SSE Spell Cost Confusion and Magic Skill Levelling

[cumbrianlad]

I'm making a mod to alter magic in general. With part of it I want to address some skills levelling painfully slowly while others are a cinch. I also want to correct the imbalance between awarded XP and the level of the spell cast in some cases.

 

For instance, casting the apprentice level 'Calm' spell actually levels the player less than if they cast the novice 'Courage', even though 'Calm' rightly uses more magicka. I've noticed this in game on a good number of spells from different schools.

 

I thought it should be a simple matter of looking at the base cost and skill usage multiplier in the magic effect, but something seems off.

 

In the spells I expected the auto-calc cost to be a simple multiplication of the spell magnitude by the base cost... but it isn't, not quite, anyway.

 

For example, incinerate should cost 60 x 3.3 by that logic (198)... it's 171

Firebolt would be 25 x 1.2, or 30... it's 41.

Fireball goes the other way. 2.3 x 40, or 92... its actual spell cost is 86: close but still no cigar!

 

If I'm to adjust the skill usage multipliers correctly, I need to know exactly how this is all working.

 

Can anyone enlighten me? The Wiki gives some formulae and a table but it's annoyingly vague on some points.

 

 

Edit: the inconsistencies in both calculated cost and any sense of logic are getting worse. In destruction, the base cost value goes fire, frost then shock.* Spell magnitudes are the same for novice, apprentice etc... but, but but: while shock spells are generally more expensive than frost spells, chain lightning costs less than Ice Storm, despite having a greater base cost. Is this 'auto calc' system totally broken? I've half a mind to knock it off and enter costs manually. I don't know if that is what's used to level, though. I feel the peaceful sensation of forthcoming experiments gently washing over me.

 

* I don't see for the life of me why this should be the case. You're pretty much stuck with using the correct spell for a lot of enemies. For instance Frost does nothing to dwarven automatons, so you have to use shock or fire. There will be times that the player is forced to use more expensive spells for no good reason. In this case, they may know the 'Chain Lightning' spell but not 'Fireball'. Why should that spell cost more? I want to make these all the same cost. Let's face it, shock may cause magic damage but for non-magic NPCs what's the use? It shouldn't cost more if you enjoy using the spell.

 

 

On a lighter note, it always bugged me that stealth attacks with a blade or bow dealt 2 to 3 times damage, but quiet casting spells while sneaking had no such bonus...

 

... sorted. The Sneak tree now has the 'Stealth Bomber' perk. It works perfectly. It requires 40 Sneak and the Quiet Casting perk. It also requires that the player is sneaking and undetected when casting the spell. With perk and conditions met, 'Stealth Bomber' now deals double destruction spell damage. Hurray for the mages! Oh, the perk is located below the 'Muffle' perk and though it doesn't require that perk, the lovely glowing line links to it and finally adds the rest of the tail to the 'Sneak' perk tree in the UI. Sweet all around. I need to test what happens if the player cashes in their Illusion perks in apocrypha, including 'Quiet Casting'. Hopefully, this perk will stop working and not crash the game. I may need to add a message to warn the player that they will lose 'Stealth Bomber', if I can. Anyway, that's for the future. For now I was just delighted to see a frost troll losing twice as much health when I 'Stealth Bombed' it.