SoulStones - Cross between Sigil Stones and Soul Gems
Development Thread and Help Request.

Demo Available (only about 10 SoulStones but all the scripting to make more)
Requires OBSE 18 beta 3
Edit - Download Removed see later posts for newest version

I am working on a project to add SoulStones to Tamriel. A SoulStone is similar to a Sigil Stone in that it allows you enchant weapons with effects. This expands upon my MMM Diverse Runeskull Rebalance mod (awaiting MMM 3.7b3 public release), by using OBSE to add all sorts of new weapon effects. This is planned as an add-on for FCOM users. It will not *require* any FCOM resources, but "SoulStone of Balrog" doesn't really make sense with MMM. Also loot that is dropped (instead of hand placed in the world) will be configured for FCOM 0.9.9.5+ loot lists so some content may not be available for non-FCOM users (hard to imagine a "SoulStone of Giant" without giants. I will do my best to keep everything lore friendly and balanced.

These effects are broken down into 3 basic categories
1) Effects that do special damage. (some examples)
a. Bonus Damage to Undead with a chance of releasing their soul.
b. Bonus Damage to Daedra with a chance of sending them back to oblivion (assuming you aren't in oblivion)
c. And my favorite ? Black Widows Touch. When used by a female Player there is a chance to kill male NPCs based upon the NPC level and player Personality

2) Effects that stack. As long as you hit before the previous script runs out, effect will stack indefinitely. (some examples)
a. Finally burden that can stack. A typical weapon does X burden + X/10 stacking burden with each hit.
b. Stack for drain any attribute
c. Stack for drain skills like blade, blunt, Light Armor, Heavy Armor
d. Stack for weakness to magic, fire, frost, ect.

3) Special Weapon enchantments that add enchantment to the player when Equiped (some examples)
a. Some drain your skill or attribute in some way.
b. Some damage fatigue, health, magicka.
c. Some are the souls of great Warriors/Mages long dead that provide massive buffs to some stats and drain others

Almost everything is implemented with scripts that use the script name to pass the Magnitude of the effect and other special information (like "ignore resist magic"). This way only one script is needed to implement all the possible stacking burden spells and in fact, that is just a place holder script. All the drain X scripts use a single OBSE function so results *should* be bug free.

What do I need from you?
I really need people to come up with ideas for soul stones. Some back story to the SoulStone and what effects you think it should have. I will use the scaling model from my RuneSkull work to balance them. The scaling information is the Excel spreadsheet included in the 7z.

These runeskulls will be added to the world (mostly in dungeons but some elsewhere). They will each have some small story associated with them (see Viator Jarol below). This will be added as a book somewhere or NPC dialog but not as quests. You can find them on your own if you are lucky, but they will be well hidden and the clues will be very useful.

If you want to keep from spoiling your story for people reading this thread feel free to PM the backstory and weapon suggestion.


If you are a good script modder I could use help adding more features. Right now all the base work is done and about half the total effects have been implemented. I could really use help implementing/testing more "special damage" effects that people come up with.

If you are good with the CS and can build SoulStones with the supplied scripts I could use your help. Right now I only have added 10 of total goal of around 250 (50 different SoulStones with 5 levels each).

Testers. Are you willing to help try out the new SoulStones and make sure all the effects work as they should. A lot of work in the console testing scripts.

Anyone that can help me make new texture/mesh for SoulStones

Examples of some of the SoulStones in the Demo
1) SoulStone of Warlocks. Warlocks are powerful wizards that spend their lives mastering the power of Destructive magic. It has been rumored that the souls of some warlocks can be trapped inside Soul Stones if they miscast a powerful spell. These can be used to create the most powerful magical weapons imaginable, but pity the poor mortal who tries to use yield them.
Stats for SoulStone of petty(Grand in parenthesis) Warlock:
Fire Damage 5(15) on Hit
Frost Damage 5(15) on Hit
Shock Damage 5(15) on Hit
Stack Weakness Magic 6(18) on Hit
Damage Player Health 2(6) on Hit

2) SoulStone of Giant. Giants are known to roam the mountains in part of Tamriel. A weapon enchanted with the soul of a giant creates a powerful weapon capable of encumbering most foes. However any normal man or beast will struggle under the weight of the weapon.
Stats for SoulStone of Common Giant:
Burden 100 for 20 seconds
Stack Burden 10 for 20 seconds
Stack Drain Spd 1.2 for 20 seconds
On Equip Damage Fatigue 2 (damage the player fatigue 2 per second when equipped)



