Name: Arwen's NV Realism Tweaks
Version: 5.0
Date: October 30, 2013
Category: Gameplay Effects and Changes
Requirements: Fallout New Vegas
Author: Arwen_Eve (Arwen)
Source: http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=34759
Forum: http://arwen.freeforums.org/index.php
Website: http://arwenevecom.ipage.com/FalloutNV/FNV-mods04.htm


*** Requires New Vegas Script Extender [(NVSE) http://nvse.silverlock.org/].
- My Realism Tweaks were designed to be used when starting a new game. This is especially true after version 5.0, as my Hard-Core module is now integrated into my Realism Core.
- The Hard-Core Quest will cause some issues when used with saved games that have progressed beyond the first few levels, due to major skill point reductions and the perk changes.


Major Changes in Version 5.0:
=============================
- This is a Major update that further improves game play balance (especially at higher levels), fix minor bugs, and adds some new features. Many of my scripts were edited to work better together, which greatly improved the optimization of my Full mod.
- Version 5.0 has been restructured and includes so many changes that it requires that you begin a new game (even it you are using an earlier version of my Tweaks).
- The Realism Core now also includes my former Hard-Core and Endurance modules, merged into a single, optimized core module.
- Initialization Quests are now more synchronized, regardless of the number of modules you are using.
- Expanded Options Menu. Now includes disable/enable Strain, select between More/Less Difficult Hard-Core settings, toggle One Life on/off, alter your character's height, select between more/less Weapon Ability Penalty messages, and increase/decrease the chances of Dismemberment.
- The "Realism Tweaks User Guide" Word doc has been expanded and updated to version 5.0.

*** Realism Core changes:
- Health Points: Adjusted for both PC and NPCs, to keep the game challenging at high Endurance, but also so that you wouldn't die quite so easily at lower END (which was often a problem when my One Life module was active).
- Threshold Resistance: Set to game default 20%, and is now adjustable from 0 to 40%. Damage Threshold was also increased for some creatures.
- Tougher NPCs (now under VisualFXs, in Options Menu): my default setting is "Normal NPCs," which still have 20% more HPs than in the default game (the "Tougher NPCs" setting should ONLY be used if you find that the NPCs are too easy to kill).
- Fatigue script rewritten: passout/revival imods now works smoother and fatigue changes are better integrated across all modules.
- Weapon Effects: Improved to mesh better with my latest changes to Fatigue and Armor Level (see Med-Tec changes).
- Weapon Ability Penalties: script better optimized and Penalties have been completely rebalanced (every perk has been redone). No strength penalty with range weapons when you are receiving a skill penalty; and no skill penalty with melee weapons when you are receiving a strength penalty. I also increased VATS and Critical Chance/DAM reductions, and decreased Weapon Dam reductions in my low weapon skill and strength perks. Unarmed has now been added to my Weapon Abilities.
- Dynamic Stealth: your enemies will not be able to see you from so far away; you will now be much less visible when crouching than when you are standing; and your Perception now increases by 1 point when you are sneaking (only when your Health is greater than 50%).
- Pip-Boy Locked during Combat: Once the "No Pip-Boy during combat" message is displayed, your Pip-Boy only remains locked for 30 seconds, even if you are still flagged as being in combat, but your weapon must remain holstered and you must remain in Sneak mode. (Gives you a chance to put on a helmet or bandage a wound while your enemy is still searching for you.)
- Repair: Made some minor changes that now permit you to repair some weapons and armor with other weapons and armor. Also rewrote my Repair script, so that your Intelligence stat has more of an impact on your Self-Repair ability (also gender-based).
- New Rookie Penalties: Option added at end of Hard-Core Quest (now part of Realism Core), which will initially make your game VERY difficult. If selected, your initial SPECIALs are reduced to a minimal amount (based on your stats), and your character will actually have put their skills and muscles to use for their stats to slowly increase back to the non-penalized amounts. Most Rookie Penalties will last for at least a couple of game days, but could last for much longer, depending on how you progress. When my Weapon Ability Penalties are also enabled, you will be able to use most weapons, even when your skills are very low (until Rookie Penalties are no longer being applied).
- You now only receive 7 Skill points to distribute at Level Up (was 8 points in v.4.1; default is 13 points). But your Tagged Skills still receive my 2X multiplier with odd level ups.

*** Med-Tec changes:
- Needs and Injuries have been rebalanced quite a bit. Bandages are a bit more effective at treating Wounds, and Stimpaks now increase clotting effect, even with the Stimpak hotkey. Plus both Bandages and Stimpaks will now reduce your Infection Level a bit, but only before the Wound has become badly infected (Level 6+).
- Improved Sleep Quest Script: Your HPs will no longer drop more than 10% while sleeping. Slower healing while sleeping or waiting than while awake. [This removes the sleep/wait cheat, where sleeping/waiting for a few hours could completely heal most of your injuries.]
- Armor Level now increases faster at lower DT, and slows down as DT increases, and there are now 12 Levels (were 10). The difference now between 1DT and 11DT is a +5 Armor Level increase, while the difference between 24DT and 34DT is only a +2 Armor Level increase. Wearing Power Armor (when your DT is greater than 23) now gives an Armor Level bonus. A brief message is now displayed whenever your Armor Level changes.
- Weapon Injury Script: the balance between your Armor Level and weapon hit injuries was improved. Bullet weapon hits were split into two separate form lists ... High DAM and Low DAM. New Creature Hits form list: Bloatfly darts, Ant spit, and Centaur spit now increase your Wound Level. When my default "More Difficult Hard-Core" is enabled, a percentage of your HPs are now also damaged by this script (for both types of bullet hits, for creature hits, and for cutting and trauma injuries); with 1 AL (2 DT) a single High-DAM bullet will damage your HP at least 60%; with 6 AL (15 DT) the HP damage is reduced to 30%.
- Reduced the amount that Wound Level immediately increases when your Wounds become badly Infected.
- Number of bandages available was added to the Wound Treatment message.
- Your drawn weapon is now holstered before you do Full Scan or do a Hotkey Stimpak injection (prevents animation issues).
- You Need 25% more Water per hour when your Encumbrance is greater than 70% (except while you are sleeping/waiting).
- Drinking from a pure water source now reduces your Water Need by 4 oz (was 2), Bacteria Level still only increases +1 for each drink.
- Any water bottle can now be filled at both Purified and Good water sources. Pure or Good water bottles both yield a bottle of Good water, at either source (since the bottle is used). A Dirty water bottle always yields a bottle of Dirty water (from any source, since the bottle is dirty).
- Drinking water when you have Radiation Sickness or Food Poisoning will no longer quench your thirst, but now increases you Water Need by +0.5 (due to dehydration effect when getting sick).
- You now have the option of drinking bottled water while in the Med-Tec scan menu. Added new Needs Menu (replaces the "Additional Stats" menu): similar to my Bottle Water menu, where your Bacteria, Digestion, and Radiation Levels are shown (along with 6 other stats). This should lessen your chances of Food Poisoning (by drinking from water bottles when your Bacteria Level was too high).
- Added drinking animations to all bottled water (similar to my stimpak and bandage animations, where you'll not be able to use a weapon until the animation ends). The standing animation only lasts a few seconds (and you can still walk and run). The sitting animations last quite a bit longer and may be a bit off when sitting in some chair types (as these are the unaltered default animations).
- The Needs menu also gives the maximum Food Units you can safely eat (based on your current Bacteria, Radiation, and Digestion Levels). If you pay attention to this and never eat food that has more Food Units than your current safe maximum amount, you should never get sick from eating too much. You must leave the Needs Menu to eat anything, but you have the option of opening your PipBoy directly from the menu.

