Cirosan's Classic Overhaul
Public Beta 1

Requires:
New Vegas Script Extender (NVSE)
http://nvse.silverlock.org/

Fallout Mod Manager (FOMM)
http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=36901

>> http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=44027




Welcome to Cirosan's Classic Overhaul! The goal of CCO is very simple: To make a player's choices matter by introducing a variety of new content designed to encourage careful decision-making and roleplaying. However, what makes CCO unique is that it is modular -- that is to say, each file can be used independent from one another. Of course, they're all designed to be used together, but for the most part everything's up to you. Everything that CCO does is designed to make for a more interesting and fulfilling New Vegas experience.

CCO follows several design philosophies:
Choices and consequences -- Core game formulas and mechanics have been altered to discourage min-maxing but still augment your character's design. Putting points into something shouldn't just marginally improve it -- you'll see immediate, qualitative changes.
Compatibility with other mods and old saves -- CCO is designed to play nice with as many other mods as possible, and can be integrated into an existing save painlessly.
Customization to suit your needs - Don't like it? Don't use it! Pick and choose what you like in CCO to customize your New Vegas experience to your liking!
Quality over quantity -- CCO may not be the most sizeable mod out there, but what it does, it should do uniquely and interestingly.

CCO comes with four main modules, all intended to be used with each other, but each can operate independently if you don't like one of them. They are:
Gameplay Changes -- The crux of the overhaul. Many game formulas are changed, companions are overhauled, and the function of V.A.T.S. is different altogether.
Classic Perks -- Reintroduces many classic perks and traits from Fallout 1, 2, and even from Tactics. Note that this can be used independently and was made with compatibility in mind, so even if you despise the rest of what this overhaul does, you can still use just this and have all the extra perks you want!
Damage Resistance -- Reimplements Damage Resistance into the game, but very carefully. You have a natural DR now, equal to your (DT - 15) -- but it will never, ever exceed 25% under any circumstances.
Perk Rebalance -- Intended to bring vanilla perks more into line with Classic Perks, above, this module reduces many erroneous requirements from several perks and alters the effects of others.




Classic Perks

The Classic Perks module does exactly what it says on the tin: It adds more perks to the game! Well, not just perks, but quite a few traits as well. Many of them are inspired by similarly-designed mechanics in Fallout 1 and 2, but there are a considerable amount of original creations too.

Traits

Adrenaline Junkie
You're hooked to the sudden rush you feel after you end some other poor bastard's life. You regain 10 Action Points whenever you kill something in V.A.T.S., but you regenerate Action Points only half as fast.

Bruiser
You hit like a mack truck, but your swings are also a little on the slow side. Unarmed and melee attacks do 20% more damage, but your attack speed is 20% slower.

Determined
Nothing can stop you when you put your mind to something. You have a permanent Damage Threshold bonus of 15 and your limbs are twice as hard to cripple - but all chems (including Stimpaks!) have no effect on you.

Fear the Reaper
Live hard and fast, that's always been your plan. You gain a perk every level instead of every 2, but your starting health is halved and you only gain half as much health when leveling up.

Gifted
You were born talented. However, because you were so gifted, you never spent time learning new things. You gain 7 points to raise your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats as you see fit, but earn 5 less skill points per level and get perks every 3 levels instead of every 2.

Jinxed
You live in fortune's blind spot, often failing in spite of all probability and reason. The good news: your enemies only critically hit half the time. The bad news: you only critically hit half the time, too.

One Hander
One of your hands is scarily dextrous and quick, but the other is practically a useless lump of flesh. When using one-handed weapons, you're 20% more accurate, but you're 40% less accurate when using two-handed weapons.

One in a Million
You don't get lucky often, but when you do there's hell to pay. You're much, much less likely to score a critical hit, but your critical damage is far higher than normal.

Precision
You're not one to attack mindlessly. Putting a lot of thought into your hits, you have a 10% higher chance of scoring a critical hit, but your total damage is 30% lower.


Notes:
If you take both the Gifted and Fear the Reaper traits, they'll cancel each other out and your perk rate will be set to 2, same as in vanilla. The other effects still work as normal though, so if you want 7 S.P.E.C.I.A.L points at the cost of max HP, don't let me stop you.

The complete list of chems that won't work on you if you have the Determined trait: Ant Nectar, Ant Queen Pheromones, Buffout, Jet, Dixon's Jet, Mentats, Med-X, Fire Ant Nectar, Ultrajet, Cateye, Tobacco, Fixer, Hydra, Rebound, Steady, Super Stimpaks, Turbo, Party Time Mentats, Psycho, Radaway, Rad-X, Rocket, Slasher, and Stimpaks. However, food, alcohol, Doctor's Bags, and herbal remedies (i.e., Healing Powder) still work just fine.

Your sneak attack criticals do not have their damage raised by the One in a Million trait, just the random criticals you score in live combat.


Perks

A Solitary Soul
Level 10
Introvert. Loner. Misanthrope. Call it whatever you like, but you prefer being alone over the company of others. Your Damage Threshold is increased by 25% and you run 10% faster when not accompanied by any companions.

Cautious Nature
Level 10, PER < 10
When your blood gets pumping and your heart starts pounding, your senses become almost super-human. You gain three to your Perception while you're in combat.

