blackrat99

I'm starting to gear up for another run through. In my current game I've reached level 28 and have realised that I'll reach 30 with still a lot of the game left (3 and a bit DLCs, 2 misc quests and a number of quest mods, half of AWOP and a ton of vanilla locations not visited). I've got the 50 level cap installed but that's not what I want. Sometime this year TTW 3 will come out and I want to be able to finish up in the Wasteland around level 25 at most. Plus half my skills (the important ones) are already maxed out. I don't want to give up the extra content mods because vanilla FO3 is a bit dull without them, so I'm looking for ideas on how I can slow this game down, both in gameplay terms and levelling terms. I Use Simple Realism which reduces xp by half and will in future use Arwen's extreme mod, which reduces some things by half and kills by 5. I use my own bobblehead mod, which reduces skill point buffs to 3. I'm probably going to make something to reduce skills from skillbooks. That might reduce the skillpoints available for each skill but since I never find them all anyway I don't think it'll make much difference. I don't want to actually get rid of skillbooks because I like collecting things. In gameplay terms I'll use or make a very basic Simple Needs-type mod to stop me charging around and doing half the quests in a single sweep. Can anyone think of anything else?

This mod https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/7627 gives you a 100% chance by changing various game settings. If you download it and see how it's done you should be able to make a version that does what you want. I'm not sure what that is exactly but probably the setting you most want to alter is fPickPocketMaxChance. Look under Gameplay -> Settings for this and the other pickpocket settings. To change a game setting in a script you will need FOSE. SetGameSetting is a console-only function otherwise.

I agree that trying to make the donation system retrospective just opens a can of worms. Apart from whether it is affordable, mods that have used other mods' assets/ideas/permissions would be impossible to sort out fairly. You just have to say, these are the rules and it starts on this date. As far as rewarding better or more involved mods, maybe you could split up the pool (I suggested something similar before to support old games). A certain percentage for downloads, then a percentage based on a monthly user poll. Or something similar. There isn't going to be a perfect system, and whatever system is put in place can always be tweaked if it isn't working right, so let's suck it and see.

Sorry, my fault for assuming you'd already know about light markers.

You can browse the mod (or at least what's in the mod) by using the Details tab (next to Set As Active File) which lists what's in the highlighted mod (not the active mod). Or you can open the mod in FO3Edit and look through it. Neither method is like looking at a spreadsheet. I'm not aware of any tool that reads Fallout.esm to any text file etc. You can use FOMM to look at and extract the contents of the various bsa files. I've looked at your picture and assume you mean the white mark on the far left (not sure what you mean by 'origin point'? No idea. Maybe a better picture would help.

Have you looked through the Nexus (search on "repair")? There may not be anything that does specifically what you want, but there are various mods that add armour and weapon repair kits, or allow you to repair at workbenches with or without schematics. I'm not sure there is one that plays nicely with CRAFT/WMK but there may be something that works for you. I did think about doing something similar to the ammo schematics mod, but in the end thought it redundant because of the ease of repairing stuff with the vanilla system. To me it only made sense if you disabled the vanilla repair system and then allowed the crafting of repair kits but there are already mods for those, though you don't need schematics for them. There isn't enough extra I'd want to add to make a new mod worthwhile.

Just a thought - are you sure you used the right ID? There are different types of the same ammo - Ammo556mm and Ammo556mmRobot. Don't know what would happen if you gave yourself 5000 of the latter. Normally, 1 of the Robot version would give you unlimited ammo. <- complete garbage! EDIT: It's not playable. If you give yourself something you shouldn't have and drop it, you certainly won't be able to pick it up again. If it's not that, the only mod I can see that may be causing this behaviour is ColtM4Carbines. Try unchecking it and seeing if you can use the console properly afterwards. That's all that springs to mind.

The Unofficial FO3 patch should come right after the game DLCs. The MMM modules are all out of order, the main esp loading last will cause crashes. The correct order would be: Mart's Mutant Mod.esm . Mart's Mutant Mod.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Anchorage.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC The Pitt.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Broken Steel.esp Mart's Mutant Mod - DLC Point Lookout.espMart's Mutant Mod - DLC Zeta.espMart's Mutant Mod - Master Menu Module.espMart's Mutant Mod - Zones Respawn.espMart's Mutant Mod - Tougher Traders.espMart's Mutant Mod - Natural Selection.esp.MMM Patches I haven't tried it but I'd be surprised if Dynamic Weather and Fellout worked well together. If after getting your load order organised you still have problems I'd look at ditching one of those two.

Game processing is suspended when you press escape. I'm not sure I'd actually call it a bug that it takes a couple of minutes for the radio to start working again (but maybe it is). The Radio Stutter Fix https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/7876?tab=posts claims to fix it but I don't use it myself so can't guarantee it.

