Arwen's New Vegas Realism Tweaks:
"Please do no make requests that I remove any skill damage increases, as that is totally contrary to my goal of making New Vegas a better RPG. My goal had NEVER been to make this a better FPS, so don't even try to convince me . . . I'm not budging on this. The default game includes skill damage increases . . . I just altered it a bit. The way my mod handles weapon skill is that you gain a weapon damage BONUS as your weapon skills increase. My mod does NOT penalize you by decreasing the amount of DAM you do when you have low weapon skills: even with 10 Guns, you will do roughly 25% MORE damage with any gun than you would in the default game."

Drag0ntamer, I don't like to criticize other mods, so I'm going to try to be as diplomatic as I can. But I've had a number of requests that I should make my mod so that the headshot damage is done like they mod you linked to. I'm not going to do anything even close to that. All that mod does is increase the DAM multiplier to heads . . . by as much as 50 times for some animals and creatures! (from a 2.0 multiplier to a 100 multiplier). The default body (which is used for the majority of the NPCS) is given a 15X damage multiplier. Even a weapon that does 1 DAM would kill the NPCs with a single shot (15*20% of their HPs= 300% of their HPs/shot). And that mod leaves the player's head damage at default . . . with a 1X damage multiplier. So the NPCs now receive 15 times more damage than the player. If that is the type of "balance" that users want, they should NOT be using my mod.

My mod makes the game way more lethal for BOTH the NPCs/Creatures AND for the player. I've only tackled HP balance, Localized Damage, Armor, projectiles, and explosions so far. I haven't even started on individual weapons yet, nor have I added my custom Weapon Effects. Give version 1.3 a chance. My mod is not just a quick (and often dirty) fix, but is a Game Play Overhaul mod. I have to balance out thousands of settings . . . and that takes a LOT of time.

Edited: Oh, and I nearly forgot . . . I also added this to my opening post:
"IMPORTANT: This mod was balanced for NORMAL Difficulty. 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. My Realism Tweaks already does both, so you will just be multiplying these two things . . . which will likely have negative effects."

Good morning everyone, and sleep tight Arwen :sleep2:

Time for me to start playing the game with your 1.3
Cant wait anymore so i will start from now to play it trough

I've been following this mod since the first thread and I've really been enjoying it. This thread also really taught me about you, Arwen, and has gained you more respect from me than you can imagine. Thank you for so selflessly taking the time out of your day every day to entertain others; even remaining courteous in the face of ignorance or unwarranted aggression. I was going to endorse your file, but it did not allow me to, because I just downloaded the latest version. Oh well. Good job, and keep up the fantastic work.

Great news that you continued this, Arwen and thank you for your efforts!

Downloading v1.3

On the headshot thing: it would make the game extremely unbalanced (see easy) for ranged character. If you're far away you can use a sniper rifle to headshot them easily. If you're close you can use a automatic weapon; use some turbo and you're godlike.

No more headshots discussion, please!


Interesting. Not sure how realistic that is (but I guess we've been over that enough the last week ) but it could be a nice tactic, if it's not too easy. It's definitely risky. I'll let you know how it goes!

I was going to suggest the same.

Thanks for 1.3, looking forward to using it. I'm always amazed by the large list of changes that all seem so plausible and will make my game more fun.

Maybe you could try making ART compatible with the Ambient Temperature mod, so that you get dehydrated more when its hot. The Hardercore mod is compatible with Amb. Temp. too.

I did, Thanks.


Thank you. I'm doing the best I can.


You're most welcome. There would be a LOT less requests for 1-shot kills if users of my Tweaks would:
1.) stop playing the game on Hard or Very Hard difficulty, since doing so just makes the NPCs and Creatures unrealistically hard to kill.
2.) Stop fighting my changes and give my Tweaks a chance. Try to learn to play the game as a RPG, where my changes strengthen the game play, instead of trying to play the game as a FPS.


Frag grenades (with my 1.3 DAM increase) now do 100 DAM, which is exactly the same DAM they had in Fallout 3 (by default).


I'm not going to try to make my Tweaks compatible with any other mod until I complete all four modules. I'm currently not even using many other mods in my game, as I cannot afford to confuse the default game play from my modded game. Right now all I have to do is uncheck my Tweaks and I have the default game (plus DarN, which I cannot play without). This is also the reason why my NV Journal's mod list currently has so few mods in it (besides that fact that I never seem to be able to keep my website up to date).

Yeah, his UIs have been pretty much indispensable for me ever since I started with OB

Just remembered something: with the release of NVSE would it be possible to extend the +x lbs to all armors (included ones added by mods) via script instead of an item effect. Because if say mod X adds power armor Y it will not get the +x lbs bonus. On the plus side you won't have to go through each individual item to edit it's weight alteration effects, it's all controlled by a script.

