CHARGEABLE SPELLS by grmblf
Pre-Final Version 0.361 - Requires OBSE v0018b4

DOWNLOAD IT http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27746.



Mod Info:
Mod name: Chargeable Spells
Version: Pre-Final v0.361
Author: grmblf
Requirements: OBSE v0018b4 or greater.
Source: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27746
Thread at TESNexus: http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=155243




SUMMARY:

This mod revamps completely how magic is used in Oblivion into a more tactical and believable fashion, allowing you to regulate the power of the spells you cast by charging them, simply holding down the cast key just for a while, and then releasing to actualy cast the spell. This process takes into account your magicka spent, the time charging, the skill corresponding to that spell and it's governing attribute, and the result is calculated using default game's formulas but taking the values from your overhaul / magic mods.
A lot of lines of code and so many speepless hours has been put here to achieve this effect and to make it smooth and fair, but also to add a lot of other small features that could improve gameplay and immersion. Read the full list of features here below:




FEATURES:

* A completely new spell-charging system, complex in it's ends but easy and intuitive in it's usage:

- Charging process visualy noticeable: your magicka pool depletes at a constant rate as long as you're charging, and it plays on yourself the visual effect for the spell you're charging.
- Accurate cost / magnitude calculation according to spell's cost default formula with a decent boost for charging longer.
- Every calc is proportional and non-scaled, therefor every single magicka point, every millisecond spent charging and every skill level achieved are taken into account for the final result.
- Several sounds complement the charging process.

* A full set of chargeable spells, few but versatile, to not clutter the spells list:

- More than 80 Chargeable Spells covering almost every default magic effect. All they available to charge and cast!
- Chargeable Spells don't have a pre-set level, what determines they power is the amount of magicka you put in them and your current skill level, so the same spell becomes useful at every skill level.
- There's only one spell per magical effect. Dynamic settings like making ranged spells becoming "on touch" automaticaly when under water plus the "alternative cast" feature allow for just a few spells dealing with several uses.
- Holding block when the cast key is released will activate an "alternative casting mode" for that spell. Basicaly this will make ranged spells increase their AoE at some magnitude cost, and it will make "on self" spells become ranged, to cast them on companions or friendly NPCs.

* Dynamic chargeable spells' purchase system and chargeable spells updater:

- Chargeable spells are available to purchase from every spells merchant. When you talk to them they will have the appropiate chargeable spells corresponding to the ones he/she actualy has. This is made by script, so there's no spell or merchant altered or replaced. When you end your conversation they recover their original spells (AI isn't smart enought for chargeable spells).
- Due to this, NPCs from other mods now might sell chargeable spells too.
- When you first load Chargeable Spells you might choose to obtain the chargeable spells corresponding to the ones you already have, replacing default spells that aren't modified by other mods.

* A full perks system and a penalties system for charging:

- It includes a dynamic perks system that limits your mobility while charging at lower levels as well as your fatigue loss and the possibility to loose the charge if you run out of magicka or fatigue, or if you are injuried.
- Optional feature (enabled by default) that adds a small chance for your spell to drain from you some extra fatigue or health, or even hit your attributes. This is progressive and the chances are increasing for as long as you're charging, so you can stop charging and cast the spell once you see it starts to hurt you. If you decide to charge longer, all your stats drained this way are added to the spell's power. This feature is complemented with blurred vision effect (optional) and a sound and the "damage attribute" visuals that warns you when this happens.

* Aditional features:

- Optional feature (enabled by default) that makes every chargeable spell able to be casted at Novice skill level. Spells will still show their real mastery level but you will be able to cast them. If using the feature above and considering that at novice skill level spells power won't be really great it's fair to make them all available and it shouldn't be considered a cheat.
- Increased experience (XP) proportional to the time charged for every cast.
- Spell casting responds to magical effectiveness, magical resistance and spell absorption/reflection.
- Being staggered, knocked or silenced renders the PC unable to charge.
- While a spell is being charged, a light effect shows on the player, and it's radius grows exponentially each second. It's meant to make you easier to detect if charging a huge spell.
- Spells values are updated after each casting, so you can see how much powerful it's been. An optional message may be enabled to show spell's info in-game after each casting.
- Optional features can be enabled / disabled editing the .ini file provided.

