Lively’s Enhanced Skills aims to take the already-excellent skill system in Starfield and, well, enhance it. More gameplay options. Fixed bugs. Clearer skill descriptions. Reduced challenge grind. And above all, more fun.
Have you ever thrown your controller/mouse across the room after draining your O2 53 times, because you still have to do it 47 more times?
Have you ever wondered “jeez, wouldn’t everyone know how to press the ‘on’ button on a boostpack without training?”
While we’re talking boostpacks – would you like to watch enemies run away in terror after you light them on fire with your boostpack?
Do confusing skill descriptions confuse you?
Do boring skills bore you?
Do broken skills break you?
If so, this mod is for you.
We plan to work through all of the skills in Starfield, and to continue iterating on them to make them as cool and fun as we can with the modding tools currently available. I work with a great team of expert modders, and have published and supported highly-regarded modlists for Fallout 4 (Magnum Opus) and TES: Skyrim (Tempus Maledictum), so I feel confident that I can help make your Starfield experience better as well.
Please check out the spoiler section below for a complete description of all the skills we’ve tackled so far.
A couple of key concepts I wanted to address:
More Logical Starting Abilities: several abilities, like activating a boost pack with a button, should not require a skill. We’ve taken 5-6 abilities that previously locked behind skills and just given them to the player at the start (see spoiler section).
Cooler stuff than “+more%”: If you’ve played BGS games before, you know that they love to fill their skill trees with utterly boring perks that add x% to this and y% to that. Some of those are fine, but we all want to mix in more interesting perks, that add actual abilities and gameplay features, right? Right. So we’re doing that (see spoiler section).
Rebuild that which was torn asunder: Um, yeah, we fixed some bugs. A LOT of bugs, actually. And tried to make the perk descriptions clearer. Should be better now. There are a variety of skills that the community is still trying to fully decipher in xEdit, so we will be editing and debugging those as soon as we can.
Installation: I have not included install instructions; this is a straightforward .esm mod that is confirmed to work. If you have difficultly installing it we recommend consulting the many guides online for how to setup your game for modding. I say this for your benefit, as it is counterproductive to seek help for general modding practices on specific mod pages.
That’s it – here’s the mod, it’s free, it’s yours, go nuts!
WHY I MADE THIS: My friends and I have talked about skills a lot. We all agreed that skills should enhance your abilities, not introduce them. And thus, this mod was born. And then I kept working. And expanding. And reading. And playing and complaining and wanting to have more fun.
So I fixed all the bugs I saw, I expanded on the skills I didn’t like to make them more interesting to me, and I added some new/enhanced abilities where it felt appropriate. I hope you enjoy.
Full list of changes are as follows:
Player now starts with:
Pickpocket
Ship Thrusters
Ship Targeting
Stealth Meter
Boost Pack Usage
Combat Slide
Aneutronic Fusion:
Challenge repetitions reduced.
Armor Penetration:
Melee attacks now benefit from this perk.
Astrophysics:
Small grammatical edit to Rank 2 description.
Automated Weapons Systems:
Added condition check to rank 4 to ensure only Turrets benefit from the increased recharge rate.
Boost Assault Training:
Rank 1: Rewrote perk description to be more…descriptive.
Rank 2: Reduced challenge repetitions needed, and rewrote perk description.
Rank 3: Increased range for boost assault attacks (vanilla: enabled jetpack hover ability).
Rank 4: Igniting enemies will also cause them to flee in terror for 6 seconds (vanilla: time slow effect during jetpack hover).
Boost Pack Training:
Rank 1: Enable Jetpack Hover ability (vanilla: enable boost pack ability).
Rank 2: Using a boost pack expends 20% less fuel (vanilla: 10%).
Rank 3: Rewrote perk description.
Rank 4: While hovering, time slows down and the world moves 70% slower around you (originally Boost Assault Training rank 4; vanilla: doubled previous bonuses).
Lowered all challenge repetitions.
Boxing:
Rewrote perk description for rank 4.
Cellular Regeneration:
Rewrote all perk rank descriptions.
Commerce:
Rank 1: Buy for 5% less and sell for 10% more. All vendors have 25% more credits.
Rank 2: Buy for 10% less and sell for 15% more. All vendors have 50% more credits.
Rank 3: Buy for 15% less and sell for 20% more. All vendors have 100% more credits.
Rank 4: Buy for 20% less and sell for 25% more. Trade Authority kiosks have 10,000 more credits.
Concealment:
Added a check to Rank 2 to avoid interference between Chameleon effect and Void Form effect.
Crippling:
Rank 4: Previous ranks now apply to all enemy types. Melee attacks will instantly execute downed enemies (vanilla: do 100% more damage to downed enemies).
Decontamination:
Rewrote all perk descriptions.
Demolitions:
Rank 1: Explosives do 25% more damage (vanilla: explosives have 25% larger radius).
Rank 2: Explosives have a 25% larger radius (vanilla: explosives do 25% more damage).
Rewrote all perk descriptions.
Diplomacy:
Lowered all challenge repetitions.
Dueling:
Rank 1: Melee weapons do 25% more damage. Take 15% less damage while wielding a melee weapon (vanilla: take 10% less damage).
Rank 3: Melee weapons do 50% more damage. Reflect 15% of damage taken while sprinting and wielding a melee weapon. (vanilla: take 15% less damage).
Engine Systems:
Rewrote perk descriptions.
Removed activity data from rank 4.
