[Relz] Mercer's Ingredient Effect Overhaul : IV

» Sun Jul 14, 2013 6:54 pm

Mercer's Ingredient Effect Overhaul

Requires Shivering Isles and Cobl <---. http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/21104//?

Description:

This mod changes the ingredient effects of nearly all ingredients from Oblivion, Shivering Isles and Cobl.

Version 1.0

Download: http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/27610//?

The main purpose of this mod is to rebalance the magical effects compared to rarity of the ingredients and to bring back the feeling of satisfaction when making potions.

The story behind the mod:

The mod began many years ago after I had stumbled upon the mod Pestilent Afflictions. Pestilent Afflictions (which I highly recommend) makes diseases worse in a very interesting way and I saw the need for improving the diseases feature of Oblivion. However, I quickly realized that the mod was practically irrelevant since all I had to do to avoid even the worst of diseases was to take a bite out of the fairly common mandrake root since it has Cure Disease as 1st effect.

To amend this folly I removed the Cure Disease effect from mandrake root and from a few other ingredients. It helped a lot and I was happy for a while getting riddled with diseases that required a bit more to cure.

After a while I returned to the CS to edit a few more things that I felt was an exploit or for other reasons needed changing.

For instance, I always felt it was too easy to create poisons by using Sacred Lotus Seeds which is abundant in several places.

It was also too easy to create Restore Health potions since Fly Amanita Cap has this effect and the Imperial City is full of them.

Precisely because it was too easy to very quickly create a lot of potions and poisons, it began feeling like a chore to do it and I decided to change this.

I began reducing the strength of the ingredients that I felt was too abundant and also began testing effects that were normally only used in spells, but never seen in ingredients.

After much testing of all the magical effects and many revisions I have ended up with this mod. I never thought to release this mod to the public when I first began with my small fixes many years ago, as from the very beginning it was built completely on my own preferences. But over the years it has grown from just a few fixes into a comprehensive overhaul and I realized it would be silly not to release it even if it doesn't cater to everyone's taste.

It is still undergoing development but I believe I have finaly found the core group of effects I want to use thus I named this version 1.0.

Overall schemes and changes:

For this revision of the mod I made a chart of all used effects and determined their relative usefulness. This chart has then been used to distribute the weakest effects to the most common and cheapest ingredients and gradually through to the strongest effects to the rarest and most expensive ingredients.

Here's the chart for those who's interested:

Spoiler

Class A:

Paralyze:
Strong, high usability, 2nd to 4th effect.

Reflect Damage: (no effect on ranged weapons or weapon enchantments)
Strong, high usability, weak early, 3rd and 4th effect.

Magic Resist: (also reduce poison effects)
Strong, medium usability, weak early, 3rd and 4th effect.

Reflect Spell: (only works against spellcasters, not traps etc)
Strong, medium usability, very weak early, 3rd and 4th effect.

Spell Absorption: (protects against all sources)
Strong, medium usability, very weak early, 3rd and 4th effect.

Cure Disease:
Strong, low usability, 2nd to 4th effect, very rare.

Fire/Frost/Shock Damage:
Strong, high usability, 1st to 4th effect.

Damage Health:
Strong, high usability, 1st to 4th effect.

Class B:

Shield: (protects against weapons and creature attacks)
Moderate-strong, high usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd and 3rd effect.

Cure Paralysis:
Moderate-strong, low usability, 2nd to 4th effect, mostly as 3rd and 4th effect. Very rare.

Detect Life:
Moderate-strong, high usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 3rd effect. Very rare.

Class C:

Weakness to Magic: (also increase poisons and weapon enchantments)
Strong, low usability, 3rd and 4th effect.

Restore Health:
Strong, high usability, 1st to 4th effect.

Fire/Frost/Shock Shield: (reduce damage by percentage & increase armor rating)
Moderate, low usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd and 3rd effect, rare.

Fortify Blade, Blunt & Marksman:
Moderate, medium usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd and 3rd effect.

Resist Fire/Frost/Shock: (reduce damage by percentage)
Moderate, low usability, 2nd to 4th effect, rare.

Restore Strength:
Moderate-strong, low usability, 4th effect. Extremely rare.

Invisibility:
Moderate, low usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 3rd effect.

Fortify Strength:
Moderate, medium usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd and 3rd effect.

Silence:
Moderate, low usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd and 3rd effect.

Damage Fatigue:
Moderate, medium usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd and 3rd effect.

Restore Magicka:
Moderate, medium usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd and 3rd effect.

Restore Attributes (all except Strength):
Moderate, low usability, 4th effect. Extremely rare.

Feather:
Moderate, low usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd and 3rd effect, rare.

Night-Eye:
Moderate, low usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd and 3rd effect.

Water Breathing:
Moderate, low usability, 2nd to 4th effect, very rare.

Water Walking:
Moderate, low usability, 2nd to 4th effect, very rare.

Class D:

Weakness to Poison: (also increase the damage caused by elemental damage poisons)
Moderate, medium usability, 2nd to 4th effect.

Weakness to Fire/Frost/Shock:
Moderate, low usability, 3rd to 4th effect, very rare.

