pack Dreadflopps Modular patches

[dreadflopp]

@garfink how are you going forward with this. Are you doing your own pack or do you want to integrate it into ours? I think that would be really great if you'd like since we both use morrowloot as a base loot deleveler. If you do I'm thinking I change ERSO's deleveling mods to optional (they are now but making it clearer) and add a discussion about what it does and the pros and cons about using an encounter zone deleveler. You could have your own Garfinks Skyrim Rebalanced Project section of the guide and I'll add you as pack creator. Since you use SkyRe we could add it as an optional perk overhaul. If you want to create your own pack that's fine and I'll just recommend using your pack with ours.

 

Have you checked the uncapper file? Since all new spawns will make you level faster I'm thinking that it might need some tweaking too slow down skill progression further?

Edited May 2, 2014 by dreadflopp

[Garfink]

Please integrate, I don't really have the time to mess with HTML and I just enjoy playing with balancing on the side. I hate troubleshooting as much as the next guy, so I figure I will share my findings to help others.

 

The version system is just to help me and other keep track of my changes.

[Garfink]

Add forgotten magic redone to the load order. No essential, doesn't intergrate with ASIS spells at all, but it's the best spell leveling system ever, powerful but not OP. I consider apocalypse to fill in the vanilla deficiencies but I enjoy FMR's spells so much more and it works particularly well with the increased difficulty.

[thommaal]

I think the TTR perks are also affected by the bug in ASIS.

 

The two populated mods were already in my mod list but I am reluctant to further increase spawns in general. It adds to the challenge but it takes away immersion. And I can get away with it since I prefer to play without followers; they only come into play if needed.

 

The follower AI doesn't do well with mods that circumvent vanilla restrictions on gameplay. NPC Smarter Water AI - Full Compatibility, for example, gets rid of one of the immersion breaking restrictions of NPC behaviour, but when NPCs and followers dive into deep water where they can't fight each other, the situation turns ridiculous. I have not yet had any quest related bugs with No Combat boundaries, so I'd be interested to know more.

 

I am currently dealing with a problem in CCOR and I have not yet found the cause: the Learning Recipes do not work. All of a sudden, all recipes were present in the menu (Dwarven, Daedric etc.) and when I went back to an earlier save, I couldn't learn anything from the steel weapons I had. Though at that earlier point in my playthrough no recipes beyond the regular starting ones were visible, as it should be.

 

It worked perfectly in my previous play test. 

 

 

ADDED: The added mods should not have had any impact on CCOR - unless ASIS' dynamic patch somehow interferes. So, I need to take a look at the patches for TTR, the bashed patch and the dynamic patch.

 

Here are the added mods:

Apple Garden

ASIS

Enchanting Awakened (deactivated Smart Souls)

Radiance

SkyTweak

 

No mod except the patches comes after CCOR in my load order that should interfere with the learning in the mod.

Edited May 2, 2014 by thommaal

[dreadflopp]

@thommaal have you checked in TES5Edit to see if CCOR gets overwritten? I have never used ASIS so i cant help you there. Are you also sure that you haven't changed anything in CCOR's MCM menu? I know there are options for which recipes to show in game.

[Gekko64]

Garfink check out the ASIS comments section, seems like raulfin found out what's going wrong with those dualwield perks ;)

[Garfink]

No changes for another 6 hours of play, the game difficulty is spot on and has remain good from level 29 to level 33, definitely on the hard side, but so far none of the spawns were impossible to deal with.  Bosses are tough as nails and usually quite a few levels above you but since they are solitary, they are certainly beatable.  I will probably decrease the spawning a tad, as a couple of battles had probably 2-4 monsters too many.  Died a bunch of times in that cave of vampires near morthal, there were probably 3-4 spawns to many in that big room.  No followers... really need that Dragonborn Book that disables me hurting my followers... I keep killing them.  I have killed 3 already!  They are pretty stupid.  Probably going to recruit Vilja next and do her quest and make her essential.  

 

Change:

 

ASIS increase spawns : 0 spawns 100, 1 spawn 25, 2 spawn 2

 

You could disable ASIS increase spawns all together, but I like the slightly random surprise it brings to old dungeons.  

[thommaal]

The absence of Learning Recipes was a trivial matter: I couldn't find a reason, so I simply reinstalled the mod -- and it works now. A file must have been corrupt.

 

Another matter are recipes I should not yet be able to use. But it's quite possible that I have a wrong idea about the mechanics of forging with the added perks from TTR and kryptopyr's Smithing Perks Overhaul.

