Give Feedback
0 of 0
Gives birthsigns to all humanoid actors and has them use their powers against their foes.
This mod beta is an experiment. The player starts a new game choosing a birthsign and recieves powers and bonuses. But hardly anyone else in Cyrodiil has a birthsign. Let's begin to change that with version 0.1.1 Beta and force actors to use birthsign powers against their foes. If it sparks interest the mod's full scope will give Birthsign Powers and missing Race Powers to every actor, evil and good. Is this a good idea? A foolish one? We'll see. This is version 0.1.1 Beta, and a smattering of Birthsign powers are here. From an agragate of scripts, two main actions are carried : 1. Unplayable, invisible birthsign tokens are randomly added to all humanoid actors, evil and good. 2: The tokens force the actors to use their powers against their foes in combat, player or not.
Goal:
To make Bandits, Marauders, etc., and humanoid enemies from other mods more interesting, and to provide amusement and mirth with the discovery of who gets which random birthsign. In testing, I have seen my carefully power-leveled character lose to marauders with the Mage birthsign, found shortswords and daggers poor choice against a foe with the Lover or Serpent birthsigns, discovered Uriel Septim as birthsign: The Thief and Simplicia the Slow as birthsign: The Lord, seen Imperial Legion soldiers use Lover's Kiss against a Khajiit bandits and on a Spriggans. Reports of Serpent Spell, Blood of the North, Mara's Gift, Lover's Kiss, Moonshadow, Mage's Arsenal, and Tower Warden are common.
Notes: My playtesting character is a level 12 archer mage perfectly power-leveled: 100 Intelligence, 90 Willpower, 100 Agility, 75 Speed, 40 Strength, 30 Endurance, 55 Luck. The mod has a wide spell provide invisible tokens to all humans except the player. In development I have watched trial and error lead to small victories. Please take some thought into which situations, quests, cells and which specific actors should not be controlled via script, as that is the beta testing goal. Private testing was done at default difficulty with headphones. For playtesting purposes a silent message will show when an actor is signalled to cast a power, which counts as a lesser power for now. If the actor dies they can use their power again after ~resurrect 1 is called on them. After loading a save with the mod enabled, a short quest message will confirm that the mod is in effect. The player will then recieve the spell Star Witness to use on other actors to learn their birthsigns.
Bugs:
This is version 0.1.1 Beta. I have not yet implemented a plan to limit birthsign use ( to simulate that the actor had already used their power that day ), therefore actors that recieved a birthsign will usually have their power ready. Actors with The Mage birthsign are very powerful atm. For testing purposes, messages are active when a birthsign power is called. This will be removed later.
Compatability:
That's what we're hoping to find out. Only one, single stock object was changed: the magic effect SEFF has had the area hit sound removed. This is a common edit for token users. Unfortunately, it always mistakenly reads as a conflict when other mods want to make the same edit. For this reason, magic mods ( such as Supreme Magicka ) should load before this mod. Mods that uses scripts to mess with actors in combat may not be compatible. In this case I'm making an assumption that working with Deadly Reflex may be a situation in which two mods' scripts fight for control over an npc. Testing with Deadly Reflex is in session. If you want to test this yourself then load all Deadly Reflex mod files after this mod. Finally, this mod should be compatible with mods that add new actors to leveled lists - This includes FCOM, of course.
Birthsigns and the Actors that use them:
The Apprentice - Fortify Magicka 100, Weakness to Magicka 100%. Easy kill with Magicka. Doesn't appear often. Next version I will give them a small arsenal of touch spells.
The Atronach - Fortify Magicka 150, Spell Absorbtion 50%, Stunted Magicka. This will do for now, as Atronachs are annoying enough without my adding more to them. Additional powers suggestions?
The Lady - Fortify Willpower 10, Fortify Endurance 10. I'm taking suggestions on powers for them.
