Librarian Of The Wastes

LOTW is a mod of several parts united by a central theme: the use of recorded knowledge to grant permanent stat increases to a character. In the 'Mojave Book Exchange' part of the mod, unwanted 'skill books' (the books that give permanent skill point increases when read) can be exchanged at Mojave Express drop-boxes for other skill books of the player's choice. The 'Librarian Of The Wastes' perk (or trait) itself gives the player character the ability to craft their own (less effective) versions of skill books. Finally, the 'Well-Read' perk lets the player character craft chems that provide (up to a point) permanent stat bonuses of various kinds.


Mojave Book Exchange

This one's pretty simple. Upon taking a skill book to a Mojave Express drop-box, you will be given the option to exchange it for a skill book of a different type. This is useful if you find a skill book for a skill you have already maxed out - or for a skill you're not interested in.

At the moment I have it give the new book to the player straight away - rather than the player having to select a drop-box to deliver to and then wait for it to be delivered. Doing that seems like it would just add inconvenience, rather than anything much gameplay-wise. If there's general outcry though I can probably change that.


Librarian Of The Wastes
(Perk/trait)

"You are considered well-organised when it comes to handling recorded information, and can craft 'Annuals' from 12 matching magazines at a workbench. When consumed, each Annual grants a permanent +1 to the appropriate skill."

I found myself just selling skill magazines rather than using them, for the most part. This is partly down to my play-style in games like this; given the choice between large, but temporary effects and small, but permanent effects, I'll almost always go for the latter. However there was no opportunity for the latter choice when it came to skill magazines - which made me think that trading a large bundle of them for such an opportunity would be a good mechanic.

The way the player gains this perk is somewhat flexible. It can be taken at level-up as usual - or at the start of the game, as a trait (requires a minimum Intelligence of 5 in both cases). It will also be given to the player automatically once they have read at least five skill books.

I think they're balanced well enough. Twelve magazines of a kind is a fair number for just one skill point; especially compared to the three (or four with the Comprehension perk) skill points gained from a skill book. I'm not planning for Comprehension to have an effect on the Annuals; that would probably make them overpowered.


Well-Read
(Perk)

"Through your extensive reading, you have discovered how to craft the following rare and valuable chems at workbenches: Antivenom Plus, Asbesto!, Augmentor Stimpaks, Impervium, Insu-Derm, Mercuron, Ox-Innate and Rad-Vac. All of these chems grant permanent stat bonuses, but your Endurance determines how many doses your body can sustain."

Each of these chems grant bonuses similar in nature and potency to the perks that can be chosen at level-up, or gained through completing 'challenges' and quests. However, multiple doses need to be taken to reach around the same level of effect as a similar perk, and there is a maximum number of doses that can be taken. Any more will have no effect (and the game stops you from consuming them at that point, meaning they can be sold rather than wasted). The total number of doses (of any combination of LOTW chems) that can be taken is also limited by the player character's Endurance. For each Endurance point, four chem doses can be sustained by the character's body.

Gaining this perk is also somewhat flexible; it can be taken at level-up (requires the player to already have the Librarian Of The Wastes perk, and be at least level 6), or given to the player automatically once they have read at least ten skill books.

Here are the recipes for the chems, and what their exact effects are:


Antivenom Plus

- Effect: Permanent +4 Poison Resistance
- Max Doses: 5

- Requires: 65 Science
- Ingredients:
---- Antivenom (4)
---- Bark Scorpion Poison Gland (2)
---- Fixer (2)


Asbesto!

