Dear Endocore,
I would like to congratulate you for creating this mod, no, for conceiving it rather. It's astonishing that we had to wait this long for a man with the right ideas. From what i understand, yours is the first and only such extensive mod that deals specifically with recuperation of the original campaign and in turn - attempting to provide a fix for the shoddy work of Microforte.
That said, if i were to rate your creation, i would give you a 10 for idea and effort... though much less for execution.
Honestly, after playing only the first two missions, checking out all sorts of things in the editor and reading the readme + both threads about Redux, i don't feel like this mod would give me good replay value for the campaign.
I don't like a lot of things you did, how you did them, while some of your ideas are spot on. I'll share more details later on.
About me.
I wouldn't call myself a fully fledged FOT modder, i barely touched scripting/triggers, but i have a decent knowledge about all the other aspects of FOT editor, what file does what etc. I came to NMA just now to look for Barrett rifle sprites which i wanted to use ...in my own personal attempt to revitalize the original campaign. And then i found Redux.
Complete intoxication with the FOT demo, is where i'm coming from. Back in the day, it was a work of art for me. I replayed it what must've been like 20 times. It was challenging and unforgiving, the tactics engine felt great. Then when i got my hands on the full product, probably like most people i was disappointed.
Few years back is actually when i dusted off FOT and dived into the 1.27 editor for the first time. Sadly my work consisting of several finished, highly detailed maps (including my pride - a huge, ruined/opened vault and cave network map, mostly unexplored by a tribe of descendants living on the surface in a hillside village (plot starting location)), countless entities and whatnot got destroyed along with my HDD. I was probably 30% well underway to release my own single player mod (working title "Tribes"), so when all this work went to hell i gave up.
Today, the nostalgia and odd longing for the thrills i experienced in the demo ages ago, brought me back once more to tinker in the editor. This time i wanted to take it easy, and just spice up the original campaign for myself, so that i can replay it and actually have fun. Fallout Tactics Enhanced.
About Redux.
I launched it, and my first impressions were mixed. One one hand, it felt great in STB/Hard mode. Use of sneak and cover are a necessity, and stuff actually DIES WHEN SHOT for crying out loud. Nothing broke the immersion for me more in the original, than having to stuff unarmored enemies with lead so they die of heavy metal poisoning in order to kill them. So yes, while your approach has sparked a lightbulb over my head on how to make the game more enjoyable, one thing i don't understand is why you greatly diminished the uniqueness of most weapons by assigning them the same damage range.
Then i went to the bunker, i found the extra content and lore interesting. And then i bought two pieces of Metal Armor with 25 AC... I ran through the second mission on CTB/Normal in under 10 minutes. Run and gun with two recruits, 7 and 10 PE, 90 and 100 SG, Hunting Rifles. I didn't get hit once. Now why did none of these raiders pose any threat to me at all? That was a big let down. Armor Class was handled "ok" in vanilla, there is a reason Metal Armor has less AC than Leather, it's because AC is a combination dodge, deflection and size, while thresh/res is the actual protection. So, the heavier metal and enviro armors offer less AC due to weight and size (still enough to justify defletion only) but more T/R, Leather has more AC mainly due to mobility and size, but less T/R; Power has all in abundance because it adresses all aspects of protection.
That finally reassured me that Redux has balance issues of its own, and is but a step in the right direction. I can imagine that i'd find more overpowered approaches, or more of the same as vanilla. To quote you loosely, Redux is an excellent base for modders to pick up and make the original campaign better.
I won't get into too many details, since your mod is very extensive, and my post already has the "wall of text" status, so let me just pinpoint a few likes and dislikes:
Likes:
- increased weapon damage (realism)
- ammo tweaks (setting my "ammo762mm.ent" to FMJ was the first thing i did after installing FOT)
- tweaked enemies (though sadly only slightly; i was hoping for new or relocated guys on the maps, with waypoints and whatnot)
- bonus lore and content (lets you get your mind off of the mission-to-mission cycle of violence; immersion)
There's not much to discuss here, what's good is good, you've put a lot of heart into it. I also liked the small touches like including custom loading screens, or tutorial on how to make custom reactive music (though i couldn't be arsed, i just use the custom music switch with an assortment of original FO1/2 music plus a bit of Kenji Kawaii and Aphex Twin ambient tunes
.
