Crystal Cluster -- kind of mana powerbank.

[emo877]

The idea came from "Deadly Education" book by Naomi Novik (i like this part of "Scholomance" very much).

Details:
* It's player-only feature. Technicaly, all what player realy get are one amulet "for link to cluster" and one lesser-power spell to initiate access to cluster content (fig.2).

* "link amulet" (fig.1) is quest-item, and it is not "one of magic crystals" (unlike it was in DE). No mana exchange will occur if "link amulet" is not equipped.

* Mana flow speed could be configured (in .ini) to be constant, or [partialy] depend on MANA PERCENTAGE DIFFERENCE.
* Mana flow speed for "from cluster to user" direction could be BUFFED by "willpower multiplier" (in .ini).

* There's limiter var (in .ini) for player's mana percentage, lower than which mana drain TO CLUSTER will stop (fig.3).

* Total activity pace could be adjusted in .ini setting ghCCquest.fQuestDelayTime (2 seconds period by default).

* Cluster content could be accessed (by default it's enabled in .ini) via spell. You can add or remove crystals, using THE SAME type of crystals: Varla or Welkynd, initial choice in .ini; if you want to change crystals type, edit your .ini, load game and replace crystals with proper type.
* There's no 'hardcoded' difference in parameters between Varla and Welkynd crystals - you should change singleCrystalCapacityFull value to your taste.
* Items of wrong type will return to player's inventory after transaction end. Empty cluster will not function, naturaly.
* After transaction end, if cluster contains less crystals than before, both max capacity and current charge will be lower, proportionaly (if you remove 1 crystal of 5, you will lose 20% of current charge).

* In current mod version crystals removed from cluster are common vanila items, their features are not changed.

* "Varla" and "Welkynd" amulet's models  are from BlackBaron2's mod "Gabes Oblivion Amulets" (nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/40205), used by author's generous permission. They use only vanila oblivion textures, so no .dds files included.

Example of data\ini\ghCCluster.ini content

Spoiler

---------
set ghCCquest.fQuestDelayTime to 2            ;;  script inactivity period in seconds
set ghCCquest.clusterCristalNMax to 12        ;;  maximum number of crystals in cluster
set ghCCquest.clusterCristalNInitial to 2    ;;  initial number of crystals (gift from manufacturer
set ghCCquest.clusterAccessVar to 2            ;; (bitmask in future) only 2 (enable) or 0 (disable) for now.

set ghCCquest.link2userManaPercent to 0.14    ;; user mana lower than 14% will not leak to cluster
set ghCCquest.linkLevelingSpeedDiffMPbase to 0.001    ;; base mana flow speed, without Diff Mult will be useful only if greater than 1.
set ghCCquest.linkLevelingSpeedDiffMPmult to 0.02    ;; main factor for mana flow speed, based on mana levels difference.
set ghCCquest.linkLevelingSpeedMultWP to 0.02    ;; Willpower buffs "from cluster to user" mana flow speed only.

set ghCCquest.singleCrystalCapacityFull to 400    ;;  crystalNo * CCFull == current claster capacity.
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Also there's batch file GHCC in this pack, to peek into some numbers while playing (in console: bat ghcc). Put it in oblivion subdirectory, where all *.exe files are.

 

External references:
https://www.naominovik.com/a-deadly-education
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communicating_vessels

 

----------
Credits:
Naomi Novik for the wonderful book.
BlackBaron2 for "Gabe Oblivion Amulets" mod and the permission to use amulet models, and, respectively, to their resource creators:
Luchaire, AlienSlof and Kikaimegami for Luchaire's Neck Seam Concealer meshes and textures.
Khettienna for the Neck Seam Concealers Expanded textures.
AcidOfShadows, Sarielle, Capucine and Nequam for the eye meshes and textures used to make the eye amulets.
Xiamara for the silver texture used
Pendraia for the textures in their "Lights On A Rope" resource.
alonsomartinez for fixing the rigging
----------

disCredit: my lame English, sorry ):

ghCC(ver_N427).rar

 

UPD. 2023 may 02 

Features:

* Automatic switch after crystals transaction (from/to cluster). Most numerous type "wins", others return to player's inv.
 NB! ini-settings file name was changed to "ghCClusterVW.ini", and there's new parameters, separate for welkynd and varla.
Also, "debugging" batch file GHCC was changed, you need to place new version in oblivion subdirectory, where all *.exe files are.
If cluster type has changed, player have to re-equip link crystal amulet.

* Decreasing of crystal's quantity "hits" current cluster charge, proportionaly: you remove 1 crystal of 5, cluster lose 20% of current charge.

Tested with NON-CLEAR SAVE, all seems ok for me.

* got couple CTDs when "varla" link amulet was equipped (not every time, but i think i feel correlation); then i edited ghCCamuletLnkVarla.nif somehow, and had no more crashes after that (though testing time was quite short, about 30minutes, two different game loads). Problem is, i can't recall what changes i made (except obvious source texture change) -- it was realy late night, and i was tired and drunk :(.  Anyway, if somebody would have crashes when varla'link is equipped, my advice is to try new (n502_\ghCCamuletLnkVarla.nif) version instead of old (backup in n4427_\ghCCamuletLnkVarla.nif).
 

ghCC(ver_N502).rar

 

+hope i found "what's wrong with Gabe's Varla Amulet": it uses vanila textures only, but one of them has only basic arwelkydstone02.dds in vanila'Textures*.bsa, and no any arwelkydstone02.dds_n.dds or arwelkydstone02_g.dds;  adding something (gabeVarlaAmuletFix_.7z) with such names to the same subdirectory (textures\dungeons\ayleidruins\) fixes the problem. My hasteful\drunk fix used simple change crystal's texture to something other vanila (silver ore texture, which has all three texture "layers").

Edited May 4, 2023 by emo877
update (.esp, .ini and amulet models); fix for Gabes'VarlaAmulet