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About this mod
The Tactical Ammunition Mod adds multiple new types of ammunition - specifically, it adds explosive, incendiary, high explosive incendiary (HEI), and poison rounds, as well as tracer rounds for all ammunition types. These rounds are made available to both the player and NPCs, though it comes with MANY configuration options to allow you to customiz
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
FYI: I don't watch comments as much as I should, but it's not my intention to abandon my mods. I *do*, however, watch PMs. If you come across any issues and I don't respond to a comment on the comments page (which is actually pretty likely) PLEASE feel free to PM me! I don't bite and a PM sends me an email notification that a comment doesn't send.
NOTE: This mod WILL NOT WORK without both FOSE and CRAFT. PERIOD. WILL. NOT. WORK. You MUST download them.
The Tactical Ammunition Mod adds multiple new types of ammunition - specifically, it adds explosive, incendiary, high explosive incendiary (HEI), and poison rounds, as well as tracer rounds for all ammunition types. These rounds are made available to both the player and NPCs, though it comes with MANY configuration options to allow you to customize it to work any way you'd like, including completely removing certain types of ammunition from the game, disabling NPC use of tactical ammunition, or even disabling player use of tactical ammunition.
All of the information below is available in the readme, in both .doc and .txt format, so you can read it at your leisure.
If you would like to release a bugfix, new feature, or other modification or "derivative work" based on this file, please read the information under "Credits and Permissions" in the box to the right.
Fallout 3
Tactical Ammunition Mod
Version 1.0
by ShadauxCat
POWERED BY FOSE
by by Ian Patterson (ianpatt), Stephen Abel (behippo), and Paul Connelly (scruggsywuggsy the ferret)
http://fose.silverlock.org/
POWERED BY CRAFT
by Highsight
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4447
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Description
2.1. Tracer Rounds
2.2. Incendiary Rounds
2.3. Explosive Rounds
2.4. High Explosive Incendiary Rounds
2.5. Poison Rounds
2.6. Schematics
2.7. Gameplay Changes
2.8. Cheats
3. Options Menu
3.1. Main Menu
3.2. Ammo Availability Settings
3.3. NPC Settings
3.4. Key Settings
3.5. Adaptive Crosshair Settings
4. Installation/Uninstallation
5. Known Issues
6. Compatibility
7. FAQ
7.1. My game crashes when I try to load Tactical Ammunition! THIS MOD SUCKS!
7.2. Why does my head keep exploding?!
7.3. Why isn't there any tactical ammo for shotguns?
8. Contact
INTRODUCTION
Hello, and welcome to ShadauxCat's Tactical Ammunition Mod! This mod adds all sorts of new ammunition types to Fallout 3 for your shooting, blasting, igniting, and poisoning pleasure!
And that's my introduction. Totally worth the section for it, yes? Don't argue with me, yes it was.
Moving on...
DESCRIPTION
As I mentioned, this mod adds several new ammunition types to Fallout 3. Specifically, it adds tracer rounds, incendiary rounds, explosive rounds, high explosive incendiary rounds, and poison rounds to the game, all of which are available for EVERY vanilla weapon that fires bullets - including the uniques. (A note before we continue, however, is that shotguns do NOT use bullets, they use shot; thus, this ammunition is not available for shotguns.) Additionally, the mod comes with a large number of configuration options, as well as a group of schematics that you can use to craft any of the new ammunition made available by this mod.
First off, I'll describe what each type of ammunition does.
As a note: All tactical rounds carry the downside of reducing accuracy, thus increasing the weapon's spread. Combining multiple types increases the reduction in accuracy accordingly - for example, adding a tracer to an incendiary round increases the spread by a total of 35%.
Tracer Rounds
By default in vanilla Fallout 3, every weapon fires tracer rounds except for the shotgun. In Tactical Ammunition, that's changed - the default ammunition is NOT tracer ammunition anymore. Instead, tracer rounds are special, just like they are in the real world.
In Fallout 3, tracer rounds aren't commercially available. As with most things in the Fallout world, tracer rounds have been improvised by the inhabiters of the Capital Wasteland. Fortunately, they weren't very difficult to create, given that there was already a great substance that could give their bullets the glow they wanted with ease: Nuka Cola Quantum. As such, tracer rounds in Tactical Ammunition glow with the same blue light as the Nuka Cola Quantum that coats them.
In order to make tracers meaningful, there have been some changes to the way the crosshair is handled; see Gameplay Changes below for more information.
Tracers can be added to any other type of round. However, note that using tracer ammunition in a silenced weapon is generally a bad idea, as the light given off by the tracer gives off your position just as well as the sound of a non-silenced weapon would, thus negating the benefit of the silencer.
Tracers add 25% to the weapon's spread.
Incendiary Rounds
Incendiary rounds are coated with turpentine, as well as an igniting agent produced with gunpowder. When the bullet hits any substance, the turpentine ignites, setting fire to any flammable substance it hits. This causes a damage-over-time effect much like the Flamer and the vanilla Zhu-Rong pistol.
Incendiary rounds add 10% to the weapon's spread.
Explosive Rounds
Explosive rounds have had a high explosive agent placed within their hollow tips. On impact, this substance explodes, causing extra damage to the target and massively increasing the stopping power and knockback of the weapon.
