THE FALLOUT 2 MECHANICS OVERHAUL MOD V. 0.5
"Frank, killing giant ants was never this much fun, or was it?" "Not sure, Steve, not sure."
Was about time I put something out, so here it is. It's probably magnificently bug infested and almost entirely devoid of balancing (so it's on par with the original in this department
Note for those two people who've played my old, old, old versions: almost nothing of it remains intact (so no morale, exhaustion, etc.), and the .ini customization that was in it is almost completely gone, sadly. A lot of the entries in JimsMods.ini are defunct and it's basically just a placeholder, so don't bother toying around with it. I'll try and introduce some customizability again in later versions.
DOWNLOAD HERE
Installation Instructions:
Step 1: Place the "Mechanics Overhaul Mod" folder in your FO2 directory
Step 2: Copy the "Fallout2.exe" to the new mod folder.
Step 3: Copy your sfall's "ddraw.ini" file to the new mod folder (so not the ddraw.dll: I'm temporarily using my own built version for the mod).
Step 4: change, and if necessary uncomment (remove the ";" before the line), this entry in the ddraw.ini to the following:
DamageFormula=5
and uncomment the following lines:
PerksFile=Perks.ini
SkillsFile=skills.ini
DerivedStats=stats.ini
Step 5 (optional): If you want to install the Restoration Project, just do the manual download, and unzip into the new mod folder, not overwriting anything.
Introduction:
The goal of this mod is to address what I consider to be a number of systemic shortcomings of Fallout 2. (In cursive are remarks on quirks/bugs or unimped features).
The first problem is the lack of useful skills, attributes and perks: It's obvious enough that INT and AG are king, there's only a couple of useful perks, and only a handful of skills are worth investing in at all. Here's a list of the changes that are made to the attributes, perks and skills to alleviate this:
ST:
- Carry weight. This used to be a stat that was more about convenience than anything else: how much would you need to manipulate your mules in the game? Now it's limited to what you carry in your active hand and wear as armor (the counter also shows what's in your inactive hand, but that one doesn't affect penalties). Exceed it and you get movement and THC penalties during combat. This means that having a low ST character will be no more annoying than a high ST one, but you'll only be able to wear light armors and weapons without penalties.
- Weapon min ST reqs. This now only affects recoil: each gun has a min ST requirement per bullet fired, and if you already exceed this requirement for the very first bullet, the weapon costs additional AP's to fire as you spend time steadying it. For burst weapons, every additional round you fire adds up to the requirement, resulting in stacking THC penalties if you exceed it.
- Melee Damage. This is now based on a weapon's weight (or, if unarmed, the "weight" of your punches is determined by your strength): each point of ST adds 10% of the weapon's weight to its damage, making ST much more relevant for heavy weapons like sledges than knives.
- Blocking power. Against melee attackers, you can choose at what THC for the enemy you'll block, adding to your DR based on how much higher your ST is than your opponent. Note that a sufficiently skilled opponent can find a way to circumvent this block.
- Resistance against knockdowns and weapon drops.
PE:
- Sequence. This was a largely irrelevant stat because you'd almost always end up getting the drop on your enemies anyway: the real sequence in combat almost always worked out in your favor. Now the character with the highest sequence always gets the first turn: try aiming your weapon at a character with higher sequence (who also sees you pointing that weapon) and that character initiates combat. Note that this is definitely quite buggy... I left in an option to switch it off at the top of JimsMods.ini, just turn SequenceChanges=1 to =0.
- Ranged Modifiers. Worked as a lame flat bonus in the original. Now each point of PE substracts 10% of a weapon's range from the per hex THC distance penalty. So maxed out PE with a 70 hexes range weapon gives a 70% lower distance penalty. Scopes additionally multiply your effective PE by 1.5.
- Unused AP's defence bonus. If you can see the opponent attacking you and he's standing nearby you, each unused AP is spent focussing on his next move, giving you a defence bonus (due to something weird, I had to set the base "AC" to 1 rather than 0, in case you're confused about that).
EN:
- Hitpoints. This mod introduces fixed HP, meaning that you won't end up with as much of an infinite supply of HP you would regardless of your EN. A low EN character will be very vulnerable throughout the game.
