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About this mod
Improved Magic Anomalies fixes numerous problems in these mysterious pure magic entities, and further expands their concept and abilities.
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- If you use, like and value my work, please consider giving an endorsement. I've worked hard for years to offer you the best of me for free, and the only thing I ask in return is this gesture, which increases my relevance and engagement on Nexus, and motivates me to continue;
- I do not inspect or have any influence over translations of my mods (including those linked directly on my pages), nor do I have any power over patches or add-ons made to my content. So, before using any unofficial add-ons for my mods, make sure they conform to the latest version of my official release, and never use these if they don't. The same applies to Xbox ports;
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- Do you have any doubt? Read my Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
"Mysterious wisp-like luminous creatures, these blue balls of luminescent magic arise through ruptures in reality, brought about by disturbances usually derived from improper manipulation of magic artifacts. It is unknown what they are, nor if they have any kind of awareness, if they have a previous existence, or if they originated at the time of the disturbances."
by Beastmaster Mihail *
(*Who is Beastmaster Mihail? He is my avatar/persona within the universe composed of all my mods. He is the ingame author who writes the texts that are usually presented as descriptions for my mods. A former monster hunter, now a dedicated scholar, he is planned to be released as an NPC in late 2022/early 2023, doing the same job in-game as my descriptions do on Nexus.)
Technical details:
Magic Anomalies appear during the College of Winterhold questline, with
generic, monotonous and problematic features in the vanilla game, which this
mod improves/solves. But, let's go by parts, so that users understand perfectly
what this mod does, and how the Magic Anomalies work in the game:
How Magic Anomalies are implemented in the vanilla game? - After the events of the "Containment" quest, they appear spammed by a magical rupture in Winterhold, which the player must destroy. Later, they randomly appear in the "Aftershock" quest as well, a repeatable quest after you become Archmage, whenever you ask Toldfir if "Is there anything I should be aware of?", being in this second situation the context in which Magic Anomalies respawn. They can also, although very rarely, be found randomly in nature. In their apparitions, they can alternate in size;
What are their problems? -The main problem that originates all the others is that since they are an enemy that appears very rarely, nobody wanted to invest much effort on their creation. Therefore, they re-use not only the Ice Wraiths animations, but absolutely everything else, from attacks, special effects, sounds and even death type. This of course is an immersion killer.
Knowing this, what this mod does:
- keeps them animated like ice wraiths, as they match the style, but modifies their speed and time of acceleration and deceleration, making them more fluid and faster in their movements;
- links them separately with the type of skeleton they use, so they are not affected by mods that modify the skeletons, therefore also the physical proportions, of the Ice Wraiths;
- removes some attacks to distinguish them from Ice Wraiths, leaving them only with moves similar to vanilla Wisp attacks, without performing dives, and adds a magical contact effect that causes a flash of light that momentarily leaves the player stunned when attacked by them, making their combat more difficult. While in the vanilla game they cause the same ice damage as Ice Wraiths, which even appears in Active Effects as Ice Wraith Bite. The new Magic Anomaly attacks now also completely drain the victim's magic momentarily, as they drain it on contact during the flash of light, and delay its recovery a little as well;
- while in the vanilla game they re-used all the sounds of the Ice Wraiths, now they have a loop sound similar to the Magnus's Eye itself, despite reduced in comparison, which represents a certain energetic instability, also they no longer have step sounds that were the sliding sounds of the Ice Wraiths, their impact in combat has a new and magical sound as well, in addition to the sound they produce when they die. Unfortunately some sounds are attached to animations and cannot be removed unless they are removed from all creatures that share those animations, so some Ice Wraith sounds are still left, but much less;
- speaking of death, in the vanilla game they die like an Ice Wraith, now they have a unique death effect too, exploding in blue magic light orbs, leaving a pile of ether on the ground;
- now they have special abilities: 70% resistance to magic, although 30% less resistance in case of shock as it drains mana, 100% resistance to poison and diseases, besides the possibility of floating above water. Furthermore, it is impossible to capture their souls (since they do not possess them) or reanimate them after killed;
- modifications to the combat style, making them act more like non-sentient magical minions, rather than creatures capable of self-preservation. Their tendency now is to attack more with fewer retreats, and even more ruthless when in a group;
- new and own faction, where only they are included, since in the original version they belonged to the Ice Wraith faction, which made them align with them and Hagravens when they met, which doesn't make sense;
- they do a little more damage now, but nothing absurd. Also, in vanilla game they were the only entities that infinitely level up with the player. They keep going up to a very high cap, but now it only reaches level 50;
- they no longer have loot. In the vanilla game they dropped soul gems, but it was just a hole filler like everything else in their creation. The quests where they appear already have a good reward;
- when you attack a Magic Anomaly using the Staff of Magnus, instead of it first draining all the magic from them and only after that start draining life (like it does with all the other targets), with them it starts draining life immediately, justifying Toldfir telling you to take the Staff when you go to fight them. The connection between the Eye of Magnus, the Staff of Magnus and the magical ruptures themselves, and their consequent Magic Anomalies, justifies this.
