Hello All and a giant Kool-Aid Man "Ohhhhhhh Yeeeeeaah!" on the new release.
I hadn't had a whole lot of time to work on the mod in recent weeks, but I finally found some time to get together this initial release version of what I'm going to go ahead and call the "Legendary Edition" (LE) remake of this mod. Out are all of the extraneous .esps and instead the main "SME - Legendary Edition" of this mod just deals with the economy and bringing those changes to the various expansions. This is still a semi-ongoing process that is definitely still tweak-able and I'm sure that there are quests/containers/other things out there that I've missed, but 95% of economy-related content should be covered at this point and I just went through a Level 50 playtest that reinforced the general completeness of the mod.
That said, I HIGHLY recommend the accompanying Optional .esps in the Files tab. They are what I use in all of my playthroughs and are intended to work seamlessly with the changes brought from this mod. I've made them modular and optional for convenience, but if you're downloading this mod I'd strongly suggest going for the full experience. Without them, some elements of the economy will remain hyper-broken (*cough* alchemy *cough*) and will contravene the thrust of the mod. The Weapon and Armor balance is also highly recommended so that the added value of certain items is actually reflected in its stat value. Speechcraft is also highly recommended to make the Speech tree more interactive and the responsive to the new SME world. Many of the perks are reworked and (though it's still an ongoing development file), I have really high hopes for where it is trending. Finally, the Smithing and Enchanting files are high-level changes to those skills to once again bring them into convention with the rest of the mod (mainly through slight nerfs to these otherwise wickedly OP trees).
Suggested load order would be:
SME - Weights and Values.esp SME - Vendors and lists.esp SME - Lore-Friendly Alchemy.esp SME - Hearthfire.esp SME - Smithing.esp SME - Enchanting.esp SME - Speechcraft.esp SME - Dawnguard.esp SME - Dragonborn.esp <-- important that this is last!
There are way too many changes from this edition to the last edition to really go over exhaustively (not to mention, it's been a long time since the last release! ), but the main highlights would be complete Hearthfire integration, nearly complete Dawnguard and Dragonborn integration, as well as a much more thoughtful and playtested item distribution throughout the world. Many quests have had their rewards modified so nearly every quest should yield an internally consistent reward. Additionally, I went ahead and did add some new items to some vendor types to more fully differentiate and flesh their role out in the world. Specifically, check out the court mages for some nifty (and very balanced! ) new jewelry items for specific playstyles.
Finally, I'd like to solicit feedback for anybody who doubles back and tries out this new version of the mod. I'm fairly certain that mainland Skyrim is almost 100% shored up, but I'm sure that there are DLC areas where some inconsistencies will be discovered. That said, the planes of Oblivion (in Dawnguard and Dragonborn) have been largely left alone (aka high-value loot to be had), since to me it makes sense to find amazing items in the realm of a Prince. In any case, any observations (both good and bad) are entirely welcome. My modding time is in short supply, but rest assured that anything that sounds like a commonsense change will be changed for the next edition (likely on a new mod page).
Motivated by a new character roll, I've been working on the Smithing Optional file and doing a more comprehensive, Alchemy-style rebalance of the Perk tree and how equipment recipes are handled in-game.
Just like with Alchemy, I always felt guilty about using Smithing because it felt like super cheat-mode (not to mention beggared common sense!). This addon aims to combat that feeling and make Smithing into the rewarding, rationalized activity that it should have been all along!
Originally, I was going to make a patch between SME and one of the already popular Smithing rebalance mods, but nothing that I found really satisfied what I wanted, for various reasons. The closest I came to finding a system that I liked and was viable was Smithing Perk Overhaul by kryptoptr, but that mod presented too many conflicts with SME to really successfully resolve. However, I liked the thematic organization of the SPO Smithing tree and found that it was the closest to what I wanted to do in the Smithing Optional (separating Weapon/Armor improvement from the actual materials), so the end result is close to the SPO tree in organization.
