I just finished The Pitt, and it was pretty well balanced. Nice work!

It's also my favourite DLC so far.

Point Lookout is next...

Thanks Povuholo!

It is really comforting to hear that my attempt to make a GOTY patch without actually playing the DLC seemed to have worked out fairly well. I felt that I should be able to just edit the values, based on the rest of my Tweak's edits, but it was just an unproven theory.

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Just a quick update on my Med-Tec module:
- Before my new module is ready for outside beta testing, I need to make a config menu (for my scanner Hotkey selection, and for at least an uninstall button).
- And I still need to tackle Water Needs and Food Needs (I've haven't gotten far with either yet).

But I just solved a major issue that has been bugging me since I started work on this module . . . Doctors.

I ALWAYS hated the way that you could be near death and a quick visit to a doctor made you instantly 100% healthy again . . . and Doctor visits were fairly inexpensive.
The only way that I have ever seen this addressed by other injury/healing mods is to raise the price of the doctors' treatments, but that didn't take care of the entire issue (for me).
My solution is a bit different: the costs for treatments by doctors remain at default, but their treatments no longer instantly make you 100% healed.

What you will get for your caps:
- a big boost to your general health (+100 HPs)
- Minor Wounds are reduced
- Bleeding Wounds are bandaged (and there are minor penalties while a bandage is needed)
- Blood Levels (if low from loss of blood) are partially restored (you get a blood transfusion)
- Minor Burns are treated (reduced)
- Third-Degree Burns are bandaged (which also comes with penalties)
- Crippled limbs are splinted (and each affected limb adds a penalty until the bone fully heals).
- Trauma (bruising) is treated
- Crippled Head (concussion) and Crippled Torso are treated
- Infections are treated.

So you will leave a doctor's office in much better shape (if you are willing/able to pay for the treatment), but you will not be totally healed. And you may be leaving bandaged up, with splinted limbs (which is much more realistic). Plus some of the treatments do not give instant results . . . for instance, just bandaging a serious wound will not always stop the bleeding . . . sometimes it takes a few minutes for the bleeding to stop completely (and bleeding wounds cause health issues)

Will all doctors have the same level of healing? For example will the doctor in megaton be as skilled as the doctor in Rivet City? In Rivet City the doctor looks like he has better equipment from what I've seen.

For now, all the doctors will heal you exactly the same. I may change this in a later version.
Right now I'm trying to focus on getting the first version of my new module ready for beta testing. (And I still have to finish up a bunch of things before this is ready.)
My Med-Tec module has already become way more extensive than I had intended for its initial release, but I have to stop trying to do everything or this svcker will never get released.
Right now I'm finishing up my changes to 'My First Infirmary,' which are similar to my doctor changes. Both are really needed in order to balance out, and mesh with, all my other changes/additions.

I'm really, really happy with the changes that this has made in my own game. I've wanted to make a module like this for months, but my modding skills were just not good enough to do anything like this (and I'm still learning as I go, which is why this module is taking me so long to make). I'm hoping that others will enjoy this module as much as I have . . . if so, then it will be worth all the hard work that I've put into this.

Just a quick update on my the progress of my new Med-Tec (Injuries/Needs) module:

I now have a config menu (currently with only my hotkey selection). I still need to make uninstall and reset quest scripts (and add those the the menu).
Oh yeah, I should explain what my Hotkey does. Pressing it will do a quick medical scan, with the results shown as a popup message in the upper left of your HUD.
You'll instantly be able to see all your vitals: Wound Level, Blood Lost, Trauma Level, Burn Level, Infection Level, Units of Food needed, Units of Water needed, and Hours of Sleep Needed (plus eventually your Poison Level). This also pops up automatically when you are injured. And all your vitals are also displayed when you are in the Med-Tec treatment mode. It is really simple, and works with or without the DarN UI.

And I've made some really good progress on my Food Needs . . . which is pretty major, because until late this afternoon, I didn't have much of a plan on how I was going to make hunger/eat work (or even if I would be able to add it). So far all I have completed is my scripts, and the hunger effects, and I've begun attaching my effects to the default food (along with my chart of the food edits). But I just ran a game play test, and everything seems to be working great . . . so I'm thrilled. It is pretty basic (which is fine for now) . . . the important thing is that this is balanced to work with the rest of my Realism Tweaks . . . and all the default food items will be edited so that they have very little Healing benefit, and most will have increased Rad Damage (unless you are using the food sanitizer). I may be integrating a food/cooking mod into this module, but that may not happen in the first release. If I do add cooking, it will be totally optional . . . as in you won't have to bother with it unless you want to.

After I get through all the food edits, I'll tackle Water Needs. And then I have to figure out what am going to do with the other default beverages.
I'm getting there, and it looks like I might actually be able to pull off a fairly complete Injuries/Needs module (although the Needs part are going to be somewhat basic) . . . but all in one, simple esp (eventually there will be a GOTY version, or patch).

People weren't exaggerating when they said the Point Lookout swamp folk were bullet sponges... I understand that the DLCs are supposed to be challenging, and that the radiation has increased the swamp folk's resistance much like how Super Mutants have tough skin so that could be an excuse.