Cinematic Technique
Level 12, PER 6
You're a master at lining your shots up perfectly, whether behind the camera or behind the barrel of a gun. With the Cinematic Technique perk, you gain a bonus of 5 to your critical chance while using V.A.T.S.

Dermal Impact
Level 16
The piercing sting of bullets might as well be drops of rain to you. With this perk, you gain 5 Damage Threshold against Guns and a permanent Damage Resistance bonus of 3%.

Devil's Advocate
Level 14, CHR 6
The devil can cite scripture to suit his purpose, and so can you. You gain 25 points to Speech when talking to someone with neutral karma or higher. But don't bother with redemption, because this perk is useless if your karma rises above evil.

Get the Lead Out!
Level 10, AGI 6; 2 Ranks
You'd think people would be slower and more nervous while fighting for their life. Not you! With each rank of this perk, you move 10% faster when in combat.

Hide Behind Numbers
Level 22
Chalk it up to endorphins or black magic, but once the comforting numbers and targeting reticles of V.A.T.S. appear you suddenly feel tougher. You take 25% less damage from all attacks while V.A.T.S. is active.

Human Lexicon
Level 20, INT 8
There's not a word that exists that you can't pin down the meaning and syntax of. While hacking, the range of possible passwords that can appear is decreased.

Into the Past
Level 8
You yearn for a gilded age long since past - and you're willing to walk through hell to drag the world back to it. While wearing a piece of Pre-War clothing, you gain 5 Damage Threshold and a 3% bonus to your critical chance.

Itchy Trigger Finger
Level 16, AGI 7, PER 6
Shoot first, ask questions later. What could possibly go wrong? With this perk, your firing speed with Guns and Energy Weapons is 10% faster, and it costs you 10% less Action Points to shoot in V.A.T.S.

Knock Out!
Level 10, STR 5, AGI 5; 3 Ranks
When you get up in your enemy's face, nothing can stop you from dishing out a little extra damage. For every rank of the Knock Out! perk, you do an extra 10% damage with melee and unarmed attacks.

Life Support System
Level 26, Science 80, Medicine 80
Through your substantial knowledge of science and medicine, you've reprogrammed your Pip-Boy to automatically administer Med-X, Stimpaks, RadAway, Rad-X, or water whenever you need it.

Lucky Break
Level 18, LUK 7
Once you first catch a break, the good times seem to keep rolling in. When you score a critical hit on an opponent, the chance that your next hit will also be a critical hit is increased.

Harmless
Level 14, Sneak 50
People just don't expect a nice person like you to hit very hard. Their mistake. With the Harmless perk, you do 25% extra sneak attack damage. Be good though, because this perk becomes useless if your karma drops to neutral or lower.

Munition Connoisseur
Level 18, Repair 90
You're only interested in the finest instruments of death. With this perk, all weapons do an extra 15% damage if their condition is 90% or better.

Mutate!
Wasteland radiation has changed something inside you. You can change one or both of your traits, if you have any, to something else - or just remove them altogether. If you have no traits, you can choose some.

Observer Effect
Level 16, PER 6, Energy Weapons 60; 3 Ranks
Observing first-hand the disintegration of your many enemies, you know exactly what to hit and where to make your shot count. With each rank of this perk, you can bypass 4 points of Damage Threshold when using Energy Weapons.

Scout
Level 4, PER 7
Your home has always been in the wilderness, exploring new places and finding new things. With the Scout perk, the experience reward for discovering new areas is tripled.

Screen Used
Level 18
Fire it, swing it, or smash it, you've seen enough through the lens of your Pip-Boy that you know what to avoid to keep weapons intact for longer. Your weapons degrade half as fast as normal when used in V.A.T.S.

Sharpshooter
Level 8, PER 7, INT 6
Looking down the barrel of a firearm has become second nature to you. With the Sharpshooter perk, all Guns and Energy Weapons have a 20% longer range.

Snake Eater
Level 8, END 4
They told you not to eat it, but you did anyway. So what if you were laid up for weeks, severely emaciated? Your dogged self-exposure to the toxins of the Wasteland have made you completely immune to all forms of poison.

Soft Tissue Expert
Level 14, PER 6, Guns 60; 3 Ranks
Practice with firearms has taught you a very important life lesson: where the squishy bits on things are. With each rank of the Soft Tissue Expert perk, you can bypass 2 points of Damage Threshold when using Guns.

Survivalist
Level 10, END 6, Survival 55, Must be playing in hardcoe Mode
Convenience and comfort are for the weak - you've learned how to make do with less, surviving with scarcer supplies than most would think possible. With the Survivalist perk, rates of thirst, hunger, and exhaustion are slowed by 20%.

Thermodynamics
Level 16
Those fancy lasers and plasma shooters can't keep you down. With the Thermodynamics perk, your Damage Threshold is increased by 5 against all Energy Weapons, and you gain 25% Fire Resistance to boot.

Torque
Level 20, STR 5, Lockpick 50
Jamming countless locks in a feat of brutish clumsiness has taught you how to best pry things apart. While lockpicking, the chance of a Force Lock attempt succeeding is increased.

Walk Without Rhythm
Level 24, AGI 7, Sneak 90
Moving soundlessly through the shadows, you almost seem to disappear at will. With this perk, you gain an invisibility effect if you stay undetected for long enough, and the effect grows stronger the longer you stay hidden.


