Skyrim Complete Alchemy And Cooking Overhaul

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Last updated

14 January 2019 8:47PM

Original upload

01 October 2015 10:24PM

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• Description
• Files 8
• Images 54
• Videos 5
• Posts 4,151
• Forum 25
• Bugs 46
• Logs

About this mod

This mod is a complete overhaul of the alchemy and cooking systems. Its intention is to provide a balanced, consistent experience throughout all aspects of alchemy and cooking, from harvesting and collecting ingredients to high-level potion and food creation.

Requirements

DLC requirements

DLC name
Dawnguard
Hearthfire
Dragonborn

Permissions and credits

Author's instructions

You are not allowed to upload or distribute this file on any other website or platform.
You are not allowed to use the assets included in this file without permission from the creator of those assets.
You are not allowed to package this mod as part of a mod collection.
You are not allowed to use this file in any mods/files/collections that are being sold or distributed for money.

You are allowed to create compatibility patches for this mod.

CACO has permission to use the assets from many sources and mod authors. All assets that originate from other authors require permission from those authors. For full details on image and resource permissions see the included Credits and Permissions file.

The assets included in this mod may not be used for commercial purposes or in any mods/files that are being sold for money.

TRANSLATIONS
If you wish to translate this mod into a language other than English, your translation MUST require that the user download the original file from this page in order to work. You have permission to upload and distribute, on nexusmods.com, only those portions of this mod that are required for the translation. Do not post translations on additional platforms or websites without written permission from the mod author. You are NOT permitted to release any stand-alone translations that would work without the user first downloading the file from this page.

You may opt-in to earn donation points for any mods (patches, translations, etc) that use my work, provided you've adhered to the permissions and terms of use as stated above.

For questions or to seek additional permissions, contact the author at [email protected]

File credits

Tascani for the throwable bombs used in CACO, as well as balancing, brainstorming, and many other technical aspects of the mod.
Teabag86 for brainstorming and testing ideas, modifing meshes, creating spreadsheets and food recipes, pulling together and tracking resources, and many other aspects of this mod.
Excinerus for the bomb meshes, as well as creating and modifying many of the other custom meshes and textures.
Impulseman45 for the gorgeous new butterflies and moths and the ironwood tree.
Gooball60 for new potion bottle meshes and for meshes from Unique and Improved Potions.
SparrowPrince for helping modify and improve various meshes and textures.
theregisteredone for the new dragonfly textures.
Kelmych for food recipes, creating spreadsheets and organizing data, and testing.
wiseman303 for the modified flora meshes.
Bellyache for Bellyaches Animal and Creature Pack
berticus0001 for the animation script used to milk cows from Berts Hearthfire Dairy Goods Upgrade.
bfadragon for Extra Food.
Blary for Alchemy Clutter Resource.
Brumbek for the Felsaad Tern meshes and textures.
Ceruulean for the script from Daily Eggs.
ChickenDownUnder for Harvestables.
Chesko for his Alchemy furniture script and mesh from Frostfall.
Cindy Grundsten for Hair Stock used for Horse Hair.
Cordsnwires for Cooking Expanded.
Elinen, Ztree, and Vurt for assets used to create the Ironwood tree.
egocarib for MagExtender and Dynamic Potions.
Gamwich for textures from Rustic Potions and Poisons and Rustic Clutter Collection.
Ghosu for Fiddleheads and Onions and Scalpel.
HalkHogan for textures from Realistic HD Food.
InsanitySorrow for his Food Stuffs and Soap Resource.
Iraito for textures from High Quality Food and Ingredients.
Jas for Jas Better Food.
killtacular1 for Generic Inventory Sound Fix.
Link815 for Special Flora of Tamriel.
Merilia for Babettes Feast.
Narmix for Silly Level of Detail - Potions and Poisons.
Nedius for Ingredients of Tamriel and Real Wildlife.
Nernie for resources from Nernies City and Village Expansion.
Oaristys and Tony67 for their Modder's Resource Pack.
Omeletter & Xubarku for Harvest Overhaul.
Ps46183 and Galadreal for Goblets Cups With Wine And Orange Juice Resources
Quilb for Retexture for Soup.
Saerileth for Gemling Queen Resources.
Sagittarius22 for Quality Labels for Potions.
Scot for Alternative soup textures.
ShinGouki for Chicken Butthurt Minimizer.
Syncing for Better Potions.
Tamira for New Plants.
The_Funktasm for Morrowind Style Clutter.
Uni_SL for Cooking Ingredients.
Wiseman303 for the mesh fixes in Critter Fixes.
Wolferoo for Cooking Recipes Pack.
Xenius for High Quality Eyes.

Photographs and image resources by:
Brian Gratwicke, Severein, Larry Jacobsen, www.bluewaikiki.com, George Chernilevsky, Brian Gratwicke, Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren, Fritz Rhode
Didier Descouens, Manfred Heyde, Amada44, Dddeco, Anaxibia, Chinmayisk, Bernard Dupont, Notafly, rosier, David Iliff, Guérin Nicolas, Green Baron

For full details on image and resource permissions see the included "Credits and Permissions" file.

Donation Points system

This mod is opted-in to receive Donation Points

Translations

• Turkish
• Spanish
• Portuguese
• Italian
• German
• Czech

Translations available on the Nexus

Language	Name
Italian	Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul traduzione italiana
Spanish Author: ciceron traductor	Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul - Spanish Translation
Portuguese Author: Komodoro	Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul Pt-Br
Turkish Author: PINCIR	Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul 2.0-Turkish Translation
Czech Author: MilanJa	Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul - CZECH Translation
Turkish Author: Tepetam	Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul Turkis Translation
German Author: Kryptopyr Mod - Awadea Translation	German Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul
Spanish Author: kryptopyr	Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul Spanish

Changelogs

• Version 2.0

  • NEW CHANGES & FEATURES:

    Added scripts to all the alchemy recipes that will teach the player the relevant effects when the recipe is read.

    Added a lot of new alchemy notes and recipes. Thank you to Teabag86 and Rusey for their work in creating most of these.

    Hearthfire Churns will now act like a crafting station, allowing you to turn cream into butter. Other modders are welcome to make use of this crafting station by using the associated injected keyword.

    Cows can now be activated to harvest milk. This can be done once every 24 hrs. MCM options allow this feature to apply to just player-owned cows or apply to all cows.

    Catching salmon will now give you a whole salmon, which can be eaten from your inventory or portioned into fillets at a cook pot.

    Salmon with spawning colors (Salmon02) have a 50% chance to drop Salmon Roe when the whole fish is either consumed or portioned into fillets. This applies to both the jumping waterfall versions and the regular swimming versions.

    Added Mutton and Pork as new meat types along with some basic recipes.

    Added Cured Meat (included Cured Pork and Boar) to LItemBarrelFoodRawMeatSame. Reworked this list so that it's weighted in favor of producing one of the cured meats.

    Created a list of Solstheim-specific foods and changed DLC2DarkElfUrn01Food containers to use this list instead of the generic Skyrim food list.

    Modified the food leveled list used by TreaKnapsack to have more snack/traveler foods (apples, carrots, bread, or jerky) rather than just the standard list of raw crop ingredients.

    Modified the leveled lists used by the food sacks and barrels, so that the smaller sacks contain dry goods like flour, salt, and sugar, while the larger burlap sacks contain crop foods (potatoes, onions, etc.). There is also a chance for seasoning and a few types of seeds to appear in the smaller dry goods sacks.

    If using with CCF, then many of the food ingredients (flour, oil, sugar, etc.) have a chance to be found in cupboards (if using a bashed patch, you may need to manually patch the CCF leveled lists to allow CACO's changes to completely overwrite the lists from CCF).

    Added the options to the MCM to control the amount of food that drops in barrels and sacks, as well as the frequency of finding food in these types of containers.

    Added harvestable hanging onions, loose onions, and ironwood nuts to various interior cells.

    Added onions, peas, elves ear, frost mirriam, barley, turnips, blueberries, pumpkins and chokeberries to the list of Hearthfire plantable garden plants. However, some of these items currently still have a limited distribution in game.

    Added new harvestable fire ferns, black lichens, and red lichens to Solstheim.

    Added formlist to wild Chokeberry (instead of always giving 1 item, now chance to receive 1-3).

    Replaced tiny mushrooms in Blackreach and Darkfall Passage with harvestable Violet Coprinus versions. Created a new texture for Violet Coprinus (both glowing and non-glowing versions). Violet Coprinus can also be found in the salt marshes around Hjaalmarch.

    Added horse hair to horse death list.

