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About this mod
SKSE plugin to display spell tome level. Patchless support for ALL magic mods. Stops merchants from scamming you.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
-
Translations
- Mandarin
Spell Level Automatic Adjusted Description - SKSE
- Quality-of-life SKSE plugin to change the names of spell tomes (& spells) to indicate their levels
- Customization: what to add; prefix or suffix; skip modifying one or more levels of spells
- Minimal footprint, maximal compatibility, does what it should & nothing more
Created with & Compiled against CommonLibSSE-NG
== Supported Game Runtimes:
- 1.5.97-1.6.640 (Tested on 1.6.640)
- GOG 1.6.659
- 1.6.1170 (working; thanks Jabezare for confirming)
== Very likely also supported, but I cannot verify, sorry:
- 1.6.1130
- GOG 1.6.1179
- VR*
(if you use one of these versions, and can confirm it works, please leave a comment)
Q: What is this? What does this mod do?
A: This mod is created to solve a very specific issue, that is both simple and annoying:
How can I know, just by looking at a spell tome, which LEVEL (i.e. Novice, Apprentice... ) that spell has?
In the vanilla game, there is no way to tell, until you've actually bought and consumed the tome.
No more.
Now, with this mod, you can add customizable prefixes (recommended) or suffixes to the names of all spell tomes that teach spells that have levels. Supports ALL vanilla and mod-added spells & spell tomes, without the need for patches, thanks to SKSE.
Additionally, IF YOU WANT, you can also add prefixes / suffixes to spells themselves, depending on their levels, as well as adding the name of the magic school (e.g. Destruction, Restoration) to spell tomes / spells (requires the v1.1 update). But since you can already sort spells depending on their levels in SkyUI, this is deactivated by default.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Q: Can't you, like, just look at the spell tome's price and make a guess, or, like, just buy it and find out?
A: If, just like me, you believe "knowing the spell levels upfront" is better than not, you can skip this part.
If not, I hope this story below will convince you.
Spoiler:
Merchant (M): Come on in, we have spell tomes for sale!
Dragonborn (DB): Cool, do you have spells for an adept mage of the school of destruction?
M: Take a guess?
DB: ... what?
M: Yes, I said, take a guess, not that hard! Just look at the spell tomes I have, the price tags should tell you!
DB: But they are all so expensive!
M: Well, you look rich, so this shouldn't matter to you either!
DB: I'm trying hard to suppress my urge to beat you. If it were not for wartime inflation, maybe I could actually just buy everything. But prices are as high as a skooma drinker these days. C'mon, just tell me.
M: Well then, let's play a game: guess which level this spell tome is? (shows a spell tome)
DB: Uhm, you tell me?
M: Wrong answer! You have to buy it, then consume its magical essence, and then you will know!
DB: ... I'll trust you once. What's the price?
M: A little more than 900.
DB: ... This better be good. (Pays)
=== a minute later ===
DB: WHAT IN OBLIVION DID YOU JUST SELL ME? It was only Apprentice level*!
M: Oopsie, it wasn't what you were looking for! Double oopsie, you already consumed the tome, so no refund for you! Wait, you can't refund for full price even if you still had it, triple oopsie!
DB: I'm gonna kill you! (begins casting magic)
M:
*: This happened to yours truly during one playthrough. During the same playthrough, Sofie the Windhelm orphan tried to guilt-trip yours truly into buying a flower for 200 septims.
Show
Merchant (M): Come on in, we have spell tomes for sale!
Dragonborn (DB): Cool, do you have spells for an adept mage of the school of destruction?
M: Take a guess?
DB: ... what?
M: Yes, I said, take a guess, not that hard! Just look at the spell tomes I have, the price tags should tell you!
DB: But they are all so expensive!
M: Well, you look rich, so this shouldn't matter to you either!
DB: I'm trying hard to suppress my urge to beat you. If it were not for wartime inflation, maybe I could actually just buy everything. But prices are as high as a skooma drinker these days. C'mon, just tell me.
M: Well then, let's play a game: guess which level this spell tome is? (shows a spell tome)
DB: Uhm, you tell me?
M: Wrong answer! You have to buy it, then consume its magical essence, and then you will know!
DB: ... I'll trust you once. What's the price?
M: A little more than 900.
DB: ... This better be good. (Pays)
=== a minute later ===
DB: WHAT IN OBLIVION DID YOU JUST SELL ME? It was only Apprentice level*!
M: Oopsie, it wasn't what you were looking for! Double oopsie, you already consumed the tome, so no refund for you! Wait, you can't refund for full price even if you still had it, triple oopsie!
DB: I'm gonna kill you! (begins casting magic)
M:
*: This happened to yours truly during one playthrough. During the same playthrough, Sofie the Windhelm orphan tried to guilt-trip yours truly into buying a flower for 200 septims.
Q: I see, but aren't there other solutions out there already, such as xEdit scripts, a Synthesis Patcher, and an IPM (Item Property Manipulator) mod?
