The idea of this mod is that the skill magazines don't make much sense to me. You get a giant boost to a skill from reading a magazine but that giant boost is only temporary. It just makes little sense to me overall since reading a book gives you a smaller but permanent bonus. If a book gives a permanent bonus, so should a magazine which is essentially the same thing. Information bound in paper.

What I would like to do:

Create a new inventory item called the Direct Retinal Download Unit that while in your inventory, will allow you to use what I am going to call Direct Skill Download Modules. The unit would look similar to and "work" like a http://gadgets.boingboing.net/gimages/efwefwefwefe.jpg. What the modules are are data chips that look like http://thecomputermanblog.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/floppy.jpg that plug into the unit. The unit works by directly downloading a large database on a specific subject directly into your brain through the optic nerves. The technology was still experimental and thus the information would not be fully downloaded properly (hence the partial boost), fleeting, and the chips would always burn out after a single use, rendering them useless.

I would remove all instances of skill magazines from the game and replace each one with an equivalent download module. I would also remove all skill magazines from random loot and vendor loot tables, again replacing them with equivalent download modules.

This mod will make no changes to the game other than change the format of temporary skill boosts from magazines to download modules, which imo makes more sense than a magazine. In order to achieve this fluidly, the download unit will be on a table in Doc Mitchell's house, free for the taking, along with a note explaining what it is and what its for. The note will be addressed to Doc Mitchell so as not to seem silly but its purpose is to explain to the player how to use the download unit and modules.

If anyone would be interested enough to help, I would need help with models and textures, as I have no experience with modeling and texturing. I may also need help adjusting loot lists. I'm not sure yet. The last serious modding I did was morrowind and even if the method is exactly the same, I don't really recall how it was done. Hopefully I can pick it up tho.

Anyway, if I get some positive feedback and anyone willing to help with models and textures, I'll actually begin working on it. Until then there's not much point. And of course, anyone who helps will be given full credit for their work.

To be honest, this seems like a massive waste of time. You're just adding complexity and inventory clutter for no real reason.

Would be much easier to just edit the magazines to give a permanent +1 to the skill, rather than replacing them. My 2 cents.

I agree about magazines getting changed. didnt much like the temporary skill bonus.

But seems simpler to make magazines give a permanent +1, as wiz0floyd said, or if you want it to give less, permanent +1 for every 2,3,4,5...nth magazines read.

I can't really see the need for a change at all. Magazines aren't anything like books- if I read a copy of New Scientist, it's going to refresh my memory of the stuff I know that's mentioned in it, and give me some useful little tidbits to discuss, but I'll have forgotten most of it in a few days. It certainly doesn't add to my actual knowledge and understanding of science in the same way that reading a Physics textbook would.

I knew most people would not be on board with this since it doesn't really do anything but this is more for my own use than anything else because like I said, the magazines made little sense to me and actually kind of bug me a lot. I just think they're stupid. Of course I would release it and whoever wants to can use it but when I make a mod, I mod for myself first and if others like it so be it, if not, so be it. I may just have to teach myself how to model and texture so I can do it myself. Can anyone direct me to some free downloads for modeling and texturing programs, as well as some tutorials?

Oh and to the idea of changing mags to give a permanent +1 to their skill. I think there are far too many magazines to do that. It would unbalance the game I think.

true. then how bout each magazine giving 1/nth skill point like i suggested? simple, and pretty much solves the issue of them giving temp skill boosts

I wonder if that's even possible.

There were actually quite a few mods that did that for skill books in FO3. Unless you want that fraction of a point to be visible on the skill screen and have an effect, neither of them really being that big of a deal, it's perfectly possible to do that. It should be noted, though, that there are a theoretically infinite number of skill magazines. If someone decides to make this, I'd suggest keeping the magazine's temporary boost along with the "partial" skill point, but giving a bigger and longer boost to skill books alongside their skill points.

Skill magazines never made sense to me either. On its face, it does seem like unnecessary work to accomplish the same thing, but that's only the case if you only look at the temp skill boosts. I see this as more of an immersion issue. Skill magazines just don't make sense. Why should you get some huge boost to a skill by reading a magazine, only to have it fade after a while? I can't think of a single explanation for that specific outcome.

I like this idea of temporary skill boost through implant. However, replacing all skill magazines with these chips doesn't seem right either. I mean, if this is experimental tech, why would everyone have a chip? The magazines are pretty common, so if you're replacing 1 for 1, they'll be all over the place. How would you explain that?

Good point. I'll have to sleep on that and get back to you. Do you have any ideas? Either to explain the abundance of the chips or to compromise with the magazines?

Personally, i always figured that both Skills Books and Skill Magaazines should give a permanant bonus and a temporary bonus, and the rare Skill Book would have the bigger bonus. The idea is that right after you read it you know lots, a few hours later you only remember a few bits.

So a skill magazine could give +1 to your skill and a temporary bonus of +9. And with comprehension, +2 to your skill and a temporary bonus of +18. This would mean that the mechanics of temporarily boosting your skill would be the same as in the vanilla game, but when the effect wears off you are slightly more knowledgable about the subject that you were before you read anything

And a skill book could give +3 to your skill, and a temporary bonus of +7. And with comprehension, +4 to your skill and a temporary bonus of 16. So the permanent increases are the same as in the vanilla game, but in the short term it would function similarly to reading a magazine. Perhaps make the temporary bonus lsat longer, like a whole day?

Yeah with this I agree. I do a butt load of reading for the work that I do, so it's not uncommon for me on monday to start reading a 500-600 page book on *something* have it finished on tuesday and use refresher notes the rest of the week to cram the info in. Maybe I'll see about kicking something out today or tomorrow based on that.

... Or at least start working on it, that is if I ever get any peace and quiet from work.

Heh, just edited my post cause in the last paragraph I had "skill magazine" instead of "skill book", which didn't make much sense.

This.

Plus I dont think they were going for realistic here. I think their goal was create a way for you to still get large bonuses to skills (Allowing you to do things in areas you dont specialize in) and do it without making your character very quickly turn into god with 100 in every skills. I honestly think they did this beautifully and its great how it is.

Well looking at it quickly, mid yesterday maybe the easiest day would be since magazines are easy to get is to add a perk for them, to a max of 5 ranks. That way it's not overpowered or anything. You can still pick up 5 new levels(give or take), plus you still get the temp bonuses for using the magazines. It's just figuring out what's changed since morrowind scripting wise for me. As for the books themselves, I think you can add a temp bonus when used. Otherwise all the books would have to be replaced with magazines, and the same format would have to be applied. Or maybe use nvse, not sure.

Anyway gotta look into what's changed as well, since by the look of all the function changes crap has sprouted wings and flew off since I did anything back in morrowind.

I can't get too wrapped up into this since I have 3 projects that are being hammered on for work right now.