===============================================================================
| Economy Adjuster Adjustments |
| A Morrowind Mod, Version 1.1.3 |
| by Necrolesian |
===============================================================================

---------
Summary |
---------

This archive contains edited versions of the Merchant Skills and Crime modules
of HotFusion's Economy Adjuster. These edited versions are based on the "BTB
Edit" version by BTB, with additional changes.

My version of the Merchant Skills module adds a number of service providers
that were missed by HotFusion and BTB, changes the formula that determines the
NPCs' new mercantile and speechcraft skills, and makes a few additional
tweaks to the scripts. Also included is a version of the plugin that edits the
relevant NPCs directly rather than via script.

My version of the Crime module increases the bounty for theft, increases the
death sentence threshold, and increases the bounty-to-jail-time ratio
(decreasing time spent in jail for a given bounty).

See below for more detailed explanations.

-----------------
Merchant Skills |
-----------------

HotFusion's original Merchant Skills plugin aims to increase the mercantile and
speechcraft skills of Morrowind's service providers, in order to balance the
game's economy and make it more difficult for the player to exploit merchants.
This is done via scripts added in dialogue, to avoid editing the NPCs
themselves (for compatibility reasons). There are two scripts, one for trainers
and one for non-trainers. BTB's version of the plugin optimizes the method of
insertion of the scripts, and adds a few NPCs that were missed by HotFusion.

My version of this module basically makes two types of changes from BTB's
version: (1) adding service providers that were still missed in BTB's version
and fixing those who got the wrong script, and (2) adjusting the scripts
themselves to change the formula and make a few other tweaks.

NPCs Added or Fixed
-------------------

Regarding the first set of changes, a number of service providers (quite a lot,
actually) were either given the wrong script or were erroneously not affected
at all. Hopefully all such cases have been fixed now.

The spreadsheet service_providers.ods included with this archive lists all
service providers in the vanilla game affected by this plugin, separated into
two sheets, one for trainers and one for non-trainers. Each sheet has columns
for the NPCs' vanilla and new mercantile and speechcraft skills.

Regular Script Changes
----------------------

The second change made in my version of the plugin is to adjust the formulas in
the scripts themselves, and make a few additional optimizations. To the
"regular" script (the one given to non-trainers), the following changes have
been made:

1. If statements have been added to ensure that mercantile and speechcraft
skills will never be lowered by the script.

2. Another if statement has been added setting a floor of 30 for the new skill
values. This minimizes (but does not eliminate) the potential for the player to
exploit merchants for unlimited money. (See HotFusion's original readme for a
more in-depth discussion on this topic.)

3. The formula that determines the new skill values has been changed.
HotFusion's and BTB's versions of the plugin use the formula level * 5. My
version changes it to level * 4 + 20. This results in a minimum value of 32 for
almost all service providers, while providing (I feel) a smooth difficulty
curve as merchants' levels increase. Service providers of level 20 or above
will have mercantile and speechcraft skills of 100.

Training Script Changes
-----------------------

The training script checks to see if the trainer's mercantile and speechcraft
skill is already in their top three skills (in other words, if it's a skill
that the NPC offers training in). If so, it's left alone, in order to avoid
changing the level to which they train the skill. If not, it's raised to a
value one lower than the trainer's third-highest skill (any higher and it would
change which skills the NPC trains).

My changes to the script set a cap of level * 4 + 20 for the adjusted skills.
I've also made a couple tweaks to ensure that the script works as intended.
Mercantile and speechcraft skills will now be set to either level * 4 + 20, or
one lower than the trainer's third-highest skill, whichever is lower, unless
it's already in their top three skills, in which case it will be left alone. A
check is also performed to ensure that the trainer's skills will never be
lowered by the script.

Direct Edit Version
-------------------

Also included is a version of the Merchant Skills plugin that edits the
relevant NPCs directly, rather than modifying their skills via scripts started
by new greetings. This is a less obtrusive way of making these changes, from
the player's perspective (no more "..." greetings).

