About this mod
This mod simulates natural progression of NPCs in their preferred skills and spells. The end result is NPCs that level up with the player will learn new skills and spells. Powered by SPID 6.
- Requirements
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- Changelogs
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This mod is a continuation of my earlier idea of "natural" perks distribution in Adamant with Vanilla Perks, but this time it covers both skills and spells.
It was limited by SPID 5, but now with SPID 6 it can be implemented to its full potential.
Overview
NPCs Learn Skills and Spells distributes perks and spells in a way that simulates natural learning process for NPCs.
The main idea is that NPCs who are invested into certain skills will focus on perks and spells from these skills as well as pursuit advanced knowledge.
Here are some examples that better convey the idea:
- Warriors prioritize One-Handed and use Archery as a secondary skill, so it would be natural for them to get basic perks "as soon as they can" and reach higher perks in One-Handed while still getting a few lower perks in Archery to keep up with their level.
- On the other hand, Scouts solely rely on their Archery skill with no interest in One-Handed. This would mean that Scouts won't be getting any One-Handed perks, but rather grab as many Archery perks as they can. Thus, Scouts always will have more Archery perks, including higher level perks, than Warriors.
- And for Mages this also extends to Spells, so for example, Destruction Mages will be learning primarily Destruction Skill and corresponding Spells, as such they'll always have a variety of destruction magic and be good at it.
Details
To make this happen we need to figure out what NPCs are willing to learn and what they're capable of learning.
NPCs Predisposition (a.k.a. "willing to learn")
The first step here is to determine what an NPC would like to learn. Luckily, the game already provides that information in form of Skill Weights. These Weights basically tell us what are NPC's favorite skills and what they're good at... So I hit Google Sheets :)
After some time there I analyzed all Skill Weights for all NPCs and built a fancy spreadsheet. Then, using this data for each skill I labeled each NPC with one of four tiers (that you'll find familiar):
- Apprentice [1]
- Adept [2]
- Expert [3-6]
- Master [7+]
This indicates their dedication to the skill, which then used to determine their knowledge of the skill and a chance to learn corresponding perks and spells.
NPCs Knowledge (a.k.a. "capable of learning")
Now when we know NPC's favorite subjects the next thing to determine is how far they'll go to master the skill or spell.
Since spells are already grouped into tiers (Novice, Apprentice, Adept, Expert, Master), I decided to do the same thing for perks and grouped all perks based on their skill requirements into similar categories:
- Novice [10-39]
- Adept [40-69]
- Master [70-100]
This allowed me to match NPCs Predisposition levels with the efforts required to learn skills and spells.
Learning Chances
So the final step is to define how one corresponds to the other. This is where we introduce distribution chances.
In short, the more NPC dedicated to each Skill the better chances that they'll learn more perks and spells from that skill as well as better chances at learning higher tier perks and spells.
The best way to describe it is by showing you some tables :) so here are they:
Now since we're already talking about numbers :D if you enjoy some statistics like me and would like to see more here are some for you:
Here are distribution rates of affected NPCs split by Skill.
And here are the same rates, but compared to the number of NPCs who has any interest in that Skill (e.g. their Skill Weights is not 0 in that skill):
Customization
You can exclude specific NPCs from this mod by using NLSS_SelfEducating:
- NLSS_SelfEducating: Keyword that allows to exclude any NPCs from getting any "degree" in any skills, effectively excluding them from this mod.
Keyword = NLSS_SelfEducating|-ActorTypeNPC
Compatibility
There are two types of incompatibilities that might occur when using NPCs Learn Skills and Spells:
Perks and Spells
- Mods that change existing Perks or Spells will have major issues if requirements for the perks or spell levels are changed: NPCs might get more advanced perks or spells sooner than expected or contrariwise lower-level perks and spells later than expected.
- Mods that add new Perks or Spells will have minor issue: new perks simply won't be available for NPCs.
Solution: In both cases an "add-on" in a form of separate _DISTR files is needed with correct level requirements for existing perks and spells and new ones added.
Supported Mods
Perks
- Adamant - A Perk Overhaul
- Adamant with Vanilla Perks
- Ordinator - Perks of Skyrim
- Vokrii - Minimalistic Perks of Skyrim
Spells
- Mysticism - A Magic Overhaul
- Odin - Skyrim Magic Overhaul
- Apocalypse - Magic of Skyrim
- Triumvirate - Mage Archetypes
- Plague - Poison Spells Mysticism Addon
- Natura
- Cosmic Spells
Support
Thank you for using my mods! If you enjoy them and would like to support me, you can use the links below.