Dec 6th, 2022 I haven't been active with Oblivion since 2018, but I'm glad to see that people are still using enjoying the mod even to this day! I'm happy I could make your Oblivion experience better!
---------------------------------------------------- May 20th, 2018 - Version 1.5 is out!
Oh boy oh boy an actual update! Racial Spells, Weird Spells, New Quirks, and some misc stuff. See description for actual changes. Also added two images of some new stuff.
I have a question though: how does it works actually? It distributes signs and spells on load of cell or per every frame? I ask because I have a heavy-modded setup of Oblivion so it's complicated to make it optimised :D
Ah the main script runs in real time. It cycle checks through the current NPCs in the area one at a time, but I remember it being a bit slow at finding NPCs (especially if there's a lot of NPCs in the area), so the function I used prolly doesn't check super often. I never noticed a performance hit with it though even with my modded setup many years ago.
The ini file is checked and updated on load, so you can change it mid-game. It's not retroactive though, so any NPCs that the mod already affected won't get changed again. (With the exception of the Riot Mode toggle I think? That one ignores the initialization check.)
Fantastic mod that I've been using for years. Totally configurable, extremely recommended! Although I've never been quite sure where to place it for best effect: above or below the bash patch. It's really difficult to tell whether it's having the effects I set in the ini. I have almost every option turned on for stronger npcs, including uncapped levels & regenerating health. Thanks to all the buffs, npcs put up a very powerful fight at first, BUT then when resurrected or reviving from unconsciousness, they go down again way too easily with just a few hits. This never changes no matter who the npc is or how powerful. I thought their health is constantly regenerating, but it doesn't seem to. Once they go down, they're nearly helpless after that. I can understand a beaten npc being weaker after getting up, but not to the point of having virtually no defense or health at all, and especially not after being resurrected via the console, which should put the npc back in top form.
So maybe the health regeneration should be tweaked to be applied both *during* and *outside* of battle. Or if possible, a new tweak that auto-replenishes an npc who goes down.
Glad you like it! I dunno if you're still doing modded runs anymore, but I can try to fill in some technical details. I haven't touched the modding tools in years so things might be a bit hazy.
For the bashed patch/load order, I don't think load order matters (although good practice is to have the bashed patch last. I always had the bashed patch last). Everything this mod does is run in real time using a script and nothing gets merged or anything, which is why I don't think the patch really affects it. I have it that way so it can be as compatible as possible with any mod order.
For weak resurrected NPCs (especially resurrecting via console), I think I know what's happening. So like, this mod cycles through NPCs in the general area and then checks if they've been given the buffs or not. If no buff, give buffs. If dead, remove buffs. It's set up like that because of how NPCs get resurrected. If I don't "reset" them, resurrected NPCs would keep old buffs and it would stack with new buffs. I had to clear the buffs so they'd rerandomize properly. Anyways, the method I use is kinda slow and takes a few seconds in my experience to "detect" the NPC, and it takes longer if there's many NPCs. So when someone gets resurrected, they'll be regular vanilla strength until the mod finds them again. So if you're moving really quickly, sniping from super far away, or fighting as soon as you resurrect them, they'll go down fast. If they get resurrected via the 1-UP quirk, they don't get reset immediately, but they get a major negative defense debuff. It was a -100% weapon/magic resist, so you deal 2x damage. They should have full health though.
For health regeneration, all the mod adds is a flat HP regeneration ability to the NPC/creature. Some creatures like Trolls in vanilla do this (2 HP per second for reference). On normal, the mod gives a version that heals 1 HP per second (2 HP on hard). Looking back, a scripted % system would've been better, but oh well. I remember putting warnings about regen and disabling it by default because at low levels, the healing would overpower you if your character wasn't really built for combat or was too weak. And I didn't want that.
Late game with vanilla power weapons, vanilla NPCs can get pretty tanky and I wanted to avoid making things too strong. I balanced more for vanilla flavor and variance since this mod stacks with any other difficulty mod or overhaul. Think of this mod as more of a "seasoning" you use for the main course "difficulty/overhaul" mods.
After more experimentation, I don't think this mod is the cause of overly weak resurrected or unconscious NPCs. No matter where I put it in the order, there's no change with that issue. I even tried disabling it, still the same. It's either another mod causing that, or simply the way the vanilla game is. It's pretty irritating: an npc will fight normally, but when they're rendered unconscious and then get back up, they can be knocked out again almost instantly with merely a couple hits. It's as though they awaken with 10 or so HP instead of the full amount. This behavior stays the same even with this mod's health regen enabled.
