Winter Break Modding Project

I'm thinking about working on a Skyrim modding project over winter break. Unlike my previous projects, this one would involve storytelling and quests rather than gameplay recoding. Are there any of y'all that would be interested in working with me for a few weeks between semesters to create an interesting and unique modification to Skyrim? I am looking for people with any of the following skills:

Story/quest writing
Character design
Art/3d-modeling
Programming
Level design
Voice Acting
Fictional worldbuilding
Game testing

The concept for the project has already been developed some, but I would like input while developing the rest of it and help with creating the actual mod. For those of you who have played Skyrim but do not have a PC copy, I may consider PAYING to get you a copy of the game for your PC.

Obviously, you will need to have a PC capable of running the game if you are going to work on the coding, modeling, or level design. You would also need to be willing to work with me and any others on the team, as well as be able to devote some time each week during the break to the project.

If you are interested, then please message me and I can give you more details on the project. I can guarantee that you will find plenty of interesting work if you do join. :-)

Once the project is complete then it would be released for free online for players to download. A donation link would be available for fans, and any donations would be split with you.

If you are interested in my previous modding work, you can check out the following pages:

Skyrim Nexus: http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/users/1266423
Steam Workshop: http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198008458024/myworkshopfiles
Modding Blog: http://tesmods.blogspot.com/


My mods have been downloaded over 40,000 people and viewed by likely 300,000.

Version 1.3 Changelog

I have completed most of the work on the next update and will post the final version as soon as I can on the Nexus and the Workshop. I am also going to release a temporary beta version tonight for those aching to play it. That way, some of ya'll get to go ahead and play it, and the others get to play a more polished version when it is released tomorrow or the day after.

As for the changes, there are quite a lot. Most of these changes required numerous other changes to code and systems that I do not even mention. If I make any more for found bugs by beta-testers, or if I add something new, then I will add that work to the list below. The most important changes are listed in the Highlights section.

Highlights:

• Savegame bloat issue has been eliminated. It might still bloat a little more than without any mods, but no more than is expected. I have not done extensive testing on this, but it appears that you might even be able to use a character from a bloated save. Load the save with the new version and create a new save when you are done playing. Basic testing seemed to indicate that the fix eliminated or at least reduced existing bloat.
• A level cap of 100 on both skills has been added
• A large set of ingame help and troubleshooting files has been added to the Pillar of the Way
• You can now disable either of the skills at the Pillar of Rewalking
• Many of the menus have been either improved or mostly recreated to be easier to use and less buggy
• The perks have been rebalanced so that you can specialize in using the "Unarmed" weapon or using the monk weapons (more details to come in a blog post)

Efficiency/Coding-improvements:

• Removed some calculations from leveling scripts to improve speed
• Changed a number of debug notifications to use message notifications with flags to insert variables
• Perk Points Earned is only calculated when neccesary to reduce the amount of math on each Event, changed the Pillars' scripts to account for that
• Changed some variables to integers rather than floats
• Changed the way that the Level progress is calculated to use integers and be more efficient
• Eliminated some redundant Objects that are not used by the mod, but were added during creation
• Eliminated Unarmored scaling script (got rid of the savegame bloating)
• Eliminated the non-functioning Unarmed scaling scripts
• Elemental perks are now removed when you choose a new Path
• Corrected the conditions for a number of perks and messages that were not working

Gameplay:

• A level cap of 100 has been added to both skills
• Both skills take more time to level
• The teleportation ability and a number of spell have been removed from Apostate Elders
• Savegame bloat issue has been eliminated
• Removed Unarmed and Unarmored scaling scripts. They weren't working properly and were causing the bloat

Menus:

• Help menus added to the Pillar of the Way for the Pillars, Monk weapons, Leveling system, equipment, and Player Guides
• Troubleshooting menus added to the Pillar of the Way
• A 'Give Unarmed' Button has been added to the Pillar of the Way so that you can get another "Unarmed" weapon if you need one
• A Settings menu has been added to the Pillar of Rewalking that lets you disable either of the skills
• The 'Update' option has been removed from the menus
• The Stats menu has been improved and the Level Progress is now displayed as a whole number
• Changed the perk system so that the categories are broken down into branches
• Eradicated the bug where clicking 'Ok' when there were not perks available would take you to a message for a perk
• Added some 'Return' and 'Close' buttons to various menus for navigation ease
• Cleaned up the text for some menus to improve their appearance and readability
• Changed the content of a number of menus to be updated to the current system and be more informative

Perks:

• Damage bonus for The Shadow Pillar now properly works and adds an extra 20% chance to crit when sneaking and using either the "Unarmed" weapon or the
• Perk names now follow a format. Those with "Fists" in the name work for the "Unarmed" weapon. Those with "Strikes" in the name work for the Monk weapon. And those with "Blows" in the name work for both.
• Bleeding Hands renamed to Rending Strikes
• Renamed Quick Blows to Rapid Fists
• Renamed Tiring Blows to Draining Fists
• Renamed Critical Blows to Iron Fists
• Renamed Weak Points to Penetrating Blows
• Renamed Vitals Shot to Critical Blows
• Renamed Fist Stabber to Puncturing Strikes
• Changed weapon requirement of Rapid Fists to only work with the "Unarmed" weapon
• Rending Strikes now only works on Monk weapons and the effect does not stack
• Fixed the conditions of Critical Blows so that it now works properly
• Draining Fists now only works with "Unarmed" weapon
• Unencumbered perks do not stack
• Puncturing Strikes no only works on Monk weapons
• Changes Unarmored Stance so that you need at least the second level of one of the previous perks, rather than the final level

Thanks to Kibaken on the Nexus for helping me rebalance the perks!

DLC to include crossbows and Snow Elves?

As posted in the Skyrim Nexus's news section, a forum user recently posted about a number of new animations included in the latest patch. These animations are not actively used by any of the new features, so they must be part of a planned DLC or updte. Whether crossbows are simply going to be released in a future update like the killcams and Kinect dupport, we do not know. However, crossbows are quite a major addition. Not only are they an entire new type of item, but they most likely mean the addition of new crossbow-related perks, enchantments, and quests. Such an inclusion seems far too major for an update, and would suit a DLC far better.

Furthermore, there is evidence that the first DLC will be about the Snow Elves (Falmer). Why? Because there is a new group of animations that include "DLC01" in the title that are for "Snow Elves". Put two and two together, and the best guess is that the first DLC will be about the Falmer. I always thought that Blackreach would be featured prominently in their DLC, and it appears that such a guess may turn out to be truth. In addition, there are also new animations with "DLC01" in the title that seem to be for vampire feeding. Most likely, these animations are for the vampire feeding that we saw in the Skyrim Game Jam video.

As far as the animations that are listed last in the Nexus post go, my guess is that they are facial or body-movement animations for a new character or character type. The filenames seem to indicate that they are to be used for various emotional moods. If so, then these animations could be for a new Falmer follower or character.

Theories? Arguments? Nerd ravings? Comment below.