- Rad resistance. This mod has radiation zones on the world map, and increases the effect of EN on rad resistance. You can spot rad zones by either having a geiger counter in your inventory or by asking somebody where the nearest rad zone is located.
- Poison resistance. Poison now affects you every turn in combat and every few seconds outside of it, making it more of a short-term threat. Additionally, Needler pistols now do poison damage.
- Resisting knockouts, missed turns, and crippling hits.
CH:
- Number of party members. Same as always, but the Leadership stat should make them more interesting (see below).
- One minor addition is that it now affects the likelihood of characters accepting a drink or drugs from you (and the number of intoxicants they accept before turning hostile).
IN:
- Skill Points. Nerfed somewhat by moving the start of increased costs down from 100 skill points to 75 and increasing base skill points per level from 5 to 10.
AG:
- Aiming bonus. AP is now set at a constant 10, unaffected by AG. Unaimed and aimed shots cost the same amount of AP (unaimed shots are now simply defaulted torso shots), and you can spend additional AP's to increase your chance to hit. Each point of AG increases the percentage that gets added to your effective weapon skill by 20%, up to a maximum of 400%, meaning a maxed out AG character can spend 2 AP aiming for a 200% skill bonus per AP.
- Movement speed. AG now only affects the cost for the first hex moved. Every second point of AG reduces that cost by 1, going from 6 AP for the first hex moved at minimum AG, to 1 AP at max. The cost of the first hex moved is additionally raised by large weapons (1 for sledges/rifles, 2 for big guns), armors (1 for leather, 2 for metal/combat and 3 for power) and for moving to a hex either diagonally or straight behind you. This of course all in all highly complicates the peak-around-the-corner exploit. Moving during your turn now also gives a defense bonus against ranged attacks.
- Dodge bonus. If you aren't blocking an attack, you gain a dodge bonus against melee attacks based on your AG.
LU:
- Damage. There are no longer criticals in the form of damage multipliers. Instead, LU affects the likelihood of hitting higher values in your damage range (e.g. with a weapon that does 15-40 damage, a high LU character would have a higher chance of getting 40 than a low LU one).
- Armor Piercing. The same principle applies to armor piercing, which is now based on your weapon's upper damage range. There's always a roll made to see how much you actually pierce, and LU determines how high this ends up.
- Special effects chance (knockdowns, knockouts, cripplings, etc.)
Concerning skills, in general your starting attributes have a much greater effect on them: they all have a base value of 10%, to which 40% can potentially be added through relevant stats. Skills have also been capped at 200%, and the first increment of increased cost now comes from 75-100%, rather than the original 100-125%. Now for a list of the changed skills:
- The six combat skills have been changed to One-handed small arms (pistols and smg's), Two-handed small arms (rifles), Big guns, One-handed melee (clubs and knives), Two-handed-melee (spears and sledges), and Unarmed. Skill simply depends on which animation is used for the weapon, so grenades use the unarmed skill, and throwing knives the One-handed melee skill. You also get a defense bonus based on your "relevant" melee skill (so, if your melee attacked while carrying a rifle, your ability to use that rifle as a tool to block an opponent's attack depends on your Two-handed melee skill).
- Gambling has been changed to Leadership, which raises the skills party members gain per level. Party members no longer gain levels at random, but every time you level up. Note that the old gambling checks still use this skill, will eventually change these to basic luck rolls.
- Traps now lets you set traps yourself by entering Sneak mode and dropping either a spear or an explosive on the ground. The value of the item used to make a trap and the type of material of the tile you're placing it on determine how much trap skill you need to place it. How the traps (especially the explosives) work during combat is still a bit of a mystery to me, ymmv).
- First Aid and Doctor have become more relevant with Stimpaks only being able to be used sporadically (see below), and automatic rest healing being removed. You now need either First Aid kits or "Improvised Healing Materials" to heal HP's during rest, and Doctors Materials to heal crippled limbs, also during rest. So be very, very careful with using the "heal until rested" option, lest you get stuck, just don't use it actually.
