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About this mod
Replicate some of the things which I feel made FO3 and FNV better roleplaying games, without getting in the way of anyone who wants to play FO4 as a simple shoot-em-up.
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What this mod does:
VATS pause. In FO3 & FNV, VATS was a clever way to give players who don't enjoy real-time combat something like the turn-based combat from previous Fallout games, while remaining immersed in the first-person world. This mod restores the turn-based concept by pausing the action when the VATS menu is displayed (as it did in FO3 & FNV) instead of just slowing it down (as it does in FO4). If you want the other features but not this one, go to the Files tab and download the FO4RPGNoPauseVATS file instead of the main file.
Fix Concentrated Fire perk. Rank 2 of Concentrated Fire is broken in the vanilla game. It is supposed to make each consecutive VATS shot at the same body part 15% more accurate, but it actually does nothing at all. This mod makes it work as described. What does that have to do with roleplaying? Concentrated Fire lets a character have steady hands even if the player doesn't. When it's broken, it makes it even harder for a player who has difficulty with manual aim to play a sharpshooter.
De-neuter the Animal Friend perk. Using the Intimidation perk to pacify or coerce humans by pointing a gun at them seems perfectly reasonable, but with an animal it makes no sense. Rank 2 of Animal Friend now adds a passive ability like in FO3 and FNV. Animals (dogs, mole rats, radstags and yao guai) will not attack you unless provoked. It does not remove the active ability to pacify or incite them, but if you use this mod to exploit or murder unsuspecting animals, you really aren't roleplaying the "animal friend" concept very well.
Simulate FO3 & FNV Skills by removing level requirements from corresponding FO4 Perks. In FO3 & FNV it was easy to build a specialized character by focusing on certain skills at the expense of others. A particularly dedicated character, sacrificing all other skills, could reach 100 in one particular skill (for example, to hack Very Hard terminals) by 4th level, or even by 3rd level with a bobblehead and enough skill books. The level requirements for perks in FO4 force the Sole Survivor to be more of a generalist. This mod restores the ability to specialize by removing the level requirements for the following perks which correspond to skills from FO3 & FNV. Note that my aim was parity with FO3 & FNV. If you think this rationale should apply to all perks, there are plenty of other mods available which do that.
FO3/FNV skill = FO4 perk(s) with level requirements removed:
Barter = Cap Collector
Big Guns (FO3 only) = Heavy Gunner (see Note 1)
Energy Weapons = Commando, Gunslinger, Rifleman (see Note 1)
Explosives = Demolition Expert
Guns (FNV only) = Commando, Gunslinger, Rifleman (see Note 1)
Lockpick = Locksmith
Medicine = Medic
Melee Weapons = Big Leagues
Repair = Armorer, Blacksmith, Gun Nut (see Note 2)
Science = Hacker
Small Guns (FO3 only) = Commando, Gunslinger, Rifleman (see Note 1)
Sneak = Sneak
Speech = Charisma (see Note 3)
Survival (FNV only) = No equivalent (see Note 4)
Unarmed = Iron Fist
Note 1: FO3, FNV and FO4 all categorize ranged weapons differently. The Big Guns skill (FO3) is directly equivalent to the Heavy Gunner perk (FO4); level requirements were removed. However, the Big Guns and Small Guns skills from FO3 were combined into simply "Guns" in FNV. In place of Energy Weapons (FO3 & FNV), Guns (FNV) and Small Guns (FO3), the level requirements for Commando (automatic weapons), Gunslinger (non-auto handguns) and Rifleman (non-auto long guns) have been removed.
Note 2: In FO3 & FNV, effectiveness of weapons and armor depended on item condition (and in FNV, also on weapon mods). In FO4 it depends entirely on mods, so level requirements for the Armorer, Blacksmith and Gun Nut perks have been removed. At first glance it may seem unbalanced to change three FO4 perks to approximate one FO3/FNV skill, but it will still actually take longer to reach the top rank of all three perks in FO4 than it would to reach 100 Repair skill in FO3/FNV.
Note 3: FO4 uses Charisma for dialogue challenges that would have been based on Speech skill in FO3 & FNV. Since Charisma training has no level requirements in FO4, there's nothing to fix.
Note 4: Unlike FNV, there are no specific requirements to craft campfire recipes in FO4, so there's nothing to fix.
Future enhancements
Include an endgame option that doesn't require murdering children. I mean seriously, WTF? Maybe they wanted to make the dilemma of which faction to support more difficult, especially considering that the Sole Survivor's kidnapped son is the principal plot driver of the main quest, but it's absolutely appalling that you can't finish FO4 without killing kids.
COMPATIBILITY
If you have another mod that changes one or more of the same perks, only the changes from whichever mod is last in your load order will take effect.
EDITORIAL
Much has been said about Fallout 4's shift of focus away from the roleplaying elements of previous Fallout games and toward a more action oriented play style. The phrase "dumbed down" has been used frequently, but I'll try to refrain from beating that particular dead horse. This mod attempts to replicate some of the things which I feel made FO3 and FNV better roleplaying games, without getting in the way of anyone who wants to play FO4 as a simple shoot-em-up.
Other mods I highly recommend to restore more of the FO3/FNV feel: either No Player Voice or Silence is Golden,and Full Dialogue Interface. I considered including similar features in this mod to provide "one stop shopping", but I eventually decided reinventing the wheel was both a waste of time and a bad idea since it would cause conflicts for people who already use those mods.
