I totally agree, i can't think of anyone who should be in ultimate demand for premier game studios. If i were recruiting you would be my foremost to wine and dine and pretty much give you whatever you asked. You are so outside the box and in touch with the complexities of multi-format combat mechanics and I am blown away by how much you have changed the entire magic experience in Skyrim while keeping it super clean and user friendly... Brilliant. Truly. Thank you.
Thank you for making this mod. It makes being a mage in Skyrim VR incredibly fun and allows me to have a versatile play style. I love how crazy fights can get when I first sneak in with the bound bow, switch to magic, blast a couple enemies, switch to spellsiphon when i run low on mana, block and spell-cast, absorb life and imbue the bound bow to blow people to smithereens, then switch back to bow/magic to finish them off. Thank you.
It took me quite a while to get used to this system, but I love it now and all other mage mechanics, both vanilla or other mods, are utterly redundant in comparison
I feel like this is too Hotkey heavy for controller. Literally have to Hotkey everything around this mod and leave nothing left for other spell mods. I can see how this would be lovely on a Keyboard tho
@@brandonenke2680 Every Power this mod adds is designed to be optional. If you want to leave room for other spells and have very few slots, just opt out of some powers. - You dont need Rebalance for most builds cause Bind does the same thing mostly. - You dont need Reverse unless you're playing a spellblade and want Ward (which is optional cause you can use imbued weapon warding instead). And even if you do want Reverse, you can assign it on long-press Bind. - You dont need Reshape. Just put it on the single-target variants if you play with followers or the AoE variants otherwise. The damage difference is marginal and you can get by just fine with not optimizing this detail. - You dont need Realign unless you're using Entanglement. And even if you do use it, you can use partial Entanglement, putting just 1 magicka-costing spell into it but keeping the other 2 magicka-free. Then Realign is less important. You can also put this on long-press Bind if you dont have Reverse there.
I got into this mod seeing imbued weapons, because i wanted to play as a magic assassin and i found a whole lot more than i was prepared for but i cant say im not glad😂
When I originally downloaded this mod, I was so confused, and just casted the draw spell and the release spell until the enemy died. This clarified a lot of my confusion.
Damn. Discovered ya work when you posted on reddit tha released to LE. Great work,that put a real nice spin on the good ol mage in me that spammed apocalypse spells and bound weapons and told myself I was a true spellblade class. Thank you!
Hey man, been loving your mod for a good while now! Friends think I'm a sadistic lunatic with the way I've been using it in VR. It's just too satisfying. Super excited to try out the new creature combos, especially because Conjuration is my favorite school of magic! Think I'll take a bit to learn the new stuff, but gods am I excited! Thanks so much for your awesome work!
Hehe. Well, the new combos where you'll be raising people and then blowing them up to set everything on fire is probably not gonna help with the whole sadistic lunatic image. But yeah, enjoy! :D
The mod is very useful if you are tired of scrolling through endless lists of favorites for 90 percent of the entire gameplay. Really tough. BUT. I don't understand the author of the original mod. Why all these fictitious terms? Weaving = Magic. WARD= Defense, DRAV= Attack. “Infuse an object with life,” damn it, write simply and habitually “capture the soul” or resurrect. In the game, all the terms have already been invented, why invent new ones, confusing the player. Some kind of inappropriate lore, some kind of epic, pathos, Weaving. It’s as if the person outplayed DnD. The game already has all the terms. This is not a Witcher with the signs of Ward, Drow. I wish there was an additional version of the mod that would explain in simple human language how to change spells, how to combine them, how to resurrect, how to capture souls. And all the names would be human: Magic, Attack, Defense, Healing, Ward, Light, Soul Capture, Resurrection, Summoning Weapon, Summoning Atronach, etc. All these new fictitious categories like Reverse or something like that, rename them to ordinary schools of spells that are already in the game Resolution/Illusion, for example, Change/Sorcery. Why was it necessary to invent a whole idea, to explain everything in a veiled way, to introduce some terms, phenomena, etc. that do not exist in the lore of the Scrolls? Which already exist, but are called differently. Why so much gag if the main goal of the mod is simply to make it easier to use magic and save you from constantly flipping through the Favorites. That's all. You can write it normally. Like this “To start using improved spells, go to the list of shouts and select “Bond” and use it. During the battle, in your left hand you will have protective / healing spells and light. In your right hand you will alternate attack spells. To resurrect a corpse or summon an atronach, use this and that. To change the set of spells, activate the scream again. Etc. Without this devilry, “Your consciousness is filled with the knowledge of the Weave of the higher powers of the Greybeards of hellfire, hell, understand what the true embodiment of the souls drawn from the sources of inspiration of the ancestors is like.” Rubbish
Just an absolutely amazing mod and a necessity in my load order on any playthrough. It takes up such little space, and even if it took 100mb, I’d still without hesitation install it. It changes the combat system entirely, so don’t expect a vanilla playthrough. But if you just want to make the game the best it can be, do yourself a favour, and download this mod!
