I really appreciate your efforts on this! I initially resisted using FOSE in my own scripts, since I as just learning to script and all the default functions overwhelmed me, (and I was concerned about keeping my mod compatible). But as my scripting skills slowly improved, I came to rely on so many of the additional things that I could do with FOSE.

If I had FOSE's SetNumericGameSetting, I could use the Timescale/Needs script that I've already written for New Vegas.



Give me some time. I've only had New Vegas since the 20th, and I think I did pretty well releasing Version 1.0 of my Tweaks on the 22nd. But, as I wrote in my opening post: This is only the beginning. This is only the first of 4 planned modules, and this first one is far from complete. See my above reply . . . I need NVSE in order to be able to make some of the scripted changes that I made for FO3.

And I don't want to expand things much more until I have my current changes balanced properly. This is my mod's Core module . . . and that is more than just a name, because the other 3 modules will rely and build on the changes of this one. Then 2nd module is my Hard-Core module, which will reduce initial skill/stat points and point rewards, Perks, add weapon restrictions when crippled, and add weapon skill requirements (among other things). It will also overhaul Barter, and reduce the amount of Loot (like ammo and Stimpaks) . . . and the amount of Loot that you find will be based on your Luck stat.

BTW: it doesn't really "take less to kill people" in my mod . . . since my mod also increases the condition of all the NPCs' armor and weapons . . . on average the increase AR gained offsets the additional damage you can inflict (since my mod also makes condition a greater factor), and the NPC's weapons are also more deadly. Plus I think you will find that they will now use better combat tactics . . . so they should NOT be easier to kill, but more difficult.

Arwen are you going to make it so that we can configure the amount of HP the enemy has as well as ourselves? I want to reduce HP levels of everything in the game, including myself, to around 1/5 or more of it's current state. I literally had to shoot someone in the head 16 times to kill him yesterday. Not my idea of a good time. He was unarmored.

I also don't enjoy getting shot around 60 times per battle and only losing around half my health.

Concerning the posts that do not like my weapon damage increases My goal has always been to make Fallout a better RPG, and NOT a better combat simulator.

While I'm willing to listen to suggestions, I'm still going to do what I feel improves the role-playing aspects the best. And I'm going to be a bit selfish here . . . after all I did make this mod for myself. And just because I'm willing to put in all the effort it takes to share an support it, does not mean that I'm willing to compromise how I want my own game to play. And ESSENTIAL element of Role-playing has always been that your ability to inflict damage on your enemies increases as your weapon skills increase. I've chosen to to this by tying increased weapon damage to weapon skills. I tried all sorts of other things in FO3, and this is what worked best in my opinion.

If you leave out increased weapon damage, there is no way that this can be done in a way that increases the impact of your weapon skills sufficiently. There just isn't enough range in the spread settings to do all this with just weapon accuracy. Either you make everyone a really bad shot at lower skill levels, or you make everyone an expert before reaching 100 Skill (which removes any incentive to increase your weapon skills beyond that point). Originally I used a global weapon damage multiplier, along with decreasing accuracy by increasing spread (fGunSpreadSkillBase + fGunSpreadSkillMult * ActorSkillValue). But the end result was NOT good. Since the NPCs level with me, no one could hit me until I got my own Small Gun Skills above 25 (which REALLY destroyed immersion), and by the time that I reached 50 SG skill, there was like little reason to improve my weapon skills any further (since I could kill anyone with one or two head shots). The way I have things now, the combat is MUCH better at lower levels, and it pays to keep improving your weapon skills. With my method, the damage that you inflict even at the lower levels is still a LOT higher than default, but then you receive a Skill Bonus (which is what this is actually called by Bethesda) as your weapon skills improve.

I've already decreased weapon accuracy when you (and the NPCs) are trying to shoot while walking and running. And I've increased your accuracy when crouching. And I do plan on making Perception a factor in how accurate you are (which was suppose to be in New Vegas, but isn't).

I feel that making weapon damage the same for all skills really weakens the rpg aspects of the game. Period.

BUT . . . there will be some other changes.

One would also thing that a mod user would also be more appreciative of a mooder's efforts.

GIVE ME A BREAK!!! That was a misprint. It originally gave credit to Bethesda Softworksfor making Fallout 3 . . . but I caught that error. It was supposed to be: "Bethesda Softworks and Obsidian for making Fallout New Vegas and releasing the GECK, so that we can mod the game." . . . which is what I have on my Nexus download description.

