Fallout 4

About this mod

A painstakingly done overhaul of RANGED PLAYER AND NPC WEAPONS in Fallout 4, all DLCs included. AWKCR compatible and required.

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This mod is a painstakingly done overhaul of ALL RANGED WEAPONS in Fallout 4, including Automatron and Far Harbor DLC. The goal is to bring more realism to these guns, while still keep the vanilla game structure intact, so we can have more realistic guns, and preserve the uniqueness of FO4 game play at the same time

Thank you LucidAPs for your title artwork :)

What this mod changes:

1. Ammo Base Damage Calculation:

The damage calculations of ballistic weapons are based on this assumption: every 50J muzzle energy equals 1 damage in game. As in real life, muzzle energy is only affected by ammo type and barrel length, and so is the damage of ballistic weapons in this mod. Different barrels also have distinct ballistic properties, for example .308 ammo is more accurate and has smaller energy loss along its path, pipe weapons are less accurate and their projectile lose more energy with distance compare to more precisely built weapons that fire the same ammo. The stats of some certain real world version of ammo are chosen to be modeled on, so the vanilla damage structures are still preserved, while giving people more sense of realism and immersion

Energy weapons and fantasy weapons has various increased damage to balance the ballistic weapons damage change

- 10mm ammo, based on 10mm Auto with muzzle energy 950J @5" and 1100J @8" barrel, this translate to in game damage of 19 to 22. Used by 10mm Pistols, (vanilla damage 18), it also has ammo capacity increased to 16 (it is a massive pistol, it should have a bigger magazine)

- .38 ammo, based on .38 Super with muzzle energy 650J @5", 850J @12" barrel, used by Pipe Guns, modded Pipe Revolvers with in game base damage 13 to 17. Top-tier Tri-Barrel Miniguns also converted this ammo, with damage 26 (result from calculations of having longer barrels and powerful receivers)

- .45 ammo, based on .45 Colt with muzzle energy 1700J @11" barrel, base in-game damage 34, used by Pipe Revolvers, top-tier receiver Pipe Guns, Submachine Guns and Radium Rifles. Radium Rifles have base damage of 38 due to having longer barrels

- .45-70 ammo, 3850J @24", base damage 77, used by level-action Rifles (base damage 73 due to shorter barrels) and December's Child from Far Harbor

- .44 ammo, .44 Magnum, 2050J @6.5", base damage 25 to 48 with different barrel length (vanilla 48), used by .44 Revolvers and Western Revolvers, the latter has faster fire rate as head nod to old west fast gun slingers

- 5.56mm ammo, 5.56mm NATO, 1800J @24", base damage 36, used by Combat Rifles and top-tier receiver of Pipe Bolt-Action Guns (vanilla by Assault Rifles). The change should be more appropriate for this weapon in terms of damage, range, and accuracy. (Thanks VampriruM for your kind suggestions!)

- Shotgun Shells: a typical 3400J muzzle energy would give the in game damage of 68 instead of vanilla 45 or 50

- .308 ammo: 3600J @24", .308 Winchester, 72 base damage (vanilla 37), used by Pipe Bolt-Action Guns, Hunting Rifles, top-tier receiver Combat Rifles, and now Assault Rifles (it's a light machine gun after all, isn't it? Thanks VampriruM again!). Please note I have moved Assault Rifle into the Heavy Weapon category, and one need to have Heavy Gunner Perks to further increase its output. This is to prevent rifle users from getting an OP weapon too easily. For Heavy Weapon users, you now have a new toy :)

- 5mm ammo: I don't have real world data for this ammo, lets just make it more useful, Miniguns now spit 17 armor piercing damage instead of vanilla 8

- .50 ammo: based on real world .500 Jeffery, 8300J @24", 166 damage, used only by top-tier receivers of Hunting Rifles

- 7.62mm ammo: based on real world 7.62x39mm, 2100J @16", 42 damage (vanilla 32), used by Handmade Rifles (AKA Chinese Assault Rifles)

- Missiles, Mini Nukes and Cannon Balls, they now have greatly increased kinetic damage, (increased from 15~33 to 200~260), expect these damages added on top of explosion damage if they score a direct hit

- Slight increased Laser Guns base damage from vanilla 24 to 25

- Plasma Guns base damage slightly increased to 25 ballistic plus 25 energy

- Boosted Institute Laser Guns base damage to 30 (vanilla 21), but reduced its fire rate and range.

