Monday, April 27, 2009

Extra note on custom spells

I forgot to mention that I also tried yesterday to make a Morrowind version of the warlock Life Tap spell which would sacrifice some health in exchange for mana, à la WoW warlocks (which I would then need to restore by casting a Drain Life spell at an enemy. Well, "drain life" was no problem, as it was a simple custom Absorb Health spell, but I didn't have as much success with Life Tap. Yes, I could create a spell combining Damage Health on Self with Restore Magicka, but the mana cost made it pointless. Logically, I think I should have gotten a discount for including an effect that was harmful to myself, but it just made it more expensive. Perhaps later I'll try making it in the construction set and see if I can mod it in at a lower cost. It's entirely for RP purposes, to add a physical toll on restoring my mana through a spell.

8 comments:

  1. Thank you for showing me that mod manager, made life easier here!

    I also tried the alchemy lab, but I can't make the cabinets (I fail badly to position them) or the book right (the book brings some horrid error, and the graphic loads as a big square with an exclamation point). I can use the parts to make the potions though, so it's alright.

    What I really would like to try is to make my own house, but I have a strong feeling that I'll mess it up. I am using that house inside the mage's guild atm, but I wanted something more cozy. So my idea is to try and learn how to and change the house I already have. I like the fact that it is inside the mage's guild, easy teleport (and I am with that guild on the current character). Also... I have heard you can mess up big if you overwrite some parts of already used cells. I'll keep you informed of me messing things up there.

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  2. Err... update is that I just dont know how to use that edditor, and will just try to find another house for now.

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  3. Well, poking around UESP Wiki again, I picked one of those suggested houses there. I picked "Vori's House", a house without anyone on it, just had to pay 5g for the crime of unlocking it. It's small as I like, has probably enough storage for what I want too (store alchemy reagents, potions and armor). Some tables and a bed too. If you know of an easy way to maybe eddit it (I'd love a fireplace) or eddit the mage's guild house let me know? If it is far too complex, I will just stick with this one.

    Ah, something wierd happened today! I was walking around Balmora, and I hear a lot of screaming. A Cliff Racer (looks like a damn Wind Serpent from WoW) came from nowhere and started attacking the guards on one of those twin towers. It wouldnt stop, so I decided to go check, and when I got close, the guards finally killed it. I wonder if that is normal...

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  4. The one problem with editing a cell that you've already been in (that I know of) is that the save game stores some information about the layout of the room (such as furniture or entry points) which doesn't update when you change it. The only way around it that I know of is to deactivate the plugin, save the game again, then reactivate the plugin to completely update it with your changes. I discovered this when changing the layout of the Mages' Guild basement (removing 1 section of the hall to make the entry faster and deleting some unneeded tables) and when I tried adding a couple of cabinets to the Magus Realm tower to better accommodate my crafting needs. Some of the new furniture just wouldn't show up, and unfortunately I've already moved in so much stuff that it would be a pain to remove it all just to reset the cell.

    One danger of using the houses of other NPCs is described here and here, where on the forum some claim that if you store any item in an NPC's owned container, then it becomes marked as stolen when you remove it, and all items of that same type are also marked as stolen for the rest of the game. That's a bit hard to believe, definitely a huge game problem if it's true, and maybe the code patch fixed it. The other one has to do with possibility of losing items you store in containers due to some respawning.

    There is, however, a big list of mod houses of all types and sizes here.

    When you see a big square with an exclamation point, it means the mod can't find the mesh it was looking for, which usually means it was installed in the wrong place. You should check your Morrowind folder and look for an extra "Data Files" folder inside your original "Data Files" folder, or perhaps a folder with the name of a mod inside the "Data Files" folder which contains a separate Meshes and/or Textures folder, which need to be moved into their proper locations.

    The cliff racer thing sounds like it might be an engine thing. I'll watch to see if something like that happens in my game too. :)

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  5. Thank you! I will check that big list after the raid. How come I couldnt find anything good searching for a Balmora house is sad. Impressed of how you can always find cool stuff.

    Will keep you informed of what I can make work around here, thank you again!

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  6. Most of this stuff I've just happened to come across while reading lots of forum posts and searching for answers to my own problems. Glad it can help. :)

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  7. Thank you again for that list! I have finally found my house! I picked the Ashlander Tent: it is small enough, and has room for what I need to keep. Better yet, you can move it. I admit it is a little cheat mode, to be able to move it so freely, since the only problem is the weight, 150. But then, you gain an amulet to be teleported back to it, so pretty cheat mode! But I love the lazy idea to it. It will fit me good enough, it looks simple and cozy.

    Something I loved about it, is the crystal on top of the urn to keep alchemy stuff: it automatically grabs all ingredients out of your bags to it. Lazy, but oh I love it.

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  8. I've always liked portable tents, myself. In Oblivion, I used Bond's Big Portable Tent, which was indeed a very large teal-coloured tent, with 5 or 6 futons inside for companions and a single large bed for yourself, as well as chests, display cases, and tables laden with food. It was definitely a kind of "magic", because you could fold it up into a nice, small package which weighed very little, and you could even leave your companions in there and everything would still be in place later. :)

    The alchemy sorter you mention is always a nice bonus. It's too bad you're not having luck with the Purchasable Alchemy Lab. The book does that same thing in there, but also retrieves whatever ingredients you need for certain potions.

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