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Tinkering Bytes

Prices unfair? NPC bits too common? Wish tinkers could clean you?

Tell me about it! I might just do it! (or add an option for it)

Efforts have been made with the most recent version to ensure there is minimal friction in adding this mod mid-save. As always, the recommendation with mods is to create a new save if you're adding any, but for those of us who are prone to flouting great wisdom, the next best thing is trying to make the process smooth.

Saves this mod was already added to mid-save should still see the benefits of this update, but no guarantees.

This mod adds a whole suite of new and modified functionality to tinker trader NPCs.

Tinker traders can now tinker items for you, modify items for you, and disassemble items for you, all for a modest(?) fee.

Overall, paying for tinkering is more expensive than simply doing it yourself, but with this mod it should hopefully be possible to not miss out on so much of the tinkering system while playing a character that hasn't invested in it at all.

This mod also makes the existing tinkering options more expensive by the inclusion of dram-value bit costs, but, unlike vanilla, they're now affected by trade performance, meaning they go down as your ego and faction rep go up.

When trading with a tinker, you'll now be able to see the contents of their bit locker, which they'll be able to draw from to complete your tinkering requests. Their bit locker restocks at the same time as their inventory does, and its contents are scaled to their tinkering abilities.

To initiate tinkering actions, simply begin trade with a tinker, and use the actions menu on various items, data disks, and the new "tinker recipe" pseudo-items added by the mod (extended from my Vendor Action Events library).

Also added is the ability for tinker traders to learn and know recipes (and have them installed if they're genetically inclined). They can tinker for you any recipes they know, provided you also know what the item in question is (they can help you understand them, for a fee). They can also tinker from data disks you bring them, again, if you know what's on the disk (again, they can help you understand for a fee).

Repairing and recharging have both been reworked (there are options to use vanilla instead), and will utilise the same system of requiring the necessary bits to action.

When having something tinkered, modified, repaired, or recharged, you'll be prompted to select who will provide any required ingredients, and who will provide any required bits. Anything provided by either party will need to be in possession of that party. Anything provided by the tinker will cost what it would have cost to purchase that item or, in the case of bits, the equivalent scap.

Can't afford the cost of having an item tinkered? That's okay! If the price is right, and the tinker is providing all the materials, they'll hold onto it for you for a deposit that is the difference between the cost to tinker the item and the item's value itself. In essence, if an item worth 10 drams would cost 15 drams to tinker, the trader will tinker it for a deposit of 5 drams and hold it for 2 restocks for you to come back and purchase it for 10 drams.

Tinkers will disassemble items and scrap for you for a fee. The fee is paltry, although more expensive for higher tier bits, and is always less expensive than purchasing those bit from the tinker.

Any disassembly a tinker trader does for you is bits directly into your bit locker.

Selecting disassemble all will put you and the trader into a queued action (like when doing it yourself), which can be interrupted if, for example, a hostile creature pops up. This is largely for balance (so that paying for disassembly isn't better that doing it yourself), but also flavour.

You only pay for the exact number of disassembly actions performed, and you only get as many bits.

Tinker traders with reverse engineer are able to learn tinkering recipes using the exact same rules as the player when they disassemble things on the player's behalf.

Befriend a tinker and drag them around with you to disassemble items, learn recipes, and tinker grenades for you to accidentally kill them with, making you sad.

Bits can be tinkered into an item that represents a stack of 8 of a given bit, called a byte, which can be reliably disassembled back into 8 of the given bit. This is perfect for moving the bulk of your bits to a new body if you're so inclined, but also provides the opportunity for something to drop when a creature with a bit locker happens to be slain.

Upon death, creatures with a bit locker will drop a percentage of their held bits into piles of bytes and scrap.

Byte punnets are a pack of 32 of a given byte, totaling 256 of the given bit. They can be unpacked (not disassembled) into the 32 bytes they're comprised of, which can then be disassembled.

A punnet can drop if a slain creature had enough of a given bit that, after the percentage is calculated, one could drop.

Yeah, definitely. The mod addresses some BitBucket issues I discovered while making this mod. There's information in the mod's options, since the fixes implemented are entirely optional. I'll write more details about them here when I get a chance.

I normally try to leave opinionated "fixes" as opt-in, but these are "acknowledged bugs", and they relate to the spirit of the mod, so they're opt-out this time.

I'm a hobbyist modder at best, and a hack at the best of times. I'll do my best to make sure bugs get fixed and balancing issues are addressed, but this has a been big project and I'm often time poor.

That said, I'm always open to feedback and suggestions, and collaborating if the fit is right.

This mod depends on Vendor Action Events (library) and UnderDoug's Modding Toolbox (library).

Want to see how it's made? There's a git repository[github.com]!

Licence is the "Unlicence". I don't know what that means, but I also don't care what you do with it. Easy.