Other than Dogmeat, I never use companions, as they tend to make the combat much easier . . . I prefer playing as more of a Lone Wanderer type.

My mod is balanced for Normal Difficulty . . . just like my NV Tweaks. Bot some reason, I had a LOT of users of my NV Tweaks complaining that my mod made it impossible to kill anyone . . . and then I found out that all these users had the difficulty set to Very Hard. So I put this notice on my mod's description:

"IMPORTANT: This mod was balanced for NORMAL Difficulty. Using a Hard or Very Hard difficulty setting will just make the NPCs and Creatures even more difficult to kill (it will take more bullets), and your character will even be easier to kill. My Realism Tweaks already does both, so you will just be multiplying these two things . . . which will likely have negative effects."

Perhaps I should also add that to my FO3 Tweaks.

BTW: version 5.2 should make the game even a bit more challenging, as I've cranked things up another notch or two.

*exits lurk mode*

I put my game on hold temporarily when New Vegas came out but I'm going back to it when this update is released. I still have the Broken Steel and Point Lookout DLC quests to deal with http://fallout3nexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1279905400.jpeg (I still think the face is awesome), and some other smaller things. It'll be nice to finish his story.

I'm usually fighting alone as well. I brought Jericho along once, he died in the first fight with a group of enclave troops. RIP Jericho.

@Steamfax: You're most welcome.

My own game rarely crashes . . . and while I'm working on an update, I spend a LOT of time running the game with often 2 GECK sessions running, a couple of Word docs open, and a bunch of text files open in Notepad++. CTDs are a rarity for me . . . the most I generally get is a frozen game (which is admittedly not much better) . . . but that happened just as often when I was playing the unmodded game. There's really nothing my increased durability of vehicles that would cause a CTD, other then the fact that I've added one or two extra stages to the self-destruct sequences. So I'm guessing this is a system-specific issue . . . sort of like what happens when a users tries to add more hi-rez mods than their system can handle. I had similar issues with EVE's graphical changes, whenever energy weapon combat got a bit intense.

=======================================

@ Everyone: It's been a really busy week for me (real-life-wise), but I was able to finally complete v.5.2 tonight (the esps are now all finalized). I'm hoping to have time to write the FOMOD install script, update the Readme, and package up the mod tomorrow . . . but I cannot promise anything.

Version 5.2 is now definitely a MAJOR update, so I'm hoping that the long delay in releasing this version will be more than offset by the improvements to my Realism Tweaks. My Med-Tec module was expanded quite a bit . . . and MUCH improved (in my opinion). Plus I've made a LOT of changes to my Realism Core, like adding Menu-Time (where game time continues to advance while you are in the menus), adding a Fatigue display, improving all 3 of my Weapon Effect (again), Improved Dynamic Stealth, where the player's sneak skill is now a MUCH larger factor in your ability to remain undetected, and helmet AR protection was increased to roughly 25% of the total armor AR (making helmets a LOT more important).

I spent hours just play testing my final changes this week and I really tried to catch all the little bugs and imbalances that always seem to pop up at the last minute. This is now as bug-free as I can make it (without putting in another week of play testing) . . . but I made a TON of changes this time, so I'll be surprised if a bug or two don't pop up soon after release.

Yeah that's pretty much inevitable. Looking forward to the release!

Version 5.2 of my http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=7565 is now available


Here are the major changes in v5.2:

Realism Core:
- Improve my Smarter AI and sneak tweaks, and rewrote my Dynamic Stealth script for better balance with my new AI changes, and made the playera??s sneak skill a MUCH greater factor in being able to avoid detection (or not)
- Rewrote my RunBack scripts, so that it no longer heals crippled legs.
- Added time of day to Shades FX: can be difficult to see when wearing sunglasses after 7:45 pm or before 6:30 am.
- New Menu Time: the game clock no longer stops while in menus; actors still remain frozen, but the sun will now advance and your Med-Tec Needs will increase. Default Menu Time is same as your Timescale rate (can be reduced in Options Menu).
- Modified all 3 Weapon Effect Scripts: totally rebalanced; Armor AR now reduces Fatigue Damage; SuperMutants, RadScorpions, and DeathClaws now suffer less Fatigue Damage; Fatigue is now only restored to 85% (after being knocked out); adjusted blackout durations.
- Blast Effect: Unholstered weapons are now dropped when you are knocked unconscious (I finally figured out how to do this right).
- Gunshot Effect: Unholstered weapon of victim is removed to inventory (but still retains it's hotkey setting).
- Whack Effect: Actor can only be knocked out when their health is less than 50%, and the knockout player will only drop their weapon when their health is less than 30%.
- New Fatigue Display: pops up whenever fatigue is damaged; and periodically while Fatigue is less than 75% (off by default: enabled in the Options menu, under Weapon Effects).
- AR of helmets was increased (generally about 50%), while matching body armor AR was decreased (full armor AR generally remains the same as before). Helmet AR is now about 25% of total armor AR (wear your helmet!).
- New Perception Based Accuracy (disabled by default, and still a bit experimental): Your small guns skill is still factored in, but when enabled, Auto-Aim will be disabled and aiming accuracy will be based on player's current PER, which affects maximum accuracy distance (no bullet rise) and gun drift.

Hard-Core module:
- Further reduced spawned loot, by reducing my global Multipliers (an average of 10 to 20%). Still based on playera??s Luck stat, with each point of Luck increasing the spawn rates by 5% (10 Luck results in +45% chance over 1 Luck).
- Fixed my low-level perks [Petty Thief: PER=5 (only for actors with lower perception); Speech Class: CHR=5 (only for actors with lower charisma); Medic: INT=5 (only for actors with lower intelligence). I had the requirements set too high.

Encumbrance module:
- Fixed Jump script: No longer heals crippled legs.
- Reduced the amount that Strain increases when you swing a melee weapon.

Med-Tec module (This is my first real update to this module, and it's a biggie!):
- The Armor Level multiplier was adjusted in the way better armor reduces the degree of injuries you receive.
- Scanner's Additional Stats Menu now shows Fatigue Reserve and Bandage Time (hours remaining before bandages can be removed.
- Bandages now have penalties when they are applied to wounds and burns, and now remain on for a minimum of 4 game hours (up to 12 hours, with multiple bandages). Time is calculated separately for Burns and Wounds, but only the Wound Bandage Time is displayed in stats.
- Moderate Wounds (below Level 5) and minor Infections (below Level 6) can now be treated with the Scanner.
- Scanner treatment of injuries is now a percentage reduction of the Level (such as Wound Level), based on your Medicine skill.
- Doctors should now have plenty of bandages and antibiotics (and other meds) in stock.
- Message when injured (pop-up stats) is now different from hot-key scan message. Injured message now includes Fatigue, but no Needs (eat, drink, sleep).
- Infections will now only increase at Wound Level 3 and higher; and infections will decrease when Wound Level drops back down below 3 (was Level 2). But HP still do not regenerate until below Wound Level 2.
- Reduced Trauma Level increase rate quite a bit.
- Added Radiation Sickness Treatment to the Scanner, with information on what causes it and how to treat it. Maximum Radiation Level will no longer increase once it reaches Level 10.
- Endurance is now factored into rate that wounds, infections, trauma, and burns heal . . . you heal faster when your END is higher.
- Medicine Skill level now has greater impact on the effectiveness of Med-Tec Scanner treatment.
- Increased the general heath effect a bit when injecting a Stimpak (for Blood Lost, Wound Level, Trauma Level, Burn Level).
- Hard Liquor changes (Whisky, Scotch, Vodka): No longer quenches your thirst, but now dehydrates the player (increases your Water Need by 2); but now includes my new Restore Fatigue effect (-3 fatigue per second for 3 minutes).
- Water Bottle Refill changes: Now 3 types of empty water bottles: Pure, Good, and Dirty. To keep this balanced, you can only fill empty Water bottles when the bottle and the activator water types match. Also added Drinking Warning menus to Bad and Terrible water sources. [Also for balance: surface water does not quench your thirst, nor can you bottle it.]

MMM/Med-Tec Patch [new for v.5.2]: adds MMM meats to hunger-reducing food items.

Med-Tec GOTY Patch [new for v.5.2]: adds Aqua Pura, and other GOTY ingestibles to the items that reduce hunger and thirst.

