Arwen's New Vegas Realism Tweaks:

Previous thread: http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1123423-relz-arwens-nv-realism-tweaks/

WooHoo! Already in a second thread! . . . Thanks for all the GREAT feedback! Keep it coming . . . I do actually consider every comment, and request. I really count on user feedback, as I'm just one person . . . my "mod team" are all the users of my mod who take to time to post their impressions and suggestions.

My Fallout New Vegas Gameplay Overhaul, focused on making the New Vegas Wasteland a much harsher place, where your stats and skills are MUCH more important.

Current Version1.2 (October 30, 2010).
This version further expands my Realism Core module (still not complete, but getting much closer).
IMPORTANT!!! PLEASE follow my installation/update instructions carefully, EVEN if you are updating from v.1.1!
If you do not uninstall correctly or reinstall correctly, you could severely mess up your game.

Here are the major changes in v.1.2:

• Armor changes:
  
• Improved Threshold Resistance globally: In the default game, you did a minimum of 20% damage when hitting an armored target, even when the target's DT was greater than your weapon's DAM. I've reduced this to just 10%, which makes armor quite a bit more effective (also affects 'armored' creatures, like Rad Scorpions).
  
• To balance out the above, I also reduced the Damage Threshold by 10 to 20% for some of the Radscorpions and Deathclaws.
  
• I went through every single piece of armor and clothing to improve the balance.
  
• Removed most weapon skill enchantments from clothing (in most cases a different effect was added in place of the removed effect)
  
• DT was increased for some armor.
  
• Value of armor is now based much more on its DT (how much it protects you), but I also factored in armor health, uniqueness, and any bonuses it provides.
  
• New Armor wearing bonus: Power Armor will now weigh only about 25% as much when worn, and most other armor will weigh about 50% as much; plus this applies to most helmets as well (when carried, there is no weight reduction).
  
• Localized Damage changes (I balanced some my previous changes out a bit):
  
• The player now takes quite a bit more damage (Hint: get some decent armor!)
  
• Most NPCs are now somewhat tougher.
  
• Dogs (including coyotes and wolves) are now a bit harder to kill.
  
• RadScorpion's claws and stingers are now a bit less resistant to damage.
  
• Class changes (to rebalance my global HP changes for a few types of NPS):
  
• Reduced the Base Healthfor the White Gloves (they became a bit too tough)
  
• Increased the Base Health for the Powder Gangers and the NCR Injured Troopers (Camp Forlorn Hope quest)
  
• Misc. Changes:
  
• Shells really do last longer now (there was a second setting that I neglected to increase)
  
• Fixed a bug in my Backward Running script that resulted in the player's crippled right leg healing on its own.

The Modules (esps):
(The full details on all my changes are listed in the Realism Tweaks section my http://amito.freehostia.com/FalloutNV/FNV-mods04.htm) Major changes from the default game:

1.) Realism Core (Arwen_Realism_Core.esp):

• Required Core Module - Global tweaks that affect PC, NPCs, and Creatures. For more immersive and better balanced game play, with improved role-playing aspects.
  
• "Arwen's Option Menu" is added to your inventory, (located in PipBoy, under "Aid"). This is where you can easily change your Timescale and your Reduced XPR Multiplier.
  
• You can safely change the Timescale, even if you are using the hardcoe mode, without the die-in-your-sleep bug, since I wrote a Sleep Quest script that automatically reverts your Timscale back to 30 whenever you are sleeping or waiting, and then sets it back when you wake up. (Once NVSE is released I'll be adding a script that adjusts the three Need Rates, based on your Timescale).
  
• My Global XPR Multiplier slows down how fast you level up by reducing ALL experience points rewards. Your current total XPR will NOT be reduced . . . just the amount of points you receive from this point forward. The XPR Multiplier is initially set to 25% (it will take you 4 times as long to gain the points you need to level up). The multiplier can be changed at any time in my Options Menu (from 5% to 100%).
  
• Carrying Capacity: Strength is now a much larger factor in carrying capacity: Base Weight Capacity was reduce to 50 pounds (from 150), but with each STR point now adds 20 pounds (default was 10); so the range (STR 1-10) is now much greater [default =160 to 250 lbs (1.6X); Realism Core=70 to 250 lbs (3.6X)].
  
• Fewer HPs for PC, with stats now a much greater factor. The player character's Base Health was reduced by 50%, but the Endurance multiplier was increased by 25%; which makes the END stat a much greater factor.
  
