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About this mod
This mod is a spiritual successor to "Be Exceptional" and "You Are SPECIAL!", although with the Skills and Perks systems heavily expanded upon, and altered with my own personal flair. Whereas the previous two had 13 to 20 Skills, and a dozen or so custom Perks, my version boasts 26 Skills, and as of writing this description, about ~250 Perklines.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
- Donations
FOREWORD
WHAT IS "YOU ARE EXCEPTIONAL"?
IMPORTANT CHANGES FROM THE BASE GAME
THE SKILLS SYSTEM
THE FOOD SYSTEM
MOD COMPATIBILITY
MOD INSTALLATION
MY FUTURE PLANS
MY RECOMMENDED MODS
CREDITS
Without the help of the following people, I definitely would not have never gotten this far. Before working on this project, I had a lot of experience as someone who ran heavily modded (200+) games, but not when it came to actually programming them, although I had a fair amount of tabletop knowledge (Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, World of Darkness and the like), which is where my design choices come from. For nostalgic reasons, I'll be listing them in order that I've personally become associated with them.
Judangis
When I first started learning to do patches, long before I even started this project, they helped me with an insurmountable amount of problems. Even months into this project, I found myself occasionally doubling back to get advice from them. They always started out by saying, "I probably don't know much more than
you..." then proceeded to provide me with a ton of knowledge that I in fact did not know, haha.
Kinggath
His YouTube Tutorials were a huge help in learning about the Creation Kit, and Papyrus scripting in general. Although I struggled at first, eventually everything came together and I started to understand how it all worked.
Neanka
The person to who designed LevelUpMenuEx, various DEF mods and a number of other interesting things. Without them, my mod and the Skill Systems that inspired me never would have existed.
rcoll
The creator of Be Exceptional, which was my primary inspiration for making this mod. While I enjoyed the couple dozen hours I invested into BE with my own playthrough, I saw so much more potential with mod, and became obsessed with improving upon it. The base framework itself is of their design, although I have since heavily transformed their scripts into my own thing. They gave me a ton of advice, and initially had a direct hand in YAE, by fixing a script for me, which eventually led me to learning how Fragments work.
HappySlapp
The author of You Are SPECIAL!, who allowed me to pull apart their system and use a bunch of idea, along with giving me a lot of direct help as well. A lot of their advice and tutorials helped me fine tune things I would not have otherwise thought of.
Alexwin95
Author of Perks Overhaul, which was a patch that helped cobble together a number of the Skills System mods, which ultimately led me to believe that there was a greater potential with LevelUpMenuEx. They also allowed me to use their stuff, and consulted me on a number of important things.
yoyoma3010
Creator of the S7 Skill System, and more or less my mentor when it comes to all things regarding the deeper parts of my Skill System, and all things scripting. Without their infinite patience in regards to my endless questions, I definitely would have given up after my first month trying to make this mod, especially since they contacted me out of the blue, and provided me with a wealth of knowledge I would not have had access to otherwise.
GELUXRUM
Creator of stuff like Lighthouse, an extension for Papyrus and many other mods. I originally came to them for help with designing a better menu for LevelUpMenuEx, and was given much useful advice on general debugging. Unfortunately, I was unable to use the file he spent a couple weeks programming for me, but I learned some important things in the process.
BP42S
A fellow modder who has given me valuable advice, including mods that I should inspect to solve my problems, coding suggestions, and even advice on releasing this mod.
The Fallout Community
For the endless stream of help and advice I'd been given from random people. Especially those in "The
Fallout Network" and "Collective Modding" Discords, who put up with my
never ending bombardment of complicated questions.
PLAYTESTERS
An important job, which allowed me to tackle dozens of problems I never would have caught on my own. Them giving me feedback about glitches and game balance is important, while freeing up time so I can focus on the mod itself.
Zbladestar
A good friend, and my main playtester during the last couple weeks of the mod. They also suggested a number of interesting features that I may not have ever come up with myself, along with helping me streamline and redesign some of my mechanics.
MrCloud42
Did a full playtest after my final release, but caught a number of issues in real-time while I watched him play. This lead to a significantly smoother launch.
MrBanano
Despite him having a very limited amount of time to dedicate to Fallout 4, they've put in a ridiculous amount of time experimenting with mod. From character builds, to countless reported bugfixes, and they're own personal thoughts, there was no reason to not consider them an important asset to YAE. I cannot begin to describe the massive amount of minor things they discovered, which ended up being secretly important in the greater scope of things.
NESSUS09
Recently taken on as someone to test advanced versions of my archives, and has in-depth knowledge of modding in general. Caughty their fair share of problems with YAE, and a strong addition to my debugging kit.
Spoiler:
Show
This project originally started as a personal patch for Be Exceptional, and quickly expanded to include elements from the other Skill System mods. Although, it eventually eventually reached a point where I had edited so many things for myself, that I thought I could release it for others, and began the process of streamlining my novice changes. However, I had never released a mod before (and prior to this experience, had never even made a patch), and in order to be organized with my release, I started over from scratch.
In doing this, I began to see a much greater potential for this system, and started to pour my personal knowledge of tabletop gaming into my work. I had never planned to work on this Project for more than a couple weeks (much less the 4 months it actually took), so I just merged the names of the two parent mods that had initially inspired me, with plans to change it later. However, after months of using the "yae" abbreviation in my programming, the You Are Exceptional name just kind of stuck, and here we are.
As of first creating this webpage, I have spent just over 550+ hours designing and working on this mod. This was definitely a gigantic task for my first release, and hopefully others will think it was worth the time I invested. I've been playing and modding Bethesda games for decades, and I have always wanted to create my own mod for one of them. I guess you could say this was on my bucket list.
In doing this, I began to see a much greater potential for this system, and started to pour my personal knowledge of tabletop gaming into my work. I had never planned to work on this Project for more than a couple weeks (much less the 4 months it actually took), so I just merged the names of the two parent mods that had initially inspired me, with plans to change it later. However, after months of using the "yae" abbreviation in my programming, the You Are Exceptional name just kind of stuck, and here we are.
As of first creating this webpage, I have spent just over 550+ hours designing and working on this mod. This was definitely a gigantic task for my first release, and hopefully others will think it was worth the time I invested. I've been playing and modding Bethesda games for decades, and I have always wanted to create my own mod for one of them. I guess you could say this was on my bucket list.
WHAT IS "YOU ARE EXCEPTIONAL"?
Spoiler:
Show
As stated previously, it's a spiritual successor to other Skill System mods, but over development has evolved so much beyond that. Instead of just using the vanilla Perks and adding upon that, ALL Perks from the base game have been manipulated in some way, while several hundred more Perks have been added, which are basically broken down into roughly 220+ "Perklines"; i.e. Perk Trees (altogether, probably totaling over several hundred). Some of the vanilla Perks were changed completely or broken up into smaller pieces across multiple Skills, while others were left alone, but given an improved description. More have been busted since Fallout 4's initial release, and were mostly fixed by the Unofficial Patch, but I took it a step further and repaired a few things that even UFO4P didn't seem to notice. As far as I know, this mod is the most comprehensive list of Perks on the Nexus.