Explosive rounds add 15% to the weapon's spread.
High Explosive Incendiary Rounds
High Explosive Incendiary Rounds (or HEIs) are a combination of the above two rounds, Incendiary and Explosive. These rounds explode on impact, with the explosion being used rather than gunpowder to ignite a coating of turpentine, causing extra damage and knockback while also setting the target on fire.
HEI rounds add 25% to the weapon's spread.
Poison Rounds
Poison Rounds are coated with small amounts of a potent paralytic neurotoxin, derived from the venom found in a radscorpion poison gland. Due to the small amounts of poison that can be contained within each bullet, the actual poison damage suffered from each shot is relatively low compared to, for example, the dart gun. However, to counter this, the poison has been treated with other chemicals to maximize its paralytic and neurotoxic elements - in sufficient amounts, this toxin can either paralyze a target completely or send them into a fit of hallucinations, frenzying them and causing them to attack any target who enters their frame of vision.
Poison rounds add 10% to the weapon's spread.
Schematics
Each type of round can be crafted in game using special schematics. These schematics appear randomly in the game, and have no set locations. Each schematic you find will allow you to make 5 bullets with one other item, increasing your efficiency each time. There are a maximum of five levels for each schematic, allowing you to make up to 25 bullets at a time. (Since it is sometimes hard to find 25 bullets for certain types - such as .308 caliber rounds - the option to make fewer will remain available to you if you so choose.)
Gameplay Changes
As briefly mentioned above, tracers are somewhat pointless in vanilla oblivion, as you can always see where you're aiming by means of the crosshair. For this reason, in Tactical Ammunition, I've added something to the game that I call the "adaptive crosshair" - when enabled, the crosshair will automatically disappear during combat. The exact working of the adaptive crosshair can be customized to your liking; see the Adaptive Crosshair section under "options" for more information.
Once the combat has ended or you have moved your crosshair off of the target, it will reappear again. (This way, you can still use it, if you like, for communicating with NPCs or picking up/interacting with game objects.) This can be disabled in the mod options if you like, but it is recommended you leave it on for the most immersive gameplay experience. Needless to say, if you have the crosshair turned off in the main game settings, this setting will have no effect on you at all.
When you try to equip a weapon, you will see a menu open if you have more than one kind of ammo for it. Once you have equipped the weapon and chosen the ammo you would like to use, you can change the ammo using the in-game hotkey (default G). Additionally, the menu will automatically open whenever you run out of your current type of ammo if you have any other ammo in your inventory that your current weapon can use.
Weapons you have saved to a hotkey (1-8) will bypass the ammo selection menu and use whatever ammo they had when you set them to that hotkey. However, due to technical limitations with the mod tools available, changing that weapon's ammo type will remove it from the hotkey. (See Known Issues for more information)
There are two hotkeys added to the game. By default, these are G to change your ammo type and F11 to open up the options menu. These can be changed in game using the options menu.
One in-game weapon has also been changed with this mod from the way it functions in vanilla Fallout 3: the Zhu-Rong pistol. Since the Zhu-Rong in vanilla is a weapon that fires incendiary rounds (and ONLY incendiary rounds), it obviously needs some adjustment to remain useful now that ALL weapons fire incendiary rounds and more. As such, the Zhu-Rong has had its default incendiary abilities removed and instead has been changed to have a higher base damage than other 32 caliber pistols. Specifically, the damage and crit damage values for the Zhu-Rong pistol have been changed from the default 4 to 9.
Cheats
If you don't want to go around collecting stuff (seriously, who has time for that these days?) you can open the console and type "startquest GiveAmmo" to get 1000 of every kind of ammo or "startquest GiveSchematics" to get 5 of every kind of schematic... and then have fun crushing everything around you with your vastly superiour firepower! YEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!
...ahem... right. Yeah. That.
OPTIONS MENU
The options menu for this mod is a bit of a doozey, so I'll walk you through it here in as much depth as I can. Let's start at the very beginning. (A very good place to start.)
Main Menu
The main menu is accessed in-game using the customizable menu key, which, by default, is F11. This menu has six options:
Ammo Availability Settings - This option allows you to select how often you will find tactical rounds, as well as how often you will find the schematics to make tactical rounds.
NPC Settings - This option allows you to select how often your ENEMIES will have (and USE) tactical rounds.
Key Settings - This lets you set what keys you want to use to open the options menu and the ammo select menu.
Crosshair Settings - This lets you turn the adaptive crosshair on and off.
Reset All Settings to Default - Should be obvious.
Done - Also should be obvious, this exits the configuration menu.
In general, for most players, the default settings are, of course, the recommended settings. (That's why they're the default settings!) However, advanced players or players who only want part of this mod's functionality (for example, players who want to use tactical rounds but don't want to worry about their enemies constantly setting them on fire) may want to change one or more settings.
Ammo Availability Settings
This menu, as said, allows you to change the frequency with which you find tactical rounds and schematics in the game world. For each, you can select the specific frequencies at which you will find them at vendors, in containers scattered throughout the world, or in enemy corpses (as drops).