- Effect: Permanent +4 Fire Resistance
- Max Doses: 5

- Requires: 65 Science
- Ingredients:
---- Fire Gecko Egg (3)
---- Med-X (2)
---- Stimpak (3)


Augmentor Stimpak

- Effect: Permanent +10 Max Hit Points
- Max Doses: 5

- Requires: 70 Science
- Ingredients:
---- Buffout (1)
---- Hydra (1)
---- Super Stimpak (3)


Impervium

- Effect: Permanent +1 Damage Threshold
- Max Doses: 5

- Requires: 90 Science
- Ingredients:
---- Hydra (2)
---- Med-X (2)
---- Slasher (2)


Insu-Derm

- Effect: Permanent +4 Energy Resistance
- Max Doses: 5

- Requires: 80 Science
- Ingredients:
---- Atomic Cocktail (3)
---- Cateye (2)
---- Rebound (2)


Mercuron

- Effect: Permanent +5 Action Points
- Max Doses: 5

- Requires: 75 Science
- Ingredients:
---- Rebound (1)
---- Rocket (1)
---- Turbo (3)


Ox-Innate

- Effect: Permanent +10 Max Carry Weight
- Max Doses: 5

- Requires: 55 Science
- Ingredients:
---- Buffout (4)
---- Slasher (1)
---- Steady (1)


Rad-Vac

- Effect: Permanent +4 Rad Resistance
- Max Doses: 5

- Requires: 80 Science
- Ingredients:
---- Antivenom (1)
---- Rad-X (4)
---- RadAway (2)



Progress

It's all finished except for creating all the Annuals (and the recipes for them); and testing to make sure what I've done so far actually works.

This is mainly just a quick little mod I wanted to get out of the way (one of a few) before I start my second playthrough of the game. Comments and suggestions are welcome though, as always.

Finished now.

Question: do you ever rest?

Sounds interesting. I admit that I just dump all the skill-mags in a chest in my house and keep a few handy for the skills that aren't so developed, so I'm looking forward to this

Sweet jeez good stuff.

Could you make a slightly harder version of the mod that had higher requirements for the rad-vac and a increase for poison and energy resistance as well? Also with very high requirements, like, for rad-vac 5 antivenoms, 8 rad aways, and 8 rad-x per increase? And around that same paradigm for the poison and energy resist. Maybe even increasing the rest of the requirements as well. You made the magazines nice and difficult to convert, and I like the fact that you are making the really good ones(HP, DT) more difficult to make as they require harder drugs, but rad resist is important too, and soon, poison and energy resist is going to be important as well...very soon.

i don't know what this is about, but this post seems very ominous


anyway, sweet sounding mod. i fall into the same category as you with regards to the zines- so this mod will fill in perfectly with my play style

I'd agree poopoopapa. Higher science requirements would be nice. Perhaps mix in Medicine in there as well, since science already has a lot of use in the crafting arena.
Also something for poison, energy and fire resistance. They'd need it more than radiation I think, since there's no perks for them.

Personally some of the advantages of the chems end up being a bit high. Especially since the low skill requirements of the chems and how easy the perk can be gained. Most specifically +100 hp (in vanilla you're HP is already godly and mods that change this don't need it that high) and +25% rad resistance (abundance of rad-x, protective gear and perks already give this a lot of options). I'd say +5 to DT might be a bit too high with what's out there for DT already, but it works nicely for a unarmored play through.

In terms of resistances I'd go for 4 per chem and perhaps +5 hp per chem. Perhaps DT can be changed in DR to give that stat a bit of a boost.

Overall great work. I started thinking it might be a bit too much, but aside from my comments on the chems it seems pretty balanced.
I'd say not to give Librarian of the Wastes as a trait, since most are meant to have a disadvantage and you really don't need 3 ways to get this perk. I'd even have both perks be only available on level-up, since that perk-list could always use some more variety.

EDIT: on a side note, such a shame that all these resistances are in the game and all they really used for armors was radiation resistance. Metal armor whose lower DT is offset by energy resistance. Leather armor with fire resistance.

I don't see anything wrong with the DT chems. I mean, you can buy an implant that gives you +4 DT and that only requires caps while the chems would require you to put in some skill points, take a perk, and gather/craft the required materials. The ability to have +100 HP does seem a bit excessive, as Life Giver only gives you 30 and it's a perk, though having it +10 per injection seems to be fair. Limiting the player to 5 injections seems like enough. Maybe you could have some way of limiting the max number of perma buff chems you can take at a time along with the individual limits, sorta like how they limit you on how many implants you can get. You could also make it so that the Chem Resistant perk (or some other chem related perk) increases the number of max chems you can have in you at once.