- Outdoorsman now affects world map travel speed (mostly useful when traveling through rad zones), and the quality of the Improvised Healing Materials you find (which affects up to how many HP's you can heal with them during rest).
- Stealing has gotten an additional barrier: the more allies of the target can see you, the harder it is to even see inside the inventory of your target, let alone steal or plant.
- Stealth has additional uses because of how enemies will be on the lookout for assassins if their buddies step on your traps, and that all unlocked containers are now "guarded" by characters that can see them, and who will warn you not to touch them (they won't automatically enter combat though; if they're weaker than you, they'll simply cause you to lose town reputation). Also, if characters can "hear" you (partially determined by the surface material you're walking on), they'll turn in your direction unless you're stealthy enough, making a stealthy thief more useful at pickpocketing. This turning effect only applies in certain towns for now, because for some reason towns like Den and Reno have lots of scripts forcing characters to look in one single direction.
As to Perks, the problem was of course that the vast majority of them simply weren't viable as 1 per 3 levels picks. My solution is to have perks every level, and nerf (or remove) the more overpowered ones. Also, perks are no longer tiered according to level (meaning you had an ever-increasing number of obsolete low-level perks populating the list): att. and skill requirements only govern which perk you can have. These requirements are also more flexible now with regards to multi-rank perks, meaning that the first rank might cost 40% of a certain skill, and the second 80, etc. You can find a list of perk and trait changes here (bolded means implemented, cursive in the case of traits):
https://app.box.com/s/0eema1esji3omeurwbae
Note that for some reason the new perks don't show up until you've scrolled a bit.
- Carry weight. This used to be a stat that was more about convenience than anything else: how much would you need to manipulate your mules in the game? Now it's limited to what you carry in your active hand and wear as armor (the counter also shows what's in your inactive hand, but that one doesn't affect penalties). Exceed it and you get movement and THC penalties during combat. This means that having a low ST character will be no more annoying than a high ST one, but you'll only be able to wear light armors and weapons without penalties.
- Weapon min ST reqs. This now only affects recoil: each gun has a min ST requirement per bullet fired, and if you already exceed this requirement for the very first bullet, the weapon costs additional AP's to fire as you spend time steadying it. For burst weapons, every additional round you fire adds up to the requirement, resulting in stacking THC penalties if you exceed it.
- Melee Damage. This is now based on a weapon's weight (or, if unarmed, the "weight" of your punches is determined by your strength): each point of ST adds 10% of the weapon's weight to its damage, making ST much more relevant for heavy weapons like sledges than knives.
- Blocking power. Against melee attackers, you can choose at what THC for the enemy you'll block, adding to your DR based on how much higher your ST is than your opponent. Note that a sufficiently skilled opponent can find a way to circumvent this block.
- Resistance against knockdowns and weapon drops.
PE:
- Sequence. This was a largely irrelevant stat because you'd almost always end up getting the drop on your enemies anyway: the real sequence in combat almost always worked out in your favor. Now the character with the highest sequence always gets the first turn: try aiming your weapon at a character with higher sequence (who also sees you pointing that weapon) and that character initiates combat. Note that this is definitely quite buggy... I left in an option to switch it off at the top of JimsMods.ini, just turn SequenceChanges=1 to =0.
- Ranged Modifiers. Worked as a lame flat bonus in the original. Now each point of PE substracts 10% of a weapon's range from the per hex THC distance penalty. So maxed out PE with a 70 hexes range weapon gives a 70% lower distance penalty. Scopes additionally multiply your effective PE by 1.5.
- Unused AP's defence bonus. If you can see the opponent attacking you and he's standing nearby you, each unused AP is spent focussing on his next move, giving you a defence bonus (due to something weird, I had to set the base "AC" to 1 rather than 0, in case you're confused about that).
EN:
- Hitpoints. This mod introduces fixed HP, meaning that you won't end up with as much of an infinite supply of HP you would regardless of your EN. A low EN character will be very vulnerable throughout the game.
- Rad resistance. This mod has radiation zones on the world map, and increases the effect of EN on rad resistance. You can spot rad zones by either having a geiger counter in your inventory or by asking somebody where the nearest rad zone is located.