*** One Life changes:
- The scripts are now MUCH improved and should now remain stable, even after you've been using One Life in your game for a while. The respawn points are now disabled after use, and then deleted after you quit each game session.
- One Life is initially enabled (at the end of the One Life Quest), and you can now disable (and enable) it at any time [Options Menu/Other Settings]. After disabling, you should delete all the OneLife saves and save your game manually. [For best results: quit your game, start again by loading your manual save, and make a new save soon after the game has fully loaded. This ensures that all the Revival Markers have been removed from your future saves.]
- Less chance now of being attacked when you are unconscious (which often happened just before you revived,while your Fatigue was still above 100%).
- You are now looted of 50% to 90% of your caps, based on your Luck stat (was always 90% of your caps).
- After Near Death player�s armor is now removed and returned to inventory (prevents coming to in a different armor than what you "died" in). Player now holds onto their equipped weapon (instead of the weapon returning to their inventory), and your ammo is now only looted if you have more than 10 ammo for your equipped weapon.
- If you suffer a Near Death with poison still in your system, there is now a chance you might survive.
- When Rookie Penalties are enabled and you also have less than 4 Endurance: Near Death will be triggered when your HPs drop below 20 points; and your Med-Tec injuries will not increase as much when you are revived. Once Rookie Penalties have all been removed, or your Endurance is higher than 3, the Near Death trigger and Med-Tec injuries at revival will revert back to normal.
- New optional One Life - Lite esp (if my regular One Life module seems to increase your CTDs). The "Lite" version has pretty much the same Normal Death and Near Death penalties as the regular version; the main difference is the way Near Death revives the player. In the Lite version you are not moved, but are revived right where you died. Unfortunately this means that your enemies may still be waiting for you, which may result in you dying again (probably a Normal Death this time). Also your Normal Death revival locations are MUCH less random than with the regular version. So this is definitely a lite version, but it should work for all users without increasing their game CTDs.

*** Camera module changes:
- Moved the 3rd person viewpoint in a bit closer (to the PC) and a little lower, to improve perspective and aiming a bit while in 3rd person.


Description and Concept:
=======================
- I created my Realism Tweaks to make my game play much more realistic, challenging, and balanced (and to compliment the other mods that I am using: http://arwenevecom.ipage.com/FalloutNV/FNV-Mods.htm
- My goal has always been to make FONV more immersive and more realistic within the context of Fallout's alternate reality, which is a place where radiation causes mutations as often as death, and where injuries can be healed with a stimpak injection.
- The Fallout games are RPGs, but I felt that FONV's role-playing aspects were rather weak in many areas. For me, a Role-Playing Game is more realistic when I can role-play without having to work at it. I have a great imagination, but I wanted the game itself to impose some real consequences and limitations on my character, instead of just pretending that these things existed. My goal was to do this in a way that made the game more challenging.
- With my Realism Tweaks installed, your Skills and Stats become much more important in how your game will play out for you. Your distribution of SPECIAL points is also MUCH more important than it was in the default game. My optional Med-Tec and One Life modules will make this harsher game world an even more challenging place. You will now find that the Mojave Desert may actually feel like a harsh wasteland. You may also discover that the game is now a lot more fun. My Realism Tweaks is a Fallout New Vegas overhaul, so it makes some rather dramatic changes to the game (changes roughly 2200 records and includes over 100 custom scripts).
- Do NOT install this mod unless you want the Mojave to be a harsher place where you will have to struggle just to survive.
- Please do no make requests that I remove my skill damage increases, as that is totally contrary to my goal of making Fallout NV a better RPG. One of the main elements of a RPG has always been that the amount of damage you do is ALWAYS determined by your skill level. Remove that, and you pretty much negate any reason to ever advance your skills. The way my mod handles weapon skill is that you gain a weapon damage BONUS as your weapon skills increase. This is just like the way that Perks give you bonuses. Even at 10 Skill, DAM is 60% greater than default. In the default game, any weapon that you use will not do its full DAM until your weapon skill (for that type of weapon) is at 100 (100%). With my Tweaks, a weapon will do its full DAM once your weapon skill reaches 20 (above 20 skill, the DAM will continue to increase, reaching a 2x DAM BONUS at 100 skill).

IMPORTANT: This mod was balanced for NORMAL Difficulty. Using a Hard or Very Hard difficulty setting will just make the NPCs and Creatures even more difficult to kill (it will take more bullets), and your character will even be easier to kill. My Realism Tweaks already does both, so you will just be multiplying these two things, which will likely have negative effects. My Realism Tweaks are meant to be used together, so game balancing was done with all my modules loaded and all my recommended options enabled.


CORE MASTER (Arwen_NV_Core.esm) & REALISM CORE (Arwen_NV_Realism_Core.esp):
===========================================================================
The Core Master esm and Realism Core module are mandatory! The other three modules are optional. The full details on all my changes are listed in the Realism Tweaks section my Fallout New Vegas Journal: . My Realism Tweaks are mostly activated at the very beginning of the game (or whenever you install and activate it), but does not fully kick in until all my Quests have finished. [The Realism Core contains three initialization quests: the Realism Core Quest, Encumbrance Quest, and Hard-Core Quest.]

