Conversation Skills Always Succeed
by Cirosan

What does this mod do?

This mod makes it so that all of Geralt's conversation skills (Persuasion, Intimidation, and the Axii sign) will always succeed when possible.

What do you mean, "when possible"?

Well, you should keep in mind two things: Firstly, that Geralt's conversation skills have levels - specifically, that they max out at level 3 and each need to be used successfully 3 times to be maxed out. There are conflicting reports on this, but it seems that certain conversation checks have a minimum level your skill needs to be at, or it will automatically fail. For example, if the check requires a minimum of level 3, and your skill is only level 1, it will automatically fail, even with this mod. However, if your skill was level 3 and the required level was 3, a check will be made (which you will automatically succeed with this mod). So basically, the takeaway is that you should use all your conversation skills often, early in the game, so as to max out all 3 as soon as possible and enjoy automatic success.

Secondly, certain conversation checks in the game will always fail - the check with Radovid about Henselt in Act 3 being a good example (though there's a mod to fix that). So, the takeaway here is that some checks, even if all your skills are level 3, are set by the developers to always fail, usually for story reasons.

What's included in this mod?

Included in this mod is a base_scripts.dzip that has been modified to make all conversation checks succeed (bearing in mind the two caveats above). If you already have a modded base_scripts.dzip, see the following points.

Installation

1. Navigate to your Witcher 2 installation folder.
2. Go to the CookedPC folder.
3. Extract the base_scripts.dzip from the mod's archive into your CookedPC folder, overwriting the old base_scripts.dzip. If you already have a modded base_scripts.dzip, see the next point.

I already have a modded base_scripts.dzip. How can I make your mod compatible with my custom changes?

1. Decompress your modded base_scripts.dzip using Gibbed RED Tools

2. Navigate to game\scenes

3. Inside game\scenes, open scene_functions.ws using Notepad++ or another text editor

4. At line 2178, change
        if ( neededLevel != -1 && neededLevel < 4 && RandRangeF( 1, 100 ) > 10 )
to the following:
        if ( neededLevel != -1 && neededLevel < 4 && RandRangeF( 1, 100 ) > 0 )
(basically, you're changing the "> 10" into a "> 0")


5. At line 2242, change
        if ( neededLevel != -1 && neededLevel < 4 &&  RandRangeF( 1, 100 ) > 20 )
to the following:
        if ( neededLevel != -1 && neededLevel < 4 &&  RandRangeF( 1, 100 ) > 0 )


6. At line 2306, change
        if ( neededLevel != -1 && neededLevel < 4 && RandRangeF( 1, 100 ) > 20 )
to the following:
        if ( neededLevel != -1 && neededLevel < 4 && RandRangeF( 1, 100 ) > 0 )


6b. To reiterate: you're basically just changing the "> 10"s or "> 20"s into "> 0"

7. Save the file and repack the base_scripts folder using Gibbed RED Tools

Out of curiosity, how DO those conversation skills work, anyway?

Good question! I had no clue how the game was evaluating the skills and determining success or failure until I found the lines of code that actually handled them. As far as I know, the nuts and bolts of how this works isn't documented anywhere in the game or online. So, let me finally spell out how the conversation skills work behind the scenes, as best I can tell. This is what the game asks, in order of priority:

1. Is the check set to never succeed (presumably for story reasons)?
2. What's the required level of the check, and how does the player's skill compare to it?
2a. If the player's skill is equal to or less than the required level, generate a random number between 1 and 100.
2b. If the skill being checked is Axii, the random number must be greater than 10 to succeed the check; if the skill being checked is Persuasion or Intimidation, the random number must be greater than 20. If the random number is less than those required values, the check is failed.
2c. If the player's skill is greater than the required level, the check is automatically passed.
3. If the check was passed and the skill is less than 3, increase the skill by 1.
4. If this was the first time the Axii skill was used successfully, grant the player the Conjurer ability.

So... that's it. Essentially, using Persuasion or Intimidation has a flat 20% chance of failure, but using Axii only has a 10% chance of failure.

Also, note the logic above - it's how the mod works. The game is generating a random number between 1 and 100, but we're setting the check for success to be greater than ZERO, so it will always succeed, even if it generates the lowest value it can, a 1.

Credits and Final Remarks

Thanks to Gibbed for his RED Tools, without which this mod would not be possible.
Thanks to CD Projekt RED for the Witcher trilogy.
Super friend special thanks to Will and Sam.