I know, there are millions of mods that change the fallout combat already. I think that the vanilla system is horrible tbh - too easy, too forgiving and just plainly broken in some aspects. Let's see...
1. AC is useless.
That's right. AC is entirely useless in this game due to the fact how easy it is to hit someone - or get hit - by a torso shot. You can stack AC to 109, go to a random enclave patrol encounter and they will still hit you 60% of the time. I know they are supposed to be tough, but come on - 109 AC takes extreme dedication and should be very rewarding. After all, you need to waste your turn, get unarmed to 300%, get three Dodger perks (which are the most useless thing ever invented - I'm VERY surprised Per actually marked them as "ok" in his guide...) and get APA mark II. And all that fuss for -20% accuracy of enemies? seriously... Not to mention you have to be a HTH expert for this. Which already sort of sucks in this game.
Solution: A massive rework of AC. Hard reduction of 1% cth per AC point up to, say, 70%. That way, an "ordinary" character with Advanced Power Armor with 30 AC would have maximum of 65% chance to get hit - and it would NOT go further no matter how high the corresponding weapon skill would get. An AC specialist could get as much as 20% chance to be hit when getting 70 AC.
This would: make the game harder (yeah), but also, make AC more important. Dodger would finally give something (rising the bonus to 10% wouldn't be so bad).
2. It's too easy to score an aimed hit
Because of how the skill boosting works, it doesn't take long until you're eye-shotting everybody from great range. I don't think this should be so easy.
Solution: I'd make "aimed" shot a regular attack - with no extra 1 AP cost - and make the penalties WAY more severe. That way, only hard-core specialists would be able to comfortably eye-shot people. Since it already is very hard to get even a tagged skill to 200%+ without incredible investment in skill, that would prevent easy-cheesy combats at low levels. Yeah, you would need that 300% to be able to eye shot people with a Gauss rifle from extreme range.
3. Sniper is too good
Sure, it's a late game toy. But it's too potent. Makes all the Critical chance boosters useless. Makes aimed shots useless.
Solution: Sniper acts like better criticals, only with a bigger bonus to critical table. say, 30%. That way you can get the "tier 6" critical often without criting every hit. The critical hit table would also be reworked - torso shot critical of tier 6 wouldn't be instant kill, doing severe damage instead - 4x for instance - while instant death would only occur at eye shots. This would be balanced because of how hard it would be to score an eye shot.
In the end the character would be a killing machine only if he was able to eye shot with super-ease - that would mean 200%+ at corresponding weapon skill - and that would mean high level and/or a lot of investment in combat skills.
4. Things die too fast
Power Armor or no, your NPCs and enemies only take a few hits of good weapons like Gauss Rifle or Pulse Rifle to kill. Especially annoying when combat looks good and then 128HP Cassidy get's one hit popped by a gauss rifle enclave soldier because of a critical hit. It may be realistic, but all it does is making NPCs more or less useless (too low HP to endure high damage critical hits) and makes armor on enemies worthless (since pretty much every critical bypasses armor).
Solution: I'd again tweak the critical hits table so that full armor bypass only occurs at highest grade criticals. A partial armor bypass would be implemented for lower tier ones. Say, 15% each grade of critical hit, starting at 25%. One hit pops wouldn't occur as often. Also, armor in general should offer better protection. Right now, Hardened Power Armor Cassidy is actually easier to kill than "Unarmored" Skynet - do the maths yourself if you don't believe (you too, Per :p) - unless you use psycho of course - which sort of sucks because for all the praise "armored" NPCs get, it's pretty useless. Same for enemies, too - taking down a APA soldier takes 2-3 critical hits, even without instant kills. Too easy.
Overall, I'd aim at longer combats with less random output - critical hits wouldn't be as extreme and instant death pwning would be reserved for hard core snipers only.
5. Many weapon types are useless
Who needs laser damage when every armor has a sick laser resistance... WHo needs grenades when you can get a better effect by shooting a pistol... and so on.