Dislikes:
1. Content overrides!
I know that this might probably be a matter of taste or even common approach by NMA community, that FOT has strayed from FO1/2 canon with all the modern world weapons and whatnot, and that it deserves to be undone and forgotten.
But really, i'm sure Microforte guys did their best to pull through with the development of FOT, under the circumstances of fear of starvation and lacerations inflicted by a whip-wielding evil publisher... I say, give them credit where credit is due. FOT is their concept. It is meant to have real world weapons because it's more of a tactical game based on Fallout, not a Fallout RPG sequel. I can't speak for everyone, but with weapons being the primary gameplay tools of FOT, i want to experience something that i can relate to.
Furthermore, based on my respect for the original work of Microforte, i strongly dislike all description and infocard re-writes which frankly feel too invasive. I didn't even use your locale\ files, otherwise i would be forced to learn which Xmm caliber bullet works with which new gun, very confusing stuff all around (plus all the "one" and "one's" would be infuriating
).
Simply put, i personally dislike an approach of re-writing the original content, and would much more prefer enhancement and enrichment of gameplay for the campaign only. Fixing, tweaking and bonuses - not discarding, re-writing and replacing.
2. General balance issues.
This is a dislike, but i'm very well aware that a really good balancing work might be nearly impossible for FOT. Myself i haven't touched it yet on a campaign scale, so my opinion is just based on limited observations and projections of Redux, which is an extensive re-balance mod.
I suspect you playtested Redux only in turn based modes, while CTB is my favourite simply because i enjoy micro managing my guys in real time and making use of my reflexes. CTB and turn based are very different, and i realize balancing the game for one might possibly make the game imbalanced for the other mode. For example, in CTB, enemies are denied their overwatch stance, because they'll be fired upon by more than one character, and their overwatch will be interrupted.
3. Machine guns with single shot mode.
Afaik they don't exist;] Meaning, machine guns which have a mechanism allowing for firing a single bullet, because frankly that's not their purpose.
Then again, it is somewhat possible to fire a single shot with a machine gun. I managed, sometimes, with a 7.62x51 mm PKM. I tried it while i was in the Polish army, in order to benefit from increased accuracy of the first shot, and to score more target hits than others (limited ammo on excersizes). And yes, it sometimes worked, but the effort put into squeezing and releasing the trigger just right, directly translated to how long it took me to burn through my clip, and how much more my index finger hurt due to trigger recoil with every shot, which was generally counter productive to my overall accuracy. In real combat situations, the vast majority of soldiers spray and pray anyway, even with assault rifles that have a dedicated single shot mode apart from automatic.
Long story short, it's a bit of a stretch.
Now, to sum my lengthy post.
Don't get me wrong, i think Redux is a great mod for two reasons. First is the scope of the mod, which aims to fix and improve the original experience. Second is your own bonus content. It's only the way you went about it that doesn't go well with my personal taste, which doesn't mean it's bad or people don't find it enjoyable.
And so, let me tell you how i would see an ideal mod of this kind, to which creation i would gladly contribute. I won't claim i can do better than Redux on my own, but if a team of modders were to gather and work together, we could make something brilliant.
How? In short (for now).
0. Keep as much of the original content intact as possible. Meaning - don't override descriptions, spr's and zar's of weapons, recruits and perks etc.
1. Add new content.
- Missions: For starters, import the two maps from demo, second of which is of superior quality to the majority of FOT maps, in terms of detail and complexity imho (honestly check it out). Ask around for allowance, incorporate (after modifications) suitable maps from existing mods into FOT campaign. Make new ones if necessary. Point here is to expand the original map/mission pool so that weapon progression and campaign length are stretched out.
- Weapons, ammo and items: FOT vanilla indeed has only a few usable weapons, some are being obtained too late to consider using, some are simply useless. Basically, balance existing and new weapons, so that each is unique and justifies consideration of use, rather than loot. Ammo types are somewhat lacking. Armor progress is weird and lacking (Leather2->Metal2->Power).
- Lore: that's self explanatory, like what you did with BoS bunkers and new "useless" items, Endocore.
2. Put it all together: new maps, entities etc, into (and in between) the existing campaign.
Fix and tweak everything, from typos and bugs, through actor, recruit and weapon stats, to map layouts (cover, non-linear paths) and enemy numbers, placement, waypoints and equipment.
