Description
This mod changes progression to be something you feel, not something you read about in a book. No more being stuck behind an intrusive loot or magazine system that pulls you out of the game.
Instead, your survivor grows through what they actually do. Chop trees, break rocks, fight, harvest, craft, every action teaches you something. The more you play your way, the better you get at it.
It’s immersive, natural, and keeps you in the world instead of sending you off to hunt for the right book. Progression happens because of how you survive, not because of what you happen to loot.
How to use this mod?
When you log into your game craft the item “learn by doing system” and read it, then forget it and play the game.
FAQ.
Is this Serverside? – Yes, only the host needs to install this.
Will I have to restart my game to install this? – there might be some cases where bad things happen but 9/10 times it should be fine, short answer is no.
What does this mod actually effect? – how you learn those weird little magazine recipes, it doesn’t replace them, it just lets you earn them through gameplay rather than “I need to get better at farming, better go loot this T5 poi for books real quick” instead of.. yeno… farming?
Is this mod open to feedback for changes? – Yes, I wanted to make this mod to somewhat scratch the itch of people wanting older systems back without losing the polish and QOL TFP have added in recent versions.
Tested only on single player, 2.2+ and the most recent unstable version (2.3)
Changelogs
v1.3.2
Fixed a bug where vehicle books considered itself finished at 75 books instead of 100. (found by uziel78)
This won’t need a restart, just craft and read the “learn by doing” book again to apply the patch and carry on as you were before.
Previous Updates
v1.3.1
This mod is now available in German, Russian, Spanish and French. Please note when the skill triggers it will still be in English. I’m not a native speaker of any of these languages, if I made a mistake please let me know.
this update doesn’t add anything except localization for the languages below.
German;
Dieses Mod ist jetzt auf Deutsch, Russisch, Spanisch und Französisch verfügbar. Bitte beachte, dass beim Auslösen von Fähigkeiten die Meldungen weiterhin auf Englisch erscheinen. Ich bin kein Muttersprachler in einer dieser Sprachen, also sag mir bitte Bescheid, wenn ich einen Fehler gemacht habe.
Russian;
Этот мод теперь доступен на немецком, русском, испанском и французском языках. Обратите внимание, что при срабатывании навыков сообщения всё ещё будут на английском. Я не носитель этих языков, поэтому, если я допустил ошибку, пожалуйста, сообщите мне.
Spanish;
Este mod ahora está disponible en alemán, ruso, español y francés. Ten en cuenta que cuando se activen las habilidades, los mensajes seguirán en inglés. No soy hablante nativo de ninguno de estos idiomas, si cometí un error por favor házmelo saber.
French;
Ce mod est maintenant disponible en allemand, russe, espagnol et français. Veuillez noter que lorsque les compétences se déclenchent, les messages restent en anglais. Je ne suis pas locuteur natif de ces langues, si j’ai fait une erreur merci de me le signaler.
v1.3
Sorry for the back to back to back updates, this ones just polishing code (no values or gameplay changed), no need to read the book again, just download and off you go, no restart needed, but always make a backup of course.
v1.2
New; 1.2 additions
2 New traps, I’ve used some of the items i’ve added to everything has a use and adds some nice progression to it. The skill feels more engaging now and more flushed out.
What do I need to do on my end to get this working?
just download the new mod, delete the existing one and add this new one to your Mods folder, you don’t need to read the book again this will just apply itself with no fuss on your end and no restart needed, but always make a backup to be sure.
v1.1
New;
I’ve added a way to get trap skills thanks to a suggestion from “Richard Payne”
You’ll now be able to make Chicken and Rabbit traps, right now it’s kept simple but if people like it i’m more than happy to extend it and do more, building and placing these traps will be the main way you get xp in traps.
I’ve also touched up the code and increased all skills thresholds so some skills don’t feel like they’re progressing too quickly
How do I start learning the new traps skill?
Craft and read the “learn by doing” page again to trigger it, if you play on a continued save without reading the page again you’ll never trigger the xp, but your other skills will act the same as before.
Will this need a fresh start?
No but always make a backup, you must read the “learn by doing” again though, this won’t reset anything, just adds the newest skill without any fuss on your end.
How does the new traps skill work exactly?
Search “trap” and off you pop…
Final notes;
I plan on adding more stuff to all the new skills that link in with existing systems, the mods open to feedback and if any good ideas come to mind share them below, and finally if you enjoy the mod show it some love because it’s free and makes me happy lol
Download
DOWNLOAD (13 KB)
Credits: Mickkpewpew
If you have any questions or have any problems/bugs, please use the support link (Discord, Forum Topic, GitHub Issues, etc.) in the post. If there is no support link in the post, please use the comments section.
vehicle skill dosent improve with nothing
hey, I tested it and you’re absolutely right, I checked the code and made the cap 75 instead of 100, cheers for catching that, it worked up until you get 75 books then considered you finished.. I’ll put out a patch for it asap, thanks uziel78
The patch won’t require you to restart, just read the book again to continue your progress on the books.
