[RELz] Alchemy Advanced v1_0 : IV

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 11:41 am

This is the 'official' release version. Any bug reports will be greatly appreciated, but no further features will be incorporated until I find the time to work on another version.

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1009436
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=25226

Description
===========
Alchemy Advanced replaces the original alchemy menu and offers a set of new features
and mechanics, including brewing in batches, flexible ingredient filtering, an
integrated recipe system, masking of select ingredient effects, and customizable
calculations of potion weight, cost, strength, and duration.

Name: Alchemy Advanced
Version: 1.2
Date: 2010-08
Category: Gameplay Effects and Changes
Requirements: Oblivion Patch 1.2.0416, Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) v0017 or later
Recommended: Oblivion Mod Manager

Features
=======
A brief list:
- a quantity slider for brewing batches of potions
- ingredient filters that can be edited in-game
- a new type of autofilter that looks for replacements for the current ingredient
- a new type of alchemal apparatus (the Refiner) for temporarily removing selected effects from ingredients.
- integrated saving and loading of recipes, and a new type of alchemical apparatus (the Alchemist's Notebook) for storing saved recipes.
- a duration slider to specify the target duration of potion effects
- the ability to use potions and other recipes as ingredients in the current recipe
- customizable calculation of potion weight and gold value
- customizable calculation potion effect strengths
See the Features pdf packaged with the mod for a complete reference to the new
features and instructions on their use. The pdf's a bit long - there are a lot of
features - so maybe don't read it all in one sitting.

More Info:

Spoiler

Installation, Uninstallation, Details, and Instructions
=========================================
Consult the readme file included with the mod.

Compatibility
===============
Alchemy Advanced should be compatible with almost every other mod, including those
that add additional alchemical ingredients or potions. In particular, it is known to
be compatible with:
- Elys's Skill Uncapper; A fantastic mod and highly recommended
- Waldo's Grandmaster of Alchemy; another fantastic mod, also highly recommended
- DarNifiedUI, BTmod, and others that alter .xml files, provided Alchemy Advanced is
installed last. Make sure that the alchemy.xml file from Alchemy Advanced overwrites
the copies from any other mods.
- A UI mod that reduces font size is recommended to increase the readability of the
menu.
There have been some reports of "strange behavior" when used in conjunction with
Static Alchemy (a resource used in, among other mods, Summonable Private Quarters).
Any reports on exactly what this behavior is and how to reproduce it would be
appreciated.
As of this release, there are no mods known to be explicitly incompatible with
Alchemy Advanced.

Known Issues or Bugs
====================
- Due to limitations in tracking the cursor position, vertical and horizontal scroll
bars on the alchemy menu will not respond to click & drag anymore - use the mouse
scroll wheel or click the scroll arrows instead.
- Due to limitations in determining what menu tile has keyboard focus, keyboard
navigation has been disabled in the alchemy menu: the arrow keys will no longer jump
between buttons.
- Due to the increased size of alchemy.xml, the alchemy menu will take noticeably
longer to load, particularly just after Oblivion is restarted. This and other
performance issues may be addressed in a future version (I can't guarantee a solution).

Changes in Alchemy Advanced v1.2
================================
- reorganized file structure - should be much easier to install manually
- tweaked texture paths to fix bugs when using lower resolutions
- recompiled scripts with OBSE v19 (no scripts were changed, just recompiled)

Changes in Alchemy Extras v1.1
==============================
- Changed essences from potions to ingredients
- Fixed bug in initialization script that caused recipes not to be useable in alchemy menu

Contact
=======
See the forum thread for a discussion of how to make this mod better.
Bug reports, comments, suggestions, and feedback of all kinds is greatly appreciated;
the more specific the better.

