Hey Povuholo,

I'm currently updating my FO3 website . . . but it will be a few more days until it is all current. After being without my computer for a month and then only focussing on getting v.3.2 finished, I'm playing catch up.

Book Perks is NOT at all compatible with my new Skills module, since both mods attach their own scripts to every skill book.
If you prefer Book Perk's method to the way my mod changes book skills, just load it before my mod . . . but do NOT use my Skills module.



Hey WackaMacka,

First of all, I don't get angry. And it doesn't even upset me when people criticize my mods . . . since I have always asked for feedback . . . and even want to hear what people don't like.

But, as I wrote in my ReadMe (and in the description; and on my v.3.2 release post), I "Reduced the Gun Condition vs. Damage Penalty (bullets from damaged guns do less damage): condition is still a factor, but now a smaller one."
I also "Reduced the Gun Condition vs. Spread Penalty (spread increases for damaged guns): condition is still a factor, but now a much smaller one."

But this is a RPG, so there should be some condition penalty, or there wouldn't be any reason to repair weapons. I don't know much at all about guns, but I don't think that a gun would actually explode unless it was in REALLY bad shape . . . like below 10% . . . and it takes a REALLY long time for a gun to get THAT damaged (with my mod Weapon deterioration is reduced by a factor of 2).

Plus my mod already increases the Gun Condition Penalty in other areas:
Damaged Guns will not fire as fast and they have a much greater chance of jamming after reloading with my mod

Well I do like your other skills changes. It's not possible to load the Book Perk mod after your full mod, to get the Book Perk mod features along with the Skill changes you made aside from the book related ones without any problems?

My Skill Books are tied in with my Educated and Comprehension Perk changes, which were not designed to be compatible with the Book Perk Mod.

For now, either use the Book Perk Mod or my Skills Module. The two are very different in the way they work . . . just pick the one you like the best.
I'll look into exactly how incompatible the two are. I may be able to release a compatibility patch at some point.

Okay, thanks for clearing that up. I'll stick with the Skills module.

Arwen,

Since I'm only using your mod - I decided to load a high level character and see if it worked (I'm usually playing a brand new character started on release of the mod)

Here's what I'm wondering:

The increase in weapon damage and in armor protection actually made me feel I could kill enemies, who used to be tougher hitpoint wise, with few hits. However, I took damage easier - and with 160 hitpoints (I prefer agile, perceptive builds) I had to monitor health more closely.

Was this the intended affect? If so - great I just wasn't expecting enemies like Super Mutant Masters and Enclave Tesla Troopers to fall with two or so plasma shots - so I wanted to check.

J

First of all, thanks for the feedback!

In this release, I totally redid the way damage works. I did a LOT of play testing, but there's no way that I could check how my changes work with every type of weapon, against every type of opponent, at every level . . . without delaying this release for several weeks. My changes (which are very extensive with this release) are based mostly on theory and my limited amount of play testing . . . so some things likely need to be balanced a bit more (which is why I need feedback so much).

DAM and health are not absolutes, but a changing variables that have a HUGE range (which makes balancing so difficult):

Every NPC/Creature Health is based on a range, so some Mutants are going to have a LOT more HPs than others. For instance, some might be at 80% of their HPs when you meet up with them, while others might be down to only 25%. And there are several types of Super Mutants. I've globally increased the stats and the health for many of the NPCs/Creatures, so they are tougher overall than in the default game. Plus they have a LOT more HPs on higher levels.
Plus it also depends where you hit them, as you're going to do a LOT more damage to their HPs when you hit them in the head than in their arms or legs, or even their torsos.
And a Plasma weapon does a lot of damage. If you were using a 32mm pistol, or even a 10mm, they would not die nearly as easy.
You're also playing a high level character, so I would expect that your weapon skills are very high . . . and my mod make weapon skills a LOT greater factor in how much damage you can do with any weapon. If you started a new game, you would have a VERY hard time killing Super Mutant Masters and Enclave Tesla Troopers right out of the vault . . . infact, Mole-rats might be a challenge.

Are you wearing Leather Armor?