 

Example: I did not add the perk that allows the forging of Dwarven items. After I had gone to Dragonsreach for the first time, "Dwarven" appeared in the list of potential forging trees.

 

Now I cheated a bit by adding a Dwarven Metal Ingot to the player and forged a Dwarven item. This might just be how it's suppossed to work -- but it's not what I expected. I thought any Dwarven items were out of bounds without activation of the perk.

 

I am going to take a closer look in Tes5Edit now, after the other problem solved itself in the most simple way.

 

 

 

ADDED:

 

Garfink, could you tell me what quests were affected by No Combat Boundaries? If the mod breaks quests, I won't use it.

Edited May 2, 2014 by thommaal

[Garfink]

It broke that first Imperial Legion quest to siege that fort alone.  The chief followed me out of the building he was in and when I managed to kill every body, the quest didn't update and on the map the fort remained uncleared.  I suspect it will break many quests this way.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Garfink

[thommaal]

Damn, yes, I see. Thanks.

[Garfink]

I am probably going to uninstall populated forts/dungeons, as its very difficult to adjust increase spawns with it installed.  In areas (many areas) where the populated series doesn't touch, my increase spawn settings seem on the spot.  but where there is populated forts/dungeons the same settings are too much.  I have also noticed that the spawns from populated forts/dungeons are always the same level as you or higher, rather than a range of levels.

 

I think its a case of either/or.  BUT since the populated series doesn't affect all spawn points, I am erring on the side of increasing spawns.

 

As for increasing spawns I may use ASIS spawns ONLY, and enforce Random encounters to spawn only 1 spawn for each species.  This way I have to only adjust ASIS spawns and not both, making things a little more consistent and even.

 

EDIT:

 

I have also discovered an "issue" with resplendent racials.  

 

Argonians have a passive ability that increases their regeneration rate markedly once their meters drop below 25%.  

 

A 37 level argonian spawned while I was level 33, understandably, it should take many more cuts to bring him down... BUT because of the racial ability, I could dual wield power-attack all day and he wouldn't die, making him too tough.  What made it worst was he was a mage that kept running away so I couldn't get good hits on him.  Even with godmode on, I needed to poison my blade with Health V poisons to kill him before he regenerated his health.  

 

Now... I am not sure if this is a problem per se.  As I am an Argonian in the game so fair is fair.  Not sure if this is a real issue or just "real life sux" moment.  I will leave it for now.  

Edited May 2, 2014 by Garfink

[Gekko64]

told you so about populated series :PWhy don't you use skyre races and skyre combat instead of resplendent racials and duel? imo it all blends together better that way...

[dreadflopp]

@garfink Doesn't sound godd with resplendent racials and argonians. Do you still use radiance? Going to take a look in TES5Edit tonight

[thommaal]

I am a bloody idiot. Yesterday, I took a look at TTR's Smithing perk and added dreadflopp's step patch to see in TES5Edit what he had done.

 

And while I deactivated the smithing perk, I failed to do the same with the step patch. Sigh. Everything's back to normal again. The perils of testing mod after mod after mod.

 

Re. a better combat/gameplay:

 

I once played with an earlier version of "Duke Patrick's Archery And Heavy / Light Weapons Combat", but with all the other effects mods running scripts, combat was a lag nightmare whenever skirmishes among more than a few NPCs occurred.

 

With fewer mods involved, I'll give it another try. He has constantly improved his combat-mod and the locational damage module seems to work pretty well. How the mod fares with higher spawns, well, we'll see.

Edited May 2, 2014 by thommaal

[Garfink]

Garfink's Skyrim Rebalanced Project (GSRP) V0.68 Beta

 

Goal: A tighter and more challenging Skyrim, with more diverse options of character building.  Increasing difficulty of combat without making the monsters health-sinks, evening the playing field between the Dragonborn and the NPCs, making the economy and loot much tighter by deleveling loot without making you a beggar.

 

Changes for V0.68 Beta:

Uninstalled Populated Forts and Populated Dungeons because using this at the same time as increase spawns results in uneven distribution of spawns, making it impossible to balance properly.  Also set Random Encounter to spawn ONLY ONE of each type of spawn at any of its spawn points and allow ASIS to take control of the actual numbers, this allow across Skyrim Control of spawn numbers with ONE MOD.  You will need to unselect "reduce indoor spawns" in the ASIS MCM menu so that it can take control of indoor spawns as well.  If you find that there are still too many spawns indoors, just reselect this again.  Its the end of my 2 days vacation, so back to old rat race tomorrow Saturday, so probably fewer updates in the next few days.

