~~~PROLOGUE~~~

Updated for NextGen (old version still available). Scripts recompiled and repacked into a new ba2 archive.

Version 4.1: Corrected the description for Explosive Legendaries. Changed bleeding to be silent instead of alerting everyone. Uploaded a patch so that VWE and my Useful Technical Documents - Legendaries mod work well together.

Version 4: Added the new DLC Grenade Launchers with extra boom. Went through and double-checked things, caught a few bayonets that I'd forgotten to remove the range-nerf's from. Also the Missile Launcher. (Seriously Bethesda? the Stabilizer attachment makes things more accurate and reduces the range? Sheeeeit.)

Did NOT double the boom of the Piggy Bank FatMan - seriously, that thing does more damage than a mininuke? I call bullshit, took it up from 550 (the default) to 800 (still better, not insanely better than the fatman though).

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I'm back. With my random grab-bag of whatever-the-hell-I-feel-like-making.

I've been sitting on this particular mod for 2 years, 'cause I walked away from modding + I didn't think anyone would give a damn about vanilla weapon tweaks. Seems I might be wrong.

The reason is this video - I had thought that everyone was into "modern weapons" and "tacticool" and suchlike. I had not realized that there was still a love for (or acceptance of) vanilla weapons:



So here it is.

~~~Overview~~~

Tweaks various weapons: damage, recoil, etc. Some of these tweaks have been done with various other weapons mods (some inspirations are: Better Explosives, Lasers Have No Recoil).