For ammo, each of these can be set to one of the following options:
According to Level - With this option, you will find few if any tactical rounds in the early parts of the game, but as you progress through levels, they will gradually become more and more common. This is the default setting for vendors and loot.
According to Level - Double Rate - This option is exactly like the above, except the rate at which you find ammo is doubled over what it would be in the above setting. That means you'll be able to start finding tactical rounds earlier in the game, but also means they're more likely to become unbalancing in their ubiquity later on.
Default Constant Rate - For vendors and containers, this option will set the availability of rounds as follows:
Custom Rate (Set All) - This will set all types of rounds to the same custom rate, so your chances of getting tracer rounds would be exactly the same as your chances of getting high explosive incendiary rounds with tracers attached.
Custom Rate (Set Individually) - This lets you set the individual rate for each and every different type of tactical ammunition available in the game. An important thing to note about this option is that, if you have the setting on "According to Level" or "According to Level - Double Rate," clicking on this button will AUTOMATICALLY turn that off and reset all rates to the default rate. This means that if you click this - even if you immediately click "back" afterward without setting any rates at all - you will have to manually re-enable level-based rounds. HOWEVER, if level-based rounds are NOT currently enabled when you click it, the rates will NOT automatically be set back to default, so you can go in and change just one without worrying that all the others got reset on you.
Note that in all cases, whatever rate is set will be relative to the default rate for normal ammunition. That means that if the rate for incendiary rounds is set to 1/2 normal rate, whenever you find 10 regular rounds, you will also find 5 incendiary rounds, give or take a few. The appearance of ammunition is somewhat randomized even for regular rounds, so it won't always be EXACTLY half, and in some very rare cases you may even find more incendiary rounds than you do regular ones. These values simply control the chance involved in finding them.
For schematics, the options are a little different. Since gaining more schematics is bound to happen as you level up regardless, and having more schematics means you can make more rounds, it doesn't really make much sense to have schematics availability depend on the player's level. So, instead, the schematics menues simply allow you to determine the chance that a random schematic will show up in a vendor, container, or corpse. By default, this is set to 1% for containers, 2.5% for vendors, and 0% for corpses. The 2.5% chance for vendors will be re-checked every time a vendor re-stocks his or her merchandise.
NPC Settings
For NPCs, you can configure three possible options:
Chance of Enemy Tracers - This determines the chance, regardless what type of rounds they are using, that any given NPC will be using tracers with them. For the player, tracers are a benefit no matter who's using them - when in the player's weapon, they provide the benefit of increasing the player's ability to aim. Conversely, when in an NPC's weapon, they provide the player with the ability to easily determine where the NPC is so they can shoot back. As a result, the game is easier when enemies use tracers, and harder when they don't.
Chance of Enemy Tactical Rounds - This determines the chance that enemies will use ANY type of tactical round. If this is set to 50%, for example, there will be a flat 50% chance that enemies will use regular bullets on you and a 50% chance that they will select a random type of tactical round to use. This is decided independently of tracer ammunition and only governs the use of explosive, incendiary, HEI, and poison rounds.
Enemy Tactical Round Distribution - In cases where the enemy does use some form of tactical ammunition, this setting determines which kinds they are likely to use. This can be set to either be determined by level, or to be given a constant distribution - the default constant distribution rate is 40% incendiary, 30% explosive, 20% HEI, and 10% poison.
Each of these is set to be determined according to the level of the NPC in question (NOT the level of the player) with higher level enemies being more likely to use explosive, incendiary, HEI, and poison rounds and less likely to rely on tracers for accuracy.
Key Settings
This is pretty straight-forward, allowing you to set the keys you'd like to use to open up the configuration menu (the menu key) and the ammo selection menu (the swap key). Neither of these can be bound to any key that's already used as a game control key - i.e., you can't set the menu key to the same key you use for "jump."
Adaptive Crosshair Settings
The adaptive crosshair, as mentioned above, will disable your crosshair during combat to increase the usefulness of tracer ammunition. The adaptive crosshair can be set to one of three levels:
Level 1: At this level, the crosshair will disappear in any combat situation and under all circumstances. Any time you are aiming at a hostile target or anyone is actively hunting you, you will lose access to the crosshair.
Level 2: At level 2, you can regain your crosshair by holding the aim/block button in specific situations - namely, you must be standing still, and you must be undetected by your enemies. You will still have a crosshair if the sneak indicator is at "[CAUTION]" (you're unseen, but an enemy is cautious) or even "[DANGER]," (you're noticed, but still unseen) but you'll lose it when it changes to a flashing "[DANGER]" (you've been seen). This simulates the effect of looking down the weapon's sights in situations where you have free time to take careful aim - if you're moving, careful aim is difficult, and even more so if your enemies are aware of your position and actively coming after you.
Level 2 allows stealth characters to still benefit from careful aim with the crosshair while still keeping its use situational enough to make tracers a viable choice for all characters. This is the default behavior.
Level 3: Similar to level 2, level 3 allows you to retain the crosshair by holding the aim/block button, but the requirements have been lessened somewhat, allowing you to retain the crosshair while moving. This less stringent version may be preferable to some people who find level 2 to make things too difficult.
Level 4: Like level 3, this is a slightly less stringent version of level 2, except that it removes the opposite requirement - at level 4, you can use the crosshair at any time, so long as you remain stationary. It will disappear when you move.
