User talk:Smeister

ModPCSkill

--Halo112358 22:43, 3 April 2006 (EDT) Does ModPCSkill behave the same way as ModActorValue? People are reporting trouble when using modAV to grant skill bonuses to the player through a script. The trouble is that the player's active skill value is increased but skill progress is not, there's a thorough explanation of the issue on the Talk:ModPCSkill page. What caught all of us by surprise is that at least one in-game script (the hackdirt quest reward script) grants the player a bonus to a skill using this method.

Smeister 14:38, 4 April 2006 (EDT) Halo, See Kkhulmann's explanation on the Talk:ModPCSkill page.

Halo112358 19:05, 4 April 2006 (EDT) Thanks :)

Modifying Player HP

Doppelganger 20:41, 3 April 2006 (EDT): You seem like a good source of information. I guess we should start using your talk page for random inquiries. So, about changing the player's current health without adjusting any "permanent" modifiers or stats...

From the other page: Okay, so I'll cut to the chase: How can I have the user gain health periodically without changing any modifiers and without forcing them to cast a spell? Would I have to "pulse" an ability (eg, add and remove) for epsilon time? That doesn't seem to work (I just tried it). Would I have to create an NPC in the boondocks to occassionally cast the spell on the player?

Smeister 21:39, 3 April 2006 (EDT) Do you want a RESTORATION, or a FORTIFICATION? If you just want the PC's health to automatically get restored every once in a while, you should be able to make an ability with Restore Health, and in your script do an addspell, wait a while, then removespell. The ability will cause the player's health to automatically restore up to full at the rate of magnitude per second while the ability is in effect. If you want to periodically (and permanently) increase the player's maximum health, then you'll have to setav health to getbaseav health + however much you want to increase it by.

Doppelganger 23:09, 3 April 2006 (EDT): Thanks for answering my questions. I want to heal one or more hit point periodically. The point I have in particular is to have regeneration similar to that of magicka/fatigue for health, except where if you are weak (almost dead) you'll heal more slowly than when you are nearly fully healthy. The original implementation used ModAVs and quest delays to achieve this effect. I have thought about using the spell method, but I find that the notifications that you have gained/lost an ability to be an unacceptable side effect.

Doppelganger 16:48, 4 April 2006 (EDT): Sorry Smesiter, I was a bit heavyhanded, but I have slightly chopped up your talk page to what I think ought to be a slightly more organized chaos.

Smeister 16:49, 4 April 2006 (EDT) Hah, no problem Doppelganger :)

Doppelganger 17:18, 4 April 2006 (EDT): However, from what you have told me then the full realization of an even simpler mod is prevented. We cannot know the player's health modifiers, so we don't know by how much they've fortified, thus making it impossible to even make a mod where regeneration is constant and proportional to the players maximum, fortified health.

(Constrast: the mod that I have "inherited," I guess, aims to make you regenerate slowly when you are weak and quickly when you are strong by using a formula like healthGivePeriod = 1 - curhp / maxhp. As I understand it, maxhp (not to be confused with base) cannot be found by any decent means?)

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I'd like to point out that artificial restrictions are probably one of the worst things out there. You need to provide at least some programmatical way of changing the Magic, Game, and Script Modifiers, or else the variables are all but worthless. Call me a curmudgeon if you'd like, but not having direct access to these modifiers causes mores problems than it fixes... I absolutely don't agree with the "that would definitely break the game in horrible ways" comment, because for that to be true it would have to be misused. If someone breaks the game, it's their own fault. The Construction Set isn't supported by Bethesda's Tech Support anyway, after all. =)

As for the problem Decoup had on Talk:ModActorValue, I couldn't agree more. A set of ModCurrentHealth/Fatigue/Magicka and SetCurrentHealth/Fatigue/Magicka functions would be extremely useful: functions which modify the current value, such that the value can restore itself over time. I'm even tempted to say "necessary" as opposed to "useful"; we had access to these in Morrowind, so it's surprising they weren't implemented in Oblivion. There are millions of situations where scripts could apply temporary losses to actors and where using a full-on Cast command would be inappropriate.

I may be biased because I ran into this problem in my latest plugin... --JT 20:15, 22 May 2006 (EDT)