Nah, bro, this shit is cold as hell 😭😭. More magic systems in games overall need to have this combo potential. I dont wanna just press a button and cast the spell, i wanna be able to build up and combo that shit. And the love for spell swords is not lost on me. Its the combat fantasy i seek to fulfill in ever rpg i play, and the potential for it here is insane. Instant Endorse on Nexus. This and Spellforge both.
A question, do you know any mods that will make the weapons switching faster? I just figured out how to use the combo when you unleash a drawn spell then switch into bound weapon to do mega damage, the only thing is that the whole weapon switching thing is pretty slow. Are there any mods that makes it faster? I know its not realistic to be able to equip a sword/bow lightning fast, but it would make gameplay a lot smoother ^^
Hi! There is no mod that speeds it up. Several people have requested this and i dont know how to edit the animation speed (nor does anyone else it seems). I personally think the slowness of this particular 1-minute cooldown ability adds an element of depth though, it's not necessarily a bad thing that you need to plan ahead a bit to use it safely. I've very recently had this discussion on the nexus page as well, you can check the Posts tab and just scroll down a short bit.
I actually prefer it if people play the ingame tutorial. It's in my opinion the most fun, interesting and immersive way to learn about the mod. But a lot of people like introduction and summary vids so i try to provide that too :)
dude your work is freaking amazing, once I get though my current build I will be using this mod in my next playthrough. It's not too op is it? I like a challenge :)
Thanks! Nah i've done my best to balance it, it should be near-vanilla in difficulty. But this is Skyrim, you can tweak your balance however you like via mods. The only mods that are so OP you cant balance them are those that allow stunlocking and one-shots. Like spamming staggers, knockdowns, paralyzes, etc. If you have the ability to do that, no amount of damage tweaking, AI or enemy counts will matter cause everything will just be a punching bag. Spellsiphon utilizes cooldowns to still be able to have fun controlling mechanics but without allowing them to be spammed.
@@arctalmods9546 thanks for the explanation man, honestly this is the best mage mod I've ever seen, I've seen some showcases of people using it to it's full potential. Honestly how magic should have been in this game
Hey, still using and absolutely loving your mod! Ran into a little problem though. VIRK, one of the most popular, if not THE most popular mod for SkyrimVR, has trouble using your mod's spells with the gestures system. Any chance you could look into that? I know, I know, probably the VRIK modder should do that, but they are really unpleasant to deal with. So, the thing is... You can't holster spells from your mod, you can't choose the shouts to be used or picked with gestures, and etc. Using gestures to switch to any vanilla spells makes it impossible to use the Bind shout till you make sure both hands have the spellsiphon spell chosen(and, of course, you can't switch to it with a gesture, so you have to go into the spells menu and do it manually). Pretty much every feature of the VRIK's gestures system doesn't work with your mod. A bit of a fair warning though, the creator of VRIK is quite crazy in a bad sense of the word - they are entirely convinced their mod is perfect and absolutely polished, so if something isn't working - you must be playing on a pirated version of the game(which is funny, because, according to my research, it runs fine and dandy on the cracked version xD). So if you ask them about something not working in their mod they just start screaming you're a pirate stealing money from the poor developer and block you, it's ridiculous. I wouldn't hold your breath expecting any help from them.