Story of Viator Jarol
SoulStone of Viator Jarol that does bonus damage to undead and chance to release the undead's soul (kill the undead)
Backstory ? Diary of Arcturus Ernarde (Grandfather of Basil Ernarde)
Viator Jarol a Paladin of unmatched was skill was commissioned by Meridia to form Holy Order and cleanse the world of undead. The Blue Order quickly gained respect and fame thanks to Viator's unmatched combat abilities and unwavering confidence. Many young men flocked to Blue Order in hopes of adventure, experience, or fame.
I joined the order at the tender age of 18 not for piety, or want to clean to world of evil, but for the adventure the loop and (hopefully) the goodwill of the ladies. What we young recruits lacked in ability, we felt we more than made up with enthusiasm and alongside Viator we were never in any real danger.
That all changed one horrible day . . . Our order was on a routine expedition to Hame to scout and clear any undead. The first two levels were nearly devoid of undead and we were all joking about the women we would bed with our tales danger and victory. Half way through the third level my life would change forever. Our group was ambushed by an unholy onslaught of undead lead by the powerful necromancer Gilen Draconis. Within the first 15 seconds half of us were dead. Without a lucky burst from an arrant fireball I would have bleed to death on the spot from the stump of my severed arm. Realizing we were outmatched against such an organized foe, Viator ordered a retreat. The levels above us were now crawling with newly awakened undead. I though there was no way we can fight our way past these new enemies, much less slow the horde advancing behind us. At a narrow hallway, Vitor Ordered us to form up and push our way out as he alone held up the main group behind us. Against all odds we young recruits managed to clear path. By god, I thought those remaining would all make it out alive! We called to Vitor, and he was nearly to us when Gilen Draconis emerged through to hallway Vitor had been holding. I'm not sure exactly what happened next as I was nearly unconscious from the blood loss and the fighting. I don't know if Gilen cast a spell on Vitor, or the sight of his slaughtered companions reanimated against him drove Vitor to madness but something within him changed. Vitor turned around and drove back into the advancing mob. Every hit of his hammer felled an undead and through the mass of severed limbs, we saw Vitor's great hammer come down upon Gilen's head. Separated from Vitor by nearly 50 undead, all wounded and about to pass out we were forced to fall back. We waited at the entrance of the ruin for nearly two weeks. None of us were brave enough to go back down and search for his body or return home and tell others of our failure. I suspect this is the only accurate account that will ever be recorded of what happened within the depths of Hame.

A couple lines of dialog will be added about Basil Ernarde that mentions his grandfather and something about his journal currently being kept for possible preservation in the basemant of the anvil mages guild.

The Diary is added to the basemant in the Anvil Mages Guild. It can be found at any time, Basil just points the player there.

At the bottom of ruin there is an activator that when touched by the player, activates "Ghost of Gilen Draconis" and the loot of that lich is the "SoulStone of Viator Jarol"

This weapon enchantment provides.
Damage undead 30 ? damages undead only and Percent Chance (based on target level) to free undead soul,
Weakness to Magic 20%
Spirt of Vitor Jarol (some paladin effects)




What I am looking for from submissions:
If you could provide me with
1) back story for a runeskull (either one of the existing ones,one of the new OBSE ones detailed above, or a new idea for a runeskull)
2) Location it points too (bottom of cave X)
3) How the backstory is activated (talk to NPC Y or find book Z in his home)
4) What happens when the runeskull is activated (spawn creeps, magical effect, whatever).

If you want to send me an esp with everything in it great, if you want to send me a couple paragraphs that would be very helpful too.

What do you get out of it? Credits with the release and a chance to help make a fun mod for other people.

-dan

From the technical readme

What does this mod do.

The basic idea was to expand upon my runeskull rebalance mod (awaiting Public Release of MMM 3.7b3) by adding new scripted effects to weapons and enchantments (such as Fortify blade 10) to weapons.


Section 1 Stacking effects.
Adds effects that can be stacked (Burden, Drain Att, Drain Skill, Weakness to xxx)

These are called with the appropriate magic effect script (ie Scriptname xDanSoulStoneStackBurden)

The magnitude of the effect is set by the name (ie "Stack Burden 10")

There is no way to set the magic effect magnitude in the CS or Tes4Edit so I use a script to set the Script Magnitude when the weapon is enchanted. This information is saved in the game and can be accessed later by the magic effect script "xDanSoulStoneStackBurden".

Also I use the effect hostile flag to store if the effect ignores resist magic. This is also set by the name (ie "Stack Burden 10 Ignore Resist Magic"). BY default the target's resist magic ability will be applied.

They magic effect script (ie Scriptname xDanSoulStoneStackBurden) grabs the Magnitude and Resist magic setting and calls OBSE Function "xDanSoulStoneFunctionStackEffect". This function handles all the real work and in fact the magic effect script is really just a placeholder so that you can have different effects with different durations on a single target.

Unlike default oblivion, I support float magnitudes with a resolution of .01 Since oblivion only supports whole number effect, the remainder is used to calculate a chance of increasing the effect by 1.
For example 1.2 has a 20% to yeild 2 and an 80% chance to yeild 1
.75 has a 75% chance to yeild 1 and 25% chance to yeild 0.

The enchantment magnitude of script effects is calculated and added to the enchantment. You really need to use to spreadsheet to see how much mana an enchantment is going to cost.


Quest script xDanSoulStoneOnEquipEffectsQuestScript runs every .25 seconds and handles all the work of given script effects their magnitude and setting the enchantment mana cost (after the SoulStone is used). This script also handles the custom weapon enchantments any time a weapon is added or removed.

The first setting in almost every script is it's "debug mode"
Debug 0 = no messages
Debug 1 = Error messages only
Debug 2 = level 1 messages plus major status messages
Debug 3 = Level 1 and 2 plus a whole lot of status messages

Change as you see fit for testing. They are all pretty high (2 or 3) at the moment. Beta release will be down to 1 and final release 0 or 1.

Section 2 Custom Attacks
I added scripts to do custom attacks (like "Damage Undead 10") that deals special damage to undead with a chance of killing them outright based on the Magnitude of the damage and the level of the undead. I plan to extend this to include deadra and possibly other types. This uses the same Script Name engine to set the damage based on the magic effect name so only one script is needed.



Section 3 Custom Weapon Enchantments.
Weapons enchantments that do things like Drain some attribute, or Damage Fatigue, or Add all kinds of stuff.

This is implemented with Tokens. When a weapon with a matching script is first enchanted, the appropriate token is added to your inventory.
When the weapon is equipped the token is equipped and when the weapon is unequipped the token is unequipped. OBSE checks on every weapon change so the problems with on equip behavior are eliminated.

The array that associates Names with Tokens is found in Quest script xDanSoulStoneOnEquipEffectsQuestScript (really this script does all the hard work - understand this and you understand the mod). This array must be manually updated with each Token/Enchantment added via the CS.