Credits
=======
- Bethesda Softworks, whose game has svcked up far, far too much of my free time
- scruggsywuggsy the ferret and the rest of the OBSE team for (repeatedly) managing
the impossible
- Haama, from whose mods most of the 'original' ideas here were bloodily ripped off
(http://www.oblivionmodwiki.com/index.php?title=Category:Mods_by_haama).
- All those who helped debug the first beta release by reporting the issues they
encountered.
- Rederick_Asher, for his much improved logical operator icons

Tools Used
==========
DDS Converter - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8698
Oblivion Mod Manager - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2097
Oblivion Script Extender (OBSE) - http://obse.silverlock.org/
Photoshop - http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/
TES4Edit - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11536
TES Construction Set - http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11367
Readme Generator - http://lhammonds.game-host.org/obmm/tools_readme_generator1.asp

Licensing/Legal
===============
Do whatever you want with it. Credit is appreciated but not exactly required.
However, if you post a modified version of this mod, please post a link to the
original on TES Nexus. This will ensure that everyone can find the latest version if
more are released.

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:58 pm

This sounds awesome.

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 6:46 pm

GOD this is cool!!!

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 9:56 am

Thanks. This put the fun back in alchemy and it is easy to set up for a personal gameplay (in my case a quite strong nerf on home brewn potions)

Cheers!

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:38 am

Thanks. I'm going to install this mod.

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:23 pm

Thanks. :thumbsup:
Downloaded and installed.

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 10:15 am

This mod is clean (tested with TES4Edit);
maybe we should not need TNO LightWeight Potions with this mod since au-weight calculation is taken in account.

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 4:16 pm

Wow!!!!

What a great news for me!

I have been your fan since 0.2 :celebration:

Downloading rightaway :bolt:

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 7:31 pm

I am getting an error message that the scripts are not running for AA. I tried reinstalling with no effect. Reverting back to an earlier version fixed the issue. What could be wrong?

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 5:25 pm

I am getting an error message that the scripts are not running for AA. I tried reinstalling with no effect. Reverting back to an earlier version fixed the issue. What could be wrong?

Have you tried it with a clean save? You wouldn't have to keep it, but if it worked it would make it much easier to figure out what's actually wrong.
If it doesn't work, then perhaps I could ask for your game and OBSE versions, and your mod list?

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 3:40 pm

Have you tried it with a clean save? You wouldn't have to keep it, but if it worked it would make it much easier to figure out what's actually wrong.
If it doesn't work, then perhaps I could ask for your game and OBSE versions, and your mod list?

JRoush,

Thanks for this mod BTW. I am pretty sure that the problem is with me rather than my load order. I will try a clean save and let you know...

EDIT: Ok its fixed. Not sure what I did but reinstalling 1.0 fixed it.

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 11:40 am

very very nice mod, thanx JRoush for it and thanx haama for coming up with the individual ideas packed in this one

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 11:09 am

Excellent mod! I love being able to take those crappy potions I find on Bandits, add my own little something-something, and make them actually worth the bottle they sit in!

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 11:31 am

I see you removed the Extras addon. Is there something wrong with it?

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 6:28 pm

I'm becoming quite addicted to this mod; it is in my load list in every new setup.

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 12:47 pm

How?s the gameplay difficulty/balance affected by this mod? I feel alchemy is pretty powerful, so I wonder if this makes it even more powerful, or at least easier to make more powerful potions?

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 4:50 pm

I see you removed the Extras addon. Is there something wrong with it?

The file I uploaded (Alchemy Extras v1.0) was broken - my fault, I forgot some textures. I've uploaded a fix, v1.0a.

How?s the gameplay difficulty/balance affected by this mod? I feel alchemy is pretty powerful, so I wonder if this makes it even more powerful, or at least easier to make more powerful potions?

Tricky question. The short answer is no - it simply brings the balance of magic effects on potions in line with that of custom spells and enchantments.

The long answer is maybe, depending on the settings you choose. By default, most potions are weaker, with a few expections (like dispel or nighteye). It makes poisons much stronger, in that it puts them on an equal footing with potions. It also makes it possible for high level characters to create very valuable potions, to the point that gold becomes a non-issue in the late game. But that is true to a lesser degree with the vanilla system.