Notes:
If you have the Steath Suit Mk. II from Old World Blues or the Prototype Medic Power Armor from Project Nevada (and their compatibility patches loaded), their Med-X and Stimpak functions will override the Life Support System perk's. However, your Pip-Boy will still administer Rad-X, Radaway, and water to you even if you have them on.

The Walk Without Rhythm perk in more detail: For every 20 seconds you stay crouched, you gain 15% invisibility, up to a maximum of 90%. If you leave Sneak mode, you instantly lose all active effects from this perk and have to start over from the bottom tier. This effect does not stack with Stealth Boys; while you will still gain benefits from this perk while using a Stealth Boy, you'll only get 1% invisibility every 20 seconds, which, coupled with the Stealth Boy's effect, takes you to a maximum of 99% invisibility. If you use a Stealth Boy while the original 15% effect is active, it will dispel itself and you'll start again from the 1% tier. If you're using Project Nevada and have the compatibility patch loaded, you'll get 15% invisibility like usual, but there will only be four tiers, for a maximum total of 90% invisibility.


Non-standard Perks
Slight spoilers about the mod follow: If you want to be surprised about what other stuff there is hidden in here, skip this part!

Follower Inoculations
The advanced medicine of the Followers has boosted your immune system. You gain a permanent +10 bonus to your Rad and Poison Resistances.

You can't select this perk from leveling up; you have to earn it elsewhere. Julie Farkas at Old Mormon Fort in Freeside as well as Doctor Usanagi at the New Vegas Medical Clinic can give the inoculations to you for a price. You get a discount if you're a friend of the Followers; between the two of them, Julie Farkas has a slightly better deal. You can also get them for free if you're a Follower yourself. Finally, if you don't want to screw around with any of that, you can hack the Auto-Doc in the New Vegas Medical Clinic to inoculate you for free if your Science is at least 50 and your Intelligence is at least 4.

Rodeo Clown and Auto-Doc Wrangler
Raises your maximum HP by 10 and 20, respectively; if you get them both you get a total bonus of 30 HP.

If your Intelligence is less than 4, however, while you can't hack the Auto-Doc for the inoculations (you can still pay for them) you can get a new, different perk. Examine the Auto-Doc in the New Vegas Medical Clinic and you'll be presented with an option to ride it like a horsey. Do so. If you pass a Luck check (the check is if ((your Luck * 5) + 50) is greater than a random number between 1 and 99), the Auto-Doc will heal you somehow and your HP will be raised by 10. You can try as many times as you want until you get it. If you ride the Auto-Doc again after getting the first perk and make a second Luck check (the second check is if ((your Luck * 5) + 25) is greater than a random number between 1 and 99), you'll get the second perk and your HP will be raised by 20, for a total of 30.

Liver Let Die
Your copious consumption of alcohol has somehow raised your maximum Hit Points.

You'll notice a new challenge has been implemented with the mod: Liver Let Die. Drink 100 alcoholic beverages and you'll finish it. If at the very moment you finish the challenge your Luck is equal to 9, your max HP will be raised by 5. If at the very moment you finish the challenge your Luck is equal to 10, your max HP will be raised by 10. Note that each Liver Let Die perk is mutually exclusive; you can't get them both. If your Luck is too low, you still get XP for finishing the challenge.

A few other challenges relating to the new perks and traits have been included for fun, but they're pretty self-explanatory.


Installation
Simple as can be!

1. Extract the CCO -- Classic Perks.esm file to your Fallout New Vegas\Data directory
2. Extract the textures folder to your Fallout New Vegas\Data directory; you may be presented with an option to merge existing folders, do so
3. Extract the sound folder to your Fallout New Vegas\Data directory; you may be presented with an option to merge existing folders, do so
4. Select the CCO -- Classic Perks.esm file in Fallout Mod Manager and check the box next to it

To uninstall the mod, simply remove the three files listed above.


Compatibility information
Here's the fantastic thing about the Classic Perks module: It's almost completely compatible with any overhaul or GMST-changing mod you can name! How does it do this? The scripts that alter the GMSTs multiply your existing values, rather than changing them to a static value. This means that if you've changed your settings to a custom value, you'll still get the benefit from the perks. CP is also equipped with a failsafe script: If the values changed by perks aren't what they should be because of mod conflict or engine wonkiness, CP will detect the problem and fix it automatically. XFO, Realism Tweaks, Project Nevada -- you name it, and CP can play nice with it.

Because CP changes no GMSTs on its own, any load order should theoretically be okay. This may require some more in-depth testing, but if all else fails, you can recalibrate CP using the instructions below.

A few warnings, however:
If you change your GMSTs after choosing a perk or trait that alters them, CCO won't be able to tell the difference, and the failsafe will change them back. You can still fix this, however, with a very simple solution: First, open the console and type setstage xx002e1a 250 (“xx” is equal to CCO -- Classic Perks.esm's form index. You can find that in FOMM). This will freeze the failsafe script. You can now change your settings to what you want them to be. When you're done, open the console and type setstage xx002e1a 255, and CCO's failsafe script will be reset and it will detect your new values and adjust them accordingly.