Basic Outline:
-Armor Cap of 90% damage reduction (10x health) -Weapons Improve to Max of +15 damage -Armor Improves to Max of +25 (non-chest) or +50 (chest) -Perk position and total Perk number is unchanged from vanilla -Weapon/Armor improvement is divorced from Material Mastery -Right side of tree (ex-Heavy Armor) is now Improvement (20%/40%/60%/80%/100%) -Left side of tree is (ex-Light Armor) is now Metallurgy -Basic Metallurgy (Iron, Steel, Corundum, Gold, Silver) -Elven Metallurgy (Moonstone, Orichalcum, Dwarven Metal, Chitin) -Advanced Metallurgy (Quicksilver, Malachite) -Master Metallurgy (Ebony, Stalhrim, Dragon Bone) -In order to Craft a weapon, must have required Metallurgy perk, requisite skill level, and sometimes a quest -Dwarven -> Return the Lexicon Quest -Orcish -> Forgemaster's Fingers -In order to Improve equipment, must also have required Metallurgy perk (no skill requisite or quest, however) -Dragon items require all perks (except Arcane Smithing) + can only be crafted at Skyforge -Daedric items can only be crafted in the Atronach Forge -Crafting Recipes increased in cost for balance/common sense -Using Forgemaster's Fingers only way to boost Smithing skill up to Legendary
Anyway, you get the idea. Many of these things have been done before in other mods, but I wanted to combine all the features that I liked the most into a single mod that worked with SME and its item rarity. I also aimed to really make Smithing an investment since it is the most OP crafting skill in vanilla. Everything will be more difficult now, but you will no longer have to feel guilty about finally rocking your Dragonbone full suit of armor. In vanilla, Smithing was Cheat Mode; in SME it will be a grind and a large payoff.
I also enjoyed linking Tempering to the perk system, as that's something I hadn't seen before in other mods (I'm sure it exists). I never really liked how you could magically temper an Ebony sword at Smithing Level 10 and now... you can't. When a character begins, they can only craft Fur/Hide/Leather items without investing in the first Smithing Perk and they cannot temper any weapons. Non-Smithing characters are intended to be locked out of its benefits almost entirely.
Finally, I'm trying to discover/rationalize adding in some more quest prerequisites for crafting gear but am having trouble coming up with any more. Elven could come after the Northwatch Keep quest maybe? But Nordic? Ebony? Chitin? Glass? All of these highly non-standard styles probably deserve to have a quest that explains how you know how to work them, but IDK.... If anyone has any ideas, feel free to post them!
For being able to make Orcish armor, I'd consider using The Cursed Tribe. Perhaps you can play it off as Malacath blessing you with the knowledge along with the granting of the artifact. Perhaps even tying it to just any quest that allows access to the Orcish strongholds.
Elven armor may be something you can get from that one quest in Markarth from the Thalmor. Perhaps you can tie it in to the Thalmor Embassy quest from the main storyline. (Northwatch works too. Justhelping with alternatives.)
The blacksmith from Raven Rock mentions knowing a bit about Bonemold, if I'm not mistaken. May be able to tie it in to finishing that quest involving the mine there in town. Maybe Chitin can go in there too?
This mod is neither immersive, nor realistic, and by no means is it properly done. Simply scaling thigns down and (what seems like) randomy removing stuff from merchants inventory isnt really good or helpful.
Weights often times dont make sense anymore, weapons are partly cheaper than simple food and so on. It really seems like you had an awesome idea, but didnt want to put much work into it.
I appreciate what you're trying to do but I feel that the implementation is a bit too draconian for my tastes. Running through the game with very high Speech (which I *really* like the improvements you've made there) and multiple perks, I'm still barely able to earn more than a few Septims at a time, which makes it very difficult to hire a mercenary who's asking for 500 gold to back up my mage who doesn't really do fighting. Anyway, good effort, I think this just isn't to my tastes.
Also! Dagur in the Frozen Hearth in Winterhold has no inventory and won't buy anything either. Just so you know.