You dont need VRIK to support any of the spells from this mod or the Bind shout. Use the built-in Focus settings in this mod instead. Then use VRIK gestures to cast everything else. You can use Refocus in Spellsiphon to automatically switch back to Draw/Ward after you finish casting a spell that you equipped with a VRIK gesture. You can use Powers with VRIK gestures without equipping them, meaning you stay on Bind What possibilities do you feel are missing?
Yeah, not learning your full explanations word by word, but get a feel of the underlying logic you've applied to the different kinds of possibilities. (Y)
Wanna say thank you sooo much for this amazing mod! just rediscovered it again after taking a long break from Skyrim. I watched this video several times now. and still am Confused about everything this mod has to offer. I cannot get the combo system down. no matter how hard I try :(
When I first saw it, you had draw on the left, ward on the right. It was so offputting. But not now! Are the constituent elements adjustable via MCM or SkyTweak? Is v 4.0 the end, or will spell siphoning continue to evolve? I'm tempted to combine this with Spell Research, and never see the outside world again, but what stops me is knowing there are no Warrior and Thief analogs. Like....nothing of even the same intent, to add the same mind blowing depth to 1/3 the gameplay of Skyrim the way yours and a few others do. Otherwise, work of art. Presentation, execution, elegance, holistic thinking. Art. Others can learn from the Axioms you demonstrate how to make meaningful mods from now on.
"When I first saw it, you had draw on the left, ward on the right. It was so offputting. But not now!" Yeah, i changed that cause many didnt like it. The choice was initially made due to major animation issues when having Ward in the left in VR. Design changes later on removed those issues though so now you're free to swap it to any hand you want. "Are the constituent elements adjustable via MCM or SkyTweak? " As in, "can you change which spells are equipped?". In that case, check this post: www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/ed9ayb/spellsiphon_immersive_combat_christmas_patch/fcpz1m5/?context=8&depth=9 "Is v 4.0 the end, or will spell siphoning continue to evolve?" Maybe. Many times during this mods development ive felt that its "done" and then gone on to create massive patches afterwards so im not gonna say anything final here. But i do feel "done" with it right now at least (barring a few minor polish tweaks). "I'm tempted to combine this with Spell Research, and never see the outside world again" Heh, sounds like a plan! It's a nice combo. A problem with Spell Research imo is that you have no basis to build off of. If you dont manage to create spells that fill your basic needs (damage, healing, blocking, etc.) then you're kinda relegated to using weapons until you have enough to actually start playing as a mage. Spellsiphon gives you that basic mage platform with all the essential tools so you can become a mage immediately. Then you can expand your library with Research without feeling like you're waiting to play your class in the meantime. "there are no Warrior and Thief analogs" Yeah there's nothing purely within those archetypes. Using this mod, you can choose to heavily lean into a warrior-type or thief-type with only limited magic usage though. But there will always be a little magic mixed in. If someone takes inspiration from Spellsiphon and creates a physical combat mod of similar depth it would certainly be cool :)
@@arctalmods9546 Arctal Mods Response is appreciated I'm sure your busy. I'm just getting my feet wet with the Creation Kit, but I've decided the only way I'm going to stay at it is to keep to things I'm interested in, and your mod is godly when it comes to keeping interest. I have no idea what mechanics you used of course, but I wonder....A spellsiphon skill tree? And thats even apart from my dream of introducing Classes as specific perk trees into the game....I wonder. Maybe someday I'll have a reclusive tutor for the Spell Siphon named Arctal roaming Tamrieal? Thanks for the well wishes. Same. You may have just accomplished that inspiration you mentioned.
Thanks this is the kind of challenge I’ve been looking for! A few questions: does perk tree affect your mod in any way, can I buff my spells with fortify destruction? In this game play I’m watching it seems like you’re at level 1 does the damage output stay consistent like this as you level up and enemies level with you? Thanks again!
