[[[ This will be easier to read in places if maximised - or at least "almost" maximised]]] Galsiah’s Character Development: Readme NB: There's no need to upgrade from 1.07b to 1.07c. The esps haven't changed. I've just included the Werewolf evolution patch this time. To upgrade from 1.07 to 1.07c, just replace the old esp with the new one. The changes are very minor, so there is no need to go through the remove+save+add+load process. Just replace the main GCD esp with the new one in Morrowin/Data Files, and you're done. Version 1.07c Contents: (1) General GCD description (2) Initial calculations (3) Skills (4) Attributes (5) Health (6) Magicka (7) Levels (8) In depth worked example of a Breton “Acrobat” (you might want to read this last) (9) Functionality / Compatibility (10) Customizing GCD (11) Troubleshooting (12) Upgrading to 1.07c with a GCD saved character (13) About GCD I hope this readme now covers pretty much everything. If you think anything needs more explanation, or you find part of this misleading / contradictory, then please inform me and I’ll try to put things right. If you can’t find info here, look in the Gals___CUSTOMIZE and Gals___SKILL_FACTORS script for deeper explanation. If you’re construction set phobic then check the GCD threads on the forums. Feel free to ask me for clarification on anything (within reason). IMPORTANT: if you don’t have either of the expansions, and you want to use GCD on a non-GCD saved game, you will need to start GCD from the console. To do this type: StartScript, Gals__Start (note the TWO underscores) (*) IMPORTANT NOTE: Some users have reported that GCD can cause the "Brittlewind Bug" - this is a bug introduced with Bloodmoon, but often triggered by mods, which causes all NPCs to have the Brittlewind spell. This is a powerful frost spell (10 points for 10 seconds), so if you're level 1, then you're usually dead. To fix this bug, use the Bittlewind fix esp (included) if you have Bloodmoon. *************************************************************************************************************** (1) General Description Galsiah’s Character Development (GCD) redefines the levelling system of Morrowind. It aims to produce diverse characters with strengths and weaknesses, to make character progression seamless, and to remove artificial limits from character stats. I have aimed to preserve game balance: with default values, this mod should not make the game significantly harder / easier (if you find that it does, please inform me). Most aspects of GCD are easily customizable, for example: * Influence of race / class on starting attributes. * Influence of race / class on attribute progression. * Spread of attributes. * Rate of attribute increase. * Rate of slowdown of skill increase. * Starting points of skill slowdown. * Which skills influence which attributes, and to what degree. * Average starting health. * Magicka regeneration rate. In the following explanations all the examples and numbers used assume default values. These values can be easily changed by editing the esp. *************************************************************************************************************** (2) Initial Calculations GCD bases quite a few of its calculations on the attribute and skill values you pick during character generation. This is done purely by checking the values for attributes, skills, and magicka that result from your choices. How you got these values – whether by racial stats/bonuses/abilities, birthsign abilities or choice of primary attributes / skills – makes no difference. For this reason, GCD is fully compatible with any mod which changes stats / skill bonuses of existing races, creates new races or changes birthsign abilities. Whatever a mod does to race / class / the character generation process – as long as you end up with some numbers, GCD will work with them. *************************************************************************************************************** (3) Skills Skills can increase to any value in principle, but slow down exponentially after they reach a (skill specific) threshold. This threshold is 60 + ( 0.8 * initial skill value ), i.e. 64 for a typical misc skill, 92 for a typical major skill… After the threshold, skills take 2 normal increases to raise by one point, after a higher threshold 3 increases, then 4 and so on. The levels of these thresholds is dependent on the “skill slowdown rate”. Major skills are unlikely to get higher than 125 in a reasonable time, misc skills will be very hard to increase beyond 90. Skills influence starting attributes, attribute progression and health. Each skill increase has a small impact on various attributes (from 3 to 5 attributes by default). The largest effect is always in the skill’s standard governing attribute. For instance, long blade influences strength the most, but also has a significant effect on agility, speed and endurance. *************************************************************************************************************** (4) Attributes Attributes are no longer limited to 100. They rise with skill increases. The attributes your character starts with are, by default, the average of the values you pick (i.e. racial attributes + primary attributes) and values calculated from your choice of skills. This makes for more variety in initial scores, as well as giving class a larger influence on your starting attributes. At the moment, GCD does not alter any values until character generation is finished (i.e. you have spoken to the captain and left the Census and Excise office). Thus you will not see your starting values until you leave, and do not have the opportunity to change your mind if you don’t like the results. This is not ideal, but the system is fairly intuitive: pick strength based skills and you’ll be stronger, pick intelligence based skills and you’ll be smarter, and so on.