- Poison resistance. Poison now affects you every turn in combat and every few seconds outside of it, making it more of a short-term threat. Additionally, Needler pistols now do poison damage.
- Resisting knockouts, missed turns, and crippling hits.
CH:
- Number of party members. Same as always, but the Leadership stat should make them more interesting (see below).
- One minor addition is that it now affects the likelihood of characters accepting a drink or drugs from you (and the number of intoxicants they accept before turning hostile).
IN:
- Skill Points. Nerfed somewhat by moving the start of increased costs down from 100 skill points to 75 and increasing base skill points per level from 5 to 10.
AG:
- Aiming bonus. AP is now set at a constant 10, unaffected by AG. Unaimed and aimed shots cost the same amount of AP (unaimed shots are now simply defaulted torso shots), and you can spend additional AP's to increase your chance to hit. Each point of AG increases the percentage that gets added to your effective weapon skill by 20%, up to a maximum of 400%, meaning a maxed out AG character can spend 2 AP aiming for a 200% skill bonus per AP.
- Movement speed. AG now only affects the cost for the first hex moved. Every second point of AG reduces that cost by 1, going from 6 AP for the first hex moved at minimum AG, to 1 AP at max. The cost of the first hex moved is additionally raised by large weapons (1 for sledges/rifles, 2 for big guns), armors (1 for leather, 2 for metal/combat and 3 for power) and for moving to a hex either diagonally or straight behind you. This of course all in all highly complicates the peak-around-the-corner exploit. Moving during your turn now also gives a defense bonus against ranged attacks.
- Dodge bonus. If you aren't blocking an attack, you gain a dodge bonus against melee attacks based on your AG.
LU:
- Damage. There are no longer criticals in the form of damage multipliers. Instead, LU affects the likelihood of hitting higher values in your damage range (e.g. with a weapon that does 15-40 damage, a high LU character would have a higher chance of getting 40 than a low LU one).
- Armor Piercing. The same principle applies to armor piercing, which is now based on your weapon's upper damage range. There's always a roll made to see how much you actually pierce, and LU determines how high this ends up.
- Special effects chance (knockdowns, knockouts, cripplings, etc.)
Concerning skills, in general your starting attributes have a much greater effect on them: they all have a base value of 10%, to which 40% can potentially be added through relevant stats. Skills have also been capped at 200%, and the first increment of increased cost now comes from 75-100%, rather than the original 100-125%. Now for a list of the changed skills:
- The six combat skills have been changed to One-handed small arms (pistols and smg's), Two-handed small arms (rifles), Big guns, One-handed melee (clubs and knives), Two-handed-melee (spears and sledges), and Unarmed. Skill simply depends on which animation is used for the weapon, so grenades use the unarmed skill, and throwing knives the One-handed melee skill. You also get a defense bonus based on your "relevant" melee skill (so, if your melee attacked while carrying a rifle, your ability to use that rifle as a tool to block an opponent's attack depends on your Two-handed melee skill).
- Gambling has been changed to Leadership, which raises the skills party members gain per level. Party members no longer gain levels at random, but every time you level up. Note that the old gambling checks still use this skill, will eventually change these to basic luck rolls.
- Traps now lets you set traps yourself by entering Sneak mode and dropping either a spear or an explosive on the ground. The value of the item used to make a trap and the type of material of the tile you're placing it on determine how much trap skill you need to place it. How the traps (especially the explosives) work during combat is still a bit of a mystery to me, ymmv).
- First Aid and Doctor have become more relevant with Stimpaks only being able to be used sporadically (see below), and automatic rest healing being removed. You now need either First Aid kits or "Improvised Healing Materials" to heal HP's during rest, and Doctors Materials to heal crippled limbs, also during rest. So be very, very careful with using the "heal until rested" option, lest you get stuck, just don't use it actually.
- Outdoorsman now affects world map travel speed (mostly useful when traveling through rad zones), and the quality of the Improvised Healing Materials you find (which affects up to how many HP's you can heal with them during rest).
