level up.

[Dalia]

Edit: The only annoying thing I see occurring is that DLL could erase all of the custom placements; no draugr sitting in a tomb. Could possibly mess with those hunters sunbathing, for example, too. Not sure how much that'd bug people.

I wanna see a draugr sunbathing.

I'd be ok with that change, since not every nord ruin should still be filled with draugr, maybe some bandits came through and cleared them out and set up shop. Is it possible to have small chance of an encounter zone becoming non-hostile (at least until the next respawn) It would be a simple way to enhance the civil war by having Imperials/Stormcloaks occasionally taking over bandit camps (but not so often as to make it common, I'm thinking 1/10 or 1/15 ish.)

[Ann Church]

Even though each spawn point is a localized point, in the game scripting there should be easily-indentified variables for what level mob the area is spawning. Using a script to rework the assigning of that variable shouldn't be too hard, I think. My specific idea already has some bare scripting bones placed (albeit in PHP, and with variable names I made up), but I definitely see the attractiveness of rangda's idea as well.

I think I'd be happy with anything you decide to do, regardless. Cheers!

[helliehexx]

Oh, what you have is definitely possible and is the first step. I'll be able to implement that, and likely will relatively soon after the CK release depending on how complex the scripting syntax is.

What gets more complex is merging the two ideas; I would like to see the difficulty variances, along with the replayability of having certain areas change and not always just have bandits, vampires, or whatever is already in the area.

And, thanks. Glad to see people enjoying it and supporting the mod.

Wiz, could be possible. Not sure how likely it'd be, it wouldn't be on the top of the priority list and it'd be fairly complex.

[anna ley]

Wiz, could be possible. Not sure how likely it'd be, it wouldn't be on the top of the priority list and it'd be fairly complex.

You're talking about bathing draugrs right.

[Jessie Butterfield]

You're talking about bathing draugrs right.

This was exactly what my question was going to be LOL

[Eddie Howe]

Actually.. That is.

Both are possible.

[Kelly James]

So, I got a bit bored and now I'm tracking through decompiled script code examining the manner in which smithing upgrades are made. Rather interesting, here...

Spoiler

float FUNCTION CalculateSmithingValue(keyword ItemMaterial, int iSmithingSkill) {0}   FLAGS 0   VARS	  keyword ::temp3	  bool ::temp4	  float fsmithingValue	  int ::temp5	  bool ::temp6	  int iminSkill	  float ::temp7   ENDVARS   assign fsmithingValue, 3   cast ::temp3, null   cmp_eq ::temp4, ItemMaterial, ::temp3   not ::temp4, ::temp4   jmpf ::temp4, 12   callmethod GetMinSkill, self, ::temp5, ItemMaterial   assign iminSkill, ::temp5   cmp_ge ::temp6, iSmithingSkill, iminSkill   jmpf ::temp6, 7   isub ::temp5, iSmithingSkill, iminSkill   cast ::temp7, ::temp5   fdiv ::temp7, ::temp7, 42   fadd ::temp7, 3, ::temp7   assign fsmithingValue, ::temp7   jmp 1   jmp 1   return fsmithingValueENDFUNCTION

It appears to assign an initial value of 3, do a few checks, jump if the checks fail, check the smithing versus min skills (which are explicitly defined in the script, weirdly - they aren't related to the values listed with perks at all), check if the smithing skill is greater than the min skill, jump if the check fails again... and then it subtracts the min skill from the smithing skill, casts it into temp7, and divides temp7 by 42. It then appears to add 3 to that value..

I'm not sure if I'm reading this correctly, and I don't even know what part of smithing it refers too. But it's fun to examine nonetheless. I might try some scripting.. I mean really, who needs that silly CK anyways?

This isn't the whole script, btw, there's a long section regarding variable item materials, and the section regarding min skills for the item materials, but it was the most complex portion.

Edit: Also believe I found the dragon death deaths, so I could disable souls and etc on alternative starts, for example. Well, I'll look more into it all tomorrow, gotta do my encounter zones, too. Definitely interesting, though...

[Kieren Thomson]

I'm kind of baffled by how much you manage to find o_O Plutoman OP.

[Catharine Krupinski]

Heh. It's fun and interesting.

I also keep finding odd references, like inside the dragon death script there's this; "TODO: when actor scripts are available, put it on EncDragon", I'm assuming they already did that but forgot to remove the note. That's happened a lot..

