Overhaul Patch for
Razhkul's Reign of Fire v1.1

STATUS: Nov. 5, 2009. Version 1.92BETA is up at PES, http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=8011. Companion scripting untouched as of yet. Not everything in place, though the quest itself is fully-playable (wait for the treasures in the update!). More changes, have been made, and many more to be made, including adding in some additional modding community work, as well as implementing bbslayer's white dragon's lair (thanks, bbslayer, for the white dragon egg, alternate model, and the dungeon!) and Dirnae's custom-tweaking of Star Boi's staff.


As anyone who has read my dragon mods guide entry on http://usuarios.lycos.es/razhkul/ can see, I have long had a request dangling out there to fix Reign of Fire once and for all. No one took it up, though a number of people said they wanted it fixed. Razhkul appears to be inactive in the modding community, though he left his gorgeous dragon modeling work to us as freeware.

So, as a sort of learning project over the last month, I have finally delved into scripting, and have been fixing up RoF. The project is now in a sort of rough beta status. The following is a list of changes, though it has not been updated with my more recent ones (that will come soon):

• Bug Fixes and Scripting Optimization: Fixed the bug where Illwing never does give the player back the staff and gem so the player can hatch her dragon. (Day will never equal ( CurrentDay + 2 ) if it's the second-to-last day of the month.) Fixed a number of minor bugs throughout the scripts, and tightened up or simplified others (including reducing reliance on global variables). For example, the Daggerloft urns puzzle no longer relies on five global variables; the scripts interlock, adjusting each other's variables directly (thanks, Regaez and Trunksbomb, by the way, for helping me end my head-to-wall relationship on this part).
  
• Textual Corrections and Rewriting: The author was clearly not a native English speaker (Spanish, I believe), and the dialogue naturally suffered from a lot of errors and gaffes. (No dig on Razhkul, of course -- kudos on writing so much dialogue in another language. That's damned hard. I would do just as bad in another language.) I have corrected, and in many cases rewritten, all dialogue and other in-game text to clean it up, polish it, and make for a more compelling storyline. The storyline itself is changed somewhat to make it fit better into the existing game world and add some grey to it. (Example: Illwing is a high-ranking member of the Imperial Court? You don't think he knows you're an Imperial agent? That old codger will pull rank on you if you try to shirk out of this whole dragon thing.) Also corrected some storyline and dialogue inconsistencies, and filled in some dialogue gaps (example: having trouble getting the reluctant guards in Balmora to cough up the info, but are a member of House Hlaalu? -- now you can go to a fellow faction member and he'll clue you in). Little details go far. Hopefully, I have made it more enjoyable.
  
• Improvements of Dragon Scenes and Puzzles: It took a surprising amount of time, but I have, I think, improved the animation of the "cut scenes" of sorts that occur when you go into a dragon's lair. Before, there was a lot of jerkiness and sudden switches. Now, animations should be relatively smooth, the dragon roars timed properly with the animations, and some niceties improved. Overall, the dragons should appear more dangerously intelligent (the last one doesn't bother roaring at you, unless you're unexpectedly disrespectful...) I have also made minor improvements to puzzles, hopefully making them more informative and immersive.
  
• Improvements Still to Be Done: I am still working on it, and plan on:
  • Improving companion scripting, including allowing the dragon to feed on meats added by Tamriel Rebuilt, Morrowind Crafting and other mods.
    
  • Possibly adding a slightly humorous plotline involving getting that awful Faric Minoran character (with some poetic justice).
    
  • New meshes/textures for the custom items (I have no 3D design or art skill, so it'll be using existing modder resources out there.).
    
  • Providing a non-FPS-thrashing version that eliminates the visual huge treasure hoards in the dragon's lair, instead placing them in the chests. (I have a fairly decent system, and they brought it to slideshow quality -- 20 or 30 coin meshes using high-poly gold replacer... ouch. Trust me, it makes the fight abnormally difficult, since you're fighting the UI at the same time as you're fighting the dragon.)
    
