Better Bad Skills

Some skills in Starfield are poorly-balanced. This is a lightweight set of tweaks designed to fix that.

· Astrodynamics - Every rank now increases both jump range and fuel economy by 15%, for 60% to both at rank 4. Now normally, the jump range is irrelevant because the maximum range of 30 LY is already easily achieved. I've doubled the maximum range to 60 LY. An extremely light ship with a powerful grav jump might hit the early to mid 40s in range without this perk. Taking all four ranks will let you hit the new 60 LY jump cap on light ships, or just have the full 60% range bonus on heavier ships. Rank 4 also now halves the time grav jump calculations take. This perk isn't amazing, but with the jump range bonus actually having an effect, it can be pretty cool.

· Research Methods - Instead of 10/20/40/60% cost reduction and double sudden developments at rank 4 only, it now is 15/30/45/60% cost reduction and +20/40/60/100% sudden development chance. This makes it valuable to just spend a few points if you want.

· Gymnastics now reduces fall damage by 20/40/60/80% and increases jump height by 35/70/105/150%. Rank 2 reduces oxygen cost of jumping by 25%, which rank 4 increases to 50%. Combat sliding is useful now: you will take 50% less damage for 5 seconds when you combat slide. All duration effects of Gymnastics now last 5 instead of 3 seconds. The challenge for Gymnastics to improve rank has been changed to combat sliding in combat. Rank 2 now increases sneak movement speed by 25%, which means sneaking still isn't as fast as running, but it's close.

· Pain Tolerance rank 4's chance to ignore physical attacks now works when under 50% health like Energy Weapon Dissipation does. It was 25% before.

· Isolation now applies its bonus armor to you directly, no longer requiring a helmet and spacesuit, so you can wear whatever you want. It also adds energy and EM resistances, not just ballistic resistance. I've removed requiring no crew from the description, because that was never part of the effect. Finally, I've added to rank 4 that you will now retain a quarter of this bonus (so the values from rank 1) when you do have a companion. This lets you feel like you didn't totally waste four skill points when you're forced to use companions for quests.

· Fitness gives 5% bonus movement speed per rank, and I've improved the oxygen bonus. Instead of 10/20/30 for ranks 1-3, it now provides 15/30/50 oxygen.

· Wellness went from 10/20/30/40% health to 15/30/50/50% health, with the last rank adding 10% less damage taken, which is in a way a health buff, but one that will stack better with other sources of defense.

· Chemistry rank 4 was improved and fixed. Previously, it added a 6% chance when crafting anything to triple the amount. This was both too small to matter and bugged because it's only supposed to work when using the chemistry lab. I've fixed that and left the chance small, opting to improve it by adding a 50% duration bonus to chems, which is more impactful and reliable.

· Incapacitation has been boosted to match the 10/20/30 rate that other weapon types get for ranks 1-3. It's weird that it was half.

· Engine Systems ranks 1 and 3 went from 10/20% to 15/30% max speed. Rank 1 now increases the engine turning sweet spot size. Rank 3 now increases boosting fuel further.

· Piloting rank 3 and 4 give small further boosts to maneuverability, so they're still worth taking if you just want smaller ships.

· Rapid Reloading no longer splits the types weirdly. Ranks 1-3 makes all weapons reload 15/25/35% faster. Rank 2 now gives a 50% to not stagger while reloading, and rank 3 prevents staggering while reloading.

· Negotiation now also reduces bounties you generate by 10/25/50% for ranks 1-3. Rank 4 gives you a 50% chance to not incur any bounty when you are detected committing a crime (people will still get mad, though).

· Surveying now reduces damage taken by 10/20/30/50% while scan mode is active. This only applies on-foot, not ship. You're still limited to the Cutter and the social skills in scan mode, so this is mostly a nice defensive boost for scientists scanning hostile wildlife or smooth-talkers.

· Targeting now works when aiming as well, and there's no cap to the number of targets you can mark at once. Rank 4 is changed. It now increases marking range to 150m and triples the duration of all recon effects (Targeting, recon scopes/lasers, and Metaheuristics from Skills Pack 1).

· Marksman critical chance has been smoothed from 3/8/15 to 5/10/15. Rank 4 now doubles critical damage for all non-automatic ranged weapons, including scoped ones. The knockdown-on-next-hit for scoped weapons was removed. You want to actually one-shot-one-kill when sniping.

· Leadership now reduces companion damage taken. Instead of a flat 50 health at rank 2, companions get 10/20/30% damage resistance at ranks 1-3. Rank 4 is already great, so it's unchanged. I have also fixed the base-game bug where taking rank 2 would drop the affinity bonus from +25% to +15%.

· Environmental Conditioning now gives 10 resistance to Airborne and Thermal at rank 1, Corrosive and Radiation at rank 2, and reduced chance for afflictions from environment at rank 3 (now 30% affliction resistance, from 7%). The new rank 4 effect makes you recover suit protection and environmental damage constantly, even while in hostile environments. It's decently strong, especially combined with good resistances, but it still won't make you immune to all weather.

· Ship Command now adds bonuses for every active crew member in addition to adding maximum crew. Rank 1 adds ship speed, rank 2 increases shields, rank 3 increases ship weapon recharge rate. Each one is +2% to its effect per active crew member you have, which increases to 3% per crew at rank 4. Normally, having more crew doesn't really matter because crew skills don't stack, but now having a large crew helps all over, so Ship Command actually matters.

The social combat skills were updated: · Diplomacy's base 60% chance was dropped to 50% to match Intimidation, but it now grows to 60/70% at ranks 2/3. · Intimidation's base 50% chance now grows to 60/70% at ranks 2/3. · Instigation's base 40% chance now grows to 50/60% at ranks 2/3. · Manipulation's base 30% chance now grows to 40/50% at ranks 2/3, but I've dropped the boost from the Internal Neuroamp from 60% to 45%.

Also available on Nexus: https://www.nexusmods.com/starfield/mods/11431

LOAD ORDER: Lower than anything else that might touch skills, to ensure these limited changes take effect.