[You can now do all the calculations in the GCD stat calculator spreadsheet before loading the game] The default GCD system usually gives your character a smaller gap between your highest and lowest starting attributes than in the standard Morrowind system. However, in GCD these values will tend to get further apart, rather than closer together, as you use your skills – this is because the rate of increase of an attribute is proportional to the amount of initial points you have in relevant skills. Thus a fighter will find it easier to increase strength than intelligence. The influence of a skill is also proportional to your initial score in that skill, so that a fighter with Long Blade as a major skill and Axe as a misc skill will stand to gain more attribute points by developing Long Blade, than by increasing Axe. Using default values, a specialised character might, after a very long time, have scores of 140 in a couple of attributes, but only 60 or 70 in several others. Luck is increased with the other attributes using the following equation: Total luck gain = (luck rate of increase) * (( Total other attribute gain ) / 7) Luck rate of increase is 0.7 by default. *************************************************************************************************************** (5) Health Health is calculated based on Endurance and relevant skill scores. Health is independent of the order of increase of skills / attributes, so there is no incentive to increase Endurance early. Any change to Endurance will give a corresponding change in your character’s health (although an endurance of zero will stop short of killing you). Skills influence health based on four criteria: Their initial score, current score, “Background” factor, and “In Use” factor. The background factor of a skill is based on the usefulness of a high score in that skill in avoiding / limiting damage, even when not using the skill actively. Acrobatics thus has a very high background factor, since it is useful to any character in practically any damaging situation. Alteration has a background factor of zero, since to a fighter using a longsword, his alteration skill is irrelevant. The In Use factor of a skill is based on the usefulness of high score in that skill in avoiding / limiting damage, when using the skill actively. A skilled mage will find it easier to avoid damage when using alteration than a character with a low score in alteration, since the mage will be able to concentrate more on avoiding blows. He can perform the skill without giving it any conscious thought, and is free to concentrate on not getting killed. Alteration thus has a moderate In Use factor. Since skills with high In Use factor should only be much use to those who use them, the In Use factor of a skill is multiplied by the character’s initial score in that skill. This gives a crude estimate of the proportion of time that skill will be in use. The relative influences of the Background and In Use factors is debatable, and therefore editable. This system is not perfect, but it works quite well, and is more realistic than the standard system, where 10 increases in speechcraft can suddenly make you harder to kill. *************************************************************************************************************** (6) Magicka Magicka regenerates by default in GCD (rate based on magic skills and willpower). This is so that mages can be mages without having to sleep between every fight in order to stand a chance. GCD tends to give mages lower Strength, Endurance, health and weapon skills, so it is necessary to compensate for their vulnerability in order to make them playable. Maximum magicka also increases faster (for magic based characters) than in standard Morrowind, based on magic skills as well as Intelligence. Characters with stunted magicka (usually from the Atronach sign) do not regenerate magicka, but do get an increased maximum magicka - about a quarter more extra: i.e. a wood-elf atronach with intelligence 60 would expect to get about a quarter more total magicka than a breton apprentice with 60 intelligence. The Magicka system can be turned off using the editor, so if you already use a different mod for this, and prefer the way it does things, you can continue using that. [Small issue with the magicka system: while you are affected by a fortify magicka effect (NOT a fortify maximum magicka effect), your maximum magicka will not be updated by GCD. Also, while you are being effected by a restore intelligence effect, your maximum magicka is effectively at the standard Morrowind value – if your stat sheet says differently, it’s lying. These issues will never be fixed (short of some divine inspiration), but they aren’t too important] *************************************************************************************************************** (7) Levels Levels are effectively removed from the game with GCD: they have no effect on your character at all. It is still necessary to keep the character’s level at a sensible value, however, since otherwise the levelled lists would not function properly. Killing rats and mudcrabs gets a bit tiresome after a while. Level is based on attribute gain: for each 6 points (by default) you gain in your 7 attributes (not luck) you gain a level. There is no level up screen. As of GCD 1.07, level will update correctly on your stats menu. Sadly things still aren't perfect - when you level up, your magicka/health/fatigue meters, minimap... will temporarily disappear from view (in order to stop this from happening in combat, a few checks are performed before the graphical update occurs: you must have no weapon drawn / spell readied, and have full health all for five seconds before the stat screen update will trigger). To bring them back you just need to open and close the menu. If you like this less than the old system (where level display didn't update until you saved + reloaded), then you can type: Set Gals_Attribute_Check.levelGraphicUpdateOff to 1 [Whichever system you use, GCD will always update your level instantly - the stat screen might be inaccurate if you use the old method or use the new method and are in combat / not at full health, but your underlying level will always be right.] The highest level you are likely to reach in a reasonable (but very long) time playing GCD, is about 80. The usual exploits which allow you to achieve very high levels will not work with GCD (though there might be new ones). There are some mods which require a higher level than this in order to see everything in the mod: e.g. creature pack 1.1 requires a level of 150 for a very few of the enemies to appear. If you don't want to miss out on these high level additions, then you should use the "GCD over 60 level