XFO-NV
A Massive, Modular, Customizable, Scalable Overhaul for Fallout: New Vegas


Many of you may remember XFO for Fallout 3. For a long time, it was the choice for Fallout mods, incorporating a wide degree of changes and additions. Unfortunately, I ran out of both money and time and it eventually was incompatible (as of Broken Steel, IIRC). However, I'm pleased to discover that FO:NV has the same engine and mostly the same code. I had so many big ideas for XFO and had just started to realize the possibilities of beth's code (The first 20 or so revisions of XFO were done entirely in Hex before the GECK!).

XFO-NV Alpha will be released by the end of the month, and will fix, add, or rebalance most of the following in its first (or soon thereafter) incarnation:
Pacing/leveling/capping, SP formulas, Weapon Damage, Item Rarity, hardcoe Mode, Perks, SPECIAL and other stats, Bartering, Crippling and body part effects, Gore, Degradation, Annoying Messages, Karma, Radiation, Enemies, Sneaking, Speed, VATS, and more. As always, every piece and change will be individually de/selectable and scalable to your preference, along with an all-inclusive recommended-options version.

Following are the details. Please let me know what you think, any additional ideas you have, etc.

Here's the whole shebang... Unless listed otherwise, most of these should be up and running by the end of the month:
(Oh My Poop: there's no [list]ing in this forum? Well, the following ugliness is totally not my fault)


* Weapon Damage and Weapon Skill effects
- This became the crux in gameplay difference in old XFO
- The main issue is that weapons do far too little damage (both directions) in V, providing a noticable lack of both realism AND balance (I love when I don't have to choose which to fix! )
- Options range in strength
- Options to limit weapon damage to base damage, unaffected by skill (realism option: weapons don't shoot "harder" if you're better with them); this option gives higher consideration to skills for accuracy
- Options to focus weapon damage on skill (balance/RPGish option: higher skills, higher damage); this option comes with higher accuracy consideration to weapon condition
- Combined options, scalability, etc
- This changes the game feel greatly, and in a very pleasing and satisfying way!

* Armor / DT/DR / Defense rebalance
- First, I'll do my best to implement DR for those who want it back (like myself) -- it makes balance much easier
- For those who don't want it, I'll definitely have to do something to keep it in check with weapon damage rebalancing. In early versions, it may be incorporated into the same group of submods as the weapon damage changes.
- DT is awkward, or it seems so to me, but I'll try to salvage it by messing around with it. Suggestions are welcome here. Playtesting some different ideas will likely be key.
- This already sparked some controversy. I want to say that controversy and differing opinions are exactly why XFO is modular and customizable. I'll do my best to provide several options. Alpha options may be limited or subject to tweaking.

* Perk Mods
- This includes a bajillion ideas, directions, overlaps and nonoverlaps, and will be the most time-consuming
- First, I will offer about 100 new perks of all different types, carefully balanced (released in waves)
- I will also remove the every-other-level limitation; especially important given the higher difficulty of XFO-NV
- There will be more options, like V perks on even levels and added perks on odd levels, and other kinds of perks (given like achievements, e.g.)
- Eventually, I hope to implement what I had 3/4s finished in the original XFO: complex perk skill-trees. These may also be available added mechanisms to this, like an optional class-based system, or another level of perks (XFO included a tertiary perk path based on linear XP)
- Of course, there will be extensive trait-system expansion as well. In addition to new traits (many!), I may remove altogether (optional as always) the limitation on traits taken; they're internally balanced, after all.
– There's a lot more available for this area. It's the most time-consuming, as I said, but I have a lot of plans and ideas.