Some thoughts about the mod after playing for a few hours:
Prices:
I like how you changed to the merchan'ts inventory so the specific types of vendors (food, baubles, general goods, smiths etc.) become more meaningful. Still I wonder why the Riverrun smith would buy my Iron Helmet but not the other Iron armor stuff. And why does the Whiterun innkeep and her assistant sell nothing at all why the Riverrun innkeep would sell me several ingredients? It's also quite strange that buying a single Cheese Wheel costs just as much as buying two Iron Helmets and an Iron Dagger from the smith. I understand that you - in most cases - simply scaled down most prices heavily but right now I don't get ANYTHING for selling most food or potions or even some pieces of clothing to several merchants. I don't even get anything for iron ores or ingots. That makes most items completely worthless which is not my understanding of a realistic economy.
Weights:
I like that you added a weight for Septims but I am confused with some other changes. Like for example why you changed the Woodcutter's axe's weight. From the look of it, the vanilla value seems quite alright (especially if you have RL experience with chopping wood) but with your mod the axe is only at 2lbs. That's even stranger since the smaller one-handed Waraxe is five times heavier. A Whiterun's Guards armor is at 6 lbs which makes it lighter than those new pieces of peasent/citizen clothing you added.
Loot:
I found a set of 'Rusty Iron Armor' from one of the first bandits. It's armor rating is about twice the rating of the standard Iron Armor set which makes it quite powerful. But the texture is completely invisible. In the first dungeon with the Word of Power wall and the Draugr Boss I found an armor set inside the chest which apparently has been added by your mod as well. 'Ancient Nordic', four pieces. The chest piece adds 75(!) stamina and the feet 50 stamina. While it's actually increasing my stamina pool it doesn't add to the maximum weight I'm able to carry. Only increasing the stamina via leveling up does.
Compability:
Only the Main files (Vendors and Lists, Weights and Values) seem to work, ticking any of the optional files in addition cause the game to crash on start-up. Even if SME is the only mod active. There's also no elaboration about what to do with the files in the 'Script' folder included in the main download files.
Ya, I'm having that same issue I don't understand why innkeepers have NOTHING, I can see having a diminished inventory but when they're standing next to 30 bottles of wine on the shelf why is there nothing available?
Actually considering the technology, civil war, and the fact that professional writers actually exist this more likely takes place during the Renaissance or Reformation era, in which case an extremely meager economy would be unrealistic.
hmm.. with usual sets of patches (USLP, WAFR, CCF, CCOR, SPOR) and "Skyrim Unleveled" (ID. 75643), i've found myself in rather peculiar situation. level 50. problem is with spawning objects around the world. Ebony equipment in Imperial fort, Deadric arrows at bandit checkpoint - stuff like that. oh, and it looks like every place i go have pretty much highest tier of opponents ready for my arrival. it's rough. what kind of mistake i did? bashed patch? wrong order? i'm not using any additional plugins of SME since numbers were wrong (perks, rates). thanks in advance!
ps. i'm using LOOT, pretty much every time.
<b>added</b> nvm that, i've started over with morrowloot, trade&barter and scarcity.
I like this mod, but I am concerned about the potions. Looking at them and their very cheap prices (1-5 gold) and their effects (a few hundred health restored) seems overpowering. Maybe something is wrong with my mod or that is the way it was meant to be. I would like to use the vanilla potions or CACO potions instead. Is their an easy way to replace the potions?
It is definitely intended to be that way, as one of my main gripes as a non-Alchemy/Restoration warrior in vanilla was how awful the gold/healing ratio was. The idea is to make each type of potion actually viable and frequently used for its own place in the game; like, Minor Restore Health potions are all you'll need in the early game, which is fine since this is the time of the game when you are typically at your poorest.
Playing with SME you WILL be poor and spending gold for consumables is a very legit gold sink, especially when you could be buying better equipment (or food/lodging) instead. There's also an implicit assumption of playing at a high-ish difficulty setting, so that healing is something that occurs frequently, eating up most of your potions every dungeon. I've just started a warrior character and they have spent about 70% of their gold on potions alone, resupplying after every dungeon.
By way of example, if you're doing a Bandit Chief bounty quest worth 50 gold and you use 5x 4gold 300 health pots during the process, you've consumed 5 * 4 = 20 gold / 50 gold = 40% of your earned gold on potions alone.
