Mod:IVATS

iVATS is a Fallout 4 mod by Greslin, that limits VATS availability to energy weapons and power armor. Includes radiation interruption and other technical VATS limitations.

iVATS (Immersive VATS)
Let's face it: in vanilla Fallout, VATS requires some suspension of disbelief.

VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) is a holdover from the turn-based combat of Fallout 1/2, but requires a few leaps in logic to accept in later Fallout games. Presented as a magical Pip-Boy targeting system, VATS lets you plant a .357 round from a badly maintained, iron sighted rifle into a raider's head at 200 yards in pitch black dark. And all thanks to the wrist-worn 2077 version of an iPhone.

This mod introduces a bit of reality to the availability of VATS magic.

How It Works
iVATS is a 2022 rewrite of my 2013 FNV mod Immersive VATS (also available). There is another rewrite on Nexus called "VATS - Now Immersive" by PointyFingers, which was ported with my permission in 2017. iVATS is a completely new mod based on the code base of my original FNV version.

The general idea of iVATS is very simple: the basic logic of VATS makes as much sense as looking at your iPhone in order to improve your aim with a deer rifle. This is especially true for melee and slug throwers (pipe guns, pistols, rifles, etc.) that are guaranteed not to have any interfacing electronics.

iVATS disables VATS altogether unless you are using equipment in which it would make sense that some sort of electronic assisted aiming sensor in the weapon would be network interfacing with your Pipboy. In other words, energy weapons and helmeted power armor. Anything else is Mark One Eyeball.

Radiation and energy hazards will interfere with the VATS interfacing signal. When this happens, you will see an onscreen error message and get a bzzzt sound effect. During this period you will be without VATS until the effect clears.

Fun Trivia
This is the only one of my mods that possesses the dubious honor of once being called a "troll mod" by a Nexus user, when I first released it in 2013. I took the criticism to heart probably more than I should have, and deciding that I'd made a terrible error, abandoned it and went on to other projects. Years later, I discovered that Immersive VATS (the FNV version) had accrued a small but loyal fanbase, much as Tuckered Out did. Ten years after that Nexus heckle, people were asking for a Fallout 4 port.

Let this be a lesson, kids: create the thing you want, and then let it find its own home. Not everyone will get it, but the right ones will, and it may be a long time before you learn that you've been making people happy for years. Don't take the criticisms to heart. Just make the thing and get it out there.

Download
Available for download exclusively on the GreslinGames Discord. Citizen role required. When you visit, please read the #read-this-first channel for full information on getting access.

Links

 * My Patreon