About this mod
This mod is intended as a comprehensive uncapper mod that allows SPECIAL stats over 10 and Skills over 100 to have actual game effects for the player. Requires FOSE
- Permissions and credits
Xtra Special v 1.1
==================
by MrPimburton
NOTE: REQUIRES FALLOUT SCRIPT EXTENDER!
small update
============
Changed the optional menu addon for DarnUI to reflect the newest version of the interface mod. If you want to use DarnUI with this mod (recommended), then please use the lastest version.
1.1 Update
==========
-All game settings that the mod changes should only affect the player (tested).
-Added an uninstall option
To upgrade from 1.0 to 1.1:
--------------------------
Simply overwrite the old XtraSpecial.esp file with the new. The Add-On mods are unchanged.
To Uninstall Xtra Special:
-------------------------
Upgrade as per above
Load up a save
Make sure you are not equipped with a weapon if your skill in it is >100
Bring up the console (press the ` key)
type "set aaaConfig to 1" and hit enter (no quotes)
Wait a sec for the script to fire
Save the game
Exit the game and disable all XSpecial mods
The uninstall script changes all game settings modified by Xtra Special (either directly or through scripts) back to their vanilla values.
1.1 Notes
=========
It seems that some of the game setting alterations in 1.0 unfortunately changed values for creatures/npcs, most notably: poison/rad resistance, critical chance, carry weight, and melee damage. The new version removes and corrects these changes, instead substituting direct "modav" commands for the player actor values, in much the same way it grants bonuses for weapon skills >100. The math is generally the same, and it is likely you won't notice the difference. Obviously if you have made tweaks to this mod and you update it, you will have to make them again.
There may be a small chance that the settings for medicine effectiveness and charisma-based disposition will affect NPCs, but the former likely only matters for companions (do other NPCs use stims? Don't know myself), and the latter means that NPCs MIGHT react more positively to each other in your presence, but I have yet to see this after playing many tens of hours with a 15+ Charisma character.
This mod is intended as a comprehensive uncapper mod that allows SPECIAL stats over 10 and Skills over 100 to have actual game effects for the player. It does this by extensive use of the "setnumericgamesetting" function from FOSE, along with using a few global variables and misc. character stats. Xtra Special also attempts to enhance the importance of the SPECIAL stats across the board, and makes a few setting tweaks towards that end. This mod uses only 3 active quest scripts, each of which is fairly short, so it should not impact your performance at all.
Although I am just uploading this mod, I have extensively tested it for balance on my own, completing the game, some large quest mods, and most of the DLCs everal times with it enabled. I have some strongly recommended mods and settings that you should seriously consider using alongside Xtra Special, so as to avoid balance issues. I also have/will upload add-on mods to enhance the effects of the main .esp, though they may not be to everyone's tastes.
This readme goes into some rather long-winded details about exactly what changes the mod makes, but here are the abbreviated changes:
Short description
-----------------
SPECIAL STATS (every point of a stat >10 increases its associated skills by 2, as normal)
Str : affects carry weight more than vanilla, continues to increase Melee damage and carry weight when >10
Per : affects ranged VATS activation distance, Auto-Aim max distance, and Iron Sight speed, all uncapped
End : affects HP more than vanilla, continues to increase HP, RR, and PR for values >10
Cha : affects combat, speech, and wealth xp, uncapped. Continues to increase NPC disposition for values >10
Int : affects all sources of xp other than those covered by Cha and Luc, or those from quests. Skill points/level ARE capped at Int 10
Agi : affects AP more than vanilla, as well as movement speed (yay!) and melee/unarmed VATS activation distance, all uncapped.
Luc : affects skills more than vanilla, awards xp for bobbleheads found, both uncapped
SKILLS
Barter : for values >100, continues to reduce buy price. Affects XP for amassing caps
BigGuns: >100, increases VATS accuracy and Critical Chance %, with diminishing returns
EnergyWeapons: "
Explosives: as above, plus increases xp for disarming mines and traps
Lockpick : higher skill awards more xp for lockpicking, uncapped
Medicine : higher skill continues to enhance healing items, uncapped
MeleeWeapons : >100 increases damage, with more effect for higher STR characters
Repair : >100 makes salvaged items repair more condition, rewards xp for making weapons and disarming traps
Science: higher skill awards more xp for hacking, uncapped
SmallGuns : >100 increases VATS accuracy and Critical Chance %, with diminishing returns
Sneak : >100 continues to reduce detection, increases sneak critical damage, both uncapped
Speech : higher skill drastically increases speech xp rewards
Unarmed: the only skill that vanilla Fallout 3 continues to use >100, so completely unchanged
For all the stats and skills, Xtra Special will give its effects for both permanent changes and temporary changes >100. This does mean that you can switch out equipment or take chems to enhance xp rewards if you are about to recieve them, but this is a very minor balance issue in my opinion, and often not really worth the trouble (mentats are better used to overcome skill checks, for example). It is sort of fun to maximize your benefits like this, anyway ;)
Installation
------------
Unpack the XtraSpecial.esp into your FO3 data folder, along with any optional/recommended mods. Xtra Special and its optional mods should load after all other balance mods you use.
Uncapping S.P.E.C.I.A.L
-----------------------
The next step is to download the menu mod appropriate to your setup (vanilla menus or DarnUI) and unpack them to your FO3 directory. If you are using the latest version of DarnUI, you must enable the skills over 100 option in its config. These changes allow you to assign skills over 100 (unlimited) and SPECIAL stats during character creation up to 20. When using Intense Training, you may assign points beyond even this.If you don't use one of these mods or some other max skill level workaround, you won't be able to assign points to skills over 100 or stats over 10.