Most of these Perks are manually selected by leveling up, as the standard, but many of them (mainly the vanilla crafting Perks), are given automatically upon reaching certain Skill Ranks. For example, Ranks in the "Local Leader" Perk are automatically given upon raising the Influence Skill, early on. This is a feature that was left over from Be Exceptional, which I greatly enjoyed. Unlike in vanilla Fallout 4, all of these Perks have a Skill Rank requirement to learn them, NOT a certain SPECIAL value, although I did leave a Perkline attached to each those (for instance, Life Giver requires Endurance, and Critical Banker needs Luck).
I also made sure to cap the maximum Level requirements at 10, as I feel like earning the Skill Points to unlock a Perk is a time consuming enough, but also, because I wanted to keep things fast-paced and fun. I've also incorporated my own version of the mod "Perk Points per Level", allowing you to be rewarded with an additional Perk Point every 5 levels. I did this, because the sheer number of Perks that I've made available may at times stretch your decisions thin, and I felt it would be fun for the Player to have something to look forward to every handful of levels.
And of coarse, in addition to the many Perks added or altered, there is a fresh Skill System. Heavily influenced by the likes of Be Exceptional, the similar mod You Are SPECIAL, and older Fallout games, but with my own personal flair attached. I want to be clear that while I was inspired by the previously mentioned concepts, this is my own thing; I'm not trying to recreate the feel of the older games like You Are SPECIAL was or fully copy what Be Exceptional accomplished, although the latter was the main framework for my design, and what pushed me to attempt being a Modder for the first time. In addition to expanding things in my own way, I have also made various alterations to the base game, to make it better flow with all the additional mechanics my system will be adding in.
Further added on top of all this, is my own custom Food System, which has greatly expanded on the recipes available, while also changing what many of the already existing ones did. There are also items that may be constructed by the Player and placed directly into the environment, regardless of whether or not they are currently within a Settlement. This includes turrets and even cooking spits, which can be used to great affect with the aforementioned Food System.
Generally speaking, YAE was designed with the harder difficulties in mind (specifically Survival Difficulty), but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it on the others, as well. However, the balances implemented had the strengths of denser, stronger enemies in mind. So, if you use other mods that nerf enemy Health, and bum rush towards being a DPS god, your going to notice it, as although the damage-rates are consistent with vanilla Fallout 4, many restrictions were removed from Perks, making it significantly less time consuming to lean into one area or another.
Most of these Perks are manually selected by leveling up, as the standard, but many of them (mainly the vanilla crafting Perks), are given automatically upon reaching certain Skill Ranks. For example, Ranks in the "Local Leader" Perk are automatically given upon raising the Influence Skill, early on. This is a feature that was left over from Be Exceptional, which I greatly enjoyed. Unlike in vanilla Fallout 4, all of these Perks have a Skill Rank requirement to learn them, NOT a certain SPECIAL value, although I did leave a Perkline attached to each those (for instance, Life Giver requires Endurance, and Critical Banker needs Luck).
I also made sure to cap the maximum Level requirements at 10, as I feel like earning the Skill Points to unlock a Perk is a time consuming enough, but also, because I wanted to keep things fast-paced and fun. I've also incorporated my own version of the mod "Perk Points per Level", allowing you to be rewarded with an additional Perk Point every 5 levels. I did this, because the sheer number of Perks that I've made available may at times stretch your decisions thin, and I felt it would be fun for the Player to have something to look forward to every handful of levels.
And of coarse, in addition to the many Perks added or altered, there is a fresh Skill System. Heavily influenced by the likes of Be Exceptional, the similar mod You Are SPECIAL, and older Fallout games, but with my own personal flair attached. I want to be clear that while I was inspired by the previously mentioned concepts, this is my own thing; I'm not trying to recreate the feel of the older games like You Are SPECIAL was or fully copy what Be Exceptional accomplished, although the latter was the main framework for my design, and what pushed me to attempt being a Modder for the first time. In addition to expanding things in my own way, I have also made various alterations to the base game, to make it better flow with all the additional mechanics my system will be adding in.
Further added on top of all this, is my own custom Food System, which has greatly expanded on the recipes available, while also changing what many of the already existing ones did. There are also items that may be constructed by the Player and placed directly into the environment, regardless of whether or not they are currently within a Settlement. This includes turrets and even cooking spits, which can be used to great affect with the aforementioned Food System.
Generally speaking, YAE was designed with the harder difficulties in mind (specifically Survival Difficulty), but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it on the others, as well. However, the balances implemented had the strengths of denser, stronger enemies in mind. So, if you use other mods that nerf enemy Health, and bum rush towards being a DPS god, your going to notice it, as although the damage-rates are consistent with vanilla Fallout 4, many restrictions were removed from Perks, making it significantly less time consuming to lean into one area or another.
IMPORTANT CHANGES FROM THE BASE GAME
Spoiler:
Show
In order to keep things balanced and interesting, I had to make a number of changes to how Fallout 4 normally works. For the most part, these
are minor, but they are important enough to mention here.
Health:
Player Health is calculated somewhat differently with my mod. In the base game, you normally receive +2.5 Health per Level. As I have expanded the "Life Giver" Perkline, and provided my own Fitness Skill which also affects maximum total Health, I found this constant scaling to go directly against my system, which was designed to encourage unique character builds in lieu of games such as Elden Ring, where careful planning is usually required. I have not touched enemy health in any way; there are mods which already affect this, although I can certainly provide a patch later on if this becomes an issue for some people.
As an additional compensation for the lack of level-scaling Player Health, I have increased the Player Base Health for Level 1 from 80 to 100, and the Endurance attribute now gives +10 HP per point (instead of the default of +5 per point). The upside to this, is that if you decided to heavily invest into the Fitness Skill and/or the "Life Giver" Perkline, you can bloat your health early, and become quite tanky. However, by doing this, your spending Skill and Perk Points which could have made you effective elsewhere, such as offensively through weapons Skills. There's a delicate balanced here, and you'll have to decide for yourself how much of a tank or glass canon you'd like your character to be.
Perks:
As mentioned earlier, all vanilla Perks have been altered in some way. Some have even been hidden, although none have been fully removed, as they are usually unlocked via Skill Ranks, or they exist, but have been simply renamed. Either way, all base Perks remain within the game to be earned. So, if your using another mod that requires a specific Perk, you'll still be able access them, although the method to get that Perk may take a while.
Some of the Perks are a requirement for other Perks, which won't be recognized until the Player has left and re-entered the PipBoy. This is due to the game pausing in the LevelUpMenu, preventing the game from triggers those requirement flags. I know of no other way to fix this, which doesn't result in the Perk menu look poor and cluttered. This issue has been addressed and fixed. Let me know if this ever happens.
Terminals:
When interacting with computers, you now only get 2 Hacking Guesses per Attempt by default (instead of the vanilla standard of 4 guessing). However, there is a an early Hacking Perkline called "Papyrus Debugger", which increases your Hacking Guesses by +1 per Rank. I did this to give more urgency to my Hacking Skill, and because it's generally weird for someone without any programming experience to be able to bypass such devices so easily. However, I realize that 2 is a somewhat limited number, and as with anything else, look forward to feedback on this mechanic.