Create new balance continuity for the (new and expanded) entire campaign.
3. End goal: to expand and enhance the original FOT game in terms of missions, difficulty and content, but to leave the original content largely intact. Balancing the game out, so that it is difficult throughout the entire campaign, for CTB and STB, for Normal and Hard alike; requiring innovation and change of tactics instead of "run and gun". A smidge of out-of-the-box thinking here and there would be necessary to deal with things like item/weapon availability, difficulty, and as mentioned before: issues with burst mode, random encounters and whatever else there is that's broken, but might be worked around so it feels all right. Make the game truly accessible to various types of characters, weapons and play styles. Where vanilla plays mostly like this: first part of the game = 6x hunting rifle/ak47, second part = 6x SAW/Sniper Rifle, third part = 6x plasma/pulse rifle, make it so it's possible to have real melee brawls vs raiders, lots of traps and explosions vs mutants, and anti-materiel rifles vs robots, off the top of my head.
4. Bunch of examples and thoughts.
- Raiders plot starting out under very poor conditions (Fallout1/2). Scarcity of guns as opposed to better unarmed/melee/throwing weapons. Not all recruits have armor. For example, like in mission 2, dozens of AK-47's and Scorpio's could be replaced by a wider variety of rifles, smg's and pistols, plus other weapons in hands of enemies that know how to use them to the general detriment of your health.
- Really good weapons (upgrades upon what you have) are unique, and scavenged from enemies that know how to use them and will hurt you bad. Example scenario, first hunting rifle in second or third mission, in hands of a real sniper that's located where he and his pals can actually deal damage before you get to him (think mission 1, where there -is- a marksman tower, but facing the wrong way, so he doesn't see your guys storming the fortified position; this wasn't fixed in Redux).
- Raiders plot extended to i.e. 6-7 missions. Beastmen to 5-6, Mutants to 5-6. In other words, make more room to get yourself immersed and have your progress paced out more evenly. Increased difficulty + more missions = as much as 2 or even 3 times long gameplay.
- A single Barrett M82 anti-materiel rifle in the game, and a highly scarce amount of special ammo that is not worth using with M2 browning, except perhaps if you really want to save it all vs Behemoths (and still you'd maybe have 1 or 2 bursts worth of one type). A second anti-materiel Barrett M99 or Steyr HS .50 (single-shot bolt action) in a special encounter/merchant or late in the game. Both using single expensive AP cost.
Example of real world .50 cal ammo that could be used in these rifles (apart from DU which if i'm not mistaken is fictional for this caliber, and available in random encounters apart from the first mutant mission; should be removed or reduced and changed to refined +50/+40 anyway): .50 cal AP (-25/+50) poor man's DU; .50 cal Co (-11/+30) piercing composite; .50 JHP (+60/-25 or something), .50 Ex (+60/+11).
Purpose of these weapons is to allow your lovely main sniper (or Dillion) not to get brought down to the plasma rifle wielding grunts level. Scarcity of special ammo would mean that you can take one mutant/robot out before you get stormed, so you have to choose wisely, and probably in STB mode.
(semi TL;DR)
I think i'm gonna end this rampage prematurely. You get the idea anyway, i can always continue spewing text at you folks at a later date. For now i just wanted to express my opinion on what i think is a long overdue initiative, and how we could possibly carry it on. Enhancing the campaign, into a FOT 2.0 is what somehow seems to me as the logical first step that the modders should have made long time ago, with all the disappointment upon release. Getting the editor later on should have initiated a desire to get all the existing content (which is technically free and ready to go), fix it, and make it bigger and better. FOT is still a very enjoyable engine, a mix of an RPG and a tactical game, i'm not sure but it might even be unique?
I played only a handful of FOT mods, Awaken among others, and i didn't really like them. They felt weird, even wrong at times, because a lot of them tried to make FOT into a FO, and a tactical game is ill suited for this. So how about we make a good tactical game instead?
. I recall reading once that some fellow had managed to come up with a way to sorta do this, but his method seemed hokey and too inflexible for broader use (nor were examples made available for inspection, as in typical unfortunate fashion he didn't offer a map for download and examination by others).
Banzai! 
