Ye ole Overhaul\\Rebalance

[DDigit]

Hey Folks, It's A Big'n!

 

First off, thanks for all the stuff you guys have been making so far. After many many hours in MW, i found my first venture through Oblivion a bit dissapointing. I was surprised and delighted to see all the work Modders have done so far with and without the help of SDKs. The multitude of mods and the availability of good mod managers gave me the ability to change the game to Exactly the way I liked it, ensuring many many more hours of great gameplay. Big thanks for that. For F3 i hope to be doing some modding myself as soon as the SDK comes out (it will, it just.... has to).

 

I've played through F3 on Hard once now and visited roughly half the game locations. The first half of my game was fr*ckin brilliant, in the other half i started to take notice of a lot of things that might have been executed better. Man this is easy, Level 20 already?? CAPPED!??!?! NOOOOooooohooooo *clenched fists in the air*, man that was a bummer.

 

What i'd like ofcourse is the kind of change you guys brought to Oblivion. Only problem is, apparently the SDK accidentally blew up when they detonated the nuclear bombs in the game engine to make all the assets fall into place. So I guess they had to sacrifice the SDK for the vintage look.(that's my theory)

 

But even though F3's wasteland is as inhospitable to travel as it is to mod, some of you guys have already taken to it, and im already seeing a lot of mods and lots more mod requests. I havent really found what i'm looking for though, an overhaul mod that rebalances the game in several critical aspects, that clearly states what it changes, preferably has options/settings, has a clear F3 "ideology" and doesnt go too far beyond its originally intended purpose.

 

Due to the lack of an SDK, i think its too early to be expecting all-out modding. I've seen some balance mods out already though, so I'm hoping a big rebalance is less difficult. Also, many of the game mechanics are fine, and a rebalance might be the most quick and effective way to get the challenge back into survival, scavenging, exploration, fighting and improving items and attributes. I've seen many proposals for small mods and mods that only treat "symptoms" of improper balancing, others balance something riddiculous by making something else equally riddiculous. (I'm not criticizing you guys here hehe) Wouldnt it save everyone a lot of hassle if they could just rely on one base rebalance mod (with some settings pref.), especially later modders when an sdk comes out and the FFA modding starts.

 

Even though i'm a big fan of both MW, Oblivion and the Fallout series, it wasnt far into the game that i simply threw away my preconceptions and realized this is F3, and it's different and unique. Therefore i see no use in changing mechanics or values just for the sake of Fallout authenticity. Easy example, previous fallouts had a 300 skill cap, F3 has a 100 point skill cap, big whoop, deal with it. (yes i guess there is a potential argument about the relative imbaness of skill books when you reduce exp rewards... lets not go there though :P).

 

So to finally get to the point, heres what i think the key aspects of F3 are that need to be rebalanced.

 

Experience:

 

I dont think this should even need to be said, cut the bloody exp rewards in half! or even better, make a few options. (not options explained like dex*325%SKIL+374/+488*2 but - "Slow Experience" - "Slower Experience" - "Slowest experience", that kinda language please :P)

 

Scavenging and Surviving

 

I hardly had any trouble getting caps, stimpacks, ammo (cept .44) or gear. There's stuff EVERYWHERE, youd think after 200 years people wouldve thought to look in the huge ass medical supplies closet and the cola machine. Also, don't you kinda think 99% of all guns and armor should be in use by people or kept in a specific place or container? Makes scavenging way more fun and theres still more than enough to be found.

 

1. Definately tone down the number of supply containers and/or their contents

2. The drop rate of weapons and armor in supply containers should be very very low.

3. make repairing more difficult, larger effect of repair skill. Also, if possible maybe different minimum repair skill requirements for every "tier" gun?

 

I was also hoping that more like the original fallout, i would gradually work my way up to new, exciting weapons and armor. Instead i rob, steal, loot and kill only a few levels and i've basicly seen it all. Where's the fun if i dont have to work for my stuff? I'd like caps to actually be usefull as currency, so a couple thousand caps for the next gun, fine. Might sound strange but with the changes below, vendors shouldnt sell a lot of guns, and the few they do sell should be in decent shape (and thus so damn expensive). Also, weapons should degrade slower, but be of much lower quality when you find them on enemies (especially in the beginning). So good quality guns should be hard to get, but really worth the caps. I dont think its fun if you can barely make enough caps to buy stims and ammo even if youre looting everything, everywhere, you should be able to get a bit rich, but the money should be saved up for expensive armor and weapons, not just supplies.

