Thanks, I'll consider it but I NEVER use fast travel, so it would not really make my own game any more difficult. It would actually make more sense if my mod just did away with all fast travel, since that would be in line with my own game play . . . but that seems a bit harsh. I'm probably going to get enough grief when uses discover that my next version is much less modular (although it will finally include a GOTY compatibility patch).


VATS is basically a cheat. It makes the game way too easy, and it totally destroys immersion for me. You should try DK_BulletTime, which is a lot more realistic, and actually has a much better cinematic feel to it . . . and it is much less of a cheat (and it doesn't ruin immersion for me), since your enemies are no longer frozen while you take your sweet time to 'aim', by just mouse clicking on their various body parts.


Thanks! I try to keep my scripts as simple as possible, since writing scripts is still something I really struggle with, even with all the help I get on the GECK forum. I'm hoping to expand my weapon requirements a bit in the future, so I'm very interested in hearing what others would like to see added. Thanks!


When I began my Tweaks, one of the first things that felt needed fixing was the imbalance between the player and the NPCs. The player is supposed to be a 19-year old, who grew up totally sheltered in an underground vault, where survival was not much of an issue. Yet soon after exiting the vault, they are somehow better at combat than any of the hardened Wasteland natives who have known nothing but a constant struggle for survival. This was something that I felt really needed fixing. My mod still falls a bit short in this area (due the lace of any true AI), but at least things are now much more even.

Hmm, the missiles don't seem to like VATS much, they go flying over their shoulders, over their heads over anywhere but rarely a direct hit. Early on I was targeting a group of guys in a subway tunnel, 5 guys , easy shot. VATTED 'm and the missile goes over their heads and explodes way in the back, probably blew their mattress and comic books all to scraps. Of course they did not notice anything unusual.

For serious work I won't VAT a missile or fatman. Also we have 4x weapon damage, no? Anyway when I tried Marks mod he apparently thought about this a bit and I'm getting only one shot off in it now.

BTW, I just visited your web page and I really appreciate how you sorted out BLTC, RI Primary Needs and its hordes of submods along with its recently released patch (which I did not know existed) to make sense on how to install and setup everything. Ive been fishing around for something different for food and its laid out much better there in a well instructive fashion.

If the mod is going to be configurable in-game maybe you could have a 'no fast travel with crippled leg(s)' option that is disabled by default, so that those who are interested can use it but it's not forced upon anyone.

When you're not using VATS, and you're using my Tweaks, the NPCs should react when a missile misses them and explodes anywhere nearby.


Well, no . . . it isn't that high. And weapon damage is much more dynamic with my Tweaks. The amount of damage depends more on your skill and on what body part you hit (and on who or what you hit). For instance, using v.4.1 of my Tweaks, if you have a Small Guns skill of only 10 and you shoot a human enemy in a leg, you'll actually do 50% less damage to their HPs than in the default game (a head shot would be 2X). With a Small Guns skill of 100, a human head shot will do about 2.4 times the default damage.


Thanks, I do try, I wish that Orfevs would just release a remake of RI/PN, rather than trying to patch it . . . that would be sooo much simpler for the users (currently it is a real challenge to install and load everything correctly).

True, but he also said you would require those files and that structure more than likely anyway. I was talking with him about a week ago about it. So hes just been tweaking the stuff he made so people can use it bug free before he figures out where he wants to put his efforts. =)

Eventually I'm hoping to add a small menu which will include a couple of options. But, this is not even something I have attempted to do yet, so I have no idea at how difficult it might be. At the very most, I would likely just make fast travel an on/off option, as anyone who uses fast travel would likely not want to have it disabled every time they are crippled. It seems to be something most people either use or don't use.

On an entirely different subject, in continuing with my efforts to make stats (and character builds) have a greater effect on game play, v.4.2 will include a couple of gender bonuses/penalties. Some people may view this as sixist, but I'm basing this on general tendencies, just to make the game play more interesting.

So far I've made it so male characters will have a greater carrying capacity (but your STR stat is still the biggest factor). Now I just need to balance this out, with a female bonus. I'm thinking that it might make sense to make females a bit better at bartering.

So if anyone has any ideas on any other gender bonuses/penalties, please post them.

Well i would say women have a better sneak check due to their lighter frame.

I have another request also. I like how ammo cost has gone up, but why not the cost of cigarettes and various booze. Wouldnt you think those things are a luxury and highly sought after? It would help charachter's with lower barter skills, right now i have a toon with 5 in each stat and only 30 barter... things get expensive.

