But during those few seconds maybe a raider with an assault rifle fired a couple of shots at you which should have done 20 in damage but instead did 2.
And another raider fired a missile at you which should have taken away 70 health but instead took away 7.
Sure it's only a small time frame but during that little window a lot of enemies can fire at you and still only do ridiculous amounts of damage.
Especially with deathclaws.
You start VATS at point blank range and the deathclaw manages one hit before you take him down, that hit should have done around 80 in damage, but instead when the slow-mo stops you see you lost a tiny little measly 8 HP instead.

VATS invulnerability is gone. You can stop whining about "god-mode" VATS now. And the percentage chance goes down when the enemy is really really close to you so no more ridiculously close headshots either.

I'll whine until I see it thank you.

Remember VATS was implemented as a combination of "easing" the transition for fans of the original series who were used to the isometric "turn based" system, to the 3D FPS engine of FO3 and to "port" the feature of being able to target specific body parts. Remember this is a hybrid RPG/FPS and Bethesda has to cater to both sides to get a wider audience.

I think I read an article (sorry, I have trouble finding it on google otherwise I'd link it) where there was a person with who had a neurological disorder that prevented him from doing rapid "twitch" movements and prevented him from enjoying most games on the market. His muscles simply would not respond to anything that would require a "quick" reflex, he could only perform only slow, controlled movements. He was, however able to fully enjoy FO3 thanks to the VATS feature. For him it wasn't always about the killing, he set out to explore the wasteland, collect uniques, etc. and he could do so without fear of dying thanks to VATS.

With that said, if you don't like VATS or you think it's too powerful:

• You don't have to use it or you can use it only in "emergencies"
  
• You can select perks, skills and traits that enhance FPS shooting and avoid perks, skills and traits that buff your FPS ability
  
• You can further change the global difficulty and play "hardcoe" mode in FONV to bring the challenge to your level

That's the beauty of this type of game, you can essentially "build" your character to fit your play style using just the features available to you in "vanilla" form, or if you have the PC version you can search for or even build a modification if you have the technical know how.

Personally, I think VATS is nether "godlike" nor "overpowered". In FO3, even at level 30 with some of the best VATS enhancing perks like Grim Reaper's Sprint, Concentrated Fire, Action Boy and Sniper, there's still a chance you miss one of your shots and not get the VATS kill to set off the Grim Reaper Sprint, meaning you still had to make sure you are in a place where you can hide behind cover and you still have to make sure you aren't in the middle of a crossfire or you are pretty much dead or close to dead. Add FONV's hardcoe mode and you lose the ability to spam stimpacks to save your sorry a$$ and all you can really do is run like a bat out of hell and hope a bullet doesn't hit your a$$ on the way out.

Are there ways to exploit VATS heightened damage resistance? To anyone who has fired a Fatman at close range using VATS and lived to tell about it, the answer is probably "Yes". Did anyone put a gun to your head and force you to use it that way? I'd say the answer to that is likely a "No"...

And there's my 2 cents... :tops:

Seconded. The only changes to VATS I've seen discussed are those I listed in the original post.

I don't remember who said it, but they said something about how the super DR in VATS was meant to protect the player as they used VATS since they no longer had control of their actions, but they realized later that people were abusing the invulnerability and that it was really unnecessary. Like I said earlier, the DR boost is no longer there and super close range attacks won't likely hit an enemy bearing down on you.

So, us who want to use it but think it's too powerful and therefor can't use it because it makes the game too easy basically gets ignored then?

Well I'm not saying that exactly, hopefully there is some kind of toggle or a set of perks to allow you to customize VATS to suit everyone's playing style. I guess we shall see once FONV finally comes out.

I'm just saying that you don't have to abuse VATS by blasting a group of hostiles with a Fatman at point blank range. I always use VATS from a very long range to get that sneak bonus and I usually have some kind of cover to duck behind to avoid return fire. If the enemy is a bullet sponge and hasn't died yet, I use a close range weapon like a shotty or a death claw gauntlet and circle strafe or backpedal the target when they close in. Since my AP is slowly charging there's no VATS invulnerability to save me there...

I actually only used the fatman in VATS, point blank range, once on a behemoth.
Was like "hm, okay, I didn't die from that?"
*tries shooting at same distance only without VATS*
*Dies*
*Never touched VATS again*

Meh, guess that if it's too powerful then I'll just not touch it again.
You PC people are lucky, you can optimize the game to play just like you want to. :celebrate:

I don′t use VATS because of its godmode. Only occasions i use it is when i want to brutally slay the last raider alive with a shotgun in the head, or use it as V.A.T.F.S (Vault-Tech Assisted Target Finding System).

That's all true. But (personally) I don't see the problem with that. If we were talking about an actual turn-based implementation of some kind, then it would be unbalanced that you got an advantage that wasn't reciprocated during an enemy's movement. But if VATS is anything, it's bullet time. I'm sure the actual mechanics and numbers under-the-hood could use to be tweaked somewhat, and refined. But the very fact of it isn't something I see as all that big of a problem - since it is essentially a power-up in the first place. :shrug:

Now I've been using the Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch for a while now which cleaned up the VATS glitches introduced in official patches, but I don't see the problem with VATS as it was in vanilla Fallout 3. Sure you could use it as a "cheat mode" if you picked up Grim Reaper's Sprint at level 20, but outside of that you can only really use it effectively once per battle without Jet. In vanilla Fallout 3 and the UOP it works well for what it is - a cinematic bullet time mode with fair to hit percentages. Just the other day I only had a 46% chance to head shot a Super Mutant in VATS from a reasonable distance despite having a 100 in Small Guns and 7 Perception; I could only really spam head shots if I were quite a bit closer to the enemy. As for the invulnerability, it's something that is just necessary due to the player being immobile.

Do you remember where you heard this, or more importantly, who said it?

no yes and like but nearly as offensively as it's written hahaha

Yes in fact, I know that in FO3 you recieved a 15% bonus

About the whole VATS thing itself.....meh....I think I'm cool with it :disguise:

i agree VATS could be overpowered but only if you took the action boy/girl or GRS, at it basic level it was a once per fight boost. yes you could time it right and save yourself from damage by going into VATS if you felt like it but as others have said withou a huge DR VATS is going to get you killed a lot.

so it's a balancing act i could deal with a smaller amount of DR but remove it completely and VATS is useless, making agilityaffect AP a lot more would also help as would reducing the 75 AP every build started with, obsidian has stated they haven't reallly messed with VATS only tweaked it. by reducing starting AP and reducing DR slightly you end up with a VATS that gives you a slight edge but for it to be a game changer you'll have to dump points into agility and thus be weakened elsewhere.

i liked vats and thought it was useful but could easily turn into a monster and hopefully obsidian has fixed that but if not oh well as some people seem to forget we can impose our own limits when it comes to playing games.

1: Don't be stupid! -tactics
2: Don't be stupid! -sense making
3: Kick ass! -tactics

1. Don't be stupid
The VATS invulnerability thing was sort of dumb. I'd be for taking it out or at the very least weakening. I'd also be satisfied if they merely disabled it in hardcoe mode
2.I had to vote "hell yes" because there was no "mite b cool" option
It could work if done right. Maybe a perk which is based on endurance gatekeeping, something like "Monklike Focus": This perk allows you to ignore physical trauma while you are focusing on slaying bodies. That would be OK. As long as it didn't make you completely invincible or close to it like Fallout 3's VATS.
3.Kick ass!
I've got nothing to complain about the new VATS tweaks, especially special melee moves, and the reduction and optionality? of slow mo.