    -------------------------------------------------------

  • CHANGES TO GARDENING:

    The default initial growth time for planted crops has been changed to 3 days to eliminate the loophole where players could simply dig up the plant and replant again every day to maximize their harvest. New MCM options allow you to customize both the initial growth time and the regrowth period.

    Added a fertilizer mechanic to the gardening system. Simply activate the soil once planted and you'll be able to add any qualifying soil amendments, such as Bone Meal, Ash Salts, or Sulfur ("Perished Food" from Last Seed also counts as fertilizer). By default, fertilizer will enrich the soil for 30 days before it needs to be re-applied, but this duration can be adjusted in the MCM.

    You can also choose what type of effect the fertilizer will have on your garden:
    1) The first option is a long-term investment in the quality of your soil. Each application of fertilizer will progressively reduce both the initial growth time and the time between harvests by about 5% per application, up to a maximum of about 35% faster plant growth.
    2) The second option is a short-term increase in the quantity you receive when you harvest plants. This increased amount lasts for the duration of the fertilizer, then resets to normal values. Note that certain single-item crops, like cabbage and leeks, don't benefit from this increase.
    3) You can also choose to receive both effects.

    -------------------------------------------------------

  • VANILLA BUG FIXES:

    Fixed a vanilla/HF bug that prevented the grain mills inside windmills from being activated. All of these mills can now be activated and used.

    Changed the rock warbler nest on top of the Hearthfire house to a hawk nest.

    Changed two loose eggs sitting near the pine thrush nest in TolvaldsCave01 to pine thrush eggs (they were chicken eggs).

    -------------------------------------------------------

  • OTHER CHANGES & CORRECTIONS:

    Changed various items into injected records. This was done to ease the creation of patches and assist in compatibility with other mods.

    Added keywords to all food items for Last Seed compatibility.

    Added an MCM slider for customizing the alchemy skill experience rate.

    Added language localization added to MCM.

    Removed "True Fortify effects for Magic Effects" option from MCM. Reverted the descriptions for these magic effects to vanilla. These changes have now been implemented as hard edits in an optional, separate file.

    Poison resistance no longer applies to Benthic Lurker acid spray & goo since neither of these are actually poisons.

    Fixed the Lingering Damage Undead poisons, so they will now be properly recognized as poisons instead of potions.

    Added Undead immunity conditions to a handful of poison effects that I had previously missed.

    Reversed the perk entry priority rankings for the Snakeblood perk. This will allow the perk to work as intended. I also changed added a new perk entry to draw out the increase in percentage chance to get all 4 effects. Now 300-400 ingredients eaten gives a 12% chance for 4 effects, and 400-500 gives a 25% chance.

    Updated the script attached to the sulfur deposits, so they will now adjust properly and provide the correct amounts of sulfur if you're using the mining options from Complete Crafting Overhaul Remade. Thank you to GamerRick for suggesting these changes.

    Added an option to the MCM which will completely disable the Harvest Flesh option, and also added an MCM option to make "Harvest Flesh" and/or "Extract Blood" appear as a menu option when you activate a body instead of happening automatically whenever the correct conditions/equipment requirements are met. This should help compatibility with other mods that add activation options to bodies.

    In addition, I've added a new "Cancel" option to the vampire's "Feed" menu, so now it should always be possible to cancel out of the Feed menu after you've extracted blood, rather than being forced to Feed after extracting blood from a sleeping victim.

    Implemented several fixes to prevent bugged animations after spamming alcoholic drinks. These changes should now properly stop the drunken animations. However, as a final backup, I've also added a manual shut-off in the MCM options, so if all else fails, the player can open the MCM and click this option.

    Added a 30 sec delay to the script that updates iNeed food lists, to try to avoid lag from script-heavy load orders. Also added an MCM help option to manually force iNeed lists to repopulate with CACO items.

    Added several checks and conditions to a couple of scripts to prevent log errors.

    Added changes to CACO_AdjustPotionThread and CACO_AdjustPotionThreadManager to avoid the CACO_OnPotionCreation event re-starting a script which is already processing a potion and to reduce the wait time once all threads are busy. This should reduce the number of papyrus log errors that occur when a player is spamming the create potion button. Thank you to Kalivore for suggesting these changes.

    In addition, I added 10 more threads to CACO_AdjustPotionQuest to further improve efficency in handling large numbers of created potions.

    Added line to CACO_AdjustPotionThread to check for CureDisease, CurePoison, and Blood effect potions before adding Quality modifiers to the name. So no more potions with names like "Weak Potion of Cure Disease.".

    Added a GetEnableParent() check to CACO_AltFloraScript. This will hopefully prevent errors and multiple nests from spawning around Hearthfire houses and any mods that add nests with parent references. In addition, I removed the Pine Thrush nests from the inside of the Hearthfire homes (they really make no sense inside a house).

    Removed conditions and Hit Shader from MGEF AlchDetectLife. The conditions were preventing the potion from working on vampire players, and the Hit Shader was applying the Detect Life shader to the player (which is contrary to how the vanilla effects function).

    Reverted the changes made to the Consume sounds for any non-potion drinks. This will allow SkyUI to apply the drink label to them. Also adjusted keywords on some of the Misc items so that SkyUI would label them as the appropriate type of item.

    Fixed collision for Rorikstead Cheese Wheel (cheesewheel03a, cheesewheel03b). Thank you to Tamira for this fix.

  • ----------------------------------------------------------------

    CHANGES SINCE RELEASE OF V2 BETA::

    Falmer poison damage will now also increase in damage if the "Deadly Venom" setting is increased (the default values remain the same as vanilla).

    Corrected 4 recipes (Braided Bread, Potato Bread, Fried Salmon, and Marinade) that were using the full Oil ingredient instead of the Oil token, and therefore weren't showing up in the cooking menu.

    Corrected name of Plentiful Elixir of Health (also Stamina & Magicka versions).

    Fixed pickup and consume sounds for Turnip, and added it to the appropriate leveled lists for CACO and form list for iNeed.
    Changed Turnip to an injected record. NOTE: all turnips in existing games will disappear when updating to V2.0.

    Removed _BFLItemBretonFood75 from LItemBarrelFood lists.

    Changed name of Wisp Stalk to Wisp Stalks

    Harvesting Khajiit bodies with a scalpel will now always result in at least 1 eye being harvested, with a 75% chance to receive 2 eyes.

    Ethereal cows found in the Soul Cairn can no longer be milked.

    Gave Sulfur unique properties (it's no longer a direct copy of the Fox Fat ingredient).

    Updated the meshes used for bandages and poultices, courtesy of Excinerus.

    Fixed bug preventing Blood Extractor from working properly when 'Message Box' option was selected in MCM.

    Added animation when milking cows. NOTE: The milking animation doesn't work properly with cows if updating mid-game, but cows can still be milked.

    Fixed the meshes for the following items: Spider Silk ingredient, Expert & Master mortar and pestles, Vinegar jug, and Scrib Cabbage mesh.

    New textures for equipped head & arm bandages courtesy of Gamwich

    New meshes and textures for dirty bandages and bandage rolls, courtesy of Excinerus.

    Added copies of 1st person meshes for alchemy gloves so they will now appear correctly when worn by female characters.

    Corrected script properties for fertilized version of crop tokens.

    Cleaned up and removed many of the unused records from the plugin file.

    Added Graphics, Invent, and Sound bash tags.

