Three small, optional "mods" intent on making the Wasteland far more dangerous. Monsters are no longer leveled, and neither is loot. In hardcore mode the needs are much more prevalent. Healing chems are slightly more difficult to find. All in all, HarderC
From the ReadMe:
Mod NAme: Black Company's Harder Core
Version: 1.0
Purpose: To make the wasteland a harsher place.
Requirements: Fallout New Vegas. No DLC packs needed.
Description:
Hardcore mode is the reason I am playing New Vegas (heretofore referred to as NV, or The Game.) Unfortunately, I
found that "hardcore" is a rather subjective term. This series of three small game tweaks is my early attempt to
create a truly hardcore mojave wasteland.
How it works: The mod is split into three esp files. I will examine each one in turn. Please note: These tweaks are
modular. You may run any combination of the three files that YOU CHOOSE. This means you DO NOT have to run all
three files in order to run any one of them. With that out of the way, what are the files, and what do they do?
The files are:
-NVSettings Tweaks
-NVHarderCore
-NVWasteland Unlocked
Functionality - Settings Tweaks:
This mod changes a couple of game settings. These are:
-WFdamageWeaponMult. Vanilla = 1.0. Mine = 2.0. This doubles the damage of ALL WEAPONS. Hopefully this will not cause
too much of an issue with armor threshold. I am testing this now. But having to shoot young geckos five - ten
times was simply too much. To say nothing of unarmored persons. If it becomes an issue with armor threshold changing
it back, or creating a new version of this mod where it was NEVER changed will be a matter of seconds.
-ilevelsperperk: Vanilla, 2. Mine, 1. I want perks a little more often. They're fun.
-IXPBumpBase: Vanilla = 150. Mine = 250. This slows down the rate of leveling. I nearly reached level 3 in 4 hours.
That's too quick for a game with a level cap of 30 (future DLC not withstanding, since we all know its coming.)
That's it for now. This esp was intended to be small and simplistic in case it needs to be changed/replaced in the
future and to allow you, the player, to choose the options you wanted for your game.
Functionality - HarderCore:
I was disappointed with hardcore mode. I wanted the starvation, sleep dep and dehydration to matter. Now, they do.
I have increased the rate on all three. Increases are as follows.
-Dehydration: Slight increase only. This was already pretty relevant.
-Sleep Dep: Slight increase only. I wanted to maintain a balance between my desire to explore and the need for rest.
-Starvation: This has seen the biggest change. It will not increase as quickly as Dehydration, but IT IS VERY CLOSE.
In vanilla NV, starvation went from 21 to 37 after 4 hours waiting. Now, it goes from 21 to 54 in four hours. Not
quite double the rate, but it is much faster now. You will now need to pay a little more attention to your needs,
however, it should not be so bad that you cannot enjoy the game.
Note: For those curious how this was done, under Gameplay, in the GECK, open Settings. Filter out Dehydration,
Starvation and Sleep Dep. you will only find one setting for each. IMPORTANT NOTE: THE LOWER YOU MAKE THE NUMBERS,
THE FASTER THE RATE OF INCREASE FOR ANY OF THESE SETTINGS. This is tested.
Other changes in HarderCore.esp:
-Chems have weight. It is not a lot of weight, but it is intended to add up, NOT to make carrying healing items
completely prohibitive. Super Stimpaks are the heaviest item @ about 0.5 units. Stimpaks are next @ 0.1 units.
Everything else is more around 0.20 - 0.30, sort of like ammo. Light, but its there.
Functionality - Wasteland Unlocked:
I hate leveled lists. There is nothing worse than all of a sudden encountering bears/minotaurs/yao guai where none
existed before, JUST BECAUSE YOU LEVELED UP. I mean, I live in farm country, but those milk cows down the road
don't suddenly become angry bulls just because I hit a workout today.
the same goes for loot. I dont all of a sudden start finding stuff at the store in better shape just because I read
something about it online before I went. With that in mind this mod:
-Unlocks ALL loot lists. Every loot list I have found so far that was leveled, now is unlocked. ALL LOOT is out there
from level 1 on up. For this reason, this mod ALSO:
-Unlocks ALL Creature encounter leveled lists. I have left Quest and NPC lists alone, since this is new to all of us.