Known issues::
According to UESP:
(all vanilla)
. The rupture may be randomly placed intersecting water, if this is the case then it cannot be completed as the rift does not properly show up and anomalies do not spawn; (This bug is fixed by version 2.0.4 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch)
. If you come across the Magic Anomalies before speaking to Tolfdir then the quest cannot be completed. (This issue has been addressed by version 1.3 of the Official Skyrim Patch; the quest will automatically start at stage 20 upon defeating all Magic Anomalies. You can then return to Tolfdir for your reward and the quest will end normally)
The mod is not compatible with other mods that modify the textures, model or settings of vanilla Magic Anomalies. If you have one installed, or think you might have one, put this mod below it/them in your load order. If you are asked about files overwriting those of other mods, press "Yes to all".
(OBS- If by chance when installing several of Mihail's mods at the same time you are asked about files overwriting those of other Mihail mods or other authors mods, don't worry because they are just the same files shared between mods. I recommend that on these occasions always give preference to the files contained in my mods, and among mine always give preference to the mod you are installing last.)
The Mihail Monsters and Animals series aims to create and make available to the community the most complete set of creatures for TES 5: Skyrim, implemented in an immersive and unique way, with respect to the pillars of lore. Instead of pathetically just throwing models and textures in the game reusing 100% vanilla mechanics, the creatures made by Mihail have uniqueness and extreme zeal in their idealization and implementation, which will provide you with an experience that you have never had before in this area.
Author: by Beastmaster Mihail *
(*Who is Beastmaster Mihail? He is my avatar/persona within the universe composed of all my mods. He is the ingame author who writes the texts that are usually presented as descriptions for my mods. A former monster hunter, now a dedicated scholar, he is planned to be released as an NPC in late 2022/early 2023, doing the same job in-game as my descriptions do on Nexus.)
Technical details:
Magic Anomalies appear during the College of Winterhold questline, with
generic, monotonous and problematic features in the vanilla game, which this
mod improves/solves. But, let's go by parts, so that users understand perfectly
what this mod does, and how the Magic Anomalies work in the game:
How Magic Anomalies are implemented in the vanilla game? - After the events of the "Containment" quest, they appear spammed by a magical rupture in Winterhold, which the player must destroy. Later, they randomly appear in the "Aftershock" quest as well, a repeatable quest after you become Archmage, whenever you ask Toldfir if "Is there anything I should be aware of?", being in this second situation the context in which Magic Anomalies respawn. They can also, although very rarely, be found randomly in nature. In their apparitions, they can alternate in size;
What are their problems? -The main problem that originates all the others is that since they are an enemy that appears very rarely, nobody wanted to invest much effort on their creation. Therefore, they re-use not only the Ice Wraiths animations, but absolutely everything else, from attacks, special effects, sounds and even death type. This of course is an immersion killer.