Solution: Explosive resistance should be greatly lowered on all armors and grenades' damage increased so that their threat level would be high. They are low range and need throwing skill so they should offer something for all that fuss. Same for rocket launchers (getting hit in the face with a rocket should more or less be instant death, Power Armor or no... it barely manages to kill a Leather Jacket thug though). Laser damage resistance lowered, too.
6. Burst is either OHKO or doing nothing
If you're next to someone, burst kills. If not, it barely scratches enemies. Funny because single shot of Combat shotgun usually does more damage then burst, even at medium range.
Solution: Less spread so that bullets actually hit like repeated single shots. Each bullet critical chance and damage calculated separately. Aimed bursts possible. Burst AP cost raised by 3 points. It's a deadly attack, but you can't really do a million bursts per turn.
7. AI is stupid as F**K.
Can't be helped, I guess. I'd implement fixes if I could:
a) AI prefers aimed shots, if the corresponding chance is high enough.
b) AI doesn't waste ALL points on running if it can't shoot you due to range or obstacle limitations. instead, it uses just enough points to get into a clear position, then the remaining to shoot -> less overpowered choke points.
c) AI hides behind walls or doors after shooting, if possible, if APs are sufficient.
d) AI doesn't charge to a room full of enemies. Some sort of threat check would be awesome. Average damage of an enemy's weapon times the number of enemies able to shoot you -> AI decides whether to go or hide. This would not take critical chance into consideration, so enemies would be surprised by hard-core snipers.
e) AI doesn't pick targets randomly. Average damage calculation would be great - after all it's perfectly visible what type of gun each person is holding and it wouldn't be that stupid to kill the guy with a strongest weapon first. This goes both for NPCs and enemies (which would most likely mean you'd be targeted most when holding a vindicator minigun. Great for squad commanders :p) Of course if it's hard to shoot you, AI would pick an easier target to prevent abuse.
What do you think? I'm just bored and writing those down, I don't know how to mod an easiest thing so it won't be implemented. Ever. Still it was fun to write those down.
1. AC is useless.
That's right. AC is entirely useless in this game due to the fact how easy it is to hit someone - or get hit - by a torso shot. You can stack AC to 109, go to a random enclave patrol encounter and they will still hit you 60% of the time. I know they are supposed to be tough, but come on - 109 AC takes extreme dedication and should be very rewarding. After all, you need to waste your turn, get unarmed to 300%, get three Dodger perks (which are the most useless thing ever invented - I'm VERY surprised Per actually marked them as "ok" in his guide...) and get APA mark II. And all that fuss for -20% accuracy of enemies? seriously... Not to mention you have to be a HTH expert for this. Which already sort of sucks in this game.
Solution: A massive rework of AC. Hard reduction of 1% cth per AC point up to, say, 70%. That way, an "ordinary" character with Advanced Power Armor with 30 AC would have maximum of 65% chance to get hit - and it would NOT go further no matter how high the corresponding weapon skill would get. An AC specialist could get as much as 20% chance to be hit when getting 70 AC.
This would: make the game harder (yeah), but also, make AC more important. Dodger would finally give something (rising the bonus to 10% wouldn't be so bad).
2. It's too easy to score an aimed hit
Because of how the skill boosting works, it doesn't take long until you're eye-shotting everybody from great range. I don't think this should be so easy.
Solution: I'd make "aimed" shot a regular attack - with no extra 1 AP cost - and make the penalties WAY more severe. That way, only hard-core specialists would be able to comfortably eye-shot people. Since it already is very hard to get even a tagged skill to 200%+ without incredible investment in skill, that would prevent easy-cheesy combats at low levels. Yeah, you would need that 300% to be able to eye shot people with a Gauss rifle from extreme range.
3. Sniper is too good
Sure, it's a late game toy. But it's too potent. Makes all the Critical chance boosters useless. Makes aimed shots useless.
