(Yes, first post 
English isn't my first language so excuse me if anything goes wrong.)
Just an idea, if I'll ever get to make this..... or if someone wants to make one. Anyways I'll wait for the official tools. Here I just want to list some of the things I think are necessary for a mod that makes the game playable with no VATS. Please don't go into purpose or suitability of such a mod, etc.
Disabling VATS itself should be easy... just put a sentence or two in the readme to ask people to set their VATS key to some remote corner of the keyboard.
Will need to adjust firearm speed/accuracy to FPS standards. Get rid of autoaim. Make some weapons fully automatic.
Decrease HP for player and weak enemies, increase weapon damage, increase HP for stronger enemies, increase critical damage (headshot! yeah!)
Skills for firearms affect... certainly accuracy. Perhaps reload speed (if this can be adjusted) and chances to jam on reload? Say under 30 skill, you have a minor chance of messing up a reload and won't be able to use this weapon for... perhaps another reload action, or drop the weapon, or till the end of combat. I never used any of the weapon jam mods so I don't really know how this works.
Action points. No idea where this comes in... Perhaps changing weapons, reloading and opening inventory will cost AP?
Perks. Lots of VATS only perks need to be remade into something that works in real-time combat. Got some ideas here:
Action Boy (Girl): With the Action Boy/Girl perk, you gain an additional 25 Action Points to use in V.A.T.S..
==> If action points stay to be used in real-time combat, then no change needed. If there's no more AP, then perhaps +speed?
Commando: While using a rifle (or similar two-handed weapon),your accuracy in V.A.T.S. is significantly increased.
==> increase accuracy, damage (perhaps) and reload speed (if possible) for rifles.
Concentrated Fire: With Concentrated Fire, your accuracy to hit any body part in V.A.T.S. increase slightly with each subsequent hit on that body part.
==> increase body part damage to enemies?
Grim Reaper's Sprint: If you kill a target in V.A.T.S., all your Action Points are restored upon exiting V.A.T.S..
==> upon killing an enemy, gain a certain (13%?) bonus to damage and critical chance for several (13?) seconds. Could add a LCK requirement.
Gunslinger: While using a pistol (or similar one-handed weapon), your accuracy in V.A.T.S. is significantly increased.
==> increase accuracy, damage (perhaps) and reload speed (if possible) for pistols.
Mysterious Stranger: You've gained your own personal guardian angel... armed with a fully loaded .44 Magnum. With this perk, the Mysterious Stranger will appear occasionally in V.A.T.S. mode to lend a hand, with deadly efficiency.
==> Seriously no idea.
Paralyzing Palm: With Paralyzing Palm, you will sometimes perform a special V.A.T.S. palm strike that paralyzes your opponent for 30 seconds. Note that in order to perform the Paralyzing Palm, you must be completely unarmed.
==> make to work in normal combat, May need to nerf duration.
Sniper: With the Sniper perk, your chance to hit an opponent's head in V.A.T.S. is significantly increased.
==> greatly increase accuracy, critical chance and critical damage for firearms when crouching/stationary/crouching AND stationary?
Wired Reflexes: Advanced technology from the Commonwealth has increased your reaction speed, giving you a higher chance to hit in V.A.T.S.
==> reduces enemy's critical chance, weaker than Dream Crusher. OR reduce explosive damage
That's all for this one... I guess I'll just put another of my weird ideas... Don't think it's good to make 2 topics just after registering.
Change the way food works. Food doesn't heal instantly. Instead they increase the "full-ness or whatever" of the player character, which decreases with time.
As you go from very full or very hungry:
slowly restore HP
no gain or loss
reduce 1 to strength
reduce 2 to strength/endurance/agility
reduce 3 to everything except luck
slowly lose HP (can't be healed by stimpak... maybe reduce the maximum HP?)
Don't know how water would come in... Maybe you can heal from water, but can only do it once in a certain period of time. Certainly can't be frequent enough to offset HP loss from hunger.
(Perhaps someone has already made something similar for Oblivion? I use hunger mods in Oblivion, but haven't been starving for long enough to see the effect. They have healing spells and potions anyway, so they certainly wouldn't need food restoring HP.)
Also balance the radiation and weight for all the food.