* SPECIAL and Derived stat changes
- SPECIAL will be optionally rebalanced and extended
- Health per level reduced for PCs, increased for mobs/NPCs, making top-end enemies tougher, as the game typically gets easy as perks and skills stack up
- Base Health reduced, giving more importance to END
- More encumbrance per point of STR; lower base ENC
- Base AP reduced, AP per AGI increased, like most stats, crossing at V's stat at 5
- AP regen increased
- Perception will have a stronger effect on all guns, and especially on VATS and long-distance shooting
- CHA will have a stronger effect on barter prices
- The main issue is that some stats were preferable pragmatically, or affected too few gameplay aspects relative to other stats

* Pacing rebalance
- Adjustable scaling of leveling speed
- Readjustment of xp rewards (eg more for finding new places, for explorer types)
- Level cap removed
- Skill cap removed (later, might take some figurin')

* Aim Choice / Cripple / Body Part rebalance
- The main issue is that everyone shoots for the head, every time, which is boring. This is actually made worse by XFO's increased damage, making quick kills easier *and* more desirable.
- Head dmg multiplier changed from 2x to 1.5x
- Limb damage easier to accomplish (easier to cripple)
- Crippled limbs have FAR greater effects, allowing for greater tactics
- Leg cripple movement speeds reduced from 85%/75% (one/two legs) to 60%/20% -- both you and enemies.
- Arm crippling has a far greater effect on accuracy with guns or damage with melee/UA
- Torso crippling causes heavy bleeding
- Tactics: Supermutant has too many HP? Cripple his legs and torso, then run off while he dies (e.g.)

* Item rarity changes
- This takes extensive rooting (and for me, hex code rooting), so may be a couple weeks out
- Options to reduce ammo found, stimpaks found, meds and food found, etc., in combinations and strengths choosable
- Much more of a hostile wasteland, this can get rough. Top difficulty on these makes for a serious survival game!

* Skill point formula adjustments
- Tag skills give x2 SP instead of immediate jump
- INT has half the effect of Vanilla ("V") (odds give +1 SP every other lvl)
- Base SPs are lower
- Tons of permutations and options from the above and other formulas
- Main issue is that INT is OP in V

* hardcoe mode mods
- Faster/scalable degradation of hunger/thirst/sleep
- Scalable changes in day/night cycle time rate
- Changes in med/food strength and multiple effects (food may not give HP in HC mode, e.g.)
- All beds usable, optionally
- A lot more, based on forum recommendations and further gameplay (I haven't had the chance to play a whole lot)

* Sneak rebalance
- Main issues are (a) that the V sneak/spotting calculation doesn't make sense, and (B) the "sneaky sniper" playstyle is grossly OP relative to others, especially late-game
- This will have a mild/med/hard version setup, but is a very complicated overall formula (that also affects your compass hashes/perception), so it may (like with FO3) take me awhile to nail; alpha versions are for patient testers
- Main change is that line-of-sight is 3x more effective at spotting you (sneaking directly in front of someone who should see you will get you caught)
- *Moving* within line-of-sight multiplies that another 3x, so even at sneak 100, you can't just walk up to someone from the front and stab them in the face (sneak from behind and both these changes are ignored)
- The effect of heavy armor is increased in perceived sound, BUT the base is reduced, making sneaking with low-weight (<10lbs) quieter
- The sound made by a gunshot is hugely increased (wouldn't you notice someone shooting in your base?) and the range of sound doubled - but silencers are more effective (relatively)
- Sneak skill is stronger and more effective (will probably cross around 50, will require tweaking/testing)
- Obstructions will be more effective in reducing perceivability (assuming I can figure that out )
- Low/high light level will have more of an effect (may require tweaking or removing based on lighting mods)
- *Proper* sneaking (from behind, low armor, melee/silencer, etc) will be *easier* than in V (except in hard version), especially with high sneak

* Karma rebalance
- Main Karma ranges, especially neutral, have been widely expanded, giving more significance to evil/good recognition
- "Very" good/evil ranges are hugely reduced, making it require consistent and long-standing good/evil behavior to maintain that status
- Minor acts, such as stealing, have far reduced karmic effect. (See below for removing those obnoxious messages/sounds)

* Annoying messages/sounds fix
- Karma messages and sounds removed (optionally just for stealing)
- [EMPTY] optionally removed for people who are masochists ("realists")
- Lots more as I see them, and as people ask

* VATS rebalance
- VATS is so screwed up in so many ways that I don't really want to get too specific, here.
- Main issue is that the character is invulnerable during VATS play.
- VATS accuracy is uneven, unpredictable... weird. Usually too high, especially in early game.
- I *love* VATS and wouldn't even play the game without, so I feel compelled to fix it (I'm an RPGer, not a FPSer, but I try to satisfy both) - may include options to turn it off, speed it up, other fun poo

* Barter Balance
- It's too easy to loot and get rich. Not with this.
- It will drastically increase the barter price range, both for sales and purchases, scalably and somewhat configurably.
- Makes barter a crucial and more balanced skill, especially for those who wish to... barter.