My main problem was that there are already quite a few DT raising buffs. The implant and the perks boost your natural DT by 10 if taken, which combines quite nicely with all the armors. I just thought that the underused DR could perhaps see some use, just to add to the diversity.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.

As Kieran Dineer says, it's important to consider that there are a number of steps and requirements to gaining these bonuses; more than is involved with the existing perks that give similar bonuses (off the top of my head). However, as others have pointed out, it's also important to consider the case where the player takes both those existing perks and the chems in LOTW at the same time.

So, hmmm.... I think I will reduce the max Augmentor Stimpak doses to five, like all the other chems. Initially I had it at ten simply because that gave it the same total max HP bonus as the Augmentor Stimpaks in my http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10713 mod for FO3... which was probably too high there too.

I had the Science requirements for the recipes lower than I might otherwise have had them because they also require the 'Well-Read' perk to get them in the first place; but they probably could stand to be bumped up a bit.

I was hesitant to have chems that increase fire, poison and energy resistance since (from memory) the game doesn't tell you what your character's resistances in those areas actually are, but on further thought that shouldn't be a stumbling block. So I think I will come up with some chems for those. This would have the added benefit of bringing the total LOTW chem types to eight. Eight times five (doses) is forty, and forty divided by ten (potential Endurance points) means that I could limit the player character to four doses (of whatever chem) per Endurance point they have. Because I do like the idea of having some kind of limit similar to the implant limit Kieran Dineer mentions. I'll see if I can figure out the scripting for that (shouldn't be too bad).

Four points per dose for the resistance-related chems does sound good. I actually had the Rad-Vac do exactly that at first, but then changed it so the max resistance that could be gained would be the same as the vanilla Rad Resistance perk.

Anyway, I'll update the OP with new values and chems once I get them sorted out.





Sorry, I want to avoid alternate plugins if I can. I know from experience that it's too easy for those to balloon out of control and become a massive pain to maintain.

The limiter based on Endurance is a nice touch.
Also I believe the fire poison and energy resistance, like DR is at zero for the player and most enemies (with a few exceptions).

EDIT: Actually Poison might be added with your Endurance. I'll do some digging.
EDIT2: Yes, poison resistance is calculated by (End-1)*5 just like Fallout 3, apparently. None of the other resistances listed in there, though.

Okay, I've updated the OP with the new values and new chems. I've also implemented the Endurance-based dose limitation.

Still haven't had a chance to test any of it yet though.

I've tested the mod now and it's all working fine. I'm currently going through it and making it more user-friendly (more messages telling the player what's going on; that sort of thing), and I need to add the rest of the Annuals, but it's not too far off being finished. I should be able to release it in the next day or so.

Oh - I think I forgot to mention earlier; I'm planning to have the Annual that increases Critical Chance only do so by 0.5 percent, rather than 1 like the rest of the Annuals. I think 1 extra Critical Chance is worth a lot more than 1 extra skill point.

I agree and the game in general seems to agree as well.

Actually, on the Critical Chance thing - the game doesn't seem to be letting me increase it by a fraction. I might have to have 'Bi-annuals' crafted from twenty-four magazines for those - that increase Critical Chance by 1%.

I never saw that many police stories magazines, to be honest. I don't know how common they are, but if they're quite uncommon doubling might be bit too much.

That's a good point actually - and, looking at the Use Info for that magazine in the GECK, it appears to be unique among all the magazines in that it's not added to any leveled lists. That would explain why it's so rare (and I had forgotten about not finding many of them).

If another mod came along and made them more common it could throw the balance right out of whack, but it seems the best choice is just to leave it as an annual, and have it increase Crit Chance by 1%.

Okay, LOTW is out now. REL thread is http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1162772-rel-librarian-of-the-wastes/.