The spreadsheet calculates Mana Usage and Number of charges based on LAME magic system. Based on your magic system the total mana of each enchanted item will change
Future Versions will use tweaked LAME settings to set all weapon enchantment charge/cost independent of your magic system. This will greatly improve compatibility.

-dan



Add because its not available publicly yet, here is the readme from my RuneSkull update as it provides so basic information about the overall goal.


beta Release

I was not happy with the Runeskulls effects in the original Runeskulls mod, the FCOM rebalance, or MMM Diverse Runeskulls (Based on FCOM rebalance).

FCOM Exnem Runeskulls
I love the idea, I'm just not in love with the implementation.

I don't really like a lot of the changes made in FCOM_ExnemRuneskulls
Example damage health 1 for 60 seconds. That doesn't do much good.
damage 1 for 3 seconds would be just as useful on a sword or damage 1 for 5 seconds would be just as useful as a bow.

Originally i found myself never actually using any of the runeskulls. 90% would be used to make items for sale. I could easily find better enchanted weapons than I could make with runeskulls, so i would mostly just make items and sell them for gold.

Also, I think they should have a downside. You are using the soul of some not very happy creature to power your enchantments. That's got to have a downside, right???

So here is what I set out to do . . .
1) I want all runeskulls to be interesting to some charcter type.
2) I want to weapon and item enchantments to be "balanced" for each runeskull - a player has to make a hard choice on which way to go with each one.
3) I want them to be equally powerful or greater than items you find in random loot/ on NPCs at your current level.
4) Provide something new and interesting not normally found in the game.
5) Rework the leveled lists so that Runeskulls are rare (especially at low level)
6) Add negative effect to all enchantments
7) Balance all enchatments using a standard balancing "system"


I think I have met most of these goals with the beta results. I'm sure some will be over/underpowered but that's why I need YOUR feedback.


To get a good overview of all the changes check out the spreadsheet in the "data spreadsheet" folder.

Runeskulls are balanced to yield weapons of 600/1200/1800/2400/3600 charge.

This is based on LAME magic settings. other magic systems will yield different charges. I will release an OOO complaint version with the FCOM 0.9.9.5

Please Report all bugs to the Forum or PM me (kandiedan)


I also felt Runeskull drops were way to high in previous versions, so I included a new Runeskull drop list. THIS MUST BE PLACED AFTER YOUR BASHED PATCH. This is a temporary fix that needs to overwrite everything. The next version of FCOM will include a greatly improved Runeskull drop system.


-dan


If you somehow managed to get this far, you deserve a cookie!!!!

Let's see if I can help you a bit here... This is just a simple generic Soul Stone, like the Warlock or Giant one, though I'd be happy to think up on some unique ones for you.


Soul Stone of the Bandit
1) Back story: Bandits are outlaws living together with others of their kind and causing all kinds of calamity towards the unsuspecting citizens of Cyrodiil. Many attempts were preformed in ridding the world of these horrid murderers, yet these attempts were unsuccessful. It has been rumored that some powerful mages even tried binding the souls bandits into stones, allowing them to possess their power, if only for a while. The Bandit Soul-stone allows its wearer to rob someone of their gold each time they attack, but has an adverse effect of putting you in trouble with the law if those misdeeds continue.
2) Location: The Petty version should be in the first floor of Vilverin. I think it's only fitting that the wizards who attempted this powerful feat would go here first in ridding the Imperial City of the bandit menace. Plus, it's the first dungeon most people visit. If you want to make it a little harder, put it somewhere in the second floor (I mean underground) near some difficult monsters to make the player have to run for it if they want the new shiny ability.
3) Backstory Activation: I dunno, perhaps place a letter next to the stone written by the wizard who attempted the feat.
4) What happens?: You could spawn a bandit who just noticed you took his prized treasure.

What the stone does, with petty (grand) values:
-Chance to gain gold on hit: 1 (20)
-Stack Drain Fatigue on hit: 2 (12)
-Damage Health on hit: 1 (10)
Negative effect: Bounty increases each 20 strikes by: 1 (20)

You can make the steal gold ability only work on NPC's or on creatures as well. I would instead of stealing gold, generate new gold because stealing is redundant if in the end you're going to kill your victim and take whatever they have on them.

If you think the penalty is too tough, then change it to a damage Luck on player every 20 strikes or something like that. Anyway, I hope you liked my idea, I'll come up with more as time comes.

Great idea for a mod, by the way!

Excellent Idea, just the sort of thing I would NEVER have thought of myself. And great for the low level character just staring out in the FCOM world.

How do these slight modifications sound?
Make this a non leveled item. There is only a single version (petty level) available and it is found in Vilverin.

Change Stack Drain Fatigue 2 to damage fatigue 5 + Stack Drain luck .5
Stack Drain Fatigue works just like Damage fatigue. I use ModAVC instead of ModAV so that the damage can be repaired by the target if they have the appropriate spell/potion. For Fatigue the results work out to be the same.

Bump Damage health up to 3
Change gold to random 0-6 on hit (creates new gold, not remove target gold)


Change the Bounty to be a percent chance each hit, instead of counting the number of hits. 15% chance on each hit for bounty to go up by 1.

Activation. Add a small jewel chest and a note. Reading the note will give you the back story. Trying to open (Activating) the jewel chest will spawn the bandit mage that created the SoulStone. Looting him will give you the Soul Stone of the Bandit.

These will yield an enchantment cost of 12 per hit (50 hits total at full charge of 600).

And possibly add a "bandit" on equip enchantment to the weapon? Something like: Drain Per 5, Drain Heavy Armor 5, Fort Blunt 5, Fort Mark 5, Fort Light Armor 5? Not sure how I feel about the enchantment . . .