Anyway, I think the best way to decide is to try it out - if you have suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them.

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 11:20 am

The long answer is maybe, depending on the settings you choose. By default, most potions are weaker, with a few expections (like dispel or nighteye). It makes poisons much stronger, in that it puts them on an equal footing with potions.

I'm also interested in this. I think much of what you have done seems great, but don't want battles to become easier. To me, Oblivion stops being fun when battles stop being dangerous. So is it possible to prevent poisons from becoming stronger, possibly through some ini settings in your mod?

It also makes it possible for high level characters to create very valuable potions, to the point that gold becomes a non-issue in the late game. But that is true to a lesser degree with the vanilla system.

...which can easily be adjusted by Enhanced Economy, so that is not an issue to me

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 6:43 pm

After playing for 11 days with my new character, comparing Alchemy skill progress with others majors skill lead me to the following simulation:
if using Progress
fSkillAlchemyCreation to 3.75 (default value)
should pass to something near
fSkillAlchemyCreation to 2.60 ~ 2.65

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 7:40 pm

hey, how'd u make the custom alchemy menu?

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 7:58 pm

This news makes me very happy. Now instead of making those horrible restore fatigue potions, I can make them stronger and actually useful especially for money making. Also I can make more potent poisons, defintiely fitting in with my character's background. Thanks and many many kudos to you. Downloading now.

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 5:01 pm

After playing for 11 days with my new character, comparing Alchemy skill progress with others majors skill lead me to the following simulation:
if using Progress
fSkillAlchemyCreation to 3.75 (default value)
should pass to something near
fSkillAlchemyCreation to 2.60 ~ 2.65

I agree that the alchemy skill increases far too fast, which is precisely why leveling rate mods (like Progress) exist. Thanks for working these numbers out, and for sharing them.
Note, though, that AA doesn't allow you to create any more potions than you'd be able to normally. Thus, it doesn't raise your skill any more quickly than the vanilla alchemy system.

hey, how'd u make the custom alchemy menu?

The http://cs.elderscrolls.com/constwiki/index.php/Category:Oblivion_XML are stored in the Oblivion\Data\menus\ folder in *.xml files - to get the new layout I replaced alchemy.xml. Then I coded (or recoded) all of the alchemy mechanics into quest scripts using some of the fancier functions available as of http://obse.silverlock.org/ v0017.
If you have a little scripting experience, you might consider opening RshAlchemy.esp in the construction set and examining the quest scripts themselves. They're fairly well documented.

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 4:28 pm

Great mod, been using it for quite sometime now.

But now I quite literally get nothing at all on the alchemy screen now. It doesn't show my alchemy equipment, and it says I'm level (8) 0 in Alchemy.

None of the effects on the ingredients show either.

I was using this on OBSE 18 b4 then upgraded to 18 b6 to see if it would help, but it did the same. This happened just as I was gonna mix some potions like I normally do, not after adding another mod etc.

http://img692.imageshack.us/g/aa1e.jpg/

No idea if the screenies help.

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 3:45 pm

Wow, amazing mod. I never expected to see an improvement to Oblivion's alchemy system. Everything in this mod is jaw-dropping, I'm especially impressed by the flexible ingredients filter.

If by any chance you could make a similar filter system for spells, to quickly find spells by school, effect and so on, it would be great.

