Finding uses for exotic "proficiencies"

[temnix]

Apparently effect 233 can increment stats that are only proficiencies in name, things like CLERIC_ARMOR_OF_FAITH and so on. Would it be useful for anything to change those stats manually in this way? I mean, do they actually do anything by themselves? Let's say, PREVENT_SPELL_PROTECTION_EFFECTS. If I switch this on, will Mantle or Spell Immunity fail to work?

[subtledoctor]

  

1 hour ago, temnix said:

Apparently effect 233 can increment stats that are only proficiencies in name, things like CLERIC_ARMOR_OF_FAITH and so on. Would it be useful for anything to change those stats manually in this way? I mean, do they actually do anything by themselves? Let's say, PREVENT_SPELL_PROTECTION_EFFECTS. If I switch this on, will Mantle or Spell Immunity fail to work?

They are in fact just unused proficiencies. Modifying them in a normal game will do nothing. All of those proficiencies are used by the Detectable Spells library, to aid in script-writing for combat situations. (So enemy mages can be scripted to competently cast Secret Word to dispel your Spell Turning, etc. - see e.g. here.) When you see some program like Near Infinity or DLTCEP say "CLERIC_ARMOR_OF_FAITH," that's just that program's reference to the Detectable Spells library. In reality "CLERIC_ARMOR_OF_FAITH" is just "stat 110."

 A bunch of mods use Detectable Spells; using those stats for anything else would be incompatible with those mods. Now, each of those stats is 4 bytes large, which means 32 different bit values, and those can be used like spellstates. DS only uses 3 or so bit values in each of those stats, so there is potentially some use to be had of the higher bytes. Unfortunately the DS library seems to use crude checks like CheckStatGT, which will return true if you do something in an upper byte. Some mods, like SCS, will instead use ProficiencyGT on the EEs, which leaves the upper bytes safe to use... but a number of other mods have not been so updated AFAIK. 

Btw you can also use the upper bytes of regular proficiencies, and that is generally safer - I’m not aware of any mod that interacts with them via CheckStatGT. So there is tons you can do without even getting into the ‘extra’ proficiencies. Several of my mods use the Club proficiency (stat 115) in this way. For instance it can be used to apply effects when you have a single weapon (check for bit5, which is set by one-handed weapons) and different effects when you are dual-wielding (since bit5 + bit5 = bit6). 

There’s lots of potential for interesting conditional effects based on such stat values... I’ve only scratched the surface. 

Edited March 17, 2021 by subtledoctor

[Jarno Mikkola]

38 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

Detectable Spells library

You mean DS, or Detectable Spells & Detectable Stats, like the readme for it, and the likely latest being the SCS's version. There's a punch of others, but they generally follow the guideline of version numbers.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Jarno Mikkola