Still, according to the http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Bruiser_%28Fallout_3%29, Creepers are tougher than Super Mutant Masters (in vanilla), which is pretty crazy. I don't know how this compares to ART, but I still find them way too tough. Tough skin or not, I don't think it should be tougher than that of Super Mutants and these guys aren't even wearing any armor.

And according to the wiki all the swamp folk do 35 additional unresistable damage with every attack they do, which seems a bit excessive when using ART.

So if you could have a look at the swamp folk at some point that would be nice.


The whole injuries/needs thing sound very interesting.

Thanks for the feedback again!

I increased Localized Damage to the head and torso quite a bit . . . but I can certainly up both a bit more if users think that it necessary.
My GOTY patch also removes the "NPC-AddDam" that is attached to the melee weapons (which is what gives the 35 additional damage / hit) and replaced it with my Whack Effect.

Thanks for your comment on my Med-Tec module . . . interest from others seems to have decreased lately, which is probably due to the fact that it is taking me sooo long to finish the thing (plus people on this forum have lately become more interested in FONV than in discussing FO3 mods). What I need to know from users of my Tweaks is how involved do they want the Needs part to be? Is basic ok, or are most hoping for the ability to refill water bottles and to cook their food?

I think water bottle refilling in particular is a nice feature. To a lesser extend cooking as well. But it would probably be better to start with a more basic release, to see how that plays. I don't think I'd miss it all that much.

- Rad Absorption: "With the Rad Absorption perk, your radiation level slowly decreases on its own over time."
- Rad Tolerance: "Although you are still notified when you get Minor Radiation Poisoning, you do not suffer any ill effects from it."


I really actually think these make a lot of sense. After 200 years of heavy toxic environments the people that survived this would really have an immunity of some kind. The perks simply reflect this. Its like a taste of poison over years and years. Your body becomes slowly able to take it and would not die if a larger dose were ingested.Which can happen for real =)

But your character has been sealed in a Vault for practically your entire life (assuming that you are playing through the main quest, which my Realism Tweaks is very much based on). So how would you have developed a tolerance for Radiation, when you've only been exposed to it for a few months?

Plus my greater reason to changes or reducing these two perks is because I plan to eventually add a Radiation overhaul to my Med-Tec module, which these perks would unbalance.

No question you should or shouldn't add whatever to your module. But on relevance to the vault dweller having these. Is the family was not from the vault(mother/father). The player character grew up in a vault, true. The parents did not. Those traits could be past along like any other real trait could be and often traits abruptly surface later in a persons life.

Reminds me of allergies. My mother never had them for 65 years of life and I had them all my life. then all of a sudden she has all kinds of normal allergies now. svcks but it happens. Which is another interesting discussion topic. What about having a choice of a positive/negative perk. You gain in one aspect but lost something in another? Would the system allow for that or would it nerf stuff because of the "spell".

I'm sure there are ways you can justify that The Lone Wanderer has these 'perks', but if they unbalance gameplay compared with the rest of the tweaks that wouldn't be good.

I guess the point is that Balance>Realism. Usually this means making the game easier, but here it is the other way around.


But maybe the perks could be tweaked somehow to be less unbalancing instead of being completely removed. Of course, if that makes the perk useless you're better off without it...

Not to argue about really. But these seem kinda low level perks to begin with. In what direction would they be a problem? To low maybe? =/

I can understand a total tolerance of radiation perhaps, being strange. A reasonable level of tolerance sure. But not seeing the decrease in radiation over time to be that much of a problem to balance.

I'm not really seeing it either at this point, but I don't know what kind of radiation overhaul Arwen has in mind.

My Realism Tweaks already includes a minor overhaul of radiation: Radiation was increased by a factor of 4, and some types of armor (and helmets) now provides greater radiation resistance.

I'll just expanding this a bit more in v.5.0. My goal is to make Radiation exposure something to be avoided. You'll definitely need to wear protective gear and probably some RadAway to get through some locations.

My Med-Tec module includes Radiation Sickness, which is based on your Digestive Level and on your Rad Level. You'll have a hard time keeping food down when you have more than 100 Rads.

Plus I increased the Radiation Level of most food (unless you have a sanitizer).
Plus doctors will no longer remove all your radiation, but will now only treat your radiation (-200 Rads, instead of -1000 rads).
Plus your Infirmary will no longer instantly remove all your radiation, but will only reduce it by 100 Rads (and it will cost you 1 RadAway).
Plus RadAway will no longer instantly reduce your Rads by 50 points, but will now reduce your Rad by 1 point/second for 40 seconds (and I may end up slowing down the reduction of Rads even more).

I haven't decided yet how much I will change those two Radiation Perks (as I'm way too busy with other stuff at the moment), but they will be changed so that they mesh better with all my other Radiation changes.

Yes, well I wouldn't use the module anyway of course so it won't effect me. But I am a huge fan of choices. I hope you make it to be a worthy alternative arwen ^_^

Hope my comments are still welcome use or not use. =)

Just a quick update on my Med-Tec module progress (and v.5.0 of my Realism Tweaks):

I tweaked my scripts and completed my play testing of the Hunger/Eat part of my module last night. Everything seems to be working well and feels pretty balanced. All I have left to do on this part is adjust the Rads from food and script in some hunger penalties (for when you skip too many meals).

