LE Version Here

What it Does:
Implement a hard cap on how powerful slow effects can be. By default, the cap is set to 80 to match my personal preferences, but it can be adjusted using the console. Simply open the console and type "set SCS_MagnitudeCap to x" with x being the maximum amount of slow you want to allow. This cap both acts as a balance tweak to avoid ridiculous levels of slow effect holding characters in place, and a means of fixing the bug where the effect simply ceases functioning when it reaches a magnitude of 100.

This mod also applies a common fix to make slow effects start and stop at the proper times for the effects it touches.

Effects currently handled by this mod:

• All vanilla frost slow effect variants. This is the main focus as it is by far the most likely slow effect to exhibit runaway scaling/magnitude issues.
• The slow poison alchemy effect. This is included because despite being intended to not scale in magnitude, "weakness to poison" effects still increase its magnitude anyway.
  

All plugins are esl-flagged/espfe to avoid counting towards the 255 plugin limit.

Requirements:
SKSE (NOTE: This mod is not locked to any given game version. It only uses papyrus functions provided by SKSE, so it will work in any game version that has a working SKSE)

Compatibility:
Generally, this approach should be highly compatible with anything that isn't already trying to manipulate slow effects. Just note that any other mod that edits the vanilla slow effects will either need a patch or to be loaded prior to this mod. Also, any mod that adds its own new slow effects will need a patch for the cap introduced here to work on those new effects.

See the compatibility notes article for details on specific mods with known compatibility. At some point, this article was mysteriously deleted for no reason I am aware of, there was no backup, and I will not be bothering to rewrite it. Just check descriptions of patches, use xEdit, and/or ask on a per-mod basis to find out.

Special note regarding Mysticism: as of Mysticism 2, the patch is no longer necessary and you should load Mysticism after SCS instead of the other way around. This is because Simon implemented his own method of locking the slow effects to set values instead of scaling, and a cap no longer makes sense due to this. The only real reason to be using SCS alongside Mysticism 2 is if you have another mod with its own slow inducing spells (such as Apocalypse) and want to cap those slow effects.

Questions and Answers:
Q: Hasn't this issue already been fixed before?
A: Yes and no. The stop/start timing problem has been flawlessly fixed before as part of other mods, so that is nothing new. The main bug that motivated this mod was not so easy to simply solve though. There are other mods that address it in different ways, but all of the ones I am aware of have certain quirks and/or critical error conditions involved. I made this as a simple and to the point no-nonsense solution without having to involve any other potentially unwanted gameplay effects.

Q: Didn't you make Frost Slow Tweaks to address this already?
A: Yes I did. And see above. Frost Slow Tweaks is still in the gimmicky/quirky category as it either forces a fixed magnitude slow that scales with nothing or it causes the effect to amplify with target missing stamina. Neither of these effects stay within the focus of just fixing the actual problem. The implementation also leads to really weird compatibility situations with any mod that wants to apply slow in even a slightly different way to the vanilla spells, such as a spell pack that wants to use the vanilla frost slow to apply a weaker but longer lasting movement debuff. This motivated me to revisit the solution, but the only better way I could find is only possible with SKSE. As such, I am releasing this as a separate mod instead of an update/option for Frost Slow Tweaks.