Fallout 1-3 Style Skills Mod For Fallout 4 (WIP) AKA "Make Fallout Great Again"

[shingouki2002]

Here are some videos of the mod in action:

 

Here's how it works:

Every enemy you shoot gives you a small amount of EXP towards skills related to the weapon you just shot from. So for example, if you shoot an enemy with your pistol, you'll get 3 EXP towards Pistols, and about 1 EXP towards Ballistic Weapons (Small Guns). If you kill an enemy, you get more exp than a regular hit. Kills grant more exp if you kill an enemy that is stronger than you, but less if they are weaker.

Once you increase the skill to a certain amount of EXP, you will level up in that Skill. For each level in that Skill you gain, you'll get a different bonus in your abilities. The bonuses vary based on what skill is being increased and what level you just gained. For example, Level 1 of Pistols Increases your Reload speed by 10%, Level 2 Increases your Hip Fire Accuracy, Level 3 Increases Damage, Level 4 Adds some Passive Crit Chance, and Level 5 Increases Firing Speed with Pistols. These buffs are cyclical, so at level 6 you'll get Reload Speed again, then accuracy, and so on.

If you aren't equipping a pistol, then those buffs you gained with Pistol wont affect other weapons. The general goal with the mod is to encourage you to play the way you want, while rewarding you for focusing on one particular weapon type or playstyle.

The Skills Currently Implemented Are:

Pistol : Reload Spd, Accuracy, Damage, Crit, Firing Speed
Auto Rifle: Reload, Accuracy, Damage, Crit, Stagger Chance
Sniper Rifle: Reload, Accuracy, Damage, Crit, Increased Crit Damage/
Rifle: Reload, Accuracy, Damage, Crit, Firing Speed
Shotguns: Reload Spd, Extra Limb Damage, Damage, Crit, Proximity Based Crit Chance Bonus (Maybe).
Big Guns: Reload Spd, Accuracy, Damage, Crit, ???
Missile Launchers: Reload Speed, Explosion Resistance(only while using missile launcher), Damage, Limb Damage, Explosion Radius (only while using missile launcher)
Melee: Stagger Chance, Damage Resistance (While using Melee and in Combat), Extra Limb Damage, Crit, Movement Speed While Using Melee (Combat Only)
Unarmed: Movement Speed While Using Melee (Combat Only), Damage Resistance, Damage, Crit, Paralyze Chance

These Skills Overlap with Multiple Types of Weapons, and as a result level up slower, and have lesser rewards. But their 5th Level rewards I want to make unique. But I need ideas. The Skills are:

Ballistic Weapons: Reload Speed, Accuracy, Damage, Crit, Various Special Abilities (???)
Laser Weapons: Reload Speed, Accuracy, Damage, Crit, Various Special Abilities (???)
Plasma Weapons: Reload Speed, Accuracy, Damage, Crit, Various Special Abilities (???)
Explosives: Explosion Resistance, Explosion Radius, Explosion Damage, Explosion Limb Damage, ???

So you can have a Pistol and get a Ballistic Weapons Increase, then switch to a ballistic rifle, and still get a small bonus for Ballistic Weapons on your Rifle. But you'd be weaker in Rifle than you are with Pistols. Also, as an aside using Auto Rifles and Sniper Rifles very slightly increase your skill in Rifles, and using Missile Launchers, very slightly increases your skill in Explosives and Heavy Guns. The general goal with this, is to help you slightly branch out if you wish since those abilities can be very similar.

 

Also, you might notice that there are some Kill Challenges in the video. That's a separate feature that will be bundled with the mod. It's separate from the EXP skill system.


Later on other skills are planned such as First Aid/Doctor, Science, Hacking, Sneak, Traps (Maybe have a chance for traps to fail horribly), Barter, Lockpicking (Maybe have a chance for locks to jam and be unusable. Not doors, but probably treasure chests and perhaps lock forcing.) But these skills remain to be seen so don't hold me to it.

For now, I wanted to tackle these combat skills and see where the mod ends up from there.


Anyway if you have any ideas, comments, suggestions, etc please leave it below! Feedback always helps!

Edited September 25, 2016 by shingouki2002

[Njorunn]

This looks awesome! Definitely a must-have mod once it's done. Good job!

[shingouki2002]

This looks awesome! Definitely a must-have mod once it's done. Good job!

Thanks!

[MioneRCP]

A Mod I'm definently gonna use!

 

Only thing I'd like to say is to make it compatiably with this when its out: https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/3394260-fallout-4-how-it-shouldve-been/page-12

 

There trying to bring a lot back into fallout that was missing, This sounds like the sort of thing there are looking for.

[tartarsauce2]

since this is kinda where I'm at in thinking about things too and you seem to already have stuff in the works, and I'm plugging away at actually finishing the game even though I haven't played in 3 days because I get distracted because I'm a hyper-INTP which means theory and concept distracts me from actual action allllllllllll the freaking time...