  • More dialogue development and variation.
    
  • Possibly modify the storyline away from the lore-problematic connection to Jagar Tharn.
    
  • And more.

Requests for Support and Ideas

• They're not bad, but they're low-res: if anyone can take Razhkul's faces for Norwa, Salus and Illwing and jazz them up a bit, hi-res style, I'd be much obliged. That stuff is beyond my skill.
  
• If any skilled 3-D modeler could fix a couple of problems with the dragon meshes, it would be much appreciated. In particular, the teeth going through the bottom of the lower jaw, and bounding box problems (I think that's what it is? -- try to cast a touch spell on a dragon to see what I mean). C Mireneye also mentioned UV map problems, though I'm still fuzzy on what UV maps are all about.
  
• (Considering the idea of detaching part of the lantern staff, using it for the gem, and having the eventual culmination be the joining of the items into the original mesh.) Thanks, Dirnae!

Awesome, Razkhul would be proud

Excellent. I have a 28th level mage who has RoF on his to do list as soon as he hits lvl 30. Would be glad to use a patched version of the mod once I get there.

Cheers
KWM

Speaking of which I remember terrible uvmapping on the dragon models, I recall looking them over, trying to sort them out and fix them. Oh well I might be delusional. I'll look it up tho see if I ever got anywhere.

Never played it before, but a sufficiently cleaned up version would probably entice me to do so.

Westly also made new textures for ROF Dragons

Wow, awesomesauce Gluby :thumbsup:Did he? I know of http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6234's but not Westly's

Well, you know where I stand on this, Gluby.

- Yeah, I was planning to tackle this at some point.

- Yeah, you beat me to it and I agree with everything you say.

- Yeah, I think you're great.

One personal request; I'd just as soon NOT have the 'start at level 30?' option box during chargen. Just start it at level 30 or whatever's appropriate (or have an out-of-the-way activator a person can touch to start it early a la Bath Mod)

BTW, If you were thinking of tackling Wizards Islands, I think I've pretty much got that nailed already. ..a couple more look-overs and a 'gulp' check with the authors.

Sweet Jebus, this sounds phenomenal Glubby, I can't wait!

Mine were on a sort of "limited release", as I wanted to make adjustments to them
before the final release (like make the black dragon more "black" and add a bit more
shine on the scales ).

These were the screens as of last year:

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g235/Wesadam/Extra%20Pics/WAR_DRAGON_BLACK_SCREEN2.jpg
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g235/Wesadam/Extra%20Pics/WAR_DRAGON_BLUE_SCREEN2.jpg (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g235/Wesadam/Extra%20Pics/WAR_DRAGON_BLUE_SCREEN1.jpg)
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g235/Wesadam/Extra%20Pics/WAR_DRAGON_GREEN_SCREEN2.jpg (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g235/Wesadam/Extra%20Pics/WAR_DRAGON_GREEN_SCREEN1.jpg)
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g235/Wesadam/Extra%20Pics/WAR_DRAGON_RED_SCREEN2.jpg (http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g235/Wesadam/Extra%20Pics/WAR_DRAGON_RED_SCREEN1.jpg)

Yet another thing yet to be checked off on my modding to-do list

Wow. Learn something new everyday Beautiful, as always, Westly.

Yeah I'd really like to see this come to a release, I had also thought about fixing up the scripting in the mod, but even though i'm a skilled scripter I have no experience with scripting rideable creatures, and that kind demotivated me from actually fixing it up.

But I'm glad to see someone giving it a shot, goodluck Gluby!

Thanks, guys.


Ooh, that would be great, CM.

Also, if you are particularly inclined, it would also be a great improvement to get rid of the teeth-going-through-the-lower-jaw problem in its idle (and I'm sure other) animations, and to find a way to fix the problem with the dragon being inaccessible to touch spells (bounding box problem?).


Thanks, Huskobar. Glad I beat you to it.

