After reading through Reneer's Sneak Mod I got to remincising about my days with the MMORPG Dark Ages of Camelot (DAoC) and the stealth wars that would occur there with stealthy toons. Reneer's mod adds an element of surprise by making NPCs have a sort of invisibility to them if your sneak skill was below theirs. Anyways, in DAoC while an assassin was on the prowl hunting or setting up an attack on an unsuspecting player, there was always the chance that another stealther was nearby, possibly hunting you, or after seeing you attack someone while they were waiting, ambush the ambusher (so to speak).

To get to the point, I started wondering about NPCs that sneaked on the player. Did that ever happen in vanilla or was there a mod like that out there already? I don't recall and don't think there is. So I had an idea of making a mod that places a random chance encounter of an NPC assassin that is sneaking and hunting the player, who is completely unaware of it. Perhaps a trigger to the event is when the player is sneaking him/herself. And to further add to it, place a few in select randomizing locations where they stay in sneak mode and wait for the player to come by, such as in the bandit dungeons or the like. Obviously Reneer's sneak mod would have to be necessary in order for the idea to be pulled off. Also, Hex_Off's up coming Unnecessary Violence2 is strongly suggested for use since it will have dual weilding as well as other martial arts (ie kicking). You can currently use UV1 for now.

So here's the progress so far for Phase1: Encounters (% of completion):

Everything is near completion. Percentages at this time would be unnecessary.


As of right now, I have 15 assassins, :toughninja: all of which have unique gear. A few have similar designs in equipment, but hopefully, it's enough of a difference to give it a unique feel. There are several armors that have the Dark Brotherhood armor basis for instance.

Concerning how easy or hard these guys are: more than likely, 10 of these guys will be the "normal" variety, and 5 will be "boss" types. But don't think the "normals" will be easy. These random battles with just one "normal" will be a challenge. There will also be a chance for more than one to appear, even up to four a time. You might want to bring a companion with you even at times. The challenge factor will also depend on who gets the jump on the other first, you or them, and there'll be a chance for either situation to occur. Hope your stealth skill is up to level.

This is Phase1: Encounters. Phase2 will comprise of a storyline.

Great idea, sounds very nice :foodndrink:

Quick question: If EVERYTIME you sneak there's a chance of someone lurking right there out to stab you, does that mean some house owners hired an assassin to guard their empty house?

To add to the story (as to why assassins are out there to kill PC), some reasons could be:
- Audens Avidius put a "hit" on you (he's the imperial guard that you put int he slammer for corruption in the vanilla quest). Even when he dies by your hand (he attacks you 10 days after the quest ends), he's also got some of his "underworld" connections to put men after you. See quest here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Audens_Avidius
- Agarmir (see: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Agarmir) has men after you as you are too "nosy". These men try to avenge his death (or if he's alive, try to prevent you from spreading his info).
- Seridur (see http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Seridur) might have people behind you for finding out his secret.
- Glarthir (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Glarthir) wants to h\get you killed just because he thinks you know too much, and is paranoid about you now...
- Ulrich Leland's (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Ulrich_Leland) friends are out to kill you.
- Falcar (http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Falcar) and his necromancer associates are also out to get you.

You could accomplish this by putting letters on the assassins (random - any of the above), so that we know who was trying to get the PC killed. Of course, a check to see if that particular quest (related to the NPC above) was activated will bring realism. I think adding some story (that integrates with other Oblivion stories) is essential for a really good experience.

Do you think this is useful?

Also, I think assassins should only attack you (while sneaking) in wilderness/ bandit camps/ caves/ayleid ruins/ forts and dungeons... Cities, homes, and Oblivion planes are also not the most ideal locations.

Probably makes sense to script it not to work in owned Cells?

