A slow-motion replacement mod for V.A.T.S. Press the V.A.T.S. button to enter slow-mo instead, while keeping the V.A.T.S. style. Drains action points while using.
I’m not too familiar with the Creation Kit, but I wanted to see what it was like, so I set out to learn how to change the V.A.T.S. system, and this is the result after a week of learning.
The Problem
Maybe it’s just my opinion but I tend not to use V.A.T.S. because it’s fairly clunky and slows down gameplay too much. The modern version of V.A.T.S. was introduced in Fallout 3 as a call back to the original Fallout games and a solution to help players who weren’t familiar with first-person shooters, especially in Bethesda’s Creation Engine. In Fallout 3 and New Vegas, it froze time entirely but was updated in Fallout 4 to slow down time almost to zero. Progress but it’s still clunky and still too slow.
The Goal
I designed my Fallout 4 V.A.T.S. replacement mod with the notion that it has to remain true to the reference material while keeping you in the action.
Considerations
V.A.T.S., in a nutshell, needs to slow the gameplay down enough so that you can make precise shots without worrying about getting hit too much.
There’s also a movie-like element with the filters applied and the cinematic shooting angle.
It can’t be available 100% of the time, similar to default V.A.T.S., otherwise it goes back on the goal of taking you out of gameplay.
My Solution
Override keybind for V.A.T.S. to trigger our new system
Slow down time, but keep full control of your character
Apply V.A.T.S. visual filter and sound effects
Drain Action Points while in V.A.T.S. mode
Adjust Perks to account for new V.A.T.S. Action Point Usage
Apply final shot cinematic cam
Results
This was a test of how much of the Creation Kit I could learn in a week, and I’m pretty happy with the results, but I only managed to get through the first 4 steps of the solution proposed above. If I intended to continue with this, I would have liked to find a way to reference the cinematic camera, and then would have to explore the perk system and what would need to be changed if it could at all.