• And HPs were increased for NPCs and most creatures (by ~ 21% for Level 1; which is still ~30% less than the PC). But the Player Character no longer receives additional HP just for leveling up, while the NPCs/Creatures still receive HPs bonuses at higher levels. NPC still start out with less HPs, but now only the NPCs gain HPs per level (+4 HP/level). The net result is that with 5 END, the PC and the average NPCs will have roughly equal HPs by level 9; and at level 20, NPCs have ~26% more HPs than PC (in the default game, the PC always had 30 to 45% more HPs). This should make higher levels much more challenging.
  
• Increased Holstered Weapon Speed Bonus (from 10 to 20%). Walking is now 9% faster (than default) when your weapon is holstered. Think of your this as a sprint toggle . . . as long as you remember to holster your weapon, you should now be able to outrun most enemy NPCs.
  
• RunBack effect slows down your speed when running backward (since you should not be able to run as fast backward as forward). Backward speed is determined by your Agility level, which I carefully balanced with my movement speed changes, to increase immersion, without being overly restrictive. Even with the maximum speed penalty (at AGL=1), you will still be able to run backward 50% faster than you can walk backward. With an AGL of 10, there is only a 10% speed penalty.
  
• Modified Crippled Speed Penalties: now 40% slower walking/running with one crippled leg and 60% slower with both legs crippled.
  
• Pain now has greater effect on player - you will now feel like you're actually in pain.
  
• Radiation Exposure is now 4 times more deadly (but no radiation increase for consumption of food and water).
  
• More immersive and more balanced VATS. Much quicker VATS playback speed, so you have a bit more time to make defensive moves. You'll now receive normal damage receive while using VATS. Weapons deteriorate twice as fast in VATS as they do in normal combat.
  
• New Action Points formula: Your agility level is a much greater factor in determining your total number of Action Points, with a MUCH greater range in points. Range [AG:1-10] = 36-90 points (default was only 68-95).
  
• NPCs will be a bit more alert to your presence, will stay alert longer, will spend more time looking for you, and will search a much greater area for you (up to 4 times further than in the default game). NPCs will detect you if they get close.
  
• Smarter AI: combat with NPCs is now much more challenging, and sneaking is now much more realistic. I have spent a great deal of time trying to balance out all the Combat AI and Stealth settings to mesh together with all my other changes. The end result is a unique set of tweaks that totally changes the way NPCs react during combat. If you are used to the default combat, it will actually feel like the NPCs have suddenly become much smarter. Combat will now be MUCH tougher.
  
• Balances armor/clothing values, weight, damage threshold, and "enchanted" effects. Includes my improved Threshold Resistance global modifier.
  
• Weapon damage has been increased through weapon skills calculations (which affect all weapons globally, including weapons that are added through other mods). But I did this in a way that makes the damage increase with higher weapon skills a bonus, instead of making lower skills a penalty. Even with a Small Gun Skill of only 10, DAM is 25% higher than in the default game at this level . . . and this is before factoring my other DAM increases.
  
• Increased Damage Skill Bonus Multiplier (applies to all weapons): Skill now has much more impact on how much damage an actor can do with any weapon.
  
• Localized Damage improvements were made to all the default body types. Greater health damage from Head and Torso injuries; and much less health damage from limb injuries.
  
• The condition of the gun has less effect on how much damage it does, but Damaged Guns are a bit less accurate (more spread when damaged).
  
• Damaged Guns will not fire as fast, are less accurate (more spread when damaged), and have a greater chance of jamming after reloading. And Automatic Weapons now take 5 seconds to cool down (default was just 1 sec).
  
• Reduced shooting accuracy when walking or running (there was no penalty for either in the default game). But added a 10% increase in crouch bonus (over default bonus), which results in 50% less spread when firing a weapon from the crouched (sneak) position.
  
• Improved Grenade physics . . . much less bounce and will now longer slide like on ice (increased friction). I'm now able to throw a grenade much more accurately . . . without it bouncing and sliding like crazy.
  
• More realistic Death Force physics - this was impossible for me to get exactly right, since different bodies react very differently . . . but most bodies should now fly much less unrealistically through the air upon death (this was needed so I could bring my next actor effects into the game, and have semi-realistic results).
  
• Immersive visual changes: Increased Impact Shader Maximum Distance by 4 times the default distance (from ~234 to ~937 feet), so you will now see bullet damage effects much further away. Spent shells from bullets now last 4 hours before they begin to disappear (instead of only a few seconds).
  
• Improvements were made to NPC's armor and weapons . . . across all levels . . . many of your opponents should a be quite a bit more challenging. But the NPC's armor (and sometimes their weapon) is now damaged upon their death.
  
• More Caps for Merchants - all merchants now have twice as many caps (Wasteland currency).