- Stealing has gotten an additional barrier: the more allies of the target can see you, the harder it is to even see inside the inventory of your target, let alone steal or plant.
- Stealth has additional uses because of how enemies will be on the lookout for assassins if their buddies step on your traps, and that all unlocked containers are now "guarded" by characters that can see them, and who will warn you not to touch them (they won't automatically enter combat though; if they're weaker than you, they'll simply cause you to lose town reputation). Also, if characters can "hear" you (partially determined by the surface material you're walking on), they'll turn in your direction unless you're stealthy enough, making a stealthy thief more useful at pickpocketing. This turning effect only applies in certain towns for now, because for some reason towns like Den and Reno have lots of scripts forcing characters to look in one single direction.
As to Perks, the problem was of course that the vast majority of them simply weren't viable as 1 per 3 levels picks. My solution is to have perks every level, and nerf (or remove) the more overpowered ones. Also, perks are no longer tiered according to level (meaning you had an ever-increasing number of obsolete low-level perks populating the list): att. and skill requirements only govern which perk you can have. These requirements are also more flexible now with regards to multi-rank perks, meaning that the first rank might cost 40% of a certain skill, and the second 80, etc. You can find a list of perk and trait changes here (bolded means implemented, cursive in the case of traits):
https://app.box.com/s/0eema1esji3omeurwbae
Note that for some reason the new perks don't show up until you've scrolled a bit.
The second problem is the game's lack of combat difficulty and complexity. The point is to give you some more options other than eye critting your opponents continuously. There's a couple of issues with combat this mod tries to address:
- Limiting inventory time. Ostensibly tough fights became a breeze once you have enough HP's because you can simply wait until low on damage, then enter inven and fully heal. However, Stimpaks can now only be used once every 30 minutes. Also, inventory use AP cost has been raised significantly, and you can only use one item in it before being forced to exit. Reloading now also takes substantially more AP's (8 for two-handed, 4 for one-handed).
- Removing drug exploits. The addiction system could previously be easily circumvented, now addiction isn't chance based, but time based: after using a certain drug you have a number of days (determined by your endurance) before you can use it again.
- Avoiding automatic eye-critting. To avoid higher skill levels resulting in almost automatic hits on even the hardest targets, I've nerfed THC at higher values (going from 0-10% THC will be much easier than going from 80-90%, especially in the case of hard to hit bodyparts or burst attacks). Because the mod makes it so that missing a targetted body part can still score a hit on an adjacent bodypart, the base penalties for aiming for certain bodyparts have also been reduced, meaning you should be able to aim for different bodyparts throughout the game now.
- Giving more flexibility for bursts. As said, the amount you can stably burst depends on your ST, meaning you'll now be able to adjust the number of burst rounds through the interface. Additionally, if your burst rounds become less than 4, you now forego the regular burst cone for one that spreads based on your THC (so with high enough skill you can make all your bullets hit the intended target). AP costs are determined based on 5 or less = +1 AP, 5-20 = +2 AP and above 20 = +3 AP.
- Giving more options during melee combat. You'll be able to choose when your character prefers to block rather than dodge, and in addition whether to attempt a counter-attack on a "succesful" block/dodge (to attempt to do so comes at a defense penalty however, counter-attacking is still unimped). Defense against melee attacks is now also partially determined by your own relevant melee skill.
- Adjusting how many AP's are spent aiming.
- Expanded secondary attack modes. All spears and knives can now be swung (for added base damage), thrusted (for more penetration), or thrown (swinging is unimped for spears). Sledges and unarmed attacks can either produce knockback (swings/ punch A) or not ("thrusts"/ punch B). Laser beams can be concentrated to add armor piercing and plasma bolts can be made less stable so they produce more splash damage.
- Limited AI improvements. Not much I can do in this regard, but the AI chooses more smartly which bodypart to aim for rather than the random way it worked before.
- Working AP bullets. AP was always inferior to JHP in the original game. Now AP bullets raise your upper damage range (meaning an increase in penetration) at the cost of a general reduction in damage.
An overview of the new options integrated into a (temporary) UI made by the FoN team:
Note that there's still some problems with the "tags" (Level up, sneak, etc.) popping up over the interface; I've removed them where I could, so pay attention when you level up.
