I don't feel like you should change it at all. I just wanted to know so I could change it for my own use

Thanks

Sorry, but you were not very clear in what you were asking.

Yes, of course you can change those settings in FO3Edit back to the default. But if you don't want your Followers to ever flee, you also have to remove their "Flee Based on Personal Survival" flag (under Combat Styles).

I don't understand why you would want a suicidal follower. All my changes do is add the ability to flee when the NPC's health is very low, and they are heavily outnumbered.

Version 4.1 progress update:

I just tweaked my Smarter AI module so that Raiders and Talon Company members will no longer flee as quickly during combat (this was already true for Super Mutants).

Also just finished a new script that causes some two-handed weapons to be disabled when arms are crippled [Survival module]:
"You have a crippled arm! You cannot use Rifles, two-handed Automatic Weapons, or two-handed Launchers. You can still use Melee Weapons, but they will now do much less damage."
[The reduced melee weapon damage, when an arm is crippled, has been part of my Survival Module for a while.]
If you are using a Rifle, two-handed Automatic Weapon, or two-handed Launcher when an arm is crippled, the weapon will be holstered and you will not be able to use it again until both arms have been restored (even if you use a drug that enables you to ignore crippled limbs).

Other Changes in v.4.1:
- The Player's jump distance (how far and how high you can jump) is now based on their Agility. When your AGL is really low, you will not be able to just very high. And when either leg is crippled, you will not be able to jump at all.
- The Enclave Scientist outfit and All-Purpose Science Suit now have the Radiation Suit Object effect and both have been added to the Radiation Suit Repair List.
- Gunshot Effect: Redid the way fatigue damage was calculated. And forced a 5 second unconscious state (should prevent the fatigue bug).
- Redid much of the damage / health balance in my Localized Damage module (Super Mutants are now very hard to kill).
- Corrected some minor errors in Timescale message (in my Reduced Quest XPR module).
- Reduced Gun Spread penalty for having lower SmallGuns skills (from v.4.0, which was still a bit too high).

I'm also considering making some weapons unusable when your weapon skills or stats are not high enough. For instance, not being able to use Big Guns when your Strength is < 5; and not being able to use automatic weapons when your SmallGuns skills are < 30.
Is this something that others would want to see added? Any other ideas/conditions?

With any luck, v.4.1 should be released in a day or so.

I must say, I'm quite excited for 4.1. I like the fact that you're adding weapon restrictions based on crippled limbs; I was actually planning to add another mod to my load order to do just that.

Also, I've been thinking about the GNR problem that has been mentioned before... Could it be related to the fact that the seems to knock himself out with the scripted explosion? In my first run-through, the got knocked out and ran away, hiding behind part of the GNR building. Lyon's Pride did not pursue, and I eventually shot the with my assault rifle. This got its attention, and it promptly killed me. Would it be possible to code in something so that the is immune to the scripted explosion?

Note: To be safe, I added spoiler tags. If they're not needed, let me know; I'll promptly remove them.

Hi Arwen.

After two days of playing your mod, (and still on level 4 lol) I must say that your mod is Very good, it adds so much in so little... I love it, I totally recommend it to all.

I have one question, though, there are perks that require an agility/charisma skill of 5 or plus for example. but I'm not able to increase that because I don't have enough agility/charisma, etc. how to increase that?

Me too! I've only had a brief chance to play test my latest changes, but I love my v.4.1 beta game! This is by far the best version I have released yet (even though it is not really a major update).

I've tried using other mods that limited weapon use when your limbs were crippled, but found them to be too restrictive, even though they were realistic (you were often only able to use hand-to-hand and explosives, if you had any). It just isn't any fun at all when you can no longer defend yourself. I also found them to be rather immersive breaking, as my weapon just disappeared back into my inventory.
So I did this a bit differently (and with a very simple, efficient little script). It may not be quite as realistic as the other mods, but it is a lot more fun to play:
1.) You'll always be able to use pistols (and of course explosives) even when both arms are crippled (so always keep a decent pistol and plenty of ammo in your inventory).
2.) You'll always be able to melee weapons . . . but they will inflict much less damage when one of your arms is crippled (and even less when both arms are crippled). But a baseball bat could still save your life in a pinch.
3.) Instead of a restricted weapon just disappearing when you try to use it, it will remain holstered (if you're using the weapon when your arm is crippled, it will be holstered).