- Gatling Laser base damage increased to 21

- Flamers now get some love. As a short ranged weapon with rare ammo, its base damage is now boosted to 21 (vanilla 9). The changes also apply to robots and settlement traps, as well as Codsworth default weapon

- Cryolator base damage increased to 30

- Junk Jet base damage increased to 75 but reduced its fire rate

2. Receiver damage modifier changes:

In FO4, receiver damage modifiers, are actually, "magic". The FO series has the history of being RPG game, with RPG game settings, and therefore, "magic" weapon stat increases. Just bear in mind this game is not a simulator, even though lots of its aspects look like one. In this mod, the receiver damage modifiers are still there, but with slight decrease to balance out the semi-auto and auto weapons: every tier of receive upgrade gets 20% damage increase instead of 25%, end of discussion

3. AP Cost Overhaul

To understand Action Point Cost more, let's first look at what is an "action". An action is a sequence of following: aim at a target, fire a round of ammo, (or a burst of ammos), and then reposition the gun to aim, so this sequence can be repeated. Therefore, Action Point is related to how much time it would take to complete one cycle of aiming and shooting

Gun types would affect AP, it takes longer to maneuver a heavier rifle than a nimble pistol; recoil would certainly affect AP, too: it takes longer time to reposition the gun to aim after a high recoil shot; longer barrels, with added weight to the end of gun, making it more difficult to "swing around", would cost more AP, adding a bayonet would have this similar effect and cost more AP too; looking into a scope would cost AP, the more magnification the smaller the FOV and takes longer to find and aim at target, therefore even more AP for longer scopes, on the other hand, a reflex sight should reduce AP; a burst of three-round auto fire would cost more AP than a single round, because it takes longer time to fire three rounds than fire a single round
All of the above are just examples of how gun parts would affect AP. You will notice all of above in this mod, and more. The AP Cost calculation is now the result of combined effects of so many things you would probably find it too tedious to know (as well as I find this mod tedious to make). All I hope is you experienced shooters, after using this update, would feel the AP system "closer to life" than the vanilla

4. NPC weapons changes:

- All the above changes apply to NPC weapons, that means guns used by NPCs, robots and turrets

- Companions now use weapons with damage output equivalent to having Powerful Receivers or Maximized Capacitors

- Standardized Turrets and Robot weapons damage and AP to the same as equivalent playable weapon types, and if Turrets and Robot weapons have different levels of upgrades, the damage output would be same as equivalent modded weapons. For example, 5.56mm Turrets are all more deadly now. Mk I Turrets now changed damage from 10 to 36 (5.56mm damage), and Mk III now from 15 to 43 (5.56mm hardened auto-receiver damage), Mk V incendiary has powerful receivers with 51 damage and 5 fire damage, and Mk VII explosive with 51 damage with additional 25 explosion damage

- Vertibird Left and Right Fixed-mount Machine Guns, in vanilla they fire 5mm rounds and have damage of 1 (wtf), this make their placement just for shows. No longer this will be the case: Now they fire .308 rounds (which you might be able to loot, too) and with some real damage of 72. Whether they can hit you is one thing given the vertibird pilots' reputation, but when they hit they should at least do the damage of decent military aircraft forward fix-mount machine guns. Take cover when they are strafing now :)

- Motars now have massive 800 kinetic damage if score a direct hit

Please bear in mind since many of the guns I modded now have INCREASED DAMAGE, NPCs using these guns are MORE DEADLY NOW, ESPECIALLY those with AUTOMATIC WEAPONS, please RESPECT them with higher kill priority

5. Other guns and gun mods changes:

- Removed automatic receivers damage and range penalty

- Long barrels now have less hip-fire accuracy penalty

- Bayonets, Compensators, Muzzle Brakes and Suppressors, they no long have range penalty, they have now small hip-fire accuracy penalty added instead (Thanks TriNova for your kind suggestions!)