I just found out that the following armor is tagged in the Default game as 'Heavy': Leather Armor, Road Rascal Leather Armor, Wanderer's Leather Armor, Leather Armor (Charon's), Leather Armor (Jericho's), Vance's Longcoat Outfit, Commando Armor (leather), Defender Armor (leather). And even though the GECK help pages/wiki state that this is 'unused,' apparently it causes a bug with my mod, which causes a movement penalty (although I have no idea how this is happening).

I'll be fixing this in my next update (which I'll release once the bugs and issues with v.3.2 stop popping up).

I was wearing leather armor.

I really like the new explosive radius and knockout effect - one question: does it affect NPCs the same as the character? If the NPCs aren't killed outright I haven't seen many knocked out yet - especially by my grenades - but I've been knocked out several times by a raider's grenade (although one hit a generator behind me I think or something that exploded with it). Anyway, I really like the handling of explosives.

For other users, I would recommend using XFO_Drug Rarity_medium in conjunction with Arwen's mod to balance out stimpacks. It adds a small weight to stimpacks .3 I think and makes them fairly rare - which feels right.

Quite enjoyable, Arwen. I never tried this mod before your current release - but I'm enjoying myself! Thank you.

J

Well, that explains it. (sorry about that) If you use FO3 Edit, you can just uncheck the "Heavy" flag for these armors and the slow down bug should be fixed.

It also affects the NPCs and Creatures, even the Super Mutants (but the SM are only knocked out for 10 sec.).

You're most welcome . . . I'm glad that you are enjoying my Tweaks.

Hi Arwen, thanks for responding about the repair stuff. I still think the raider equipment adjustment makes repair skill irrelevant until it reaches values over about 40 or 50, but it's not a big deal. Anyway, a couple questions:

First, what are your thoughts/intentions regarding bobbleheads? I've disabled them in my current game because I think they're kind of lame (and removing the stand makes the Megaton home much more roomy), but are your new perks balanced with an expected +1 for each SPECIAL? The +10 skill points for each skill also make a big difference in game balance.

Second, why are you both increasing player damage as the game progresses and increasing enemy HP? Could a more elegant solution be to eliminate or reduce both increases? It might make balancing things easier and reduce the feeling of the PC getting relatively weaker while advancing levels. (Personally, I like the idea of not changing enemy HP but make the game tougher by using Martigen's MMMzPlayerScaling variable to spawn more bad guys.)

You can think whatever you want, but I took the time to post my own game play experience, which you are totally discarding. I was able to repair a Raider hunting rifle, improving it's from 40% to 50%. And my character was fresh out of the vault, at Level 2, with a repair skill of 16! That seems pretty "relevant" to me!

How much difference does it make for my character if she finds a weapon at 25% or at 40%? . . . she can still only repair it to 50% (with a Repair skill of 16). Yet it makes the game much more difficult when you face opponents who have weapons and armor in decent condition (especially with my other weapon condition changes).


I plan on eventually doing something to reduce their reward value (I've altered this in my own game). I'd like to keep some reward for them, but I feel that it should be no more than 3 or 4 skill points for each . . . they shouldn't give you any SPECIAL increases at all (and I may put requirement on them).

Because FO3 is a RPG! One of the core things in any RPG is that you IMPROVE as the gave progresses. When your weapon skills improve in a RPG, your character is more effective with weapons . . . which means they will be able to do more damage with them. I've made it very clear that my goal is to improve Fallout 3's RPG aspects . . . which is exactly what my mod does. If that is not important to you, than you shouldn't be using my mod, but should be using one of the many that focus on making FO3 a better FPS.
BTW: There are plenty of "bad guys" in the game . . . the problem is that in the default game they are way too weak and the PC is way too strong.

I'm planning on including my Bobblehead changes in my next update (v.3.2.1) as part of my Skills module, since they obviously unbalance my other skill changes. (This was supposed to be part of v.3.2, but I stopped working on it so I could get the new version released as soon as possible.)

So far I've changed all the Skill Bobbleheads from +10 rewards to +3 (which seems about right to me). What do others think?

The tough ones are the 7 SPECIAL Bobbleheads, as increasing every single SPECIAL by +1 is just way too much of a reward for just finding the BHs So what if:
AGL BH = + 10 Action Points?
CHR BH = ?? (Barter and Speech both have their own BH)
END BH = +10 HPs?
INT BH = ?? (Medicine, Repair, and Science all have their own BH)
LUK BH = +5% Criticals?
PER BH = ?? (Lockpick, Explosives, and Energy Weapons all have their own BH)
STR BH = +10 Carrying capacity

I'm obviously looking for some suggestions / feedback here. Any ideas?

