Vector mod for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

A great poet once said 'Bring it out, Sir, or in my passion, I shall kill everyone by giving them Syphilis'. While we cannot be sure as to what happened in the 30 minutes that followed, we can deduce one striking fact - He had never played Oblivion. If he had, he would have made a threat far worse for this is what he would have found - In Oblivion, the player is a selfish prat who doesn't transmit diseases but only receives them and tracks the number caught.

With the dawn of a new age, Vector goes forth into uncharted territories and aims to provide a reasonably easy way to carry out poor Byron's obscene threat.

Vector lets you - the player - infect the denizens of Tamriel with the diseases you carry around so proudly. Let the heavens and romance mod makers tremble, for Vector opens new horizons in PC-NPC-Creature interaction.

Vector is more of an infection engine than anything else. It allows seamless disease transfer between the player, NPCs and creatures that blends in with the vanilla disease transfer system. For instance; you infect a NPC with Helljoint, the NPC comes in close contact with another and infects [the other], you cure yourself of Helljoint, you buy food from the second infected NPC and infect yourself again.

Transfer types are mainly of 3 types:

• PC to Actor
• Actor to Actor
• Actor to PC

Each type has a number of methods:

• PC to Actor
  • Infection from melee attacks
  • Infection from selling contaminated goods (goods sold when you are infected)
    • Contaminable goods only include potions and ingredients
  • Infection from a failed pickpocket attempt
    • Only while pick pocketing sharp objects like weapons and ammo
  • Infection by feeding as a vampire
• Actor to Actor
  • Infection from melee attacks
  • Infection from close contact
• Actor to PC ( only for Vector-transferred diseases )
  • Infection from melee attacks
  • Infection from buying contaminated goodsAll methods follow a single formula – The same as the vanilla disease transfer formula. Base chance is calculated using the former and a modifier is applied. The modifier depends upon the transfer method. For instance, melee attack infections depend upon the weapon used and its appropriate skill level. Feeding depends upon your level of vampirism.

Infected actors progress through 3 stages of infection. These are the only ways of detecting if the actor is diseased. Time that must pass before each stage's completion can be configured in the INI file.

• Stage 1 – The actor will occasionally clutch his tummy and make sickly noises ( like coughing and sniffing )
• Stage 2 – Same as above, only its more pronounced and symptoms show often
• Stage 3 – Same as the above. The actor, at times, swoons under the strain and loses consciousness for awhile. His weakness will show

Stages 1 and 2 don't apply for creatures. But they do faint once they each stage three. Note that these stages are mostly cosmetic at the moment and the disease doesn't really progress in magnitude.

Infected actors eventually get well over time or if they cure themselves of their disease ( using a cure disease potion, visiting the chapel ).

PS: Support for 'companion' mods yet to be implemented …