GOTY/Realism Core Compatibility patch:
- Increased my Localized Damage settings for the Zeta Aliens and for Point Lookouta??s Hill People and Feral Ghouls, this should make them a bit less tough.
- Balanced Alien Epoxy (was too powerful): each tube/injection improves the condition of your equipped weapon by +5% to +25% (based on your Repair skill); and each tube now weighs 0.5 pound.

I'll update the opening post is a bit.

Just wanted to say thanks for the update. Always liked this mod and I've been looking forward to seeing what you were going to do in the updates and this one looks pretty impressive. Looking forward to checking it out.

Doug

First, congrats on the new release! The changelog looks promising.


Second, I ran into a small issue before even starting the game. I'm just too good at breaking things!

I was creating a new Bashed Patch with Wrye Bash, to save me a couple of esp slots by merging the patches. This has always worked fine. But this time, I get the following error when it is loading all the different files, and reaches the med-tec module:


It also gave a little pop up message stating:


That's probably where it went wrong. I checked the Med-Tec esp out in the GECK but I see nothing special about that object that could cause problems. It seems to be unrelated to the med-tec patches themselves, I still get the error if I leave those out of the bashed patch.

For now I've disabled the med-tec module and its patches before making the Bashed Patch, and then activated them afterwards. Having 2 extra compatibility esps active isn't the end of the world. Weird issue though.

You're most welcome, and please post some feedback on the changes, after you've had some time to play the game.


Thanks!

FN3Edit AWAYS shows that book entry as an error. I even deleted the reference and recreated it in the GECK, but the error still pops up. I think it is sort of like the way the GECK always lists any item that is tagged Armor, as having an error because no biped slots are assigned to it. The ArwenMedScanKey is just the item that activates my Med-Tec Scan. It works perfectly.

I really don't recommend including my mod in a Bashed Patch, and now even state this in my ReadMe. Half of the issues that users have had with my Realism Tweaks not functioning correctly has been due to including it in a Bashed or Merged Patch.

Alright.

One more thing. I started with a clean save, and had some problems with initializing the med-tec module. It tells me to stand still, while it adds some things to my inventory, and then I get a pop up telling me to use the med-tec scanner. I do this, and the med-tec instructions note is added.

But then I get http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/9026/artzez.jpg, and it gets repeated infinitely. The bottom of the message suggests that it thinks I am in combat, but I'm not. I checked with the console command 'isincombat', which said I wasn't in combat. I was in Tenpenny Tower, so there is no reason why there would be anything to attack me. So I'm not sure why it would say this. I don't think this is even a message you still get when using the scanner in combat?

When I let my character wait for an hour I got 'med tec scanner is now operational' pop up and the problem stopped.

It sounds like something interrupted the Med-Tec Quest, which prevented it from finishing. I didn't even alter the Med-Tec Quest in v.5.2 (it was one of the few thing I didn't touch), so I really do not get this one.

The first time that you run a scan, it show my Med-Tec Combat message, just to inform you that you cannot run a Full Scan during combat. Once the Med-Tec Quest is completed, you should get the Full Scan message . . . unless you are tagged as being in combat

As a follow up of my earlier reply: I use the FO3 Plugin Utility whenever I want to merge my esps. That is what I always used when I use to include my FULL Tweaks esp.

I tried initializing it from the start twice and it didn't do every step equally fast in both tries. So I'm guessing something was just slowing it down a bit. I do have tons of mods running and my save is 85 hours old.

Time to start playing then!

Cool

One thing - I just took a dive in Potomac and was only getting 0.4 rads/second. Also, I can't quench my thirst from sinks, same thing was in previous version? Is it supposed to be like that or there's something ain't right on my end?

I waited 5 days outside, figuring that would be enough to reset the loot lists and shop inventories. I'm not using any mods that change the number of days it takes for cells to be reset. I checked with the doctors in Rivet City, Tenpenny Tower, Underworld and Paradise Falls, and still none of them were selling bandages. They do have plenty of stimpaks, Rad-X and RadAway. :unsure:

I had the same problem with the previous version. Maybe it's something on my side. But I don't have any mods that alter the doctors loaded after ART.

Heh, some of the perk conditions are set wrong. E.g. speech class should need charisma 5, I'm allowed to take with CHA 1, in FO3Edit it shows "less than or equal". I also remember from previous version some perk that needs endurance was also available with less.

