Ditto!!!

You're most welcome, and I wish you and everyone else here a very Happy Holiday.

I'm just taking a quick break from concocting a dinner feast, for what will soon be a houseful of guest, and I still have to finish sprucing up my house (shoveling my long driveway put me way behind). So I won't be doing any work on my mod until after the weekend, when I hope to have the time to focus on completing my Hard-Core module (but there's still a lot to do).

Thanks for the great work so far!

I'm curious to know what other mods you are using,
especially ones that add tactical choices to balance out the increased difficulty (like extra perks or chems)?
Or anything else you find essential?

try following the new vegas link on Arwen's sig. that's how i started on FO3 mod use

Oh, thanks! I was looking for that page before, but somehow I couldn't find it!

I figured it hadn't been written yet (and perhaps it is missing some info?)
So I was hoping Arwen might post a quick list,
instead of having to wait for the more time-consuming description and rationale for all the mods

I've been using my beta version of my Hard-Core module for a while, plus most of my game time has been play testing, so I haven't actually made it very far through the game. That's why my NV mod list is still very small, as I need to complete my mod before adding mods, to ensure that I'm not getting conflicts.

Here are some I'm using along with ART, they should all be compatible.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1143482-wipzbeta-darnified-ui-nv/

http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37029
http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34888
http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35619
http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=38285
http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35823
And one of my own, http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35334

The HD textures download of http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=6341 work perfectly with New Vegas too.


Merry Christmas!

Thanks - the weapon re-tex especially is nice, seems to work with http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=37576, which maintains a compatibility patch for Arwen's Tweaks.
It's not too hard to find ports or re-implementations of the mods from Arwen's F3 lists.

I wanted to mention http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35604 to anyone who, like me, is annoyed by the food healing effect, and is looking for an interim solution while they wait for Arwen's next patch. I really like the less-forgiving barter system included in that mod, too. [Expect this mod to be incompatible with Arwen's Tweaks in the future!!]

Hello Arwen,

I'm a big fan of your overhaul but one point stresses me : I'm used to use the aiming zoom in my gameplay, especially with hand guns.
But you removed aiming zoom for handguns and I felt too bad. Can you tell me how to reactivate that zoom effect inside your mod please ?
Otherwise, thumbs up for the (very) good work.

Thanks

Nice mod, but I'm confused. I've checked it in FNVEdit and all I see is that DAM is reduced, critical damage reduced, critical mult removed. The only positive I could see is 25% and 50% DT reduction for lasers and plasma, but .... but no criticals, WTF? What's the point in going for crit improving stats/perks if they hardly give any improvement? I really hope that I'm just missing something.

One of the focuses of my mod is making things more realistic and challenging, which I've clearly explained in my mod's description . . . and it is not at all realistic for non-scoped pistols to zoom in when you aim them. So I really don't get why this would stress you. Being able to zoom in when you aim is just another game cheat, that was added to make the game easier . . . why do developers seem to fee that users are now longer interested in challenging game play? My character is not Superwoman, so why should she be able to zoom in her vision when aiming a handgun? You really should give my change a chance, because once you get use to it, it isn't hard to become an accurate shot without the zooming cheat. But if you really can't stand my change, you can set each weapon's Sight FOV back to default.


A LOT of my changes are not apparent in FNVEdit . . . you have to know exactly where to look . . . and MANY of my Tweaks build upon each other. My mod balances out weapon damage in MANY ways. In most cases I reduced the DAM (including criticals) to offset my other changes (like my global Threshold Resistance reduction, my increased weapon skill damage bonus, and my Weapon Effects). But in a few cases, I increased the weapon's base DAM, and its critical DAM and/or critical multiplier.

But I'm not sure where you got the idea that I removed the criticals or that I removed the critical multipliers . . . reducing a multiplier is not removing it, even when it is reduced to 1.0. Perhaps you do not understand how critical damage works. Critical damage is in addition to regular (base) damage, not exclusive of it. If you look at the Fallout NV.esm in FNV-Edit, you'll see a number of ranged weapons where 0.5 is used as a critical multiplier . . . and some weapons even have a 0.0 multiplier, which just means that they won't cause any additional damage, even on a critical sneak attack . . . but they will still obviously do damage on hit.

No no, I understand, sorry if I was unclear. Multiplier of 1 isn't a multiplier per se since it doesn't change the original crit chance. Without the original multipliers the chance to score a critical hit is much lower now and even if you trigger one the result is much weaker since the crit damage compared to the base is much lower as well. Which means that all the perks and stats used to boost crit-based combat are far less useful (luck is only good for casinos although charisma would be better for barter/speech/nerve, finesse, better critical useless and thus is it's prereq PE6. Basically just go with LCK1 and PE1 and you'll still get sneak criticals just fine and spend points on stats that really matter).