I would suggest just giving it a go on a warrior build and see how it plays. I'd almost guarantee that it won't feel overpowered after a long slog of a dungeon or dragon fight, especially if you're playing on Master or Legendary.
Unfortunately, I don't use CACO and most of the changes in that mod are incompatible with the design decisions from SME. Overwriting the potions from SME would restore vanilla properties, but that would include raising their prices to incompatible levels for their actual effect....
I actually prefer it this way. Skyrim is in the middle of a civil war. Dragons roam freely. Mercenaries and adventurers are everywhere. An alchemist is a business owner, and should be expected to make the most effective potions at the lowest price possible. Garbage potions ruin reputations and kill businesses. And people.
On a side note, this (not sure if it was intentional or not) adds a further level of realism to bandit camps.
Bandits all have a bounty on their head. They can't just walk into town and visit Arcadia for some potions. So, many camps often have a mage of some sort in their group. They end up becoming a necessary evil (as Nords in general don't approve of magic, and even using healing spells will make them freak out in their ignorance) for their self-sufficiency against other adventurers, soldiers, nomads (such as the Vigilants), mercenaries, bodyguards (like with the caravans), and others who may cause them harm. Numerous bandit camps have some sort a number of dead bodies of failed adventurers, hunters, merchants, or even other bandits. When you don't know when the next attempt at your life will be (and a number of journals often mention mutiny of some sort), you'd be trying pretty hard to be in the best condition you can, as quickly as you can.
Okay, I'm pretty sure this is from your mod (otherwise I'll just look a fool ), just not sure which part of it, as I downloaded all of the optional files as well.
Assuming this is the case, I love what you did with the armor and weapon perks and their base values. The bonuses to critical hits seems so much more realistic of improved skill, as opposed to just more base damage all of the time.
I never thought of it this way, but now that I've played it, it's so much more appreciated.
Yes, that's definitely the the Weapon and Armor Balance and you're totally right that that was the philosophy behind those changes. I didn't want to depart from vanilla gameplay that much but thought that attack speed and critical hits were strangely not really a thing in vanilla, even though they are in most other RPGs. I figured that from an RP perspective a character would start off mostly weak and awkward with a given weapon, but then they'd become quicker and more agile as they gained familiarity. It also makes gaining those skills almost essential to really "unlock" the use of higher tiers of weapons, as the weapon speed of items slowly decreases as the tier of the weapon increases (if you console yourself a Daedric Warhammer with no perks you'll see what I mean haha). With max perks, the highest tiers of weapons end up being as fast as they are in vanilla, so it all evens out in the end.
I also wanted to increase the gain in damage output between min skill and max skill, so that levelling up a skill would be more rewarding in ways other than just perks. I think it goes 0% damage at 0 skill (no idea how to even use the weapon) to 100% at 100 skill (finally know how to fight effectively). Armor, IIRC goes 50% at 0 skill to 100% at 100 skill, as I didn't want armor to be completely useless when you first start wearing it.
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646 comments
Hello All and a giant Kool-Aid Man "Ohhhhhhh Yeeeeeaah!" on the new release.
I hadn't had a whole lot of time to work on the mod in recent weeks, but I finally found some time to get together this initial release version of what I'm going to go ahead and call the "Legendary Edition" (LE) remake of this mod. Out are all of the extraneous .esps and instead the main "SME - Legendary Edition" of this mod just deals with the economy and bringing those changes to the various expansions. This is still a semi-ongoing process that is definitely still tweak-able and I'm sure that there are quests/containers/other things out there that I've missed, but 95% of economy-related content should be covered at this point and I just went through a Level 50 playtest that reinforced the general completeness of the mod.