- Removing drug exploits. The addiction system could previously be easily circumvented, now addiction isn't chance based, but time based: after using a certain drug you have a number of days (determined by your endurance) before you can use it again.
- Avoiding automatic eye-critting. To avoid higher skill levels resulting in almost automatic hits on even the hardest targets, I've nerfed THC at higher values (going from 0-10% THC will be much easier than going from 80-90%, especially in the case of hard to hit bodyparts or burst attacks). Because the mod makes it so that missing a targetted body part can still score a hit on an adjacent bodypart, the base penalties for aiming for certain bodyparts have also been reduced, meaning you should be able to aim for different bodyparts throughout the game now.
- Giving more flexibility for bursts. As said, the amount you can stably burst depends on your ST, meaning you'll now be able to adjust the number of burst rounds through the interface. Additionally, if your burst rounds become less than 4, you now forego the regular burst cone for one that spreads based on your THC (so with high enough skill you can make all your bullets hit the intended target). AP costs are determined based on 5 or less = +1 AP, 5-20 = +2 AP and above 20 = +3 AP.
- Giving more options during melee combat. You'll be able to choose when your character prefers to block rather than dodge, and in addition whether to attempt a counter-attack on a "succesful" block/dodge (to attempt to do so comes at a defense penalty however, counter-attacking is still unimped). Defense against melee attacks is now also partially determined by your own relevant melee skill.
- Adjusting how many AP's are spent aiming.
- Expanded secondary attack modes. All spears and knives can now be swung (for added base damage), thrusted (for more penetration), or thrown (swinging is unimped for spears). Sledges and unarmed attacks can either produce knockback (swings/ punch A) or not ("thrusts"/ punch B). Laser beams can be concentrated to add armor piercing and plasma bolts can be made less stable so they produce more splash damage.
- Limited AI improvements. Not much I can do in this regard, but the AI chooses more smartly which bodypart to aim for rather than the random way it worked before.
- Working AP bullets. AP was always inferior to JHP in the original game. Now AP bullets raise your upper damage range (meaning an increase in penetration) at the cost of a general reduction in damage.
An overview of the new options integrated into a (temporary) UI made by the FoN team:
Note that there's still some problems with the "tags" (Level up, sneak, etc.) popping up over the interface; I've removed them where I could, so pay attention when you level up.
The third problem is that of weapon progression/variety. Replaying FO2, you notice that you always get weapons in more or less the same order, with many hard-to-find weapons showing up too late to be of any use. Too many weapons also play too similar, with no considerable difference between a sledgehammer or a knife, and a rifle or a pistol.
My solutions to this are:
- Gear randomization. You can probably already dream the place you're first going to encounter the Bozar by now, and this mixes it all up, generating weapons based on location, attributes and experience level. There's also more variation in terms of ammo load-outs, with powerful characters in rich regions having more chance of having more, and more powerful, ammo, while poor characters often have only a single round in the chamber.
- More distinctive weapon types. Fallout 2 has a lot of different types of shotguns, but they're mostly indistinguishable from other rifles. So I introduce different types of shells which spread out in a "shotgun-y" way. Also, with reloading having become a bigger problem, pump action shotguns have less reloading to do, but cost one extra AP (for the "pump") to fire. Lasers will penetrate targets and potentially hit targets next in line. Plasma rifles do splash damage to nearby targets. Cattle prods produce more knockouts. There's a spasm gun that does damage based on the target's perception and intelligence. An electrorifle that does additional damage to additional targets if they are standing on a metal surface. Weapons using caseless ammo get an advantage when firing mini-bursts of 3 bullets or less, costing the same AP's as a single shot. Miniguns always use the same AP penalty for bursting, regardless of the amount (+2 AP).
- Non-linear weapon progression. Having you automatically gravitate towards the pulse rifle is quite boring. Instead, different types of characters should benefit from different types of weapons. High ST likes sledges and heavy/burst guns, high AG likes pistols and knives, high PE scoped rifles and high LU weapons with wide damage ranges. Different weapon types should remain viable, rather than becoming irrelevant as the game progresses.
