Autodidact has a lot of options for improvement
As it is, the perk is fun, but not that good. This is mostly down to the fact that it requires good RNG on top of getting the right circumstances. However, the perk has many different ways in which it could be improved to give it better consistency and make it a more relevant option.
Currently, you incur a 25% progress penalty on the first skill check while healing without medkit, which is improved by 15% on every subsequent check. This means that...
At 2 checks, Autodidact has set you back 35%.
At 3 checks, 30%
At 4 checks, 10%
At 5 checks, Autodidact has a benefit of 25%.
Thus, the break-even point for Autodidact is at a little over 4 checks. I suspect the average number of skill checks for a single health-state heal is around 1. That would require you to patch up an injured ally around 4 times before Autodidact is no longer a net negative. From then on, it -can- be valuable, but again, only if you get skill checks.
There's several ways to improve on this, and make Autodidact more reliable as an option to compete with the simple and straight-forward perks: Botany and We'll Make It.
1: Autodidact increases the odds of getting a skillcheck while healing.
2: Autodidact gains a token whenever you successfully heal someone.
3: Autodidact can be activated after healing without a medkit for 3 seconds to force a skillcheck. 30 second cooldown.
4: Autodidact can get a maximum of 4 tokens instead of 5, but starts off with a 10% penalty, instead of 25%.
5: Autodidact progresses in smaller steps: -15%, -5%, 5%, 15%, 25%, 35%.
Personally, while I do think that 1 would be one of the cleanest solutions, it's also the one that doesn't really solve the problem, as it still makes the effectiveness of the perk fully dependent on RNG. Option 2 could work, and serves the perk's function decently well. Option 3 would put power entirely in the hands of the player, which might also make it too much of a clutch powerhouse in the late-game, when it's fully stacked. Options 4 and 5 are a pretty dull pair of solutions that nonetheless can mitigate the risk somewhat, although option 5 does hit the maximum potential somewhat harder than the minimum.
All in all, I will keep running Autodidact, even though it can and will cost me, as I find the perk a lot more fun to play around with than Botany or We'll Make It. But I do think it can be made into a more reliable option without losing the 'high risk, high reward' style. Particularly options 2 and 3 are ones I think deserve some exploration.
Comments
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Of course there are a lot of options, you are completely right. But the devs are the devs, and probably when they buff it, it will not be good enough or they will just never buff it.
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