[REL] No magic skills
 

Version 1.5

In this little mod I`m trying to make SH5 skills less gamey.

Mod also includes changes of MoraleMod.

Download

Install: JSGME ready. If you are using Athlonic's MCCD "More Crew Commands by Dialog" mod, install "No magic skills v1.5 MCCD compatible" version. Otherwise, stick with standard one.

Changelog:

1.0:
All skills are removed from the game completely
1.1:
Skillls enabled:
- Passive:
- Reduce engine noise: 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10%
- Faster torpedo reload: 4%, 8%, 12%, 16%, 20%
- Reduce morale decay: 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%
- MaxMorale: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- Sonar range: 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10%
- Boost Guns - only affects accuracy and damage: 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%
- Faster gun reload: 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%
- Active:
- Special Meal: cooldown 12, 8, 4 hours
Added "- DISABLED" comment to disabled skills localization
Skills costs are now gradual: lvl1 costs 1 point, lvl2 - 2 points ets.

1.2:
- tweaked some passive skills
- new active skill - Rest Crew (Bosun) - see below.

1.3:
- some more tweaks of existing skills
- added 4 new active skills - see below
- fixed some grammatic mistakes

1.4:
- added 3 more passive abilities
- some minor tweaks of existing ones

1.5:
- added "Emergency repairs" skill to Chief Engineer. See list of skills below for more information
- you can switch on/off "Rest crew" and "Damage control" skills

List of skills:

Known issues:
- you may want to start a new campaign - in previously started campaign CE skill(s) may work wrong. Other skills are OK though.
- efficiences in crew screen are messed (see picture below - arrows show correct efficiences). Effects of passive skills are shown wrong. But they work correctly - just dont look at these bars.

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/4369/messrg.jpg

Any help and suggestions are welcome!

Did you fix the pre-heating to follow real-life practice?

http://www.uboat.net/technical/torpedoes.htm

Not yet, but it`s a good idea. I`ll try to add this feature.

thanks, I'm trying to see where they came up with these skills to see which we should keep.

Instead of just "setting all skill effects to 0" and making them cost 1000 points, you could actually modify the passive abilities so that they represent realistic abilities and your crew gain them as they become more experienced.

Ex. Sonar detection improvement

yes +25/+50/+100% is stupid.
But what about +5% range per level + a 5% increase in propeller detection?
Much more reasonable AND realistic.

Or a 5% increase in the accuracy of a sonarman's guesses on range to target per level?
Again, sounds like something gained by experience rather than magic.

Ex. 2

Torpedoman increasing warhead damage - yeah pretty dumb

But what if instead it was -10% chance of torpedo failure per level?
Hmmm again much more believeable isn't it?

Ex .3

Chief engineer making your boat faster - what did he add a nitro boost system?

But an ability making you 2 or 3% quieter per level because he's an alte-hassen who knows how to get the most out of the engines?

Useful and realistic.

Why just take these abilities out of the game entirely when they can be modified and made to enhance the game in a realistic fashion?

It's also a much more pressing issue imho to untie detection range from morale.... there's no way a crew is going to miss a destroyer at 3000 yards in broad daylight just because they're not happy.... You take out the morale building abilities and save game files become completely useless unless you're in port.

That's a nice stopgap. But building on GDFTigerTank's thoughts, the midrange of a skill could be the normal, unmodifed value and have the lower sets provide a negative to portray a green crew's rising level of competencey. Something like -10%, -5%, 0%, +5%, +10%. It'd be nice if you could make it so each crewman could only raise the skill once per patrol to make a more realisitc rate of progress.

This would all be part of turning the skill/rpg elements away from the dark side to be a force for good.

I believe that's what Ducimus (or maybe the RFB guys....forgive me, I can't remember who exactly) tried to do in SH4 - turn the superhero skills into something realistic. I think that's the way to go here.

Sounds reasonable. In next version i`ll enable some realistic skills and morale boosts.

Edit:

Awesome, can't wait to see what you do with it!

I've tried to give it some time and enjoy the game before I got into modding and tweaking, but obviously it's time to get off my @** as I'm starting to get picky with other ppl's mods :O:

for the torpedo man, there could be an ability to reduce dud rates/increase accuracy. Torpedoes require a lot of ongoing maintenance and unless they are kept finely tuned, they could easily go off track (i.e. runs too deep, can't keep correct gyro angle).

for the sonar man, his ability to detect contacts would go up with his skill level. It does not appear in the game, since sound contacts are very noticeable, but in RL, sound contacs may be very faint and hard to distinguish from the background sea noise. A good sound man can make a difference.

Tweaking the skills is much better than outright throwing them away since people don't like "RPG" stuff. I have a suspicion that the game has been balanced with those skills in mind (totally ignoring the whole torpedo speed thing) so removing them could be bad.

Making them useful though, all for it! :)

Rather than hijack Avee's release thread, maybe the discussion can move to the thread CCIP started on the subject a few days ago.

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=163598

This sounds like the finished product would be a mod that many of us would very happy to install. I believe the way this game started out, it was only a degree or two away from having floating power up bubbles!:88)

Version 1.1
 

Update here.
Changes:

Skillls enabled:
- Passive:
- Reduce engine noise: 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10%
- Faster torpedo reload: 4%, 8%, 12%, 16%, 20%
- Reduce morale decay: 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%
- MaxMorale: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- Sonar range: 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10%
- Boost Guns - only affects accuracy and damage: 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%
- Faster gun reload: 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%
- Active:
- Special Meal: cooldown 12, 8, 4 hours
Added "- DISABLED" comment to disabled skills localization
Skills costs are now gradual: lvl1 costs 1 point, lvl2 - 2 points ets.

BTW. Does anyone know how to edit skill selection menu?

Well done m8, that's a great start!

No I don't know how the skill selection menu is modded, but it's probably in the same areas as the other popup menus and windows like the torpedo and subsystem management screens.

So if you can locate them, I bet you're in the ballpark! Might try messaging Conus00, he made a SH3 style graphics for all of those screens.