Yes that happens. It will come back though after a couple of minutes.

Packages can be tricky when you're also allowing the player to set the companion's home. If Sydney has a sleep package set to fire inside her home she may well teleport rather than walk to the nearest bed. Badly set up packages can also cause odd behaviour. But Lucy losing then regaining her companion status shouldn't be happening.

Are you sure it hasn't loaded? Quite often, the cell loads way below the camera position. Try running your mousewheel a bit and see if it appears. If it's not that then I can't help, sorry.

It sounds like you have a mod conflict as regards Lucy West. I've never used the other two. Whether Vanessa going outside your home is normal or not will depend on what the modder set in her AI packages. If, for example, she has a sandbox package with a large radius she may well go outside. I know you said 'wait' but that doesn't mean much. Lucy West's Wait command is actually a sandbox and an awful lot of companion mods were based on the Lucy West/Brianna mods. But it could be also that a mod conflict (or a bug) is preventing the wait package from executing properly. Megaton is known to cause some problems for Companions. Usually that's just them not appearing when you leave. Sydney completely disappearing again sounds like a mod conflict. Having a house mod outside Magaton (Mini Hideout in Springvale is a good one) and setting that as your Companions' home might help with some issues. Other than that, you will need to post your load order.

Did you extract the original Talon banner from the bsa and is that the image you're working on? Most image editors (Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop for example) need the dds plugin to open and save dds files (dds.8bi which goes in the plugins directory of whichever program you're using). I don't use GIMP but I've read that some Windows builds for GIMP's dds plugin are broken. There may be other builds that are working though. You'll need to root around on Google. The plugin for PSP and Photoshop does work. Once that's installed you should be able to open the original image and change it (or just create a new one with the same dimensions), then save it. If you still get an error message when opening a dds file it may be that the path's too long. If so, just move the file. The original banner has ragged edges and tears created by transparent areas, so it will be easier just to edit the existing file rather than creating a new one, unless you know how to do that yourself. When you save the image you may need to create a new normal map. You may be able to use the existing one if the new design is roughly in the same place (worth a try anyway) or even not have one, since the banner is a flat object. But if you need one you can create one in your image editor using yet another plugin or even without (but you will need to check Google for a tutorial because I'm rubbish at it and always forget how). Finally, once you have an image in the right dimensions and an optional normal map (it doesn't have to the same dimension but still has to observe the power of two rule, e.g 512x256) add them to the .nif. If you can see the image in nifskope but not in the GECK, double check the .nif. Expand every block and check there isn't another texture path you've missed. Some items have more than one (the shader block is a good one to check).

You can't change the dimensions in GIMP? Or you couldn't save it? The Talon banner is 1024x512 DXT5. Try using the same dimensions.

In the end I couldn't find the cause and couldn't be bothered to move anything, so I just retextured an existing door static and dropped it in the 'hole' and lowered the door like Rayek did. It looks like the top of the door is there anyway. A bodge, but I'm all modded out and just want to get back to playing.

No, it's the door. I tried both removing it and lowering it so that it dropped down another 30 units when opened. The follower then had no problems with the navmesh. The original doors in the mod are also a lot lower than they should be, so I suspect that Rayek ran into the same problem, and moved the hall pieces together to hide the black gap that would otherwise be there. You can't do that of course where the doorway is in the middle of a single piece. These doors are all over the wasteland so I can't fathom what the problem is. Maybe just a bug in the GECK that affects new cells. I'll try some different doors. The doors in Home101 don't have the same problem but they are different and are also auto-doors.

I've been modding Mini Hideout to add some extra areas and have (had) finished but have run into a problem. My follower won't go through any of the new doorways. There are no roombounds in this cell. Thinking I screwed up the navmesh somehow, I deleted it including the original part and started again. I built the navmesh through the two original doors inside the cell and through the first of the new doors, then tested with the follower. She went through the old doors but not the new one. I know it's not the actual construction of the navmesh. It's more like she hits an invisible barrier. Maybe it's the doors themselves but they're just ordinary doors, not teleport doors. Interestingly, the original doors in the cell aren't properly aligned with their containing pieces. The hall pieces are pushed together and the doors completely disappear when open. Maybe the top of the new doors that show after they have sunk into the floor break the navmesh. If so, I'll have to realign every piece (and every bit of clutter). But maybe something else is happening. This is extremely frustrating so any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Are they new creatures? If so, you'd need modelling skills. Otherwise, it's not so difficult I imagine, though I've never done it. Edit an existing creature then save it with a new ID. You can upscale them on the Creature -> Stats page, but I don't know if there's any limit. To recolor them you'd need to find the texture(s), load them into an image editor, edit the file then save it as a dds file. Advanced texturing is not my strong point, but you can also texture in a modelling program. The glow that Glowing Ones have is just an Actor Effect which calls a short script (just a shader). Presumably you could use that on any creature, or use a different shader or a new shader with a new Actor Effect. Other abilities can be set in the same way. Just look through the GECK for any that you fancy. I don't know about perks, but there are a ton of mods that do that so just download one and copy what it does. A simple mod that adds a perk after killing something is Killable Children (the one by akaboum). Lastly, you'll need to know how to add spawn points and how to spawn creatures, unless they're going to be in the game from the start. Then you just have to add them to a cell and give them an AI package. The best thing to do is probably to download that mod and look through it. Sorry it's a bit vague, but I haven't done any of this (except AI packages).

