Before I had all summon casters call the player to cast a zero cost spell in conjuration simultaneously, to simulate skill-up progress for the lesser power summons, which I have set that way so dispel magic cannot remove their timers.

It occurred to me that since I also had already set up a reference caster to hit the player with another separate mana cost spell to simulate these scripted summons costing the appropriate amount per stats/skill level, etc., I should probably just change those so the player casts them instead of the reference caster (or then casting this pseudo-level-up spell), and thus have the appropriate mana cost spell also determine the skill progress.

So I did that, in v2.14 which I just posted. Accurate skill leveling should be done correctly now.

My main is a Warlock, so this is absolutely perfect I will definitely give this a try as soon as I can play again (still fixing a pesky ufcom bug that crashes my loading screen :brokencomputer:) In regards to the skill leveling, do you know if this will have any weird effects on XP Leveling?

Edit 1: I also think this is a nice way to be more immersive about the end of SI. Do you know if this will conflict w/ the multiple summon scripts of Supreme Magicka and LAME?

To answer your question about leveling: No weird effects! As far as the game is concerned, casting one of the summons is treated exactly the same as casting any other spell of that school and level/cost to cast. (Thanks Arkngt and Vagrant0 for help on that.) So, casting one of my summons, say a Summon Clannfear spell, will advance your skill in conjuration and your XP the exact same way casting the normal game version would.

You did remind me however to go back and switch the main Master Summon spell to be a Lesser Power as well. So now the only thing that could have been unbalancing, that you could level conjuration just by casting the main menu over and over again has been resolved, since Lesser Powers by themselves do not level your skill/XP. (Grab v2.15 for that change.)

As for conflicts, I have posted the minor conflict with LAME in the description on TES Nexus and Planet Elder Scrolls (as well as the original post here now).

EDIT: Basically make sure my mod loads after LAME, since it won't make any difference to that mod but might slow down my targeting spell if you load mine first.

Similar type visual/sound-only conflicts are possible with any other magic mod, though not likely. I'll have to grab a version of OBSE to test Supreme Magic since I don't use it in my mods (yet), however I was able to open it in CS and see they did not overwrite that one extra magic effect shader I used, so there should be no conflicts at all with that one.

My mod does not touch any of the game's stock spells.

It turns out the way I was using an AOE to pick up targets after stopping combat with friendlies was causing some problems with multiple summons in areas with both friendlies and hostiles. Basically I had it waiting too long to pick up the target reference.

I removed the offending block, though I kept the part where summons still exit combat with friendlies when set to Only Target Hostiles.

That part wasn't affected.

v2.18 posted...

Modified the targeting spell to have a slightly larger splash radius, so hits to the ground or objects near the target will trigger targeting them same as a direct hit.

Also replaced the horribly outdated readme file, as I realized I'd been packaging the old version all this time. Descriptions added for all new menu commands.

No new updates, but I did want to ask some feedback. Earlier someone mentioned possibly adding some alternative versions in the download which use creatures from FCOM, Mart's, OOO, etc. I think that'd be cool, however I've honestly not had time to play through those much. I'm wondering what specific creatures from these other major mods (or one I haven't mentioned?) people would like to see on the lists, and also possibly what should be removed?

I am also thinking about a version which only adds scripts to all existing summons (my current version doesn't touch these stock game creatures at all), so that anything you summon in vanilla/SI will give you the same command options...

Or course that would conflict with other mods that changed the default summon spells, so I'd only do it as a separate mod, not part of this one.

Uploaded a new video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBV1UgI5K0I

Figured out the Youtube HD encoding, so this one shows the mod's capabilities more effectively. =)

If I understand this correctly, the control over summons is similar to Companions. You could attempt what no mod has yet accomplished; a fun undead/monster creation system and have enough control over the creatures to make them practical. Best example I know of is http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13927 Breathtaking writing, interesting variety of both spells and creatures. But the minions you summon are terminally stupid :brokencomputer: Difficulty following during fast travel, the 'stay' command returns them to point of origin, etc. If you could combine the companion/menu commands of creatures with a good 'creature assembly' system, you would have a serious winner. Yeah, the only suggestion I can think of is to expand the mod 10x beyond it's original purpose

Well, I would be happy to help if any such mod's authors want to incorporate my control/targeting scripts. Not sure I want to go the whole necromancy route with this one though, I've been trying to keep it relatively neutral in that regard, giving it "good" and "evil" branches...