* Speed rebalance
- Base speed of movement is increased.
- This has many effects, and though subtle (about 12-15%), really changes the feel of the game, makes melee more viable, and strangely, enemies make very good use of it as though they know, bobbing, weaving, kiting, etc.
- May make it scalable; optional as always; goes well with the cripple rebalances!

* Radiation rebalance
- I got pretty sadistic with this one in FO3. But don't worry, it will be scalable
- Radiation was never scary in V.
- Now radiation reduces more slowly, accumulates VERY quickly while swimming or wading as appropriate
- Radiation penalties may be higher, but you could get a lot more use out of rad regen
- May want to keep a suit handy for some areas

* Gore rebalance
- Gore was too common to be fun, now reduced hugely to 10% chance
- Bloody Mess raised for those who like the silliness
- If requested, I may make additional scalable options for this

* Degradation fixes
- Degradation rates reduced for both weapons and armor (though repair has a larger range of effectiveness from low to high)

* Enemy Rebalance
- Enemy by enemy, type by type, careful rebalance of stats, HP, behavior, etc., based on other XFO changes, assuming most/all XFO options are enabled in moderate degree (or standalone)
- This is low on the time-based priority list, because other mods often screw it up, like if Martigen adds an MMM-NV (or someone ports it), or if FOOK starts adding a lot of variables. It also takes more time/tedium than possibly all the others (perks aside) put together.

* "PlayStyles"
- Playstyles was a submod to the original XFO. It attempted to create satisfying and fun differences in different types of weapons, making eg energy pistols feel much different than regular pistols. It also added modifiers based on movement, kiting restrictions, UA dodging, defensive modifications
- The old rundown is still HERE (scroll down slightly, I botched the anchor - and the style sheet is now long-gone, so you may have to highlight to read)
- It's low on priority. Much of these deficiencies have been addressed, and I need to play a lot more to figure out how to readdress this idea!

* Other
- Running will more negatively affect accuracy for you and NPCs (maybe - gotta playtest)
- Med rebalance (also not at specifics yet)
- If I *can*, I would like to include an option to return the old DR armor option (percentage instead of straight subtraction; seemed better to me)
- Either way, Damage reduction needs to be rebalanced. Perks/classes will address this, too, but the "tank" player type and melee types need some love, especially after I increase damage, but it's a tough balance to strike
- Skills are rebalanced within more specific mods, but I may use an esm to coordinate appropriate skill rebalancing. Typically, I make skills have a wider range of effect, crossing around 60 with V values.
- Explosion splash radii increased by 30%
- Increase stat multipliers for "boss" categorized enemies
- Paralyzing Palm chance reduced (UA will get other love, trust me, but PP is OP)
- Player limbs will be damaged more easily (?)
- Graphical fixes, ingame help, mini-quests, easter eggs, other things outside of the mod's original idea, especially if they're easy, like declutter mods, lighting changes, etc. Low priority for a core overhaul mod, but I'll watch suggestions and requests.

* The "Standalone" Mod
- The most popular and highly-recommended (also easiest!) option, the Standalone mod incorporates all of the recommended mods from XFO-NV, balanced together, for the ultimate experience.
- Obviously not as customizable, but much more easily made compatible with other mods, and prevents cluttering your mod list with twenty bajillion XFO mods and figuring out which work together or don't (though I will have a numbering system to make that as intuitive as possible and make clear references in the readme)
- This one also gives me the most "why is this happening" message headaches
- Eventually, I'll incorporate NVSE (the script extender) to make as many of the submods as possible customizable/selectable/scalable from within the standalone, reducing clutter without reducing customizability/compatibility). Some things, like perks, really hate it when I mess with them from within a module.


