Skyrim

File information

Last updated

Original upload

Created by

Sepherose

Uploaded by

Sepherose

Virus scan

Some files not scanned

About this mod

Adding some spice to the look of dragons, dynamically while you play.

Requirements
Permissions and credits
Changelogs

Heya Muhammet.
The Dragon Engine

Are you tired of seeing the same few dragons over and over again? They all look the same after a while and it gets... well... boring.
I felt that way and while poking around in the CK I realized that RaceMenu's NIOverride could be used to great effect in fixing this. All of the dragons you see in the screenshots were spawned in using the same console code, at the same time.
Users of TDG: Please toss screenshots up. I couldn't possibly see all of the combinations! 


Brodual did a review! Thank you for that! Huge Thanks!


How it works
A script fires when a dragon spawns and picks up to three tintmasks from 14 possible. A color range is assigned in the script, and each of these tintmasks randomly pick a color within that range. This leads to a nice blending of color and markings overall, and a HUGE amount of variation in visuals.
This mod will not affect unique and specific dragons, I.E. Parthurnaax and the like.It doesn't change their stats or abilities (yet).
Interesting note: According to the very friendly and helpful PlagueHush (he livestreams Skyrim Mondays and Tuesdays, check him out here if you like. Good atmosphere :D), there are a possible 398,664,000 possible variations. I'm not too certain, but I'll go with it. For those that think that may be wrong, here's the numbers for the base mod: 14 tintmasks, up to 4 of them will be active on any dragon affected, 360 hue variations, 5 saturation variations, 5 brightness variations, and 113 alpha value variations. Plus the 7 dragons in the base game as there is a possibility of 0 tintmasks.

News
I have a medical concern currently IRL that I will not know more about until later this month. I apologize for the lack of updates as of late, and to users of Bellyache's, I am very very sorry that the compatibility patch has not come out yet. I haven't been able to focus very well as of late and things are grinding along. Although during the conversation about permission for the patch, Wrig and I came to a conclusion about updating the original mod. I have been working on that as well, but there is a small snag (may have figured out a fix, unsure), but when the update to Bellyache's New Dragons is out, the patch will not be needed from here as Wrig's mod will be set up to be compatible out of the box (but it will not require TDE). I hope that explains a few things, thank you for patience.

Requirements
  • Skyrim
  • SKSE
  • Racemenu 3.0 or higher

Installation
Download and install with your preferred mod manager. Should be installed after any other dragon mods. Run LOOT and rebuild patches as usual.
For Deadly Dragons: download the DD patch under optional and install after you've installed DD and TDE first.

Updating
The entire way this mod works was changed with update 0.2b. You will need to uninstall any previous versions and do a clean save indoors and away from dragons before installing this version.

Compatibility
Fully compatible with any mod out there, even ones that add new dragons. If they don't have tintmasking info, the mod "fails gracefully" and simply won't apply anything to them. That's how it SHOULD work at any rate. If you find crashes or weirdness after installing this mod, let me know in the bug reports section and I'll try to fix it.Should work fine with any retextures that use the vanilla filestructure. If you find that it doesn't, please give me a detailed bug report on it!

Intercompatibility
Deadly Dragons has been completed. Download under optional files!
Nothing else yet.

What this means is the mod's ability to tintmask other another mod's dragons, such as DD or the Jills, or Bellyaches, or any other mod that adds new dragons. The cool part? I can easily make the needed packs and they won't require anything weird to get working, just install them after installing the base file and you will be golden. :D

Future Plans
  • Semi-random name generator for all generic dragons based on the dragon language with certain rules. A step further on this, again only if possible, all of the potential dragon words that make up the names (three of them for any one dragon) will carry in innate passive ability that gets applied on spawn.
  • Random size scale within the range of 0.95-1.05 (with 1 being the basic) applied on spawn.
  • New voices applied on spawn with rules based on certain rules(?).

In the Pipe
  • At least (!!!) five A whole boatload of base texture variations per dragon from the vanilla game+DLC. This will sadly break compatibility with texture replacers to a degree, mainly that you will get a very different look with the variants VS the base texture. It will also require the DG and DB, although I may also upload versions that don't need them.
  • If I can find the help (someone that knows how to work with NIF files and create armor), I want to add a load of little detail bits that would dramatically increase variations. If anyone with the skills is interested, shoot me a private message. If anyone knows someone that has the skills, spread the word if you are so inclined.

Credits
  • Dajay42: Thank you very much for fixing the log spam issue I caused, and allowing me to bundle it with future releases!
  • Jaxonz: The properly working version of TDE would not have been realized without Jaxonz help. I also learned to understand scripting a bit better thanks to Jaxonz being extremely personable and helpful!
  • Sevencardz: He helped me to pin down all of the things I would like to really achieve with this mod, and encouraged me through the beginning steps. Thank you immensely Sevencardz.
  • expired6978: Firstly, for RaceMenu and NIOverride, without either this could not have been done. Secondly, and even more importantly for the script in the mod that assigns tint masks and coloring. I myself can't even get the basic papyrus tutorial to work for me, whereas Expired is a wizard with it. He also fixed my first broken ESP so I could see what I had done wrong. THANK YOU!
  • Myself: I made the tintmasks and made sure that the script was attached to everything it needed to be attached to. Other than that I just came up with the basic idea.
  • Michael and Kayla for putting up with me rambling at odd hours about what I was doing with my mod, or what I needed to do, or putting myself down, then telling me to suck it up and just do it because I could. :D
  • My family for listening to me ramble on excitedly. And even moreso my daughter who at six years old is dead set on helping me make tintmasks, one of which I cleaned up and actually added because I liked the idea of the color placement.