Some of these tweaks affect the Companion's weapons also, to bring them in line with either the basegame or tweaked weapon. Just because they're a Companion doesn't mean that their weapons should be nerfed to make the Sole Survivor look good.

~~~Details~~~

In random non-order:

Explosives --

"Scenery" like cars/fire extinguishers/oxygen tanks is also changed to be nastier explosions.

* Double the damage (or more in some cases - a frag mine would do at least as much damage as a frag grenade IMO)
* No line-of-sight blocking (so a tiny chunk of flimsy, rotting plywood won't save the Raider behind it from the blast-wave/shrapnel/burning oil)
* Artillery Flares - are now quiet (yes, I know that some opponents can seemingly hear a sparrow's fart upwind in a hurricane)
* Artillery Flares - delay, changed from 0.8 of a second to 5 seconds

MIRV (the most hated Fat Man mod):
* AIM - you can now aim DOWN (I changed the type from missile - which seems to start from your feet and blows up immediately because it hits the ground immediately - to arrow (I tried beams and lobber as well, arrow gives a much better spread - you can truly carpet-bomb an area if you so desire))
* DELAY - changed from 0.6 of a second (separates in your face) to 2.5 seconds (now it has some range)
* MIRV Child - the bomblets delay, changed from 0.5 of a second (blows up in your face) to 2.5 seconds

Behemoth Boulders:
* double the radius when they explode
* no longer act like a seeking missile
* do severe damage (50 damage originally, 200 damage now - the thing is a chunk of masonry the size of your chest and flung hard)

* Explosive Projectile Explosion / Legendary Explosive Projectile Explosion - yes to all of you Spray'n'Pray and Legendary Explosive shotgun lovers, the damage has been doubled (from 15 to 30).

* Liberty Prime Nuke - double damage (now 1000), Extra-Frigging-Large stagger (not pathetically Medium). Ignores line-of-sight, of course.

* Minuteman Artillery Explosion - more damage (from 200 to 500).

Lasers (and the Alien Blaster/Gamma Gun) --

Aim: Lasers shoot straight - light beams do not strike 6-inches away from their aim-point at random angles and inconsistently with every shot. If the weapon optics were seriously that loose then the laser-medium would not lase at all. Anyone who survived a firefight with such a badly-malfunctioning weapon would fix the damn thing, toot-sweet.

Recoil: Lasers have no recoil - light beams simply do not have a "kick" remotely like that of a .50 cal slug out of an elephant gun (less than landing thistledown). While I don't have the skills to alter the 3rd person animations of a BoS in Power Armor firing their trusty laser rifle - which jolts their 11-Strength 50kg servo-powered arm backwards like it was the Broadsider being fired one-handed - I have reduced the 1st person animations to a slight "jiggle". That jiggle is deliberate, even though in reality it would not be there.

Sound: A laser beam that can punch holes through power armor or crit-hit burn a target to a pile of ash definitely has the energy to cause a sonic whipcrack of sound, due to expanding air. I left it in, but reduced the rating of them all to a "normal" sound effect (instead of a "loud" effect, which I decided better-fit high-caliber bullets and explosives). I was tempted to make them "quiet" - however, the bang of a fusion cell going off beside your ear would never be quiet. Dammit. Note that I haven't altered the sounds themselves, Spacefiddle was working on a mod for that.

Stagger: None. Same reason that lasers have no recoil. It's a beam of light, it hits with less impact than a piece of thistledown. It might burn someone bad and they clutch their guts while screaming "argh!" however it's not going to even slightly jolt them in any meaningful way. Same for gamma guns, which now use the gamma impact set instead of the bullet impact set.

Ammo Capacity --

Automatic weapons have the same clip capacity as the semi-automatic (or whatever) version of the weapon. Just like my original mod "AWAD - Automatic Weapons Are Dangerous", the bullet is the same and the beam is the same - there is no change in the ammo capacity of the weapon "just because" it's an automatic weapon and not running semi-automatic.

Damage --

Automatic weapons do the same damage as the semi-automatic (or whatever) version of the weapon. Just like my original mod "AWAD - Automatic Weapons Are Dangerous", the bullet is the same and the beam is the same - there is no change in the damage "just because" it's an automatic weapon and not running semi-automatic.

That said, many weapons have been tweaked for more damage, to make more sense.

Broadsider: Originally 33 damage, now 80 damage. It's a cannonball, a chunk of lead or steel about the size of two fists. In reality the things could smash through the doors of The Castle, it should probably do more like a couple hundred damage. I am very tempted...

Flamer: Originally 9 damage, now 20 damage. Fire hurts bad. Which is why molotovs do double damage now.

Hunting Rifle: Originally 37 damage, now 40 damage. This is supposed to kill, both when hunting animals and adapted for sniping. That said the damage
hasn't been shoved up to insane levels - just significantly above that of the base Combat Rifle (which uses a .45 bullet instead of a .308). Note that the hunting rifles of both Deacon and MacCready have been lifted slightly in proportion (from 40 to 43 damage).

Institute Laser Gun: Originally 21 damage, now 35 damage. The base prewar laser gun does 24 energy damage, with 210-year-old salvaged and refurbished circuitry and optics. The Institute has recently-manufactured weapons, improved from the prewar weaponry. It makes them a real threat rather than a bunch of wimps.

Submachine Gun: Originally 13 damage, now 30 damage. The Pipe Revolver and Combat Rifle also use a .45 round yet do 2-2.5x the damage (24 and 33 respectively). I decided that the shorter barrel means a smaller energy uptake than the Combat Rifle yet it's a lot more worthwhile weapon than a homemade Pipe Revolver - and that this would make the Goodneighbor Watch and Mobsters justifiably dangerous opponents. Hey Al Capone, I have a gift for you...