Well the idea behind the mod is that not only are you hunting the regular denizens and creatures of Tamriel, but also an elite assassin's group, who are also in turn hunting you as well. Therefore, there won't be limitations as far as the script goes and where and when these assassins appear. Remember, these assassins are tracking you, even into houses that you may be stealing in (if you're a thief). However, the script basically works in a way that the chance for them to finally track your location only happens when you're sneaking. Also, if I can script this correctly, they're be a chance that you will detect them before they detect you, and vice versa.

Anithinks, those are some good ideas, and I am looking into an actual story as to why you and these assassins are trying to kill each other. I'll keep those in mind.

Of course, the Mythic Dawn also has motivation to send assassins after you - certainly before the MQ is completed. It would be exciting to be on the receiving end of a sneak attack in the upper bedroom of a noble's house, just as one is about to pick the lock of a jewelry box..... :ph34r: :ninja:

That's a pretty good idea too. I noticed they're role in the main quest seems a little short spanned.

This sounds cool.

Any chance of adding the Morrowind style encouters whilst sleeping?

That would be a great idea too. I never played Morrowind, so how did that work?

Update#1

I finally have the research for the gear for these assassins pretty much complete. I plan on editting some meshes on a few of them, including an all new type of mesh that I might release as a separate resource mod. Regardless, this part of the mod has taken me longer than I thought it would, hence why no updates in the progress percentages until now. In fact, I added another catagory, lol, so if anything I've actually backtracked.

this sounds amazingly awesome. prepare to get ambushed, Oblivion players!

Update#2

Got a lot done in the last two days, including the tedious organization of the meshes and textures. Doing this gave me an even greater admiration to those that have had to do this before. Next up are two time consuming tasks including placement of equipment, and finishing the mesh editing. I hope to also start up the new mesh "accessory" that was alluded to in Update#1 this weekend.

Also, thanks for the comments and questions everyone. I'm glad that someone is at least interested in this.

Woot! Keep up the good work! :celebration:

This reminds me of the FCOM plugin



Either way, sounds like a good idea, and it promises to be different enough to warrant its own spot on my load order.

Some ideas:
Mythic Dawn is an EXCELLENT idea. And as you progress through the main quest, maybe some daedra assassins (who will be more of a challenge) will come after you too! Heavy hint here...check out this daedric light armor. Perfect! http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=2182

Have the assassins stalk you for a set number of days, maybe giving a sharply aware player the chance to discover the presence of his pursuer, and strike first (an added bit of fun would, by doing this, give the player a false sense of security. Hah, I just sooo killed that assassin! I'm soo safe now! *shluck* oh, Sithis' [censored], there was another one. :dead:

Could also have assassins attack only if there is no one (friendly) to the player around. Imagine fighting a few conjurers, trying to kill them while their summons are attacking you from each angle, when all of a sudden an assassin pops in to join in on the action!

Another thing for you to do is, when the player enters a dungeon, for them to hide near the entrance, waiting for you to return, all weighed down by the loot of a dungeon you thought you had cleared. I know it would surprise me. I'm quite careful initially going into a dungeon, careful to check everything. But on my way out, I'm nearly 1 point away from being unable to move, and pretty blind to anything but running towards the exit so I can sell my goods. (to be sure, assassins might find an good encumbrance spell useful...

EDIT: Light armor also on TES Nexus
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8357

Great ideas! I do have the script to where there is a chance for you to see the assassin first. As it stands now, there's also the chance that more than one assassin will find you, althought roughly 50% of the time it'll be one on one. That may change during testing. Also keep in mind, these assassins will be tough. It'll be like boss fights. Now imagine having to fight 2 of them.... 3 of them... or worse yet, 4 of them at a time, althought the later will be much much rarer.

I love the idea that you think you're about to finish off an assassin when all of a sudden, there's another one. That's exactly what happened in DAoC and often you'd see your prey walk away with a sliver of life left but standing over your body. I'm not sure about how to make it so that when you're fighting other creatures or NPCs, but I do have an idea of how to do it with other assassins. Awesome ideas overall though, I'll have to figure some of those out. Man, I thought I was about finished with the scripting too. haha.