Also, CCO, as a necessity, alters the effects of the following ingestibles: Ant Nectar, Ant Queen Pheromones, Buffout, Jet, Dixon's Jet, Mentats, Med-X, Fire Ant Nectar, Ultrajet, Cateye, Tobacco, Fixer, Hydra, Rebound, Steady, Super Stimpaks, Turbo, Party Time Mentats, Psycho, Radaway, Rad-X, Rocket, Slasher, and Stimpaks. Specifically, it adds a conditional that checks whether or not the player has the Determined trait to each of their effects. This means that any mod that changes these ingestibles will conflict with CCO, unfortunately. However, compatibility patches for more popular mods are available, and the solution is otherwise very simple: Don't take the Determined trait. This is the most gray area of CCO's compatibility, unfortunately.

For the more modly-inclined, you may ask: Why not just add an entry point that multiplies positive chem duration by zero? Unfortunately, that does more harm than good: If the player is in hardcoe Mode, this means that every ingestible has no effect on them, which goes beyond the original intent of this trait. Adding conditionals was the simplest and most painless way of doing it.

Finally, the Gifted and Fear the Reaper traits will always set your perk rate to 3 and 1 respectively, regardless of what your original value was. This is based off of the original setting of 2 levels per perk, and assumes you're using that. Compatibility with other values is certainly possible, but a deliberate decision was made not to do so out of balance issues. It just isn't reasonable to give the player perks at a faster or slower rate than what those traits allow already. Recalibration won't fix this, because other values are not supported at this time.




Gameplay Changes

The Gameplay Changes module consists of two core components: formula changes and follower tweaks. In following with CCO's design philosophy, base scores for player formulas have been drastically lowered or zeroed out entirely, but bonuses conferred by your S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats have been greatly improved. They're calculated to scale evenly, and will equal vanilla settings if your stats are average (i.e., equal to 5). The end result is less “gimme” points -- while you won't get as much stuff handed to you, you'll get more out of the stats you choose to invest in.

Formula Changes

Base action points have been lowered from 65 to 30. The Agility multiplier for action points (the AP you get per point of Agility) has been increased from 3 to 10. This means that the new formula for AP is:

Initial AP = 30 + (10 x Agility)

If your Agility is 5, you'll have the exact same AP as you would start with in vanilla.

Base carry weight has been lowered from 150 to 75. However, the Strength multiplier for carry weight (the carry weight you get for each point of Strength) has been increased from 10 to 25. This means the new formula for carry weight is:

Initial carry weight = 75 + (25 x Strength)

If your Strength is 5, you'll have the exact same carry weight as you would start with in vanilla.

The bonus health you get per level has been zeroed out. However, the Endurance multiplier for health has been increased from 20 to 25. The new formula is:

Initial HP = 95 + (Endurance x 25)

If your Endurance is 5, you'll have marginally more HP than you would start with in vanilla, but your HP will scale much more slowly. Also, the maximum possible HP you can have is decreased.

NPC health settings have been changed to match the player's, above. Like you, NPCs health will scale slowly, and be much more dependent on their stats than on their level.

The base skill points per level have been decreased from 11 to 6. However, the Intelligence multiplier for skill points (the skill points you get for each point of Intelligence) has been increased from 0.5 to 1. Disregarding an engine quirk in the calculation, the new formula is:

Skill Points per level = 5 + (Intelligence)

If your Intelligence is 5, you'll gain one or two less skill points per level than you would in vanilla, of course. However, just as in the original game, the maximum possible skill points per level is 15 (or 17 with the Educated perk).

The rate at which you regain Action Points has been changed. Rather than be a static value for every build of character, the Action Point restore rate is now dependent on your Endurance and Agility. The new formula is:

Time to fully regain base AP =
1 / ((Endurance * 0.006) + (Agility * 0.006)) seconds

If the sum of your Endurance and Agility is 10 (as in, both stats are average at 5, or one is high enough to compensate), you'll regain AP at the same rate as in vanilla. If both Endurance and Agility are maxed out, you'll regain AP twice as fast. If both of them are abysmal (both at 1), it will take nearly a full minute of real time to regain all of it.

Agility now directly affects your movement speed. For every point of Agility below 5, you move 2% more slowly; for every point above 5, you move 1% more quickly. An Agility of exactly 5 is normal speed.

Perception now affects your accuracy. For every point of Perception under 5, you lose 4% accuracy with all weapons; for every point above 5, you are 2% more accurate with all weapons. A Perception of exactly 5 is normal accuracy.

Perception also has a small effect on your critical chance. For every even-numbered point of Perception above 5, you gain 1% critical chance. So, a Perception of 6 is a 1% bonus; 8 is a 2% bonus; 10 is a 3% bonus.

Starting skill values have been changed. Rather than all starting at a base of 2, skills will start at a level approximate to what experience an average person in the Mojave would have in them. The bonuses are very small, however, and are more for flavor than anything. Note that no skill's base exceeds 8.
Barter starts at 0
Explosives starts at 0
Lockpick starts at 0
Melee weapons starts at 4
Sneak starts at 0
Unarmed starts at 6
All skills not mentioned still start at 2

Tag skills have been revamped to behave more like they were in Fallout 1 and 2. Tagging a skill no longer provides a flat bonus of 15, but each point invested in the skill counts for double. The Tag! Perk's description and loading screen have been altered to reflect this change.

