Here's a helpful tip for shooting with VATS that I learned long ago and wanted to share with the forum:

Change your weapon sights from scopes to reflex (for your medium and close range weapons). The accuracy may be less but the amount of Action points each shot uses is strongly reduced. I find the benefits in # of shots outweighs the accuracy reduction (I have 7 or 8 perception).

The reason for this is that VATS "uses the scope" which takes more time to sight down and thus more Action Points.

if you use the mods "better weapon/armor descriptions" you can see the exact amount of % that you lose/gain by which scope you use.

Depends entirely on the situation, EG percentage of shot accuracy VATS shows for each body part, distance from enemy, type of enemy, whether enemy is moving laterally. And I can't stress enough, the range and accuracy stats on said weapon.

I tend to only use VATS with scoped weapons (my .50 sniper rifle) when I'm too far away for non scoped weapons to be effective enough. So what I'm saying basically is it mostly comes down to common sense. VATS can also work BETTER with scoped weapons, if you use them in the right scenarios.

I used to think VATS was silly, but I've come to find it's actually a fairly sophisticated gameplay feature. That said, I finally picked up an assault rifle, because it has a powerful receiver and high (90) damage, but I immediately took off the NV scope and slapped on a regular sight, because I knew I would be using it mostly close to medium range.

But VATS with my NV scope sniper rifle still comes in very handy for night stealth.

Yeah, I use a recon scope on my sniper rifle for two reasons. I think the accuracy vs. action point tradeoff is worth it at long distances (especially when I consider the price/relative scarcity of 50 caliber bullets--less accuracy=more misses=more ammo used), and of course the recon scope kicks butt for non-VATS use. Anyway, that's why I made the caveat that this hint is good for medium and close range weapons (see OP).

I did experiments to see how scopes affected action points, and I don't remember the exact numbers but it was fairly dramatic, like less than half as many shots I think.

The mod would be great if I wasn't on console.

Is it bad that I don't yet know what VATS are despite being on level 37?

I have played FPS games for longer than I care to admit. I originally ignored VATS and treated the game like any other FPS. Wow was I missing out. VATS is nearly essential for close range combat.

Pre-VATS

- Spray and Pray close range enemies (especially fast stuff like the bugs and Ghouls). Use 4x the number of rounds necessary to kill target. Heal all the unnecessary damage I took. Repeat

- Sneaky/Sniper guys at long range. Switch back to Spray once the ground guys arrive.

Post-VATS

- I have a very nice VATS Enhanced .45 Combat Rifle with max mods. I also have level 2 Action Perk and all "Ultra Lightweight" Armor. So I have a ton of AP (even back when I was only level 20-30)

- At Close Range - Load up enough shots to kill target #1. If there are 2 targets in close range I can usually load up enough damage to also kill target #2

- As soon as the critical meter is full I usually pop it if the target has greater than 50% health

- Rinse and Repeat. I usually only need to heal every 5 targets (unless there is something else going on)

- If I want to snipe, I will usually just aim manually, unless I have a couple criticals to use. Once the targets are close to my position I switch back to VATS

I usually shoot most targets in the head. But anything I need to stop quickly (like ghouls) I will take out a leg first. Once I was actually able to nearly incapacitate a Deathclaw's leg

One Regret about VATS: I wish it didn't drain the power armor so quickly. 95% of the time I will exit the power armor to fight the enemy because I'm saving the power cores.

For weapon mods you want reflex sites, long barrel and short stock if using rifles. Short barrels cost less AP, but are a lot more inaccurate. You also want any "light" barrel mod. You can easily make a VATS killing machine with rifles. Grim Reapers, crit banker and better crits.. That is all you need with a high luck build.

Key point is SPAM crits. You want one or two in the bank, the rest just blast away.

But to be honest, the game is a lot funner without VATS. Hands down. Plus VATS will kill fusion cores if you are using power armor. And takes a lot of perks.

Edit: Grenades - out of VATS too. Plus certain weapons may seem lackluster in VATS, like the laser rifle. But it is WAY better then the combat rifle outside of VATS. Through on those recoil stocks and anything that decreases recoil = Easy street. Plus you don't just stand there getting hit like with VATS.

Doesn't using vats on scoped weapons kind of defeat the logic anyway? Kidding aside that's why I love sniper builds as they do not have to rely too heavily on vats related perks which leaves a lot of room for the fun ones.

Yep, free aim for sniping. And VATS is best for up close and personal. Or just use a combat shotgun!

A good hint when using VATS;

When killing an enemy in VATS, use TAB (on PC, dunno what the command is for exit on consoles) to skip the death animation. Very useful when there are multiple enemies, and you don't want to waste time on it, when the other enemies are fast approaching. Allowing you to engage the others much sooner

Good one, I do that too with VATS.

Another tip:

- If you get Charisma to 6 with local leader, you might as well go to 7 for party boy. Get Drinking Buddy + rank two of party boy and you basically have unlimited action points. Each ice cold beer restores 70 AP. And Buddy makes a bunch. Rank three of Party Boy gets you + 3 luck for EACH different drink. So be a drunk, and sample multiple different types of beers. Then laugh when you earn a crit every 3 shoots. Downright unstoppable. If I remember correctly luck 18 (may be 17) is the best to get. Earn a critical hit every three hits.

Forget penetrator, concentrated fire, sniper or Gun Fu. Crits are auto hit. As long as you get 1% to hit in VATS a crit will always hit!

Lastly perception seems to be a waste for VATS. It increases the percentage to hit by 4% for each point. Better off spending those points in luck and getting the auto hit crits!

Edit: penetrator may still be worthwhile for a crit build. With the second rank your crits will auto hit through walls. A little silly though.

I agree, especially if you have a sixy VATS enhanced shotgun like I do.