Knowing this, what this mod does:
- keeps them animated like ice wraiths, as they match the style, but modifies their speed and time of acceleration and deceleration, making them more fluid and faster in their movements;
- links them separately with the type of skeleton they use, so they are not affected by mods that modify the skeletons, therefore also the physical proportions, of the Ice Wraiths;
- removes some attacks to distinguish them from Ice Wraiths, leaving them only with moves similar to vanilla Wisp attacks, without performing dives, and adds a magical contact effect that causes a flash of light that momentarily leaves the player stunned when attacked by them, making their combat more difficult. While in the vanilla game they cause the same ice damage as Ice Wraiths, which even appears in Active Effects as Ice Wraith Bite. The new Magic Anomaly attacks now also completely drain the victim's magic momentarily, as they drain it on contact during the flash of light, and delay its recovery a little as well;
- while in the vanilla game they re-used all the sounds of the Ice Wraiths, now they have a loop sound similar to the Magnus's Eye itself, despite reduced in comparison, which represents a certain energetic instability, also they no longer have step sounds that were the sliding sounds of the Ice Wraiths, their impact in combat has a new and magical sound as well, in addition to the sound they produce when they die. Unfortunately some sounds are attached to animations and cannot be removed unless they are removed from all creatures that share those animations, so some Ice Wraith sounds are still left, but much less;
- speaking of death, in the vanilla game they die like an Ice Wraith, now they have a unique death effect too, exploding in blue magic light orbs, leaving a pile of ether on the ground;
- now they have special abilities: 70% resistance to magic, although 30% less resistance in case of shock as it drains mana, 100% resistance to poison and diseases, besides the possibility of floating above water. Furthermore, it is impossible to capture their souls (since they do not possess them) or reanimate them after killed;
- modifications to the combat style, making them act more like non-sentient magical minions, rather than creatures capable of self-preservation. Their tendency now is to attack more with fewer retreats, and even more ruthless when in a group;
- new and own faction, where only they are included, since in the original version they belonged to the Ice Wraith faction, which made them align with them and Hagravens when they met, which doesn't make sense;
- they do a little more damage now, but nothing absurd. Also, in vanilla game they were the only entities that infinitely level up with the player. They keep going up to a very high cap, but now it only reaches level 50;
- they no longer have loot. In the vanilla game they dropped soul gems, but it was just a hole filler like everything else in their creation. The quests where they appear already have a good reward;
- when you attack a Magic Anomaly using the Staff of Magnus, instead of it first draining all the magic from them and only after that start draining life (like it does with all the other targets), with them it starts draining life immediately, justifying Toldfir telling you to take the Staff when you go to fight them. The connection between the Eye of Magnus, the Staff of Magnus and the magical ruptures themselves, and their consequent Magic Anomalies, justifies this.
Known issues::
According to UESP:
(all vanilla)
. The rupture may be randomly placed intersecting water, if this is the case then it cannot be completed as the rift does not properly show up and anomalies do not spawn; (This bug is fixed by version 2.0.4 of the Unofficial Skyrim Patch)
. If you come across the Magic Anomalies before speaking to Tolfdir then the quest cannot be completed. (This issue has been addressed by version 1.3 of the Official Skyrim Patch; the quest will automatically start at stage 20 upon defeating all Magic Anomalies. You can then return to Tolfdir for your reward and the quest will end normally)
(OBS- If by chance when installing several of Mihail's mods at the same time you are asked about files overwriting those of other Mihail mods or other authors mods, don't worry because they are just the same files shared between mods. I recommend that on these occasions always give preference to the files contained in my mods, and among mine always give preference to the mod you are installing last.)
The Mihail Monsters and Animals series aims to create and make available to the community the most complete set of creatures for TES 5: Skyrim, implemented in an immersive and unique way, with respect to the pillars of lore. Instead of pathetically just throwing models and textures in the game reusing 100% vanilla mechanics, the creatures made by Mihail have uniqueness and extreme zeal in their idealization and implementation, which will provide you with an experience that you have never had before in this area.
Mihail- improvement on the settings of this creature (attacks, fxs, AI, sounds, etc...)