Shout to the Skies - Brainstorming

[Hentai-chan]

I am working a little mod project of mine that focuses on Shouts. Or Thu'um, as I prefer to call them. *whispers* Sounds a lot cooler also less weird. I have a few ideas and I want to run by you guys.

 

First of all, I should introduce you toe the core philosophy of this mod. "Knowing a Word of Power is to take its meaning in to yourself." These words are spoken by both Arngeir and Paarthurnax. This translates to mind as "Simply knowing (not necessarily unlocking) a Word of Power will make you more powerful." I aim to make shouts more interesting by granting them every word a unique effect and make finding Words of Power more rewarding. Gone will be the days when you utter all three words and shouts be more (generically) powerful. Gone will be the days when you say "Oh look, more useless shouts to spend useless dragon souls."

 

Become Ethereal

 

Feim: First word in the Thu'um. Makes you invulnerable for a short duration.

Zi: Second word in the Thu'um, Makes you invulnerable, also allows you to pass through enemies

Gron: Final word in the Thu'um. In addition to effects above, now you can deal magical damage to enemies passing through them. It cannot be resisted. Passing through enemies in this state, however, expends duration. Big creatures such as dragons take only one fourth of the damage.

 

The duration of the shout extend as you find out these Words of Power. Knowing Zi and having unlocked Feim, you will see an increase to duration. But unlocking other Rotmulaag in the Thu'um will yield different results than you would saying only a single word. Also the Thu'um can only be used a limited number of times in a day, as a balance mechanic. Become Ethereal is only an example I intend to overhaul all shouts.

 

 

Meditation

 

With this mod, you can only use shouts a certain number of times in a day. Which brings us to my next topic. Meditation and meditating on Rotmulaag will be more important in this mod just because. Sorry, were you expecting more to that sentence? Meditating on Words of Power is pretty much a stale in vanilla Skyrim. You have to visit Paarthurnax only once and you can only meditate on three words. Meditation will be a defining characteristic in this mod. Because not only are you allowed to meditate on any Word of Power, but also meditating regularly will reward you points that you can use to power yourself or one of your shouts up. Alternatively, dragon souls may also be used. Meditating on words you haven't unlocked will allow you to unlock them without using up dragon souls. It is not easy or fast, however, so their use still remains as the fastest route.

 

There is more, though. Meditating on specific Words of Power will grant you the ability to use them more frequently. Which means the shout will cooldown after a short period. It lasts for a full week in-game. So it needs to be repeated. You can meditate on three words of power, at any time. It will not available straight away, however.  Yo can only meditate on one word, at first. You will unlock the rest as you tap deeper into your dragon self.

 

 

Dragon Crafting

 

In the vanilla, there is only one use for dragon shouts and that is unlocking shouts. And that is it. There is no more use for it. I mentioned earlier that you can save up on your dragon souls by meditating on words of power. But what do you do with all those Dragon Souls that are piling up? You guessed it. Dragon souls can now be used in crafting. Whether it's echanting, alchemy or smithing, dragon souls can be used to create potent items. You did not learn this your mother's womb, however. You will have to go on a little treasure hunt to find out about this lost art.

 

 

I have yet to work out a name for it. Something will come to me.

 

As I said in the title, this is a brainstorming thread. Feel free to tell me what you think of my ideas, share your own so that we may bring about that revolutionary shout overhaul mod no Skyrim modder has even dreamed of in their lives.

[Content Consumer]

Simply knowing (not necessarily unlocking) a Word of Power will make you more powerful." I aim to make shouts more interesting by granting them every word a unique effect and make finding Words of Power more rewarding. 

Have you considered passive effects for the various shouts? I mean, once you unlock a shout, you gain a minor boost to something, and the magnitude increases for unlocking the second and third words?

Some examples:

Animal Allegiance: Animals have a 5/10/15 percent chance to be nonaggressive when you meet them.