As for the GNR problem:
I've tweaked all 3 of my weapon effects scripts again in v.4.1. My Blast Effect now reduces a smaller percentage of fatigue when the victim is not the PC (since the PC has 200 fatigue, and the NPCs/Creatures only get 50), plus your fatigue must now be less before you will be rendered unconscious. The end result is that it will take at least two explosive blasts before any victim is rendered unconscious (unless their fatigue was already damaged). I've also removed the reduced Perception and Agility penalties from NPCs and Creatures (which may have been what was causing the bug). [The reduced Perception and Agility penalties will still apply to the PC when you are Whacked or Blasted.]

I've also reduced the amount of time that Super Mutants will remain unconscious after being Blasted, from 10 to 6 seconds (so run really fast, if you hope to get out of range while they are out).

Plus in v.4.1, all Super Mutants (and some other Creatures) are now a LOT tougher.

What do you (and others) think about certain weapons being unusable to the player, if their weapon skills or stats are not high enough (this would be based on permanent stats)? For instance, not being able to use Big Guns when your Strength is < 5; and not being able to use automatic weapons when your SmallGuns skills are < 30. I really need some quick feedback on this, if it is going to make it into v.4.1 (or not, if it is not something people want in their game).

I think this approach works for games like Diablo, or other more stat driven RPG's . . . but it just seems arbitrary to me in a RPG like fallout. I'd take the approach instead that if your small guns was below 30, you would still be able to pick up and fire the weapon, but your accuracy would be terrible. Same with big guns. So, you could dynamically make the player's spread multiplier worse when using certain types of weapons with low skills. That would make more sense to me than just not even letting the player use the weapon.

EDIT: Your accruacy changes might already account for some of this anyway, that is, when you're skills are bad, your just not very accurate period.

What do you think about the idea of NPCs being able to have a slight chance of spotting and disarming a land mine placed by the player, is it possible?

and btw, concerning the perks and low endurance. I'm wearing a wastelander's outfit now... it gives me +1 END and +1 AGI

Thanks!

Unfortunately you're quite limited by the point spread that you select for your character in the beginning of the game. This is intentional on my part, as one of the major goals of my mod is to make your stat choices MUCH more important. In the default game your point spread was much less important, since you always began the game with a character that was above average, and there were very few consequences if you made a character weak in any stat. This is not true with my mod . . . mess up your stats and you're going to have to live with some major issues in some areas. Sorry.

However, unless you really nerfed your Agility and/or Charisma (as in giving them less than 4 points), you may still be able to eventually get them high enough to take some of the less restrictive perks. Finding the related SPECIAL Bobblehead will still increase that stat by one point. And the Intense Training perk will allow you to increase one stat by one point, for each of the two ranks [but Intense Training does require that you have 6 END or 6 INT].

I realize that this may seem a bit harsh, but uses of my mod need to understand that they have to put a LOT more thought into the character they create (and that you are probably not ever going to end up with a character who is a master of all abilities . . . especially once I release the GOTY version of my Tweaks). This is why that I created a section in my FO3 Journal that details all the changes in my Skills Module, so you can view things like all the perk requirements before you finalize your character. This is linked in the opening post in this thread, and in my ReadMe, but in case you missed it: http://amito.freehostia.com/Fallout/Arwens_Skills_Module.htm

One tip I can give you (I'm just echoing Arwen here) is to find the stat gain bobbleheads. They will help a lot. My only concern with your low endurance (what are your stats, btw?) is that the endurance bobblehead is located in a very hostile place... I'm level 10, and I know I'm not ready for the area, but I need the extra point of endurance. I'll be bringing a Minigun with lots of ammo with me....

If you look at what the jump distance currently is in your tweaks, to which agility level could that be compared in 4.1?

Hey Mez,

Thanks so much for jumping in on this!

Well, my mod does make FO3 much more of a "stat driven" RPG, so perhaps this fits my Tweaked version of FO3. I've been playing Mass Effect (I received 1 & 2 for my birthday a few weeks ago), which is very different from FO3, but it is also a RPG/FPS hybrid. In many ways it does things much better than FO3, and in other ways FO3 is a much better game. The two are just very different games. But Mass Effect does a really good job (in my opinion) in the way it handles weapon use and weapon upgrades, where both are tied to the actor's skill level, knowledge (in finding information about the weapon), and having enough of a particular resource to make the weapon/upgrade. In FO3, a teenager who grew up with next to no weapon experience should not be able to just pick up any weapon, and be as proficient with it as the NPCs who have been using these weapons all their lives.

