Well, here's my first attempt at a mod for Oblivion. I was disappointed that you could only make spells by joining the Mages guild and rising in the ranks. It's a neat perk, but it doesn't make good sense if you're trying to play a mage prodigy. Anyone who can rise to be grandmaster of the guild in less than a month can probably make their own spells independently. Anyhoo, I hope this mod can give an attractive alternative to standard spellmaking.
It's a pretty simple script effect spell. You are given a power to use once per day. This power will give you access to the spellmaking menu, remove your money, and give you a stipend based upon your magic skills, attributes, and level (detailed information below). Once you finish making your spell, the remaining stipend is removed and your money is restored. The drawback to making your own spells is a loss of magical prowess. Your magicka regeneration is stunted for a full day.
For now I plan on adding a birthsign to give the player this ability. I also have other ideas, which haven't been entirely worked out. Possibly a cursed phylactery of spellmaking, a run-in with a witches coven, and maybe even a new doomstone. Anyway, try the demo out. It can be downloaded at my
webpage. Check the bottom of the newest post for a link. If you have any ideas or suggestions, let me know by posting here.
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Technical Info:
-All listed skills and attributes are calculated at base values. Future versions may take into account penalties, but not skill and attribute buffs.
-Spellmaking Stipend (Gold) = Magic Skill * Magic Ability
-Magic Skill = Destruction * Restoration * Illusion * Mysticism * Conjuration * Alteration / 6
-Magic Ability = ( Willpower + Intelligence ) / 10 * Level / 15
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Interesting Finds:
I only ran into one interesting thing while making this mod. As the result of a bug in my original scripts, I found that first by removing the player's gold, adding a certain amount back in, and calling the spell making menu in the same frame did not update the number for gold properly. In other words, the spellmaking menu read that I had zero gold, yet it let me make spells using the gold that was invisible, yet in my inventory.
This appears to be a symptom Morrowind had as well. Inventory removals are updated instantaneously, but additions to the inventory are not completed until the frame following their addition through script. The only solution for this was to call the Spellmaking Menu one frame after it was called in the script. Scripters out there should be careful of this when changing inventories and working with barter or spellmaking/enchantment menus.