Overview

SkillPracticePlusPlus (SP++) is a complete, from-scratch rebuild of the excellent Skill Practice mod by Sweet6Shooter which itself was inspired by Practice Makes Perfect, featuring a more streamlined design, numerous bug fixes, extra features, added customizability, and more!


New Features in PlusPlus

Before we get to the nitty gritty of all the skills, some additional features added in SP++ include:

*  Toggle-able practice messages to show progress to the next skill level
*  Skills increase when you perform an action, even in menus
*  All magazines increase practice in their related skills (except Critical % magazines obviously)
*  Toggle-able alternative perks for Swift Learner and Educated, as Swift Learner is already garbage and Educated is made obsolete by this mod
*  Swift Learner - Makes it take 20% less practice to raise skills to the next level
*  Educated - Makes Medicine, Repair, Science, and Survival increase 15% faster
*  A new, more customizable algorithm for practice threshold increases
*  A new, more customizable system for Intelligence-based practice increases
*  The ability to change how many SPECIAL points you start the game with - removed in 1.4.0, just use Stewie's Tweaks
*  Automatic weapon multiplier so you don't gain practice too fast from using full-auto weapons - new in v1.1.0
*  Toggle-able allocation of skills on level up instead of when you earn them - new in v1.3.0
*  Toggle-able ability to ONLY gain XP from leveling skills (go full Skyrim) - new in v1.4.0
*  New XP algorithm that allows you to level up your character after a number of Skill Levels have been reached - new in v1.5.0
*  Maximum values for skills to reach through practice - new in v1.4.0
*  Allowance for base skill points on level up, even without practice - new in v1.4.0


Skill Practice

The core feature of SP++, just like the mods it was based off of is the ability to level your skills "Skyrim-style" instead of by getting a number of points to distribute when you level up.  As such, there have to be specific tasks to perform that increase this new "practice" value that determines how close you are to the next level of a skill.  Those tasks are:

Barter
*  Winning games of caravan (increase per cap won) - new in SP++
*  Trading items for caps (increase per cap traded)
*  Reading Barter magazines - new in SP++

Big Guns (for mods that use this)
*  Firing weapons
*  Hitting enemies
*  Killing enemies

Energy Weapons
*  Firing weapons
*  Hitting enemies
*  Killing enemies
*  Disintegrating enemies
*  Reading Energy Weapons magazines - new in SP++

Explosives
*  Detonating explosives
*  Hitting enemies
*  Killing enemies
*  Reverse pickpocketing grenades
*  Disarming mines
*  Reading Explosives magazines - new in SP++

Guns
*  Firing weapons
*  Hitting enemies
*  Killing enemies
*  Reading Guns magazines - new in SP++

Lockpick
*  Picking locks (shocking)
*  Breaking lockpicks
*  Breaking down items at a reloading bench - new in SP++ v1.2.0
*  Reading Lockpick magazines

Medicine
*  Using Stimpaks
*  Using Doctor's Bags
*  Using Med-X - new in SP++
*  Using Radaway
*  Using Rad-X
*  Reading Medicine magazines - new in SP++

Melee Weapons
*  Attacking with weapons - currently jank, just hit 'em
*  Hitting enemies
*  Killing enemies
*  Reading Melee Weapons magazines - new in SP++

Repair
*  Disarming traps
*  Disarming bombs
*  Repairing items
*  Crafting items at workbenches / reloading benches - new in SP++
*  Reading Repair magazines - new in SP++

Science
*  Hacking terminals
*  Getting locked out of terminals - new in SP++ v1.2.0
*  Crafting Energy Weapon ammo - new in SP++ v1.2.0
*  Disabling Robots
*  Reading Science magazines - new in SP++

Sneak
*  Pickpocketing
*  Sneak attacking enemies (both ranged and melee)
*  Sneak killing enemies (both ranged and melee)
*  Sandman killing enemies
*  Reading Sneak magazines - new in SP++

Speech
*  Speaking to people - new in SP++ v1.5.0
*  Passing Speech checks
*  Failing Speech checks
*  Reading Speech magazines

Survival
*  HP healed from food (per HP healed)
*  Eating corpses
*  Disarming traps
*  Discovering locations
*  Picking plants
*  Crafting items at campfires - new in SP++
*  Reading Survival magazines - new in SP++

Unarmed
*  Attacking - same as melee attacking
*  Hitting enemies
*  Killing enemies
*  Blocking attacks - untested, may not work
*  Reading Unarmed magazines - new in SP++


Customizability

One of the best things about the original Skill Practice mod was the ability to adjust almost everything about it, from what features were turned on to how much practice you got from each task performed.  As SP++ is a rebuild of that mod using fundamentally similar concepts, all of the features in SP++ are as modular and customizable as they were in Skill Practice.

To customize the mod, you can find the SkillPractice++.ini file in the Fallout New Vegas/Data/Config/ directory.

All toggles and values are present in that file and (hopefully) well explained enough that you should know what you're changing and what it should do.


Mechanics

Now for the nitty gritty. SP++ uses two core mechanics to gauge how/when you level up your skills-- Practice Amounts and Practice Thresholds.