Environmental Conditioning:
Rank 1: Add a 5% chance to avoid gaining an affliction when wearing a Spacesuit and Helmet.
Rank 2: Add a 10% chance to avoid gaining an affliction when wearing a Spacesuit and Helmet.
Rank 3: Add a 15% chance to avoid gaining an affliction when wearing a Spacesuit and Helmet.
Rank 4: Add a 20% chance to avoid gaining an affliction when wearing a Spacesuit and Helmet.
Fitness:
Lowered all challenge repetitions.
Rewrote rank 4 description.
Gymnastics:
Rank 1: Take 15% less fall damage. Replenish 15% of your O2 after combat sliding or mantling (vanilla: unlock combat slide).
Incapacitation:
Rank 1: EM weapons do 10% more damage to robots, and 5% more damage to anything else (vanilla: EM weapons do 5% more damage).
Rank 2: EM weapons do 20% more damage to robots, and 10% more damage to anything else (vanilla: EM weapons do 10% more damage).
Rank 3: EM weapons do 30% more damage to robots, and 15% more damage to anything else (vanilla: EM weapons do 15% more damage).
Rank 4: EM weapons have a 5% chance to short circuit a robot’s internal systems, destroying it instantly. Also have a 15% chance to do 300% EM damage to any non-robot enemy (vanilla: EM weapons have a 15% chance to do 300% EM damage).
Instigation:
Lowered challenge repetitions.
Intimidation:
Lowered challenge repetitions.
Isolation:
Rewrote perk descriptions.
Removed Spacesuit and Helmet requirement.
Leadership:
Bug fix for ranks 2, 3, and 4. Companions now consistently should gain 25% affinity (vanilla seems to accidentally reduce it to 15% instead of 25% after rank 1).
Manipulation:
Lowered challenge repetitions.
Martial Arts:
Rank 1: Added conditions to allow melee attacks to contribute to the challenge repetitions. The description says “melee or unarmed” but conditions only check for Unarmed.
All ranks: Changed entry point to Set Value instead of Multiply Value for the Critical Hit Chance, and changed the float to properly reflect the 15% listed in the perk description.
Medicine:
Rank 4: Med Packs, Trauma Packs, and Emergency Kits restore 50% additional Health 50% faster. Trauma Packs have a 15% chance to cure an affliction, and Emergency Packs have a 50% chance (vanilla: all packs/kits have an equal chance to cure afflictions).
Lowered challenge repetitions.
Payloads:
Rank 1: Ship cargo holds have 20% more capacity (vanilla: 10%).
Rank 2: Ship cargo holds have 30% more capacity (vanilla: 20%).
Rank 3: Ship cargo holds have 40% more capacity (vanilla 30%).
Piloting:
Rank 1: Increase your starship’s “sweet spot” when turning by 50% (vanilla: enable ship thrusters).
Rank 2: Unlock the ability to pilot Class B ships, and increase your starship’s regular turning speed by 35% (vanilla: increased thruster turning and boost turning).
Rank 3: Increase your starship’s turning speed by 50% while using ship thrusters and boosters (vanilla: unlock class B ships).
Pistol Certification:
Rank 4: Changed Critical Hit Chance entry point to Add Value instead of Multiply value. Changed float to properly grant the listed 25% crit chance bonus.
Rapid Reloading:
Attempt to fix Reloading bug by slightly editing some conditions. Untested. Only changed these due to Llama reporting this issue (thanks buddy).
Rejuvenation:
Bug fix for Health regen in combat for ranks 3 and 4.
Rifle Certification:
Rank 4: Rifles are 50% less likely to trigger a critical hit, but when they are successful, critical hits do double damage (vanilla: reload rifles 30% faster when not moving).
Scavenging:
Lowered challenge repetitions.
Shield Systems:
Rewrote description for rank 4.
Starship Engineering:
Rewrote description for rank 4.
Stealth:
Rank 1: No longer grants stealth meter (obviously).
Targeting:
Rank 1: Increases accuracy and range by 10% when shooting without aiming (vanilla: +5% accuracy).
Rank 2: Increases accuracy and range by 20% when shooting without aiming (vanilla: +10% accuracy).
Rank 3: Increases accuracy and range by 30% when shooting without aiming (vanilla: +15% accuracy).
Rank 3: Bug fix for weapon range. It appears Bethesda forgot to add that entry point to rank 3.
Rewrote perk descriptions.
Targeting Control Systems:
Rank 1: Deal 10% increased system damage in targeting mode (vanilla: unlock ship targeting).
Lowered challenge repetitions.
Theft:
Rank 1: 20% greater chance to successfully pickpocket (vanilla: unlock pickpocket ability).
Rank 2: 30% greater chance to successfully pickpocket (vanilla: +10%).
Rank 3: 40% greater chance to successfully pickpocket. Gain a Chameleon-like ability outside of combat when sneaking and not moving (vanilla: +30%).
Weight Lifting:
Rank 1: Increase total carrying capacity by 25 kilograms (vanilla: +10 kg).
Rank 2: Increase total carrying capacity by 50 kilograms (vanilla: +25 kg).
Rank 3: Resources weigh 25% less. Increase total carrying capacity by 100 kilograms. (vanilla: +50 kg).
Rank 4: Resources weigh 50% less. Gain 50% resistance to stagger (vanilla: +100 kg).
Wellness:
Rank 3: Added new entry point to reduce weight of food and drink items by 25%.
Rank 4: Added new entry point to reduce weight of food and drink items by 50%.
Livelys Enhanced Skills-1-4
