Author Archives: Snake

I’m surpised myself that it’s been nearly a month between posts. What’s more surprising is that I haven’t really done anything too important to post on. I’m mostly just working on various projects, particularly an Oblivion modification. But I should be back to working on the site before too long. I still have to get the Columns area up, filling a large void on the nav (which itself needs a facelift with a flash version). Before I got stuck on modding, though, I did put in most of the files for the Content system. There’s still some, particularly older, files that need to be added, but they will be gotten to eventually. I also did some nifty changes, one of which allows users to view file stats when the download link is moused-over. It can also read vital info on media files like length, codec, bitrate, etc. Tis quite swooby.

My monitor died some time in the period between posts. It had been doing some bazaar things before it keeled over, like color distortion, image jumping, and scrolling horizontal lines. Then one day (a Sunday, I believe), I got up and brought it out of standby and it turned right off. Then it turned on…and off…and on…and off, etc. The time between the on and off got closer and closer together so that eventually the on light stop turning off. It was a rather odd way to die. I’m pretty sure that there’s just some power issue with it, which would be easy to fix. But alas, my warranty must be up. The original post from when I got it is here. I’m still debating about whether or not to replace it with an LCD; so until I do decide (and have the money to buy a new one), I’m just using a loaner monitor. I think this one might die any time now, too.

So, about this mod I’m working on, nay slaving over: I had an inspiration one day about the items in Oblivion. I realized that there were no set items like the ones in Diablo 2 and Dungeon Siege 2, where having more of the set gives the player increasingly powerful bonus effects. I remember what fun we had playing DS2 multiplayer over Christmas. Finding a set item led to instant jubilation and a scramble to pick it up before anyone else. It’s also one of the most difficult decisions to make in a game, whether or not to break a set. That kind of intense item fun is lost on Oblivion, so I’m trying to add it in.

At first, the mod was just a cool Thief set with some original and powerful item bonuses. But in the last few weeks, it’s grown into a larger project. The next set to be released soon is for mages. This set has new art for some of the items (robe, gloves, hood) to make the items match the name of the set: “Brilliant”. It has scripted and unique spell and power bonuses like invulnerability for a short time, health to mana sacrifice, and the super sweet ice storm spell which calls forth a blizzard on the target that does ice damage and freezes (as well as making the weather turn to snow). It also has a killer quest to go along with the set. You get the quest when you read a certain book. It has you going to a remote ruined fort that I’ve completely redecorated with new bosses, creatures, art, sounds. It’s quite a welcome relief from the standard oblivion designs. There’s also tons more stuff, but I can’t remember or say it all here. You’ll just have to check it out when it’s finished. Until then, here’s some screenshots from the upcoming release. You may download from here.