» Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:13 am 1) First step is deciding what kind of character I want, and identify the main skill trees I'd want as well as useful perks to shoot for in secondary trees.
2) Second step is listing out all the potential perks I'm looking at and prioritizing them. This has the effect of honing just how I want my character to develop
...a) From the list of perks (and required prerequisites) I wanted, I narrowed down to 80 that thought I'd want for a full level-81 character
...b.) From that 80, I ranked the most crucial 50 according to when I'd want/need to get them. This keeps in mind that each perk is going to require its own level. It's probably easier to rank each tree on its own (very easy with the more linear trees), and then think about your character's development as you alternate amongst your trees (what skills am I going to need at low levels, what will I focus on as my character becomes stronger and more confidant, what will he be doing when he achieves the rank of BadAss)
...c) List those skills in order of preference/necessity, including required skill-level as well as the required skill level of the prerequisites. Note, you need to pay attention to your starting skill levels (mostly 15's, a few 20's, and one 25 in most cases, I believe). A skill-level prerequesite of 20 with no perk requirements doesn't mean you'll need to gain the first 20 skill levels to gain that perk - you'll be starting from at most 15 and may start your character enough skill to get it such that no skill-levelling or hence XP would be required.
3) Once I have a desired order for those first 50 skills, it's time to bring in the math. I derived my formulas based on the information on this page: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Leveling
In my spreadsheet I have the following columns: Perk order (N; 1-50+), Perk name, Skill Requirement (R2), Perk prerequisite name, Prerequisite skill requirement (R1), Interval XP (Xi), Cumulative XP (Xc), Required level (L) and Spare perks
...a) One thing you'll need to be able to do is figure out how much XP you'll need to go from one stage to the next. (Going from a skill of 15 to a skill of 16 gains you 16xp, according to the wiki.) I call this "Interval XP"
Xi = (R2-R1) * (R2+R1+1)/2
--------R2-R1 gives the number of skill levelups (going from skill of 20 to skill of 30 is 10 levelups)
--------(R2+R2+1)/2 gives the average-XP-gain-per-levelup for that region (in the above example, that would be the average of 21 (first levelup XP) and 30 (last levelup XP))
--------Note, the skill requirements may require some manual tweaking according to pre-existing skill or prior perks from that tree. For example, if a perk has a requirement of 30 and its prerequisite has a requirement of 20, if that's your skill that you start off with a 25 in then your 'effective prerequisite level' will be 25; if you have already taken / given more priority to a higher perk on that tree (say one with a requirement of 50 on another branch of the tree), then that perk won't need you to gain -any- skill levels in order to pick it up so interval XP will be 0 (I think of those as 'freebies'); if a higher priority branch has required a skill higher than the prerequisite's requirement, then your effective prerequisite level will be what you would have already had to obtain (eg if perk requires skill 70, prerequisite requires skill 40, but you will have already aimed for a perk that requires a skill level of 50, then 50 would be your 'effective prerequisite level')
...b.) From that column I derive a "Cumulative XP" column, which on the spreadsheet would equal the sum of the value above it together with the interval XP for the perk in question.
...c) From the cumulative XP it's possible to calculate the minimum level you'd have to be in order to take that perk at this time:
L= int ((-62.5 + (62.5^2 - 4*12.5*(-75-Xc))^.5 /25)
--------That's from applying the quadratic formula to an equation calculating cumulative XP from level: Xc = 12.5*L^2+62.5*L-75 or =25*(L-2)*(L-1)/2+100L-100. Yeah, math can be messy.
...d) Spare perks is just the difference between the minimum level versus the number (N) of perks minus 1 (since perk#1 will require Level=2). Ramping up to a skill-level of 100 in a skill in order to get the peak perk would get you more levels than might be required to fill that branch of the tree up to your perk, so you'd have some left over which you could place in less important 'freebies' on your way to that peak perk. (By my calculations, doing straight smithing from the getgo going from skill of 15 to skill of 100 would put you at level 18, and you aren't going to use 17 perk-points in smithing.)
4) Once you have your "Minimum Level" column calculated with spare perks, it's time to fine-tune your perk order
...a) If you have 0 spare perks, then you're pacing yourself perfectly.
...b.) If at a given desired perk you have some spare perk-points (ie you're going to gain more levels / perk-points getting to that point than are needed for the perks you've chosen up to that point), then you can insert some freebies before that perk without delaying the level at which you'll be able to achieve it. Freebies should come from the the contiguous run of positive spare perks, before your next 'perfect pacing' point. I find I have to re-sort my sheet (by Perk Number/order) after each re-assignment to keep from being confused.
--------As an attempt at an example: the 15th perk you want gives you a cumulative XP that would place you at level 19, giving you 3 spare perks at that point. The next several perks you want don't set your desired number of perks to be less than the perk-points you would have gained by reaching the level/XP necessary for their necessary skill-levels. Within that stretch (perk #18 for example), you have a 'freebie' - a perk for which you already would have met its skill-level requirement in order to obtain say perk #12, or else one without a skill-level requirement. You won't get your perk#15 until you're level 19 anyway, so since you'll have some spare perks you might as well pick up the freebie earlier than you had originally prioritized. Perk #18 in this example gets reassigned to #15, #15 becomes #16, #16 becomes #17, #17 becomes #18; re-sort.
...c) Similarly, if you have a less-prioritized perk from a different branch of the same tree as your more desired one, and it has a higher skill-level than the desired's prerequisite but less than the skill-level for the desired, it can function as a partial-freebie. An example might make this more clear: for the 15th perk of your character's career you want a perk that requires a skill of 100 and its prerequisite which you picked up earlier had a requirement of 60. Grinding the skill up to 100 would get you to a high enough level that you'd have some perks left over. Perk #18 is from the other branch of the same tree and has a requirement of 80. If you put #18 in front of #15 then it won't slow down your achieving the more desired perk, because you'll pass 80 on your way to 100 and we've already established that by the time you get to 100 you won't be short on perks / ie you have at least 1 extra. In re-ordering your list, in order to keep the minimum-level accurate you'll have to adjust the effective prerequesite level - on your way to the 100-level perk, you'll be starting from 80 instead of 60, on your way to the 80 you'll be starting from 60 instead of already being a freebie - you'll have to gain skill levels and hence XP in the process of reaching this once you move it up before the 100.
...d) If you have negative Spare Perks, that means just achieving the target skill requirement isn't going to give you enough character-levels to have the perk to spend on it, so you'll have to grind at something else as well. The ideal choice for this something-else is the next perk (from a different tree) which isn't a freebie.
...e) Keep in mind as you're playing that this gives the minimum level you'll have upon attaining the given perk. In actuality you'll be leveling in several areas at once and quite possibly (most likely?) will have some spare levels.
Well, I've been typing at this long enough so I'm going to quit now. Many people will find it useful enough just to establish the prioritized list, and of course many will just want to cross their bridges as they come to them. Hopefully this will be useful to someone.