E.g. original plasma rifle had 2x multiplier and crit damage was 100% of it's base. With built to destroy trait (+3% crit) you had additional 6% chance to cause extra 100% damage or 6% (9% with better criticals perk) overall damage increase. A fair deal for 15% higher wear rates.
But with 1x mult and only 50% extra damage it means you only get 1.5% (2.25% with better criticals) overall damage and that just doesn't strike me as a good balance. Basically the whole crit combat concept has been kinda tossed into the thrash bin.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong in this, but here is my understanding of Criticals:

But multipliers can also be used as a penalty, when they are less than 1.00. And if you set it at 0, there is no chance of getting a critical hit with that weapon, outside of VATS. Just to clarify this for others, the Critical Multiplier is merely the extra percent chance you have of getting a critical hit when you are using that specific weapon . . . and does NOT have any effect on the amount of damage the weapon does when you do get a critical hit. Here's the formula from the GECK WIKI:


For the above example of Plasma Rifles:
Default: 32 Base DAM : 32 Critical DAM ; with a 1.5 Critical Multiplier.
My Tweaks: 40 Base DAM : 24 Critical DAM ; with a 1.0 Critical Multiplier.

The end result (not including any other modifiers, like perks or weapon skill damage bonus):
Default: 32 + 32 = 64 DAM
My Tweaks: 40 + 24 = 64 DAM (exactly the same as default, only your chance of making a critical hit is a bit less).

The main difference is that with my mod you will do more 25% more damage with normal hits and a critical hit will increase the amount of damage by 67%, instead of by the default 100%. I felt that critical hits generally increased the amount of damage by too much, so I evened things out a bit. But I am willing to set the Critical multipliers back to default, if most users feel that I've reduced the chance of getting a critical hit by too much.

That's correct. I'm not arguing the combined damage (well, not anymore <_< ), I'm just saying that criticals now have much lesser impact on your overall combat performance than before - you have significantly nerfed one quite big aspect of the game. I personally loved those "glass cannon" builds (low armor, strength, hp but high speed, agility, crits) but with these settings it's more like "glass peashooter", the build just ain't so viable compared to "brute force" types anymore (have I mentioned how I f@#^n' hate power armors that turn my character into a faceless steel slab?). I'm quite sure that there are other ways to balance crit builds instead of downright nerfing them IF you feel that they're too strong. Maybe increase PE requirement for better criticals, reduce crit damage or chance on sniper rifles (since you can easily sneak-crit with them), I dunno. I'm just suggesting - give glass cannons a chance :bowdown: .

Also, speaking of my glass obsessions - do you have any plans to rebalance the armor so that lighter armors remain useful through entire game when compared to heavier ones? Or maybe bring recon armor into the light class where it belongs?

I followed your mod back with FO3 but never committed to using it b/c it gave off the idea that npc's health and/or damage resistance was buffed while the players' was nurfed.
Is this accurate or am I reading things differently than intended?
I'd very much like to find a stable mod that brings the player's AND npc's health down to the point where bullets realistically make short work of killing things. This really comes from fighting creatures that swarm you and have decent damage capabilities plus can endure enough point blank *insert any weapon here* rounds to make a brick wall proud.
If it's the case where enemy health/dam resist is indeed increased, could an optional patch be made to instead decrease these just like they are for the player? I'm sure it would be just a matter of altering certain numbers to be lower than vanilla standards rather than higher (or vice versa), but beyond using the FONY counterpart of FO3Edit, I'm clueless as to how to make the changes myself, and you've said its hard to find your changes using that utility...
Again, if it does actually do this already then sorry to bother and thanks for the mod I could always just download and test but there'll always be the uncertainty of discrepancies due to dozens of factors b/c I won't know exactly what the mod does to health levels and how.

The mod makes the game harder not more annoying. This means fights don't necessarily last longer, they're just deadlier. If you have the right tools you can end most fights quite quickly.

I'd say NPC and PC are more equal now than before, where the PC always had the advantage. But it's not done by giving NPCs tons of extra health and resistance, so you don't get that 'NPCs are bullet sponges' effect that you'd get by turning the difficulty up to very hard.

As povuholo replied, NPCs and the PC are more equal than with the default game . . . which is a big part of my Realism Core's initial goal. What I am attempting to do with my mod is make FNV the RPG that I felt it should have been (if it had been made for serious, hardcoe players, instead of trying to reach the greatest number of players).