That does seem like a good example for one that does however. I like how you can use bits from other failed creations to make equipment too, that's some serious necro!

I understand. Nother question for you. Do the spells get removed if you unequip the ring? (Still awaiting my new hdd, so haven't gotten to test the mod yet). I'd like to control my minions wearing full battle gear, including 2 rings. There are certainly enough mods to manage the spell book, so simply adding them to the spell list would be acceptable. Second question, can the number of summons be configured w/ an .ini? I'd like to keep it the same as the current limit I have set in Supreme Magicka.

To answer the first part: When you first equip the ring both the main spell with the summon menus, plus the new targeting spell both get added to your spell list.

You can use the ring to "hotkey" up to five favorite summons, which adds those as separate spells too (so you don't have to use the main spell menus to cast them.

When you remove the ring the main menu spell is removed, but any stored favorites as well as the targeting spells are left in your list. So, you can still summon favorites and tell them to attack without having to have the ring equipped.

You do still need the power from the ring to cast the main spell however, so that one is removed when you un-equip the ring.

I think the setting you are looking for is iNumberActorsAllowedToFollowPlayer. This doesn't really effect anything though. You'll get a message that "you have too many followers" if you go over the limit, but it still lets you get more. There are limits in the scripting as to how many at what level you can summon with the ring, but the practical number is unlimited, other than by available mana and again skill level.

Hi,
i hope you are still working on that mod coz its awesome
I had some kind of bug (or whatever you wanna call it). At Journeyman Conjuration i am Able to summon 2 Underworld Apprentice Summons, 2 Overworld Apprentice Summons, 1 Underworld Journeyman Summon and 1 Overworld Journeyman Summon. Similiar to apprentice where i could summon 1 overworld and 1 underworld summon of Apprentice level. Is this inteded to be like this or is something wrong here?

The other thing is, that this is not really consistent. After reloading a save game, i suddenly only could summon apprentice level Summons (2 of Overworld and only 1 of underworld) but no Journeyman Summons (even so i am Journeyman level). The Menu for Journeyman appears in my list, but when i try to summon one (without having anything else summond, i "killed" all others with "Dispel All" from the Master Summon Menu), only the message "Can't sustain higher summons" or something similiar... What is happening there? Perhaps some counter who counts the number of summons you have does not get properly reseted to 0 when you dispell all?

Greetz,

Yinan

My apologies, I have been away for a time and unable to update this. I have been reading the comments here (on the mod pages, etc.) recently and have resolved some of these issues. In testing the problem with "Unable to sustain higher summon" when using Stitched Flesh Atronach (and in some cases subsequently the entire Journeyman Underworld list) has been resolved. You will need to follow the instructions for creating a clean save in order for these changes to correct the issue.

I have been unable to duplicate the yellow glow glitch (posted comment on TES Nexus) using the raw file. There is nothing in my mod however that gets cast every 20 sec. as they mention. Everything to do with the targeting system requires you to either cast a spell or issue a command. So, this may also be resolved by downloading the latest version and creating a clean save (instructions in the readme file included.)

Major overhaul of the core scripts: Most notably, all summons have been made persistent references, using MoveTo on the single version of each instead of the old PlaceAtMe method. This is far superior as there will no longer be an issue with save game bloat over time.

Fixed the issue introduced when I implemented the hotkey scripts where failing to cast a summon (i.e. not enough mana) would permanently flag that summon as un-castable, giving the "Unable to sustain higher summon" message.

Encapsulated all scripting and state checks into blocks which only run when each summon is active (now nothing runs when they are disabled/unused in their holding cell), resulting in a significant performance increase.

New menu layout allows the option to go back a page, rather than canceling out of the entire sequence. It is now much easier to navigate for the specific summon you want without having to recast and restart every single time you make a wrong selection.

Fixed some random strangeness with a few summons that somehow had their scale set to Godzilla mode.

