xaosbob

This. Is. Cool. What a fantastic and atmospheric idea, Dev! @ Russianwalstelander: I really like your ideas for dealing with the communication barrier, and the idea of sending the Russians "home" via a plane (maybe via Nellis?) is kind of cool and kind of funny (since Russia really isn't home for this bunch..lol). As an explorer type player myself, I lean toward the Courier finding a person, an item, or a passage (like a cleft in a rock wall they "never noticed" before) that starts things along. A simple nudge in the mod description would point that direction, without having to do a cutscene or remove player agency too overtly. The villagers could definitely believe they are still in Mother Russia, but how about the directors of this grand scheme? Perhaps their descendants, in the vein of a secret order, are still keeping to the plan of an extinct US government, believing that the (appearance of) War is actually just another important (and Top Secret - Eyes Only) phase of a much larger plan that never actually existed? Partly a study into the effects of two centuries of isolationism (and potential inbreeding), and also as a novel way to more finely evolve and adapt the skills of the village subjects on a generational scale? They may actually believe there is still an operational Washington DC (GNR doesn't count!), and this has been reinforced over the decades by prerecorded numbers stations and other looped government (and mystery) communications over the bandwidths they use. Their dedication was further encouraged a few years back by a smattering of direct contact with the Enclave. The Enclave's subsequent silence was actually expected, as this is, of course, a top secret paramilitary project, so they are not in the least disturbed. In fact, they are emboldened, and this may be why the Courier finally ran across them. What are the new orders, whether from the Enclave, or as an initiative taken by the directors? How will it conflict with the understanding and desires of the locals? This doesn't have to be an antagonistic setup, more of a "right hand doesn't know what the left is doing," to keep things from feeling too polarized. I will definitely be pondering this more.

This is a very interesting idea, and one I've thought of many times...honestly, whenever I see a shopping cart. I'm not much of an animator (Lightwave--I can do some, but I'm way rusty) but I know the basics. What about using a modified skeleton, either a custom one or something like BBB? As far as I know, BBB uses additional bones to give...uh, bounce to things, so that means at least a few more to play with. Otherwise, adding an elbow-jointed bone stemming from the pelvis or chest might help anims for crouching, so the cart doesn't sink into the ground. You crouch, the "cart-arm bone" extends, you stand again, it adducts into the curled position. When running, a couple keyframes could help level out the extra bounce of the cart a bit with such a joint, too. All that said, I should add the caveat that this is coming from a modder who is having a hard time sorting out how to attach a new or modified mesh to an existing skeleton .nif in the first place. As to the sound issue, there seem to be audio differences between worldspaces and interiors--at least on my PC, gunshots (for example) sound much louder in interiors, and there seems to even be a brief inside echo. Is that something to do with cell audio settings? If so, that could mean one sound file could work in both and have those subtle differences. And again, I haven't done much (and no public) sound modding, so ...well, there it is.

Chiming in here as well--I get timeouts or 400.shtml pages on New Vegas, Fallout 3 and Oblivion Nexus sites. This has been for the last week now, without a single successful load of a page from these three sites. Interestingly, I can load the Skyrim Nexus, but I haven't bought Skyrim yet. I traced the ping, and it hits Wichita, KS and stops. I've made sure Windows (7) is fully updated, and now I have hit a dead end. Suggestions welcome! :)

Sounds like a great system, well thought out, particularly in time for your forum changes. Thanks for always keeping us abreast!

Final Update: wetblanket's link got me searching farther afield, and after more frustration (a lot of tutorials assume you have a certain amount of basic knowledge about Blender or Python), I found this: IronicEcho's Blender Tutorials http://oblivion.nexusmods.com/mods/19303 So, thank you to wetblanket, and thank you to IronicEcho, because I finally got it all to work! Kudos for everyone! Edit: For future reference and others' google-fu, the .lwo has to have only one defined surface with the UV applied. Then it imports into Blender like a charm. Now to figure out how to add collision data!

I had not seen that, but I am going to give it a go right away. I'll report back after. Thank you! Edit: Despite a lot of time searching (again), I cannot find that extremely useful-sounding "sync UV and Mesh Selection" option mentioned, but it seems like it may be the missing link, so I'll keep trying to find out where Blender has hidden it on my machine. Thank you again! :)

