Enemy Actors Use Powers 0.1.1 Beta
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Description:

Adds Birthsigns to all humanoid actors and compels them to use Birthsign Powers against their foes in combat.

This mod beta is an experiment and a hobby. The player starts a new game choosing a birthsign and recieves powers and bonuses. But hardly anyone else in Cyrodiil has a birthsign. Let's begin to change that with version 0.1.1 Beta and force actors to use birthsign powers against their foes. If it sparks interest the mod's full scope will give Birthsign Powers and missing Race Powers to every actor, evil and good. Is this a good idea? A foolish one? We'll see. This is version 0.1.1 Beta, and a smattering of Birthsign powers are here. From an agragate of scripts, two main actions are carried : 1. Tokens are added to all humanoid actors. 2: The tokens force the actors to use their powers against their foes in combat, player or not.



Goal:

To make Bandits, Marauders, etc., more interesting and provide amusemant at the discovery of who gets which birthsign. In testing, I have seen my carefully power-leveled character lose to a marauder with the Mage birthsign, found shortswords and daggers poor choice against a foe with the Lover birthsign, discovered Uriel Septim as birthsign: The Thief and Simplicia the Slow as birthsign: The Lord!



Notes: My playtesting character is a level 12 archer mage power-leveled: 100 Intelligence, 90 Willpower, 100 Agility, 75 Speed, 40 Strength, 30 Endurance, 55 Luck. Enemy Actors Use Powers has a wide spell provide tokens to everyone. These tokens allow the actors to use some birthsign powers against the player and other foes. In my playtesting I have watched my collection of failure scripts turn in some tiny victories. Trial and error leads me to believe that a birthsign powers mod might provide me with mirth and entertainment. Please take some thought into which situations, quests, cells and which specific actors should not be controlled via script. Initial testing was done at default difficulty with headphones. For playtesting purposes a silent message will show when an actor is signalled to cast a power, which counts as a lesser power for now. If the actor dies they can use their power again after resurrect 1 is called on them. After loading a save with the mod enabled, a short quest message will show that the mod is in effect. The player will recieve the spell Star Witness to use on other actors to learn their birthsigns.



Bugs:

This is version 0.1.1 Beta. I have not yet implemented a plan to limit birthsign use ( to simulate that the actor had already used their power that day ). Distributing empty tokens will accomplish this later. NPCs with The Ritual birthsign seem distracted with the undead they previously turned. Perhaps finding a StopLook type function will address this. Sometimes Lover's Kiss fails to hit. Actors with The Mage birthsign are very powerful atm. For testing purposes, messages are active when a birthsign power is called. This will be removed later.



Compatability:

That's what we're hoping to find out. Mod that uses scripts to mess with actors in combat may be incompatible. OBMM will likely pick up conflicts because the script effect spell SEFF has had the area hit sound removed. This is a common edit for token users. Finally, I hope to make it can coexist with FCOM.



Birthsigns and the Actors that use them:

The Apprentice - Fortify Magicka 100, Weakness to Magicka 100%. Easy kill with Magicka. Doesn't appear often. Next version I will give them a small arsenal of touch spells.

The Atronach - Fortify Magicka 150, Spell Absorbtion 50%, Stunted Magicka. This will do for now, as Atronachs are annoying enough without my adding more to them.

The Lady - Fortify Willpower 10, Fortify Endurance 10. I'm taking suggestions on powers for them.

The Lord - Trollkin Curse ( Weakness to Fire 25% ). If the Lord's health goes below 50%, there is a 90% chance per second that they will cast a leveled Blood of the North to keep their life even for 20 seconds. When the Lord's health goes below 25% there is a 90% chance per second that they will cast First Seed's Noble Right, a fatigue sinking spell and knockdown, against their opponent.

The Lover - Keep away, Argonian! The Lover likes to use their Lover's Kiss early when their health is below 90%. If you can't control your distance in a fight and you let the Lover close enough to kiss you, then you should pucker up now and take 15 secs of paralysis. It might freak out some players to hear a kissing sound and be booted to 3rd person but I think it is entertaining. At least there's no tongue and only a 90% chance per second they will use it, just a light smooch that drains the Lover of 150 fatigue. Sorry, but the Lover doesn't six or race discriminate against the player or other foes.