Level 5: The most permissive version of the active crosshair, level 5 gives you your crosshair back any time you are holding the aim/block button, regardless of the circumstances. The only drawback to using the crosshair at level 5 is decreased movement speed, making it viable to use the crosshair in many combat situations, especially on lower difficulty levels. As a result, the usefulness of tracer rounds is significantly diminished; some players may find this preferable, however.
Off: Exactly what it sounds like, the crosshair behaves entirely according to the game settings - either always on or always off.
Note that this setting will have absolutely no effect whatsoever if the crosshair is turned off in the game settings.
INSTALLATION/UNINSTALLATION
To install, simply place Tactical Ammunition.esp and Tactical Ammunition.bsa in your data directory (Default C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3\Data)
If you do not have CRAFT installed already, you must also download and install it for Tactical Ammunition to work. You can find CRAFT at http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4447
Additionally, if you do not have FOSE installed, please download the latest version from http://fose.silverlock.org/ and install it. (The mod will not work - and will kill you - if you don't.)
To uninstall... simply remove them! For instructions on uninstalling CRAFT, please refer to the CRAFT readme.
Note that this mod replaces all of the vanilla weapons with new ones, so if you remove it and try to continue your game, you will likely find yourself without any weapons. The exception would be weapons you found in containers and never equipped; any weapon that has ever been equipped by you or an NPC will disappear when the mod is removed.
KNOWN ISSUES
- Weapons that have been stored to hotkeys will disappear if you change the type of ammunition they use. This is due to technical limitations - in order to let you change ammunition, this mod actually replaces your weapon with a new one that is set to a different ammo type, as Fallout 3 does not actually allow the ammo type of a weapon to be changed in-game. As a result, your original weapon is removed when you change ammo, and so the hotkey is cleared as the weapon no longer exists. There is, unfortunately, no way around this unless the FOSE devs add something like "SetHotKey" to the FOSE commands list.
- When you change settings regarding the chance of NPCs getting a certain type of ammunition, these changes can take up to three in-game days to take effect on any cell you've ever visited - it will only take effect when that cell refreshes and repopulates the NPCs. The same is true for loot settings. However, any reference in the game that is persistent - such as named NPCs like Lucas Simms - will NEVER get their ammo changed after the first time you see them. So, if Lucas starts out with explosive rounds the first time you see him and you later change the chance of NPC explosive rounds to 0%, Lucas will still have them. There's no real way around this, either.
- Occasionally, your weapon will disappear from your inventory screen when you equip it from inventory. If this happens, don't panic - your weapon's not gone, it's just a display bug, and it'll reappear the next time your inventory display is updated (i.e., by switching to a different screen and back, or by exiting the inventory and bringing it back up). This typically happens when you try to equip a weapon that has an ammo type loaded which you're out of, when you only have one other ammo type to choose from.
COMPATIBILITY
This mod modifies a LOT of things - the total number of additions and modifications required to make this mod work numbers over 1,000. The vast majority of those are new additions rather than modifications, BUT... this mod will be incompatible with any mod that:
- Changes any of the bullet-using vanilla weapons in any way whatsoever, period
- Changes any of the leveled lists that contain any kind of ammunition besides shotgun shells or BBs
Additionally, this mod ABSOLUTELY REQUIRES FOSE to be installed (available at http://fose.silverlock.org/) and will kill you at start up if it is not. The mod also ABSOLUTELY REQUIRES CRAFT, which can be obtained at http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4447.
Finally, the ammo types added by this mod are available to vanilla weapons ONLY. Any mod-added or mod-altered weapons will not be able to use the tactical ammunition. However, if I get enough requests for compatibility with one mod or another, I may consider adding it.
FAQ
Q: My game crashes when I try to load Tactical Ammunition! THIS MOD SUCKS!
A: Most likely, you don't have CRAFT installed. You have to have it for this mod to function at all. You can download it here: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4447
Q: Why does my head keep exploding?!
A: Because you need FOSE for Tactical Ammunition to work AT ALL. Unlike many mods that use FOSE, Tactical Ammunition depends on it to such an extent that none of the features will work without having FOSE installed. I'm sorry if this is a problem for anyone who can't or won't use FOSE for whatever reason, but there's really no way around it. You can get FOSE at http://fose.silverlock.org/
Q: Why isn't there any tactical ammo for shotguns?
A: There are two reasons for this. First, none of the ammunition types available in Tactical Ammunition are typically used with shotguns – shotguns use shells full of tiny pellets similar to BBs, rather than bullets, so this kind of ammunition is infeasible for shotguns. Of course, I realize that these types of ammunition are also rarely used with pistols, and I realize shotguns can fire slugs which could, theoretically, be made in the varieties featured in this mod - which brings us to the second reason: there's already a shotgun ammo mod, and I didn't want to create a conflict between my mod and that one.
Unfortunately, during the time I spent working on Tactical Ammunition, the Shotgun Love mod has disappeared, so I may add some shotgun ammunition in a future version of the mod.
