So your next version, from what I gather from a post a couple ones up, is that it'll be harder? Because I notice that ghouls especially are very easy to kill and they do little damage to me and I'm wearing a duster with a DT of 4. Now, in the default game, they were MUCH stronger than that. Geckos are challenging, I like fighting them, but ghouls (Roamers and Glowing Ones) seem very weak to me and my Guns skill is not even that high.

My next version will be a bit more balanced; so some things might seem a bit more difficult, while others will seem to be a bit easier.

Regular Ghouls use the default body for damage. But Feral Ghouls are tougher than default in most ways . . . the one exception is that head shots will result in slightly more damaged (arms, legs, and torsos are 10 to 70% tougher than default). And Glowing Ones are tougher in every part of their body . . . including their heads.

But any Creature or NPC that has less than 5 Endurance will have less HPs, making them easier to kill. But that should be corrected in v.1.3.

Hard mode doesn't even increase the amount of XP you receive - it only makes enemies tougher and you easier to kill.

You're welcome.
I'm not sure what you are asking. If you set my XPR Multiplier to 100, you end up with the same experience point rewards as the default game. Most people who use my Tweaks don't use this setting as they don't like how fast you level up with the default setting, so they use one of my multipliers that result in less XP, so that it will take longer to level up. The problem with leveling up fast is that it makes your skill and stat too high, too soon . . . when takes a LOT of the challenge out of the game. This is currently still a problem with my mod, since the initial skill points and stats start out too high, and the default perks add to this problem. I'll be adjusting Stats and Skill Points (and Perks) in my Hard-Core module. In my own game (using my beta version my Hard-Core module) I only start out with 35 SPECIAL points (instead of 40), and I receive roughly 50% less skill points.

I'm still balancing Health, Armor DT, and Localized Damage. And I haven't even messed with individual weapons or explosions yet (but I'm going to). And I'm getting very different feedback from users . . . with some complaining that my Tweaks makes the game too difficult and that it takes way too many bullets to kill anyone . . . and others (like you) feel that the game is now too easy. My own feeling, based on my own play testing, is that my Tweaks make Combat more difficult and that most NPCs are now a bit harder to kill (and the PC is easier to kill) . . . unless you have decent weapons and are wearing pretty good armor. So my mod is an improvement, but it still needs some work in this area . . . and you should see some major differences when v.1.3 is released (the users who feel that my Tweaks make the game too hard are probably not going to like v.1.3).

Thanks for the response. I finally got a chance to try out 1.2 and I'm really liking so far. I ended up setting fMoveNoWeaponMult to 1.5 because it feels like a decent sprint speed to me.

Anyway, I have a question; before I started using your mod I was using the noautoaim mod that tweaked some values involving dice rolls when firing weapons and I was just wondering if it's redundant to use both or just plain unnecessary, considering you adjusted the weapon accuracy overall. I'm not sure what values are altered with either mod and I certainly don't want to inadvertently ruin game balance.

Arwen,I think the different viewpoints on how hard ART is can be influenced greatly in the way a person plays. Whether someone is playing high or low skills in a specific skill, melee or guns, sniping while hidden, game setting of easy, normal, hard, etc.. So when someone says it's too hard or too easy, it is hard to reconcile. I think your FO3 Mod proves that you should stay the course and let the NV ART mature, and hopefully this gap in opinions on how hard it is will narrow.

I know you also get people saying that gun damage should not increase when you increase in skill. That it isn't realistic. However, I agree with you Arwen, as doing more damage as ones skill increases is more "RPG", and that is part of what your mod is. Here is an idea though. What if you balance it so as a skill in a weapon goes up a certain amount, the critical chance goes up? For example, say for every 15pts in guns your crit chance goes up 1%. To merge realism with RPG, a person’s talents on the mechanics of a kill shot would improve as they got better. Possibly, you could lower the damage range a little and add in the critical increase per x amount of skill points. This is just a general idea that I would throw out for you to consider.