I model using Lightwave 9.3, and I have the appropriate versions of Blender/Python/Nif plugin/Pytthi (sp?)/NifSkope suite all installed correctly and working well. So the tools are not an issue. It is definitely user error. Here's the problem. * I modeled a googie-styled sign (for Fallout) in Lightwave and created a UV map. I then hand-painted a texture map for the UV. I apply it in Lightwave, and it looks great. * I import the .lwo (Lightwave object) into Blender, and it shows up with its base surface colors (set up in LW's Surface Editor for simplicity in seeing what parts are what), just fine. However, I cannot find anywhere (and I have been searching for hours) how to attach my UV texture. There is plenty of info out there for how to make a new UV in Blender, but that doesn't help me. I want to attach the UV I already made. * I export the model from Blender to .nif format. When I open this in NifSkope, I have no block entries of BSShaderPPLighting Property or its very important sub-entry, BSShaderTextureSet. The closest I have is NiMaterialProperty, which isn't the same thing at all. Again, everything I have found discussing textures in NifSkope is inapplicable, because the assumption is always that BSShaderTextureSet is already present. I have tried to manually add the block (and its parent), but it never configures like it does in native .nifs pulled from a .bsa or a mod, and where it lands otherwise seems to be incorrect because the UV texture doesn't show up (no texture shows up). I know Blender, with the plugin, adds the material properties, etc (all the stuff in the block list in NifSkope), so I imagine if I could get the UV attached there (packing seems to do nothing--I think Blender just sees my UV texture as an image map, though I know the .lwo carries the UV map as part of the file), it would export the appropriate block entries for NifSkope. That failing, I thought there must be a way to manually add those entries in NifSkope, but I'll be jiggered if I can figure out how. I feel like I am so close to getting this, but my google-fu has failed me (and searching forums like this one has been similarly unfruitful). Any help at all, even a link and an exasperated "L2search, noob!" would be fantastically appreciated.

I think WMK is definitely worth it. It's fun tricking out your weapon of choice, making it a signature sort of weapon. Also, in more hardcore mods (like FWE, but I use Arwen's Tweaks), honestly, salvaging a silencer from a Silenced 10 MM and selling it has kept me from starving on more than one occasion. Note that most weapon mods that do not specifically mention WMK are likely not going to be compatible (smaller mods, anyway. Not sure about FWE or FOOK2). @Magmacow: Did you see the posts right before yours, or check the links? A silencer reduces damage (says it right there). Other weapon mod kits shouldn't do that, though--if that's the problem, then never mind me. ;)

It should be noted that non-Euro-Americ-Australian countries have different ideas regarding things like copyright. Particularly in countries with a long association of communism, putting something "out there" for public viewing or use is seen as a sort of permission in and of itself. It isn't that they aren't respecting author/artist rights, it's that they have a different social paradigm and don't see using the material as violating the rights of the original producer. In fact, it really is meant as a compliment to the authors of the chosen mods--after all, they chose yours to make this awesome-fied pack. I used to really see red (ha!) about that for a lot of years before I made friends from China and the old Eastern Bloc, who were good enough to explain the difference in mindset to me. It's still hard, especially when your wishes are stated explicitly--I understand that indignation from experience, trust me. Is someone making a few bucks off your work? Well, of course. Does that mean they're crooks? Not necessarily...they're just culturally different. I'm not saying don't be mad, just saying don't be as mad as if they were Americans or Germans. ;) </anthropological two cents>

My first suggestion is chucksteel's DCInteriors Project. It takes many boarded-up buildings in the DC Ruins (and now out in the Wasteland) and adds doors and interiors. The interiors are well-designed, make sense for the buildings, and each one has stories to tell. Make sure to get the Collectibles plugin on the downloads page too--fun stuff. ;) Ripple has something similar for Canterbury Commons with Canterbury Commons Interiors: summel's Busworld adds interiors to non-blown-up buses, subway cars and freight cars all over (and under) DC and the Wasteland, and, with pintocat's Busworld - Better Translation, this feels like the game should always have been like this. To me, these are must-loads, no exceptions. As they only add interior spaces, performance in exterior cells doesn't take a hit. chucksteel has also converted Yevics' Urban Apartment (original version here) to be compatible with DCInteriors, if you always wanted a cozy little player house in easy shooting range of supermutants (though the house itself is safe enough, it really is a rough neighborhood). While not cities per se, there are a couple map-altering mods I can think of that are pretty good. The first is The Secret of the Mole Rat Maze, by Anarion9. It adds a manhole not far from Megaton that leads into a well-thought-out dungeon that is fun and puts those rad meds to good use. It's also got a custom-voiced NPC and more mole rats than you can shake a stick at--though that is always a good use for a stick, if you catch my meaning. eldiab's Fort Freeway is a good exterior mod that commandeers an overpass just north of the Ruins. It's pretty cool, and makes a nice player house alternative. Plus you can shoot raiders from the roof! shveet's Expanding Megaton Mod (EMM) and Expanding Megaton Outskirts Mod (EMOM) add to Megaton, inside and out, while DC Naval Yards by jcdenton does a similar thing for Rivet City's exterior. Both are fairly resource-intensive, and, while atmospheric, they are also incomplete (most new buildings in EMM and EMOM cannot be entered, for instance). Well worth the download, though. There are a number of mods that try to expand settlements like Arefu, Canterbury Commons and Big Town, but be careful as most of them will probably be mutually-exclusive (meaning they will conflict). Azar's Arefu Expanded is worth a try (as is its sequel, The Crimson Caravan), and while I haven't used it in a game myself yet, I hear a lot of good things about BadPenney's Return to Shady Sands, which actually does add a town and a number of quests inspired by previous Fallouts. With luck, that should be a good start for you. Happy hunting! DCInteriors - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=5573 Canterbury Commons Interiors - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=11046 Busworld - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4736 Busworld -- Better English Translation - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13064 Yevics' Urban Apartment for DCInteriors - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=10772 Secret of the Mole Rat Maze - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4181 Fort Freeway - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=2740 EMM - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8556 EMOM - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13381 DC Naval Yards - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=13213 Arefu Expanded - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8976 The Crimson Caravan - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=12466 Return to Shady Sands - http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8219

