Ahhh there are no swim animations for mountain lions?! Really Bethesda? This poses a dilemma if I make a mountain lion form like I wanted. I either have to prevent the Druid from entering water while in lion form, or the Druid will look totally ridiculous while swimming in lion form. I tested my mountain lion summon and checked "swims" in its abilities, and it uses the animations for walking on the ground when in water. Ugh.

Worked on Poison Creeper past couple of days. It follows you around and pops up out of the ground, poisoning enemies one at a time. Harder than I expected, but it's getting close. Anyone have a suggestion for the sounds it could make?

Cats mostly don't like to get wet, right? Can you detect if character is in water and dispel it? And the first statement could be your weasel lore.

To be fair, most quadrupeds do 'walk' when swimming. The only differences really are a more high-stepping action (treading) and the head stretched forward. As long as only the head is above water, it shouldn't matter too much? The swimming speed might be though (horses - ugh).

As for your creeper, how about a dull tearing, cracking sound as it pops out? Sort of like the movie fx when the ground cracks open during an earthquake but more muted. Carrying on the theme, perhaps a slight rumble as it follows you (underground I'm assuming). A little cliched I know but it might be fun

edit. Just saw Washington's post - clever :goodjob:

Yea, probably gonna do that. I hate to add more GameMode scripting to the forms, but what's another few lines, right?



When "swimming," the mountain lions walk about three feet under water. No good. :facepalm: I like the sound effect ideas. The trick is getting the sounds to use. I browsed through the vanilla sounds. About the best thing I've heard so far is the scamp idle, which kind of sounds like a slithering, and there's a skeleton sound that would work as the poisoning sound.

Putting restrictions on certain forms like that wouldn't be a bad idea, in my opinion. Just for balance sake.

Found some sounds if you are interested:

http://www.mediacollege.com/downloads/sound-effects/disaster/earthquake-01.wav

http://www.mediacollege.com/downloads/sound-effects/disaster/earthquake-02.wav

Awesome! I never thought about grabbing free sounds from the net. I'm totally using one of those to "announce" the arrival of the creeper vine. And I found a sweet snake attack sound that's great for the poisoning.

... should I add periodic sounds of it slithering underground while it follows you - or would that be annoying? The problem is that it's an invisible companion (when you aren't in combat), so there should be SOME way to feel like it's following you.



True dat.

Some will like it, some won't. I think a quiet, subtle sound ought to please most. Possibly it could be an ini option if you are already including one, hardly worth it otherwise.

And I'm glad you like the sounds

Link to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrCCZ7RbZZg video added. And updated the OP with some other details too.

I was interested in trying the Druid Mod, but after seeing this I will definitely wait. The overhaul sounds much closer to what I was looking for, therefore far more appealing. I was just wondering how this fits with other magic. If I have Destruction and Alteration, so the Druid spells complement the regular spells, or replace them?

Looking over the plans too, I cannot see how the tangle vine and thorny vine complement each other in the way everything else does. It seems as though the thorny vine entirely obsoletes the tangle vine, as it does the same thing AND damages. Perhaps the tangle vine holds enemies in place (like vanilla burden), or even `trips' them (like vanilla paralyse), while the thorny vine slows them for a moment (like Supreme Magicka does with Frost Damage spells) in addition to the damage (perhaps slow damage over the slowing duration?). That way the tangle vine is a hard control spell, while the thorny vine is soft control with damage. Everything else sounds quite internally balanced.

As a suggestion for the shape shifting, you may like to check out Luchaire's Dryad Race. It has shape-shifting into a deer form, which appears to be the playing becoming invisible and mounting a deer (I am no modder, so I may be wrong). This race also has an animal friendship benefit, which includes MMM support, that may be of interest.

Druid Mod will replace nothing, just add. BTW, there are only Conjuration and Alteration spells with Druid Mod, no Destruction.



That's an excellent point I hadn't considered. One of my goals is for none of the spells to be totally obsolete. Each skill should always be the best at one particular thing. I actually have an early Entangle single target spell planned too. So maybe I can work it this way:

1. Entangling Vine (cast on target):
Weakness - only one target, no damage is done.
Strength - Entangle effect lasts the longest.

2. Entangling Creeper (summon):
Weakness - Player cannot control who gets entangled, no damage is done.
Strength - Multiple enemies are effected in a slow series as the vine sprouts through the ground.

3. Thorny Vine (summon):
Weakness - Player cannot control who gets entangled. Entangle effect doesn't last as long as the other two.
Strength - Multiple enemies are effected in a series as the vine sprouts through the ground, and damage over time is done.

