Simple Perk Improvements (SPI) is a mod that gives a little more depth, power and usefulness to some of the perks that were somewhat bland in the vanilla game. A few extended changes also mean that some perks, previously only useful in V.A.T.S., now can have an impact on normal gameplay too. The changes made by this mod should have an effect on the way you choose to build your character, but not so much that it would seem out of place.


Description

SPI comes in the Standard Edition, the Extended Edition and the HSC Edition. The mod has been divided like that in order to give players a choice between getting the more basic and reasonable set of new effects, or whether they would like to add in a few extra experimental effects, that may be seen as unconventional by some. The HSC Edition was made as an alternative to the others, where balancing for Survival Mode and HSC has been a big focus. Everything that is part of the Standard Edition will of course also be available in the Extended Edition, along with the bonus content. The HSC Edition is mostly similar to the Standard Edition, but with a few of the perks being better balanced for a survival game.

SPI has primarily focused on improving three types of perks:

• Stat perks have been improved to give players who specialize in a certain playstyle more emphasis on it, once they maximize their stats. This is effectively adding a second layer to these perks.
• Crafting perks have been improved to play a bigger role in combat. At a certain level, a lot of merchants will start selling fully upgraded gear, and that gear can be salvaged and the parts reused. As such, with the exception of things like Power Armor and settlement building, the vanilla game provided very few direct benefits to having these crafting perks unlocked later in the game.
• V.A.T.S. perks, which are only affected by the Extended Edition, are perks which have been improved to have an effect on normal gameplay too.
  

SPI affects the following perks

Toughness

Rank 1 - If nothing else, you can take a beating! Instantly gain +10 Damage Resistance. If your Strength is maximized, this effect will be doubled.
Rank 2 - You now have +20 Damage Resistance. If your Strength is maximized, this effect will be doubled.
Rank 3 - You now have +30 Damage Resistance. If your Strength is maximized, this effect will be doubled.
Rank 4 - You now have +40 Damage Resistance. If your Strength is maximized, this effect will be doubled.
Rank 5 - You now have +50 Damage Resistance. If your Strength is maximized, this effect will be doubled.

Refractor

Rank 1 - You must be part mirror! Instantly gain +10 Energy Resistance. If your Intelligence is maximized, this effect will be doubled.
Rank 2 - You now have +20 Energy Resistance. If your Intelligence is maximized, this effect will be doubled.
Rank 3 - You now have +30 Energy Resistance. If your Intelligence is maximized, this effect will be doubled.
Rank 4 - You now have +40 Energy Resistance. If your Intelligence is maximized, this effect will be doubled.
Rank 5 - You now have +50 Energy Resistance. If your Intelligence is maximized, this effect will be doubled.

Life Giver

Rank 1 - You embody wellness! Instantly gain +20 maximum Health. If your Strength and Endurance are maximized, this effect will be quadrupled.
Rank 2 - You instantly gain another +20 maximum Health. If your Strength and Endurance are maximized, this effect will be quadrupled.
Rank 3 - You instantly gain another +20 maximum Health. If your Strength and Endurance are maximized, this effect will be quadrupled. You also slowly regenerate lost Health.
Rank 4 - You instantly gain another +30 maximum Health. If your Strength and Endurance are maximized, this effect will be quadrupled.
Rank 5 - You instantly gain another +40 maximum Health. If your Strength and Endurance are maximized, this effect will be quadrupled.

Armorer

Rank 1 - Protect yourself from the dangers of the Wasteland with access to base level and Rank 1 armor mods. If your Charisma is maximized, you take 5% less damage.
Rank 2 - You gain access to Rank 2 armor mods. If your Charisma is maximized, you take 10% less damage.
Rank 3 - You gain access to Rank 3 armor mods. If your Charisma is maximized, you take 15% less damage.
Rank 4 - You gain access to Rank 4 armor mods. If your Charisma is maximized, you take 20% less damage.

Blacksmith

Rank 1 - Fire up the forge and gain access to base level and Rank 1 melee weapon mods. If your Strength and Agility are maximized, your melee and unarmed attacks deal 10% more damage.
Rank 2 - You gain access to Rank 2 melee weapon mods. If your Strength and Agility are maximized, your melee and unarmed attacks deal 15% more damage.
Rank 3 - You gain access to Rank 3 melee weapon mods. If your Strength and Agility are maximized, your melee and unarmed attacks deal 20% more damage.