Great! Hope you enjoy it :) All your questions are thoroughly answered under the "Details" -> "Progression" section on the mod page: www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition/mods/26627 Let me know if any questions remain after reading that and ill add in any missing info :)
I dont understand I cant inbue myself, I have read all the nexus description and watch videos already. Im doing the tutorial in the game and I cant do its been like an Hour, I replicate what you do but I cant inbue edit nvm just did and idk how
Haha, you gotta pace yourself. Add a few abilities at a time, use them until it feels intuitive and you start to feel bored then add more. There's a huge difference in difficulty from learning something gradually and learning it all at once. If you've ever played an MMO and tried one of those "start at max level" boosting things that breaks your brain pretty efficiently as well. MMOs have a forced pacing built in to it's levelling, Skyrim when thoroughly modded does not so you gotta do it yourself. Spellsiphon at least has the unlock system and the gradual tutorials to help with it.
Hi Arctal. First, kudos for you amazing mod. I like it so much that I offer my availability to translate it in my language (italian). How can I contact you?
Yup. Ward blocks 80% of the damage, and armor will reduce the remaining 20% depending on the rating of it. Timed blocks do not change the blocked amount but they do cause you to heal back roughly 20% of your health afterwards. Meaning that against normal foes it will help you heal up and again one-shotters it will leave you at roughly the amount of hp you had before (unless you die).
@@arctalmods9546 Thank you for this! So far this has been the best spell/combat mod I've ever used without feeling like a one-trick pony! Hope this gets more recognition in the future. This is staying on my mod list indefinitely!
i just keep wanting more and more spells and combos :D been thinking bout different ways to implement them, so far the most promising ideas i have had are, the return of attuned enemy feature, but instead of granting the discharge effect like when mod started, imbued enemies would instead dictate the secondary discharge effect if the enemy is successfully killed by the detonation. e.g if you draw life and cast it on a person you both become attuned to life, hitting them with bound bow would then cast the shock bot thingy (cause you where attuned to life) and if they get killed by that time stops and you get the powerful arrow shot thing like now (cause the enemy was attuned to life) BUUUT if you are draw world and hit the enemy with fire, they become attuned to world then you draw life form them and cast at the floor or another enemy or you imbue so you become attuned to life. then you bow /shock bolt them and kill them, but cause they where attuned to world you get a different effect instead of the stop time super arrow ;) this was idea 1. idea 2 was possibly different detonations depending on if you are using the AOE spells or the other ones. e.g if you draw world and cast flames instead of fireball you get 1 discharge effect, if you draw world and cast fireball you get a different one. furthermore if you draw world (but its the flames one and you bind it instead of getting weaving circle you get something else) and finally idea 3 for update 4, this might already be a thing. but when you summon an attronach the detonation you get seems to be related to the spell you cast at them, but it could also be based on what atronach is there in the first place, e.g casting fire on shock atronach could do thin 1! but casting fire on flame atronach dos something different. and same combo that with the reshape thing for even more combos ALL THE COMBOS! case as it stand i am finding i am realy not ever using reshape but i thing it has alot of potential :D
Thanks for all the ideas! :) As i responded to another post though, im planning a pretty long modding break once i've finished polishing and releasing 4.0 so the next batch of new features wont be happening for a quite a while.
I know this is a weird question, but I would like to know the music you used in your trailer for this mod after the text "wouldn't that be something?" And you drop the title of the mod, where the choir really kicks in? It starts at 2:50 in the video. It was such a beautiful piece of music and I don't know where to find it. It's really inspiring and I'd love to hear the full version.
Not a weird question. A little weird to put the comment here and not on that vid though :D Anyway, like all music in the trailer, its from the free youtube music library. The song is called Thunderstorm, here's a link: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-09CnqFRXZig.html
@@arctalmods9546 I was afraid you had turned off notifications on that video, since it was from a long time ago. It's good to see you active in your mod. I can't wait to use it. I am glad you went with a spell mod that focused on fluidity and chaining spells. You have turned magical combat into an arcane martial art, which was missing in skyrim. Thank you for making this mod. If I had any criticism for the mod... it doesn't have voice compatibility as far as I know. It might be useful to put some simple voice commands in to further minimize the need for hotkeys. As for anything the mod is lacking? I can't think of anything. You've done an amazing job. You've made your own unique experience in skyrim, and you made it compatible with other spell mods and even encourage them with stacking magicka regeneration. 10/10, best magic mod I've ever seen.
