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Dynamic Skills -- by Prometheos
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1. The Concept:
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One of the strongest features of Oblivion is that it's a 'Role Playing Game.' Most of the criticisms leveled at the designers of this masterpiece, is that they weakened the leveling system to appeal to the 'game-console' user. Dynamic Skills attempts to address this weakness by introducing a fundamentally new concept, which is designed to reinforce the role-playing aspect of the leveling system. By installing Dynamic Skills, you allow your neglected skills to depreciate over time.

By allowing Skills and Attributes to be fluid, a truer form of role-playing may be experienced. The adventurer, who uses shield and blade without guile or deception, over several game weeks, will soon discover that his sneak skill has eroded. The mage, who trains his destruction skills by flaming mud-crabs for several days, may notice his blade skill has become a bit rusty.

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2. The Design:
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I modeled the depreciating skill concept from my own real life experience. Physical skills which are not practised simply fade away, as anyone who has played a competative sport will attest. Mental skills, although they are slower to fade, are also subject to loss.

Oblivion skills fall neatly into the two main categories of 'mind' and 'body'. To state the obvious, Intelligence, Personality, and Willpower are mental attributes, and Agility, Endurance, Speed, and Strength are physical attributes. The skills associated with these attributes, may be further divided into 4 Tiers.

Tier 1 represents skills which are easiest to lose and require more attention to keep them from falling. Physical skills such as Blade, Blunt and Hand to Hand, need practice. This is seen throughout Cyrodiil, as swordsmen, hammermen, and pugilists, practice their skills daily. Tier 2 physical skills, represented by Armorer, Block and Marksman, take longer to fade but still require maintenance. Tier 3 physical skills are Acrobatics, Athletics, and Sneak, which last a bit longer and represent a fine degree of physical fitness. Finally, the Tier 4 physical skills are Heavy Armor and Light Armor, which are passive skills and the longest lasting.

Tier 1 mental skills are Illusion and Alteration. To be an effective stage illusionist requires much practice. The Tier 2 mental skills of Conjuration, Destruction and Mysticism, and the Tier 3 skills of Restoration and Alchemy, represent knowledge that isn't as easy to lose. The Tier 4 skills of Mercantile and Speechcraft, are skills which I've deemed to be the easiest to maintain.

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3. The Mechanics:
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3.1 The Forces;
There are several mitigating forces that determine how many hours of game time must pass before a skill is vulnerable to erosion.
a) The Tier provides a baseline such that each Tier increase provides a multiplier effect. A Tier 4 skill has 4 times the duration of a Tier 1 skill.
b) Another force is the Skill level itself. Low level skills take a very long time to get worse. Highly trained skills, on the other hand, need more attention to maintain their peaks.
c) A third force, is the governing attribute of the skill. If a skill is trained repetitively until it exceeds it's governing attribute's level, then the skill will also have a tendency to fall at a faster rate. Conversely, if a governing attribute is higher than the skill, then a proportionate number of extra hours are added to the skill's timer.
d) A fourth force, is the 'Major Skill' force. Each of the player's Major Skills and any Specialization Skill ( Combat, Magic, Stealth ) gains aditional time.
e) And lastly, there is an overall modifier that represents the warrior's effectiveness. This multiplier ranges from 0.2 at the novice end ( undisciplined ) to 2.1 at the master end ( seasoned ). This value may be manually set - see Section 4 (Tweaks) for details.

3.2 Combat, Magic and Stealth Association;
Although Specialization Skills were previously mentioned, I've added 3 additional timer extensions, representing a particular skill's actual usage. As skills are improved, the associated timer will increase in value. As skills are reduced, the timers also reduce. As an example, any Combat skill, such as Blade, Blunt, or Armorer, can add time to the Combat timer as well as utilize it's improved value. Similarly, Magic skills and Stealth skills can contribute to, and draw upon their respective associated timers. Over time, this helps to accentuate any personal category preferences. However, this additional element is only available if the warrior occasionally sleeps.

3.3 Training Effect and the Honed Skill;
Any newly improved or trained skill, acquires the attribute of 'Honed' and a point of Fortify is added to the skill. A training session will have a multiplier effect on the Honed Skill, when multiple Skills Training is purchased from a professioal trainer. The Honed skill also gains a further timer extension, which remains in effect until the end of that particular skill's time period.