Edited: I don't want to just remove BH rewards, as they are sort of like skill books (which should give you something).

Would it be possible for the perception BH to increase the distance at which the red enemy dots start appearing on the compass like increasing perception does, but without increasing the perception attribute itself (So you get the enemy awareness bonus without the skill bonuses)?

I don't know what would be best for each BH but I like the direction you're going with them.

Sorry about that, I didn't mean to discount your experience. I meant to say that mine was different, and I've now figured out why. I didn't realize so many of the junk items that I wasn't picking up could be used to repair stuff, and was finding it easier to just find a new hunting rifle than to repair one. Perhaps I was getting a bit lucky with weapon condition too, since the condition is random within a certain range. So what you were saying makes sense now, sorry for the misunderstanding.


I agree with this entirely, and like your mods because I like RPGs and not FPS games. What I was concerned about is the perception that your character improves, since many of the game mechanics, including a numeric value for enemy HP, are invisible to the player. What I don't like is when, for example, a Raider that you used to kill in one or two shots with your hunting rifle now takes three. Even though you're technically doing more damage, since the raider has more HP it feels like you're getting weaker. Most RPGs address this by adding (1) tougher bad guys and (2) more powerful weapons. FO3 does (1) to some degree by adding tougher creatures to the wasteland (e.g. Deathclaws, Super Mutant Masters, etc.), but it's somewhat limited, especially regarding raiders (also slavers and other NPC enemies). And more powerful weapons don't really exist outside of the uniques, so if you miss the Ol' Painless, then you're using that Hunting Rifle you found at level 2 for a long time (assuming you want to snipe and that .308 rounds are rare, which I have found with your mod).

These are just my thoughts, I hope I didn't come off unappreciative or antagonistic. Perhaps I shouldn't post late at night when I'm tired. As I said before, I'm getting a lot of enjoyment out of these mods. I wouldn't be posting here if I didn't.


Maybe the PER bobblehead could give a bonus to VATS to-hit chances? CHR could improve disposition or something... it's a bit weak, but so is CHR overall. Or it could give a flat % adjustment to buy/sell prices. INT could add skill points per level-up, or increase the number of books you can read. Or more creatively, it could increase the effect of your skill bobbleheads (maybe change them from +2 skill to +3 or something), though I'm not sure how easy that would be to mod in. Just some ideas.

I always thought you should just get a luck reward for collecting bobbleheads. Maybe +1 for all the SPECIAL ones and +1 for all the skill related ones.

I like your idea . . . I just have no clue how to actually do that.



That's fine. I just fond your previous post very confusing and it just seemed that you were being critical of things that my mod was doing correctly, or was not even meant to do. I try really hard to be flexible, but I get a LOT of complains from uses who should not even be using my mod . . . which gets really old after a while, especially when you have my language disabilities, where each reply takes a lot of effort. Thanks for clarifying your previous comments.


But if you increase your Small Gun skills, each bullet will now do more damage (remove more HPS). For instance, when you advance from level 2 to level 3, the NPCs only gain 5 HPs (with an END=5, from 140 to 145 HPs, only ~4% more than at level 2). Just increasing your Small Guns skills from 10 to 16 increases the DAM for a 10mm from 8 to 9 (~11% more DAM); AND your spread penalty is reduced from 0.63 to 0.59 (~7%), increasing your accuracy. PLUS, you're likely improved other skills as well, such as Repair, so you can keep your equipment in better shape. AND you likely have much better weapons and armor than when you first walked out of the vault. If you play the game with my mod (especially if you begin a new game), I think you'll like the way things balance out.


My mod only reduces the .308 ammo chance by 15% (from a 0.75 multiplier to a 0.60 multiplier), so they are only a bit rarer than in the default game.


Thanks! But I'd like to stay away from VATs improvement as there are already a number of perks that do that. And my Skill Books changes already include two perk that increase the number of books you can read. I could perhaps do that last one, if I used a global for BH skill point bonuses.



But I'm trying to eliminate the +1 SPECIAL from any Bobblehead, and replace it with another kind of reward.

