How might I determine what's lowering Perception?

[Asterra]

I've encountered what is almost certainly a bug. A really weird bug that I've never seen before.

 

For some reason, between one save and the next, my Perception has been flagged as damaged by 1. So, when I'm completely free of all buffs, detriments and equipment, rather than it being "6", it shows "5 (-)". There is no effect indicated which can be pointed to as the culprit.

 

I have also monitored the full spell list for playerref to see if there's something hidden causing this. I see no difference between the lists, with the bug present and without. But then, I also do not see "Hunger", "Dehydration", etc., so I can't really say this is especially conclusive. Evidently, hardcore needs (and radiation sickness) do not show up as spells in the spell list.

 

Adding considerably to the confusion: Sometimes, when I make a save, Perception heals itself. Let me elaborate. In my attempts to solve this bizarre issue, I healed every single thing I could—all the hardcore needs and radiation sickness—and took off all equipment. My Perception still showed "5 (-)". I saved the game. When I came back, my Perception, inexplicably, was now "6". Furthermore, when I repeated these steps exactly and made another save... coming back to that save did not result in my Perception again healing itself. There is no rhyme or reason to this.

 

My only hope is to understand what has damaged my Perception. The game thinks something has, and if it thinks that, it stands to reason there's a variable in the game somewhere that might conceivably be accessed so I can have a little elucidation on this problem.

[GamerRick]

And your load order is ... ?

[Asterra]

And your load order is ... ?

 

The effect stays with a completely clean load order.

[VAULTRENEGADE]

I had this happen with the intelligence stat but in my case it was constant; there's no easy way of identifying the cause without a displayed active effect. To solve this, I created a simple esp that adds a "counter effect" to the pip boy- in my case it was intelligence +2 to balance out the "-2" I was experiencing for no reason. This effect can be added to the pipboy as an armor enchantment and will always remain active. You can also create a standalone pip boy that only your character uses to avoid applying the effect to any NPC's also wearing a pipboy.

 

It's an unorthodox solution for a ridiculous problem; I haven't been able to work out any sort of definitive solution other than this. Regardless, when properly implemented, it works seamlessly.

Edited April 11, 2020 by VAULTRENEGADE

[Asterra]

I had this happen with the intelligence stat but in my case it was constant; there's no easy way of identifying the cause without a displayed active effect. To solve this, I created a simple esp that adds a "counter effect" to the pip boy- in my case it was intelligence +2 to balance out the "-2" I was experiencing for no reason. This effect can be added to the pipboy as an armor enchantment and will always remain active. You can also create a standalone pip boy that only your character uses to avoid applying the effect to any NPC's also wearing a pipboy.

 

I'll have to try that out the next time I encounter the problem. I *think* it had something to do with selling equipment while I was wearing it. Without question, trading equipment to Dead Money vendors while wearing it will cause the issue, although in that case, it leaves an identifiable buff on the player which can be removed by simply re-equipping and un-equipping armor with the same buff. No, the problem I was having earlier was that the game thought I was below my base Perception so it gave me a permanent "(-)" next to the number, and no amount of damageav / restoreav / modav / setav / forceav would make it go away. I felt helpless, and that's something I'm not used to, given how many tools we have at our disposal and how basic something like this really should be. Like, if the game thinks our stat is wrong, why the heck can't I figure out why it thinks that?