• Version 1.2

  • Added new bird nest meshes created by Teabag86 and inspired by the mod "Chicken Butthurt Minimizer" by ShinGouki. The number of eggs in each nest is randomized each time the nest respawns. Also included is a modified version of the script from "Daily Eggs" by Ceruulean to update Chicken nests every 24 hours.
  • Completely overhauled of all Ingredient sounds, including the addition of several new custom sounds. Ingredients now use more appropriate sounds and don't just default to the same generic pickup/drop sounds. Thanks to Teabag86 for doing all of this work.
  • Added new load screens created by Teabag86 that feature CACO-related alchemy tips. MCM option added to enable or disable the new load screens.
  • Attack data for bombs is now handled by an SKSE plugin created by Excinerus. This solves the issue of vampires not being able to use the bombs. It also means that CACO no longer needs to edit the Player record. Any patches that carry over the player attack data will need to be updated. The CACO-Disparity patch has been removed, as it is no longer needed.
  • Added 70 new Sulfur Deposits that can be mined with a pickaxe to acquire sulfur. Thanks to Excinerus for the new mesh.
  • Sulfur and Beeswax were added to Vendor lists. Onyx and Amber were added to some of the gemstone lists.
  • Improved the efficiency of the script that runs when you open the cooking menu, and eliminated the clicking sound that occured when you opened the cooking menu.
  • Chicken Feather textures no longer conflict with SMIM (Static Mesh Improvement Mod).
  • CACO now includes SMIM changes to Tern and Tern Feathers. If you were using SMIM-DragonbornTernFix.esp, you no longer need to use this plugin when using CACO.
  • Alcohol Inebriation stages should now transition correctly, and the Alcohol Tolerance level should now increase properly.
  • No more random Inebriation messages. These notifications were caused by NPCs drinking beverages out of their inventories. The alcohol effect script will no longer run on NPCs while they are in combat, and the inebriation messages will only show the player's inebriation level.
  • Added a redundancy check as a backup to make sure that the drunk Idle stops playing when you drop below the Drunk threshold.
  • Settings for stackable Restore effects should now be properly preserved after saving and reloading.
  • When doing the Farming Job quest, the player will now be paid for multiple crops instead of receiving 1 gold per item. You can adjust the number of crops required for payment using new MCM options.
  • Increased the speed that the Alchemy skill levels by 25%.
  • Cooking food recipes that produce multiple items will now properly give Cooking XP. Cooking XP formula has been adjusted to compensate for this.
  • Small change to potion script to allow CACO to handle the creation of multiple potions at once. This was done for better compatibility with mods like Ordinator. Thank you to ServantOfSin for suggesting this change.
  • Potion maintenance script that runs on game load should no longer return a none object for SetWeight(), which was resulting in some non-critical papyrus log errors.
  • Spriggan Sap can now be harvested using a dagger equipped in either hand. Now any weapon with WeapTypeDagger/MaterialDaedric keywords will work, including daggers added by other mods. The "CACO_WeapHarvestSpriggan" keyword can also be used to make other mod-added weapons compatible.
  • You can no longer harvest hearts, eyes, flesh, etc. from sleeping or unconscious NPCs.
  • Livers can now be harvested from dead Orcs (instead of Elven Hearts).
  • Flesh can now be harvested from NPCs using any dagger or a scalpel. The player no longer needs to have the Anatomist perk to harvest Flesh. However, Flesh will only be harvested from NPCs if the player has completed Namira's quest OR if the Cannibal option is enabled in the MCM.
  • Added MCM option that will mark a dead NPC as "HasBeenEaten" after the player has harvested their Blood or Flesh. If using a mod that allows your vampire or werewolf character to feed on dead actors, this should prevent you from being able to feed on NPCs that have already been harvested for their flesh or blood. A side effect of this option, if enabled, is that it is no longer possible to harvest BOTH Flesh and Blood, you must choose one or the other.
  • "RACE" keywords where added to the harvest conditions. Compatibility with CACO's harvest feature can be extended to races added by other mods by simply adding the appropriate RACE keyword.
  • The Damage Undead poisons now work correctly. Unfortunately, this required me to edit a handful of ability spells that gave vampires, ghosts, and other undead the Resist Poison effect. This may result in conflicts between CACO and some enemy/creature overhaul mods.
  • A number of items weren't being correctly recognized by iNeed; these should now all be fixed (Broth, Wolf Liver, Beef Jerky, etc).
  • Slight adjustment to the texture of the Ironwood Tree to blend a bit better with other vegetation. Thanks to Exoclyps for this change.
  • Several new MCM options to assist with compatibility and troubleshooting issues.
  • In addition to all of this, there are a lot of other small bug fixes and minor changes that have been made. I'm not going to list them all here, but I'll upload the full changelog under the 'Readme' tab for anyone who is curious to see all the changes.

• Version 1.1.2

  • Changes for compatibility with Wiseman303's Flora Fixes version 2. **IMPORTANT** The WM Flora Fixes.esp is now REQUIRED. Load it before CACO.

    Vanilla scalpels which can be found in ruins should now be automatically converted into CACO scalpels for use with the Anatomist perk.

• Version 1.1.1

  • Added integrated compatibility for Campfire version 1.4+ You can now cook new CACO meats and other basic recipes directly at on a campfire. No patch necessary. (Thanks Chesko!)

    Added integrated compatibility for Frostfall 3.0. CACO currently adds 60 new soups, stews, and hot drinks to help keep you warm. (Thanks Chesko!)

    Added changes to paralysis effect from Ragdoll Paralysis. (Thanks Silverfish!)

    Added new CACO restore health Draughts and Elixirs to the formlist used by the quests Helping Hand (Wujeeta) and Moss Mother Cavern (Valdr).

• Version 1.1

  • Included changes from Wiseman303's Flora Fixes.
  • Corrected attack speed and reach on rank 1 Fire, Frost and Shock bombs (was 1.0 - now 0.8).
  • Blocking with bombs equipped will only detonate the bomb with a 50% chance
  • Fixed malfunctions with power attacks with two bombs of the same type.
  • Fixed a bug where dual wield power attacks could delete the weapon in the right hand.
  • Fixed huge Saltrice plant.
  • Corrected name of CACO_WaxDamageUndead01 "Weak Wax of Damage Undead" (was misnamed Damage Health).
  • Fixed collision on a some meshes (thanks to SparrowPrince).
  • Added Chacoal lump to blacksmith/misc vendor lists, so it will be a bit easier to find.
  • Changed Snakeblood perk description slightly to indicate that the number of ingredients eaten will affect the properties you learn.
  • Fixed Marshmerrow plant so that it will correctly give Marshmerrow instead of Saltrice.
  • Added condition to remove Roasted White Cap recipe from game (may be added back at a later date when I get around to working on adding more cooking recipes).
  • The Healing bandages will now work as intended (removed recover flag from MGEF).
  • Cooking Skill Rank should now be displayed properly in MCM.
  • Changed the Silence and Fatigue alchemy effects so that they won't stack. This will prevent problems from arising when the player eats multiple ingredients that have these effects as their primary property.
  • Added compatibility for Even Better Quest Objectives. No patch is needed as long as CACO is loaded after EBQO.
  • Added new global variables to allow mod makers to add CACO-compatible variations of ingredients and recipes to their mods without necessarily requring a separate patch file.

• Version 1.0.4

  • Fixed issue causing problems with bash attacks.

    Corrected name of Sack of Barley Flour (had been mis-named as wheat flour).

    Corrected juice sounds.

    Added new "Buttered Mudcrab Claw" and "Buttered Mudcrab Legs."

    Changed Jug of Milk used in sweetroll recipe to a single milk bottle.

    Corrected a handful of ingredients which would always yield 1 second potions regardless of the potion duration settings.

    New unique mesh for powerful shock bomb; tweaks to the existing bomb meshes and textures.

    Made some adjustments to the cooking experience formula. This should also solve the problem of cooking skill reseting.

    Corrected model path used by Colovian Brandy.

    Version 1.04 should fix the problems that were caused by updating from 1.02 to 1.03, including the MCM options which were no longer working properly (though you will probably need to go into the MCM and toggle/reset the options).

    Fixed issues that some people were experiencing with the Hunger penalties.

    Flour and salt should now properly separate into cooking portions at ovens.

• Version 1.0.3

  • Fixed gamedayspassed log error.

    Fixed missing inventory mesh for ant paste.

    Fixed fortify health strength on giants toe.

    Added missing recipe for cooked fox meat.

    Added scripted compatibility for Campfire's mortar & pestle.

    Added 5 new juice recipes.

    Added optional notification messages for basic needs.

    Added check to ineed compatibility to double-check if waterskins were added correctly, if not, re-adds them.

    Removed CACO_RecipeAshHopperMeatCooked (which was actually a duplicate recipe for cooked chaurus meat).

    Fixed issue where looted or purchased potions would reset to default 1 sec duration after game reload.

    Bomb recipes will now appear properly when inventory conditions are disabled.

    Added automated compatibility for Breezehome Fully Upgraded's alchemy storage.

    Removed Water Plants. SparrowPrince is still actively developing this mod and kindly asked me to remove the water plants from CACO to avoid conflicts with his recently updated version.

    Added chance for Scalpels to appear in Apothecary vendor inventories.

    Added missing leather and fur plate recipes for Mammoth Hide.

    Added new patches to patch download, including Hunterborn patch. Hunterborn patch requires starting a brand new game (will not work on an existing save).

• Version 1.0.2

  • Removed a few unnecessary script notifications.
  • Prevented the player from gaining experience from recombining portions of wine into a single wine bottle.
  • Fixed the AddSpellScript error.