CONTACT
You can contact me through the Nexus Forums by private message here:
http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?app=members&module=messaging§ion=send&do=form&fromMemberID=1539730
or by email here:
http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?app=members&module=messaging§ion=contact&do=Mail&MID=1539730
NOTE: This mod WILL NOT WORK without both FOSE and CRAFT. PERIOD. WILL. NOT. WORK. You MUST download them.
The Tactical Ammunition Mod adds multiple new types of ammunition - specifically, it adds explosive, incendiary, high explosive incendiary (HEI), and poison rounds, as well as tracer rounds for all ammunition types. These rounds are made available to both the player and NPCs, though it comes with MANY configuration options to allow you to customize it to work any way you'd like, including completely removing certain types of ammunition from the game, disabling NPC use of tactical ammunition, or even disabling player use of tactical ammunition.
All of the information below is available in the readme, in both .doc and .txt format, so you can read it at your leisure.
If you would like to release a bugfix, new feature, or other modification or "derivative work" based on this file, please read the information under "Credits and Permissions" in the box to the right.
Fallout 3
Tactical Ammunition Mod
Version 1.0
by ShadauxCat
POWERED BY FOSE
by by Ian Patterson (ianpatt), Stephen Abel (behippo), and Paul Connelly (scruggsywuggsy the ferret)
http://fose.silverlock.org/
POWERED BY CRAFT
by Highsight
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4447
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Description
2.1. Tracer Rounds
2.2. Incendiary Rounds
2.3. Explosive Rounds
2.4. High Explosive Incendiary Rounds
2.5. Poison Rounds
2.6. Schematics
2.7. Gameplay Changes
2.8. Cheats
3. Options Menu
3.1. Main Menu
3.2. Ammo Availability Settings
3.3. NPC Settings
3.4. Key Settings
3.5. Adaptive Crosshair Settings
4. Installation/Uninstallation
5. Known Issues
6. Compatibility
7. FAQ
7.1. My game crashes when I try to load Tactical Ammunition! THIS MOD SUCKS!
7.2. Why does my head keep exploding?!
7.3. Why isn't there any tactical ammo for shotguns?
8. Contact
INTRODUCTION
Hello, and welcome to ShadauxCat's Tactical Ammunition Mod! This mod adds all sorts of new ammunition types to Fallout 3 for your shooting, blasting, igniting, and poisoning pleasure!
And that's my introduction. Totally worth the section for it, yes? Don't argue with me, yes it was.
Moving on...
DESCRIPTION
As I mentioned, this mod adds several new ammunition types to Fallout 3. Specifically, it adds tracer rounds, incendiary rounds, explosive rounds, high explosive incendiary rounds, and poison rounds to the game, all of which are available for EVERY vanilla weapon that fires bullets - including the uniques. (A note before we continue, however, is that shotguns do NOT use bullets, they use shot; thus, this ammunition is not available for shotguns.) Additionally, the mod comes with a large number of configuration options, as well as a group of schematics that you can use to craft any of the new ammunition made available by this mod.
First off, I'll describe what each type of ammunition does.
As a note: All tactical rounds carry the downside of reducing accuracy, thus increasing the weapon's spread. Combining multiple types increases the reduction in accuracy accordingly - for example, adding a tracer to an incendiary round increases the spread by a total of 35%.
Tracer Rounds
By default in vanilla Fallout 3, every weapon fires tracer rounds except for the shotgun. In Tactical Ammunition, that's changed - the default ammunition is NOT tracer ammunition anymore. Instead, tracer rounds are special, just like they are in the real world.
In Fallout 3, tracer rounds aren't commercially available. As with most things in the Fallout world, tracer rounds have been improvised by the inhabiters of the Capital Wasteland. Fortunately, they weren't very difficult to create, given that there was already a great substance that could give their bullets the glow they wanted with ease: Nuka Cola Quantum. As such, tracer rounds in Tactical Ammunition glow with the same blue light as the Nuka Cola Quantum that coats them.
In order to make tracers meaningful, there have been some changes to the way the crosshair is handled; see Gameplay Changes below for more information.
Tracers can be added to any other type of round. However, note that using tracer ammunition in a silenced weapon is generally a bad idea, as the light given off by the tracer gives off your position just as well as the sound of a non-silenced weapon would, thus negating the benefit of the silencer.
Tracers add 25% to the weapon's spread.
Incendiary Rounds
Incendiary rounds are coated with turpentine, as well as an igniting agent produced with gunpowder. When the bullet hits any substance, the turpentine ignites, setting fire to any flammable substance it hits. This causes a damage-over-time effect much like the Flamer and the vanilla Zhu-Rong pistol.
Incendiary rounds add 10% to the weapon's spread.
Explosive Rounds
Explosive rounds have had a high explosive agent placed within their hollow tips. On impact, this substance explodes, causing extra damage to the target and massively increasing the stopping power and knockback of the weapon.
Explosive rounds add 15% to the weapon's spread.
High Explosive Incendiary Rounds
High Explosive Incendiary Rounds (or HEIs) are a combination of the above two rounds, Incendiary and Explosive. These rounds explode on impact, with the explosion being used rather than gunpowder to ignite a coating of turpentine, causing extra damage and knockback while also setting the target on fire.
HEI rounds add 25% to the weapon's spread.