Beverages & Food:
Almost all edible items in the game have been altered in some way. They were either locked behind new ingredients or simply given new bonuses for consuming them, due to many of them being rather bland. For further details, see the Food System section.
Companion Classes:
While I have not directly edited the stats or equipment of Companions, I did alter the Perks they had. Mainly, this was through "CompanionInspirational", a hidden Perk that defined a lot of what your followers are capable of. I took this a step further though, by breaking down the Companions into three "classes": Humanoid, Robotic and Beast. Each archetype has their own version of "CompanionInspirational", and each class is directly affected by one of three Skills: Influence (Humanoid), Engineering (Robotic) and Zoology (Beast).
This allows the Player to apply a greater amount of growth among their chose ally type, and if wanted, play a sort of commander. I know a lot of people sometimes attempt to play the game solely through their allies, and I made this as an attempt to cater to that playstyle. I also fixed a few of the Companions and made them more viable; for example, Old Longfellow didn't have the default Sneak Perks that every Companion is supposed to have, for some reason. I mostly left the final Affinity Perks alone, although I did have to slightly change Valentine's, due to how Hacking Guesses work now.
are minor, but they are important enough to mention here.
Health:
Player Health is calculated somewhat differently with my mod. In the base game, you normally receive +2.5 Health per Level. As I have expanded the "Life Giver" Perkline, and provided my own Fitness Skill which also affects maximum total Health, I found this constant scaling to go directly against my system, which was designed to encourage unique character builds in lieu of games such as Elden Ring, where careful planning is usually required. I have not touched enemy health in any way; there are mods which already affect this, although I can certainly provide a patch later on if this becomes an issue for some people.
As an additional compensation for the lack of level-scaling Player Health, I have increased the Player Base Health for Level 1 from 80 to 100, and the Endurance attribute now gives +10 HP per point (instead of the default of +5 per point). The upside to this, is that if you decided to heavily invest into the Fitness Skill and/or the "Life Giver" Perkline, you can bloat your health early, and become quite tanky. However, by doing this, your spending Skill and Perk Points which could have made you effective elsewhere, such as offensively through weapons Skills. There's a delicate balanced here, and you'll have to decide for yourself how much of a tank or glass canon you'd like your character to be.
Perks:
As mentioned earlier, all vanilla Perks have been altered in some way. Some have even been hidden, although none have been fully removed, as they are usually unlocked via Skill Ranks, or they exist, but have been simply renamed. Either way, all base Perks remain within the game to be earned. So, if your using another mod that requires a specific Perk, you'll still be able access them, although the method to get that Perk may take a while.
Terminals:
When interacting with computers, you now only get 2 Hacking Guesses per Attempt by default (instead of the vanilla standard of 4 guessing). However, there is a an early Hacking Perkline called "Papyrus Debugger", which increases your Hacking Guesses by +1 per Rank. I did this to give more urgency to my Hacking Skill, and because it's generally weird for someone without any programming experience to be able to bypass such devices so easily. However, I realize that 2 is a somewhat limited number, and as with anything else, look forward to feedback on this mechanic.
Beverages & Food:
Almost all edible items in the game have been altered in some way. They were either locked behind new ingredients or simply given new bonuses for consuming them, due to many of them being rather bland. For further details, see the Food System section.
Companion Classes:
While I have not directly edited the stats or equipment of Companions, I did alter the Perks they had. Mainly, this was through "CompanionInspirational", a hidden Perk that defined a lot of what your followers are capable of. I took this a step further though, by breaking down the Companions into three "classes": Humanoid, Robotic and Beast. Each archetype has their own version of "CompanionInspirational", and each class is directly affected by one of three Skills: Influence (Humanoid), Engineering (Robotic) and Zoology (Beast).
This allows the Player to apply a greater amount of growth among their chose ally type, and if wanted, play a sort of commander. I know a lot of people sometimes attempt to play the game solely through their allies, and I made this as an attempt to cater to that playstyle. I also fixed a few of the Companions and made them more viable; for example, Old Longfellow didn't have the default Sneak Perks that every Companion is supposed to have, for some reason. I mostly left the final Affinity Perks alone, although I did have to slightly change Valentine's, due to how Hacking Guesses work now.
THE SKILLS SYSTEM
Spoiler:
Show
There are 26 Skills in total, with 4 assigned to each of the SPECIAL attributes, which give a bonus of +2 to their governing Skills per point. The exception to this is Luck, which only has 2 Skills attached to it, but the attribute itself influences ALL the Skills by +1 per point. When you open the PipBoy for the first time after the mod loads, you'll be asked to "Tag" three Skills. Tagged Skills gain a permanent bonus of +25, and should be considered your character's bread n' butter.
Furthermore, weapon Skills are unique, in that they directly multiply damage by up to x2.00 times. Due to this formula, any weapon at Rank 50 will deal x1.00 (in other words vanilla damage), whereas below Rank 50 you will deal "less than normal damage". I have capped this penalty to a minimum of 30% damage. In short, if you don't invest into a weapon Skill, and attempt to use that weapon, your going to have a bad time! At character creation, I strongly recommend tagging at least one weapon Skill (Artillery, Handguns, Longarms, Unarmed or Weaponry).
The following is a rough breakdown of what each Skill does, although the in-game descriptions are much more thorough. While each Skill does have
a series of Perks attached to them, every Skill itself also does something on its own; you can effectively consider it a Perk by itself. By default, you get 15 + INT Skill Points per level. Skills have a maximum Rank of 100.
Furthermore, weapon Skills are unique, in that they directly multiply damage by up to x2.00 times. Due to this formula, any weapon at Rank 50 will deal x1.00 (in other words vanilla damage), whereas below Rank 50 you will deal "less than normal damage". I have capped this penalty to a minimum of 30% damage. In short, if you don't invest into a weapon Skill, and attempt to use that weapon, your going to have a bad time! At character creation, I strongly recommend tagging at least one weapon Skill (Artillery, Handguns, Longarms, Unarmed or Weaponry).
The following is a rough breakdown of what each Skill does, although the in-game descriptions are much more thorough. While each Skill does have
a series of Perks attached to them, every Skill itself also does something on its own; you can effectively consider it a Perk by itself. By default, you get 15 + INT Skill Points per level. Skills have a maximum Rank of 100.
[STR] Artillery:
Deals with the handling of large machinery, such as the Cryolator, Flamer and the Gatling Guns. Rank determine damage with these heavy guns.
[CHR] Barter:
Rank immediately affects the buy/sell prices or merchants, and Perks for generally anything involving vendors, usually under special situations.
Deals with the handling of large machinery, such as the Cryolator, Flamer and the Gatling Guns. Rank determine damage with these heavy guns.
[CHR] Barter:
Rank immediately affects the buy/sell prices or merchants, and Perks for generally anything involving vendors, usually under special situations.