An easy way to deal with that trike (and the TV, and anything else you can imagine) is a mod on the Nexus called Feng Shui (which is pronounced 'fung shway' for those who don't know). Feng Shui allows you to precisely manipulate and place objects anywhere and any way you like, including adjusting scale and locking things in place (even defying the engine's physics engine!). Make sure you download the Feng Shui v.092 Preview version, NOT the Feng Shui v.091 listed under "Main Files"--despite the name, v.092 is completely functional with only a handful of quirks (which you can work around). v.091 lacks many (most?) of the features displayed in the videos. I discovered this the hard way, after an embarrassingly long struggle trying to find what I was doing wrong. ;)

That sounds like a good place to start. Thanks for the reply, BP. :) Oh, and the preamble was necessary. Explaining my experience with modding assures that whoever responds is on the same page--like an IT rep, the first response to someone calling with a computer problem is usually "Is it plugged in?" because too often, that does fix the problem. When it comes to modding, I'm not that caller, but there's no way to know that unless I say it outright. And yes, when I talk to IT, I do the same thing. ;)

While I have not done any Fallout/Oblivion modding, I have been active in modding communities since the late 90s. I started with FRUA (Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures), dabbled a tiny bit in the original Fallout games, did quite a bit with the Infinity Engine games (Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, BG2, but not Planescape: Torment or IWD2) and some with Neverwinter Nights (1). I've always been hugely active with using mods, but I'm usually late to the party with actually making mods, partly because using the mods teaches me a lot of what I need to know about making them. So it is with Fallout 3. Now that New Vegas has been released, of course this is when the modding bug bites. Naturally, I have questions, but hopefully they aren't your standard "WHY R THERE BIG QUESTION MARKZ AND WHY DO I ALWAYS CTD WHEN USING x MODS" sort of noobishness. I have searched for answers to these, have found none, so here I am. So much preamble, but necessary. With Infinity Engine modding, Westley Weimer (online name) created a tool called WeiDU. What this tool does is append modded data onto game files rather than overwrite them. This means that multiple mods can conceivably affect different aspects of the same in-game resource without conflicting. Thus, if a vanilla magic sword is modded for additional damage by one mod, its icon is changed by another and its location is changed by a third, if you load all three mods, they will append their variant information onto (a copy of) the original item resource without overwriting one another, and you have a more powerful sword with a cool icon to be found in the hands of a bad guy instead of in a barrel in town (ugh, the barrels...). If two mods altered the same aspect of a resource, of course, the last one installed would overwrite that info from any previous, but if they changed different things, they would play nice. Studying FO3 mods, their compatibility issues and solutions, looking them over in FO3Edit (and fiddling with them--that's why I got the modding bug, honestly), it seems a huge number of compatibility and stability issues could be solved if there was a way to append modded files instead of overwriting them. Is this even feasible? Is the structure of the file such that it can only be a certain size or contain certain components?

I understand that the DLCs and a number of mods create new world spaces for their content, and many other mods add interior cell content or modify existing world cells for exteriors, but is it possible to expand the DC Wasteland world space (or the Mojave Wasteland in NV) directly? This is my thought: the DC Wasteland world map is x exterior cells wide by (assumedly the same) x exterior cells high. I haven't yet really dug into the GECK, so I don't know the actual number, but so we can use numbers, say it's twenty by twenty, for a total of 400 cells. Is it possible to append a contiguous row or column of exterior cells to the edge of the existing map, both accessible in the world space and visible on the PipBoy map? Now, adding one or the other would skew the squareness (now it is 20 columns by 21 rows, or vice versa), so if equal numbers of each is important, can we append one of each, to make a 21x21 grid, for a total of 441 exterior cells--41 new ones to play with? Or, taking it one logical step farther, a row/column to each side, growing the map one cell in each direction for a total of 484 cells (84 new)? The "physical" worldspace actually already extends a distance--if you noclip past the invisible wall or switch it off, you can wander "out of the box" for a good while before things make no visual sense anymore, and that includes DLC world spaces (though most of Zeta is interior and the Pitt may actually have sharper borders, considering it's pretty well ringed with ruins--haven't checked there). In theory, it should be possible to somehow use at least those built-but-empty cells, shouldn't it? What about expanding the "landmass" itself?

About the radio stuttering, without worrying about a mod (though I know I've seen at least one) to deal with it, if it gets too bad, tap Esc (pause) once or twice. Clears it right up, and a lot faster than fiddling with turning the station on/off on the PipBoy.