The story...

Remember seeing the 'Cliff Racer Go'? Well I saw it, giggled and immediately thought that would never work because Cliff Racer look all alike and are boring anyway.

But what if there were more? With distinct stats and looks and loot?

What I have so far:

15 birds split in 3 types: racers, razor beaks ans diseased birds

Racers are faster

Razors are tougher

The sick ones have more resistances and stronger spells.

spells and resistances for each type of bird

All birds:

Pinning attack: Drain agility and speed on touch

Shriek: sound on target

Racers

Resist shock (how much depends on the racer level)

Razors

Resist fire and normal weapons

Wing Slash: drain fatigue 1 sec on touch

Wyvern strike: paralyse, blind and poison

Diseased racers

Resist magicka

Poison claws: poison on touch

Corrosive spit : disintegrate armour and weapon, drain health on target

expanded loot: plumes a various quality, arrows, meat (from MC, NoM and TR to avoid doubles) and bone daggers.

4 plumes (vanilla, quality, high quality and perfect) where higher quality means more beneficial effects.

Racer bone arrows: same damage as bonemold arrows but slightly lighter, some are enchanted

5 Racer Bone daggers. Enchanted and damage ranging from chitin to glass.

Enchantements (based on racer's type and level) :

Crippling > damage agility

Exhausting > drain and absorb fatigue

Corrosive > disintegrate weapon and armour

Venemous > poison and paralyse

Bloodletting > drain and absorb life, frenzy, burden

Leveled lists manipulations:

- follows vanilla as far as where regular, blighted and diseased cliff racers can spawn

- list allow lower level racers to spawn regardless of your level... unless you have...

- hunted each bird type to extinction with message when you kill the last of them.

What next?

- Lots of testing for game balance (not sure about the Wyvern Strike spell for e.g)

- Collect trophies? (mounted heads)

- Save a few specimens in a zoo? Breed then for ingredients?

- Make use of http://mw.modhistory.com/download-90-5593

- ...

Resources and inspiration:

http://mw.modhistory.com/download-98-10634

http://mw.modhistory.com/download-90-4017

Cliff racer retextures http://mw.modhistory.com/download-55-2574 for the razor beaks and http://mw.modhistory.com/download-55-2629 for the diseased racers

Thoughts?

So let me get this straight? You added a variety of cliff racer that resists fire and normal weapons, with an attack that can paralyze, blind, and poison?

I'm interested... but also feel like I'm going to need a lot of beer on hand for this one.

> paralyzing and invincible cliffracers

That's going to be the worst mod in Morrowind modding history

More diverse creatures are always welcomed, such mods really add up to a more immersive game world.

They have enough magicka to attempt to cast their spells once or twice only.

Their resistance is anything between 5 to 20 points, so they are not immune to damage.

You won't see more cliff racers, only different ones

Killing them is rewarding because 1/ dead cliffy Yay! 2/ Loot 3/ The more you kill, the less re-appear.

You'll need the beer though... to celebrate

As I said on discord, I've kept it immersive (new textures don't stand out, loot is balanced) and lore-friendly (cliff racers are STILL annoying)

I don't think they are OP, they go from level 1 to 30, the strongest has 200 health.

That reminds me, there is a mod on MMH that actually adds nests for cliff racers, that would add to immersion.

Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming ~

"She made cliff racers MORE annoying. Get me my torch and pitchfork!"

Actually, this sounds good: they are annoying, but at least now you get something for your trouble of exterminating a flock of 30 or so racers!

I'd say, test it out and be careful in balancing their attacks, especially for the debilitating effects: remember that racers tend to swarm the player, so even a mild effect of drain, sound, paralyze, etc. will stack when you are attacked by a dozen of them!

I like the concept very much. Keep up the good work.

Thanks guys

The key now it is keep things balanced indeed.

I'll have to play test quite a bit before release.

I like the idea of using spells that tend to be overlooked (sound, drain stats) in favour of deadly ones (fireball...) but you make a very good point Raym. I'll be careful.

Still unsure about the number of cliff racers that should be killed before it goes extinct.

For example, right now, you need to kill 40 Young Cliff Racers (level 1) to make sure no more Young Cliff Racers spawn.

It scales down with the racers' level. So killing 20 Cliff Racer broodmothers will effectively erase them from Vvardenfell.

Not sure where is the sweet spot between realism and 'Oh my god when will they just disappear!!!!"

EDIT: after yet another fruitful chat on discord, we're looking at 1.5k dead cliff racers before they all go extinct, knowing that you could get there *as soon as* level 50, less if you actively look for and hunt cliff racers. That alone is revolutionary gameplay ~

I would rather make them passive. Vvardenfell without cliffracers is not vvardenfellish.

A very fair point.

I could modify the scripts to 1/ remove the cliff racer 2/ add a new passive, smaller (new gen!) one.

That would apply to cliff racers and razor beaks but I'd let the diseased ones go extinct.

The passive racers would have reduced loot, or reduced chance to have loot.

Thanks for the remark, very helpful

You could also just modify Fight attribute. Or make cliff racers randomly agressive depending on the number of cliffracers killed, like Fight = 90, if (randomvariable1to100 - cliffracerskilled) > 0. This will make them less annoying when they stop to be a real challenge to a player.

This, too, could be a good way to approach the issue.

I concur that I won't make them disappear entirely: passive racers gliding over the cliffs do add something to the scenery.

By the way, I think you nailed it using temporary spell effects (for example, Drain instead of Damage): those effects wear out on their own, so you don't have that uber-annoying situation you get with Bonewalkers

I like your intention to overhaul the cliffracers, but as you develop your mod, would you provide an option that does not add spell effects to them? I like variety in appearance due to such things as disease or type, but, within the context of the game as originally released the idea of spell casting cliffracers strikes a discordant note for me.

I'll keep the idea of replacing aggressive racers with passive ones, that way, you get to see them as you run around Vvardenfell but they'll leave you in peace. It's also a much simple script edit

Ugh, those Bonewalkers.

Yup, as R-Zero said, Cliff Racers are the spice of Morrowind!

Even though I've tried to have spells that make sense, I see where you come from.

It is a simple matter to remove the spells though it would also remove the difference on how you should fight the various racers.

Thank you all for your feedback