Yes, the "perception perk" is a hidden perk that provides a crit bonus (or penalty) based on your perception.

I found it. Thank you. Sorry to be such a bother. ^^;

Edit: Mm, is that hidden perk affected by +perception bonuses, or just the base perception? Oh, and does it just apply the modifier once, at the beginning of the game, or does it adjust the modifier as you go?

The modifier will be adjusted to your base perception as it changes, but not by your modified perception.

I've been looking over FWE and I think I might like to give it a try. I currently use Arwen's FULL Tweaks along with her slower XPR tweak and some of the other mods incorporated into FWE. I'm satisfied but I haven't ever used another overhaul so I thought I would try this one. I have plenty of room on an external drive to back everything up in case I want to switch back so I'm good to go. It looks to be a fairly straightforward installation, with FOIP integration, so I'm not too concerned with getting it up and running.

I have a couple of questions, though:

1. Is there a way to start out the game where you are not bothered at all about the main quest? It looks like FWE is best experienced with a new character but I've done the main quest once, and don't want to have to do again or be bothered by NPCs about it. In other words if I choose the Scavenger history in Alternate Starts, will the NPCs not bother me about my Dad and other vault dweller dialogue like, "Hey, you're that stray from the vault"? It wouldn't make sense if I had lived my life as a scavenger in the Wastelands that I would be a stray from the vault looking for my Dad.

2. It looks like FWE might incorporate some companion changes. Does it conflict with Phalanx? Because I really like that mod.

Well more fun news on this November Sunday . . .

NOTE: You don't need to force a cell re-set, but if you want to see some of the new loot changes immediately, you may want to.


Recent Changes


Master Release 4.1

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MAJOR CHANGES / NEW FEATURES
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Integrated a night vision mod for power armor helmets and recon armor helmets developed by Delamer. A new tool is added to your inventory (under apparel) that let's you customize the night vision options. When wearing full power armor, the night vision doesn't drain energy, otherwise it consumes energy cells during operation. This mod's capabilities have been extended to the DLC power armors and the Anchorage stealth suit.

Added better handling of disabling or re-enabling the integrated triage mod, also courtesy of Delamer. FWE will now remember what perks you had if you disable the mod, and choose to later re-enable it.

Removed the repair and medicine skill bonus received from having tools (hammers, wrenches, etc…) or medical equipment (bone saw, forceps, etc…) in your inventory. Instead, you can now CRAFT a tool kit or medical kit that provides the equivalent bonus. The bonuses show up as a (+) modifier next to your skills now as well, similar to armor effects.

Added an option to CRAFT medical braces and surgical supplies, IF you have the wasteland doctor perk, courtesy of razorwire. You can make a medical brace from 1 leather belt and 1 scrap metal, and surgical supplies fro 1 abraxo cleaner and 3 empty bottles.

Integrated Prometheus_ts's Advanced Combat Armor module, which adds three new sets of armor, in both Talon Merc and normal wasteland varieties. This includes Combat Armor Light, Combat Armor Mark II, and Combat Armor Mark II Heavy, and a new masked and unmasked combat helmet. You'll notice the talon versions appearing on the Talon Merc's, which adds to the diversity of their armor. The non-talon varieties will appear in vendor lists.

Integrated b3w4r3's Remote Control Companion mod into FWE's optional Follower's Enhanced module. This mod adds a "command headset" to your apparel tab, that let's you give orders to your companions remotely, including group orders. Orders include follow (variable distances), wait, relax, etc…. Very handy addition!


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TWEAKS / BUG FIXES
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Fixed a problem with PA outcast helmet not getting "fitted" correctly at the workbench (included in 4.0 hotfix).

Fixed a problem with the Followers Enhanced non-Broken steel version requiring broken steel. Doh! (included in 4.0 hotfix).

Adjusted the Raider Marauder weapon list to use less rare or high level weapons.

Fixed weapon scanner mod to correctly show associated weapon skill.