• Version 1.0.1

  • Corrected a couple of errors I made in packaging the mod.
  • Corrected the gold value of Simple Incendiary Bomb.
  • Fixed the grenade effect names so that they would be more appropriate when viewed with a mod like moreHUD.

Donations

Straight donations accepted

• Donate

Alchemy is perhaps the most complex skill system in Skyrim and has the potential to be a beautifully nuanced crafting system. Unfortunately, it is also plagued by inconsistencies, imbalances, and poor design choices that often reduce the skill to little more than an easy way to make a quick pile of gold. This mod seeks to change that, to both balance and enhance the inherent complexity of this system and bring greater versatility and enjoyment to the Alchemist's craft.

A LCHEMY

• All aspects of Alchemy have been reworked for greater balance and consistency.
• Options to set the duration of restore potions and damage poisons to 1, 5, or 10 seconds.
• All potions have been renamed to allow them to naturally sort from strongest to weakest.
• Player-created potions will be named to better reflect their strength and effects.
• Player-created potions will be fully consistent in strength, cost, and name to the ready-made potions found in game.
• Impure potions no longer provide a quick means to get rich.
• Adds 16 new alchemical effects that can be created from ingredients and found as ready-made potions.
• Grenades and long lasting weapons coatings open up new combat strategies and play-styles.
• New portable alchemy workstations allow potion creation to take place anywhere.
• Create salves and poultices which can be applied to bandages for an alternative to healing spells and potions.
• Distill weaker potions to make stronger versions.
• Over 100 new lore-friendly ingredients have been integrated into the world.
• Adds 51 new critters: 21 moths & butterflies, 11 dragonflies, and 19 pond fish.
• Harvest amounts from plants and animals have been adjusted for greater realism and less tedious gameplay.
• Hearthfire's gardening feature has been updated to include missing vanilla plants as well as many of the newly added ingredients.
• Features high-quality meshes and textures from some of the best modders and artists in the community.
• Harvest blood and other powerful alchemical ingredients from fallen enemies.  Vampires can use the blood to create unique blood potions.

C OOKING

• Meat can be harvested from nearly all animals and creatures and used in new cooking recipes.
• Over 100 new food items have been added.
• All food effects have been altered to use extended duration 'fortify' effects.
• Large foods and drinks are now automatically divided into smaller servings.
• Cooking recipes have been reworked for better balance and greater realism.
• You'll gain cooking experience and increase you cooking skill as you create foods.
• Increasing your cooking skill will give you access to more complex recipes and increase the strength of the foods you consume.
• An entirely optional and incredibly light-weight hunger and fatigue system is included for those who don't want to use a separate needs mod.
• Alcoholic drinks will now cause drunken effects with increasingly severe penalties.
• Cannibalistic recipe options have been provided for followers of Namira.
• All food items are fully integrated for compatibility with iNeed, and recipes that require water will recognize iNeed's waterskins.

SPECIAL THANKS
This mod was a massive undertaking, and I am fortunate to have had some incredible help in creating it.
I am especially grateful to Tascani , Teabag86 , and Excinerus for all their work and assistance. This mod would not have been possible without their help, hard work, and inspiration.  I also want to give a special thanks to Impulseman45 , SparrowPrince , gooball60 , theregisteredone , wiseman303 , and Kelmych for providing additional custom resources for this project.

• Tascani created the bombs used in CACO. The smooth and efficient functioning of this system is all his doing.  He also worked on balancing, brainstorming, and many other technical aspects of the mod.
• Teabag86 helped to brainstorm and test ideas, modify meshes, create spreadsheets and food recipes, pull together and track resources, and worked on many other aspects of this mod.
• Excinerus was also crucial to the creation of the bombs, created all of the fantastic new meshes used by the bombs, as well as creating and modifying many of the other custom meshes and textures.
• Impulseman45 created the gorgeous new butterfly and moth meshes along with many of their textures, as well as the new ironwood tree.
• Kelmych helped create the food recipes and organize the massive amount of spreadsheet data used in the creation of this mod.
• SparrowPrince helped to modify and improve various meshes and textures.
• Gooball60 designed unique potion bottles for the new effects and allowed me to include some of his other meshes from Unique and Improved Potions.
• theregisteredone created the beautiful new dragonfly textures that are used in this mod.
• wiseman303 provided modified versions of the plant meshes for use with his flora fix, along with a few corrections and new harvest animations for several of the models that were missing them.

REQUIREMENTS
You must have the following files installed in order to use this mod:

• All three of the official DLC: Dawnguard, Hearthfire, Dragonborn
• Skyrim Script Extender (SKSE)
• Wiseman303's Flora Fixes

INSTALLATION
Download and install the required files, following the installation directions found on their respective pages. Then download this mod and install using your preferred mod manager (recommended), or download manually and extract the file to your data folder.

It is recommended that you install Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul at the start of a new game.  If you install it in an existing game, there may be inconsistencies and other oddities.  Pre-existing player-made potions may end up with broken effects, and already claimed alchemy perks may not function correctly.  For similar reasons, it is strongly recommended that you do not uninstall this mod from an existing save game. To assist those looking to test this mod's balance and features prior to committing to using it in a new game, I have provided several utility options in the Mod Configuration Menu under Misc.

Updating to Version 2.0:   You MUST start a new game before installing this file.  Do NOT try to update from a previous version of CACO mid-game.  If you do, it will likely trash your save.  If you were previously using the V2 beta, then you can safely update to V2 mid-game.  Any existing turnips you have stored in your inventory or containers will disappear and need to be re-acquired, and the animation for milking cows may not work properly -- but everything else should transition fine from V2 beta to V2.0.

Recommended load order: Complete Alchemy & Cooking Overhaul should be placed after Complete Crafting Overhaul Remade, after Disparity, and after any mods that modify the vanilla ingredients or alchemy effects.

OPTIONAL FILES
True Fortify Effects for Magic Skills - This option is recommended only if you are using a magic overhaul that allows spell strength to scale with your skill level. This file will modify the alchemy-related "fortify magic skill" effects so that they actually fortify the skill rather than directly altering magnitudes or percentages, making them consistent with the changes CACO makes to the other Fortify Skill effects.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Many of new items added by this mod use textures based on those from other mods.  For the best visual consistency (and to simply improve the look of your game), it is recommended that you install the following mods alongside CACO:

• Lepidoptera Of Skyrim by Impulseman45 - Do not install the plugin file provided with LoS since CACO already handles these changes.
• High-Res Dartwing Texture by theregisteredone
• Realistic HD Food by Halk_Hogan_PL
• Retexture for Soup by quilb - Both the fancy and the resource textures have been used in CACO for new food items, so it is recommended that you install the "poor" version to replace the more basic vanilla soup textures.
• Rustic Clutter Collection by Gamwich
• Rustic Potions and Poisons by Gamwich
• Wiseman303's Critter Fixes by Wiseman303 - Where necessary, allow CACO and Lepidoptera of Skyrim to overwrite, but this is still worth installing for the fixes to the vanilla dragonfly and pond fish meshes.

COMPATIBILITY
Due to the nature of the changes made by this mod, CACO is likely to be incompatible with any mod that adds new alchemy ingredients or changes the vanilla alchemy effects.  Using ingredients added by other mods may result in potions with no effect (duration of 0) or other oddities.  Mods that change the vanilla food items or add new food items may introduce inconsistencies, but other than the possible imbalances, they are probably okay to use with CACO.

CACO converts some non-ingredient vanilla items into alchemy ingredients and vise-versa. For example, horker tusks and soul husks are now considered alchemy ingredients. If other mods use the vanilla version of these items in a crafting recipe or as quest requirement, then you will need to convert the CACO item back into it's vanilla equivalent.  I have provided an easy way for you to do this from within CACO's MCM.  Simply go to the Utilities section, check the "Disable Item Swapping" box, then click on the item you need to have converted back to its vanilla equivalent.  Any relevant items in your inventory will be converted back to their vanilla form.  You can swap between vanilla & CACO items at any time.

• Harvest Overhaul has been fully integrated, allowing the increased harvest amounts to be fully factored into the way the effects are balanced.
• Even Better Quest Objectives is fully compatible as long as it is loaded before CACO.  Conflicting changes from EBQO have been carried over into CACO.
• Static Mesh Improvement Mod -- CACO includes SMIM's changes to Tern and Tern Feathers.  You do not need to use SMIM-DragonbornTernFix.esp when using CACO.
• If you are using other mods that edit leveled lists, then you may need to create a Bashed Patch to merge the changes to leveled lists.
• If you are using mods that change or add harvesting options to npcs/bodies, such as vampire mods, you may need to edit the harvest options in CACO's MCM from automatic to message box.