*  Practice Amounts are just what it says on the tin, how much Practice you get for completing a task that increases your skills.  Practice amounts are calculated using the following three step algorithm:
*  Practice = Base Points * ((Base Percent + (Mod * (Int Score - 5))) / 100)
*  Tag Practice = Practice * Tag Mod
*  Educated Practice = Practice * 1.15
*  Tag skills that also fall under the Educated perk get the bonus of both of them

*  Practice Thresholds are a little more abstract; they govern how much Practice you need in a skill in order to advance to the next level of that skill.  The algorithm for them is:
*  Threshold = Base + (Skill Level * Mult)^Exponent
*  Practice Thresholds use this exponential algorithm to provide a better "feel" during leveling where leveling your skills early on is very easy, only taking a couple of tasks to pass each threshold but ramps up to where you have to do many more tasks to increase each level.
  *  This is in contrast to the original Skill Practice mod which had a much more linear progression which to me could feel slow at the start and too fast at the end.  However, if you still like the original method, you can disable the Base and Exponent values in the .ini file and return to that method.

Incorporated into those 2 main mechanics are some smaller things:

* Intelligence based practice multipliers - the "Mod" and "Base Percent" in the practice amount equation above.  These govern how much more / less practice you get by having high / low intelligence
* Tag Skill practice multipliers - Tag Skills can gain more practice than other skills
* Weapon Skill / Strength requirement multipliers - Weapons can give more or less practice depending on if you meet the requirements to wield them
* Weapon damage multipliers - Weapons can give more or less practice depending on the amount of damage they deal


Planned Mechanics

There are a couple of things that I would like to get into future releases but were a little too much work to get done in the 1 week I had to make the first version, so I figured I'd list them here:

*  Gain Science practice from creating Energy Weapon ammo in the Workbench - added in SP++ v1.2.0
*  Create a little SUP HUD Bar widget for when you increase your practice, similar to Skyrim to have a less intrusive way to show practice increases
*  Anything else I think of


Requirements and Installation

SP++ hard requires NVSE and the typical suite of plugins:
*  NVSE
*  xNVSE
*  JIP NVSE
*  JohnnyGuitar
*  SUP NVSE
*  ShowOff NVSE
*  SP++ does not require Skill Practice

As SP++ is just a .esp file and a config, you can install it easily with the mod manager of your choice or manually by dropping the contents of the .zip into the Fallout New Vegas/Data/ directory and activating the plugin.


Known Issues

*  Non-English versions are not supported
*  Might not be a problem actually.  I only own the English version of the game so I'm relying on others to test for me and when they get back to me I'll have an answer for you.  Until then, your mileage may vary.

*  Performing a task immediately upon load does not gain practice
*  This is because the core script has not spun up yet, give it a second.  Like literally 1 second.

*  You can cheese practice in weapon skills by hitting dead bodies / Barter by trading the same thing back and forth / Survival by disarming and rearming traps
*  We all got exploits.  You can abuse them if you want, only god can judge you lol.

*  The bear traps in the Honest Hearts quest The Treacherous Road do not award Survival Practice for disarming
*  Should be fixed in version 1.0.1 and later, along with other bear traps that may have been missed.  Capital Wasteland bear traps should also work now.

*  Sometimes you may see "[Skill] practice increased by 0"
*  Should be fixed in version 1.3.0 and later, it just won't show messages for increases of 0.  They still happen... sometimes... for some reason... but you won't see them so who cares

*  INTENDED - You will not see practice messages when firing weapons, this is to reduce the amount of practice messages you get during combat
*  INTENDED - This also applies to all instances where multiple skills' practice are increased at once to reduce clutter


FAQ

*  Is this compatible with [insert mod here]?
*  SP++ should be compatible with every mod that does not do the same thing as it.  Custom weapons should all work fine as long as they are correctly hooked up to their corresponding skills.

*  TTW?
*  Seems to work surprisingly enough since I don't have FO3 and didn't create this with TTW in mind.  However, because of that reason, your mileage may vary.  (From testing of others though most things seem to be intact)

*  Can I install this mid-playthrough?
*  Yes, and it should work fine.  However, I recommend you just start a new game

*  Can you install this on top of Skill Practice or Practice Makes Perfect?
*  I've never used Practice Makes Perfect so uninstalling that mid-playthrough might cause problems.  However, if you are going to install this into a save that was already using a similar mod, you should at the very least uninstall that mod first, save, and then install SP++.

*  This seems like a really big change, how much performance impact is there?
*  SP++ should have virtually no performance impact, in fact it's less than half the size of the original Skill Practice. Almost every task is connected to an event handler each time you load a save so only 2 lines of code are running on a loop, and that loop happens every half-second instead of every frame so even then it's more like 1/30th of a line of code run every frame from this mod.

*  Is there any better way then New Vegas' default notification system to show all the practice notifications? I like having them but they're really intrusive
*  To my surprise, this works out of the box with B42 Notify which is just a better notification system overall.  Feel free to use that instead to keep the practice notifications without having to wade through all of them.

*  Can you implement [insert mechanic here]?
*  Probably not. If I have any ideas of my own in the future, I'll add them but I don't love being beholden to things that I create for free. You're welcome to ask but I reserve the right not to do anything

*  I'm experiencing [insert bug here], can you fix?
*  Feel free to leave a post or a bug ticket on that tab and I'll get to it when I get to it. I'm only one person and modding is only one of my hobbies so I'm not going to habitually check this for new issues and slavishly polish it to a mirror shine.

*  Can I repost this mod anywhere / make slight changes and call it my own?
*  I already feel dubious about posting this as my own mod instead of making it a patch for the original Skill Practice despite the fact that there are so many updates and changes and the implementation is different and so with that, I'm going to say no.  However, you can message me about using it and we can always talk it out for special cases

*  This is the best thing I've ever downloaded, is there anywhere I can support you?
*  *gravely voice* your respect is all I need.  In all seriousness, you should go over to the Skill Practice page and support Sweet6Shooter through the links on the bottom of that page (or by this one) as this mod was heavily inspired by theirs.