I spent 16 hours straight working on my NV Realism Tweaks and was exhausted by the time that I wrote all my documentation . . . and I have some language disabilities, due to brain damage . . . so writing is very difficult for me, and it took me hours just to write my readme.

I just cannot believe that after all my work on this, that you show you gratitude by insulting me.

Currently Imp's Timescale mod is compatible.

But, as soon as NVSE is released, I'll be including my Timescale/Needs script, which will adjust the Need rates based on your timescale. I'm guessing that the two may not be compatible at that point . . . it will all depend on the way both are written. Personally, I don't want my Timescale changing when I go indoors, or when I'm in combat. But that's just me . . . and I do try to make my mods as compatible as possible with other mods, since I tend to use a LOT of other mods in my own games.

Insulting you? Dear sir/madame I was pointing out a very bad, in my opinion, error not trying to insult you. It's just one of the things that make me want to go jump of the cliff.

I'm fed up with people who don't know or care to check what they're writing.

As for your "modders efforts" they are to be appreciated, but it doesn't change the fact that as a creator yourself you should understand how important it is to specifically give credit where it's due and not just in general direction.

Makes two of us.

I've been observing the Primm convicts to see how the AI is. I haven't played a lot with vanilla New Vegas so I don't know what exactly the differences are between vanilla New Vegas AI and ART New Vegas AI. I've only tested it with Convincts so far, in the Bison Steve Hotel. It's a pretty good place for AI testing, especially if you place some NPCs there yourself. There's a large room with lots of stuff to take cover behind. In the following part, all Convicts are using 9mm pistols.

In the game you can fire pistols much faster by not aiming it with the right mouse button. NPCs also take advantage of this: Once they get very close to you with a pistol, they will stop using aimed shots and instead fire more rapidly (the lower accuracy doesn't matter much when you're very close). It's a nice tactic.

The Convicts don't take cover in this place very often, even though there should be plenty of good spots. They love walking slowly in a straight line at me while doing aimed shots until they get to a certain distance (not close enough for the quick firing though), and then they just stand there shooting or walk sideways a bit while shooting. Sometimes they crouch while walking/shooting, for no obvious reason. No special behaviour while reloading either, they just continue doing what they were doing.

Even if they're standing behind great cover (table lying on it's side), they still prefer walking around the object and right up to me to shoot me. One guy did stand behind cover for a while, but he didn't crouch to reload, as I often saw the FO3 NPCs do with ART.

So they're more interested in killing me than in their own safety.

I'm guessing I'll notice somedifferent behaviour with NPCs with different equipment.

We're just pointing out why it's not that smart to simply just raise global damage, like it might have been in FO3. Armors work different in NV than FO3 - here they have damage threshold. BoS armor have a DT of 25 fully repaired with your mod - while most simple guns have way higher DAM than that, rendering even the most powerful of armors pretty much obselete and pointless.

Arwen,

Ignore the riffraff. I, and vast multitudes of others, have been thoroughly enjoying your early blog on Oblivion (years ago when I first started it was one of, if not the only one, places that really explained how to create a "my oblivion" : ), and your untiring efforts to mod FO3 and now NV.

Please continue to do as you wish, please feel free to make mistakes, please just keep enjoying what you do. But, in the end, PLEASE keep sharing with the rest of us. If you weren't around, along with the other long time (long suffering : ) modders, these games really wouldn't be worth playing (in my humble opinion).

Sincerely,

Tarl

(Edit, ignore the position of this reply. It is not intended to be a reply for anyone in particular.)

Well, if we're going to be simple mistakes, you are also wrong. Bethesda Softworks did not create Fallout 3, they published it. Bethesda Game Studios made Fallout 3.

i certainly appreciate your efforts arwen. my only request is that you dont increase smaller guns past the point of threshold cause i dont want utterly useless power armor like in FO3........its really immersion breaking when some thugs with pistols are chewing up your health and vice versa when you could take down a bunch of enclave guys in FO3 with small arms. we all remember how useless the police 9mm were in that california bank robbery a few years back, and those guys just had kevlar plates woven inside of a suit. imagine how much tougher a fully fledge power armor suit would be.

as for the niggling over bethesda/osbidian. it wasnt the first time and certainly wont be the last that people have mixed up the developer and pulisher roles. look at how much grief bethesda got over rogue warrior which was made by rebellion. im still waiting for an official apology from that craptacular studio for alien vs predator 3.

on a side note, does bethesda have an alternate spelling im not aware of cause the company and the city and the springs all are spelled the same but it keeps getting underlined in spell check and its annoying.

