Hello, after a hiatus, I've made another update beta release 6 (BETA.R6). Nothing ambitious, just cleaned up the script, tweak it so that the general magicka bonus is easier to obtain, and also fixed an issue if the player decides to rest immediately after casting, that magicka wouldn't regenerate correctly. New characters will start with a much improved magicka pool when choosing magic skills as majors and minors.

I'll take a look at this, you have put together a very interesting mod, from what I read. Very nice ideas!

This looks like a really nice system, I'll definitely try it out on my next playthrough. Thanks, dopey fish!

an excellent mod, finally have enough magicka to cast spells of doom.

I'm mostly running these through the wringer right now to see how else I can improve the script, and account for unorthodox ways to break it.

New Update!

Scripting vastly improved overall. Armor penalties and spellcasting fatigue implemented.

This will be the last beta release.

*Spellcasting affects fatigue

-casting spells cost fatigue

-fatigue cost per spell is a constant; low magicka spells will use as much fatigue as high magicka spells

--this means spamming low cost spells will exhaust the player faster than casting a high magicka spells.

--in practice, as fatigue regenerates extremely fast, this just means that spamming low cost spells will temporarily make casting spells more difficult until the player regenerates back the fatigue.

-gives a little more incentive to use higher cost spells in critical situations

-fatigue loss is capped so that the player won't pass out from spell casting (since they don't from running or fighting to exhaustion_

*Armor affects magicka regeneration and spell casting.

-Armor weight and associated skill play into the penalties, higher skill scales down the penalty

-Currently any armor type will decrease magicka regeneration by up to 50%, and increases spellcasting fatigue by up to 50%.

--Armor skill will decrease the penalties with the associated pieces equipped. Unarmored however will always provide the best magicka regeneration rates.

Sounds really cool, dopey! Especially the armor penalties. That's something I've always wanted.

When this mod comes out, will I need to start a new game to use it, or can I use it on my current saved game?

0.0

Just a few minutes ago, I posted a topic in the General Discussion board, seeing if I could get some advice on how to play a 'pure' mage. I've always thought it was a cool idea, but in practice, I could never find a good incentive to have a character with an interest in more than one or two schools of magic, and even with mods, I could never find a good reason to choose Unarmored and miss out on such useful protection and so many different slots for enchantment. This mod sounds like it has the potential to be the answer.

Edit: A question though, is this applied to all NPCs as well, or only the player? I doubt it would apply to NPCs, but one of my strategies is to dodge their spells until they run out of magicka, and it would make for some interesting situations if they now had a vastly improved pool of it, or if they were restricted by the armor they might happen to be wearing.

Thanks! The effects are subtle at the moment, but I'm experimenting with making them much more noticeable. This way a mage has an actual choice between using armor with enchantments with reduced efficiency, or going unarmored for much greater efficiency and power.

This works both with new and current characters.

This doesn't affect NPCs, as NPCs already have an increased magicka modifier. Eventually down the road I'm going to look at spell costs and balance, which will also give NPC's much better tactics in spellcasting.

The goal of the project is to improve the spellcasting experience and also boost roleplay, as this effectively allows races of any birthsign to be very adept in spellcasting. Now, an orc with the warrior sign can be as competitive as an Altmer with the apprentice sign given enough spell training.

I have a question Silly Ichthyosapien-): Will you be including a comprehensive README with this?

Also, does it take into account the Atronach Birthsign and Stunted Magicka attribute? This one is *extremely* important, as prefer spellcaster PC's, in particular Sorceresses with the Atronach Birthsign. (Makes Restore Magicka potions and ingredients vital, since the birthsign precludes natural magicka regeneration).

I assume this will work mods that augment Sanctuary and improve Unarmoured? The bit about making spellcasting affect Fatigue and preventing scumming of little piddly spells is *very* creative! It should work well with http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=687.

Finally, I want to test this with http://btb2.free.fr/morrowind.html, which comprehensively and exhaustively overhauls spell costs and NPC casting behaviour.