Aura Whisper: Similar to how Dibellan Defender Goddess Eye of Life / Death works, with periodic (every few minutes) aura revelation.

Become Ethereal: Automatically resist 1/3/5 percent of all damage gotten due to your innately ethereal nature.

Call Dragon: Odahviing gets a 5/10/15 percent speed boost when summoned.

Call of Valor: The summons get duration boosts.

Clear Skies: I don't know on this one...

Disarm: Do minor damage to the target when disarming (it hurts to have your weapon ripped out of your grasp).

Dismay: ???

Dragonrend: Force the dragon to land immediately rather than continue to circle until it can find a predefined spot.

Elemental Fury: Increase base attack speed by 3/6/9 percent.

Fire Breath: Similar to Elemental Fury, after shouting with Fire Breath any unenchanted weapon you wield does fire damage.

Frost Breath: See Fire Breath

Ice Form: Has a 5/10/15 percent chance to summon an Ice Wraith when breathing

Kyne's Peace: Maybe this is better for Animal Allegiance

Marked for Death: Reduce enemy attack speed

Slow Time: Increase personal speed... slow time (to me) just isn't effective because it slows everything including the player.

Storm Call: Increase lightning bolt damage? Or maybe just increase frequency of lightning bolts by a bit?

Throw Voice: If cast on an NPC, makes that NPC a valid target (remove from faction? startcombat?) for other nearby NPCs.

Unrelenting Force: Stun targets for a few seconds when they're knocked down

Whirlwind Sprint: Increase movement speed by 4/8/12 percent.

 

 

 

meditating on Rotmulaag will be more important in this mod just because. 

Or maybe add the listed effects when meditating on a word instead.

 

 

 

Dragon souls can now be used in crafting. Whether it's echanting, alchemy or smithing, dragon souls can be used to create potent items. You did not learn this your mother's womb, however. You will have to go on a little treasure hunt to find out about this lost art.

 

I absolutely love this idea! You could call it Brii-Wahl Crafting maybe...?

 

 

 

Sort of off-topic, but have you seen this mod? You might appreciate it.

[Hentai-chan]

 

Have you considered passive effects for the various shouts? I mean, once you unlock a shout, you gain a minor boost to something, and the magnitude increases for unlocking the second and third words?

As a matter of fact, I did. But I couldn't think of a way how to implement them without making Dovahkiin a demigod. I thought if effect were shout related, Dovahkiin can still be vulnerable to some extent but powerful at the same time. Perhaps if passive effect were smaller.

 

 

Sort of off-topic, but have you seen this mod? You might appreciate it.

I did but I didn't play enough fully appreaciate it, though.

 

Here are the Thu'um I have been able thought to enhance so far.

 

Unrelenting Force

 

Fus: Releases a small amount of Force that staggers foes upon use. Cone Attack

Ro: Increases the amount of Force applied by the shout. Enough to knock them down. When uttered, the shout applies "impact* damage. "Impact" damage is more devastating against armored foes.

Dah: Significantly increases the amount of Force applied by the shout. Enough to knock big creatures down. When this word is uttered, "impact" damage additionally deals non-elemental magic damage that is more devestaging against armored enemies. However, this shout is so loud that, if the last word were to be uttered, it will alert nearby hostiles.

 

Meditation benefits are divided to four tiers. Only two are unloackable, at first. In general, the first tier benefits are strictly shout-related. But the tiers are passive effects. Also meditating on Rotmulaag, allow you to use them more frequently by adding the cooldown mechanic instead of daily power.

Tier 1

Greater force is applied by the shout. Reqiures 2 hours of medtation.

"Impact" damage at half strength can be inflicted with the first word. Requires 6 hours of medtation, in total.

Tier 2 : Reward: Overall shout cooldown

All your physical and magickal attacks have a small chance to stagger foes. Requires 3 hours of meditation

Tier 3 - Nothing yet

Tier 4 - Nothing yet

Planned feature for Unrelenting Force: I'd like to give this shout the ability to knock dragon out of the sky. With upgrades, of course. Or maybe something like if you UF in the direction the wind is coming, that may smack a dragon down. Maybe?