The damage threshold idea is a pretty good one.

Arwen, is there a way to increase damage only to the damage that makes it past the DT? I agree that RPGs have generally come up with one system or another for having higher skill = more damage, but generally because skill = hitting more and not increasing damage, but since either is an abstraction, it doesn't matter that much, but it shouldn't break the DT mechanism...

My 2 cents.

This is to everyone who is concerned about my Weapon damages making armor worthless:

Please don't take one thing that I've altered (like weapon damage increase) and jump to any conclusions, without considering all the other things I have altered. Even Version 1.0 is not all that simple. If you have used my FO3 Realism Tweaks, you would know that I'm going to make armor more important, not less. I've already started doing that. And I didn't "just raise global damage" . . . I used to do that back in earlier versions of my FO3 Tweaks, but that was a while ago. A global damage increase would increase all weapon damage by exactly the same multiplier. That is NOT what my mod does. My Med-Tec module directly bases how much you are injured (wounds, burns, and trauma) by your armor AR. And there will be a Med-Tec module for New Vegas.

In the default game, some of the NPCs' Power Armor has a condition of only 15%. In most cases, I've increased this to 40%. In the default game, an NPC can only heal up to 60% of their full HP, I've increased this to 80%. The net result is that NPCs are now healthier, AND they are now wearing more protective armor . . . which should mostly offset my Weapon Damage increase. I ALWAYS try to balance out Armor and Weapon damage . . . the whole purpose of many of these changes is to make armor more important . . . in the default game, there's just not enough of a difference between the protection you have with very good armor and with not-so-good armor. I'm trying to correct that. And I do understand that I'm not there yet, but I'm not done yet. I have just barely begun the process of looking at all the default armor, and trying to figure out what how much each needs tweaking. It is not a simple process . . . it takes a huge amount of time for me to go through every single piece of armor.

I believe that there is a way to increase damage only to the damage that makes it past the DT, but the multiplier seems to be very touchy (sort of like "on or off") . . . this is just what others have stated . . . I haven't confirmed this yet, and I have not had a chance to mess with this value in my own game, as there are too many other things that I need to get working correctly first. There was no direct way to do this in FO3, but my changes gave essentially the same result: I increase weapon damage, but I also increase armor damage resistance . . . which made armor much more protective, because not wearing armor generally meant that you didn't survive very long.

There is still a LOT of work left to do in my Realism Core. I haven't even begun my Localized Damage changes yet . . . and that alone will have a major impact on combat (it should be included in my next release).

So keep the comments coming, especially if you notice any bugs or specific balancing issues, but please try to remember that this is just my first attempt . . . and nothing more than step 1 in a VERY lengthy process.

Since you typically recommend a fixed timescale you should be OK, but trying to adjust the needs rates via script looks tricky. I can think of one sort of inelegant way to do it, but am hoping there's a way around it.

I do have a request though, is there any chance you could add power armor to the list of things that casinos confiscate from you when you enter?

I've never understood that part myself, but if you don't (or cant, without NVSE) make it configurable, that's fine, I'm handy enough to make a single value override in the GECK

Also, what kind of changes are you planning to make to gun/armor wear in general? First thing I did was tone it way, waaaaaay down - a Beretta M92 in 9x19mm takes, in real life, roughly 17500 shots from new before it break down, using US military charge.

Please make as many things configurable as you can. Especially the draw distance of shader impact and other performance-impacting options. While my computer would surely be able to handle it, a 4x increase might be too much for some systems, rendering the whole mod unusable. Compatibility is very important.
And i second the previous poster that the 2x deteriorating might be a bit much. Care to explain why you did it? Because perhaps it normally is 0.5 with VATS and 1 without VATS, it would very good.
So, configurable things are good and make everyone happy.

Also, what kind of changes are you planning to make to gun/armor wear in general? First thing I did was tone it way, waaaaaay down - a Beretta M92 in 9x19mm takes, in real life, roughly 17500 shots from new before it break down, using US military charge. 

Yes but it would depend on the availability of a Berreta M92 in the game. Sometimes balance is more important than realism.

