Update 2.2 - Weapon Physics Overhaul

Patches for all official DLCs now available (Nuka World, Far Harbor, and Automatron)

Currently working on creating a big update for Weapon Realism Overhaul, which will add a few more features to the game really soon.

Patches now available for weapon mods! All credits go to original authors.
Extended Weapon Mods by Akanami
Hunting Shotgun by Deadpool 2099
M1 Garand by asXas
RU556 by FX0x01
China Lake and Holorifle by Shoeburgler
Widow Shotgun by Corvalhol
FN P90 by Shiny Haxorus/robersonb1
SCAR-H by Shiny Haxorus/robersonb1
Grease Gun SMG by Deadpool 2099
DKS-501 Sniper Rifle by LtCommander
MK14 EBR by dazzerfong - patch requires MK14 EBR Reload Animation by Wardaddy/Steampunk755

So if you’re wondering what this mod does, it overhauls all the ranged weapons in the game to create a more immersive experience.

So why make this mod? Vanilla weapon balance was alright from a game-play perspective, but it just wasn't realistic. For example, switching a gun from semi-auto to fully-automatic somehow massively reduced damage, the Thompson submachine gun firing .45 ACP rounds somehow has the same damage as a .38 special, changing the receiver of a gun somehow increased damage, base hunting rifle does less damage than the .44 magnum despite being chambered in .308, etc.  If you're like me this probably did seem a bit strange so I created this mod to fix that. 


Ballistic Weapon Changes

Ballistic weapon damage has been recalculated to be based off of the caliber and barrel length of the weapon. In addition fire rate and weapon modifications have been altered to make more sense. Receivers for example have had their impact on weapon damage dramatically reduced, the greatest effect on weapon damage now comes from barrel mods and caliber conversion mods.


As for how the scaling works, .38 was chosen to be the base for weapon damage calculation being the weakest ballistic ammo type available. So if a .38 Special round from a 4-inch barrel has a muzzle energy of 235 ft-lbf and a 10mm Auto round from a 4-inch barrel has a muzzle energy of 470 ft-lbf, and the base damage for the .38 is 10 dmg then the base damage for the 10mm Auto should be 20 since its muzzle energy is double that of the .38.

Specific Ballistic Weapon Changes

• Combat Rifle now chambered to fire 5.56mm rounds. Reason being the Combat Rifle's default magazine appears to be designed to hold rifle cartridges based off its appearance and size.
  

• Assault Rifle name changed to Machine Gun and chambered to fire .308 rounds. Reason being the Assault Rifle seems to take a lot of inspiration from big water-cooled WW1 machine guns, you can see a strange amalgamation of the Vickers Gun, FG42, and Lewis Gun mixed in there,  so I don't think calling it an assault rifle is appropriate. As for the change to .308, WWI medium machine guns used full sized rifle rounds so I took that into consideration and also felt the need for a more powerful gun since the combat rifle is already chambered in 5.56.
  
  
• Shotguns have greater range and reduced spread to make them perform a lot more realistically. Also the combat shotgun had its fire rate changed to be the same as the combat rifle. Why? They both seem to actually be the same weapon system just one is chambered in 12 gauge. The double barrel shotgun also had its fire rate increased, especially with the hair trigger receiver allowing you to shoot as fast as you can pull the trigger.
  

• Unfortunately the Deliverer (Walther PPK) is too small of a pistol to use 10mm rounds so it was downgraded to using .38. Its magazine size was also reduced. In return to make it a powerful unique weapon it was given double the normal crit damage, with low recoil, higher accuracy and fires as fast as you can pull the trigger.
  

• .44 Magnum Revolvers are now double-action so can fire much faster than vanilla. Fire rate of pipe revolvers also increased though they remain single action.
  
  
• Minigun is now armor-penetrating by default, has a higher fire rate, and exceptional damage. Why? In previous Fallout titles 5mm is described as a high-velocity armor-piercing round, but it’s stats don’t reflect that in-game. 
• Junk Jet damage buff
  
  
• Broadsider damage massively buffed along with an increased AoE on the cannonball explosion to better reflect the power of revolutionary war cannons.
  

Energy Weapon Changes

For balance, energy weapons have had their numbers tweaked to be competitive with the ballistic weapons. Since these weapons do not exist yet in real-life I couldn't use any real-life numbers.