If you are using a vanilla menu setup when you assign points to a skill over 100, it will not show the actual value, and it will only show a skill of 100 in the PipBoy stats screen. Rest assured that the actual value is really there: use the console command player.getav *skill* to see your actual skill value, where *skill* is barter, speech, smallguns, etc. Or use my version of the Skill Check mod.
Long Description
----------------
First, some caveats/issues:
-Xtra Special will track stats over 10 and generally extends their normal effects appropriately. The only exception to this is Intelligence, which will NOT grant you any additional skill points over level 10. I highly recommend using a mod which limits or entirely eliminates bonus skill points from Int., such as my own "XSBalanceTweaks.esp." With Xtra Special, Intelligence increases your XP earned from every source but quest rewards, speech successes, and combat, so it is still quite important.
-Although the Fallout 3 engine has always tracked SPECIAL stats over 10 and skills higher than 100, it generally does nothing with these enhanced values (thus, this mod) and will never display them in the PipBoy. I have included a version of Holty07's "Skill Check" mod <http: www.fallout3nexus.com downloads> that will display all stats and skills at their full value. <br><br>-This mod is somewhat invasive and dynamically alters Game Settings through its scripts. As such, it is entirely incompatible with mods that touch those settings, and obviously strictly requires FOSE. MANY balancing mods make extensive reworkings of the game settings, so there are bound to be some conflicts if you use them. Use FOMM/TESnip to check which settings are affected and adjust appropriately, but when in doubt, load Xtra Special after all balancing mods.<br><br>-This mod does do a little rebalancing with some of the base stats and game settings. There are no plans to release this mod without such changes. The barter settings are pretty much identical to XFO's, so if you use that mod, don't fret.<br><br>-This mod alters XP rewards extensively, reducing them in some places but generally increasing the overall level of xp you will earn, particularly with smart/charismatic character builds. I highly recommend an XP slowdown mod, or simply use my "Xtra Special Balance Tweaks" mod. Any mod that reduces XP earned is going to get its settings dynamically overwritten by this mod.<br><br>-When you first load up an old save after activating this mod, you can expect to gain a fair bit of xp, depending on what you have done in game. This is normal.<br><br><special stats>> <br><br>Strength<br>--------<br>Changed carry weight: <br>(150 + 10 * Strength) to (75 + 25 * Strength)<br>carry weight and melee damage continue to increase >10<br><br><br>Perception<br>----------<br>Perception now controls how far away you can activate Vats with a ranged weapon, the maximum distance Auto Aim will take effect, and the amount of time it takes to ready your iron sights:<br><br>VATS activate Distance = Perception * 500 + 2500<br>Auto Aim Max Distance = Perception * 300 + 1500<br>Iron Sights View Change Time = 1 / (Perception + 2) seconds<br><br>The changes to iron sights speed will, for some reason, affect the field of view change you see when you switch to or from dialogue, though this is a minor glitch. Although it seems like a small change, high Perception characters can snap into iron sights/scopes/zoomed view VERY quickly, which is a nice little bennie.<br><br><br><br>Endurance<br>---------<br>HP per Endurance changed from 20 to 25.<br>HP, RR, and PR continue to increase with values >10<br><br><br>Charisma<br>--------<br>Charisma directly affects the amount of XP you earn from combat. If you need an explanation for this change, consider that Charisma represents your "cool" factor, and that a higher value gives you more of a reputation bump when you defeat foes. If you have a low Charisma, don't expect any xp reward for the easiest opponents. The amount of XP you earn for combat has been lowered accross the board.<br><br>Charisma also grants you significant bonuses to the amount of XP you earn from speech successes and from gaining wealth (see Speech and Barter).<br><br>Charisma will continue to improve NPC disposition towards you at values above 10.<br><br>Combat xp % modifier = Charisma * 10 + 50<br><br><br>Intelligence<br>------------<br>The XP reward for finding new locations is directly based on your Intelligence. <br><br>For each skill book you read, you will gain a small amount of xp. <br><br>Intelligence plays a significant role in your xp rewards from disarming mines and traps, making custom weapons, picking locks, and hacking computers.<br><br>Exploration XP = Intelligence * 2<br>Book XP = Intelligence (x4 if you have the Comprehension perk)<br><br><br>Agility<br>-------<br>Action points changed from (Agility * 2 + 65) to (Agility * 5 + 50)<br><br>Agility now directly affects your movement speed. (+-5% per point, Agi 5 is vanilla speed)<br><br>Agility will affect the distance at which you may activate VATS while unarmed or wielding a melee weapon. <br><br>Note that agility's speed changes uses the setav command, meaning it is incompatible with any mod that also uses setav for this purpose. Any mod that uses modav, such as the Sprint Mod, is perfectly compatible, however.<br><br><br>Luck<br>----<br>Luck skill bonus changed from 1/2 per point to 1 per point of Luck.<br><br>For each bobblehead you find you will get an XP reward of 10x your luck.<br><br><br><br><skills>><br><br><br>Sneak<br>-----<br>Base damage for melee/unarmed sneak attack criticals has been reduced from x5 to x2.<br>Sneak will continue to decrease your detectability for values >100, though very gradually. Most noticible with mods that make sneaking more difficult. If >100, this skill will increase the amount of sneak attack critical damage for ranged and melee/unarmed attacks at a rate of 1% per point over 100.<br><br><br>Medicine<br>--------<br>Values >100 will continue to increase stimpak healing, radaway reduction, and rad-x resistance. Use my "XS ingestibles" mod to increase the applicability of the medicine skill.