Mahalo,
Nemesis

If you look at vanilla New Vegas a lot of weapons have weapon skill requirements, in theory I think that's the best answer for RGP'ness and realism together. As your skill gets higher you can use (have a more steady aim with) better weapons (and I'd say progressively getting better weapons is very RPGy) and therefore do more damage. The problem with vanilla is that a: the penalty isn't steep enough, it doesn't make much difference and b:the various skill requirements aren't spread out enough. Which is easy to fix, there's a game setting for both fWeaponSkillReqPenalty and WeaponStrengthReqPenalty as well as each weapon having a setting for it's required skill. I've played around with those values and I really like the result.

I haven't tried the noautoaim mod, so I don't really know if it is compatible . . . or it the fix is even needed for New Vegas. Personally I haven't had ANY trouble hitting my target . . . in fact, I'm way too accurate for my guns skills.

Thanks Nemesis! Yes, that's sort of my take on this too . . . but it does make it frustrating for me, when make of the complaints about my mod as polar opposites. In the end, 90% of my changes are based totally on my own game play testing, combined with a mess of intuition.

I'm already adding critical increases to some armor (often as a replacement for other weapons skill increases that I removed) . . . so I'd rather not increase criticals in other ways as well, as this would be difficult to balance. The biggest problem right now with weapons are that the spread penalty is like non-existent, even when you have very poor weapon skills . . . and melee is too powerful.

Thanks Running_Blind, I have been messing around with those two Game Settings, but haven't come up with a good balance yet . . . probably because I haven't tackled the individual weapons yet.

Arwen used you mod for Fallout 3 and thought it was amazing.

Makes NV so much better as well, thanks for hard work and time you put into this.

The autoaim has nothing to do with dice roles. If you pay attention to your crosshair, you will notice it going red when hovering over an enemy. That means that enemy is your combat target and (atleast this is how it worked in FO3) your bullets were pulled towards that target's center. Another side effect was that autoaim pulled your bullets towards your crosshair. In FO3 at the very beginning some No-Autoaim mods made the mistake of completely disabling the auto aim, which caused bullets to not go towards your crosshair, but to leave the gunbarrel in a straight line instead.



I imagine your mod should definitly be compatible with it, since you basically alter how Spread/Accuracy works, while Autoaim is a different mechanic altogether. But I have to agree with you, I haven't personally noticed this at all. In FO3 the problem was that the bullets were pulled towards the targets torso due to auto aim, but in New Vegas I never have any problem hitting what I'm aiming at, be it their head or weapon.. :shrug:

Agreed. As critical as that fix was in FO3, I haven't felt the need for it once in NV -- have already made some amazing long distance shots with the cowboy repeater, including people under partial cover (which, other than "not hitting what you aim at", was the other big problem in FO3 - when you could see limbs to shoot at, but your bullets would hit the cover that your target's torso was behind).

so far im liking 1.2, other than melee on ed-e, i can almost take on a giant radscorp - well kind of, i mean i do damage to it with my plasma pistol but its stiull strong enough to kill me in around 3-4 hits.and while i cant take htme on yet, atleast i feel like i actually do SOME damage to it compared to vanilla where u shot and shot and it was like 1 bar of hp down..

gonna ask a stupid question:

would it be possible (unless i skipped this info in the write up) for having factions re-spawning ? as like the prison that was taken over by the powder puff gals (cleared them out slept in a bed for 3-4days at the starting village and no re-spawns) I would like to see factions refilling these places again. <--------- this is what iv been begging for since release of this game and in FO3 used to love going back to the mall and just having a blast there


Perhaps some "raiding" parties ? add some item in the inventory that plays a warning or subtitle x village under attack by x faction , just have them spawn a little way off from x village (with hopes that player travel time wont be too late)

I shall try your mod tomo at some time, hope to see if you can make this increase spawns+FASTER!!!! re-spawn rates (faster would be faster from the nonexistent re-spawn rate )

hope you dont see this as a negative post
thanks for your time and also creativeness and hard work you have done already on your mod
looking forward to use it tomo

Here is some feedback: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljEwZZCDu8g

That shouldn't happen.