4. Poison Creeper (summon):
Weakness - No entangle effect, Player cannot choose which enemy is struck.
Strength - Strikes enemies very fast one by one with debuffs.

I'm also thinking that you must choose between Entangling Creeper and Thorny Creeper.



Never tried that mod, but I've seen it. I'm using the same method of an invisible custom mount. With a LOT of tweaking and experimentation, I'm having success turning the "mounts" into viable combat forms with attacks, power attacks, and special abilties unique to each. Laterly I've been making sure that all effects the Player enjoys through abilities and armor enchantments are carried over to the animal form.

I really like the Poison Creeper spell. Keep up the great work!

Thanks, Killer911!

Making good headway testing and tweaking. Made mountain lion form and developed a way to sneak while in that form - woohoo! Your success sneaking will be determined by your distance from a hostile, their line of sight, and the amount of light on you.

This is really amazing and creative. I always wanted a druid-type of class in Oblivion. Your progress is beyond amazing, and the videos just make me wanna have the mod right NAW! (lol)

Seriously keep the good work, you are doing excellent.

Oh yeah one question, I don't know if it has been answered but since you said this was kind of an "overhaul" mod, have you try running this with FCOM? I'm guessing unless this mod really pokes its fingers into FCOM configuration, it shouldn't have much conflict.

Thanks, Jcap!

Hmm ... I should remove the word "overhaul." The only thing it overhauls is my old Druid Mod - heh. It doesn't attempt to change anything about the game whatsoever, just to add to it. I'm actually thinking of calling this mod something totally different because one of my goals is to make this one more lore-friendly, and I don't know if "druids" even exist in the Elder Scrolls universe.

The advancement quests of this mod in progress are set around offerings made to Kynareth and Hircine. So I might call it "The Path of Kynareth and Hircine."

Hope you are doing well on this mod .

I don't think anyone has asked this, it's a pretty simple question though. Are these skills going to be only in a druid race, or will the skills be available for any race?

And do I have to start a new game or can I apply the druid's skills to an existing character?

This is not a race mod, no races are added or changed. Any race can be a druid. You won't have to start a new game. Established characters can go through the quest just fine to learn the spells.

A lot of progress has been made lately on just about everything since my last post. I updated the OP with a detailed spell list.

And very interesting reading it makes. Regarding the unused 'v' function for deer Form - perhaps a sprint function or even a 'mighty leap' although for the latter you may have to engineer a soft-landing to prevent player damage. Then again, some player damage may be considered balancing.

Brilliant spells and "spell progression" plus it just seems balanced nicely. From a Deer to Hircine's Pet (Rat sounds fun - as does Crow).



Sounds awesome - and reminds me of one of my favorite companions in any game, Deekin in Neverwinter Nights HotU, who basically went invisible during fights but granted bonuses - that turned out to be very helpful later on. Anyway, really looking forward to it - now more then ever.

Indeed, this is a very ambitious project. I've always liked druid gameplay, and finally it came true!

I love your progress on this mod. Looks so promising. All the skills are so well thought. I look forward to trying the beta.

Thanks, Arkngt! About a week ago I was trying to figure out what the climix of each "path" should be, then remembered that Kynareth and Hircine are both depicted in their shrines as having animal companions. Then it was just too obvious.

How's the mod coming along?

You gave me an idea. There will be no V key special function for Deer Form. Instead, the form will always have high Acrobatics so you can jump higher and fall farther without taking damage. More so than all the other forms.

And I also thought of the perfect way Wolf Form can have a paper-rock-scissors type advantage over the other animal forms ... Rabies. :hubbahubba:

You will have a good chance to infect your target with Rabies - a disease that attacks the mind and stunts magicka. Therefore, Wolf Form will be great against casters. While Deer Form is best for running and jumping, Lion Form is good against well-armored enemies (because your special attack ignores armor), and Bear Form is great against multiple enemies because of your ability to knock them all down. Taking the form of Hircine's Pet might trump most of those advantages though.

The past few days have seen some good progress and I've moved many of those progress bars forward. Entangle, Healing Vine, Shield Vine, varying magnitudes of animal hide, and as always, debugging and more debugging.

This just gets better and better

Thanks!

Danger Sense works! It's the wolf's special ability (besides rabies). You toggle it on or off while in Wolf Form or Ghost Wolf Form. If Danger Sense is active, when a hostile comes within 80 feet of you then you will glow red for a moment and growl. Because you can smell them, get it?! :clap: This will only happen when they initially come within range, so you aren't glowing red and growling constantly while fighting. I also have it right now so that hostiles within range but who are NOT fighting you will pulse red, so it also works as a way to see who would attack you in the case they can't see you yet, or are fighting something else.