<br><br><br>Barter<br>------<br>I have altered the base barter settings as does XFO. Barter skill >100 will continue to reduce buy value, though with diminishing returns.<br><br>For every 500 in total maximum caps your character ever earns, they will get bonus XP:<br><br>Wealth xp = (10 * Charsima + Barter) / 4<br><br><br>Repair<br>------<br>For values >100, salvaged items will restore more and more condition to the repaired item.<br>Repair directly affects the amount of XP you earn from removing traps of all sorts.<br>Every time you craft a custom weapon, you will earn XP based on your Repair skill.<br><br>Trap xp % modifier: Intelligence * 5 + Repair/2 + Explosives/2<br>Craft xp: (Intelligence * 5 + Repair) / 10<br><br><br>Science & Lockpicking<br>---------------------<br>The base xp reward for lockpicking/hacking has been increased. Each skill further modifies xp appropriately:<br><br>Lock/Hack xp % modifier: (Intelligence * 5 + skill) / 2<br><br><br>Speech<br>------<br>Base Speech xp is increased, and high values in the skill and/or Charisma will drastically increase these rare rewards:<br><br>Speech xp % modifier: Charisma * 10 + Speech<br><br><br>Small Guns, Big Guns, Energy Weapons<br>------------------------------------<br><br>For each of the ranged combat skills, values >100 will increase critical % chance and VATS accuracy, with diminishing returns for each. This will roughly give you a +1% to critical chance for every 10 levels above 100, but with higher and higher values, the amount you need to get a boost increases. <br><br><br>Explosives<br>----------<br>Mine disarm xp is directly related to your Explosives skill, as is trap disarm xp. Grenade VATS accuracy and critical hit % is affected as with the above weapon skills.<br><br>Mine xp % modifier: Intelligence * 5 + Explosives<br>Trap xp % modifier: Intelligence * 5 + Repair/2 + Explosives/2<br><br><br>Melee Weapons<br>-------------<br>>>>1.1 changes<br><br>For values >100, your melee damage continues to increase. <br><br>Melee damage bonus = 1 per 10 skill points over 100, plus 1 per point of Str over 10.<br><br><br><br>Unarmed<br>-------<br>For some odd reason, Fallout 3 actually applies damage bonuses as normal for values >100, so Unarmed is completely unchanged.<br><br><br><br><br><add-on mods>><br><br><br>Xtra Special Balance Tweaks<br>---------------------------<br>This mod changes some game settings so as to dovetail with the main changes in "Xtra Special."<br><br>It removes the combat XP bonuses you get at higher difficulty levels, tones down (but does not eliminate!) auto aim, increases the effect of your medicine skill on healing items, and increases your "XPbumpbase" from 150 to 300, slowing down leveling considerably (with all the extra xp from the main .esp, this is pretty much a necessity. This mod also removes the effects of Intelligence on earned skill points: all characters get a flat 10 skill points per level. <br><br>Tag skills increase by 2 points per skill point added to them. Finally, this mod reduces the automatic critical chance bump you get in VATS from 15% to 5%.<br><br><br><br>Xtra Special Gameplay Tweaks<br>----------------------------<br>This mod has more drastic changes than the balance mod, but they work quite well with it and the main .esp, at least for me. Many of these changes make the game more difficult.<br><br>Melee Damage derived from Strength has been doubled<br>Unarmed Damage is doubled<br>All weapon damage is doubled<br>Damage to weapons and armor has been reduced by a factor of 5, across the board.<br>Weapon condition does not affect damage in any way<br>Difficulty level does not affect damage done BY the PC, only damage TAKEN<br>Walking will have an effect on Gun Spread<br>Damage to weapons in VATS is reduced to normal<br>Paralyzing Palm chance is now 10%<br>The Player takes 50% damage in VATS, rather than 10%<br>Crippled leg movement penalty increased: 1=50%, 2=25%<br>NPCs get more health per level and per point of Endurance<br>Blocking max effectiveness increased: Melee 95%, Unarmed 75%<br>Gun condition now effects spread slightly<br>Sneak messages made a more ambiguous; no caution/danger/hidden/detected, only --sneak-- in HUD color or red.<br>Reduced the chances for NPCs to drop weapons when critically hit: 50%<br>Removed container "[Empty]" text<br>Reduced AP cost for truly unarmed attacks to 12<br>Player no longer gets HP on level up: it is Endurance, Perks, or nothing!<br><br>Vertibirds have been made more durable<br>The player takes double damage from headshots, just like NPCs<br>You may no longer trade technology for stimpaks at the Outcast HQ<br>Scrap Metal and Wrenches now weigh 2 lbs each<br><br><br>Xtra Special Perk Mod<br>---------------------<br>This mod alters many of the vanilla perks to be more useful, especially with the main .esp. Many of these changes are based on those in the Ultimate Perk Pack Mod: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1409<br><br>All of the perks that add 5 to two skills per rank instead add 10. <br>Gunslinger and Commando are 3 rank perks <br>Educated has been reduced to 1 rank that only gives 1 extra skill point. <br>Comprehension does not give an extra point per book, rather it increases the XP reward for reading skill books from 1x Intelligence to 4x Intelligence. <br> <br>Here and Now is removed, 'cause it is probably the dumbest perk ever. <br>Lifegiver has been increased to 10 ranks, each of which grants 30 HP (works well with the changes in "XSGameplayTweaks." <br><br>Master Trader has been removed, for it just steps on the main Barter skill, especially when it is >100. <br>Adamantium Skeleton has been renamed "Strong Bones," because the former is silly <br>Solar Powered has been changed to Rapid Healing; it takes End 9 and Medicine 100 to pick, no longer grants a STR boost, heals twice as fast, and isn't limited by time/location. <br><br>Nerd Rage description tweaked to read that it ADDS 10 to your STR (it always did; it just had no effect >10), and DR increased to 85%.