What I did find is that the original Fallout Laser Rifle, the Wattz 2000, seems to be a 2000 Watt laser rifle which translates to 2000J of energy being
released in  a 1 second pulse or the equivalent of 1475 ft-lbf of muzzle energy, so all laser weapons are balanced to output energy at around that level. Plasma weapon damage output also updated so that they remain more powerful than the buffed laser weapons.

Recoil has also been removed from laser and plasma guns (plasma guns still have some recoil just greatly reduced), and while a laser could impart some momentum the amount would be so small for a portable handheld laser that humans can't feel it. If you want to get technical if Fallout lasers were Gigawatt range they'd actually have noticeable recoil like firing a rifle, but Kilowatt range seems more likely, and based on my calculations kilowatt range lasers just won't have enough energy to create enough recoil to be felt.


Specific Energy Weapon Changes

• Flamers got a massive range increase to make them perform closer to real-life flamethrowers. Flamethrowers in real-life don't have a range of 10ft, a M2 flamethrower has an effective firing range of 65.5ft and a maximum effective range of 132ft! There is a reason these weapons of war were so feared. Flamer fire duration both on target and as a hazard has also been increased.
• Gatling Laser got a damage buff and no longer has a wind up time. I removed the wind up, since the one in Fallout 3 didn't have any firing delays or wind up time.
• Gauss Rifle damage buff to be competitive with the overhauled energy weapons.
  

Explosive Weapon Changes

Explosives have all been overhauled to be much more deadly than before. In general damage from explosives has been doubled along with their blast radius. Car, robot, and other environmental explosions have been left unaltered, as increasing the size of these explosions would cause a few play-ability issues. Finally I'd recommend a grenade spam reduction mod like Arbitration or Less Grenade Spam. Also with Suiciders being ridiculously deadly now I would also recommend the Suicider Replacement mod by AlturDrake, it has options to change suiciders into missile launcher, minigun, or rifle wielding supermutants, plus imo it's more lore-friendly that way as the original suiciders don't make any sense.

Specific Explosive Weapon Changes

• A direct hit from the missile launcher now inflicts much greater damage (base dmg of 325 instead of 15) with the rest of the damage in the AoE, which has also been increased (AoE and damage comparable to a frag grenade)
• Fatman/Mini-nukes, and Nuka grenades have massively increased damage and blast radius, and ignore LoS so hiding behind your tin wall isn't going to save you.
• Nuclear damage (Fatman/Nuka grenades) isn't just pure physical damage. Damage and type of damage taken is calculated based off your distance from the blast. If hit by extreme outer edge you only take radiation damage (400+/- rads), If you are on the outer edge of the explosion you are hit with massive thermal radiation dealing 500 points of fire and energy damage. If you are in the center of the explosion you are hit with thermal radiation as well as the air blast which will knock you off your feet and deal 1000 points of physical damage. Finally if hit directly in the chest with a Fatman you will take 300+ additional damage due to being hit by a 12lb missile. In addition to this nuclear weapons irradiate the blast zone creating a lethal field of radiation around the impact zone +40 rads/sec. 
  

Non-Playable Weapon Changes

All non-playable ranged weapons have also been re-balanced so they perform similarly to their playable counterparts. The Vertibird minigun for example has the same stats as the regular minigun, except with less recoil due to being a mounted gun. Turret and robots in general are alot more deadly now. Why? A Mr.Gutsy's combat rifle now has the same stats as a regular combat rifle, Sentry Bot miniguns have the same stats as a triple barrel minigun, etc.  So now when you see a Sentry Bot you don’t want to exchange fire with it, you want it destroyed immediately.

Compatibility

This mod should be compatible with any other mod if they do not change any of the values of the vanilla weapons, as their changes will be overwritten.If you have compatibility issues consider changing the load order.

Credits

Patch 2.0 used Gunsmith Extended by undyne777 and cooleo as a framework, as it showed me how to add new modding categories to weapons like ammo types and calibers, and how to tinker with the keywords and instance naming to get the new calibers to show up as part of the weapon name. Great mod. Use of Gunsmith Extended is permitted as according to the mod author it is 100% open source.

Installation

Installation should be simple use the NMM or just download the .esp and put it in the Fallout 4 data folder.





