wip Chaurus Life

[Reesewow]

1 hour ago, MadMansGun said:

i would say a mix of them:

it's meant to be #4 but some eggs fall out (#2) due to the breeder being too full, then (#3) a restless larva or 2 may come out accidentally that a passing flyer may then choose to pick/suck up with it's ovipositor and (#5) reinsert it into another breeder.

I +1 this idea, as it would be a means to explain the appearance of larva in some animations alongside eggs. 

 

Perhaps chaurus breeding isn't *impossible* without an incubator, but the very few exposed eggs that survive to the larval stage are picked up by adult chaurus for protection and transferred to the next available host to complete their cycle.  Sometimes the chaurus may simply deposit the larva on/near the breeder and let it find its own way, while it carries on with attempting to deposit an egg clutch (resulting in the larva crawling around/dangling during scenes).

 

I do think that with the level of detail Chaurus Life is going for, it deserves to have its own dedicated impregnation/breeding cycle apart from Estrus Chaurus+.  I love that mod, but it does have some pretty improbable ideas - I assume you aren't going to try to integrate Estrus tentacle spit attacks into the chaurus life cycle. 

 

IMO #4 may offer the cleanest avenue for a Chaurus Life breeding cycle, with breeders spawning small hatchlings that immediately begin progressing on the already-prepared chaurus evolution cycle.

 

 

 

[Elvorana]

In regards to the numerous breeder options presented, I have two opinions. One is on a personal level, the other is more of a lore perspective. I'll explain both opinions separately per section.

Opinion 1: Personal Thoughts

1) Eggs in, Smaller eggs out
- This one never made all that much sense to me in Estrus Chaurus. I actually chalked it up to some sort of engine limitation, though after seeing the other egg laying mod (I forget the name, but its the one with the egg curses) i realized it was a choice made by the modder. Im not personally a huge fan of it because the reasons for the size change feel kinda hacked in. It would make more sense if they started off smaller and took on the role of proper parasites; infesting the host and altering them from the inside out to better suit the hive instead of being birthed out. Hell, it would sound better to me if they just stayed the same size in the first place. Ill go into the lore side of this later.

2) Eggs in, Eggs out
- This one I do personally like as one of the possibilities. It makes more sense than number one did just in terms of mechanics and it appeals to my personal kinks too so theres that XD

3) Eggs in, Larva out
- This is another one that I really like. It provides some interesting options for gameplay and it would look pretty cool with AnimObjects and stuff, though as someone who isn't all that into gore or guro; i would at least like a config option to control if the larva can eat their way out

4) Eggs in, Hatchlings out
- This actually feels like what Estrus Chaurus should have been cause it seems more like what they were trying to go for. I have no real complaints about this one, and I do think it would be a great option for if the Hive had been greatly diminished and needed to move to a better hive. Pump up a breeder with a bunch of ready-made workers and send them off. XD

5) Larva in, Hatchlings out
- Another one I really like (real surprise there XD) because it puts the breeder into more of a caretaker role. It could offer some cool gameplay like having to not only maintain your own health in combat, but being careful to keep the larva alive as well.

Opinion 2: Lore

As far as the lore goes, i still say your blog is the most comprehensive bestiary on the Chaurus i have ever seen. That being said, I personally feel that as far as the in-game lore goes; number 3/4 seems like the most likely. We do see egg piles everywhere in their hives, but we never see a larva or a hatchling. This would make sense if the eggs only hatched during the later stages, requiring a host to fully mature.

As for #1 goes; As i said earlier, it makes no sense to me why the eggs would shrink in size. In terms of parasitism, there is no reason for the eggs to shrink down if they were able to fit at their larger size. On top of that, theres no reason for the parasite to leave the host unless a better host is detected.
The flip side of that is that if these are specifically parasite eggs, it makes more sense to put in fewer and allow them to remain in the host when they hatch. This would function more as a tool to synthetically alter a breeder to work better for the hive. This could be by increasing capacity, durability, or even just improving their ability to conform to the will of the Hive.
We could split this up into 1a and 1b:
1a) The chaurus inject around 25-35 smaller eggs that utilize the host for nutritional sustenance and to adapt to the environment. At birth, they are either the same size or shift to one of the other birth types.
1b) The chaurus inject a small number of eggs (or maybe even just 1) that when hatched, it remains inside of the host. (This could probably be shown with a shader effect that creates a refraction effect so that it looks like a bulge is roaming over the body) Over time, this can make numerous changes to the players stats and abilities. Boosting health and stamina a bit while decreasing magicka (greater durability but less willpower), boosting max belly size (up to a configurable point in the MCM) to simulate increased capacity, etc.

Final Opinions:

My final comment on this is mainly taking into account increased variety, and gameplay possibilities.
I think that an altered version of #1 (such as I talked about), #2, #3, #4, and #5 are all really good options from the gameplay point of view and I think that adding as many breeding styles as possible is important to keep up the variety and replayability of the mod.

