EtherealCoder

@Veinwolf: Greetings! And, WOW, thank you for the detailed feedback!!! Glad I was on-target with the movie and core drive behind this overhaul. Unfortunately, I never played Gothic, but I’m glad to hear that there were some titles that had a solid balance between Exploration and Exploitation. As for your notes on The Elder Scrolls series and the economy: I’ve only played Skyrim, so please excuse any knowledge-gaps of prior games. I agree that the “starting curve†was a little harsh. As a low-level character, you’re pretty much scrounging for everything – and though you have many options (food, potions, etc.), it takes a LONG TIME before you can really improve your equipment significantly. Conversely, once you get to a certain level threshold, you’re pretty much invincible – only a handful of enemies can really damage you, and you’re so bloated with cash that you can easily get the best armor and weapons in the game. So, yes, I completely agree with your conclusion that the economic curve can sharply dictate the player’s enjoyment of the game: When they’re too low level, exploration is dangerous. When they’re too high level, exploration leads to the same conclusion – easy kills on everything. I would LOVE to see things like cooking and other bare necessities take on a more essential role – I know that some modders out there have introduced systems for food and shelter that are simply amazing. Similarly, your comparison to Gothic’s economy seems appropriate: changing the relative cost of items can alter player behavior significantly, and can lead to a completely different approach to the game. Ultimately, I agree with your premise – a different curve for equipment / stats augmentation would make Skyrim a completely different game. Implementing it would be tricky, but definitely do-able. Could I pull it off? Maybe. In order to really do it right, I’d have to present the players with an alternative which was preferable to the worldwide system already in place – AND give extra incentives to abandon the current wealth / items they’ve amassed. In many ways, it’s almost like building a new game from scratch. I don’t know if I’m up to that challenge, as it would take a TON of research and time. However, as I build new items and quests into the game, I will DEFINITELY keep your points in mind! You articulated the impact of the game’s economy very well, and it’s something that I need to carefully consider as I move forward. Again, thank you for your time and input!!!

Greetings all! I'm pleased to announce the first in a line of mods dedicated to improving the player experience of Skyrim through improved Artificial Intelligence. The Nexus download page can be found here: http://skyrim.nexusm...om/mods/41364/? For a preview of the new features, and a general review of gaming AI, please refer to the following video: This mod file contains a small combat-test dungeon with a handful of opponents. Players are encouraged to try it out and share their reflections and experiences. Note that there is no map-based entry point -- to enter the arena, open the Console menu (using the ~ key) and type: coc NewAITestDungeon03 Also note that enemies will auto-resurrect after 45 seconds, so there is no need to re-load. Feedback on the AI changes is welcome as I prepare a set of full dungeons. I look forward to hearing from you!

I believe it's because you're firing Cast from the Target, not at the Target. Check it out here. Should be: Missile.Cast(Caster, Target)

Hi Echo I tried that, but unfortunately, the Projectile doesn't work. If it's Aimed and a Lobber, it still just freezes at the point where it's cast. If it's a Missile, then it goes through the floor (doesn't impact), though it will still detonate if I make the projectiles slow enough so I can walk through 'em. If the Magic Effect is set to Target Area, then it still doesn't cast. What's especially frustrating about that is the fact that the technique you mentioned does work to get NPC's to aim at a specific location -- I used the same aiming commands and made them cast an Ice Storm spell, and they were clearly shooting at my feet. If the Target Location effect had worked for NPC's, then the Rune would have been cast perfectly. While it's a wash for the Runes, at least the XMarker technique has now been proven viable for other spells / activities.

Thanks for the fast reply, Walrus. I tried your suggestion -- namely passing a reference which has been moved to the proper location. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I did some further experimentation, and found that changing the Projectile tied to the Magic Effect had a significant impact. Changing the Collision Layer to L_GROUND made the spell cast perfectly, but it would not detonate after. Evidently the L_SPELLTRIGGER collision layer is tied to the projectile's Alt-triggered Explosion, not what the projectile is hitting. I've also been able to Remote-Cast, with two problems: the Rune is sideways vs. the ground, and it will also detonate when the "blamed" NPC caster gets near. Not desirable. I've tried changing the Projectile Type and Collision Layer multiple times, but to no avail. I even set the Projectile Type to Missile / Cone, Velocity to 0, and Gravity to 2000 in order to get it to "fall" straight down. Again, the NPC's won't even cast it. I've also reduced the Collision Radius significantly to avoid issues with the caster hitting him / herself, no go. Same with Disable Combat Error Correction, just in case that was messing with NPC aim. Considering that SnapToNavMesh didn't even save this, I'm beginning to think that it's just impossible to get the NPC's to cast Runes. I've checked the Usage Info for the other Rune spells, and they're not widely used by anything -- I think they're one of the few spells that Bethseda did not give to any native NPC's. So given that all of those options don't work, it'd be nice just to just "fake it" as follows: Place the Rune at the desired location. Set the Rune to not detonate on the supposed caster (or, ideally, their Faction). Manually subtract the Magicka from the supposed caster. Has anyone had experience pulling off something like this? I would have no idea how to spontaneously create a new Projectile or assign the relevant "ownership" to protect the supposed caster.

