» Fri May 27, 2011 4:18 am ...now you know what those Welkynd stones are for!
Version 2.6.1, september 27, 2009
..... Vast teleportation network across Cyrodiil with over 800 Steps
..... 42 new dungeons with 91 levels in all for you to find and explore
..... Two quests with lots of exploring, searching and puzzles to solve
..... Ayleid Meteoric Iron Weaponry by MadCat221 & RDJeke
..... Self-adjusting compatibility with Unique-Landscapes- and Better-Cities plugins.
Download 2.6.1 http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16316 (TesNexus)...
...or http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=OblivionMods.Detail&id=4203 (Planet)...
CHANGELOG release 2.6.1
---------------------------------------------
* Added a Cobl options submenu (in Player inventory) for NPCs stepping behavior.
* Added some 35 vanilla NPCs to the pool of steppers for more variety.
* Fixed some construction problems in one of the Lost Dungeons.
CHANGELOG release 2.6
---------------------------------------------
* Checked compatibility with the new UL-Blackwood Forest mod; two conflicts resolved.
* Tweaked the Intro quest to be clearer and simpler.
* Altered script on book The Ayleid Steps to avoid glitch maybe caused by Cobl: the book must be found and read on picking it up, before you can buy it anywhere.
* Edited text in a certain message to provide player with clearer clues to the location of the Network activator room.
* The Ayleid Clutter incorporated in Cobl 1.71 and up, can now be found in the Lost (Ayleid) Dungeons.
* Added 1 Lost Dungeon with 2 levels. There are now 42 Dungeons.
CHANGELOG, cumulative, since release 2.5
---------------------------------------------
* Scripted a Step adjustment for (Better Cities) Cheydinhal.
* Scripted Step adjustments for (Open Cities) Bartholm.
* More fixes for the scripts controlling NPC stepping activity.
* Changed some scripts to avoid possible conflicts with Knights of the Nine plugin.
* NPCs will not be stepping during the final Main Quest chapters (Camoran and Temple episodes).
Readme excerpt:
INTRODUCTION:
--------------------
As long as anyone can remember, hundreds of ancient Ayleid stones sit in Cyrodill's wilderness and in Ayleid structures such as ruins and wells. What almost nobody knows however, is what these so-called Steps are supposed to do. Doing the intro Quest, you find out that this network of stones is in fact a teleporting system. Each time you want to teleport, you have to energize the Step with a Welkynd stone.
You can teleport directly into Ayleid ruins, to Ayleid wells, and to lots of locations that the Ayleids once considered important. But you have to prepare yourself: many Steps are defective and will refuse to work, or beam you to random locations. You can land in someone's basemant, in government buildings, in caves in the middle of a bunch of goblins, and in very remote and unusual places. Or you can discover sunken ruins, hitherto unknown to man, where lots of treasure and enemies await you. There's a new home to be found, too - it's not pretty, but it has a bedroll, a private Stepstone (no doors) and many safe containers (and a waste bin).
This mod adds many circular/cilindrical stones to the landscape and to many indoor cells, but chances are you can play a long time before encountering some. Many are well hidden, or partly buried or overgrown.
To start the intro quest you have to try to activate one Stepstone, and read a book on the topic. During the quest you have to visit a rather hairy location, so OOO-players can hardly do this before level 12-18. There are no quest markers in your compass - you have to examine, read and think a bit, and search a lot. When you can actually use the Steps, the quest is not over before you find a certain location mentioned in the clues. But after that, you can imagine your own neverending quest: try to map the Network, search for those VERY hard to find lost ruins, and of course hunt for Welkynd stones. (Please refer to the paragraphs at the bottom of this file for more info on the quests. )
The mod aims to be lore- and immersiveness-friendly. There's no new spoken dialogue, just 4 books, a letter, a few new interior locations, a vast network of Steps - and over 40 new dungeons.
This plugin intends to offer a reason to keep on exploring and adventuring for experienced characters, i.e. those that have completed all default game quests and have attained a level over 20-30. Playing the Ayleid Steps with FCOM, or OOO and MMM, or other overhaul mods is highly recommended!
REQUIREMENTS:
-------------------
* Vanilla Oblivion with the latest official patch 1.2.416.
* OBSE (Oblivion Script Extender) version 16 or newer.
* Cobl (Common Oblivion Library) version 1.71 or newer, find it here: http://wrye.ufrealms.net/Cobl.html. For use with this mod, you merely have to install "Cobl Main.esm" and the Meshes, Sound and Textures folders from "Cobl Core", and activate "Cobl Main.esm").
COMPATIBILITY:
-------------------------------
UNIQUE LANDSCAPES & BETTER CITIES:
The mod detects which (if any) Unique-Landscape-mods or Better Cities IC mods are activated, and adjusts certain Stepstone positions accordingly. It does this once after each savegame loading (and at the start of a new game). Note that this will ONLY work if you have not altered the original .esp filenames! If the mod cannot find a plugin, the Steps in the area will be reset to their default position. So no more displacements after you change your plugin load order. How Oblivion stores the Steps positions in its savegames is of no importance at all, since the adjusting is repeated with every game loading.
