SPECIAL vs. Perks: Beware, Reading Ahead!

[tm2dragon]

Sorry for the lame thread title, what I'm thinking of is actually a BIT more complicated, but I'm a long-winded sort of fellow, and it will take me a bit of time to fully get my point across.  Sorry folks, you've got some *gasp* READING ahead of you!  Hope this doesn't scare you off, but if it does......well, thanks for clicking, bye! ^_^  For the REST of you, however, let me lay things out for you:

 

I kinda hate the fact that no matter how I build a character, MANY perks will be unavailable to me, and many of SPECIAL levels will have to be set to ZERO to get what I want.  If I want access to every type of crafting mod, for instance, I'll need to sink a lot of points into a lot of different areas, and too many points in others!  Having a Tinkerer build requires you to have a pretty high SPECIAL level in many categories, especially if you want to get all your fun out of Automatron.  You'll suck at both combat and roleplaying, as you'll have to sacrifice things like Luck or Charisma.  In the meantime, a lot of the fun of progressing through the game and leveling up will be ruined, as your insanely high Intelligence means you'll be leveling faster than you can progress properly, meaning much harder enemies dog-piling you before you can hope to outfit yourself for handling them. 

 

Other builds actively cut you off from certain aspects of the game.  Making you sacrifice lockpicking or hacking, keeping you from certain areas or loot.  Maybe you lose out on some of the Settlement stuff by sacrificing Local Leader.  There will be weapon mods out of your reach, robots you can never build, fancy gear you'll never be able to get for your favorite Power Armor.  The lock and hacking stuff can be mitigated by having a companion who is good at those things, but that means you're pretty much stuck with Cait and Nick as your companions, constantly having to fast travel to change them out 'cause you HAVE to know what's in that just or behind that door, not to mention never really getting a chance to hang with the many other companion options. 

 

This system of give and take, sacrifice vs. reward, may be preferred by many of you.  It encourages replay, making each playthrough of the game potentially quite different from the last.  Still, I doubt I'm the only one who actually finds the system to be the opposite; more of a RESTRAINT than a useful mechanic.  I'm a grinder and a crafter and a grinder at heart; I'm having the most fun when I'm maxing out every bit of gear and snatching up every last upgrade.  This means I end up with pretty much the same SPECIAL stats each time I play, just so I have access to all my crafting perks, and the perks that help me get more loot FOR said crafting.  For another example, lots of folks can be very OCD in their gameplay, feeling frustrated if they can't check every terminal, look behind every door, deck out every settlement, or see what's behind every speech check......they're similarly limited, needing a particular SPECIAL loadout just to enjoy the game in the way that makes them happiest.

 

I think your SPECIAL level should NOT dictate what perks you can or cannot get.  In Skyrim, you could pick any perk in any tree, provided you grind your skill in that area to the right level and grabbed a few lower level perks in that tree.  That was fine though, cause if you WANTED that super duper enchanting perk, chances are you'd like the other enchanting perks bellow it too!  This let you go nuts with variety.  Sure, a FEW sacrifices would be made, certain perks in certain trees prioritized.......but that just meant they were priorities, not that others would be forever unavailable to you from the word GO.   I could get my crafting fix by maxing out smithing and enchanting, and STILL be a kickass barbarian warrior, sneaky thief, or powerful wizard.  I could have my unstoppable sorceress in maxed-out Deadric Armor, each piece enchanted twice to OP levels, a max level healing spell in one hand while spewing the most deadly of flames from the other.  Those enchantments by the way, were 25% reduction for healing spells and 25% reduction for destruction cost.....both enchantments, on four pieces of armor, meaning ZERO magic drain no matter how hard I spammed those Master Level spells.  Place the highest level healing spell that was continuous use in the left hand.  Do the same for the highest level damage spell (again, one that didn't require charging) in the right.  They usually drain your magic in seconds......but that really wasn't a problem now, was it?  Get the perks to DOUBLE thier power, then hold down both buttons enjoy the carnage!  I healed faster than I could be damaged, while at the same time blasting walls of OP flames that NEVER STOPPED TILL ALL WAS DEAD AND BURNED.  I BROKE that game, on console, without ANY mods, and IT FELT GLORIOUS!!!  BWAHAHAHAAAAAA!!! 