English isn't my first language so excuse me if anything goes wrong.)Just an idea, if I'll ever get to make this..... or if someone wants to make one. Anyways I'll wait for the official tools. Here I just want to list some of the things I think are necessary for a mod that makes the game playable with no VATS. Please don't go into purpose or suitability of such a mod, etc.
Disabling VATS itself should be easy... just put a sentence or two in the readme to ask people to set their VATS key to some remote corner of the keyboard.
Will need to adjust firearm speed/accuracy to FPS standards. Get rid of autoaim. Make some weapons fully automatic.
Decrease HP for player and weak enemies, increase weapon damage, increase HP for stronger enemies, increase critical damage (headshot! yeah!)
Skills for firearms affect... certainly accuracy. Perhaps reload speed (if this can be adjusted) and chances to jam on reload? Say under 30 skill, you have a minor chance of messing up a reload and won't be able to use this weapon for... perhaps another reload action, or drop the weapon, or till the end of combat. I never used any of the weapon jam mods so I don't really know how this works.
Action points. No idea where this comes in... Perhaps changing weapons, reloading and opening inventory will cost AP?
Perks. Lots of VATS only perks need to be remade into something that works in real-time combat. Got some ideas here:
Action Boy (Girl): With the Action Boy/Girl perk, you gain an additional 25 Action Points to use in V.A.T.S..
==> If action points stay to be used in real-time combat, then no change needed. If there's no more AP, then perhaps +speed?
Commando: While using a rifle (or similar two-handed weapon),your accuracy in V.A.T.S. is significantly increased.
==> increase accuracy, damage (perhaps) and reload speed (if possible) for rifles.
Concentrated Fire: With Concentrated Fire, your accuracy to hit any body part in V.A.T.S. increase slightly with each subsequent hit on that body part.
==> increase body part damage to enemies?
Grim Reaper's Sprint: If you kill a target in V.A.T.S., all your Action Points are restored upon exiting V.A.T.S..
==> upon killing an enemy, gain a certain (13%?) bonus to damage and critical chance for several (13?) seconds. Could add a LCK requirement.
Gunslinger: While using a pistol (or similar one-handed weapon), your accuracy in V.A.T.S. is significantly increased.
==> increase accuracy, damage (perhaps) and reload speed (if possible) for pistols.
Mysterious Stranger: You've gained your own personal guardian angel... armed with a fully loaded .44 Magnum. With this perk, the Mysterious Stranger will appear occasionally in V.A.T.S. mode to lend a hand, with deadly efficiency.
==> Seriously no idea.
Paralyzing Palm: With Paralyzing Palm, you will sometimes perform a special V.A.T.S. palm strike that paralyzes your opponent for 30 seconds. Note that in order to perform the Paralyzing Palm, you must be completely unarmed.
==> make to work in normal combat, May need to nerf duration.
Sniper: With the Sniper perk, your chance to hit an opponent's head in V.A.T.S. is significantly increased.
==> greatly increase accuracy, critical chance and critical damage for firearms when crouching/stationary/crouching AND stationary?
Wired Reflexes: Advanced technology from the Commonwealth has increased your reaction speed, giving you a higher chance to hit in V.A.T.S.
==> reduces enemy's critical chance, weaker than Dream Crusher. OR reduce explosive damage
That's all for this one... I guess I'll just put another of my weird ideas... Don't think it's good to make 2 topics just after registering.
Change the way food works. Food doesn't heal instantly. Instead they increase the "full-ness or whatever" of the player character, which decreases with time.
As you go from very full or very hungry:
slowly restore HP
no gain or loss
reduce 1 to strength
reduce 2 to strength/endurance/agility
reduce 3 to everything except luck
slowly lose HP (can't be healed by stimpak... maybe reduce the maximum HP?)
Don't know how water would come in... Maybe you can heal from water, but can only do it once in a certain period of time. Certainly can't be frequent enough to offset HP loss from hunger.
(Perhaps someone has already made something similar for Oblivion? I use hunger mods in Oblivion, but haven't been starving for long enough to see the effect. They have healing spells and potions anyway, so they certainly wouldn't need food restoring HP.)
Also balance the radiation and weight for all the food.