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Magicka Based Skill Progression v2.1
by HotFusion4
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INDEX:

-> Requirements
-> About this mod
-> Installation
-> Files and their Proper Directories
-> Known Bugs & Issues
-> Version History
-> Incompatibilities & Save game warnings
-> Credits & Usage


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REQUIREMENTS:
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Requires Tribunal


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ABOUT THIS MOD:
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This mod makes magical skill progression based on the amount of magicka used, instead of number of spells cast.

In theory, the player should be able to make meaningful advancement in any skill simply being using that skill on a regular basis. The player should never be forced to engage in repetitve clicky tasks to sustain a reasonable level of growth.

Unfortunately, that's exactly what the default settings require. Ever tried to play a conjuror? It's a really fun character concept. You fight all of your battles by summoning monsters and supporting them with missile fire. You go through a ton of magicka, but you don't actually cast a whole lot of spells.

I tried this concept once. Almost every battle was fought exclusively with summonings. Over the course of several game weeks, I only gained a single point in Conjuration! The only way to build the skill was to make a cheap "practice" spell and left click over and over!

I also dislike how you are encouraged to use weaker spells, even when more efficient alternatives are available. I mean, sure, you can use that custom made 100 point healing spell of yours, but if want to actually improve your Restoration skill, you're better off casting Hearth Heal thirty times instead. Barf!

This mod is capable of measuring when a player successfully casts a spell, determining the school of magic used, measuring the amount of magicka used, and crediting the player an appropriate number of experience points towards the correct magical skill.

Sorta.

You can't actually affect the skill progress bars via script, so I was forced to use a separate global variable instead. Additionally, you can't accurately simulate a "natural" skill increase by using scripts.  While it is possible to increase skills via script, these increases aren't counted towards level ups or towards stat multipliers.

To solve this problem, I have complied a library of 600 new and unique skill-increasing books, 100 for each skill.  Whenever you gain enough experience, the mod automatically adds a book of the appropriate type to your inventory, auto-equips it (forcing you to read it), and then deletes the book.  You will never actually see the book in your inventory.  You will still see its contents whenever you level up (consider the text to be a special level up screen).

The process is actually slightly more complicated than I just described.  You cannot read books from your inventory during combat, even if said books are being force-equipped.  This means the script would fizzle if you completed a skill level while fighting.  To sidestep this issue, the script transports you 90,000 units straight up, then force equips the book, and then sets you back down to the ground.  The whole process takes only two frames.  The only visible effect is that the background will change when you level up. 

The use of skillbooks as an alternate means of gaining skill points is very powerful, but it comes with a nasty limitation.  It is only possible to gain 100 points in a single spellcasting skill.  This limitation is only a problem if you are using an uncapping mod.  This limit can be extended, but it requires five minutes of work on the part of the player.  Read the next section for details.

The formula for experience gain has been carefully crafted to maintain the original game pacing.  Experience gains follow the EXACT formula used by Betheseda, except that it is based on Magicka use instead of individual spellcasting events.  Each point of magicka used counts as 6.67% of a spellcasting.  This means that if you use 15 point spells, you will gain exactly as much experience as if you cast asingle spell in an unmodded game.  Using more powerful spells will proportionately increase your rate of progress.  Using weaker spells will slow you down. xperience is also affected by the Major/Minor/Miscelleneous status of your skills, as well as your specialization.  I took pains to use the EXACT same formula as used by Bethseda.

Single point "practice" spells are now fairly worthless.  You will find that if you make regular use of expensive spells like Levitate, that your Alteration will actually improve more than one point over the course of a game.  The same thing goes with the various teleport spells and Mysticism.

MBSP cannot read the Major/Minor/Misc status of your skills by itself. When you start the mod for the very first time, will will be asked to fill out a short questionnaire about your character. Once you finish filling out the form, the primary script will start, and you are now Magicka-based! A special item called the "Spellbook" will also be in your inventory.  Use this book to view your progress in the various skills, your progress towards a magical level up, and also to alter your character data if you think you made a mistake.  This item is designed to be put in a quick slot for maximum ease of use.  In fact, you'll find that it is easier to check your spellcasting experience than it is to check your experience in the unmodded skills!

Now, ordinarily, this mod would not play nice with Horatio's Spellcasting mod, an excellent gameplay mod that I cannot play without.  For you poor benighted fools who don't know what I'm talking about, Horatio's classic mod alters the Magicka cost of spells based on your skill level.  Higher level skill sin a given school mean that spells of that school cost less Magicka, just like in Daggerfall.  This has a huge impact on gameplay and makes playing a wizard much, much more fun... to the point where I cannot believe that Betheseda didn't design the game like this in the first place.

Horatio's mod doesn't actually decrease the cost of spells on the fly (that's impossible, actually).  What it does instead is immediately refund that player a fraction of the consumed Magicka.  Therein lies the problem.  Under MBSP, you get experience based on the "normal" cost of the spell, but under Horatio's, you get to pay a reduced cost.  The combination of these two effects would be pretty imbalancing.

Rather than force people to make a Sophie's Choice kind of decision, I have integrated a modified version of Horatio's mod into my own.  Spell costs are reduced according to your skill, and you receive experience based on the reduced cost of the spell.    

