Please help me solve this: New survival modlist, low ghoul damage

[Eichnexus]

H,

as the title suggests I did start with a new modlist to make the game more difficult especially concerning giving and receiving damage. Atm I'm pretty much a one-shot for most weapons and that's by design. I was curious about Ghouls and how they have been implemented with D.E.C.A.Y so I looked and found some. Issue is they do only minute damage. While everything else kills me with one or two hits I can stand inside a mob of ghouls without really being in danger. That's ofc not suppose to happen. I spent hours googling and looking  for people with similar issues (and solutions) but came up short.

I guess (don't invest too much in my opinion as I myself don't either...) that is has to do with True Damage and Decay but I'm not sure and I don't know how to solve it anyways. I had a look at the damage values of the ghouls with FO4edit and it's clear that they are not being changed by Decay.

Here's my modlist. Help is highly appreciated!

# Automatically generated by Vortex
Fallout4.esm
DLCRobot.esm
DLCworkshop01.esm
DLCCoast.esm
DLCworkshop02.esm
DLCworkshop03.esm
DLCNukaWorld.esm
Unofficial Fallout 4 Patch.esp
BakaFramework.esm
ArmorKeywords.esm
WorkshopFramework.esm
HUDFramework.esm
SettlementKeywords.esm
SS2.esm
SS2_XPAC_Chapter2.esm
SS2_XPAC_Chapter3.esm
TrueStormsFO4.esm
GavMan_Vault88_CityPlan.esl
Armorsmith Extended.esp
True Damage.esp
Modern Firearms.esp
TD - Modern Firearms.esp
WheelMenu.esp
TrueStormsFO4-FarHarbor.esp
TrueStormsFO4-NukaWorld-FH-Compat.esp
NAC.esp
AGM_Climate_TrueStormsPC.esp
NAC-FH.esp
NAC-NW.esp
AGM_DLCwithLOD.esp
ConditionBoy.esp
DD_bleu_Ump_Extreme_Lore_friendly_edition.esp
3dscopes.esp
ASVektor.esp
BattleRifle.esp
Combat AI Empowered.esp
SS2Extended.esp
SuperMutantRedux.esp
ImmersiveAnimationFramework.esp
SS2_FDK_TinyLiving.esp
Raider Gang Extended NPC (Fixed & Cleaned).esp
SS2WastelandVenturers.esp
[SS2 Addon] SimSettlements SuperStructures.esp
AtomicAnnieLagrieGun.esp
LegalizeTheCommonwealth2.esp
D.E.C.A.Y.esp
SCOURGE - Vanilla.esp
SCOURGE - Automatron.esp
SCOURGE - Far Harbor.esp
SCOURGE - Nuka World.esp
IAF - Far Harbor & Nuka World.esp
True Damage - Adrenaline Module.esp
True Damage - DLC.esp
True Damage - Vehicle Module.esp
JunkTownTwo.esp
SS2-PraRandomAddon.esp
SimSettlements2_AddOnPack_ApocalypticAdditions_SirLach.esp
ohSIM_Sim2_Settlements_Scrappers_Addon.esp
K9TacticalHarness.esp
SuperMutantRedux_ArmorSmithExtended.esp
Cannabis Commonwealth.esp
free production.esp
SS2AOP_VaultTecTools.esp
SuperMutantRedux_WeaponsmithExtended_Patch.esp
SS2BadNeighbors.esp
MAIM Distributor.esp
MAIM 2.esp
True Damage - Perk Module.esp
True Damage - Perk Module DLC.esp

 

Edited April 2 by Eichnexus
changed modlist

[worm82075]

 

First thing to do is add better console if you don't have it already. then load up your game and find those weak ferals again and make sure the last mod to touch them was decay. if everything seems normal there then...

next you need to get x edit and load up your mod list and see what is overwriting decay. i notice it's pretty high up in your load order. if nothing else just push it down as far as you can to see if it starts working as intended.

with better console and x edit you should be able to figure out what is going on.