The Lord - Trollkin Curse ( Weakness to Fire 25% ). If the Lord's health goes below 50%, there is a 90% chance per second that they will cast a leveled Blood of the North to keep their life even for 20 seconds. When the Lord's health goes below 25% there is a 90% chance per second that they will cast First Seed's Noble Right, a fatigue sinking spell and knockdown, against their opponent.
The Lover - Keep away, Argonian! The Lover likes to use their Lover's Kiss early when their health is below 90%. If you can't control your distance in a fight and you let the Lover close enough to kiss you, then you should pucker up now and take 15 secs of paralysis. It might freak out some players to hear a kissing sound and be booted to 3rd person but I think it is entertaining. At least there's no tongue and only a 90% chance per second they will use it, just a light smooch that drains the Lover of 150 fatigue. Sorry, but the Lover doesn't sex or race discriminate.
The Mage - Fortify Magicka 50. The Mage gets an arsenal of touch spells. If you must engage them up close, be aware that they will fatigue you, drain weapons skills, absorb, disintegrate weapons, and heal. My power-leveled character did very poorly against them up close.
The Ritual - Mara's Gift ( Restore Health 200 ) will be called when the Ritual's health goes below 45% and the player is less than 2048 units away. Blessed Word ( Turn Undead 30 secs ) will target the nearest attacking undead foe, player summoned or not. The holy power will sound and the undead will burst into flames and flee in terror for 30 seconds while their usurper chases after them. The Ritual may attack the undead or turn their attention to you if you are seen. I must say that I have gone through tears and blood to get this spell working correctly. Here is why: The player's summon will always enter combat with the player's foe, no matter how low aggression or confidence is set or what AddScriptPackage was used. Even calling StopCombatAlarm or StartCombat Player every frame produced a funny, humping motion while the undead summon kept reentering combat with the player's foe. At one point, I had the undead actually yield to the Ritual, who accepted it, and called StartCombat Player. My summon moved toward me but soon doubled back to once again attack its usurper. This is why you should value all your summons, because of their loyalty! I digress, Both Mara's Gift and Blessed Word have a 90% chance per second to be cast when called by the script.
The Serpent - The Serpent Spell has a 90% chance per second to cast when called. It is a forked spell, having 2 uses but only one opportunity to cast. It can DispelAllSpells on the caster or cast a slow but lethal, leveled Damage Health on Touch on its victim. If you find a Serpent early you can force them to waste their spell on defense. This can be done by casting the following spells on them: Poison, Damage Health, Drain Health, Burden, Calm, Demoralize, Silence, Frenzy, Control Human, or Soul Trap.
The Shadow - You better watch your back! If you don't finish them off while they are below 30% health, the Shadow will use Moonshadow to escape, and come back for you soon with their poison and chameleon enchanted birthsign.
The Steed - Fortify Speed 20. Powers Suggestions?
The Thief - Agility 10, Speed 10, Luck 10. If you've killed a Thief birthsign and find money on them, be aware that this is YOUR money, previously taken with the RemoveItemNS function. It is possible for the Thief to take money from other actors if they have at least 100 gold on them.
The Tower - There is a 90% chance per second when the Tower's health goes below 85% that the Tower will cast Tower Warden, a leveled Reflect Damage for 120 secs. I felt the need to buff it, even with its long duration.
The Warrior - Strength 10, Endurance 10. Suggested powers?
Playtesting:
Just enter dungeons and quests with humanoid actors. use ~tai to isolate actors and observe how they use their powers against thier foes. Use resurrect 1 on dead actors to reset them and test them in a variety of conditions ( with torches, in oblivion, in Fort Nikel ). See how the mod affects companions. Post feedback and opinions on which ideas are good and which are not. The playtesting goal is to find which actors and situations should be exempt from getting birtsigns, and adapting the mod in accordance with the findings. For example: Mankar Cameron should not get the Mage birthsign because he has his own birthsign.
