Going to Suck Waiting an Extra Thirty Days for This

So GameSpot just posted an article about Dawnguard:



Pretty impressive. It sounds like the Dawnguard are a faction of Vampire hunters. The video also shows off mounted combat, the glowy-eye effect, Vampire transformation, and some new areas. Hopefully it's a complete, separate worldspaces like Shivering Isles was.

As exciting as it was I had to laugh when I realized what I was doing. Watching the video I was looking for ways it would impact what I've been modding with. *lol* Such a nerd.

I do think it will be fun. In fine ES tradition I'm looking forward to feasting on others as a vampire then making a killer of these nocturnal fiends.

Wondering What Will Happen When Lots of Things Are Patched

So I guess the Lord of Terror is protesting the Monk nerf. If my time zone calculations are correct Diablo has been down almost thirteen hours now. Patch 1.0.2 must have been pretty intense or somewhere along the deployment line there were serious potholes. Glad I'm not on any of those teams.

Inferno Skeleton Kings Tells me GET MOAR DPS

Ugh. This was a bit of a bash-face-in-wall kill. Died five or six times 'til I found a spec that worked. Ended up using the Scoundrel along with the fire pet and it took almost ten minutes. *sigh* Need more gear. Yet I won't be able to farm much inferno for it. Not sure if Hell will give me upgrades. Can't afford upgrades in the auction house. So… yeah.

Civ5 was free this weekend so I put in a few hours. Erm. A few hours turned into ten. *lol* I used to be into the TBS games yet they seem a bit more tedious now. I miss the classics like MOO, MOM, and Empire Deluxe. Didn't quite need the time investment.

Still… there are times when I might load this up. Could be worth the $7.50. Or $12.0 for the GOTY. Got twenty hours to decide.

Diablo on Hell isn't So Hellish

The real challenge was getting through Act 4. Some of the larger areas with runner-bosses were goddam insane. So I was all dreading the fight with Diablo since the Templar isn't there to help out. Turned out to be cake.

Though I really enjoy using Seven-Sided Strike for the immunity, stun, DPS, and hilarity, I had to give it up in favor of Krippi's spec. Double-flash is incredible considering how it even affects Diablo. The rest of the stuff he had I pretty much used already except for the Keen Eye rune. Forgot about the armor buff and it does help.

Now… time for some Inferno repair bills…

Few More Official TES Things From Bethseda

It was announced on the Beth Blog that Mounted Combat arrives in the next patch along with a number of bug fixes. It was the only feature bullet point for 1.6 but I suppose one thing is better than no-thing. *lol* Unfortunately I re-read it after reading some feedback… "Skyrim now allows you to do melee and ranged combat while riding a horse." No mention of spell casting or magic. Hrm.

The TESOnline information continues to trickle out through GameInformer. Since I first mentioned their article on the Daggerfall Convenant they've covered the other two factions, the Aldmeri Dominion and the Ebonheart Pact, then started in with the interviews. Seems like a carefully staged releases aimed at generating interest that will culminate in something more informing at E3—now less than two weeks away.

And There's a Hell-dead Asmodan

Been expectionally lucky with public games. While there have been a few random leavers and ragers I've managed to get through a number of rough spots with randoms. Take today for instance...

After the annoying solo Belial kill I was looking for company to get past the chapters in Bastion Keep. First game I jumped into was a level 60 Barbarian. Ran with him all the way to Asmodan. Somewhere along the way picked up a Mage. He had 10k less health than I did and got one-shot numerous times, yet he hung in there as well.

Took a little over two hours and I've only got a few bubble left until 60. So I'll browse the auction house for a few things while I watch Gamebreaker's Legendary show. Going to need a few things before I knock out Diablo for access to Inferno mode.

Hit 57 by Killing Belial on Hell Mode

Had to figure out a different spec to deal with all that goes on in this fight. It would have been easier if I didn't lag when trying to move out of pools of green death. *sigh* Ended up binding Move to the middle mouse button to help mitigate that.

Cosmically Bad Timing

Could there be any worse time for a Diablo-clone to go into Beta?

Feel really bad for Runic Games. I did manage to pry myself away from the heroes of Sanctuary to peek around Estheria for about an hour. It's actually very well done and rather solid. Thankfully they extended the beta for two more days, so I will spend some more time in there. Somehow.

