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About this mod
Removes the ability to spend perk points on Training. Instead, each perk that reaches Rank 2 will award a point to its governing SPECIAL stat.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
With this mod, the SPECIAL Training perks can no longer be purchased at level up. Instead, the second Rank of every Perk now increases its governing attribute by 1 when taken, in addition to all its normal benefits.
This has a few effects on gameplay:
Dependencies
Requires Far Harbor & Nuka-World, as without them some perks don't actually have a Rank 2.
Compatibility
This mod will conflict with anything that alters the SPECIAL Training perks or Rank 2 of any other Perk. It should be compatible with anything that only depends on the existence of a vanilla non-training Perk to enable its features, as no perks have had their ID changed.
If you want to use any mods that modify single perks, put them after this one in your load order. Their Rank 2 just won't provide the extra stat point if it's altered. If it moves a perk around in the chart, however, it will probably also negate the extra point on any other perks it moved to make room.
masterhamper has made two compatibility patches to let AlwaysAPerk work with other overhauls:
AlwaysAPerk - for Wasteland Survival overhaul
Lunar Fallout - Survival Tweaks and AlwaysAPerk compatibility
Recommendations
This is best suited for use with new games, but if you haven't yet taken Rank 2 in any perk or spent any level ups on Training, you can add AlwaysAPerk to an existing game without doing anything special.
You can use it with other existing saves, but it will not retroactively cancel any stat improvements from Training perks you'd previously taken, nor improve your stats for any Rank 2s you already have. (Probably. Some perks exhibited a weird behavior in my first attempt at this mod that suggests some are reapplied after travel, so you may have an increase or two show up once in this case if you have one of the perks that does that.)
The method I recommend and use myself for converting an existing game is:
Updates
v.1.1 - Implements a workaround for the bug with Sneak's extra point in v1.0 (see Previously Known Issues). I would only bother with v1.1 if starting a new game, as the effect of the bug is both minimal (a single point of AGI may be granted before it's supposed to, for Sneak rank 2 which can be taken as early as level 5) and easily corrected (player.setav Agility whatever-number-it-should-be after it hits, and again to bump it back up when you do take Sneak 2).
Known Issues
Previously Known Issues
Unknown Issues
This has a few effects on gameplay:
- You have to choose an actual perk at every level up. Your character's abilities, and thus your gameplay options, will always be evolving. You also might be incentivized to try something you haven't before in the gaps between level requirements.
- While this makes it harder to raise a stat on demand since you have to spend two perk points for each extra stat point, you're also getting the benefits of the perks you invest in along the way instead of just a boring stat increase.
- Your starting SPECIAL distribution becomes a fixed representation of your character's potential, since each stat's effective cap is now 10 + the starting value. Higher beginning stats have a higher ceiling, while low ones have more limited options to "train" them up. Start with a stat at 1 and (barring bobbleheads/You're SPECIAL) you'll have to rank up every perk it governs if you want its high-end perks later. This can be interpreted as the character working hard to develop skill that doesn't come to them naturally.
- This does have potential to be unbalancing in the long run, as a stat that starts at 10 now has a maximum of 20, but I find this is offset by the perk point investment it takes to ramp any stat up to ludicrous. Yes, you can theoretically get +10 to every stat, but it would take you 140 levels to do that, and even then only if you never raised any perk above Rank 2 effectiveness. If you're going to stick to a single character that long I figure you've earned it, there's plenty of mods out there to increase the difficulty if things start feeling too easy down the road.
Dependencies
Requires Far Harbor & Nuka-World, as without them some perks don't actually have a Rank 2.
Compatibility
This mod will conflict with anything that alters the SPECIAL Training perks or Rank 2 of any other Perk. It should be compatible with anything that only depends on the existence of a vanilla non-training Perk to enable its features, as no perks have had their ID changed.
If you want to use any mods that modify single perks, put them after this one in your load order. Their Rank 2 just won't provide the extra stat point if it's altered. If it moves a perk around in the chart, however, it will probably also negate the extra point on any other perks it moved to make room.
masterhamper has made two compatibility patches to let AlwaysAPerk work with other overhauls:
AlwaysAPerk - for Wasteland Survival overhaul
Lunar Fallout - Survival Tweaks and AlwaysAPerk compatibility
Recommendations
This is best suited for use with new games, but if you haven't yet taken Rank 2 in any perk or spent any level ups on Training, you can add AlwaysAPerk to an existing game without doing anything special.
You can use it with other existing saves, but it will not retroactively cancel any stat improvements from Training perks you'd previously taken, nor improve your stats for any Rank 2s you already have. (Probably. Some perks exhibited a weird behavior in my first attempt at this mod that suggests some are reapplied after travel, so you may have an increase or two show up once in this case if you have one of the perks that does that.)
The method I recommend and use myself for converting an existing game is:
- Install RESPEC Holotape
- Activate RESPEC Holotape in your load order. Do not activate AlwaysAPerk yet.
- Load the savegame you want to convert and use the holotape to remove all your current Perks first, which will convert them to the "Mind Points" used by the holotape.
- Reduce your SPECIAL as you like until your Mind Points equal one less than your current level. This should account for any points spent on training while leaving any bobblehead & You're SPECIAL increases on top of your starting point pool intact.
- Save the game and return to the Main Menu.
- Activate AlwaysAPerk in your load order and load the save you just made.
- Use the holotape to spend all your Mind Points only on Perks.
- That's it, just leave AlwaysAPerk on from there. If you decide to respec again later, be aware that removing a Rank 2 will not revert the stat raise, and perks that have already granted their boost will not add it again if they are removed then reacquired.
Updates
v.1.1 - Implements a workaround for the bug with Sneak's extra point in v1.0 (see Previously Known Issues). I would only bother with v1.1 if starting a new game, as the effect of the bug is both minimal (a single point of AGI may be granted before it's supposed to, for Sneak rank 2 which can be taken as early as level 5) and easily corrected (player.setav Agility whatever-number-it-should-be after it hits, and again to bump it back up when you do take Sneak 2).
Known Issues
- v1.1: The number of stars representing your Agility at the top of the Perk Chart does not update immediately when Sneak's 2nd rank is taken, as that perk's bonus point is not added until you leave the Perk Menu.
- The Perk Menu is incapable of showing more than 10 stars to represent your score in any stat.
Previously Known Issues
- v1.0 (fixed in 1.1): Sneak's extra point grant was being triggered early by a base game behavior out of this mod's control. Thanks to nightblade097 for first noticing something was up with Sneak, and to ClockworkBard for identifying what was actually happening so I could implement a workaround.
Unknown Issues
- Between bobbleheads and combinations of clothing bonuses, chems, food, and the handful of Perks that grant further improvements in certain circumstances, the game seems to have a lot of allowance for skills to function above 10. Still, if the higher base stats this mod eventually enables seem to do anything especially weird, please let me know.