PLAYING THIS MOD

* Getting started:

Chargeable Spells will work either on new games and on saved games.

Once in-game, a message box will prompt asking you to replace your default spells by a chargeable version of each one. Choosing so will give you the chargeable version corresponding to the spells you have, and then it will remove from your spells list those spells that only have an effect wich is not scripted, so it won't replace spells from other mods, unless they only alter cost/magnitude. If you're not sure about replacing your spells, a lesser power will be added to you. Casting it will open the menu again so you can choose to "update" your spells list.


* How do I get the spells I'm missing?

Every spells vendor will sell now chargeable spells for a nice price, even NPCs from mods.
Following the same procedure as avobe, they will have the chargeable version of the spells they had, so default spells won't be available to purchase as long as any other mod modifies them.
Notice that NPCs still have their original spells, they are only temporary replaced for them as long as you speak with them.


* Charging spells:

It's not necessary for you to know exactly how calcs are done but this things might be important:
- What determines a spell's power is the amount of magicka you put in the spell and your skill level, but there's also a bonus for charging long.
- When charging a spell it always drains 1/4 of your total magicka pool per second, proportionaly. So a big magicka pool means you put more magicka per second, and therefor it allows for more powerful spells being cast in less time.
- Even draining 1/4 of your magicka each second you can charge for longer than 4 seconds, because you regenerate some magicka also while charging. This means that a higher magicka regeneration rate (high INT+WIL) will allow you to charge for longer, and therefor put in there more magicka and obtain a bigger time bonus. Using restore magicka potions works as well.
- The "time bonus" for charging longer multiplies the final result by 1+(time/10). ie, charging for 3.25 seconds will multiply the result by 1.325, ie a 32.5% more, up to a x2 multiplier at 10 seconds of charge.
- By default every spell can be cast at novice level eventhought they still show it's original mastery level.
- Charging for long might hurt you. If your health drains so quickly or if you hear your character's gasp better release it and cast the spell.


* Perks and movement limitation:

As it's been commented, this mod also features a perks system that limits player's movement at lower levels and unlock them as your character progress in each magic school. This perks are associated with your current skill level and they are re-calculated every time you select a spell. Fortify / Drain skill effects may un/lock pertinent perks temporaly.

Novice:
- can't run or walk while charging.
- can't stand in sneak mode charging (your PC will stand up automatically when charging).
- can't charge or cast under water.
- can't jump or attack, but stills can block.
- if runs out of magicka while charging, spell and magicka are lost.

Apprentice:
- can charge under water.
- can walk while charging or simply stand in sneaking mode.
- if gets exhausted while charging (zero fatigue), the spell is automaticaly casted. This will work even if a fatigue mod knocks you out for being exhausted.

Journeyman:
- can run while charging.
- can walk in sneak mode while charging.
- if runs out of magicka while charging the spell is automaticaly casted.

Expert:
- can run in sneak mode while charging.
- can jump while charging.

Master:
- never looses the charge due to being injuried, but still loosing the charge if knocked out/down.
- can attack while charging.

All this movement limitations are performed in a smooth fashion, giving the player a one-second transition between each mode. For instance, a novice running will automatically start to walk when charging and one second after will be stuck until the spell is released. Right after casting the spell the player will be running or sneaking again, however he/she was before.


* Spells and alternative casting:

The spells this mod adds have been built upon the basis of just very few patterns for ease of usage, and it all has been carefuly designed to be as logical and intuitive as possible. Here are some considerations that may help understanding better this new spells.
To activate the "alternative casting mode" the block button must be held down the moment the cast key is released.