- Less linear armor system. Having bigger armor should not be a no-brainer; it now costs you in terms of agility (indirectly: you get penalties to the AP spent aiming bonus and movement) and (if you're not strong enough) combat effectiveness. The armor system has also been changed so that DT doesn't (nearly) automatically takes off a huge chunk of your damage: it is now purely a threshold which gets ignored if your armor piercing roll (again, based on your weapon's upper damage range) exceeds it. So, almost all weapons and ammo will rarely do any damage against the strongest armors at full strength because they won't pass the DT. Characters with fast and weak weapons (knives, pistols) will therefor be required to aim for bodyparts that give higher chances of penetration. So the goal is that there aren't any "hard counters": if you can't pierce, there's always a way to bypass - it's just harder. Similarly, going around with a combat leather jacket shouldn't be impossible, just very hard because you'll need to place the emphasis on dodging attacks, and taking out enemies quickly.
- Differences between one- and two-handed weapons. You'll now generally be faster both in movement and attack AP cost with one-handed weapons and be able to cheaply switch between hands, which you can no longer do with two-handed weapons to compensate for the shorter ranges and lower damage outputs.
- Systematized weapon upgrades. Instead of having just a couple of different weapons that can have one type of upgrade, each weapon type can get a certain upgrade. So each rifle can be outfitted with a scope, each pistol with an enlarged magazine, etc. All of these upgrades will now have potential drawbacks attached as well: an enlarged magazine weighs down your weapon, possibly making it cost more AP to use, etc. You can have upgrades done at the usual suspects, but also yourself: Guns 'n Bullets magazines now increase the skill you have at improving weapons in combination with either Repair (for most guns), Science (energy weapons), or Outdoorsman (for most melee weapons). (Unimped)
- Gear randomization. You can probably already dream the place you're first going to encounter the Bozar by now, and this mixes it all up, generating weapons based on location, attributes and experience level. There's also more variation in terms of ammo load-outs, with powerful characters in rich regions having more chance of having more, and more powerful, ammo, while poor characters often have only a single round in the chamber.
- More distinctive weapon types. Fallout 2 has a lot of different types of shotguns, but they're mostly indistinguishable from other rifles. So I introduce different types of shells which spread out in a "shotgun-y" way. Also, with reloading having become a bigger problem, pump action shotguns have less reloading to do, but cost one extra AP (for the "pump") to fire. Lasers will penetrate targets and potentially hit targets next in line. Plasma rifles do splash damage to nearby targets. Cattle prods produce more knockouts. There's a spasm gun that does damage based on the target's perception and intelligence. An electrorifle that does additional damage to additional targets if they are standing on a metal surface. Weapons using caseless ammo get an advantage when firing mini-bursts of 3 bullets or less, costing the same AP's as a single shot. Miniguns always use the same AP penalty for bursting, regardless of the amount (+2 AP).
- Non-linear weapon progression. Having you automatically gravitate towards the pulse rifle is quite boring. Instead, different types of characters should benefit from different types of weapons. High ST likes sledges and heavy/burst guns, high AG likes pistols and knives, high PE scoped rifles and high LU weapons with wide damage ranges. Different weapon types should remain viable, rather than becoming irrelevant as the game progresses.
- Less linear armor system. Having bigger armor should not be a no-brainer; it now costs you in terms of agility (indirectly: you get penalties to the AP spent aiming bonus and movement) and (if you're not strong enough) combat effectiveness. The armor system has also been changed so that DT doesn't (nearly) automatically takes off a huge chunk of your damage: it is now purely a threshold which gets ignored if your armor piercing roll (again, based on your weapon's upper damage range) exceeds it. So, almost all weapons and ammo will rarely do any damage against the strongest armors at full strength because they won't pass the DT. Characters with fast and weak weapons (knives, pistols) will therefor be required to aim for bodyparts that give higher chances of penetration. So the goal is that there aren't any "hard counters": if you can't pierce, there's always a way to bypass - it's just harder. Similarly, going around with a combat leather jacket shouldn't be impossible, just very hard because you'll need to place the emphasis on dodging attacks, and taking out enemies quickly.