IMPORTANT! My Realism Tweaks were designed to be used when starting a new game. This is especially true after version 5.0 (when my Hard-Core module was integrated into my Realism Core module). If you add my Tweaks in an existing game, your skills are going to take a major hit and some of my other skill changes might cause major problems (it would depend on what perks, and skill books you have used). The other thing is that the spawn loot will not be reduced with a saved game (the work-around for this is to go to an interior cell and wait for 4 days). You should not add my Realism Tweaks to any older saves where you had advanced higher than Level 2.

Unless otherwise noted, all my changes are in reference to the default game (not including any DLC).

*** REALISM CORE QUEST (and core changes):
- Begins shortly after you exit Doc's house, and finishes when my pop-up welcome message is displayed. [Note: My Fatigue and Strain HUD meters will only be displayed if you follow my HUD Setup instructions exactly.]
- [Arwen's Option Menu] (in PipBoy inventory, under "Aid"): in-game selection of many features and settings that enable you to customize how my mod affects your game play. Most of my optional features are enabled by default, so you need to disable the ones you do not want.
- Timescale Settings [adjustable]: a special script enables slower Timescales with the game's hardcore mode [or with my Med-Tec Needs]. With my mod, your Needs (food, water, sleep) now increase at much more realistic rates and my rates automatically adjusts to the Timescale you select.
- Dynamic Timescale [optional]: Timescale will be 50% slower in interior cells, during combat, or when your health is less than 25%.
- Menu Time [adjustable]: The game clock no longer stops while in most menus.
- XPR Multiplier [adjustable] slows down how fast you level up by globally reducing ALL future experience points reward (initially set to 25% default amount).
- Greatly Reduced Carrying Capacity, which is now gender based (unless you are using the "Less Difficult Hard-Core" setting).
- More realistic walking and running speeds. RunBack effect slows down your speed when running backward (Agility based). Reduced safe fall height distance to 14 feet. Increased Crippled Speed Penalties when walking or running with a crippled leg.
- Your character's Health Points were reduced from default game's Level 1 amounts [Female: 30 less HPs; Male: 40 less; Less Difficult Hard-Core: 20 less], and you no longer gain HPs when you level up. NPC's HPs were rebalanced over all levels: increased at lower levels (below Level 11), and decreased at higher levels (balances with PC's no level up HP increase).
- More immersive and balanced VATS, with new Action Points formula (with Agility being a greater factor).
- Smarter AI: combat with NPCs is now much more challenging, and you will be hunted down more diligently.
- Dynamic Stealth: factors in time of day, weather conditions, interior/exterior cell type, player's Sneak skill, and the player's actions.
- Implant Regen (used by Implant Regen Perk) is now based on Game Time, instead of on Real Time.
- The Mojave is now a much less forgiving place. Your character starts out a bit weaker and more vulnerable; while the NPCs are stronger and healthier, with better armor and weapons across all levels.
- Pain has greater effect on player; swimming or wading in radioactive water is MUCH more deadly; Burns continue to damage HPs after the flames stop and damage Agility; Poisons do more HP damage, over a longer duration, and also damage Agility.
- Localized Damage: strategic hits are more effective (such as crippling shots), and head shots now do a LOT more damage.
- Increased Weapon Skill DAM multiplier (a Bonus multiplier, not a penalty reduction) increases weapon damage up to 2x.
- Rebalanced ALL default Weapons: underpowered weapons were improved and overpowered weapons were reduced in DAM/sec. Skill and weight requirements were increased for many weapons. Energy weapons received a major overhaul (and DT reductions were added to the ammo). Melee Weapons generally had their DAM reduced (but a few were increased).
- Condition of a ranged weapon now has a bit more effect on how much damage it does, and damaged weapons will not fire as fast, and have a greater chance of jamming after reloading. Automatic Weapons now take a bit longer to cool down.
- Removed the zoomed-in view when aiming most non-scoped pistols (and a couple of the rifles), but scopes added with mod kits will still zoom correctly.
- Weapon Ability Penalties (optional): you will be increasingly less effective when your skills are lower than a weapon's skill requirement, or when your Strength is lower than a weapon's strength requirement (much harsher than default penalties). If your stats are too low, you will not be able to use some weapons (less than 30% of skill requirement, or more than 3 points below strength requirement).
- Tougher Crippled Arm Penalties (optional): when an arm is crippled, your Strength and Weapon Skills are reduced and you cannot use VATS. Penalties are greater for a crippled right arm than for a left arm, and even greater when both arms are crippled. But does not directly prevent you from using any weapon.
- Skill Based Accuracy (optional): aiming accuracy is based on your Guns or Energy Weapon skill (also dynamically improves Auto-Aim, as your weapon skill increase).
- PipBoy Locked during Combat (optional): No more combat timeouts to change into better armor, repair weapons, or take a lunch/beverage break. But the default Hotkeys (1-8) still work while you are flagged as being in combat, so you can still access any hotkeyed item. Once the "No Pip-Boy during combat" message is displayed, your Pip-Boy will be unlocked after 30 seconds, even if you are still flagged as being in combat, but your weapon must remain holstered and you must remain in Sneak mode.
- Unique Weapon Effects (optional): Gunshot knock downs, Whack and Blast knockouts, which are based on your Armor Level. Your Armor Level is based on your Damage Threshold (DT), but your level is calculated in a script, and is less linear (increases faster at lower DT, and slows down as DT increases). There are now 12 Levels (0-11).
- Fatigue HUD, displays fatigue as a percentage (how fatigued you are). When you reach 100% fatigue, you pass out.
- Unique Visual FXs (optional): when wearing sunglasses and reading glasses, and for loss of AGL and PER.
- More realistic explosions, projectiles, grenade physics, and death force effects. Spent shells now last 4 game hours.
- Balanced armor/clothing values, weight (weighs 50% less when worn), damage threshold, and "enchanted" effects. Helmet AR now equals 25% of total armor AR.
- Enhanced repair lists for both weapons and armor.
- More Caps for Merchants - all merchants now have twice as many caps (Wasteland currency).