- If a spell can do all it's effect at once, it does. Only spells that really require time to be effective will last (ie charm, silence, weakness to, etc).
- If a spell can be 'on target' instead than 'on touch' then it is, so there's no 'fire damage on touch' spell.
- Spells that last for a while and have a magnitude (ie, shield, but not night eye), have double duration than magnitude. For instance, a spell that charms 32 pts will lasts 64 seconds, and therefor it will cost according to that. In fact time has been doubled, so half of time is for free.
- Ranged spells have a small Area of Effect (AoE) rangnig from 2 to 7 or 8, depending on your skill and governing attribute.
- The alternative cast for ranged spells makes them less powerful but increases their area of effect. It's power will be between 50% to 80% from it's original magnitude, depending on your skill and attribute, and it's radius depends on this but also on the percentage of your total magicka you've spent, up to a hard to reach maximum of 150 feet.
- "Benefical" spells that are cast on self (restore health, resist poison, etc) can be cast on target using the alternative cast, either to heal a companion, to give water walking to a slaughterfish or to cast light on fleeing enemy. Some doesn't have an alternative casting, like bound stuff, summoning, night-eye and detect life.
- The alt. mode for Absorb health/fatigue/magicka spells will make them lasting for long and absorbing the proper stats slowly.
- Only those magical effects related to some percent check (like reflect spell, shield, resist/weakness, etc) are restrained to a max of 100. In this case, the extra magicka spent makes it lasts for longer.
- Those effects that rely on an absolute value have no maximum and can effectively exceed 100 (for instance, feather, detect life, light, etc).


* Penalties system with reward:

After one second charging a spell a random check is performed, depending on your skill and will (higher stats are better), to determine if you're affected by it, kinda you start to loose control over the spell. Charging for less than one second has no risks at all, but after one second this check is performed continuosly, twice per second, until the spell is cast. Chances of failure are increasing each time, so charging really long may become dangerous.

Penalties you might suffer from charging a spell are set in a few severity levels, so you won't suddenly loose the spell, if this has to happen first your fatigue will be hit, then your health, after that your attributes will suffer and then you might loose the spell, being 0.5 seconds between each step, so you can react if things go wrong.
If you suffer once from a "penalty" it doesn't mean you'll be suffering it continuously until you release the spell or that you will get automaticaly next "penatly", all this is randomized each check, but chances to fail increase quickly with time, so the normal thing is that once you start to loose fatigue you'll be loosing fatigue each second, and maybe with health will happen so, but that's very random.

Each "penalty" has it's own chance to apply, smaller as the more severe they are. Once it hits your attributes it will hit one point at each attribute, you'll hear your character gasps and a red visual effect will play on the PC. They come in form of 1 fatigue point loss per check failed, 1 health point, 1 pt on attributes and finally a chance to loose the spell.

The reward is that every stats point drained is added to the spell's power, just like extra magicka spent. Each fatigue point adds 1 to magicka, a health point adds 2 and each time your attributes are damaged it counts like spending 50 magicka points more. This makes long charges far more exciting and dangerous, but also rewarding, mostly for novices and apprentices. In higher skill levels things are getting more stable, but there's always a small chance to fail.



Check the full readme in the download page for installation instructions, compatibility issues and known limitations,
... and enjoy the update!


grmblf

Wow, I had the very same Idea.
Didnt think it would work in OBLIVION
Thanks, will certainly try it out!!

I played with such a concept for a while, didn't really go through with it after I couldn't get a visual aspect to work (I had something in mind but it was too buggy and flawed). Nice to see this mod being made.

You can use a small MenuMode 1001 block to enable the attack button if it was disabled before the messagebox pops up. Although I'm not sure what happens when the messagebox is closed and the attack key still enabled (for a frame or so), maybe it'll start casting (which is bad I presume).

It's not summoning in particular that interacts differently with the spell effectiveness, it's that those effects have no magnitude, only a duration. So instead of variable magnitudes, those effects have variable durations.

-kyoma

Thanks for your comments, I hpoe you enjoy charging your spells

Ohh that's great, I didn't know that could be done. It isn't a problem at all, the attack button is disabled 'cause I don't want the player to be able to attack while charging, the spell is casted by releasing the casting key. Simply I'll disable attack again a frame after, no human player could attack in within unless playing at a very undesirable frame rate.
Obviously, but they seem to not match the duration set by script and be always a bit lower. Night eye does match, as well as bound stuff, but not summons. I have to test this further.

I hope you work on this quickly

I have my new setup and am now building my new Oblivion install.