 

4. Make EVERYTHING more expensive, decrease sell prices (relative to buy prices) and increase barter skill effect. Make weapons and armor especially expensive and make sure every "next better" (tier) gun or set of armor is proportionately more expensive.

5. If possible, let vendors sell less quantity but higher quality weapons and armor. I want to have to save up for that single nice better gun theyre selling! Also why would a vendor sell 2 crappy rifles if he can fix em up into one decent one.

6.make the effect of condition on weapon damage far greater and increase the damage values of weapons so they can really outclass one and other depending on their condition. (oh and theyll be a fair bit more lethal as well, making vats more important in survival. I'd like vats to be far more important with other changes as well)

 

Health and damage resistance will also have to be changed to balance this increased damage and stats and offensive skills may need to factor more heavily and/or alltogether differently. More on that later

 

7. make condition degrade slower (personally i think it would be good with all the changes i have in mind)

 

8. Let the enemies with bigger guns who appear on lower levels have even lower condition weapons. (should still do enough dmg to be able to kill you tho with the above balances)

 

 

If this is the case, i might still take on the challenge of killing a low-skill (wont snipe me in the head) enemy carrying a crappy rifle (wont kill me outright in vault security outfit) with my own little pistol early on, but if i succeed i'll only be able to use the rifle to kill a few people before it breaks, it wont do that much more damage compared to my pistol which should be in decent shape cause i find a lot of those, and repairing the rifle will be way too expensive. in other words im still mainly stuck with my pistol till i get a lot of enemies with bigger guns or buy a good one.

 

8. Alternatively, if possible greatly decrease the number of mobs that spawn with "better guns" at lower levels

 

Another thing that really let me down on the weapons is their lack of identity. Yay i found a *generic* assault rifle, whoopdeedoo, they might as well have stamped ACME on the side. Yeah i know theres an archive somewhere in the BOS place with some info, but after reading it i still dont "feel the awesomeness" of wielding a genuine c-46 (that was the name, right?). They should have just put the name in the inventory tab. I really hope we'll have some more different weapons modded in soon but that may be beyond the intended scope of this mod.

 

9. So ehm, could you at least change the names of the weapons in the inventory tab to the real names of the weapons from the BOS data. A real gun would have info like that stamped on it right? Even changing only the name in the inventory screen would make the weapons more interesting....

 

Armor needs to be changed as well, it needs to be more important in combat. Ever find out after killing a horde of mutants you were still accidentally wearing that silly utility suit? Also theres a big collection of outfits that hardly get used or noticed simply because theyre not viable alternatives at any point in the game. There's enough different kits in this game to make for far more interesting progression armor-wise. Also the power armor should be so much harder to get or keep somehow , damn that easy trainer.... (maybe make it friiiiickin hard to repair, minimum repair skill lvl req.)

 

10. The armor/damage resistance values of the different outfits should be higher overall to compensate for the higher weapon damage, and there should be bigger differences between the many different pieces of armor. Especially the different wastelander kits should be made more useful early on and the power armors should be beefed up relatively, especially the enclave ones (one shot kills with a certain antique hunting rifle sound familiar?).

11. Just as with weapons, make the armor progression far more gradual, and make the different "tiers" appropriately more expensive.

12. The (now somewhat usefull) wastelander outfits should appear more frequently in containers, (on npcs if possible) and at vendors. A good alternative for early armors, like if your vault security suit breaks (make that thing only repairable with other security unfiroms if it isnt already id say) and real combat armors are still way too expensive

 

I would really love accuracy/perception enhancing home-made visor gizmo's, permanent weapon upgrades/mods, speed enhancing rocket boots for melee(prefferably with some sort of humorous wickedly mutilating fallout'esque 10% chance explosive dismemberment sort of side effect), all sort of stat enhancing (non-magical)apparel and maybe even a simple calculator that helps you barter, but once again that would be beyond the scope of the mod. gotta wait for that sdk....