Another way would be to simply add an "invisible" perk to the player that increased level up skill points. Then have the skill Bobbleheads check for that perk on activation.

Thanks, but with my Skills module, you only get 7 skill point to distribute at level up, so adding 7 more would be a bit unbalanced; plus my Skills module changes the Swift Learner perk so that gain an additional +2 skill points at level up.

Thanks, I'll do that! I was planning to start a new game anyway to test out your skills module, especially since I hadn't gotten very far in my current game anyway. Just out of curiosity, instead of comparing the smallest possible change (level 2 to 3), how about the largest? From level 2 to level 30, that same END=5 NPC will increase their HP from 140 to 285 (+204%). From small guns 10 to 100, assuming 6 skill points increases damage by 1 (is this how it works?), then the damage from the 10mm will increase from 8 to 23 (+288%). If that's correct, then it works out pretty well.


I'm not sure you can change detection distance without affecting the PC and NPCs equally. Maybe look at how silent running affects the running modifier for PC only for some clues, but it may not be possible. Outside of that and VATS changes, there's not much perception does as far as I know. Maybe increase the odds of forcing open a lock? I've never actually used that feature, I always just pick them normally.

You're close. The result as calculated by the formula is rounded down to the nearest integer. So with a Small Guns skill of 100, a standard 10mm pistol will have a DAM of 21 with my mod. (Of course there's a LOT more that factors in to how much damage you actually can do, such as the armor AR and my localized damage changes.) Oh, and your gun spread penalty will decrease from 0.64 to 0.00.

Yeah. Typo on my part. What I meant was simply giving the player a perk for the Int Bobble, then having the skill bobble check for it, and increase the sp award if the player has it. Basically what was mentioned above, just do it through a perk instead of a global.

I've been waiting for your mod to start a new game, now I'm planning my character.

One question about your modification of the perk FINESSE, the requirements are AGL≥7; STR≤6, the description says " +critical hit chance = +5 points Luck, until your AGL drops below 7", so can I assume that once I've got the perk, I can augment STR without loosing the bonus?

Yes, the requirements just need to be met in order to be eligible for the perk (permanent stats are checked, not temporary ones). The "until your AGL drops below 7" parts means that whenever your agility is less than 7, you will lose the perk bonus. (Note: this is only temporary . . . once your AGL is back up to at least 7, you'll have the perk bonus again.)

There are a couple of minor errors and bugs that will be corrected when I release v.3.2.1, in a week or so. (For a current bug list, go to my Fallout 3 Journal: http://amito.freehostia.com/Fallout/FO-mods04.htm and scroll to the bottom of the page.)

Thank you for the quick reply. I will probably not have to worry about strength getting above 6 anyway, considering the requirements for some of the other perks that I consider essential for the planned build.

Hi Arwen,
I tried out your smarter ai mod today, and compared to the stock version it definitely seems to be better, especially in terms of using the pip light and running while crouched. Walking crouched with light armor and lights off in the shadows, I seemed to be able to approach enemies unspotted to a realistic distance. Well done!

However, in attacking the raider stronghold in Metro center, I was able to headshot one of the guys patroling the tops of the subway cars, while his buddy was only about 15 feet way. Without raising a commotion and still remaining at hidden status.
I was able to wipe out the whole pack without being spotted or raising the alarm, killing one at a time, and successfully hiding after each.
I wasn't running any other mods at the time, and yours was loading last.

This is aspect of the ai is one of the things about the game that I really find to be a mood breaker. It would be great if we could find a way to deal with this.
In doing a search of the GECK pages though, I cant seem to find much information at all on what each of fSneak settings do. Great tool, but really underdocumented.
Can I ask where you found the info to make your ai tweaks?

Ah, I just realized that the TES Construction Set uses pretty much the same variables and is much more extensively explained! It's a bit much get my head around without a more thorough examination, but at a quick glance perhaps one of the issues is your reduction of the fSneakMaxDistance to 1800.
This would equate to around 85 feet which its definitely possible to exceed in the larger stations. I am pretty sure most of my headshots were made beyond this distance.
Another possible thing that occurs to me might be to dial the iAICombatMinDetection numbers up a bit. Though that raises the question of when an actor is considered to be in a state of 'Combat'. It seems as though initiating combat with one member of a group initiates it with all, even if some members aren't in LOS of the attack. Can you confirm this?