@@treasurehunter3744 Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you like it! I try to avoid reinventing the wheel as much as i can when developing. Spellsiphon was always meant to fill what i found was a hole in the Skyrim modding scene, not replace other mods that already do a very good job at improving a certain aspect of the gameplay. For instance, like you said, other spell mods that add a ton of new spells. That's great! I want to let people (myself included) use those tools if they feel like it. But none of those mods are trying to build a better core combat system, they're just trying to expand the player's options. Options are good, but a solid core AND options is even better. For the same reason of not reinventing the wheel, i havent added stuff like voice commands into the mod. There are already mods that do that and they're already compatible with Spellsiphon so my approach is that people who want that functionality can just add those other mods to get it. E.g. Dragonborn Speaks Naturally can cast anything in the game for you via voice commands, that includes Bind, Reverse or whichever other thing you prefer to say instead of press. It can also equip you with external spells and you can then use Refocus mode to return to Draw/Ward automatically afterwards. Another approach (which I personally use) is gestures and oculus touch controller hotkeys (my button remapping mod) to cast external spells. I prefer that over voice commands, partially because i have a baby that sleeps all day ;)
@@treasurehunter3744 Oh, and yeah, i enabled comments on my vids now. Had it disabled right at beginning due to the extremely bad reputation that youtube comment sections have. Turns out people were very positive and respectful in the end though so i'm glad i decided to give it a shot. It's been a great source of positive reinforcement, motivation and some good ideas that have improved the mod as a whole.
I've experimented with it but never found any implementation that felt satisfying and non-goofy to use. Since then i've just decided to leave that section of the game to other mods. I may take another swing at it with my Conduit mod later.
@@arctalmods9546 Wow Quick responds. Even without telekineses it's still a fantastic mod, it really spiced things up for my modded play through. Thank you so much for making this.
Hey, amazing work, one question tho - im trying to get those effects from "binding elements" part, but when i press shout (bind) i can only summon weapon and get a discharge. What am i supposed to do?
@@arctalmods9546 found it out and cant get it yet, but still both of these effects are activated the same way, so how do i decide between bound weapon and for example weaving circle?
It depends on what you're holding. The Bound Weapon will still be summoned if you're holding Draw while holding any element will instead do that Elemental Binding effect.
I know that I'm real late to the party, but wow what a phenomenal mod. I really love too how this works with previous systems as well (as in I can have massive amounts of spells from other mods but still use them without losing out on anything with this mod), plus as someone who loves to play as a pure wizard, this really opens up combat for me. Playing as a pure wizard is rough when you run out of mana, but no more! Glad to see its still getting updates in 2023 as well.
It's more follower friendly than it looks ;) All the AoE combo effects will filter their damage so followers are safe from those (they may get knocked away, but that's all). The drawn spells can be "reshaped" to single target so you dont splash damage on your followers on those. Basically the only thing that will damage your followers is if you use non-reshaped basic drawn spells (and those are usually pretty weak) or if you directly target your followers with your single target attacks.
Sounds cool but do I have to interact with objects and spells added by SpellSiphon? Or are there any ways to unlock combos and cool attacks just using vanilla/ Apocalypse spells and weapons?
Hey i'm having a problem, my spell isn't absorbing anything it just damages enemies and I can't figure out how to get it to work properly again. Anybody here able to give me any advice?