However, this version of the plugin is also much less compatible. The regular
Merchant Skills plugin should be compatible with just about everything (at
worst, some merchant added by a mod might not be affected or might get the
wrong script). The "direct" version, on the other hand, will conflict with any
mod that touches any of the affected NPCs (including any mod that implements
Cinia Urtius). It will also not affect merchants added by mods.

If you want to use this version of the plugin, I suggest using an object merger
such as tes3merge to resolve conflicts.

MCP "Mercantile Fix" Patch
--------------------------

One more issue needs to be addressed here: whether or not the "Mercantile Fix"
patch in Morrowind Code Patch should be enabled when using the Merchant Skills
plugin. After a bit of testing, my conclusion is that yes, it should be
enabled. Read on for more discussion.

The "mercantile bug" refers to an intentional stopgap that the developers
programmed into the game in an attempt to prevent the player from exploiting
merchants too badly. In vanilla Morrowind (without MCP's Mercantile Fix patch),
the sell price of an item is capped at its buy price. As your mercantile skill
(and merchant disposition) increases, the buy price of items (what merchants
will charge you for them) decreases, while the sell price (what merchants will
pay for them) increases. At high enough mercantile and/or merchant disposition,
the sell price will reach the buy price. At this point, as the buy price
continues to decrease, the sell price decreases too, because it's capped at the
buy price.

The Mercantile Fix patch removes this cap. The description for the patch also
states that it adjusts differences from base price by half, but after testing
it appears to do more than what it says in the description. Having the patch
enabled will increase the player mercantile and/or merchant disposition value
at which the sell price meets the buy price, which has the effect of making it
significantly more difficult to exploit merchants.

The following tests illustrate this. The first set of tests were made with
Arrille, both with and without the Mercantile Fix patch enabled, and both with
and without the Merchant Skills module of Economy Adjuster enabled (these tests
were conducted with the BTB Edit version of Economy Adjuster, not my new
version, so Arrille's mercantile skill is 20 without EcoAdj, and 75 with it).

The tests were conducted by buying and selling a 100-value item, at player
mercantile values of 5 and 100, and merchant disposition values of 45 and 100.
The prices are listed with buy price first, then sell price.

Mercantile Fix Patch OFF:

-----------------------------------------------------
EcoAdj OFF | EcoAdj ON |
-----------------------------------------------------
| Disp | | Disp |
-------------------------|--------------------------|
PC merc | 45 | 100 |PC merc | 45 | 100 |
-----------------------------------------------------
5 | 113/36 | 78/71 |5 | 147/2 | 113/36 |
100 | 53/53 | 19/19 |100 | 88/61 | 53/53 |
-----------------------------------------------------

Mercantile Fix Patch ON:

-----------------------------------------------------
EcoAdj OFF | EcoAdj ON |
-----------------------------------------------------
| Disp | | Disp |
-------------------------|--------------------------|
PC merc | 45 | 100 |PC merc | 45 | 100 |
-----------------------------------------------------
5 | 106/43 | 89/60 |5 | 123/26 | 106/43 |
100 | 76/73 | 59/90 |100 | 94/55 | 76/73 |
-----------------------------------------------------

As you can see, with both MCP's Mercantile Fix patch and EcoAdj enabled, the
sell price never reaches the buy price with Arrille, even at max player
mercantile and max disposition, and even with EcoAdj not in the load order
(Arrille has his vanilla mercantile skill of 20), 100 player mercantile is not
enough for sell price to reach buy price without increasing disposition above
45.

On the other hand, with the Mercantile Fix patch disabled, sell price reaches
buy price even with Economy Adjuster enabled, and with it disabled this happens
even at a relatively low disposition of 45. (Keep in mind it's easy to increase
Arrille's disposition by a huge amount just by completing Fargoth's quest.)

One more set of tests illustrates the point further. These tests were conducted
with Dralasa Nithryon in Balmora, with BTB's version of the Merchant Skills
plugin enabled (merchant mercantile skill is 20), all with a disposition of
100.

