HAM: hardcoe Advanced Mods 2.0 ( Formally FONVA )
Russell "Castle" Meakim Jr
Get the mods http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=36832
=============================
This is a Fallout New Vegas game play overhaul. All modules are now available as optional separate downloads or you can get them all at once with the full package. This update is the last large update to most of the smaller modules. The spawns module will become the main focus while HAM will primarily become my side experimental projects while helping out the FWE team and hopefully Martigen when/if he comes around again.

One nice thing to note is that as time goes on these modules will be updated and modified to compliment and not conflict with future work on the FWE team.













I am open for all requests, comments, feedback so feel free to let me know what you think.

credits special thanks
============================
Corena Harton ( Cover art for HAM, lol you rock babe! )
adelamer2569 and (Helped me out of a pinch by merging an esp into an esm.)
behippo ( Example script for Six hands )
DarkUncleBoh ( Comments suggestions )
TomSawyer ( Comments suggestions )

This looks great, especially the spawn module. I'll use this in my game.

Looking forward to trying out some of the changes.

One comment on 6 hands and explosives: IMO that feels far too restrictive for anyone who wants to build an "explosives based" character (what I happen to be using on my current play through) since you are in effect now limiting the characters primary ammunition. I think I'd prefer to see something along the lines of, your first 6 explosives are free - after that, every 12 explosives (or fraction of) counts as one hand.

So: grenade rifle (2) + 10mm pistol (1) + sturdy caravan shotgun (2) + 24 sticks of dynamite (2) + 6 frag grenades (free) = 7 hands, or 20wg worth of penalty.
(More or less what I'm carrying now)

...rather than the same loadout resulting in a 480wg penalty...

This would also encourage me to make a choice - ditch the shotgun and carry more explosives, or just deal with the low capacity?


On the one hand, 12 may seem like a lot (when comparing the bulk of 12 mines to a 9mm pistol)... but balance/gameplay issues need to be taken into account as well IMO.

Another thought is to have the number of explosives that equal one hand, be adjusted based on ranks in the demolitions expert perk and/or explosives skill. In other words:
- first 6 explosives free
- base value of 2 explosives per hand
- plus 1 explosive per hand, for every 25 points of explosives skill
- plus 2 explosives per hand, for every rank of demolitions expert perk

This way a character with only 30 explosives, is going to pay heavily for carrying many explosives, at only 3 per hand...
...meanwhile a master demolitions expert with 100 skill and 3 ranks of the perk, will carry 12 explosives per hand - making the trade off of fewer guns for more BOOM a more favorable one.

hmm

I will definitely look into this for a weekend update. should be easy to hook up.
Explosives skill could influence how many explosives count per hand is a pretty cool idea. I like that idea a lot and should not be too limiting for an explosives character.

I'd actually had the idea of granting bonus hands based on other weapon skills as well. The graceful way to do it would be a little bit more complex, but not too bad -- something along the lines of, "when you reach 100 guns skill, you get 2 free hands of guns only" / "when you reach 100 energy skill, you get 2 free hands of energy only", ditto for melee and unarmed.

The idea being to give those characters who have specialized in a particular weapon type, an extra choice of their chosen type.

Take it or leave it - like I said, just something that has been kicking around in my head.

ill have to see how this module compliments future work. It may come down to a need to allow ways to reduce the burden of the hand penalty.

the spawn rating is way too high, itfeels like serious sam instead of fallout

My suggestion would be
leave the critter spawn as it was and just work with the different bandit groups, maybe some more NCR patrols too

Serious sam? And I was worried that I toned it down too much!
Is it like this in all locations for you or just some? if it gets overly crazy in specific locations I am able to make adjustments.

Keep the overly crazy spawn around as an option at least! :mohawk:

I feel that crazy spawns should be a scalable programmatic solution while hand placed spawns should feel more like the normal game. Combine the two and this would allow MMM to really do its thing. But for now I suppose its not the most terrible idea to have crazy spawns as an option hehe at least.

