This is a replacer. This mod will replace the game's Tesla Cannons with my modified version. Also, this requires Broken Steel, but you know that already. If you already have the Tesla Cannon or any Weapon Mod Kits version of it, this should work fine and replace the one you've already got (it always has in my testing).

Reason for making:
Like some others, I thought it was odd that the Brotherhood scientists talk about the Tesla Cannon as if it's extremely powerful, since it really wasn't. I had to go through a whole quest to get the experimental coil they used to make it, and yet the weapon itself was just average compared to other DLC weapons. There are already a few Tesla Cannon rebalance mods out there, but I wasn't happy with any of them. They all seem to take things too far and make it into a superweapon. I wanted a weapon that was useful, not a weapon that was overpowered. Most importantly, I needed a version that was actually compatible with Weapon Mod Kits. What I've come up with is a specialized weapon that's more powerful against robotic or power armored enemies.

Want a useful Tesla Cannon without breaking game balance? You've found it here. My Anti-Robotics Tesla Cannon is more costly to use than the original, but it's more powerful against robots and power armored soldiers.


Use only one of the included .esp files, depending on whether you use Weapon Mod Kits or not. Since I do use WMK, I already had to make a compatible version for myself anyway. Make sure to stick this mod after all of WMK's files in your load order, as well as after any other mod that changes the Tesla Cannon.


Changes to the Tesla Cannon:
The following are all the changes I've made to the Tesla Cannon. These changes were done to make the Tesla Cannon more useful as a weapon, but I've been very careful to balance these so it's not an overpowered killing machine. My new values are listed below for any changes I've made, and the vanilla values are listed in parentheses () just after.

30 ammo per shot (1)
Magazine size 30 (1)
Beam damage 50 (40)
Beam critical hit damage 50 (30)
Explosion causes paralysis on robots for 8 seconds (nothing)
Explosion causes paralysis on anyone wearing power armor* for three seconds (nothing)
Explosion causes 80 damage over 8 seconds to robots (nothing)
Explosion causes 30 damage over 3 seconds to power armored targets* (nothing)
Explosion causes no damage over time to anything else (20 damage over 2 seconds to anything)

*Helmet doesn't matter - I only check for the power armor suit itself. This check includes all power armors from the original game and Broken Steel, including those only obtainable through the console. This does not include power armor from the other DLCs (Ashur's, Tribal, or Winterized T51-b) or from other mods. Including those would mean they'd be required for this mod to work, which would be rather silly for me to do.


The weapon is now 30 times more expensive to use, but it's actually not any stronger against non-robotic or power armored enemies. The beam will do a little more damage, but the DoT effect has been removed. However, the weapon is now specialized for use against robots and power armor. Robots will take tremendous damage with a long paralysis, and power armored soldiers will fall over and take moderate damage.

This weapon is now a robotic killer as you'd expect an electrical blast to be. To balance this, it's not any better against normal enemies and still costs 30 times more ammo. By the point you get the weapon, you should be quite rich, so the ammo usage jump isn't going to be much of a limiting factor. The specialization of the weapon ensures that it's not overpowered, but against the right enemies it is very useful. Robots are pretty much screwed when you shoot them with this thing, and those terrifying Enclave Hellfire Troops aren't so scary when you make them do push ups. Against everything else though, the Tesla Cannon will still be really unimpressive.


Compatibility:
I've already made a version for Weapon Mod Kits because I use it myself, so this will be compatible with that. This should also be compatible with anything that retextures the Tesla Cannon (not that I'm aware of anything that does), but will probably not be compatible with things that remodel the weapon (again, I don't know of any mods that do that). If you have anything else that modifies the Tesla Cannon, stick my mod after it in your load order. Basically, this shouldn't cause any problems; just stick it after anything it might conflict with and you should be fine.


Bugs:
There should be none. I've tested this thing for a while now, but if anything still doesn't work, let me know. There are two things you should remember before sending me bug reports:

- The vanilla Tesla Cannon's explosion "chains" several times and each smaller explosion does another 10 damage and reapplies the special effect. The effect will stack, too. I have not changed this, so do remember that the Tesla Cannon can potentially cause multiple weaker hits after the initial blast, and that these weaker hits will cause full DoT on the right targets. From my testing, it looks like things will almost always take 1-2 hits from the blast, but occasionally you'll see things take like three hits. If you ever shoot a robot or power armored guy with this thing and his health drops like a torpedo, it's probably because he's got like three simultaneous DoT effects. This is not actually a bug though: it's really supposed to do that and it always did before with the vanilla version of the weapon.

- As noted above, the check for power armor will not recognize any power armors from other DLC or other mods. This is intentional because otherwise those other mods would be required. The only time I can imagine this ever affecting you is if you try to paralyze Ashur of the Pitt with the Tesla Cannon. That won't work because Ashur's Armor isn't in the base game or Broken Steel, so I don't check for it.




Personal Advertising
I've made a few mods now, so I might as well advertise them a little. These are all made with game balance in-mind.

Night Person Night Vision
Changes Night Person's effect into a toggled night vision.

Stealth Field Perk
Creates a new perk that allows a toggled stealth field that drains AP while active.

Anti-Robotics ShockSword
This reworks Jingwei's Shocksword to be specialized for use against robots or power armored soldiers.

Critical Covert Ops
The normal effect for Covert Ops is underwhelming. This changes it to a +15% bonus to sneak attacks.

Ash and Goo Piles Be Gone
Stops disintegration/gooification effects just before they replace the corpse with a pile.