I'm not planing on making a lot of stuff user configurable . . . at least not through my options menu. Adding menu configurable options is a LOT of work and it makes scripts even more complex. But I will try to use more globals in this version, and I will try to include instructions on how you can changes settings through the console (probably on my website).
Give me a chance to add my Localized Damage changes . . . which I'm hoping to include in my next release. That should greatly increase head shot damage (and also increase torso damage somewhat).

Yea if its that much work i understand. DIY instructions would be great though.
Anyway thanks a lot what would we do without you?!

For FO3 you made the enemies less likely to shoot you in the head all the time, in NV I think I'm still getting this a lot. Are you planning on adding the same tweak to NV?

The 'outfits' in NV are weaker than they were in FO3. The http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Merc_outfit_%28Fallout_3%29 in FO3 for example. In FO3 you can see enemies wearing it and it offers some protection (DR 13), but in NV the DT is just 1. So those outfits are barely good for anything. I know it's clothing and not real armor so it shouldn't be that good but I think it could use a little extra protection. Especially if you plan to remove the 'magic enchantments' later on.

The AI is a bit odd at times. They like picking up items from dead friends, but it takes them quite long and again they prioritize that over their own safety.

I also feel like they're a lot more accurate with their shooting than FO3's NPCs, and quick to start shooting once they get around a corner. Much faster than I can aim myself, and I even know where they're about to appear. I'm having a pretty tough time (in my merc outfit, yes.). I'm fighting 4 convicts with half of my health (6 END) a DT of 3.0, a 9mm pistol, varmint rifle and caravan shotgun in decent condition, and a lot of dynamite, and I just can't win. I shouldn't have taken that fire 20% slower for extra accuracy trait.

It would be great to have a larger blast radius for explosives again, with knockdowns. I threw some dynamite at a couple of enemies which exploded pretty close to them but they barely noticed.

Arwen, when I first started I had seen the error reports from users here about dead powder gangers at the start. I didn't have that issue and was able to defend the town with no problem.

BUT... (you knew this was coming). When I started to explore outside of the starter area and you get to Janes Airfield, they were all dead already. I explored some more and came across a Gecko camp, as I was killing those up flies Victor and helps me kill them off.

Is it possible with the time change that his script is running too fast? I haven't dug anymore into it, just wanted to pass it along. Thanks for the addon, and keep up the good work.

I ran into Jackhal Gang Members in the Nevada Highway Police Station (at level 2), wearing leather armor, but they had a maximum HP of 10. So 1 shot in the leg with a 9mm was enough to kill them.

Disregarding how satisfying this was after the frustrating encounter with the Convicts which I TGM'ed my ass out of in the end, these guys could definitely use a health boost or something else. Especially since they were melee characters.

I have been patiently awaiting this new ART. I know this is very rough beta and I will see about giving feedback.

I have been playing default FNV in hard core mode with a END of 1 and a str of 3, on the hard difficulty level. I still find it fairly easy. In any case I have a couple questions/comments.

Knowing that your version of Hard-core(med-tec) will be much better, are you going to replace the default version or just modify it? When your version is ready, can we just use it and turn off the game's default hard-core?

In terms of balance, I wholeheartedly agree that balancing the standard ART before adding the additional option is the right way to go!

One of the things that your FO3 mod did, was make the NPC a bit smarter at fighting. I hope that continues as the standard game has stupid NPC with no tactical skills.

Lastly, this game has so much stuff, as in meds/chems/food/weps/sell-able items, that getting rich and healing, once again, is real easy. Please reduce those to a large extent when you can.

Also, I can confirm the powder ganger death glitch

Nemesis

Thanks for all the feedback!

I'm currently working on the dead NPC issue. My guess it that it is either due to my NPC HP changes, which gave NPCs with lower END (below 4) less HP than default; OR due to my skill-based Weapon Damage increase; OR it is due to my AI changes, which result in NPCs tracking their opponents over a greater distance and for a longer duration.

I've rebalanced the NPC HP, reduced my skill-based damage multiplier, and am trying to figure out which AI settings need to be set closer to default.

I've also begun working on my Localized Damage changes.

Version 1.1 will be released as soon as I can solve the dead NPC issue.

Good to see some major mods have started trickling in already

I was wondering, though, why do weapons deteriorate twice as fast in VATS?