Drop rates and formlists

[spacefiddle]

Is there any way to change the drop rates (and amounts) of things, without overriding the vanilla formlists? I can see the mechanics clearly enough in the CK - how it rolls for accessing a container, or a dead person; the various chances for a given thing; the collections of groups-of-things, like "rare ammo."

 

But as far as I can tell, the only way to access those chances of drop rates and drop amounts would be to completely override the entire vanilla list. Is there any way to access or override those specific values, without doing this? It's simple enough in a vacuum, but if I understand correctly, this would be a great way to make sure your mod is incompatible with everything.

 

[spacefiddle]

Bump. Anyone? I know a number of weapon mods etc. now *add* things to formlists via scripts; if one of those loads after one of mine, will it add their items to the formlists I've altered (which would mean they're compatible)?

 

Still would like to know if there's any better, safer, more guaranteed way of altering the drop rates and rarities of vanilla items without overriding the vanilla formlists.

[PoliteRaider]

Bump. Anyone? I know a number of weapon mods etc. now *add* things to formlists via scripts; if one of those loads after one of mine, will it add their items to the formlists I've altered (which would mean they're compatible)?

 

Yes. Up until there are 128 items on the formlist (the maximum) any mods adding to them via script will be compatible with any other mods. (Well it may still be incompatible for other reasons, but not because of this factor in particular).

 

However if your mod adds to the formlist by changing it directly, while you'll still be compatible with any scripted mods you won't be compatible with any mods that also directly changed the formlist itself.

[spacefiddle]

Thanks - i am changing the formlists, but not adding new stuff. The vanilla formlists also contain various conditionals and formulae to calculate the items' drop rates - what's found when you crack a safe or loot a body, and how much of it. I haven't been able to find any other way of changing those chances, so I'm going to have to edit the vanilla lists directly. Sounds like you're saying, anyone else adding NEW stuff with a script will wind up with their stuff appended to the lists I've edited, and everything will be fine.

 

Of course if someone else has edited the basic lists then we conflict.

 

There are, btw, a whooooooole lot of leveled lists. That reference other leveled lists.

[PoliteRaider]

Yeah it's all pretty modular. I don't know any other way of changing them, but then again I don't know a lot so it could be something I'm missing.

 

But the script used simply appends additional items onto the existing formlist even if the original content is changed. Doesn't matter if you change what's on them, so long as you don't replace them with brand new formlists that the script won't recognize or add so many items that there's no room for the script to add the additional ones.

[spacefiddle]

Ok, good. Thank you very much! I think, with the way the engine works, there's just no way to guarantee that everything is compatible with everything else; enough people changing enough things means potential conflicts are inevitable, and you just have to be prepared to either make compat patches or live with the conflicts.