Additional compatibility information and links to patches can be found here.

ALCHEMY

Alchemy is a fairly difficult aspect of the game to fully balance.  It is a vastly more complicated system than smithing or enchanting.  Smithing has a handful of crafting components that are used to create the majority of all crafted items, and none of those components have their own internal magnitudes or other properties that contribute directly to the strength of the crafted item.  Even in the base game, Alchemy features over 100 ingredients, each with four distinct properties, and each of those properties can be set with a different magnitude or duration.  The result is a very complex system, but I feel that also makes it a much more interesting skill than it's more straightforward cousins. This mod attempts to balance all factors that contribute to alchemy. For better or worse, this means that it edits quite a few records within the game. T HE E FFECTS
Balancing Alchemy starts with the magic effects that comprise the core of this skill.  The goal here is to treat the effects more consistently, and to balance their cost and value with regard to both their rarity and their utility within the game.  The most costly effects are now also the rarest effects and at the extreme end of the scale, they may only be represented by a handful of ingredients.  Existing ingredients were adjusted to reflect this, and new ingredients were added to proportionally increase the 'commonality' of the cheaper effects.

• Effect Cost. The base cost for all alchemy-related magic effects has been adjusted. I've tried to re-price the effects based on their utility and potency during game play so that the most expensive effects are both truly valuable and also fairly rare. The range of these values has also been significantly decreased. The base cost for effects in the vanilla game ranged from 3 to 285, meaning that some potions remained nearly worthless even at high alchemy levels, while other effects would create vastly overpriced potions. This also encouraged the player to focus exclusively on the most expensive effects (particularly ones that were also disproportionately common) in order to advance their skill level and quickly farm a lot of money. The new adjusted base values range from 35 to 95. This range is great enough to provide a sense of increased value for the more powerful effects without creating the huge disparity of prices that were previously seen. This also allows the player to focus on the effects that are most useful to their current character without hindering their experience gain and skill progression.
• No instant effects.   All Restore H/M/S and Damage H/M/S effects now have some duration.  By default, this is set to 1 sec (which was actually the vanilla setting in some cases).  However many people, myself included, feel that Restore potions and Damage poisons are better balanced when their effect is spread out over several seconds.  CACO provides the option to change these effects from 1 second to 5 or 10 seconds.
• Restore effects do not stack.   In the vanilla game, all Restore effects stack with themselves.  This allows a player to quickly consume a stack of potions and completely heal themselves.  By default, these potions will no longer stack.  If two potions with the same effect are consumed, then one of the potions will be canceled out by the effects from the other.  This change can be disabled in the MCM.
• Fortify Skill effects. Most of the Fortify Skill effects have been altered to actually fortify the skill rather than directly altering magnitudes or percentages.  The magic skills have been excluded from this change, but can be added by installing the optional "True Fortify Effects for Magic Skills" file.
• 16 New effects.   Sixteen new effects have been added to the game.  Five of these replace vanilla effects, and 8 of them were already present in Skyrim, just not available for player-created potions.  The new effects are: Cure Poison, Resist Disease, Damage Undead and Lingering Damage Undead, Waterwalking, Fortify Unarmed, Detect Life, Fortify Speed, Resist Paralysis, Fortify Speech, Night Eye, Drain Intelligence (reduces spell power), Drain Strength (reduces attack damage), Fatigue (reduces available stamina to 0), Etherealize, Feather (increases carry weight), and Silence (reduces available magicka to 0).  The effects that are no longer present are Ravage Magicka (replaced with Silence), Ravage Stamina (replaced with Fatigue), Fortify Barter (replaced with Fortify Speech), Lingering Damage Magicka and Lingering Damage Stamina (replaced by Damage Undead and Lingering Damage Undead).

T HE I NGREDIENTS
Alchemy can be seen as the utilization of the natural world and the harnessing of the properties inherent in natural materials. These raw components are the essential "building blocks" for alchemy. In the vanilla game, these blocks are generally all the same size and shape, and the value of their effects has little relationship to the price or rarity of the ingredient. This makes vanilla alchemy fairly predictable; if an ingredient has Fear as one of it's properties, then it doesn't matter if it's a Daedra Heart or a Dragonfly, it will result in the exact same potion. However, the downside is that this makes vanilla alchemy rather dull. What's the point of seeking out rare or expensive ingredients when you can easily harvest bushels of mountain flowers? This is also one of the keys to balancing the profitability of alchemy. Cheaper ingredients need to produce cheaper potions; otherwise it becomes too easy to turn that pile of 1-gold flowers into a stack of 100-gold potions.

• Effects and Strength. The most valuable effects are represented by the fewest number of ingredients, and those ingredients generally tend to be rarer than the ingredients that have common effects for their properties. Paralysis (the most expensive effect) can be found on only 7 ingredients, while Resist Disease (one of the cheapest effects) is found on 21 different ingredients. Likewise, the rarer or more expensive an ingredient is, the more powerful it's properties tend to be. It is now much more rewarding for an Alchemist to find those rare ingredients.
• Order of Properties. As in vanilla, each ingredient has four alchemical properties. However, these properties are no longer randomly assigned a spot within the ingredient. Properties have now been listed in order of their "potency" with the most potent property listed first. This means that an ingredient's primary property (the first one you discover when you eat an ingredient) is the one with the strongest relative magnitude. All other things being equal, this is the effect that will give you the most "bang" from that ingredient. However, this is relative only to the other properties of that particular ingredient. The fourth effect on a Daedra Heart will still be stronger than the first effect on a Monarch Wing.
• Ingredient weight and price. Ingredient weights and values have been adjusted to make more sense relative to one another and to other items in the game. Rare or unusual ingredients, or those with valuable effects, are more expensive than common ingredients or those with cheaper effects.
• Complimentary effects. In assigning effects to ingredients, I've also paid attention to what combination of effects are possible.  With CACO, you'll find that you can now create many more useful and naturally complimentary combinations of effects.
• No instant "Cure" ingredients. In the vanilla game, you could eat an ingredient with Cure Disease as the first effect and achieve the exact same benefit as you would have from a Potion of Cure Disease. That makes the potions rather useless and redundant. Therefore, this is the one exception to way effects are prioritized within an ingredient. Cure Disease and Cure Poison are never the first property on an ingredient. You need to create the potions themselves in order to benefit from these effects.
• New ingredients. Over 100 new lore-friendly ingredients have been added to the game. The number of added ingredients was actually determined based on the way the effects have been balanced. I've tried to add a fairly wide assortment of items, both for balance and for added interest and diversity in the world. Many of the ingredients were selected because they were available in past Elder Scrolls games. However, I've tried to only choose those items that could reasonably be expected to grow in Skyrim (or Solstheim) or else would be suitable for long travel and import by merchants and traders (root pulps, teeth, nectars, etc). There are also a wide variety of new fish and insects and new organs that can be harvested from animals and creatures. Most ingredients can be bought from merchants or will spawn in various leveled loot lists. There are also a small handful of special ingredients that occur in only one or two locations in game.
• New "vanilla" ingredients. There are several vanilla items that have been given new purpose as alchemy ingredients. These include Horker Tusks, Dragon Heartscales, Bone Hawk claws, and Soul Husks. These items will be automatically swapped for their new ingredient version when you load CACO for the first time and whenever you pick up one of the vanilla items. Quests related to these items have been modified to use the new version. In order to facilitate compatibility with other mods that might use these vanilla items, there is an option in the MCM to manually exchange the items for their vanilla equivalent.
• New Harvestables and Plantables. Some of the new ingredients have been placed around the world as harvestable plants and mushrooms. Many can also be planted and grown in Hearthfire gardens. Sulfur can be mined from new Sulfur Deposits.

H ARVESTING I NGREDIENTS
Harvest Overhaul has been fully incorporated into CACO and extended to also cover any new harvestable items. The number of ingredients harvested now reflect the amount that appears to be harvested. Similar adjustments were made to the Hearthfire garden versions. These adjusted harvest amounts have been taken into consideration when calculating the rarity of an ingredient, so while you may get many more ingredients than you did before, they remain balanced within CACO's overall Alchemy system.

