[Theory] - On Restoring Skills and the Leveling System

[Deleted2530535User]

Let me preface this with, this is in no way a request or suggestion. Just a thought piece I put together and thought more ambitious mod authors than myself might be interested in, or benefit from.

 

That aside, let me introduce my theory.

 

"The Exhaustive Theory on Restoring Classic Leveling" Pretentious enough to sound academic? I thought so.

 

You can either read it under this spoiler block here (I don't recommend that) or in PDF format in the attachments. It isn't too long. Three pages or so in big font, it's pretty concise.

 

 

 

 

Fallout 4 is the latest installment of the Post-Nuclear Apocalyptic Survival Role-Playing Game we all regard with affection. With its release was bundled an impressive repository of new, expanded and modified features. However, a controversial change to the series’ formula also took place.

 

The new S.P.E.C.I.A.L leveling system. While not without precedent (the relative effect of S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats varying throughout the series, but always being pivotal in some regard to character build), the change shocked many longtime fans of the series, and divided the fan base. Arguably the largest change Bethesda has made since unveiling its first-and-third person action style with Fallout 3, it brought with it an entirely different and arguably either streamlined or more linear progression path.

 

But we aren’t here to discuss the impact the new system has had. We’re here to discuss (objectively) how a mod author, or group of them, with sufficient time and skill might restore the old leveling system, for better or worse.

 

What we know about Fallout 4’s leveling system is that it is, at face value, done almost universally with “perk points,” reminiscent of Skyrim’s “Dragon Soul” system used in that game exclusively for its Shout mechanic.

 

The specific perks at the top of the vanilla Fallout 4 perk grid, the S.P.E.C.I.A.L-stat representative icons, also modify an actor value which is referenced by other perks as their stat requirement (and presumably the PipBoy’s stat display as well.)

 

In the back end of a restored system framework, one would need to produce an Actor Value for each of the original skills from the old system, and assign it a corresponding perk. The hard Editor (presumably FO4Edit, at the time of this writing) work lies in reverse engineering the way S.P.E.C.I.A.L stat Perk Ranks interact with their corresponding Actor Value, and I as the author of this theory have not invested the time to learn this relation.

 

Each “Skill” perk would need to consist of one-hundred individual ranks to “match” their prior main-series game predecessors. Skills that have a direct effect on the effectiveness of weapon or unarmed damage or other similar percentile statistics could be done in the form of marginal increases in decimal increments as an effect of each “rank” of the new Skill perks. Getting the default rank (based on deposited S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats) would be the heavy lifting aspect here, but not by any means impossible even with current tool limitations.

 

Obviously, this does not come without effecting the Vanilla perks. In one implementation, one could revert the ranked system perks to their unranked, prior main-series game counterparts, and balance “new” perks accordingly, leaving Ranked perks only where applicable to their older incarnations, or where applicable to the nature of the perk (crafting perks, see next paragraph.)

 

Crafting could be handled one of two ways here. Or perhaps a hybrid. The repair skill, or even mention of “repair” as a concept in Fallout 4 beyond Power Armor durability, is noticeably absent. This is not necessarily lore-breaking (the classic early titles of the series used repair namely with world interaction, not arms or armor) but does leave the skill with relatively little use. Crafting could be the “leg up” Repair needs to be relevant. 25-50-75-100 milestones could be used as requirements for the 4 tiers of each Crafting perk, making specializing in a craft less restricted to your S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats, and more related to your individual character’s handiness. Intelligence and gunsmithing don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand.

 

Assuming that is not ideal to the mod author, one could simply leave out the repair perk altogether, or change it to reflect a specialty in Power Armor modification and repair. Balancing can be achieved simply with a dual (not uncommon) requirement of both a specified skill level and S.P.E.C.I.A.L stat, in hybrid cases.

 

Now I know what you’re thinking. “But what of the ever oppressive Level Up chart? What of the S.P.E.C.I.A.L menu in the beginning!?” Well I’m here to tell you that if you have a member of your team skilled with Flash and familiar with Bethesda games, or at the least, SWF interfaces, then you’re unlikely to have an issue in this regard. One could design new, replacement SWF interface files (akin to the new HUD files, and new perk images such as in Perverted Perks but with a more serious, perk-specific and compliant nature, already available on the Nexus) using the Backend ESM’s new values. Ultimately only three SWFs or so would need changed.

 

The “Level Up” SWF to have two pages – one for skill ranks, and one for actual perk choice; the “S.P.E.C.I.A.L” menu SWF to show the starting skill ranks based on the allotted S.P.E.C.I.A.L points; and the “PipBoy Stats” SWF, to include modifications to the tabs to reflect the new Skill perk ranks, independent of the default Perks tab. These would all reference information now supplied by the backend, and thus remain accurate.

 

 

One thing I’ve neglected to mention is “Perk Points per Level,” a hardcoded value. And that is because this where many may drop the concept. This mod would require F4SE – that is, the Fallout 4 Script Extender. F4SE has a Perk Points per Level extension available on the Nexus.

 

Making this work without requiring player restraint (inability to pick a perk if they allot all points in the first screen of the “Level Up” SWF page) would require the second page of the SWF file to grant a perk point of its own each time it is displayed. This could also be customized then, for players who enjoyed the “2-Perks-Per-Level” mods and et cetera from the previous games, if one were to work out how to implement it (also likely requiring F4SE given the script-intensive nature.)

 

Now, we’re at basically the end of this little expositional onslaught. The question I’m sure some may wish to ask is that if I could work out all of this, why haven’t I simply created it myself? The short answer is a lack of skill.

 

The long answer is I don’t have the time or motivation necessary to learn the techniques involved and then apply them all by myself. My understanding of programming is rudimentary at best, and exclusive to C++ and web programming languages. Learning Papyrus and Flash at the same time just to work on a mod I don’t feel is 100% necessary to the Fallout 4 experience (it would be nice but the game is also fine without, is my personal stance) is unjustifiable for me. Especially as a full time college student and an already suffering social life.

 

I don’t ask for any renown or credit for the ideas listed here, as I doubt I am the first to have them, and overall the principles are rather vague and this treatise poorly formatted. I only hope that it proves useful to someone at some point, as inspiration or simply an interesting read.

 

 

 

Edited January 30, 2016 by Guest