[INT] Chemistry:
Your ability to craft chems and the weapons that can use them in combat, along with any special abilities that are granted from consuming alcohol.
Rank directly influences how long Chems (other thank Stimpak and Radaway) last.
[PER] Demolitions:
Directly affects your damage with explosives, and at key Ranks, your ability to craft them.
[STR] Engineering:
Allows for construction of special machinations, and Perks that alter operation of Power Armor. Rank affects how much damage Robotic Companions will do.
[END] Fitness:
A general measure of your physique, including things like swimming. Rank directly affects your maximum Health.
[LCK] Gambling:
It's influence is spread across a number of Skills, allowing access to a number of "Risky Perks", which provide great power, usually at a high cost.
Its raw Rank increases your base chance of finding additional caps in unopened containers.
[PER] Gunsmithery:
Your ability assemble ballistic firearms, and the ammunition for them. Rank directly the range of these ballistics weapons in V.A.T.S.
Your ability to craft chems and the weapons that can use them in combat, along with any special abilities that are granted from consuming alcohol.
Rank directly influences how long Chems (other thank Stimpak and Radaway) last.
[PER] Demolitions:
Directly affects your damage with explosives, and at key Ranks, your ability to craft them.
[STR] Engineering:
Allows for construction of special machinations, and Perks that alter operation of Power Armor. Rank affects how much damage Robotic Companions will do.
[END] Fitness:
A general measure of your physique, including things like swimming. Rank directly affects your maximum Health.
[LCK] Gambling:
It's influence is spread across a number of Skills, allowing access to a number of "Risky Perks", which provide great power, usually at a high cost.
Its raw Rank increases your base chance of finding additional caps in unopened containers.
[PER] Gunsmithery:
Your ability assemble ballistic firearms, and the ammunition for them. Rank directly the range of these ballistics weapons in V.A.T.S.
[INT] Hacking:
All things involving interactions with terminals, along with ways to assault robots.
By default, you have 2 Hacking Guesses, although this can quickly be changed through early Perks.
[AGI] Handguns:
Your character's ability to use Pistols and Revolvers. Just like with other weapon Skills, the Rank determines raw damage.
[CHR] Influence:
The charismatic glow that your character gives off, and general ability to inspire those around.
Rank affects the damage that Humanoid Companions do, while Perks involve Settlement interact and how people initially perceive you.
[PER] Lockpicking:
As the name states, it involves your ability to disable locks. Rank affects the sweet spot of the device your interacting with.
[PER] Longarms:
How well you handle Rifles and Shotguns. As with other weapon Skills, the Rank determines raw damage.
[INT] Medicine:
Rank directly affects how much mileage you will get out of using Stimpaks and Radaway to heal yourself.
Meanwhile, Perks involve anatomy or special bonuses that apply to health-related conditions. It also allows your to craft various medicinal items.
[LCK] Opportunity:
Your ability to push chance and a situation to your favor. Perks alter Critical values, while the Rank increases your chances of performing a raw Critical Strike.
These kinds of Critical Hits may be performed naturally via hipfire or even in V.A.T.S., but do not require spending a Critical Meter to do so.
[CHR] Persuasion:
Directly affects your chances at succeeding Speech Checks, as raw Charisma no longer affects this.
Perks involve intimidation tactics, as well as manipulating the opposing gender.
[AGI] Pickpocket:
Pretty self explainitory; they have nice stuff, and you take it with this Skill!
Perks allow manipulation of another's inventory, and some provide buffs during combat, if dressed lightly.
[STR] Robustness:
Directly increases your carry weight, and affects your ability to move while Overencumbered.
It even goes so far, as to provide benefits when heavily weighed down.
[AGI] Salvage:
Affects how much scrap you get from breaking down junk. Shipments are the exception to this, as they are already processed and refined material, not junk.
Shipments will self-destroy upon being placed into the Workshop storage as normal, but cannot be broken down manually. This is to prevent item abuse.
Salvage also gives access to a Perk that alters how many ingredients are casually gathered, making it useful for cooking and farming.
[INT] Science:
Your expertise with energy-based weapons, with the Rank determining how far you can shoot with these in V.A.T.S.
It also allows you to upgrade these weapons, and provides methods to construct the batteries that power them.
[AGI] Stealth:
As the name implies, it attempts to keep people from noticing you, with a wide range of Perks to provide new methods to do so.
It also provides a number of Perks that include bonuses to Sneak Attack damage, and the like.
[END] Survival:
Your ability to survive harsh environments, and it determines what recipes you have access to when cooking.
Rank directly affects how well food heals you, whereas the Perks provide new ways to cook or last in dangerous situations.
[END] Tinkering:
Mainly exists to provide ways to craft alterations to armor and assemble melee weapons, including crafting them.
There's so many passive Perks awarded by this Skill, that it's the only one that doesn't provide a bonus on it's own.
[END] Unarmed:
All forms of combat involving your bare hands or the gloves worn over them. Many of the Perks rely on quick movement or status effects.
[STR] Weaponry:
Daggers, Clubs and swords, oh my! Handles everything involving melee instruments that inflict Blunt, Pierce and Slash damage.
Perks generally involve applying extra damage via special situations or influence Power Attacks.
[CHR] Zoology:
Your charm and knowledge when it comes to animals and creatures of the wastelands.
Directly influences the damage dealt by Bestial Companions, which by default, is mostly your trusty doggo pal.
All things involving interactions with terminals, along with ways to assault robots.
By default, you have 2 Hacking Guesses, although this can quickly be changed through early Perks.
[AGI] Handguns:
Your character's ability to use Pistols and Revolvers. Just like with other weapon Skills, the Rank determines raw damage.
[CHR] Influence:
The charismatic glow that your character gives off, and general ability to inspire those around.
Rank affects the damage that Humanoid Companions do, while Perks involve Settlement interact and how people initially perceive you.
[PER] Lockpicking:
As the name states, it involves your ability to disable locks. Rank affects the sweet spot of the device your interacting with.
[PER] Longarms:
How well you handle Rifles and Shotguns. As with other weapon Skills, the Rank determines raw damage.
[INT] Medicine:
Rank directly affects how much mileage you will get out of using Stimpaks and Radaway to heal yourself.
Meanwhile, Perks involve anatomy or special bonuses that apply to health-related conditions. It also allows your to craft various medicinal items.
[LCK] Opportunity:
Your ability to push chance and a situation to your favor. Perks alter Critical values, while the Rank increases your chances of performing a raw Critical Strike.
These kinds of Critical Hits may be performed naturally via hipfire or even in V.A.T.S., but do not require spending a Critical Meter to do so.
[CHR] Persuasion:
Directly affects your chances at succeeding Speech Checks, as raw Charisma no longer affects this.
Perks involve intimidation tactics, as well as manipulating the opposing gender.
[AGI] Pickpocket:
Pretty self explainitory; they have nice stuff, and you take it with this Skill!
Perks allow manipulation of another's inventory, and some provide buffs during combat, if dressed lightly.
[STR] Robustness:
Directly increases your carry weight, and affects your ability to move while Overencumbered.
It even goes so far, as to provide benefits when heavily weighed down.
