[RELz] Signs and Guardians

[Thomas Kaira]

Signs and Guardians: A re-imagining of the Standing Stones

Author: Thomas Kaira

Hosted at Dark Creations (pending forum space)

Version: 0.5 TEST

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Changelog

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03/14/2012: Initial Test Release

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Overview

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One of the things that really irked me about Skyrim was the lack of decent choices for you to make about your character

and how he would progress in the world. Sure, it's nice to be free to develop as you see fit, but I feel that one must

still set up some walls to help keep him focused, while not terribly limiting that freedom to explore abilities and expand.

Skyrim's Standing Stones, which are carbon copies of Oblivion's Doomstones (even the Creation Kit admits to this), provide

the player with various blessing that he can take, one at a time, whenever he wants. But I am of the mind that Bethesda

actually meant replacing Birthsigns with the Standing Stones, but the way it is implemented now just doesn't work. Birthsigns

are meant to give you some direction while you build your character, not be a one-off throwaway bonus. I wanted your choice

of Standing Stone to mean something, and that's where we get to this mod.

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Features

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- The mod divides the Stones into three distinct categories: the Guardians, the Charges, and the Serpent.

- If you already have an active Standing Stone power when you first install the mod, it will be removed

automatically and you will be prompted to return to the Guardian Stones to select your Guardian. If you

don't, then don't worry, the mod will leave you alone.

- Your first choice is to select your Guardian. This is a very important choice, as it will allow your character

to favor a specific gameplay archetype (Combat, Magic, or Stealth) and also decides which Charges you may accept

blessings from.

- Once you choose your Guardian, there is no going back. It is yours for good, and you cannot change your mind.

Choose wisely.

- Each Guardian has three charges. After choosing a Guardian, you may also obtain blessings from any of their charges

whenever you wish. You need only find their Standing Stones.

- You get to keep any blessings you obtain, they will not be removed. Just remember that you can't have them all.

- The Serpent is a special case, as he is not a charge of any Guardian. You may choose to take the Serpent whenever

you wish and gain his venomous bite as well as three random abilities from the various charges, but you will lose

your Guardian, will be unable to take further blessings from the Standing Stones, and will be penalized in skill

experience gain. Make sure you REALLY want to play the wild card before you actually do: is it worth it?

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Installation

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Via Nexus Mod Manager: Download the mod through the Manager and install it as you would any other mod. There is nothing

fancy about the packaging, so it will work without need of any special treatment.

Via Steam Workshop: Subscribe to the mod in the Workshop, and the Skyrim launcher will download the mod for you

automatically the next time you start the game.

Via Wrye Bash: Place the package into your Bash Installers folder, navigate to BAIN, and select "Install" when you find

the package listed.

Manually: Not recommended.

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Uninstallation

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Via Nexus Mod Manager: Simply deactivate the mod.

Via Steam Workshop: Unsubscribe.

Via Wrye Bash: Find the package in BAIN and Uninstall.

Manually: This is why I do not recommend manual installation.

Because this mod edits a vanilla script, a backup of the unaltered script source has been provided.

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Known Issues

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None at this time.

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Compatibility

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Not compatible with any mods that alter the Standing Stones themselves.

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Licensing/Legal

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- You are free to alter, expand on, or destroy this mod in any way you see fit. If you wish to share your work, however,

you MUST contact me and obtain my explicit permission before doing so. Any instances of severe mod destruction will

not be eligible for technical support until restored to a functional state.

- Any works that are found to be in breach of the above, the author will receive a single polite request from me to

remove it from wherever it is being hosted (from all sites it is being hosted on). Failure to respond within 48 hours

will result in more direct action being taken.

- DO NOT upload this mod to any site other than those I have personally uploaded it to without my express permission

given. Any user or site found in violation of this will be considered to be stealing intellectual property and will

be treated as such. Just because this mod is free does not mean that gives you free reign over what you can do with it. My work, my rules.

- If I fail to respond to your requests to expand or alter this mod within 30 days, you may consider yourself as having

my approval to do as you wish, but please note that upload location restrictions still stand.

[Thomas Kaira]

This is the initial test version I wish to share before making the mod public. Yes, this is the small project I alluded to, and yes, it was a lot of fun battling Papyrus and actually making it work. So far, I've tested all of the scripts in detail and everything appears sound, but I'm just one set of eyes, and I'd prefer any bugs there might be get squashed before the official release.

[Ysne58]

I really wish my laptop wasn't in the shop. I would love to be testing this.

[Thomas Kaira]

Ugh... trying to update, and the stupid Papyrus bug means the Standing Stones are still trying to use the old script which is interfering with testing. :headbang: :headbang:

[Thomas Kaira]

I am now looking to finalize Signs and Guardians v2.0, where you can now choose from a much wider array of blessings from the Standing Stones, so if anyone wants in on testing, please let me know.

The major new feature: every single Standing Stone now offers not one blessing, but three, where you can choose which ones you want. The original system of Guardian/Charge still stands, but with all the new abilities I've added in, it should make for a MUCH wider array of character options. Here are the details:

Guardians:

The Mage-

The Mage's Favor: Ability - Magic skills increase 20% faster.