I do agree that the eggs in/eggs out only makes sense if they are just about to hatch, otherwise there is little point in the process, and only adds increased risk for the eggs. Disease, combat damage, rogue magic energy, etc. could all hurt the eggs as the breeder is running around (or even bound up. who knows what those adventurers carry around with them?).

As far as triggers, it would likely be a cascade:
Level 1: Hive Type

- Smaller hives or more war-like hives may prefer options that pump out more young that are ready to pick up a mandible and fight; while larger hives may prefer smaller, less combative hatchlings that can be put to work as needed or birthed in a new location so that the hive can expand.
Level 2: Environment
- This would be regarding how well suited the hives location is to continued expansion and survival. If its just alright but not the most favorable, they might prefer to let the host carry the eggs for a while while they run around exploring. They may find a good spot to lay down the eggs that is better than the current hive location. It then wouldnt be difficult to have a tracker folow the pheromone trail.
Level 3: Player Action
- This is where player choice can make some effect. If the hive originally wanted the player to stay within the hive but the player escaped, the eggs may detect the change in environment and the birthing process may be altered because of it. This isn't entirely unheard of as some eggs can hibernate for months or years until favorable conditions arrive.

The actual birth will still rely on the type of implantation that was done. A larva can't turn into an egg after all.

Anyway, i hope this helps ^_^
Also sorry I've been lurking so much, just havent had much to contribute to the convo

[Seijin8]

9 hours ago, Reesewow said:

I assume you aren't going to try to integrate Estrus tentacle spit attacks into the chaurus life cycle. 

Correct.  I am planning that stage of things now, and I don't want just one way for it to work.

[Seijin8]

1 hour ago, Elvorana said:

i would at least like a config option to control if the larva can eat their way out

Anything that could lead to "game over" would be controllable in some fashion.  The amount of effort needed to make a proper-looking "eating their way out" mechanism would be a lot of work and I'm not really interested in that.  Most likely, this would just be occasional damage, a loss of healing regen, and eventually an inability to heal through magical/alchemical means.  Slow death basically.

 

There would always be methods to remove the parasites in this case.

1 hour ago, Elvorana said:

This could probably be shown with a shader effect that creates a refraction effect so that it looks like a bulge is roaming over the body

All attempts at this have failed... however with collision-enabled bodies it is possible to make an agitator that shifts the belly around.

 

[Seijin8]

A note on hatchlings:

 

I am planning on two different types of these:

 

1) A "flyer" type (small chaurus body with wings) that will seek shelter (crevasses in caves, etc) and basically disappear until they are more mature.  These would be most likely when inside a cave or hive with an active insect ecosystem.

 

2) A camouflaged "flower" type (totally ripped off from the Dark Crystal Age of Resistance) that has the mind control traits previously discussed.  These would be most common in wilderness or away from chaurus hives.

 

As far as larva, there is an open-use mod for these but I would be making limited use of those assets since larva seem pretty fragile.  They'd likely be scooped up by other chaurus or re-installed in the breeder.

[DJShamrock]

Hey all, SSE user here (yes I understand it says it isn't compatible) but I am asking just in case there are any plans to port this to SSE in the future?

 

I was also curious what the soft requirements of FHA and Apropos would be related to in case I wanted to experiment with this. FHA specifically- I have a lot of mods that alter slides (Fertility, EC+/ES+, Parasites, Egg Mod etc) and each of these alters the slides independently- is that to suggest that this mod would not have any node scaling and would in some way only rely on FHA's node scaling? Would be a shame while using other impreg mods given that having more than one that essentially does the same thing can get kind of... cramped lol. One reason I stopped using both Hentai Preg AND Fertility together.

[Seijin8]

1 minute ago, DJShamrock said:

Hey all, SSE user here (yes I understand it says it isn't compatible) but I am asking just in case there are any plans to port this to SSE in the future?

 

I was also curious what the soft requirements of FHA and Apropos would be related to in case I wanted to experiment with this. FHA specifically- I have a lot of mods that alter slides (Fertility, EC+/ES+, Parasites, Egg Mod etc) and each of these alters the slides independently- is that to suggest that this mod would not have any node scaling and would in some way only rely on FHA's node scaling? Would be a shame while using other impreg mods given that having more than one that essentially does the same thing can get kind of... cramped lol. One reason I stopped using both Hentai Preg AND Fertility together.

No plans to port to SSE.  I don't use it and since my LE is stable and highly customized, its unlikely that I ever will.

 

(Doesn't stop you from doing so for personal use though.)

 

The soft requirements are because the mod was built with Apropos2 and FHU in mind.  Neither are needed and the mod doesn't directly reference them.