<br><br>Night Person changed to affect Agility and Perception<br>Rad Resistance now has 3 ranks at +25% each<br>Silent Running reduced to level 6, and Sneak bonus removed from it<br>Toughness has 3 ranks at +10 DR each<br><br><br>Xtra Special Ingestibles <br>------------------------<br>This mod makes most food and healing items use the medicine skill in some fashion. Radiated food will heal more damage at certain thresholds of the medicine skill (25, 50, 75, 100). Items that do not irradiate or have other negative effects, however, are checked as "medicine" items, meaning your medicine skill will directly enhance their effects as it does stimpacks, radaway, and rad-x, and Medicine >100 will continue to provide benefits with them. Such items are: Purified water, Blood Packs, Fresh food (apples, potatoes, carrots, etc.), Fungus, Ice Cold Nuka-Cola (removed rads), Fire Ant Nectar (removed Int penalty), and Wonder Meat (removed rads). <br><br>All food items heal gradually, now, meaning you cannot stack identical item effects, and no food item has any healing effect in combat. They will generally heal more, and the Sanitizer has a greater effect on them, however.<br><br>Stimpacks are reduced in effectiveness, but can be used in combat as normal.<br><br>If you use this mod, I strongly suggest you also use the "XFO drugs rarity (high)," and "No Healing on Rest" mods. With the no limb healing on resting, stimpaks become your main source of limb restoration, which is nice. "Xtra Special Gameplay Tweaks" is also recommeded, as it removes what I see as an exploit: getting stimpaks for donating technology to the outcasts. Once you start encountering enclave soldiers, you can rack up hundreds of stims by turning in power armor and the like, so that option is simply removed.<br><br><br>Xtra Special Zeta & Xtra Special Ingestibles Point Lookout<br>----------------------------------------------------------------------<br>These mods apply the same philosophy as XSIngestibles to the the small number of items added by these DLC. Obviously, you will need the DLCs to get any use out of the mods. You can use these without using XSIngestibles, but that would be a little weird, I think. XSIngestZeta also changes the script to the Alien Epoxy, allowing repair values >100 to continue adding to the amount restored, with diminishing returns. <br><br><br>Xtra Special Skill Check<br>------------------------<br>This is my modified version of Holty07's "Skill Check" mod (http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6392). When it is loaded, you will get a message box any time you press the "\" button, which will show you your actual SPECIAL stats and skills with full values. It will also show you your current movement speed percentage (next to your Agility stat), and your current base critical % (normally just equal to luck, but perks, items, and ranged skills >100 can increase this).<br><br><br><br><br>Highly Recommended Mods<br>-----------------------<br>Sprint Mod <br>by Lork<br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1854<br><br>-Like a lot of folks, I think FO3 should have had this feature from the begining. This mod uses your current stats for all its calculations, meaning any SPECIAL stats it uses that are >10 or Skills that are >100 will function just fine with it.<br><br><br>RobCo Certified<br>by TheTalkieToaster<br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=712<br><br>-As with the Sprint Mod, this one uses your fully modified Science and Repair values for the bots, and your full INT for the # of bots you can control. Really good synergy with XtraSpecial.<br><br><br>Level Cap Workaround<br>by Circuitous<br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=121<br><br>-Pretty much eliminates any cap on levelling, while avoiding the standard problems with simply increasing the level cap. With this mod and Xtra Special, your characters' advancement is theoretically unlimited.<br><br><br>No Bobblehead Effects<br>by Makagulfazel <br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=500<br><br>-Removes the bonuses entirely from bobbleheads, simply making them a collectible. With Xtra special, you gain xp from finding the things, so you can avoid the exploit of bobbleheads while still having a good reason to find them.<br><br><br>DK Bullet Time<br>by dunderklumpen <br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1193<br><br>-Another one of those "duh! Why didn't they put this in from the beginning?" mods. Gives you another use for action points and is a good compliment to the Sprint Mod.<br><br><br>No Fast Travel<br>by Lord_Santa<br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=390<br><br>-Completely removes fast travel from the game, which many consider cheap and exploitable, as well as immersion-breaking. With this mod, No Healing on Rest, and XSGameplayTweaks, you will really feel the brutality of the wasteland.<br><br><br>XFO drugs rarity (high), radiation changes, sneak rebalance (mild)<br>by Xodarap777<span class="wbbtab"></span> <br>http://home.comcast.net/~xodarap777/XFO/XFO_Readme_Current.html<br><br>-Part of the modular version of XFO, these mods dovetail with XTra Special in quite a few ways.<br><br><br>No Healing on Rest<br>by Ziher <br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=752<br><br>-Prevents you from healing limb wounds on resting. I use the version that still allows your HP to recover, so beds have some purpose. Now you have an actual reason to visit the doctor other than radiation and shopping.<br><br><br><br>Credits<br>-------<br>All the above authors for their excellent mods<br>TheFakeEmpire (for the origianal Wasteland Mastery mod and the changes from Ultimate Perk Pack)<br><br><br><br><br></add-on></skills></special></http:>
==================
by MrPimburton
NOTE: REQUIRES FALLOUT SCRIPT EXTENDER!
small update
============
Changed the optional menu addon for DarnUI to reflect the newest version of the interface mod. If you want to use DarnUI with this mod (recommended), then please use the lastest version.