This is in no way intended to disrespect Horatio and his fine work.  Rather, I am attempting to accomodate his fine mod so that conflicts won't arise and that people are free to enjoy both mods, if they so choose.  Additionally, it is more effecient to have only one set of scripts measuring the player's spellcasting and Magicka use.

The rate of Magicka refund as been decreased from Horatio's original mod (Horatio himself has stated that he thinks that the rate gets too high at higher levels).  At skill level zero, you receive no refund.  At Skill level 100 and above, you only pay a third of the printed cost of the spell.   

The refund mechanic supports skills as high as 200.  After skill level 100, the rate of Magicka reduction is quartered. This means that at skill level 200, your spells will be six times cheaper to cast. 

Your effective skill level is affected by your attributes. For every 8 points of Willpower and for every 16 points of Luck, you gain one effective point onto every skill for purposes of calculating your magicka refund.  

This mod can be used with an ongoing game without difficulty.


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TWEAKING:
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MBSP was designed to be easily tweaked by the end-user.  Both the rate of experience gain and the rate of Magicka reduction are be changed.  Open open the script called HF_MagickaSkill.  The two lines that need editing have been commented.  Just follow the directions and you'll be fine.  If you really hate the Magicak reduciton mechanic, it can be turned off by setting the commented number to zero. 

Circumventing the 100 Point Limit:  If you run into the 100 point limit and wish to continue using MBSP, you will have to clean your savegame.  The idea is that if we remove all references to this mod from your game, we will also remove the "I've read this already" flag attached to all of the used-up skillbooks introduced in this package.  Unfortunately, doing this requires the use of a third-party utility.  

You will need a copy of Wyre Mash, a very handy Morrowind tool that can be downloaded for free from http://home.earthlink.net/~wrye_modder/morrowind.html

Wyre Mash is capable of many useful savegame repair functions, and is something that every serious moduser should use.  Note that Wyre Mash requires Python.  Wyre provides direct links to the Python downloads on his site.

When you use the 100th skillbook in any given skill, a special warning message will pop up.  Here is what to do, step by step, in order to reset the mod:

0) Write down the amount of experience stored in each magical skill (optional)
1) Save your game
2) Exit Morrowind
3) Open the Morrowind Launcher
4) Find and uncheck MBSP from your mod-list
5) Restart Morrowind
6) Load the savegame created in step 1
7) Save this game
8) Exit Morrowind again
9) Open Wyre Mash
10) Wyre Mash will present you with a list of your savegames.  Right click on the savegame that you just made
11) Choose Repair All from the right-click menu
12) Close Wyre Mash
13) Open the Morrowind Launcher
14) Find and check MBSP from the mod-list
15) Launch Morrowind
16) Reload your savegame
17) The opening questionairre will appear.  Fill it out
18) Save your game

You're done!  MBSP will be completely reset.  And it only took a few minutes!

The only serious drawback to this is that you lose any progress towards your next magical level-ups.  If you really want to preserve these, record your experience points in step zero.  Then after you've cleaned your game, use the console to restore your old experience.  The console commands that you need are:

set HFAltPoints to xx
set HFConjPoints to xx
set HFDestPoints to xx
set HFillPoints to xx
set HFMystPoints to xx
set HFRestPoints to xx

These commands are case-insensitive.  To access the console, press the tilde (~) key.


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INSTALLATION:
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Extract the .esp file to the Data Files directory.


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FILES USED AND THEIR PROPER DIRECTORIES:
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This file
Data Files\MBSPv20.esp


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KNOWN ISSUES OR BUGS:
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When using casting cost reduction, you must have enough Magicka to cast the spell normally, even if the reduced cost would be within reach for you.


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VERSION HISTORY
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1.0 First release

1.1
-Fixed a bug that could cause negative skill growth under certain conditions
-Improved spell failure detection

1.2
-Deleted a line from the non-Horatio version that was breaking important scripts
-Altered some magic sound effects to improve spell detection
-Streamlined the magic report menu
-The questionairre now waits until after character generation

2.0
-Major re-write
-Abandoned the scripted leveling system in favor of using skill books
-Abandoned the six esp format and combined everything into a single esp
-Magicka regeneration effects no longer stop you from gaining experience
-Added support for skills over 100
-Casting cost reduction now affected by stats
-Compatibility added for the various uncapping mods
-Changed the "Ring of Sorcerous Knowledge" into a Spellbook (better theme)

2.1
-Level ups no longer fizzle during combat
-Stat modifiers more closely follow the cannonical Betheseda formulas
-Fixed an issue that could cause buggy spell failure detection if playing in a very script-heavy environment.
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INCOMPATIBILITIES & SAVED GAME WARNINGS:
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This mod does NOT require you to start a new game.

This mod will conflict with Horatio's Spellcasting mod, but a compatibility patch is included.

This mod will conflict with any mod that alters the Skill settings for the six spellcasting skills.  Make sure that this mod loads after any such mod.



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CREDITS & USAGE:
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Me
TESTool by GhostWheel
Readme template by Glassboy
Original Magicka reduction script by Horatio
Spell Detection script is a modified verion of Horatio's
Method of refunding magicka was invented by Eldar
Fix for multiple calls suggested by Galsiah
Aragorn was the first person to notice the mis-assigned spell sounds in the CS
All scripters owe thanks to GhanBuriGhan from his canonical Morrowind Scripting For Dummies


Feel free to use any of the resources I provided in this plugin, but give credit to me where it is due.



