Skyrim Chain Beasts

[Siev]

Been experimenting with Skyrim VR a bit and tried loading it just because, so thought I'd chime in and say it didn't work in VR. Know VR support for a mod like this is a big ask, but I do have the papyrus log saved if you want it at any point =p

[MTB]

21 hours ago, Siev said:

Been experimenting with Skyrim VR a bit and tried loading it just because, so thought I'd chime in and say it didn't work in VR. Know VR support for a mod like this is a big ask, but I do have the papyrus log saved if you want it at any point =p

 

There was a post a while ago about earlier version being tried on VR.  Main issue noted was that beasts taking control over the player did not work (well).  Which I guess is not that surprising. 

Using it as a dominant player to capture NPCs should not have that problem though.

Not sure what precisely you mean by `didn't work' but as I don't have the VR version I cannot really develop/debug for that anyways.

 

[Siudhne]

Thanks for the update!

065 voices has no data at the top level.

[Siev]

9 hours ago, MTB said:

 

There was a post a while ago about earlier version being tried on VR.  Main issue noted was that beasts taking control over the player did not work (well).  Which I guess is not that surprising. 

Using it as a dominant player to capture NPCs should not have that problem though.

Not sure what precisely you mean by `didn't work' but as I don't have the VR version I cannot really develop/debug for that anyways.

 

 

The pre-req isn't ported over to VR, and the mod doesnt do anything but generate papyrus errors. MCM menu also doesn't appear and from what I could tell the mines didn't spawn. Not super important, just chiming in on current experience ?

[MTB]

1 hour ago, Siudhne said:

065 voices has no data at the top level.

 

That's correct; it only contains audio (voice files) no esm/esp; does not need one.

 

 

56 minutes ago, Siev said:

 

The pre-req isn't ported over to VR, and the mod doesnt do anything but generate papyrus errors. MCM menu also doesn't appear and from what I could tell the mines didn't spawn. Not super important, just chiming in on current experience ?

 

Even if you get it running you'll likely have limited functionality in VR, but I don't see why the basics would not work.

 

>The pre-req isn't ported over to VR
Looking at

all prerequisites seem to have VR versions; There is skyui VR, Sexlab and Zaz have working VR versions, also seems FNIS works though there are some conflicting reports.  It might be possible to use Nemesis for the SCB animations (they're all human alternate (movement) animations, no creature animations) but I've never tried.

 

> and the mod doesnt do anything but generate papyrus errors. MCM menu also doesn't appear and from what I could tell the mines didn't spawn.
Are you sure things have been installed correctly?  This sounds a lot like what might happen if you eg only install the update and not a full SE version (062 or new: 065).  (Also make sure not to select ESLify plugins afaik that's not supported by Skyrim VR).

 

Edited March 11, 2023 by MTB
corrected tyop

[Siev]

For some reason I thought this needed skyrim utility functions, so that's my mistake, sorry!

[darkfender666]

i have this issue when i start the quest near riverwood and the beast attacks every living being in th city

Is there a way to prevent beasts to target NPCs?

I already set preference to PC

[MTB]

18 hours ago, darkfender666 said:

i have this issue when i start the quest near riverwood and the beast attacks every living being in th city

Is there a way to prevent beasts to target NPCs?

I already set preference to PC

 

So you've disabled male/female as targets and set PC to `yes' - Then in Riverwood the beasts should not be fighting anything but the PC (and possibly followers if also set to yes).  The Riverwood inhabitants are set to only help allies (not friends) so even if you're friends with some they should not come and help you...

 

Only exception is a type of beast that should not occur in Riverwood;

Spoiler

talking about the chain dragons; everyone hates dragons...

 

> every living being

They should never be fighting eg cows/chickens/children.  Maybe mudcrabs, they can get really crabby, but certainly not `every living being'.

 

No idea what's going on, maybe with more info I could hazard a guess.  Eg what version, have you tried on a new game, are they capturing or only fighting, what does the victim info spell say about those they are fighting but should not be, do they start fighting them again if you use the calm spell (Debug menu),  Do you have mods that change standard combat behavior/aggression. Etc.

 

[darkfender666]

51 minutes ago, MTB said:

 

So you've disabled male/female as targets and set PC to `yes' - Then in Riverwood the beasts should not be fighting anything but the PC (and possibly followers if also set to yes).  The Riverwood inhabitants are set to only help allies (not friends) so even if you're friends with some they should not come and help you...

 

Only exception is a type of beast that should not occur in Riverwood;

  Reveal hidden contents

talking about the chain dragons; everyone hates dragons...

 

> every living being

They should never be fighting eg cows/chickens/children.  Maybe mudcrabs, they can get really crabby, but certainly not `every living being'.

 

No idea what's going on, maybe with more info I could hazard a guess.  Eg what version, have you tried on a new game, are they capturing or only fighting, what does the victim info spell say about those they are fighting but should not be, do they start fighting them again if you use the calm spell (Debug menu),  Do you have mods that change standard combat behavior/aggression. Etc.