1.1 Update
==========
-All game settings that the mod changes should only affect the player (tested).
-Added an uninstall option
To upgrade from 1.0 to 1.1:
--------------------------
Simply overwrite the old XtraSpecial.esp file with the new. The Add-On mods are unchanged.
To Uninstall Xtra Special:
-------------------------
Upgrade as per above
Load up a save
Make sure you are not equipped with a weapon if your skill in it is >100
Bring up the console (press the ` key)
type "set aaaConfig to 1" and hit enter (no quotes)
Wait a sec for the script to fire
Save the game
Exit the game and disable all XSpecial mods
The uninstall script changes all game settings modified by Xtra Special (either directly or through scripts) back to their vanilla values.
1.1 Notes
=========
It seems that some of the game setting alterations in 1.0 unfortunately changed values for creatures/npcs, most notably: poison/rad resistance, critical chance, carry weight, and melee damage. The new version removes and corrects these changes, instead substituting direct "modav" commands for the player actor values, in much the same way it grants bonuses for weapon skills >100. The math is generally the same, and it is likely you won't notice the difference. Obviously if you have made tweaks to this mod and you update it, you will have to make them again.
There may be a small chance that the settings for medicine effectiveness and charisma-based disposition will affect NPCs, but the former likely only matters for companions (do other NPCs use stims? Don't know myself), and the latter means that NPCs MIGHT react more positively to each other in your presence, but I have yet to see this after playing many tens of hours with a 15+ Charisma character.
This mod is intended as a comprehensive uncapper mod that allows SPECIAL stats over 10 and Skills over 100 to have actual game effects for the player. It does this by extensive use of the "setnumericgamesetting" function from FOSE, along with using a few global variables and misc. character stats. Xtra Special also attempts to enhance the importance of the SPECIAL stats across the board, and makes a few setting tweaks towards that end. This mod uses only 3 active quest scripts, each of which is fairly short, so it should not impact your performance at all.
Although I am just uploading this mod, I have extensively tested it for balance on my own, completing the game, some large quest mods, and most of the DLCs everal times with it enabled. I have some strongly recommended mods and settings that you should seriously consider using alongside Xtra Special, so as to avoid balance issues. I also have/will upload add-on mods to enhance the effects of the main .esp, though they may not be to everyone's tastes.
This readme goes into some rather long-winded details about exactly what changes the mod makes, but here are the abbreviated changes:
Short description
-----------------
SPECIAL STATS (every point of a stat >10 increases its associated skills by 2, as normal)
Str : affects carry weight more than vanilla, continues to increase Melee damage and carry weight when >10
Per : affects ranged VATS activation distance, Auto-Aim max distance, and Iron Sight speed, all uncapped
End : affects HP more than vanilla, continues to increase HP, RR, and PR for values >10
Cha : affects combat, speech, and wealth xp, uncapped. Continues to increase NPC disposition for values >10
Int : affects all sources of xp other than those covered by Cha and Luc, or those from quests. Skill points/level ARE capped at Int 10
Agi : affects AP more than vanilla, as well as movement speed (yay!) and melee/unarmed VATS activation distance, all uncapped.
Luc : affects skills more than vanilla, awards xp for bobbleheads found, both uncapped
SKILLS
Barter : for values >100, continues to reduce buy price. Affects XP for amassing caps
BigGuns: >100, increases VATS accuracy and Critical Chance %, with diminishing returns
EnergyWeapons: "
Explosives: as above, plus increases xp for disarming mines and traps
Lockpick : higher skill awards more xp for lockpicking, uncapped
Medicine : higher skill continues to enhance healing items, uncapped
MeleeWeapons : >100 increases damage, with more effect for higher STR characters
Repair : >100 makes salvaged items repair more condition, rewards xp for making weapons and disarming traps
Science: higher skill awards more xp for hacking, uncapped
SmallGuns : >100 increases VATS accuracy and Critical Chance %, with diminishing returns
Sneak : >100 continues to reduce detection, increases sneak critical damage, both uncapped
Speech : higher skill drastically increases speech xp rewards
Unarmed: the only skill that vanilla Fallout 3 continues to use >100, so completely unchanged
For all the stats and skills, Xtra Special will give its effects for both permanent changes and temporary changes >100. This does mean that you can switch out equipment or take chems to enhance xp rewards if you are about to recieve them, but this is a very minor balance issue in my opinion, and often not really worth the trouble (mentats are better used to overcome skill checks, for example). It is sort of fun to maximize your benefits like this, anyway ;)
Installation
------------
Unpack the XtraSpecial.esp into your FO3 data folder, along with any optional/recommended mods. Xtra Special and its optional mods should load after all other balance mods you use.
Uncapping S.P.E.C.I.A.L
-----------------------
The next step is to download the menu mod appropriate to your setup (vanilla menus or DarnUI) and unpack them to your FO3 directory. If you are using the latest version of DarnUI, you must enable the skills over 100 option in its config. These changes allow you to assign skills over 100 (unlimited) and SPECIAL stats during character creation up to 20. When using Intense Training, you may assign points beyond even this.If you don't use one of these mods or some other max skill level workaround, you won't be able to assign points to skills over 100 or stats over 10.