--Special Mention: MINIGUNS and GATLING LASERS--

Miniguns, miniguns, miniguns. The most undeservedly- (and inconsistently-) nerfed heavy weapon in the game. To give you an idea of how badly this weapon has been mucked around:

* Vertibird minigun - if the PLAYER is firing it: 25 damage
* Vertibird minigun - if ANYONE ELSE is firing it: 5 damage
* Vertibird left- and right-cannon: 1 damage (bet you didn't even know those existed - they're the little pew-pews you sometimes see from the front of the vertibird - and they use the 5mm minigun ammo too)
* Minigun - anyone (sole survivor, raider, BoS, supermutant) firing it: 8 damage

Vertibird Minigun range: 500/1000 min/max
Ground Minigun range: 256/256 min/max

No more of this nerfed "lets throw marshmallows at the enemy" BS: 30 damage across the board and 256/500 min/max range. Keep an eye out for supermutants with miniguns, amiright?

Gatling Laser: Originally 14 damage, now 40 damage. It's not a laser-pointer - it's a set of full-sized laser barrels in a rotating frame with dedicated cooling, which are being fed by the full-on energy of a fusion core. There's also no stagger, because as before a beam of light strikes with less impact than thistledown. Damage is severe, it's going to cut someone to pieces rather than knock them a little bit off-balance with every hit.

Also: No spin-up. Vertibirds and Power Armor wearers have enough power behind them to make a minigun "spin up" in about 0.05 of a second. TECHNICALLY someone without a PA/Vertibird should require a spin-up time, that seems to require animation changes. Way outta my reach. Gatling lasers? No spinup either, they have a fusion core running them.

Bayonets --

WTF? A bayonet reduces the range of the gun? No wai!

(Wait. Maybe the bullet scrapes along the top of the bayonet, and slows down? ...nah.)

Compensators and Muzzle Brakes --

Range: Compensators and muzzle brakes are an attachment at the end of the barrel, to help redirect some of the exhaust gases to stabilize the gun (in the case of muzzle brakes, that is angled backwards to help further reduce recoil and thus stabilize the weapon more). By the time the end of the barrel is reached the bullet has all the velocity that it's going to have - it won't suddenly slow down. For this reason range reductions are removed across the board - apart from pipe weapons (which have a reduced range-penalty due to overall shoddy construction, see Silencers below).

Silencers --

Range: After some study I found that silencers as a whole do not reduce the range of bullets. In fact, in many cases they slightly increase the range (due to the increased barrel-length) and accuracy of the weapon they are placed on. (Depending upon barrel-harmonics, sometimes adding things to the end of the barrel makes them worse and requires some special "tuning" of the silencer so that the weapon's balance isn't off-kilter.) I've chosen the following adjustments:

Pipe Weapon (all types): Slightly reduced range penalty. These zip-guns are essentially a roughly-sawn chunk of wood (or drilled-out chunk of rusty steel, in the case of a pipe revolver) with a straightened copper pipe that slings a bullet in generally "thataway" direction, with the hopes of hitting the target. Barrel harmonics are not a consideration with this kind of cruddy weapon. Swap the thing for something better asap, while being thankful that it doesn't blow up in the Sole Survivor's face.

10mm Pistol: No loss in range. It's properly machined etc - but while barrel harmonics kinda-sorta can be a consideration, the barrel simply isn't long enough or the weapon itself stable enough to give a great enough range alteration for it to make a difference. At least it keeps its range.

Deliverer Pistol: Slight gain in range. This was state-of-the-art covert equipment back in the day. You betcha they made certain to take barrel harmonics, etc into consideration. Plus the silencer makes the barrel nearly 2x the length of the original.

Combat Shotgun: Slight gain in range. This is a combat weapon. While essentially a roomsweeper, good machining makes for reasonable barrel harmonics.

Combat Rifle: Slight gain in range. As the Combat Shotgun above, plus these were quite often used as sniper weapons. Good barrel harmonics were a must.

Assault Rifle: Slight gain in range. Pretty much the same as a Combat Rifle, though not with the thought of being used as sniper weapons. (They look like they're better suited to someone in power armor, or a fixed-weapon machine-gun emplacement.)

Hunting Rifle: Slightly better gain in range. Designed for serious hunting and adapted to covert kill sniping. Good barrel harmonics were a prime consideration and people work hard on making them top-notch.

Shotguns --

Double-Barrel and Combat Shotgun: The number of pellets in an average 00 buckshot shell these days is 9-11. I've upped the number of pellets from 8 to 9, to reflect the slight scarcity of lead in the postwar apocalypse. Damage is unchanged. (Extra boom for your legendary explosive shotgun.)

Companions (default weapons) --

Cait: Her shotgun has 9 pellets instead of 8.

Curie: Her laser gets the same alterations to other laser weapons.

Danse: His laser gets the same alterations to other laser weapons.

Deacon and MacCready: Their hunting rifles did 3 damage more than the base, theirs now are upped to 43 damage (3 above the changed hunting rifle).

Hancock: His shotgun has 9 pellets instead of 5. (?!)

Preston: His laser musket is upped from 18 to 35 damage (slightly more than the default 30 for a laser musket).

X6-88: His laser is upped from 21 to 35 damage (the same as other Institute laser weapons).

New Shotgun Barrel Mods --

Shotgun chokes. Used for hunting, still very much in use in the Commonwealth. Keeps the pellets grouped, adds further effective range. For both the combat and double-barrel shotgun.