NOTE: SOMEONE SUGGESTED THAT THE SYRINGER BE THE "ZIP GUN" aka a pipe rifle
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Pipe_rifle_(Fallout_2)
it'd make the thing more useful again that's for sure lol, if you take the ammo things at all and give it nails firing capability too then you've got a reliable firearm and can balance a little easier around having firearms without giving constant amounts of great ammo

well here, stuff I came up with
(general concepts or particulars of balancing)
https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/4875795-the-fallout-mod-i-intend-to-make-mfga/

(armour and damage specific concept) - these are a bit complicated maybe, at least the way I put them, but I'm very specific about this because I remember fallout 1-2 and how the armours were different and useful in their differences for different kinds of characters too, this is mostly about damage but it's also about keeping all forms of armour relevant and useful

https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/3394260-fallout-4-how-it-shouldve-been/?p=42822315
(earlier incarnation of the concept, there's a bit of info in each post that the other one doesn't have but they're similar)
https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/4848675-possible-solution-for-damage-sponging-problems/?p=42309855

the person doing "fallout 4 how it should've been" doesn't seem to have made any updates in a while, not sure what they're up to
and finally, a little something very similar to your concept
https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/4753935-question-about-perks-stats-debuffs-have-an-idea-for-a-mod-but-might-be-a-technical-limitation/

note: I will never accuse anyone of "stealing my ideas" but I do enjoy discussing oddities in timing, I love hiveminding (the reason I bring this up is because actually someone else did a mod a bit like yours independently of anything I said as well and they brought it over from the bethesda site, so I guess there's a lot of "are you thinking what I'm thinking?" going on here love it :D )

one thing I'd like to suggest is thinking about contextually useful things, like it's all well and good for the stats to all go up for all the weapons, but the rate that they go up and the maximum they go up and their minimum starting point all relate and as these change, so does the nature of your playthrough in the game
what this means is that the relationship between stats dictates the actual experience of gameplay you'll have, and this is where tuning comes into play

in certain games, if you have a gun that shoots 6 bullets and you add +1 damage per bullet, versus 10% damage to baseline (+10% +20% +30%) you'd get 6/12/18 damage versus 5/10/15 damage per shot
while in fallout the projectiles don't add flat damage necessarily, the explosive legendary effect I believe is geared towards that which makes fast firing weapons a lot more potent, and definitely OP if they're strong as well as fast firing then, so giving it a flat 5 damage and a 5-10% damage boost might be able to smooth out differences between fast and slow firing weapons while not having to have multiple explosion legendary effects, 5% and 5 flat damage would put it somewhere decent while at the same time avoiding certain OP situations

this is an obvious example of a game breaking imbalance I'd argue, but similar effects and results could be seen between reload speeds and firing speeds involving the various types of guns, and even more obnoxiously and unjustifiably, kills the flavour and character of weapons sometimes if overdone
so for instance, shotguns reloading faster might start making the double barrel shotgun amazing but if not handled properly would lead to the double barrel shotgun looking something like a bolt action rifle in a sense
but what then for bolt action rifles? they're merely a longer range variant, etc etc etc

just some stuff to think about, one easy way out of the potential problems in this situation would be to alter values so that even if 3 gun types give the *exact same kinds of values* the amounts are skewed to keep the weapons "in character" to what one might think they should be as, while at the same time, a veteran hunting rifle user might be able to fire almost as fast as a semi auto pipegun user while doing more damage, but when put up with a veteran semi auto user, will be "back in their place" so to speak

Edited September 30, 2016 by tartarsauce2

[charwo]

I gotta be honest, while putting skills back into the game would be great, I'm not interested in something that just effects the combat. There's really too much combat. I'd be happy with a two perks per level system combined with something that removes the level restrictions. That'll be enough.

 

What you really need is QUESTS that can give you the right perks for completing them. For instance, have a Doctor who can teach you how to be a medic or do some big quest for Mel to teach you Robtoics expert, or hell, beat him in a drinking contest (outcome determined by your endurance.) Have a thing where if you take every common drug at once, you get +1 Endurance just for surviving the experience.

What this game really needs is something like New Vegas's perks for challenges mod:
http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/60865/?tab=2&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fnewvegas%2Fajax%2Fmodfiles%2F%3Fid%3D60865&pUp=1

[shingouki2002]

I gotta be honest, while putting skills back into the game would be great, I'm not interested in something that just effects the combat. There's really too much combat. I'd be happy with a two perks per level system combined with something that removes the level restrictions. That'll be enough.

 

What you really need is QUESTS that can give you the right perks for completing them. For instance, have a Doctor who can teach you how to be a medic or do some big quest for Mel to teach you Robtoics expert, or hell, beat him in a drinking contest (outcome determined by your endurance.) Have a thing where if you take every common drug at once, you get +1 Endurance just for surviving the experience.

 

What this game really needs is something like New Vegas's perks for challenges mod:

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/60865/?tab=2&navtag=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nexusmods.com%2Fnewvegas%2Fajax%2Fmodfiles%2F%3Fid%3D60865&pUp=1

This will already do something to that extent by adding custom challenges, and completing them will give you perks to match.

 

Although it's true that there is a lot of combat related things, I don't think that has that much bearing on what I want to add to the table :). What I want to add is bigger than just flat combat, but a feeling of proper character progression via "As you do x you get better" focused on specialization of duties. Though your ideas are great, and thank you for them, I will just manage what I can with this first :) Thanks for your comments!