Btw, already have that armor on one of them.



...and love the signature.

Update#3

Got some progress done with the meshes I have been making/altering and am looking forward to it's potential for the assassins. That took longer than I was hoping for. :sadvaultboy: I have most of the gear placement planned out and during which I had a few new ideas come up for them.

Something I didn't think about until this afternoon for some reason: stats, on both NPCs and equipment! That'll take awhile to plan out too. I'd also like to change the faction they belong to as well, but I'd like it to be a new faction, so I'll have to figure that out as well since I've never done that before.

Because of these, I've changed the progress some again....but made it back track again. Don't assassinate me because of the delays..... :bolt:

Also, keep in mind a lot of the equipment models I'm using have some intense polys/high resolution, but hopefully won't cause too much of a problem. If you can run Jojjo's Lichking and Frostmourne mod for example, you shouldn't have a problem.

Edit: Got another idea for weapon switching, so I might explore that a bit too. Would change combat strategy a little. I'll have to ponder this and see if I want to get into that though.

Edit#2: I also keep finding other weapons and armor that keeps making me change my plans, LOL. I'm up to 15 assassins now, and that was a lot more than I had originally intended.

Update#4
I've hit a major snag that will be detrimental to the mod and that if I can't figure it out, or hopefully get some help on it from some experts, I'll have to shelf this project. I finally got around to testing the main script, which I thought looked complete, but apparently OBSE CS is having problems with it and won't save the script at all.

I need someone who is well versed in OBSE/vanilla scripting that can help me with the Rand syntax, and the OnControlDown syntax. I'll start a topic in the Construction Set section of the forum to see if I can get some help with it.

In the meantime, this project is on hold until I get answers, whether on my own, which isn't looking to bright in the future (I've already tried to figure it out), or if I can get some assistance.

Edit: Okay, back on track (HUGE props to Phitt, :foodndrink: , and thanks CDM for the earlier advice). I'll have to sort of redo the script in a different way. I'll be using a quest script instead of the way I was approaching it.

Have you seen the movie Assassins, starring Sly Stallone & Antonio Banderas? Basically the premise is that a jaded master assassin is stalked by another assassin who wants to be 'the best' by taking out 'the best'. In fact, the wannabe 'steals' one of the master's kills to make his presence known. I'm sure you can see where this is going....

Could be an idea you could use.....

Yeah, that was an awesome movie! Definately like the idea.

The story will probably be the biggest part of making this mod after reading into quests and quest scripts. I'm still working on the random encounters engine, which has proven to be more of a challenge than I was thinking. I'm also having to do things a little differently than what I was hoping for, but I think in the end, it'll still work out about the same. It will however make integrating a storyline more difficult.

Update#5
Great news! I finally got the main script engine for the random encounters tested and its working good! :celebration: :foodndrink:

I've also scripted a way to turn off the random encounters for those times when you need to sneak without interruption, such as with a quest.

Also during testing, I played around with the NPC and fought him. Turns out he was rather wimpy to my toon. Going to have to step up his level some. I'm sure once I have his proper equipment in place, that'll make a difference to.

I'm lovin' the progress. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the support.

Did some more testing during lunch and fixed another issue I was having. It was a simple one too. I had named a cell wrong and couldn't figure out why the script wouldn't use it's reference! LOL. :brokencomputer:

Anyways, got that part finished. I can now begin the big chore of equipment placement.

Update#6
Not much progress done this week. I had more backtracking to do because of how the textures where being placed. I had to redo the packaging a bit. I also did some weapon changes to some of the NPCs.

I'm also working on additional scripts to where you think your fighting only what you see, but that there are actually other assassin members waiting to attack too. MUAHAHAA! :chaos: I'm also thinking about adding a chance of one of them attacking you just when you think the battle is over and your health is low. :shocking:

Got some of the enchantments complete and the faction is also done.

Still got extensive testing to do as well.

Keep up the good work. Looking forward to this one.