If you are using a vanilla menu setup when you assign points to a skill over 100, it will not show the actual value, and it will only show a skill of 100 in the PipBoy stats screen. Rest assured that the actual value is really there: use the console command player.getav *skill* to see your actual skill value, where *skill* is barter, speech, smallguns, etc. Or use my version of the Skill Check mod.
Long Description
----------------
First, some caveats/issues:
-Xtra Special will track stats over 10 and generally extends their normal effects appropriately. The only exception to this is Intelligence, which will NOT grant you any additional skill points over level 10. I highly recommend using a mod which limits or entirely eliminates bonus skill points from Int., such as my own "XSBalanceTweaks.esp." With Xtra Special, Intelligence increases your XP earned from every source but quest rewards, speech successes, and combat, so it is still quite important.
-Although the Fallout 3 engine has always tracked SPECIAL stats over 10 and skills higher than 100, it generally does nothing with these enhanced values (thus, this mod) and will never display them in the PipBoy. I have included a version of Holty07's "Skill Check" mod <http: www.fallout3nexus.com downloads> that will display all stats and skills at their full value. <br><br>-This mod is somewhat invasive and dynamically alters Game Settings through its scripts. As such, it is entirely incompatible with mods that touch those settings, and obviously strictly requires FOSE. MANY balancing mods make extensive reworkings of the game settings, so there are bound to be some conflicts if you use them. Use FOMM/TESnip to check which settings are affected and adjust appropriately, but when in doubt, load Xtra Special after all balancing mods.<br><br>-This mod does do a little rebalancing with some of the base stats and game settings. There are no plans to release this mod without such changes. The barter settings are pretty much identical to XFO's, so if you use that mod, don't fret.<br><br>-This mod alters XP rewards extensively, reducing them in some places but generally increasing the overall level of xp you will earn, particularly with smart/charismatic character builds. I highly recommend an XP slowdown mod, or simply use my "Xtra Special Balance Tweaks" mod. Any mod that reduces XP earned is going to get its settings dynamically overwritten by this mod.<br><br>-When you first load up an old save after activating this mod, you can expect to gain a fair bit of xp, depending on what you have done in game. This is normal.<br><br><special stats>> <br><br>Strength<br>--------<br>Changed carry weight: <br>(150 + 10 * Strength) to (75 + 25 * Strength)<br>carry weight and melee damage continue to increase >10<br><br><br>Perception<br>----------<br>Perception now controls how far away you can activate Vats with a ranged weapon, the maximum distance Auto Aim will take effect, and the amount of time it takes to ready your iron sights:<br><br>VATS activate Distance = Perception * 500 + 2500<br>Auto Aim Max Distance = Perception * 300 + 1500<br>Iron Sights View Change Time = 1 / (Perception + 2) seconds<br><br>The changes to iron sights speed will, for some reason, affect the field of view change you see when you switch to or from dialogue, though this is a minor glitch. Although it seems like a small change, high Perception characters can snap into iron sights/scopes/zoomed view VERY quickly, which is a nice little bennie.<br><br><br><br>Endurance<br>---------<br>HP per Endurance changed from 20 to 25.<br>HP, RR, and PR continue to increase with values >10<br><br><br>Charisma<br>--------<br>Charisma directly affects the amount of XP you earn from combat. If you need an explanation for this change, consider that Charisma represents your "cool" factor, and that a higher value gives you more of a reputation bump when you defeat foes. If you have a low Charisma, don't expect any xp reward for the easiest opponents. The amount of XP you earn for combat has been lowered accross the board.<br><br>Charisma also grants you significant bonuses to the amount of XP you earn from speech successes and from gaining wealth (see Speech and Barter).<br><br>Charisma will continue to improve NPC disposition towards you at values above 10.<br><br>Combat xp % modifier = Charisma * 10 + 50<br><br><br>Intelligence<br>------------<br>The XP reward for finding new locations is directly based on your Intelligence. <br><br>For each skill book you read, you will gain a small amount of xp. <br><br>Intelligence plays a significant role in your xp rewards from disarming mines and traps, making custom weapons, picking locks, and hacking computers.<br><br>Exploration XP = Intelligence * 2<br>Book XP = Intelligence (x4 if you have the Comprehension perk)<br><br><br>Agility<br>-------<br>Action points changed from (Agility * 2 + 65) to (Agility * 5 + 50)<br><br>Agility now directly affects your movement speed. (+-5% per point, Agi 5 is vanilla speed)<br><br>Agility will affect the distance at which you may activate VATS while unarmed or wielding a melee weapon. <br><br>Note that agility's speed changes uses the setav command, meaning it is incompatible with any mod that also uses setav for this purpose. Any mod that uses modav, such as the Sprint Mod, is perfectly compatible, however.<br><br><br>Luck<br>----<br>Luck skill bonus changed from 1/2 per point to 1 per point of Luck.<br><br>For each bobblehead you find you will get an XP reward of 10x your luck.<br><br><br><br><skills>><br><br><br>Sneak<br>-----<br>Base damage for melee/unarmed sneak attack criticals has been reduced from x5 to x2.<br>Sneak will continue to decrease your detectability for values >100, though very gradually. Most noticible with mods that make sneaking more difficult. If >100, this skill will increase the amount of sneak attack critical damage for ranged and melee/unarmed attacks at a rate of 1% per point over 100.