Less Ridiculous Conversation Skill Checks

Installation

Drag and drop this file into your The Outer Worlds' root directory:

For example, if you have it installed on Steam:

Steam\steamapps\common\The Outer Worlds( SCE)

If doing this correctly, you should have the following folder structure:

Steam\steamapps\common\The Outer Worlds( SCE)\Indiana\Content\Paks\~mods\zz_Skill_Checks_Rebalanced.pak

Compatibility

If you're familiar with Unreal Engine 4 modding, and if you want to make your own skill-check curve, the file and section to edit are, respectively:

Indiana\Content\Blueprints\Stats\Globals\StatGlobals

Specifically, edit the entries under `SkillChecksByLevel`.

Throw it into a `.pak` and you should see your changes reflected in-game.

Conversations in The Outer Worlds follow in the same vein as Obsidian's (at the time) previous RPG's for their checks, where the value being checked is based off some arbitrary value set by the narrative/area designers.

However, unlike Fallout: New Vegas, for example, where you can open the G. E. C. K. and check that indeed, a conversation can check, say, the Medicine skill against a value of 25 or higher, checks in The Outer Worlds, do not function this way, under-the-hood.

I believe that this change in the checking mechanism led to a stark difference in distributions of numerical checks between these two games, because frankly, the range skill checks can take on in this game is WHACK.

It's an absurdly wide range that ought to have been constrained while this game was still in development. This mod tries to address this by hemming in the peaks and valleys that a potential skill check can take on.

Checks in the early game are waaaaaaay too easy to surpass, across the board. And this generally low level of checks persists well into the mid-late game.

Combinations of stat boosts from gear, companion skill boosts, the Armor Master perk, and consumables, (even worse if all taken together) you can absolutely steamroll most skill (and attribute) checks in this game with little difficulty, even those outside of the two areas of Specialization you pick at the beginning of the game.

Aside: if you want to prevent companions doubling up on skill bonuses given to the player, download my pseudo-sister mod: Companion Skills Re-Tagged.

This whole issue makes The Outer Worlds less of an RPG than it could have been; IMO, a plurality of options to resolve questions or conversations should come with some, or ideally most of them being mutually-exclusive from each other.

What distinction is there from one Role to the next if I can solve a given quest with Lockpick, or Charm, or Engineering, or Hacking, all without having to respec/make a new character.

Sporadically however, the game will out of absolutely nowhere throw out checks that are so absurdly high, often for containers and rewards that are in no way commensurate with their high requirements.

This problem was bad in the base game, but was significantly exacerbated by the release of Peril on Gorgon, which raised the values that Extreme-level checks can be from a maximum of 100, to 150.

I can think of a few off the top of my head:

• []The 134 Lie check with Catherine Malin on Fallbrook to get the tip about Huxley's friend.[/]

  []Or the 86 Lie check in Cortes' dialogue on Roseway to keep all of the experiment's...animal-based aphrodisiac.[/]

  []^----> This check isn't so bad if you do Roseway after Monarch or Eridanos or something, but generally this check is absurd.[/]

  []The numerous nothingburger containers that need a Lockpick of 150 (!!!) to open, only to get the same boring loot as usual.[/]

  []The 134 Lockpick check in the secret Lab in Cascadia for the quest Space-Crime Continuum[/]

  Unfortunately, changes to individual skill checks are not possible, as far as I know. How this mod works is by modify