*** ENCUMBRANCE QUEST (and changes):
- You now suffer from Strain (a unique stat that I created, which is similar to fatigue). Strain increases when walking with more than 100% encumbrance, and whenever you are running at any encumbrance. Strain is based on game time, so Strain increases faster with faster Timescales.
- HUD Strain display: Will only be displayed if you follow my Strain HUD Setup instructions exactly. To move the Strain Display, hold down the grab key for 2 seconds, and then use the arrow keys to move it. Your Strain percentage will turn red when your Strain reaches 70%, and at 85% Strain the text will start flashing, warning that you are near your limit.
- When your Strain is over 50%, your character will start breathing hard; at 75% Strain your character will breath harder (integrated with my Fatigue breathing SoundFX).
- The more encumbered you are, the shorter distance you will be able to travel, and the more you will hurt yourself if you collapse. With an encumbrance of less than 50%, you will be able to run for roughly 46 GAME MINUTES before your Strain reaches 100%, but at 99% encumbrance, you'll only be able to run for about 15 game minutes. When walking with 110% encumbrance, you will last about 16 game minutes before you need to rest, but with 150% encumbrance, you will need to rest every 4.5 game minutes.
- Your current Health is factored into your Strain increase rate (25% slower at 100% Health; 50% faster at 25% Health). And jumping and melee attacks (swinging a melee weapon) will both increase Strain.
- If your Strain reaches 100%, you will collapse, injure yourself, and your equipped weapon will return to your inventory.
- Using Jet or Ultra Jet will immediately clear your Strain (reset to 0), which can be a lifesaver during combat.
- Strain decreases when you rest (when you stop running, or when you stop walking with over 100% encumbrance), and while you are in menus (50% slower). How fast your Strain decreases depends on how encumbered you are. Plus your Strain will decrease 33% faster when you are sitting or crouching (non-moving sneak mode). During combat your Strain will only be reduced when you are not moving. And will not be reduced during combat when in menu mode.
- Dynamic movement speeds: the more you are encumbered, the slower you move. You also gain a running speed bonus when your encumbrance is low, as long as you are in fairly good health. As Strain increases above 70%, your running speed will progressively begin to slow down (since you are getting tired), but the speed that your Strain increases will also slow down (since you are exerting yourself less).
- FastRun: when your Strain is less than 70%, holding down the Activate key while running gives a 50% speed increase, but your Strain will increase 5 times as fast. You will not be able to FastRun if either leg is crippled. If your weapon is out, your speed will be a bit slower (just like with normal running). If crouching, FastRun will automatically make you stand up and FastRun.
- Dynamic Jump: based on your Agility and Encumbrance. You will not be able to jump when your AGL is really low, when you are over-encumbered, or when a leg is crippled.
- My Encumbrance notes are also added to your inventory, for easy reference.

*** HARD-CORE QUEST (and changes):
- This quest begins about 1 minute after the Med-Tec Quest has finished (or about 1 minute after the Encumbrance Quest has finished, if my Med-Tec module is not installed).
- You now receive less points to distribute in your SPECIALs, with about half as many skill points at Level 1, which will increase roughly half as fast.
- IMPORTANT! Your stats will affect your gameplay quite differently with my Realism Tweaks, but there is now a greater difference in how each point affects your ability. Before you distribute your points, I strongly suggest that read my "Realism Tweaks User Guide.doc" (in Fallout New Vegas\Data) and/or the "Hard-Core Quest and Settings Details" page on my website: http://arwenevecom.ipage.com/FalloutNV/Arwens_NV_Hard-Core.htm
- When beginning a new game, or when loading a saved game in which you are still at level 1 or 2, my Hard-Core Quest will reset your number of SPECIAL points to 35; plus you will have to select your Tagged Skills and Traits again (since you may want to reconsider these, after seeing the results of my Skill Points reductions). This may be a bit of a pain in a new game, but this is the only way that I can make this work with older saved games, and with alternate start mods that skip the tutorial. Tagged skills now only receive a 5 point bonus.
- Added 7 new Traits: 4 are Fallout 2 Traits (one of which I changed quite a bit) and 3 are my own unique Traits. There are only 11 Traits in the original game, and not all of them worked well with my Tweaks. My new Traits were picked/designed to expand character build diversity, in a way that will have a major effect on your game play (especially early in the game). I also changed the Small Frame Trait, to match the FO2 version (my mod already made it easier to get crippled limbs).
- Rookie Penalties: Option added at end of Hard-Core Quest, which will initially make your game VERY difficult. If selected, your initial SPECIALs are reduced to a minimal amount (based on your stats), and your character will actually have put their skills and muscles to use for their stats to slowly increase back to the non-penalized amounts. Most Rookie Penalties will last for at least a couple of game days, but could last for much longer, depending on how you progress. When my Weapon Ability Penalties are also enabled, you can still use most weapons, even when your skills are very low (until Rookie Penalties are no longer being applied).
- Levelling up: You now receive 6 fewer skill points to distribute when you level up, but your Tagged skills now receive a 2X bonus on Odd Level Ups (Level 3, 5, 7, etc.), when they gain 2 points for every skill point spent on them (my tagged bonus is now spread over many levels, instead of getting it all in Level 1). You now select a Perk at each level up (default was every other level up). All 88 Regular Perks, a few Challenger Perks, and half the Companion Perks were modified. I also added a few of my own unique perks (especially for lower-skilled characters), since perk requirements were generally increased.
- Skill Books are not "consumed," but are now replaced with a Read version. You now gain just 2 points from each Skill book that you read (3 points with the Educated Perk).
- Skill Magazines only give +5 skill points for 90 seconds (180 seconds with Retention Perk, and +10 skill points with Comprehension Perk) and each now weighs 1 pound.
- Reduced Carrying Capacity (gender based): female range is from 60 to 150 pounds (for 1 to 10 STR); male range is 65 to 200 pounds.
- Bartering Overhaul: Merchants will charge a LOT more for items, and you'll get a LOT less for what you trade with them (based on your Bartering skill). Gender based: females have 10% Barter sell bonus; males have a 5% buy bonus.
- Repair Overhaul: items used for repairs will now improve the weapon or armor a bit less, your repair limit is now gender-based (male bonus). Merchant repair costs were significantly reduced, and are based on your Barter skill. This should make paying for repairs a more viable option.
- With my default Hard-Core settings you receive Gender bonuses/penalties (affects Health Points, Carrying Capacity, Bartering, and Self-Repairs). This was done so that gameplay would be a bit different, depending on your character's gender. The gender differences are minor, and can be mostly overcome, just by adjusting your point distribution. (For example: A female with 5END & 6STR would have nearly the same Carrying Capacity and Health Points, as a male with 6END & 5STR.)
- You can select a More or Less Difficult Hard-Core setting in the Options Menu (under Other Settings), which can be changed at any time. More Difficult is enabled by default, and is my recommended setting. The Less Difficult setting gives the player more HPs, greater Carrying Capacity, easier Bartering and Repair, removes gender differences from stats, and reduces health damage with Med-Tec injuries.
- Decreased spawned loot, with the amount of loot now based on your Permanent Luck stat.
- Dynamic Respawn Rate: is set at the beginning of the game at a random amount (every 4 to 8 days; default was 3 days), and is reset whenever you level up.


