Potential Reward for Quest Developers - WIP

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Hi all,

I thought I would make this post here so that quest developers were aware of it. I recently wrote up some details of an NPC for use within ST here: Diary of a Redguard Necromancer - Anaster Marrowmir . The idea is that a quest developer may choose to use him as a 'reward' for the completion of one of their quests. The only drawback is that you might need to have a fairly suitable quest with vaguely related themes that allows for a little sub-plot to be going on in the form of fragments of this character's diary.

Although he was originally designed for all sorts of purposes, including as a necromancer for Giskard's mod ('The Necromancer') and now as a sound set for a companion in the 'Oblivion Sound Sets', I thought I might make use of the diary that I started when I first conceived of him and adapt it for ST.

As the topic of 'voodoo', to which he is strongly connected, is associated with what's going on with the Black Marsh mod, I thought I would make those guys aware of my ideas too. So, if you don't want to read that HUGE diary then this is a more practical general discussion of what's being planned for him here: NPC 'voodoo' link with Silgrad Tower .

This furthers my plans for making NPCs that are more recognisable and involving rather than the much-criticised phenomenon in Oblivion of feeling a little 'alone' in your questing. The old 'Ruined Tail's Tale' sought to do a similar thing but hopefully this will be more immersive. I'm happy to co-author, advise or write dialogue for anyone wishing to take this up.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

This is just a couple of ideas that I'd hoped someone might be able to help me with if this proposal becomes a reality:

Besides some general skinning that ideally would involve creating a top-hatted character (as my picture shows), it would be cool if he could have his own specialist weapon like, for example, a staff that had a sort of snake motif.

More importantly (and potentially more impressively), I had hoped that someone might help by creating a special spell that resurrects the last humanoid killed by Anaster so that he can use it as a summoned creature, but hopefully with some minor alteration to the skin, like completely black/red/specialist eyes. The script would therefore need to recognise that spell, alter the corpse and summon it the main character's location if needs be and, of course, trigger the correct spell-casting dialogue line from brucevayne's mod (which he can help with).

In my present, WIP script I've made a provisional note about creating dialogue lines for the summon spells which are supposed to increase in power. So likewise, I'm hoping that, again, the script will be able to recognise the last humanoid kill and summon something like a zombie of that same race that will look similar to the skins that are provided by MMM e.g. 'zombie Argonian'. This is spell #2. The last one (spell #3) would be a high-powered member of Anaster's 'skeleton crew'.

Any thoughts, people?

P.S. I've posted up some sample voice files here: Anaster Marrowmir Samples

[Dephenistrator]

Having delved very deeply into resurrecting necromancy into the game (Kinda of a pun there....) I feel I can give advise or possibly help make this work, now I like bullet notes so here they are:

- Bad stuff first, unless you found out how to change the eyes or texture without crashing the game, than I think its impossible without third party programs, which still may not even do it.

- you say, resurrect the last humanoid killed by anester? assuming this is an NPC I could probably do this if the NPC's weapon has scripting attached to in the form of an enchantment. Iv'e done things like it before to mark containers or map positions, it shouldn't be any different unless the corpses disappear over time, in which case I could use a fullactorclone and recreate the unlucky fellow.

- I have already created a spell that increases as you use it, you don't need dialogues, I know how to make it automaticaly replace the old version. unless your intent was to leave it optional? (I just don't like the dialogue system. We're just natural born enemies, lol!)

- wait! on last note I just reread your last message! If you have a default zombie per race, you could easily record the general stats of the victim, then then generate the generic zombie and mod his skills! You could even get a copy of there inventory! now that would work.... so much for the bad news!

Post some of the script here or on a message so I can take a peek, if there is none then fill me in on details. I don't have time for any big projects right now, but this looks like a copy and paste from a couple of my old ones. Should be quick!

[InsanitySorrow]

Originally posted by Dephenistrator
I could use a fullactorclone and recreate the unlucky fellow

Or you could, just do this:

[Actor Ref].Resurrect

The actor ref being the reference to the target you want to resurrect.

Its a function beth uses alot in Oblivion.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Thanks for the feedback and possible assistance, Dephenistrator!

If it helps then I believe the 'hilarity' mod has a spell that uses the 'resurrect' option here: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3821 . I'm not sure if the creator actually altered his resurrected victims at all but I could have sworn I'd seen it done somewhere. Maybe it's some kind of OBSE magic...?

Brucevayne, the creator of the 'Oblivion Sound Sets' mod here: http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12588 is basically my consultant on anything script-based, seeing as I am a total technophobe. I'm not sure what you mean by your third bullet point but I'm wondering if you've misinterpreted me somewhere. The dialogue for the spell is just a way that the NPC can utter an appropriate spell-casting line for when he casts the spell. I have attached the WIP lines in this message but I may well change them. The transcript for the lines goes like this: Summon Last Victim - “Ooji Baddaya!”, Summon Zombie Victim - “Kwakye baddaya bwadufo!”...but I stopped when I thought I might take another way around this and actually have Anaster speaking something intelligible rather than sorcerous mumbo-jumbo.

Fantastic news about the zombie stuff! This could be one of the most attractive features for Anaster! You don't mean 'technical script' do you, btw? Because, as I said, I'm a technophobe and it makes me twitch just thinking of it. In the meantime, if you take a look at this thread: Anaster Marrowmir Samples , you will be able to hear some more solid samples of the voice. I'll add a transcript of the lines by editing the post so that you can see clearly what is being said.

Edit: Ah, that should be useful, InsanitySorrow!

[InsanitySorrow]

The resurrect function is apart of standard oblivion and does not need OBSE. Thoough having people say NPC's as well as the player mutter words as they are preparing a spell sounds great, makes it more realistic to me.

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Yes, the mutter option has already been implemented and ready for a while following brucevayne's work but, with the OBSE thing, I was thinking about a possible solution to the trick of altering the resurrected victim to make them look more dead or, by some tokenistic sign, more 'juju'.

[Dephenistrator]

Like I said before, I actually made my own necromancer mod before. It involved summoning the dead at the same level as the corpse with the same equipment, giving them orders, and choosing whether the appear as a skeleton, zombie, lich or whatever. I used script on bones to assemble your own skeletons if you had enough, created my own skill growth for necromancy, and even wrote commands you could give them on the spot.I am familure with using script to modify the resurrected things and know how to do it quite well now.

as for the technophobia don't worry, whatever weapon anastor has just needs an enchantment on it that has a script tagged to it. I could write the script, making it very easy on your side. you would just have to add a script effect to the enchantment just like you would a spell, then choose it by name. thats it.

I don't like coding either, just because I'm good at it, doesn't mean I don't think it's evil, never working unless it feels like it. (cursed numbers!)

[Ibsen's Ghost]

Excellent! That sounds great. I'll need to get a weapons and skinning expert sorted now to make Anaster come alive...so that you can do your magic with his special staff =)

[Dephenistrator]

I could send you a copy of the beta for my necromancer mod. It's still not to my satisfaction so I don't feel its complete. but i haven't posted it anywhere online yet so please dont show anybody else if you do see it.