I gave it a shot (more life to the wasteland is always a good thing!) but had to turn it off as the number of spawns (well, processing the additional AI) was causing lag and freezing. I don't have a great system, just meeting or above the minimum requirements. Running into a den of coyotes, a molerat pack and having the Powder Ganger camps actually look like camps was neat though.

You mentioned working on the FWE team, does this mean a FWE is being worked on for NV? FWE is perhaps the best mod I have ever seen(between MW,OB and FO3). Every game should have a customization option menu like FWE 5, unless you have your own overhaul mod(which mean you already have everything customized the way you want,like Arwens) then why would you not want FWE? Oh the joy of just thinking about it.

Just a thought, for your additonal creatures spawn mod. http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=38368#fileanchor

Might be cool to use some of that!

Something to watch out for. If you install the increased spawns module after you saved Primm make sure to note that some extra gangster spawns will be present and can cause problems. Ill try to fix this however I can.

@Mavkiel, I like the idea of adding a larger verity of creatures but from what I can tell the increased spawns module does not conflict with that mod at all. All I do is add more spawns in the world space so compatibility is super straightforward.

Nice, looking forward to trying the new spawn module. And hopefully no more vanishing corpses!
:kudos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=230I-OoobR0&hd=1

I did not want to watch the video as I have seen little of NV(I always wait for Beth games to be out a while before picking them up, to iron bugs and for mods) and I don't want to see spoilers(even minor). But I am hopeful!

All I have to say to that is

I just wanted to give some feedback on the damage module. I just got caught out in the open by the legion assassins and in the hail of bullets that followed managed to get to cover before taking too much damage. I've got a DT of 9 and they had 10ml submachineguns so I don't think I should have survived that encounter. I don't really know terribly much about DT and all that so I'm interested in an opinion on this.
Npc's with rifles are a real challenge though. Just on a side note unfortunately in default new vegas I feel the legion falls far short of its "fearsome" reputation.

/edit also, do npc's get to use AP rounds or are they stuck with normal ammo?

And here I was thinking about starting a new game, but now I don't want to start it cause I know when that comes out I'll just want to start a new new game again and my new game will become my old game and stuff.

With the damage module DT becomes way more important. A DT level of 9 is pretty well geared and will seemingly stop shotgun and small arms damage surprisingly well. How DT in the damage module works can be explained fairly easily, If the damage done to the target is below the damage threshold it causes damage to decrease greatly. If Damage done is above the threshold then DT is only subtracted from the damage done.

I don't think npcs use AP ammo but I would imagine that they can. They certainly use the modified ammo in the damage module from what I can tell.

Thanks for that explanation, I don't feel like I've cheated death then. This module is quite good, it feels a lot better than simply upping the damage which I did on a previous playthrough which made things too easy. Thanks too for all the different modules.

Yeah, it mostly just exaggerates the current system without destroying the careful balance that Obsidian put forth and it also doesn't have the side effect of making the already over powered melee weapons more powerful too.

It was recently suggested that I should split the spawns module from HAM off into its own mod complete with a new and far more descriptive name and more features. I have been kind of debating this myself for awhile now. The spawns module is very popular compared to the other, albeit more nitch modules. So I am mulling over this for a bit. I don't want to compete toe to toe with Martigen on this front though imo its not like I haven't already started to help him with the new MMM to some extent already.

What should I call it?
And what additional features do people want to see most with the spawns module?

any suggestions? ( Including bug fixes if you want )

Did you create more spawns in the Scorpion Gulch area? Because that area is virtually impassable at low level now when you've got 6 giant rad scorpions on your tail! Mangaged to bypass with a stealth boy - turbo combo, but it was kinda frustrating really.

I'd concentrate not on increasing spawn numbers where there are already spawns...but maybe try to generate new dynamic spawn instances, especially Legion vs NCR patrols skirmishes, because there seems to be a lack of this in vanilla.

Plus have you considered adding back the rogue robot spawns of FO3 back into the Wasteland? I know some people hated them, but for me there was nothing like the terror of experiencing a Sentry bot armed with missles when you least expect it!