OPTIONAL MODULES:

Med-Tec module (Arwen_NV_Med-Tec.esp):
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- My complete Needs/Injuries/Treatment module. (Requires my Core Master esm and Realism Core module; and balanced specifically to be used with my Full Realism Tweaks).
- Works best when default hardcore mode is NOT enabled. [It will work with default hardcore mode, but with increased stuttering and LOT more message spamming, as the Med-Tec Needs have to constantly update the default Needs.] The only downside is that your ammo will not have any weight, which is pretty minor, since my mod greatly reduces your Carrying Capacity.
- IMPORTANT! This is my most complex module, so you really should read my "Realism Tweaks User Guide.doc" (in Fallout New Vegas\Data) and/or the Fallout New Vegas Realism Tweaks section of my website , which explains all the details.
- Warning! This module takes survival to a whole new level. Even when you survive combat, you can now easily die from your injuries (just like in real life). Also taking care of your Needs (thirst, hunger, sleep) is no longer as easy, since mine are based on realistic rates; and the penalties for neglecting your Needs are much more severe.
- My Med-Tec Quest begins about 30 seconds after the Encumbrance Quest has completed; or after being initialized in a saved game. The quest�s timer is paused when you are inside or engaged in combat.
- After the Med-Tec Scanner is fully initialized, you will receive the following supplies (if you did not already have these items in your inventory): 1 Medical Brace, 2 Bandages, 1 Antibiotic Injection, 1 Stimpak, and a 16 ounce Bottle of Purified Water.
- Once the Quest is completed, your initial Needs (Water, Food, and Sleep) will be calculated, based on how much game time has passed since 6 am. If many hours have passed, you will likely receive a message that you are dehydrated (which is why you were given a 16 ounce Bottle of Purified Water). Your initial injuries (just Wound Level and Blood Lost) are based on your character's current HP percentage (how much your HP is damaged).
- Your Med-Tec Scanner tracks 26 stats and expands self-treatment. Quick Scan Hotkey [M] monitors your most vital stats during game play, with automatic scan whenever you are injured. Full Scan Hotkey [Right Ctrl] for diagnosis and treatment of injuries (while not in combat), plus more detailed info on your Needs.
- No Fast Travel when very tired (20 hours without sleep), thirsty (14 ounces water needed), or hungry (15 food units needed), or Health is less than 40%.
*** The Injury Part:
- Injuries are based directly on degree of injury (HPs damaged), type of weapon used, and your Armor Level. Adds Wounds, Burns, Blood Loss, Trauma, and Infections (and their treatment). When my default "More Difficult Hard-Core" is enabled, a fixed percentage of your remaining HPs are also damaged (based on Armor Level) with every bullet hit, cutting and trauma injury (this scripted HP damage is in addition to the regular weapon DAM).
- Moderate injuries slowly heal, based on your Endurance. Severe injuries require medical treatment, where self-treatments are based on your Medicine skill.
- Dynamic Health Regeneration: Your regen rate restores your Permanent HP amount every 10 game hours, but is slower when sleeping or waiting (prevents sleep/wait healing cheat).
- Your Health stops Regenerating when your Wound Level is 2 or greater, or when you are Very Thirsty (Water Need 24), or Famished (Food Need 20), or Exhausted (Sleep Need 12).
- Wounds increase in severity up to Level 10; Moderate Wounds begin at Level 2 (when your health regen stops); Severe Wounds begin at Level 5 (where you suffer from loss of blood). Wounds higher than Level 4 will slowly become infected. Once an infection reaches Level 6, it damages your health and the only treatment is an injection of Antibiotics.
- Bleeding is treated by applying bandages or by injecting Stimpaks (which speed up clotting). A leather belt can be used to temporarily reduce blood flow. Bleeding stops once your Wound Level drops below 5.
- Bandages can be applied during combat (from inventory or if added to a hotkey slot); but only for bleeding wounds (not for burns, which can still only be treated during the Full Scan). Bandage application is animated, which disables player movement for several seconds (so make sure you are in a safe place).
- Blood Level is tracked in units of Blood Lost: if your Blood Lost reaches 8, your health will deteriorate. Blood slowly regenerates on its own, but you may need a Blood Transfusion to recover after excessive blood loss.
- Burns increase in severity up to Level 12, with Severe Burns beginning at Level 8 (Third-Degree Burns).
- Trauma injuries (bruising and tissue damage) increase in severity up to Level 10, with Severe Trauma beginning at Level 7 (Torso Trauma)
- Damaged limbs slowly heal, but only if the limb is not crippled (a Medical Brace is then require to heal). Braces can be used multiple times if your medical skills are high enough.
- Doctor's Bags require 25 Medicine, only non-crippled limbs are treated, and Head and Torso injuries will be healed 20% (even if crippled). The Doctor's Bag is no longer consumed, but is replaced with an Empty Doctor's Bag (used to craft a new Doctor Bag).
- Doctors no longer fully heal moderate or severe injuries. What you get for your caps is treatment, not instant health restoration (you will often leave splinted and bandaged).
- Bandages, Tourniquets, and Splints all have penalties while they are equipped, and are automatically removed when they are no longer needed.
- Stimpak Animation Effect (with Hotkey): You can still give yourself an injection during combat, but this now happens in real time, while you will be incapacitated for a few seconds. Each injection also damages your Fatigue, messes up your vision, and reduces your Strength. Stimpaks will not restore your Health higher than 75% (this is balanced by my Health Regen).
- Morphine and Antibiotic injections also use the injection animation (but no hotkeys). Morphine injections also include a visual penalty and damage Intelligence.
- Most other chems were also rebalanced, and Med-Tec supplies for doctors and some general merchants are restocked daily (time varies, based on your Luck stat).