 

Character development and fighting

 

The last big thing is the whole character development mechanic. This is where opinions most widely vary. I suppose there would need to be options to please everyone. Personally i dont think the system needs a complete overhaul but in addition to the changes to skills i stated earlier, the influence of skills in combat should be greatly increased. Personally i think weapon skill, weapon condition and perception should all factor into accuracy in that order of importance. Weapon damage imho should be based on weapon condition and range mostly (and armor, naturally). I don't exactly know how it works when you target specific body part, whether there are damage bonusses or multipliers or greater crit chance/damage. Crits should be based on weapon skill, perception, body part and chance i suppose.

 

I pretty much made a jack of all trades character, getting the essential utility skills first (lockpick, science and some repair) and leveling weapon skills slowly (and still kicking ass sadly). Worked great, i got into everything, everywhere, killed everything, got all the loot and even got the 60 med skill for reillys quest. A bit lame though, i'd hoped id be forced to make some actual choices. With the changes i stated earlier i think repair and barter will be more important, and going slow on your weapon skills will get you your ass handed to you, forcing more of a choice. Maybe medical skill should have a greater effect on meds although from a realism view thats pretty nonsensical.

 

Also, some stat points dont really seem to have a great influence (like the difference between 5 and 8 in a stat), their influence should really be increased. (perception, agility)

 

What role exactly vats should play is another topic of debate. personally i think that, if you keep the lvl 20 cap, the game works prettty well with vats, especially at the higher levels (when realtime becomes far more dangerous and vats more effective). So if the experience speed would be halved, i think the importance of (and reliance on) vats should simply be far greater (especially at lower levels). It shouldnt be god mode like it is now, it should be a tool critical for survival, and weapon skills and stats (namely Per,Agi) should play a much bigger role in it's use. I think ap might regenerate quicker, and total ap should be balanced to get a nice difference relative to stats. That way, you'll actually have 3 attacks instead of 2 if you have a few points more in Agility. Also, if vats is gonna be used lots more, drasticly lower the damage reduction it provides. Since enemies will also do much more damage (especially depending on your armor now) This should make even vats challenging, you might have to choose to shoot some guns out of hands, cripple some body parts or think of some other smart tactics. Single shot kills with headshots should be a lot more difficult without a decent (and quiite expensive/hard to get in decent shape) rifle, both damage and accuracy-wise. Also, a good helmet should greatly reducel damage and crit chance when shot in the head.

 

My aim for balance in combat is not to have a supermutant be able to take 300 bullets. I want shots to be very lethal from both sides, but armor and skill should weigh heavily. Ammo should be more scarce and expensive and in fights should be conserved way more, pretty much all the automatic weapons are huge ammo-guzzlers right now (and arent nearly as effective as id wish). I hope that in the course of reading this post you guys will have gotten a good idea as to where i want to head with this rebalance. It's definately more geared towards improving the rpg and turn based inspired part of the gameplay, although i would enjoy it if realtime was pretty difficult yet rewarding to very skilled players. I don't think realtime should be as good as vats, but thats simply because i think realtime should have a handicap to it (i DO enjoy that aspect of the game). In vats you let your guy do the stuff in the world taking into consideration a huge amount of different factors, in realtime you pretty much substitute your own (player) skills with those of the character, and you get an easy Hud crosshair to get that bullet exactly where you want it, negating a lot of factors vats does consider.

 

I'd really enjoy seeing some of these ideas put to work, and getting replies and ideas from you guys. Mind you, the aim of this mod is not to "add" anything to the game, it's strictly a rebalance that tunes existing game mechanics to a point where they live up to their true potential, and show you all the goodness F3 really has.

 

If you've read this far thanks for bearing with me. Ill probably think of a few more things to later (oh no there's more). I hope anyone bothers to read a post this long at all ;).

 

oh and increase the nasty effects of radiation!

[DDigit]

Well you can put this little rant aside and check out the Fallout 3 Balance Overhaul mod by Xodarap777. I did, and i can highly recommend it. It handles a lot of the issues I've stated here and, more importantly, is available for download right now!