[Emmie Cate]

Would it be possible to give perks to enemies?

Like say, Steady Hand (Archery slow time) or Hack n Slash (axe bleeding dmg) or Dual Casting?

Edit: Also would it be possible to have the player take extra damage when hit from behind, or have some sort of sneak mechanic for enemies?

[james kite]

would it be possible to have the player take extra damage when hit from behind?

Wondering this myself.
There is a function in SkyEdit called "getLineOfSight". I was wondering if this could be used for this effect. Imagine something like this:

Begin GameMode
If actor.IsInCombat & getLineOfSight = 0 (meaning that the opponent is not seeing me)
-code to make hits count as critical hits/sneak attacks-
EndIf
End

I wonder if it would work...

[kristy dunn]

@daggerfall: I actually have a mild suspicion that enemies might already be able to sneak attack the player. On occasion I am OHKO'd by an archer's opening shot, whereas normally their attacks would only do about half my health in damage.

Enemies definitely do have perks though. And I believe enemy mages do dual cast at times.

Also, trust me, extra damage for hidden NPCs is only a recipe for frustration. It is not a good idea for fun.

[kasia]

I like the idea of enemies getting a sneak bonus. (Just make it a seperate optional esp for those that don't agree. That should be easy, I'd think.)

[Lawrence Armijo]

@daggerfall: I actually have a mild suspicion that enemies might already be able to sneak attack the player. On occasion I am OHKO'd by an archer's opening shot, whereas normally their attacks would only do about half my health in damage.

Enemies definitely do have perks though. And I believe enemy mages do dual cast at times.

Also, trust me, extra damage for hidden NPCs is only a recipe for frustration. It is not a good idea for fun.

They have some perks, but it would be amazing if there were good archers that slowed time. It would revolutionize combat imo.
Also, sneak attacking enemies would be great to me as well. It's hard to take the game seriously when its not even important to be careful.

[Chris Jones]

They have some perks, but it would be amazing if there were good archers that slowed time. It would revolutionize combat imo.
Also, sneak attacking enemies would be great to me as well. It's hard to take the game seriously when its not even important to be careful.

Aura whisper would suddenly become one of the best shouts.

[Tamika Jett]

Perks are a possibility. I'd have to check out which archers have what. I've no idea what slow time would do on an NPC, though.. o.O I've been curious to give the shout to some draugr bosses though.

Scripting for sneak attacks could be done, but not yet.

[Helen Quill]

Perks are a possibility. I'd have to check out which archers have what. I've no idea what slow time would do on an NPC, though.. o.O I've been curious to give the shout to some draugr bosses though.

Maybe increase their accuracy as their stamina drains? Would make stamina poisons useful against archers, I suppose.

[Shae Munro]

If they could literally slow time like the player can, it would make for an interesting play. I'm sure there are other perks I'd like to see on mobs as well, just can't think of them atm.

[Soku Nyorah]

At this moment, I just wrote a script that increases the player size on load.. now, how to attach it for testing?

Hmm. I should probably deal with this later, and focus on my encounter zones. At least finish that up, get an install script through NMM working, and I'll move from there.

I'll take a look at the archers while I'm at it, too.

[Michelle Chau]

I guess I'm the only one here who ragequits when I get OHKO'd

If you happen to find out what makes enemies occasionally do massive damage instead of their regular damage, Plutoman, please let me know. I'm trying to make a mod that eliminates that kind of stuff while making weaker enemies remain threatening. It oddly doesn't seem related to the Critical perks, which some enemies have.

[sarah]

About.. 2/5ths, nearly half, of the map figured up. Of course, I'll still need to put them all into the program, but it's a start. I've got a large map I've put on some cardboard, working with the areas, detailed with the main roads and a centerline that crosses between all the cities (so it goes all over the map). A base for determining level area. Generally the policy will be that areas close to the roads are 'safer', or have a lower minimum level, while areas farther out have a much higher minimum level. Distance isn't the only consideration, as areas around riverwood and etc will remain fairly low-key, but wander off south of the road a ways from the gap between Riften and Falkreath and you might end up against a dragon priest.

Others, like Geirmunds Hall, are supposed to be relatively difficult, so it'll have a fairly high minimum level even though it's not that far from both ivarstead and one of the main roads.

This is not absolute difficulty, as I'm keeping the current level scaling, too..

And at some point I'll finish all the equipment lists.

[sharon]

Thanks for all your hardwork. When do you figure the next update for PISE will be available?