What's your explosives skill?

Kind of irrelevant for a "realism" mod isn't it?

So, because its a realism mod, every shot to the head should be lethal?
Every punch with the bare first should cripple your hand a bit
Rad Away and stimpacks and instant doctor healing must be removed (totally unrealistic)
etc etc.

Its a game, you cant make it all that realistic, so whats your explosion skill and difficulty?

This is what I put on my website with regards to the use of the word Realism in my mod (it was written for Fallout 3, but it applies just as much to New Vegas):


And in my Fallout 3 Journal's "Trials of a Wasteland Wanderer" (at the end of Chapter 2):


If you cannot wrap you head around the fact that the game is not based on this reality, you should uninstall the game and find a game that requires a bit less imagination.

I've ALWAYS stressed that my goal in to make Fallout a better Role-Playing Game! In a RPG, your skill level determines your success in combat, not how fast you can punch a button.

Plus I have made it very clear that my current version is still an early release. I haven't even touched explosions or individual weapons yet. My fist module is not even finished yet, and I plan on having 4 modules.

*** Sorry for the rant, but this is the sort of attitude that makes me wonder why I even bother with a public release . . . it would be MUCH easier if I just made my Tweaks for my own use.

Perhaps, but some of us would be very unhappy campers.

easier indeed Arwen! But where would we poor saps who've come to rely on ART for a better game experience be? we may see differently on some things, but NV without ART? just not the same.

sharing your work with other's may not be the easiest path, you're bound to encounter opposition, but know that there are those of us who appreciate it. :goodjob:

I'm guessing that many people haven't completely read through the details of what the mod is about, and haven't used FO3's ART. So they're getting the wrong impression of the mod's intentions, thinking that realism means real world realism. It's too late for a name change now though.

If ART were truly 'real world realistic' and everyone would die with one or two grenade launcher shots even when your explosions skills is 5, it wouldn't be balanced. You've stated a hundred times that the mod is about balance, and a greater focus on RPG mechanics. It's not your fault if people misunderstand the mod.

I understand it must be annoying to have the feeling you need to 'justify' your decisions for this mod repeatedly, especially since it's not even done yet, and getting the balance right must be really difficult. It takes time. I wouldn't worry about it too much, you've already written enough about the subject.

And many of us do very much appreciate the extra effort it takes to release, update and discuss ART instead of keeping it for your own use!

if it was real world realism, the grenade machine gun would cripple your arm with every shot and you could level the ceaser camp with it ;p

If people have that big a problem with your mod they should create their own, or at least edit someone else's for their own PERSONAL use and preferences. I you're too lazy for that... Well there's not much any one do for you.

Gonna throw my hat into the ring also and say don't get disheartened. Writing add-ons can be a thankless job sometimes.

And for those who don't like the changes: Either write your own, or learn to modify the add-ons you have. Learning the GECK isn't hard, and can be just as fun as playing sometimes... I know I spend more time doing addons than playing occasionally.

But not to derail. Loving the changes so far Arwen. When you add in the changes to differentiate the sixes will it work with custom races? If not, no worries, just curious.

Not necessarily. But surely surviving five 40mm grenades in the back is excessive, skirt armour or no.


You're assuming i've played FO3, let alone with your mod. You're assuming i've somehow come across this Journal you mention. You also assume that i've been involved in your previous conversations to pick up on what you "stressed". Certainly, from the mod thread, you have not clearly explained RPG vs Realism. Personally, I think you have to re-consider your audience if you want to avoid confusion. Perhaps a large proportion of your audience (or potential audience) do as follows:
- Use google to search for a "realism" mod
- End up on this forum
- Open the thread entitled "Realism"
- Get an idea what the mod does
- Decide if it's approximately what you're after
- Try it out


And this is basically what I mean.


Aren't you underestimating the effort and ability required to mod?