Experience requirements for leveling up have been increased. In general, you'll now require about 30% more XP to level up than before.

The base values and multipliers for items while bartering have been changed. Caps are now much harder to make in the game if your Barter skill is too low, and merchants may frequently pay you much less than what an item is really worth. However, if your Barter skill is high enough, you'll find that selling items is much more profitable. Investing in the Barter skill is now a much more worthy choice.

The penalties for having a limb crippled are much more severe. You'll find your accuracy is middling with one arm broken, and piss-poor with both broken. With one leg broken you'll move very slowly, and with both you'll crawl along at a snail's pace. The impact on throwing and penalties for a crippled torso have also been increased, of course.

The effect your karma has on an NPC's disposition has been increased. Making friends might be much easier (or harder!) for you, depending on the choices you've made.

The effect of your Medicine and Survival skills on ingestible items has been increased. You'll see big bonuses to the stats you recover if your skill is high enough.

Similar to the above, the Repair skill now has a greater effect on the condition you recover when repairing something.

You now receive much less karma for killing an evil character. Similarly, you lose less karma for stealing. Collectively, this is intended to make it more difficult to become very good or very evil too quickly.


V.A.T.S. Changes

CCO fundamentally changes the function of V.A.T.S. In the vanilla game, V.A.T.S. reduced the damage you took by a percentage and added a flat bonus to your critical chance. This is no longer the case. Instead of magically protecting you from damage, V.A.T.S. now makes you more accurate. Specifically, your accuracy is increased by 15%, weapon spread is reduced, and the distance at which you start to lose accuracy is decreased. Rather than opening V.A.T.S. to score a critical hit or protect you from damage, you can now open V.A.T.S. to increase the chance of landing a shot when you need it. Given the concept of V.A.T.S. (it is an assisted targeting system, after all), this made far more sense.

To break it down:
You now take full damage while in V.A.T.S.
Your critical chance is not affected whether or not you use V.A.T.S.
Your base accuracy is increased by 15% while using V.A.T.S.
Your weapon spread is decreased by 25% while using V.A.T.S.
You are more accurate over long distances while using V.A.T.S.

If you're using the Classic Perks module, you can restore V.A.T.S.' damage reduction and critical bonus by taking the related high-level perks (Hide Behind Numbers and Cinematic Technique, respectively).


Follower Tweaks

CCO also changes the impact of followers on the base game. There are three extremely consequential changes made:

Followers now only do half damage, but also only take half damage themselves. This is done to increase the longevity of followers during intense fights as well as decrease the player's dependency on them. Rest assured, followers are far from useless even with the reduction -- they are still very capable of holding their own during a fight and pulling your ass out of the fire. In addition, their damage resistance ensures that they live a long life in your service. In practical terms, this is done by multiplying a follower's weapon damage by 0.50, multiplying enemy DT by 0.50 for a companion's attack roll, and giving followers a Damage Resistance of 50 (meaning that only 50% of all damage is absorbed).

Because the impact of followers has been drastically decreased by the above change, follower calculation has been returned to the system it used in Fallout 2. What does this mean? Basically, rather than just having two followers no matter what, the number of active companions you can have at once is now based on your Charisma. The formula is:

Maximum companions = (Charisma / 2)

This means that you can have a maximum of 5 followers at once, if your Charisma is a perfect 10. If your Charisma is only 1, however, you can't have any followers. You need at least 2 Charisma to have 1 follower. Mix and match as you like -- you aren't restricted to ED-E or Rex and one humanoid anymore.

Finally, followers now have to be supplied with ammo for their weapons. Instead of having magical ammo that never gets used up, you have to keep them armed yourself. Followers start with their normal ranged weapons (but a version you can interact with) and have a small amount of ammo right off the bat (10 clips for their weapon, approximately). So Cass will still have her Caravan Shotgun when you get her and Arcade will still have his Plasma Defender, but they'll have a limited amount of ammo and it will be on you to keep them combat-ready. All followers still have their normal melee weapons too, by the way, but you can replace those as you see fit. The only follower who still has infinite magical ammo is ED-E; since you can't equip him with different weapons, it was only fair to let him use his one weapon without hindrance.

Other miscellaneous follower changes:
All followers now have Water Breathing, so they don't clip into a wall and drown senselessly while you're off exploring.
All followers' maximum carry weight has been decreased by 75. Again, this was to decrease the player's dependency on companions.
Veronica no longer starts with a 10mm Pistol, but instead has a Laser Pistol. This is to compliment her high Energy Weapons skill.

So, in summary: Followers have less of an impact on the game, but you can get more of them at once. And if you have the caps to supply it and the Charisma to command it, you can walk the Mojave with your own personal army.

In the future, the Follower Tweaks and Formula Changes components may be separated into two separate modules if there's demand for it, but for the time being they'll stay as one.


Installation

Somehow even easier to install than Classic Perks! Whoa nelly!

1. Extract the CCO -- Gameplay Changes.esm file to your Fallout New Vegas\Data directory
2. Select the CCO -- Gameplay Changes.esm file in Fallout Mod Manager and check the box next to it

If you want to uninstall the mod, there's one extra step you need to do before you uncheck the file in FOMM. Load your game, open the console, and type setstage xx003315 1 (xx is equal to the mod's form index; you can find that in FOMM) and give the script a moment to execute. This will return your companion's magical no-ammo-using weapons to them, and then you're free to uncheck the mod in FOMM. As a side note, if you want to use the mod but also want to keep magical companion weapons, using the same command will do that for you.


