Xtra Special Skill Training v 1.1
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by MrPimburton


DESCRIPTION
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This mod adds an Oblivion-style "skill improvement through use" system to Fallout New Vegas. All 13 skills will improve as you use them in (reasonably) normal fashion.


USAGE/INSTALLATION
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XS Skill Training will work with pretty much any FNV game, and it doesn't require anything else to run: simply unpack the .esp into your data folder and check as normal. Nevertheless, XS Skill Training was designed to complement my uncapper mod (http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37231), and should ideally be used with it, as this mod will add to skills beyond 100.


MOD NOTES
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XS Skill Training uses the Challenges system, adding a bunch of them (prefaced with ".") to the top of your list. These are all recurring, and every time you complete one, the result script increments a global variable. As this variable passes certain increasing thresholds, it will grant you a +1 bonus to the appropriate skill. At first, you will earn points as you complete each challenge directly. As you continue to use the skill, however, it will take more and more challenge completions to get the +1: every five points you earn in the skill means you need another challenge completion per new point. Your actual value in the skill is completely independent of this process.

When you earn a bonus skill point, the mod will inform you with a message and sound effect in addition to the normal challenge completion notification.

Here is a list of each challenge and how you increase its skill:

Barter Training
-Hoard an increasing number of caps

Energy Weapons Training
-Deal damage with energy weapons: 2000/2000

Explosives Training
-Deal damage with explosives: 1000/1000

Explosives Training (2)
-Disarm mines: 5/5

Guns Training
-Deal damage with guns: 2000/2000

Lockpick Training
-Pick locks: 3/3

Medicine Training
-Heal with stimpaks: 100/100

Medicine Training (2)
-Use Doctor's Bags: 5/5

Melee Weapons Training
-Deal damage with Melee Weapons: 2000/2000

Repair Training
-Repair items: 10/10

Science Training
-Hack computers: 3/3

Sneak Training
-Score critical hits: 25/25

Sneak Training (2)
-Pick Pockets: 5/5

Speech Training
-Earn speech successes: 3/3

Survival Training
-Heal with food: 75/75

Survival Training (2)
-Discover Locations: 5/5

Unarmed Training
-Deal damage with Unarmed: 2000/2000


RECOMMENDATIONS
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Generally, this mod is fairly conservative with its bonuses and XS Skill Training is not intended to replace the normal skill point system of Fallout New Vegas: don't expect to take a skill from 5 to 100+ just by training it. As stated above, this mod is intended for use with http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37231, and I also recommend using a challenge remover mod as a balancing/spam reduction method, such as the one provided in http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35015.


UNINSTALLATION
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This mod uses the "modav" command to increase skills, so if you remove the mod you will have to manually use that command to reduce your skills back to normal.

Finally, the link:
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=40638

Hmm... sounds interesting.



Is this how many caps you get in total (without necessarily keeping them) or how many you have at one time? I'd love to see something that is more based on the value of transactions in barter windows --- as really that is more "exercising the barter skill" than just having lots of wealth is.


Dunno if this is possible, but would love to see something where dealing with the more difficult challenges counts for "more".



Is this actually # of hit points healed, or # of times you have used an item to get that effect? If the latter, that 100 stimpaks seems kinda high IMO. (Knowing there is also the Doctor's Bag's one for Medicine -- IMO leaving stimpaks high would make more sense if there were also ones for RadX and/or RadAway)


Sneak crits specifically I'm assuming?


Does exploding someone's pants count by any chance?


Overall really love the concept. Would love to see some crafting based skill increases as well, for things based on that skills (repair, science, survival, explosives, etc...) -- though the numbers would have to be high on repair/science since ammo would drive it much higher than, say, making bottlecap mines.

- DU

Additional note/question: Glancing over the comments on the nexus page for this, I see that your personal version deals with plant picking for survival, since you've disabled healing from food. I personally do the same thing - any chance you could release that as an optional?

(I understand you have concerns / things to change to make it compatible with XtraSpecial, but that isn't a concern for all of us...)

- DU

Now this is a good idea, I'm going to have to give this mod a shot.

For barter, its the highest caps you have ever had. It would be great to make it just the amount transacted, but this is easily exploitable when dealing with a merchant who gives you any kind of discount: all you do is buy and sell the same item back to them at cost, ad infinitum, and your "barter amount traded" misc stat goes up. Crafting items is similarly exploitable, as all you have to do is break down bullets/make ammo over and over: pretty much impossible to balance.

Any of the challenges that say "heal with X" means how many HP healed, not how many items used.

The sneak challenge counts all crits, both sneaking and regular. There is no option in the challenge system for only counting sneak attack crits.

No way to differentiate lockpick/hacking difficulty in the challenge system.

Basically, I want to keep this mod as low overhead and as simple as possible. The only "hacked in" thing it has is how it handles barter, and I don't want to do any more script workarounds. If this mod were intended to replace the default skill point system, that would be another matter.

I may do a more comprehensive version of this mod with more setting changes and the like, but only if there is a lot of interest.

I certainly understand what you're saying. I personally am of the mindset that if there is something that is obviously an exploit, that it is up to the player to determine if they want to wantonly abuse that or not -- rather than avoiding otherwise potential benefit / good content, in the name of forcing players to "play honest". *shrug*

I think my issue is that the way it is right now, there might as well be no impact on barter for me at all -- as very few of my characters ever amass much in the way of money, always spending whatever they get their hands on.

...although there is also the thought of having a second barter challenge based on barter conversation checks (like the speech checks). *shrug*


Gotcha. I can certainly see why that got toned down (values increased) in version 1.1 then.


I was afraid of that.


I didn't really think there would be, but was worth asking (I've never looked at the challenges behind the scenes yet... though I plan to download this tonight and take a look at it some now)


*nod*

...and I know I'm usually not the one to base too much off of -- I'm a very picky SOB who wants thing specifically the way that I want them (I run a ton of mods, very VERY few of them do I run the entire thing and/or without some of my own custom changes). That having been said though, I love the idea and am glad you've put some time into it for the rest of us.

- DU

although there is also the thought of having a second barter challenge based on barter conversation checks (like the speech checks). *shrug*

No such thing: all successful skill, stat, perk, faction, karma, etc. checks in dialogue are treated as speech successes under Misc. stats, and, thus, challenges.

Wow, I was going to ask for a mod like this, I like the way skills work in Morrowind and Oblivon, (use a skill, get better at it)
as it makes more sense, after all, I didn't start playing guitar at the age of 12, and every year I got older I didn't get to
apply 5 - 17 skill points towards "Guitar Playing", I had to keep practicing in order to get better. :disguise:

Also, thanks for pointing out "Xtra Special New Vegas", I admit I never heard of it for FO3, but I'll definitely give this a
spin in FONV and see if I like it. If I do, then it's going to get added to my mod list in FO3 too.

Thanks for making this. I loved the way Xtra Special worked in FO3, and I'm glad to see the core concept expanded on.