But I have unlocked ALL wasteland wildlife, including Mire Lurk Kings, Glowing Ghouls and higher level Super Muties
right from level 1. Take heed, THE WASTELAND IS A MUCH MORE DANGEROUS PLACE WITH THIS MOD INSTALLED. So of course
I have also:
-Reduced the odds of stimpaks on almost EVERY SINGLE LIST THEY APPEAR ON. Where before many lists used 2 - 4 instances
of Stimpak they now have 1, maybe 2 instances tops.
-Added a chance of none (20%, usually) to most 100% chance healing loot lists. In FO3, just like in Oblivion, healing
was too easy and the chems came too quickly. These changes should help fix this and add to the ambience of a wasteland
where things of value are truly scarce. With this in mind, I also:
-Reduced the stimpaks vendors have available for sale. Where they once had 20 or so instances of the Stimpak 75% list
they now have maybe 5. Sometimes a little more. Where they once had 4 stimpaks on their list for certain they
now have maybe 2.
-Also added Doctor's Bag to the Hospital Valuable clutter leveled list. Ditto medical Brace. Only 1 instance of each
for balance. You might get lucky there.
Special Bonuses:
-Set Missle Launched and Flamer to force NPC's to use ammo. The effects were too strong in FO3 to
allow otherwise. NOTE: This changes ONLY the WeapFlamer and WeapMissleLauncher. NO CHANGES were made to quest related
weapons or those used by robots.
-Removed Robots from numerous wasteland spawns. I know the lore here; I am familiar with the debate that has been
raging since at least FO3. Frankly, I just do not like them. Matter of opinion. IMO they detract from the overall
"wasteland" feel. Kind of hard to feel as if one inhabits a post-apocalyptic waste while facing down a constant
barage of functioning (and inexplicably hostile) robots. For this reason, on ALL non-question/dungeon/faction leveled
lists (mostly those Enc, or Encounter lists pertaining to the Wasteland) Robots have been reduced or even removed
completely.
Installing this mod:
Plug the esp files into the data folder. Activate.
-When/if FOMM becomes available for this game load the Setting Tweak mod last, since it changes game settings.
-If you use another mod which changes IXPBumpBase load it AFTER NVSettingsTweaks.esp. Ditto for other game settings.
Uninstall:
If you must uninstall, simply deactivate these mods or remove them from your data folder.
Compatibility:
NVSettingsTweaks.esp WILL CONFLICT with mods which alter the same game settings it alters (see above.)
NVHarderCore.esp WILL CONFLICT WITH MODS WHICH EITHER:
-Alter healing/buffing chems
-Alter the Game Settings related to Sleep Dep, Dehydration or Starvation progression speed.
Note: NO CHANGES were made to what the effects DO, JUST to how quickly you receive them.
NVWastelandUnlocked: This bad boy will conflict with ALL major overhauls, either now or in the future, for FONV.
Because it changes so many leveled lists (and 2 weapons) these conflicts are not the sort which can be resolved BY
ANY MEANS.
That means that cleaning/merging/patching this mod WILL NOT "fix" conflicts between this and other major overhaul
mods so don't waste your time or mine with questions pertaining to "compatibility patches" for such issues. Due to
the nature of leveled lists and modding no such patch can be made. Sorry.
Permissions:
Feel free to use or build off of any of these esp files. All I have done here is tweak vanilla settings and lists.
Nothing in any of these "mods" really qualifies as a mod at all. So go ahead and use it to your heart's content.
Note on "cleaning" my mods: I do not and will not support cleaned/patched/altered versions of my mods. If you feel
the need to make alterations to my mods, please by all means do so. Feel free, and I mean that with no sarcasm or
dubious intent. I make these for the enjoyment of the community and they are yours to do with as you please. All I
ask is that you do not come to me asking me to support a mod once you have altered that mod.
Credits:
-Bethesda and Obsidian for getting an increasing number of things right with every new release. NV is one of the good'
ones. And for giving us the tool set so we can tweak our games just the way we like them.