The Mage - Fortify Magicka 50. The Mage gets an arsenal of touch spells to use against whoever is the enemy of them! If you must engage them up close, be aware that they will fatigue you, drain weapons skills, absorb, disintegrate weapons, and heal when needed. My power-leveled character did very poorly against them at melee distance. At least the spells they are allowed to use are based on their Destruction and Restoration skills. This way, a lowly marauder with the Mage birthsign will not use spells as powerful as, say, a conjurer with the Mage birthsign.

The Ritual - Mara's Gift ( Restore Health 200 ) will be called when the Ritual's health goes below 45% and the player is less than 2048 units away. Blessed Word ( Turn Undead 30 secs ) will target the nearest attacking undead foe, player summoned or not. The holy power will sound and the undead will burst into flames and flee in terror for 30 seconds while their usurper chases after them. The Ritual may attack the undead or turn their attention to you if you are seen. I must say that I have gone through tears and blood to get this spell working correctly. Here is why: The player's summon will always enter combat with the player's foe, no matter how low aggression or confidence is set or what AddScriptPackage was used. Even calling StopCombatAlarm or StartCombat Player every frame produced a funny, humping motion while the undead summon kept reentering combat with the player's foe. At one point, I had the undead actually yield to the Ritual, who accepted it, and called StartCombat Player. My summon moved toward me but soon doubled back to once again attack its usurper. This is why you should value all your summons, because of their loyalty! I digress, Both Mara's Gift and Blessed Word have a 90% chance per second to be cast when called by the script.

The Serpent - The Serpent Spell has a 90% chance per second to cast when called. It is a forked spell, having 2 uses but only one opportunity to cast. It can DispelAllSpells on the caster or cast a slow but lethal, leveled Damage Health on Touch on its victim. If you find a Serpent early you can force them to waste their single spell use on defense. This can be done by casting the following spells on them: Poison, Damage Health, Drain Health, Burden, Calm, Demoralize, Silence, Frenzy, Control Human, or Soul Trap.

The Shadow - You better watch your back! If you don't finish them off while they are below 30% health, the Shadow will use Moonshadow to escape, and come back for you soon with their poison and chameleon enchanted birthsign.

The Steed - Fortify Speed 20. Powers suggestions?

The Thief - Agility 10, Speed 10, Luck 10. If you've killed a Thief birthsign and find money on them, be aware that this is likely YOUR money, previously taken with the RemoveItemNS function. It is also possible for them to steal from other actors who have at least 100 gold.

The Tower - There is a 90% chance per second when the Tower's health goes below 85% that the Tower will cast Tower Warden, a leveled Reflect Damage for 120 secs. I felt the need to buff it, even with its long duration.

The Warrior - Strength 10, Endurance 10. Suggested powers?



Playtesting:
Just enter dungeons and quests with humanoid actors. use ~tai to isolate actors and observe how they use their powers against thier foes. Use ~resurrect 1 ( ~resurrect without the 1 flag will not retain their token ) on dead actors to reset them and test them in a variety of conditions ( with torches, in oblivion, in Fort Nikel ). See how the mod affects companions. Post feedback and opinions on which ideas are good and which are not.



Requirements:

Oblivion Patched to 1.2.0416
Oblivion Script Extender v0017b or higher



Recommended:

Unofficial Oblivion Patch 3.2.0
Oblivion Mod Manager



Installation:

1. Extract contents to temporary folder
2. Move Enemy Actors Use Powers 0.1.1.esp to the Data Folder
3. Move Sound folder to Data folder and overwrite if necessary
4. Use Oblivion Mod Manager or OblivionLauncher to checkmark Enemy Actors Use Powers 0.1.1.esp
5. Use obse_loader.exe to launch the game
6. Playtest



Uninstallation:

1. Uncheck the mod and make a new save with the mod deactivated.
2. Delete Enemy Actors Use Powers 0.1.1.esp and delete the Enemy Actors Use Powers folder from Data\Sound\fx folder.



Updating:

This is version 0.1.1 Beta, but for future reference: never ever update a mod by overwriting the .esp file while it is checkedmarked and then play the game and save it.



