Requires Armor and Weapon Keywords Community Resource (AWKCR), Automitron, Far Harbor and Nuka World

Description

There are a lot of great mods that make balance changes to guns for Fallout 4 but very little is done for melee weapons. This is my attempt to make them more interesting and dangerous for everyone. Melee and unarmed weapons have had their base damage increased significantly. Most of the DLC weapons had their damage reduced to fit their class and level they appear in the game. I made several adjustments to better fit specific weapons into their roles in the game.

Version 2.0

Damage is increased even more and perks have been changed further (see changelog for details). NPC/robot/creature attacks have been increased as well. At this point melee feels much better outside of stealth and melee opponents feel like an actual threat. Even if your character doesn't use melee weapons, this will have a significant impact on gameplay. Do not ignore the super mutant with a sledgehammer.

Version 1.2

and beyond make changes to Ninja and Blitz in the attempt to further balance melee weapons (see change log for details). I felt those two perks were the main culprits in making melee builds over powered and not very interesting.

Compatibility

This will obviously not work with other mods that change melee weapons. since this requires AWKCR it will be compatible with mods that just use those keywords, like Valdacil's Item Sorting. I changed two companion weapons to match stat changes with the rest of the mod. If you use any companion overhauls you may want to load that after this depending on what that mod changes. If people find it causes problems I can remove those changes.

Weapon damage is increased significantly enough that melee weapons added by other mods will likely not be viable. I'm not going to make compatibility mods, but others are welcome to if they like.

Now that I've included my own Perk changes, this will conflict with other mods that change those perks. You can either use version 1.0 of this mod or load this mod after any mod that alters perks to override their changes. Due to how these new perks work (especially Blitz) new weapons added by other mods will not get the effects. See change log for details.

Recommended

Realistic Guns and Bullets Overhaul
Moon's perk Changes (makes matching changes to other weapon perks)

Full Changes

Below is a full list of all of the weapons I've changed. I've listed them as they are categorized in game and in the order they typically show up in game (and thus from least to most powerful within their class). This should give a very good idea of what this mod does and how I rationalized my changes. A weapon's full potential with mods is typically not considered.


Unarmed
I personally feel the power fist should out perform against a deathclaw gauntlet. And now it does. I bumped unarmed damage from power armor 20% since I feel it is a weapon in that situation.

Boxing Gloves
Brass Knuckles: increased price
Power Armor Unarmed
Meat Hook
Death Claw Gauntlet: damage set slightly below power fist, weight reduced
Power Fist

Slow
I think of the board as a random piece of wood from the rubble and as such has almost no value unless modified. I also increased AP cost since it is harder to wield than a proper weapon. I bumped the baseball bat's stats a little extra as I wanted it to be in the respectable center of the slow melee class. The super sledge is at the top of this category base stat wise, but the sledgehammer quickly outperforms with mods, so the super sledge gets an extra damage bump.

Pool Cue
Board: greatly reduced price and edited mods to give a straight price increase instead of percentage. Increased AP cost
Baseball Bat: higher damage increase and lowered AP cost
Pole Hook
Sledgehammer
Supper Sledge: gets an extra bump in damage

Medium
Swords are at the top of the "medium" speed weapon class (and they are cool) so I bumped up their damage to reflect that. Base damage of the assaultron blade, Chinese sword and revolutionary sword are the same so choice is up to style and which weapon mods you prefer. I decided to class the shishkebab between swords and the machete. The Commie Whacker is a joke weapon, so I modified it to reflect that.

Baton
Lead Pipe: price lowered
Rolling Pin
Tire Iron
Walking Cane
Pipe Wrench
Machete
Shishkebab: physical damage is slightly more than a machete
Assaultron Blade: energized mod now requires science 2 and does more energy damage
Chinese Sword
Revolutionary Sword
Commie Whacker: base damage is very low, but weapon mod makes it respectable.

Fast
The disciple's Blade just does way too much damage and had to be brought down. Even after my changes it is an impressive weapon.

Switchblade: lowered weight and increased price
Combat Knife: lowered weight and increased price
Disciples Blade: reduced damage to sane levels (15 from 20 base). Removed "big leagues" requirement for crafting mods

Very Fast
I mostly tried to distinguish the two of these as the buzz blade can be acquired around level 15 and the ripper around level 30. Adding the legendary slot to the buzz blade won't do anything unless you use a mod that makes it a possible legendary item or allows you to swap them, but that fix is included.

Mr Handy Buzz Blade: added a legendary slot
Ripper: reduced AP cost slightly

Companion Weapons

Hancock's knife and Strong's Sledgehammer match the damage output of the combat knife and sledgehammer.

Perks

Big Leagues I removed the sweep attack effect from rank 4.

Ninja  sneak attack bonus is now 25%, 50% and 100% at each rank.

Blitz is no longer tied to VATS and offers you a chance to avoid damage completely while moving with melee weapons. 10% at rank 1 and 20% at rank 2.