I haven't tried out your mod, but I'll keep an eye on it. It looks pretty darn cool.
Thanks for your work.

I'm constantly working quickly on this mod, but progress is quite slow I'm in the way to solve current issues, I hope I can update it today or tomorrow. Moreover, new version will get spells cost via command so it will be 100% friendly with magic overhaul mods.

Anyway don't expect a final version soon. It won't be so until it adds the spells in a natural way, like being quest awards or making them buyable. But as for what the spells concerns they are fully playable and shouldn't break anything, and it doesn't replace anything so it's safe to play it. If you ever get tired of it (you won't if u try it ) simply unload it and you're ready to go.

How's this going to handle buying better spells? Will lower spells be less chargable, or will more expensive spells charge faster, or be cheaper to cast, or what?

In any case, very interesting idea, and something I've wanted in my game for a good long while
Good luck with it!

There are no better or worse spells, there is only one chargeable spell for each magic effect, and what makes it better or worse is your own ability (skill + governing attribute). One of the goals of this mod is also to clear the cluttered spells list by making every spell usable at every level. Simply there will be spells cheaper and some others more expensive, depending on the starting level they can be used (ie, a chargeable Fire Ball will be cheaper than a chargeable Silence spell).

In a future I'd like to add some quests to obtain additional perks, like a little bonus on spell's duration or radius, and others that may apply only to certain spell or kind of spells, so it doesn't give the impression that at level 5 you'll already have every spell you'll need. But there's a lot of stuff I want/have to do before that.

This is very good looking stuff, I?ll be sure to use this once I get to play again!

Hey thanks for your words mate! It's such an honor comming from a revered modder as yourself some people have asked me to add your slow-motion feature while charging. I'm not gonna do it by now, but perhaps in a future I ask you to lend me a script or two if you're so kind Keep up the good work man!


Chargeable Spells have been upgraded to v0.26. Get it http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=27746.

New version fixes every bug / issue present in latest version and adds a few improvements either for playability and to make it 100% friendly with other magic mods. Now it takes the spell's cost from in-game values, wich means that if you're playing OOO, for instance, chargeable spells' cost/magnitude will be according to that by using their values instead of vanilla ones. Another great improvement has been making benefical spells becoming 'on target' with the alternative cast key combo instead than 'on touch', as suggested. I'll update the first post when I have a moment, a detailed description can be found in the download link.

I'd appreciate some suggestions and criticism so do not hesitate posting your opinion unless posting so could break one or more of this forum's rules

Omg I'm so happy this was made, I sent messages to several modders (skycaptain, you were one of them ) about this exact concept. Thank you so much!

Just a comment regarding bullettime: If you implement this, wouldn't it make the movement/attack/etc. perks useless?

I have a question. Is there some way that you could make it so that the more skilled one is in a particular field of magic, the faster it would charge? It would make sense that a master of the arcane arts would fire a powerful spell more quickly.

What kind of spells do we get?

Hey thank you all for your support. You know, this is my first mod, but I've tried to concentrate all my modding effords in a specific direction so the result meets the quality a new magic mod requires, and ... I'm just so glad you like it... what more can I say?

Yeah probably will be a difficult balance. I'm not planning on adding this effect on casting but rather perhaps as the effect of some spell (ie a slow time spell or as a secondary effect or some other specific spell).

Notice that this could be somehow conterproductive, as it could mean that more experienced mages would empty their pool faster kinda without control. I'm gonna explain how it works: When you press the cast button the script calculate your total magicka and sets the amount of magicka you'll spend each second at 1/4 of your total pool, and every frame it's consuming the proportional amount of magicka. So if you have 120 magicka and charge a spell exactly for a second you'll spend 30 magicka (120/4=30), but probably you will have a little more than 90 magicka after casting it, because you were regenerating your magicka during that second the charge lasted. So the higher stats (INT+WIL) you'll be able to cast for longer. You'll still spending 1/4 of your magicka each second but you will regain magicka very fast to you can end up putting 1.5 times your magicka pool in a spell. I've focused it like stats control the charging capability (charging for longer and putting in there more magicka per frame/second) while the skill level affects perks movements but also and mostly the resulting power of the spells. I get your point about casting faster at high skill level, what I mean is that a at a high skill level you don't need to charge for very long to get a powerful spell, and less if you have a big magicka pool.