*** The Needs Part:
- Note: If you have the default hardcore mode enabled, the default needs will be deactivated, but the default display (in the Pip-Boy Stats menu) will still function and will be kept in sync with my Med-Tec Needs. The default Needs messages (for Dehydration, Starvation, and Sleep Deprivation) will still appear, but are now based on my Med-Tec Needs.
- Water Need is now Dynamic: basic requirement is 48 ounces/day, but increases 50% while outdoors in the heat of the day, and drops 25% when your encumbrance is less than 70%. Your Water Need decreases 50% while sleeping.
- Most Beverages and fruit give you some water benefit, with the greatest amounts coming from the purest types of bottled water.
- With the exception of Purified Bottled Water, beverages no longer have any Healing effect, contain Rads, and will damage your health a bit.
- Purified Bottled Water restores some Health, but only when you have less than 70 HP (the lower your HP, the more it heals), and only if your Water Need is greater than 0. When your Water Need is less than 8 oz, the amount of healing is proportional to your Water Need.
- Any water bottle can be refilled at both Purified and Good water sources. A Pure or Good water bottle both yields a bottle of Good water, at either source (since the bottle is used). A Dirty water bottle always yields a bottle of Dirty water (from any source, since the bottle is dirty).
- Liquor now dehydrates you, but also restores your Fatigue.
- Nuka Colas (and other stimulants) use my Jolt effect to reduce your Sleep Need, but your Need jumps back up when my Jolt effect wears off.
- Food Need is also Dynamic: your personal Food Need is now based on your Permanent Strength and Endurance. An average PC (5 Strength and 5 Endurance) requires 24 Food Units every 24 game hours (1 unit/hour). There are 10 Food Levels, from Food+1 through Food+10. Uncooked food is now higher in Rads, but Fresh Fruit and Vegetables will now reduce your Rads. Food no longer has any healing effect.
- Cooking is more necessary: meat taken from dead animals is now Raw Meat (high in bacteria and RADS). Raw Meat and some of the packaged food will be less nourishing unless it is cooked. Includes new recipes for all this raw meat and for the packaged food.
- You can only butcher an animal (access their inventory) if you equip one of the following specific knives: Knife, Combat Knife, or Chance's Knife (unique Combat Knife).
- Dead animals will now only have usable meat for 6 game hours after they are killed (does not affect ones that were dead before you entered that cell).
- Raw Meat Limit: You can only remove meat from animals if you have less than 4 chunks of raw meat in your inventory; plus you only have room to carry 4 chunks of raw meat (you will drop any additional raw meat).
- A Cooking Kit is required for most of the campfire recipes; and a Mess Kit makes eating meals much more sanitary (lower in bacteria). Both Kits can be purchased from most merchants, or crafted if you have the skill.
- Bandages can be crafted at Campfires: requires Cook Kit, Abraxo Cleaner, and CLEAN Pre-War clothing or Settler Outfit (like the oneDoc gave you).
- New basic "Pan Fried" recipes do not require the full Cook Kit; but you must have both a Metal Cooking Pan and a large, sharp knife in your inventory for these new recipes to be visible.
- Eating causes your Digestion Level to increase (will slowly decrease when you are not eating). Your Digestion Level is displayed whenever it increases, and when it decreases by 1 Level point (it can also be checked when you do a Full Med-Tec scan, under "Food, Water, Sleep Needs").
- Eating when you are not hungry makes you sick, gaining no benefit from the food. But your Digestion Level will still increase a bit (because you now have indigestion).
- When your RADS are 100 or higher, your Radiation Level will increase while you are digesting food; and will slowly decrease once your Digestive Level returns to 0, or whenever your RADS drop below 100. You get Radiation Sickness when your Radiation Level reaches 5, and you no longer gain any benefit from eating or drinking (you will just get sick). Radiation Sickness lasts until your Radiation Level drops back down below 5.
- Bacteria Level: Uncooked meat and open sources of water (cisterns, puddles, streams, etc.) are high in Bacteria. The only water that is free of Bacteria is purified bottled water. Having a Mess Kit in your inventory when you eat most food will reduce the amount of Bacteria. If your Bacteria Level reaches 5, you will become sick with food poisoning. There is no treatment for Food Poisoning, you just have to wait until your bacteria level drops below Level 5. You will gain no benefit from eating when you have Food Poisoning, you will just get sick.
- Needs Menu (in Med-Tec Full Scan menu): Similar to my Bottle Water menu, where your Bacteria, Digestion, and Radiation Levels are shown (along with 6 other stats). This will lessen the chances of getting Food Poisoning, by showing your Bacteria Level before you drink. You can drink any of your bottled water, from within the Needs Menu (or by selecting in your PipBoy). I added drinking animations to bottle water, which are similar to my Stimpak animations. The Needs menu also gives the maximum Food Units you can safely eat (based on your current Bacteria, Radiation, and Digestion Levels).
- You require 1 hour of Sleep for every 2 hours that you are awake. When your Sleep Need is 0, you won't need to sleep for 16 hours before becoming Sleepy; after 20 hours you'll be Very Tired; after 24 hours you'll be Exhausted. You heal while you are sleeping, but at a slower rate than when you are awake, and with the same restrictions (both are also true for Waiting). [This removes the sleep/wait cheat, where sleeping/waiting for a few hours could completely heal most of your injuries.] You cannot sleep when you have excessive bleeding; you cannot take a nap until your Sleep Need is greater than 1 hour; and the longest you can sleep is the amount of your Sleep Need (rounded up).
- Tanning Hides now requires that you have a large, sharp knife (a combat-type knife) in your inventory for the tanning recipes to be visible.
- [Med-Tec Options menu]: Prepare to uninstall; Change the Med-Tec Scan hotkey; change the Stimpak Injection hotkey.