[AGI] Salvage:
Affects how much scrap you get from breaking down junk. Shipments are the exception to this, as they are already processed and refined material, not junk.
Shipments will self-destroy upon being placed into the Workshop storage as normal, but cannot be broken down manually. This is to prevent item abuse.
Salvage also gives access to a Perk that alters how many ingredients are casually gathered, making it useful for cooking and farming.
[INT] Science:
Your expertise with energy-based weapons, with the Rank determining how far you can shoot with these in V.A.T.S.
It also allows you to upgrade these weapons, and provides methods to construct the batteries that power them.
[AGI] Stealth:
As the name implies, it attempts to keep people from noticing you, with a wide range of Perks to provide new methods to do so.
It also provides a number of Perks that include bonuses to Sneak Attack damage, and the like.
[END] Survival:
Your ability to survive harsh environments, and it determines what recipes you have access to when cooking.
Rank directly affects how well food heals you, whereas the Perks provide new ways to cook or last in dangerous situations.
[END] Tinkering:
Mainly exists to provide ways to craft alterations to armor and assemble melee weapons, including crafting them.
There's so many passive Perks awarded by this Skill, that it's the only one that doesn't provide a bonus on it's own.
[END] Unarmed:
All forms of combat involving your bare hands or the gloves worn over them. Many of the Perks rely on quick movement or status effects.
[STR] Weaponry:
Daggers, Clubs and swords, oh my! Handles everything involving melee instruments that inflict Blunt, Pierce and Slash damage.
Perks generally involve applying extra damage via special situations or influence Power Attacks.
[CHR] Zoology:
Your charm and knowledge when it comes to animals and creatures of the wastelands.
Directly influences the damage dealt by Bestial Companions, which by default, is mostly your trusty doggo pal.
THE FOOD SYSTEM
Spoiler:
Show
All cooked items are now hidden at cooking stations, unless you possess the appropriate Survival Skill and/or Perk(s). Many of these meals were heavily expanded on, gaining abilities they didn't before. I've also added a ton of new prepared foods, some of which are advanced versions of older recipes. Everything is also a bit more organized now, as previously in the base game, everything was kind of just shoved into the Roast section, even if it didn't make sense.
The amount healed by these foods is directly influenced by the Survival Skill, which becomes greater, the higher the Skill Rank required to prepare that meal. This generally doesn't exceed the power of Stimpaks, unless you decide to completely forgo the Medicine Skill and be a full-time chef, which is entirely a possibility. At the highest level, there are even difficult to prepare foods, which when eaten for the first time, will provide you with permanent SPECIAL and Skill bonuses. That said, I've more or less redone this system twice during mod development, and I'm still not 100% satisfied with it. I have plans to redo it from scratch a third time, but I figured I'll save that for post-release, and get some important feedback on what people like/hate about the current system.
Note: If you are playing on Survival Difficulty, you may have noticed that foods sometimes recover barely any Health, if any at all. This is because when your character is hungry or thirsty, they no longer gain the full benefits of the respective items they consume. This a default mechanic of the game, not a bug. I have chosen to respect Bethesda's game design for this, and have no plans to change it.
The amount healed by these foods is directly influenced by the Survival Skill, which becomes greater, the higher the Skill Rank required to prepare that meal. This generally doesn't exceed the power of Stimpaks, unless you decide to completely forgo the Medicine Skill and be a full-time chef, which is entirely a possibility. At the highest level, there are even difficult to prepare foods, which when eaten for the first time, will provide you with permanent SPECIAL and Skill bonuses. That said, I've more or less redone this system twice during mod development, and I'm still not 100% satisfied with it. I have plans to redo it from scratch a third time, but I figured I'll save that for post-release, and get some important feedback on what people like/hate about the current system.
Note: If you are playing on Survival Difficulty, you may have noticed that foods sometimes recover barely any Health, if any at all. This is because when your character is hungry or thirsty, they no longer gain the full benefits of the respective items they consume. This a default mechanic of the game, not a bug. I have chosen to respect Bethesda's game design for this, and have no plans to change it.
MOD COMPATIBILITY
Spoiler:
Show
You Are Exceptional is compatible with many mods, but there are a few exceptions. It goes without saying, but by itself, YAE is very unlikely to be compatible with other Skill System or Perk mods, due to it relying on LevelUpMenu and having a custom content.
Alternate Start Mods
Due to the number of things running with initiated, YAE does not appear to work with the popular mod, Start Me Up Redux. I've attempted running it many times, but very rarely got it work, without it freezing during the loadscreen. There are likely to be issues with similar mods, although in my hundreds of hours of testing, I've personally had no trouble skipping the tutorial through SKK Fast Start. So, I strongly recommend that, for anyone sick of the opening sequence.
Ammunition Mods
You Are Exceptional has it's own crafting systems, which includes the ability to create ammo. This is unlocked through the use of Perks, which may be learned rather quickly. The recipes for these items are closely based upon the ones provided by Fallout 4 via the DLC with automated machinery, but are not so overly cheap to make that method worthless. I will be monitoring opinions on these Perks, but I think they're fairly applied. I've covered pretty much ammo type I can think of, so unless your using custom ammunition, there's no need to use special mods for this.
Weapon Mods
This is a mixed bag. My weapon Skills identify firearms through a series of keywords. I've done my best to be as thorough as possible, so that I can affect weapons from other mods, but it's not going to be perfect, due to my choices on what weapons are. For instance, in vanilla Fallout 4, Shotguns are considered a "Rifle", whereas in my mod, they're just considered a Shotgun, and have their Perk Tree completely separate from Rifles, although they are both affected by the Longarms Skill (which also contains both the Rifle and Shotgun Perk Trees). As a result, I cannot fully say for sure, whether or not my mod will affect custom weapons. Although, it should be immediately apparent, as my Skills directly alter the damage output of weapons they affect.
However, starting with YAE v1.03n, special custom Keywords have been added, which users may use in their own patches for quick compatibility. These keywords begin simply with "yaeCompatibilityKeyword_" followed by the weapon types that I personally classify stuff as, for all of YAE's Skills and Perks. Stuff like Acid Soakers, Cryolators, Explosives and Flamers weren't given their own Keyword, because they were unique enough to not warrant so. I don't plan on going any further with compatibility than this, as adding this Keywords alone took nearly a dozen hours, and were overall a headache to implement.
One important thing to note, is that with a recent update, in order to be more compatible with certain mods (like Story Wealth firearms), I now define custom Revolvers as both "WeaponTypePistol" and "yaeCompatibilityKeyword_Revolver". This is due firearm Grips apparently adding Keywords (like WeaponTypePistol) to guns, which I didn't know about until very recently (as of YAE v1.04g). Some firearms also add Keywords via Receivers, so I had to doubly define the Revolver, to prevent custom weapon mods from defining them as unusual classifications, such as a "Rifle Revolver" or "Shotgun Revolver". And, as cool as those sound, I'd rather Revolvers only benefit from the Handguns Skill, and not the Longarms Skill as well.