speedup" addon. The maximum level attainable with this is 200, and it will be possible to get a level over 150 in a reasonable time [Note that using setlevel to change your level will NOT work reliably, since GCD will set the level back to what it thinks it should be every time you gain a skill point]. *************************************************************************************************************** (8) In depth character example This is a worked example of the calculation of all values used by GCD for a new character – a Breton. Let’s call her Prolyssa just to be friendly. These calculations can be performed in the “Stat Calculator” spreadsheet provided – the default values show the calculations for Prolyssa. This will get complicated – you have been warned. [NB some of the default values have been tweaked since this was written - e.g. health base increased to 50. I'm not about to re-write it, so the calculations here may not give the same numbers as the stat calculator spreadsheet. The spreadsheet is up to date on its default values.] Some of the following calculations may appear to be slightly wrong – this is because values are only shown to a few significant figures. The calculations in the spreadsheet and in the esp will be correct. Default GCD values are used in the following (except where they have been tweaked), along with default Morrowind values for racial skill bonuses etc. – but if you use a mod which changes these, those changes will be taken into account. New races / birthsigns will also work fine. Let’s say Prolyssa chooses these skills: Major skills Minor skills Acrobatics ShortBlade Marksman Speechcraft Athletics HandToHand Unarmored Restoration Sneak Alchemy Primary attributes: Agility, Speed Specialism: Stealth Thus her initial (pre GCD modification) skills are: Acrobatics 35 Marksman 35 Unarmored 30 Athletics 30 Sneak 35 ShortBlade 20 Speechcraft 20 HandToHand 20 Restoration 25 Alchemy 20 Alteration 10 Armorer 5 Axe 5 Block 5 BluntWeapon 5 Conjuration 15 Destruction 5 Enchant 5 HeavyArmor 5 Illusion 10 LightArmor 10 LongBlade 5 MediumArmor 5 Mercantile 10 Mysticism 15 Security 10 Spear 5 The values of these skills are then used to calculate Prolyssa’s total “points” score for each attribute, by adding up the product of skills and their attribute modifiers. E.g. Acrobatics initial skill = 35 Acrobatics skill modifiers are: Agility 6 = ( 35 * 6 ) = 210 “points” Endurance 4 = ( 35 * 4 ) = 140 “points” Intelligence 0 = ( 35 * 0 ) = 0 “points” Personality 1 = ( 35 * 1 ) = 35 “points” Speed 5 = ( 35 * 5 ) = 175 “points” Strength 10 = ( 35 * 10 ) = 350 “points” Willpower 0 = ( 35 * 0 ) = 0 “points” These scores are: Agility 2245 Endurance 970 Intelligence 1625 Personality 1415 Speed 2285 Strength 1075 Willpower 1640 These are divided by the expected score (i.e. (avg_skill * total_of_modifiers) / 7), to give the unmodified rate of increase of each attribute: Agility = 2245 / 1608.47 = 1.40 Endurance = 970 / 1608.47 = 0.60 Intelligence = 1625 / 1608.47 = 1.01 Personality = 1415 / 1608.47 = 0.88 Speed = 2285 / 1608.47 = 1.42 Strength = 1075 / 1608.47 = 0.67 Willpower = 1640 / 1608.47 = 1.02 These are brought closer to one, depending on the value of ATTRIBUTE_SPREAD (0.34 by default) as follows: Agility = (1.40 * 0.34) + (1-0.34) = 1.13 Endurance = (0.60 * 0.34) + (1-0.34) = 0.87 Intelligence = (1.01 * 0.34) + (1-0.34) = 1.00 Personality = (0.88 * 0.34) + (1-0.34) = 0.96 Speed = (1.42* 0.34) + (1-0.34) = 1.14 Strength = (0.67 * 0.34) + (1-0.34) = 0.89 Willpower = (1.02 * 0.34) + (1-0.34) = 1.01 These scores are then used to calculate the skill based components of GCD starting attributes. This is done simply by multiplying the scores by the average of the character’s starting attributes (excluding luck): Average attribute = 290 / 7 = 41.43 Skill based components: Agility = 1.13 * 41.43 = 46.81 Endurance = 0.87 * 41.43 = 36.04 Intelligence = 1.00 * 41.43 = 41.43 Personality = 0.96 * 41.43 = 39.77 Speed = 1.14 * 41.43 = 47.23 Strength = 0.89 * 41.43 = 36.87 Willpower = 1.01 * 41.43 = 41.84 Initial attribute values are calculated from a combination of the above skill based components, and the (mostly) racial attributes the character chose, as follows: GCD attribute = (racial_value * racial_attribute_start) + (skill_component * ( 1 - racial_attribute_start ) ) Racial attribute start is 0.5 by, default, making the GCD final value a straight average of racial_value and skill_component. E.g. GCD initial strength = ( 36.87 * 0.5 ) + ( 30 * 0.5 ) = 33.4 Giving: Agility = 43.5 Endurance = 32.9 Intelligence = 45.8 Personality = 39.9 Speed = 48.7 Strength = 33.4 Willpower = 45.9 The highest fractional values are then rounded up, and the lowest rounded down, making sure that the resulting total is the original total rounded up: Agility = 43 Endurance = 33 Intelligence = 46 Personality = 40 Speed = 49 Strength = 33 Willpower = 46 These are Prolyssa’s starting values (luck is unaltered). These values are less spread out than for most characters: Prolyssa’s class and race pull in different directions. Note that your starting attributes might not add up to 290 (or 290 + whatever bonus you had). Fighters will tend to have slightly lower average values than mages – this is fair enough I think, since while no-one can do without endurance, a fighter with a very low intelligence has no real disadvantage. Attribute rates of increase are then calculated using a combination of the skill based rates obtained above, and rates obtained from the (mostly) racial attributes: Relative ratial attribute = (Racial Attribute) / (average attribute) Racial rate of increase multiplier = ( 1 – RAP ) + ( RAP * relative racial attribute ) Where RAP is RACIAL_ATTRIBUTE_PROGRESS E.g. strength multiplier = ( 1 – 0.3 ) + ( 0.3 * ( 30 / 41.43 ) ) = 0.92 The racial multipliers are then multiplied by the skill based multipliers to give the final rates of increase. Prolyssa’s rates are: Agility = 1.12 Endurance = 0.79 Intelligence = 1.07 Personality = 0.95 Speed = 1.21 Strength = 0.81 Willpower = 1.07 Rate of increase of luck is effectively luckROI * the average of the above. For Prolyssa, this is simply: Luck = 0.9 * 1 = 0.9 Again, rates do not always average exactly 1, fighters will tend to get very slightly lower rates than mages with default values. Health is calculated as