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Dragon Souls Experience System
AUTHOR: Lord Zapharos (www.lordzapharos.com)
DATE: 20 May 2022
VERSION: 1.6
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LICENSE AND CREDITS:
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

You are free to share and transform this work (commercially or otherwise) provided you give proper
credit to Lord Zapharos, provide a link to this license, and indicate if changes were made.

I claim no copyright or credit whatsoever for the following mod(s):

    SXP (Redone) by einsobl and stradivuckos
            (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/76215)
    Death is Highly Overrated by BLOODGAZMS and Macready
            (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/82139/?)
    Character Creation Overhaul by syclonix
            (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/21587/)
    Skyrim Community Uncapper by Elys
            (https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/1175/)

DESCRIPTION:
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This mod combines ideas from SXP, Death is Highly Overrated, and Character Creation Overhaul to
create a leveling and death system (compatible with Requiem) that is very similar to Dark Souls.

What this mod does:

 - Abolishes Skyrim's learn-as-you-use-it experience system. I have found that the vanilla system
   hurts immersion by encouraging meta-game techniques to improve one's skills (e.g. casting soul
   trap repeatedly on allies, spamming conjuration spells nonstop during combat, and so on). In
   Dragon Souls, you instead gain XP points from doing just about everything -- fighting enemies,
   finding new places, chopping wood -- and can spend that XP to purchase new skill levels.

 - Removes death from the equation. In Dark Souls fashion, dying only returns you to your prior
   checkpoint (usually a shrine), after which you need to retrieve a "soul shard" at the site of
   your defeat to get back all your items and XP. If you die a second time before retrieving your
   soul shard, you will PERMANENTLY lose all accumulated XP and held gold (items will NOT be lost).
   There is no longer any justification for spamming quick-saves!

 - Discourages "junk leveling" of skills you never intend to use (a common power-leveling strategy
   for getting new perks, which breaks immersion and makes high-level play quite tedious). During
   character creation, you must choose a set of six (6) class skills, which are permanent for your
   entire playthrough. Training skills outside of your class is possible, but requires FAR more XP.
   You can also directly purchase perk points with progressively larger amounts of XP.

The Dragon Souls Experience system delivers all of these features in a lore-friendly fashion, with
books and loading screens that hint at the core mod mechanics in an immersive way. Other highlights
of this mod include:

 - Obtained XP cannot be spent until you have reflected on your deeds by sleeping for at least
   seven uninterrupted hours.

 - Guild-related quests yield far more XP than normal ones (and main quests yield even more). When
   combined with my Guild Ranks and Progression mod, belonging to a guild is more meaningful and
   more rewarding.

 - All skills can reach a maximum of 150 and continue to scale above 100.

 - Regular leveling is entirely disabled except for in-game rewards, trainers, and skill books.

 - Each race has six predefined skills ("racial traits") that are slightly easier to learn. This is
   a small boost that applies even if that skill does not belong to your class.

 - You can choose a "focus" that makes all warrior, mage, or thief skills a little easier to learn,
   regardless of whether those skills belong to your class.

 - The SXP experience curve and base preset have been completely reworked into a square-root step
   function that ensures Requiem users spend most of their playtime in the 0-10 and 11-20 level
   brackets -- where most of the fun is had -- before too much power is gained. In combination with
   my other mod Guild Ranks and Progression,

 - The on-screen XP widget has been redesigned to create an immersive, single-click way to spend
   your XP without going into the MCM or looking at too many numbers.

 - Dragon souls can be consumed on the XP widget to either gain extra XP or boost your base stats
   (compatible with Requiem's auxiliary stat effects!). To keep things lore-friendly, this option
   is automatically hidden if you don't have unspent dragon souls.

 - Amulets of Stendarr prevent you from losing anything on death, but crumble to dust after use.

 - You can "bind your soul" to any shrine in Skyrim or Solstheim, to serve as a checkpoint whenever
   you die, or bind yourself to any arbitrary location via an Amulet of Arkay, which can be crafted
   or purchased at various inns.

A new game is REQUIRED to use this mod. For the best immersion, I HIGHLY recommend using my other
mod Guild Ranks and Progression alongside this one. This mod also synergizes very well with the mod
TDF Equipment Restrictions for Duelists and Assassins.


REQUIREMENTS:
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Skyrim Legendary Edition
Skyrim Community Uncapper (bundled in this mod)
Requiem 1.9.4
Character Creation Overhaul 1.3.2
    + Dynamic Skill Progression plugin
Death is Highly Overrated 1.1
SXP (Redone) 3.3.7
Immersive Sounds Compendium*

* optional (see below)


CHANGE LOG:
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1.6     Radiant Dawnguard quests now give experience like other radiant guild quests
        Fixed a bug in which experience is not awarded when game stats increase

1.5     Dark Brotherhood post-questline assignments now give XP as originally intended

1.4     Fixed vanilla bug in which mod followers "steal" kills;
        added compatibility for indirect kills (frenzy, Phantasmal Killer, Miasma, Dragonborn DLCs)

1.3     Undead enemies yield more XP to bring them in line with Requiem's increased difficulty

1.2     Reading the Oghma Infinium now grants a large amount of XP in addition to regular bonuses

1.1     Dragon souls can now be consumed for stat or XP boosts (only via on-screen XP widget)

1.0     Initial release


UPDATE INSTRUCTIONS (v1.6 from any version):
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Follow step #1 of the installation instructions below, overwriting all files. You DO NOT need to
start a new game if your characters/saves are already using v1.0.