That said, I HIGHLY recommend the accompanying Optional .esps in the Files tab. They are what I use in all of my playthroughs and are intended to work seamlessly with the changes brought from this mod. I've made them modular and optional for convenience, but if you're downloading this mod I'd strongly suggest going for the full experience. Without them, some elements of the economy will remain hyper-broken (*cough* alchemy *cough*) and will contravene the thrust of the mod. The Weapon and Armor balance is also highly recommended so that the added value of certain items is actually reflected in its stat value. Speechcraft is also highly recommended to make the Speech tree more interactive and the responsive to the new SME world. Many of the perks are reworked and (though it's still an ongoing development file), I have really high hopes for where it is trending. Finally, the Smithing and Enchanting files are high-level changes to those skills to once again bring them into convention with the rest of the mod (mainly through slight nerfs to these otherwise wickedly OP trees).
Suggested load order would be:
SME - Weights and Values.esp
SME - Vendors and lists.esp
SME - Lore-Friendly Alchemy.esp
SME - Hearthfire.esp
SME - Smithing.esp
SME - Enchanting.esp
SME - Speechcraft.esp
SME - Dawnguard.esp
SME - Dragonborn.esp <-- important that this is last!
There are way too many changes from this edition to the last edition to really go over exhaustively (not to mention, it's been a long time since the last release! ), but the main highlights would be complete Hearthfire integration, nearly complete Dawnguard and Dragonborn integration, as well as a much more thoughtful and playtested item distribution throughout the world. Many quests have had their rewards modified so nearly every quest should yield an internally consistent reward. Additionally, I went ahead and did add some new items to some vendor types to more fully differentiate and flesh their role out in the world. Specifically, check out the court mages for some nifty (and very balanced! ) new jewelry items for specific playstyles.
Finally, I'd like to solicit feedback for anybody who doubles back and tries out this new version of the mod. I'm fairly certain that mainland Skyrim is almost 100% shored up, but I'm sure that there are DLC areas where some inconsistencies will be discovered. That said, the planes of Oblivion (in Dawnguard and Dragonborn) have been largely left alone (aka high-value loot to be had), since to me it makes sense to find amazing items in the realm of a Prince. In any case, any observations (both good and bad) are entirely welcome. My modding time is in short supply, but rest assured that anything that sounds like a commonsense change will be changed for the next edition (likely on a new mod page).
Good Luck,
sukeban!
Hello All,
Here for a quick update hit!
Motivated by a new character roll, I've been working on the Smithing Optional file and doing a more comprehensive, Alchemy-style rebalance of the Perk tree and how equipment recipes are handled in-game.
Just like with Alchemy, I always felt guilty about using Smithing because it felt like super cheat-mode (not to mention beggared common sense!). This addon aims to combat that feeling and make Smithing into the rewarding, rationalized activity that it should have been all along!
Originally, I was going to make a patch between SME and one of the already popular Smithing rebalance mods, but nothing that I found really satisfied what I wanted, for various reasons. The closest I came to finding a system that I liked and was viable was Smithing Perk Overhaul by kryptoptr, but that mod presented too many conflicts with SME to really successfully resolve. However, I liked the thematic organization of the SPO Smithing tree and found that it was the closest to what I wanted to do in the Smithing Optional (separating Weapon/Armor improvement from the actual materials), so the end result is close to the SPO tree in organization.
Basic Outline:
-Armor Cap of 90% damage reduction (10x health)
-Weapons Improve to Max of +15 damage
-Armor Improves to Max of +25 (non-chest) or +50 (chest)
-Perk position and total Perk number is unchanged from vanilla
-Weapon/Armor improvement is divorced from Material Mastery
-Right side of tree (ex-Heavy Armor) is now Improvement (20%/40%/60%/80%/100%)
-Left side of tree is (ex-Light Armor) is now Metallurgy
-Basic Metallurgy (Iron, Steel, Corundum, Gold, Silver)
-Elven Metallurgy (Moonstone, Orichalcum, Dwarven Metal, Chitin)
-Advanced Metallurgy (Quicksilver, Malachite)
-Master Metallurgy (Ebony, Stalhrim, Dragon Bone)
-In order to Craft a weapon, must have required Metallurgy perk, requisite skill level, and sometimes a quest
-Dwarven -> Return the Lexicon Quest
-Orcish -> Forgemaster's Fingers
-In order to Improve equipment, must also have required Metallurgy perk (no skill requisite or quest, however)
-Dragon items require all perks (except Arcane Smithing) + can only be crafted at Skyforge
-Daedric items can only be crafted in the Atronach Forge
-Crafting Recipes increased in cost for balance/common sense
-Using Forgemaster's Fingers only way to boost Smithing skill up to Legendary
Anyway, you get the idea. Many of these things have been done before in other mods, but I wanted to combine all the features that I liked the most into a single mod that worked with SME and its item rarity. I also aimed to really make Smithing an investment since it is the most OP crafting skill in vanilla. Everything will be more difficult now, but you will no longer have to feel guilty about finally rocking your Dragonbone full suit of armor. In vanilla, Smithing was Cheat Mode; in SME it will be a grind and a large payoff.