3.4 The Effect of Sleep; (Optional-See Section 4)
Sleeping has been given a restorative role in 'Dynamic Skills'. The player may acquire, perks based on 10% of your lowest value Attribute ( excluding Luck ), or, up to a maximum of 7 points of Restore Fatigue and each Attribute ( except Luck ) can get 7 points of Fortify, just by sleeping. There is also 35 points of Resist Disease available, which makes you more immune to 'Helljoint' and 'Collywobbles' but the real benefit comes from the fortified attributes, which indirectly adds extra time to the skill timer of the skill that has improved. So sleep becomes a valuable resource, instead of a nuisance. Naturally this is a temporary effect. How many hours it lasts, will depend on the amount of time passed and the value of the player's lowest Attribute. Additionally, skills associated with either Combat, Magic or Stealth will also receive a benefit. Each group of skills is summed and each skill in the highest group receives a point of Fortify.

Using 'Cure Disease' potions or spells or using the Chapel Healing Altars and Wilderness Shrines, always begins a 'Curing Fever' session. The disease becomes cured, if you had one, but dissipating the 'Curing Fever' requires sleep. Equally, the passing of time or the use of additional 'Cure Disease' potions or spells will escalate the intensity of the 'Curing Fever'.

3.5 Damaged Health and Automatic Healing; (Optional-See Section 4)
Although 1 point of Restore Health is applied as a Constant Effect (automatic healing) and the Restore Health potions and spells still work to restore your character's immediate Health, taking damage in a fight, now carries some additional consequences. Getting 'wounded' now reduces the character's overall Health ( Base value ) even as the immediate Health is restored. After taking Health damage in a fight, Base damage is applied slowly, to simulate 'wound bleeding', The damage may be immediately halted by using a restore health potion or applying a restore health spell, but only if you are fully healed. If the 'Health bar' shows any damage, then you'll continue to 'bleed' until the 'Health bar' is fully restored. Base Health damage is also restored over time, more quickly with a higher 'Endurance' attribute, but more slowly with a higher number of wounds. This effect provides an added role-playing element for those who don't want to rely on 'Restore Health' potions and spells. It also makes your forays into battle become more strategic in nature. If you took horrific damage in your previous fight, your next encounter might be your last, unless your wounds have first healed a bit.

Healing wounds can reopen. Minor hits during battle or short distance "fast travel", probably won't reopen a wound, but if you've just been severely hit, or "fast travelled" a significant distance, then you can almost expect it. Reopened wounds won't immediately affect you unless you take some health damage, of course, but be aware, that any healing that previously occurred is now lost.

However, base healing can be speeded up significantly either by Sleeping (a:) applying 'Bandages' (b:) or Acquiring a Daedra Heart.

a:) Sleeping.
This is one of the "Vanilla Oblivion's" ways to fully heal your character, therefore sleep provides the greatest 'healing effect' for your character. Up to half of your base health damage is restored, just by sleeping. However, after those healing points are applied, a certain amount of 'awake' time is required in order to recharge. This recharge time will be proportionately less, if your character spends at least some of the time in "walk mode".

b:) Bandages.
A 'Bandage Cutter' is added to the character's inventory when 'Natural Healing' is first enabled. With 'Cloth' and 'Folded Cloth' items in your inventory mouse-clicking on the 'Bandage Cutter' will change the cloth into a large number of bandages. The 'gold value' of the Bandage Cutter self modifies to reflect the number of 'bare wounds' that you may have. Mouse-clicking on the 'Bandages' will then apply some of those 'Bandages' to the bare wounds. Applying bandages to your wounds enables your 'Restoration' skill to reduce the healing time. This can significantly reduce the overall time it takes to heal. Bandages don't last forever, and from time to time, some may need replacing. This is especially true after sleeping.

c:) Acquiring a Daedra Heart.
Daedra Hearts have remarkable healing properties and may be normally used to create health restoration potions. However, if you have one in your inventory along with a mortar and pestle, mouse-clicking on the 'Bandage Cutter' will automatically create an ointment for your wounds. Up to half of your Base Health Damage may be healed this way for each healing time period.

