[Custom worldspace mod] Trying to come up with "logical reasons" for things that are not possible because of game-limitations

[YouDoNotKnowMyName]

Good evening everybody!

 

 

For a while now I have been working on a custom worldspace mod.

 

But one thing that I have a really hard time with is trying to come up with "logical explainations" for things that would make perfect sense, but are not possible because of "game engine limitations".

One of those things is moving vehicles (cars, trucks, ships or things like trains).

Because it would make perfect sense to have working vehicles, but the game does not allow for this ...

Yes, I know there are mods that add driveable vehicles, but I don't mean just "player driven vehicles", I mean vehicles that NPCs could also use ...

I have lots of streets and even a small network of railway tracks in this worldspace and the more I am working on this mod, the more I am starting to be annoyed at the fact that this primitive game engine does not support this ...

 

A bit of "backstory" for my "custom worldspace project":

It's basically a small island (about the size of the "commonwealth" worldspace) that used to be the headquarters of an advanced high-tech company before the war.

It was mostly "unharmed" by the destruction of the "great war".

 

 

I don't really expect anybody to actually answer here (like the question I asked about "worldbuilding within the limitations of FO4s engine" ...) since it isn't a "technical question" ...

[Zorkaz]

1. Age of Airships does have NPCs driving cars, at least I've seen it in some youtube video https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/49008

2. Maybe, just maybe it would be possible to convert the Vertibird mechanism to a driving mechanism, since NPCs can use it too

[FatalityGrogen]

I know it's a controversial mod but Fallout: The Frontier (now deleted off nexus) has working cars in game, and to be honest I have not played it but looks good.

[Zorkaz]

But it's NV

[FatalityGrogen]

But it's NV

Yes, but shows that cars with actual physics can work in a Beth game.

[YouDoNotKnowMyName]

I know it's a controversial mod but Fallout: The Frontier (now deleted off nexus) has working cars in game, and to be honest I have not played it but looks good.

I have never heard of that mod ...

But if it is deleted, it would be hard for me to check it out and have a look at it ...

(And if it is for FONV, it would be even harder since I don't own that game and the script extenders for the older games seem to have much more functionality then for the newer games ...)

(Why was it deleted, by the way? Let me guess: Copyright stuff?)

 

 

1. Age of Airships does have NPCs driving cars, at least I've seen it in some youtube video https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/49008

2. Maybe, just maybe it would be possible to convert the Vertibird mechanism to a driving mechanism, since NPCs can use it too

I have never heard of that mod ...

I will look it up ..

 

As for the "vertibird" approach: Maybe ...

But the vertibirds don'T actually use navmesh to move around (since they can just fly over everything ...)

[PJMail]

As a vehicle is just a mesh on an NPC, and 'being driven by an NPC' really means the vehicle does the 'driving' but has other NPC's attached to it, you could use existing AI logic (say what settlement Caravans use) on a 'rolling' NPC (like a Robobrain with a vehicle mesh) to have them travel along roads autonimously. I am assuming here you just want activity on the streets.

If you want a given NPC to 'jump into a vehicle and drive off' (say as part of a scene) then it would be 'just' "NPC mounts Vehicle" followed by "vehicle follows AI package to some destination". All easier said than done, but if caravans can do it (travel on roads without player intervention) then there should be a way...

[YouDoNotKnowMyName]

As a vehicle is just a mesh on an NPC, and 'being driven by an NPC' really means the vehicle does the 'driving' but has other NPC's attached to it, you could use existing AI logic (say what settlement Caravans use) on a 'rolling' NPC (like a Robobrain with a vehicle mesh) to have them travel along roads autonimously. I am assuming here you just want activity on the streets.

If you want a given NPC to 'jump into a vehicle and drive off' (say as part of a scene) then it would be 'just' "NPC mounts Vehicle" followed by "vehicle follows AI package to some destination". All easier said than done, but if caravans can do it (travel on roads without player intervention) then there should be a way...

Well, the "caravans" in FO4 are actually just NPCs that have an AI pacakge that tells them "go to location XYZ, wait there for N hours, go to location UVW, ...", it actually does not have anything to do with what I am trying to do.

Back in Skyrim we had horses and you could define "is allowed to travel by horse" when setting up AI packages for NPCs.

The main AI package for that is on one of the NPCs, the others just follow along ...

 

As far as I understand it, vehicles like vertibirds work the other was around:

The NPC(s) get attached to the vehicle and then the vehicle does all the moving (not the NPCs, they are just "glued" to the mesh at the attach points). That might be problematic, because the AI package tells the NPC where to go, not the vehicle.

Maybe using the "wehicle is a piece of 'clothing' that gets equipped to the NPC, so the NPC is actually the one that does the moving around" - approach is still the "best" thing to do, so that the regular "AI package system" still works with it.

I mean, setting up a vehicle, attaching the NPC(s) and then moving the "vehicle" with a script can work, but only for "fixed routes" (for trains, this would work) and NOT for "dynamic" vehicles (AI package of an NPC "decides" where they go and if they should use a "vehicle" or not)

[PJMail]

You mostly said what I said (sorry If I didn't say it clearer). The Vehicle is AI driven, not the driver.

I still don't see the problem with attaching your NPC AI package to the vehicle when "an NPC decides where they go" (if they decide to use a vehicle).

The vehicle then goes where the NPC wants (with NPC attached), the NPC then dismounts and the Vehicle goes back to it's base AI package.

 

I understand you want the vehicles to not have a different AI package for every NPC, but surely the only package they require is a 'travel to X' package, where X is the destination decided by the current NPC 'driver'. Packages can even have an 'on complete' script which can do the dismount etc

[YouDoNotKnowMyName]

You mostly said what I said (sorry If I didn't say it clearer). The Vehicle is AI driven, not the driver.

I still don't see the problem with attaching your NPC AI package to the vehicle when "an NPC decides where they go" (if they decide to use a vehicle).

The vehicle then goes where the NPC wants (with NPC attached), the NPC then dismounts and the Vehicle goes back to it's base AI package.

 

I understand you want the vehicles to not have a different AI package for every NPC, but surely the only package they require is a 'travel to X' package, where X is the destination decided by the current NPC 'driver'. Packages can even have an 'on complete' script which can do the dismount etc

 

That would mean I would have to have two packages, one on the NPC, and one on his/her vehicle.

And I don'T know how or if a package can somehow "communicate" with anohter package.

(So that the vehicle only starts "driving to location X" when the NPC actually wants to use it)

I would have to "duplicate" the package for every NPC and apply that duplicated package to their vehicles, right?

 

And even if that would work:

How could I make it so that the vehicle "actors" can use the navmesh to move around?

(FO4's only implemented vehicles are vertibirds and they don't care about navmesh because they can just fly where they need to go)