Trade & Barter by kryptopyr

Version 2.0 SE
01/27/2019


INSTALLATION
Requires the Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch.  
SKSE and SkyUI are also required to use the Mod Configuration Menu.

COMPATIBILITY
The features in this mod will work with merchants added by other mods (assuming they've been placed in the proper factions).
I have made every attempt to keep this mod as compatible as possible with all other mods, and it should be fairly compatible with most other mods without needing a patch. If you are using a mod that modifies something noted below, you may need to adjust your load order or disable certain options in Trade & Barter in order to smooth out any conflicts between the mods:

Trade & Barter modifies the text description for two of the speech perks, so if you are using another mod that changes the Invester or Master Trader perk, you should load that mod after Trade & Barter and allow it to overwrite my changes.

Trade & Barter alters the "VendorGold..." leveled lists that determine merchant base gold.  It also alters the "PerkInvestor..." leveled lists.  If you are using any other mod that alters these leveled lists then you will need to decide whether to load it before or after Trade & Barter. If Trade & Barter is loaded last, then it will overwrite any changes made by other mods to these leveled lists.  If the leveled list changes from Trade & Barter get overwritten, then the merchant gold options & the "Inventory Changes when Invested" will likely not work. 

This mod also alters the merchant containers for the Khajiit merchants and Spouse merchants.  It will conflict with other mods that directly alter these specific merchant containers.


MERCHANT GOLD
Trade & Barter gives you the option to set higher base gold amounts for each of the different vendor types. If you have another mod that alters the "VendorGold" leveled lists then you will have to decide if you wish to load Trade & Barter before or after the other mod. In most cases, I would recommend loading Trade & Barter after the other mod to take advantage of the flexibility and options provided by Trade & Barter.

Variable Merchant Gold - Adds more gold to select merchants based on their location and individual traits. In particular, these options give merchants in major cities and trading centers more gold than those in rural locations.  I would recommend leaving the Base Merchant Gold at vanilla values and choosing one of the Variable settings instead.

Base Merchant Gold - You will need to wait until the merchant's inventory restocks again before these adjustments will take effect. Options: 1500 gold max for Innkeepers and Street Vendors. 5000 gold max for all other vendors.

Random Gold - This option will add an additional random amount of gold to merchant inventories so that merchants don't always have a static amount of gold. This will be added to their base gold, so they will always have at least the base amount available. The random amounts have been set with regard to the vanilla gold amount and won't increase merchant gold drastically above the vanilla amounts. 

If you experience odd or unexplained amounts of merchant gold, even after the merchant has restocked, then you probably have another mod loaded after Trade & Barter which has altered the VenderGold leveled lists. To resolve the issue either: 1) Change the load order, and make sure that Trade & Barter loads after the other mod, 2) Click the "Disable Merchant Gold Options" option from the menu. This will reset the Merchant Gold options and allow the changes from the other mod to prevail without further interference from Trade & Barter, 3) Use Wrye Bash or xEdit to merge the leveled lists.

RESTOCKING TIME
You can choose how many days it takes for merchant inventories to respawn. Options: 1-30 days.
By default this option is turned off. When you load the mod menu, the value you see displayed is the setting currently in use in your game. The vanilla value is 2.0, so any other number indicates that another mod is already changing this setting. If you decide to turn this option on, than the settings from Trade & Barter will overwrite any changes to this value made by other mods. If at any time you wish to revert the settings back to those made by another mod, simply toggle off this option and reload your game. You will need to reload your game before the changes from Trade & Barter are fully canceled out.


BARTER SETTINGS
Adjust barter rates to suit your tastes. Do you want to make it more difficult to accumulate vast amounts of money from selling items? Do you want to decrease the effect that your Speech skill has on prices and lend some extra importance to the Speech perks? However, this is one of the features that can conflict with other mods, so if you don't want Trade & Barter to override the values set by another mod, simply make sure this feature is deselected. By default, it is already deselected.

Trade & Barter allows you to customize the values for "fBarterMax" and "fBarterMin." These two settings control how high or low prices are, as well as how much effect your Speech skill has on prices. The higher the numbers, the more expensive items are to purchase and the less you'll get paid when you sell them.

The difference between these numbers will control how much your Speech skill effects prices. If the numbers are close together, then your Speech skill will have little effect on prices. If the numbers are further apart, then your Speech skill will have a greater effect on prices.

By default this option is turned off. These two settings are often adjusted by other mods that overhaul trading and/or merchants, so if you don't want Trade & Barter to overwrite the values set by another mod, then leave these settings alone.

When you load the menu option, the values you see displayed will be the values currently in use by your game. Vanilla values are 3.3 and 2.0. If the menu is displaying different values, then you have a mod installed which is already adjusting these two settings. If you choose to select a new setting, Trade & Barter will override the settings from the other mod. If at any time you wish to revert the settings back to those made by another mod, simply deselect this setting and reload your game. You will need to reload your game before the changes from Trade & Barter are fully canceled out.


INDEPENDENT ADJUSTMENT
One issue with adjusting the barter values is that these settings change both the Buy and Sell prices. This can make it difficult to find a nice balance if you're trying to lower your selling prices without making the buying prices ridiculously high. Personally, I really like the challenge created by being forced to sell my gear at greatly reduced rates, but I dislike the extreme inflation that occurs when I then want to buy something. Therefore, the Independent Adjustments will allow you to increase or decrease the buying & selling prices independently of one another. 

Let's say that you want to make it more difficult to make a quick profit from the items you sell. So you decide to increase the barter settings to 10.0 and 6.5. At these settings, you will receive only 10-15% of an item's value (vanilla is 30-50%). However, you'll suddenly discover that the cost to purchase items has skyrocketed to 1000-650% (vanilla purchase costs are 330-200%). Maybe this is exactly what you want. If so, congrats, there's no need for you to mess with the Independent Adjustments. However, if you would like to reduce the purchase price to a more reasonable level, then you can use the Buying Prices adjustment to lower only the buying prices without affecting the selling prices.

SOME SUGGESTIONS
With all these different variables, you may be wondering what the best settings are to achieve a good balance in your game. Of course this will depend on what you want. Many people (myself included) like to make trade more difficult. I also like to set the barter settings relatively close to de-emphasize Speech skill and place more importance on the Speech perks.

Here are some suggested settings based on how difficult you want trading to be. The numbers refer to fBarterMax, fBarterMin, and the Buying Prices adjustment.

Easy: 5.0, 3.5, -40% This reduces selling prices (the reduction is greater at higher levels then at low levels), makes Speech skill less important, and makes buying things slightly cheaper than vanilla at lower levels and slightly more expensive then vanilla at higher levels.
    
Medium: 6.5, 4.0, -50% This reduces selling prices even more, makes Speech skill less important than vanilla (though about the same relative to the settings above), and maintains near-vanilla costs for buying items.
    
Difficult: 10.0, 6.5, -60% This further reduces the selling prices and makes Speech even less important. You'll definitely find taking perks and/or using enchantments much more valuable at this setting. Items will be more expensive to buy, but not outrageously so.
    
Hardcore: 15.0, 10.0, -70% This drastically reduces the selling prices and makes Speech skill much less important. You'll definitely want to use perks and/or barter enchantments if you hope to make much money. Items will be even more expensive to buy.


If you try any of the above suggested settings, and you want to pay more for items that you buy. Then simply reduce the Buying Prices adjustment or even return it to zero.

If you think your Speech skill should have a greater effect on prices, so that you'll get much better deals as you level this skill. Then reduce the fBarterMin setting by 1.0 to 3.0 (or possibly even by 4 or 5 if fBarterMax is set rather high).