Makes sense about completing everything first.

Ive been looking at http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1132530-relz-hardercore/ Healthier Healing. This makes healing and drugs much less effective. i compared the changes of Healthier Healing and ART 1.3. I think i can safely use these two mods together. But im not totally sure, can anyone advice me on this?

By the way, you said frag grenades do 100 dmg in 1.3. I just installed 1.3 and my frag grenades only do 84 dmg. Is it because of my low explosives skill of 17? I can disable them but it doesnt show a message or anything so i find it rather scary Also, after disabling the grenade the red notifier stays on the screen when im close to the disabled grenade and i cannot seem to pick up the grenade, after like 20 secs the grenade disappears (maybe this was your intention).

Hi there,

First of all welcome back to the family Arwen. It is good to see you. And also thank you for the 1.3 release.

I started to use 1.3 and here is some feedback for you. I wanted to test combat first and made that Primm quest one more time. I attacked the criminals in the casino and cleared them all. My observations are:
1 - Damage to NPCs and their lifetime under fire were very satisfying. Two bullets to the head and they were down. Obviously there is a huge improvement here with all the armor and HP changes you made in the last update. So, thumbs up!
2 - They are still fighting without cover and attacking recklessly but as you mentioned before, it might be because of their nature as a raider/thug/criminal.
3 - I was wearing a Leather armor with very low condition (5 DT or lower) but still I felt myself pretty safe under fire :S Their 9 mm bullets had almost no effect on me. My HP was decreasing slowly. Only once I found myself in a dangerous situation. That was the time I faced their leader and his flame thrower. He hit me three times and I was burning like a torch for a while. But almost half of my HP was still there. Oh by the way my HP is 200 (with 6 Endurance points). I guess it will be a problem if he continued to fire his weapon but with no reason he stopped and armed himself with a melee weapon and attacked me. After I killed him I checked his inventory and he wasn't out of ammo so it was just a bad decision not a necessary one.

I will give you feedback time to time. However, from my point of view we need a balance in looting and barter system immediately. I know you are planning to work on those too. I just want to say that it is a big problem. I just traveled a little, made some quests in Goodspring and Primm and I am already rich :S I got some good weapons and lots of ammo, chems. I am wearing a leather armor so it is the only normal thing about my inventory. Wasteland is not an unforgiving place right now and I have no fear about my survival out there, which is not fun.

Thank you for your time. Keep up the good work!

Ciao

I agree, the damage to NPC's is really nicely done.

Yea there is definately not a shortage on chems, ammo is a bit more scarce but this also depends on your shooting skills. As for chems, until Arwen releases changes to chems i plan on using Hardercore's Healthier Healing module, which makes chems much less valuable.
I also think it is the game's intention to provide you with plenty of guns. So far good weapons i have are a laser rifle, plasma pistol, 10mm pistol and 10mm submachine gun, the boss's incinerator, a caravan shotgun, a cowboy repeater. But i prefer to use my service rifle. Oh and the broad machete that came with my preorder dlc rocks too for melee.
Im just curious, what do you consider rich? Im in Novac right now and i have like 2300 caps. I dont think this is much, but im not short on caps either. Repairs can be expensive but you can easily make lots of caps by playing Caravan (and winning).

I was actually pointing at the ability to disarm frag grenades. I figured those wouldn't have an easy way to disable them. But that seems to work alright, especially since they can't be picked up and re-used again like Frag mines.

The only thing I did notice was the red circle that warns you of a nearby thrown explosive that is about to explode: It doesn't disappear after disabling the grenade. I'm not sure if there's a way around that.

i think gambling (specially caravan) needs tweaking. i make way too much money off it. havent lost yet. and it more than offsets my lack of barter skill.

i look forward to the time when the other modules are finished and i cry because i only have enough money to repair my equipment for the next fight in order to repeat the sweet vicious cycle. Dont worry guys, having too much was never a problem in FO3 ART. and soon, we can have it (or not have it) in NV once Arwen finishes up on the other modules.

After unloading three clips of my pistol into a Radscorpion earlier on my new character I'm thinking I might try out this mod. Does it cause any conflicts with preexisting saves? What happens to my HP value if I'm above level 1?

I had to go though every single piece of armor and clothing any way, as my increased carry weight is just one of my many changes. In many cases I also made changes to the default armor/helmet weights, so this is not as simple as add a global percentage weight reduction when armor is worn . . . that would perhaps work, but it would be a LOT less balanced.


I'll be dealing with food and chems in my Med-Tec module (my Injuries/Needs module), but that won't be out for at least a few weeks yet, as it is my final module.
In the default game, any weapon that you use will not do its full DAM until your weapon skill (for that type of weapon) is at 100 (100%). With my Tweaks, a weapon will do its full DAM once your weapon skill reaches 35 (above 35 the DAM will continue to increase, with a 2X DAM result at 100 skills).