If possible, it's strongly advised that you strip your modded weapons of all other "WeaponType" Keywords in your patch while using YAE, as otherwise, they may benefit from multiple areas within YAE. Just do all of this in a custom patch via xEdit, and it shouldn't change anything permanent to the base mod with the weapons. That way you can continue using it with outside of YAE with other Instance setups (in the case of Mod Organizer) or what not.
If you are reluctant to do this, simply don't use the new Keywords; my system should be complex enough to detect most modded firearms, these Keywords are just an extreme form of compatibility. Alternatively, many people will strongly advise you to use the RobCo Patcher to add the Keywords, although I don't have any knowledge in this area. Although, from what I've heard, it's relatively simple to use, so that may be the best option in regards to compatibility.
Stimpak and Radaway Mods
In order to get a few mechanics I wanted to work, I had to detach Stimpaks and Radaways from the normal MGEF's they were using, freeing them from the restrictions placed on them by Survival Difficulty. They more or less have the same effects as vanilla, but allow me the freedom to alter their parameters via Perks and what not. Stimpaks and Radaway will take effect over 10 seconds (the default is 5 seconds), and 50 seconds on Survival (again, the default). If you decide to use mods to alter these chems, they will likely prevent the use of a few Perks provided by the Medicine Skill, but nothing too major. Just be aware of this. I may provide patches later.
RealAI
Just found out about this one on my own, recently. Apparently the mod manipulates Light Levels, in order to make NPC's fight better or something. For the most part, RealAI is fully compatible with YAE. However, due to it manipulating values on Light Levels, it renders the Vampire and Divine Perklines sort of worthless, as they seem unable to detect whether it's night or day. I have made a tiny patch that addresses this, but as of writing this, I have not had time to test it further than finding out that the patch restores sunlight detection. I have contacted the author, who will hopefully help me understand their mod better to resolve this, as I also personally enjoy using the mod.
Alternate Start Mods
Due to the number of things running with initiated, YAE does not appear to work with the popular mod, Start Me Up Redux. I've attempted running it many times, but very rarely got it work, without it freezing during the loadscreen. There are likely to be issues with similar mods, although in my hundreds of hours of testing, I've personally had no trouble skipping the tutorial through SKK Fast Start. So, I strongly recommend that, for anyone sick of the opening sequence.
Ammunition Mods
You Are Exceptional has it's own crafting systems, which includes the ability to create ammo. This is unlocked through the use of Perks, which may be learned rather quickly. The recipes for these items are closely based upon the ones provided by Fallout 4 via the DLC with automated machinery, but are not so overly cheap to make that method worthless. I will be monitoring opinions on these Perks, but I think they're fairly applied. I've covered pretty much ammo type I can think of, so unless your using custom ammunition, there's no need to use special mods for this.
Weapon Mods
This is a mixed bag. My weapon Skills identify firearms through a series of keywords. I've done my best to be as thorough as possible, so that I can affect weapons from other mods, but it's not going to be perfect, due to my choices on what weapons are. For instance, in vanilla Fallout 4, Shotguns are considered a "Rifle", whereas in my mod, they're just considered a Shotgun, and have their Perk Tree completely separate from Rifles, although they are both affected by the Longarms Skill (which also contains both the Rifle and Shotgun Perk Trees). As a result, I cannot fully say for sure, whether or not my mod will affect custom weapons. Although, it should be immediately apparent, as my Skills directly alter the damage output of weapons they affect.
However, starting with YAE v1.03n, special custom Keywords have been added, which users may use in their own patches for quick compatibility. These keywords begin simply with "yaeCompatibilityKeyword_" followed by the weapon types that I personally classify stuff as, for all of YAE's Skills and Perks. Stuff like Acid Soakers, Cryolators, Explosives and Flamers weren't given their own Keyword, because they were unique enough to not warrant so. I don't plan on going any further with compatibility than this, as adding this Keywords alone took nearly a dozen hours, and were overall a headache to implement.
One important thing to note, is that with a recent update, in order to be more compatible with certain mods (like Story Wealth firearms), I now define custom Revolvers as both "WeaponTypePistol" and "yaeCompatibilityKeyword_Revolver". This is due firearm Grips apparently adding Keywords (like WeaponTypePistol) to guns, which I didn't know about until very recently (as of YAE v1.04g). Some firearms also add Keywords via Receivers, so I had to doubly define the Revolver, to prevent custom weapon mods from defining them as unusual classifications, such as a "Rifle Revolver" or "Shotgun Revolver". And, as cool as those sound, I'd rather Revolvers only benefit from the Handguns Skill, and not the Longarms Skill as well.
If possible, it's strongly advised that you strip your modded weapons of all other "WeaponType" Keywords in your patch while using YAE, as otherwise, they may benefit from multiple areas within YAE. Just do all of this in a custom patch via xEdit, and it shouldn't change anything permanent to the base mod with the weapons. That way you can continue using it with outside of YAE with other Instance setups (in the case of Mod Organizer) or what not.
If you are reluctant to do this, simply don't use the new Keywords; my system should be complex enough to detect most modded firearms, these Keywords are just an extreme form of compatibility. Alternatively, many people will strongly advise you to use the RobCo Patcher to add the Keywords, although I don't have any knowledge in this area. Although, from what I've heard, it's relatively simple to use, so that may be the best option in regards to compatibility.
Stimpak and Radaway Mods
In order to get a few mechanics I wanted to work, I had to detach Stimpaks and Radaways from the normal MGEF's they were using, freeing them from the restrictions placed on them by Survival Difficulty. They more or less have the same effects as vanilla, but allow me the freedom to alter their parameters via Perks and what not. Stimpaks and Radaway will take effect over 10 seconds (the default is 5 seconds), and 50 seconds on Survival (again, the default). If you decide to use mods to alter these chems, they will likely prevent the use of a few Perks provided by the Medicine Skill, but nothing too major. Just be aware of this. I may provide patches later.
RealAI
Just found out about this one on my own, recently. Apparently the mod manipulates Light Levels, in order to make NPC's fight better or something. For the most part, RealAI is fully compatible with YAE. However, due to it manipulating values on Light Levels, it renders the Vampire and Divine Perklines sort of worthless, as they seem unable to detect whether it's night or day. I have made a tiny patch that addresses this, but as of writing this, I have not had time to test it further than finding out that the patch restores sunlight detection. I have contacted the author, who will hopefully help me understand their mod better to resolve this, as I also personally enjoy using the mod.
MOD INSTALLATION
Spoiler:
Show
I strongly recommend using Mod Organizer to install You Are Exceptional, or any mod, as it creates a virtual drive that won't affect your base game files. Alternatively, you can simply put everything into your "Fallout 4\Mods" folder.
Regardless of how you do it, you must run Fallout 4 via F4SE in order to get YAE to work; which is installed simply by placing it in the same folder as your "Fallout 4.exe". See the mod page for further details on this. Also, make sure you have loose files enabled, as per the guide here. This should already be addressed from installing LevelUpMenuEx, but I thought I would be thorough and include it again here.