 

I will never accuse anyone of "stealing my ideas" but I do enjoy discussing oddities in timing, I love hiveminding (the reason I bring this up is because actually someone else did a mod a bit like yours independently of anything I said as well and they brought it over from the bethesda site, so I guess there's a lot of "are you thinking what I'm thinking?" going on here love it :D )

I was unaware that anyone was doing/did a mod like this or even suggested an idea like this. If you could link me to it that'd be nice.

 

Also, the ideas I had here were just created from a desire to feel proper progression in this game. This game has no real progression outside of perks. I've always felt Bethesda had a good idea in the concept of "As you do things you get better" but they never really executed it that well ie: In Oblivion you get stronger, but everything levels up with you so it nullifies your progress, In Skyrim you can get stronger with weapons via perks but they removed the stat system, so it feels a little more Hollow, in this game they removed the improvement element entirely. So this is my way of adding it back in a light way.

 

Good notes about ideas towards balance and progression though. I've kept most of this in mind in development, but you brought up a few concepts I wasn't thinking about. In relation to balance, one idea I personally had was to nerf the player flat out from the beginning of the game. Since as it stands I feel you're too much of a super hero to begin with in the first place. You come out of a 200 year cryostasis chamber like a super soldier. I can't even sit on my leg for a few minutes without it falling asleep. But the MC can stay in one place for 200 years and come out casually? It's a little silly.

 

So my idea is nerf the MC with every weapon to start, and you progressively become better. 1/3rd or Halfway through level progression you become about as strong as you were with no nerfs. Then past that you become stronger than you would be in vanilla. But I did it in a way to emphasize balance in the first place. The values for increases are mostly customizable values, so balance at a base level isn't too hard. The issue is, I can't really tell if something is a shotgun, a double barrel, or whatever else due to how detection works. As difficulty affects the health of enemies, balance is also a bit in the players hands too. So there's a lot to think about.

 

In any case thanks for your input, it's well appreciated.

[ancientwillow]

(not sure how feasible any of these are from an implementation standpoint as I'm no modder)

 

Expert Maintenance: ballistic weapon mods are n% more effective (standard mods would need a buff as well).

Self-stabilizing Optics: laser weapons are n% more accurate, and scope sway is removed.

Matter of Fact: kills with plasma weapons yield n% more XP.

Chain Reaction: kills with explosives detonate ammunition on the target.

[Bottletopman]

Hmm...regarding skills for damage types...any plans for frost, fire and electrical damage? There's a mod out there called damage type variation and it restores the cut frost, fire and electrical damage (although according to the author electrical damage is still a bit buggy).

 

This mod sounds hectic though. Will ranks go indefinitely or is there a limit? If you could keep ranking up pistol reload speed for example it'd be a bit silly if a gun could be reloaded near instantly.

[shingouki2002]

Hmm...regarding skills for damage types...any plans for frost, fire and electrical damage? There's a mod out there called damage type variation and it restores the cut frost, fire and electrical damage (although according to the author electrical damage is still a bit buggy).

 

This mod sounds hectic though. Will ranks go indefinitely or is there a limit? If you could keep ranking up pistol reload speed for example it'd be a bit silly if a gun could be reloaded near instantly.

As for frost/fire/electrical, nothing is planned mostly because those are a bit specific in nature (ie: It doesnt cover a lot of weapons). They're mostly balooned into the other classes in terms of detection. Though maybe I will dedicate them to specific systems later on.

 

Also, there are ranking limits. All the limits are built in naturally into the system and I can change them at any time. I programmed it with these things in mind just because it's a pain in the ass if I don't build them in a variable/flexible way ie: If I make it only work with a preset limit, and decide to change that limit, I have to reprogram everything from the ground up. Some things can't be variable though, like firing speed.

 

Here's the code for it:

 

 

Debug.Trace("Initializing EXP Values...")
maxLevel = 30 ;Max Skill Level
maxLevelUp = 6.0 ;Cyclical Level Ups caps
expPerHit = 0.25 ;How much exp is gained per hitting an enemy
baseExpToLvUp = 25 ;Base Exp Needed to Level up
expScale = 25 ;Exp Increase Per Level
secondaryExpModifier = 2 ;EXP Gained / SecondaryExpModifier = Secondary Exp Gained
ammoExpModifier = 4 ;EXP Gained / AmmoExpModifier = Ammo Exp Gained
gameDifficulty = Game.GetDifficulty()

Debug.Trace("Setting Difficulty Multipliers...")
diffScaler = New float [7] ;EXP Modifiers for difficulty. Multiplies EXP gained by these values ie: ExpGained *= diffScaler[Game.GetDifficulty()]
diffScaler[0] = 1.50 ;Very Easy
diffScaler[1] = 1.25 ;Easy
diffScaler[2] = 1.00 ;Normal
diffScaler[3] = 0.85 ;Hard
diffScaler[4] = 0.70 ;V-Hard
diffScaler[5] = 0.50 ;Survival 1
diffScaler[6] = 0.50 ;Survival 2