The amount of rads/sec varies, depending on your armor/clothing. I just tried with Butch's Tunnel Snake outfit and it said 1.4 Rads/sec. And you do notice that your actual damage is a LOT higher than what the RADs/sec gives? The per second rate seems to be hard coded in, because it doesn't show my increased Radiation damage changes . . . so the given Rads/sec needs to be multiplied by 4 to get your actual exposure.

The sinks should all quench your thirst (but surface water won't). And you should get a menu when you active any water source (excluding the surface water sources). If you're not getting the menus, I'm guessing that you may not have FOSE installed correctly (or are not launching the game with FOSE).


I really did fix the doctor part (at least my new fix works for me). But the amount of bandages and antibiotics are based on your Luck stat. I just tested with my clean save (just before exiting Vault 101), running straight to Dr Church's clinic, and he had 2 bandages and 2 antibiotics for sale (and I only had 3 Luck). Moria had 2 antibiotics, but no bandages. And I found some bandages in the Springfield School. So it seems to be working ok. I can certainly increase the amounts, but I don't want them to be too easy to come by.

Oh, and the Med-Tec Quest ran perfectly for me. I have no idea why yours didn't.


You're not understanding what my Low-Level Perks were created for (probably because I had some of them wrong in my previous versions). As my changed lists states: "Fixed my low-level perks [Petty Thief: PER=5 (only for actors with lower perception); Speech Class: CHR=5 (only for actors with lower charisma); Medic: INT=5 (only for actors with lower intelligence). I had the requirements set too high." I probably could have explained that better in the readme.) You can only take the Speech Class perk if your Charisma is <= 5. The whole idea is with these perks is to give lower level characters a few more perk choices.

Apparently rad accumulation rate is indeed higher than displayed. Still, it's much lower than in previous version. Swimming from Citadel to Jeferson's memo and then to Rivet city got me 60+ rads, while before It would have been over 300.

Just tested the Megaton house sink and it worked. Must be something with the sink in my personal house mod, any tips? It's a clean vault-type metal sink giving dirty water.

I didn't change my Radiation multipliers or my Radiation Accumulation rates in v.5.2 . . . they are all they have been for ages . . . which is 4 times higher than default (I just checked in the GECK to make sure . . . and they are just what they are suppose to be.)

You have to have to have a drink activator attached to your sink, which would then have one of my Bottle Fill scripts attached to it (based on the type of water your sink supplies).

The bandages show up when I start a new game. Both the new character and my current character have 4 luck, and the new character was able to find 2 bandages on several doctors. So it seems to be working.

I did some more testing at the puddle around Megaton's bomb.
With your mod fully uninstalled (following instructions) the rad rate was 2.4/sec. With your mod the actual rad buildup was exactly the same but HUD showed that it's 0.9/sec. Then to the very end of my mod list I added XFO rad changes module that increases rad buildup 5 times (which is 25% higher than yours) and my actual rad buildup increased by about ... 25%, which is just a bit faster than vanilla, HUD showed 1/sec.

Now a while ago I had something similar with AP regen rate, once in a while it would revert back to 4. Just like with that xfo rad module I made one for AP regen and placed it at the end of list, no dice. Only recently I've discovered that it was bullet time mod doing that via script. Are you sure that you don't have any scripts doing similar thing? Because the only thing that changed from the last correctly working version is your mod update.

I'll add my load order (fairly short one). Bashed patch is only used to tweak item names.


Edit: whah, apparently only open water sources are acting up. I just got a random encounter with giant ants around radioactive barrel and it was hot! I've forgot to mention that when I drank from Megaton's puddle I got 1 rad/sec but it lasted a good dozen of seconds. Maybe there's some error in script where it erroneously tries to simulate DOT effect while standing in water?

@Everyone:

Well, the first bug has popped up (thanks again, 'Echelon117):

My illuminated spell (when you turn your pipboy light on) remain active, even after you turn your Pip-Boy light off (which is not suppose to happen).
This one had me baffled for a couple of hours, because the spell worked perfectly in v.5.0 and I hadn't made any changes to it.