Installing (and Updating): IMPORTANT! If you do not uninstall correctly or reinstall correctly, you will likely severely mess up your game.
Note: if you are planning on starting a new game, you only need to do steps 5, 6 & 7, if they apply.

Part A.) Prepare your Saved Game & Uninstall Previous version
1.) Start the game and load the save you want to continue from.
2.) Unequip ALL clothing, hats, helmets, & eye wear. Ensures that your stats are not being altered by "enchanted" clothing.
3.) Make sure your SPECIALs are not being reduced (-) or increased (+) by any effects. If they are, wait for the effect to wear off.
4.) Save your game to a new save slot (do not overwrite an earlier save) and quit the game.
5.) Delete any previous version of my Realism Tweaks.

Part B.) Installation of my Realism Tweaks:
6.) Unzip my archive file and put the Arwen_NV_Realism_Core.esp in your FO:NV Data directory (default is "C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\fallout new vegas\Data"). And make sure that you activate it (by checking it) before playing the game.
7.) Start the game and load your previous saved game, and continue playing from this point only.


Credits:

• Bethesda and Obsidian for making Fallout New Vegas and releasing the GECK, so that we can mod the game.

Download link: http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34759

I installed your mod Arwen, yet whenever I load the game with it loaded it always crashes. Don't have the foggiest idea why, any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

show timescale
value = http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1133258-relz-arwens-nv-realism-tweaks-thread-2/4.000

Havent changed the value, but it seems pretty balanced for me.
Only problem is the excess supply available in vanilla NV, but your carry weight modifications solved a part of the problem already.


Recall
have you tried another location and then load the mod?

The problem is not with the save games, it's with the actual game :S. The game won't load at all, though I'll try saving indoors anyway, maybe it'll work.

copied this from the previous thread:



Oh no no no. Please dont. those of us who've used ART before know its an early build at this point. And playing NV without ART after an ARTful FO3 experience would have been like going cold turkey.



Ah didnt know that. thats very good new for us skill-based aim types, thanks! :clap:

EDIT: just remembered that in VATS, chance to hit is already based on skill. how strange that by default Non-VATS gun spread isnt affected by skill. didnt really use VATS before so i forgot.

Ok just loaded the game after leaving it for a while, and now it runs , silly computers ey?The mod's fully working as I recieved your little welcome message.

Thanks.

I read somewhere that Mart will NOT be making a version of his mod for NV.

Because of this, I was wondering whether Arwen may at some point play with the spawns and monsters etc. in the absence of Mart doing his thing.

Search the forums Hotpot, he never stated this himself, more like the opposite

But hes still busy with the latest Fallou3 MMM

not sure how possible but with the adding of ironsights vats seems useless or mostly useless unless you use plasma weapons which shoot so slow u cant hit anything

That's good to hear. :wink_smile:

@ Arwen- You have stated that AP takes 4x longer to recharge after using VATS, however for me they seem to recharge at default speed. I've tried a new game were I enacted only your mod and found the same results. I always like having my Character around 7-8 Agl+PER and I'm curious if having a high AGL is intended to counter this or I fell onto to a bug? I would also would like to know if someone else has notice this or maybe my Comp is on crack... again.

BTW great work on your mod! couldn't help but notice the huge difference of AI in combat. Being a high PER sniper I picked off two fiends in the open without trouble and no red blips and hidden, until 5 sec's later BAM, Ambushed on 3 side's with fiends throwing grenades and finished off by a pool cue through the eye socket. didn't stand a stance. Looking forward to your next masterpiece

Cheers

You say that SPECIAL's have a much bigger impact on your character now. Can you explain how each one impacts the character differently than the normal game? For example, I'v been reading that Charisma is a useless stat to raise and you just need high Speech instead. Is there any reason to go with a high Charisma stat now?

The 4 times longer then normal to rechange was added by mistake, when I was copying my changes (I've since corrected it). In FO3 I did reduce this by 4x (the ? fActionPointsRestoreRate was set a 4.0 by default, and I reduced it to 1.0) but in NV, a much lower rate was used (0.6), so I left it at default.

I did change the way that your Agility affects how may APs you receive:
In the default game: ?1 AGL = 66 AP; 5 AGL = 75 AP; 10 AGL = 85 AP
With my mod: 1 AGL = 36 AP; 5 AGL = 60 AP; 10 AGL = 90 AP

My intent was to make Agility a much greater factor, but without making a high AGL unbalanced.

