Deadly Effective is a lightweight, vanilla+ perk overhaul designed to enhance build variety and make perks more relevant throughout the game experience.




Skills and Perks

The main concept is designed around the idea of Synergies - playstyles opened up by the improvements to perks.

Do you want to use automatic weapons and slowly overcome their downsides?
Do you want to use highly accurate energy weapons to lay down consistent fire?
Or do you want to just blitz into a room and clear hostiles in moments?

All these and more are available in the early game - as long as skills are chosen wisely. Later skills build upon these playstyles to keep combat fresh and allow for deep specialization.

Hardcore Mode

A single perk is added to the player to lower stats like reload speed, weapon handling, or fall damage reduction by default.
This more heavily incentivizes taking relevant perks to enhance your chosen playstyle.
This can be disabled at will under Gameplay Options.



Tier One Perks

Ballistics is now Neutralisation - It focuses on semi-automatic carbines but also buffs pistols and shotguns at higher investment.

Lasers is now Focus - A broader discipline that covers all energy weapons in the game. It leverages their accuracy and fire rate to deliver devastating barrages at any range.

Dueling is now Evasion - It is designed to make all CQC playstyles viable even at higher difficulties with powerful damage mitigation abilities.

Pistol Certification has been modified heavily to encourage a more swashbuckling, daring playstyle. Gunslingers can manipulate enemy health to their advantage, making them a deadly force in tight quarters.

Shotgun Certification now focuses heavily on the strengths of shotguns and their ability to clear rooms and cripple foes with terrifying effectiveness.

Boxing now focuses more on the fundamentals of CQC such as footwork and offensive evasion. Skilled Boxers can trip enemies or dodge blows in close combat.

Security now allows auto-hacking at higher levels, referred to as 'Cracking'. This is similar to the Bypass mechanic in Skeleton Key.

Tier Two Perks

Rifle Certification is now Suppression - Allowing automatic fire to be laid down more easily and to devastating effect.

Particle Beams is replaced by Efficiency - the concept being that a savvy technician can squeeze enormous efficiency out of initially underperforming weapons.

Incapacitation now differentiates between organic and inorganic targets and can instantly KO at higher levels.

Isolation no longer offers flat combat bonuses, with higher levels offering Stealth bonuses and even allowing solo combatants to strike Fear into enemies.

Tier Three Perks

Rapid Reloading is now Weapon Handling. Experts in this discipline can wield all weapons efficiently and are less encumbered in combat.

Tweaks and Challenges

A majority of vanilla perks are now altered in some way.
Some of the most tedious or bland vanilla skill challenges have been changed for variety and immersion.
The Challenge module is still WIP, but all skills should be complete-able.



Archetypes
Several new playstyles, loosely termed Synergies, are opened up when using Deadly Effective. Here are a few I had in mind while tuning the mod.

Akila Vaquero
Utilizes Neutralisation, Pistol Certification, and Evasion. A deadly gunslinger that is nearly untouchable when in the midst of enemies, favoring high-damage pistols and falling back on knives or axes to finish off foes.

Trench Gunner
Utilizes Boxing, Shotgun Certification, and Weapon Handling. A master of CQC whose enemies rarely have time to react before being blown to bits by shotshells of all kinds or bludgeoned unceremoniously.

Space Marine
Utilizes Suppression, Weapon Handling, and Focus to lay down reams of highly accurate and deadly energy fire, quickly eliminating all threats before giving his team the all-clear.



Starfield Community Patch : This is not a hard requirement, but several of its keyword and damage calculation fixes are required for intended performance.
Balanced Ballistics : Intended performance is closely linked to Balanced Ballistics' weapon changes, especially for Energy weapons.
Suit Up [RTFP] : Intended performance is closely linked to the damage mitigation and combat bonuses available in Suit Up.



The mod is incompatible with comprehensive rebalances or overhauls.
It is generally compatible with other modular overhauls as long as they do not alter perks or skills.

Skeleton Key is redundant when using Deadly Effective.
Do not use both simultaneously!

It is highly compatible with most other types of mods, including those that reference or check for vanilla perks.
For example, if a mod wanted to check if the player had the Dueling skill, this would return true if they had the Evasion skill.
All vanilla dialogue checks will also perform as intended.

Load the mod as late as possible to avoid entanglements.



This can be installed mid-game as it only adds a few new records attached to the vanilla perks in the form of MGEF or SPELs.
Perk challenges will retain current progress but mileage may vary.
Most perks can be force-advanced using the console safely if installing mid-game.

I would not recommend mid-game uninstallation.



Bethesda Softworks for Starfield and the CK, flawed masterpieces both may be.
ElminsterAU for xEdit which allowed BB to exist well in advance of official tooling.
Balanced Ballistics (This mod's precursor) built upon ASARDE courtesy of user cheesemongler.
Starfield Wiki for providing a convenient Skills overview.


Spacefarer is a modular, immersive Vanilla+ overhaul that aims to bring out the best of what Starfield already has to offer. Check it out below.

Combat
Deadly Effective - Overhauls numerous combat-related vanilla perks for playstyle diversity (and fun!)
Balanced Ballistics - Lightweight and immersive overhaul to weapon handling for Ballistic and Laser weaponry.
Suit Up [RTFP] - Smart and compatible system to make spacesuit selection more impactful.
Space Economy
Cost of Spacing - Simulates a reactive and complex space economy by introducing costs to space travel.
Spacefaring Economy [RTFP] - Overhauls prices and rewards with heavy scaling to avoid hyperinflation.
Captain’s Choice - Rebalances ship classes and modules for more thoughtful shipbuilding and combat.
Survival
Real O2 - Makes O2 a real consideration when exploring zero-atmosphere environments.
Peak Performance - A lightweight system to handle Hunger, Thirst, and Rest.
Immersion
Magic Boost Disabler - Disables the vanilla behavior of magically appearing Boost Packs.
First Person Messages [RTFP] - Converts game messages to first person.