Poison Rounds
Poison Rounds are coated with small amounts of a potent paralytic neurotoxin, derived from the venom found in a radscorpion poison gland. Due to the small amounts of poison that can be contained within each bullet, the actual poison damage suffered from each shot is relatively low compared to, for example, the dart gun. However, to counter this, the poison has been treated with other chemicals to maximize its paralytic and neurotoxic elements - in sufficient amounts, this toxin can either paralyze a target completely or send them into a fit of hallucinations, frenzying them and causing them to attack any target who enters their frame of vision.
Poison rounds add 10% to the weapon's spread.
Schematics
Each type of round can be crafted in game using special schematics. These schematics appear randomly in the game, and have no set locations. Each schematic you find will allow you to make 5 bullets with one other item, increasing your efficiency each time. There are a maximum of five levels for each schematic, allowing you to make up to 25 bullets at a time. (Since it is sometimes hard to find 25 bullets for certain types - such as .308 caliber rounds - the option to make fewer will remain available to you if you so choose.)
Gameplay Changes
As briefly mentioned above, tracers are somewhat pointless in vanilla oblivion, as you can always see where you're aiming by means of the crosshair. For this reason, in Tactical Ammunition, I've added something to the game that I call the "adaptive crosshair" - when enabled, the crosshair will automatically disappear during combat. The exact working of the adaptive crosshair can be customized to your liking; see the Adaptive Crosshair section under "options" for more information.
Once the combat has ended or you have moved your crosshair off of the target, it will reappear again. (This way, you can still use it, if you like, for communicating with NPCs or picking up/interacting with game objects.) This can be disabled in the mod options if you like, but it is recommended you leave it on for the most immersive gameplay experience. Needless to say, if you have the crosshair turned off in the main game settings, this setting will have no effect on you at all.
When you try to equip a weapon, you will see a menu open if you have more than one kind of ammo for it. Once you have equipped the weapon and chosen the ammo you would like to use, you can change the ammo using the in-game hotkey (default G). Additionally, the menu will automatically open whenever you run out of your current type of ammo if you have any other ammo in your inventory that your current weapon can use.
Weapons you have saved to a hotkey (1-8) will bypass the ammo selection menu and use whatever ammo they had when you set them to that hotkey. However, due to technical limitations with the mod tools available, changing that weapon's ammo type will remove it from the hotkey. (See Known Issues for more information)
There are two hotkeys added to the game. By default, these are G to change your ammo type and F11 to open up the options menu. These can be changed in game using the options menu.
One in-game weapon has also been changed with this mod from the way it functions in vanilla Fallout 3: the Zhu-Rong pistol. Since the Zhu-Rong in vanilla is a weapon that fires incendiary rounds (and ONLY incendiary rounds), it obviously needs some adjustment to remain useful now that ALL weapons fire incendiary rounds and more. As such, the Zhu-Rong has had its default incendiary abilities removed and instead has been changed to have a higher base damage than other 32 caliber pistols. Specifically, the damage and crit damage values for the Zhu-Rong pistol have been changed from the default 4 to 9.
Cheats
If you don't want to go around collecting stuff (seriously, who has time for that these days?) you can open the console and type "startquest GiveAmmo" to get 1000 of every kind of ammo or "startquest GiveSchematics" to get 5 of every kind of schematic... and then have fun crushing everything around you with your vastly superiour firepower! YEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!
...ahem... right. Yeah. That.
OPTIONS MENU
The options menu for this mod is a bit of a doozey, so I'll walk you through it here in as much depth as I can. Let's start at the very beginning. (A very good place to start.)
Main Menu
The main menu is accessed in-game using the customizable menu key, which, by default, is F11. This menu has six options:
Ammo Availability Settings - This option allows you to select how often you will find tactical rounds, as well as how often you will find the schematics to make tactical rounds.
NPC Settings - This option allows you to select how often your ENEMIES will have (and USE) tactical rounds.
Key Settings - This lets you set what keys you want to use to open the options menu and the ammo select menu.
Crosshair Settings - This lets you turn the adaptive crosshair on and off.
Reset All Settings to Default - Should be obvious.
Done - Also should be obvious, this exits the configuration menu.
In general, for most players, the default settings are, of course, the recommended settings. (That's why they're the default settings!) However, advanced players or players who only want part of this mod's functionality (for example, players who want to use tactical rounds but don't want to worry about their enemies constantly setting them on fire) may want to change one or more settings.
Ammo Availability Settings
This menu, as said, allows you to change the frequency with which you find tactical rounds and schematics in the game world. For each, you can select the specific frequencies at which you will find them at vendors, in containers scattered throughout the world, or in enemy corpses (as drops).
For ammo, each of these can be set to one of the following options:
According to Level - With this option, you will find few if any tactical rounds in the early parts of the game, but as you progress through levels, they will gradually become more and more common. This is the default setting for vendors and loot.
According to Level - Double Rate - This option is exactly like the above, except the rate at which you find ammo is doubled over what it would be in the above setting. That means you'll be able to start finding tactical rounds earlier in the game, but also means they're more likely to become unbalancing in their ubiquity later on.
