HNV-too easy?

[Mebantiza]

I am finding FNV suffers from a common Bethesda problem. Game is too easy. Even on its 'very hard' setting, its really a cakewalk. Once you hook up with Veronica and grab her a set of Power Armor out of repconn(which you can easily do at level 1), she just punches everything to death -and easily. Now Skyrim suffers from the identical problem. OP followers and game is just too easy in its 'default setting'. Im not even sure why Bethesda offers difficulty settings at all since all of there games seems to unable to balance scaling in any real way. In Skyrim I was able to 'fix' this problem since the community has a # of difficulty enhancement mods at hand to crank up the challenge. As is stood, its taken me three separate mods in Skyrim just to achieve the desired effect.

 

But FNV, seems to generally lack 'difficulty mods'. I am not interested in crap like Warzones, or AWOP, but wouldnt mind some recommendations on some mods that preserve the vanilla feel of the game-yet make the game somewhat challenging again.

 

Mods that reduce follower power

Improve enemy AI

Increase damage done by enemies guns or whatever.

 

Anything would help.

 

I just cleared the first floor of the Bison and those chumps were shooting at me point blank (DT 10)@Level 4 and between their firepower seeming to be somewhere between sad, and really sad AND veronica decapitating everything in sight with one punch, I can see where this playthrough is going. Being shot with a gun should hurt-a lot, but in FNV, its really not a big deal. Nothing a hour on a thin ratty mattress on the ground wont fix.

 

Hardcore mod a viable option? After all this time I still havent tried it.

Anyhow-Here is my load order.

 

falloutnv.esm

FalloutNV.esm

DeadMoney.esm

HonestHearts.esm

OldWorldBlues.esm

LonesomeRoad.esm

GunRunnersArsenal.esm

CaravanPack.esm

ClassicPack.esm

MercenaryPack.esm

TribalPack.esm

Lings.esm

MikotoBeauty.esm

NVR-Strip.esm

RHKGilbertCompanion.esm

Mission Mojave - Ultimate Edition.esp

EVE FNV - ALL DLC.esp

FreeplayafterMQNVv1_6.esp

MikotoBeauty.esp

MMUE-CP-EVE.esp

NVR-Version_10.esp

Mission Mojave - Ultimate Edition Plus.esp

LingsPrettyThings.esp

Cuter Veronica Felicia Day-Essential.esp

Cuter Veronica Felicia Day.esp

Veronicawearsdresses.esp

A Better Cass.esp

NVFR-NVR-NVTC-Version_2.esp

delilah.esp

fnvrwlo - brighter nights.esp

Follower Home Marker.esp

New Vegas Trade Center.esp

MojaveDelight.esp

NVR-NPCs.esp

RagdollOverhaulULTIMATE.esp

RHKGilbertCompanion-Lings.esp

UHNV.esp

Type3MClothing_AddOn_only.esp

NVLadyoutfit1.esp

UHNV-Honest Hearts.esp

UHNV-Dead Money.esp

UHNV-OWB.esp

UHNV-Lonesome Road.esp

 

edit:Sorry for the stupid Title typo FNV, Not HNV-eyes aren't what they used to be I guess..

Edited July 7, 2014 by Mebantiza

[SayinNuthin]

Know what your saying but almost all computer games suffer from an unfortunate combination of two effects where firearms are concerned. First the Hollywood/John Wayne 'It's only a flesh wound'... really... Haven't been shot myself but have been impaled by my motorbike's kick-stand, had my ribs broken by a surfboard and once ended up with a piece of 12mm rebar stuck right through my forearm and I seriously doubt your going to shrug off getting shot. Recommend the movie Three Kings (1999) which has a impressive description of how bullets 'work'.

 

The second thing is scale of gamespace to account for marksmanship. If you hang around the roads near of Wolfhorn Ranch you can sit and watch encounters between legion and NCR patrols which are just comic as they are stood a few meters apart blasting away at one another and apparently missing. Check the dead bodies for the snub nosed .38 'Chief's Special' (a gun with an effective accuracy suitable for a shootout in an elevator) but no, they were all carrying long arms.. The gamespace 'forces' them to be standing toe to toe and requires you 'imagine' them engaging at 100 meters? 200?

 

All games do this to some degree. I don't recall which WWII game I was playing where I stood up from behind the barrel that hid me and shot a German soldier, in the head, at point blank range, with a Springfield rifle. Whereupon he started shooting back :laugh: Getawayman! That would have blown your ***king head off.

 

Tips for FNV? Don't sleep! That slows your healing and levelling down. Take the most debilitating initial 'traits' when setting up you character and don't take ED-E unless you actually want to see a fly two cells away. Finally distribute your level points completely flatly, don't put more points into things you need but imagine you have no choice. That'll slow you down.

[Paranoid23]

I never found New Vegas easy and I consider my self a pretty experienced player. However, difficulty settings in Bethesda games like Oblivion, Fallout and Skyrim control only how much damage you do versus how much damage you receive. Playing on very hard means you might have to shoot a raider in the head at point blank five times in a row with a .44 Magnum before he falls, which is totally unrealistic.

 

There is yet another problem, followers are not bound by those rules. Veronica can punch everything to pieces and no matter what difficulty settings you apply, the rules for followers stay the same, i.e. they are no affected by the difficulty setting.

 

The game gets harder though, if you think it's too easy go north from Goodsprings and face either swarms of cazadors, scorpions or deathclaws. Things that will kill you in one hit on very hard. Once you progress in the storyline you have to make enemies and making enemies means hit squads with three or four fully armed goons taking shots at you at the same time from 50 meters away.

[Mebantiza]

Dude...ive played FNV many times, yea, there are 'hard' encounters in FNV that are and remain fairly challenging through-out. If FNVs foes consisted of nothing but Death Claws and Cazadores, then yes, we could legitimately say the game is and remains challenging. Except its not in broad swaths. A huge problem in all Beth games, as you rightly point out-is the rules governing followers are a not inconsiderable part of the problem. I really hope future products from Bethesda take a good look at the rules governing followers because they as things stand, whether its FO3, or Skyrim, the problem remains basically the same. A broken follower+scaling system.

 

But that aside, my original point remains.

 

What set of mods exists to help rebalance tuffen up combat for FNV....., that are not drastic overhauls? I ve looked and the selection is limited compared to say, the options Skyrims mod community has to offer. Maybe hard core mod is an answer? Like you say Para, shooting a raider 5 times in the head point blank with a shotgun to get a kill isnt exactly 'realistic'. Hardly news now, but Im considering another playthrough and its looking kinda meh atm.

[HotAssassin]

I have over come the follower issue. I go it alone. Makes the game much harder, though I do miss the eye candy.

[Teratoid]

Look up Project Ultimatum. It changes the way enemies behave (to a certain extent).

 

For damage changes, look into Realistic Battle and Dynamic Combat, or Puce Moose Tweaks. There's any mods that tweak the damage values (including damage received by the PC).

 

For major overhauls, look into Project Nevada, Arwen's Realism Tweaks, and so on. WMX and EVE are also great additions. These four mods in tandem really revitalise the entire game.