If you have all UL-mods merged into one .esp file, then rename that file to "xulAll.esp" to make the adjustment script recognize it.
Better Cities, Open Cities and Open Better Cities (non-IC modules): compatible in so far that there are no Steps in exterior town cells, so no conflicts.
Other mods that The Ayleid Steps can adjust to, are listed under "Reference".
OTHER PLUGINS:
The mod is built with only Vanilla Oblivion, aforementioned official patch, OBSE 16 and Cobl 1.71. It is playtested with UOP, FCOM (OOO, MMM, Francesco's, WarCry), the UL and BC mods and many smaller mods activated; so far no severe conflicts were found.
This mod may conflict with other plugins that:
- alter the vanilla landscape (House and village mods for example)
- alter vanilla interiors, change architectural layout, move furniture, etc.
- alter availability and/or prices of Welkyndstones. (To be sure, load after such mods).
If you teleport somewhere and don't see a Stepstone where there should be one, an other mod may have buried it. As a consequence you can't use it. This is not necessarily a problem - there are so many Steps in the world that you can easily do without some.
The mod is tested with the Valeria Caresse companion; there were no issues so far. Every companion that can teleport to the player should work.
ISSUES & KNOWN CONFLICTS:
---------------------------------------------
* Some users reported getting stuck when trying to reach a particular Stepstone near the invisible borders of the game. The scripts were corrected for this one. In case you find another problem Step, you can correct it by editing this line in your Oblivion.ini file: "bBorderRegionsEnabled=1". Change the 1 to a 0, and save the file.
* Playing with MMM, you may encounter bands of adventurers in the Lost Dungeons. If you find this immersion-breaking, use the MMM-provided "Mart's Monster Mod - No Adventurers.esp" to prevent them spawning in dungeons.
* Should stepping activity of NPCs cause problems, it can be altered with the (Cobl) Options menu in your inventory. Look for the "Ayleid Steps - NPCs behavior" option. You can determine if NPCs will go teleporting, and if they should be set to essential when they do so, to protect them.
I'd like to receive any constructive criticism, error and glitch reports and any other feedback.
Thank you, and happy Stepping
.
THANKS:
-----------
* to the OBSE programmers for their nifty script extender.
* to MadCat221 (madcat221@gmail.com), RDjeke (rdjeke@gmail.com) and Sotobrastos for the Ayleid Meteoric Iron Weapons.
* to Meo, Cryptic_Rain and Vacuity for the Ayleid Clutter objects.
* to Wrye and anyone who contributed, for Common Oblivion Library (Cobl).
* to several people in the gamesas and TesNexus forum threads or sending e-mails, for suggestions that helped improve the mod - notably Skyranger for the Hubs concept, Shadowborn for pointing out conflicts and script bugs, WalkerInShadows for bughunting and Wrye for several constructive criticisms.
--------------------
As long as anyone can remember, hundreds of ancient Ayleid stones sit in Cyrodill's wilderness and in Ayleid structures such as ruins and wells. What almost nobody knows however, is what these so-called Steps are supposed to do. Doing the intro Quest, you find out that this network of stones is in fact a teleporting system. Each time you want to teleport, you have to energize the Step with a Welkynd stone.
You can teleport directly into Ayleid ruins, to Ayleid wells, and to lots of locations that the Ayleids once considered important. But you have to prepare yourself: many Steps are defective and will refuse to work, or beam you to random locations. You can land in someone's basemant, in government buildings, in caves in the middle of a bunch of goblins, and in very remote and unusual places. Or you can discover sunken ruins, hitherto unknown to man, where lots of treasure and enemies await you. There's a new home to be found, too - it's not pretty, but it has a bedroll, a private Stepstone (no doors) and many safe containers (and a waste bin).
This mod adds many circular/cilindrical stones to the landscape and to many indoor cells, but chances are you can play a long time before encountering some. Many are well hidden, or partly buried or overgrown.
To start the intro quest you have to try to activate one Stepstone, and read a book on the topic. During the quest you have to visit a rather hairy location, so OOO-players can hardly do this before level 12-18. There are no quest markers in your compass - you have to examine, read and think a bit, and search a lot. When you can actually use the Steps, the quest is not over before you find a certain location mentioned in the clues. But after that, you can imagine your own neverending quest: try to map the Network, search for those VERY hard to find lost ruins, and of course hunt for Welkynd stones. (Please refer to the paragraphs at the bottom of this file for more info on the quests. )
The mod aims to be lore- and immersiveness-friendly. There's no new spoken dialogue, just 4 books, a letter, a few new interior locations, a vast network of Steps - and over 40 new dungeons.