Hello there 🙂
What to do to improve forge levels?
I’m producing iron ingots, cement, bullets and bullets casing, but it does not seem to level up the forge skill that much…
Thanks.
you need to spend perk points on sub skills (not perception, strength agility) but all the skills under them will trigger it, this is so you learn them as you level, If I made it so you level them by crafting items in a forge you’d have to be looking in the forge for every item which doesn’t sounds very fun lol
Thanks for your answer Mickk, I understand 🙂
Sooooo how exactly do the wildlife traps work? Does an animal have to actually walk into them? And why can’t I remove them after they’re placed?
A must have from now on. Thank you
Heads up, I finally updated my server from v1 to v1.3, and the chicken and rabbit items are not craftable. Even once you have all the items needed in inventory, the crafting button disappears.
did you craft and read the “Chicken Traps Recipe”?
Is there a new link? The one posted says the file was deleted.
yeah sorry, if you ever see it’s been deleted it’s more than likely in the process of being updated, should be good to go now.
The download file is deleted?
Not sure why but it shows the mod has been deleted?
I delete the old one and add it to my backups when uploading a new one, saves me space in dropbox, new version is up now thanks to the 7DaystoDieMods admins
Looks like it’s been deleted again. Please stop deleting old versions when updating your mod.
Hey this is such a great mod, the only thing I’m confused by is how to get vehicle books. I’m trying to work that out but nothing so far.
Hey, Break down cars using a proper tool like a wrench, Ratchet or impact driver
Hello and thanks for your great mod 🙂
Does it mean car wrecks as well?
doesn’t work
Hello Mickkpewpew! glad to see you’re doing good; have not seen you post much lately so was wondering if things were ok.
i’m all good, hope you’re good too
Still running my own server, not the easiest thing to do lol
does this work with a perk one they put points into?
Just another huge thanks!!! Forgot how much I’d missed the old ways. The game makes more sense again. Great job.
Not a big trap user, but if you implemented Richard P’s idea, or something like it, I would be on board for that. Might even make me like traps more. (started way back when, on the xbox. traps were few, barely worked, and you got no XP for using them)
A thought on traps progression: This may be beyond (a) your ability, (b) your interest, or (c) the games capabilities but the way I’d do this is to have a low level craftable trap that draws in wildlife. Animals trapped with this would increase your trap experience. I’d also add some more basic zombie traps that follow the same principle.
100% doable and serverside, this is actually a fantastic idea, much appreciate your contribution and if I go with this i’ll credit you for the idea, thanks a million Richard
USING THIS MOD CAN I STILL FIND AND READ MAGAZINES IN THE NORMAL WAY TOO?
Yes
Will you be doing something about the intelligence tree that finds more books and gets extra skill points?
My goal with this mod isn’t to curate the game, intelligence is strong because it offers so much utility, this mod also doesn’t incorporate how you get extra books outside of the system I made, it doesn’t get influenced by anything either except progress using specific tools/weapons. hope this answers your question
For anyone that it doesn’t let them craft it, I typed “CM” into the command console and gave my self the note.
Btw I have literally 20 mods active in my game so I guarantee that is the reason why lol. I am trying to combine the “your end overhaul” mod and your learn by doing system. Lets see if I can make it work lol
it’s more than likely a load order situation, I don’t know what mods you have so I can’t really help but a little cheat would be rename my mod with Zzz at the start of the name, so it loads last. let me know how you get on
crazy how this was once a feature in the base game a while ago… now its being introduced as a mod? Its like the game going backwards
Mod is working great for leveling skill magazines, but makes me unable to read Volumes? Is this something intentional? I have no other mods affecting books or skills.
I tried to replicate your report with no success, can you tell me if it happened as soon as you installed the mod? did it happen over time, do you’ve other mods installed that call “twitch debuffs” as their own code? any more info you can give me will help.
It happened only after reading the letter item. It must be conflicting with something on my end that I am not awared of. I will try messing around in mod list and load order tonight and will keep you update.
Ok, so It must have been a conflict with something else I’m unaware of, but I’ve put this mod at the end of my loading order and now it works just fine.
Love to hear it and thanks for taking the time to test it
a restart is needed correct?
you shouldn’t need to restart, make a backup of your save folder just incase though if you try adding it to an existing world
You should change how getting work station books work, using a forgetting elixir and just re spending all your skill points lets you max out workstations super fast. It should be maybe using workstations?
oh I hadn’t considered that… hmm i’ll have to find a way to fix that, yea the problem is there’s nothing in the game that checks if you’re inside a workbench or not, really appreciate that feedback I missed that one in testing haha
How does armor work with this?
originally I had it as “onEnterCombat” but TFP code goes in and out of that state for each zombie (which is fine) but realizing that I changed it to a flat number of kills, a couple of them might change going forward as there’s a lot more testers than just me now that it’s public and people are wild at finding things I wouldn’t even think of.