In the meanwhile here's a little suggestion: you could reorganize your package a little bit so that manual and BAIN install are easier. You'd have to slightly modify your OBMM script as well. I tested the following folder structure with BAIN and it works well, I think it's pretty self-explanatory:

Alchemy Advanced 1_1.zip?   Alchemy Advanced v1_1 Features.pdf?   Alchemy Advanced v1_1 Readme.txt?   alchemy_black.jpg?   alchemy_blue.jpg?   alchemy_red.jpg?   preview.jpg?+---00 Base?   ?   AlchemyAdvanced.ini?   ?   RshAlchemy.esp?   ??   +---Menus?   ?   +---dialog?   ?   ?	   alchemy.xml?   ?   ??   ?   +---prefabs?   ?	   +---RshAlchemy?   ?			   apparatus_layout.xml?   ?			   generic_button.xml?   ?			   generic_hscroll.xml?   ?			   generic_vscroll.xml?   ?			   ingredient_layout.xml?   ?			   ingredient_select.xml?   ?			   magic_effect_button.xml?   ?			   magic_effect_popout.xml?   ?			   potion_effect_layout.xml?   ?			   select_item_layout.xml?   ?			   style_config.xml?   ??   +---Textures?	   +---Menus?		   +---Alchemy?			   ?   alchemy.dds?			   ?   ingsel_background.dds?			   ??			   +---RshAlchemy?					   equipped_marker.dds?					   InactiveIcon.dds?					   ingcol_seperator.dds?					   Logical_AND.dds?					   Logical_NAND.dds?					   Logical_NOR.dds?					   Logical_NXOR.dds?					   Logical_OR.dds?					   Logical_XOR.dds?+---10 DarkUI Tweaks?   +---menus?   ?   +---dialog?   ?   ?	   alchemy.xml?   ?   ??   ?   +---prefabs?   ?	   +---RshAlchemy?   ?			   apparatus_layout.xml?   ?			   generic_button.xml?   ?			   ingredient_select.xml?   ?			   magic_effect_popout.xml?   ?			   style_config.xml?   ??   +---Textures?	   +---Menus?		   +---Alchemy?			   +---RshAlchemy?					   ingcol_seperator.dds?+---11 DarkUI black?   +---Textures?	   +---Menus?		   +---Alchemy?				   alchemy.dds?				   ingsel_background.dds?+---11 DarkUI blue?   +---textures?	   +---menus?		   +---alchemy?				   alchemy.dds?				   ingsel_background.dds?+---11 DarkUI red	+---textures		+---menus			+---alchemy					alchemy.dds					ingsel_background.dds

Your instructions for manual install are actually incomplete: "Copy the remaining files and folders and paste them into the Oblivion\Data directory" isn't likely to be very helpful.

(edit) Hint: when creating large folder structures like this, I find it much easier to do from the windows command line, rather than one at a time through Windows Explorer. For instance the command "mkdir textures\menus\alchemy" will create all three nested folders in one fell swoop. The command "move alchemy_red.dds textures\menus\alchemy\alchemy.dds" was also a good shortcut, especially if you use TAB to auto-complete the names, or type the commands in advance in a .bat file. And btw, what I pasted above is the slightly edited output of the "tree /f" command, real useful in forums when discussing file systems.

» Sat Dec 25, 2010 8:38 pm

... I quite literally get nothing at all on the alchemy screen now. It doesn't show my alchemy equipment, and it says I'm level (8) 0 in Alchemy.
No idea if the screenies help.

Thanks for reporting, and for the record the screenshots do help quite a bit.

Unfortunately, none of the things you're describing are the actual problem - they're just side effects of the Oblivion script engine going wonky after it hit an error. I've had several reports of bizarre behavior like this, and finding the actual error generally proves very difficult.

If you'd like to help with a little debugging, send me a PM and I'll give you some instructions on how to download a console logging mod and turn on AA's debugging output.

If you'd rather go for a quick and dirty fix, you might try the procedure below. Caveats: This will erase any stored recipes your character has. Also, without knowing the original cause of the problem, I can't promise that this will work. And if it does, I can't guarantee the problem won't come back. Sorry!

Open the console in-game (~ key).
Type the following: 'set RshAlchQuestAlchemy.INITIALIZED to 0'
Close the console and all menus and run around in the game world for at least 15 seconds while the initialization quest reboots.
Open the alchemy menu and see if everything is back to normal