How does all this sound to you?

Perfectly fine. You were free to change whatever you wanted from the beginning, so I can hold no complaints. The revisions are good, and the enchantment is fine too. After all, those are the skills that a bandit is more proficient in. Let's see if I can't think up some more of these...

I've come up with two more. One of them is for a generic creature, and the other is for a unique character. Let's begin with the former:

Soul-stone of the Rat
1) Back story: Rats, one of the most obnoxious creatures that have ever existed, always scurrying around in groups, holding on to dozens of diseases and infections. Goblins however, whether out of interest or necessity, have managed to domesticate the creatures. They use them for battle, food, and for various other reasons. But while their uses have been for the most part mundane, there are still many who believed they can be used for more practical purposes. Goblins, being the aggressive and warlike creatures that they are, had a different idea in mind when they discovered that rats could be used for something...better. Goblin Shamans and shamankas conducted various experiments with rats, binding their souls into magical stones, capable of giving Goblins of that tribe a distinct advantage over other tribes. However, other goblins caught on to this idea and every goblin tribe is now trying to create the most sophisticated rat soul-stone, giving its bearer powerful abilities. However, the shamans who possess the stones are known to be very wary of other goblins from different tribes attempting to steal their creations, so they have created traps to make sure that no one but the goblin who the shamans deem worthy are capable of wielding these powerful stones.

2) Location: We can have the petty versions at the bottom of some goblin tribe caves. I've forgotten how FCOM handles the goblins, but I'm sure some tribes are stronger than others. The stronger tribes get the better version of this soul-stone. The stone could be located in the drop-list of the Goblin Shaman, or it could be located in a boss-level goblin chest or on a table or something, it's up to you.

3) How the backstory is activated: I don't think this is necessary, but if you want, you could add scraps of paper or something along those lines dictating how progress with the experimentation is going. I've no other ideas on this one.

4) What happens when the runeskull is activated: Simple, the goblin trap is activated, inflicting the player with the following diseases: Blood lung, Bone Break Fever, BrainRot, Feeble Limb, Red Rage, Shakes, and Witless Pox. When picking up the grand version, for example, you could be inflicted with the worst case of these diseases, making Restore Disease potions and spells required to cope with the mass loss of stats.

Here are the effects of the Soul-stone

-Fortify Speed 5 (25)
-Stack Weakness to Disease 5% (25%) on strike
-Stack Weakness to Poison 5% (25%) on strike
-Chance of inflicting each of the rat diseases posted above (Not sure if this one's possible, if not, then do the following:)
--Stack Drain all Attributes .2 (1) on strike
-Penalty: Weakness to Disease 5% (25%)
-Penalty: Weakness to Poison 5% (25%)

I'll post the other idea in a bit. I promise it won't deal with wizards conducting experiments anymore!

So here we go.

Soul-stone of the Punisher

1) Back story: Avon Dovan; a name shrouded in mystery, a name never spoken through the lips of mortals. Few even know this name, and the ones that do, did, and are now forever gone. He was known as the Punisher by those who fought alongside him, thought that too may be but a simple myth, as his allies are no longer living. The rumors say he was a headhunter, who slayed without remorse; without feeling. Countless fell to his mace, Carrion-maker. None he deemed prey were spared from his torrent of violence, not even women and children. The screams of his victims could be heard through the night as his powerful mace destroyed bone and flesh. No one knew whether he killed for sport, gain, or to fuel his lust for violence, but he was called the Punisher by some for the retribution he brought to those who were like him--killers, rapists, tax evaders--all menaces to society, or at least they were to the client.

Once a client contacted him, he would ask who they wanted dead and nothing else. He cared not for reasons and resentment, as these were things only the client should focus on. His was to do his duty and to gain riches, nothing else.

In a particular mission, his client asked him to eliminate an entire orphanage of children. Avon was supposedly having second thoughts on the matter, but he chose to ignore them, as the client had his own reasons for wanting these children killed. He did as he was told and killed countless children, their cries and acrid blood filling the cold night air. As he was about the slam the skull of the final child left--a young Nord girl, she looked at him, eyes brimming with tears and spoke the words: "I forgive you." The simple phrase felt to Avon as if a hundred cold daggers were plunged into his heart. He staggered with the effort of having known what he had done. He wanted to heave, he wanted to howl, he wanted to...die.

He felt his mind shattering, and letting out a howl louder than the cries of the children he slayed combined, the smashed the hammer through the young girl's skill and continued smashing it against her body. This continued for the rest of the night until he finally collapsed for exhaustion. Once he awoke, he knew it was over. He was broken. The sins of his past weighed heavily against his soul, so much so he could barely breathe. He vowed to himself that he would never die, but rather live and suffer the torment of his dead victims, letting their deaths haunt him forever.

None know whether Avon Dovan served his repentance or whether he finally died and found peace. Rumors only state that he traveled far away from civilization, to the deepest Fort he could find and remained there, living in pain and horror. Yet even this may be nothing more than tale.

2) Location: I don't really know, as the tale states, he hid in a fort far from civilization, so any difficult Fort Ruins would be applicable here. More importantly though, is whether you want him to be alive or dead. Alive he would make for a very interesting boss, but dead would be a happy ending for his lost soul. In his body you would find the soul-stone, a testament to his will to live and suffer the torment he brought to others, even in death.

3) How the backstory is activated: In or near his corpse is a journal containing his final thoughts.

4) What happens when the runeskull is activated: I don't know, it needs to be something unique, as we can't have ghosts all the time.

