About this mod
Decreases the charge time of all spells (customizable). SKSE plugin.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
So... What does this mod do?
When you hold down your cast button some spells (for example "Fireball") will take time to 'charge' before they can be cast successfully. Releasing the cast button before the spell has had enough time to charge will result in not casting the spell at all. This mod modifies the required charge time (by default decreasing it by 1/2). It works by modifying the code that reads the charge time from the loaded game data each time a spell is cast and have it multiply the time with the ChargeTimeFactor from the mod's configuration file (0.5 by default).
Does it affect modded spells?
Yes.
Does it affect NPCs?
Yes.
Is it safe to uninstall this mod?
As long as you don't use the optional esp file (separate download) the mod can be safely removed at any time.
If you do use the optional esp file, the usual disclaimers about removing mods mid game apply. It literally only contains one global variable though, so there is not much that could cause problems.
Why make this mod?
Playing with high player and NPC damage, if I am able to finish charging a powerful spell without being killed in the meantime it usually means that the opponent is hardly worth casting such a spell in the first place.
Skyrim Special Edition?
Planned, but not immediately.
Requirements
Skyrim
Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE)
Compatibility
At this time there are no known incompatibilities. The mod works by changing the game code so it should affect all spells without interfering.
Installation
Install using your mod manager or drop the contents of the archive into your Skyrim\Data folder.
Configuration
You can change the factor that spell charge times are multiplied with in the configuration file Skyrim\Data\SKSE\Plugins\speed_casting.ini. By default the factor is 0.5 but you could also change it to 0 to make all spells nearly insta-cast or to 2.0 to change spells to take twice as long until they are ready.
Optional ESP
This esp file defines a global variable SpeedCastingFactor. If the mods detects that this global is defined it will use its value as the spell charge time factor instead of the one configured in the ini file. This means that you can use the console to test different charge speeds in the same game session. Example: set SpeedCastingFactor to 1.2. The variable is detected by name only so it should be easy and save to merge it into other plugins if you wish.
Possible code changes
It is simple to add conditions based on the spell that is cast (checking the magic effects for keywords, etc.) but there is no information at this place in the game code about who is trying to cast the spell. That means that anything player specific (e.g. speed casting perks) could only be implemented for player specific spells.
Permissions
You are free to use the mod and it's source in any form as long as you give full credit and link back to this page when you publish your modification or reupload the mod. I would also appreciate if you let me know when you do so, but that is not a requirement.
Credits & Thanks
Bethesda for Skyrim
The Skyrim Script Extender team for SKSE
Build with Visual Studio 2015