Requirements:
Oblivion Patched to 1.2.0416
Oblivion Script Extender v0017b or higher
http://obse.silverlock.org/
Recommended:
Unofficial Oblivion Patch 3.2.0
Oblivion Mod Manager
Installation:
1. Extract contents to temporary folder
2. Move Enemy Actors Use Powers 0.1.1.esp to the Data Folder
3. Move Sound folder to Data folder and overwrite if necessary
4. Use Oblivion Mod Manager or OblivionLauncher to checkmark Enemy Actors Use Powers 0.1.1.esp
5. Use obse_loader.exe to launch the game
6. Playtest
Uninstallation:
1. Uncheck the mod and make a new save with the mod deactivated.
2. Delete Enemy Actors Use Powers 0.1.1.esp and delete the Enemy Actors Use Powers folder from Data\Sound\fx folder.
Updating:
This is version 0.1.1 Beta, but for future reference: never ever update a mod by overwriting the .esp file while it is checkedmarked and then play the game and save it.
Suggestions:
I am open to suggestions and constructive criticism. Whether you think a power is too weak or triggers too early or too late or should have a lower GetDistance check, or if the sound effect is not appropriate, and which situations, characters, and cells should be immune or receive exemption, whether you think 90 seconds is enough for a marker rat, etc. Suggest powers for The Apprentice, The Atronach, The Steed, The Lady, and The Warrior. But most important is which actors and situations should be exempt from getting birthsigns.
Credits:
33448__dobroide__20070407.slaughter.05 by dobroide at
is the best source for sound effects that I know of. It requires an account, but that is free.
ChangeLog
01-23-2010
Uploaded version 0.1 Beta
*Actors get random birthsigns and powers
*The Lord script enabled
*The Lover script enabled
*The Mage script enabled
*The Ritual script enabled
*The Shadow script enabled
*The Thief script enabled
*The Tower script enabled
01-29-210
version 0.1 Beta
*EAUP Fix Remove Abilities spell no longer available
*Birthsign Ring Tokens equip on actor OnAdd and onload
*Serpent birthsign uses one ring token instead of two
This mod beta is an experiment. The player starts a new game choosing a birthsign and recieves powers and bonuses. But hardly anyone else in Cyrodiil has a birthsign. Let's begin to change that with version 0.1.1 Beta and force actors to use birthsign powers against their foes. If it sparks interest the mod's full scope will give Birthsign Powers and missing Race Powers to every actor, evil and good. Is this a good idea? A foolish one? We'll see. This is version 0.1.1 Beta, and a smattering of Birthsign powers are here. From an agragate of scripts, two main actions are carried : 1. Unplayable, invisible birthsign tokens are randomly added to all humanoid actors, evil and good. 2: The tokens force the actors to use their powers against their foes in combat, player or not.
Goal:
To make Bandits, Marauders, etc., and humanoid enemies from other mods more interesting, and to provide amusement and mirth with the discovery of who gets which random birthsign. In testing, I have seen my carefully power-leveled character lose to marauders with the Mage birthsign, found shortswords and daggers poor choice against a foe with the Lover or Serpent birthsigns, discovered Uriel Septim as birthsign: The Thief and Simplicia the Slow as birthsign: The Lord, seen Imperial Legion soldiers use Lover's Kiss against a Khajiit bandits and on a Spriggans. Reports of Serpent Spell, Blood of the North, Mara's Gift, Lover's Kiss, Moonshadow, Mage's Arsenal, and Tower Warden are common.
Notes: My playtesting character is a level 12 archer mage perfectly power-leveled: 100 Intelligence, 90 Willpower, 100 Agility, 75 Speed, 40 Strength, 30 Endurance, 55 Luck. The mod has a wide spell provide invisible tokens to all humans except the player. In development I have watched trial and error lead to small victories. Please take some thought into which situations, quests, cells and which specific actors should not be controlled via script, as that is the beta testing goal. Private testing was done at default difficulty with headphones. For playtesting purposes a silent message will show when an actor is signalled to cast a power, which counts as a lesser power for now. If the actor dies they can use their power again after ~resurrect 1 is called on them. After loading a save with the mod enabled, a short quest message will confirm that the mod is in effect. The player will then recieve the spell Star Witness to use on other actors to learn their birthsigns.
