[REL] Crime Enhanced v0.2 Beta, Now with the Stealth Component

Yet another belated release, but here it is.

Light-Based Stealth & Sneaking:

*When the player enters sneak mode, they will be given a bonus to their sneaking ability (using the spell chameleon) based upon the ambient light in a cell, and their distance to any light source.
-The bonus to sneaking is limited to 50 points of chameleon. You can only attain this bonus at the highest levels of sneaking ability in full darkness.
-Inclement weather will also add to the player's ability to sneak.

*This mod does not attach any scripts to lights, so you should experience no slowdown when compared to other sneaking mods. It should also be compatible with any lighting mod out there.
-Players should note this mod calculates "dark" lights. Any light flagged "negative" in the editor will be treated as added darkness. Darkened corners and crevices help conceal your character.
-Players should also note that this mod does not distinguish light between white and colored light. Light amplitude, in whatever color it is, is the determining factor for bonus calculations.
-Lastly, the ambient lighting in a cell will determine the player's maximum bonus. In some well-lit cells it will be nearly impossible to attain a sneaking bonus.

The mod can be downloaded here. The archive includes both the previous mods in the crime series, as well as a new executable and .dll. Make sure you read the Readme.txt for instructions on installation.

Oh, and the name for this component isn't yet firm. I don't believe Aerelorn and I discussed it beforehand, so I just slapped one on. I am aware of the famous "Light-Based Sneaking", and I don't mean for people to believe this is its successor.

Have fun with it. Feedback would be appreciated.

You legendary man you!



The new DLL and executable that came with this detects the Morrowind memory processes on my computer finally! THANK YOU!

Nah, that would be Aerelorn...he codes the junk. Thank him.

There's a small bug in the mod, nothing that should prevent you from using it. In exteriors you actually get a bonus from standing near lights attached to an object. Keep in mind that's only in exteriors. Interiors are still just fine, and there are no bugs with ambient lighting as far as I can tell. I believe I have a fix for the bug, and I'll be releasing it soon.

I also intend to do a version that will add to your sneaking ability rather than giving a chameleon bonus. I just have to find a way to keep the bonuses from compounding. Once I have that figured out I'll be able to release a more "AI friendly" version. Furthermore, if an innovative person has an idea for new "rulesets" on how you get the bonus I'm not above scripting a few alternate versions. Have fun.

Do you actually get invisible (as you do with chameleon) or is it just adding the effect, no visuals?

Either way, it looks great.

Yes, we actually add the chameleon spell, so the player is invisible. However, while the bonus is low, pretty much anything below 10 points, the character might not appear very translucent.

So, for instance, if you're near a guard holding a torch? Normal lights like street lamps work just fine? Or am I misinterpreting this?

Does this make any other balance modifications related to crime (lockpick chance, et al.)? I'm hoping that LDones' Thief Experience isn't rendered entirely incompatible (it'd already give double bonuses for inclement weather).

Well, about the "bug", I may have to recant that. I was getting some erratic results the other day while playing, and the exterior light "bug" is one of the things I experienced. So I added a check into the script to see what was happening and - lo and behold, no problems. I haven't had it happen since. I believe it's possible one of the other, similar test mods I've made was conflicting with it. So I recant my statement that there's a bug.

Guess I'm on damage control tonight . That's me flubbing up a statement. Since the bug I mentioned isn't a bug at all, it doesn't really matter. But I'll answer your question anyway.

I was intending to differentiate between ambient and local-source light. The only light levels that MWE pulls from morrowind are those of lights placed in the editor - be they a torch, a torch carried by a guard, or just an invisible light source placed by the editor. To do sunlight, moonlight, or a lack thereof, MWE uses a linear formula. I probably rewrote the damned post four times, and that's what I get for it.

Sorry, but i think that you or aerelorn should stick with Fortify Sneak and Drain Sneak instead of Chameleon. Seems better for me.

Else, sounds great.

I don't disagree with you. Chameleon is easier to work with though, because you can give a simple value and you're done. When doing fortify sneak on an equation BASED off of your sneak ability, you're going to have to deal with synergy. A version like that is slowly forthcoming. I just haven't worked on any mods in a week or so.

Are you still working on this?

At this point, no. There was very little interest in it. I've picked up other tasks as of late, and I work on those in preference to old projects. If there's enough interest in older projects I may go back to them.

People might get interested if you posted a thread about this in the official ES forums.

As it is, it's not at a fully releasable state, nor could you call it WIP. It's on the backburner. I'm not a particularly good modder, and there's a pretty small talent pool around here. As such I'm working alone on a number of projects at different levels of completion. If other folks are interested in joining in or even working independently with MWE, I'm up for that. But I can't be going back to this project at this point.

I may or may not work on some of them, depending on how NecroRise and Magicka Evolved go. But... I really wonder if I could find any MWE modders to help out.

1. Does Aerelorn still work on MWE in general?

2. If not, does anyone?

3. Is it possible for MWE to read GMSTs values and change them on-the-fly in memory (saving changed values in savegames is not critical)?

4. If not, <GOTO #1> .

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Recently I've been working on a mod that has nothing to do with light-based sneaking, but in a project called "Crime Enhanced" it could be a component. Hence the post in this thread rather the separate. Working title's "Intruder!"

While some doors are locked and breaking them is a crime, once you're in, nobody cares. You may plainly walk into a backroom with the owner watching and he says nothing; then you peek into his chest and pick up anything and that's alright, because he doesn't see you *anymore*. This is wrong.

The idea is to place an activator in places where you're not supposed to be, and when you're close, setting a variable. This variable then is used as a filter for Voice/Idle, where any NPC in cell may express his feelings about you being in his private property, raise alarm and eventually attack you. (Sometime ago I've offered a similar crime detection system for lock bashing mod, and AFAIK, it was implemented, but it has the same problem described below). Now, activators work, dialog lines with fitting text are found among original sound files, everything's alright, except... NPC's don't speak. The probability of Voice/Idle is too small to be sure that the NPC reacts when reaction is due, and Voice/Hello is only activated when PC is nose-to-nose with him. This makes the mod technically working but in fact not doing what it is supposed to.

Now, there's a GMST that governs probability of NPC speaking their Voice lines, but if I change it in CS for my mod, all the Morrowind will turn into the croud of NPCs chatting and yelling without stop. If there was a possibility to raise its value in memory at some moment, wait for any NPC to react to the crime, then restore the GMST, that would make the mod actually work.

Any ideas?