I also enjoyed linking Tempering to the perk system, as that's something I hadn't seen before in other mods (I'm sure it exists). I never really liked how you could magically temper an Ebony sword at Smithing Level 10 and now... you can't. When a character begins, they can only craft Fur/Hide/Leather items without investing in the first Smithing Perk and they cannot temper any weapons. Non-Smithing characters are intended to be locked out of its benefits almost entirely.
Finally, I'm trying to discover/rationalize adding in some more quest prerequisites for crafting gear but am having trouble coming up with any more. Elven could come after the Northwatch Keep quest maybe? But Nordic? Ebony? Chitin? Glass? All of these highly non-standard styles probably deserve to have a quest that explains how you know how to work them, but IDK.... If anyone has any ideas, feel free to post them!
Thanks!
Elven armor may be something you can get from that one quest in Markarth from the Thalmor. Perhaps you can tie it in to the Thalmor Embassy quest from the main storyline. (Northwatch works too. Justhelping with alternatives.)
The blacksmith from Raven Rock mentions knowing a bit about Bonemold, if I'm not mistaken. May be able to tie it in to finishing that quest involving the mine there in town. Maybe Chitin can go in there too?
Simply scaling thigns down and (what seems like) randomy removing stuff from merchants inventory isnt really good or helpful.
Weights often times dont make sense anymore, weapons are partly cheaper than simple food and so on.
It really seems like you had an awesome idea, but didnt want to put much work into it.
Also! Dagur in the Frozen Hearth in Winterhold has no inventory and won't buy anything either. Just so you know.
Prices:
I like how you changed to the merchan'ts inventory so the specific types of vendors (food, baubles, general goods, smiths etc.) become more meaningful. Still I wonder why the Riverrun smith would buy my Iron Helmet but not the other Iron armor stuff. And why does the Whiterun innkeep and her assistant sell nothing at all why the Riverrun innkeep would sell me several ingredients? It's also quite strange that buying a single Cheese Wheel costs just as much as buying two Iron Helmets and an Iron Dagger from the smith. I understand that you - in most cases - simply scaled down most prices heavily but right now I don't get ANYTHING for selling most food or potions or even some pieces of clothing to several merchants. I don't even get anything for iron ores or ingots. That makes most items completely worthless which is not my understanding of a realistic economy.
Weights:
I like that you added a weight for Septims but I am confused with some other changes. Like for example why you changed the Woodcutter's axe's weight. From the look of it, the vanilla value seems quite alright (especially if you have RL experience with chopping wood) but with your mod the axe is only at 2lbs. That's even stranger since the smaller one-handed Waraxe is five times heavier. A Whiterun's Guards armor is at 6 lbs which makes it lighter than those new pieces of peasent/citizen clothing you added.
Loot:
I found a set of 'Rusty Iron Armor' from one of the first bandits. It's armor rating is about twice the rating of the standard Iron Armor set which makes it quite powerful. But the texture is completely invisible. In the first dungeon with the Word of Power wall and the Draugr Boss I found an armor set inside the chest which apparently has been added by your mod as well. 'Ancient Nordic', four pieces. The chest piece adds 75(!) stamina and the feet 50 stamina. While it's actually increasing my stamina pool it doesn't add to the maximum weight I'm able to carry. Only increasing the stamina via leveling up does.