In balancing things out, the NPC received a health boost, along with armor and weapons that are in much better condition, and the PC gets a HP reduction (?which will be further reduced in my Hard-Core module). But the NPCs' health increases are more than offset by my increased weapon damage (if you have decent weapon skills), and by my my Localized Damage changes (which make head shots more deadly). If you have low weapon skills, a low level weapon (low DAM), and/or a weapon in poor condition, it is going to be difficult to kill a well-armored NPC (and many of the creatures). But, with moderate weapon skills (25 and up), a higher level weapon, and decent armor, you should be able to hold your own against most NPCs (as long as you don't try to take on too many at once).


My ReadMe is pretty complete, but if you need more detailed info, follow my link to my FNV Journal . . . I have a ton of information there on my Realism Tweaks. Installing my mod is very simple, and you really should give any mod a try before asking the mod's creator to release a custom patch.

My Realism Tweaks is organized by modules: my Realism Core is only the first module and it balances the game and does make the game more difficult. But adding my Hard-Core module will up the difficulty another notch or two; and my Encumbrance module will add another layer of difficulty, and finally my Med-Tec module will take combat and survival to a whole new level.

Sorry I didn't explain my situation I suppose; I haven't downloaded and used any mods yet for New Vegas- I'm still in my first play-through which I like to keep fully vanilla so in my second play-through I can truly appreciated the additions that mods I'll be using give to the game. Plus some overhauls just work better when started in a new play-through. If given enough time, yes, I could just download and test it, but that takes a lot of time to set up in a play-through; asking the mod author on the forum gets to the issue at it's source since you know exactly what's being changed, plus anyone else who has the same concern would be answered as well.
I didn't mean to insult in any way if insult was taken, I just needed some clarification after reading how you described your changes.

I guess one of the things that worried me was what you said the mod does in this line:

When I read "My mod already does both" I took it as "my mod makes NPCs and Creatures more difficult to kill (it will take more bullets)" implying that your mod makes them more difficult to kill than by default standards and that I'll need even more bullets to take down things like swarming Cazadors or even a lone Deathclaw who were already soaking up my bullets to begin with.

I love the idea of more scarce ammo (and just about all of your other tweaks) but when I'll now have to use a larger amount of ammo from a diminished overall amount to take these guys down... I don't know, things could possibly go from having way too much ammo in the default game to having not enough when using your mod, so I thought I'd ask. (This isn't to say you haven't tested/didn't test for this sort of thing)

Again, sorry for anything that got taken the wrong way or if I came off as a lazy mod user demanding you to make a custom patch, I just was worried after I read that line. It's already hard enough to kill these creatures - upping the bullets needed while reducing the player's overall health seems the opposite way to go (player health by default is way too high but when paired with the above argument, it doesn't sound very good for my character's well being...)

I'll be tracking until you release your Hard-Core, Encumbrance, and Med-Ted Modules. Especially ready for Encumbrance since I remember reading about it for FO3 and wishing FWE would use something like it. I'll be waiting patiently for any sneak peeks on some details about any of them.

Thanks for the quick reply guys and hopefully they are indeed easier to realistically take down with this mod.

I didn't take any of your previous post as an insult. My Realism Core has the most effect in a new game, or one where you haven't progressed too far. But it does not require a new game, so you don't need to do anything at all "to set up a play-through" . . . just install it, open a previous save, and you should instantly see a difference in your game play. If you like this new difference, keep my mod installed . . . if you don't like my changes, just uninstall it. Not much of a time commitment at all.


That line is after these lines" "This mod was balanced for NORMAL Difficulty. If you normally play the game on Hard or Very Hard difficulty, PLEASE set your difficulty back to NORMAL and give my mod a chance before complaining about the balance. Using a Hard or Very Hard difficulty setting will just make the NPCs and Creatures even more difficult to kill (it will take more bullets), and your character will even be easier to kill."

In the default game, many users who are want more challenging game play set the difficulty level on Hard or Very Hard, and all that does is make the NPCs/Creatures more difficult to kill, and the PC easier to kill . . . by altering the Damage Modifiers. From the Fallout Wiki:
.
Yes, my Realism Core does make the NPCs/Creatures more difficult to kill, and the PC easier to kill . . . but is does this in a much more balanced way, that changes way more than just the Damage modifiers. That line that worries you was just to discourage users from trying to play my mod on Hard or Very Hard difficult (and then complaining that my mod makes the NPCs "bullet sponges").