Compatibility information

Oh boy, this is gonna get complicated. The Gameplay Changes module changes a plethora of GMSTs, immediately disqualifying it from playing nice with other overhauls like XFO. Project Nevada works fine; I can attest to that. As for the rest, I can't say. If need be, pop this baby open in FNVEdit and take a look at exactly what it changes; it's smaller than you think. Even if you load a mod that changes the same GMSTs as this module though, it's not the end of the world -- the last one loaded will overwrite GC's changes. You could conceivably load mods in a careful order to get the settings you like and GC won't freak out much.

It will play nice (mostly) with other companion mods, however: All effects are added to the references by script, so the base reference of a companion is not changed. It's not universal though, so if you have a companion added by a mod they won't follow the same mechanics. Stuff like Sandbox mode is also fine; the changes made to companions are relatively benign, compatibility-wise.

As for stuff like V.A.T.S. camera angles and such, they'll work just fine. The changes made to V.A.T.S. are pretty lightweight -- only five GMSTs were altered: fVATSCriticalChanceBonus, fVATSDistanceFactor, fVAT[censored]ChanceMult, fVATSPlayerDamageMult, and fVATSSpreadMult. Anything that doesn't change those exact settings will work fine.



Damage Resistance

When Obsidian made the move from Fallout 3 to New Vegas, they zeroed out all Damage Resistance values on armor, replacing it with the Damage Threshold mechanic. The original Fallout titles, however, used both mechanics at once: Damage Threshold to calculate your evade chance and absorb low levels of damage, and Damage Resistance to reduce the damage that still got through. In many ways, the two new games exist on two different extremes: Fallout 3 removed Damage Threshold and only used Damage Resistance, and New Vegas removed Damage Resistance and only used Damage Threshold. This module returns the system to its old method, and enables you to use both Damage Resistance and Damage Threshold at once.

How is Damage Resistance calculated? Damage Resistance is derived solely from your Damage Threshold, equal to:

Natural DR = (DT - 15), but never exceeding 25%

Understand? So if you have Desert Ranger Combat Armor on, which has a DT of 22, your natural DR will be equal to 7 (22 - 15). If you have on a full set of Remnants Power Armor and your DR is 50, your DR will be equal to 25. Why? Even though 50 - 15 is 35, your natural DR cannot exceed 25%. Ever. Period. No matter how high your DT goes. Now, you can still take Med-X and such to raise your DR, but as far as your natural, derived DR goes, 25% is the limit.

So what if your DT is below 15? Does that mean you have negative DR? Of course not (though that would make for an interesting add-on)! As far as natural, derived DR goes, it can only help you. If your DT is below 15, you won't be penalized; it'll just be 0 until you get your hands on some better armor.

So why does your DT have to be above 15 before you start seeing results? It's a fairly arbitrary number, I know, but it was not chosen without thought: A DT of 15 means you have some pretty good armor on (roughly equal to Metal Armor), and it was my reasoning that if you had that much to spare then you can start soaking up some damage safely. You'll notice that a figure of 15 also synergizes well with the Determined trait from the Classic Perks module.

And why cap it at 25%? Simple: An excess of DR is overpowered. Once you start getting into high numbers, ridiculous things like tanking Deathclaws naked or taking seven Mini Nukes to the chest start happening. DR isn't like DT: It's a universal deduction from all damage taken. A 25% reduction to all damage is pretty damn powerful, and it was all I could safely give the player. You'll survive large bursts of damage more easily, like explosions, but rapid and small bursts of damage, like gunshots, are pretty unphased.

Finally, you may ask, does this derived DR apply to anyone but the player? Nope. For now, you the player are the only one who receives a benefit from this extra DR -- for now. But if you use the Gameplay Changes above, trust me: You're gonna need it.


Installation

Somehow even easier to install than Gameplay Changes! Holy crap!

3. Extract the CCO -- Damage Resistance.esp file to your Fallout New Vegas\Data directory
4. Select the CCO -- Damage Resistance.esp file in Fallout Mod Manager and check the box next to it

To uninstall the mod, uncheck the file in FOMM. You can even remove the file too, if you want.


Compatibility information

There is nothing that could conceivably conflict with the Damage Resistance module. No joke.



Perk Rebalance

The Classic Perks and Gameplay Changes modules introduce a lot of sweeping changes to the base game; as such, it was only appropriate that vanilla content would have to be rebalanced in turn. The Perk Rebalance module revamps many of the vanilla perks to play nicer with the content introduced by the modules above. Changes include:

The Intense Training perk has been disabled. It was simply too overpowered to be able to raise your stats starting from level two as many times as you want. In their place, the Gain Attribute perks have been introduced, which largely absorbs the function of Intense Training.

The Gain Attribute perks allow you to raise each of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats by one -- but only once, and only starting from level 12. Again, this is keeping in with the design of Fallout 1 and 2.
The Finesse perk has been adjusted. It now only provides a +3% bonus to critical chance, but has 3 ranks, so you can increase your chances by +9% total.

The Demolition Expert perk has been adjusted. It now only provides a +15% bonus to explosive damage per rank, and only has 2 ranks, allowing for a total of +30%.