A: Yes, and I've used all three of them in the past, and I still believe this mod is a better approach compared to any of them; each of them has some advantages, but leaves some things to be desired.
xEdit script / Synthesis Patcher:
+ Covers all spells in the LO (load order)
+ Resistant to Bethesda'sdefecationsupdates
~ Requires some knowledge of either xEdit or Mutagen Synthesis
- Must be redone every time a magic/spell-related mod is added / removed / updated
Spell Level Indicator - IPM:
+ Easy to use
~ Bethesda'sdefecationsupdates may break IPM and/or Address Library, hence breaking this mod also
- Only covers vanilla spells (basegame + DLCs + CC content)
SLAAD SKSE (this mod)
+ Easy to use
+ No need to rerun something every time the LO changes
+ Covers all spells in the LO
~ Bethesda'sdefecationsupdates may break this mod
Q: Okay. How to use?
A: Make sure to download & activate all the HARD requirements (and their requirements, if any). Then install and activate my mod.
If you are happy with the default settings in the config file, you don't have to make any changes at all, just jump straight into the game! However, if you want to customize a little bit, just open the config file (SLAAD_Config.toml) and customize the settings. I've added explanations in the config file, and everything should be self-explanatory.
WARNING: I don't know if passing non-ASCII chars (e.g. Cyrillic, Kanji, Hangul) will work. Doing so may result in gibberish or even CTD (or may not, but I don't know). If you use a non-English version of Skyrim, you may want to stick to numbers and English characters, just to be safe.
NOTE: Traditional Chinese is CONFIRMED WORKING (and, by extension, Simplified Chinese and Japanese should be fine too). Thank you rm8rockman for confirming!
Q: Load Order?
A: This is an SKSE plugin that has neither any ESP plugin nor any textures / meshes, therefore it won't matter.
Q: Install / uninstall mid-game?
A: Absolutely.
Q: Compatibility?
A: This plugin should be compatible with EVERYTHING, in the sense that both your game and this mod will work as intended.
That said, you may not want to use this mod together with Spell Tome Level Indicator - IPM (since my mod is intended as a "superseding upgrade" of it), or any other solution that also tackles this problem. Otherwise, you may get this:
Q: What if Bethesda updates Skyrim again in the future? Will this mod still work?
A: (Assuming you are on Steam & using the SE-AE version) Make sure you prevent Skyrim from automatically updating, if you cherish your meticulously-crafted LO.
This neat trick takes less than 3 minutes to do (if the previous link somehow dies one day, this one and this one will show you the same trick).
Meanwhile, I will try to keep things up-to-date if/when Bethesda
Q: Source Code?
A:
EDIT: Here.
Q: The acronym of your mod looks... familiar, but I can't recall exactly where I last saw it.
A: Oh, funny you should mention that.
You know, there's this mod called UNSLAAD (the third and last installment in Vicn's marvelous Vigilant Trilogy). The story of (and before) UNSLAAD is quite emotionally taxing and heavy. Also, etymology tells us that UN- means "not", so if UNSLAAD is something that is emotionally heavy, then of course SLAAD means something that is "light, emotionally pleasant, like a breeze"; and since this mod provides QoL improvements on your gaming experience, of course it is very SLAAD.
I dare you to prove me wrong. /s
Q: Recommended mods to use together?
A:
- Unslaad (obviously), and by extension the 2 previous installments in the same series: Vigilant (complete), and Glenmoril (not yet finished as of writing this)
- Spell Tomes I4 Icons (needs its requirements to work properly), this mod provides the colorful icons that you see in the screenshots of this mod
- Spell mods by Kittytail and Darenii
ADDENDA (Things to add)?
These features are planned, but I don't know if anyone needs them, since there are solutions already (and some of them are simple to use, too). If there is interest, I may more seriously consider them.
- Support for SPID-/KID-like config files that add custom rules, such as renaming spells & spell tomes based on keywords, effect archetypes, source mods?
CREDITS / THANKS:
- ponzipyramid - For an easy-to-use SKSE template that is up to date
- Everyone who has contributed to CommonLibSSE-NG and the RE of Skyrim
- Mrowrpurr - For the very newbie-friendly series of SKSE mod dev videos
- doodlum & Sylennus: doodlum for open-sourcing the ENBLightDetectionFix SKSE plugin, Sylennus for pointing me to that plugin's source code, which serves as an example of how to use the newest version of CLib-NG
- Fenix, Nukem, Parapets, alandtse, po3, Ultra & everyone else who has answered my (often stupid) questions on C++ and/or SKSE
- MaskedRPGFan & Solikar - For IPM and the IPM mod that solves this problem for vanilla game; this was the inspiration for this mod.
- IamNotSimon - For Spell Tomes I4 Icons mod, used in the images.
- Koveich - for the Sovngarde font (used in the images).
CURSE YOU, BETHESDA
- For updating SSE yet again, which means Mrowrpurr's convenient, easy-to-use, one-stop SKSE plugin template no longer works for the newest runtimes, which means I had to figure out how to set up everything again, which means hours upon hours of bitter and often futile struggle with VSCode, CMake and VCPKG that I will never get back.
May your decision-makers' bowel movements forever alternate between fart-allday-s**t-noway constipation and s**t-allday-stop-noway diarrhea.