Fixed the wasteland travel caravan vans (in the optional Alternative Travel module) to not give you a free ride. Also re-enabled the infinite weight capacity option for the wasteland explorer motorcycle.

Fixed a problem with the outcast tech collection quest not accepting "Brotherhood" PA.

The workbench repair bonus now shows up properly as a "+" modifier to your repair skill, instead of increasing your base repair skill.

Tweaked the effects of alcohols, in particular correcting a problem with beer effect durations.

Minor tweaks and adjustments to chem and drug effects.

Needle pistols will now be found for sale at vendors, and in some additional loot lists around the wastes.

Smuggler's end unique laser pistol got a damage increase to match the normal laser pistol.

Increased the ammo capacity of A-31's rifle to 5, reduced the drifter laser rifle capacity to 9. The A-31 plasma rifle now fires at a normal volume level instead of loud.

Improved the balance of the Turbo Plasma Rifle by making each shot require 20 EC's. Remains at three shots per reload.

Fixed a problem with ants and other actors moving oddly in some circumstances.

Tweaked the values of cigarettes/packs/cartons. Carton's are worth more (75), packs remain at 5, and individual cigs are now worth zero (0). Basically, you can't cheat by opening up all your packs and selling individual cigs for a ton more money.

Fixed a problem with winterized PA not being the right armor in the DLC Anchorage patch. Also corrected an issue with the player not receiving the right training perk (i.e. the FWE version of PA Training).

Updated the primary scripts for the Sprint Mod to be more reliable.

Increased the health of Deathclaws, Yai Gaui and other tougher creatures, but not the super creatures like behemoths. In addition, the monster version of the nerd rage perk was adjusted to provide a +20 bonus to DR.

Fixed problems in normal FWE + the optional worn weapons patch with Super Mutants not using plasma rifles and hunting rifles despite being given them.

Added pipe rifles to the weapon lists in the worn weapon module. The pipe rifle will occur on low level raiders and wastelanders.

Morphine only provides 5 DR instead of 25 in the harsher wasteland optional module.


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FOIP
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Updated EVE FOIP patch to support EVE Beta 0.9.5

The EVE FOIP patch now includes an extra module when using FWE and Weapon Mod Kits, which extends EVE's visual effects to the mod'ed weapons. You won't see the new EVE textures/models on the weapons, but you will see the new projectile, critical kills, and other effects.

Mart's Mutant Mod FOIP patch updated to support MMM 5.0.

The MMM FOIP patch now includes all of the optional MMM Natural Selection mod.

Reduced the drop rate for night ghoul eyes in the MMM FOIP patch.

Tweaked the effects of some of the new MMM ingestibles.

Added an extra module to the MMM FOIP package for using FWE and EVE alongside MMM.

Why- it can be. You raise in the vault and then choose your way in the life. Scavenger, raider... but you still looking for your father. For some of the beginnings in FWE though it will be very hard or impossible to accomplish main quest line. So be careful.
No, alternative starts don't remove your main quest, but you can not complete it if you want

Companion's changes in FWE in different plugin now, so if you want Phalanx- don't use this plugin. Phalanx work perfectly with FWE

Thanks, delamer. It doesn't look like Scavenger will have a main quest problem so I may go with either that or the typical vault dweller. Even though I just recently completed the main quest with a current character, and wasn't looking forward to doing it again any time soon, I may go ahead and complete it again because I believe the main quest must be completed, and a certain level achieved, to take advantage of Phalanx's new content.

Scavengers, refugee, medics, politicians and other civilians will not have problems with main line.
Enclaves, outcasts- not sure
Raiders and Talons can have problems

Yes, new content need main quest to be finished

Raiders and Talon's are the only factions that will give you problems with the main quest.

Mez, I never like to beg of the modders who bring us such wonderful content, but I'm in a sticky situation.

You updated the resources to 4.1, and 200 megabytes is simply beyond my download capabilities with dialup. I ask that if you can isolate the new resources and upload them, I would be eternally grateful.



I'm confined to 5kbs download rate, and there's no chance of getting a file this big. And even if my internet was stable and wouldn't kick off randomly, it would take 10-12 hours for it to get done.