I wanted to return to Oblivion after awhile and added this to my mod list. Loving it so far, I do have a strange issue though which from what I can tell is a problem with the Supreme Magicka mod. Npc's and Creatures that get the stat buff or enabling the creature defense buffs as well seem to cause a spell effect to constantly be casted even when the enemies/allies are dead on the floor which with my enb is blinding constantly. I couldn't find a setting in supreme magicka or this mod to fix it. Don't know if a patch would be possible but just thought I'd throw it out there. Disabling the stat buffs and the creature defense buff obviously gets rid of it but then my enemies are tissue paper lol. Wonderful mod regardless!
Welcome back to the jaws of Oblivion! Sorry to hear about that blinding issue tho.
I'm guessing it might just be an unintended side effect with the ENB handling magic effects from either this mod or Supreme Magicka or a combo of both. I don't use ENBs so I'm just guessing it's highlighting magic effects.
The defense buffs from this mod are passive permanent magic effects, which I'm guessing are being highlighted. They count as an "ability" so they're always in effect and can't be dispelled. Some vanilla creatures have this: Trolls having "Health Regen", Daedra having "Weakness to Shock", Clannfears having permanent "Damage Reflect", etc so I just made buffs off that system.
I also know Supreme Magicka adds its own effects for certain spells like Fire/Frost/Shock Shield. I used it myself with my old playthroughs and it never had problems alongside this mod, but I haven't played since 2018. Maybe it's adding visual effects for spell types that the vanilla game doesn't really have passives for when combined with the ENB?
TLDR: I don't think I can stop the blinding effects due to how Oblivion handles passive magic abilities. If you really have to, you could bump up the difficulty slider just a tiny bit to substitute for turning off the defense buffs, but keep the active ability/spells enabled in the ini.
This adds a lot to the game, which makes the experience feel like an entirely new game. Fights are much more unpredictable and challenging and it feels like this is something that should've been in the game to begin with. It feels much more balanced having NPC's use birthsigns instead of the player being the only one with a sign.
It's also an extra fun playthrough when companions get good birthsigns. This playthrough Vilja and Mazoga the Orc were both born under Atronach, makes them far more powerful
The only issue I've had, I came across very recently:
"Enable weapons for non-leveled list NPCs" gave a weapon to Sheogorath which he equipped instead of his staff and made his animations kinda screwy. Resurrecting him with the console to try to get rid of it crashed the game, removing the added weapon with console also crashed the game lol.
Other than that I haven't had a single issue using this
Ah goodness. If it's just a cosmetic issue, just assume its part of the madness of the Shivering Isles messing with your mind~ But oof sorry about that.
A workaround would be to temporarily disable the "Enable weapons for non-leveled list NPCs" before you meet Sheogorath. After you do meet him, he'll get marked by the mod and will be ignored in the future, and then you can save + quit. You can then re-enable NPC weapons in the config and then load up your save. The config options will update whenever a save game is loaded, so all future NPCs will get a weapon from the mod again like normal.
Test out the mod and love the randomness so far. To test out the mod, at level 1, I attacked a guard. Some NPCs summon a frost atronach and another went invisible for a few seconds. Fun stuff. Anyways, 1 idea for more chaos: NPCs casting Dispel
Also maybe possible support for NPCs to cast spells from popular magic mods like Supreme Magicka or LAME?
Hmm dispel... that could make things spicy! If I don't run into any AI complications I could try putting it in for a future update. Haven't really touched Oblivion since the last update to this mod tho.
Also, I don't know how to do cross-mod compatibility stuff, sorry!
39 comments
I haven't been active with Oblivion since 2018, but I'm glad to see that people are still using enjoying the mod even to this day! I'm happy I could make your Oblivion experience better!
----------------------------------------------------
May 20th, 2018 - Version 1.5 is out!
Oh boy oh boy an actual update! Racial Spells, Weird Spells, New Quirks, and some misc stuff. See description for actual changes.
Also added two images of some new stuff.
If you run into any problems please let me know.
I have a question though: how does it works actually? It distributes signs and spells on load of cell or per every frame? I ask because I have a heavy-modded setup of Oblivion so it's complicated to make it optimised :D
Ah the main script runs in real time. It cycle checks through the current NPCs in the area one at a time, but I remember it being a bit slow at finding NPCs (especially if there's a lot of NPCs in the area), so the function I used prolly doesn't check super often. I never noticed a performance hit with it though even with my modded setup many years ago.
The ini file is checked and updated on load, so you can change it mid-game. It's not retroactive though, so any NPCs that the mod already affected won't get changed again. (With the exception of the Riot Mode toggle I think? That one ignores the initialization check.)
Will try it out now.