Mercantile Fix Patch OFF:

PC merc
5: 79/71
11: 75/74
12: 74/74
13: 74/74
14: 73/73
25: 66/66
50: 50/50
80: 32/32
100: 19/19

Mercantile Fix Patch ON:

PC merc
5: 89/60
51: 75/74
52: 74/75
80: 66/83
100: 59/90

Without the Mercantile Fix patch, sell price meets buy price at a player
mercantile of only 12 (!), while with the patch, this doesn't happen until a
player mercantile of 52. (Keep in mind that this is with 100 disposition, and a
merchant mercantile skill of 20, while no merchant will have a mercantile skill
lower than 30 with my version of the plugin, so in practice the threshold will
be significantly higher.)

The conclusion from these tests is obvious: for better realism and to minimize
the possibility of exploiting merchants for unlimited money, enable the
Mercantile Fix patch in MCP.

-------
Crime |
-------

The original version of the Crime module by HotFusion aims to make being caught
committing crimes considerably more costly. It does this primarily by
increasing the bounties for various crimes. It also sets the threshold for a
death sentence (the point at which guards will just attack you instead of
trying to arrest you) equal to one gold higher than the bounty for one murder
plus one assault, so you have significantly less leeway than in vanilla before
you earn a death sentence.

The BTB Edit version of the plugin also increases the bounty for trespassing
(unlocking owned doors and containers), which was missed in HotFusion's
original.

However, there are a few issues remaining in BTB's version that I aim to
address in my version of the plugin: the bounty for theft, the death sentence
threshold, and the number of days spent in jail.

Theft Bounty
------------

Neither previous version of the plugin increases the bounty for theft. In
vanilla, and with HotFusion's and BTB's version of the Crime module, the bounty
for stealing an item is equal to the value of the item. My version increases
the bounty to ten times the value of the item. This ensures that theft is not
financially rewarding if you get caught.

Below is a summary table of the bounties for various crimes, in vanilla,
HotFusion's version, BTB's version, and my version:

------------------------------------------------------------------
Crime | Vanilla | HotFusion | BTB | Necro |
------------------------------------------------------------------
Steal 1 gold item | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 |
Steal 1000 gold item | 1000 | 1000 | 1000 | 10000 |
Trespassing | 5 | 5 | 1250 | 1250 |
Sleeping in owned bed | 5 | 1250 | 1250 | 1250 |
Pickpocketing | 25 | 1250 | 1250 | 1250 |
Assault | 40 | 4000 | 4000 | 4000 |
Murder | 1000 | 50000 | 50000 | 50000 |
Assault + Murder | 1040 | 54000 | 54000 | 54000 |
------------------------------------------------------------------

I recommend BTB's Game Improvements, which among many other game balance
changes lowers the value of the super-valuable items.

Death Sentence Threshold
------------------------

HotFusion and BTB set the threshold for a death sentence to 54001 gold (which
is one gold more than the bounty for one murder plus one assault).

I think this would be a bit too harsh even under ideal circumstances, but
there's one thing that makes such a (relatively) low death sentence threshold
particularly problematic: occasionally you can be charged for more crimes than
you actually committed. For example, you can walk up to an NPC and murder them
in front of witnesses, and instead of being charged for only one assault and
one murder, you're charged for two assaults and two murders, resulting in a
bounty of 108000 and an instant death sentence. This only happens occasionally,
and I'm not sure what causes this bug or how to fix it, but this clearly won't
do.

To give the player a bit more leeway, I've changed the threshold for a death
sentence from 54001 to 150000. This does not constitute a license to murder on
a whim, as you'll still earn a death sentence if you go around killing people
indiscriminately, and the high bounty for murder is no longer a laughing
matter.

Jail Time Ratio
---------------

In Vanilla Morrowind, the ratio of bounty to days in jail is 100:1. In other
words, you must spend one day in jail for every 100 gold of your bounty (with a
minimum jail stay of one day). For each day you spend in jail, one of your
skills, chosen at random, will be decreased by one (unless the randomly chosen
skill is sneak or security, in which case it will be raised by one instead).