Gun Nut

Rank 1 - Shoot first, kill first, with access to base level and Rank 1 gun mods. If your Perception and Agility are maximized, you do 5% more damage with ballistic weapons.
Rank 2 - You gain access to Rank 2 gun mods. If your Perception and Agility are maximized, you do 10% more damage with ballistic weapons.
Rank 3 - You gain access to Rank 3 gun mods. If your Perception and Agility are maximized, you do 15% more damage with ballistic weapons.
Rank 4 - You gain access to Rank 4 gun mods. If your Perception and Agility are maximized, you do 20% more damage with ballistic weapons.

Science!

Rank 1 - Take full advantage of advanced technology with access to base level and Rank 1 high-tech mods. If your Perception is maximized, you do 5% more damage with laser and plasma weapons.
Rank 2 - You gain access to Rank 2 high-tech mods. If your Perception is maximized, you do 10% more damage with laser and plasma weapons.
Rank 3 - You gain access to Rank 3 high-tech mods. If your Perception is maximized, you do 15% more damage with laser and plasma weapons.
Rank 4 - You gain access to Rank 4 high-tech mods. If your Perception is maximized, you do 20% more damage with laser and plasma weapons.


SPI Extended Edition also affects the following perks

Penetrator

Rank 1 - There's no place to hide! In V.A.T.S. you can target an enemy's body parts that are blocked by cover, with a decrease in accuracy. Your ballistic weapons will now also ignore 5% of a target's armor.
Rank 2 - In V.A.T.S. when you target an enemy's body parts that are blocked by cover, there is no decrease in accuracy. Your ballistic weapons will now also ignore 10% of a target's armor.

Concentrated Fire

Rank 1 - Stay focused! In V.A.T.S. every attack on the same body part gains +10% accuracy. Your ballistic weapons also have a slight chance of crippling a limb.
Rank 2 - In V.A.T.S. every attack on the same body part gains +15% accuracy. Your ballistic weapons also have a slightly higher chance chance of crippling a limb.
Rank 3 - In V.A.T.S. every attack on the same body part gains +20% accuracy and does 20% more damage. Your ballistic weapons now have an even higher chance chance of crippling a limb.

Blitz

Rank 1 - Find the gap and make the tackle! V.A.T.S. melee distance is increased significantly. While moving, your melee and unarmed attacks deal 25% more damage.
Rank 2 - V.A.T.S. melee distance is increased even more, and the farther the Blitz distance, the greater the damage. While moving, your melee and unarmed attacks deal 50% more damage.

Gun-Fu

Rank 1 - You've learned to apply ancient martial arts to gunplay! Do 25% more damage to your second V.A.T.S. target and beyond. The .44 Pistol also does 50% more damage.
Rank 2 - In V.A.T.S. you do 50% more damage to your third target and beyond. The .44 Pistol also does 100% more damage.
Rank 3 - In V.A.T.S. you instantly do a Critical Hit against your fourth target and beyond. The .44 Pistol also does 200% more damage.


When it's mentioned that one or more S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats must be maximized in order to unlock a certain effect, it means that the stat or stats must be at 10 or above. This is only referring to your base stats, so you cannot get around this by using consumables, outfits or anything else to temporarily raise your stats (and similarly, you will not lose access to anything from having your stats temporarily lowered). On the other hand, if you used other methods to increase your base stats, for example by using perk points or picking up a Bobblehead, that will of course count as a proper increase to your base stats.

In the HSC Edition, maximized bonuses to Toughness, Refractor and Life Giver will provide half as much compared to the other editions. This means that the Damage Resistance and Energy Resistance can be increased by 50% rather than doubled, and that the bonus Health can be doubled rather than quadrupled. Furthermore, rank 4 and rank 5 of Life Giver are unlocked at later levels compared to the other editions, making the level requirements more similar to most other perks. Furthermore, in order to regenerate Health, you need rank 5 of Life Giver (instead of rank 3), and even then, it's 80% slower than in the vanilla game and the other editions of the mod. Finally, you should keep in mind that the HSC Edition doesn't contain any of the content from the Extended Edition, and should be considered a modified version of the Standard Edition.


Balancing

This mod is open to feedback and ideas for additional modifications and improvements to be made.

SPI should technically work at any difficulty level and by itself without issues. However, it is primarily designed to be used in Survival Mode.


Installation

Using Vortex is the recommended method.


Requirements

All you need is Fallout 4.

For the HSC Edition, the design idea is built around the idea of you using HSC.