Hmm... that seems to be pretty easy to fix, and, yeah, CharGen is not the time for such a thing. Here are a couple of options:

1) Have the raz_rof_script wait until the player hits a certain level -- say, level 15 -- and then ask the player.
2) Instead of an activator, have a rumors dialogue become available everywhere, at a certain level, about sightings of dragons near Caldera and a strange, high-ranking Imperial mage taking up residence at the inn there. One could then talk to Illwing, and somehow give the option to begin the storyline via dialogue with him. This will be quite consistent with the storyline as I've modified it, incidentally. (Who woke up the dragons, and why...?)
3) Just start it at level 30 as you say.

Yeah, as I write this and think about it, I realize that's a good catch. Any thoughts on which of these options would be preferable?


Wow, I did not know of these! I only knew of Bahamut's. Beautiful work, as always, Westly. Would love to see them come out.

Is this the staff of chaos then, or another staff altogether?
http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/elderscrolls/images/b/b1/Jagar_tharn.jpg an image of Jagar Tharn with a staff (if it's not the staff of chaos I assume this is how the staff of tharn would appear), and http://www.uesp.net/wiki/File:Arena-Staff.png are two pictures of the staff of chaos.

The gem I'm assuming would be the green/blue orb then?

Oh, that... Fixing the technical aspects of riding will definitely be beyond me, though I'll welcome fixes if anyone wants to make them. But I'll take it a step at a time. Just the basic companion functions will be a new venture.

Thanks, bbslayer.


The kurzite gem art makes it violet, sort of like a large amethyst.

Razhkul did not make it clear whether this is the staff of Chaos, calling it the "Staff of Tharn" and, effectively, having it down as an artifact that allowed Tharn to make his minions grow at an accelerated rate. I'm going to say no, this is not the Staff of Chaos, as the staff in this mod is inconsistent with that object, and that introduces a lot of additional complexities and need for weaseling with the lore.

One approach would be to say that it's, effectively, not the Staff of Tharn, but a Staff of Tharn. Another would be just to drop the connection to Tharn, and make it some relic of the Ancients from way before the time periods covered by official lore (the connection with Tharn would make it, what, 550-600 years old?). I am favoring the latter, really. Always good to try and move away from the tired old trope of relating everything back to a handful of personalities, particularly when one was a Foozle.

Either way, it might be a good idea to rename it something that does not suggest such a specific relationship to Tharn. Maybe something like the Verdant Staff, or Jade Staff, or the Staff of .

Suggestions and advice on this are definitely welcome. I try to always adhere strictly to lore, but I'm no lore expert, so help in this department is always welcome.

I'm hoping to release a beta in the next day or so, though it will for sure not be full release quality.

This sounds like the best option to me .. 'cos it means that the player is not forced into the quest line at any particular point .. but rather has some say in when hir starts it .. some characters might be geared up to start it at a much lower level than others .. and some might not even be geared up to deal with it as soon as level 30 (have no personal experience with the mod yet, so I wouldn't really know if it would be possible to still be outclassed at level 30 .. even using GCD .. but still .. it's always preferable not being forced into a particular quest line at a set time)

Doesn't Arena take place just before Morrowind? So the Jagarn Tharn connection would be around 40 yrs old.
I really do think getting away from the Jagarn Tharn connection is a good idea, and there isn't a large amount of lore on dragons IIRC, just a couple of books, so you should have some freedom there.

With my GCD lvl 30 character using TAD balancing (which drastically tones down high-end equipment -- Daedric armor 42 AR instead of 80, for example), I found the first two dragons *too* easy -- I didn't even need to use restore health potions. Just whacked away, periodically casting Hearth Heal a few times to bring health back up. I think that'll need to change.

The last two dragons were much harder, requiring almost constant buffs using high-end brewed Restore Health potions to stay alive (20 pts/sec, 20 secs). They would probably be too difficult without some serious potion support -- but that makes a lot more sense to me, as they should be rather more epic.