[DJShamrock]

17 hours ago, Seijin8 said:

No plans to port to SSE.  I don't use it and since my LE is stable and highly customized, its unlikely that I ever will.

 

(Doesn't stop you from doing so for personal use though.)

 

The soft requirements are because the mod was built with Apropos2 and FHU in mind.  Neither are needed and the mod doesn't directly reference them.

So does this mod do any node scaling in reference to breeding? Or does it depend on another 'pregnancy' mod to do so? I was also mainly curious what exactly it had in mind from Apropos2- I'm assuming the Wear and Tear system mostly?

[Seijin8]

5 hours ago, DJShamrock said:

So does this mod do any node scaling in reference to breeding?

Not yet, but it will in the future.  When it does so, it will use SLIF.

 

Apropos2 is -- for me -- mainly used for the descriptors and wear and tear.

[Metalo]

On 9/30/2019 at 1:48 AM, Seijin8 said:

You're the second to mention it, so I will reupload momentarily.  Not sure why it is being a problem, but hopefully this resolves it.

 

EDIT: Newly uploaded file is just a repack of the previous file.  Nothing new has been added.

Hey, thanks for your reply and looking into it. I downloaded the newly uploaded "zip" file and it worked perfectly. I still get a "cannot open" on the rar files though.

 

FYI to those who say "use 7zip", I am using 7zip, also tried WinRAR, and NMM. All three failed to open the original rar files.

 

Again, thanks Seijin8. I'm looking forward to trying this out now.

[kilroywasalwayshere]

   I think there may be some merit behind the "Chaurus eggs needing a hosts magicka to grow/develop".

 

   Taking a quick look through the wikia ( https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Creatures_(Skyrim) ) we see that Chaurus do not posses much innate Magicka, whereas the Falmer possess a significant amount, surpassing some Daedra and Hagravens, higher level Falmer are on par with the settings mages.  This isn't surprising as Falmer were once mer, elves.  Furthermore, there is a higher concentration of Falmer dens around Winterhold, with one even directly on the road to Winterhold township.  Most creatures in the Elder Scrolls world do not possess much Magicka, which would eliminate trolls, bears, mammoths, and giants from the list of desirable victims as even if a hive were strong enough to bring these down, either through subterfuge or might, the hive would gain little from it as these creatures do not possess enough Magicka.  Finally, "Damage Magicka" is a property of the Chaurus Egg, so it may be possible that the egg possess some chemical that absorbs Magicka in some kind of reaction, perhaps this is what produces the "Fortify Stamina" effect?

 

   Earlier in this topic, we discussed whether the Chaurus ate meat or not, and the possibility of Chaurus eating rocks for nutrition came up.  This becomes interesting when you look at the early stages of a Chaurus's life, namely the hatching and early livelihood.  Let's consider, that a newly hatched Chaurus would not posses chitin, and therefore would not possess mandibles to crunch down on rocks, or have enough venom to brake it down into the nutrition it needs.  In other words, a newly born Chaurus wouldn't be able to survive without either another Chaurus looking after it, or a host providing it with some kind of care. 

 

   In the this scenario, lets say our victim was injected with 5 eggs from a Reaper, all of these eggs are fertile and our host posses a large pool of Magicka for the eggs to brake down into nutrients for the larva.  Time passes, and the shells of all five eggs brake down and now the host is infested with 5 larva all hungry for some kind of nutrition.  However, if we consider that Chaurus may not strictly require meat for nutrition, and instead prefer some other kind of substance, it doesn't make since for the larva to try and physically eat out their host with their fleshy undeveloped mandibles.  Instead, the larva might continue to feed off of their hosts Magicka producing more energy and continuing to grow until they reach a point where they are able to quickly grow or produce chitin and venom with which to brake down food in their environment, or to be birthed.  

 

   However, how does a Chaurus transition between feasting off of a living creature for magical energy into being able to, and preferring to, harvest it from the environment?  One possibility is that the chemical that enables the reaction between Magicka to produce energy is only found in egg clusters and cannot be produced via the mouth in order to eat.  Thus the Chaurus would need to use their new corrosive venom to brake down the environment and eat residual Magicka found in minerals.  However, can a Chaurus melt down a mage and eat it for magical substance?  I give this a hard "maybe" as we do see one case scenario in which this may have occurred in Lost Echo Caves.  However this does not appear to be the preferred method.  Nirn, or the Bones of Nirn, are built from what remains of the beings called Ehlnofey ( https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Ehlnofey ).  These beings chose to either be wholly sacrificed to become the Bones of Nirn, the planets crust, or to become some of the first beings on Nirn, men and mer.  Perhaps the planets crust contains large concentrations of magical essence left over from the Ehlonofey which created its crust.  Interestingly, specs of blue "somethings" can be seen in the environments of Chaurus and floating in the air, perhaps these somethings are magical concentrations of dirt from the Ehlonofey which the Chaurus feed from.  