Solution: Sniper acts like better criticals, only with a bigger bonus to critical table. say, 30%. That way you can get the "tier 6" critical often without criting every hit. The critical hit table would also be reworked - torso shot critical of tier 6 wouldn't be instant kill, doing severe damage instead - 4x for instance - while instant death would only occur at eye shots. This would be balanced because of how hard it would be to score an eye shot.
In the end the character would be a killing machine only if he was able to eye shot with super-ease - that would mean 200%+ at corresponding weapon skill - and that would mean high level and/or a lot of investment in combat skills.
4. Things die too fast
Power Armor or no, your NPCs and enemies only take a few hits of good weapons like Gauss Rifle or Pulse Rifle to kill. Especially annoying when combat looks good and then 128HP Cassidy get's one hit popped by a gauss rifle enclave soldier because of a critical hit. It may be realistic, but all it does is making NPCs more or less useless (too low HP to endure high damage critical hits) and makes armor on enemies worthless (since pretty much every critical bypasses armor).
Solution: I'd again tweak the critical hits table so that full armor bypass only occurs at highest grade criticals. A partial armor bypass would be implemented for lower tier ones. Say, 15% each grade of critical hit, starting at 25%. One hit pops wouldn't occur as often. Also, armor in general should offer better protection. Right now, Hardened Power Armor Cassidy is actually easier to kill than "Unarmored" Skynet - do the maths yourself if you don't believe (you too, Per :p) - unless you use psycho of course - which sort of sucks because for all the praise "armored" NPCs get, it's pretty useless. Same for enemies, too - taking down a APA soldier takes 2-3 critical hits, even without instant kills. Too easy.
Overall, I'd aim at longer combats with less random output - critical hits wouldn't be as extreme and instant death pwning would be reserved for hard core snipers only.
5. Many weapon types are useless
Who needs laser damage when every armor has a sick laser resistance... WHo needs grenades when you can get a better effect by shooting a pistol... and so on.
Solution: Explosive resistance should be greatly lowered on all armors and grenades' damage increased so that their threat level would be high. They are low range and need throwing skill so they should offer something for all that fuss. Same for rocket launchers (getting hit in the face with a rocket should more or less be instant death, Power Armor or no... it barely manages to kill a Leather Jacket thug though). Laser damage resistance lowered, too.
6. Burst is either OHKO or doing nothing
If you're next to someone, burst kills. If not, it barely scratches enemies. Funny because single shot of Combat shotgun usually does more damage then burst, even at medium range.
Solution: Less spread so that bullets actually hit like repeated single shots. Each bullet critical chance and damage calculated separately. Aimed bursts possible. Burst AP cost raised by 3 points. It's a deadly attack, but you can't really do a million bursts per turn.
7. AI is stupid as F**K.
Can't be helped, I guess. I'd implement fixes if I could:
a) AI prefers aimed shots, if the corresponding chance is high enough.
b) AI doesn't waste ALL points on running if it can't shoot you due to range or obstacle limitations. instead, it uses just enough points to get into a clear position, then the remaining to shoot -> less overpowered choke points.
c) AI hides behind walls or doors after shooting, if possible, if APs are sufficient.
d) AI doesn't charge to a room full of enemies. Some sort of threat check would be awesome. Average damage of an enemy's weapon times the number of enemies able to shoot you -> AI decides whether to go or hide. This would not take critical chance into consideration, so enemies would be surprised by hard-core snipers.
e) AI doesn't pick targets randomly. Average damage calculation would be great - after all it's perfectly visible what type of gun each person is holding and it wouldn't be that stupid to kill the guy with a strongest weapon first. This goes both for NPCs and enemies (which would most likely mean you'd be targeted most when holding a vindicator minigun. Great for squad commanders :p) Of course if it's hard to shoot you, AI would pick an easier target to prevent abuse.
What do you think? I'm just bored and writing those down, I don't know how to mod an easiest thing so it won't be implemented. Ever. Still it was fun to write those down.