You don't need a script. Create a custom weapon, set ammo to NONE = infinite ammo, no reloading, if that's what you want. Obviously you have to put it into the game. Otherwise try player.additem Ammo44Magnum 10 (if that's the correct id). Have a look at this mod https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout3/mods/17666. It does some of what you want and keeps the reloading animations for a better playing experience, but you will need FOSE. I haven't used this mod so I can't confirm if it works but looking at the scripts should point you in the right direction. (You will need to load GECK through FOSE as well to save any FOSE scripts). After a bit of fiddling, here's a simple non-fose script to do what I think you want: scn zzinfweapontest begin gamemode if player.isweaponout == 1 if player.getitemcount ammo44magnum < 6 player.additem ammo44magnum 6 endif endif end Create the script, create your custom weapon - I couldn't find a non-scoped magnum in the GECK but there's a mod to add one - then add the script to the weapon and put it into the game. Only marginally tested but seems to work. No guarantees I haven't overlooked something though. You could have a more generic solution by attaching the script to a quest (without the isweaponout test). It would look the same in action but you could use it with any magnum (or any weapon you put in the script).

I think you must be using FWE then, as in genero FO3 carry weight calculates as 150 lbs + (STR * 10) lbs + an additional 50 pounds if you have the Strong Back perk. Even with a Strength of 10, you cap at 300, though from an FWE user's persepective, I'm "cheating" by not having my ammo weigh anything (which I can understand even as I completely abuse it). Of course, I very rarely see people complaining about all the players in Skyrim that cart around hundreds of arrows that are absolutely weightless, but whatevs. :wink: You're quite right, carry weight is a lot lower than I thought. My mental calculation was based on the carry weight of some companion backpacks which is higher than the one I use myself. With the backpack (50lbs), a strength of 10 and Strong Back I will cap at 400lbs (I don't have FWE). I don't dispute your calculation, so some of my carry weight (an extra 50lbs) must be coming from another mod or Leather Backpack is bugged. Even so, my experience remains true - with my current carry weight of 360lbs I can carry just about everything I need.

OK, here's a weird one. I made changes to a mod in the GECK, played it in game and saw all the changes, went back into the GECK to do some more modding, saved the esp again, went back into the game and saw the new changes, but the previous ones had gone. Checked in the GECK and they really have gone including all the objects created. I can't fathom what happened. I do get a lot of GECK crashes, usually when closing out. Maybe a GECK crash led to a mod backup file being used to overwrite the current file, but I don't know why that should happen. So annoying. Luckily I do have a backup with most of those changes. So if a backup was used, why not the latest one?

No, but when it happened before I'm sure I found a solution, but it was years ago and I can't remember and searches haven't brought anything up so far. Going back to an early save near the beginning of the game shows no problem with the keys. Probably corrupted my saves at some point for some unknown reason (likely mod deletion). I'm staring a new game soon anyway.

Has anyone had that thing when you'll be moving then just suddenly stop? It's not a freeze - you just stop. If you lift off the movement key and press it again you can move forward - until you stop again. Sometimes it'll go away for a time, but then reappear. It happened to me a long time ago when I was escorting Sydney to Rivet City and I've always associated it with some strange problem with companions. Now it's happened again and persists whether I've got a companion in tow or not. I'd like to know if there's a solution or whether my game's kaput.

I have no problem with the basic concept. My main issue is that many good mods get missed because users tend to look only at the biggest and most popular, which makes them even bigger and even more popular, meaning that the rewards are unfairly concentrated in a few hands. My only other worry would be that this sytem might further encourage modders to desert the older games and just go and mod the latest game. The few modders still supporting older games are likely to miss out on any rewards. I wonder if it would be possible to add to the reward system, whereby new mods get a small set points reward if they reach a certain download number, just to encourage people to keep releasing mods for less popular games.