 

    If we continue with this train of thought, it makes sense to consider that different races of Tamriel would be more desirable then others due to their innate magical potential, with elves topping the list.  However, if the Chaurus want a healthy supply of magical elves to feed off of, they wouldn't need to go to the surface, or anywhere in particular as they could just keep their Falmer masters, who as we established earlier, are very magical in nature, perhaps even on par with High Elves.  Why the Falmer would want to use a breeder instead of themselves is something we discussed earlier in this thread, so I'll not linger on it too long.  Simply put, the Falmer most likely don't want to use their own out of self preservation, superiority, or as a means of controlling the Chaurus population.  Consequentially, the Falmer using slaves as breeders makes sense as most races in Tamriel are less magically innate then they are, thus producing less living hatchlings, and acting as a natural birth control.  Additionally, it now makes sense to keep a breeder alive as Magicka is naturally produced by living creatures.

 

   Elvorana brought up the idea of the eggs affecting our characters Willpower, this is interesting as it would explain the mind controlling nature of the hive, however, it may adversely affect a victims Magicka generation or pool.  Unfortunately, Skyrim doesn't have an attribute system that we could look at, so I pulled this list from Oblivion, most attribute systems are nearly identical so it shouldn't make matter too much.  The following statements are directly from ( https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Attributes_(Oblivion) ).

     

Strength: 

Strength is a character attribute that influences the amount of damage a character inflicts with melee weapons. It also determines a character's Fatigue (one point per Strength), and Encumbrance level (five points per Strength), which is the total amount of weight that can be carried.

Strength permits the player to advance in the affected skills efficiently. Strength governs the following skills: Blunt, Blade, and Hand-to-Hand. Strength over 100 will still increase maximum Fatigue and Encumbrance, but not melee damage.

 

Intelligence:

Intelligence is a base character attribute that affects the Hero's total Magicka and magic use. It also governs the Conjuration, Mysticism, and Alchemy skills.

Magicka = (Intelligence x 2) + (any bonuses or Signs)

 

Willpower:

Willpower is an attribute that affects a character's ability to resist magical attacks, maximum Fatigue, and the rate at which Magicka is regenerated. The Hero's willpower can be upgraded alongside many other choices and like all other attributes, has a max level of 100.

It governs the Alteration, Destruction, and Restoration schools of magic.

 

Agility:

Agility is an attribute in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. It determines the Hero of Kvatch's chance to avoid being staggered, damage delivered by bows, and their fatigue.

Agility affects one's ability to maneuver and balance, the Hero's total fatigue, and how much damage one can do with marksman weapons such as bows. Agility governs the Marksman, Security, and Sneak skills. Agility over 100 will still increase fatigue, but not marksman damage.

 

Speed:

The Speed attribute determines how fast the Hero moves and the length (not height) of jumps.

It governs the Acrobatics, Athletics, and Light Armor skills. If it goes over 100, it will still provide the running speed bonus.

 

Endurance:

Endurance is a base character attribute that affects how much fatigue and health one has, and how much health will increase when they sleep and gain levels. Most combat classes will want a large amount of this attribute early to get as much health as possible. Endurance also governs the Block, Armorer, and Heavy Armor skills.

 

Personality:

Personality is one of a character's base attributes that affects their ability to retrieve meaningful information from characters, through persuasion or other methods. A character's personality also governs their ability to achieve better prices for merchants' goods. It affects how high of disposition characters will have as well. A high enough personality also results in characters saying things like: "You seem interesting, please share your thoughts."

Personality governs the Mercantile, Speechcraft, and Illusion skills.

 

Luck:

Luck is an attribute that plays a small part in all skills, yet it does not have a skill of its own. Because of this, luck will never receive a multiplier when the player gains a level.

Luck plays a part in other aspects of the game, as well. For example:

• Luck affects the chances of contracting diseases. The Hero has a better chance of resisting disease as their luck increases. If their luck drops below 50, they have a better chance of catching a disease, to the point where a simple hit from most disease giving creatures will contract a sickness.
• When betting at the arena, the combatant from the team that was bet on will have higher health based on the luck attribute. The higher the luck, the more health the combatant will have.
• Luck may or may not affect enemy loot but testing has not been conclusive.
• Luck will occasionally stop traps from activating until one passes.