I agree that females might be a bit better at sneak, but my sneak script already has a LOT of things going on in it, with all the dynamic checks and all. Bartering differences should be pretty easy to script . . . the only problem is that the script would work best if I combined it as part of my other bartering changes, which are part of my expanded Less-Is-More module (which was merged with my Skills module), while the carrying capacity bonus for male characters is part of my Realism Core esp. To keep things balanced, I would like to add a similar female bonus to my core module. I originally thought that an Agility bonus would work, but I haven't been able to come up with a good way to implement it. I'm now considering giving females slightly more HPs (based on END), as this sort of makes sense, and it seems like a really balanced way to compensate for their reduced carrying capacity. My goal is to add gender differences in a way that gives neither an advantage . . . sort of a "different, but equal" approach.


If you're using my current Less_Is_More module, EVERYTHING should be much more expensive . . . not just the ammo. And if you install the new v.4.2 Beta release of my Less_Is_More module (under my mod's Files/Updates), you'll find that liquor and other drinks are now more scarce.

Women more social-- better at speech
Men like to tinker-- better at repair
men like greasy smokey noisy Big Guns
Women like delcately crafted pretty yet deadly pistols (create a catagory to separate pistols from the rifles in the small guns if possible else maybe women will gravitate more to energy weapons).
Men like computers and enginering --better at science
women cannot pass up a sale better at bartering

The agility bonus seems like a good idea to me, maybe just giving female characters more action points or a reduced backpedaling penalty. Or even a slightly faster walking/running speed. This would make gender selection similar to the fallout 1&2 "small frame" trait selection, which was a carry weight/agility tradeoff. I also like that additional carry weight would favor heavy weapons (e.g. big guns), which one might consider more of a "masculine" combat style, and agility-related bonuses would favor more of a stealth and lighter weapons play style, which may seem more "feminine". Adding HP probably would favor more of a big-guns or melee play style, if anything, making the genders seem less different.

Also, would these bonuses apply to NPCs? If so, it might be better balance-wise to give both genders a combat bonus or give both genders a non-combat bonus. Otherwise female raiders may wind up tougher than male raiders, which sounds counter to your goals.

I can't even... :rolleyes: generalizations like this are bad, okay? (and apparently, I'm not a woman).

Arwen, I have been using your mod from some time now and I really like it, however, I would like to have an option to turn off these "six dependent bonus". I don't like them, plain and simple.
Yes, on average, men have greater upper body strength than women. The key word here is "average", this doesn't mean that "any given man is much, much stronger than any given woman.", the concept of "average" doesn't work that way.

i'll say,
Give STR bonus for males and some higherr skills like repair and explosives.
And LUCK bonus for females and higher social skills and sneak for females

Yeah there's a good reason why such gender differentiations haven't appeared in games for decades...
Afterall that's what your stats are there for. Think your female character should have less upper body strength? Give her less strength! Think your male character should be better at repairing? Well simply put more points into your repair skill. There is NO need at all to force such things onto the player!

And on NPCs you won't notice such minor bonuses or penalties anyhows.

The goal I would imagine, is to make more of a difference based largely on
sterotyping to begin with, but working the context of what the game can do offsetting
each skill /stat advantage with a disadvantage, apparent at the game beginning.

Otherwise gender is nothing more than a graphic / sound asthetic.

Nevertheless it is a type of minefield one just drove their 5 ton truck into

I know how the concept of "average" works . . . I even know how the concept of "above average" works. But in Fallout 3, you're NOT suppose to be above average. You're not entering the Wasteland as a genetic super-girl. As much as I like fictional characters like "Dark Angel", this is just not part of my vision of the game.

Up until I graduated from my university last May, I was an NCAA athlete, and am still a non-competing member of the Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA). My team finished last season as #3 team in North America (out of 119 colleges). My coach (a female) and my assistant coach (a male) competed internationally and their team, USA 1, won the world dingy championships both years that I was on the team. So I know what it is like to compete as a female on a nationally ranked coed team (but one that is still dominated by males . . . on a team of 30+, there were only 10 females.) Plus I'm an Amazon . . . I'm 6 feet tall in my stocking feet! (I was a member of the women's volleyball team at my junior college.) Plus I paddle my sea kayak several hundred miles each summer; and hike, ski, and snowshoe in my nearby White Mountains.

But I am not as strong as the average male (although I can out paddle most guys . . . due to technique, not strength). I'm in pretty good shape, but the average guy can still carry more weight on his back than I can (even though I'm stronger than the average female) . . . I just don't have the same muscle mass. This is a fact. All else being equal, there are actual real differences between males and females, whether you're talking about the general population, or about athletes.