I understand if this is too much to ask. I can probably get to a computer with high speed later this week, but it would come most grudgingly.



And, FWE 4.1 is looking even better than ever!

Mm, hello. I took a peek and the only new assets I could see where in...
Meshes/Prometheus/, Sound/FX/Sprint/, Textures/B3Textures/, Textures/Prometheus/.

I can't tell if any of the older assets have been updated, at least not without being overly thorough.

http://www.box.net/shared/m8k2hvdu6k
It is only 10mb 7zipped, and hopefully works. ^^;

*attempts to make up for incessant pestering* (halo->) o:3

Thanks for posting that for Ashven! Those folders should cover all of the new contentfor the 4.1 release. Thanks for posting it as well, because I wouldn't have access to any of my files for a while anyway.

I completed the main quest with a character that was a Talon Merc and that was a challenge. I didn't know at the time I created the character that Rivet City security faction were enemies of the Talon so imagine my surprise when I first tried to enter Rivet City. I didn't want to start over again and I didn't want to cheat and change my faction so I decided to eliminate Rivet City security. Of course Harken is essential so I couldn't kill him unless I completed the quest in which he's involved so I had to complete that quest. You can commplete that quest without ever interacting with Harken but you don't get his nice plasma rifle. I managed to not only complete the main quest but also all of the side quests involving Rivet City.

Right then. If I'm playing using FWE 4.1, MMM RC5, EVE 0.95 and WMK then I will need the following FOIP patches: EVE/FWE/WMK, MMM and WMK/FWE. Is this right? And in what order should they be loaded to ensure compatibility and functionality? The whole thing is getting rather confusing with too many incremental releases IMO, though I appreciate the gaming experience that the modder's work provides.

Take a look at the description on the FOIP page. At the bottom of the description, I updated the example FWE load order for exactly the combination of mods you're mentioning. Let me know if you have any questions beyond that.

And yes, I know the whole thing is getting pretty confusing . . . we really need more a proper guide to sorting this whole thing out. Hopefully the pace of updates will settle down a little more, as there was just a big flury of activity with FWE, MMM, EVE, and FOOK all getting updated within a 1-2 week period.

Thank you so very much, Magnolia!

You've saved me from the wrath of an evil aunt...:shudder:

FWE 4.1, here I comes, with Vault - fuel of the gamers and/or gods!

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4318

Rather random, but I just thought to recommend this. It fits wonderfully with the feel of FWE, I think. It acts as a resource-sink for food, drink and medicine; I don't see a stockpile of food, I see free time to read. ^_^;
There is only a teeny, tiny conflict, in that it does not use the slightly (0.7, rather than 1.0) weight of burnt/destroyed books, when loaded after FWE etc.; but otherwise fits perfectly.

It got me thinking about the illusion of immersion, too. I love the aspects of survival that FWE brings, but there is a conflict. Thinking of experience as a 'reward', something that players persue, granting a sense of progress; the way it is currently distributed encourages players to go out of their way to disarm traps, to risk their life, to pick unnecessary fights etc., where as their characters would probably consider time spent reading, relaxing amongst their pre-war decorated home, food, warmth and security; generally the 'good life' as their inscentive, their reward.

So... what if experience was awarded for survival? The idea being to align the player and the character's goals. Scavving the wastes, risking your life in firefights with Raiders etc. would be a necessary means to an end - to earn caps, stockpile supplies to 'spend' on character advancement(time spent 'waiting', experience based on the environment etc.). The impracticality of implementing something like that aside, does the concept make sense, or would experience seem to arbitrary? o.o;

Sorry again, just a random thought. ^_^

No, I can get where you come from. I'm personally not a big fan of the "traditional" RPG experience system. Vampire Bloodlines was great in that regard, it only rewarded experience for archieving goals(no matter how you met those goals). That way you didn't feel the necessity to kill everything in your path, just to get the most experience.