Although I've never been quite sure where to place it for best effect: above or below the bash patch. It's really difficult to tell whether it's having the effects I set in the ini. I have almost every option turned on for stronger npcs, including uncapped levels & regenerating health. Thanks to all the buffs, npcs put up a very powerful fight at first, BUT then when resurrected or reviving from unconsciousness, they go down again way too easily with just a few hits. This never changes no matter who the npc is or how powerful. I thought their health is constantly regenerating, but it doesn't seem to. Once they go down, they're nearly helpless after that. I can understand a beaten npc being weaker after getting up, but not to the point of having virtually no defense or health at all, and especially not after being resurrected via the console, which should put the npc back in top form.
So maybe the health regeneration should be tweaked to be applied both *during* and *outside* of battle. Or if possible, a new tweak that auto-replenishes an npc who goes down.
For the bashed patch/load order, I don't think load order matters (although good practice is to have the bashed patch last. I always had the bashed patch last). Everything this mod does is run in real time using a script and nothing gets merged or anything, which is why I don't think the patch really affects it. I have it that way so it can be as compatible as possible with any mod order.
For weak resurrected NPCs (especially resurrecting via console), I think I know what's happening. So like, this mod cycles through NPCs in the general area and then checks if they've been given the buffs or not. If no buff, give buffs. If dead, remove buffs. It's set up like that because of how NPCs get resurrected. If I don't "reset" them, resurrected NPCs would keep old buffs and it would stack with new buffs. I had to clear the buffs so they'd rerandomize properly.
Anyways, the method I use is kinda slow and takes a few seconds in my experience to "detect" the NPC, and it takes longer if there's many NPCs. So when someone gets resurrected, they'll be regular vanilla strength until the mod finds them again. So if you're moving really quickly, sniping from super far away, or fighting as soon as you resurrect them, they'll go down fast.
If they get resurrected via the 1-UP quirk, they don't get reset immediately, but they get a major negative defense debuff. It was a -100% weapon/magic resist, so you deal 2x damage. They should have full health though.
For health regeneration, all the mod adds is a flat HP regeneration ability to the NPC/creature. Some creatures like Trolls in vanilla do this (2 HP per second for reference). On normal, the mod gives a version that heals 1 HP per second (2 HP on hard). Looking back, a scripted % system would've been better, but oh well. I remember putting warnings about regen and disabling it by default because at low levels, the healing would overpower you if your character wasn't really built for combat or was too weak. And I didn't want that.
Late game with vanilla power weapons, vanilla NPCs can get pretty tanky and I wanted to avoid making things too strong. I balanced more for vanilla flavor and variance since this mod stacks with any other difficulty mod or overhaul. Think of this mod as more of a "seasoning" you use for the main course "difficulty/overhaul" mods.
I'm guessing it might just be an unintended side effect with the ENB handling magic effects from either this mod or Supreme Magicka or a combo of both. I don't use ENBs so I'm just guessing it's highlighting magic effects.
The defense buffs from this mod are passive permanent magic effects, which I'm guessing are being highlighted. They count as an "ability" so they're always in effect and can't be dispelled. Some vanilla creatures have this: Trolls having "Health Regen", Daedra having "Weakness to Shock", Clannfears having permanent "Damage Reflect", etc so I just made buffs off that system.
I also know Supreme Magicka adds its own effects for certain spells like Fire/Frost/Shock Shield. I used it myself with my old playthroughs and it never had problems alongside this mod, but I haven't played since 2018. Maybe it's adding visual effects for spell types that the vanilla game doesn't really have passives for when combined with the ENB?
TLDR: I don't think I can stop the blinding effects due to how Oblivion handles passive magic abilities. If you really have to, you could bump up the difficulty slider just a tiny bit to substitute for turning off the defense buffs, but keep the active ability/spells enabled in the ini.
It's also an extra fun playthrough when companions get good birthsigns. This playthrough Vilja and Mazoga the Orc were both born under Atronach, makes them far more powerful
"Enable weapons for non-leveled list NPCs" gave a weapon to Sheogorath which he equipped instead of his staff and made his animations kinda screwy. Resurrecting him with the console to try to get rid of it crashed the game, removing the added weapon with console also crashed the game lol.
Other than that I haven't had a single issue using this
But oof sorry about that.
A workaround would be to temporarily disable the "Enable weapons for non-leveled list NPCs" before you meet Sheogorath. After you do meet him, he'll get marked by the mod and will be ignored in the future, and then you can save + quit. You can then re-enable NPC weapons in the config and then load up your save. The config options will update whenever a save game is loaded, so all future NPCs will get a weapon from the mod again like normal.
Anyways, 1 idea for more chaos: NPCs casting Dispel
Also maybe possible support for NPCs to cast spells from popular magic mods like Supreme Magicka or LAME?
Also, I don't know how to do cross-mod compatibility stuff, sorry!