 

maybe i only disabled men but also i think thre is an issue with a guard overhaul that for no reasons messes up gender. Thank you, you will helpful. 

[Siudhne]

On 3/11/2023 at 9:42 AM, MTB said:

That's correct; it only contains audio (voice files) no esm/esp; does not need one.

Ok, thanks. Somehow I had that "no data at top level" error when I tried to install it, but I don't have it anymore. Oh well.

 

Anyhow, here's an idea for further customization: The different chain beasts could apply a different amount of stages depending on their type. Small guardian crab? 1 stage. Huge prison mammoth? 4 stages.

[xyzxyz]

Can i install this mod on a already existing save? It said something like "update from 0 not supported".

[nitrovgs]

Can someone help me with the wedding quest.. I go to the wedding use tgw scroll but what do I do after?

[MTB]

15 hours ago, xyzxyz said:

Can i install this mod on a already existing save? It said something like "update from 0 not supported".

 

Yes that should work fine. You can ignore the message in this case.  I should add a > 0 check to that message...

 

14 hours ago, nitrovgs said:

Can someone help me with the wedding quest.. I go to the wedding use tgw scroll but what do I do after?

 

Enjoy the party for a while...

Spoiler

something needs to happen a couple of times involving the new guests that arrived when you used the scroll.

 

A related setting in the MCM controls how often it needs to happen before the next stage kicks in. If you've set only the player as target or a long `post punishment immunity' it may take long so you may want to adjust one of these three settings.

 

 

 

Edited March 30, 2023 by MTB

[MTB]

On 3/21/2023 at 1:20 PM, Siudhne said:

Anyhow, here's an idea for further customization: The different chain beasts could apply a different amount of stages depending on their type. Small guardian crab? 1 stage. Huge prison mammoth? 4 stages.

 

It works a little bit like this already; the tiny beast can only add one stage and then they die.  But I guess you mean on each take down. Should be possible but does undermine the multistage idea of the capture mechanism a bit as there are only 4 stages before final capture to begin with.  Will place it on the ideas list though.

[xyzxyz]

So I have to take revenge on the mother after helping her daughter out of a creature and got myself into the chains by helping her near whiterun. Sadly the silver chain dog is dead. Should I lure another creature to attack them?

And what NPCs attack those creatures? Most of them are just running away. I think even my follower doesn't help me fight them.

[MTB]

6 hours ago, xyzxyz said:

So I have to take revenge on the mother after helping her daughter out of a creature and got myself into the chains by helping her near whiterun. Sadly the silver chain dog is dead. Should I lure another creature to attack them?

And what NPCs attack those creatures? Most of them are just running away. I think even my follower doesn't help me fight them.

 

>So I have to take revenge
You don't HAVE to, you can choose to be a milk drinker.

 

> Should I lure another creature to attack them?
Well that's certainly one way to go about it. If you finish `beauty and the chain beast' first you may find yourself better equipped to do this.  Other paths for your revenge are also possible. (There's a `mini-game' walk through for this quest in the downloads if you're out of ideas and want to see the supported paths.)

 

>And what NPCs attack those creatures?
Anyone that can be captured (MCM>Gameplay settings).
Allies of a capture-target may fight the beasts to aid their ally, but only while that ally is being actively targeted.  Also, the beast try to scare them off.

>Most of them are just running away.
Wouldn't you?

>I think even my follower doesn't help me fight them.
Your follower should try to help you but also here only while the beasts are actively targeting you.  (So not eg after you're captured/while you're being punished/...)

 

 

[xyzxyz]

Why are the beasts almost immun to magic? I can barely hurt them with the starter spells. Is there a setting for that? There was something about beeing counted as dwemer creatures during installation but I didn't fully understand it.

[MTB]

 

A small development update. Working on a new feature that will be added to the next version;  scaling. 

Now that the alignment is correct, clipping/misalignment due to scale becomes much more apparent. So I'm adding an option to scaling while in the furniture/riding a chain beast.

Below two examples of what I mean.  A Breton female is smaller than average and a Nord female larger. Both cause them to not quite fix in the furniture.

 

The pillory is very sensitive to size; with bigger/smaller actors the head and hands stick through the wood instead of the holes...

 

 

In the X cross the smaller size clips. The larger size still works but scaled still looks better:

 

 

Adding an MCM option to (debug) to control it as usual.

 

 

[MTB]

On 3/31/2023 at 1:30 PM, xyzxyz said:

Why are the beasts almost immun to magic? I can barely hurt them with the starter spells. Is there a setting for that? There was something about beeing counted as dwemer creatures during installation but I didn't fully understand it.

 

They're not. The Silver ones have some cold resistance and if set to Dwemer they resist spells like drain blood. But none of them have any magic/fire/electricity resistance (at the moment anyways).