Bugs:
This is version 0.1.1 Beta. I have not yet implemented a plan to limit birthsign use ( to simulate that the actor had already used their power that day ), therefore actors that recieved a birthsign will usually have their power ready. Actors with The Mage birthsign are very powerful atm. For testing purposes, messages are active when a birthsign power is called. This will be removed later.
Compatability:
That's what we're hoping to find out. Only one, single stock object was changed: the magic effect SEFF has had the area hit sound removed. This is a common edit for token users. Unfortunately, it always mistakenly reads as a conflict when other mods want to make the same edit. For this reason, magic mods ( such as Supreme Magicka ) should load before this mod. Mods that uses scripts to mess with actors in combat may not be compatible. In this case I'm making an assumption that working with Deadly Reflex may be a situation in which two mods' scripts fight for control over an npc. Testing with Deadly Reflex is in session. If you want to test this yourself then load all Deadly Reflex mod files after this mod. Finally, this mod should be compatible with mods that add new actors to leveled lists - This includes FCOM, of course.
Birthsigns and the Actors that use them:
The Apprentice - Fortify Magicka 100, Weakness to Magicka 100%. Easy kill with Magicka. Doesn't appear often. Next version I will give them a small arsenal of touch spells.
The Atronach - Fortify Magicka 150, Spell Absorbtion 50%, Stunted Magicka. This will do for now, as Atronachs are annoying enough without my adding more to them. Additional powers suggestions?
The Lady - Fortify Willpower 10, Fortify Endurance 10. I'm taking suggestions on powers for them.
The Lord - Trollkin Curse ( Weakness to Fire 25% ). If the Lord's health goes below 50%, there is a 90% chance per second that they will cast a leveled Blood of the North to keep their life even for 20 seconds. When the Lord's health goes below 25% there is a 90% chance per second that they will cast First Seed's Noble Right, a fatigue sinking spell and knockdown, against their opponent.
The Lover - Keep away, Argonian! The Lover likes to use their Lover's Kiss early when their health is below 90%. If you can't control your distance in a fight and you let the Lover close enough to kiss you, then you should pucker up now and take 15 secs of paralysis. It might freak out some players to hear a kissing sound and be booted to 3rd person but I think it is entertaining. At least there's no tongue and only a 90% chance per second they will use it, just a light smooch that drains the Lover of 150 fatigue. Sorry, but the Lover doesn't sex or race discriminate.
The Mage - Fortify Magicka 50. The Mage gets an arsenal of touch spells. If you must engage them up close, be aware that they will fatigue you, drain weapons skills, absorb, disintegrate weapons, and heal. My power-leveled character did very poorly against them up close.
The Ritual - Mara's Gift ( Restore Health 200 ) will be called when the Ritual's health goes below 45% and the player is less than 2048 units away. Blessed Word ( Turn Undead 30 secs ) will target the nearest attacking undead foe, player summoned or not. The holy power will sound and the undead will burst into flames and flee in terror for 30 seconds while their usurper chases after them. The Ritual may attack the undead or turn their attention to you if you are seen. I must say that I have gone through tears and blood to get this spell working correctly. Here is why: The player's summon will always enter combat with the player's foe, no matter how low aggression or confidence is set or what AddScriptPackage was used. Even calling StopCombatAlarm or StartCombat Player every frame produced a funny, humping motion while the undead summon kept reentering combat with the player's foe. At one point, I had the undead actually yield to the Ritual, who accepted it, and called StartCombat Player. My summon moved toward me but soon doubled back to once again attack its usurper. This is why you should value all your summons, because of their loyalty! I digress, Both Mara's Gift and Blessed Word have a 90% chance per second to be cast when called by the script.