Suggestions:

I am open to suggestions and constructive criticism. Whether you think a power is too weak or triggers too early or too late or should have a lower GetDistance check, or if the sound effect is not appropriate, and which situations, characters, and cells should be immune or receive exemption, whether you think 90 seconds is enough for a marker rat, etc. Suggest powers for The Apprentice, The Atronach, The Steed, The Lady, and The Warrior.



Credits:

33448__dobroide__20070407.slaughter.05 by dobroide at http://www.freesound.org/
http://www.freesound.org/ is the best source for sound effects that I know of. It requires an account, but that is free.

Load order. I'm assuming that this should load after all mods that may add NPCs like to leveled lists and such -or- is it load order independent.
I would say it doesn't matter. The mod doesn't touch leveled lists at all. Loading it last is not a requirement. Because a single magic spell, SEFF, is touched it should load after magic mods such as Supreme Magicka. Deadly Reflex should not be run just because I imagine they would mess with each other, but if you want to try then load all Deadly Reflex files after this mod.

Will the effects added to NPCs affect other NPC additions - or is it all scripted?
Yes, it is all scripted. If an npc is an actor, not disabled, not a creature, not a ghost, not the player, and not in the undead faction, that npc will likely get a birthsign token. In the rare chance that Rand and GetRandomPercent returns 0, the actor will not get a token at all, but may get one later.

I'm using a mod called http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=29161 that replaces the Bandit leveled list with various other classes you might encounter - would this effect that?
It's very likely, as the script only cares about the conditions mentioned above. Classes are not touched or checked at all. In other words, if another mod adds new npcs then this mod will give them birthsigns too.

Next ... so what else does the vanilla game not account for? Like does the vanilla game not give racial powers either (even if not used). Maybe that could be an extension for this after the birtsign stuff is done.
For example, the Bosmer Wood Elf has a racial power to control animals. I have NEVER seen a Bosmer use this against my player or anyone else. However, I have seen vanilla Nords use their racial frost power against me. On the other hand, Imperials have a racial fatigue power. Again, I have never been fatigued by an Imperial. Wouldn't Imperial Legion Soldiers do well against criminals if they fatigued them? This means that in the vanilla game some racial powers are implemented and some are not.

I know for me the use of magic by NPCs is atrocious - even with magic overhauls the NPCs just never use magic to the same effect that the PC does. Like multiple spell effects and such.
We all know this very well. They regenerate magicka and have a ranged preference in their combat AI behavior, but there is no setting to control how often they cast spells and the result is a fireball or two. When you test the mod, look for a Mage birthsign and take them on in melee and note the willingness to heal when appropriate and when to cast an offensive touch spell. Finally, a crippling factor with scripting an actor to use the Cast target function on an actor is fubar'ed atm. They will often ignore the calling function or walk into touch range just to fire the target spell. For now, it doesn't look like we can force magic users to fling target spells rapidly from afar, but we can with touch spells.

Usually when fighting a group of enemies I will take out the magic user last, knowing that they will have little effect on me until then anyway. Archers are taken out first though.
That's because they are hardly a threat for anyone who can dodge a fireball. Perhaps I will take a look at some magic mods to see if I can add more powerful spells to Atronachs, Mages, and Apprentices. Keep in mind that the scope of this mod is birthsigns and racial powers.

Hhhhmmm...... I could see combining this with a mod that actually requires NPC's to burn magika when they cast spells, etc. Else, things like the Mage, and Atronach birthsign really won't do much. If you have an endless pool of magicka, what's another 50-150 points?

Excellent idea though. I will be watching development here.

nenina,
distance of 56 is right on top of it. Try 100 or 150 otherwise you might not see the kissing action.
Maybe you can also change the script to all enemies, not just the player?

As for suggestions, imo the birthsigns you changed are too overpowering. 15sec para? Reflect Damage as a birthsign power? Sounds a bit much. As a meleer you will get kissed and you will get beaten down on for 15sec. That's too annoying from my pov.

For what it's worth, all of my Birthsigns Expanded effects should be NPC-safe. Several of them actually have explicit NPC scripts when they do things that can only work for the player. I was hoping someone would eventually do exactly this.

Out of curiosity, why do you have to force use? Do NPCs not normally use their powers? Spriggans do...

Also, they very rarely use their racial powers. When was the last time you encountered an orc or redguard that used their buff, or an imperial that used his racial power to drain your fatigue?