These are the effects of the Soul-stone:

-Fortify all attributes 7
-Soul Trap
-Judgment: effects have a chance to occur depending on the enemy hit with the effect.
--Creature/Monster: Command Creature 30 seconds
--Bandit: Stack Drain: Blunt, Light Armor, Marksman, 5 pts, Absorb HP 10 pts each strike
--Conjurer/Necromancer/Mage: Stack Drain: Destruction, Conjuration 5 pts on strike, Intelligence, Willpower 3 pts on strike, Absorb MP 10 pts on strike
--Marauder: Stack Drain: Blade, Block, Heavy Armor 5pts on strike, Absorb Fatigue 20 pts on strike
--Undead: Stack Drain: Health, Magika, Fatigue 6 pts on strike, all attributes 1 on strike
--Daedra: Frenzy on strike
-Penalty: Burden 1 pt on strike (stack)

This one might be a bit overpowered, so make revisions at your leisure.

Great idea and story, I was originally imagining the rat to be the "anit-goblin" weapon but I think this fits much better.
I'll balance it out a bit (weakness to disease has zero effect on NPCs because they don't catch diseases. Probably go the stack drain all attributes route as it doesn't require a new custom script
Dan <- lazy
I think when you grab the soul stone it will active a bunch of strong buffed up rats (5-15 depending upon the soul stone level) and script the diseases as ability/token that gets added when you grab the gem and removed when all the rats die or after 600 seconds. That way you can't just get rid of the deseases with a single mandrake root.
Seem resonable to you?



Another great one. I'm trying to figure out where a player hears about "The Punisher". Perhaps a book in Fort Farragut? Or some people at the shrine of Nameria have heard about the Punisher and his notebook left in fort Anga when he first tried to flee there. I want to provide players with some clue they can go chasing after.

Yea always ghost get boring. Maybe two stories and stones based on the players Fame vs Infamy. If the player is good, they find his journal entry saying he found some measure of peace/redemption and the gods in their mercy removed the evil from his soul and placed it in this gem. If you are evil the note is the scrawling rant of a mad man. The "good option" will grant a weapon with some medium power with low disadvantage. The "evil option" will more powerful enchantments with greater disadvantages.

I'm going to have to rework the weapon a lot to make something easier to script. Let me know if these still fits with your general impression of what it *should* be.
These are the effects of the Soul-stone "good":
(Mace was his favorite weapon right)

-Fortify Strength/Agil/End 5 on equip
- Drain Per/Int/Wil 5 on equip
-Fortify skill Blunt 5 on equip
Damage Health 10
-Judgment: effects have a chance to occur depending on the enemy hit with the effect.
Undead/Daedra Damage Health 10
-Penalty: Damage Magicka 2 points on strike

These are the effects of the Soul-stone "evil":
-Fortify Strength/Agil/End 7 on equip
- Drain Per/Int/Wil 7 on equip
-Fortify skill Blunt 7 on equip
Damage Health 10
-Wrath: effects have a chance to occur depending on the enemy hit with the effect.
Damage non undead/Daedra 15 points on stike
-Penalty: Damage (random attribute) .5 point on strike

This looks to be on par with a "Common" Soul Stone to me. I can double all the effect values and get up to "grand" soul stone numbers.
I think the backstory implies he is a "Grand" type right. Not some common or greater assasin.

-dan

Whatever you feel more comfortable doing. I mean, I guess my tale did sort of imply that he was a decent fighter, but his soul and fighting spirit could have degraded once he came to the realization that he was fighting for the wrong reasons, so it could go both ways.

The rat idea is great! I was looking for a way to prevent the player from just eating a Mandrake root and just laugh, and you've found it. I can't wait to see people's faces when they figure out they can't just eat some ingredients or cast a couple spells and be done with it. That'll be funny.

Again, you're free to change whatever you like. All I'm doing is jotting down whatever ideas appear in my head (especially ones that could include special abilities. Though I wonder where everyone else is... Maybe I should send you these ideas in PM format so that others don't get spoiled.

I'm afraid that I don't like the idea of all things having punishments. I'm sorry, but that's not very fair. Only the strongest, or the ones with logical names should give you penalties for using them. A penalty does not balance a bonus damage ability. I'm sorry.

Looks like a good mod though. But again, Bad =/ good.

From the original RuneSkull rework thread



My goal is to make something new and interesting and not like stuff you already find in oblivion but still balanced. Sure anyone can add a damage health 50 sigil stone but where's the fun in that? RuneSkulls and (by extension) Soul Stones come from capturing the power of some creature/NPC. That creature had strengths and it had weakness. I think it makes it more intersting to apply those over to weapons/armor enchanted with the powers from that creature/NPC.

If you have suggestions for specific or general changes we'd love to hear them. When this is released if you want to make a patch that removes all the negative effects, go for it, you have my blessing to make it a public release. I'm not going to waver from "these enchantments all have some negative effect", but I am open to any ideas. Doesn't in make sense that a "berserker" Soul Stone weapon enchantment could Fortify your Fatigue and drain your Int when it is equiped?

-dan

Okay, I conced the point about the Berserker. But, I dare say I vehemently disagree with needing for cursed items. Sorry.

Oblivion needs cursed items as much as I need a hole in head.

But all in all, I must say it's a good looking idea for a mod. I can't complain about it being designed the way it is. Don't get me wrong.

Different strokes and all.

I love the idea of this, its like runeskulls but different. What i like the most is the idea of weapons that are meant to be used against a certain kind of foe the most. If i think of any ideas I'll make sure to share them with you.

edit: bad spelling

Sweet! Looking forward to this! :tops:

Quick question to people.

The Dremora/Daedra damage weapon effect.