Awesome! I can't wait till this is done. I'm not trying to push or anything, but how long until this projects complete?

I'll include a readme with the official release, though most of the pertinent information is in this thread. What would you like to see as comprehensive?

Stunted Magicka, either from the Atronach birthsign or a spell effect will halt magicka regeneration while active. Magicka potions still have a use even with magicka regeneration, as magicka doesn't regenerate for a few seconds after casting a spell, so it's still possible to run out of magicka during heavy spellcasting.

This should be compatible with any other mod that affects unarmored. I actually thought about adding sanctuary effects for unarmored, since it's a mage support skill. I may include it later on, it would be easy enough.

I'm looking for feedback to tweak some of the mechanics balance-wise, then I'll release an official version. It's currently fully functional as-is.

Well, *anything* would be an improvement over the current lack of one. *giggle* All jesting aside, basically: Link to this thread, but keep in mind threads can and *DO* fall victim to The Ether; include the most recent pertinent information of what the mod actually does in a concise, bulleted form; and, advertise that it *DOES* work as expected with the Atronach birthsign.

I'm not suggesting documentation rivaling BTB's or a medical chart, but probably a list of the BETA titles would be nice too. You are working so hard on this, and it *is* appreciated!

Excellent! I will *thoroughly* test this for you!

And while I'm not really a thorough tester, I finally downloaded this to facilitate the idea for a mage character that's been cooking in my diseased mind for a while. But I will let you know if I break it! Or any ideas for improvements, but I rather doubt I'll get those. =D

Thanks! Any critiques or suggestions will be appreciated.

There are a few minor issues still present.

1) The spellcasting module doesn't work with the Morrowind Code Patch's quick casting currently. I did however just finish re-doing that part of the script and the next release will now work with that feature.

2) Powers are currently affected by spell casting fatigue and pausing magicka regeneration. I'm working on a way to exclude powers.

3) During character generation, if the player revises any of their form data (like name, race, class, birthsign), then the script doesn't update the review screen with the correct magicka total. It'll correct the magicka bonus once outside of menu mode though. This may need a separate script or some script reordering for this purpose if a player changes their mind about those details.

4) Bound armor is affected by the armor effects. I should probably have the script ignore these when equipped.

This *ENTIRE* post is what needs to be in a README.-))))) To clarify, not only what a mod does, but also what it *doesn't* do. Each BETA release should, ideally, have them; your past BETA's and their respective bullet points are important in this aspect.

Not everyone who frequents Nexus frequents this forum. Had I not stumbled onto this thread, I would not have known these issues (and these are some rather important ones). To wit, if one D/L'd a mod, then either got sidetracked or unable to play for a spot, then came back to your mod, with only an .ESP and no README or documentation can be pretty frustrating.

Especially a *very* creative, ambitious, and broad-of-scope mod like yours attempting to overhaul the magicka system.-D What if the forums go down or other unforeseen situations on the players' sides?

Just some food for thought.-D

You could consider using something like an in-game menu for configuration, since such a broad-scope mod is bound to touch things not every player may like.

In the long run, it may be easier than having an ever increasing number of modular ESPs to custom-taylor the mod to anyone's taste.

I'll whip something up for a readme in the next update.

The aforementioned issues have been corrected in the update.

*MCP quick casting is supported.

*Powers with zero cost will no longer affect fatigue or magicka regeneration. Powers that cost magicka will be treated as spells.

*Bound armor does not affect casting or magicka regeneration (only supports the original bound armors)

*The stat review menu should now still reflect the magicka bonuses applied to the character if the player changes their name, race, class, or birthsign, only during character generation. (still extensively testing this, but it works!)

I'll keep that in the back of my mind, though I'm not sure how well that will work in-game. Everything is deeply integrated in this project, so for now it's all or nothing.

I will however release the magicka bonus from skills as a separate plug-in, as that's relatively benign by itself.