follows (starting health is not a special case): First the totals of Background and InUse points are calculated. Background Total = TheSumOf (skill_value * skill_back_modifier) over all skills. InUse Total = TheSumOf (skill_value * skill_in_use_modifier * skill_in_use_proportion ) over all skills. Where skill_in_use_proportion = (initial_skill + in_use_offset ) / ( average_init_skill + in_use_offset ) Prolyssa’s values are: Background total = 4595 InUse total = 4765.5 Health is then proportional to endurance, and to the health “constant” (a variable calculated to keep average starting health at health_base), and dependant on the health_background and health_in_use factors set in Gals_customize. Health bonus is added to every character’s health. The health calculation for Prolyssa is shown below: Health = ( 33 * (( 4595 * 1 ) + (4765.5 * 1 )) * 0.00010733 ) + 5 = 38.15 Prolyssa’s initial health is lower than average (40) primarily because her class does not fit well with her racial skill bonuses, giving her no skills above 35. She’s not exceptionally good at anything, and so is a bit of a soft target. She has fairly good potential in health terms, however, since increasing three of her major skills: athletics, unarmored and acrobatics, will all give her many background and in use points. More specialised character’s will tend to have more health at the beginning, but picking major skills with high InUse factors is the main consideration. Picking major skills with high background factors is no real bonus in itself, but it does mean that you can get a lot of points in both categories with a single skill increase, and start with more health. Maximum magicka is calculated by first taking your “standard” magicka and dividing it into two parts: an “affected” part and an “unaffected” part. The affected part is multiplied by factors involving initial magic skills and current magic skills. The two parts are then added and modified by intelligence. The unaffected part is, by default, 20 * magicka multiplier. The affected part is then (intelligence – 20) * magicka multiplier [the affected part is never below zero, even if default values are changed]. All characters – whatever their magic skills – thus have at least 20 magicka (using default values). For Prolyssa, this gives: Unaffected = 20 * 1.5 = 30 Affected = ( 46 – 20 ) * 1.5 = 39 The degree to which initial magic skills affect maximum magicka is altered by changing MAG_MAX_START_OFFSET (this is zero by default, giving a large influence – the lower the value the higher the influence, to a minimum of -40). MAG_MAX_PROGRESS governs how much current magic skills affect maximum magicka, this is 5 by default – again a fairly large influence: a mage’s maximum magicka would potentially increase by 2.5 times (eventually more) due to this alone. Maximum magicka is also directly proportional to MAG_MAX_MULTIPLIER, which is 1 by default, but can be increased / decreased as desired. For Prolyssa, then, start magicka is: Mag = 1*((( 39/400000)*(init_skills+offset)*(1000+(current_skills * max_progress)))+unaffected) * (int/startint) = 1 * ((( 39 / 400000) * ( 105 + 0 ) * ( 1000 + ( 105 * 5 ))) + 30 ) * ( 46 / 46 ) = 45.6 This is less than is standard (i.e. 69), but Prolyssa is certainly no mage, and she will get the benefits of (slow) regeneration. Magicka regen is affected by: initial magic skills, current skills, willpower and fatigue (by default). Note that for both regen and max magicka, “natural” skill values are used, whereas current intelligence and willpower values are used. This means that fortifying magic skills will have no effect on magicka, whereas fortifying intelligence will increase maximum magicka, and fortifying willpower will increase the rate of regeneration. Before willpower and fatigue adjustment, Prolyssa’s regeneration at the start is: Rate = (base_rate * (init_mag_skills+offset) * (1000 + (current_mag_skills * progress_influence))) / 1960000 = (1 * (105 + 0) * (1000 + (105 * 7 ))) / 1960000 = 0.093 Note that the offset happens to be 0 for both maximum magicka and for magicka regen, but these are two different variables in the esp, and can be set to different values. Willpower adjustment is: Will adjustment = ((current_willpower * will_influence) + (will_val * (1-will_influence))) / will_val = (( 46 * 0.6 ) + ( 60 * ( 1 – 0.6 ) )) / 60 = 0.86 Fatigue adjustment (for full fatigue) is: Fatigue adjustment = ((current_ratio * F_influence) + ( 1 – F_influence )) / (1 + ( F_influence * ( F_val – 1 ))) = (( 1 * 0.8 ) + ( 1 – 0.8 )) / (1 + ( 0.8 * ( 0.8 – 1 ) )) = 1.19 Prolyssa’s initial regen rate is then: 0.0815 * 0.86 * 1.19 = 0.095 in magicka / second This is about 1 magicka per 10.5 seconds, which isn’t that fast since Prolyssa isn’t a mage, and is only just starting out in the world. This is certainly not enough magicka / regeneration for Prolyssa to mount any formidable magical attacks, but enough for a quick Divine intervention spell, should she find herself trapped in a burning building and unable to use her acrobatic skills to escape – which is just as well really. To check the effects of changing any of the variables used above / starting with different skill sets, use the GCD Stat Calculator spreadsheet. *************************************************************************************************************** (9) Functionality / Compatibility This version of GCD: Depends only on Morrowind – does not require Tribunal / Bloodmoon, but is compatible with both expansions. Is compatible with any Race mod (unless the mod does very odd things with scripts). Is compatible with any Birthsign mod, although it might not always be well balanced. Now works on saved games started without GCD – I’ve tried to make the GCD integration process fit in with the game world, but I’ve had to resort to quite a bit of mystical mumbo-jumbo (sorry) / self-help jargon (very sorry). It is important to remove any enchantments which affect attributes / magicka before equipping the ring (there’s a ring – it’s just used as a trigger, so that you can go through the process when you want to, after you’ve removed enchantments, and preferably found somewhere safe). You do have to input your initial skill and attribute values, so that GCD can do its calculations – annoying, I know, but you’ll only need to do this once for