I'll be working on my Hard-Core module again this week, which will include the reduction of the abundant loot, like ammo . . . which I'll be reducing to match all my other tweaks. The amount of found loot will be based on your Luck stat, so if your Luck is very low, you're going to have a difficult time finding enough ammo, and might have to [gasp!] spend some caps for ammo.


Between the Holidays and working on a long overdue update for my FO3 Tweaks, I've had to take some time off from working on my NV Tweaks. I have been working a bit on v.1.7, adding some minor changes in my NV Realism Core (as I'm making similar changes to my FO3 Realism Core). It will likely take me a week or so to finish up my NV Hard-Core module (which will be included in v.1.7). And then I'll begin work on my Encumbrance module, which shouldn't take much time (unless I run into another major difference between FO3 and FNV). Last is my Med-Tec module, which is going to take some time, as it includes my most complex scripting and a TON of edits to the default food, drinks, and chems (and the way injuries and healing is implemented).

excellent news. ill be back on my gaming pc just about then and can actually start my first playthrough. im assuming placed loot wont be touched (yet)?

As usual, I'm a bit behind on release my update (v.5.2 of my FO3 Tweaks probably won't be released until tomorrow, as I don't have much free time today).

I ended up making more changes to my FO3 Med-Tec module than I had planned, which took an extra day or so to do and play test. But all the improvements that I made to my FO3 Tweaks will be in my NV Tweaks, so users of both mods will benefit (eventually).

Version 1.7 (with my Hard-Core module) will probably not be competed until the end of next week (at the earliest) . . . it all depends on how much free time I have between now and then. I'm not sure about the placed loot yet . . . it will depend on how balanced my game feels after making all my other changes.

i just read the part about luck affecting how much loot you find and love it. in the game i dont have any reason to raise my luck past 5 or even 4 if i use up one of the medical impants for it. there are two items that increase you luck in game and as long as you have 7 luck you wind most games in the casino.

First - thank you for doing such good work !

So far I have 10 level ex. playing as You suggested on normal/hardcoe My observations are:

1. pure vanilla Very Hard was much harder then normal with your mod. Very unrealistic of course when to kill a few Geckos I needed bags of ammo. I died in early game many times eaten by them on VH . But it was stupid, when you are shoting at head someone 10 times and (it,he,she) don't want to die.

Now with your mod playing with Bone equipped with scope+good hand weapon I have problems only with packs of deathclaws. In other situations We together are Godslike. So in my opinion playing this mod on normal is too easy. Realistic but much easier then vanilla VH.

2. Becouse in you mod player need even less ammo then with vanilla I have (at 10 level experience) 40.000 caps and ammo, ammo, ammo (+a lot of items to many recipes). Having only 20 barter points !

What I want is the situation when I am forced to use malee often becouse low ammo. As is now I can shoot everythink like crazy, Reduction on ammo loot is not enough to game ballance. Overall barter must be changed heavily too.

In fact having level 10 I should have not 40.000 caps (I traded all things except some junk like cups, book, tins etc.)
but perhaps not more then 4.000. So I suggest severe penalty to trading. From my perspective it should be 10:1.

example: to kill 1 NPC I need from 1 to 20 normal bullets so my costs are about 1-20 caps.
Many NPC has armor + weapon often worth houndreads of caps. When sell prices would be cutted by 10, I will earn some extra caps on every kill - but not much.

There is another way to correct this. Make prices of weapon extra modules much higher. Not 300 caps but ex. 5000 caps.
And making extra item to buy - house, home robot, etc. Having 40.000 caps after some playing I lost any interest in looting.

If you can, please give me a clue when I should change exchange ratio in .esp file.

Thanks so much for your feedback.

Reply to #1: It all depends on your gameplay . . . game difficulty is more than just how many bullets are needed to kill someone.
Plus I don't use companions . . . I prefer the Lone Wanderer approach. Companions ALWAYS makes combat easier.

#2: I'm working on my Hard-Core module, which reduces found loot (based on Luck) and includes my Bartering overhaul, reduces skill and stat point, and a slew of other things.

I haven't messed with the bartering settings yet for NV, but I changed the following in my FO3 Hard-Core module (along with some scripts and other changes). So this will not be as be a comprehensive as what I will be adding, but it will make it much more difficult to get rich.

?fBarterBuyBase = 1.55, change to 3.20
fBarterBuyMult = -0.45, change to? -2.0
?fBarterSellBase = 0.45, change to? 0.20
fBarterSellMult = 0.45, change to 0.50