[WIP] Bullet Sponge Ballet - Combat Overhaul

[Khormin]

 

Bullet Sponge Ballet

An ironic title in an attempt to do the exact opposite.

Bullet Sponge Ballet adds quote realism endquote to the game mechanics by changing some of the basic precepts of the game. If you are a fan of casual 'shrug off multiple shots and crouch behind a wall to regenerate' shooters, then I will save you time by saying "this is not the mod for you". If however you like having to make tactical choices, having a high element of anticipation to battles, and faster combat that really can be decided by being the 'fastest' shot, then welcome, you are the player type that Bullet Sponge Ballet was designed for!

 

The Changes (Short)

War never changes.

 

The weapons we have designed, since the dawn of man, are made to kill one another with great success, but just as successful are the crafts that keep the pale spectre at bay, a constant tug-of-war that has spawned entire industries of brinkmanship. Combat is faster and deadlier, armor far more essential to your survival once the shooting starts. It's harder to hit moving targets, it's easier to aim when you're not. In shootouts and real estate, it's all about location, location, location. All bleeding eventually stops.

 

The Changes (Detailed List)

• Damage has been increased to ensure lethality through all levels.
• "One shot stop" is likely due to trauma and/or shock.
• Injury to the head is greatly increased.
• Show me a man with a bulletproof skull, and I'll show you who's taking point when hunting snipers.
• Ballistic damage scales according to expected impact force, based partially on muzzle energy.
• A .50 Beowulf is far more likely to penetrate armor than a .22 Short.
• Melee weapon damage scales according to size and weight.
• Because a greataxe gets through armor with more ease than a baseball bat.
• Energy weapons scaled to equivalent function.
• "Laser musket"? You mean 'quad barrel laser shotgun'?
• All ballistic and bladed-weapon wounds carry a long, slow bleed damage that is not only cumulative, but is increased on torso wounds.
• Blood loss. It's a killer.
• Limb damage is greatly decreased, but carries greater chance of status effect impact.
• Because a shot to the thigh or foot will slow you down.
• Food and water heals now via very slow, very low regeneration.
• No more stuffing your face with sweetrolls to heal from a headshot.
• Stimpacks are unchanged.
• Robots, lasers, and healing potions. I can believe that.
• Background regeneration is almost stopped completely.
• Wounds matter
• Metal armor greatly increased for physical damage prevention.
• Metal, protection against swords since the bronze age.
• Synthetic armor greatly increased for energy damage prevention.
• Fancy armor for fancy weapons.
• Combat armor increased to a lesser extent, but effective against both.
• For when you don't know what to expect.
• Leather armor far less effective than Synthetic, but is far lighter and improves stealth.
• Because leather is not that great against bullets, if radstags haven't proven that to you yet.
• Raider armor is far less effective than metal, but is lighter, improves carrying capacity and has radiation resistance.
• What with their desire to pocket everything within a nuclear world.
• Running (default speed) grants a very minor damage reduction buff. Sprinting grants a greater one.
• Because it's almost like it's harder to hit a moving target.
• Walking (Capslock toggle or C hold) instead grants a slight aim buff that stacks with crouching.
• It's easier to aim when the sight isn't bouncing around.
• Sneak attack damage is almost removed from ballistic and energy weapons.
• Because the benefit of sniping is that your target isn't taking cover.
• Sneak attack damage is highly increased for melee weapons.
• A sliced throat kills no matter what you're wearing.

 

Asking for thoughts before I finish my editing. It's "Project: YABBA" on my signature.

[Khormin]

• Power of all explosive weapons is increased by 100%

Explosive radius of all detonations (environmental or weapon based) increased by 100% (inner) and between 150%-300% (outer).

Added explosive radius to exploding cars and trash cans (why wasn't there one previously?) of 128/384.

Renamed "Suppressors" to "Flash Suppressors".

Removed sound adjustment from Flash Suppressor mods.

Removed range reduction from Flash Suppressor mods.

Added 'Silencer' mod, inactive, pending durability scripting.

Adjusted all damages from 6x to 4x multiplier.