However, at least with the lower damage ratings of TAD weapons, I found the fight with Unthoiz, the last dragon, to be an interminable affair, whacking away over and over and over for 10 minutes. I'd be more in favor of shorter, more intense battles. I may tweak their stats in that favor. But, again, I'm not in a good position to judge, using TAD balanced weapons. I'd love to hear more feedback on the feel of fighting the dragons with the standard game balance.


I got my numbers by looking at the wiki on http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Jagar_Tharn, getting his dates as an approximate 300-400, and the wiki page on http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Morrowind, which, if I read it correctly, I figured Morrowind is taking place in the 890s or 900s.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that getting away from that part is a good idea.

I have a request if your up to it Gluby, I have made some retextures for a white dragon which Razhkul had planned on creating but never did create, except for an ice breath texture. I'm curious if you are willing to possibly add this white dragon to ROF.

Here are some screens.

http://img266.imageshack.us/i/image2v.gif/
http://img141.imageshack.us/i/mgescreenshot1.png/
http://img519.imageshack.us/i/mgescreenshot5.png/
http://img688.imageshack.us/i/mgescreenshot6.png/

The texture the dragon uses is the high res blue dragon texture from Bahamut just recolored, the mesh is the blue dragon's mesh, and the ice breath texture is the only thing I'm aware of that Razhkul made for the white dragon.

Nah, they both have Uriel Septim VII in them. One sec, I'll find a page in the UESPwiki.
edit: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Third_Era, a page on the third era, check the 4th and 5th century dates, there's 30 years between Arena, which ends at 399, and Morrowind at 429.

That looks great -- I wouldn't mind including it at all. Certainly an egg, but perhaps a Solstheim dragon independent of the main RoF quest in some sort of caverns. Any particular ideas?


A clear case of poor reading comprehension on my part. That's 2E 890-900, whereas here we're talking 3E. Yeah, I was tired. So, uh, forget all that stuff about 550-600 years.

I suppose then we're free to let the nature of the staff model used determine what we call it. I know there are lots of great staffs out there, but I'm at a loss to come up with one off the top of my head (again, aside from Phijama's). Any suggestions for staff and name?

well i've already created a lair for him and an introduction for him when you encounter him, plus I also added smaller white dragons to the leveled lists I can send you the files if you want to check it out, and as for other ideas, if possible it would be nice to be able to raise this white dragon as well. If you can't manage to work that in I could just raise a blue dragon and replace its textures with the white one though.

Can you link to phijama's staff? His models are top quality, so that's probably the best choice.
There are some http://www.fliggerty.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=1448 from Oblivion mods released over at GHF, and there are some nice staffs in the H.E.L.L.U.V.A wicked weapons mod.
I don't know of any other staff models though.

Please do. I'd love to check them out. At the very minimum, I'll put in a white egg, though if you've created a dungeon and everything, why not? I'm still not conversant in meshes and NIFskope and all that sort of thing -- would you mind also doing a bluish-white-textured version of the egg?


Those look like good possibilities for sure.

I can't actually find the original release of Phijama's staves, but Lady Rae released http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=3880 that has them along with other things with a lot of great potential for use in this mod, especially for a white dragon's lair. As for Phijama's staves, http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=93138da1946b86c336df4e8dca141969d1da9cf003cf28e59b20786b9a6e1ed0 is a pic of them I took in the CS. I am particularly impressed by the lantern staff. (It would be really nice if we could have a separate mesh with either the large pearl or the hanging jewel part removed from it, use the removed portion as the Gem of Peryite (which we would appropriately rename), and then allow the player to fuse them later, which would then use Phijama's original mesh, as retextured by Lady Rae.

Hmm... names for the staff and gem.

I think the gem itself is fairly appropriately named, lorewise, although I think the "Eye of Peryite" sounds better than the "Gem of Peryite."

For the staff? I don't know lore in-depth enough to come up with anything. I pulled "Nemurian Staff" out of my pocket, trying to avoid outright usages of the usual mythical names (I mixed Nemedian with Lemurian). Thoughts? Suggestions on something better?