Sacrilege 1.4.0 + Evenstar for LE + more ports + Mysticism update inbound + V++ vs full scale + [DATA EXPUNGED] + Vodahmin

Sacrilege 1.4.0

Trying to defeat the issue where your Vampiric Drain damage keeps changing. Turns out there's a reason no one uses these particular AVs.

Evenstar for LE

While there is still an Evenstar update in the cards as part of Project NIRN (integration between all V++ mods so they work well in mod packs), it is not an immediate priority. This medium term stability allows me to port it to LE: Evenstar LE.

When will Sacrosanct 5.17.0 and Sacrilege be ported to LE?

Sacrilege will be ported once the major bugs are out, of which there may still be some. Updating a mod on both platforms is annoying, a mod that modifies vanilla scripts more so (no archive lists on LE) and two mods that modify the same vanilla scripts even more so, so I'm trying very hard to avoid having to port them more than once.

Sacrosanct 5.17.0 will be ported at the same time.

Mysticism update incoming later this month

Expect the Mysticism-Vokrii patch to be down for a day or two, because it seems to be a major overhaul. Depending on what is in it, further integration work in the form of new perks and such may be needed.

V++ vs full scale

Sacrilege has not been a success, starting with it missing out on Mod of the Month (that hasn't happened in a while). People who use it generally like it, but not many people use it, and people tend to ask for its features to be backported to Sacrosanct instead. The phenomenon of "bullet point modding" may be a real thing, where people install the mod with the most features and only look at other options if they actively dislike it. (See also: Triumvirate losing out to Arcanum.)

In fact, none of SimonMagus' mods (the premier V+ author) other than Mysticism have been blockbusters either, with the exception of Mysticism, which found success and is probably the best magic overhaul at the moment but also not particularly V+. This is unfortunate, because SimonMagus has a good thing going, with strong synergies between his mods, they just don't happen to come with a ton of features by design (though the upcoming Mysticism update seems to be changing that).

I suppose the popularity of V+ (or V++, which can add new features but still aims to stay close to a vanilla experience without entirely new systems, eg. Vokrii and Growl) is tied closely to mod packs, while people who compile a load order of individual mods do want more features. If you bother to trawl the Nexus for something like a vampire mod, you want the biggest and baddest vampire mod you can find, not a "balanced improvement without adding new systems".

V++ does have its merit. The ideals of intercompatibility, synergy and balance are valuable no matter what. This means avoiding cheese and degenerate combos, as well as radically new mechanics that only show up in individual systems.

This is where the spirit of NIRN emerges. While the original idea of one big merged blob mod becomes unmaintainable once mods start to actually need updates, it will happen by itself when the same philosophies are applied to all mods. For instance, bretons have a thing with standing stones in Sacrosanct, Sacrilege and Imperious. Giving them a standing stone bonus in Morningstar would be an obvious next step.

I expect full synergy along those lines to be attained by the end of Q1 2021, where you can build a load order out of any combination of my V++ and full sized mods and get a decent result.

[DATA EXPUNGED]

An announcement will follow shortly! While this is technically a V++ mod, it can be used in addition to Apocalypse (and hopefully Mysticism, depending on what direction that will take).

Vodahmin

An announcement will follow in January. It is currently in the planning phase, and because I suck at quest mods and this is not a V++ mod by any stretch, it will take some time to get the basics right.