The Serpent - The Serpent Spell has a 90% chance per second to cast when called. It is a forked spell, having 2 uses but only one opportunity to cast. It can DispelAllSpells on the caster or cast a slow but lethal, leveled Damage Health on Touch on its victim. If you find a Serpent early you can force them to waste their spell on defense. This can be done by casting the following spells on them: Poison, Damage Health, Drain Health, Burden, Calm, Demoralize, Silence, Frenzy, Control Human, or Soul Trap.
The Shadow - You better watch your back! If you don't finish them off while they are below 30% health, the Shadow will use Moonshadow to escape, and come back for you soon with their poison and chameleon enchanted birthsign.
The Steed - Fortify Speed 20. Powers Suggestions?
The Thief - Agility 10, Speed 10, Luck 10. If you've killed a Thief birthsign and find money on them, be aware that this is YOUR money, previously taken with the RemoveItemNS function. It is possible for the Thief to take money from other actors if they have at least 100 gold on them.
The Tower - There is a 90% chance per second when the Tower's health goes below 85% that the Tower will cast Tower Warden, a leveled Reflect Damage for 120 secs. I felt the need to buff it, even with its long duration.
The Warrior - Strength 10, Endurance 10. Suggested powers?
Playtesting:
Just enter dungeons and quests with humanoid actors. use ~tai to isolate actors and observe how they use their powers against thier foes. Use resurrect 1 on dead actors to reset them and test them in a variety of conditions ( with torches, in oblivion, in Fort Nikel ). See how the mod affects companions. Post feedback and opinions on which ideas are good and which are not. The playtesting goal is to find which actors and situations should be exempt from getting birtsigns, and adapting the mod in accordance with the findings. For example: Mankar Cameron should not get the Mage birthsign because he has his own birthsign.
Requirements:
Oblivion Patched to 1.2.0416
Oblivion Script Extender v0017b or higher
http://obse.silverlock.org/
Recommended:
Unofficial Oblivion Patch 3.2.0
Oblivion Mod Manager
Installation:
1. Extract contents to temporary folder
2. Move Enemy Actors Use Powers 0.1.1.esp to the Data Folder
3. Move Sound folder to Data folder and overwrite if necessary
4. Use Oblivion Mod Manager or OblivionLauncher to checkmark Enemy Actors Use Powers 0.1.1.esp
5. Use obse_loader.exe to launch the game
6. Playtest
Uninstallation:
1. Uncheck the mod and make a new save with the mod deactivated.
2. Delete Enemy Actors Use Powers 0.1.1.esp and delete the Enemy Actors Use Powers folder from Data\Sound\fx folder.
Updating:
This is version 0.1.1 Beta, but for future reference: never ever update a mod by overwriting the .esp file while it is checkedmarked and then play the game and save it.
Suggestions:
I am open to suggestions and constructive criticism. Whether you think a power is too weak or triggers too early or too late or should have a lower GetDistance check, or if the sound effect is not appropriate, and which situations, characters, and cells should be immune or receive exemption, whether you think 90 seconds is enough for a marker rat, etc. Suggest powers for The Apprentice, The Atronach, The Steed, The Lady, and The Warrior. But most important is which actors and situations should be exempt from getting birthsigns.
Credits:
33448__dobroide__20070407.slaughter.05 by dobroide at
is the best source for sound effects that I know of. It requires an account, but that is free.
ChangeLog
01-23-2010
Uploaded version 0.1 Beta
*Actors get random birthsigns and powers
*The Lord script enabled
*The Lover script enabled
*The Mage script enabled
*The Ritual script enabled
*The Shadow script enabled
*The Thief script enabled
*The Tower script enabled
01-29-210
version 0.1 Beta
*EAUP Fix Remove Abilities spell no longer available
*Birthsign Ring Tokens equip on actor OnAdd and onload
*Serpent birthsign uses one ring token instead of two