The problem is that I have been able to only add a bit more spread for lower skills. When I increase spread too much, gun fights become a joke, as bullets are flying everywhere, and no one is hitting anything. I have never been able to increase the gun spread high enough for a very low-SG-skilled PC, without it impacting the abilities of the NPCs to hit me. This is one of the reasons that I've increase the way that the SG skill level is factored into weapon damage . . . but this also impacts the NPCs.

Not being able to use automatic weapons when your Small Guns skill is low seems like a reasonable condition to me (without breaking any part of the game), since an automatic weapon would likely be a bit more complex (harder to shoot, load, repair, and maintain). I'm also considering adding a skill requirement for Energy Weapons for this reason.

And it seems extremely logical that a Big Gun would be impossible to lift, aim, and fire . . . unless the user was strong enough to do so.

Edit: just to clarify something . . . the PC could still pick up these weapons, they just would not be able to use them unless their stats were high enough.

I like the idea. I just don't know how to mod it. A bigger problem for me is that the NPCs are always tripping over their own mines, and you think they would know where those were.



You'd need an Agility of 9 to obtain my current jump height and distance (which I felt was a bit too much for actors with a normal agility of 5).
To compare this to the default jump settings:
You will jump as high as default with a 6 AGL.
You will just as far as default with a 3 AGL.

Note: I've changed the jump height to distance ratio, so you character will make longer jumps, without going as high (such as when you are running) . . . which seems to look way more realistic (I changed this ratio way back in a very early version of my Tweaks, and the ratio remains the same in v.4.1).

To add my 2 cents on this. I was 12 and being as agile and limber as a cat. I picked up a crossbow and was a crack shot. I'd hit a bulls eye every 3 bolts. Used a .22 rifle and was average at long range. Shotgun was the tricky gun. It gave a kick a little harder than a rifle. So my aim when I was that young was skewed. As an advlt this wouldn't be as big a problem.

Nobody actually taught me how to use a gun or a bow nor a crossbow. I was actually damn good at shooting from the first time I looked at my marksman's items. =)

To be fair however, not everyone can simply look at something and figure it out like I did. Maybe you could add a certain level of intelligence and agility or something to be met per weapon? IE- An assault rifle can be used better with xxx Intelligence/agility. Any idiot can pick it up and shoot with it. But meeting the stat marker can improve ones shooting in a small increment.

Well, not everyone is that lucky . . . most people have to work really hard at becoming skilled at anything.

Besides, FO3 is suppose to be a RPG, and a big part of a RPG for me is having a character who starts out with low skills and being able to guide her as she slowly becomes more proficient. One of the biggest issues for me with the default game is that your character starts out above average . . . and the fact that it is way too easy to gain skills and rapidly improve your stats until you are god-like. This really makes your initial stat points spread much less important. (I still remember sweating over my character's stats when I first began playing Morrowind . . . because your stats were much more important in that game.)

Adding skill/stat requirements for some weapons will not only make your stats and skills more important in how your game plays out, but it should also makes the game much more interesting, since you'll have a LOT more reason for improving the skills to the level that these weapons require. Weapon requirement is one of the things that I've been wanting to add to my mod for a while, but couldn't figure out how to script, until I came up with an easy way to add weapon restrictions for having crippled arms (which took me forever to figure out). Both will be added in version 4.1. The restrictions only affect certain weapons and the skill/stat requirements should not be too difficult to obtain (but are much harder to reach if you are also using my Skills module . . . which this is really meant to be used with).

I now have completed and play tested my new script for the Energy Weapons restrictions, so scripting the other restrictions should be a LOT easier. These are the weapon restrictions I'll be adding in v.4.1:

1.) Energy Weapons will be unusable to the player when their Energy Weapons skill is less than 20. (For now, this only applies to energy guns and not the energy explosives.)
2.) Big Guns will be unusable to the player when their Endurance is less than 6.
3.) Two-handed Automatic weapons will be unusable when the player's Small Guns skill is less than 30.

Sounds good! I've said it before, but I'll say it again... Your tweaks are exactly what I was looking for... I like the thought you put into each change you make.

Timeline on v4.1? I keep waffling on which way I want to take/make my character SPECIAL-wise. I'm bound and determined to start and play one through when 4.1 comes out... unless 4.2 is close behind

Thanks! Right now I'm aiming at a Friday release. Perhaps sooner if my last few scripts go well, and I have the free time to wrap this up (but that rarely seems to happen).