I'm probably not going to make my gender bonuses & penalties optional, as I see this as a great way to expand the way that character builds effect the game play (which is a major part of my mod). But I'm going to do my best to equalize things, so that there is no real advantages for either gender . . . but there will be noticeable differences. What I may do is make this part off my expanded Less-Is-More module (which will still be optional), instead of having it be part of my Realism Core module.


With my Tweaks, your stats have way more effect on your game play than in the default game . . . I'm just expanding this further . . . in another dimension. The problem is that in the default game, there is no difference between playing a female character and playing a male character (other than a couple of minor perk differences). And I view this as a game defect, because one of the biggest draws to RPGs is the character build. The trouble is that most modern RPGs have been dumbed down so that character builds have very little effect on game play. No matter what stats you select, or how you spread out your skill points, your character always comes out above average. There are no real consequences to your stat choices. And I'm trying to fix that.

In real life, being a female is different than being a male. Neither gender is superior, but there are real differences. I'm just trying to bring that into the game. The problem is that too many players are used to having all-powerful characters who are essentially super-human. With my full mod, you will no longer begin the game above average, and if you want to play as a female, you're not going to be able to carry as much as a male character with the same STR (but a female PC with 5-STR will still have a greater carrying capacity than a 3-STR male PC).

I KNEW this was really going to bother some people. But anyone who has used my mod, knows that it makes survival more difficule. My mod was never meant for the casual player . . . it is made for players who want the Wasteland to be a much harsher place . . . where your choices have actual game play consequences.

I for on would welcome such gender changes, One would have to decide to work on strengths or pour points into shoring up weaknesses. If i'm strong at science and good at lugging stuff about but cannot speak or always getting rooked on the deal; do I dump points into bartering or make up the difference by hauling more tin cans to the merchant?

As it is, to add a bit of uncertainty to the level up process, I grab the old 6 sided dice from the Monopoly game go down the skill list, roll. If a 1 or two, apply a point on it.

Arwen, you may want to think about the knockdown effect as it relates to Behemoths... I just took down a Behemoth using only ten frag mines and a gratuitous amount of 5.56 ammo. Basically, I repeatedly shot the Behemoth, allowing it no ability to move. In fact, it occasionally got up for the sole purpose of falling down again. It was... underwhelming.

Would there be a way to make the Behemoth only fall when hit with an explosive? After all, there's only a finite number of these guys; I think they deserve a bit more strategy than "I shoot it again."

Otherwise, I love these tweaks, and can't wait for 4.2.

Steamfax, I've been wondering if there is a way to have skill increases based on use of those skills, which would not be a simple dice role, but would prevent the user from increase skills that they have not been using. After all, in real life you don't generally get better at most things without practice. This is likely beyond my modding skills, but it would be a neat way to award skill points.

So far these are the gender differences I have added (to my Less-Is-More module):
1.) Strength: Male PC gain a 5 pound advantage over female PC for each STR point.
2.) Endurance: Female PC gain 5 HPs advantage over male PC for each END point.
3.) Barter: Female PC has a 20% Barter buy bonus, and a 5 to 15% sell bonus over male PC.
4.) (I still need to come up with a second male bonus to balance this out.)

I'm also considering a 10 point bonus for some of my skill restrictions for weapons:
Energy Weapons: females need 20 skill for pistols and 30 skill for rifles ; males would need 30 and 40.
Big Guns: females need 40 skills and males need 30 skills.

Arwen, this somehow reminds me of the levelling system from Oblivion, there was a discussion about that recently:
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1071941-smooth-leveling-possible-in-fallout/page__p__15594413__hl__levelling__fromsearch__1&#entry15594413

I have to admit that they've lost me somewhere halfway through the thread, but then I'm not a modder, so you may get more from it.

What you state is certainly true, Arwen. Most game time, though, is spent slaying enemies one way or another (or adjusting the inventory!!). So there would probably be a natural tendency of the game itself to build in an "overbalance" in one area under a "skill practice system." Because of how the game is set up, speech cannot be practiced (it is all scripted as far as I can tell). Medicine is practiced because it is a byproduct of being shot as "zzit" goes the stimpak.

What might be experimented with is "filling out" those under used skills. For example, have some of the perennially hostile random NPC's be friendly at first, they run up to the player, offer a bit of pvssyr, however if the player FAILS the speech check, then they go hostile. I was thinking about something like this for that lady in Megaton that always offers a gift--what if part of that were speech based? Pass Speech you get the Chinese rifle, fail and the party hat is offered. It would be more of an incentive to pay attention to Speech.

