Damage Bonuses (Anti-Sponge System) - ESPless

1. 3a Bugfixes and Rebalance - Check Changelog and Description

The Problem:

New Vegas's combat balancing leaves much to be desired. The game's enemies often feel unengaging due to the amount of bullets they soak up. All the player needs to do is keep their mouse over the bad guy and mag dump until he falls over. Smart positioning or taking advantage of vulnerable enemies isn't rewarded, so there's no need to plan or strategize.

While much excellent work has been done to address this problem over the years, the hard wall that is the need to keep melee viable while giving the gunplay punch and depth remains. Higher damage multipliers do make the guns feel more powerful, but they cut off an entire branch of gameplay. To me, the game's tone and design don't quite feel suited for a STALKER or Rainbow Six-style tactical shooter (though more power to you if that scratches your NV itch.)

In my mind, New Vegas should go for something more like Dead Space or Doom 2016. The player should feel they are gradually cutting enemies apart, building momentum by taking away their tools and leaving them vulnerable. That's much of the satisfaction of VATS, after all. More opportunities to use vulnerabilities effectively gives melee users room to breathe and get in close while making ranged players feel like every shot they take matters.

My Solution:

In the spirit of mods for other Bethesda games, such as Blade and Blunt and CURSE, I've added a series of stacking damage bonuses to both the player and enemies once they've entered certain states. These encourage the player to soften crowds up with explosives, wait in cover for enemies to reload, get behind them before starting combat, and keep up pressure on a target once they've picked one out of a group. These apply to all weapon types and are dealt both by the player and NPCs:

Staggered: +25%

Head/Torso Crippled: +25% +50%

Both Arms/Legs Crippled: +25%

Under 30% Health: +25%

Not in Combat: +25%

Reload: +50%

Jammed: +50%

Fleeing: +50%

Ragdolled: +50%

Hit from Behind (No Explosives): +50%  +25%

Sleeping/Sitting: +100%

Melee users also receive a +25% damage boost to all ranged weapon users, rewarding the risk inherent in getting close. Melee hits against ranged targets that deal more than 25% of t