HotFusion's and BTB's version of the Crime module drastically increase the
bounties for crimes, but do not alter the jail time ratio. This means that the
time you must spend in jail for crimes if you can't pay your bounty, and the
number of skill points lost as a consequence, also increases drastically, to
the point of being truly debilitating with high bounties.

For one murder and one assault (bounty 54000), you will be required to spend
540 days in jail if you can't pay, which means almost 540 points of total skill
loss (minus the random security and sneak gains). Losing over 500 skill points
is utterly devastating to your game; you'll see a skill screen full of zeros
unless you're already at a very high level. The result of this is that going to
jail for murder becomes absolutely unacceptable, and players will simply reload
their previous save if they get caught and are unable to pay.

My version of the plugin increases the ratio from 100:1 to 1000:1. Jail time is
still significantly harsher than vanilla for assault and murder, but it's now
no longer so debilitating as to be unacceptable, and so going to jail might be
a practical option rather than save scumming.

Below is a summary table listing the length of jail stay for various crimes, in
vanilla, HotFusion's version, BTB's version, and my version:

----------------------------------------------------------------
Crime | Vanilla | HotFusion | BTB | Necro |
----------------------------------------------------------------
Steal 1 gold item | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Steal 1000 gold item | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Trespassing | 1 | 1 | 12 | 1 |
Sleeping in owned bed | 1 | 12 | 12 | 1 |
Pickpocketing | 1 | 12 | 12 | 1 |
Assault | 1 | 40 | 40 | 4 |
Murder | 10 | 500 | 500 | 50 |
Assault + Murder | 10 | 540 | 540 | 54 |
----------------------------------------------------------------

--------------
Installation |
--------------

Use a mod management tool such as Wrye Mash, or just copy the .esp files of
your choice to your Data Files directory, and select the plugins in the
Morrowind Launcher.

This archive includes only my edited versions of the Merchant Skills and Crime
modules of Economy Adjuster. It does not include the other modules
(Ingredients, Daedric Drops and Misc). If you want the other modules as well,
you'll need to download HotFusion's original version of Economy Adjuster.

-----------------
Version History |
-----------------

Version 1.1.3 - 2021-11-23
- Raised the bounty thresholds for a number of greetings and other dialogue
entries that had been missed in earlier versions.
- Removed PFP dependency (all PFP fixes are still incorporated - only the
dependency has been removed).

Version 1.1.2 - 2021-01-23
- Incorporated Patch for Purists fixes for 120+ Hello voice lines. Thanks to
Sigourn for these fixes!

Version 1.1.1 - 2020-09-27
- Incorporated Patch for Purists fixes for five greetings in the Crime
plugin, most importantly the result text of the death warrant greeting.

Version 1.1 - 2020-03-22
- Added "direct" version of Merchant Skills plugin that edits relevant NPCs
directly rather than changing their skills via scripts.
- Fixed minor script error in regular Merchant Skills module.

Version 1.0 - 2019-07-24
- Initial release.

---------
Credits |
---------

The lion's share of the credit here goes to HotFusion, who created the original
version of Economy Adjuster. You can download version 1.0 here:

http://mw.modhistory.com/download-90-11202

The most recent version of HotFusion's mod, version 1.1, appears to only be
available packaged with BTB's edits (see below).

BTB's edits of Economy Adjuster were the inspiration for my versions. As far as
I can tell, BTB's version is now only available via Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20150423044058/http://btb2.free.fr/files/morrowind_economy.zip

---------
Contact |
---------

Feel free to contact me on the Nexus with any comments or suggestions. You can
also find me on Discord as Necrolesian#9692.

-------
Usage |
-------

You can use this however you want, but you should definitely credit HotFusion,
who did all the hard work making Economy Adjuster, and BTB, whose edits are
included in my version.