<br><br><br>Medicine<br>--------<br>Values >100 will continue to increase stimpak healing, radaway reduction, and rad-x resistance. Use my "XS ingestibles" mod to increase the applicability of the medicine skill.<br><br><br>Barter<br>------<br>I have altered the base barter settings as does XFO. Barter skill >100 will continue to reduce buy value, though with diminishing returns.<br><br>For every 500 in total maximum caps your character ever earns, they will get bonus XP:<br><br>Wealth xp = (10 * Charsima + Barter) / 4<br><br><br>Repair<br>------<br>For values >100, salvaged items will restore more and more condition to the repaired item.<br>Repair directly affects the amount of XP you earn from removing traps of all sorts.<br>Every time you craft a custom weapon, you will earn XP based on your Repair skill.<br><br>Trap xp % modifier: Intelligence * 5 + Repair/2 + Explosives/2<br>Craft xp: (Intelligence * 5 + Repair) / 10<br><br><br>Science & Lockpicking<br>---------------------<br>The base xp reward for lockpicking/hacking has been increased. Each skill further modifies xp appropriately:<br><br>Lock/Hack xp % modifier: (Intelligence * 5 + skill) / 2<br><br><br>Speech<br>------<br>Base Speech xp is increased, and high values in the skill and/or Charisma will drastically increase these rare rewards:<br><br>Speech xp % modifier: Charisma * 10 + Speech<br><br><br>Small Guns, Big Guns, Energy Weapons<br>------------------------------------<br><br>For each of the ranged combat skills, values >100 will increase critical % chance and VATS accuracy, with diminishing returns for each. This will roughly give you a +1% to critical chance for every 10 levels above 100, but with higher and higher values, the amount you need to get a boost increases. <br><br><br>Explosives<br>----------<br>Mine disarm xp is directly related to your Explosives skill, as is trap disarm xp. Grenade VATS accuracy and critical hit % is affected as with the above weapon skills.<br><br>Mine xp % modifier: Intelligence * 5 + Explosives<br>Trap xp % modifier: Intelligence * 5 + Repair/2 + Explosives/2<br><br><br>Melee Weapons<br>-------------<br>>>>1.1 changes<br><br>For values >100, your melee damage continues to increase. <br><br>Melee damage bonus = 1 per 10 skill points over 100, plus 1 per point of Str over 10.<br><br><br><br>Unarmed<br>-------<br>For some odd reason, Fallout 3 actually applies damage bonuses as normal for values >100, so Unarmed is completely unchanged.<br><br><br><br><br><add-on mods>><br><br><br>Xtra Special Balance Tweaks<br>---------------------------<br>This mod changes some game settings so as to dovetail with the main changes in "Xtra Special."<br><br>It removes the combat XP bonuses you get at higher difficulty levels, tones down (but does not eliminate!) auto aim, increases the effect of your medicine skill on healing items, and increases your "XPbumpbase" from 150 to 300, slowing down leveling considerably (with all the extra xp from the main .esp, this is pretty much a necessity. This mod also removes the effects of Intelligence on earned skill points: all characters get a flat 10 skill points per level. <br><br>Tag skills increase by 2 points per skill point added to them. Finally, this mod reduces the automatic critical chance bump you get in VATS from 15% to 5%.<br><br><br><br>Xtra Special Gameplay Tweaks<br>----------------------------<br>This mod has more drastic changes than the balance mod, but they work quite well with it and the main .esp, at least for me. Many of these changes make the game more difficult.<br><br>Melee Damage derived from Strength has been doubled<br>Unarmed Damage is doubled<br>All weapon damage is doubled<br>Damage to weapons and armor has been reduced by a factor of 5, across the board.<br>Weapon condition does not affect damage in any way<br>Difficulty level does not affect damage done BY the PC, only damage TAKEN<br>Walking will have an effect on Gun Spread<br>Damage to weapons in VATS is reduced to normal<br>Paralyzing Palm chance is now 10%<br>The Player takes 50% damage in VATS, rather than 10%<br>Crippled leg movement penalty increased: 1=50%, 2=25%<br>NPCs get more health per level and per point of Endurance<br>Blocking max effectiveness increased: Melee 95%, Unarmed 75%<br>Gun condition now effects spread slightly<br>Sneak messages made a more ambiguous; no caution/danger/hidden/detected, only --sneak-- in HUD color or red.<br>Reduced the chances for NPCs to drop weapons when critically hit: 50%<br>Removed container "[Empty]" text<br>Reduced AP cost for truly unarmed attacks to 12<br>Player no longer gets HP on level up: it is Endurance, Perks, or nothing!<br><br>Vertibirds have been made more durable<br>The player takes double damage from headshots, just like NPCs<br>You may no longer trade technology for stimpaks at the Outcast HQ<br>Scrap Metal and Wrenches now weigh 2 lbs each<br><br><br>Xtra Special Perk Mod<br>---------------------<br>This mod alters many of the vanilla perks to be more useful, especially with the main .esp. Many of these changes are based on those in the Ultimate Perk Pack Mod: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1409<br><br>All of the perks that add 5 to two skills per rank instead add 10. <br>Gunslinger and Commando are 3 rank perks <br>Educated has been reduced to 1 rank that only gives 1 extra skill point. <br>Comprehension does not give an extra point per book, rather it increases the XP reward for reading skill books from 1x Intelligence to 4x Intelligence. <br> <br>Here and Now is removed, 'cause it is probably the dumbest perk ever. <br>Lifegiver has been increased to 10 ranks, each of which grants 30 HP (works well with the changes in "XSGameplayTweaks." <br><br>Master Trader has been removed, for it just steps on the main Barter skill, especially when it is >100. <br>Adamantium Skeleton has been renamed "Strong Bones," because the former is silly <br>Solar Powered has been changed to Rapid Healing; it takes End 9 and Medicine 100 to pick, no longer grants a STR boost, heals twice as fast, and isn't limited by time/location. <br><br>Nerd Rage description tweaked to read that it ADDS 10 to your STR (it always did; it just had no effect >10), and DR increased to 85%.