Compability:
Only the Main files (Vendors and Lists, Weights and Values) seem to work, ticking any of the optional files in addition cause the game to crash on start-up. Even if SME is the only mod active. There's also no elaboration about what to do with the files in the 'Script' folder included in the main download files.
Was it the by Bethesda incorrect placement of late medieval items and stuff?
I'm geniunly interested
what kind of mistake i did? bashed patch? wrong order? i'm not using any additional plugins of SME since numbers were wrong (perks, rates).
thanks in advance!
ps. i'm using LOOT, pretty much every time.
<b>added</b> nvm that, i've started over with morrowloot, trade&barter and scarcity.
It is definitely intended to be that way, as one of my main gripes as a non-Alchemy/Restoration warrior in vanilla was how awful the gold/healing ratio was. The idea is to make each type of potion actually viable and frequently used for its own place in the game; like, Minor Restore Health potions are all you'll need in the early game, which is fine since this is the time of the game when you are typically at your poorest.
Playing with SME you WILL be poor and spending gold for consumables is a very legit gold sink, especially when you could be buying better equipment (or food/lodging) instead. There's also an implicit assumption of playing at a high-ish difficulty setting, so that healing is something that occurs frequently, eating up most of your potions every dungeon. I've just started a warrior character and they have spent about 70% of their gold on potions alone, resupplying after every dungeon.
By way of example, if you're doing a Bandit Chief bounty quest worth 50 gold and you use 5x 4gold 300 health pots during the process, you've consumed 5 * 4 = 20 gold / 50 gold = 40% of your earned gold on potions alone.
I would suggest just giving it a go on a warrior build and see how it plays. I'd almost guarantee that it won't feel overpowered after a long slog of a dungeon or dragon fight, especially if you're playing on Master or Legendary.
Unfortunately, I don't use CACO and most of the changes in that mod are incompatible with the design decisions from SME. Overwriting the potions from SME would restore vanilla properties, but that would include raising their prices to incompatible levels for their actual effect....
On a side note, this (not sure if it was intentional or not) adds a further level of realism to bandit camps.
Bandits all have a bounty on their head. They can't just walk into town and visit Arcadia for some potions. So, many camps often have a mage of some sort in their group. They end up becoming a necessary evil (as Nords in general don't approve of magic, and even using healing spells will make them freak out in their ignorance) for their self-sufficiency against other adventurers, soldiers, nomads (such as the Vigilants), mercenaries, bodyguards (like with the caravans), and others who may cause them harm. Numerous bandit camps have some sort a number of dead bodies of failed adventurers, hunters, merchants, or even other bandits. When you don't know when the next attempt at your life will be (and a number of journals often mention mutiny of some sort), you'd be trying pretty hard to be in the best condition you can, as quickly as you can.
Assuming this is the case, I love what you did with the armor and weapon perks and their base values. The bonuses to critical hits seems so much more realistic of improved skill, as opposed to just more base damage all of the time.
I never thought of it this way, but now that I've played it, it's so much more appreciated.
Yes, that's definitely the the Weapon and Armor Balance and you're totally right that that was the philosophy behind those changes. I didn't want to depart from vanilla gameplay that much but thought that attack speed and critical hits were strangely not really a thing in vanilla, even though they are in most other RPGs. I figured that from an RP perspective a character would start off mostly weak and awkward with a given weapon, but then they'd become quicker and more agile as they gained familiarity. It also makes gaining those skills almost essential to really "unlock" the use of higher tiers of weapons, as the weapon speed of items slowly decreases as the tier of the weapon increases (if you console yourself a Daedric Warhammer with no perks you'll see what I mean haha). With max perks, the highest tiers of weapons end up being as fast as they are in vanilla, so it all evens out in the end.
I also wanted to increase the gain in damage output between min skill and max skill, so that levelling up a skill would be more rewarding in ways other than just perks. I think it goes 0% damage at 0 skill (no idea how to even use the weapon) to 100% at 100 skill (finally know how to fight effectively). Armor, IIRC goes 50% at 0 skill to 100% at 100 skill, as I didn't want armor to be completely useless when you first start wearing it.