3.6 The Effect on Attributes;
Although this has been rare in my gaming experience, reduced Skills could eventually lead to reduced Attributes. The accumulated loss of 10 skill points from any of the skills under an associated governing attribute, will depreciate that Attribute by 1 point.

Automatic Level Up: (Optional-See Section 4)
An additional perk has been added when Leveling Up. If any of your 3 chosen attributes is less than 5, the difference is 'banked' and saved for later use. This reserve of unused attributes, is payed out every 25 hours of game time. However, you must also have enough accumulated Renown, ( Fame + Infamy) to qualify. Otherwise the unused attribute points remain in the bank.

The Level Up event may be set to occur automatically (without sleeping). When enough Major Skills are accumulated the Level Up Menu will appear, allowing you to add attribute points.

3.7 Achieving Stasis; ( The ultimate goal )
This mod is only a success if it blends with existing game elements (or mods) and works in the background adding value to the player's gaming experience. The idea of maxing-out all the character's skills and attributes, always seemed to run counter to the game's basic premise of role playing. Otherwise, there would be no apparent logic to having different stats for Race, Sex, Character Class, and choice of favored attributes. If your goal is maxing-out your character's skills and attributes, then this mod won't prevent that. However it will make that goal challenging, as your character can no longer rest on the laurels of past achievement.

If 'Dynamic Skills' is applied to a new game, you'll notice that the majority of your skills will acquire the 'Honed' attribute. This is due the relative ease of improving low level skills in the 'Oblivion' game. However, once the player begins concentrating on a few favorite skills, particularly 'Major Skills' then neglected skills will begin to fall relative to utilized skills. Many players will 'overtrain' one skill at a time. Some will put a weight on the 'spell casting' key, to keep it enabled, then walk away from the game while it 'auto-trains'. With 'Dynamic Skills' this is counter productive, as time is proportionally added to a skill in the ratio of (attribute : skill) or formulaically as a percentage: (attribute / skill x 100). A Skill with a value lower than it's governing Attribute receives a longer timer period and a Skill that is higher, receives a shorter time.

If you are neglecting certain skills for very long periods, those skills could eventually revert back to their Level 1 values. However, no skill or attribute will ever depreciate lower than it's original Level 1 value, based on the Race, Sex, Birthsign and the choice of Major Skills and Specialization Category of your character.

After a given amount of 'Game Time', the player's character will achieve a stasis of skills and attributes. All the completely neglected skills will have reverted to their Level 1 values and all utilized skills will have a natural value, likely based on your own role playing preferences. Happy gaming ....

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4. Tweaks:
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To access the 'Tweaks Menu' have your character cast the 'Dynamic Skills Menu' Lesser Power.
Available options include: ( and default states )
1: Scaling Factor ( 1.0 )
2: Sleep Perk ( Disabled )
3: Automatic Healing ( Disabled )
4: Automatic Level Up ( Disabled )
5: Remove Dynamic Skills
6: Reassign Attributes
7: View Skill Hours

4.1 Scaling Factor ==>
You may alter the scaling factor of the depreciation timers. The scaling factor is normally automatic and at the lowest end of the range represents a green undisplined warrior. Over time, as skills accumulate, a seasoned warrior will emerge and the timer multiplier increases. However, this may be altered manually. 'Higher ( + 0.1 )' and 'Lower ( - 0.1 )'
'Automatic' ( autorange is 0.2 to 2.1+ )
0.5 ---- roughly equivalent to ALL skills at Apprentice level
1.0 ---- Journeyman
1.5 ---- Expert
2.0 ---- Master
The effect on any timer won't be noticed until the scripts do their normal cycling.

4.2 Sleep Perk ==>
'Enable' ---- adds the restorative effect of 'Sleep'.

4.3 Automatic Healing ==>
'Enable' ---- Adds the Automatic Healing function.
'Auto Healing in Combat ---- allows healing to continue during a battle.
'Messages' ---- allows healing related informative messages.