Hi all I've been trying to get NPC's to lay boobytraps -- however, they fail to cast Runes when told to do so via a multitude of ways. The following examples do not work: Method 1 of 2: This works fine when making someone summon a Storm Atronach. ; Force equip the spell. (akActionRef as Actor).EquipSpell(RuneSpellRef, 0) ; Force cast the spell. RuneSpellRef.Cast(akActionRef) Method 2 of 2: AI Procedures Similarly, I've made a Procedure based on UseMagic which also fails. The condition for casting is the Spell being equipped in the left hand -- which is forced by another Script. In both of these cases, I can hear the spell being charged, but it's always followed by the "fizzle" noise. So, it appears as if the system is struggling to cast as desired, but it can't aim at the correct target (nearby surface). To try and engineer around this, I made a copy of the ShockRune Spell and related MagicEffect, but changed the type to Aimed. The Rune was successfully cast, though it would manifest in thin air and then change its Alpha to 0. When I walked by, it detonated -- however, I couldn't get the NPC's to aim at the ground, and SnapToNavmesh didn't work to reign in the abberant behavior. Either way, I just want this spell to cast correctly. Ideally, it should do the usual: drain Magicka from the spellcaster; and only allow 1 or 2 Runes at a time depending on the Perks of the caster; etc.. Suggestions appreciated!

Updated 2013-08-01 Solved -- used the below methodology, but tied a Fear spell to the Enemy Trigger instead of trying to force the execution of an AI Package or other pathed behavior. Will post scripts and videos soon. ----------------------- Hi all! I'm working on a mod that's mainly for modders -- that is, I want to make a new toolset that will help the modding community create more sophisticated enemy AI a little easier. Less work, more payoff. While I love Skyrim, I noticed that most humanoid NPC's have some very basic, predictable behaviors -- melee folks rush, and archers / mages all hang around the exact same distance away. The game does some nice basic stuff with cover, but there's very little variance unless the modder goes in and makes extensive, explicit changes to behavior using a whole bunch of Packages with conditionals, etc.. That is very time consuming. I want to change that. Super quick synopsis of my tool: I've built a logging system that automatically clusters where all player and enemy hits take place in a dungeon -- i.e. when the player is within region A, s/he tends to deal a lot of damage to enemies in regions B, C, and D, etc.. The size and coordinates of each region are automatically calculated, honed down from hundreds or thousands of data points. The final outcome I want is: When the player enters Region A, the NPC's know to FleeFrom Regions B, C, and D. This will force the player to move around more, as the NPC's won't be "suckers" and all sit and die in the same spot. Ideally, I want to make my system translate the clustered region information into scripts automatically, so there is absolutely minimal work on the part of the developer. I would very much appreciate advice that would lead to the most efficient means of achieving the above goal. I tried the following methodology, but it doesn't work thus far, and I believe it's not optimal: I've made a dungeon with Triggers for each Player and Enemy Region -- I tried to set it up so when the player enters Region A, it would change a value in a Script attached to Trigger Regions B, C, and D, etc.. Each NPC would also have a new Script attached, which would just create two new Properties -- a Boolean for "ShouldFlee", and an ObjectReference for the Object to FleeFrom(). Default Boolean value is False. If an NPC entered Region B, C, or D while the player is in Region A, a Script attached to the Trigger in Regions B, C, and D would do three things: 1. Set the NPC Script's Boolean Property to True. 2. Set the NPC Script's ObjectReference Property to itself (the Trigger Box). 3. Force a re-evaluation of the NPC's Package Stack. There would be a single conditional in the Package Stack to check the Script Boolean Property, and then flee from the ObjectReference if the Boolean is True. Again, I'm not quite sure if this is the most efficient means of executing what I'd like. It depends a lot on Triggered Events (which is good...), but I haven't been able to get the code to work thus far. The Package Conditional fails to allow me to try and GetScriptVariable from my NPC, even when it has an explicit name / ID. The only other alternative which I can think of at the moment is making a HUGE series of Package Conditionals that emulate these Trigger Boxes -- that is, they would constantly check the Player and NPC positions. However, I believe that would be a HUGE hindrance to performance, since GetPos would likely be checked every "tick" of the engine. Again, I want to make my system translate the clustered region information into scripts automatically, so there is absolutely minimal work on the part of the developer -- so, if there's a way to get most of this behavior out of some Scripts with minimal use of the GUI, all the better! Your sage advice much appreciated!