The accuracy bonus given by the Gunslinger perk has been lowered to +10%.

The level requirement for the Travel Light perk has been raised from 4 to 6.

The Lady Killer, Confirmed Bachelor, Cherchez la Femme, and Black Widow perks now only grant a +5% damage bonus to their respective six.

The critical chance bonus for the Laser Commander perk is now multiplicative, rather than additive.

The critical chance bonus for the Set Lasers for Fun perks is now multiplicative, rather than additive.

The Chem Resistant perk now grants complete immunity from addictive chems; it was not worth choosing with just a partial resistance.

The Swift Learner perk now only grants a +5% bonus to XP for each rank.

The Guns skill requirement has been removed from the Rapid Reload perk to allow more character builds to take advantage of it.

The Cowboy perk can now be taken with a 45 in Guns or Melee or Explosives to allow more character builds to take advantage of it.

The Melee Weapons requirement for the Super Slam perk has been removed to allow more character builds to take advantage of it.

The Piercing Strike perk can now be taken with either a 70 in Melee Weapons or Unarmed.

Unstoppable Force can be taken with a 90 in Melee or Unarmed; the Strength requirement has been removed.

The Center of Mass perk can be taken with a 70 in Guns or Energy Weapons.

Concentrated Fire can now be taken with a 60 in Guns or Energy Weapons.

The Melee Weapons requirement for the Ninja perk has been removed.

Slayer can now be taken with a 90 in Melee or Unarmed; the Strength requirement has been removed.
The level requirement for the Rad Absorption perk has been lowered from 28 to 18. Due to the wide availability of RadAway and the ease of purging radiation at a doctor, this perk's use was pretty limited at such a high level.

The XP reward for deactivating a robot with the Robotics Expert perk has been raised from 10 to 50 to encourage stealth builds.

The Lead Belly perk now grants complete immunity from radiation acquired from consuming irradiated food or water. Given that Old World Blues gives this immunity to the player as a gimme, it only seemed fair.

The Bloody Mess perk has been converted into a trait, like it was in Fallout 1 and 2, and provides no damage bonus.

The accuracy bonus given by the Commando perk has been lowered to +10%.

The Better Criticals perk no longer boosts the damage of sneak attack criticals; just the random, lucky criticals you score in live combat.

Of course, the descriptions and loading screen teasers for all altered perks have been changed to match their new functions.


Installation

Somehow even easier to install than Damage Resistance! Space bazookas!

5. Extract the CCO -- Perk Rebalance.esp file to your Fallout New Vegas\Data directory
6. Select the CCO -- Perk Rebalance.esp file in Fallout Mod Manager and check the box next to it

To uninstall the mod, uncheck the file in FOMM. You can even remove the file too, if you want.


Compatibility information

Obviously, anything that changes the perks listed above will conflict with the Perk Rebalance module. Other than that though, go crazy. Changes are strictly limited to the perks above.



Load Order and Patch Information

Listen up, this part's important! Here's the load order you want to follow for all the modules listed here:

FalloutNV.esm
Any official DLCs
Project Nevada
Anything else
CCO -- Gameplay Changes.esm
CCO -- Classic Perks.esm

For compatibility's sake, the Gameplay Changes and Classic Perks modules should load relatively late in your ESM order. All DLCs and Project Nevada should be loaded before them. Gameplay Changes should go before Classic Perks, if you have both.

The Damage Resistance module can pretty much go wherever you damn well please. Here's how it works: DR is granted in the form of a unique, hidden perk that's given to the player on load. That's it. Sort it as you feel is necessary based on that; like I said, it can go anywhere, really.

Perk Rebalance, as the name suggests, should be grouped with other perk changing mods, if you have them. Remember that the last one loaded will take priority.

Every effort has been made to ensure day one compatibility with popular mods. Here's the breakdown on what's in the patch folder:

CCO -- GC DM Patch : The patch for Dead Money, to be used with Gameplay Changes. Load it late but before a Merged Patch. Obviously only use this if you have both Dead Money and Gameplay Changes loaded. The patch applies follower changes to Dog, Dean Domino, and Christine, so they'll have the half-damage mechanic too. Also prevents Mojave companions from following you to the Sierra Madre under the new companion limit mechanic. Finally, followers will still have their magical no-ammo-using weapons, since conditions in the Sierra Madre are much different than in the Mojave and it would be unfair to require you to supply them.

CCO -- GC HH Patch : The patch for Honest Hearts and Gameplay Changes, load it late but before a Merged Patch and only if you have both, you know the drill. The patch applies follower changes to Follows Chalk, Waking Cloud, and Joshua Graham, so they'll have the half-damage mechanic too. Also prevents Mojave companions from following you to Zion under the new companion limit mechanic. Finally, followers will still have their magical no-ammo-using weapons, since conditions in Zion are much different than in the Mojave and it would be unfair to require you to supply them.

CCO -- GC OWB Patch : For Old World Blues and Gameplay Changes. Prevents Mojave companions from following you to the Big MT on your first trip there, but allows companions to tag along if you return using the Transportalponder.

CCO -- GC LR Patch : For Lonesome Road and Gameplay Changes. Applies follower changes to the version of ED-E you meet in the Divide. However, like the regular ED-E from the Mojave, Lonesome Road's ED-E will still have infinite ammo.