 

 

Mods:

HLE Hardcore : Gameplay setting Apprentice (equivalent to Expert in vanilla)

Immersive Creatures : Expert and all stats/armor/damage extended

## New:  Random Encounters : Hard with stats extended + All creatures set to spawn ONE only.

## ASIS increase spawns : 0 spawns 100, 1 spawn 50, 2 spawn 5, turn off reduce indoor spawns.

ASIS AI & Spells & Potions (use the Improved ASIS inis and add draugr to NPC exclusion for spells.)

Apocalypse Spells

Resplendent Racials

Thunderchild - Epic Shouts Package (type: set xxxSPEShoutExpBase to 0

set TC_ExpMultiplier_Global to 4 after character creation)

SkyRe Main Module + Reproccer + Pre/Post Reproccer Fix + custom xml option

SkyRe Standing Stones

Duel Combat V7.6.1 (Avoid using the current version till the author gets a handle on his new archery module going)

Morrowloot

Scarcity 2x Merchant 6x Loot Rarity

NPC Enchantment Fix

Reduced Gold Rewards of Quest

Deadly Dragon (expert, keep project essential NPCs OFF and use NPCs Protected Redux instead, turn off stagger)

Dragon Combat Overhaul

Complete Crafting Overhaul Remade (load after Morrowloot & remove relev/delev tags)

Revenge of the Enemies

High Level Enemies (non-scaling version, I am using the SIC version but the regular version should work same)

Traps are Dangerous

Trade & Barter -40 buying price  fbartermin 3.5 fbartermax 7.5

Endgame NPC Overhaul

#New:  Populated Dungeons Caves Ruins

#New:  Populated Forts Towers Places

Radiance

Realistic Room Rentals Lite (use the lite version so it doesn't mess with the tavern lights to ensure compatibility with things like ELE & Relighting Skyrim, these are what I am using)

Better Fast Travel

Extended Encounters

Improved Sneak Detection

Northern Encounters and Extras (load after Random Encounters)

Uncapper

No Level Limit

 

Must create a bash patch

 

Mods NOT to use:  OBIS, aMidian Content Addon, no boundaries (breaks quests).  Armor/weapon mods are okay, install only crafting option and not the options that add it to the level lists.  Low level Armor/weapon mods like those with steel, leather, iron stats, shouldn't break the balance too much, but higher tier items will like glass, orc, daedric & dragon.  So becareful what you install.  Less is MORE.  SkyRe already adds some lore-friendly gear, so there is no need to add more really.  If you don't use SkyRe the loot will even be tighter.  Try not to use more than 1 follower like default, or you will nerf certain perks like Summoning and controlling 2 reanimates and don't use Dual Wield Block either.  I am using simple multiple followers as a follower management tool and maximum compatibility, especially if you're planning to use Interesting NPCs.

 

Quest Mods are okay BUT some mods like Fight for the Thalmor quests will break the economy by providing too much loot.  So when doing non-vanilla quests be judicious and just don't pick up every thing in sight and concentrate on the storyline and the ultimate reward.

 

For those concerned about loot rarity, don't worry about it.  There is still tonnes of it and money though tighter, is still not a major issue and shouldn't bog you down.

 

I use Realistic Needs and Diseases but  you can use iNeeds if you want, I just found RN&D more compatible with everything.  I usually set Frostfall on Hardcore AND increase the rate of getting cold to 1.5.  (I feel that at 1.0, the cold is an irritant but rarely deadly.)  I don't like inventory management, so I just leave the player carry weight to default and even use bandoliers, knapsacks to carry even more.  But if you want a more hardcore RPG experience, then feel free to adjust it.  I recommend SkyTweaks to make all these types of adjustments.

 

If you want an even more hardcore RPG time, I recommend using Hunterborn in combination with Professions.   In the latter mod, adjust the time spent smithing/cooking/tanning etc. much lower than default or you will starve.  These mods that add time to these activities will offset the ease with which food can be found.

 

There are many character builds that may challenge even my mod choices, so to increase difficulty:  adjust ASIS spawns up a little:  0-200 1-100 2-50 reduced indoor spawns selected.  This will make it a lot harder, maybe too hard.  Adjust to your liking.

Edited May 2, 2014 by Garfink