I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting. I also won't be *as* active here in the forums for the first few weeks as I typically am, just because it's going to take time, time, and more time to get all the basics up and running. I will be reading everything, though. Also, let's not bring up the idea that got my first thread locked

Finally, I want to be clear that I'm not here to step on toes. Some early competition in the original XFO turned into some great friendships and partnerships. If you have, say, an item rarity mod, users can easily use yours instead of mine (assuming they don't use the standalone, but there's only so much I can do). I don't use a team, but I definitely do my best to make clear in my readme's where users can find other useful, supplementary, or "competing" mods. I know that I'm both arrogant and weird, especially to those who don't yet know me here, but I am friendly, and eager to return to this awesome community

Great news Xodarap! Always good to have options. I was one of the many who used XFO in FO3's earlier life. If you can only get gun skill to affect accuracy in real time instead of damage, it will be well worth it. Keeping an eye on release :goodjob:

Imo damage threshold is one of the more interesting implementations of armor resistance I have ever seen in an rpg. If the ammo you are firing does not have enough punch to penetrate the armor that your target has then your shots will be glancing blows at best. However it is a known real life fact that hollow point rounds will always destroy more tissue than armor piercing rounds. Its really brilliant honestly.

DT doesn't need to be removed it needs further refinement.

Big fan of XFO myself, glad to see it come back.

-Exo

Agreed. This will be my first stop. If I can reimplement DR, however, I will certainly include it as another option

It was my strong opinion in FO3 that the sniper playstyle was vastly overpowered, and I think that DT actually makes this much worse, further reducing the effectiveness of close-range "DPS" weapons (DPS is meaningless when "burst damage" can kill in one hit). If DT needs refinement, it also needs an opposite-end counterpart. I will have some head-scratching on this issue

Hello, great to see you're back to FO modding.
It was a sad day when I realised that I needed to switch to another rebalancing mod for FO3!

Anyway, I think the sniper playstyle may be balanced quite a bit if you succeed in implementing some AI improvements, i.e. realistic reactions of the AI if you snipe a group of baddies.

I don't like making balance decisions merely because a particular "style" of play is more powerful.

If you're fighting superior numbers of armed attackers by yourself, staying at a distance and sniping is one of the best possible strategies. (the best possible strategy would be to plant a bomb and detonate it from cover without making yourself visible at all)

Real life warfare proves the above two statements beyond debate.

Melee weapons are close to useless compared to ranged weaponry. This has been true for more than a century. Assault rifles do have bayonet attachments but they are rarely used in modern combat. Bullets are extremely cheap and easy to make.

Energy weapons must be tons better than guns in the world of fallout. One real life physics reason for this would be that energy weapons could deliver more power per shot with no recoil. The best energy weapons in the game should outdamage any firearm in the game, per shot. Otherwise they would not be so common. This was how they were in the original fallout games.

Real life body armor does in fact completely absorb the impacts of bullets with little injury to the wearer. This is because of conservation of momentum : the "punch" of getting shot while wearing body armor is equal to the recoil of the weapon used. Minor bruising is common but little more than that. "DT" is a great metric, however, the most realistic method would work like this :
A weapon hitting an armored target would ALSO lower the DT of that target, with the lowering effect relative to how far it is from the threshold.

Let me give an example.

Say light combat armor has a DT of 15, and a 10mm pistol has a damage per shot of 10. Then with each impact, the pistol bullets should lower the DT of the actor wearing the armor. The closer the damage of the hit is to the DT value, the greater the lowering effect. Suppose a high powered pistol had a damage per shot of 15 - then each impact would reduce the DT of the target more. This represents how real life armor does get worn down by impacts, but NOT by weapons that do trivial damage relative to the DT of the armor. You can shoot a tank with a pistol all day and it'll do basically no damage at all to the armor, nor to the occupants inside.

Fallout has people in mobile armor that can at least stop rifle bullets and lower powered energy weapons. It's called Power armor. Most weapons shouldn't be able to penetrate power armor's DT at all, nor be close enough to the threshold to wear it down.

