The Phoenix Flavour 4.0 - Preview

Hey all!

It's taken forever but we're almost there: TPF is receiving its next update before the end of the month and it's going to be a big one. A little over four years after TPF was first released, we have reached v4.0 which comes with a ton of changes.

It took me almost half a year to figure out where to go from here and I'm finally happy with the new direction we are taking. With 4.0, I have decided to go back to the roots. That means: Strictly vanilla plus. No extra content. Focus entirely on improving Skyrim. It's never been easier to fork existing setups so there is room for other people to take base TPF, expand it with content mods, and publish the fork on Wabbajack.

TPF 4.0 Feature List

• There are no more optional mods. Less headache for me = more updates.
• Lots of recently released mods (primarily smaller ones) were added.
• The mod installation section was rearranged as usual. I'll never be content.
• Several large mods have been removed and replaced (RDO, CCOR, Sacrosanct, FNIS).
• Several large mods were (re-)added (Reliquary of Myth, Scion).
• Re-did the appearance section from the ground up.
• Switched from Fore's New Idles to Nemesis Unlimited Behavior Engine.
• Many other additions, removals, improvements to every aspect of the guide.

Body replacer: I removed CBBE because the only time I notice it's installed is when I have a headache with meshes. I don't have a clue how they work, how BodySlide works, and I don't care to learn it. TPF doesn't need it. If you play the game as intended, it doesn't matter if your tits are low poly.

Appearance: I replaced Windsong Immersive Character Overhaul and Ethereal Elven Overhaul with Cathedral NPCs. It turns out that with higher res textures and regenerated facegen, vanilla faces aren't too shabby. Plus this makes consistency and compatibility a breeze - I just have to regenerate facegen and new NPCs blend in.

Crafting: CCOR is a fantastic mod on its own. In a larger setup, it can become a bit of a headache. XP gain is apparently buggy and the inclusion of all those random features feels very on the nose. It's not vanilla plus at all. I replaced it with some small scale smithing tweaks of my own and feel very happy with the result.

Loot and Balancing

Hybrid Loot was removed. I have finally decided to ease up on the Morrowloot aspects as they are not, strictly speaking, v+. Loot and balancing has given me a major headache because I just don't feel competent enough to come up with a substantial improvement, so naturally I spent months and months agonising over it. 

Here's how I want to handle loot and balancing in 4.x:

• Loot system remains leveled so as not to stray too far from the original game.
• Optionally slow down leveling (but grant more perks) to slow loot progression.
• Likely make Daedric / Dragonbone crafting only, with some hand-placed pieces.
• Reduce quest gold rewards, substantially for some as they were ridiculous.
• Less rare loot. Fewer soul gems, fewer enchanted weapons, fewer rare ingredients.
• Location related loot: Dwemer equipment primarily in Dwemer ruins, etc.
• More static (non-randomised) loot, particularly for unique enemies.

TPF 4.0 has vanilla loot. I have reduced quest reward edits cut out from Economy Overhaul and a half-done ESP removing Daedric / Dragonbone from leveled lists but these mods weren't added to 4.0.

Road to 4.x Final

My intention with this major version update is to finally get to the end: To be able to say "this is good and polished and I'm happy", after four years of work, and redoing everything over and over again. This is both because, well, it's been four years, but also because my life is going to change in 2022 and I want to use 2021 to finish this project. More on that in a bit.

Here's what I'm planning to do in upcoming TPF 4.x updates:

• Bring the update to Wabbajack and take over TPF on WJ (soon after 4.0 release).
• Overhaul loot and balancing as discussed in the previous section (4.1 onward).
• Implementation of grass LOD which is still very new. Not sure when.
• Improvements to alchemy, the most frustrating part for me. Not sure how.
• Potentially implement Spell Perk Items Distributor with the NFF addon.
• Finally settle on one ENB preset for Cath Weathers and stop switching around.
• Some other minor improvements (DIY instructions for MO2 separators, TIE preset, ...).
• Proper documentation in the form of an exhaustive gameplay guide.

My year 2021 and beyond

Lots of personal stuff, feel free to skip my rambling. :p

As mentioned, I am hoping to wrap up 4.x with the features listed above this year. I purposefully kept the list (relatively) short as I struggle big time with motivation, feeling overwhelmed easily.

However, my mental health has improved substantially over the past years, something I have to credit the TPF community with - yes, seriously. The amount of confidence I rediscovered in myself lately is quite staggering, and much of it came from the positive feedback I received for TPF. Our Discord server is well over 3.000 members strong, I have a Patreon that's going well. Clearly I'm doing something right.

I am also finally, finally going to finish school in Autumn 2021. Getting my Abitur will finally allow me to go to university and I've struggled to get to this point ever since I quit regular school back in 2014. I will turn 22 in less than a month and I'm beginning to see the light at the end of a very long tunnel. Depression is still around but not all the time anymore. If all goes according to plan, I will be in Amsterdam by September 2022, starting my bachelor in Ancient Studies. I have a future.

Okay so back to Skyrim...

Right. TPF 4.0 is currently out of my hands, being proofread and fixed by Umgak. Once she has done her magic on the guide, we can move forward to a beta phase which will help us catch any remaining inconsistencies or issues. After that, I will compile and release the WJ version, and start working on 4.1. Oh, and there will be another Patreon post discussing the results of the survey I did a few months back since this one is way too long already.

I can't give an ETA yet on when 4.0 is going to drop. I have one last exam tomorrow so I won't be working on anything Skyrim today. Gotta prepare myself for the exam. Mentally. In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, probably.

Anyway - long story short: Stuff's happening. 4.0 is coming soon. Happy modding!

Phoenix