   I posted all of the attributes in case a reader takes an interest in playing with another of these attributes, such as endurance, however, I will focus on Intelligence and Willpower to investigate the players psychology (mind control) and ability to possess/produce Magicka.  Wearing on the player characters Willpower, as it is defined here, would be a good way to make the player more susceptible to mind control, as less Willpower means less innate resistance to magical influence.  However, this would also result in the victim being less able to produce Magicka with which to feed the eggs.  Vice versa, once a character is fully "mind controlled" their Willpower becomes less about self preservation, and more about their place in the hive, thus increasing Willpower, and the production of Magicka, whether the mind control may brake depends on if the effect is magical or chemical in nature or if the effects are simply more permanent.  The characters Intelligence likely wouldn't see a significant direct impact, meaning the base Magicka pool would not be reduced.  Consequentially,  the value of a victim depends on the rate at which they succumb to mind control vs. their base Willpower, with their Intelligence or Magicka pool acting as a timer.  Once a victim no longer posses Magicka, and is no longer producing Magicka, they become useless.  

 

   Now, lets translate that into what we have in Skyrim.  The mind control process, a freshly captured slave who's beginning their breeding slavery, would start by reducing the characters ability to generate Magicka, Magicka Regen, while eating clumps of Magicka, the base stat.  Magicka would still be able to regenerate, but less and less by the characters will.  Perhaps, in order for a less magically inclined character, the only way to survive this trip into madness would be to consume something that would hurt them in order to regain their Magicka, such as Human Flesh which damages health and restores Magicka (this would likely have to be a custom ingredient to avoid mod conflicts.)  

 

  If we consider that the Falmer are "too fertile" for the Chaurus, this would make the scenario in which Chaurus are driven to enslave or kill their former masters as the hive may come to see them as a very rich food source.  If the Falmer will not submit, then they will be melted into food for the current, freed, generation of Chaurus, this scenario is simply to avoid the need for Chaurus on Falmer animations.  

 

   Lastly, and this is something I've been wanting to tackle for a while, what about vampires and werewolves?  Vampires are established as some of the most magically adept beings in the setting, and werewolves are wonderful little balls of furry energy just bursting with that lovely daedric influence.  Vampires are considered walking corpses, werewolves are overflowing with life, and both are incredibly dangerous prey for a hive.  Strictly from a "player character is victim" scenario, should being either a vampire or a werewolf have any consequences on hosting eggs?  If we consider the reaction of Magicka + venom to be energy for Chaurus, then perhaps these diseases would have no effect on the eggs, as neither vampirisim or lycanthropy directly impact Magicka, however do posses traits that may improve the base stat thus eliminating the need to consider these 2 variables as only the consequence on Magicka is worth considering.  However, if we consider daedric influence to change the nature of the Magicka of a victim then perhaps this is something to look into.

[VaeVictus]

Now THAT is wall of text right there gents.

[Seijin8]

@kilroywasalwayshere: as usual, you've supplied a lot to ponder.

 

I'm leaving the majority of the comments as-is, since I can't argue any of the analysis (though the if-then logical chain is arguable, I'm not tackling that right now).

16 hours ago, kilroywasalwayshere said:

Perhaps, in order for a less magically inclined character, the only way to survive this trip into madness would be to consume something that would hurt them in order to regain their Magicka, such as Human Flesh

The idea that cannibalism could be a safety valve is... nuts enough to make perfect sense in a world where Namira exists.

16 hours ago, kilroywasalwayshere said:

this scenario is simply to avoid the need for Chaurus on Falmer animations

Though no discrete animations exist for this, creating some wouldn't be too difficult.  There are enough examples of both animation sets to cobble one or two together.  Hadn't intended to, but now that you mention it, there probably does need to be something like that (even if falmer don't normally do this, the vindictive breeder-queen angle pretty much requires that it can be made to happen.)

 

On that line of thinking...

16 hours ago, kilroywasalwayshere said:

what about vampires and werewolves

... can be translated as "what if the player chooses to..." and whenever possible, the answer to that is going to be "yes, totally, absolutely and for sure".

 

While I am going to dig deep on the behavioral side of things, I won't be doing that for any magical effects.  Mainly because we've seen that those effects are entirely fluid, changing between game sequels, and also because:

 

The original Highlander movie was always going to be better than anything that came after.  Starting with a three paragraph explanation for what was going on, it had little intention of digging for explanations (classic Gregory Widen).  The moment you have to explain a deviation from it (Highlander's sequels and TV series), those details paint the entire concept as absofuckinglutely ridiculous with flashing lights and bows on it.

 

The idea is ridiculous, but trying to explain it makes it unerringly so.  Leaving a lot to the imagination means there is always a fan theory that could make the whole thing work perfectly.

 

To drag the tangent back in, I like the exploration of the concept, but I won't be detailing any of it beyond musings from second era books found at some dig sites.  It will work whatever way the combination of gamer needs and engine limits allows for, and any explanation will be safely ignored (by me).

 

(Frankly, the venn diagram of A) engine limits, B) animator quirks/kinks, C) what I personally find sexy, D) or horrific, E) or interesting... produces few overlaps.  The mini poll did not go the way I expected, showing that everyone else's C/D/E circles don't cleanly overlap with mine.  I'm going to try to make all of it click, but I don't think any "rational" explanation can survive that minefield.  Even *if* I were inclined to want/need an explanation for all of it, I doubt there can be one that satisfies everyone.  Avoiding supplying that explanation leaves those interested in explanations the freedom to create their own that adheres to the "reality" formed by the mixture of mods they are using.)

