
Some issues that need addressing in v1.4: See the author’s “More Detail” section on the mod description about the design decisions. Other adjustment include more damage at longer range the head target made more vulnerable for those headshot kills. To compensate for increased risk, Cruor32 adjusted the weapon level lists so decent weapons show up sooner. Health point maximum is limited, because real creatures don’t ignore bullet wounds, and we want to ensure taking damage hurts! The Heavy Gunner damage bonus is halved, and that seems fair for handling a heavy weapon. The critical shot covers improved aim on vital body parts. A skilled shooter has an increased chance to hit the target and will do no more damage, ignoring critical shots, than a novice using the same gun on successful hit.

The reasons for removing ballistic perk damage bonus is that it’s unrealistic and unfair to NPCs potentially making combat one-sided. enemies more dangerous, especially robots.weapon base damage increased, and perks (except Heavy Gunner and melee) increase accuracy instead of damage.health limits for player and NPCs - player starts at 225 HP with no gain from leveling to maximum of 420 with perks and endurance (no max in base game).Note that the author recommends using at least the combat AI module of “Arbitration” as the changes are designed with it in mind.

In the posts, the author has stated interest in moving to a single plugin in a future update. In particular the NPC plugin is pointless without weapon-and-armor plugin. The mod includes several modular plugins, and I recommend all four unless you plan on replacing one. The mod is good enough as is, but you may want to open the plugins up in FO4Edit and take a look. I’ve spent the last several months building off of this including tweaking and balancing which I’ll go over in Part 3. As of December 2017 for v1.4, the description (dated 18 December 2016) mentions the author has been fixing missed changes and balancing armor. “ Difficulty and Realism Overhaul” is a work in progress by Cruor32. Create Your Own Difficulty Rebalance by The Iron Rose.Arbitration - Combat AI - Stealth - Speed - Damage - Gameplay Overhaul and Tweaks by JackArbiter.Difficulty and Realism Overhaul (DRO) by Cruor32.

In Part 3, I’ll cover my changes including adjustments to several weapon and armor mods to complete the overhaul.

In the first part I went over my goals in overhauling combat, and here I review the mods that build the foundation.