Attacking a chain beast with a start spell like the flame spell is just as effective as attacking it with a starter weapon like an iron sword. For bigger beasts that may still not be very effective, but taking down a chain beast or even a chain spider with only a basic flame spell is feasible, and as you can keep your distance, likely easier than trying to do it with an iron sword.

(Note that chain beasts are typically tougher than the the animal they resemble.  Eg a basic chain beast is more akin to an ice wolf than a plain wolf, a chain spider a bit tougher than a frostbite spider of similar size (large), etc. Also they scale. So if you're high level, then it will be harder, but then you should have access to some more potent spells/weapons as well....).

 

If weapons are relatively more effective than fire spells I think it's something else doing that...

 

> Is there a setting for that?

There is a plugin to weaken specifically the mobile prison beasts as they are set to `total bad ass' (tm) by default.

Other than that you can control the strength of the chain beast bite, at which level different types start appearing in the wild and how many extra beasts may appear in certain cases at higher levels. 

 

 

[xyzxyz]

34 minutes ago, MTB said:

but taking down a chain beast or even a chain spider with only a basic flame spell is feasible

It's not at least on higher difficulties. They knock you down long befor you kill them. Only cold hard steel and somehow lightning spells work against them.

[MTB]

4 hours ago, xyzxyz said:

It's not at least on higher difficulties. They knock you down long befor you kill them. Only cold hard steel and somehow lightning spells work against them.

 

They're designed to offer a challenge at normal difficulty.  At high levels you're likely to struggle; it's like being up against 4 (master) or even 12 (legendary) of them at the same time. (They're twice (4x) as tough and bite twice (3x) as hard.) So no, a little flame spell isn't going to cut it then - 1 sure, 2 maybe, but 12 forget about it.

If you like to play at those levels you can compensate for the increased byte damage multiplier by lowering the original byte damage in MCM>Gameplay>Difficulty (also set capture stamina at (very) low). But there's nothing you can do about them being tougher (or more precisely taking less damage) so you'll still need to avoid getting hit (too much) and manage your mana very carefully or you'll run out.   Followers become extra useful as they will take less damage as well...

 

Spoiler

And get Chain Breaker sooner rather than later !
Have the other seekers collect the aspect of Meridia if you need it a lot...
(If you don't know what these last two mean yet - progress in the quests...)

 

Spoiler

Also water is your friend as the beasts don't like it.

 

 

 

[BigOnes69]

14 hours ago, MTB said:

 

They're designed to offer a challenge at normal difficulty.  At high levels you're likely to struggle; it's like being up against 4 (master) or even 12 (legendary) of them at the same time. (They're twice (4x) as tough and bite twice (3x) as hard.) So no, a little flame spell isn't going to cut it then - 1 sure, 2 maybe, but 12 forget about it.

If you like to play at those levels you can compensate for the increased byte damage multiplier by lowering the original byte damage in MCM>Gameplay>Difficulty (also set capture stamina at (very) low). But there's nothing you can do about them being tougher (or more precisely taking less damage) so you'll still need to avoid getting hit (too much) and manage your mana very carefully or you'll run out.   Followers become extra useful as they will take less damage as well...

 

  Hide contents

And get Chain Breaker sooner rather than later !
Have the other seekers collect the aspect of Meridia if you need it a lot...
(If you don't know what these last two mean yet - progress in the quests...)

 

  Hide contents

Also water is your friend as the beasts don't like it.

 

 

 

Characters with speed, jumping, and waterwalking are good at high levels. I like that the beasts run away when you are in a location that they cant hit you forcing you to go after them.

[Gamer_Auto]

The idea of this mod fascinates me, and I look forward to the next bit of the fanfiction walkthrough! I want to do a playthrough of this myself. Does anyone have any recommendations on mods (quest or otherwise) that vibe with this one's general theme?

[MTB]

On 4/7/2023 at 6:19 AM, Gamer_Auto said:

The idea of this mod fascinates me, and I look forward to the next bit of the fanfiction walkthrough!

 

Well, I do have one chapter ready - Chapter 4.3 which I've decided to call Chapter 5 instead.  Was waiting till I had more parts ready, but that has already take a while and will likely take quite some time yet as some relate to quests that are not finished yet.  So here it is.

Continuing from

 

Adventures of Brenty – Seek and You Will Find.

 

Chapter 5 Working out frustrations.

 

 

BCB-Chapter5.pdf

[metalhead_hr]

Vortex is giving the following error for SkyrimChainBeasts-v066Update-SSE.7z.  When I try to hit ignore the installation still fails.

 

 

 

Invalid XML: The element 'typeDescriptor' has invalid child element 'defaultType'. List of possible elements expected: 'dependencyType, type'. (Line 45, Pos 10)
The element 'typeDescriptor' has invalid child element 'defaultType'. List of possible elements expected: 'dependencyType, type'. (Line 55, Pos 10)

 

Spoiler