 

 

Whirlwind Sprint (it's not so much a sprint in vanilla, more like dash)

 

Wuld: Highly increases movement speed upon use. Sprinting consumes very little stamina. Also stagger foes while under it effect. Lasts for 5 seconds.

Nah: Increases movement speed, overall. Allows you to knock people down if you sprint into them.

Kest: Increases movement speed and duration. Sprinting will create a whirlwind lauching them high into the sky. But after the effect dissipates you will find that the shout has taken a toll on your body. It will decrease your physical capabilities for 8 seconds

 

Meditation benefits

Tier 1

Sprinting under it effect will costs no stamina. Requires 4 hours of meditation

Time slows down while sprinting. Requires 5 hours of meditaion

Tier 2 - Reward Be the wind. When you sprint, time slows down by 10%. At the same time your movement speed increaes by 10%.

6 hours or meditation unlock "impact" damage for the second and third words of the shout. See Unrelenting Force for details.

Tier 3 - Nothing yet

Tier 4 - Nothing yet

 

 

 

Breath Shouts (refers to Fire breath, Frost breath and Storm Call)

 

Yol, Fo, Strun: Releases an elemental "cone" attack. Unlocks "cone" attack.

Toor, Krah, Bah:  Releases a directional "cylinder" elemental attack that hurts everything in its path. Unlocks "cylinder" attack.

Shul, Diin, Qo: Summons an elemental storm that follow you in your wake to delivers hell to that would cause harm to you. Summoning storms will force a dragon to land. But as long as this storm persists, you will regenerate magicka and stamina at a slower pace.

 

Note: Fire Breath, Frost Breath and Storm Call all have secondary effect that are slightly more differnt than their magickal counterparts. Fire Breath has random chance of dealing double damage as target burns. Frost Breath deals twice as much stamina damage and negates its regen for a short duration. Storm Call is the same as Frost Breath only difference is that it affects magicka instead of stamina. Unlike other shouts, these secondary effect do not increase in magnitude as you learn more Rotmulaag.

 

Meditation benefits:

Tier 1

1 hour of meditation unlocks attunement. Attunement allows you to change the kind of attack you make with the first and second words of breath shouts. In this example, you can change the "cone" attack with "breath" attack. "Breath" attack has more DPS instead of one big hit but you will be unable to do anything else in the meantime. "Cone" attacks also staggers foes. Attunement is only possible for breath shouts. Fear my Thu'um, you mortal scum!

4 hours of meditation unlocks "breath" attack "Breath" attack have high DPS, secondary effects become more devastating but it wlll render you incapable of doing anything else, besides, of course, strafing. You can attune your breath shouts whenever you wish to meditate on them.

Tier 2 Reward: You become the herald of chromatic death. Increases frost, fire and shock damage 5%

4 hours of meditation unlocks "ball" attack. "Ball" attacks are directional AoE attacks that explode on impact dealing high amounts of damage on impact point and slightly less damage to those round the edges. "Ball" attacks can also knock enemies of their feet.

Tier 3 - Nothing yet.

Tier 4 - Nothing yet

 

 

Thu'um level

 

I would like seperate shout mastery from level-up menu. Thu'um level indicates your mastery of the Voice. You can select from wide range of perks just as you would as if you leveled up.

 

 

The aim of this mod will be to make Dovahkiin something to be feared but also to remind them that while they may have dovahsos, their body is still mortal. The reasoning behind making shouts daily powers is: Every time you shout it takes a toll on your body and mind. It takes years for other mortals to fully master it. As Dovahkiin you are different from other mortal but not by much. Your draconic nature allows you survive many situations that would kill lesser mortals. You are a dragon trapped in a mortal body and a mortal chained to a dragon. If power is your desire, then you bring him out. Bring out your Inner Dragon!