You get one spell for every single default magic effect. Each spell has that single effect, and can be charged up following the process I've described above. Some of them have multiple effects, like command creature/humanoid, it's now one single spell. They are not leveled nor have additional features (unless you play it in conjunction with a mod that changes default effects) and their use is limited by skill mastery. And by now for testing purpouse you'll get EVERY spell at once. Here's the list:

Mastery - Name - EditorIDnov	- Fire Ball - grmCSFireBallSpellnov	- Frost Beam - grmCSFrostBallSpellnov	- Electric Bolt - grmCSShockBallSpellnov	- Restore Health - grmCSRestoreHealthSpellnov	- Shield - grmCSShieldSpellapp	- Night Eye - 	grmCSNightEyeSpellnov	- Detect Life - grmCSDetectLifeSpellnov	- Light - grmCSLightSpellapp	- Death Blast - grmCSDeathBallSpell		* damage healthnov	- Charm - grmCSCharmSpellnov	- Restore Stamina - grmCSRestStaminaSpellnov	- Bound Armor - grmCSBoundArmorSpell	* full armor set, cost reducednov	- Bound Mace&Shield - grmCSBoundMaceShieldSpell	* cost reducedapp	- Summon Scamp - grmCSSummonScampSpellmas	- Summon Xivilai - grmCSSummonXivilaiSpellmas	- Summon Lich - grmCSSummonLichSpellapp	- Physical Resistance - grmCSPhysicalResistSpell	* resist poison and disease, and resist normal weapons 1/5 that muchjny	- Magical Resistance - grmCSMagicalResistSpellapp	- Physical Weakness - grmCSPhysicalWeakSpell	* weakness to poison and disease, and to normal weapons 1/5 that muchapp	- Magical Weakness - grmCSMagicalWeakSpellapp	- Feather - grmCSFeatherSpellnov	- Burden - grmCSBurdenSpellapp	- Corrode Materials - grmCSCorrodeSpell	* both weapon and armor and costs like onenov	- Fatigue - grmCSDamStaminaSpell	* damage stamina, ergo fatigueapp	- Damage magicka - grmCSDamMagickaSpellapp	- Breathe underwater - grmCSWaterBreatheSpellapp	- Water Walking - grmCSWaterWalkSpellapp	- Telekinesis - grmCSTelekinesisSpellnov	- Dispel - grmCSDispelSpellexp	- Absorb Spell - grmCSSpellAbsorbSpellexp	- Reflect Spell - grmCSSpellReflectSpellapp	- Soul Trap - grmCSSoulTrapSpelljny	- Chameleon - grmCSChameleonSpellapp	- Command - grmCSCommandSpelljny	- Demoralize - grmCSDemoralizeSpellnov	- Rally - grmCSRallySpellapp	- Frenzy - grmCSFrenzySpellnov	- Calm - grmCSCalmSpelljny	- Silence - grmCSSilenceSpellapp	- Absorb Health - grmCSAbsHealthSpellapp	- Absorb Magicka - grmCSAbsMagickaSpellnov	- Absorb Stamina - grmCSAbsStaminaSpellapp	- Fortify Health - grmCSFortHealthSpelljny	- Fortify Magicka	 - grmCSFortMagickaSpellnov	- Fortify Stamina - grmCSFortStaminaSpellnov	- Turn Undead - grmCSTurnUndeadSpellexp	- Summon Clannfear - grmCSSummonClannfearSpellexp	- Summon Daedroth - grmCSSummonDaedrothSpelljny	- Summon Dremora - grmCSSummonDremoraSpellmas	- Summon Drem Lord - grmCSSummonDremLordSpelljny	- Summon Flame Atr - grmCSSummonFlameAtSpellexp	- Summon Frost Atr - grmCSSummonFrostAtSpell	app	- Summon Ghost - grmCSSummonGhostSpelljny	- Summon Headl Zomb - grmCSSummonHeadZombieSpelljny	- Summon Skel Guard - grmCSSummonSkelGuardSpellexp	- Summon Skel Champ - grmCSSummonSkelChampSpellapp	- Summon Skeleton - grmCSSummonSkeletonSpellexp	- Summon Skel Hero - grmCSSummonSkelHeroSpellexp	- Summon Spid Daedra - grmCSSummonSpiderDaeSpellmas	- Summon Storm Atr - grmCSSummonStormAtSpellexp	- Summon Fad Wraith - grmCSSummonFadedWSpellmas	- Summon Glo Wraith	 - grmCSSummonGloomWSpellapp	- Summon Zombie - grmCSSummonZombieSpellohh and there's an elemental shield, that's like fire-frost-shock shield that costs like one, the same for the weakness to elements effect. The only effects that are missing from vanilla ones are paralyze, because I'll do a specific script for it (I don't want sinlge-tap paralyze for 1 sec spells), and the absorb/fortify/drain effects for attributes and skills. I'd want to group them in few spells but I'm having technical issues altering the magnitude afterwars.

