SKYRIMLE Skyrim Perk Enhancements & Rebalanced Gameplay - SPERG

[carlos3lance]

Skyrim Perk Enhancements and Rebalanced Gameplay - SPERG by seorin

 

https://skyrim.nexusmods.com/mods/24445

 

Hey there - one thing that always bothered me about Skyrims skill trees is the necessity of investing in useless skills at times(with no logical progression connection) to get to promising ones higher up the tree. I mean, in real life, you learn what you wanna learn right? And repeatedly doing/practicing something would inevitably lead to improvement.

 

Not to mention the jack of all trades syndrome that can, at some point make all classes feel so similar that it affects replay value. For eg. archery + heavy armored warrior. As good as archery perks are, the experience, given enough bow use is all to similar to that of a dedicated archer - classes seemingly meld, something also addressed in this mod by the reorganization of perks into automatic and specialization perks, see the mod page for a more eloquent an detailed description.

 

It improves skill synergy across a given tree(perks interact and inter-depend on each other, as opposed to one perk doing only one, isolated thing), makes the various classes feel diverse and level in a unique fashion and apparently a whole lot more, in a customizable package.

 

It might qualify as part of theme packs, as I suppose not everyone might like it, but then again, it doesn't add any alien elements to the original feel of Skyrim, just improves what's already there.

 

In any case, the author makes a good case for the benefits and offers a detailed description on the mod page.

 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Why install this mod?

 

-Import your existing character (Requires SKSE)

While it's meant for a new character, there's an import function for existing characters. Make a backup save to be safe (you should always do this when installing a new mod) and give it a try now, not later.

 

-More playstyles

Play the character you want without worrying about gimping yourself in combat. Characters like non-destruction mages and dagger rogues are much more viable with this mod.

 

-Modular design without the installation fuss

Because everything is tied to perks, you can pick which gameplay enhancements you like and avoid the ones you don't - all from inside the game. No worrying about installing the right files or deciding which tweaks to use before even making a character. Just install and play.

 

-Seamless integration with the original game

Everything this mod adds could easily be a part of the original game if you didn't know better. Making sure that a first time player would have no idea they're using a mod was one of my top priorities.

 

-More variety

Too many characters in vanilla Skyrim end up playing almost exactly alike. Access to more varied perks and abilities gives each character a truly unique feel, making the game more fun on its own and creating more interesting tools for role-playing. Want to play a survivalist hunter who lives in peace with wild animals? Now you can.

 

-Brings the fun back to leveling

With more perks to look forward to and more unique abilities, you can really feel your character progressing instead of feeling like the only thing that changes is the look of your weapon. The way your character plays will change as he or she grows.

 

-Meticulously balanced

While there's always room for improvement, I've put a lot of effort into making sure these changes are consistently balanced. The overall power level is slightly higher than in the original Skyrim due to the perks themselves being better, but there shouldn't be any singularly overpowered perks or skill trees. When needed, I even calculated ability damage based on the game's internal formulas to make sure it was consistent.

 

-Skill synergy

The old perk trees only ever gave benefits to their relevant skill, which made skills feel disconnected and left certain skills without much use. The new perk trees give a lot more benefit to other skills, increasing the complexity of different character builds, and making even the most useless skills more interesting.

 

-Fully configurable for minimal conflicts

Just about anything in the mod can be turned on and off from within the game itself. Furthermore, everything is carefully designed to have as few conflicts with other mods as possible. This offers far more customization than any other overhaul mod without needing to mess about with six different .esp files and mod-specific patches.

 

-Modder's resource

I've included the source code for all of my scripts, with the most generally applicable ones being generously commented. If you see an interesting ability that you want to copy or expand upon, you can find out exactly how it works.

 

What exactly does it do?

 

-Automatic perks

Perks which were boring, but vital (such as most 5-point perks) are now granted automatically based on your skill level. Taking them out would have drastically affected your power level, but making them automatic lets them stay while still freeing up your points for spending on the fun stuff.

 

-New perk trees

It goes without saying that perk trees are completely redone in this mod. Nothing was removed (just made automatic or combined with other perks), but over a hundred unique perks have been added.

 

-Less grinding (Requires SKSE)

Through the Skyrim -Community- Uncapper, this mod tweaks the leveling rates of each skill (but only slightly). The aim was to reduce grinding and balance the rate at which all skills increase, but to do so without changing the feel of the original game. While the values I've suggested are well balanced, you're free to change them or turn this feature off entirely.

 

-Metal melting

The above tweaks weren't quite enough for some skills - namely Smithing - to feel quite right. This mod addresses that problem by letting you melt metal equipment and objects into ingots, significantly increasing the amount of smithing you can do without waiting around for mines to respawn. Of course, this can be turned off if you'd rather use another crafting breakdown mod.

 

-Quest rewards

As another fix to skill rates, this mod grants a free, semi-random skill gain every time you complete a major quest. This encourages you to just play the game instead of grind, and helps soften the blow when a quest reward is totally useless to you.

 

-Perk reset (Requires SKSE)

You can completely reset your perks whenever you want, however, it will cost a portion of your health, magicka, and stamina (don't worry, they regenerate eventually). Players interested in this should search the dormitory rooms at the College of Winterhold, or look at the FAQ section in the readme for full spoilers.

