WHAT IT DOES

It adds a new laser pistol, a heavy laser pistol, and a laser carbine for now, the fictive MT-2LP (MoraelinTech 2, Laser Pistol), the only slightly larger MT-2LC (MoraelinTech 2, Laser Carbine) and MT-2HLP (MoraelinTech 2, Heavy Laser Pistol) models, in both scoped and non-scoped versions. Also the MT-2LSW laser support weapon, only available with a scope. The carbines are also available in versions with or without a buttstock. The buttstock really does nothing except look pretty and add a pound of weight, since a laser weapon would have truly negligible recoil, but some people prefer that look anyway.

The basic story is this: I never really liked the looks of Bethesda's brick-shaped laser weapons. They could have even gone the 50's-60's SF props route, which had very silly looking weapons with lots of rings and coils and wings and whatnot -- think, basically like the Alien Blaster -- but which would at least fit the "the future as they imagined it in the 50's" theme. Or they could have done some modern industrial design. A big brick-shaped weapon with a handle that looks like cheap molded pig-iron, is neither, and IMHO not particularly good looking either. Surely whoever designed those expensive high-tech weapons would pay some designer to make a decent looking frame for it. After all, conventional weapons from that era do look good.

So, since there are other projects that restore the energy weapons to the more "60's SF" look of classic Fallout 2 weapons, I went the opposite route: modern SF design. You know, brushed aluminium, panels, vents, etc. It's not all just design for the looks, though. I've done my best to put some thought into basically functionalism too. The big lens in front, the vents for blowing air over an internal heatsink to get rid of heat, etc, are born out of basically trying to imagine a believable laser weapon.

Note though that the design IS lore-friendly. The design style is Streamline Moderne, a style which flourished in the 50's and 60's. They made everything from toasters to buildings in this style. They imagined their SF weapons different, because, well, they had to be different from their present day items. But if someone had actually made a laser pistol in the 50's or 60's, chances are fair that it would have a frame in this style.

Anyway, all use small energy cells, like the normal laser pistols. To keep the frame reasonably narrow, it's not reloaded via a latch on the side, but by breaking it open like a shotgun or break-top revolver. All three have the same ammo capacity as a normal laser pistol. The damage has been upped a lot and the weapons fire fully automatic, to stay competitive by the end of the game, though nothing over the top. This isn't the Vladimir. Like most of my weapons, they have twice the chance to crit and do double damage to limbs.

The main downside is, of course, that they will burn through batteries about as fast as you'd expect if you go nuts with the full auto fire.

As a twist, all weapons do the same base damage per shot, but the carbine and heavy pistol, due to larger internal heatsinks and more vents, can handle firing 25% more shots per second than the basic pistol. Basically as a concept it's the same active medium and optics, but with the cooling and electronics beefed up to handle faster charging between shots and more heat. This raises its damage per second accordingly, but at the cost of an identical raise in ammo use, as well as needing more AP per burst in VATS. So basically you can use it to do more damage than the light pistol, but it comes at a cost.

The LSW is conceptually a hybrid of light machinegun and sniper rifle. It's kind of imagining an equivalent of the Bozar as a laser weapon. It is the largest and heaviest of these weapons, and offers the highest rate of fire and DPS.

All the weapons have obviously been polished shiny, but they're heavily scratched, and it looks like the panels come from several different weapons judging by how their stains and scratches don't line up with the rest of the frame. Obviously parts of it have been replaced with parts from other such weapons. (I.e., it's intentional. It's supposed to look used, repaired, and used some more, and repaired some more.)

All the weapons have been added to the relevant perks. I.e., energy weapons, beam commander, holdout weapon (I want a laser with me in the casinos), beam challenge, the professional (they kinda are SMGs), and for good measure cowboy weapons too (I'm a space cowboy;))

I threw in a scope too, because, honestly, if someone can make the extreme-precision optics that a weapon-grade laser needs, a scope is easy stuff for them.