The Mage's Intellect: Ability - Permanent +50 magicka bonus (applied through scripting so the game doesn't see it as a fortification)

The Mage's Fury: Power - Your Destruction spells are 50% more powerful for 2 minutes, but once effect ends, your Magicka recharges 50% slower for 5 minutes.

The Thief -

The Thief's Favor: Ability - Stealth skills increase 20% faster

The Thief's Endurance: Ability - Permanent +50 stamina bonus (applied through scripting so the game doesn't see it as a fortification)

The Thief's Light Step: Power - Fortifies your Sneak, Lockpick, and Pickpocket skills by 30 for 60 seconds, but stops Health regeneration.

The Warrior -

The Warrior's Favor: Ability - Combat skills increase 20% faster

The Warrior's Fortitude: Ability - Permanent +50 health bonus (applied through scripting so the game doesn't see it as a fortification)

The Warrior's Belligerence: Power - Increases Melee damage by 50% for 2 minutes, but you suffer a 50% loss of Stamina Regen. afterwards.

Charges:

The Lady -

The Lady's Health: Ability - Health Regen. is increased by 35%

The Lady's Vitality: Ability - Stamina Regen. is increased by 50%

The Lady's Fervor: Power - Increases Health and Stamina by 100 points for 15 seconds, but stops their regeneration.

The Lord -

The Lord's Shield: Ability - Increases your Armor Rating by 75.

The Lord's Trollkin: Ability - Gives you 40% Resistance to Frost, but also 40% Weakness to Fire.

The Lord's Blood: Power - Convert half of your Stamina into Health.

The Steed -

The Steed's Strength: Ability - +100 Carry Capacity, and armor doesn't slow you down when worn.

The Steed's Canter: Power - For 60 seconds, sprinting costs nothing.

The Steed's Kick: Power - Staggers your foes and damages them.

The Apprentice -

The Apprentice's Ego: Ability - Magicka regenerates twice as fast, but you are 50% weaker to Magic attacks.

The Apprentice's Pomposity: Power - Steals Magicka from your foes, but also heals them.

The Apprentice's Tempest: Ability - All spells are 25% more effective, but they cost 25% more Magicka to cast.

The Atronach -

The Atronach's Arcana: Power - Increases your Magicka by 200 points while slowing your Magicka Regen for 60 seconds.

The Atronach's Portal: Ability - You can absorb spells, but your Magicka regenerates slower.

The Atronach's Mirror: Power - Completely stops your foes from spellcasting, but also stops your Magicka Regen. for 60 seconds.

The Ritual -

The Ritual's Ceremony: Power - Allows you to resurrect surrounding dead bodies to fight for you.

The Ritual's Banishing: Power - Causes all Undead around you to flee for 30 seconds.

The Ritual's Serenity: Power - Once per day, calms all surrounding foes (but not Machines, Undead, or Daedra) for 30 seconds.

The Lover -

The Lover's Comfort: Ability - Increases your Stamina Regen. by 25%.

The Lover's Grace: Ability - You move, attack with dual-wielded weapons, and attack with bows 10% faster.

The Lover's Kiss: Power - Paralyze your foes for 5 seconds at the cost of 100 Stamina if you hit them.

The Shadow -

The Shadow's Cloak: Power - 60 seconds of Invisibility.

The Shadow's Veil: Power - Clouds the minds of your foes and frenzies them.

The Shadow's Elusion: Power - You become one with the Shadow (Ethereal and Invisible) and time is slowed by 50% for 5 seconds.

The Tower -

The Tower Key: Power - Once per day, unlock any level lock (but not Key Required locks, for obvious reasons).

The Tower Warden: Power - For 60 seconds, you have a chance to reflect 50% of damage taken back at your foes.

The Tower Crenellation: Power - Increases your Sneak Attack multiplier with bows by 2 for 20 seconds.

And, of course there is the Serpent, which if you take Him, you can choose to receive three random blessings from the specialization of your choosing (Combat, Magic, or Stealth) in addition to his own Blessing, but you will lose all of your current Blessings and will lose the ability to interact with the Standing Stones, as well as take The Serpent's Curse, decreasing the rate at which skills increase by 25%.

And here are the technical details:

I have replaced the vanilla Standing Stones with duplicates added by my mod so that I can override the vanilla scripts correctly without requiring a new game be started. Have to do this, otherwise the game will treat the Standing Stones as if BOTH scripts are attached, and havoc would ensue. I have removed all edits I made to the vanilla Standing Stones in TESVSnip so to make sure the uninstall is clean, as well.

When uninstalling the mod, you must type into the console "startquest doomTKUninstallQuest" and wait until the Message Box promting the uninstall script has been run appears. If you forgo this step, you will end up with broken stats. This is because for the Guardian Stone attribute modifier abilities, I am modifying the BASE value through script rather than applying a modifier (so the game won't constantly treat your stat as being fortified), so these changes need to be undone before you remove the mod. You will also have all Standing Stone blessings currently in your possession removed so that you can smoothly revert to the vanilla Standing Stones.

What I am looking for in testing: mostly Magic hiccups, like no sounds or inappropriate sounds or no visuals where you think there should be some. And making sure all the magic effects work as intended.