I'm glad you are enjoying my Smarter AI . . . and this will get better once NVSE is finished as my Dynamic Stealth script makes detection much more realistic.

hmm what about like weapon ap costs, for example a cowboy repeater (probably one of the best guns early game) default i could get off maybe 3-4 shots in vats think i had 6-7 agi, while plasma rifle 1-2 shots, i realize the plasma shoots slower but it also does less damage (least in vanilla against armored targets)

also, am i the only one who, whenever i see latest post by arwen - immediately runs to the topic to see if 1.2 is out yet ;p

Some suggestions (for realism):

1. Limbs that are not crippled (just damaged) will recover limb hp when you rest.
2. Soda and Alcholic Beverages no longer make you thirsty (instead they now reduce your H20 needs)
3. Perhaps a rework for chem addiction where it warns you that you are starting to enjoy using x drug and after constant use you become addicted.

i disagree with 2. i mean its realistic imho that soda and the like don't hydrate you

as for 3 same thing, maybe its just that i play on hardcoe mode but i don't see drugs giving you a hint to knock it off ;p

Soda does hydrate you temporarily, it also gets your heart pumping. Some athletes such as myself when i was younger drank soda and energy drinks before games, it's very unhealthy but it gets you pumped. Maybe drugs can put you in a state of euphoria, over time the strength of the hallucinations becomes stronger as you continue to use the drug.

Well, the above reply is an example of how Agility now has a much greater impact on how many Action Points you receive.

And Strength is a much bigger factor in what you end up with for a carrying capacity:
With STR=1 your Carrying Capacity is only 70 pounds (in the default game it would be 160 pounds).
With STR=5 your Carrying Capacity is 150 pounds (in the default game it would be 200 pounds).
With STR=10 your Carrying Capacity is 250 pounds (same as in the default game).

And Endurance is a much greater impact of your Health (how my HPs you receive):
With END=1 your receive just 75 HPs (in the default game you would have 120 HPs at Level 1).
With END=5 your receive just 175 HPs (in the default game you would have 200 HPs at Level 1).
With END=10 your receive 300 HPs (same as the default game at Level 1).
[Plus with my mod, you do not receive addition HPs just for leveling up]

In addition to this, with my Tweaks, your Weapon Skills (Guns, Energy Weapons, Melee) all have much more impact on how much damage you do with your weapons.
And your sneak skills and perception are much more important in being able to remain undetected and in detecting others.

So far I'm not even half done with my first module . . . and there will be four modules when my overhaul is complete. So there are still al lot more coming. I have pretty solid plans for overhauling Barter and Repair. Your Charisma is used in calculating your Barter skill, so the amount of Charisma will have a pretty significant roll in what you will pay and receive from merchants. Trust me, once my Hard-Cord module is released (which will include my Bartering overhaul), you'll benefit from having a decent amount of Charisma.

Also my Hard-Core module will overhaul skill and stat points, both in the amounts that you initially receive, and in the amount of points that you receive when you level up.

What changes are ya making for energy weapons?

I'm waiting to see if Obsidian fixes them first. The biggest problem seems to be that there is no armor piercing equivalent for energy weapons . . . just increased Damage (using Over charged and Maximum charged Cells).

I have not yet touched individual weapons (but I am going to, in time). If Obsidian doesn't add an DT modifier to the energy ammo, I'll likely do that myself.

But my mod already increases the Damage of Energy Weapons, in exactly the same way it increases the DAM of ALL weapons . . . through my increased Weapon Skills Multiplier. You just have to improve your Energy Weapons skills. With a Skill of 50, Energy Weapons start to become a pretty decent weapon.

there already is a mod that adds DT values to energy weapons if i recall it was like 3/5/7 to MFC ammo types and something similar for laser but none for ECP.

I'm still thinking that Obsidian will patch this in some way. Personally I'd rather see the DT modifier attached to the weapon . . . I'm thinking that Plasma weapons should have some ability to punch through some DT, since plasma is quite different than laser . . . and it would add a bit more variety to weapons.

i would tweak the increase in damage/condition of overcharged and maximum charge ammo for energy weapons to compensate for lack of armor penetration. i'm sure there's a balance that'll work well without needing to add DT modifier to energy ammo. though it would've made sense if plasma spaz perk was equivilent to shotgun surgeon. and laser commando the same for lasers.

personally, i wouldn't wait for obsidian, while they may fix it - it seems like such a big change that if they wanted it done they woulda done it during development. also i figure they'll focus on bugs and the like. and htey do fix the dt it'll be quite a bit in the future.

Just downloaded and about to start a new playthrough with it. Hope it adds that little extra to the game that I'v been looking for. Thanks for the hard work! I'v tried looking into G.E.C.K.S but it just blows my mind lol