What happened is that one my newest changes to my Stealth script (which I added the day before v.5.2 was released) interacted badly with the way the spell reduced the player's skill level, resulting in a divide by zero error . . . which prevented the rest of the script from running. I'll release either a mini update or a hot fix soon . . . I just want to make sure that no other bugs pop up.

===========================
@x4lien:
None of my scripts increase radiation Accumulation or Multipliers . . . those values were changed directly in Game Settings . . . and they are the same in v.5.2 as they were in v.5.0 (and earlier).
But I have come up with a better way of doing this, that seems to display the correct Rad/sec rate. I'll likely add this to my above mini-update/hot fix.

The Rads damage you get from drinking surface water is the same as in the default game . . . I just spread it out over time, at 1 Rad/sec. The amount is determined by the default water type: Bad water = 16 Rads (1 Rad/sec for 16 sec); or Terrible water = 24 Rads (1 Rad/sec for 24 sec). And drinking from surface water will NOT quench your thirst (which is intentional).

Another thing. It happened with the previous version and it's happening again - during operation Anchorage the quest "paving the way" gets stuck after you take out chimera base and listening post and where you need to continue to the final target. Montgomery seems to lack some lines and you can only "check the status on current targets" and "as you were". Last time when I went on alone the quest finally switched to "operation: anchorage" and I was able to finish simulation even though the previous quest permanently stayed in my log, but this time even when I disable the pulse field nothing happens. So, I'm stuck inside simulation, probably will have to look for console commands to try and push it forward.

Now I doubt that it's your mod doing this, but you never know.

Edit: heh, I just tcl'ed through the last gate and manage to get it done. But now again, even though I've already looted the armory I still need to talk to Montgomery to command the strike team :brokencomputer:

I've played through Operation Anchorage with ART (a few versions back) without problems. I don't see how any of Arwen's tweaks could cause a quest to break.

I just found out that my GOTY / Realism Core patch was somehow unattached from my Realism Core as a master, so my Object Effects didn't stick. I doesn't break anything . . . you just lose my effects from these items.
The larger bug is the the Illumination Spell issue that I covered in my most recent previous post.

Both are now fixed in my v.5.2.1 beta . . . which I'll release as a mini update/hot fix soon . . . I just want to make sure that no other bugs pop up.

So, if anyone has discovered anything else that does not seem to be working correctly in v.5.2, PLESE let me know, so that I can fix it and get the update released.

>>I had similar issues with EVE's graphical changes, whenever energy weapon combat got a bit intense.<<

I kicked EVE to the curb, I liked it but everytime I got into a fight with an Enclave roadblock, even when trying to run past it, somewhere there would have to be one or two reloads of the game before I could get by.

I probably will again re-add your durible vehicle again, because I DID have Eve at the time and some other graphical mods which I have since done without (odd the Enclave with EVE gone makes the Plasma rifles of the Enclave so much more dangerous, I go down in about 3-5 shots non EVE; over the 6-10 Eve installed. I miss the zoom plasma pistol though).


>>My own game rarely crashes . . . and while I'm working on an update, I spend a LOT of time running the game with often 2 GECK sessions running<<

TWO GECK!!?? how do you do that!!
What are your system specs
Mines Quad / XP Home (compatible with EVERYTHING) / 4 gig (uses only 3.2 so I really don't know if the XP hack for Fallout to use more memory is really working)

Maybe playing the Broken Steel DLC at level 19 with the Med-tec module active properly for the first time wasn't such a good idea. Ouch.

My experience at level 18-19: The BS enemies have way too much health. In particular the http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Albino_Radscorpion are awful, after encountering them twice and wasting all my ammo on them I started killing them with the console instead. They're rediculous. http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Feral_Ghoul_Reaver also have way too much health. They should be challenging enough with less than 1100 HP too, their attacks are pretty powerful. They have a good ranged attack too.

I'm probably a bit on the low side level-wise for Broken Steel, but I've done pretty much everything else already (Besides Broken Steel and Point Lookout) and with the 1/5 XP multiplier I don't expect to make it further than 21.

I'm switching to 1/4 for my next playthrough I think.

Still that's a balance question for a later version, not a hot fix. I haven't encountered any real issues yet.



It helps if you don't have to load any cells in them.
Still one of them always crashes for me if I try to open the FO3 and NV one simultaneously...