Ten Frag mines is actually a LOT of mines, and each one does 100 DAM. The problem is that the Behemoths are classified as Super Mutants, since all they are are overgrown Super Mutants . . . so I cannot put a condition on them that does not also affect regular Super Mutants. I have reduced the time that Super Mutants remain unconscious, down to just 6 seconds (everything else, except for robots, remain out for 20 seconds). And my Gunshot effect doesn't affect any of the Super Mutants.

As it stands, though, it seems Super Mutants aren't immune to the Gunshot effect; at least, as it applies to assault rifles.

In all honesty though, this was the only thing that saved me; I really only took on the behemoth 'cause I wanted to. I didn't think I'd live.

Also, I should clarify a bit. The initial mine blasts did knock the behemoth down for the right amount of time (I think). After it got up, however, I started shooting, knocking the behemoth down repeatedly.

Actually... I'll test this again; I rolled back my saves to before I activated the Behemoth trigger (It's the Jury Street Metro Behemoth), so I can see If I get the same results.

...Then again, are Super Mutants supposed to be Gunshot effect immune in 4.1, or is that planned for 4.2?

Regarding gender-based stat differences:

I favor these being present, because it is one more way in which your character creation choices affect gameplay. Balance is then my own one big concern.

The easiest way to balance the differences is to make equal trade-offs:

• A SPECIAL bonus/penalty for a male balanced by a different SPECIAL bonus/'penalty for a female.
  
• A skill bonus/penalty for a male balanced by a different skill bonus/penalty for a female.

More complicated is to mix and match SPECIAL and skills:

• +1 STR bonus for males balanced perhaps by +15 sneak and +15 speech for females

.
See, a +1 STR balances nicely with a +1 AGI, because each has a pretty equal set of subsequent results: skill increases due to the stat increase, perk availability, etc. However, trying to figure out exactly how a SPECIAL increase on the one hand balances with skill increases on the other... well, the math isn't so straightforward.

My own suggestion is to keep the initial character creation difference simple: +1 STR -1 END for males; +1 AGI -1 STR for females (or something like that). But then supplement the differences with, say, 3 perks for each gender that appear one-by-one at fixed levels:

• (Female) Level 3: Women's Intuition: You're starting to get it. These wastelanders aren't aliens after all, and your natural talents of empathy work just as well out here as they did in the Vault. +10 Speech.
  
• (Male) Level 3: Confidence: You're starting to get it. You may be the new guy in town, but they don't have to know that. Your intimidating presence give you +10 to Melee.

Just off the top of my head.

I look forward to seeing how you end up implementing this feature!

gothemasticator

My Gunshot Object effect only works on NPCs and creatures that are NOT robots or Super Mutants, so if you're knocking down a Behemoth with an assault rifle, it is not due to my mod.


Mine too, since improving the game balance is such a huge part of my Tweaks.

I don't really want to initially give any additional SPECIAL points, as that would defeat my reduction of SPECIAL points, where the PC only gets 35 points to use (which makes them essentially average). This is why I'm doing this through the way stats affect your skills: STR determines your carrying capacity, but each point of STR is calculated differently for each gender. The same is true with END and HPs, and with how much your Barter skill effects prices.


I may consider adding gender-specific perks like this, although I would probably limit them to a single rank.

To reiterate (from an earlier post):
So far these are the gender differences I have added (to my Less-Is-More module):
1.) Strength: Male PC gain a 5 pound advantage over female PC for each STR point.
2.) Endurance: Female PC gain 5 HPs advantage over male PC for each END point.
3.) Barter: Female PC has a 20% Barter buy bonus, and a 5 to 15% sell bonus over male PC.
4.) (I still need to come up with a second male bonus to balance this out.)

So 1,2, and 3 are complete, and done through my new gender quest script, which will be part of my expanded Less-Is-More module (which was merged with my former Skills module).

I still need to figure out something for #4 . . . for a 2nd male bonus . . . to keep the gender bonuses balanced.

Hi,

First, I want to take a moment to thank you for this mod. It seems perfect for me. I played Fallout 3 back when it was first released, and loved it unmodded. But there were just a handful of things that I thought needed to be tweaked. Instant stimpack health was a problem, followed by weightless ammo, and finally too-quick leveling.

So I recently tried the game again with a stimpack and ammo weight mod. I left leveling rate alone in the hopes that things would balance out with the level 30 cap. I've been finding the game kinda on the easy side though.

I'd rather not tweak the difficulty section, but rather add more elements of realism to the game, and it looks as though this mod does that, so I'm gonna try it.

Question: I don't see either instant stimpacks or ammo weightlessness as being remedied by your mod, and they seem to be on your list of separate recommended mods. So my understanding is that I should keep those mods installed along with your mod. Specifically, I am using the ammoweight mod and the Realistic Chems mod.

Thanks for any response, and thanks for the mod!