One Life module(Arwen_NV_OneLife.esp):
======================================
- This optional module was balanced to be used with my Full Realism Tweaks. (Requires my Core Master esm and Realism Core module.) It does not require my Med-Tec module, but was coded to work with my Med-Tec Injuries and Needs.
- Important! Auto-Saves MUST be disabled when this module is active, and please do not use Quick-Saves or Quick-Loads (or any mod that alters the default saves or adds automatic saves). This module relies on my scripted saves, and if the most recent save is not a One Life save, the module will not function correctly.
- You no longer die. Instead you now pass out and are left for dead. When you finally do come to again, you discover that you have been looted. This is my own unique concept, where your character's death becomes a major penalty, instead of just an inconvenient reload.
- There are now two different ways that will result in your "death":
- 1.) Normal Death happens when your HPs are reduced to zero faster than my Near Death can save you. This should result in an automatic reload of my OneLife_Death save, along with my added penalties for "dying."
- 2.) Near Death kicks in just before your HPs bottom out. You immediately pass out and are revived, usually without an automatic reload (the penalties are mostly identical to Normal Death).
- Your character is generally revived at your last set Revival Point and your Stats are saved in special One Life scripted saves (these are updated shortly after loading a saved game).
- When you come to, you discover that you were unconscious for hours (1.8 to 6 game hours, based mostly on your character's Endurance, but with Strength also factored in). If you were wearing sunglasses when you die, they are returned to your inventory (prevents my Shades effect from making it too dark to see). On Near Death, your equipped body armor is damage a bit on each Near Death (to simulate the damage it took when you were injured), and removed to your inventory (prevents you from "dying" in one armor, and coming to in another).
- You are looted of 50% to 90% of your caps (Luck based), 50% of your Stimpaks, and 50% of your equipped weapon's ammo (if you have more than 10 ammo for that weapon). Your equipped body armor is looted on Normal Death, if its Armor Level > 2 (but you can buy it back from the merchant who ended up with it). Your equipped weapon is also damaged (when your Luck was really low, your weapon is looted).
- Your stimpaks will not be looted if my Med-Tec module is also active. This will give you a better chance of surviving after your revival, since Med-Tec injuries generally increase when you "die." (Your Needs will also increase, based on how long you were unconscious.)
- Rescue feature: only kicks in if my Med-Tec module is also active when you trigger a One Life death (works with both Normal Death and Near Death), AND only when your injury levels are high, AND when you have no stimpaks or bandages left. You will then revive at a safer location, where your injuries have been treated (but you may still be in pretty rough shape; and "safer" is a relative term). This was done to prevent a death/revival/death endless loop, since you should now be able to recover (as long as you avoid combat while your injuries heal).
- But being rescued (from what was likely certain death) comes with even greater penalties than my other One Life revivals, so this should be something to avoid (basically you failed to survive on your own, and there is always a price for failure).
- One Life saves are timed to update about every 6 real minutes (if you are not in combat and your health is greater than 15%), or when you move between interior and exterior cells. Changing armor, equipping a different weapon, and an end to combat will trigger a One Life save (after a brief delay).
- One Life saves are done as pairs: the OneLife_Death save automatically revives your character after they die (Normal Death); Loading a OneLife_Alive save will restore your game at the last OneLife autosave(without penalties).
- There are 3 rotating OneLife_Alive saves (older saves are overwritten by newer ones), so you may want to do an occasional manual save. But if you die before my scripted save is updated, the default death/reload will be triggered. [Hint: after you make a manual save, equip a different weapon and the next One Life save will happen sooner.]
- Do NOT load the OneLife_Death save, as doing so will initiate a death-reload (as if your character died), with all the penalties of "dying." [If, however, the game crashed after your character "died," or during the One Life restoration sequence, loading the most recent OneLife_Death save will generally restore your "dead" character correctly.]
- When you are finished with a game session, you should always make a manual save before you quite the game.
- New "Lite" version (can be selected during install): use the Arwen_NV_OneLife_Lite.esp if my regular One Life module seems to increase your CTDs. Has nearly the same Normal Death and Near Death penalties as the regular version; the main difference is the way Near Death revives the player. In the Lite version you are not moved from where you died, but are revived right where you died. Unfortunately this means that your enemies may still be waiting for you, which will often result in you dying again (probably a Normal Death this time). Also your Normal Death revival locations are MUCH less random than with my regular version. Note: Only have one of the One Life esps active at a time.

Camera module (Arwen_Camera.esp):
=================================
- Optional, totally independent module.
- I really didn't like the default over-the-shoulder camera, because of how far off center it was.
- My version is MUCH tighter (closer to center), resulting in a true over-the-shoulder view, making it easier to aim when in 3rd person.
- The Kill Camera mode (if you have this enabled) happens less often and is now a second shorter in length, making it much less distracting during combat.
- The Chase Camera's maximum distance is 3 times further away, so that you can now view you entire character. Plus you can now zoom out 3 times further when you're in vanity mode.


Installing/Updating & Uninstalling:
==================================
IMPORTANT! If you do not uninstall correctly or reinstall correctly, you will likely severely mess up your game.

*** Version 5.0 really requires that you start a new game, and I STRONGLY advise against trying to use this version with an older save. [I left my Clean Save instructions in just for future updates.] Note: If you were using a previous version, you do not have to do the HUD Setup part again.

Part A.) Prepare your Saved Game & Uninstall Previous version:
- When you will be starting a new game, you only need to do step 7 (if it applies) and then immediately install the new version.
1.) Start the game and load the save you want to continue from.
2.) If you are using my Med-Tec module, opened the in-game Med-Tec Options menu, and click on "Prepare to Uninstall."
3.) Unequip ALL clothing, hats, helmets, & eye wear. This ensures that your stats are not being altered by "enchanted" clothing.
4.) Make sure your SPECIALs are not being reduced (-) or increased (+) by any effects (if any are, wait for the effect to wear off).
5.) Also make sure your PipBoy Light is OFF (or you'll mess up your sneak skills).
6.) Immediately save your game to a new save slot (do not overwrite an earlier save) and quit the game.
7.) Uninstall any previous version of my Realism Tweaks. [Open the FOMM, open Package Manager, select "Arwen's NV Realism Tweaks," and click the "Deactivate button. Then right click on "Arwen's NV Realism Tweaks," and pick delete.]
8.) If you are not going to immediately reinstall my Realism Tweaks (or when a Clean save is required), you MUST also remove any edits that you made to the hud_main_menu.xml file [see "HUD Setup" below].
Note: When a Clean save is required, you have make a SECOND new save AFTER uninstalling the previous version. This is the CLEAN save, since it does not include any part of my mod.