BioWare Swings the Axe at Employees

There is a forum announcement about some "restructuring on the SWTOR team." Always difficult to see but not surprising. As much as I enjoyed the game I haven't been able to get back into it. The few times I've logged in the last three weeks it's been pretty sparse. If I can't get interested I'll be cancelling my account at the end of the month. My guess is that I'm not the only one feeling like this.

All Those People That Don't Sleep

Logged onto the Method stream seconds before they killed Diablo on Inferno mode (Seventy-six hours, forty-four minutes played time). Insanity. My monk got into Nightmare last night. And the Hunter isn't done with Act I yet. Can't even believe how little those people must have slept.

Then there was some guy who claimed to have finished Inferno solo this morning…

Almost Done with Nightmare Act I

Have a few slots filled up already. *sigh* Not sure what makes me such a twinker; having fun with all the classes and keep finding things to hand down. While the Demon Hunter does feel like my main she's more difficult to solo. Would like to finish a run through on Nightmare but I might end up switching to the Monk before Aenara gets that far.

So Yeah Nightmare is a Slight Difficulty Bump

There was a little lag from FRAPs on that but whoa. The Demon Hunter isn't the best boss tank. *snicker*

Things Are Pretty Serious Right Now

The 3003 error in the client is but the tip of the iceberg. So much infrastructure, so little hope…

I can only imagine what the stress levels at Blizzard HQ must be like right now. Thank God I can call it a night…

Elder Scrolls Online Are Really Elder

ESO information continues to trickle out. Just read today's article on GameInformer. where they talk about the first player faction, the Daggerfall Covenant. From the description it's likely the faction I'll play. Always like playing Bretons.

My feelings remain ambivalent towards exploring/exploiting the wondful ES lore in an MMO. The whole "centuries before any of the single-player games" thing does create a safety net. It allows the designers to put in references to all the previous games. Yet so many other IPs have done that. It would have been more interesting to see them integrating everything and moving two centuries into the future.

The initial shit storm was pretty harsh as most people have come to expect a certain level of graphic quality that will be unrealistic in an MMO. Most of the damage control and expectation leveling seems to have worked. Have to wait and see what comes out of E3.

Stay a While and Listen... As If I Were Going Anywhere

Looks like it's all sorted. It recognized my account and asked for the authenticator. Should be all good. Might try to be awake at 3am but with millions of people around the world clicking "Login" and cursing it probably won't do much good.

I Hope This Doesn't Consume Me Entirely

Here we go! After playing the Beta I was ready for more depsite the nagging feeling that this game is past its window of opportunity. It should have be been out three or four years ago. Not sure how long it will hold my attention these days.

The always-online requirement is going to be bad, I just know it. *sigh*

Sometimes I Feel Like Raging at Rage

For whatever reason I went off on a needy poster in the official forums:

Have to get on my soap box for a minute.

Keep in mind that no one here is a Bethesda employee. No one is obligated to read or respond to anyone else who posts here. I know you're frustrated, I've been there myself (many times), but calling someone a [censored] doesn't foster a sense of community.

*Mofakin* came off snippy but he did have a point. Many people here have taken time to read, learn, and experiment. So when someone else posts about wanting instant answers and thorough explanations, it doesn't sit well with this community. More plainly: drop the entitlement. Balok has been incredibly generous with his time and you cannot expect such help with every issue you encounter.

Wulfgar, on 10 May 2012 - 06:41 AM, said:
Nonetheless it's the same issue that prevents an NPC from jumping over a pebble. Piss poor coding.

I completely disagree with you. This game was released simultaneously on three different platforms, world-wide, on-time, with no major game play issues. On any scale or comparison that is AMAZING.

Entirely above and beyond this, they released the very tool they used to create the game to the public for free!! Name one other major game publisher that has done this. Bioware? Ubisoft? Blizzard? Square Enix? Nope.

To be brutally honest: you created the bug. You added a brand-new NPC along with a vendor stand. This "Owl Pearch Inn" is not a Bethesda-created location. You admitted to copying and thereby creating a 2nd Belethor's store. You're to blame for the NPC being confused.

That said, it's not entirely your fault. The CK doesn't have full-fledged documentation. We can't talk to the developers and/or designers to get help. But all this is part of the fun. The CK is like a new game within Skyrim. To get in there, tinker, reverse-engineer, and make the game do things your way. The whole sandbox thing. If you're not having fun doing this and "weird bugs" anger you, you should stop now. You're only going to get more frustrated.