This is another complaint : people say that power armor puts someone in "god mode" in the game. That's not a balance issue, that's how it should be. It would be realistic, however, if power armor had a high chance of breaking down. Exposure to water and radiation and flame ought to damage power armor greatly. It should also require a very high repair AND a very high science skill to repair power armor, as well as many suits of donor armor for spare parts.

That's my philosophy, anyway. I'd like to get on board with one of these mods and really work on the game balance due to the above principles.

@ Habeed

I don't really agree with most of what you're saying because while it may add realism, it takes away from a lot of the fun of the game. I mean keeping melee bad simply because it's more realistic is not true to fallout, makes for a more boring 1 dimensional game and, simply isn't fun. I don't even like using melee but to say it's supposed to be bad is just dumb.

Energy weapons in fallout games were less consistent than guns, sure they had the potential to do more damage, but they also had the potential to do less with much wider damage ranges. Since that is impossible with this engine apparently they tried to make energy weapons crit based but that ended up not working out. Also in old fallout games energy weapons did very little damage to armored targets, which is realistic when you think that the laser would have to burn through the armor and that is only realistically possible with a prolonged burn aimed at a very specific point. That could be changed though as it kinda svcks for energy weapons users.

DT wearing down already is in, its the item condition, the lower the condition, the lower the DT. I don't like the idea of changing this in any way because item condition already svcks to deal with and worrying about your armor breaking mid-fight or running out of DT just sounds stupid.

I do agree that power armor should make you pretty strong, the downside being that its a [censored] to repair, unless you get the 90 repair perk. which also reminds me that repair is useless in NV, same with survival.

Play hardcoe and survival shouldn't be so useless anymore.

As for melee, it is indeed unrealistic to make it as viable as guns.
But of course it is a game, therefore I think we should make an exception.

Maybe one could strike a balance between the two by giving melee an advantage once the melee character closes in, e.g. by making an enemy (or the player) stumbling back when hit while holding a gun.

I'm glad to see more people are figuring out DT is the major problem with balancing the game. I started a balance mod before :effort: took over and I decided to wait for someone else to do it, but if you'd like and it would save you some time you can just copy the initial changes I did with it. Essentially I ended up just doubling DT to get the first round of DR values - which coincidently is pretty damn close to what they were in FO3, which leads me to believe for DT the (generally) just halved the DR value from FO3 for NV.

But anyway the main reason I'm posting is the line of thought I took for keeping DT in the game was two separate ideas. First, only "elite" armor (Ranger Combat and Legion Variant) and "heavy" armors get DT e.g. especially "Metal Armor", it has always been horrible because it's cripplinginly heavy for the increase in DR/DT you would get - plus the -1 agility. Giving it a small amount of DT (I think I gave it like 10ish + DR) gives it a significant boost that it needs to be a useful armor type. Basically I imagined DT working in tiers for the type of armor, with Power Armor being the highest tier with the most armor and then everything else that had DT in the next tier (I only used two since there weren't that many items in the game that I thought should have DT) with considerably less DT (again, 10ish - also I increased damage globally so keep that in mind too).

The other idea is that creatures would keep their DT (although I thought about only certain creatures) to simulate the "feral rage" aspect of wild animals as well as the fact that gigantic mutated creatures likely have a very hard skin/carapace - and much like you would need a very powerful gun to do anything to an elephant or hippo, you would for these mutated creatures. You might only want to have that on the creatures that look the part though (like the obvious Deathclaws and Radscorpians) and not on say dogs or geckos.

Anyway food for thought.

The only reason I have been hesitating to mess with DT is the off chance that there is a more eloquent way to globally adjust it that doesn't involve adjusting every peice of gear, perk, and ability in the game by hand. Also if I am not it mistaken its possible to work with a hybrid system where both DR and DT are considered. Think about how effective DR could be if it was calculated before DT. Imagine the DR value being just enough to push the incoming damage below the damage threshold cutting the damage even further....

Well, the first debate is always the same whenever I start a topic -- and don't get me wrong, I find it interesting, and though I definitely favor one side, I try to make both approaches available in my overhauls: Realism vs. Balance.

