In another thread I was talking about how being comfortable with your weapon of choice can be more important than using a weapon that has better stats. That is how it is in real life but not how it is in this game (or any video game that I know of).

So I am wondering about making a small simple mod that keeps a record of the weapon you use the most and then gives you a bonus when you use it.

The bonus should not be ridiculous, but it should be significant to help reduce the fact that you may have another weapon that is faster, hits harder or has a cool enchantment.

I would like to do more than just check to see how often you use the weapon as you may be forced to use one you do not like a lot of the time such as using a 2h weapon for the reach because you are fighting and army of zombies that if they touch you will infect you in some theoretical quest mod.

But at this time I am not sure what to do except maybe a way for the player to designate a weapon as "the favored choice". But then how do you prevent the player form just willy nilly changing the favored weapon to any weapon they equip at the time?

Some kind of time between changes limit? like once per week?

It should be something like:

1 part player choice.
1 part number of times you use a weapon.
1 part the amount of time you have a weapon equipped.

You should record a few things:

First most favorite weapons are gonna be about 1 - 5 types at max. So you should store maybe 5 weapons in an array by preference.
From there you can track what they use the most frequently (number of times equipped), time used(ingame seconds), enemies killed by
that weapon, and maybe damage done by the weapon.

Player choice isn't really that important and should probably be avoided for the reasons you stated.

Each of those stats: number of times equipped, time weapon is held, enemies killed, and damage done. Should factor in at different set percentages towards a "score".

Maybe something like this...(These values are arbitrary as hell but you can probably mold them to your liking)

WeaponScore = EquipValue + TimeHeld + KillValue + DamageDone

EquipValue = http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1227641-wip-maybe-favored-weapon-bonus-mod/(Number of times weapon was equipped * 0.15)
TimeHeld = [(Number of seconds weapon was equipped/60) * .25)]
DamageDone = [(Number of Damage Done) * .25)]
KillValue = http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1227641-wip-maybe-favored-weapon-bonus-mod/[(Number of Kills) * .35)]

And you would order the weapons in the array of 5 by their WeaponScore value. All the weapons in the array of the top 5 would get the bonus.

Now what about weapons that you wanna make enter the top 5?
You could have a separate bottom 6 - 10 array to hold weapons that are trying to enter the top ranks.

This makes it so that you will have some leeway that if a weapon is trying to enter the top 5 ranks but is maybe a few points short, they dont
get totally removed from the runnings. After that, you can have one last variable to hold the currently equipped weapon that isnt part of the top ranks.
if it is does well in the time it's used, it can enter the bottom 10 and knock out the last rank.

Hopefully that's not too confusing. Im writing this on the way out the door. Hope it helps!

My characters always use the same type of weapon (I do this as part of my roleplaying) so I'd be perfectly content with letting the mod designate a weapon type.

This is a really great idea, BTW! I hope you make this.

These are just some general ideas since I'm not very familiar with the capabilities of scripting.

Based upon Soulgem Magic, I'm going to assume that it's possible to attach extra arbitrary data to items using script. If so, then add a record to used weapons which records the number of times the player has successfully hit things with them. Damage could be used, but then you could get "comfortable" with weapons at different speeds depending on their base damage, which doesn't necessarily make sense. This would allow bonuses to any number of weapons, but based upon the amount of time spent training with each.

Then based upon the diminishing returns idea used in AV Uncapper, apply a bonus dependent on both the weapon's usage and the player's relevant combat skill. The bonus slowly accumulates over time, but as you get to a certain point in the curve you need i.e. to use the weapon 10x as much as you have so far to get an extra 1.05x bonus. The slope/cap of the curve should be dependent on the player's combat skill, because a novice swordman can only get a limited benefit from weapon familiarity, but a master swordsman can learn a great deal in terms of muscle memory, etc.

Assuming this all makes sense and works, maybe down the road something similar could apply to armour . I.E. through experience, the player learns how to angle their favoured shield just so to get the greatest deflection for the least energy expenditure...

There has been a mod like this made by CLShade called http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=19067. You could take a look at it and maybe get some ideas. Just in case you were unaware.

How about giving weapons "experience"? For instance; the more you use a weapon, the more you become "accustomed" to that weapon. Every swing counts as a bit of experience, but hitting an enemy will give you a relatively substantial amount of experience in comparison. Furthermore, I'd suggest making the amount of experience gained increase in a non-linear way - more points for continued usage - or rather, for a long fight than for several short fights. Said experience should have a greater effect on "maximizing" the damage done rather than increasing it - after all, experience means hitting better, not harder. Thus, something like the following;
For each stroke, you get a tenth of a point. Every connecting stroke gives you half a point, multiplied by the number of strokes you've done in the last six seconds. Killing an enemy will give you an extra whole point.
You could also give points for "special" things - like blocking an attack with the weapon (i.e. no shield) or attacking/alternating between multiple enemies in a fight.

When a certain number of points have been attained, the weapon will receive a tiny bonus to damage, speed, or perhaps blocking efficiency. The number of points required for a bonus increases as bonuses are attained, but at a slow rate - so, lots of weak bonuses are awarded for constant use. Thus, using a weapon for a while will end up with the weapon receiving considerable bonuses to damage/speed/etcetera - but not enough to make it ridiculously better nor make the system pointless.

Aw yes, I knew this was the kind of idea someone should have already done it. But reading about his mod on tesnexus he has not updated the mod out of the BETA now for almost 3 years.

There are still bugs per some players reports as recent as this year (it is a beta after all) but he has not responded to them (in the comments section anyway) so he may have abandoned the mod.

I am much MUCH less interested in doing this mod now as I am never excited about redoing a mod that has already been done, but I will contact him for permission to use the idea for a much simpler version than what he has done and then see if I still really want to put time into "rewarming" this mod idea.

What did you have in mind for bonuses, and will it be an all or nothing affair?

I would think that being familiar/comfy with your 'preferred' weapon, perhaps a slight speed boost? maybe a little additional damage?

I would be interested in something like this......