In other news:

*I've added an audio cue when magicka regeneration starts back up after casting a spell, and also when the magicka bonus changes. On one hand, it lets players know when these events happen seamlessly, on the otherhand it could get annoying after a while.

*I'm reconsidering implementing a reduced magicka cost module. I've tried it before, but it ended up not performing as well as I'd like, and it was exploitable. I figure this time I could implement it for single school spells, and then either exclude cross-discipline spells, or vastly reduce the effect on them. The player would still need the full cost of the spell, but will syphon some of the magicka cost back into reserve upon casting.

*I'm thinking of having the magicka bonus also be affected by armor. This would put much more emphasis on being unarmored for greater spell power. I can also add sanctuary/evasion scaled to unarmored skill, also affected by armor.

So, I'm still kicking around ideas.

I personally like using a mod which adds the missing bound armor: Greaves and Pauldrons. Since this mod could qualify as an overhaul, have you considered integrating your own complete bound armor set into the mod? It wouldn't require new meshes or anything, just more scripting, which you seem to be quite good at.

You might also consider adding a bound longbow with regenerating arrows - what mage is going to carry arrows around with them? - and bound towershield.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=988 adds infinite arrows to the bound longbow, as an example.

Thank you! Now, if you could just upload it....*giggle* (you still have the 05.08.13 D/L available, not the fixed update with the README.-)

Idea #1) Kick this one to the curb and kill it with fire! The last mod that implemented something like this was deleted post haste and with extreme predjudice off my HD (including the .ZIP). Breaks immersion and difficulty.

Idea #2) Already a problem: If the player does not have sufficient magicka, they will not be able to cast the reduced spell. There are mods that already reduce the spell cost proper, and the mods that I have used in the past required third-party programs (MWSE and Morrowind Enhanced 1.6, respectively), http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7807. (I use this this one exclusively and it appears to work seamlessly with your current mod.) No need to fix what has already been addressed.-D

Idea #3) This would make traditionally intelligent, powerful magic users (Altmer and Breton in particular) virtually unstoppable *VERY* early in the game. It would also nullify your *wonderful* "fatigue cost spell casting" *and* your original mission of making traditionally weak magic users (read: An Orsimer Fighter) more spell user friendly.

I concur with tiebrakre's assessment of the sounds. Unless you have a VERY subtle sound in mind, that could be the most obnoxious thing ever.

I disagree with her second point. If it's easier to have everything implemented in one place (there are also plenty of other magicka regeneration mods!) then I say do so. Don't worry about what has already been done unless it saves you time/work to make your mod reliant on another. Besides, maybe you can do better than the mods which are currently available.

I do not think that the sanctuary bonus is needed, or a good idea. You should be able to be beat up on, as a mage, in close combat. It negates the effectiveness of actual sanctuary spells. Let the mages rely on their unarmored ability (you can actually get a decent armor rating in the vanilla game, while unarmored), sanctuary spells, shield spells, and others to keep safe from harm.

But I DO think that magicka should be effected by armor in the respect of increased fatigue loss from casting and reduced effectiveness/cost of spells perhaps.

I like this mod alot! anything that is mage focused is welcomed by me. Alot of thought and planning has been put into this and you seem to have taken every aspect into consideration.

I look forward to more from you

I have play tested *every* major spell cast reduction mod. Aragon's is *the* tightest, most predictable, bug free mod to accomplish this sans a third-party proggie (even then, Aragon stll wins). I am willing to wager my sixiest pants that the scripting and formulae that Mr. Ichthy would conjure would/will be identical to Aragon's.

I also am dubious *anyone* would spend the time BTB did to accomplish what did WRT balancing spells and NPC casting. (And an *EXCEPTIONAL* README to boot!)i

The single *MOST BRILLIANT* idea of Mr. Icthy's is the "fatigue loss from casting"!!!!!! *NO ONE* has done before, and I concur wholeheartedly, Mr. Dahrk. *grins*