Weapon Physics Overhaul

• All ballistic projectiles overhauled. Projectiles are no longer simple smoke trails and beams they now have actual physics (as true to life as I can make them) and individual meshes. 
• Plasma projectiles are a bit faster, Fatman also has a bit more range due to projectile speed and gravity changes. 
  

Weapon Mod Overhaul

Patch 2.0 used Gunsmith Extended by undyne777 and cooleo as a template. Since according to the author it is 100% open source. Naturally it is not compatible with Gunsmith Extended.

• Modding System has new additions for all ballistic weapons, you can now change the caliber, fire mode, and ammo type for any ballistic weapon.
• Changing the caliber also changes the projectile, sound, ammo capacity, recoil, and damage of a weapon.
• Changing the ammo type not only changes the stats of a gun but also bullet decals and effects of the new ammo type.
• New grenades - paralyze and disarm grenade. Craftable at chem station.
• Combat Rifle can now be upgraded to use drum mags.
• Deliverer can now use reflex sights. 
• Fatman can now use a targeting computer.
  

Weapon Weight Overhaul

• All ballistic weapon weights have been totally overhauled to make them a bit more realistic, I also meticulously went through every weapon mod to make sure the weapon mods themselves also had realistic weights to them.
• Ammo weight has also been recalculated to match their real-life weights.
  

Heavier Weapons

• Assault Rifle weapon weight based off the MG08/15, the closest weapon IRL to the Assault Rifle, being a water cooled steel machine gun it weighed in at 40lbs so the Assault Rifle had its weight increased. Water-cooled machine guns are naturally going to weigh a ton. Also fire rate has been modified to match the Maxim gun.
• Minigun weapon weight based off the GAU-19/B, since the minigun in FO4 is about the same size and greatly resembles one if given the tri-barrel mod. So the Minigun is now far heavier at an enormous 105lbs. To compensate the tri-barrel mod increases damage output. Minigun armor-penetration has also been buffed from last patch to 50%.
• Broadsider weapon weight has also been increased to 150lbs, while this is insanely heavy a real colonial era cannon around the same size would weigh around 400 - 800lbs, with the lightest I found a bronze gun weighing 206 pounds for the barrel alone. Also Broadsider damage and explosive AoE has been increased.
• Flamer weapon weight has been increased to 50lbs. The real-life M2 Flamethrower weapon system weighed 46lbs empty and 60lbs full, so the Fallout Flamer which is actually even larger was way too light. In addition Flamer flames now burn much longer especially with the Napalm upgrade, and create fire hazards for the enemy for a much longer time.
  

Slightly lighter Weapons

• 10mm weapon weight mostly around the same, it's a massive pistol, closest pistol to it is the Desert Eagle which weighs 4.5lbs unloaded. Fully upgraded the 10mm is even larger than a Desert Eagle. So in-game weight is between 3 - 7lbs. 
• Combat Rifle/Shotgun weight is based off of the Browning Automatic Rifle, since the Combat Rifle seems to be the result of a Browning Automatic Rifle and a PPSH-41 having a baby. So this weapon is still heavy at 15+lbs with barrel and stock. Bethesda had its original weight not too far off tbh. So it's only slightly lighter fully upgraded then the Vanilla one. 
• Submachine gun weight was based off the Thompson, Bethesda was pretty close on this one as well so the weight is about the same, as this was just a really, really heavy submachine gun at 10.5lbs unloaded with no magazine. The one in FO4 has a huge 50 round mag at default which bumps its weight to nearly 13lbs and the 100 round drum magazine increases the weight further. I did however change the rate of fire of the submachine gun to match the M1A1 Thompson as this is the model in game. I also decreased the recoil a little bit to make the gun a little more controllable.
• Radium Rifle weight reduced to the same as the Volkssturmgewehr, but I added an extra pound for all the extra wires and other junk on it.
  