[TeamBacon]

 

• Power of all explosive weapons is increased by 100%
• Explosive radius of all detonations (environmental or weapon based) increased by 100% (inner) and between 150%-300% (outer).
• Added explosive radius to exploding cars and trash cans (why wasn't there one previously?) of 128/384.

 

 

I found it interesting up until this point...

 

I can't say I that I was playing Fallout 4 and thinking to myself, 'I just really wish I could get one shot killed by even more rockets that come flying out of nowhere and kill me while I am behind cover even though they didn't hit anywhere close to me...'

 

 

But just my personal opinion.

[Khormin]

 

 

• Power of all explosive weapons is increased by 100%
• Explosive radius of all detonations (environmental or weapon based) increased by 100% (inner) and between 150%-300% (outer).
• Added explosive radius to exploding cars and trash cans (why wasn't there one previously?) of 128/384.

 

I can't say I that I was playing Fallout 4 and thinking to myself, 'I just really wish I could get one shot killed by even more rockets that come flying out of nowhere and kill me while I am behind cover even though they didn't hit anywhere close to me...

 

I'll include that as an option .esp then, but FO4's "explosives" aren't very. Even a normal grenade covers a much wider shockwave than they've reflected in the code.

[Khormin]

Having been testing YABBA (Bullet Storm Ballet's original codename), I can say with authority:

The explosives are dangerous, yes. It's the bullets, claws, and teeth though that tend to end up killing me.

• Molerat teeth cause a cumulative bleed, for example, as they're tearing into your legs, so if you're not fast with a stimpack (in absence of bandages before GECK), you can kill them all and then bleed out on top of them.
• Even at vanilla aim values, gunners and raiders can still headshot you. With ~40 damage minimum so far, and a high damage multiplier for head trauma, it means that taking on a pack of enemies alone, unprepared, and out of cover is most likely going to end up with your death. Much like in real life, TBH.
• Explosives still obey cover rules until I can sort out a script that'll diminish the damage rather than stop it through light cover. With the changes in effect, a single frag grenade will kill a room of lightly/unarmored enemies. Much like real life.
• At level 30 in my playthrough, I still have yet to encounter a deathclaw that does not instantly kill me on unarmored contact, which is pretty true to lore. They now are a terror, not just a high-HP tank-and-spank. It's also awe inspiring to watch one just slashing it's way through a pack of raiders, basically just swatting their corpses aside until it decides to grab one and impale them.
• On the topic of deathclaws, thrown cars can now be a devastating problem for you. Which I feel is pretty realistic when you consider that they're throwing a giant-sized Fat Man on wheels.

[Khormin]

Feeling flat after days of interrupted sleep - holding off any official work on mods today.

[Vanlococo]

Great initiative, i'm looking forward to testing this ! :)

[thewindhover]

Love the ideas here. I'll be watching this one for sure! One thing I'll be interested in is how you deal with small caliber weapons, teeth, etc. on heavy armor or power armor--even a massive pack of molerats can't swarm you to death in Power Armor realistically, and even the higher tiers of combat armor and metal armor would, at least by appearance, more or less completely thwart their nasty big pointy teeth. Will you incorporate the concept of damage threshold? I've seen a few mods experimenting with that so far.

[Arnaeus]

"All ballistic and bladed-weapon wounds carry a long, slow bleed damage that is not only cumulative, but is increased on torso wounds. Blood loss. It's a killer."

 

No reason to limit this to torso wounds. Cut someones brachial (arm) or femoral (leg) artery and he'd bleed to death in a few minutes, he'd be unconscious in less than one minute.

[hunterh98]

I can't wait to see this mod finished, this is the kinda thing I've been looking for.

Regardless of that, I really hope you add the food change as an optional file to select, because for the first time in bethesda games, food actually is worth keeping now.

In previous games, food was just a 1-3 HP heal, and was nothing but useless clutter unless you had a realistic needs mod.

 

In fact, having most of the changes, maybe save the bullet-based changes, would probably be welcomed as optional files in an ESP pop-up(I'm just going on the memory that that means the thingy that pops up when you install a mod), for maximum modder customization, but it's up to you since you're the one doing all the work.

 

Same goes for the sneak attack thing.

 

Still, I'm stoked to see this finished!