each character. It is probably wise to work out what your initial skills attributes were, before you equip the ring, so that you can fill them in with confidence. You will get a warning if the totals are not what GCD expects: i.e. 400 for skills and 330 for attributes, but any values will be accepted, since you might be running a mod which alters initial totals for some races / birthsigns. And remember, if you cheat, then you’re only cheating yourself!! ;). Note that on first starting up GCD with a saved character, some high skills might drop, attributes are likely to change significantly, maximum magicka will almost certainly change, and level will probably change (so the HUD will disappear for a moment - see section (7)). In particular, you current attributes are totally irrelevant to GCD’s calculations – it uses only start attributes, start skills and current skills. GCD aims to keep things balanced, so that if you had almost “maxed out” (EVIL phrase) your skills, your values will probably drop on average – but your potential is still higher than before. If you want, you can change some of the constants in the esp (not difficult at all) to make it easier + give you higher stats, but I really wanted to avoid creating super characters. If you had skills at 100, these will almost certainly drop. You might consider this unfair, since they may well have been higher than 100 if they had not been capped. If this is the case, then you have my official blessing to open the console, and type: player -> modskillname, # where is the skill in question, and # is the amount you think it would be over 100 (honesty please). # must not be over 5 - if it would be, then repeat with 5 or lower until you've added the amount you wanted to. This will increase the skill to reflect your efforts, though it will not increase it by # points (since your skill increase rate will have dropped). Once you’ve entered these values for the first time, you should be able to forget GCD exists. Allows restoration (by casting the usual spells etc.) of damaged attributes / skills even when over 100 (but only up to their “natural” levels: you’ll have to take off those CE items just like in the standard game). E.g. a character with 120 strength puts on a fortify strength +10 item, taking his strength to 130. His strength is then damaged 5 points by a damage strength effect, giving 125 strength. The character casts restore strength. Nothing happens. He then removes the +10 item and casts restore strength again. Health is restored to 120. If he had been damaged 15 points, the first spell would have worked, but only up to 120 – he would still have to take the item off to restore the last ten points. [NOTE for restoration to work for stats over 90, the duration of the effect must not be instant (1 second is fine, but 0 seconds is not)] Works whether player becomes a vampire, is cured, or just stays normal. [works if vampire skills / abilities / specials are changed, but will not function perfectly if new skill altering Abilities are added when the player becomes a vampire – if you know of a mod which does this, then I can change mine to accommodate it. A mod which does this will only cause minor problems with GCD – you might not even notice. VE, VR, and VH don't do this] ****************************** NOTE on vampirism: There is a bug in Morrowind (even without GCD) whereby becoming a vampire whilst being affected by fortify skill/attribute effects leads to an inflated vampire bonus in that skill/attribute. This is because the vampire abilities multiply skills/attributes rather than adding to them (I don't know why). e.g. if you have a speed of 80, and get a +20 vampire bonus, your speed becomes: 80 * ((80 + 20) / 80) = 80 * 1.25 = 100 If your speed is fortified (e.g. by boots of blinding speed) then the multiplier DOES NOT CHANGE, giving: 280 * ((80 + 20) / 80) = 280 * 1.25 = 350 and after removing the boots, speed = 150. This only ever results in skill/attribute increase that is too large, never too small. You can (usually) avoid this in standard Morrowind by removing all fortifications before changing, but with GCD this is sometimes impossible - since over 95 skills/attributes are effectively fortified all the time. If you want to avoid these inflated bonuses, then you can do so by becoming a vampire early - before any vampire effected stats are over 95 - and making sure all fortifying bonuses are removed. Of course you don't have to avoid getting inflated bonuses if you don't want to - nothing will go wrong. I hope to be able to eliminate this problem in a future version, but it might not be easy, seeing as the bug is a Morrowind bug, not a GCD bug. ****************************** Works if player becomes a werewolf (presuming you don’t have a mod which changes werewolf stats in strange ways – I might release a Bloodmoon patch which contains a more robust check if there are mods which do this [werewolf evolution does not conflict with GCD]). [This is now been tested, it didn't work properly in versions 1.04 to 1.06] ********************************** NB: if a mod changes one of your attributes PERMANENTLY, GCD does not provide a patch for that mod and the modder hasn't made it GCD compatible, then GCD will probably need to be informed that your attribute has increased in this way. Inform GCD e.g. for a permanent increase of 7 in strength by typing at the console: Show Gals_Natural_Strength this should display what GCD thinks is your natural strength - probably 7 points too low. If it is correct, then do nothing and continue. If it is 7 points too low, and should be e.g. 87 then type: Set Gals_Natural_Strength to 87 After doing this, close the console and continue - everything will be fine after you've done this. NB do NOT do this for skills - only attributes. GCD does this automatically for the Bittercup artifact, and the Cloudcleaver bonus - you only need to do it if an unpatched mod changes attributes PERMANENTLY in this way. Do not do this for constant effect items, or any other removable / temporary effect. (more on this in section (10) ) ********************************** ********************************** At the moment, GCD will not work correctly with mods that have attribute requirements of over 95. If your attribute is over 95, but you can't satisfy such a requirement, remove