 

..........Ahem. ^_^;  My point being, my builds could have true variety, and the only real limiting factor to my freedom was just how long I was willing to WORK for it.......which in a world as big as Skyrim, wasn't really a chore.  I'd like to feel similar freedom in this game.  So, here are two ideas for helping this happen: the Tame one, and the Ambitious one.  Let's go!

 

First, the easy option; alter Perks and SPECIAL to be separate things.  We use SPECIAL to let you choose your basic stats.  Let strength do JUST that; mess with how hard you hit and how much you can carry.  C alters your chances of winning a Charisma check.  P your default VATS accuracy, etc etc.  Perks will be separate, and their only requirement is your current character level.  Keep the SPECIAL screen for keeping track of course, but don't make your actual sats a requirement for your choices.  If you feel it necessary for balance and don't mind doing the extra work, have an option that makes the character level requirements for perks you don't have good stats in higher than default.  Maybe make the required levels for perks in Stats you're better at EASIER to get to, but still make them ALL available.

NOTE:  I have found ONE mod that removes SPECIAL requirements for perks......but this also removed LEVEL requirements.  This meant you could be crafting truly legendary level weapon mods WITHIN THE FIRST 3 HOURS OF GAMEPLAY, just pumping the few points you gained right into Weaponsmith.  VERY game-breaking, and ruins a lot of the ACCOMPLISHMENT of leveling, making for a less fun experience all around.  At the very least, a mod like this should keep your level requirements, even if your SPECIAL stats aren't a factor for them.

 

Now, here's the FUN option......make things work a bit more like Skyrim.  Maybe only give you a handful of SPECIAL points to start with, maybe none at all, leaving you defaulted to 1.  Then, let you you IMPROVE your SPECIAL stats through actual gameplay.  Inch your way from 1 to 10 via leveling specific stats, not through choice, but through DEEDS.  Engaging in melee combat and use heavy weapons/armor will gradually level Strength, each level taking more time to earn.  Land head shots and pick locks to improve Perception, travel a lot by foot and make frequent use of drugs/alcohol to improve Endurance (cause that's TOTALLY how it works, right? Build up your tolerance!  Toughen up that kidney! :P), do a lot of trading and win speech checks to improve Charisma, use energy weapons and hack terminals for Intelligence, stealth kills and VATS use for Agility, and find valuable loot and land Critical Hits for Luck!  Play a certain way to gain quicker access to those perks you REALLY want, but keep some diversity to your style so you won't be a one-trick pony.  If you play long enough, NO perk will be forever out of reach. A whole new way of looking at SPECIAL, and one that rewards you for actually PLAYING, rather than just a few numbers chosen during the first five minutes of the game.  For those completests out there, add a time-consuming way or two to gain perk points aside from leveling, as you'll need more of them to fill out your now much more versatile character!  Any worries about game breaking can be worked around by just using a higher difficulty setting, making those extra perks on your side feel less like cheating and more like a valuable and useful reward for your hard efforts!

 

So, just two ideas for folks out there!  I like to think that the first one is at least DOABLE with a bit of the right coding, and I like to believe that it's already been done someplace, and I just haven't found it.  You can already add ANY perk, regardless of level, with a single line of code in the Command Console.   Just removing the SPECIAL requirement for unlocking perks without changing anything else can't be as difficult as, say, the mods for totally revamping various gameplay systems, or the massive quest mods I've seen popping up......right?  The second idea I imagine would be a LOT more complicated, as it would involve many MASSIVE changes to how the game is coded, and how it tracks your actions.  Maybe that's been done too, but if so, haven't seen it yet.

 

Well, those are my two cents!  Thanks for sticking with me this far!  Thoughts?  And if you've found ways or mods to accomplish similar results already, please share!  Tootles for now.  ^_^