However in a non-linear Sandbox game like Fallout, something like that is not really possible, since you really only have few predetermined goals, most goals the player sets himself. The only other kind of feasable system I could imagine would be a skill system like in TES games (or one like in Ultima Online).
There are simply too many different possible playstyles in Fallout, to make an abstract system that would work for them all I think.
Again I do like your sentiment, but can't think of any feasable way to implement that(atleast nothing that wouldn't take insane amounts of work). I would be happily proven wrong though.

Big thank to you for pointing into this mod. I will surely try it

No kidding. I just read the description on Nexus. Sounds fascinating. I especially love the completely opposite directions the two perks take. This will make scavenging even more fun and worthwhile.

I'll try
but it'll probably take an insane amount of work :unsure:

First you woulds want to make the risky act of combat and fighting undesireable, but you still learn from it so.. just drop the xp earned from combat and fighting to some kind of minimum, like say; 5 xp for whacking a behemoth anyone? And scale down from there...

Now comes the fun part;
award xp for what DarkMagnolia said, doing nothing.
Lets say a base of 1xp per hour of standing and doing nothing -in a safe and secure environment, modified by environment and added 'luxuries of life'
sitting doubles the base
sitting with company adds 1xp per person in the group -now there's a reason to sit with Fawkes
radio on or jukebox nearby adds 1xp
Reading a book adds xp, maybe by incorporating prewar book titles and perks, again, what DarkMagnolia mentioned
beer in the fridge adds 1xp for every 10beers..
food on the table..
etc.

Bittercup upstairs in the bedroom adds 10xp



okido, speaking of beers in the fridge, my thoughts run dry.. time to get another one

That was actually something along the lines of what I had in mind. ^_^;

Starting with the basics, and removing all other experience sources, for the moment. Every ~hourly tik your character is awarded experience for still breathing, no specific numbers or anything, just a global variable, to be adjusted to balance, later. This would include time spent sleeping and waiting, awarding a cumulative bonus afterwards. You could then add modifiers, fleshing out the system over time.

Being out in the wastes could apply a penalty, for example. Hunger, Thirst and Fatigue, in their various states, too. While being in 'good condition' could grant a bonus. Sleeping on the portable matress, could provide less experience that the regular variety, and both vastly inferior to those which grant the 'well rested' perk.

You could even get carried away and do things like... 'quality of life' bonuses, grading foods and drinks to provide temporary bonuses/penalties. While you might scraqe by on 'squirrels', you would achieve a better quality of life by eating pre-war/prepaired foods, and more experience for the duration of their buff. You might add a dialog-innitiated option to expend caps 'waiting' in a saloon for a bonus, and probably find yourself intoxicated afterwards, too.

Imagine Sim3 'moodlets' in the form of perks, and your experience per 'tik' based on your overall mood...
But yes, it would take a lot of work. Too much work, probably... almost certainly. ^_^;
Disclaimer: Not a serious suggestion. Don't hurt me. :3

Hello, just a plug for a modded icon pack I just updated,
Vanilla - DLC - FWE - Real Icons
which includes lots of FWE icons for weapons and items. Check it out http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3930.

Mez, if you like it you're welcome to pop it in the FWE assets download as an alternative icon set if you want.

I'm having a problem with the WeaponModKits - FWE Master Release.esp. I'm using FWE 4.1. I started getting the red diagonal with the sideways exclamation point surrounding some NPCs and in a few other areas here and there. I narrowed it down to this .esp. When it's activated the problems occur. When deactivated, the problems go away. I have checked the load order again, and again, and again, and I have it in tune with what's on the FOIP page. I run FWE 4.1 + WMK + EVE + MMM.

I've spent about two hours on this and it seems to be this WeaponModKits - FWE Master Release.esp. I have it loading after WeaponModKits.esp and the DLC .esps. WMK is loading after FWE, and before EVE and MMM which is loading last. Any suggestions? I downloaded all the FOIP 4.1 stuff so it seems to be the correct .esp.

Do you have EVE - FWE with WeaponModKits.esp in your load order?
Try to disable all eve components and try again. will it help?