For the non-scoped version, realistically the only way to reconcile plain iron sights with a weapon covered in flimsy pannels is that basically they'd be separate metal pieces that are fixed to an internal rigid frame, and only poke through holes in the panels. Also both have to be on the same side of the hinge as the laser optics, so they stay aligned with it even if the latch doesn't align to seconds of arc after being flipped open and snapped back on. I.e., please don't ask for the rear half of the sights to be moved to the far back end, as that would be realistically a recipe for an inherently inaccurate weapon.

They are repaired with their vanilla equivalents. That is to say, the pistol and heavy pistol with laser pistols, and the carbine and LSW with laser rifles.


HOW TO GET IT

There's a vault-style dresser with all weapons and some batteries in it in an abandoned home in the south of Primm, in the room where there's a skeleton on the bed. Along with a couple of clothing items that seem to have come out of Vault 101 on the other side of the continent, but now that all that remains of the owner is that skeleton on the bed, we'll never know how he got them. There's a second non-scoped laser and a couple more batteries on top of the dresser, which should come in handy if you want to give a cool laser to Veronica too. (NPCs don't really aim through a scope anyway.)

As the primary energy weapon dealers in the area, the Van Graffs have also been given a set of these, in case you can't get or don't want the free ones in the dresser.

I've also given Chet in Goodsprings some more batteries to sell, if you run out and have the money.

All containers respawn, so if you really need to equip a whole army with the same carbine model, just sleep 3 days in some hotel or player house and then go back and get more lasers.


HOW TO INSTALL IT

Search for "set bInvalidateOlderFiles=0" in your Fallout.ini file and change it to "set bInvalidateOlderFiles=1", if you haven't done so already.

Extract the archive, with directories, in your Data folder. Select the plugin in the list of data files to load.


HOW TO UNINSTALL IT

Delete the .esp file from your Data directory.

Delete the MLaser1 directories in your Meshes and Textures directories.


KNOWN CONFLICTS

One of the DLCs replaces the reload animation I used for the carbines and LSW, I just never figured out which. If they don't flip open when you reload them, well, that's why. Since it's not possible to ADD new reload animations, just replace existing ones, I'd have to screw up something else to put it back. It has no other effects than screwing up my reload animation, so either ignore it or just use the pistols instead. The heavy pistol has the same stats (well, except weight) as the carbines, and has no animation problems.

Companions also seem to never actually use reload animations, so you can still give them the carbines or LSW even if the wrong reload animation bothers you.


LICENSE

Most of the weapon, with the exceptions noted below, is my own work, and I release it in the public domain. You can do whatever you wish with it. Port it to another game, include it in your own mod, retexture it, give it to custom companions, whatever.

I would, of course, be thankful if you gave credit, but if not, I can live with that too. I'm not going to start hounding people because their blaster looks like mine, or anyhthing.

The exceptions are the sounds and the battery, which are Bethesda's. In practical terms this means that it's ok to use it for Fallout 3 or New Vegas (both of which include the laser pistol they were taken from), but if you want to port it to another game, you'll have to replace them with something else. Then again, most other games won't have this particular reloading animation anyway, so you'll probably have to add some sort of magazine of your own instead. Shouldn't be too hard.


VERSION HISTORY

1.07:
    Finally ported over the LSW from the FO3 version of the mod
    Added them to those lists by script, so it should always work
    Added them to IMPROVED holdout weapons too
    Added them to the items the Van Graffs sell

1.06:
    Added the heavy laser pistol

1.05:
    Lengthened the carbine by about 2 inches, so the front hand should still look like holding it in first person with certain gloves
    Changed the carbine to be repaired with laser rifles
    Added the versions with buttstock
    Redistributed the weights, so lack of buttstock saves 1 pound, and lack of scope another pound

1.04:
    Added the laser carbine
    Added some batteries for Chet to sell, in case you run out

1.03:
    Made the handle less slanted, to avoid some clipping problems with the hand.
    Reduced the glossiness slightly

1.02:
    Added the non-scoped version, as requested.
    Minor tweaks.

1.01:
    Redone the textures and normal maps from scratch. Smaller textures too.
    Added a trigger guard, due to more than one request for a guard.

1.0:
    First Fallout NV Release