VATS pause. In FO3 & FNV, VATS was a clever way to give players who don't enjoy real-time combat something like the turn-based combat from previous Fallout games, while remaining immersed in the first-person world. This mod restores the turn-based concept by pausing the action when the VATS menu is displayed (as it did in FO3 & FNV) instead of just slowing it down (as it does in FO4). If you want the other features but not this one, go to the Files tab and download the FO4RPGNoPauseVATS file instead of the main file.
Fix Concentrated Fire perk. Rank 2 of Concentrated Fire is broken in the vanilla game. It is supposed to make each consecutive VATS shot at the same body part 15% more accurate, but it actually does nothing at all. This mod makes it work as described. What does that have to do with roleplaying? Concentrated Fire lets a character have steady hands even if the player doesn't. When it's broken, it makes it even harder for a player who has difficulty with manual aim to play a sharpshooter.
De-neuter the Animal Friend perk. Using the Intimidation perk to pacify or coerce humans by pointing a gun at them seems perfectly reasonable, but with an animal it makes no sense. Rank 2 of Animal Friend now adds a passive ability like in FO3 and FNV. Animals (dogs, mole rats, radstags and yao guai) will not attack you unless provoked. It does not remove the active ability to pacify or incite them, but if you use this mod to exploit or murder unsuspecting animals, you really aren't roleplaying the "animal friend" concept very well.
Simulate FO3 & FNV Skills by removing level requirements from corresponding FO4 Perks. In FO3 & FNV it was easy to build a specialized character by focusing on certain skills at the expense of others. A particularly dedicated character, sacrificing all other skills, could reach 100 in one particular skill (for example, to hack Very Hard terminals) by 4th level, or even by 3rd level with a bobblehead and enough skill books. The level requirements for perks in FO4 force the Sole Survivor to be more of a generalist. This mod restores the ability to specialize by removing the level requirements for the following perks which correspond to skills from FO3 & FNV. Note that my aim was parity with FO3 & FNV. If you think this rationale should apply to all perks, there are plenty of other mods available which do that.
FO3/FNV skill = FO4 perk(s) with level requirements removed:
Barter = Cap Collector
Big Guns (FO3 only) = Heavy Gunner (see Note 1)
Energy Weapons = Commando, Gunslinger, Rifleman (see Note 1)
Explosives = Demolition Expert
Guns (FNV only) = Commando, Gunslinger, Rifleman (see Note 1)
Lockpick = Locksmith
Medicine = Medic
Melee Weapons = Big Leagues
Repair = Armorer, Blacksmith, Gun Nut (see Note 2)
Science = Hacker
Small Guns (FO3 only) = Commando, Gunslinger, Rifleman (see Note 1)
Sneak = Sneak
Speech = Charisma (see Note 3)
Survival (FNV only) = No equivalent (see Note 4)
Unarmed = Iron Fist
Note 1: FO3, FNV and FO4 all categorize ranged weapons differently. The Big Guns skill (FO3) is directly equivalent to the Heavy Gunner perk (FO4); level requirements were removed. However, the Big Guns and Small Guns skills from FO3 were combined into simply "Guns" in FNV. In place of Energy Weapons (FO3 & FNV), Guns (FNV) and Small Guns (FO3), the level requirements for Commando (automatic weapons), Gunslinger (non-auto handguns) and Rifleman (non-auto long guns) have been removed.
Note 2: In FO3 & FNV, effectiveness of weapons and armor depended on item condition (and in FNV, also on weapon mods). In FO4 it depends entirely on mods, so level requirements for the Armorer, Blacksmith and Gun Nut perks have been removed. At first glance it may seem unbalanced to change three FO4 perks to approximate one FO3/FNV skill, but it will still actually take longer to reach the top rank of all three perks in FO4 than it would to reach 100 Repair skill in FO3/FNV.
Note 3: FO4 uses Charisma for dialogue challenges that would have been based on Speech skill in FO3 & FNV. Since Charisma training has no level requirements in FO4, there's nothing to fix.
Note 4: Unlike FNV, there are no specific requirements to craft campfire recipes in FO4, so there's nothing to fix.
Future enhancements
Include an endgame option that doesn't require murdering children. I mean seriously, WTF? Maybe they wanted to make the dilemma of which faction to support more difficult, especially considering that the Sole Survivor's kidnapped son is the principal plot driver of the main quest, but it's absolutely appalling that you can't finish FO4 without killing kids.
Spoiler:
Add lore-friendly, non-violent options to resolve situations and complete quests. For example, instead of repeatedly clearing out raider strongholds to give peace of mind to a settlement which is being harrassed, you could have the option to complete the objective by building enough defenses to exceed a threshold ratio of Defense : (People + Water + Food).Show
Many people may not have considered it because the game glosses over the "collateral damage" aspect of the endgame events, but depending on who you side with you either kill squires aboard the Prydwen, civilian children in The Institute, or both.
COMPATIBILITY
If you have another mod that changes one or more of the same perks, only the changes from whichever mod is last in your load order will take effect.
EDITORIAL
Much has been said about Fallout 4's shift of focus away from the roleplaying elements of previous Fallout games and toward a more action oriented play style. The phrase "dumbed down" has been used frequently, but I'll try to refrain from beating that particular dead horse. This mod attempts to replicate some of the things which I feel made FO3 and FNV better roleplaying games, without getting in the way of anyone who wants to play FO4 as a simple shoot-em-up.
Other mods I highly recommend to restore more of the FO3/FNV feel: either No Player Voice or Silence is Golden,and Full Dialogue Interface. I considered including similar features in this mod to provide "one stop shopping", but I eventually decided reinventing the wheel was both a waste of time and a bad idea since it would cause conflicts for people who already use those mods.