For my side, let me quote the old XFO readme's FAQ section (the part about my balance philosophies):


So yes, I hugely favor balance over realism when they conflict. Then I favor options and multiplicity over realism where *they* conflict. In fact, realism ends up near the end of my priorities, though I usually consider it tasty icing when it coincides with my main priorities (like increasing overall damage in the game, which is more balanced, more fun, more fast-paced, and, woot, more realistic, too.)

On the other hand, while I have my own views of how the game should play and feel, I quickly wound up throwing those out the window when making the original XFO, which, at first, wasn't even modular, or planned to become customizable in any way. I try hard to take in all suggestions and preferences and make them all available. However, I don't like ever throwing out balance altogether -- if I have to, I will squeeze balance into realism to satisfy the realists. Case in point, I don't want the realists to get unbalanced *ease* in their setup by making it too easy for the "sneaky sniper" (okay, so I have a pet peeve with FO games ); this isn't a cheat mod, even in the name of realism.

Don't worry, though, I will provide a large range of options even from the outset. In fact, range of options is something I consider and create even before I get to mod completeness or heavy playtesting. If I have to release the alpha with nothing but damage/DT changes, for the sake of filling out the options, I will do that. Currently, I'm thinking that the alpha release will offer the original nine damage mods from XFO and paired DT-adjusting mods that are simple multiplier-matching mods. DT is tricky, so I'm going to have to give that over to playtesting.

Though I greatly shy from making NVSE required, this is very likely a job for it. Scripted DR should be easy to implement, though that makes it a pain to integrate into the UI, and no one likes to press a hotkey just to check their equipped (and only equipped) armor's DR. DR before or after DT would also be a head-scratcher for me. I really don't like the potential weapon-type imbalance posed by your idea, though it sounds like fun for a "number-cruncher" RPG player-type (like myself).

Global adjustment is definitely a must, though also very likely scriptable on the player (again, would have to equip to see it, but at least that would show up in the pipboy). Editing pieces by hand destroys compatibility. I try to stay away from all that and just hit scripts whenever possible. Player scripts are compatible with anything. I may have to pull in NVSE even for basic XFONV. I told myself last time that if I ever had to do things again, I'd start with **SE and an esm, but I like to stay self-packaged, internally complete, and compatible with everything... (on the other hand, apparently, NVSE works with downloaded versions, while FOSE, IIRC, didn't).

The easy answer, which I used previously, is to make melee hugely more damaging. It's still crippled by the fact that it requires closing the distance while being shot at, but it also makes you a bit wary to stand still with your gun while enemies close in with a sledgehammer. Though I already made my balance>realism argument, even for the realists, I used to say this about melee's huge damage: "I'd rather be shot in the shoulder by that giant supermutant than have him take off my arm and god knows what else with the crush of a sledgehammer. People survive bullets all the time, but I've never heard of anyone surviving being decapitated by a sword." I think that the natural distance vs. damage calculation balances out with huge melee damage. Of course, optional as always

Update: Well, DT and DR ("AR") are both listed in armor parameters. To my frustration, there appear to be no game settings allowing global multipliers -- while I could use scripts, it would only work for the player's equipped (easy) and the player's target's equipped (harder) armor. For most encounters, this works, but it wouldn't work for other participants in larger battles. I hate manually editing pieces of equipment; it will kill all compatibility (eg, FOOK). Still scratching my head for other options.
It also appears that when both are included (which is cool, and both show up on the pipboy, like DPS/DMG), that DR does in fact pop in first, making those high-damage weapons even more critical to use. I actually consider this a further imbalance, and may implement something to make those high-dps/low-dmg weapons useful (like maybe rapid armor degradation?)... :/

In my opinion Realism should Inspire Balance, not hinder it.

A Power Armor SHOULD protect way better then a Gamblers Suit, a Minigun SHOULD do way more damage then a pistol.

But a suit is a lot easier to move around in, and a regular pistol is certainly easier to draw and fire fast then a Minigun.

While that might still not mean a suit wearing Pistol carrying guy has a chance versus a Powerarmored Minigun wielder, it gives, in the context of a game, inspiration for how to Balance the two.