[Karna5]

Worm's advice sounds good. In addition, what level are you? The Vanilla game stops getting harder after around 50th level which means once you're close to or over 200th level you're pretty close to invulnerable in combat. To this end, you might like High Level Perks (which I've been using with great success for countless playthroughs and years).

If you're high level, it's possible the mods you're using (whatever they are) to make combat harder overlooked making ghouls harder. If that's the case, and if you're high level, the above mod might help.

I play with a self-made personal mod in which I receive 10x damage (20x vs my head), and I also reduce my maximum hit points as needed via personal perks to keep myself not much over 500 hit points (as at high levels we naturally get around 2000 hit points which makes us even more of a bullet/claw sponge).

I don't use most of the mods on your list, but at over 200th level ghouls still kill me very quickly. So either worm is right that something is making ghouls weaker, or whatever you're using is simply forgetting to make ghouls tougher.

Also, don't forget that melee is not targeted damage. Again, I don't know what you're using, but if you've got stuff making targeted damage more brutal, it won't necessarily make melee damage more brutal.

[Eichnexus]

16 hours ago, worm82075 said:

 

First thing to do is add better console if you don't have it already. then load up your game and find those weak ferals again and make sure the last mod to touch them was decay.

My friend thank you for your support. I did what you suggested. How do I find out that decay was "the last mod to touch them"? I'm checking right now on some Ghouls in Lexington and with better console I don't find any entry on Decay on the ghouls.  In the right hand lower corner it literally says: "LastBaseChange: Fallout4.esm" Is that it?

 

Quote

next you need to get x edit and load up your mod list and see what is overwriting decay. i notice it's pretty high up in your load order. if nothing else just push it down as far as you can to see if it starts working as intended.

I placed Decay last in the load order. No change alas.

 

I went ahead and just disabled Decay. I went to an interior cell and got rid of the mod. Upon revisiting a pack of ghouls they ofc changed to vanilla in appearance and behavior but the low damage values stayed. So I'm pretty confident now that the issue is indeed not decay. I should have tried that already but I'm a bit rusty concerning modded gameplay.

 

7 hours ago, Karna5 said:

 In addition, what level are you? The Vanilla game stops getting harder after around 50th level which means once you're close to or over 200th level you're pretty close to invulnerable in combat. To this end, you might like High Level Perks (which I've been using with great success for countless playthroughs and years).

If you're high level, it's possible the mods you're using (whatever they are) to make combat harder overlooked making ghouls harder. If that's the case, and if you're high level, the above mod might help.

I play with a self-made personal mod in which I receive 10x damage (20x vs my head), and I also reduce my maximum hit points as needed via personal perks to keep myself not much over 500 hit points (as at high levels we naturally get around 2000 hit points which makes us even more of a bullet/claw sponge).

I don't use most of the mods on your list, but at over 200th level ghouls still kill me very quickly. So either worm is right that something is making ghouls weaker, or whatever you're using is simply forgetting to make ghouls tougher.

It's a fresh start. I'm lvl 10 so I guess that's not it.

 

Quote

Also, don't forget that melee is not targeted damage. Again, I don't know what you're using, but if you've got stuff making targeted damage more brutal, it won't necessarily make melee damage more brutal.

Good point I was thinking something along those lines. The thing is I cannot find any slider in maim, scourge or True damage that would let me alter unarmed melee damage of NPCs. But I'm not sure where to begin with trying to find that out or fix it somehow. The mods True Damage, Scourge and Maim are suppose to work with each other. There is no patching needed and I followed the install instructions from their mod pages. So, yeah idk.

[Eichnexus]

Maybe I'm looking at it from the wrong direction altogether. Maybe the issue is not Ghouls doing no damage. Maybe the issue is my character not receiving due to changes in the Perk system. I picked up Damage resistance.