 

14 hours ago, VaeVictus said:

Now THAT is wall of text right there gents.

That's how @kilroywasalwayshere rolls.

[Sucker343]

I turned logging on and my log is flooded by  

Spoiler

[None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:

what possibly would be the cause?

 

Edit I found this, it seems to be the cause, and the log is getting more then 1 GB in minutes, filled with what's over.

Spoiler

ERROR: Failed to find variable FXActive used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable FXActive used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable ::PlayerRef_var used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable ::PlayerRef_var used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable ::PlayerRef_var used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable ::PlayerRef_var used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable ::PlayerRef_var used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable ::PlayerRef_var used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable FXActive used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()

How do I fix this?

 

[Seijin8]

6 hours ago, Sucker343 said:

I turned logging on and my log is flooded by  

  Reveal hidden contents

[None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:
    [None].ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX() - "<savegame>" Line ?
[11/10/2019 - 03:57:25PM] ERROR: Argument variable "FXActive" was not successfully looked up
stack:

what possibly would be the cause?

 

Edit I found this, it seems to be the cause, and the log is getting more then 1 GB in minutes, filled with what's over.

  Reveal hidden contents

ERROR: Failed to find variable FXActive used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable FXActive used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable ::PlayerRef_var used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable ::PlayerRef_var used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable ::PlayerRef_var used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable ::PlayerRef_var used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable ::PlayerRef_var used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable ::PlayerRef_var used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()
[11/10/2019 - 04:44:05PM] ERROR: Failed to find variable FXActive used in ChaurusVictimQuestScript.OnSideFX()

How do I fix this?

 

This comes from not making a clean save between updates.

 

You can try clicking "reset" in the MCM and see if that helps (doubtful, but simple to try).

 

If that fails, do either of both of these steps:

1) Remove the mod, play for a bit, save, re-add the mod.

2) Use a save game script cleaner.

[Sucker343]

21 minutes ago, Seijin8 said:

This comes from not making a clean save between updates.

 

You can try clicking "reset" in the MCM and see if that helps (doubtful, but simple to try).

 

If that fails, do either of both of these steps:

1) Remove the mod, play for a bit, save, re-add the mod.

2) Use a save game script cleaner.

I did clean save but it was not enough. I had to reset creature framework, after that everything starts working fine. no problem now.

[Elvorana]

I'm pretty sure I agree with everything @kilroywasalwayshere said XD. I have no other input really, just a tip of my hat to an amazing imagination and analytical ability.

Though to be fair, this thread seems to have attracted some pretty intelligent thinkers ^_^

[Seijin8]

On 11/9/2019 at 6:06 AM, kilroywasalwayshere said:

Instead, the larva might continue to feed off of their hosts Magicka producing more energy and continuing to grow until they reach a point where they are able to quickly grow or produce chitin and venom with which to brake down food in their environment, or to be birthed.

I've been thinking on this more, and I really like the idea that the cyan/blue chaurus glow is actually a suspension fluid for storage of magicka (similar to a soulgem), and has a bit of an innate leeching property (Damage Magicka).

 

Does seem to imply that Altmer (and Snow Elves) would be ideal as breeders.  Falmer, too, if such a thing is allowed.  (Makes it all the more interesting as to why the Falmer would avoid doing so.)

 

3 hours ago, Elvorana said:

I'm pretty sure I agree with everything @kilroywasalwayshere said XD. I have no other input really, just a tip of my hat to an amazing imagination and analytical ability.

Though to be fair, this thread seems to have attracted some pretty intelligent thinkers ^_^

Agreed.  I am most appreciative of the logic and imagination being brought to the table here.

 

Bravo, folks.

 

As an aside:  I'm going dark for a couple weeks, having non-life-threatening surgery the recovery from which requires my legs to be elevated in a way that doesn't sync up with my desktop workspace at all.  I've done this once before about two months ago, so it is familiar territory.  During this time I will be getting ready for yet another rewrite of the scripts (the last major one, hopefully) to further optimize and make the results more reliable.

 

To be included (already active in the testing branch): hotkeyed controls for screaming (on/off and intensity), caterwauling (on/off for now, but will transition through layers/types in the rewrite) and fluids (on/off, scaling and type).  Also, hopefully will have some basic "dialogues" with the chaurus, along with body-language/somatic responses.

