Fallout 4

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Moraelin

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Moraelin

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About this mod

You and whatever companions you actually use ave a permanent crit chance equal to your luck rating (capped at 25%), both inside and outside VATS. Now given automatically by script.

Permissions and credits
WHAT IT DOES

It automatically gives you and whatever current follower you travel with a perk called "Critical Mess". The perk gives you a permanent crit chance equal to your luck rating. (And for the followers, based on THEIR luck rating.) And yes, it makes you randomly crit both in VATS and outside VATS. Items that raise your luck, such as a battered fedora, DO count.

You know, just like in the previous Fallout games. Now generally I don't care much about lore-conformity, but for those of you who do, I'd say you can't get much more lore-conform than being exactly how every single previous Fallout game worked.

I've capped it to +25% crit chance at Luck equal to 25 or greater, so you still have SOME reason to wear more pieces of luck equipment or chug a Vodka even if you have 10 luck. It should just about cover the 24 luck you can have with 10 luck, the luck bobblehead, undershirt and jeans, and 6 pieces of armour with +2 luck each. I wouldn't advise dumping EVERYTHING into luck, plus it would take an incredible amount of farming to get that without mods, but it's covered by the mod just in case.

Whenever you crit, regardless of whether it's in VATS or outside VATS, you'll get a message on the left side on the screen, near the top. Similar to the message you get for a stealth attack. Which is also how you can tell if the mod does anything, and when it does it.

Note that it doesn't disable crit banking in VATS, so it might make the game easier unless you refrain from using banked crits in VATS. But in the end, it's your choice. You have the power; how you use it, that's up to you. As a wise man once said, with great power comes great responsibility... to abuse it ;)

Also note that companions do NOT lose the perk after you dismiss them, so you may want to think twice about using companions that you plan to murderize later. E.g., if you travel with Deacon and then side with the BOS and try to kill him, he can still get a crit or two on you.

Made originally with FO4Edit and then the Creation Kit, in case anyone actually cares about that.


HOW TO GET IT

Just walk around a bit. Each time you move to another cell (map subdivision), the script will check if you and your current companion have the perk, and if not, give it to you, them or both. This makes sure that even if you use new companions from some mod, the script will identify them and give them the perk. And if you can't be bothered even to walk like 100 ft with a companion, well, then you probably didn't care much about their combat skills anyway.

Note that companions do NOT lose the perk after you dismiss them, so you may want to think twice about using companions that you plan to
murderize later. E.g., if you travel with Deacon and then side with the BOS and try to kill him, he can still get a crit or two on you.

Or, if you want to give it to other NPCs than followers (e.g., minutemen, guards, etc) type
help critical 0 perk
in the console, and look for the one that's called "Critical Mess". It should have an ID like "2f000800". The first two digits depend on your load order, so they'll be different for each of you, but it should end in 000800.

Then just click on them, with the console still open, and use addperk to give it to them.

Just like any perk, it IS saved in your save game, so you only need to do that once for a character. Doing that more than once won't make them crit more.


HOW TO INSTALL IT

Your best bet is to just use NMM. The alternative involves editing the plugins.ini file by hand . Well, that works well too, but it's less comfortable.


HOW TO UNINSTALL IT

With NMM, or just delete the .esp plugin file from your DATA directory.


COMPATIBILITY

No known conflicts. It should not conflict with other perk mods, or mods that change the player record, etc. It should also stack with Overdrive just fine.

It IS compatible with mods that do any weapons changes, or even with brand new weapons like the lightsabers, because I don't change the weapon. All the magic is in the perk, nothing else is touched.

For the same reason, it is compatible with the "2 Legendary Modification" weapons.

It should be perfectly compatible with any new companions or even villagers, but it's hard to tell when those did a crit, if at all. So I can't really test more than that they do have the perk.


FAQ


Most of this has been covered above, but since some people seem concerned for some reason, here's the short version to some asnwers:


Q: Will it work with new/modified/etc weapons?

A: The crit chance is in the player, not the weapon. When you attack, regardless how, a crit roll is made if it's not 0%. It will work with any attack, regardless of whether it's with vanilla weapons, unarmed, lightsabers, fireballs, anything. If someone brought back the Skyrim shouts (the variables for those seem to be still in the game), even those would crit too :p


Q: Does it need a compatibility patch for those new/modified/etc weapons?