The Radiation Sickness, which I mentioned in an earlier post, is based on your Digestive Level and on your Rad Level (this is different from the default game's Radiation Poisoning). Your Rad damage has to be over 100 before any Radiation Sickness will start to build up. Once your Rad damage is over 200, you'll have a hard time being able to meet your daily Hunger Needs without actually getting sick from eating (which means that you won't gain any benefit from the food, along with other penalties). But some fresh foods, such as apples, will now reduce your Rad damage a bit . . . which helps to balance out some of my other changes to Radiation, and makes these foods much more valuable (as they should be).

Another new addition is that some food items (like red meat) will include my Blood Regen effect, which will decrease your Blood Lost (as in low blood level) by 1 Level point.
And, in most cases, eating food will NOT restore any HPs. (This change was to balance out my addition of HPs slowly regenerating over time.)

After messing around with several ways of doing this, I came up with a simple solution that will penalize you for excessive eating (just to gain any non-hunger benefits from the food). If you ingest anything with a Food tag (such as Food+1) while your Food Need is 0 or less, you will get sick from overeating (you won't gain any benefit from the food, and you'll lose 10 HPs). Since your Food Need is displayed in your Med-Tec scans, you can easily check this before eating.

So the Hunger/Food part is nearly done (unless I decide to try adding cooking in this release). The next thing I need to tackle is Thirst (Water Need), which should not take me long, since I'm going to use the same technique that I set up for Hunger.

I also just adjusted my Dynamic Sneak script (in my Realism Core), to balance it with the current version of Fellout, since the nights are now a bit less dark. Basically in version 5.0, you'll be detected from further away at night, then in v.4.9.

amazing progress, can't wait for this major operations update!

Personally, I'm fine with something relatively simple. I like having food and drink requirements in the game, and am excited to test out your version since the approach you've taken with the rest of your tweaks is almost exactly what I want in a game. However, if they get too complicated, the needs/injuries stuff can start slow the game down and make inventory management too much of a hassle.

I've also been curious for a while: do you see any kind of end-point for ART? Is there a list of things you want to change and then you're finished (like the needs/injuries you're currently working on and a GOTY hard-core patch), or do you think you'll just continue modding the game until you get tired of it (or until New Vegas comes out)?

Thanks! I still have a couple of good days worth of work to wrap this module up . . . but you should not have to wait much longer.


I'm trying to keep the Needs part as simple as possible, but not so simple that it really doesn't add anything to the game play. My current beta version (which at this point includes about 80% of what the released version will have) is between Basic Needs and Primary Needs. The Injury/Healing part is Much more involved . . . in fact, the injuries part goes beyond any other Injuries type mod that I know of. But I've made it extremely easy to keep track of your vitals, by just pressing a hotkey. And treatment is very simple, if you have the necessary medical items/skill those options appear, if not, they don't . . . and you may have to make a quick trip to the nearest doctor. In most cases treatment is extremely simple . . . nothing more than selecting the treatment you want from a menu. My goal is to make the game play more challenging, and fun . . . and not add a bunch of stuff that needs tedious micromanagement.


Version 5.0 was what I hoped would be my last version, but there's going to have to be at least a v.5.1, as I'm sure that my new Med-Tec module will require an update, as I'll want to tweak it some more after playing my own game for any length of time (and I'm sure it will likely need some bug fixing). Plus I need to finish my Hard-Core GOTY patch, and that won't be done until at least v.5.1. My Realism Tweaks will be 99% done once version 5 is finished. I have resisted making my own Injury/Needs module for like 6 months, as I knew how difficult it would be for me to do something like that, in the way that I wanted it done. But I finally decided that my mod would not really be complete (for me) until that was added, and I hoped that I had finally learned enough about modding to do this.

Sorry to be a bother, but I kinda got lost in following the directions for installing this module.

I basically just want to use it to alter the experience gain while using Mart's Mutant Mod and DarnUI, but I don't quite understand the load order I should use.

I'm currently downloading MMM, so I haven't fixed the load order quite yet, but if someone tell me which goes on top of the other in the listing on FOMM, I'd be most appreciative.

Thanks for your time.

EDIT: I think I found the readme. Will check it now, but I'm still a bit afraid of messing up the order.

iamstillwater, which module are you trying to install?

My own load order is posted http://amito.freehostia.com/Fallout/FO-mods-order.htm

Hi!

I just want to install the Realism Core module so I can tweak the EXP values and use the added stuff from that module, along with adding spawns through MMM. That, and installing DarnUI.

Again, sorry for the bother. This is the third time I've asked this (Third time installing the game on a different machine and setup) so I feel like an idiot for asking when I should probably learn by now.

Make sure that you use my MMM patch (which was actually made for me by Mart), And put near the end of your load order.

Load Order:
--> MMM esps
--> Arwen_Realism_Core.esp
--> Arwen_MMM_Patch.esp

alright. Will try it out once MMM finishes downloading. Thank you for the assist and the link to the load order.