 

Also hoping to have eggs/larva optionally appear in the animations based on the condition of the individual chaurus, with fertility being a measured stat similar to (and possibly linked to) SLA's arousal stat.  The only issue I'm having with this right now is that it desyncs the Apropos descriptions, since Apropos cannot (to my knowledge) respond to dynamic feedback at this time.  The only workaround I can think of is to make it so that a chaurus with no eggs to lay will change the animation parameters to a non-egglaying animation when those stages hit.  As for how to get separate descriptions for eggs/larva... I can't think of an elegant solution yet.

[WolfoftheWest1]

heyo, back in my favorite mod's comment page again XD. I see my comment on Magicka Transfer in the blog has been taken *quite* seriously by others here, so, while i'm clearly not as articulate with my ideas as others here, i will put my 2 cents in.

1) Falmer not being bred: Falmer clearly do consider themselves superior to other races, even though they are blind and weakened. They keep slaves of sentients, kill any that come near them, regularly attack the surface and subsurface locations, are descended from Snow Elves, etc etc. But as with every proud superior race, there are those of the "submit to the lesser" kind of kink, so Falmer women (whom are the only ones I have seen use magic) could choose to breed with chaurus, as Seijin said it would just require a mash up of animations. So i see it as a "Player Choice" kind of thing, have an MCM option to enable or disable falmer breeding, or have it be part of certain revolution paths.

2) Altmer being the best breeders: I am one of those people who main an Altmer just because i absolutely hate them. kind of a, see your object of hatred be brutalized kind of thing. So i do support the idea of Altmer producing the best variety of Chaurus. however, its Skyrim. the amount of Altmer is low, mainly merchants and Thalmor agents, who would be trained in brutal magic. So there would be a demand for Altmeri breeders in Hives but it should be a trophy kind of thing. A hive obtaining an Altmer breeder should be like a social status in the underground, the hive gaining recognition. they should produce Chaurus that are like 3x more powerful but be the hardest for the hive to break in via mind control. But, as Seijin is going the route of player choice, it should also be an MCM option to boost the Chaurus. Also, more on this in the next point, an Altmer breeder who willfully entered a Chaurus Hive with the express purpose of being used, whether because they had no choice, were desperate, or are into that sort of thing, should be considered like a message from the Chaurus gods, useful for them.

3) Entering Willfully: If you enter a Chaurus Hive with no weapons or armor equipped, and do a hotkey surrender, you should be considered willing to join the hive. Set a MCM Option (im sorry Seijin for all the "MCM Options" but its the path you go down for openness to all gameplay styles) to what kind of life style you get for surrending, rough, constant breeding, or like royalty.

I think i got most of my thoughts in from reading the new stuff, but im sure Seijin will find holes in my thoughts as he always does once he gets back from recovery

[Elvorana]

19 hours ago, Seijin8 said:

As an aside:  I'm going dark for a couple weeks, having non-life-threatening surgery the recovery from which requires my legs to be elevated in a way that doesn't sync up with my desktop workspace at all.  I've done this once before about two months ago, so it is familiar territory.  During this time I will be getting ready for yet another rewrite of the scripts (the last major one, hopefully) to further optimize and make the results more reliable.

 

To be included (already active in the testing branch): hotkeyed controls for screaming (on/off and intensity), caterwauling (on/off for now, but will transition through layers/types in the rewrite) and fluids (on/off, scaling and type).  Also, hopefully will have some basic "dialogues" with the chaurus, along with body-language/somatic responses.

 

Also hoping to have eggs/larva optionally appear in the animations based on the condition of the individual chaurus, with fertility being a measured stat similar to (and possibly linked to) SLA's arousal stat.  The only issue I'm having with this right now is that it desyncs the Apropos descriptions, since Apropos cannot (to my knowledge) respond to dynamic feedback at this time.  The only workaround I can think of is to make it so that a chaurus with no eggs to lay will change the animation parameters to a non-egglaying animation when those stages hit.  As for how to get separate descriptions for eggs/larva... I can't think of an elegant solution yet.

Good luck with the recovery! (I tried to come up with my usual snark but im not coming up with anything so ill stick with the "No Jokes" option)

Also cannot wait to see what somatic/body language responses you came up with after the earlier conversation about it. (I mean I can wait until after your recovery ) I mean eggs in animations are cool and I would love to see that too, but the communication stuff really got my cogs turning so im curious what the final(ish) result is. ^_^

[Seijin8]

6 hours ago, Hawkhunter347 said:

(im sorry Seijin for all the "MCM Options" but its the path you go down for openness to all gameplay styles

Nope, that is definitely the best route for customization.

6 hours ago, Hawkhunter347 said:

but im sure Seijin will find holes in my thoughts as he always does once he gets back from recovery

Nothing to poke at there.  It all makes sense.  Excellent as always

2 hours ago, Elvorana said:

the communication stuff really got my cogs turning so im curious what the final(ish) result is. ^_^

Since I haven't really started on that yet, so am I!