• Creature Harvests. The number of ingredients and amount of meat harvested from animals and creatures has been adjusted to more accurately reflect the appearance and size of the creature. Gold and other foreign objects have been removed. With the new Anatomist perk, Blood and other unique ingredients can be harvested from dead creatures. A couple of vanilla ingredients, such as Sabre Cat Eyes and Frostbite Venom, now require this perk before they can be harvested.
• Clams and Oysters. Both Clams and Oysters will now drop Pearls and Mother of Pearl, but Oysters have a much higher chance. Rarer Black Pearls have also been added as a new ingredient.
• Bird Nests. Bird eggs have been resized and nests can now spawn with multiple eggs. Chicken nests will respawn every 24 hours.
• Beehives & Apiaries. Beehives and Apiaries have been altered to spawn more reasonable quantities. The beehives at Goldenglow now also use respawning Apiary inventories (as long as the related quest is not currently active).  Bees no longer spawn with Vacant Beehives.
• Spriggans. If a daedric dagger is equipped, then spriggan sap can be harvested from spriggans in addition to their other ingredients (a particular quest-related dagger also works).
• NPC Harvests. Blood, Flesh and other unique ingredients can be harvested from dead NPCs. The Anatomist perk and a Scalpel or Blood Extractor is required to harvest blood and organs. Bloods reflect the individual traits of each race and are potent alchemy ingredients. The NPC Blood ingredients also serve as minor blood potions for vampires and can be combined at the alchemy lab to create stronger Potions of Blood with unique properties. Flesh can be harvested with a dagger after the player has completed Namira's quest (or enabled the Cannibalism option in the MCM).
• Gardening. Missing vanilla plants have been added to the Hearthfire gardening feature and many of the new ingredients can also be planted.
• MCM Options. The chance to receive additional ingredients can be customized from within CACO's MCM. There is also an option that will allow you to disable this feature and return to the vanilla settings of 1 ingredient per plant (and similarly, 1 food item per animal).

T HE P OTIONS
When it's all said and done, this is what Alchemy is all about: creating potions. The vanilla game tends to treat potions rather inconsistently. In some cases, even the weakest player-made potions were much more powerful than any of the available generic potions. In other cases, even with 100 skill and all perks, the player could never hope to match the quality of the best generic potions without resorting to cheats and crafting loops. These inconsistencies are now gone. CACO assumes that generic potions were made by other alchemists with access to the same range of skills, perks, and ingredients that the player has, and as such, all generic potions follow the same progression in strength and value as the player-made potions. The strongest generic potions are presumed to have been made by master alchemists with 80-100 skill and a minimum of 4 perks. This still allows a player who maxes out alchemy to create better potions than any they can find. Using rare ingredients will further increase this difference.

• Alchemy skill. The player's alchemy skill level now has a much greater impact on the strength of the potions you make. This allows the potions to scale better with the player's level, and makes leveling alchemy feel much more rewarding.
• Potion names. All ready-made potions have been renamed to follow a more consistent naming convention. Potions will now sort alphabetically by strength and will be consistent with the names of player-made potions. All two-effect potions are now called "Draughts," and potions with three or more effects are now named "Elixirs."
• Potion weight. The weight of potions is now based on the number of effects they have. Potions with a single effect will weigh 0.3; Draughts (potions with two effects) will weigh 0.4; and Elixirs (potions with three or more effects) will weigh 0.5. This applies to both player-created and ready-made potions. This rewards players for finding more efficient combinations of the effects they want to use.
• Potion appearance. The appearance of the ready-made potions has been altered to reflect the new weight scheme. Potions of a single type will use the same mesh. So single-effect potions will use the smallest potion mesh. Draughts will use the second potion mesh, and Elixirs will use the third potion mesh. The largest meshes have been reserved for various specialty potions. The strength of the potion is represented by differing textures, with weaker potions appearing duller in color and stronger potions appearing brighter (NOTE: this feature has not yet been fully implemented to cover all potions).
• Impure Potions. Impure potions, those with both positive and negative effects, should be considered rubbish or failed alchemical experiments, but in the vanilla game, these potions are often some of the most highly valued items you can create.  It makes no sense why these potions should be worth a king's ransom, and it actually makes taking the Purity perk detrimental rather than beneficial. CACO applies severe penalties to all Impure potions. Essentially, they are now treated as a waste of ingredients, and are only good for learning new ingredient properties. The Purity perk will be absolutely necessary if you want to combine certain ingredients to create worthwhile potions.
• New multiple-effect potions. Ever wondered why only the player and a handful of thieves can craft potions with more than one effect? Well, no longer. CACO adds an entire range of ready-made Draughts and Elixirs with combinations of multiple effects that can be found in loot and sold by merchants. There are currently 9 new ready-made Draughts and 8 new Elixirs, though I plan to double or triple this number in future updates.
• New ready-made potions. Generic, ready-made potions for each and every alchemical effect can now be found in loot or for purchase from merchants. This includes all newly added effects as well as all vanilla effects that were missing proper potions.

T HE P ERKS
There are several serious issues with the vanilla Alchemy perks. Probably the gravest imbalance is the Purity perk, but the three ranks of Experimenter are fairly worthless as well, particularly at the skill levels required to attain them. Furthermore, while not an issue of balance, the Alchemy perks are simply lacking much interest or variety. CACO hopefully changes all that.

• Alchemist. Reduced from five ranks to three.
• Naturalist. This is basically a replacement for Green Thumb, designed to work with CACO's overhauled harvest rates.
• Field Alchemist. CACO introduces five new types of mortars and pestles which can be used to craft potions anywhere. However, they suffer a 50% reduction in potion strength as opposed to a full alchemy lab. This perk halves that penalty, so that potions created in the field are 75% as effective as those created at an alchemy table.
• Anatomist. This perk allows the player to use blood extractors to harvest blood from certain creatures and NPCs. It also allows additional ingredients to be harvested from creatures (as well as NPCs, provided a scalpel is used).
• Physician. Provides a permanent 15% boost to health regeneration rate, and allows for the creation of beneficial poultices and tonics. Poultices are first applied to bandages which are then worn to provide a boost. Bandages can be created from linen wraps at a tanning rack. They must then be cleaned using either a cookpot+water or a retort+alcohol. The effects for bandages and poultices only work when the player is injured. The effects cease once the player is fully healed. They also cannot be applied while in combat. Once used, the bandages need to be cleaned before they can be used again. (NOTE: There are currently only a few types of poultices available. I plan to expand the range and diversity of these recipes in future updates).
• Snakeblood. This perk is now a combination of Experimenter and Snakeblood. However, instead of receiving a guaranteed ability to learn more effects when you consume an ingredient, you are given a percent chance that you will learn more than 1 effect each time you eat an ingredient. This percent chance increases with the number of ingredients you have consumed. In addition, your resistance to poisons is now also tied to the number of ingredients you have consumed, and will continue to increase the more you eat (think of it as a form of mithridatism).
• Benefactor/Poisoner. Potions/Poisons you mix are 25% more effective. (NOTE: In future updates, I plan to add a number of poisonous foods and tie their recipes into the Poisoner perk).
• Purity. Same effect as vanilla, but also has added benefit of reducing the weight of beneficial potions by 0.1. As mentioned above, in the vanilla game, many players avoided taking this perk because it actually devalued their potions. Since Impure Potions are now nerfed, this perk has considerably more value than it's vanilla equivalent.
• Concentrated Poisons. This perk now does exactly what it says: All poisons now last for twice as many hits. The vanilla perk did not truly double this value, but merely set it to 2. This has been changed to a true multiplier, which also means that waxes with a base of 10 hits will now last for 20 hits. As an added effect, this perk will also reduce the weight of all poisons you create by 0.1.
• Catalyst. One of the two new master perks that have been added to the Alchemy tree. This perk allows you to create more powerful grenades, weapon waxes, and other specialty poisons.
• Chymist. The second new master perk. This perk will allow you to refine common ingredients into more powerful "extracts" and distill weaker potions into stronger ones. (NOTE: Additional recipes for specialty potions and additional refined ingredients will be added in future updates.)

A LCHEMICAL B OMBS
In my opinion, this is one of the most exciting new features of CACO. TasCani has created a wonderful system for throwable weapons. A lot of work has gone into this feature to ensure that throwing bombs feels responsive and natural when it comes to animations and equipping. All bombs and projectiles use custom meshes made by Excinerus. TasCani's system for throwable bombs is very light-weight from a performance standpoint and works incredibly smoothly. There are currently three varieties of elemental bombs but more will hopefully be added soon.