attribute fortifying effects, open the console and type: player -> Modattribute, 5 e.g. if the requirement is on strength and your strength is naturally 104, type: player -> ModStrength, 5 Then go through the stage that has the requirement. Afterwards, type: player -> ModStrength, -5 This strategy will not work perfectly for a skill requirement of over 95. For that you should type: StopScript, Gals_Sk_Skillname (Skillname should contain no spaces, e.g. lightarmor, shortblade...) player -> modskillname, 5 Then go through the stage that has the requirement. Afterwards, type: player -> Modskillname, -5 and then, StartScript, Gals_Sk_Skillname If you find that this doesn't work, then please inform me. *********************************** GCD might not work with mods that change the level increase GMSTs if GCD is earlier in the load order. GCD will work with Wakim’s Game Improvements or similar mods which make changes to the speed of increase of skills by altering the game settings (though clearly BBB might conflict with any other birthsign mod). These alterations use a different system from mine, and will cause no problems – in fact, since I make no changes (on average) to the rates, mods which make sensible changes to the increase rates should complement GCD well. GCD is fully compatible with Necessities of Morrowind, since it works with any spells / curses in the standard game, so nothing should go wrong. (thanks to Malik for testing this). I've now tested this quite a lot too, without problems. Now works with Chargen revamped / Alternate Beginnings, or similar mods which start the player in new locations (you need to use the GCD startscript mod). When using GCD with Thief Experience Overhaul, you need to use the GCD TEO compatibility patch provided, as explained in GCD Readme first. (Thanks again to Malik for finding this) Now works with Vampire HungerIII - use the patch provided (patch by Peter) Works with scripted spells - use the patch provided (also by peter) Works with Cult of the clouds - use the patch provided (patch by Lord Platin) Works with Havish - use the patch provided. When using GCD with Light Based Sneaking (by Vanhikes and qwert_44643), if your natural sneak value has ever gone over 95, and you suffer an LBS sneak penalty, you could cast a restore sneak spell, gaining back your lost sneak points (due to GCD’s restore scripts), and then move out of the light and end up with a higher sneak value than you should have. Don’t do this – it’s cheating. If you ever want to cast restore sneak for a legitimate reason, do it when you aren’t getting any LBS penalties / bonuses. This will only be a problem after your natural sneak value has been over 95, and shouldn’t be much trouble even then. Mods which change the health system by altering Maximum health are most likely not compatible. Mods which do strange things to Current health should work with GCD. Mods which make one time/occasional relative changes to maximum health should work ok with GCD, though the balance might not be great. Mods which change Magicka levels / allow Magicka regeneration will work fine with GCD, provided you switch GCD’s Magicka system off (easily done in the editor). GCD is unlikely to be fully compatible with mods which use SetStat - unless the modders have been very careful -, but there aren’t many of these. Mods which use ModSkill will only cause problems if they modify a skill to an above natural value, and then modify it down again, and even then the problem will only occur if you use restore skill spells [the “problem” being that your skill would end up higher than it should be]. Mods like this can be made compatible with GCD (though it might be difficult), but most existing mods of this type won't be, simply because GCD is relatively new. *************************************************************************************************************** (10) Customizing GCD Most of GCD can be customized by changing Gals___Custoimze. If you’re keen you might like to look at Gals___Skill_Factors script too (and at the excel worksheets for ease of comparison). By far the easiest way to work out what variables to change, and to what values, is to use the GCD Stat Calculator spreadsheet. All the variables are explained in the esp, but I’ll describe some of the more common changes here. The following are all large changes – I think small changes make more sense, but then I would think that, since I came up with the defaults. If you want to turn off the magicka system: Set Gals_MAGICKA_SYSTEM_ON to 0 If you don’t want your starting attribute values changed from their “normal” values: Set RACIAL_ATTRIB_START to 1 If you think that race rather than class should have the largest influence on attributes: Increase RACIAL_ATTRIB_PROGRESS to about 0.5 Reduce ATTRIBUTE_SPREAD to about 0.1 If you’re an “All races should have equal potential” person, then you might want to get your head examined, but you might also want to: Set RACIAL_ATTRIB_START to 0 Set RACIAL_ATTRIB_PROGRESS to 0 Perhaps increase ATTRIBUTE_SPREAD to about 0.5 The following will make the game easier in some way (for most characters), doing the opposite will clearly make the game more of a challenge: Increase SKILL_SLOWDOWN_START Increase SKILL_SLOWDOWN_SPREAD Reduce Gals_SKILL_SLOWDOWN_RATE Increase ATTRIBUTE_INCREASE_RATE Increase luckROI Increase MAG_BASE_REGEN_RATE Increase MAG_PROGRESS_INFLUENCE Reduce MAG_WILLPOWER_VAL Increase MAG_MAX_MULTIPLIER Increase MAG_MAX_PROGRESS Increase HEALTH_BASE Reduce HEALTH_BONUS (This is not a mistake, this leads to a higher health constant) Increase HEALTH_BACKGROUND_FACTOR Increase HEALTH_IN_USE_FACTOR Increase ATTRIBUTES_REQUIRED There is a multitude of possible combinations of changes, so I can’t cover everything here. It’s also difficult to predict what people will want to change. If you want to achieve some effect, but are unsure what values to change, then the GCD Stat Calculator is your friend. Even if you are sure what you need to change, it would be interesting to get feedback on which values you have found it useful to change. One frequent aim is to change health. Here's a brief explanation of what to do and why. Health in GCD consists of two parts: a constant part, BONUS This is constant over all characters and throughout the game. and a changing part, (BASE - BONUS) This is the average changing part of a starting character, and increases during play. By default, BASE is 50 and BONUS is 12, giving, constant part = 12 changing part = 38 The purpose of BONUS is to ensure that even the frailest of mages starts with a reasonable amount of health. The closer BONUS gets to BASE, the lower the variation in health between different types of character. Your character's health at any given time will be equal to (progress * (changing part)) + (constant part) where progress is a measure of how much your health has increased due to skill or endurance increase. For an average character, this will be (progress * 38) + 12 Assuming BASE is kept at 50, and an average character has progressed so that the changing component is multiplied by 10, a BONUS value of 12 gives Health = (10 * 38) + 12 = 392 a BONUS of 20 would give Health = (10 * 30) + 20 = 320 increasing BONUS on its own reduces your character's long term health. To give your character a constant bonus to health throughout the game, you would need to increase BASE and BONUS by the same amount. E.g. BASE = 60, BONUS = 22, gives Health = (10 * 38) + 22 = 402 for the same character as above. To increase eventual health significantly, you should increase BASE more than you increase BONUS. I have increased the default health since version 1.04, so hopefully it is already at a reasonable level in this version. *************************************************************************************************************** (11) Troubleshooting Version 1.07c should be pretty much bug free (I hope). Being conflict free is another matter entirely. There will definitely be mods which conflict with GCD. Most of the time these conflicts will not be game breaking - for instance another mod might grant a "permanent" stat increase which GCD doesn't recognise to a stat over 90. The stat might then be damaged, leaving the bonus lost and unrestorable. Sometimes things might be more drastic - like a stat being reduced to 0 for some reason. Whether these situations arrise out of conflicts or GCD bugs, there is usually a way to fix things. Below is a list of possible problems and fixes. Most of these should be rare, but if you use a lot of mods, you'll probably meet at least one eventually. First, however, I'll explain a bit about the workings of the GCD restoration system. GCD's main purpose is to manage the values of skills and attributes. The most common errors will occur when GCD loses control of them for some reason. In order to maintain control, GCD remembers the "natural" value of all skills and attributes at all times (natural value here means the value of the stat without damage/fortification - possibly over 100 when using GCD). GCD updates these values whenever it learns of a permanent, natural change to a stat - e.g. if it detects a skill increasing without a skill fortification, the natural value of the skill is increased [[NB abilities are considered "natural" by Morrowind, so fortify skill abilities will usually be treated by GCD as natural skill increases - this is not always appropriate. Vampire abilities are handled as special cases, and will not be treated as normal increases.]] Most mods give bonus skill points as curse effects, which aren't viewed as natural increases by GCD - usually a good thing. Unfortunately, there is no way for GCD to know whether a change it detects in a skill/attribute will be permanent. The removal of a bonus from another mod is not detectable in general, since GCD can't distinguish between removal of a fortify attribute ability or ModStating down an attribute, and normal attribute damage. Therefore GCD does not change its stored Natural attribute values in response to another mod, unless it is instructed to (temporary bonus/penalty attributes are more common than permanent ones, and to incorrectly assume a temporary change were permanent would have more damaging consequences than the converse). If you do get a permanent attribute increase (don't do this for skills) from another mod, and you think that GCD hasn't updated its values correspondingly (usually it won't have unless there's a patch or the readme for that mod mentions GCD compatibility), you can do the following to remedy the situation (this example is for strength, but the same applies for all attributes): At the console, type: show gals_natural_strength This will tell you what GCD thinks your natural strength is. If it is correct, then all is well - just continue. If it is incorrect, type the following: Set gals_natural_strength to # Where # is the value that your strength should be naturally (your strength might be white at this value when over 95). The main reason for making sure the Natural values are correct is to allow the GCD restoration scripts to function correctly. For skills / attributes over 90, the GCD scripts take over the restoration process, but they are limited by the Natural value of a stat - they will never increase a stat past its natural value. So long as the natural values are kept at the correct level, restoration will work properly for stats over 90.(natural values are also used in some GCD calculations) If restoration doesn't work correctly for stats under 90, then probably their base value has been changed. Sometimes this is intentional e.g. for NoM's reduction of speed when the player is fatigued. For this reason, GCD doesn't interfere with restoration when stats are below 90 - it has no way to know whether it should restore them or not. If this has happened without another mod intending it, then you'll need to fix things. ************** If the problem is with a skill, then the best way to fix it is probably: (a) Remove all attribute and skill boosting enchantments and effects. (b) Type: startscript, gals_natural_values This resets all your character's skills and attributes to their natural values, and makes sure their base value is correct. (c) Reapply any enchantments you want to use. This has a problem if you had any unremovable fortify skill/attribute enchantments - their effects will be lost after the process. To reapply the effects, do the following: For each affected skill, (1)Type: stopscript, gals_sk_skillname (where skillname is e.g. longblade) (2)Type: show gals_natural_skillname this will return a number, ### (3) if ### is over 95, type: player->setskillname, (### + 5 + the bonus you lost) player->modskillname, 0 NB this line is necessary. player->modskillname, -5 if ### is 95 or below, type: player->setskillname, (100 + the bonus you lost) player->modskillname, 0 NB this line is necessary. player->modskillname, (### - 100) (4) Type: Set gals_sk_skillname.oldBaseSkillname to (either 95 or ###, whichever is the lower) (5) Type: startscript, gals_sk_skillname For attributes, you only need to use steps (2) and (3). That should fix things. Note that sometimes it might be easier to use the (1)-(5) method above to fix a skill in the first place. If you've got bonus effects on many skills which can't be removed, then just use steps (1)-(5) to fix the incorrect skill without running gals_natural_values first: you'll just need to substitute "whatever bonus you should have" for "the bonus you lost". *************** If the problem is with an attribute, then you can use: startscript, gals_reset_base_attributes This is less drastic, and should cure the restoration problems without needing to remove and re-add enchantments. If something has badly screwed up - e.g. health / magicka totally wrong or attributes and attribute naturals totally wrong, then you can do the following: (1) remove enchantments (2) Type: Set gals_reprocess to 1 That will reprocess your character from the beginning, recalculating attributes, health, magicka... The only requirement for this to work is that your natural skill values are accurate. If they aren't, you can type: Set gals_natural_skillname to (whatever it should be) before setting reprocess to 1. Reprocessing a vampire character will result in slight attribute changes if you became a vampire when some of your increased stats were already over 95, since GCD won't know at what point you became a vampire. This is caused by a fortify stat bug in Morrowind (see note on vampirism in section (9) above). Reprocessing in this way will cancel all permanent fortify/curse attribute effects (apart from vampire ones), skill curse fortifications, all other mods' influences on maximum health, some magicka alterations... This might well be a good thing if these effects were conflicting badly. It might also be a bad thing though. To restore your permanent fortify skill/attribute effects (if you had any), use the 5 step method above. Hopefully this sort of thing will rarely be necessary. *************************************************************************************************************** (12) Upgrading to 1.07c with a GCD saved character Simply replacing an old version of GCD with this version will not work (unless you're going from 1.07 to 1.07c) - I have had to change the local variables in some of the scripts. You will need to remove the old version, load (ignoring the error messages) then save, put in the new version and reload. NB: Cleaning your save of all GCD stuff is NOT a good idea - this version of GCD requires the old Globals to be present. Only remove the esps. Do not clean the save with a utility. (a) Backup your old save!!! (b) remove old version of GCD, and load your character without any GCD version / GCD addons. (c) remove skill / attribute fortifying enchantments (from items / spells...) (d) Save the game. (e) Load the game with this version of GCD and any other GCD addons you want to use. And that's it. Note that when you load the game things might be normal for a few seconds, then pause for quite a while (the more skilled your character the longer). This is ok - the game has not crashed (probably :)). I've reduced the length of this pause, so hopefully it's more like 2 seconds than 10 seconds now. *************************************************************************************************************** (13) About GCD GCD is all my own work, but I would like to thank Mephisto (the pioneer of uncapping) for providing me with many of the fundamental ideas used in this mod. Until I read Mephisto’s explanations, I was unaware that the potential for this mod was there. So, thank you Mephisto! Thanks also to GhanBuriGhan (and many others) for Morrowind Scripting For Dummies, which has been indispensable. Special thanks to: Peter Lord Platin for taking the time to research and make patches. Thanks to all the following for questions answered / useful thoughts / feedback / bug reports: DWS Sethys the Necromancer Lune Marblehead Johnson Wrye Faceless_Wanderer Malik Holy_handgrenade Peter Heaven and Earth tejon Amazing_Amoeba4 _aragon Silver_Falcon Raveren Lord Platin Tatriya SamuraiWing Gundato Eric Melech cdcooley zennorious Miriamel tapani_doe TechNiko mplantinga fragonard Hellbishop halo112358 OCMictlan HotFusion4 Blazemere PirateLord SveNitor Yaso_Kuuhl ManaUser FallingStar BlindEye Malaria_CDN Greevar Stormbinder ShinAli Zero_Phoenix Britney DragoonWraith cyranO The_Prodigy_One Squirm Matt_Elven_Blade boiga Stabbey_the_Clown qarl Earthquake Damage Case alexandrian_librarian Also, thanks to the admins at Morrowind Summit and the sadly missed TESmods, as well as to those at any site hosting GCD in the future. Apologies for anyone I’ve forgotten / misspelled Any comments / questions are welcome – if I’m not responding on the forums you can reach me (eventually) at: galsiah@hotmail.com If I get a lot of like minded (and not stupid) requests for default values to be changed, then I will change these in a new version. *************************************************************************************************************** On re-using / releasing this mod Please do: Feel free to use any ideas / methods / scripts from GCD in your own mods. Any credit appreciated. Ask to upload this mod to any site where you think it would be useful. I'll usually say yes. Change some values in the Gals___Customize / Gals___Skill_Factors scripts and give the resulting mod to an individual. Try (hard) to contact me before creating an updated version of this mod, but if you really can’t contact me, then go ahead anyway. Good luck! If I'm not contactable, then it is fine to upload this mod where you think it will be useful. Please don’t: Change some values in the scripts and upload the mod to a site. Release a new version of GCD without trying hard to contact me first. ***************************************************************************************************************