~~~Robots~~~

Eyebot: The lasers now do 24 damage and do not stagger opponents.

Mr Gutsy: The laser damage has been increased from 23 to 30.

Mr Handy / Protectron: The flamethrowers are inconsistent and puzzling to me. At this point I've not touched them.

Protectrons: In addition to the lasers being more accurate and quieter (normal sound), the red laser beam damage has been increased from 15 to 30 while the blue laser beam damage has been increased from 20 to 35. Some protectron variants go up to 50 damage. The basic protectrons are not as well-cooled as a Gatling Laser, yet still have a decent cooling system.

Sentry Bots: The minigun damage has been increased from 12 to 30 in line with other miniguns. Missile explosions scale as per other explosives.

~~~Automatron~~~

Mr Handy: Pincer damage has been increased from 15 to 20 (in line with the base game pincer damage).

Protectron: Nailgun damage has been increased from 55 to 100 (in line with the base game nailgun damage).

Protectron: Laser damage has been increased from 24 to 30 (in line with the above laser damage adjustments).

Sentry Bots: Minigun and Explosive Minigun damage has been increased from 24 to 30 (in line with the above minigun damage adjustments).

Sentry Bots: Unstable Gatling Laser damage has been increased from 37 to 40 (in line with the above gatling laser damage adjustments).

Gatling Lasers: 34 changed to 40 damage.

~~~Far Harbor~~~

In addition to the above general changes to ammunition capacity and range:

Old Longfellow: His weapon goes from 26 to 53 damage (slightly above lever action rifle damage).

Lever Action Rifle: From 35 to 50 damage (it's a .45-75 bullet dammit!).

Radium Rifle: From 27 to 30 damage (to bring more in line with the .45 ammo used).

~~~Nuka-World~~~

In addition to the above general changes to ammunition capacity and range:

Disciples .44: Did you know that the Disciples have their own .44 pistol? I did not until going looking. The damage hasn't been changed, however the *name* has, so that we can distinguish them from an ordinary .44 pistol. Happy collecting!

Protectron: Lasers have gone from 27 damage to 30 (red laser) or 35 (blue laser).


~~~No More Bullet-Sponge Heads~~~

If you've ever shot a raider in the head - and they shake their head for a moment, then keep a-comin' for you - you know exactly what I mean.

Ghouls and Humans: Headshot damage goes from 2x multiplier to 8x multiplier. (This includes you, Sole Survivor.)

Supermutants: Headshot damage goes from 2x multiplier to 4x multiplier (damn they got thick skulls).

Synths (Gen 1 & 2): Still at 2x multiplier, no change - who says their "brains" are in their head anyways?

Nothing else is changed.

~~~F.A.Q.~~~

Q: Your mod broke my game!
A: Uninstall this mod and revert to an earlier save.

Q: There's a mistake with X weapon or you missed X weapon.
A: Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Q: Would you do these changes for X mod?
A: No.

Q: Bethnet?
A: Eventually.