Lighter Weapons

• .44 Revolver and Western Revolver weapon weight was based off of the S&W Model 29 so it's only 2.6lbs in game for the base pistol.
• Deliver weight based off of the Walther PPK making it much lighter at only 1.72 lbs. 
• Handmade Rifle weight and the weight of all its various weapon mods were also changed so that it was no longer made out of tungsten :D. The new weight is based off of the real-life AK-47 so the weight should seem far more realistic now.
• Hunting Rifle weapon weight was based off the Remington Model 700 so it got a massive reduction in weight. Base without any upgrades is 5.7lbs, and with a full stock and long barrel the gun only weighs 9lbs. I also increased the magazine capacity of the upgraded mags to 10 and 20 respectively, since they seem large enough to handle more bullets than the default.
• Double-barrel shotgun also got a massive reduction in weight so with a full stock and fully upgraded long barrel it will only weigh 6.5lbs, which is about the weight of a side-by-side IRL.
• Lever Action rifle weight based off of the Henry .45-70 Lever Action.
• The laser musket had its weight reduced. Since it's actually made out of parts from the laser rifle it didn't make sense that a laser rifle could weigh 7lbs while the laser musket weighed 16+lbs, and I just can't see the cranking mechanism and the wood stock justifying that weight. So while it's still heavy it's alot lighter ranging from 8 - 13lbs.
• Missile Launcher weight also drastically reduced to 15lbs for the base, which is around the norm for a shoulder-fired missile launcher of its size, the RPG-7 for instance weighs just 15lbs. Fully upgraded the missile launcher should weigh a little over 22.5lbs due to the 4 barrels and targeting computer being the heaviest components.
  

Far Harbor Overhaul

• Radium Rifle caliber changed to 5.56mm, and the "long barrel" attachments no longer influence range or accuracy instead they improve radiation damage. Why the change to 5.56mm? The Radium Rifle seems to be a heavily modified Volkssturmgewehr which in real-life used 7.92x33 Kurz, so I think it would be more reasonable to rechamber the rifle in 5.56mm for local use instead of .45. As for the barrel mod change, I did so because the long barrel mod doesn't actually change the barrel length at all instead it adds a dish at the end of the barrel so I'm going to assume that does something with radiation.
• Lever Action rifle received a damage buff as .45-70 is a powerful round, and the long barrel attachment now also slightly increases ammo capacity by 2 rounds.
• December's Child converted to .45/70
• Harpoon gun damage buff. The harpoon gun seems to be based off old cannon harpoons so I increased the weight of the harpoon to 1lb and just assumed it's firing a 1lb projectile at 800ft/sec like a small cannon.
  

Automatron Overhaul

• Tesla Rifle completely overhauled. The base Tesla Rifle was pretty bad so I gave it some much needed upgrades. Base damage doubled, also hits will set targets on fire and have a small chance to paralyze them from the shock for a second. Recoil removed. Automatic barrel fire rate increased. Charging barrel damage buff, shotgun and lobbing barrel now semi-automatic. Standard sights are now reflex sights, and I added a short scope as an attachment for the Tesla Rifle.
• Handy Buzz Blade damage increased to be double of the ripper.
• Assaultron blade damage, reach, and weight increased to make it feel a little more unique.
• Assaultron Head slight damage buff, can hold 10 charges now up from 5.
• Robot weapons were also all overhauled so that their stats match the stats of the playable variants of their guns. So an automatic robot laser rifle will have the same damage, rate of fire, etc as the playable automatic laser rifle.
  

Nuka World Overhaul

• Handmade Rifle damage reworked to be more in line with the reworked Vanilla weapons. Damage values chosen by taking into account the the muzzle energy of the 7.62x39mm round for the the various barrels for the Handmade Rifle.
• The Western Revolver damaged changed to be the same as the .44 Revolver but it also got a fire rate buff to make it unique compared to the standard .44. Plus it gets to use the cool revolver fanning animations in 1st person.
• Acid Soaker had it's damage doubled. Why? It was weak and useless, not lethally dangerous like how HCL should be.
• Nuka Cherry Grenades got a huge damage buff and have a much larger blast AoE, but still weaker than generic Nuka Grenades.
• Nuka Quantum Grenades had their stats changed so that they put out the same damage and AoE as the reworked Nuka Grenades.
• Nuka Nukes are even more powerful than the overhauled Mini-Nukes as they received a 50% increase in damage and AoE in comparison to the Mini-Nuke. Using these however can be suicidal as they'll melt anyone in close range.
  

If you have any suggestions for the next update, encounter bugs, or want to say anything, please leave a comment.