- Compensators now have better muzzle rise control but less overall recoil reduction compared to Muzzle Brakes

- Muzzle Brakes now have better recoil control

- Suppressors now have correct reduced sound level properties

- Shotguns shortest barrels now have narrower spread, longest barrel now have increased range

- All guns receiver mods, when they change to a weaker ammo type (e.g., .45 to .38), they now have less recoil; when they change to a more powerful ammo (e.g., .308 to .5), they now have added recoil

- Changing to a larger caliber ammo would now reduce ammo capacity (similar sized magazine holds fewer rounds if the rounds are larger)

- Minigun Shredders now have no range penalty, but adds to accuracy penalty (this is what you get from adding scrap metals around rotating barrels)

- Removed .308 ammo upgrades for Pipe Revolvers, and .38 ammo conversion from Hunting Rifles and Pipe Bolt-Action Guns, they will have Advanced Receivers instead

- Adjusted range, recoil and accuracy property of many gun barrels to make them more realistic

- Reduced iron sight accuracy bonus of short stocks

- Magazine size change now correctly affects reload time

- removed damage penalty to Light Frame Receivers, and added small AP cost bonus: hope this will make the most useless gun mod in game slightly more useful

- Renamed Combat Rifle Short Barrels to Stub Barrels, they look like Stub Barrels, and they also have Stub Barrels properties now

- Narrowed Beam Splitters spread to make them more useful

- Railway Rifle had a "Large Bayonet" that look like a spiked muzzle, now renamed "spike muzzle brake" with a functional muzzle brake

- Reduced Gatling Laser Charged Barrel damage but increased its fire rate, with overall DPS increase

- Reduced suppressed sound levels of Combat Rifles, Pipe Guns, Pipe Revolvers and Submachine Guns, hopeful this in turn would reduce the NPC detection range related to firing of these guns with suppressors

- Changed property of Radium Rifle Standard Barrel from a short barrel to a long barrel

- Changed and renamed Radium Rifle Long Barrel to Dished Barrel, it now gives 25 more radiation damage instead of being a long barrel

- Changed and renamed Radium Rifle Long Ported Barrel to Deep Dished Barrel, it now gives 50 more radiation damage

- Changed December's Child legendary Combat Rifle from Far Harbor to fire .45-70 ammo instead (vanilla 5.56mm), since I have provided Combat Rifles 5.56mm ammo way earlier than Bethesda, it's fair to give back a .45ish ammo for its unique version. Base damage 77 (vanilla 33), but with reduced ammo capacity and increased weight, recoil and AP cost. I think my change is more lore friendly to Far Harbor as well

6. Weight Changes:
 
Guns, Gun Mods and Ammos that can have some real world reference should have more realistic weight values. The changes are too many to list out. If you are interested in knowing, you can pick up a weapon, go to a Weapon Mod Station, and look at the weights change in weapon mods, and judge if they are too far from reality (the vanilla settings are, as far as I know), please let me know if you think some of the values are not reasonable

7. Vanilla game bug fixes (stupid mistakes everywhere, the following is not even complete list):

- Auto Receiver of Combat Shotgun had abnormally high rate of fire, now changed in line with this mod

- Standardizes all reflex sights to 1.5x zoom

- .44 bull barrel was categorized in game as a "short light barrel", clearly it is NOT. Now with increased weight, range and sighted accuracy, and reduced recoil to make it behave like a long barrel

- Laser Guns Long Barrel used to be more accurate than its Sniper Barrels, now they both have correct values

- Alien Blaster Fusion Mag had wrong value damage multiplier (programmer used "add" instead of "multiply"), and ammo capacity/description mismatch, both fixed

- Alien Blaster Turrets now use fusion cells (vanilla 5.56mm ammo) and has blue laser damage in line with this mod

- Standardizes Beam Splitters recoil calculation methods

- Railway Rifle standard receiver mod was named automatic receiver mod, now corrected

- Eye Bot Laser was given ballistic damage, now changed to energy damage

- Corrected some robot weapons ammo and damage type mismatch from Nuka-world DLC

- Misc. mismatch of mod descriptions with actual effects

Installation and uninstallation: NMM, you know the drill ;). Additional installation instructions for compatibility patches can be found in sticky posts and in changelogs of the patch files (click on the yellow versions links at the lower right corner of some of the files in the FILES download section)

COMPATIBILITY: This mod is NOT and will NOT be COMPATIBLE with any OTHER MODS that changes STATS (damage, weight, descriptions, etc.) of VANILLA GUNS, unless a compatibility patch is provided. This mod should be COMPATIBLE with STAND ALONE WEAPON MODS, unless when they've touched vanilla weapons: if that happens, move this mod lower in load order until problem fixed

Finally, thanks to all! Please lets me know if you find abnormalities or any unreasonable values in this mod!