After play-testing the latest http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1103610-relz-fcom-convergence-and-ufcom/ (Oscuro + Francesco + Martigen) I have to say that having my summons set to permanent (that is, more like hunter/warlock pets in WoW where they only cost the initial mana to cast but then last until killed or dispelled) really balances out the increased difficulty/spawn rates of those addons.

I can confront a legion of 15 or so mobs, and with a few of my summons out with the ability to target and focus fire specific bosses, or send them in to draw attention while I do my thing, it really is a completely unique experience.

I highly recommend checking it out with the following options enabled in the console:

set phisustainmult to 4
set phinofade to 1

In playing through FCOM I've run into another minor issue...

Version 2.4b includes a fix for the issue where having a specific summon out when closing an Oblivion gate resulted in being unable to re-summon them once you were ported out. This was due to the way the game handles resetting Oblivion cells, and in such situations the active summons were being sent back to their starting position without resetting their in-use variable. Now simply casting Dispel All from the main menu will reset this state. This will also function as a fix for any other unforeseen scenario where you erroneously receive the "Unable to sustain higher summon" message.

Why is this called an SI overhaul? Especially when you get the ring in the Mystic Emporium.

Is this supposed to be roleplayed like something you get after becoming the sheogorath or something?

Have you heard of http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12935 ... I've never played it but seems akin if my guess on how to roleplay is correct.

To be honest I haven't put much effort thus far into any meaningful back-story. I originally had it loosely tied into the mages' guild questline, but that seemed disjointed and somewhat contrived, so I opted to simply pick a place to drop it in the world. Now that I've had time to work out the kinks in the scripting I may attempt to do something more immersive with the story.

To answer your question however it is at present intended merely as an expansion to the conjuration system, or an addition rather, as it doesn’t change anything about the game’s implementation.

That mod you linked sounds interesting; I downloaded it for research purposes as I have always had something like that on the hypothetical backburner. =)

In the current version I am uploading now, I removed the deprecated activator method of obtaining the ring, so you will no longer need to visit the Mystic Emporium. Instead, the ring will be automatically added to your inventory the first time you load a save with the mod checked.

I refer to it as an overhaul as the original version only contained summons from Oblivion while this adds many creatures introduced by the expansion.

After Steam's summer sale and buying http://overlord.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page games - I've been having fun playing the original Overlord. That game is really funny in a lot of ways.

Really it's a game about directing your minions to loot and kill for you - made me look at your mod again as I've never really played a summoner and thinking about it now.

So moving toward this but not there yet. Daerdic wargames does look really cool, but the date of it kinda concerns me - doubt it would be conflict free in today's mod world.

Does this means I dont have to buy any summons creature spell at all?
Do I nee to redo my bash patch if I plan to add it mid game?

Not sure of the first questiojn but you should redo your patch any and every time you:
1. add or remove and esp or esm
2. update an esp or esm.
3. change your load order.

Good to know. I have had significantly less CTD issues since I started using Wrye Bash to properly keep track of things.

KiNASuki, the stock summon spells still work, and in some cases you may be able to buy a higher level summon before it becomes available from the mod since my ring lists populate based on conjuration skill level. However, the stock spells do not have the advanced follow AI, the ability to attack on command via targeting spell, hold a position, teleport to your location via recall spell, remain indefinitely until killed or dispelled (with optional magicka drain configurable via console), etc.

Also, the mod lets you summon many things that the game itself doesn't have summon spells for, such as temporary mounts and many of the hunter type companions available on the overworld lists.

Thank you .. then lastly, my request.. please make persistent summoning as default behaviour in next version

Would it be possible to add an ini or a menu token (perhaps one that goes in the COBL options menu) in a future version? Configuring stuff via console is a pain, because a) I have to remember several commands (or have a notepad next to me whenever I start a new game) and b) because changes don't persist between games (a menu token doesn't solve this problem, but it makes it much more bearable).

set phisustainmult to 2

^ If I use that, that means my mana will be drained by half the amount to summon the creature right? for example, the creature cost 100 magicka to summon, I will now be drained by 50 magicka as long as its alive, right?