The Professional

 is a perk in Fallout: New Vegas.

Effects
Up close and personal, that's how you like it. Your sneak attack criticals with pistols, revolvers, and submachine guns, whether guns or energy weapons, all inflict an additional 20 percent damage.

Bugs

 * Despite matching the description of the weapons covered by this perk, does not affect That Gun or the Police Pistol.


 * The conditions for the perk application are wrong. The game checks if the player has been detected by the player instead of checking if the player has been detected by the current target. Since the player can NEVER detect herself (chance is always 0), the condition always returns TRUE, so the bonus always applies. In addition, the game must consider if the target is alarmed, which is not necessarily covered by GetDetected/IsInCombat checks. What the perk needs to check is whether the player character is the player's target's current combat target. This is performed by running "IsCombatTarget Player" check on the target tab. This will return true if the target has somehow become aware of the player's presence, even if the player hasn't been truly detected yet. Applies if the target has noticed a corpse of an enemy killed by player, if the target has been shot or if the player is too loud (no silent running/loud weapon shot etc.). The bonus should thus only apply if player.IsSneaking returns TRUE and targetREF.IsCombatTarget Player returns FALSE. Do not simply check if player herself is in combat, because player may be in combat with another actor, but can still score sneak criticals against other targets who haven't been alarmed to her presence yet.

[needs simpler explanation to how it actually functions]

Behind the Scenes

 * The Professional is a reference to the french movie Léon, also known as 'The Professional' and 'Léon: The Professional'. In the movie, Léon remarks that 'rifles are for beginners' as they let you keep a distance from your target; a true professional gets up close. The plant next to the Vault Boy is also a reference to the movie. Also, the clothes, hat, glasses, and face stubble portrayed by Vault Boy are identical to the character played by Jean Reno in the movie.