Yellow Text: Dependent Mods Orange Text: Overwritten Mods Green Text: This Mod Blue Text: Any Other Mods
Fallout 4
DLC
Unofficial Patch
Any Other Mods
Any Companion Mods (YAE directly affects the "CompanionInspirational" Perk, and has it's own duplicates)
Any Perk Mods (Must have a custom patch to appear in LevelUpMenu)
Any Food Mods (Must have a custom patch in order to affected by the Survival Skill)
Perk Points Per Level (Not necessary, my mod comes packaged with a special re-write of it's .ini at You Are Exceptional\F4SE\Plugins)
LevelUpMenuEx
You Are Exceptional - Skills and Perks System
Any Other Mods
Regardless of how you do it, you must run Fallout 4 via F4SE in order to get YAE to work; which is installed simply by placing it in the same folder as your "Fallout 4.exe". See the mod page for further details on this. Also, make sure you have loose files enabled, as per the guide here. This should already be addressed from installing LevelUpMenuEx, but I thought I would be thorough and include it again here.
Yellow Text: Dependent Mods Orange Text: Overwritten Mods Green Text: This Mod Blue Text: Any Other Mods
Fallout 4
DLC
Unofficial Patch
Any Other Mods
Any Companion Mods (YAE directly affects the "CompanionInspirational" Perk, and has it's own duplicates)
Any Perk Mods (Must have a custom patch to appear in LevelUpMenu)
Any Food Mods (Must have a custom patch in order to affected by the Survival Skill)
Perk Points Per Level (Not necessary, my mod comes packaged with a special re-write of it's .ini at You Are Exceptional\F4SE\Plugins)
LevelUpMenuEx
You Are Exceptional - Skills and Perks System
Any Other Mods
MY FUTURE PLANS
Spoiler:
Show
There are number of additions I would like to make to You Are Exceptional, but the main problem I've had since I started, was that I kept expanding far beyond my original scope. For instance, I never planned for the in-depth Food System; it just kind of happened, as a part of my desire to make my Survival Skill more than just Perk unlocker. I'm feeling pretty drained just from all the long nights I've spent working on this project, so it's not likely I'll ever get around to adding this stuff (a lot of it requires knowledge of the Creation Kit I've yet to learn, and are entire special expertise on their own), but if reception of the mod turns out well, I don't mind pushing myself to try adding some of this stuff.
Perk Redesigns:
Some of the Perks I made had to be severely downgraded, because I couldn't get them to function as I had originally designed them. Eventually, I'd like to go back and fix this, but after spending a whole month trying to resolve the issues, I decided to was best to chance them and move on. They had really neat concepts though, so if possible, I'd like to restore them to their true potential.
Fences:
Not the wooden, picketed kind. Basically, I originally wanted to include a Perk, that adds a black market network all across the Commonwealth, via the Lockpicking Skill. This would allow you to have access to great many vendors, scattered all over the place, although they only appear if you learned the Perk, as they are essentially hiding in the shadows or something. However, doing this would require me to learn how to construct NPC's, make dialogs for them AND place them into the world. Stuff I don't know anything about, yet.
Material Nodes:
Another thing I wanted to do since the beginning was have a series of scattered objects the Player could interact with. These would be broken down devices or ore clumps, similar to how Skyrim had mining deposits. To access these "nodes", you would need a certain amount of the Salvage Skill, and probably access to a pickaxe or some other tool. Doing this would require knowledge of World Space manipulation, and a LOT of research, as for compatibility reasons, I would have to place the nodes in areas where other mods are unlikely to alter.
Backgrounds:
In addition to things like Traits that can be chose at character creation, I wanted to include a menu of optional "Background" choices, which would provide the Player with free equipment and bonus Skills. I had actually already written many of these up, before realizing that I could not create another selection window, without the help of an experience animator. Some of my designs are already in the mod, but listed as Traits; for example, with Unlawful Investigator and Social Butterfly.
Animal Companions:
I have plans to create more "Beast" Companions, which can be directly influenced by the Zoology Skill. I was thinking of a pet Deathclaw, or maybe a number of patches allowing other mods to synergize. Either way, I need to learn how to construct NPC's and Companions, which is beyond my current expertise.
Object Placement:
The turrets you can place were taught to me through a Kinggath tutorial I watched on YouTube, and then I applied that same knowledge to allow for the camping objects. I had always intended for the turrets to be at least a 3 Perk system, which further Perks expanding upon that. The entire Engineering Skill was actually invented for the specific purpose of complimenting the turrets, but it didn't quite go the way I wanted. However, I did discover ways to make this system even better, I just haven't invested the time into it, since I've been focused on a release. If my mod is well received, I eagerly want to go back and do this turret system proper justice.
Steroids:
A chem that will temporarily buff your Skills. I actually thought of this early on, but didn't think about it until near the end of my mod. I do already have the Effects programmed for this though. I just need to go in and actually decided on item models (probably just stimpak), and assign recipe requirements, etc. Once I continue working on my mod, this will probably go to the top of the list as the first thing I work on.
Implemented on 12/23/2023 :D
Flare Guns:
Most of the weapons in the game have some form of attachment to a Perk Tree, or at least a handful of Perks that affect them in a meaningful way. I want to eventually give this treatment to the Flare Gun, as well. My goal is to fill all sorts of niche playstyles, even if that means taking down enemies by shooting them in the face with a flare. Perhaps the flare can explode on impact, gaining bonuses from the Demolitions Skill. Maybe it simply ignites things like the Molotov Cocktail. Either way, I'd like to make this weapon more interesting in some way, that would allow someone to do a full playthrough with one.
Perk Redesigns:
Some of the Perks I made had to be severely downgraded, because I couldn't get them to function as I had originally designed them. Eventually, I'd like to go back and fix this, but after spending a whole month trying to resolve the issues, I decided to was best to chance them and move on. They had really neat concepts though, so if possible, I'd like to restore them to their true potential.
Fences:
Not the wooden, picketed kind. Basically, I originally wanted to include a Perk, that adds a black market network all across the Commonwealth, via the Lockpicking Skill. This would allow you to have access to great many vendors, scattered all over the place, although they only appear if you learned the Perk, as they are essentially hiding in the shadows or something. However, doing this would require me to learn how to construct NPC's, make dialogs for them AND place them into the world. Stuff I don't know anything about, yet.
Material Nodes:
Another thing I wanted to do since the beginning was have a series of scattered objects the Player could interact with. These would be broken down devices or ore clumps, similar to how Skyrim had mining deposits. To access these "nodes", you would need a certain amount of the Salvage Skill, and probably access to a pickaxe or some other tool. Doing this would require knowledge of World Space manipulation, and a LOT of research, as for compatibility reasons, I would have to place the nodes in areas where other mods are unlikely to alter.
Backgrounds:
In addition to things like Traits that can be chose at character creation, I wanted to include a menu of optional "Background" choices, which would provide the Player with free equipment and bonus Skills. I had actually already written many of these up, before realizing that I could not create another selection window, without the help of an experience animator. Some of my designs are already in the mod, but listed as Traits; for example, with Unlawful Investigator and Social Butterfly.