grmblf

All that at once?!?!?

I understand your wanting testing, but that seems too much at once for my character to suddenly tear tamriel apart with.

I will watch this closely though/

Hoping for something more like:
- you still have to learn the spell.
- you can only charge spells that you chose as major skills.
- Compatability or similar functioning as Audacious Magery, Sorcery's Toll, Fizzle.
-The Ability to use this with spell from other mods (LAME, SM, etc).

Looks exciting though

I had very similar thoughts.

I would love to see this integrated with Audacious Magery. I suspect there might be some compatibility issues otherwise.

I would also love to see it integrated with a hotkey-casting mod, although that work might be more involved. Still, it would be very rewarding to be able to charge a specific spell by holding down its hotkey...

Oh cool. I get it now that you explained a little more thoroughly

nah, my lvl 27 character had more spells than this before I discovered the spell delete mod


Making this spells available for purchasing is what I'm gonna do next, I know it's quite lame as it is now, but it's only a beta!

About charging spells only from major skills... I don't see the point of doing so. In fact this mod aims to "replace" all the spells for the player so if there's a chargeable version of that spell the player will get the chargeable instead of the normal one, and will leave as they are only those spells for wich doesn't exist a chargeable version. If a spell is from a major skill then you probably will have higher skill level and therefor the spell will be stronger when you cast it.

Using spells from other mods is pretty complicated, as my script relies on knowing wich kind of spell the player have selected to enable/disable the cast key and thus allow or not the charging process. Moreover, there might be spells with scripted effects that won't be affected by my settings as they would be calculated afterwards, when the spell is casted, and not right before casting them like mine, so the result of charging them could be overwritten. And the point of having brand new spells is that the player can forget about all the leveled spells and use only one for each effect.

What I can do thought is to mimic some of these mods' features, and I plan doing so, but probably they will be new chargeable spells with the same effect rather than those spells themselves. Btw, my mod doesn't change the default magic effects, so if another mod alters the effects themselves my mod will use that modified effects (an example, LAME removes 'Charm' effect from spellmaking. As this is affecting directly the magic effect and not charm spells, this change will remain). I have to make some research to find out exactly how this mods work to make it takes the more advantadges as possible from the combined use with other magic mods.


I'll take a look at Audacious Magery too. Really you'd like to charge a spell by holding it's hotkey? Sometimes I find it difficult to move around while charging in combat with the default cast key, I don't want to imagine that holding down some number. Anyway, if you want to use a different key simply change the cast key to another one, the script will recognize wich key you use for casting and will respond regardless it's the default one or not.

Regarding charging a spell via hotkey...
There are some mods which allow you to cast spells instantly, bypassing the normal method of choosing a spell via hotkey and then casting with your cast key. One mod I use is called Hotkey Casting, and basically I've set up many of my "left hand" keys (R, T, G, Z, X, V, B, etc.) as instant cast keys for specific spells that I use a lot.

Certainly it would be nice if charging spells were compatible with hotkey casting (either by charging and casting with your number keys, or casting with the mod described above) but it's definitely not necessary.

I used hotkey casting before and found it lacking in comparison to Skyranger~1's superhotkey mod which has the much greater options for dynamic swaping.