When posting please remember: we're all in here with you. Don't take frustrations out on us. And don't look at these odd behaviors as problems. Look at them as challenges and an opportunity to learn more about how Skyrim works.

Wow, this got long. And it's not all you Ulrik. I've seen a few other similar things and your post was the proverbial last straw. I apologize for the wall of text.

ANYWAY.

Ulrik Wulfgar, on 11 May 2012 - 01:13 PM, said:
What about the merchant not showing certain items placed in her chest? To recap, I basically put Stews and Soups in there along with Bread. The bread shows, nothing else does. So to test I put a selection of armour, books and other types of food. The meats and bread show, armour and books didn't. I've tried deleting the merchant chest and creating a new one but that didn't work.
From your description it sounds like your vendor is only using recognized food items.

As *Mofakin* mentioned above, the answer is on the wiki under "Create a Faction." You'll need to add the appropriate Keywords to any custom items.

CK: GetReference()

With Skyrim's move into object-oriented scripting there many questions like this one from Emhyr:

I have a quest alias created by an event, which is a non-unique NPC and is different every time the event occurs. I use this quest alias in scenes without any issues, but if I want to run scripts on that NPC that requires the object reference, i.e. GetDistance, I am unable to do this. How can I return the distance between the player and an alias?

Thankfully there are those like JustinOther who made the transition effortlessly and answer with precision:

ReferenceAliasProperty.GetReference().GetDistance(Game.GetPlayer())

CK: Teleport Trap

Interesting post about getting a teleport trap to work. Naturally Amethyst Deceiver immediately answered. Then someone else had another check to add when out in the world:

Scriptname Pitfall extends ObjectReference  

ObjectReference Property TeleportMarker auto

Event OnTriggerEnter(ObjectReference akActionRef)
 int isRider = Game.GetPlayer().GetSitState ()
 If ((akActionRef == Game.GetPlayer()) && (isRider == 0))
  akActionRef.MoveTo(TeleportMarker)
        EndIf
EndEvent

This will actually be very useful to me shortly. I'm going to make a large arena-type space. Thought about having obelisks to click on to teleport to different areas. Instead I could have arrows on the ground that can be walked on.

I'm the Latest File For a Few More Minutes

Finally got my Toy Soldiers mod uploaded. It's been really fun putting it together though it took a lot more time than I intially figured. I learned more about the CK doing something big like this. There's a lot more that can be added to this so I'm sure it will keep my on my toes.

I Used to Be an Adventurer Like You...

It made me *lol* and the behind the scenes was entertaining too…



Scary to see Provo, Utah, again. I lived in that state many years before escaping. Though I am loathe to admit to any redeeming qualities the outdoors were spectacular state-wide.

Somewhere, Someone is Playing SC2... Supposedly

Been checking on the SC2 Brazil Nationals off and on all day but I'll I seem to catch is…

We'll be right back!

So Embarassing to Admit How Cool This Is

Wow. Just … wow.

CK: Mark and Recall Spell

RandomNoob: I made and tested this script for someone's Mark and Recall spell. The markers I used were XmarkerHeading objects. I was able to move them to and from whatever cell they were in, whether or not they were loaded, with no problems.

Scriptname Example extends ActiveMagicEffect

GlobalVariable Property MyGlobal Auto
ObjectReference Property Marker01 Auto
ObjectReference Property Marker02 Auto
Activator Property Portal Auto

Event OnEffectStart(Actor akTarget, Actor akCaster)
    if (akTarget.IsInInterior())
            Debug.MessageBox("You cannot use this spell inside an interior cell.")
            Return
    endif
    ObjectReference PortalRef = akTarget.PlaceAtMe(Portal)
    Utility.Wait(2)
    if (MyGlobal.Value)
            MyGlobal.SetValue(0.0)
            Marker01.MoveTo(akTarget)
            akTarget.MoveTo(Marker02)
    else
            MyGlobal.SetValue(1.0)
            Marker02.MoveTo(akTarget)
            akTarget.MoveTo(Marker01)
    endif
    PortalRef.MoveTo(akTarget)
    Utility.Wait(3.5)
    PortalRef.Disable()
    PortalRef.Delete()
EndEvent

This script was posted to make a point yet it's handy in it's own respect. Source: Anyone know how to move objects from non-parented cells?