• Custom Effects.   All bombs and projectiles use custom designs and effects. There are currently three types of bombs: Incendiary Bombs, Frost Bombs, and Shock Bombs. Bombs do various amounts of AOE damage and a smaller amount of continuing damage over time. In addition, several bombs have unique effects, such as a Deep Freeze effect, with a chance to instantly kill the target, and the ability for Shock bombs to temporarily disable Dwarven Automatons.
• Crafting. Alchemical bombs can be crafted using a Retort. The weakest versions can be created with the first alchemy perk, the second rank when you reach an Alchemy Skill of 60, and the most powerful rank can be crafted after taking the Catalyst perk.
• Supports Dual Wield & Mounted Combat. Bombs can be thrown from either hand and work with dual-wield block mods. They can also be thrown from horseback allowing for ride-by ranged strikes.
• Block & Boom. Bombs will injure the player if they are too close to the explosion. If you block an attack with a bomb in hand, there's a chance the strike might cause it to explode.
• Use for traps or ambushes. Bombs can be dropped on the ground then detonated by external means, such as spells, arrows, or other nearby explosions. This allows for the strategic placement of several bombs which can all be detonated with a single strike as an enemy approaches.

T OOLS, W AXES, S ALVES, & B ANDAGES
In addition to the new bombs, there are several other new features that are now a part of the alchemy system that expand the utility and versatility of the alchemist's tool kit.

• Weapon Waxes.   Waxy coatings can be made to poison your weapons for multiple hits. Each hit will be proportionally weaker than the single-hit poisons, but waxes last for 10 times more hits than standard poisons.  Waxes are created using the Retort. Additional specialty waxes which target specific types of enemies, can be created once you take the Catalyst perk.
• Mortars and Pestles. CACO adds five ranks of mortar and pestles to the game. Having one in your inventory will enhance the strength of the potions you create, up to 20% stronger potions for having a Master Mortar and Pestle. They can also be activated directly from your inventory to allow you to craft potions anywhere. However, the potions you create using just a mortar and pestle will be weaker than those you create at a fully furnished alchemy table. You can take the Field Alchemist perk to reduce this penalty, but it cannot be eliminated completely.
• Alchemist's Retort. This is a new type of Alchemy crafting station that allows for recipe-specific crafting. Retorts can be accessed at any tabletop alchemy lab and can also be purchased as a separate portable crafting station.  A retort is needed in order to create bombs, waxes, distilled potions, purified ingredients and extracts, salves, poultices, and other specialty potions.
• Alchemist's Crucible. This is another new alchemy tool.  A crucible can be used to standardize player-made potions.  This will convert your potions and poisons into their generic equivalent.  In most cases this will result in a decrease of the potion's strength.  However, it will allow player-made potions and poisons to be used in the wax coating and distillation recipes that allow you to create stronger versions of potions and poisons.  Currently, the crucible will only work with single-effect potions.
• Salves, Poultices and Bandages. These provide alternative means of healing for characters who might not want to always guzzle potions or use healing spells. Bandages can be created from linen wraps at a tanning rack. They must then be cleaned using either a cookpot+water or a retort+alcohol. The effects for both salves and poultices only work when the player is injured. The effects cease once the player is fully healed. Once used, the bandages need to be cleaned before they can be used again.
• Changes to Altars. Altars no longer Cure Disease. This was done to help balance the usefulness of the Cure Disease potions. This effect is still quite common, and Potions of Cure Disease are readily available at apothecary merchants. The intention was not to make diseases more difficult to cure, but rather to emphasize the role of alchemy in everyday life in Skyrim.

FOOD & COOKING

Food and Cooking composes the second half of this mod. Cooking isn't really given much importance in the vanilla game and seems to be more of an after-thought than something with any real purpose in the game. Obviously there are mods that address this by making food an essential need in order to stave off hunger and starvation. CACO is not really a "needs" mod and is not intended to be. However, it does attempt to make cooking and food feel more interesting and well-integrated into the game, while also making it more balanced, and providing the player with a sense of reward and accomplishment for their cooking efforts.

F OOD E FFECTS
Food effects have been reworked to make them more distinct from alchemical potions. The vanilla game treats food items pretty much like very weak potions, and when you're in a bind and low on heath, you can instantly consume 50 cabbages to restore your health in the midst of combat. This seems more than a little silly, and my main goal was to make food feel more like food. It isn't particularly strong and probably isn't going to make a critical difference in combat, but the idea is that eating regular, well-rounded meals will provide you with small, long-duration benefits.

• No instant recovery.   All instant Restore effects have been removed from food and replaced with long-duration fortify and regeneration buffs.
• Game-based durations.   Nearly all food effects will range in time from 1 to 4 hours. These effects are measured in game-time and will adjust automatically based on the time scale setting you are using. The duration of the effect is roughly equivalent to how filling the particular food item would be, and the intention is that the effects from a filling meal should last approximately 4 hours game-time.
• Effects do not stack. While food effects can be used in addition to potions, spells, or other bonuses, they do not stack with other food effects of the same type. This means that you can have one Regenerate Health effect, one Regenerate Stamina effect, and one Regenerate Magicka effect from different food items, but you cannot have two Regenerate Health effects from food at any one time.
• Balanced meals.   In general, food effects follow this pattern: Vegetables & Grains = Health; Fruit & Sweets = Magicka; and Meat & Cheese = Stamina. When combined with the fact that identical food effects do not stack, this is intended to encourage the player to consume more "well-rounded" meals instead of focusing on eating stacks of the same type of food.
• Complex recipes create stronger foods.   Raw, uncooked foods will give you pretty paltry bonuses. Cooked foods will give you stronger bonuses, and the more advanced or complex the recipe, the greater those effects will be. I'm still adjusting the balance of the various recipes, but basically, the idea is to reward the player for taking the time to create more involved recipes.

F OOD I TEMS
This mod adds a massive number of new food items that you can harvest, purchase, plant or create. Many of the alchemy ingredients also double as new food items and are used as components in cooking recipes. I've made extensive use of many other great food and cooking mods and resources in order to make sure that almost all of the new food items have a unique appearance.

• New Animal & Creature Meats.   Meat can now be harvested from nearly all animals and creatures and used in new cooking recipes. This includes foxes, hawks, sabre cats, bears, trolls, chaurus, and a few others. In addition, the quantity of meat that you'll get from an animal has been altered to better reflect the size of the animal. However, these amounts should still feel fairly balanced and are not an attempt at truly realistic quantities of meat. These new meats can be cooked, marinated, turned into soup, made into jerky, and used in various other recipes.
• Cannibalism. Devotees of Namira can harvest Flesh from humanoid NPCs by equipping a dagger or scalpel. If you haven't completed Namira's quest, your character can harvest Flesh by enabling the cannibalism option in the MCM settings.
• Portion Control and Serving Sizes.   Large foods and drinks are now automatically divided into smaller servings when you consume them. Those massive cuts of meat are now treated like four steaks or servings. A bottle of wine is four drinks. A wheel of cheese is cut into individual wedges, and a loaf of bread is eaten as two half-loafs.
• Weight and price adjustments.   The values and weights for all food items have been adjusted to reflect their relative size and apparent weight. However, certain foods like soups have been made somewhat heavier in order to approximate the added difficulty in porting these foods around (and to place more emphasis on cooking and eating a meal immediately rather than lugging around 50 bowls of soup. To counter this, new light-weight travel foods, like meat jerky, have been added to provide more convenient food for adventurers.

COOKING RECIPES
All cooking recipes have been reworked with more logical proportions and for better balance and progression.  You are no longer required to have salt just to cook meat, though the use of various seasonings will still produce tastier results.  The food you cook will be more valuable (and weigh less) than the sum of the raw ingredients used to produce it.  As your cooking skill increases, you'll gain access to more complex recipes with stronger properties and more interesting effects.

• More realistic recipes.   Cooking recipes have been reworked for better balance and greater realism. This also means that in some cases one recipe will create multiple items. For example, soup recipes will generally create 4 bowls of soup instead of just one. This allows a better, more realistic, distribution of ingredients.
• Use of Water.   Recipes like soups and stews require the use of water. Water jugs can be collected from wells or simply crafted for free at a cookpot (both of these options can be disabled if desired). I felt that the addition of water to the recipes was necessary (otherwise there's not really much difference between making a steak and making a stew). It also was done with the intention of making it easier to create compatibility between CACO and other "needs" mods.
• Ingredient portions.   Salt, flour, wine, and other ingredients are now used in smaller amounts. Sacks of flour are automatically divided into 20 cups of flour, salt piles into 10 pinches of salt, etc.

C OOKING S KILL
To make cooking more rewarding and to provide a sense of progression. Creating food at a cookpot will now gain you cooking experience. This is tracked separately from any of your standard skills, and your current skill level can be found in the MCM. As your cooking skill increases, you'll gain access to more advanced recipes. You'll also benefit more from the foods you consume. The strength of food effects will increase with every 25 levels.  By the time you become a master chef, food effects will have doubled in strength from their base magnitudes. Therefore, increasing your skill will not only gain you access to more complex recipes to create foods with stronger base effects, but it will also make even the simplest recipes somewhat more useful.

