In my mod I am adding several "buffs" and "debuffs" to the player for a set amount of time. However, through the course of the duration, if they fufill a certain condition, they increase the power of said buffs and "tack on" the original duration to the remaining duration. That is to say, the duration accumulates as you "upgrade" the buffs.

Because you cannot do this with traditional spellmaking (to my knowledge anyways...), I have created a custom script that does that for me. It works perfectly and I have no issues. However, as of right now, I have absolutely no way to tell the player how much time is remaining on the buffs/debuffs. Does anyone have any ideas on the best way to do this? I can acquire the "remaining duration" through my quest variables on the fly, but I really don't know how to make this non-intrusive on the Player. I really wish I could add a spell with a custom duration value, as that would solve everything, but alas, this does not seem possible.

I really don't want to spam notifications or messageboxes at the user, and I'd prefer not to create another "spell" to poll the duration. I don't want to force the player to do anything to acquire the information that should just be readily available within the UI. A last resort idea I'm thinking of is just making a "misc item" that tells the Player once he equips it, but even that is more work for them than it should be. Any help appreciated, thanks.

Yeah ... Print-to-Screen got lost somewhere along the way ...

1. Can you script changes to Quest Titles and/or Objectives? (CK shut) Those flashed up messages would be OK if you could sub in a variable to them
2. Record your Voice saying numbers as seperate voice files. Chain together enough "Say" script commands (or whatever it is, wiki shut too) to speak it to the player. (Draft in the bloke who does Voice-Acting for Stephen Hawkins )
3. Sorry; I don't have an immediate, sensible answer ... (I'll look tomorrow if no one else does, though)

(I know ... I am bed, sorry )

Both good ideas. Have a quest that you can switch stages back and forth on for the start and finish of the effect, then during the effect play some kind of low key unobtrusive sound to indicate the remaining length of the effect. e.g. Shorten the interval between sounds as the effect starts to wear off.

I would probably use messages. I wouldn't spam them though. Pop them when either the buff is about to expire, has expired, or gets extended

Well you can always use Visual Effects to catch there attention instead of someone having to read what happen either way both are good. I am using Visual Effects for mine mixture of custom spell sounds

I was gonna say this. Add a screen effect(s) that represents some kind of ascension.

EDIT: I wonder if there's a way to create new FX that display numbers.

Can you create a quest item and set its description?

Thanks for the replies guys. The FX ideas are interesting, but they aren't necessarily "distinctive" enough in my opinion.

The buffs I will be adding are rather..."strong" effects. After the effects "time-out", the player is then given an equally strong set of debuffs. It's important to give the player a good idea of how much "time" is left because they may want to change their course of action based on how much time they have remaining.

Perhaps I'll just display a dialogue every minute or something...
I lol'd a bit on the voice suggestion. Indeed, unobtrusive, but my voice is hardly suited for such a thing.


I do not know. Even if I could do this, would I be able to change the name of the description at will afterwards?

for something similar i created a lesser power with 0 cast time that displays a message(s) when activated.
The player just needs to favorite the power and then has very quick access to it