Doc Mitchell Easier to Impress

Doc Mitchell Easier to Impress

Forces Doc Mitchell to judge the player character's S. P. E. C. I. A. L. on a 1 to 9 scale (as opposed to 1 to 10) and to prioritize higher values.  This enables players who dump Charisma to 1 to hear Doc Mitchell comment on something other than their awful Charisma.

"Huh.  Must be some frontal lobe damage."

Probably over half of the playthroughs of New Vegas have begun life with the above quote.  It's what Doc Mitchell says when he recognizes that the player character's most anomalous S. P. E. C. I. A. L. stat is low Charisma.

The formula which dictates that this happens goes something like this: The dead center of a range between 1 and 10 is 5. 5.  Each S. P. E. C. I. A. L. stat is judged against 5. 5 in turn, to see which one is furthest from it -- higher or lower -- starting with Intelligence and ending with Agility.

The problem is twofold.  First, it is a New Vegas tradition to use Charisma as a "dump stat", because very few builds benefit from higher Charisma, and the game has no meaningful barriers in place for low-Charisma builds.  Second, most players understand that in most cases, implants can eventually be bought for all seven S. P. E. C. I. A. L. stats, and certainly for any stat the player wants to raise to 10.  Starting the game with a stat at 10 is widely considered a waste.

This means that not only will a typical player drop Charisma straight to 1, but they will also avoid raising any other S. P. E. C. I. A. L. stat above 9.  Bearing in mind that these values are judged against a midpoint value of 5. 5, it is easy to recognize what's going on.  1 Charisma is 4. 5 points away from 5. 5, but 9 Intelligence is only 3. 5 points away from 5. 5.  4. 5 is greater than 3. 5, so Charisma wins.  And thus does it unfold that the majority of games of New Vegas reliably begin with Doc Mitchell grumbling under his breath about the player having a damaged frontal lobe.

I consider this phenomenon to be a violation of the specific intent of the creators.  So I offer a correction.

Doc Mitchell will now judge the player character's S. P. E. C. I. A. L. stats against a range of 1 to 9, which places the average at 5. 0.  Since this is a flat number, Doc Mitchell will furthermore, in the case of a tie, prioritize whichever stat is high as opposed to low.

The result of this change is that as long as the player situates at least one S. P. E. C. I. A. L. stat at 9+, that stat will defeat a Charisma of 1, and Doc Mitchell will comment on it.