Fortify Personality:
Moderate, low usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd effect.

Fortify Agility:
Moderate, low usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd effect.

Fortify Light Armor & Heavy Armor:
Weak, medium usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 3rd and 4th effect.

Fortify Atletics, Acrobatics, Sneak:
Weak, medium usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd and 3rd effect.

Restore Fatigue:
Moderate, high usability, 1st to 4th effect.

Fortify Endurance, Speed, Intelligence, Willpower, Luck:
Weak, medium usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd effect.

Cure Poison:
Moderate, low usability, 2nd to 4th effect, mostly as 3rd and 4th effect. Very Rare.

Resist Paralysis:
Moderate, low usability, 1st to 4th effect.

Damage Speed:
Moderate, medium usability, 1st to 3rd effect.

Drain Speed:
Moderate, medium usability, 1st & 2nd effect.

Class E:

Dispel:
Weak, low usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 3rd and 4th effect. Very Rare.

Light:
Weak, low usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd and 3rd effect.

Chameleon:
Weak, low usability, 1st to 4th effect, mostly as 2nd effect.

Fortify Health/Magicka:
Weak, medium usability, 1st to 4th effect.

Resist Disease:
Weak, low usability, 1st to 4th effect.

Damage Strength:
Weak, medium usability, 1st to 3rd effect.

Drain Strength:
Weak, medium usability, 1st & 2nd effect.

Drain Blade & Blunt:
Weak, low usability, 3rd effect, very rare.

Class F:

Fortify Fatigue:
Weak, low usability, 1st to 4th effect.

Resist Poison:
Weak, low usability, 1st & 2nd effect.

Damage Magicka:
Weak, low usability, 1st to 4th effect.

Burden:
Weak, low usability, 1st & 2nd effect.

Effect distribution compared to the vanilla game:

With this mod common ingredients such as Monkshood Root Pulp, from the Monkshood plant of which there are 4631, will have 4 effects that are all weak. While rare ingredients like the very rare Elf Cup Cap of which their are only 110, will have 4 strong/rare effects.

These are just 2 examples that reflects the overall changes I've made to ingredients and this is a wide-ranging change from the vanilla game.

For instance, the extremely rare Emetic Russula Cap (12 mushrooms exists) has the following effects from 1st through 4th effect in the vailla game: Restore Agility, Shield, Damage Personality, Damage Endurance.

While the very common Green Stain Cup Cap (4292 plants exists) has the following effects from 1st through 4th: Restore Fatigue, Damage Speed, Reflect Damage, Damage Health.

It seems to me that for such a rare mushroom you would had hoped for a bit more alchemical punch when finally coming across one of these on your travels. It is just as strange to me to find one of the strongest effects (Reflect Damage) in connection with on one of the most common ingredients in the game.

I have consequently rebalanced all ingredients to gradually have stronger or rare effects as they get rarer.

From Novice to Expert...

Furthermore, the 1st effect for all common and some uncommon ingredients is now weak (e.g. Burden, Resist Poison & Damage Magicka).

I did this because I don't want the free power provided by the Alchemy skill unless I actually pick the skill as a Major Skill. Dispite loving the Alchemy feature of Oblivion I sometimes play characters who don't touch alchemy and this change makes a huge difference as I won't be tempted to make potions since they are all weak anyway.

The 1st effect for some uncommon and all rare ingredients does not follow this rule since they are not in abundance and therefore cannot be abused anyway. These ingredients have 1st effects that are medium to strong/rare.

From the 2nd effect the commonly used effects appears (e.g. Restore Health, Restore Magicka & Damage Health). This doesn't apply to the common ingredients.

The 3rd and 4th effect are fairly similar and here the strongest of effects appear (e.g. Reflect Damage, Reflect Spell, Resist Magic). This doesn't apply to the common ingredients.

Food ingredients:

Since I've been an avid user over the years of hunger mods (mods that require the PC to occasionally eat,) I've changed nearly all food ingredients to now have weak effects (and reduced prices). This change means I do not feel I need to save them for alchemy use, I can just eat all the foods I come across without worry.

A second reason for this change is that I do not feel that common vegestables and such should be involved with strong magical potions. It seems more appropriate to use rare flowers, stinky mushrooms and gnarly old roots for that type of magic.

Alchemy shops:

The availablility of the lore ingredients from Cobl in this mod, paralells that of Cobl's approach. Quote from Cobl's web site:

Ingredients are added to specific shops, rather than to standard leveled lists. Generally, you'll find Morrowind ingredients in Cheydinhal, Solstheim ingredients and foods in Bruma, Daggerfall ingredients in Chorrol and Anvil. In addition, Sinderion and All Things Alchemical have stocks in Skingrad. Also in the Imperial City, a few of the eating establishments stock Daggerfall or Morrowind food, and The Main Ingredient has a good collection. For non-ingredient items (metals and ores) a few blacksmiths stock several items.

I really like how this reflect the different regions trade impact on Cyrodiil, however I've changed course concerning Cobl's amount and rarity of the ingredients.