CCO -- CP DM Patch : For Dead Money and Classic Perks. Adds certain new items to be affected by the Into the Past perk, and makes you immune from using Ghost Sight if you have the Determined trait.

CCO -- CP OWB Patch : For Old World Blues and Classic Perks. Adds support for the new traits to the Mutate! perk, and also allows you to remove CCO-added traits with the Auto-Doc in the Sink. Also adds a safeguard to prevent redundancy if you have the Life Support System perk while wearing the Stealth Suit Mk. II. Also, the chems injected into you by the suit won't effect you if you have the Determined trait.

CCO -- CP LR Patch : For Lonesome Road and Classic Perks. Stops the Auto-Inject Stimpaks and Auto-Inject Super Stimpaks from working on you if you have the Determined trait, and adds some new items to the Into the Past form list.

CCO -- CP PN Patch : For Project Nevada and Classic Perks. Makes PN's Stealth Boy effect play nice with the Walk Without Rhythm perk, and also adds support for the Determined trait to the new chems. Prevents redundancy if you're wearing the Prototype Medic Power Armor and have the Life Support System perk.

CCO -- CP OWB PN Patch : Use this if you're using both Project Nevada and Old World Blues; it makes the Life Support System script apply changes from both. That's right folks, this is a compatibility patch for a compatibility patch. I hate myself.

So, depending on what you need, your patch load order should look like:
CCO -- GC DM Patch.esp
CCO -- GC HH Patch.esp
CCO -- GC OWB Patch.esp
CCO -- GC LR Patch.esp
CCO -- CP DM Patch.esp
CCO -- CP OWB Patch.esp
CCO -- CP LR Patch.esp
CCO -- CP PN Patch.esp
CCO -- CP OWB PN Patch.esp

Again, if you have Project Nevada, Old World Blues, and Classic Perks, you should load CCO -- CP OWB Patch.esp, CCO -- CP PN Patch.esp, and CCO -- CP OWB PN Patch.esp. All three of them, in that order.

Also note that it's possible for you to need all the patches, if you have every DLC and Project Nevada. That's fine, I'll still love you just as much.

Be sure to load the patches fairly late, but before a Merged Patch. Sticking them near WMX or PN patches should be fine (but load them after those, in that example).

So, in total, your load order should be:
FalloutNV.esm
Any official DLCs
Project Nevada
Whatever other ESMs you have
CCO -- Gameplay Changes.esm
CCO -- Classic Perks.esm
Whatever other ESPs you have
CCO -- Perk Rebalance.esp
CCO -- Damage Resistance.esp
Compatibility patches for Project Nevada
CCO -- GC DM Patch.esp
CCO -- GC HH Patch.esp
CCO -- GC OWB Patch.esp
CCO -- GC LR Patch.esp
CCO -- CP DM Patch.esp
CCO -- CP OWB Patch.esp
CCO -- CP LR Patch.esp
CCO -- CP PN Patch.esp
CCO -- CP OWB PN Patch.esp
Merged Patch.esp

Got it? Good.




User Information and Permissions

This should go without saying, but since this is a (public) beta of a user-made mod, you use CCO at your own risk. Not that I expect your computer to burst into flames or anything, but I'm just sayin'. For what it's worth, I have personally playtested each of the modules of CCO, but you never know.

You are free to use absolutely anything from this mod for whatever you want, as long as you give me credit for my work. Script, concept, whatever -- any and all of it is the community's. You do not need to ask for my permission for anything at all -- unless you intend to rehost it somewhere, which isn't a bad thing, but you should ask me first anyhow. If need be, you can reach me on the gamesas forums as Cirosan, or at cirosan at outofcontroltv dot com. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any suggestions for new things or if you know a way I can script these compenents better or something. Email is probably your best bet, though.




Special Thanks

A big thanks to Obsidian Entertainment, for making New Vegas to begin with, and Bethesda Softworks for publishing it and providing the GECK.

Another huge thanks to ElminsterAU for FNVEdit, which was absolutely invaluable during the development of CCO.

Big thanks to Timeslip, for developing the Fallout Mod Manager.

Equally big thanks to Ian Patterson, Stephen Abel and Paul Connelly for the development of NVSE, without which this mod would not be possible.

Much gratitude to Ausir and the folks over at the Vault Wiki, for organizing all the information about the Fallout series into one place. It was a fantastic reference during the development of CCO.

Super friend special thanks to Jon Kaplan and Jordin Johansson, for being the truest friends I have ever known.

A thanks and damnation to guyAlex from the OOC Community for giving me the idea to start this project to being with, for balance advice during its development, and encouragement throughout.

Thanks to TalkAcanthi, No One, Hellsive, and guyAlex (again) for holding down the homefront so I could work on silly things like this.

Immeasurable pride of and thanks to everyone in the Out of Control Community, without whom none of this would have happened. Because of all of you, I -- she's so cold and human...

Big, big thanks to Chris Avellone. He knows why.

Thanks to J.E. Sawyer, whose Formspring answers were central to the design philosophies of this mod. The Damage Resistance components is mostly inspired by his advice, albeit using a different formula.

And finally, a giant thanks to you, for reading this whole, horrible thing. Here, have a fishy stick! I insist!

Have fun!
- Ciro