Amazing content, would love to see each element be able to be pulled from the world, like earth, fire, water, air, ice etc obvs thats a lot of work, but would be amazing! Would also be amazing if just before your ward breaks, if you do a perfect block, it could explode out wards knocking people back, rewarding the player for that split second time. Also I think if you could get telekinesis in there, would be amazing, you have so many possibilities with this mod, I love it! Keep up the amazing work
Thanks! And thank you for the ideas! "if just before your ward breaks, if you do a perfect block, it could explode" This could happen eventually. It's certainly cool :) "get telekinesis in there" Ive been trying to work that in for the longest time! But it always ends up clunky and breaks your flow with the solutions ive tried so far. Maybe ill figure something out some day though. "would love to see each element be able to be pulled from the world, like earth, fire, water, air, ice etc" Ive intentionally avoided this because one of my goals is to keep all spells available in all combat scenarios. Some spells will be better than others depending on the situation, but i want the player to make the decision on what to use, without being forced or limited by their environment. Maybe ill change my mind on this at some point though. Anyway, again, thank you for the suggestions, i appreciate the feedback :)
@@arctalmods9546 Actually, I think being forced to use what you have around you is way more interesting than having everything at hand, way more immersive!
@@arctalmods9546 What if when you siphon, what you siphon gets stored? When you have siphoned enough you can release it, the effect whit depend on the percentages on the things you have siphoned, you could also use an ability to not storing(if you don't want to corrupt your perfectly balanced spell) and later in the game you get the ability to condense what you have stored in to a item that you can later consume to restore it. The idea is that this special spells would be used whit a power style "release" that will release it all in a "button of panic" type of spell, very powerful, but very situational, can be even dangerous to yourself, this way the player is incentivized to actually first explore what combinations do what, and also how to use them more effectively, later when they have the knowledge they can go out of their way to "harvest" and "prepare" their ultimate spells. To balance it, even if you can store them as items, there should be a high cooldown after using it. I think this would feel very mage like, after all mages are supposed to be researchers, this will make you as a player actively research what combinations do what and what things you can draw certain elements from, this would really feel mage like, and later when you know everything, preparing for certain adventures or fights by using your knowledge to craft amazing spells by going to certain places to harvest magical energies from certain things would also feel very "sage wizard"-like, after all, mages are those who prepare. And science the basis is that you store them either as items on inside yourself for later, you could technically use any spells anywhere, as long as you prepare yourself. As a note, i know the difficulty/"time consume" on doing what i described, but maybe you can derive some actual good idea from this rambling.
@@diablo.the.cheater I appreciate the thought put into this and the effort of writing it all down! It's a cool idea but it does step away quite a bit from my own vision and prioritizations. Let me explain: Your solution would indeed technically make "everything available everywhere" as you said. But i have that principal not just for the sake of having a full range of tactical choices in any scenario, it's also to let me focus on and highly polish a limited set of core abilities instead of making loads of (unavoidably) less polished situational abilities. Like any developer, my time is limited and having the abilities you use in every fight be as awesome and satisfying as they can be is something I value above having a larger array of choices. This is different from almost all the other magic mods for Skyrim and the vanilla game for that matter. It is more akin to how MMOs design their mage classes and it is in my opinion the superior option for getting engaging combat and stays interesting for a long time. Having loads of spells to discover does drive you to keep playing and has a momentary reward each time you get that new shiny toy. But since an inevitably smaller amount of thought and effort has been put into that toy, it will lack depth and will in most cases just devolve into yet another thing that you use just like you used everything else so far, spam spam spam. Now the dream world would be where we could get both. Large amounts of highly polished abilities that all interact in a web of expertly designed logical combinatory mechanics that are quick to grasp and feel awesome to explore. But it's a monumental task to perform and one that is yet to be brought to fruition in any game I've ever played, and i fully understand why. Hope that didn't get too negative. On a positive end note i can at least mention that i am currently testing a kind of midway meeting-point between these two approaches. Basically you will be able to take spells out of any of those massive spell packs and connect them with the Spellsiphon system, meaning they will replace the standard drawn spells and inherit all of their functions. That way you have this constant exploration and discovery of new spells and you can then link those into your combos to retain the level of depth that Spellsiphon provides. Its all still limited to fire/shock/frost though and the spells still result in the same discharge/bind/fusion/etc. effects as before. But still, each new spell connected does breathe a bit of fresh air into your rotation.
