I've just reached Minefield, Arkansas is standing on his perch without a weapon.

According to FO3Edit, no other mod does anything to Arkansas.

Here's my load order:

Fallout3.esmPointLookout.esmAnchorage.esmThePitt.esmBrokenSteel.esmZeta.esmUnofficial Fallout 3 Patch.esmFallsChurchMetroFix.esmMart's Mutant Mod.esmUnofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Operation Anchorage.espUnofficial Fallout 3 Patch - The Pitt.espUnofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Broken Steel.espUnofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Point Lookout.espUnofficial Fallout 3 Patch - Mothership Zeta.espDarNifiedUIF3.espCASM.espKHWeaponscanner.espMy First Camp.espArwen_VisionFX.espFPS Grenade Hotkey.espFPS Grenade Hotkey - Zeta addon.espAuto Aim Fix v1.1.espFellout-Full.espFellout-BrokenSteel.espFellout-PointLookout.espFellout-Zeta.espFellout-pipboylight.espBlackWolf Backpack.espBlackWolf Backpack - Blank's Container Patch.espBlackWolf Backpack - Vendor Script Replenish.espNightvisionGoggles(Powered).espNeunens Axes.espWeaponModKits.espWeaponModKits - OperationAnchorage.espWeaponModKits - ThePitt.espWeaponModKits - BrokenSteel.espWeaponModKits - PointLookout.espWeaponModKits - Zeta.espWeaponModKits - MergedPatch.espMart's Mutant Mod.espMart's Mutant Mod - DLC Anchorage.espMart's Mutant Mod - DLC The Pitt.espMart's Mutant Mod - DLC Broken Steel.espMart's Mutant Mod - DLC Point Lookout.espMart's Mutant Mod - DLC Zeta.espMart's Mutant Mod - No Corpse Flies.espMart's Mutant Mod - No Floaters.espMart's Mutant Mod - No Wanamingos.espMart's Mutant Mod - Hunting & Looting.espMart's Mutant Mod - Increased Spawns.espMart's Mutant Mod - Natural Selection.espMart's Mutant Mod - Tougher Traders.espMart's Mutant Mod - Zones Respawn.espArwen_FULL_Tweaks.espArwen_Reduced_QuestXPR.espArwen_XPR.espTotal active plugins: 56Total plugins: 56

Any ideas? Any tips where I should look?

I just found out that this is apparently being caused by my Realism Tweaks (in my Less_Is_More module). Reducing the CondSniperRifleLoot chance from "Chance None = 0" to "Chance None = 60", seems to introduce a chance that some of the NPCs who would normally always have a sniper rifle, will not get one. I had no idea that changing weapon loot chance would also affect the weapons that NPCs receive.

This will be fixed in v.4.1 (which is nearly done . . . and will be released by Friday at the latest).

Sorry.

Does Arkansas retrieve his SR from a container? Arkansas is somewhat special, having his own scripted behaviour.

Thank you for the info, I'm glad I decided to stop searching, I wouldn't have figured that one out. I'll wait for 4.1 before going to Minefield, I'm curious how my level 3 sniper is going to measure up against Arkansas, but it has to be a fair fight.

There's no need to be sorry, there's an old saying: "Only those who do nothing will break nothing." Keep up the good work. :thumbsup:

Thanks so much for understanding. I try so hard to be careful to only make changes that should not mess up anything else in the game, but it is not like there's much documentation (often none) for what many settings actually do. The GECK help pages have absolutely nothing for many commands / settings. And I have attempted to make changes and additions to the game that I'm not sure anyone has ever even tried to do (or in ways that are quite unique), so I'm bound to make a LOT of mistakes. Fortunately I seem to catch most during my extensive play testing, but every now and then one sneaks by.

I just did some uncover work in the GECK and finally have been able to confirm that the CondSniperRifleLoot chance does indeed control whether or not Arkansas ends up with a Sniper rifle (100% chance by default).

I had the same problem with Arkansas not having a rifle; he did eventually start hitting me with a baseball bat, though. I'm glad that this will be fixed in 4.1.

I've also had a similar problem with the Hollowed-Out Rock south (or was it north?) of Megaton. One of the big draws to that thing is the free Sniper Rifle; the last time I looked, there was no Sniper Rifle in sight.

Link to the area: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Hollowed-Out_Rock

Oh, and don't worry about missing this kind of stuff; I'm learning to become a programmer, and even with all the info I have, I STILL screw up basic things on occasion.

Just keep up the good work.

Aha!
I was sure on my first playthrough (more than a year ago) that he had a sniper rifle. I thought maybe he dropped it when I shot him, and searched for ages.
I thought the previous find must have been a fluke.

It's true, he has no rifle anymore, and yes, I'm also using Arwens, but don't worry, sooner or later another enemy will have one

The point was not to get a sniper rifle, the point was to see how dangerous Arkansas is with Arwens's mod. Since Arwen delivered the update yesterday as promised :thumbsup: I've tested this today. While Arwen's mod makes most encounters a lot more difficult this one actually is easier. Arkansas didn't manage to hit me from his perch up in the building, according to the wiki he only has an agility of 6 and a small weapon skill of 40, so I guess that in an environment where skill is more important he doesn't do too well. Since cars do not explode as easily as in vanilla Fallout 3, his backup strategy didn't work out either. His final mistake was to come down from his perch to get me after I'd hidden behind a wall, in a close gun fight he lost his advantage as a sniper and also his head. A sniper should stay up on his perch and shoot you from up there, he would have had a lot of opportunities if he'd waited for me to come up the stairs.

Maybe I should try to mod Arkansas, give him 10 agility, maybe also 10 luck, a small weapons skill of 100 and a fully repaired sniper rifle. I mean, this is the guy who's supposed to hold off entire groups of slavers, so he should be above average.