On Cliffracers. | Morroblivion

Hello!

Let me preface by saying that I am a huge admirer of this community.

Since it became playable I've been using Morroblivion as my quintessential Morrowind experience. The quality of the mod is simply astounding.

However I've (shamefully) never taken the time to post or offer my various flimsy thoughts and ideas.

I installed Skywind last night and had an amazing time exploring Vvardenfell within the Skyrim engine. Hopefully I'll go explore Cyrodiil later.

Now Onto The Topic

At the higher levels in Skyrim I've regularly thought to myself "Damn, these dragons are glorified cliffracers, they get SO annoying"

Then after reading up on, and exploring Skywind, it occured to me. "What if the Cliffracers were basically dragons?"

By that I don't mean with their models, or the fire breathing etc. What I mean is their behaviour, the way they move, the way they land and attack with tooth and claw.

Basically what I'm saying is: Could this be a solution to the Cliffracer issue? I have a feeling that if they occured with the frequency of Skyrim's dragons (maybe in groups of two or three as they wouldn't be as strong as dragons) and were as entertaining to fight, then they wouldn't be the absolute bane of many a Morrrowind player's existence. (I flat out removed them from vanilla MW and Morroblivion).

Also, it makes no sense to have actual Dragons in Morrowind during the Third Era, so this would possibly be a nice way of getting thet kind of experience on Vvardenfell but without smashing up the lore.

These are just idle thoughts but I thought it might be enough to prompt a discussion.

I'm not the greatest modder on earth (in-fact I'm pretty terrible) But I can offer my services as a QA-esque bug hunter and voice actor should I be wanted.

Thanks

Last edited by grumpycat on 15 Mar 2014 - 02:03.

Hmmm. Cliffracers = mini

Hmmm. Cliffracers = mini dragons. It would certainly work.

For anyone who's read Terry Pratchett's discworld series, he wrote a similar concept. The big, traditional dragons are Draco nobilis, rare, giant, monsterous creatures that are fueled by magic energy. But there is also a species called Draco vulgaris, the "swamp dragon", a smaller, more pathetic version that people keep as pets, which is much more commonly encountered.

So maybe the cliffracers are just devolved, smaller cousins of the real deal. That's certainly what they looked like in Morrowind anyway.

But is it possible to use the

But is it possible to use the behaviour of dragons, if you take away the fire breathing. Won't they just fly over pretending to breath fire on you without actually doing anything? And they will also land to bite you, that'll look weird as well. I think that to make this possible their behaviour should be seriously modified, if that's even possible.

Yeah, I agree with

Yeah, I agree with Winterdragon. I like the idea of using the dragon animations for the cliff racer, but flying and trying to breathe fire, and breathing fire on the ground will have to be modified out. I don't even know how that works, but we couldn't have that happening. Also, I'll miss them them trying to stab me with their tail ;) Otherwise, I like the idea.

Yeah, I agree too.I didn't

Yeah, I agree too.

I didn't mean basically changing the texture and model. What I'd like to see carried over from the dragons to the cliffragers are stuff like the lower spawn rate (maybe a little higher than the dragons) the way various NPC's react to them, their ability to attack from the ground and to land on rooftops. Perhaps they spit something poisonous (A bit of a stretch, granted. Just spitballing)

I remember one part of the Dragon behavior where they sort of hover in front of the enemy and breathe fire. Perhaps there we could have the whole stinging with the tail replacing the fire-breathing.

It would be nice if they were to have a ranged attack of some sort, but I know it might bee too different a creature from the cliffracer we all know and hate for a lot of people to roll with.

I know these things are easier said than done, but a brand new model would be very nice.

There are a few dragon mods

There are a few dragon mods out there that changed up their AI a bit, so I'm sure you can stop the dragons from blowing out fire. Getting the dragon(Cliffracer) to hit you with its tail might be a bit hard.

http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/8579
Plus you can maybe use the sprites from his mod.

Actually, I know Phitt ported

Actually, I know Phitt ported his Oblivion cliff racer over to Skyrim, maybe I should ask him if we could use it. Algorroth, is that the W8 logo?

Clint:'tis

Clint:

'tis ;)

Been enjoying it as my main OS since the beta "Consumer Preview"

Dude, I am freakin digging

Dude, I am freakin digging what Microsoft has been doing with their mobile stuff. Windows 8 for phone and tablet looks sick! It'll also be really nice on my Macbook Air's 11" screen. I heard a lot of people aren't too impressed with the desktop OS though?

You mean the classic desktop

You mean the classic desktop behind the new Start Menu?

I dunno who'se been telling you these things but as far as I'm concerned it's the hilight of the system.

Other than a bit of driver compatibility (devs only got the final code a few weeks ago) the main system is brilliant.

Think of it in terms of the difference between Vista and 7 in speed and functionality. The built-in AV is excellent, the new file transfer window is excellent, the new task manager is a power-user's dream, there's a "mount" option in the context menu by default for ISOs, I could go on for hours.

My thoughts on W8 has always been: If you don't like the Start Menu, get over it. The underlying system is more than worth it.

And now for something slightly more on-topic:

I can confirm Skywind and Morroblivion are both compatible with Windows 8 RTM

Cliff Racer

You could keep the fire breathing animation, but add a screetching soud/effect instead. That way, they would still be annoying as in Morrowind.

Effect could be, blurr the screen, small damage to hp, make the player fall over for a split second if a certain distance to the source, double vision?