This mod makes training mandatory. No more running around casting some simple spell over and over, or jumping all the time, or standing around letting wolves pound on you to build up armor skill. Uh, uh. All of that counts for nothing now. Usage give you zero skill gain – instead the only way to gain skill is to train. (Okay, skill books still count – but they're not going to get you to level 100 all by themselves!)
Note that this mod is still a bit of an experiment. I wanted my PC to gain in only the skills I wanted to focus on, and I wanted to be forced into a bit more interaction with PCs – e.g., make skill gain itself a bit of a quest. I've only been playing with it a little bit so far, but it does change gameplay noticeably:
• No more jumping around, or repairing armor, or casting spells just for the sake of skill gain. That seems to make the game a bit less hectic (and in my opinion) a bit less artificial.
• A bit more "realistic" in that casting some simple spell over and over doesn't increase your skill.
• Perhaps a bit more rationing of money due to having to pay for training.
On the other hand, training is still a bit too easy/fast. It would be nice to have the training itself be more realistic. I'd like more training quests. Like "Go kill NNN critters while wielding this sword." Or "Use this spell to charm XX people." But that would be a lot of work. Maybe later.
Another idea would be training limits. Only so many training sessions per day/week. And/or training takes time. And/or trainer becomes tired and won't train you anymore. And/or trainer disposition is more important. Maybe later.
First, you'll very likely will want to use KCAS or something similar. (Otherwise, you could train a non-major skill up without leveling, which would make you uber vs. the MOBs that you're likely to encounter.)
Second, you should head to IC and buy "Emelia's Training Guide" from the bookstore there. Emelia's guide lists all basic and advanced trainers – but not the master trainers. It would probably be more reasonable to split off the theif skills (acrobatics, security, sneak) into a separate thieves guild only guide. Maybe later. (Incidentally, thanks to UESP for the guide information.
Most trainers fall into one of two categories: home/evening trainers or day/work trainers. Stealth types trainers usually do so out of their homesk, merchants always offere training at same time they offer their other services. Other trainers are more variable. (I have tweaked the schedules of some of the trainers to improve their availability.)
Pretty simple. Sets all usage based training to zero. Increases number of times you can train per level to 1000. Makes sure tha training cost is the default (this is to override other mods which make training costly).
Because gain in skill is now absolutely dependent on trainers, the death of master trainers, or even all advanced trainers for a given skill would be a major problem. To protect against this, all master trainers are now essential. Also all master trainers and one of the advanced trainers for all skills will now be resurrected if need be (ordinarily the essential status of master trainers will protect them, but they may already be dead or other mods may remove their essential status and kill them – e.g., KOTN). Be aware that resurrection is not instantaneous, but may take up to five minutes of gameplay from time of death.
I've also tweaked quest dialogs and scripts so that if they do die before the quest is assigned/completed it should proceed normally. Usually. (There may still be a problem if they died after the quest was assigned, but before it was completed, and before Must Train was installed.)
Master trainers will not train you to above 100 counting all current fortifications, drains and damages. This means that if you have the Gray Prince's Training (which permanently fortifies several skills), you won't be able to train your true base skill to 100. However, you can also create drain skill spels which temporarily lower your own skills to offset such problems. More than that, you can lower training costs, train to mastery with advanced trainers and train your skills above 100 by using this trick.
In my opinion, the Drain Skill trick is an exploit which lessens enjoyment of the game, and is not something I would do, except to get around problems such as the Gray Prince's training. However, to each his own. And there are mods which provide additional perks for driving skills beyond 100. (However, these can also suffer from conflicts with Must Train. More on that later.)
• Athletics: Now requires discovery of 150 places instead of just 30.
• Blade: Fame/Infamy requirement now at 45.
• Blunt: Training how requires 300 npcs dead.
• Conjuration: Advanced trainers can now train to level 75. Which is needed to cast expert level spell for Master trainer quest.
A problem with the current setup is that it doesn't attack the training balance. What it should do is discard differences between major and minor skills and specialities. And it should auto gain attributes much the same as KCAS does. But that's easy enough – just load this after KCAS and set KCAS as desired.
Several mods change default leveling. E.g. OOO slows leveling and changes training cost. This mod should load after such mods.
Mods which slow down gold acquisition (e.g., Living Economy) may be a problem since your training costs will now go up. (Going from level 50 to 60 in some skill will cost about 5500 gold. Going from 90to 100 will cost about 9500 gold.
Mods which provide perks above level 100 skills may have problems. See the Must Train Relz Topic for more info.
• Protected all master trainers and some advanced trainers against death.
• Tweaked some master quests to be workable and/or less lame.
• Tweaked some NPCs' AI to make them offer training services more often.
• Tweaked training book text.
• Added notes on training times for a few of the less available trainers.
• Corrected: Valus Odiil is not Heavy Armor trainer
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While the license above allows modification and redistribution, I'd prefer to keep it under my control for now. So, please try to contact me before modifying or redistributing it.
• Wrye, Monkey God of Modding!
• Contact: PM to Elder Scrolls Forum
• Home Page: Wrye Musings
• UESP: Oblivion Trainer's Guide
• Most of info for Emelia's guide.