If you install this mod (especially the HSC Edition) on an older save where some of the affected perks already are unlocked, they may not always apply their effects properly. This issue should be solved when you create a new character.


Compatibility

SPI should be compatible with most mods, unless they make edits to any of the same assets. To increase compatibility, SPI doesn't affect any of the perks that received additional ranks in any of the DLCs.


Mod Collection

This mod is part of a larger collection of mods aiming to make Survival Mode more difficult and immersive. They come packaged as separate mods in order to allow the player to choose which they want or not, but using them all together should hopefully bring out the best and the most immersive survival experience possible. The mods come in three main categories:

Survival

The mods in this category are aiming to make the game significantly more difficult and immersive in every way they can.

• HSC
  The primary mod of the entire series, HSC is the foundation for an extremely challenging survival experience. This mod focuses on making food, water and sleep management much more essential, as well as making sure things such as carry weight, healing, medical services and damage scaling are far more realistic and challenging than ever before. All the other mods in this series are designed or updated according to the standards set by HSC. For anyone looking to make their survival experience harder and only were to download a single mod in this collection, this should be it.

• HSC-SB
  Where the main HSC mod made sure to make food, water and sleep more important, HSC-SB makes these things more difficult to obtain. Introducing massive challenges in what you are able to build, along with a system for using tools in the construction of more or less everything, settlement building should be far less of a convenient safe zone than it was before.

• Falltoxin
  This mod significantly increases the danger and potency of most types of poison in the game, both from wild creatures as well as the syringes you are able to use. Falltoxin also comes with an optional secondary set of mods known as the Food Add-on, which increases radiation in food, and introduces simple mechanics related to food poisoning and nutrition. These mechanics add a third layer to the food aspect, and are of course designed with HSC and HSC-SB in mind.

• FallMisc
  Enabling the player to craft a bunch of tools and other useful items, this mod adds a lot of convenience. Aside from essential items, many other mods in the series will be referencing FallMisc, rather than having each mod introducing its own set of craftable tools. Both HSC-SB and Falltoxin rely a lot on FallMisc for this purpose.

• WDI
  This mod increases the damage for a variety of weapons from the vanilla game. It also introduces a few new special mechanics for a few weapons, making them more unique than before. Additionally, WDI increases the durability of most turrets. All in all, most of the changes made by this mod will be useful both to you, your allies, and your enemies.

• PADI
  This mod increases the defensive capabilities of Power Armor, a few other types of armor, and gas masks. It also introduces a variety of new features related to Power Armor, making it more detailed and functional. All in all, most of the changes made by this mod will be useful both to you, your allies, and your enemies.

Environmental

The mods in this category are focusing on making various obstacles in the world more difficult to overcome.

• Fallfall
  This mod increases falling damage to a much more realistic level. This should encourage the player to navigate the world in a more careful manner. Not only does it make the world feel bigger, but it also adds a lot to the immersion when you actually have a reason to properly navigate the environments, rather than carelessly performing super dangerous jumps and stunts without as much as a scratch.

• Swimout
  This mod significantly increases the amount of radiation in the various bodies of water across the game. This should encourage the player to actually stay on land, use bridges to cross rivers, and avoid falling into the water.

• FallExD
  This mod increases incoming and outgoing damage for the player in Survival Mode. This makes the game's combat far more dangerous.

• Fallock
  This mod makes lockpicking significantly more difficult, and gives lockpicks some weight. All in all, this should encourage the player to be more careful when picking locks.

Perks

The mods in this category are focusing on improving the variety of features some perks can have, but they also exist as a way to prevent certain perks from completely undermining gameplay mechanics intended to make the game more challenging.

• SPI
  A mod that improves a bunch of perks that had too little or too weak usage throughout the game. This mod comes in three editions, where the two others could be considered for everyone, but the HSC Edition is particularly designed for being used alongside HSC.

• Night Stalker
  A mod that adds new functionality to the Night Person and Cannibal perks. Aside from being fun and allowing for a new playstyle, this mod introduces a small new penalty to cannibalism.

• TWG
  A mod that adds new functionality to the Ghoulish perk. Aside from being fun and allowing for a new playstyle, this mod introduces small penalties depending on where you are.

• RTT
  A mod that adds a few small mechanics to the Solar Powered and Rooted perks. Aside from adding a few new fun and convenient mechanics, the main point of this mod is to reduce the ability to heal radiation damage when in the sun. Being able to get rid of radiation that easily undermined a huge part of the mods with features related to radiation, such as HSC and Falltoxin.