This is up to date. There are minor details that have changed (like the Death Rune causing Freeze rather than Stagger) but the overall structure of how you use the mod is the same as described here 🙂
Hey the mod is really good and fun but I can't do the 36th section of the main spellsiphon quest, the one where you have to shift attunement 5 times Within 10 seconds using a weaving circle. (I'm playing on Xbox)
A full draw cycle, meaning draw -> charge elemental spell -> release elemental spell takes 3 seconds. What you need to do is use your opposite hand. Both your hands should constantly be casting things and you should cast them in an order that makes each cast switch your attunement. This will give you 3 shifts per draw cycle instead of 1. So you can shift 9 times within 9 seconds at most.
I guess yeah :) The Bound Bow arrows use the vanilla Bound Arrow projectiles which should be one of the ones that archery overhaul and faster arrows edit, so it should be automatically compatible.
It is not only impressive on a design level how everything works all together but also in terms of being limited to shouts and basically only two buttons. Imagine if this dude was on Bethesda and Devs would give him a freedom to create similar magic combat system but without these technical limitations of shouts and few buttons etc...
I updated the siphoner mod and it seems like im unable to use the abilitys anymore, such as the weaving circle,death rune and soul drift. Also i lost the ability to combo off with the elements placed on an enemy. Idk if i was supposed to do a update if not then thats my fault
I recommend you read the patch notes any time you update. Especially when updating to major revisions (3.0, 4.0, etc.). 4.0 introduced a progression system that gradually unlocks the mechanics you describe. You'll need to unlock these features now by reading a book that you get when you open the main Spellsiphoning tome. If you've thrown that out, get a new one in Riverwood.
Do you plan on integrating Illusion and Alteration? Maybe targeting Summons to invoke a basic Illusion spell or drawing Alteration from gear on the floor. I think this would make this mod an insane experience for everyone tired of all spamming
No plans for that no, sorry. I very early on decided that this mod's focus is to spice up the rather boring basic magic schools, namely Destruction (just does damage), Restoration (mostly just heals) and Conjuration (just creates less interesting followers and useless bound weapons). Illusion and Alteration are toolkits, not main combat magic. They're supposed to be thrown in once in a while in between carrying out your main combat functions, which you'll do with weapons or Destruction magic. So my approach here has been to create a bridge between Spellsiphon and other magic, instead of integrating it all into the system itself. Refocus mode allows you to just quickly switch off to you e.g. Alteration armor spell, cast it and Refocus will automatically return your Spellsiphon ability to your hand which i've found to be very smooth in my own playthroughs at least. Power auto-casting and Shout auto-return have this same goal of creating a convenient bridge so Spellsiphon doesnt have to be this "master replacement" of everything but rather be a core system interacting with what already exists. There's some further discussion on this topic here as well if you're interested: www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/comments/ed9ayb/spellsiphon_immersive_combat_christmas_patch/fcpz1m5/?context=8&depth=9
The atronachs don't appear to be particularly powerful when it comes to attacking enemies. Are they intended as meat-shields/living bombs; or is it possible to improve their damage output so they can act as a secondary source of reliable damage?
Their attacks scale with your stats. Magicka Regeneration (and by extension Woven Power) will increase World atronach damage at the same rate as it increases your own spell damage. Magicka will increase Death atronach damage at the same rate that it increases Bound Bow damage (10 magicka = 1 extra base damage). In addition, the atronach attacks are affected by your Destruction perks. So if you get anything that increases fire/frost or general Destruction/Spell damage that will also increase atronach damage. Perks that add mechanics (like Deep Freeze) will not work currently though. I may change that if it's not too OP. The bonus from perks and Magicka Regen/Magicka stacks multiplicatively (just like it does for your spells and bound weapons). As an example, let's say you have 500 magicka and the 50% increased frost damage perk. That'll increase Frost Atronach damage from its base of 10 to 75 (10 x 5 x 1.5).
![Spellsiphon summarized (a Skyrim mod) [v4.0]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
