Its nice to see the PDW getting some love. It really is (as well as the RCW) an amazing weapon. I don't think it's just something that should be lying around at HELIOS One though... Perhaps using a more un-utilized location would be more appropriate. Perhaps setting it up at one of the caravans sacked by the Van Graffs, or maybe the Nuclear Test Site?
One question I have though is, will you try to make weapon mods for the PCW, or maybe a WMX patch?
Hrm, I know there was an issue at one point where attempting to use VATS with a weapon that requires 0 ammo to fire would cause the game to CTD, but I distinctly remember implementing a failsafe to work around that. Do you have NVSE installed?
Again, sorry for the late reply, I do indeed play with a controller. Maybe I can try disabling it as well as DS4Windows and Steam Controller Support and see if the weapon will VATS then. For further info, my game is minimally modded, NVSE, an ENB, a Fallout 3 weapons import, companion dress up and that's about it. But I doubt any of those would severely interfere with the weapon's behavior.
Edit: Disconnecting my controller caused the weapon to function properly, for whatever reason, when I used VATS with the PDW, I got the first-time tutorial screen for the mechanic and when I reconnected my controller, I was able to use VATS in it too without any CTD. The game will CTD again if I restart NV without first using VATS on keyboard before switching to controller for the PDW.
Eh, the RCW plus its mod is valued at 4,050 caps, and since this is a unique version of it I feel it makes sense for it to be worth a bit more than that at minimum. That, and not to mention the sheer damage potential of the thing with the right perks/ammo.
I recall seeing this mod a while back and only now just tried it out, it's pretty neat.
As for balance, I think it's fine. As far as it being underpowered, I feel if someone has this installed for a serious playthrough in all likelihood they are either totally or partly going to invest in energy weapons. The ability to ignore DT with normal ammo is huge; regular ecp are cheap and plentiful, more so if you use ammo conversion. Also if someone isn't playing on hardcore or have a mod the removes ammo weight one can horde a insane amount of ecp.
The other side of the coin is it being overpowered, that's a bit tricky. Something to keep in mind is an unmodded game has a number things that could be considered OP as well. For example Chance's knife, affected by both Cowboy and Grunt perks plus other melee weapon perks and the melee skill, a x2 crit multiplier and you're looking at a potentiality early game free weapon that weighs 1 and is capable of dps in the hundreds easily outclassing late game weapons. Adding user mods makes things stupid though, I get that some people feel the need for their weapons to out damage vanilla weapons so people will use them, fine. However some take it way to far, no your pistol should not out damage a late game rifle. This is also leaving out damage modifiers, the difficulty setting, mods like Live Dismemberment and Immersive Hit Reactions. In the grand scheme of things is this weapon overpowered? LOL NOPE
On an unrelated note using this mod with Asurah Reanimation Pack results in the reload sounds being absent, nothing else, idk why. Naturally nothing conflicts with this mod and it seems Asurah's esp doesn't change anything, no new sounds for the rcw either, only a new model. I believe that reload sounds are connected to the model but the only documentation I can find for Asurah is fixing iron sights, but they aren't a problem. Any help in fixing this would be much appreciated.
The reload sounds are baked into the animations directly, and are called from the NiTextKeyExtraData in the .kf at the specified frames. If you aren't hearing any sounds, then it's most likely something on Asurah's end. The PDW uses the same reload as the drum mag modded .45 Auto SMG from Honest Hearts, which I believe is the only weapon that changes reload animation when modded. It's possible that Asurah never noticed this while testing, thus never properly implemented sounds for it.
Wow dude, you hit the nail on the head. My dumbass was thinking that it was using the base game rcw animations. You are 100% correct, a .45 smg modded w/ the drum mag has no reload sound either. Can you link to any documentation for adding the sounds myself as I doubt Asurah will be fixing it anytime soon. Or would I be better off replacing the model or will that cause more problems then it will solve? Normally I probably wouldn't care but this gun reloads ALL the time. -Thanks
I don't know if there really is any tutorials for it, but the easiest thing to do is to load up both the regular 45 SMG reload, and the modded 45 SMG reload in NifSkope (2HAReloadK and 2HAReloadL I believe), then take a look at the NiTextKeyExtraData on the base one and copy it over to the other one. I'm not too sure how Asurah set it up, but in the base game the only real difference between the two reloads is the hand grip on the mag so the sound keys from one should fit perfectly with the other..
The reload doesn't match up if i copy the info over, however simply deleting the 2HAReloadL.kf that comes with Asurah's mod fixes the issue and avoids giving me a headache. Thanks for your help.
just found out this mod messes with TitanFallout somehow, it makes the message box from that mod appear over the opening credits, can't close it can't enter the game https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/55673
I do not see how that is possible. What exactly do you mean by "opening credits"? The pre-rendered scene with Benny? When the game is showing the legal information at the start? The part where Doc Mitchell wakes you up? Perhaps I am simply confusing it with something else.
Very rarely, IIRC. I forget the exact percentage but it's something like .25% to 2.5% chance to crit per second based on luck before perks are factored in.
I finally got around to picking up and testing the weapon. Whilst I really love the concept and think it was rather well put together, the damage output in relation to the ammo consumption is just impractical, even taking into account the fact that it ignores DT. Then again, that's a problem ECP-dependant weapons seem to have overall, save for the Tesla Cannons.
I have been meaning to tweak this a bit further based on user comments, but it's kind of funny in a way. I don't think I've ever gotten someone to say it was just right, either "this thing is too powerful" or "this thing is too weak".
