Need Some Advice on Perks and Conditions

[calthrop]

I'm trying to solve a problem inherent in an excellent FO4 mod, 'Be Exceptional' by rcoll (hereafter called BE), which uses the LevelUpMenuEx framework by Neanka.

 

Part of what this mod (BE) does is make certain vanilla perks (stuff like sneak, simple damage increases for weapons, etc.) hidden/non-playable since these effects get applied through the mod's skill system. It also removes the actual effects of the perk entries, basically leaving only the base in case other mods reference them.

 

However, this has the unfortunate side effect that any companions/NPCs that use those perks won't get any effects from them. Particularly sneak has me bothered because vanilla FO4 companions use those perks, but a number of mods actually add other perks to various NPCs to adjust difficulty/gameplay experience.

 

I'd like to sort this out by making a patch, but I'm looking for advice on the best way to go about it with compatibility in mind. I've tried to contact the author, but he/she hasn't been around the Nexus for a few months, and no one on the LevelUpMenuEx discord had any ideas either.

 

My first thought was to just add the effects back into the perks, but I believe (though I'm not certain) that the author removed the perk effects so people could seamlessly install mid-playthrough (since perk effects can get 'sticky' when removing them). There may be other reasons they did this but none of the author's articles indicate why, so that guess is all I'm going on here.

 

Another option would be to make copies of the perks and dole those out, but that would require adding them into the NPC records and yet again open the door to patching Hell. FO4 modding has enough of that already.

 

The solution I'm sort of leaning towards is adding the effects back into the vanilla perks (ofc leaving them hidden/non-playable) but working in a condition that would make them unable to affect the player. However, based on my very limited knowledge of Bethesda perk systems, the few ways to do this seem to be questionable in whether they would actually achieve the desired effect at all or do so without introducing new issues. I've tried searching for a 'best practice' for this but have come up empty-handed.

 

So here I am : )

 

I'm hoping someone might be willing to lend an assist on whether adding such conditions to the perks would solve the problem, and if so, what exactly the conditions should be. Or, if I'm completely off-base in how I'm thinking about this, I'd gladly welcome any other recommendations on how I could solve the problem.

 

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

-Calthrop