CK: Controlling Actor Casting Frequency

Two methods of getting an actor not to spam their most powerful spell: Il Ducey: Just put [this] as one of your effect scripts, and blammo you're done.

Scriptname SpellCoolDown extends ActiveMagicEffect

Int Property time Auto

SPELL Property Move Auto

event OnEffectStart(Actor akTarget, Actor akCaster)
     akCaster.removespell(Move)
     Utility.Wait(time)
     akCaster.addspell(Move)
endEvent

Redwood Elf: You could Only give them the low power abilities, and use states to "build up" to the high power attacks

Int BuildUpLevel = 0

Function AdToBuildup(int Powerlevel)
EndFunction

Auto State OutOfCombat
    event OnStateBegin()
        BuildUpLevel = 0
        ; Code to disable all but "Starter" abilities here.
    EndEvent

    Function AddToBuildUp(int PowerLevel) ; Needs to be defined in all states.
    EndFunction

    Event OnCombatStateChanged(Actor Who, Int What)
       BuildUpLevel = 3 - What ; Gets +2 if entering combat, but only +1 if "searching"
       GoToState("CombatStart")
    EndEvent
EndState

State CombatStart

    Function AddToBuildUp(int PowerLevel) ; Call this from each of the High (3) low (1) and mid(2) level effects.
       BuildUpState += PowerLevel
       If BuildUpState >= 5
           GoToState("CombatLevel5")
       EndIf
    EndFunction

EndState

State CombatLevel5
    event OnStateBegin()
       ; Code to enable mid level abilities here.
    EndEvent

    Function AddToBuildUp(int PowerLevel)
       BuildUpState += PowerLevel
       If BuildUpState >= 15
           GoToState("CombatLevel15")
       EndIf
    EndFunction
EndState

State CombatLevel15
    event OnStateBegin()
       ; Code to enable High level abilities here.
    EndEvent

    Function AddToBuildUp(int PowerLevel)
       BuildUpState += PowerLevel
       If BuildUpState >= 20
           GoToState("CombatStart")
       EndIf
    EndFunction

EndState

The first method does seem pretty easy. Yet as stated it would affect the use of that spell game-wide. I like the second method's attachment directly to an actor that you want to influence. Source: How to get NPCs to not spam one spell

CK: Creating Plants and Building a Worldspace

A few people on the forums mentioned the Hoddminir Mod Development blog… wow! Some great tutorials and lots of interesting reading. The mod I'm working on now could really use a new worldspace to play in so this will be quite helpful.

Forum: Need Help with a Scripting Issue

Someone on the forums was asking for help making a dialog box. They were familiar with Oblivion but still learning Skyrim's CK, so they posted Oblivion code and asked for the Skyrim equivalent.

ScriptName SpecialSackScript

Short button

Begin OnActivate
        MessageBox "What you want to do?", "Take", "Open"
End

Begin on gamemode
        Set button to GetButtonPressed
        If ( button == 0 )
                Activate
        ElseIf ( button == 1)
                Specialsack.Activate player 1
        EndIf
End

JustinOther provided the new script:

ScriptName SpecialSackScript extends ObjectReference

Message Property YourMESG Auto

Event OnActivate(ObjectReference akActionRef)

        Int iButton = YourMESG.Show()
        If iButton == 0
                ; Take
        ElseIf iButton == 1
                ; Open
        EndIf

EndEvent

I went the extra mile and pointed out that a Message object needed to be created, as follows:

The Definitive XSplit Guide

Question came up in Lore's chat about what he uses to stream. One of the admins threw out a link that I need to check into.

Pretty Busy Elder Scrolls Day

Dawnguard was announced on the BethBlog today. No details beyond the teaser image and stating the fact it will initially be an the XBOX 360 exclusive. While that's a slight marketing annoyance, whatever. PC has had Mods for months so let them have there little headstart. The real meat is being saved for E3 in June. Bethesda also mentioned that it's been ten years since the release of Morrowind.

Insanity! That group of people really did something for Bethesda and RPGs imo. I was way into Morrowind for years and my love for their series didn't diminish with Oblivion or Skyrim. In fact, I still consider the best purchase I ever made was both the Morrowind GOTY and the Oblivion GOTY for $15. It was a special sale when the Skyrim hype started. Now that I'm finally off my ass and learning to mod Skyrim I think I will go back and learn how to do all three. It's surprising how much interest is still out there. Read an article about a Morrowind Overhaul project. Wonder if I can help out in some way…