With Cobl you get stacks of 10 & 20 and such for each ingredient and they are all equally rare. But I like a bit of variety, so now ingredients will appear in numbers varying for the most common ingredients from 0 to around 20 and for the most rare ingredients from 0 to around 3. I have tried to make each visit to an alchemy shop (including the same one) enticing by randomizing what it has to offer for every respawn.

A word of warning for the Alchemy enthusiast; The Main Ingredient in the Imperial City boasts by far the largest selection of ingredients you will ever find and you might just pass out over shear glee (or brain overload) when you drop by for a look-see.

I would prefer to have the number of available ingredients reduced in this particular shop, but because the different shops draw ingredients from some of the same leveled lists I cannot do this without also reducing the selections of other shops. All the rest of the shops in the game are tuned in to my satisfaction, but I might solve this small issue somehow in the future.

A few words on the alchemical effects added by this mod:

Weakness to Poison increase the Magnitude of all subsequent poisons used. Try using a Weakness to Poison poison and follow up with some Damage Fatigue poisons and you will soon watch your enemy grovel at your feet.

Poisons with effects such as Silence and Paralyze have their Duration extended instead of Magnitude, since they have no Magnitude.

Have your mage deliver a poison soaked dagger thrust with a Weakness to Magic/Fire/Frost/Shock poison and follow up with a barrage of spells for increased damage.

Fortify Blade, Fortify Blunt, Fortify Marksman potions gives only a small bonus at low Alchemy skill but at high skill they provide strong damage amplification and you might even want to use an uncapper mod to get bonuses when passing 100 in skill.

Fortify Heavy Armor & Fortify Light Armor potions not only provide higher Armor Rating but also increase your Spell Effectiveness. Handy for a Spellsword or Battlemage.

Fortify Athletics, Fortify Acrobatics & Fortify Sneak potions all helps getting around.

Drain Blade & Drain Blunt poisons weakens weapon wielding foes but the effects are not terribly strong, although in a long fight against a tough Ringleader it might make all the difference. To compensate for the lesser strength of this effect, ingredients with these effects always has other poison effects as well.

Is a Will-o-the-Wisp blocking your path? Use a Spell Absorption and/or Resist Magic potion and face that magical menace.

The above mentioned effects are the effect additions that I have found to be most usable as potions and poisons. All other effects are either too weak to have any real impact or they are buggy.

Although overall my balance changes removes what I see as exploits and therefore makes Alchemy harder, this mod still allows for the making of even stronger and more varied potions and poisons then in the vanilla game as long as you can collect the rare ingredients required. Follow the download link to see 2 images with examples of that.

Changes only indirectly linked to Alchemy:

The price of the ingredients created by grinding gems in the Cobl Grinders is equal to the flawed version of each specific gem in the game. So to keep the price balance between the gems and the ingredients, I had to edit the prices for every normal and flawless gem also.

I've also kept the price balance between the ingredients resulting from grinding the lore metals such as Raw Glass, Dwemer Scarp Metal and Iron Ingots. Which meant editing the prices of those misc items as well.

Lastly, I have changed the Cobl beer's to be more beer like and less super strong potions. I made this change long ago and had actually forgotten about it. It has nothing to do with a ingredient overhaul so I might just remove the beer changes if people request it.

Installation & Load Order:

This mod comes with 4 esp files. 2 are required, the other 2 are patches.

Since I've been using OOO and MMM for along time I've made patches for these brilliant mod's. I might create other patches in the future as I add new mods to my load order, if they add a lot of ingredients.

MercerIngredientsCore -> (Contains all the ingredient changes. Use 'Stats' Bash tag if using Wrye Bash)

MercerIngredientsShops -> (Enables the shops to sell all the lore ingredients. Use 'Invent' Bash tag if using Wrye Bash)

MercerIngredientsOOO -> (Rebalances most ingredients from OOO and the gem prices to keep the same price as the core mod. Use 'Stats' Bash tag if using Wrye Bash)

MercerIngredientsMMM -> (Rebalances most ingredients from MMM. Use 'Stats' Bash tag if using Wrye Bash)

Both MercerIngredientsCore and MercerIngredientsShops are core to the mod. Copy both to your Data folder.

If you use OOO and wishes my balance changes applied to the ingredients from OOO then copy MercerIngredientsOOO to your Data folder. Highly recommended if using OOO.

If you use MMM and wishes my balance changes applied to the ingredients from MMM then copy MercerIngredientsMMM to your Data folder. Highly recommended if using MMM.

Enable the chosen esp's in your favorite Oblivion launcher.

Load Order:

Both MercerIngredientsCore and MercerIngredientsShops loads after your other Cobl esp's

MercerIngredientsOOO loads after Oscuro's_Oblivion_Overhaul.esp

MercerIngredientsMMM loads after all your other MMM esp's

Important: When adding MercerIngredientsShops to an existing game, the alchemy shops won't sell the lore ingredients until you have waited for the shops to respawn their inventory. Just wait 3 days and all alchemy shops will start selling the lore ingredients.

Enjoy!

Credits:

- Bethesda for the game and the CS.

- Team Cobl.

- All the modders and contributors at the official Elder Scroll Forums who makes Oblivion the best game in the world.