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About this mod
A scripted rebalance of all helmet armors in the game for users of JIP's bLocalizedDTDR feature. This raises their DT to the level of their associated or equivalent body armors in order to compensate for protective headwear being rendered practically useless with the setting enabled.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
This is my solution to a gameplay issue that I wasn't quite satisfied with how I had seen it handled by other mods in the past. The essential JIP LN NVSE plugin contains this cool feature called bLocalizedDTDR that you can enable.
bLocalizedDTDR=1; When enabled, a distinction will be made between head-armor and body-armor when applying damage reduction from DR/DT.
;Head hits will benefit only from DT/DR gained from worn head-armor (if any), whereas body hits, in similar fashion,
;only from DT/DR gained from worn body-armor. (Note: Requires bIgnoreDTDRFix to be enabled).
The problem is that New Vegas wasn't designed with such a distinction in mind and it shows because most of what is supposed to pass for armored headgear, like combat helmets or even power armor helmets, has pathetically low Damage Threshold values that, at most, adds around 1-5 DT to an actor's armor rating. So if you play with the above setting enabled in JIP and get hit in the head, helmets will end up rendered practically useless for all the protection they grant while tough enemies who are supposed to have good armor will die like chumps.
What I have seen some other mods do is script a tiered automatic multiplier on the DT/DR of all headgear by a certain amount. This approach ended up feeling nonsensical and somewhat arbitrary to me. Depending on which value they started with, for example, the balance of which headgear was supposed to have the higher defense could be thrown off simply due to benefiting more from the multiplier. On the other hand, clothing headgear like hats and bandanas would also end up with slightly buffed DT, even though their clothing counterparts weren't supposed to offer any extra protection against bullets.
The solution this mod implements is very simple. A script runs at game start to quickly patch all of the armored headwear records to have the same DT as their counterpart body armors. Once the script has finished, the associated quest is terminated and you are good to go.
My thought process is that the helmet is probably made of at least the same material as its body armor counterpart so it only makes sense that it would have at least the same thickness and durability. It might not be the most realistic but it does fit the existing game balance of New Vegas quite well.
Users who prefer hard edits that are easier to see and tweak in xEdit are directed to the old files section for legacy versions.
Example:
Spoiler:
Most raider armor has a DT of 4, so this mod gives their helmets 4 DT (with the exception of Motor Runner's helmet which boasts a
whopping 5). In JSawyer, standard-issue NCR trooper armor has a DR of 5 and DT of 10, so the standard-issue NCR trooper helmet has, you guessed it, 5 DR and 10 DT. Honestly, if I was going for realism, the material that a military-issued combat helmet is made out of would probably be even more durable than the body armor it's supposed to be worn with. T-45d Power Helmets have a DR of 25 and DT of 22, just like the Power Armor itself. And so on and so forth.
I did not increase the DT/DR of any headgear that is clearly clothing, like baseball caps, eyeglasses, bandanas or berets.
Show
Most raider armor has a DT of 4, so this mod gives their helmets 4 DT (with the exception of Motor Runner's helmet which boasts a
whopping 5). In JSawyer, standard-issue NCR trooper armor has a DR of 5 and DT of 10, so the standard-issue NCR trooper helmet has, you guessed it, 5 DR and 10 DT. Honestly, if I was going for realism, the material that a military-issued combat helmet is made out of would probably be even more durable than the body armor it's supposed to be worn with. T-45d Power Helmets have a DR of 25 and DT of 22, just like the Power Armor itself. And so on and so forth.
I did not increase the DT/DR of any headgear that is clearly clothing, like baseball caps, eyeglasses, bandanas or berets.
Doing this via a script ensures the mod remains compatible and saves users the time of resolving potential conflicts in each armor record with their other mods by hand. Additionally, if the mod detects JSawyer Ultimate enabled in your load order, it will patch all of the armored headwear records to also have the same DR as their counterpart body armor records, since that mod adds Damage Resistance to many armors in the game which previously didn't have any.
Additionally, the script sets the armor class of each helmet to the same armor class that its associated body armor has. In the vanilla game, helmets always display as "Light armor" in the Pipboy because the game defaults to Light armor if no flags are set. As ridiculous as it sounds, this allows you to repair some of the strongest helmets in the game with nothing but cowboy hats and sunglasses if you have the Jury-Rigging perk. Besides the powerful Light armor perks, there are game setting formulas to consider related to sneaking and movement speed depending on whether you are equipped with light, medium or heavy armor. Since this mod raises the DT for helmets, it also appropriately sets their armor class to match their corresponding body armor as a counter balance. You won't be able to get away with wearing a Power Armor Helmet and still be considered to be wearing "Light" armor anymore.
Finally, a configuration ini file is included which contains an optional setting that will only be enabled if you set the option to 1. This optional setting turns on some personal tweaks that I've included for those who agree with the changes or just want to try it. These purely consist of a handful of minor tweaks aimed at fixing what I saw as small inconsistencies or imbalances:
Tweaks:
Spoiler:
Vault 34 Security Armor is changed from Light to Medium armor, arguably fitting its protection tier better and making it less of a no-brainer for Light armor builds.
The Gannon Family Tesla Armor and Helmet are set to Heavy instead of Medium armor, bringing them in line with Remnants Tesla armor and all other Power Armors. Additionally, if JSawyer Ultimate is detected, they have their AR changed from 25 to 35 in order to match the value of the Remnants Tesla Armor and Helmet.
Sierra Madre Armor and Sierra Madre Armor, Reinforced are set to Medium armor instead of Light, creating a tactical decision in Dead Money between using the Light armor Assassin Suit to benefit from Light armor perks or the higher Damage Threshold of the Sierra Madre armor.
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Vault 34 Security Armor is changed from Light to Medium armor, arguably fitting its protection tier better and making it less of a no-brainer for Light armor builds.
The Gannon Family Tesla Armor and Helmet are set to Heavy instead of Medium armor, bringing them in line with Remnants Tesla armor and all other Power Armors. Additionally, if JSawyer Ultimate is detected, they have their AR changed from 25 to 35 in order to match the value of the Remnants Tesla Armor and Helmet.
Sierra Madre Armor and Sierra Madre Armor, Reinforced are set to Medium armor instead of Light, creating a tactical decision in Dead Money between using the Light armor Assassin Suit to benefit from Light armor perks or the higher Damage Threshold of the Sierra Madre armor.
For difficulty, I also recommend using the mod LStewieAl's Tweaks and enabling the following settings in its ini file, as this will make sure that enemy NPCs always have their maximum DR/DT, regardless of the current condition of their worn armor.
bNoScaleNpcDamageResistanceByCondition
bNoScaleNpcDamageThresholdByCondition
There is no point to using this mod if you don't play with the bLocalizedDTDR feature enabled in the JIP LN NVSE plugin. The script will not make any changes if that option is set to 0 in your JIP LN NVSE configuration ini file. Also note that JIP requires xNVSE in order to function.
This mod requires all of the New Vegas DLC as it references all their respective armored headwear records.
Joshua Sawyer for the original JSawyer mod and, you know, directing New Vegas in the first place.
Yukichigai for the Yukichigai Unofficial Patch -- the most up-to-date and comprehensive collection of non-scripted bugfixes for New Vegas
PushTheWinButton for JSawyer Ultimate -- the most well-maintained and compatible version of the original JSawyer mod.
Logo image made here.