 

At least at first, this will be the player character making gestures and attempting dialogue, and the chaurus responding (or not) in some way.  There aren't very many loose/free to trigger animations for chaurus, but a few that are available are tail-slaps on the ground, standing upright and looking around, and some sort of pointing gestures (linked to attack animations, but I think I can de-link those).  There are a few postural animation stages in Anub's chaurus sex animations that might also be useful if I can figure out how to trigger just those as a solo set (probably would have to create "poses" for them, which should work fine).

 

(Not that it matters, but surgery isn't for another 30 hours or so.)

[Seijin8]

Okay, still not able to put in long hours on this (recovery and work commitments come first), but when I do, there are two things I want to tackle that I will need peoples' input on:

 

1) In an effort to produce information without notifications or pop-ups, I'd like to use some imagespace modifiers, but of course there is a problem with this approach (isn't there always).  Many ENBs disable the default Skyrim image spaces, and so anything based on this approach will be invisible to those users.  Note that not all ENBs do this, but many (probably most) do.  Just want to get a feel for how many people would be effected by this.  If you aren't sure it would apply to you, simple way to know is if using a carriage the screen fades to black.  If so, you can still see imagespaces, if not...

 

2) Before rewriting the code for the chaurus and victims (hopefully the last major overhaul), I want to know if there are any effects or events people would like to see happen that maybe haven't been mentioned yet.  Keep it simple and concise: I don't need myriad details, just enough to know if groundwork needs to be laid for it.

[Dojo_dude]

^ Estrus Chaurus compatibility please 

[Elvorana]

9 hours ago, Seijin8 said:

Okay, still not able to put in long hours on this (recovery and work commitments come first), but when I do, there are two things I want to tackle that I will need peoples' input on:

 

1) In an effort to produce information without notifications or pop-ups, I'd like to use some imagespace modifiers, but of course there is a problem with this approach (isn't there always).  Many ENBs disable the default Skyrim image spaces, and so anything based on this approach will be invisible to those users.  Note that not all ENBs do this, but many (probably most) do.  Just want to get a feel for how many people would be effected by this.  If you aren't sure it would apply to you, simple way to know is if using a carriage the screen fades to black.  If so, you can still see imagespaces, if not...

 

2) Before rewriting the code for the chaurus and victims (hopefully the last major overhaul), I want to know if there are any effects or events people would like to see happen that maybe haven't been mentioned yet.  Keep it simple and concise: I don't need myriad details, just enough to know if groundwork needs to be laid for it.

 

1) In regards to image space modifiers, I do use ENB but its with the ENBOOST settings only so i, for one, do use ISM's

 

2) For effects/events, I am personally a huge fan of parasitism/symbiosis and of course the lovecraftian horror. The lovecraft bit would probably be easy enough to implement as a story uncovered through found journals and tomes as was discussed very early in this thread. For the parasitism/symbiosis stuff, I just remembered something that the Fertile Breeder mod for Fallout: New Vegas did with the bloatflies. The bloatflies were queenless when the player falls into their cave. Over some time, they mutate the player into a walking brood-queen that is constantly pregnant with their larva. It is only once the player is fully mutated that they are allowed back into the wasteland. Maye we could do something similar? (I also loved how this mod did the visuals for the brood-queen but i have no idea how well that would work in Skyrim. The player was given wings and antennae, but also a different mesh for the belly that constantly writhed and squirmed. It was cool looking ^_^)

 

Part of this idea has to consider the Chaurus motivations for mutating a humanoid entity into becoming a brood-queen in this fashion. I'm not entirely sure what kind of factors would have to be at play for this to be an option though. Maybe as an alternative to the earlier mentioned College Student idea where the player decides to experiment with body alteration involving the Chaurus.

 

As for the mechanics, the player becomes a walking egg factory. This can work two ways. There could be a breeder chaurus permanently ensconsed within the players body that continually re-impregnates them. This would probably be less lore friendly to the current lore we have figured out unless there could be a reason for a small, less chitinous breeder type made specifically for this purpose. The other way is perhaps a little more lore friendly. In Nisetanaka's bikini armor collection, there is an armor piece that is entirely just a chaurus that is holding onto the character's back. In this case, that would be the breeder chaurus that simply hops off, re-impregnates the player, then hops back on so the player can continue their journey. This could also give us a chaurus companion to take with us on our adventures with it chittering in our ear during our travels. The reasoin I say this is a little more lore friendly is that it's not entirely uncommon for parasitic or symbiotic insects to hitch a ride with other animals. Some animals even seek out such symbiotic relationships.

 

I think thats all i've got for now, ill let you guys know if i come up with anything else. I also apologize if any of this is a bit rambling or changing in direction, trying to write this up before i have to head out for work.

[Szlordrin]

Would like to see your Apropos Messages not get cut off early... Or maybe set up a script that makes them sequential so you can start a line of text, and the work through it line by lline with a hotkey or something. idk just a thought.