I can use it to set each number key to cycle through spells (dynamically so that the last cast spell is the first up next time you hit that number) and then set space bar as the casting key. I was able to throw more spells with that than hotkey casting.

Personal preference.

Speaking of which - I guess I'm a fan of the mission of Race Balancing Project and LAME in that if I play a mage (and chose the race/birthsign/specializations) then I would be really good at that, but not so good at melee.
Currenly I'm playing a more paladin character with Blade, Block, Acrobatics, Marksman, Mysticism, Alteration, and Restoration. He has ritual birthsign so a lot of magicka (with RBP) and therefore can heal like other nonoffensive magics very well. But he is not good at combat magick at all.

If I could I guess I would even take it futher with the lame agenda and opposing schools of magic would make it so that if one were to specialize in Restoration they could not in Destruction and then likewise with this mod.

With the course you are going with this mod then all that matters is the amount of magicka and you are a spell throwing powerhouse. Or so it would seem.

How is gaining skills affected by this? If at all?

Not only. Skill level inffluence a lot the power of spells, and at lower skill levels you can't move while charging so yeah they might be powerful if you spend your whole magicka pool, but that's kinda licit tactical decision you can make now. Having high magicka regen may be more important actualy than having big magicka pool, as this would allow you charge for longer and thus get a special bonus for so. In the end favors a little either mage-oriented characters and war veterans (EDIT: I mean, magic war veternans ).


Do you mean gaining experience to increase a skill? If so that's covered, maybe I forgot to write it in the readme. Each second you hold the spell counts like an additional casting, so charging a fireball for 3 seconds would count like casting 4 flares. If that wasn't your question then I don't get it.


Regarding compatibility with other mods, I plan to make the 'core' version clean, without changing the magical effects properties, and then make a separate plugin that actualy mess with magic effects, like adjusting cost, magic school, able for spellmaking/enchanting, and not much more at first, for those that don't want to play with vanilla values neither want to load another magic mod. In this line I could made several 'adjustments' plugins, and one of them could be this extreme setting that deny opposite magicka.

Well hey thanks for the consideration.

The one to got to for lore on TES magic is bg2408 of LAME/RBP fame as he really seemed to go into what the different schools of magic are and how they are set up into polarities.

Audacious Magery - that is really lightweight and easy to put in and take out compared to Sorcery's Toll. Neat effects with that one - all spells available to cast, but if you cast over your level you can get backlash up to a disease.

Not sure how that would work with this.

Anyway yeah that is what I meant about skills.

Also if you don't know (although you seem to know much already) this is interesting too: http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=797519

at this point though - I'm kinda beta tested out and will have to wait for the sake of my own sanity. This looks exciting though. Great prospects.

thanks

I agree, althought there might be some little difference between his vision of magic and mine, but yeah it's a major referent on that department.


That's an interesting feature. I was thinking of adding side-effects for casting big spells, considering stats and skill and so, but allowing premature spellcasting sounds really good. It will be hard to balance, thought, because the spells will be already weak due to the lack of skill, so maybe the backdraws are weak too. I haven't tested it yet but it seems that Sorcery's Toll may trigger 'bad' effects more than once during the charge, because it checks when magicka decreases instead of checking when a spell is casted. *untested*


I haven't had time to test it, but I read there it has an auto-cast feature that lets you cast spells like a machine gun, and it does it disabling the cast key, so unless that features is optional it's going to conflict with my mod.


I have to say that I was sadly disappointed to discover that magic mods work by replacing and scripting default spells and not the spells effects themselves, wich makes that you can choose only one mod setting at once, (no offense intended to magic mods modders, I was disapointed because I didn't know before how this things worked and I made wrong assumptions) so the only thing I can do to make this mod has all that other features is either re-doing them and implementing them in my mod, or make a compatibility patch for each one wich replaces their spells, or rather adding all this spells in my mod's 'library' and thus allow charging them, but the results of this last one could be unpredictable, as all the other mods rely on scaled-leveled spells, wich is not the case in Chargeable Spells mod, so in the end I think the easier way for me to include all that features would be implementing them in the core of my mod.