-Exo

What you are talking about is equivalent exchange balance system. While every tiered weapon archetype has its ideal place in the battlefield they all abide by a system of equal exchange when considering each individual stat. For most things it is mathematically possible to equate the value of each stat against each other. One of the easiest examples is a weapon that fires quickly but does the same dps as a weapon that fires very slowly. One of the more complicated examples is a weapon that is superior to most other options but very expensive to fire or how much damage melee weapons should do when considering the disadvantage of having to be near your opponent.

QFT, both.

Unfortunately, this is offset, as I said, by DT, IMO, and why I love DR, which stays even against other mathematical considerations. I tried to add some other elements to further add balance, besides the basic math, in the old XFO. I gave minigun wielders, eg, large incentive to stand still while firing long chains (and deincentive otherwise), further giving a chance to that pistol wielder, to whom I also gave added accuracy while running and a large added bonus to shooting others' weapons out of their hands in VATS, thereby accentuating strengths and weaknesses, hopefully until they countered the mathematical inconsistencies that just can't realistically (or fun-ly) be blurred to nothing.

To make an example of a hard case, though: FO3 naturally made the slow-firing "burst damage" option much better than the high-speed "DPS" gun in most circumstances, exacerbated by VATS mechanics, headshots, single-shot sneak attack multipliers, etc.; XFO made that worse on its first few tries by just multiplying out damage, making one-shot kills easily attainable and thus making DPS totally moot; DT makes that worse again by giving further disadvantage to DPS weapons vs burst weapons -- this doesn't even take into account that the burst dmg weapons typically have much higher accuracy than the DPS options! My first thought actually isn't to eliminate DT, but since it gives further preference to burst damage, I need to find some ways to incentivise the DPS option -- both mathematically and stylistically. I want to make armor degrade so quickly that rapid fire tears it apart, but I'm afraid everyone would want to kill me, since people hate repairing anyways

For those who agree with me, though, I will make DT->DR an option

Looking forward to this! I tried XFO for fallout 3 and loved the flexability of picking what i liked. I wish that more overhauls were like this. I find myself not installing any overhauls since they usually change too much and i don't like it. But somehow i always found a way to fit XFO in. Will be keeping an eye on this thread. Thanks Xodarap

Why not have both at once? You can then - if you're seeking to adjust all armour values automatically, which is what it sounds like - have the DT be a portion of the armour's total DT/DR and then give the rest to DR, thus ensuring that armour both has the characteristics of bullet-stopping and shock cushioning.

Unless I misread you, of course, and you're talking about the opposite of what I think you are! But hey!

How will you do this without touching every piece of gear in the game?

cool
another one i am really looking forward to!

if i can help in any way, feel free to ask

The only problem I see with this is that some people (including myself) would rather have one system over another. I'd rather have just DT than a hybrid system, as having both makes me think the game would be even more unbalanced because of this.

And well, I'm just not a fan of DR in general.

Besides that, just being able to choose between two different systems is more beneficial to mod users, because we could at least have a choice in the matter. I'm pretty sure that if DR was forced into the current system, or was made the only system in XFO, there would be a lot of comments on the forums or Nexus pages along the lines of "This mod seems great, but I hate that DR is implemented" or, for the more immature people "Dis mod svckz cuz DR". So creating that choice would appease both sides of the fence, which is definitely ideal for a modular overhaul mod to do.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to seeing what XFO is going to be like. I wasn't around for the Fallout 3 version (as I got Fallout 3 for the Xbox 360 for lack of a decent gaming rig), but I can't wait anyway.

Your mod was the best balance overhaul in Fallout 3. I am really looking forward to this ;D

I agree with him, if it's possible, an option with both would be awesome. Imagine, a determined PA guives you 50/10 (DR/DT), if you take 30 dmg, the DR comes in and you absorb 50% of it, instead of taking 20 if u had DT only. If you take 10 > dmg you actually absorb all dmg, guess this would be good, but to me, awfully complicated to acomplish. But certainly, you know about modding A WHOLE LOT more than me




Agreed, XFO was the best imo, when it comes to fallout/modding you're a visionary Xodorap, can't wait to play the NV version =D
PS: Also, as you stated about NVSE, would be really handy if we could customize the mod by menus.