Skyprime Alpha #1.1 RC#1

1 =Mission=Statement=

While Bethesda clearly tried to give DOVAHKIIN the greatest amount of freedom in
playstyle choice and character-development possible; they as clearly failed to
keep all choices viable due to large discrepancies in combat effectiveness.
The goal of this plugin is to balance Skyrims combat gameplay utilizing a minimum
number of changes to create an environement where there is true freedom of choice
with only the smallest necessary modifications to the game itself.

Regardless of which method of battle your DOVAHKIIN chooses: It should be as
effective as any other method but still make a large difference in gameplay
due to given advantages or disadvantages (like Dual-Melees lack of blocking).
The goal is not to make combat more uniform, just roughly equally powerful.
As a side-effect differences become more pronounced and combat more difficult.

Cornerstones of design are:

::minimum intervention
The fewer and smaller the changes the better.
::low level approach
Trying to fix underlying problems instead of symptoms.
::calculation based balancing
The numbers are based on math and should work well.
::no changes to the base
Game content is virtually unaffected. Changes affect mostly single variables.

There are other mods with a similar mission but very different approach,
commonly including wide ranging changes to all aspects of the game.
The mission is shared but Skyprime goes the other direction.

2 =Changes=

________::skyprime_1.1.esp

__General variables
::Maximum flight distance of targeted spells and arrows is now 4000 (was 2000)
You can now hit flying Dragons more reliably (it's still difficult, tho).

__Alchemy
::Fortify Restoration now reduces the cost of Restoration spells instead of
increasing the power of buffs received. Prevents extremely severe exploits.
Nice potion for Mages. Fair considering there are Potions of Ultimate Healing.

__Magic variables
::fMagicDualCastingEffectivenessBase = 2.4 (from 2.2) [cost multiplier still 2.8]
Dual-casting spells now have 240% effect (up from 220%), they still cost 280%.

__Enchanting
::Fortify OneHanded, TwoHanded & Archery have base power reduced to 6 (from 13)
Limits created enchantments to roughly +24% damage (with maximum optimization).
::The Enchantments used in "+X% damage" Generic Magic Items: Archery, 1H & 2H
has been adjusted in accordance with the Enchanting change above.
They cap at +20% per piece now.

__Perks
::Add 10% damage to each level of the Barbarian perk (+50% total)
Makes 2H more powerful than Bows and single 1H weapons.

__NPC variables
::fUnarmedCreatureDPSMult = 2 (was 1)
::fUnarmedNPCDPSMult = 2 (was 1.575)
Unarmed NPCs, creatures and animals (most of them) now do more damage.
::Leveled actors relative level changed from (EASY / MEDIUM / HARD / VERY HARD)
::0.34 / 0.67 / 1 / 1.25 to 0.5 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5
This means most leveled enemies will be of the players level or higher if they
are supposed to be difficult. This does not affect an Actors maximum level.
::fDamageSkillMax = 8 (was 3) [8 times base weapon damage at 100 skill]
::fArmorRatingMax = 5 (was 2.5) [5 times base armor rating at 100 skill]
Brings NPCs up to speed. The player has all manner of items to improve his or
her statistics; NPCs do not, so their skill level must make up for this.
For comparison, the player has a value of 1.5 (+50% bonus at 100 skill) but can
accumulate a total damage bonus of almost +4000% (compared to the NPCs +800%).
Master difficulty changes these numbers to +2000% and +1600%. It should be hard.

__Smithing
::fSmithingWeaponMax = 3 (was 10)
::fSmithingArmorMax = 7 (was 10)
Reduces the maximum amount weapons and armor can be improved. This works in
conjunction with the formula below. Armor is mostly unaffected, but weapons
become quite hard to improve without the respective perk and even then the total
gain is "only" about double damage (very difficult to reach).

__Smithing_Improvement_Formula
::
:: 1 + ( EffectiveSmithingSkill - MinimumSkillRequired ) / 100
::
__changed to
::
:: 1 + EffectiveSmithingSkill / ( MinimumSkillRequired * 5 )
::
I used an Excel sheet for this. RequiredSkills are between 5 and 90.
EffectiveSkill can be as high as 500. Perks also double the results.

________::difficulty_1.0.esp (OBSOLETE, difficulty slider changes, standalone)

This file currently is no longer included or necessary.

Moves normal difficulty 2 steps down unchanged (*). Labels are unaffected.
Expert and Master difficulty both become more difficult than Master before.
Numbers based on the closest possible approximations and testing.

:OLD: Dealt Taken Combat XP Gain
Novice x2 x0.5 50%
Apprentice x1.5 x0.75 75%
Adept x1 x1 100%
Expert x0.75 x1.5 125%
Master x0.5 x2 150%

:NEW: Dealt Taken Combat XP Gain
Novice x1 x1 100% *
Apprentice x0.75 x1.5 125% *
Adept x0.5 x2 150% *
Expert x0.3333 x2.5 166%
Master x0.25 x3 175%

3 =Results=&=Effects= (incomplete)

::Enchanting
All three damage enchantments are weaker now. With 4 pieces they stack to ~+136%.
Premade items had to be adjusted manually (unfortunately). This cannot be nerfed
in another way. Without a potion at 100 skill these enchantments now yield +18%:
Bought ones go up to +20% so they can actually be quite useful later on.
For comparison, unchanged they can reach ~+54% x 4. This could mean up to +562%.
Combined with Smithing this will kill everything with one power attack and we
did not even include +180% potion, +50% skill and +100% perks in the calculation.
In vanilla doing 4000 damage with power attack is well possible without exploits.

::TO-DO

...all endgame dps are close together (in the ~250-500 range 2H/Dual),
so using Two-Handed becomes just as viable as Destruction or One-Hand & Shield.
Your choice will actually matter regardless of how you fight:
damage is reasonably fair compared to ALL other combat styles depending on other
benefits/drawbacks of a weapon and the number of perks required and/or aquired.
For comparison, endgame dps in vanilla can vary by as much as a factor 6x.

4 =Installation=&=Compatibility=

If you already have improved weapons, armor or enchanted items with 1H/2H/Archery buffs when
you install this mod you might have to get rid of them if they are more powerful than the new
system allows. An easy test is to try create the same item again and if it is worse ditch the
old one. Keeping these items clearly defeats the purpose of the mod (and can confuse testing).

Compatibility should be good. All changes are listed above. Even if there was an overlap it
should probably not matter much. If, for example, another mod also tries to fix the Restoration
glitch it will still be fixed, one way or another.

The only thing another mod shouldn't MODIFY is the "CraftSmithing" script, however, even if one
does, the formula can easily be readjusted (it is at the bottom of =Changes=; else changes to 5)

5 =Version=Notes=

Alpha #1.1 RC#1 - 22.09.2012 - created by Microlich
Should be 100% bug free but is not 100% complete.