 

-Minimalist unarmed support

Unarmed combat is made completely viable with little other changes to it. There are no monk style semi-magical abilities so as not to conflict with the existing flavor in Skyrim. Instead, unarmed characters take on the role of a bar-brawling scoundrel, which is much more fitting (especially for Nords!).

 

-Better spell scaling

All spells now scale directly with skill level. Destruction spells deal more damage, Illusion spells affect higher level targets, Restoration spells heal (or damage) more, and both Illusion and Conjuration spells last longer. At 100 skill, spells are twice as effective.

 

-Staff support for low level mages

Playing a pure mage can be rough at low levels, but now staves can really help out. While staves were already powerful, using them came at the expense of leveling your own magic skills. Now, using a staff levels your magic skills like it always should have.

 

 

One thing to mention though, this might be totally incompatible with the mod "Skill Interface Retexture" of the current Step compilation release, but at first glance it seems to be the only conflict.

[SSL]

It should be compatible with SIR, these two affect different things

[carlos3lance]

I'm checking back with a small update of my experiences with this mod. Now, I've never tested Skyrim mods before according to the Mod Testing Workflow checkpoints stickied at the top of this forums section - and for the upcoming two weeks I don't see myself having enough time off work to learn and officially undertake this properly.

 

Anyway, my initial concern about this conflicting violently with Skill Interface retexture might have been premature. I installed this mod(consisting of 2 .esp files and 1 bsa) with Wrye Bash, as lowest/last in my load order of exclusively current Step release listed mods. Definitely after the SIR mod. Advised by BOSS, I cleaned the mod with TES5Edit. Nothing in the current list of Step mods should conflict with this mod - in fact I'm almost 100% sure, according to the Wrye Bash Installers and Mods interface, Boss and knowing each mods area of effect; other mods that are conflicting are mentioned by the author by name.

 

Physically there are no overwriting files, no active conflicts listed by Wrye Bash, and for the past hour no ctd's or obvious issues. I was going to start a New game, but I decided to see if the import existing character feature works as it should. Apparently, it does; I loaded my last non Sperg save game, no content warnings, and the game initialized and updated my now reconfigured skill setup in roughly 10 seconds. I opened up the skills window, visually everything seems in order - the aesthetic changes made by SIR have been retained beautifully(nebulas, meshes, perk stars and perk lines) and the layout of perk trees and their stars has been changed and expanded per specifications of SPERG. Nothing is missing or seems to be broken.

 

The character import reimbursed my perk(useable) points that I have previously invested in perks that were converted to automatic progression by Sperg, while retaining the points invested in the now specialization(manual investment) type perks - filling in other automatic perks according to experience in the given skill(20, 30, 40 with bows, illusion and so on). All in all by the book so far.

 

I intend to start a new game tomorrow and see how the mod works, leveling up from scratch, so far it looks awesome and it has great promise from an RP perspective. Looking at the mod, one might think its leveling mechanics and speed might be overpowered, but in fact it's quite balanced and well paced by default - elaborate description in the readme on the Nexus.

 

The mod itself lists Skyrim -Community- Uncapper(currently present in the Step list under Gameplay) as required/recommended for balancing and further customization of the means and frequency of perk rewards/perk tree features for a more challenging and selective experience of this mod.

[Lauren]

I look forward to your feedback carlos, indeed from the description it sounds pretty awesome, I have downloaded it myself. Not quite to the mod-installing part of the process, let alone playing, but it sounds promising from your post!

[ath3nos]

If you don't use the uncapper as recommended you will end up with a bunch of perk points you can't spend. Many of the perks are automatic when you reach the required skill level. I tried it once without it and ended up with 7 perks I couldn't spend by the time I hit level 10. With the uncapper done right you only get perk every other level, plus the automatic ones.

 

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

[Nearox]

Gonna be daring here and put in 3 (three!) requests:

 

1) Would anyone who has used SPERG be willing to write up a brief review of this mod and/or do a comparison with SkyRe?

 

2) Would also like to know how reliable its' scripts are with regards to stability and bugs.

 

3) Is there any particular combat mod that goes well with SPERG?

[Smile44]

Not going to do a full review at this point but I have used it alot. I like it but I can't decide on complimentary mods. It is extremely compatible even with mods that alter parts of the perk tree such as Stealth Skills Rebalanced as you can switch off SPERG trees in the MCM. It wont allow you to gain a perk point in any skill until you reach 20 in that skill, and a fair number of perks are automatic.

 

It is not compatible with YASH, Requiem or SkyRe for obvious reasons or any mods that affect all of the perk trees but will work with those that affect some of them as I've already said. It seems to have no problems with combat mods or content mods and has patches for most popular. Duel is probably the most compatible combat mod possibly deadly fightling as well. It works with Revenge of the Enemies and so would be a good addition to any mod pack that does not go for the big overhaul

 

1. It;s pretty good / no.

2. Reliable no problems noted in a variety of gameplay sitiuations and levels.

3. Already answered.

 

:)

[Nearox]

Thanks Smile. I might just decide to do a playthrough with SPERG after all. Not having to rely on reproccer or tons of compatibility patches is also a big plus.

 

Just wondering what to pick for enemy scaling. Not convinced by Skyrim Unleashed's system and HLE adds too many extra spawns, though I suppose they could simply be deleted via removal of worldspaces.