I suspect it's a combination of some people having specific energy weapon builds saying the former, as with Camarader-E, Laser Commander and Max Charge ammo you can get its DPS up to around 930, which far eclipses anything else in the game. Yeah, it still chews through ammo, but it will also kill virtually anything in one mag provided you hit.
I am curious though, what ideas do you have to balance it out? Do keep in mind that the weapon is scripted to only consume ammo like every 1 in 4 shots.
Had a problem with my savefiles, had to abandon the playthrough where I was using the weapon. Wonderful. Anyway, what I did was raise the Base DMG from 4 to 6 and reduce both its Critical Chance Multiplier and Damage to 0, to further empathise its distinctive feature of ignoring DT and remove the overlap with said effect also provided by critical hits. Despite the weapon's poor CCM, with the flat bonuses provided by Light Touch, Laser Commander and both ranks of Set Lasers for Fun you could have a 19% chance, at minimum, to roll a critical hit, and considering how fast the weapon fires that could amount to a sizeable total of extra damage, so it also seemed like a good way to introduce some balance against the higher DPS provided by the increased Base DMG. Also reduced the required STR to 4, since I couldn't understand why a recoilless weapon would require so much strength to wield effectively beyond its weight, unless it happened to be rather heavy in comparison to the regular RCW.
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One question I have though is, will you try to make weapon mods for the PCW, or maybe a WMX patch?
For further info, my game is minimally modded, NVSE, an ENB, a Fallout 3 weapons import, companion dress up and that's about it. But I doubt any of those would severely interfere with the weapon's behavior.
Edit: Disconnecting my controller caused the weapon to function properly, for whatever reason, when I used VATS with the PDW, I got the first-time tutorial screen for the mechanic and when I reconnected my controller, I was able to use VATS in it too without any CTD. The game will CTD again if I restart NV without first using VATS on keyboard before switching to controller for the PDW.
Edit: Installed the update but the game still crashes to desktop upon pressing the VATS button.
As for balance, I think it's fine. As far as it being underpowered, I feel if someone has this installed for a serious playthrough in all likelihood they are either totally or partly going to invest in energy weapons. The ability to ignore DT with normal ammo is huge; regular ecp are cheap and plentiful, more so if you use ammo conversion. Also if someone isn't playing on hardcore or have a mod the removes ammo weight one can horde a insane amount of ecp.
The other side of the coin is it being overpowered, that's a bit tricky. Something to keep in mind is an unmodded game has a number things that could be considered OP as well. For example Chance's knife, affected by both Cowboy and Grunt perks plus other melee weapon perks and the melee skill, a x2 crit multiplier and you're looking at a potentiality early game free weapon that weighs 1 and is capable of dps in the hundreds easily outclassing late game weapons. Adding user mods makes things stupid though, I get that some people feel the need for their weapons to out damage vanilla weapons so people will use them, fine. However some take it way to far, no your pistol should not out damage a late game rifle. This is also leaving out damage modifiers, the difficulty setting, mods like Live Dismemberment and Immersive Hit Reactions. In the grand scheme of things is this weapon overpowered? LOL NOPE
On an unrelated note using this mod with Asurah Reanimation Pack results in the reload sounds being absent, nothing else, idk why. Naturally nothing conflicts with this mod and it seems Asurah's esp doesn't change anything, no new sounds for the rcw either, only a new model. I believe that reload sounds are connected to the model but the only documentation I can find for Asurah is fixing iron sights, but they aren't a problem. Any help in fixing this would be much appreciated.
-Thanks
The reload sounds are baked into the animations directly, and are called from the NiTextKeyExtraData in the .kf at the specified frames. If you aren't hearing any sounds, then it's most likely something on Asurah's end. The PDW uses the same reload as the drum mag modded .45 Auto SMG from Honest Hearts, which I believe is the only weapon that changes reload animation when modded. It's possible that Asurah never noticed this while testing, thus never properly implemented sounds for it.
-Thanks
Thanks for your help.
https://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/55673
Whilst I really love the concept and think it was rather well put together, the damage output in relation to the ammo consumption is just impractical, even taking into account the fact that it ignores DT. Then again, that's a problem ECP-dependant weapons seem to have overall, save for the Tesla Cannons.
I suspect it's a combination of some people having specific energy weapon builds saying the former, as with Camarader-E, Laser Commander and Max Charge ammo you can get its DPS up to around 930, which far eclipses anything else in the game. Yeah, it still chews through ammo, but it will also kill virtually anything in one mag provided you hit.
I am curious though, what ideas do you have to balance it out? Do keep in mind that the weapon is scripted to only consume ammo like every 1 in 4 shots.
Anyway, what I did was raise the Base DMG from 4 to 6 and reduce both its Critical Chance Multiplier and Damage to 0, to further empathise its distinctive feature of ignoring DT and remove the overlap with said effect also provided by critical hits. Despite the weapon's poor CCM, with the flat bonuses provided by Light Touch, Laser Commander and both ranks of Set Lasers for Fun you could have a 19% chance, at minimum, to roll a critical hit, and considering how fast the weapon fires that could amount to a sizeable total of extra damage, so it also seemed like a good way to introduce some balance against the higher DPS provided by the increased Base DMG.
Also reduced the required STR to 4, since I couldn't understand why a recoilless weapon would require so much strength to wield effectively beyond its weight, unless it happened to be rather heavy in comparison to the regular RCW.