Part B.) Installation of my Realism Tweaks with FOMM:
1.) Open the Package Manager, click the "Add New" button, and select Arwen_NV_Realism_Tweaks_4_1.zip (or current version).
2.) After the fomod is created, find and select "Arwen's NV Realism Tweaks" and click on the "Activate" button.
3.) The "Arwen's NV Realism Tweaks Setup" will appear. The Core Master and Realism Core module will already be checked. Check any additional modules you want in your game (Note: clicking on the module name will give you information about it.) Then click on the "Install" button.
4.) The esps should be their correct load order (see Load Order section below).
5.) Follow my "HUD Setup" instructions, to add my Fatigue and Strain HUD displays.
6.) Start the game and load your previous saved game (or begin a new game), and continue playing from this point only.

HUD Setup (Same instructions for both DarN UI and default UI):
=============================================================
1.) You must edit your existing hud_main_menu.xml file for my Fatigue and Strain Meters to be displayed in your HUD readout (the two meters are independent of each other).
2.) The hud_main_menu.xml file is found under data\menus\main. Make a backup copy before editing (comes in handy when you uninstall my Tweaks). [If there is no hud_main_menu.xml file, you can just add my edited version, found under data\menus\prefabs\Arwen\main. Just copy and paste it into data\menus\main.]
3.) Open up the hud_main_menu.xml file in a text editor (such as Notepad++)
4.) Just above the last line, paste the following line of code:
5.) If you are using my Encumbrance module, the following line of code is also needed:
Note: For both Fatigue and Strain meters, the last three lines should look like:



6.) Save and close the file.
7.) Your Fatigue stat should now appear in your HUD, below all your other stats, as: "Fatigue: xx%." Your Strain stat should now appear in your HUD as: "Strain: xx%." [Note: you will likely have to move one or both displays (see next step) and they will not work correctly until the modules have been initialized.]
8.) Move the Fatigue HUD by holding down the Sneak key (Lf-Ctrl by default) for 2 seconds, and using the arrow keys to move it. Move the Strain HUD by holding down the grab key (z by default). After you have move the displays where you want them, save your game (so that you don't have to do this again). You can move them any time.
9.) Note: If you install any mods that overwrite the hud_main_menu.xml, and my Fatigue and/or Strain HUD displays disappear, you will have to add my line(s) of code again.


Load Order:
===========
- The Load Order is extremely important! An incorrect Load Order could break some scripts, which would mess up your game play.
- In order to insure that all my Tweaks are being applied (and that other mods are not overriding any) put the esps near the end of your load order (generally after any mods that make changes to same portions of the game).
- See compatibility section (below) for load order with some specific mods.
- Load order of the modules:
--> Arwen_NV_Core.esm [required] (if possible, this should be the last esm loaded, to ensure that it is not being overwritten)
--> Arwen_NV_Realism_Core.esp [required] (put as low as possible in your load order)
--> Arwen_NV_Med-Tec.esp [optional]
--> Arwen_NV_OneLife.esp [optional]
--> Arwen_Camera.esp [optional]


Compatible Mods:
=================
- Community Bugfix Compilation Patch: v.6.0 is fully compatible (but must load before my Realism Tweaks).
- Fellout: fully compatible.
- Nevada Skies: The only issue between Nevada Skies and my Realism Tweaks is that Nevada Skies was made to be used with the default 30 Timescale and my mod is made to use with a much slower Timescale (otherwise my Med-Ted Needs and injuries will require attention way too often).
- Project Nevada: Only PN's Core.esm and Cyberware module are fully compatible with my Full Realism Tweaks. You should not use PN's Rebalance or Equipment modules, as both conflict with a LOT of my mod's changes. If you're using my Encumbrance module, you need to toggle off PN's Sprint option and Slower Backpedaling. My Med-Tec module is also now compatible (v.3.0 and later), but you may want to you may want to turn off PN's optional Immersive Primary Needs (Needs Sound effects), as my Med-Tec module has it's own sound FXs.
- New Vegas DLC: I have not yet created any patches for the DLC (I do plan to make these at some point, and add them to my optional files). In general, my Tweaks should work fine with any DLC. The main issue will be that some of items added by the DLC (like armor and weapons) are going to be somewhat unbalanced compared with the changes that my mod makes to the rest of the game (because my mod doesn't adjust these new items). And, if you are using my Med-Tec module, any added food and beverages are not going to reduce you Food and Water Needs.


Incompatibilities (without specific compatibility patches):
==========================================================
- Do NOT include any of my modules if you create a Bashed or Merged patch. My Tweaks include over 110 custom scripts, many of which will not be Bashed or Merged correctly.
- Many of my Game Setting changes are made by my scripts, so many incompatibilities will not show in FONVEdit.
- My Realism Tweaks will overwrite any mods that make any of the changes I have listed here.
- Do NOT use my Realism Tweaks with other overhauls or with any mods that make changes to the same game elements.
- My Realism Tweaks are not compatible with mods that make changes to the Timescale; alter the specs of default armor/clothing, or that add new ones; or alter the specs default weapons or default projectiles.
- My Med-Tec module is not compatible with ANY mods that alter injuries, treatments, or needs (or that add or modify food, beverages, or chemicals/medicine).
- My One Life module is not compatible with ANY mods that alter the way that games are saved.
- Loading other mods after my esps, in an attempt to override some of my settings (in favor of the other mod) will not often work, since so many of my changes are done through scripts.


Credits:
========
- Bethesda and Obsidian for making Fallout New Vegas and releasing the GECK, so that we can mod the game.
- The New Vegas Script Extender Team for making NVSE
- 'DarN', for making the "DarNified UI F3" mod
- 'Imp of the Perverse', for his "HUD Counter Template" modder's resource, and for personally helping me add my Strain stat to DarN's UI.
- 'Schlangster' (from Project Nevada), for his help and determination in working with me to make our mods compatible.
- All the users who have given me such great feedback, and have helped chase down all those pesky bugs.


Licensing/Legal:
================
Whatever . . . but I'm not responsible for any bad karma that this mod may cause. So if you want to use it, you have to agree not to blame me for anything (as I just could not handle that). You do have my permission to credit me (and my mod) for any good karma that you may receive.

I hope that you enjoy my mods, as I do this solely as my gift to spread my own enjoyment of RPGs to other gamers.

~ Arwen ~