Default Constant Rate - For vendors and containers, this option will set the availability of rounds as follows:
- Tracers: 1/2 normal rate
- Incendiaries: 1/2 normal rate
- Inc w/ tracers: 1/4 normal rate
- Explosives: 1/4 normal rate
- Exp w/ tracers: 1/8 normal rate
- HEI: 1/8 normal rate
- Poison: 1/8 normal rate
- HEI w/ tracers: 1/16 normal rate
- Psn w/ tracers: 1/16 normal rate
Custom Rate (Set All) - This will set all types of rounds to the same custom rate, so your chances of getting tracer rounds would be exactly the same as your chances of getting high explosive incendiary rounds with tracers attached.
Custom Rate (Set Individually) - This lets you set the individual rate for each and every different type of tactical ammunition available in the game. An important thing to note about this option is that, if you have the setting on "According to Level" or "According to Level - Double Rate," clicking on this button will AUTOMATICALLY turn that off and reset all rates to the default rate. This means that if you click this - even if you immediately click "back" afterward without setting any rates at all - you will have to manually re-enable level-based rounds. HOWEVER, if level-based rounds are NOT currently enabled when you click it, the rates will NOT automatically be set back to default, so you can go in and change just one without worrying that all the others got reset on you.
Note that in all cases, whatever rate is set will be relative to the default rate for normal ammunition. That means that if the rate for incendiary rounds is set to 1/2 normal rate, whenever you find 10 regular rounds, you will also find 5 incendiary rounds, give or take a few. The appearance of ammunition is somewhat randomized even for regular rounds, so it won't always be EXACTLY half, and in some very rare cases you may even find more incendiary rounds than you do regular ones. These values simply control the chance involved in finding them.
For schematics, the options are a little different. Since gaining more schematics is bound to happen as you level up regardless, and having more schematics means you can make more rounds, it doesn't really make much sense to have schematics availability depend on the player's level. So, instead, the schematics menues simply allow you to determine the chance that a random schematic will show up in a vendor, container, or corpse. By default, this is set to 1% for containers, 2.5% for vendors, and 0% for corpses. The 2.5% chance for vendors will be re-checked every time a vendor re-stocks his or her merchandise.
NPC Settings
For NPCs, you can configure three possible options:
Chance of Enemy Tracers - This determines the chance, regardless what type of rounds they are using, that any given NPC will be using tracers with them. For the player, tracers are a benefit no matter who's using them - when in the player's weapon, they provide the benefit of increasing the player's ability to aim. Conversely, when in an NPC's weapon, they provide the player with the ability to easily determine where the NPC is so they can shoot back. As a result, the game is easier when enemies use tracers, and harder when they don't.
Chance of Enemy Tactical Rounds - This determines the chance that enemies will use ANY type of tactical round. If this is set to 50%, for example, there will be a flat 50% chance that enemies will use regular bullets on you and a 50% chance that they will select a random type of tactical round to use. This is decided independently of tracer ammunition and only governs the use of explosive, incendiary, HEI, and poison rounds.
Enemy Tactical Round Distribution - In cases where the enemy does use some form of tactical ammunition, this setting determines which kinds they are likely to use. This can be set to either be determined by level, or to be given a constant distribution - the default constant distribution rate is 40% incendiary, 30% explosive, 20% HEI, and 10% poison.
Each of these is set to be determined according to the level of the NPC in question (NOT the level of the player) with higher level enemies being more likely to use explosive, incendiary, HEI, and poison rounds and less likely to rely on tracers for accuracy.
Key Settings
This is pretty straight-forward, allowing you to set the keys you'd like to use to open up the configuration menu (the menu key) and the ammo selection menu (the swap key). Neither of these can be bound to any key that's already used as a game control key - i.e., you can't set the menu key to the same key you use for "jump."
Adaptive Crosshair Settings
The adaptive crosshair, as mentioned above, will disable your crosshair during combat to increase the usefulness of tracer ammunition. The adaptive crosshair can be set to one of three levels:
Level 1: At this level, the crosshair will disappear in any combat situation and under all circumstances. Any time you are aiming at a hostile target or anyone is actively hunting you, you will lose access to the crosshair.
Level 2: At level 2, you can regain your crosshair by holding the aim/block button in specific situations - namely, you must be standing still, and you must be undetected by your enemies. You will still have a crosshair if the sneak indicator is at "[CAUTION]" (you're unseen, but an enemy is cautious) or even "[DANGER]," (you're noticed, but still unseen) but you'll lose it when it changes to a flashing "[DANGER]" (you've been seen). This simulates the effect of looking down the weapon's sights in situations where you have free time to take careful aim - if you're moving, careful aim is difficult, and even more so if your enemies are aware of your position and actively coming after you.
Level 2 allows stealth characters to still benefit from careful aim with the crosshair while still keeping its use situational enough to make tracers a viable choice for all characters. This is the default behavior.
Level 3: Similar to level 2, level 3 allows you to retain the crosshair by holding the aim/block button, but the requirements have been lessened somewhat, allowing you to retain the crosshair while moving. This less stringent version may be preferable to some people who find level 2 to make things too difficult.
Level 4: Like level 3, this is a slightly less stringent version of level 2, except that it removes the opposite requirement - at level 4, you can use the crosshair at any time, so long as you remain stationary. It will disappear when you move.