Characters that have already read the Oghma Infinium will NOT retroactively receive any experience.


INSTALLATION:
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1. Copy the "Data" folder from this directory to your main Skyrim directory (this is usually found
   in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\Skyrim"), overwriting existing files. If your load
   order contains Immersive Sounds Compendium, rename the "Data_ImmersiveSoundsCompendium" folder
   to "Data" and copy that instead.
2. Activate "DragonSoulsExperienceSystem.esp" with your mod manager of choice.
3. Make sure to load the SXP preset #1 in the MCM before playing!
4. Make sure to set your XP widget shortcut before playing! This is set to DPAD-left (XBOX 360/One)
   by default in SXP preset #1.

To uninstall, just deactivate the ESP and remove all added files.


SKYRIM SPECIAL EDITION USERS:
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This mod was designed in Skyrim Legendary Edition and WILL NOT WORK with Skyrim Special Edition. If
you decide to convert this mod to work in Skyrim Special Edition, I would be happy to bundle your
converted version with this mod and give you due credit -- just send me your conversion.


HELP: MY SOUL SHARD DISAPPEARED!
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Very rarely, your soul shard may be inaccessible upon dying. This can occur if you are killed by a
giant (your soul shard ends up really, really high in the air!), or if standing on certain objects
(your shard may get stuck inside or below the object).

In these situations, you have two options:

  * Die a second time, and your shard will appear at your current location. This is the simplest
    workaround, but causes you to LOSE ALL ACCUMULATED XP AND GOLD.

  * Open the console and type "player.moveto XX002DBF" (without quotes), replacing "XX" with this
    mod's load order index. For example, if your mod manager shows this mod at position 8D, you
    would type "player.moveto 8D002DBF". This will place you at the exact location of your soul
    shard, allowing you to reclaim your lost XP. Note: consider using "tcl" to disable clipping if
    a giant caused your shard to be placed high in the sky (otherwise, you may fall to your death).

Please note that the commands "prid XX002DBF" and "moveto player" WILL NOT FIX this problem. You
need to use "player.moveto XX002DBF" to get your XP back.


(ADVANCED USAGE) ENABLING EXPERIENCE FOR INDIRECT KILLS:
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By default, this mod allows the player to obtain experience in the following indirect situations:

  * If the player frenzies a NPC, and that NPC kills another NPC
  * If the player frenzies a NPC, and that NPC is *killed by* another NPC (v1.4+ only)
  * If NPCs are killed by the Requiem spells Phantasmal Killer or Miasma (v1.4+ only)
  * Dragonborn frenzy spells, same as described above (v1.4+ only)

If you aren't gaining experience from indirect kills in a different mod, you can easily add support
for those kills yourself in TES5Edit. Make sure you have a copy of TES5Edit and the extended
Papyrus TES5Edit scripts too. Then, do the following (it's simpler than it looks; I promise!)

   1. Find the associated *magic effect* (MGEF) for which you aren't gaining experience. For simple
      spells, you just need to find the spell itself in TES5Edit, then click on any of its listed
      magic effects (it usually doesn't matter which). In more complex scenarios, you may need to
      open the console (`) to see which magic effects are being applied to your enemy in battle.

   2. Once you have found the preferred magic effect, right click on the most recent version of it
      (i.e. rightmost column) and then select "copy as override into...".

   3. Create a new plugin name when prompted (you can also reuse an existing one if you've already
      done this before).

   4. The overridden magic effect will appear in a new plugin file at the bottom. Navigate to and
      then right-click on the magic effect within this new plugin and choose "Apply Script".

   5. Select "Skyrim - Papyrus - Attach a script" (you need the extended Papyrus scripts for this).

   6. Type in "zzz_lzext_indirectdeatheffect" (no quotes) for the script name.

   7. Right click on the magic effect again, choose "Apply Script" again, and then select
      "Skyrim - Papyrus - Set a property - Int".

   8. For the script name, type in "zzz_lzext_indirectdeatheffect". For the property name, type in
      "IndirectDeathTracker" (no quotes for either of these). Give a default value of 0.

   9. Select the magic effect (left click / View tab this time); you should see the added script
      within the VMAD section somewhere. Underneath the zzz_lzext_indirectdeatheffect script,
      change "Int32" to "Object" and set the alias to "None".

  10. Change the FormID to "lz_indirectdeathspell" (no quotes). TES5Edit may freeze a bit while it
      brings up the list, after which it should auto-fill when you type this in.

You will know you did it right if your TES5Edit window looks something like the example effect
shown in "addIndirectDeathCompatibilityToAMagicEffect.png" (within this mod folder). If it looks
right, exit TES5Edit and save your plugin when prompted. Start up your game and you should now get
experience whenever a NPC with this magic effect dies!


MY OTHER MODS:
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Arrows to Ingots
Better Low-Level Illusion
Dragon Souls Experience System
Finders Keepers (Better Stones of Barenziah)
Guild Ranks and Progression
Inigo Avoid All Combat
Lord Zapharos Default Outfit Changer
Lord Zapharos IO Utilities
Lord Zapharos String Utilities
Necromancy is Hated
Save and Load Cells: Jaxonz Extension
Spriggans Fear Nettlebane
TDF Equipment Restrictions for Duelists and Assassins
The Legendary Red Eagle
Useful Requiem Beverages
Vilja Avoid All Combat
Wait I Know You Bug Fix
Weapon and Armor Etching
Whispering Fang Unarmed Combat
