Solar Powered Radiation Damage Fix

Solar Powered Radiation Damage Fix

Causes Solar Powered level two to work even while receiving radiation damage.

If you've already acquired the Solar Powered perk, please carefully read the caveat below.

The problem:

Level two of the Solar Powered perk is supposed to reduce radiation damage by a set amount during daytime hours when outdoors.  But due to a quirk of the game engine, this ability shuts off whenever the player character is taking radiation damage, no matter how little, including "<1 RAD".

Is this a bug, and not merely an annoyance and an undocumented limitation of the perk?

Yes, it is.  The evidence comes in the form of level four of the Ghoulish perk, which was added with the Nuka World DLC.  Said perk level tosses in another passive radiation damage reduction, considerably lower than Solar Powered level two, but active at all times, including indoors and during the night.  This time, the developers obviously recognized the problem inherent in Solar Powered level two, and deliberately forewent the built-in and very convenient radiation damage multipliers and instead implemented the radiation damage reduction via a script.  Thus the reduction properly takes place regardless of whether or not the player character is currently receiving radiation damage.

The solution:

Quite straightforward.  In the same fashion as the belated Ghoulish level four, Solar Powered level two now implements its reduction via a script, bypassing the engine bug.

"This trivializes the Glowing Sea."

This was actually my primary motivation in fixing this issue.  It was an honest to goodness ripoff that a perk point spent at 10 Endurance was, thanks to an engine bug, completely worthless in the one area of the game it was practically designed for.  Yes, this does mean that one can traverse the Glowing Sea more or less naked.  But one still has to do it during the daytime, and more direct radiation hazards are still the threat they've always been.  Also, Rad-X, Rad-Away, hazmat suits and power armor already trivialize the Glowing Sea, and all far earlier than the level 27 required by Solar Powered level two.  Arguably, the only people who will be interested in this fix are the ones invested in immersion and/or looking for the answer to the mysterious radiation immunity enjoyed by the denizens of the Crater of Atom.  Everyone el