Level 5: The most permissive version of the active crosshair, level 5 gives you your crosshair back any time you are holding the aim/block button, regardless of the circumstances. The only drawback to using the crosshair at level 5 is decreased movement speed, making it viable to use the crosshair in many combat situations, especially on lower difficulty levels. As a result, the usefulness of tracer rounds is significantly diminished; some players may find this preferable, however.
Off: Exactly what it sounds like, the crosshair behaves entirely according to the game settings - either always on or always off.
Note that this setting will have absolutely no effect whatsoever if the crosshair is turned off in the game settings.
INSTALLATION/UNINSTALLATION
To install, simply place Tactical Ammunition.esp and Tactical Ammunition.bsa in your data directory (Default C:\Program Files\Bethesda Softworks\Fallout 3\Data)
If you do not have CRAFT installed already, you must also download and install it for Tactical Ammunition to work. You can find CRAFT at http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4447
Additionally, if you do not have FOSE installed, please download the latest version from http://fose.silverlock.org/ and install it. (The mod will not work - and will kill you - if you don't.)
To uninstall... simply remove them! For instructions on uninstalling CRAFT, please refer to the CRAFT readme.
Note that this mod replaces all of the vanilla weapons with new ones, so if you remove it and try to continue your game, you will likely find yourself without any weapons. The exception would be weapons you found in containers and never equipped; any weapon that has ever been equipped by you or an NPC will disappear when the mod is removed.
KNOWN ISSUES
- Weapons that have been stored to hotkeys will disappear if you change the type of ammunition they use. This is due to technical limitations - in order to let you change ammunition, this mod actually replaces your weapon with a new one that is set to a different ammo type, as Fallout 3 does not actually allow the ammo type of a weapon to be changed in-game. As a result, your original weapon is removed when you change ammo, and so the hotkey is cleared as the weapon no longer exists. There is, unfortunately, no way around this unless the FOSE devs add something like "SetHotKey" to the FOSE commands list.
- When you change settings regarding the chance of NPCs getting a certain type of ammunition, these changes can take up to three in-game days to take effect on any cell you've ever visited - it will only take effect when that cell refreshes and repopulates the NPCs. The same is true for loot settings. However, any reference in the game that is persistent - such as named NPCs like Lucas Simms - will NEVER get their ammo changed after the first time you see them. So, if Lucas starts out with explosive rounds the first time you see him and you later change the chance of NPC explosive rounds to 0%, Lucas will still have them. There's no real way around this, either.
- Occasionally, your weapon will disappear from your inventory screen when you equip it from inventory. If this happens, don't panic - your weapon's not gone, it's just a display bug, and it'll reappear the next time your inventory display is updated (i.e., by switching to a different screen and back, or by exiting the inventory and bringing it back up). This typically happens when you try to equip a weapon that has an ammo type loaded which you're out of, when you only have one other ammo type to choose from.
COMPATIBILITY
This mod modifies a LOT of things - the total number of additions and modifications required to make this mod work numbers over 1,000. The vast majority of those are new additions rather than modifications, BUT... this mod will be incompatible with any mod that:
- Changes any of the bullet-using vanilla weapons in any way whatsoever, period
- Changes any of the leveled lists that contain any kind of ammunition besides shotgun shells or BBs
Additionally, this mod ABSOLUTELY REQUIRES FOSE to be installed (available at http://fose.silverlock.org/) and will kill you at start up if it is not. The mod also ABSOLUTELY REQUIRES CRAFT, which can be obtained at http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4447.
Finally, the ammo types added by this mod are available to vanilla weapons ONLY. Any mod-added or mod-altered weapons will not be able to use the tactical ammunition. However, if I get enough requests for compatibility with one mod or another, I may consider adding it.
FAQ
Q: My game crashes when I try to load Tactical Ammunition! THIS MOD SUCKS!
A: Most likely, you don't have CRAFT installed. You have to have it for this mod to function at all. You can download it here: http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4447
Q: Why does my head keep exploding?!
A: Because you need FOSE for Tactical Ammunition to work AT ALL. Unlike many mods that use FOSE, Tactical Ammunition depends on it to such an extent that none of the features will work without having FOSE installed. I'm sorry if this is a problem for anyone who can't or won't use FOSE for whatever reason, but there's really no way around it. You can get FOSE at http://fose.silverlock.org/
Q: Why isn't there any tactical ammo for shotguns?
A: There are two reasons for this. First, none of the ammunition types available in Tactical Ammunition are typically used with shotguns – shotguns use shells full of tiny pellets similar to BBs, rather than bullets, so this kind of ammunition is infeasible for shotguns. Of course, I realize that these types of ammunition are also rarely used with pistols, and I realize shotguns can fire slugs which could, theoretically, be made in the varieties featured in this mod - which brings us to the second reason: there's already a shotgun ammo mod, and I didn't want to create a conflict between my mod and that one.
Unfortunately, during the time I spent working on Tactical Ammunition, the Shotgun Love mod has disappeared, so I may add some shotgun ammunition in a future version of the mod.
CONTACT
You can contact me through the Nexus Forums by private message here:
http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?app=members&module=messaging§ion=send&do=form&fromMemberID=1539730
or by email here:
http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?app=members&module=messaging§ion=contact&do=Mail&MID=1539730