Remove NPCs from town

[Melchior3]

I want to remove basically all of the 'settler' NPCs from towns (Megaton, Rivet City, Big Town, Republic of Dave, Arefu, maybe Tenpenny Tower).

 

I am using a combination of mods to create a zombie apocalypse and I want the game to be similar to Day-Z style gameplay, where there are no merchants, no quests and everything has to be scavenged.

My attempts in the GECK make the games menu not load =\ I can't find a mod that does this and could use some help with the best way to do this.

 

Thanks!

[pkleiss]

Hmmm...

Hmmm, Hmmm.......

 

What you want isn't so simple. Just removing the NPC will cause a very large number of side issues - as you've undoubtedly seen.

 

It's not just a matter of removing the NPCs as many of them are essential to quests and scripts and all sorts of whatnot that would then be left in the lurch without these NPCs.

 

Perhaps an alternative to just removing them - I am assuming that you are removing their references from the Geck, right? - would be to leave them in and then create a quest, make that quest game start enabled, then attach a script to that quest that painstakingly disables each NPC using it's ref ID. You could simply kill the NPC as well, but many are set as essential and can't be killed. Again, these NPC are essential for a reason and making them gone screws up the game. However, you may be able to disable them. You may find that when you disable one of these essential NPCs, that other things go haywire and will need to be disabled too.

 

One way you can see all the objects that rely on another object is to use the "Use Info" option. You access this by right clicking on an object in the geck object window then selecting "use info" from the drop down menu that appears. In some instances, you will have to remove all or most of these dependencies before you can remove the NPC. You may have to remove dialogue topics from non-removed NPCs, stop quests and possibly remove them, remove or edit scripts that rely on the NPCs, etc... Not an easy task at all.

 

Another alternative:

 

There were a myriad of Zombie Apocalypses back in the day and on one of them I was asked to come up with a script that would have NPCs and creatures alike attacked and killed by these zombies resurrected as new zombies. Which I did. Therefore, instead of removing the NPCs, you could just let the zombie hordes attack these towns and let the townsfolk fall and live where they may. It's just a thought.

Edited June 28, 2013 by pkleiss

[Melchior3]

Thanks for the informative reply, I now understand the problem I face.

 

I have a "No Essential NPCs" mod now, which I can use to make this work without too much effort. I'm wondering if the mod you speak of had zombie spawns in town or if they were able to enter towns?

 

Another idea I have is populating the towns with raiders, loading the game and letting them do their dastardly deeds. Can't seem to find a mod that does this unfortunately, so I have to learn how to place raiders, doesn't look too difficult from the GECK tutorial though.

 

If you have any other info or ideas, they would be greatly appreciated :)

[pkleiss]

Placing enemies (like Raiders) by script is quite easy. You just need some sort of persistent reference, an Xmarker works well. You can also use an idle marker or anything really, as long as it's been marked as a persistent reference and given a unique Reference ID. Then you just use it's ref ID in a script command like this:

 

MyXmarkerRef.placeatme VarRaider2Gun (or any other geck object, NPC, creature or even explosions!)

 

As for the version of Zombie Apocalypse I worked on, I have no idea. Two guys asked me to develop a script for them, once they had it they said thanks and were gone, never to be heard from again. I just couldn't be bothered to DL all the Zombie mods and check the scripts in each to see which one was mine.

 

But, I can tell you this...

The way the script worked, the Capitol Wasteland was in danger, but secluded cells, such as Megaton or interior cells, would be safe. The zombie hoard could travel around infecting all they came across, but I, at least, never added anything that would allow them to fast travel or use teleport doors. Remember, for creatures and NPCs to be able to use a door, they need to be part of a faction that owns said door or be included in the same encounter zone. That again, makes it difficult for a creature to be able to use EVERY door or many doors in the game. That said, scripts can be made such that when the player enters a specific town, zombies are placed there to wreak havoc.