Hardcore Saving

Make the savings system less forgiving. The bane of rescue planners, beloved by masochists. Inspired by the redemption system of Kingdom: Deliverance. Required for SKSE64.

HARDCORE SAVING OVERHAUL SE

Classic skyrim version

introduce

My name is Alistair and I am a savior. Or, I was.

Until recently, role-playing games, for me, were exercises in crafting the best outcome for each situation. Conversation check failed? refresh. Taking too much damage in battle? refresh. Accidentally falling off a cliff while desperately trying to get around the intended path instead of reaching my destination by running a 70° wall? ...refresh

This sorry state of affairs has only been further exacerbated by the installation of the Requiem Overhaul for Skyrim. There is no end to my rescue scum in a world that is suddenly more challenging than before. In a playground of my own creation, I was like a mad God, looking back so that I could erase my mistakes and weave a chain of events in which I effortlessly slaughtered enemies I had no business even fighting. Hijacking an entire fortress at level 3 using these dirty tricks might be fun, but it's not satisfying. If there wasn't any suspense before you save money on every corner, if there wasn't any tension before you placed an arrow every time to end your sorry life, it would be "Never should have been here!". Clearly, I needed a change.

That said, I'm not a fan of most of the game's restricted save systems, as they often feel so restrictive that it breaks that important and elusive element of immersion. Fallout 4's hardcore mode is a good example of this, where your only save options are to sleep on a bed (which is sparsely placed and not portable) or to save using exit. I like the idea, but the implementation of the system makes you want to take a nap on a dirty mattress before every battle. This feels silly.

Come into the kingdom. A wonderful game in its own right, it's ostensibly very similar to Fallout 4's hardcore mode, but with the significant addition of Savior Schnapps: purchasable and craftable resources that allow players to save the game whenever they wish - but in a limited way. Finally, I found a system that felt right.

There are several good mods with similar concepts, but none of them fit exactly what I wanted. So, I introduce the work of the past few days: Hardcore Saving overhaul. I hope you like it.

how it works

When you sleep for the first time after installing this mod, a Lucky Coin will drop nearby. This coin is magical and you will treasure it forever. It prints out some flavor text to absolutely immerse you in, and if you activate it in your inventory it will give you the option to enable Hardcore support or not. If you choose to enable Hardcore Saving, automatic saving via logs, quick scan, and normal saving are disabled, leaving only three saving methods:

sleep

Save the game normally and create a new save each time you sleep.

Savior's Brew

Consumption is created when rotating between three slots. It is added to the drink level list and enables crafting (cookpot) when Hardcore Saving is activated. The recipe is 1xAle, 1xFrost Mirriam, 5xSnowberry (unless you enable harder crafting, in which case it's 1xAle, 3xFrost Mirriam, 3xDragon's Tongue, 5xSnowberry). I also took the liberty of adding more Frost Mirriam to the potion's ingredient list and boosting its value.

Save and exit

Creates an exit save that will be overwritten every time you save and exit the game via the Lucky Coin menu.

Demo video

(from Classic Skyrim, but it's almost identical in SE)

Compatibility etc.

Should be compatible with almost anything except other mods that affect saves. No vanilla recording is touched, everything is handled via script. This also means that HardcoreSaving.esp can be anywhere in your load order.

Frostfall is not required, but if you do have it, Savior's Brew will grant a warmth bonus for consumption.

For script loading, it should be very small. The only instances where my script …