Well, I have about 1000 caps and lots of chams, ammo, dynamites, food... I played and won only 2 caravan games with little wager. And I just left Primm to the south. I guess I saw 3-4% of the game and I can buy lots of good things already. For me this is being rich and I don't want to be that relaxed at the beginning of the game dude. For me, wasteland means constant fight for survival. At least to some point I want to feel that. Of course after half of the game my character will be a beast on those lands but until then...

For example, if I am hurt badly or even crippled I don't want to think like: "Oh I can use some stimpacks and doctor's bag, I have plenty of them already." Or " Well I am out of stimpacks but I can buy 10+ of them from that trader" I want to think before I use that stimpack because it is hard to find and expensive to buy. I guess you understood what I mean.

I think, about 200 years after a nuclear war, medical equipment and supplies would be very scarce and very important things for survivors. Same thing is for ammo too. For 200 years no factory produced bullets and survivors kept firing. Ammo should be expensive and scarce too. Xodarap777 once used this sentence in his mod's readme: " In fact, while bottle caps are fun, I'm sure that the real currency in this world would be bullets! " That idea is used in Metro 2033 by the way In that game there are pre-war bullets which are effective and used as currency. And there are home-made bullets which are less effective so you have to think before you empty your magazine on the first stupid mutant. Personally, in Fallout world I am happy with caps but not with bullet prices.

By this way, we need to carry couple of weapons using different ammo types and also melee becomes a good alternative or at least a good last resort for a gunner.

Anyway, all I am saying is the game is still easy and not survivalistic with current looting and bartering conditions. I was just thinking out loud above. I am sure Arwen will figure out something for ART too. We just need to wait for it for while.

I'm not sure what the exact purpose is of the weapon cool down feature, but I was using a lever action shotgun and now I can't aim or shoot until several seconds after reloading the gun at any time. That doesn't seem right.

Edit: Strange, now it works fine. Forget what I said for now.

That's a vanilla animation bug with weapons that are loaded one shell at a time.

Check this addon for a possible workaround: http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=36317

Or do not move when you reload. It's an animation glitch.

I know exactly where youre coming from and i feel the same way. Its too easy, you are the richest man in town within an hour of playing.

With FO3's ART, it does feel like that. I've been playing forever and I have great armor and weapons, but I'm still not god-like and I don't think I ever had over 5000 caps at any time because the traders were harsh with their dealings (my Barter skill was very low) and I needed them for repairing my equipment and buying ammo. And things were still dangerous, especially since it didn't have the Damage Threshold system.

I wonder how this will translate to New Vegas though, because in FO3 you could still get damaged from weak bullets but in NV those would barely leave a scratch if you get your hands on power armor. We'll see. As you get stronger you'll probably explore more dangerous places anyway.

The richest man in town spent something like a billion caps in the past year just for you to deliver something to him, and he's been spending ridiculously large sums of caps for decades. No matter what you do in this game, you'll never match the richness of Mr. House.

People have a lot more caps in this game than F3. Yeah, you can get over 20,000 caps pretty easily, but the really rich people in this game have millions of caps to play with. What's lacking is a way (and a reason) to spend all of your hard-earned caps.

K, thanks Arwen, I will try the game on normal and see if that helps with the multiple shots to the head issue.

Dont know about that since im not that far into the game yet, but in the first towns you can buy whatever you want if you take everyone's caps by playing caravan (i didnt do that). I ve been playing 18 hours now, and im in Novac. I hope there will be plenty of ways to spend my caps.

Yeah, the Caravan exploit should be fixed. Make it like casinos - you can only win a set amount of money from each person when playing Caravan, else you can just buy everything you can from a merchant and then Caravan your cash back.

There are some ways to spend a ton of caps (cool weapons/armor/implants, for example), but there are no real steady drains on your cash supply after you purchase a few useful things. You're basically able to survive with zero income and never see your funds deplete for any reason, since free food/drink/beds are everywhere.

Eh, considering the amount of pre-war technology people have gotten working, I wouldn't be surprised if there were people that made and supplied ammo using old factories and so on. I mean, the Gun Runners manufacture guns! Plus, the player can reload their own shells! It seems that someone, somewhere, is making ammo - and supplies, too. From what I've heard about Fallout 2, there are several settlements that have figured out how to make stimpacks and so on, so ammo wouldn't be a far stretch.

I gotta say, though - things should be less scarce in accessible buildings. Why hasn't someone gone and scavenged already? The only reason I can think of is something similar to that agreement people who play geo-locational games have - "don't take everything". It seems rather odd in the context of a post-apocalyptic waste, though, but clearly people neither have everything they want nor find themselves constantly struggling fiercely to survive - making the world of the Fallout games seem less like "the end of the world" and more like "the end of civilization", if you catch my drift.