[Relz] Inari's Skills Tweaks 0.9b : III

» Tue May 08, 2012 10:27 am

Although graphical improvement mods making our Morrowind more beautiful than ever come in large numbers, on gotta admit that fights are still boring and slow.

This mod makes a global overhaul to the skills and combat system, through perks obtained at given levels. Fatigue and Health's behaviour are changed to make the fights more intense and technical.

Inari's Skills Tweaks tries to reconsider skills and statistics into the game system :

*Perks :

- Reaching a given level in a skill gives you a special perk. For example, all weapons skills give you a passive Fortify Attack 30pts when above 20, and when using that type of weapon. The perks list is available below.

- Perks that allow you to turn an item into an other, or to summon any, won't have their whole effects written in the spells list, because of the game system. However, their names will be explicit enough.

- Combat Stance perk which is obtained at lvl 70 of weapons skills is stackable. You'll get twice the effects if you've got two weapons skills at 70+.

*Statistics :

- Fatigue has a different behaviour. You don't loose it anymore when running, but you loose more when fighting. Being exhausted has a much worse effect than before, meaning that players require a more careful use of their Fatigue bar. Also, there are many perks that allows you to drain your own Fatigue to raise your effectivness.

- As a counterpart for new skills, Health is 5 times less efficient, meaning that any health loss is 5 times greater, forcing you to use a more technical approach during fights.

This is a beta version : I've been testing it myself, and no major bugs should be encountered, but I haven't been able to play dozens of character classes at various levels. Therefore, it might need balancing on a future release.

Let me know if you check it out, enjoy it, and if you encounter problems.

Thanks for support. :smile:

Link at PES : http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=9411

» Tue May 08, 2012 5:08 am

Awesome thanks

» Tue May 08, 2012 10:08 am

Hi Inari! [img]http://icons.iconarchive.com/icons/martin-berube/animal/24/mouse-icon.png[/img]

Nice to see you here. Interesting concept. I will also try to play the plugin.

» Tue May 08, 2012 8:50 am

Though I haven't tried to play the plugin yet, from looking at your scripts in CS they must be in danger of a less known "IF limit overflow" bug. When there are too many IF/ELSEIF/ELSE commands in a script, after a certain point the game engine starts to run every command in a script regardless of whether they should be executed according to script's logic. The subtle danger of this bug is that it doesn't get detected neither by CS nor does it show some obvious in-game signs like error messages or CTDs. I'd recommend you to split your IST_xxxPerks some further; also, most scripts have some room for simplification.

» Mon May 07, 2012 11:26 pm

Hi! Thank you all for comments and interest!

Thanks Kir, I'll try to optimize the machine when I'll make a 1.0 stable clean release. At the moment, it's still functional and I didn't encounter the bug you're talking about... every perk activates when it should do so. But I will take care of this for a next revision!

Cheers!

» Tue May 08, 2012 3:27 am

The mod is now available from PES : http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=9411

Still considered a beta, but at least a stable one. Please report any bugs if you check it out!

It makes the game harder, don't forget that it's meant that way. If you don't enjoy difficult things, you may not enjoy IST at all.

» Tue May 08, 2012 6:33 am

I think this isn't getting the attention it deserves.

I have a few questions, though:

1) you say Fatigue losses have noticeable effects... but from the readme it is not clear what these effects actually are
2) what do you mean by saying that health is 5 times "weaker"? Does it mean that now fights are much more deadlier? If so, how much? Too much? I hope combat doesn't become a "one-hit-dead" affair.

Interesting concept about the skill perks. Are they, for the most part, powers that can be used once a day? Or spells with a fixed magicka requirement? From the descriptions, it is not clear which perks are powers, which perks are passive abilities, and which one are spells...

Thanks for the mod, anyway.

» Tue May 08, 2012 4:21 am

Thanks for interest! Lemme precise things a little to answer your questions. :smile:

One obtains perks at levels 20, 40, 70 and 100 in any skill. Those can be passive abilities (which eventually ask for certain conditions to be filled, for example at Unarmored 70 you take 30% less damage, if you're wearing no armor at all only), or active skills. Those skills usually cost Fatigue and no Magicka, for example when you have 40 in Spear, you're able to unleash a strong Area of effect attack which will consume some Fatigue. There are also scripted spells in the perks, such as Alchemy at 70, which allows to turn Standard potions into Exclusive counterparts, consuming some Fatigue to do so. The price in Fatigue can be on a certain duration, for example at 20 Sneak you can use a Chameleon effect which drains Fatigue slowly. They're not powers, there's no limited use. That's it for perks.

Fatigue works a little differently, because of the aformentionned perks. Also, you don't lose Fatigue anymore while running (it just doesn't regenerate if you run), but you lose a little more while fighting (forcing you not to click the attack button brainlessly, or to use potions to restore Fatigue if fights are lasting too long). Under 50 Fatigue, you are a little exhausted, which makes you more vulnerable to elements, magicka, poison and diseases. Under 25 Fatigue, you're really tired, suffering from a Blind and Burden effect. If your Fatigue hits 0, you're knocked down for a couple seconds.

Health is 5 times less efficient (unless you unlock a level 70 perk into any armor type, then Health is 3.5 times less efficient instead). That means received damage is far greater, and depending on your class, close-range combat can be especially deadly. To be honest, I've been testing the mod with 3 characters, one kind of hunter (spear, sneak, marskman, mysticism) lvl 3, one full mage (destruction, restoration, mysticism, ...) lvl 18 and one kind of paladin (long blade, heavy armor, restoration,...) lvl 6. They're all able to make their ways through the game, including factions, main quests, etc. Only thing I didn't test at all are the bosses like Almalexia and Hircine, which may be really deadly. If yes, I'll balance the mod.

For sure, things get harder, and for example, my mage is forced to use spells of Damage speed, Damage strength or Paralysis a lot to keep ennemies at a safe distance. If they get too close, it can be a one-shot fight. However, my kinda paladin is able to endure enough hits to win the fights against ennemies of similar levels. It's important to notice that this mod usually lowers your ambitions, and you won't travel to the clockwork city with a lvl 10 character. It forces to a more roleplay approach, still, as so-called dangerous places become actually really dangerous. A matter of choice, I enjoy my game this way and I thought people would do so, that's why I shared this.

Hope this makes things clearer. :smile:

To tell the truth to anybody around, I'm very happy with the result, fights are more technical, enemies are dangerous, and you don't wander everywhere slaying anything that attacks you while having a fresh beer. You have some real intense fights with IST, and that was my goal. Daedra are quite fearsome creatures again, and many forgotten effects (blind, damage attribute, absorb fatigue, resist elements, etc...) are now really useful. Only the increased difficulty can make you reluctant to it. But it's just a single esp, so it's easy to install it and try, then to disable it if you don't like it...!

» Tue May 08, 2012 4:19 am

Wow, this sounds sooo good!
Thanks for this! Cant wait to try it when im home in 2 months...
I will have missed 7 moths of MW mods.
Im looking forward to it!