If you are not in Oblivion it has a chance to Banish them back to oblivion. (Fade them out then kill/disable)

If you are in Oblivion, it has no chance Banish them. Would if be better to "Banish" them, then have them reappear behind the player? Maybe with a small heal?
Anyone else thinking that would awesome for the unsuspecting player?

-dan

That wouldn't be very fun when fighting a Barlog.

Though if I ever saw a Barlog in Tamriel I'd know just what to do.

Okay its final, Im using this on a weapon called the Ban Hammer :woot:

Its Banishing Time *twitch*

New effect - Soul Absorbtion X (value)

If a target is killed while this is in effect, that weapon that placed the effect will be recharged by X * Target Level.

I was thinking about 2 options
1) Make this a standard effect that could be added to any weapon.

2) Only Incorporate this into Specail Effects of Damage Undead and Damage Dremora/Daedra. If you manage to Banish Dremora/Deadra or Release Undead Spirit your weapon charge will get restored based on target level.

I think I'm going to implement option 2 unless people think it would be cool (and not overpowered) to have on other weapons.

-dan

Ban Hammer! :rofl:



This brings up some interesting lore questions which I find very interesting. I'm not sure you wanted to hear this, but here goes anyway.

There's definitely a precedent for it in Daggerfall:

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Banish_Daedra

However, this appears to be a complex spell that can only work for a specific Daedra.

Also, the different types of Daedra seem to come from different realms in Oblivion, not just Mehrunes Dagon's realm:

http://www.imperial-library.info/fsg/mortazoarticle01.shtml
http://www.imperial-library.info/book_daedra/index2.shtml
http://elderscrolls.filefront.com/info/otherr6

Further, a banished Daedra is not restored entirely whole upon arrival back in its realm, though details on exactly what this means are sketchy:

http://www.imperial-library.info/book_daedra/index.shtml#banishment

Might be much more interesting to at least have them reappear in some other form. Or take the easy way out and just let it have no effect.



I think it would only be overpowered if it applied to all targets. I think it would work best and be least overpowering if there are separate special effects for soul absorbtion of different target types, i.e.:

* Daedra (including Dremora)
* Undead
* Creatures
* Humanoids

This separation would help to offset the advantages of direct absorbtion. The Daedra version would probably be the most coveted since they are so prevalent in the main quest, but each of these groupings would have a good number of valid targets.

Only problem I can see with this would be proper classification of some targets, but I think you'll have some of this same problem with any attempt to properly classify Daedra versus non-Daedra. FCOM/OOO/MMM has many new Daedra, such as Seducers, Balrogs, and Magma Fiends. Also, some enemies may defy easy classification, such as Knights of Order, Imps, Golems, Gargoyles, etc. The lore on Imps is especially conflicted (they are sometimes classified as Daedra).

For balance I would guess that creatures needs to include animals, Durzogs, Swarm, Skeep, Ogres, Trolls, Minotaurs, Land Dreugh, Spriggans, Slimes, and Goblins. Not sure about Wisps, though.

Perhaps the "dire" creatures, such as Dire Bears, Dire Wolves, Hellhounds and Skinned Hounds, should be classified as undead?

Perhaps "constructs" such as Dwemer Centurions (Centurion Spiders), Golems and Gargoyles should be excluded from these categories? Here again, though, the classification is sketchy for Golems (which are often also called Atronach, a form of Daedra) and Gargoyles (which seem to have almost no lore despite being present as far back as Daggerfall).

Anyway, perhaps this will give you some ideas.

I think I'll lame out and just leave it as no effect in Oblivion Realms. In the future something cooler always could be added.


Here is the problem I am having. Personally I think that azura's star is too overpowered to play with. You can take any rediculously powerful weapon into oblivion and keep it fully charged with no work. Playing without Azura's Star is too hard the other way. Magic weapons are so hard to maintain that its almost not worth the trouble of carrying their weight around (3.5x encumbrance from strength!!!!). Does anyone else feel the same way? Do other people use Azura's Star or force themselves to work with Soul Gems and save the powerful weapons for when you really need it.

Given that I don't use Azura's star, I was trying to think of ways (that wouldn't break compatability completely) to keep these weapons charged.
1) In the final release I will use a custom balancing enchantment cost system (the enchantment cost will not be based on the magic balance system the player is using). I could just make everything cost a lot less. Then it will be easier to keep weapons charged. Maybe by a factor of 4 or something. I could also make that configurable in the ini so people who do use Azura's star won't have Over Powered Weapons.

2) Add a "recharge on kill" ability to SOME weapons. Not to all, just to some that I think it fits with (like "Damage Certain Type Weapons")

3) Change SOME weapons to not require magicka (like Light of Dawn). The "Damage Certain Type Weapons" and the "Blademaster" type weapons make sense. Their effects can be reduced a bit, but they will never need recharge.

I think all three of these could work and I can think of advantages/disadvantages of each of them. Anyone else have ideas?



I'm going to have to take a limited view here I think. I want these weapons to be playable in Vanilla so I can't use MMM or OOO resources in the scripts. This limits me to checking things like Creature Type (Undead, Deadra, Creature), Default Races (For Dremora) or Factions(and only default factions) for NPCs (Zombies Races, Seducers, ect)
If anyone knows a way around this without release different scripts with the FCOM version, I would love to hear about it.


-dan

I forgot two Points . . .

Option #4 for Weapon Mana Cost
Add Spells and/or Enchantments that the player can use to restore Weapon Magicka.

Something like . . . .
Lesser Restore that restores (Destruction + Restoration)/20 points per second for 10 seconds ot until you attack
Medium Restore - restores (Destruction + Restoration)/15 points per second for 20 seconds ot until you attack
Greater Restore - restores (Destruction + Restoration)/10 points per second for 30 seconds ot until you attack

Apparel SoulStone Enchantments that restore X points per second or Y (based on some attribute) points per second.