Animal Companions:
I have plans to create more "Beast" Companions, which can be directly influenced by the Zoology Skill. I was thinking of a pet Deathclaw, or maybe a number of patches allowing other mods to synergize. Either way, I need to learn how to construct NPC's and Companions, which is beyond my current expertise.
Object Placement:
The turrets you can place were taught to me through a Kinggath tutorial I watched on YouTube, and then I applied that same knowledge to allow for the camping objects. I had always intended for the turrets to be at least a 3 Perk system, which further Perks expanding upon that. The entire Engineering Skill was actually invented for the specific purpose of complimenting the turrets, but it didn't quite go the way I wanted. However, I did discover ways to make this system even better, I just haven't invested the time into it, since I've been focused on a release. If my mod is well received, I eagerly want to go back and do this turret system proper justice.
Steroids:
Implemented on 12/23/2023 :D
Flare Guns:
Most of the weapons in the game have some form of attachment to a Perk Tree, or at least a handful of Perks that affect them in a meaningful way. I want to eventually give this treatment to the Flare Gun, as well. My goal is to fill all sorts of niche playstyles, even if that means taking down enemies by shooting them in the face with a flare. Perhaps the flare can explode on impact, gaining bonuses from the Demolitions Skill. Maybe it simply ignites things like the Molotov Cocktail. Either way, I'd like to make this weapon more interesting in some way, that would allow someone to do a full playthrough with one.
MY RECOMMENDED MODS
Spoiler:
Show
The following mods compliment You Are Exceptional really well.
SKK Fast Start
As far as I'm aware, this is the only "Alternate Start" mod that I know of that will work with my mod, although as mentioned in the Compatibility section, I've only tried a few of them.
Nameplates - Floating Healthbars
Floating Damage
Maybe not the most immersive thing for some people, but they are extremely useful for getting feedback on how much damage is being thrown around. With my Skill System (or any other), it's very useful to visually see your progression through combat. Meanwhile, the healthbars are a nice touch that compliments the damage numbers.
Active Effects on HUD
Display the exact timers on various chems and other temporary buffs. The displays are customizable, as well. To view the chems and what not provided by my mod, make sure to turn off the option in the MCM where is says to "Display Vanilla Effects Only?" This is especially useful when combined with YAE, as there are many things like the Chemistry Skill, which directly alter the duration of chems and foods by a significant amount of time.
SKK Fast Start
As far as I'm aware, this is the only "Alternate Start" mod that I know of that will work with my mod, although as mentioned in the Compatibility section, I've only tried a few of them.
Nameplates - Floating Healthbars
Floating Damage
Maybe not the most immersive thing for some people, but they are extremely useful for getting feedback on how much damage is being thrown around. With my Skill System (or any other), it's very useful to visually see your progression through combat. Meanwhile, the healthbars are a nice touch that compliments the damage numbers.
Active Effects on HUD
Display the exact timers on various chems and other temporary buffs. The displays are customizable, as well. To view the chems and what not provided by my mod, make sure to turn off the option in the MCM where is says to "Display Vanilla Effects Only?" This is especially useful when combined with YAE, as there are many things like the Chemistry Skill, which directly alter the duration of chems and foods by a significant amount of time.
CREDITS
Without the help of the following people, I definitely would not have never gotten this far. Before working on this project, I had a lot of experience as someone who ran heavily modded (200+) games, but not when it came to actually programming them, although I had a fair amount of tabletop knowledge (Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, World of Darkness and the like), which is where my design choices come from. For nostalgic reasons, I'll be listing them in order that I've personally become associated with them.
Judangis
When I first started learning to do patches, long before I even started this project, they helped me with an insurmountable amount of problems. Even months into this project, I found myself occasionally doubling back to get advice from them. They always started out by saying, "I probably don't know much more than
you..." then proceeded to provide me with a ton of knowledge that I in fact did not know, haha.
Kinggath
His YouTube Tutorials were a huge help in learning about the Creation Kit, and Papyrus scripting in general. Although I struggled at first, eventually everything came together and I started to understand how it all worked.
Neanka
The person to who designed LevelUpMenuEx, various DEF mods and a number of other interesting things. Without them, my mod and the Skill Systems that inspired me never would have existed.
rcoll
The creator of Be Exceptional, which was my primary inspiration for making this mod. While I enjoyed the couple dozen hours I invested into BE with my own playthrough, I saw so much more potential with mod, and became obsessed with improving upon it. The base framework itself is of their design, although I have since heavily transformed their scripts into my own thing. They gave me a ton of advice, and initially had a direct hand in YAE, by fixing a script for me, which eventually led me to learning how Fragments work.
HappySlapp
The author of You Are SPECIAL!, who allowed me to pull apart their system and use a bunch of idea, along with giving me a lot of direct help as well. A lot of their advice and tutorials helped me fine tune things I would not have otherwise thought of.
Alexwin95
Author of Perks Overhaul, which was a patch that helped cobble together a number of the Skills System mods, which ultimately led me to believe that there was a greater potential with LevelUpMenuEx. They also allowed me to use their stuff, and consulted me on a number of important things.
yoyoma3010
Creator of the S7 Skill System, and more or less my mentor when it comes to all things regarding the deeper parts of my Skill System, and all things scripting. Without their infinite patience in regards to my endless questions, I definitely would have given up after my first month trying to make this mod, especially since they contacted me out of the blue, and provided me with a wealth of knowledge I would not have had access to otherwise.
GELUXRUM
Creator of stuff like Lighthouse, an extension for Papyrus and many other mods. I originally came to them for help with designing a better menu for LevelUpMenuEx, and was given much useful advice on general debugging. Unfortunately, I was unable to use the file he spent a couple weeks programming for me, but I learned some important things in the process.
BP42S
A fellow modder who has given me valuable advice, including mods that I should inspect to solve my problems, coding suggestions, and even advice on releasing this mod.
The Fallout Community
For the endless stream of help and advice I'd been given from random people. Especially those in "The
Fallout Network" and "Collective Modding" Discords, who put up with my
never ending bombardment of complicated questions.
PLAYTESTERS
An important job, which allowed me to tackle dozens of problems I never would have caught on my own. Them giving me feedback about glitches and game balance is important, while freeing up time so I can focus on the mod itself.
Zbladestar
A good friend, and my main playtester during the last couple weeks of the mod. They also suggested a number of interesting features that I may not have ever come up with myself, along with helping me streamline and redesign some of my mechanics.
MrCloud42
Did a full playtest after my final release, but caught a number of issues in real-time while I watched him play. This lead to a significantly smoother launch.
MrBanano
Despite him having a very limited amount of time to dedicate to Fallout 4, they've put in a ridiculous amount of time experimenting with mod. From character builds, to countless reported bugfixes, and they're own personal thoughts, there was no reason to not consider them an important asset to YAE. I cannot begin to describe the massive amount of minor things they discovered, which ended up being secretly important in the greater scope of things.
NESSUS09
Recently taken on as someone to test advanced versions of my archives, and has in-depth knowledge of modding in general. Caughty their fair share of problems with YAE, and a strong addition to my debugging kit.