4.4 Automatic LevelUp ==>
'Set Auto Run' ---- Access the Level up menu as soon as enough Major skill points are acquired. ( no sleep required.)
'Set Run Once' ---- Auto LevelUp occurs once, then reverts to Vanilla Oblivion.
'Disable' ---- Revert to Vanilla Oblivion

4.5 Remove Dynamic Skills ==>
This disables all the scripts and removes all the Base Spell Effects. 'Dynamic Skills' logs all Level, Attribute, and Skill changes that it makes, and restores those changes on exit.

4.6 Reassign Attributes ==>
This menu lets you manually reassign any skill to any attribute ( except Luck ). If you are running another mod that uses reasigned skills/attributes then you may use this menu to make 'Dynamic Skills' match. There are no built-in limits or checks, for this menu, so if you think you've made a mistake while reasigning attributes, there is a 'Restore Defaults' selection available once you've made any changes.

4.7 View Skill Hours ==>
If you are curious about the state of the skill timers, then you may view them with this menu. The Skill timers are initially assigned a default value based on their Tier Level and their minimum values. As skills are improved or as the timers run down to zero, these default values are substituted with statistical numbers based on usage and the character's Race, Sex, Birthsign, the choice of major skills, and the player's favored skill category.

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5. Installation:
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Place in the Oblivion\Data folder and remember to select DynamicSkills.esp as a data file.
Once it's running, a Quest dialog will instruct you to cast the 'Dynamic Skills Menu' Lesser Power to make changes. The scripts will require a few moments to gather information about Major and Minor Skills, Specialization and the effect that your Character's Race, Sex and Birthsign have on the Attributes.

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6. Possible Conflicts:
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It is expected to work with any other leveling mods. Even if another loaded mod changes the character's Race, Sex, or Birthsign, 'Dynamic Skills' will rebuild the character profile within 3 Game Days, with any new conditions accounted for, which will then be reflected in the Skill timers etc. Additionally, if you are using a mod that reduces the rate of skill improvement, 'Dynamic Skills' will reflect this with additional time added to the Skill timers.

If you are using a Leveling Mod that limits the Level-Up attribute gain to 1 point, then this will be detected and 'Dynamic Skills' won't provide any further attribute bonuses.

6.1 Other Considerations;
I've designed the scripts to be as low impact as possible, so if a skill happens to update during battle, it might not receive the honed skill attribute until after the battle concludes. Also the nominal cycle time for any changes to skills being updated by the scripts is 5 to 10 seconds on average, for normal skills, and a maximum of approximately a minute for the script to acknowledge other skill improvers, like the Skeleton Key or Vampirism.

Using Automatic LevelUp: Since the Game Engine only ratchets-up Major Skill increases, this impacts Level-Up elegibility. The actual "skill count" is not evaluated, instead a "skill increase" gets logged in an index. Now, because 'Dynamic Skills' allows skills to fall, when those major skills eventually increase again, the Game Engine will re-apply major skill increases toward leveling up. As a result, the Game Engine preserves an invalid eligibility for Level Up purposes. If your character sleeps, at this point, then you will see the Level Up Screen asking for 3 Attribute Choices. However, if some major skills have dropped a point or two and then increased, then the Game Engine will no longer be in sync. 'Automatic LevelUp' will then revert your Current 'New Level' to your previous level and remove the added attributes as well. This effectively protects the character from having to engage high level enemies as your skills get lowered from neglect.

6.2 Quitting the mod;
During gameplay, you may Cast the 'Dynamic Skills Menu' Lesser Power spell, then select 'Remove Dynamic Skills'. This stops 'Dynamic Skills' and removes any of it's spells. Due to the scripts tracking all active changes, any Attribute gains or losses are replaced, any Skills that depreciated are restored and any Levels that were set back are resumed. The next time you start Oblivion, simply uncheck the mod from your 'Data Files' list.

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7. Conditions and Terms of Use:
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Notwithstanding the Bethesda Copyrights regarding any scripts, computer codes, documents and graphics, it is asserted that these program scripts are free software; you can redistribute them and/or modify them under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.

These program scripts are distributed in the hope that they will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

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Technical Section
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Built with TES:Construction Set 1.2.404
On Game TES:Oblivion 1.2.0416
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Revision History
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March 13, 2009 -- Rev 0.1
Initial Concept
June 12, 2009 -- Rev 1.0
Initial Release.
Added Menu with options
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