I'm sure some mod that does this already exists right? anyone know what it is?



Also I STILL NEED MORE IDEAS FOR CUSTOM WEAPONS and where they should go. Right now I'm only at 6 and would like to get that up to 15+.

-dan

Well, I'm probably not a great test case since I use Light of Dawn and Mighty Umbra as my two normal default weapons. Before I had either of those I used the Honorblade of Chorrol. Constantly having to recharge a magical weapon for most fights is just a chore and not really necessary IMO.

However, when things get really rough, I have a custom enchanted blade that's extremely deadly but burns through charges at a terrible rate. Thus, I carry Azura's Star and a healthy supply of soul gems, as well as a custom-enchanted dagger for soul trapping. I need all of them in a really heavy fight. Azura's Star is very useful, but alone it just isn't enough.

Yeah, Azura's Star makes things a lot easier if you're constantly burning up a lot of charges, but it only provides one recharge compared to multiple recharges from my soul gem collection. So, at least for me it doesn't seem overpowered.



1. That would make things a bit too easy for me, but since you're making it configurable maybe it would be ok. I would set the default lower, though. (you can boost it for yourself)

2. That sounds reasonable.

3. Be very careful here if you want to avoid major balance problems with OOO. The only weapons in OOO that do this are unique, VERY hard to obtain, and only do minor/modest enchant damage. Light of Dawn initially only does 4 points fire damage (unless you're fighting a vampire, in which case it's much more deadly).



That sounds really limited. I don't think it will work well with OOO/MMM/Fran/FCOM/etc. Maybe the best thing you could do is to use a token system so that compat patches could easily be made for new creature types, etc. (i.e., using Bash Invent tag to get your tokens safely into overhaul mods).

Good points. At the moment I am looking at 3 or (maybe if i get around to it) 1 & 3. In trying to keep things within balance in general only "unique" weapons will not require mana.

Example - I have leveled "Paladin SoulStones" that have Damage Undead attack (which takes 1/2 the mana of damage health attack). These will all require mana to use.
Only the "SoulStone of Viator Jarol" will not require mana to use. It's much less powerful than the "Grand Soul Stone of the Paladin", but has some unique features and does not require mana. There is only one of these in the game and you have to go on a chase to find it.

Also SoulStones that have primary benifit of (Increase Weapon Speed / Increase Weapon Damage) will not require mana because I don't see those as Magical Enchantments although that is how I am applying them. I'll try to keep from overpowering anything. I really want to have all the scripting/prototypes/complete spreadsheet done in a couple days so critial anolysis can be made.


Ok you lost me here. bash invent tags with tokens? Does that mean that you use bash and some patch.esp to add a token to creatures/npcs/ect and then i can just check for that token to apply the affect?
I'm not sure this is nessecary As far as I can tell the OBSE creature type checks and NPC faction checks work well. I haven't found an Undead in MMM/Warcry/OOO that was not properly recognized. Haven't found a workaround for Seducers yet but other than that the Daedra/Dremora are classified correctly. Haven't thought about a SI specific weapon yet, and probably won't get to it unless someone comes up with a great idea/backstory.

-dan

Massive thanks to GangstaWolf for his numerous excellent ideas and backstories.

Sounds good!



Exactly! Take a look at how MMM Extra Wounding works, for example. Boss-type enemies need to be excluded from the extra wounding effects. This is easy for the ones MMM already knows about, but how do we identify other potential bosses without knowing which mods a user may have? We check to see if they are carrying a "boss token". The FCOM plugins give this token to enemies that need it. In your case you can just build the support mechanism and let other folks worry about making patches to support their new enemies.

Using the Invent or Invent-only tag (like II does) just ensures that any such patches won't have to be continually updated if the enemy stats get changed in a later update (since the patch will only be adding something new to the enemy Inventory).



Well, if you're confident that will cover all the situations you want to support, then perhaps I'm worrying too much about it.

How do you accurately identify the MMM Undead NPCs?

NameIncludes is the OBSE commond I was looking for to do it right.

Using that, I think its possible to get everything I need from the name of the Race and the name of the faction.
For example the undead check looks like this . . .

	let ApplySpecial := 0	if Target.IsCreature		if eval (Target.GetCreatureType == 2)			let ApplySpecial := 1			let Type := 5		endif	else		let TargetRace := Target.GetRace		if ( (NameIncludes "Zombie" TargetRace) || (NameIncludes "Undead" TargetRace) || (NameIncludes "Banshee" TargetRace) )			let ApplySpecial := 1			let Type := 6		endif	endif

This handles all the MMM and Warcry enemies, plus it can be easily expanaded to include content from any number of mods.

Combine that with Faction checks for stuff like Vampires (not Undead, but Assassin weapons don't damage Vampires, jut living NPCs) and its possible to cover all possibilities with having to add anything to those mods.

On other notes, progress is going well. I've got 20 leveled types done and the Specials almost finished. Here's a quick preview from the readme of all the effects and types. Hopefully Ill have the next revision posted today if i don't run into any major problems when testing.