Unless there's a major problem with v.4.1, v.4.2 will not be released for quite a while (as I really want to get back to playing my own game). Originally I planned to release v.4.1 last week, but then I started messing around with weapon restrictions, which have been on my "try to add" list for months. If v.4.1 doesn't have any major issues, a GOTY version of my Tweaks is likely going to be my next major update/optional file, as that's the biggest thing I have left on my to-do list.

Good, I have a few days to finalize my SPECIALs (again). I love how your tweaks make you think about your SPECIAL set-up, especially if you also use SCBOP - Skill Cap Based on SPECIALs (http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11195) like I do... Makes initial set-up even more important for the life of the character.

Back to staring at numbers and planning the latest version of Wylder

Are those skill/stats requirements for weapons made with FOSE script commands as well? Now that your mod depends on FOSE for the stealth changes anyway, I guess you can take advantage of more of the scripting functions it offers...

Yes. Without FOSE, I could never have scripted my stats requirements for energy weapons (at least not the way that I wanted to), since energy weapons are not a separate type of weapon (with default commands).

Hey Arwen, have you ever considered making a stand alone version of your pipboy light? I love what you did with it, but there are times when I use other mods that would conflict with yours, but would still like to be able to use your light!

Hey Balok,

I've had a number of people ask me the same question, so I probably should make a stand-alone esp at some point. Right now I'm just trying to finish up v.4.1 of my Tweaks, and then finish my update of my VisionFX mod.

------------------------------------------------
Version 4.1 progress: I have a working Weapons with Skill Requirements script, but I still need to tweak the way it works a bit.

If you try to use a Big Weapon and your Endurance is less than 6, you'll instantly drop the weapon, and a message will appear, informing you that "Big Guns are too much for you to handle," and that they require 6 END. This part works great!

The Energy Weapons and Automatic Weapons are giving me a bit of a problem (but only a minor one). With pistols, this works perfect . . . even when your skills are too low to use the weapon, you can still draw it, but it instantly gets re-holstered (which is awesome!). But with rifles and anything that is 'holstered' on your back, you can only draw the weapon once, and then it just remains fixed on your back and you cannot draw it again. When the unusable weapon is on your back and you try to use it (with R-button or Left Mouse), nothing at all happens . . . the character doesn't even twitch

My concern is that players are not going to understand why their weapon will now longer draw (even though I have a popup message . . . but it only pops up when you first switch to a weapon that is beyond your abilities). I'm trying to find a way to enable a non-usable back-holstered weapon to be drawn and re-holstered in the same way as the hip-holstered pistols, but am not getting anywhere. What I may end up doing is forcing the unusable weapon back into your inventory, which is a bit immersive breaking, but may end up being the best solution.

Hey Arwen,

I've just seen a http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1081100 that reminded me of an issue I believe can be attributed to your Less Is More module (and which I forgot to report - sorry).

Anyway, it would seem that the "Chance none" value of 60 set in the Leveled Item "CondSniperRifleLoot" can cause NPC's who's character is defined by a Sniper Rifle (such as Arkansas and Sam Warrick) to have a significant chance that they won't have a Sniper Rifle at all. This kind of breaks the purpose of said characters when their only weapon is a Sniper Rifle - I've had both Arkansas and Sam Warrick running at me with a Baseball Bat or even just fists at times.

To test that this was indeed because of the Less Is More module, I created an override esp, containing a single vanilla CondSniperRilfeLoot record. Activated and loaded after Less Is More - Arkansas has his rifle again; deactivated - Arkansas runs around with a Baseball Bat.

Not really sure how you would address the issue, since the changes make to CondSniperRifleLoot are global in nature. (Reduce the Chance none value?)

-Xeph'

Thanks so much Xepha!

I'll fix this in v.4.1. I don't mind setting CondSniperRifleLoot back to default, especially since sniper rifles are not that common.
But now I'm wondering if my Less_Is_More module may also be causing problems with other NPCs not receiving the weapons they should have.

Wow. Started a new game with ART instead of FOOK2. It's...very different. Almost unplayable. Hard to get into, perhaps. I'm a pretty experienced player and this was all new on me, things which would work normally had to be entirely re-thought.

I like that. I like some of the changes here a lot and I'll be merging them in with my preferred FOOK2 layout. Excellent work, Arwen.