<br><br>Night Person changed to affect Agility and Perception<br>Rad Resistance now has 3 ranks at +25% each<br>Silent Running reduced to level 6, and Sneak bonus removed from it<br>Toughness has 3 ranks at +10 DR each<br><br><br>Xtra Special Ingestibles <br>------------------------<br>This mod makes most food and healing items use the medicine skill in some fashion. Radiated food will heal more damage at certain thresholds of the medicine skill (25, 50, 75, 100). Items that do not irradiate or have other negative effects, however, are checked as "medicine" items, meaning your medicine skill will directly enhance their effects as it does stimpacks, radaway, and rad-x, and Medicine >100 will continue to provide benefits with them. Such items are: Purified water, Blood Packs, Fresh food (apples, potatoes, carrots, etc.), Fungus, Ice Cold Nuka-Cola (removed rads), Fire Ant Nectar (removed Int penalty), and Wonder Meat (removed rads). <br><br>All food items heal gradually, now, meaning you cannot stack identical item effects, and no food item has any healing effect in combat. They will generally heal more, and the Sanitizer has a greater effect on them, however.<br><br>Stimpacks are reduced in effectiveness, but can be used in combat as normal.<br><br>If you use this mod, I strongly suggest you also use the "XFO drugs rarity (high)," and "No Healing on Rest" mods. With the no limb healing on resting, stimpaks become your main source of limb restoration, which is nice. "Xtra Special Gameplay Tweaks" is also recommeded, as it removes what I see as an exploit: getting stimpaks for donating technology to the outcasts. Once you start encountering enclave soldiers, you can rack up hundreds of stims by turning in power armor and the like, so that option is simply removed.<br><br><br>Xtra Special Zeta & Xtra Special Ingestibles Point Lookout<br>----------------------------------------------------------------------<br>These mods apply the same philosophy as XSIngestibles to the the small number of items added by these DLC. Obviously, you will need the DLCs to get any use out of the mods. You can use these without using XSIngestibles, but that would be a little weird, I think. XSIngestZeta also changes the script to the Alien Epoxy, allowing repair values >100 to continue adding to the amount restored, with diminishing returns. <br><br><br>Xtra Special Skill Check<br>------------------------<br>This is my modified version of Holty07's "Skill Check" mod (http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6392). When it is loaded, you will get a message box any time you press the "\" button, which will show you your actual SPECIAL stats and skills with full values. It will also show you your current movement speed percentage (next to your Agility stat), and your current base critical % (normally just equal to luck, but perks, items, and ranged skills >100 can increase this).<br><br><br><br><br>Highly Recommended Mods<br>-----------------------<br>Sprint Mod <br>by Lork<br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1854<br><br>-Like a lot of folks, I think FO3 should have had this feature from the begining. This mod uses your current stats for all its calculations, meaning any SPECIAL stats it uses that are >10 or Skills that are >100 will function just fine with it.<br><br><br>RobCo Certified<br>by TheTalkieToaster<br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=712<br><br>-As with the Sprint Mod, this one uses your fully modified Science and Repair values for the bots, and your full INT for the # of bots you can control. Really good synergy with XtraSpecial.<br><br><br>Level Cap Workaround<br>by Circuitous<br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=121<br><br>-Pretty much eliminates any cap on levelling, while avoiding the standard problems with simply increasing the level cap. With this mod and Xtra Special, your characters' advancement is theoretically unlimited.<br><br><br>No Bobblehead Effects<br>by Makagulfazel <br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=500<br><br>-Removes the bonuses entirely from bobbleheads, simply making them a collectible. With Xtra special, you gain xp from finding the things, so you can avoid the exploit of bobbleheads while still having a good reason to find them.<br><br><br>DK Bullet Time<br>by dunderklumpen <br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1193<br><br>-Another one of those "duh! Why didn't they put this in from the beginning?" mods. Gives you another use for action points and is a good compliment to the Sprint Mod.<br><br><br>No Fast Travel<br>by Lord_Santa<br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=390<br><br>-Completely removes fast travel from the game, which many consider cheap and exploitable, as well as immersion-breaking. With this mod, No Healing on Rest, and XSGameplayTweaks, you will really feel the brutality of the wasteland.<br><br><br>XFO drugs rarity (high), radiation changes, sneak rebalance (mild)<br>by Xodarap777<span class="wbbtab"></span> <br>http://home.comcast.net/~xodarap777/XFO/XFO_Readme_Current.html<br><br>-Part of the modular version of XFO, these mods dovetail with XTra Special in quite a few ways.<br><br><br>No Healing on Rest<br>by Ziher <br>http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=752<br><br>-Prevents you from healing limb wounds on resting. I use the version that still allows your HP to recover, so beds have some purpose. Now you have an actual reason to visit the doctor other than radiation and shopping.<br><br><br><br>Credits<br>-------<br>All the above authors for their excellent mods<br>TheFakeEmpire (for the origianal Wasteland Mastery mod and the changes from Ultimate Perk Pack)<br><br><br><br><br></add-on></skills></special></http:>