B ASIC N EEDS
An entirely optional and incredibly light-weight hunger and sleep system is included for those who would like some additional incentive to consume food and sleep regularly but don't want to use a separate needs mod. These options are disabled by default and must be enabled in the MCM. These features use almost no scripts and are just about as simple and basic as a "needs" feature can be. They can also be enabled and used alongside other needs mods if you simply wish to add increased penalties on top of whatever the other mod is doing. Obviously, though, the effects and stages won't line up exactly with those from other mods.

• Hunger. If you enable this option, your hunger will proceed through three possible ranks. If you do not eat within 6 hours of your last food effect wearing off, then you'll become Hungry. If you still do not eat for another 12 hours, then you will progress to Famished. And if you continue to avoid food for a further 12 hours, you'll find yourself Starving. Each of these three stages will result in increasingly severe penalties to your health, magicka, and stamina regeneration rates. However, you won't die from the effects, and eating any type of food will reset the process. Satiation is simply determined based on the duration of the food effects, which will determine how frequently you need to eat to prevent hunger from setting in.
• Fatigue. If you enable this option, your fatigue levels will also progress through three ranks. If you meet the minimum number of hours slept, you'll be given the rested or well-rested bonus, which will last for the same duration as the length of time slept (max 8 hours). From a fatigue standpoint, the invisible "Not Tired" stage will last for 2 times the amount of time slept (capped at 16 hours). Once that duration expires, you will become Tired. If you don't sleep for a further 8 hours, then you will progress to Fatigued. If you still don't sleep, then after another 12 hours, you'll find yourself Exhausted. Each of these three stages will result in increasingly severe penalties to your Intelligence, Strength, and Experience Rate. Intelligence is a measure of the strength and effectiveness of your spells, and Strength reflects the amount of damage done by your physical attacks. Sleeping for any length of time will cancel out all fatigue effects and start the process over from the beginning.
• Changes to Rested Bonus. In order to add new sleep-related effects, CACO changes the way the Rested bonuses are applied. By default, you'll now need to sleep a minimum number of hours in order to get the rested bonus, and the bonus will only apply for a duration equal to the time slept (capped at 8 hours). No more sleeping 1 hour and feeling "well-rested" for eight hours. There is an MCM option that allows you to adjust the minimum number of hours required to receive these bonuses. You can also disable this feature entirely and revert the Rested, Well-Rested, and Lover's Comfort bonuses to their static 8 hour duration. However, this may also reduce or even eliminate the sleep bonuses granted by certain teas, salves, or other items. This feature must be enabled if you wish to use the optional Fatigue penalties.

A LCOHOL & I NEBRIATION
In addition to the foods, the drinks in Skyrim all have alter properties as well. In general, I've tried to diversify the effects in order to make alcohols more interesting. Wine tends to be good for your health, while Brandy can get you better prices. Need a small bump to help you get those last few pounds of loot out of that dungeon? Try a swig of Sujamma. Want to add a bit more strength to your arm? Then help yourself to a good old Nord mead, or if you can afford it, splurge on a bottle of Flin.

• Fortify Effects. I've tried to stick very close to lore when assigning the various effects. However, like food, the focus is on "Fortify" rather than "Restore" effects. Most effects last for 1 hour of game time (and will automatically adjust to fit your time scale settings), though some of the secondary effects are shorter.
• Consistency. As much as possible, I've tried to cross-reference both lore and a drink's ingredient properties to make everything feel as consistent and logical as possible. For example, Mazte is described as an invigorating brew made from saltrice, and as such it Fortifies Health and Stamina Regen (which also happen to be the first two alchemical properties of Saltrice, one of the newly added alchemy ingredients).
• Stacking Effects. Unlike foods, the effects of alcoholic beverages do stack. This means that multiple drinks can actually provide some significant bonuses and advantages. However, these benefits must be weighed against the cost and penalties of increased inebriation and drunkenness.
• Inebriation. In contrast to the very simple treatment of hunger, CACO adds a fairly sophisticated treatment for alcoholic inebriation and drunken effects. Inebriation includes a whole range of various effects and progresses through 6 stages as you consume greater quantities of alcohol. At the lowest stages, some of the effects are positive, but as you drink more, the effects become stronger and increasingly more negative. So while you can potentially gain greater effects by stacking the beneficial effects of a drink, you might quickly find yourself completely incapacitated if you aren't careful. Inebriation will slowly wear off once you stop drinking. NPCs can also be affected by drinks, and I've even added a few additional effects specifically for them such as a boost to their confidence and aggression levels.
• Drink Strength. Different drinks increase your alcohol levels by different amounts. This corresponds roughly to what you would expect from a similar real-life drink serving and it's alcohol by volume amount. There is also a random variable for some drinks, and the more generic the drink, the less regulated it's production, and the greater the random variation. So village wines and generic meads and ales will vary more widely in their percent alcohol than professionally produced Alto wines or Blackbriar mead.
• Tolerance. You can also build up tolerance for alcohol over time by getting drunk repeatedly (reaching inebriation stage 4 or higher) or by increasing your poison resistance. Increasing your tolerance for alcohol will allow you to consume more or stronger drinks before progressing to higher stages of inebriation. It will also decrease the amount of time it takes you to recover from the effects of alcohol.
• Visual Effects & Animations. Progressive stages of inebriation will be accompanied by associated visual effects, increased stumbling, and drunken animations. These can be disabled in the MCM if desired, though I feel that they do contribute to balancing the effects of alcohol.

CREDITS

This mod pulls together the work and resources created by many other mod authors and artists.  Their wonderful contributions have allowed this mod to far exceed anything I could have hoped to create on my own.  The following mod authors have generously allowed for their work to be used in this mod:

• Omeletter & Xubarku for allowing me to include the changes from Harvest Overhaul.
• egocarib for his incredibly useful papyrus extentions from MagExtender and Dynamic Potions.
• Sagittarius22 for allowing me to use Quality Labels for Potions as the basis for my own potion naming system.
• Gamwich for allowing me to base my new potion bottle textures on his textures from Rustic Potions and Poisons and Rustic Clutter Collection.
• Gooball60 for allowing me to include some of the his meshes from Unique and Improved Potions.
• HalkHogan for allowing me to create new food textures based on his textures from Realistic HD Food.
• berticus0001 for the animation script used to milk cows from Berts Hearthfire Dairy Goods Upgrade
• bfadragon for Extra Food
• Blary for Alchemy Clutter Resource
• Brumbek for allowing me to include his Felsaad Tern meshes and textures from Static Mesh Improvement Mod
• Ceruulean for Daily Eggs
• ChickenDownUnder for Harvestables
• Chesko for his Alchemy furniture script and mesh from Frostfall and for his excellent tutorials on multithreading.
• Cindy Grundsten for Hair Stock.
• Cordsnwires for Cooking Expanded
• Elinen, Ztree, and Vurt for assets used to create the Ironwood tree.
• Ghosu for Fiddleheads and Onions and Scalpel
• InsanitySorrow for his Food Stuffs and Soap Resource
• Iraito for High Quality Food and Ingredients, which were used as the base for some of the new food textures.
• Jas for Jas Better Food
• killtacular1 for Generic Inventory Sound Fix
• Link815 for Special Flora of Tamriel
• Merilia for Babettes Feast
• Narmix for Silly Level of Detail - Potions and Poisons
• Nedius for Ingredients of Tamriel and Real Wildlife
• Nernie for resources from Nernies City and Village Expansion
• Oaristys and Tony67 for their Modder's Resource Pack
• Ps46183 and Galadreal for Goblets Cups With Wine And Orange Juice Resources
• Quilb for Retexture for Soup
• Saerileth for Gemling Queen Resources
• Scot for Alternative soup textures
• ShinGouki for Chicken Butthurt Minimizer
• Syncing for Better Potions
• Tamira for New Plants
• The_Funktasm for Morrowind Style Clutter
• Uni_SL for Cooking Ingredients
• Wiseman303 for the mesh fixes in Critter Fixes.  All new critter meshes included in CACO include his changes.
• Wolferoo for Cooking Recipes Pack.
• Xenius for High Quality Eyes which was used for the Khajiit Eye texture.

Thank you all very much for permitting your work and resources to be included here!
For full details on image and resource permissions see the included Credits and Permissions file.

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Skyrim Complete Alchemy And Cooking Overhaul

Source: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/69306/

Posted by: riveracomman1999.blogspot.com

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