- Differences between one- and two-handed weapons. You'll now generally be faster both in movement and attack AP cost with one-handed weapons and be able to cheaply switch between hands, which you can no longer do with two-handed weapons to compensate for the shorter ranges and lower damage outputs.
- Systematized weapon upgrades. Instead of having just a couple of different weapons that can have one type of upgrade, each weapon type can get a certain upgrade. So each rifle can be outfitted with a scope, each pistol with an enlarged magazine, etc. All of these upgrades will now have potential drawbacks attached as well: an enlarged magazine weighs down your weapon, possibly making it cost more AP to use, etc. You can have upgrades done at the usual suspects, but also yourself: Guns 'n Bullets magazines now increase the skill you have at improving weapons in combination with either Repair (for most guns), Science (energy weapons), or Outdoorsman (for most melee weapons). (Unimped)
Finally, there's the issue of the economy. Like with combat difficulty, this starts out fine, with you scrounging for nickles to pay for that first leather jacket. It just goes off the rails pretty quickly, with barter becoming absolutely irrelevant soon enough.
To fix it I've put together a pretty complicated economic system. As I see it, the problem is that you always end up amassing a lot of inferior items to buy the superior ones you actually need: you convert a stack of deagles into that plasma rifle you really want. Problem is, why does that high tec trader want all those deagles in the first place? I introduce a demand system based on different zones: certain wealthy zones just want premium goods and won't give you squat for inferior stuff - they also charge more for the stuff that's in demand in their zone. Same works vice versa: tribes won't trade all their livelihood for a plasma rifle they don't need.
To make this work, I also had to deal with money: you could just sell your deagles for cash in one place, then exchange the cash for the plasma rifle in another. So I implemented inflation zones separate from the demand zones: here track's kept of the cash in the zone, and cash prices are adjusted accordingly. Here's a map of the various zones:
Another "issue" was store inventories: they become a bit dull after your second playthrough, and have now been randomized based on the demand zone of the store/caravan/trader. Stores also now "realistically" stock restock based on the amount of cash they have and the cost of the items they want to buy. Note that these stores carry 100 first aid and doctor kits as a placeholder until I find out a way to make it work. Plus, only part of the stores have been changed because I'm still not a 100% sure on the implementation. Here follows the list of stores changed using the new system, so let me know if something's weird about them:
den: tubby
flick
broken hills: liz
gecko: percy
klamath: ma buckner
ncr: duppo
new reno: renesco
eldridge
san fran: lao chou
vault city: happy harry's
A final issue for the economy was random encounters featuring two opposing factions: you'd have free reign to finish of the weakened victors. What I'll do is have enemies appear after so many turns during random encounters: basically the scenario of you stumbling upon two fighting factions will happen to you as well. (Unimped)
To make this work, I also had to deal with money: you could just sell your deagles for cash in one place, then exchange the cash for the plasma rifle in another. So I implemented inflation zones separate from the demand zones: here track's kept of the cash in the zone, and cash prices are adjusted accordingly. Here's a map of the various zones:
Another "issue" was store inventories: they become a bit dull after your second playthrough, and have now been randomized based on the demand zone of the store/caravan/trader. Stores also now "realistically" stock restock based on the amount of cash they have and the cost of the items they want to buy. Note that these stores carry 100 first aid and doctor kits as a placeholder until I find out a way to make it work. Plus, only part of the stores have been changed because I'm still not a 100% sure on the implementation. Here follows the list of stores changed using the new system, so let me know if something's weird about them:
den: tubby
flick
broken hills: liz
gecko: percy
klamath: ma buckner
ncr: duppo
new reno: renesco
eldridge
san fran: lao chou
vault city: happy harry's
A final issue for the economy was random encounters featuring two opposing factions: you'd have free reign to finish of the weakened victors. What I'll do is have enemies appear after so many turns during random encounters: basically the scenario of you stumbling upon two fighting factions will happen to you as well. (Unimped)
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Seeing as how you have the knowledge and motivation to Get Shit Done(TM), I wanted to pitch you an idea .Pixote and I kicked around last year.