A: No. It will just work. Seriously, both the 2LM weapons and the lightsabers I mentioned are NEW weapon records. Try either of them, and see how it just works.


Q: Do I get a notification?

A: Yep. See the screenshots.


Q: Does it work like <insert other mod>?

A: I don't reverse engineer other people's mods, so chances are I have no clue how some other mod works.


Q: Why do I get like 5 crits out of 20 shots?

A: You probably added the wrong perk. The original Overdrive perk does exactly that: 25% of the shots crit. My perk is called "Critical Mess" while the Overdrive perk is called "FortifyCritChance25xChemPerk", but maybe you looked at the wrong row in the console. Happens to me too. Try typing "player.removeperk 61676" in the console to remove the wrong perk and try adding mine again. Remember, the ID for mine ends in "000800".


Q: Isn't it unbalanced if a fast auto-weapon like a minigun gets 20% crit chance? That'll be a lot of crits.

A: Not really. First of all, I'm fairly confident that Beth reduces the chance for auto weapons, like they did in FO3 and NV. Second, sure, you'll get a lot of crits with a minigun, but they multiply the individual bullet damage, so each of them adds very little. Meanwhile, one crit with an instigating missile launcher will turn just about anything into a smear on the pavement. So it balances out, IMHO. Some weapons get more crits in a day, but weaker crits, some get few crits, but those pack a huge punch.


Q: Does it work in VATS too?

A: Yep, just like in Fallout 3 or New Vegas. See the "Combo" screenshot. That's a random crit in VATS.


Q: Does it prevent storing crits in VATS?

A: No, the random ones are in addition to those. Just refrain from using the stored ones if you don't like them. Or don't. Up to you.


Q: Does it use up a VATS stored crit?

A: Nope.


Q: Do auto-crits outside VATS refill the VATS crit bar?

A: Nope.


Q: Do on-crit effects (such as Freezing actually freezing enemies) happen for these random crits too?

A: Yep. I must admit I haven't tested ALL of them, but frezing weapons definitely freeze enemies solid on a crit.


Q: Does it work with stealth attacks?

A: Yep. See the screenshot.


Q: But it was already possible to crit outside VATS! What do I need a mod for? And does this affect that?

A: Yes, you could, with Overdrive. Or I've seen such crits happen without Overdrive, but extremely rarely, and I'm not entirely sure what triggers them, whether it's a glitch, or a combination of perks and certain weapons/situations. IF those are actually intentional in the game, whatever causes it will just give a small bonus crit chance, on top of mine. Which is not only realistic, but lore conform too. There were things in previous games which gave such bonuses. E.g., the sniper rifle in FO3 and NV had a crit chance modifier, for example, AND a crit damage modifier. Here it's actually a much lesser bonus.


Q: But I was getting crits all the time when I sneak. (A.k.a., "stealth hits are critical hits.")
A: No. That's a completely different thing and it has a different multiplier too. A stealth hit does more damage, but as far as the game is concerned, it's not automatically a critical hit too. You can have a hit that's only stealth hit, or only critical hit, or both at the same time. I included a screenshot that shows both happening in the same (VATS) attack. So yes, you still get something out of this mod even if you always try to snipe from stealth.


Q: Do perks which modify the MAGNITUDE of critical damage in VATS also affect these auto-crits?

A: Honestly, I have no idea. They SHOULD, but since the game doesn't actually display the multiplier for crits, like it does for stealth attack, I can't really tell.


Q: So exactly how DOES it work?

A: It just uses the same "magic effect" (no, really) as the Overdrive potion. The mechanic was already in the game, and programmed by Bethesda. I just use the perk to add the effect, and make sure the chance equals your luck.

Essentially, I make it work like for Obelix. Instead of having to chug a magic potion every time, the perk tells the game that you fell into the cauldron of your drug-dealer... err... druid neighbour when you were little, and now you have a weaker permanent effect ;)

Well, minus the +25% extra damage bonus of Overdrive. I don't give you extra damage too, because, well, I didn't want to actually turn you into Obelix. Or at least not until I mod some striped pants and a winged helmet to go with that ;)