-dan

Again thanks to everyone for the great ideas

from the new readme (in progress)

NEW EFFECTS ADDEDStacking Effect - Effects Stack with each hit until the last one times out.  Then they resetStack Burden - Stack Drain Att (AGIL, END, INT, SPD, STR, WIL)Stack Weakness to MagicNew Scripted EffectsCritical Strike - Percent Chance to do 10% of Enemies Base HPDamage Undead - Deals X Damage to Undead types with chance to release the bound soul (kill the undead unit)Damage Daedra - Deals X Damage to Daedra/Dremora with chance to send them back to Oblivion (if you aren't in oblivion already)Damage Creature - Deals X Damage to Creatures of Type (Creature, Humanoid, or Giant)Damage NPC - Deals X Damage to NPC that are not Undead, Dremora, Golden Saint, Sheogorath, or VampireSever Nexus - Deals X Damage to player Magicka, Damages Target random damage from 0 to XBash - Chance to damage targets fatigue completely (minimum 100).  Blunts have higher Chance that Blade/Bow, 2H have greater chance than 1H, The heavier the greater the chanceBandit - Steals gold from your enemies (not really, it creates gold), with a chance to increase your bounty Black Widows Bite - Chance for female player to Kill male NPC on hitDamage Player Health (on Strike) - Using the weapon damages player's healthDamage Player Fatigue (on Strike) - Using the weapon damages player's FatigueWeapon ModifiersIncrease Weapon/Bow/Blunt/Blade Speed by X percentIncrease Weapon/Bow/Blunt/Blade Damage by X percentMystic Weapon - Does not require magicka chargeWeapon on Equip EffectsAll posible effects that can be added to clothing enchantments can be added to weapons.  Drain and Fortify Attributes/Skills.  Damage or Restore Fatigue/Health/Mana, sheild, whatever.  Only some are used of course.These effects do not use the OnEquip and onUnEquip so there is no problem with OBSE scripts that equip/unequip your items.List of Standard SoulStones - Leveled from Petty to GrandBalrog - TARGET: Lots of Fire Damage USER: fire damageDaedroth - TARGET: Fire Damage, USER: Resist Fire, Weakness ShockGiant - TARGET: Burden, Burden Stack, Stack Drain Speed USER: Damage FatigueMinator - TARGET: Frost Damage, Disintegrate Armor, Bash WEAPON: Increase Blunt DamagePaladin - TARGET: Damage Undead, Fire Damage, Stack Drain Strength, Absorb Blunt, USER: Drain Speed*Rat - TARGET: Stack Drain STR, END, INT, WIL, Stack Weakness to Magic USER: Fort Speed, Drain INTSpider - TARGET: Paralyze, Stack Drain SPD, END, Damage Fatigue   USER: Drain WILWarlock - TARGET: Massive Magic Damage USER: Damage Health on each useNecroMancer - TARGET: Shock Damage, Disintegrate Armor,Disintegrate Weapon, Absorb Willpower, USER: Weak ShockHunter - TARGET: Frost Damage, Damage Creature WEAPON: increase Bow Speed, Increase Bow Damage : User Drain EnduranceSoldier - TARGET: Damage health, Critical Strike, Mystic Weapon WEAPON: increase Weapon Speed, Increase Weapon Damage USER: Drain INT WILSwordMan - TARGET: Damage health, Critical Strike, Mystic Weapon WEAPON: increase Blade Speed, Increase Blade Attack Damage USER: Drain INTBosmer Archer - TARGET: Damage health, Critical Strike, Mystic Weapon WEAPON: increase Bow Speed, Increase Bow Attack Damage USER: Drain EndHead Thumper - TARGET: Damage health, Bash, Mystic Weapon WEAPON: increase Blunt Speed, Increase Blunt Attack Damage USER: Drain SpdBarbarian - TARGET: Frost Damage, Sever Nexus, WEAPON: increase Weapon Speed, USER: Drain WILDruegh - TARGET: Shock Damage, Absorb health User: Resist MagicBloodLust - TARGET: Fire Damage WEAPON: increase Weapon Speed, Increase Weapon Damage, Mystic Weapon USER: Weakness to Weapon, Weakness to Magic, Damage FatigueSeptim Prince - TARGET: Shock Damage, Damage Daedra/Dremora WEAPON: increase Weapon Speed  USER: Fort Per Dam Mag (levels Prince Princess Count Countess Duke)Assassin - TARGET: Damage health, Stack Weakness Magic, Damage NPC WEAPON : Increase Weapon Damage USER: Drain End, sTRTroll - TARGET: Damage Health WEAPON: increase Weapon Speed, USER: Restore Health, Damage Magicka, Weakness FireList of Special Soul StonesSpecial Swordman - Frandar Hunding #%Special NecroMancer - N'Gasta #%*Special Paladin - Viator Jarol #%*Special Septim - Amiel Septim #%*Special NONE - Bandit Thief #%*Special Assassin - the Punisher (good & Evil) #%Special Hunter - Sergius Liore (Imperial) #%Special Head Thumper - Shamob gro-Dragol(Orc) #%Special Bosmer Archer - Distel Camoran (female) #%*special Barbarian - Kjeld the Bloody (nord) #%*Special NPC Damage - The Black Widow #*Special Soldier - Nerevar Indoril (Dunner) Special Warlock - Uradras VianSpecial Bloodlust - ???Questions - 1) Should Critical Strike be changed from 10% of enemy base HP to a factor of your skill in the weapon being used?2) Is bash too overpowered for 2H blunt or underpowered for 1H Sword/Bow?3) Should I add Empty Soul stones and a Capture Spirit spell so you can get your own "Standard Soulstones"?

That should work.

Ooh, that'd be interesting! How about, instead of making it a spell, we add a soul-stone that has a chance of generating new soul-stones based on the enemies you're killing!

I was thinking about a spell similar to soul trap (lets call it "Soul's Powerl" for now) and empty SoulStones (unleveled), If you have an empty SoulStone and the Soul's Power is active when the enemy dies you will get a SoulStone based on the player/target level (with some random offsets to keep it interesting). Of course it would only work on some enemies. To get a SoulStone of XXX Dreugh for example it has to be cast on a Dreugh.

Its kinda hard to do automatically (without the spell), or at least I don't know how to script that.

-dan