This plugin intends to offer a reason to keep on exploring and adventuring for experienced characters, i.e. those that have completed all default game quests and have attained a level over 20-30. Playing the Ayleid Steps with FCOM, or OOO and MMM, or other overhaul mods is highly recommended!
REQUIREMENTS:
-------------------
* Vanilla Oblivion with the latest official patch 1.2.416.
* OBSE (Oblivion Script Extender) version 16 or newer.
* Cobl (Common Oblivion Library) version 1.71 or newer, find it here: http://wrye.ufrealms.net/Cobl.html. For use with this mod, you merely have to install "Cobl Main.esm" and the Meshes, Sound and Textures folders from "Cobl Core", and activate "Cobl Main.esm").
COMPATIBILITY:
-------------------------------
UNIQUE LANDSCAPES & BETTER CITIES:
The mod detects which (if any) Unique-Landscape-mods or Better Cities IC mods are activated, and adjusts certain Stepstone positions accordingly. It does this once after each savegame loading (and at the start of a new game). Note that this will ONLY work if you have not altered the original .esp filenames! If the mod cannot find a plugin, the Steps in the area will be reset to their default position. So no more displacements after you change your plugin load order. How Oblivion stores the Steps positions in its savegames is of no importance at all, since the adjusting is repeated with every game loading.
If you have all UL-mods merged into one .esp file, then rename that file to "xulAll.esp" to make the adjustment script recognize it.
Better Cities, Open Cities and Open Better Cities (non-IC modules): compatible in so far that there are no Steps in exterior town cells, so no conflicts.
Other mods that The Ayleid Steps can adjust to, are listed under "Reference".
OTHER PLUGINS:
The mod is built with only Vanilla Oblivion, aforementioned official patch, OBSE 16 and Cobl 1.71. It is playtested with UOP, FCOM (OOO, MMM, Francesco's, WarCry), the UL and BC mods and many smaller mods activated; so far no severe conflicts were found.
This mod may conflict with other plugins that:
- alter the vanilla landscape (House and village mods for example)
- alter vanilla interiors, change architectural layout, move furniture, etc.
- alter availability and/or prices of Welkyndstones. (To be sure, load after such mods).
If you teleport somewhere and don't see a Stepstone where there should be one, an other mod may have buried it. As a consequence you can't use it. This is not necessarily a problem - there are so many Steps in the world that you can easily do without some.
The mod is tested with the Valeria Caresse companion; there were no issues so far. Every companion that can teleport to the player should work.
ISSUES & KNOWN CONFLICTS:
---------------------------------------------
* Some users reported getting stuck when trying to reach a particular Stepstone near the invisible borders of the game. The scripts were corrected for this one. In case you find another problem Step, you can correct it by editing this line in your Oblivion.ini file: "bBorderRegionsEnabled=1". Change the 1 to a 0, and save the file.
* Playing with MMM, you may encounter bands of adventurers in the Lost Dungeons. If you find this immersion-breaking, use the MMM-provided "Mart's Monster Mod - No Adventurers.esp" to prevent them spawning in dungeons.
* Should stepping activity of NPCs cause problems, it can be altered with the (Cobl) Options menu in your inventory. Look for the "Ayleid Steps - NPCs behavior" option. You can determine if NPCs will go teleporting, and if they should be set to essential when they do so, to protect them.
I'd like to receive any constructive criticism, error and glitch reports and any other feedback.
Thank you, and happy Stepping
.THANKS:
-----------
* to the OBSE programmers for their nifty script extender.
* to MadCat221 (madcat221@gmail.com), RDjeke (rdjeke@gmail.com) and Sotobrastos for the Ayleid Meteoric Iron Weapons.
* to Meo, Cryptic_Rain and Vacuity for the Ayleid Clutter objects.
* to Wrye and anyone who contributed, for Common Oblivion Library (Cobl).
* to several people in the gamesas and TesNexus forum threads or sending e-mails, for suggestions that helped improve the mod - notably Skyranger for the Hubs concept, Shadowborn for pointing out conflicts and script bugs, WalkerInShadows for bughunting and Wrye for several constructive criticisms.
Screenshots:
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-3-1206987532.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-2-1206987532.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-1-1206987532.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-4-1206987532.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-5-1206987533.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-3-1207071127.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-4-1207071128.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-5-1207071128.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-2-1212744092.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-4-1212744092.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-1-1217585755.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-1-1217586330.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-1-1217586377.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-1-1223034725.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-2-1223034725.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-5-1223034726.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-4-1223034726.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-3-1223034725.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-1-1223034835.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-2-1223034835.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-4-1223034835.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-1-1223034867.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-3-1223034835.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/16316-1-1233218989.jpg
Here is the http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=962480 thread (versions 2.4-2.5.3).
Out of curiosity, has any even attempted to fully catalog all of the steps? 
No - it's impossible, since most of them are completely random. 
If you find out what is causing this, I'd like to know. 
