I need ideas for Science, Lockpicks, and Speech!

I'm 90% of the way through implementing this. It'll be my first NVSE-required mod, though I'm sure I'll release an NVSE-free version with less functionality.

To be released as part of the XFO package at XFO-NV.com

As it stands, it's easy enough to remove the skill cap (XFO-NV itself does it, so does my pacing changes, level/skill cap remover at http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=39055) -- but at this point, all that does is let you keep leveling after all your skills reach 100. The game "knows" what the real (>100) value of your skills are, but stops calculating everything past 100.

I'm adding some changes that take effect every 10 ranks in each skill after SL100. Here's what I've done so far


Barter: every 10 points reduce buy price by 5%

Energy Weapons: Every 10 points increases armor piercing:decreases enemy DT by 2 (would 1 be more balanced?); increases VATS acc by 5%

Explosives: Every 10 points increases explosion radius by 5%, increases your DT vs. explosives by 2 (would 1 be more balanced?)

Guns: Each 10 points increases crit chance by 1%, increases VATS acc by 5%

*** Lockpick: ??? (NEED IDEAS!)

Medicine: Each 10 points, Stimpaks get more effective (20%; can't do less; might change to 20% every 20 points), drugs last 10% longer

Melee: Each 10 points, increases damage 10%

Repair: Each 10 points reduces gun/armor wear rate by 5%, increases repair effectiveness

*** Science: Each 10 points reduces energy ammo usage, (need second effect)

Sneak: Each 10 points increases "chameleon" effect by 5% while sneaking

*** Speech: (NEED IDEAS)

Survival: Slows hunger/fatigue/thirst rates, increases non-combat regen

Unarmed: Each 10 points increases UA Speed by 5%, reduces UA AP usage slightly (2%?)


ANY ideas, feedback, thoughts, etc, are hugely welcome. This is probably 80% done, though I'm working on an easy way to display the "real" skill amount (pipboy and skill upgrade page still only show up to 100 -- if any modders know how to change this, please let me know! -- but I can put in a hotkeyed messagebox to show all the values, and the console will also show those values.

I also need ideas for Science, Speech, and Lockpicks.


Next step, I'll add some epic perks for levels >30 and skills >100!

Lockpick: increased chance of Force Lock succeeding, 10% / 10 SP (eliminates mini-game @ high level), small chance for better/more loot and items in containers
Science: something to do with the minigame here as well perhaps, for each 25 SP the terminal difficulty becomes 1 level lower (easier to find passwords)
Speech: increaed Reputation with the faction of the person offering the speech challenge, maybe increased Fame/Infamy depending on action(s) and faction(s) involved

Just some ideas for you, interesting sounding mod.

If you look up the 'technical data' on Fallout 1/2/tactics skills, you should be able to find the effects of up to 150% somewhere on the net.

If not, I'd ask the author(s) who did this for FO3

I looked up the FO3 mod. Before, I couldn't find one, looking up keywords like "skills" -- I hate when people use creative names and don't include search-y terms

I guess it was called "wasteland mastery" but (a) I was underwhelmed by the results; each was just a +2% damage with weapon-type or to creature-type, even for non-combat skills, and (B) no lockpicking in that, either! (Don't get me wrong, TheFakeEmpire is an excellent modder! Just underwhelmed with this one.)

As for urtho's ideas, I especially like the speech one -- I could add a disposition modifier, too. Though I fear that at 100 speech, that's all moot already, anyways... :-/

I can't think of any ideas for speech. Once you have 100 Speech, there's no skill check your going to fail, so it doesn't really need any perks in my opinion.

For science I would suggest that a chance be added per every 5 or 10 points that give you another chance if you fail to hack a terminal the first time (or second time; I believe there's a perk that lets you try again).

For lock-picking I would suggest that a chance be added every 5 or 10 points that a lock pick wouldn't break after 3 failed picking attempts.

Are you also doing this with stats? STR,etc? Why are you making the changes occur every 10 points, instead of every point? Like a 1% increase each point instead of a 10% increase every 10 points.

What about having science affect another skill, like engergy weapons or medicine? Or something related to them, like increased potency of drugs, longer lasting drug effects, lower wear on energy weapons or something similar?

How about an excessively high Science skill removing words from the terminal screen?

Lockpicking could have an effect on gun spread - nimble fingers and so on. (You'd have to limit it to pistols for it to make sense that way, though.)I'm also in agreement with the whole "increase Force Lock chance" thing.

Lock picking could give the player options to temporarily lock doors behind them, with each rank allowing the door to be locked for longer periods of time.

A high science skill removes x words per rank, to a minimum of one, or allows the player to use high technology weapons more efficiently (more drained cells).

Speech gives the player, for every rank, a chance to force enemy NPCs to back down

I will be doing this for SPECIAL as well, but that will be a future release. Currently, there isn't much of a need to increase SPECIAL stats over 10 since you don't, like skills, get to increase it every level, and even with intense training, there are MORE than enough point-slots for all the points you can amass...

As for the 1%/10% question, it's because most of these will be done by hidden perks. Unfortunately, even with NVSE, the perk "Entry Point" slot has far more options than script functions, and most of the relevant stuff for this is to be found in Entry Points. But then, to change for every point would require me to put in 155 separate perk entries. I can't seem to find an expedient way to copy perk entries, even with TESSnip (which at least allows me to copy and paste) or FNVEdit, which hides its options too effectively for this task. So I'm stuck using the ultra-slow GECK (which is by far my least favorite editing tool and I prefer to avoid it), and 155 perk entries would take me a week -- for one skill

Probably way too rambly of an answer I'm rambly

Speech: every 10 points increase life and damage of companion

Science: every 10 points increase your damage against machines (this is from wasteland mastery and i think its a good effect)

Lockpick: I'll go for Urtho's suggestion increase loot for containers that are locked, to make lockpicking containers much more rewarding. Doesn't work with unlocked containers.

Suggestions for alternate effect to those you have already put, if I may.

Barter: if i may suggest an alternate effect, every 10 points increase the number of stock of vendor? to complement your rarity module.

Sneak: every 10 points increase your sneak attack damage (from wasteland mastery and i think it's a good effect) or increase your movement speed while sneaking

Melee and Unarmed: 5% increase damage and attack speed

Energy WeaponsGuns: remove the second effect and change it to increase attack speed? To avoid the skill being vats reliant/dependent.

Guns: remove the second effect and change it to increase reload speed?

Repair: for every 10 points, adds 5% durability to repaired items, meaning you can repair items past their default value.
for example at 200 repair skill, you can repair your armor to 150%, so you have an extra 50% before your armor starts to degrade. (if this is possible)