Change caravan guard(s) tag skills, how?

[wendigo4700]

I would like to change them to something else, than just "small guns" + "big guns"

 

When I fire up geck and go to "CaravanGuard1TEMPLATE", should I then just uncheck "Auto calc stats" and thats it?

Edited September 18, 2013 by wendigo4700

[pkleiss]

Auto calc stats will set the NPC's stats based on the class set on the traits tab and level set on the template. Even though you have not been specific in regards to what you actually want to do (you've only said what you don't want to do), I suspect what you need to change is the specific class on the specific NPC. The CaravanGuard1TEMPLATE is used by only four NPCs. Just type 'cara' in the filter for NPCs and you will see all four plus the template. They are the guards for Crow, Harith, Hoff and Wolfgang. If you want to make Crow use energy weapons instead of his default big and small guns, for example, just change his class to SoldierEnergy. Since the template is not setup to use traits you can do this. If you want to change a specific stat, you'll have to uncheck the Use Stats flag and auto clac. Then you can use the newly appearing offset field to add values to specific stats.

[wendigo4700]

Thanks for reply. I now changed the caravan merchants to the weapon class I wanted them to be.

 

However...if I want to mess with that offset thing, I then have to uncheck "PC level mult" first" (because auto calc is greyed out). And then "auto calc stats" can be unchecked. That is the proper way? But that also seems to make him level 1.

But look at my screenshot. Is that how its suppose to look like?

http://imageshack.us/f/90/owjg.jpg/

 

or this

 

http://imageshack.us/f/842/e3sp.jpg/

 

Now for the caravan guards. And to see if I understood it correctly.

I find "CaravanGuard1TEMPLATE", and then I uncheck "auto calc stats" while "PC level mult" also is unchecked, and thats it?

 

I changed CaravanGuard1TEMPLATE to SoliderEnergy. And then I set each individually caravan guard file to SolderEnergy too. I have to change in both folders?

Edited September 18, 2013 by wendigo4700

[pkleiss]

First, your images look fine. Remember that the PC level mult flag sets the level of the NPC based on what level the Player is when he first encounters that NPC. For example, if the player meets Doc Hoff when he is level 5, Doc Hoff will have a level around 5. If the player first meets him at level 20, Doc Hoff will have a level around 20. The stats don't change much, but the skills and the health will increase with level just like the player. So, if you set the NPC level manually, setting it higher is better for that NPC's livelihood later in the game, as a level 5 Doc Hoff won't stand much chance if a level 20 player brings a random encounter Death Claw into combat.

 

As for the template, you did not need to set the class on the template specifically because the NPCs that use that template DO NOT have the use traits flag set. If an NPC is using a template, only the features that are flagged with be shaded out - they are set from the template. The unshaded ones (which correspond the the ones not flagged) can be edited by you. If you want to edit something that is shaded out simply uncheck the corresponding template flag. Alternatively, you could have set the class on the template then checked the use traits flag on the actual NPCs data page. But them you'd be using ALL of the traits from the template, not just the class - which would mean all the NPCs would use the same voice type, etc... Not what you want.

 

Also remember that if you make your NPCs skilled with energy weapons, you'd better change their inventory and give them energy weapons and ammo or they will still fight with their default weapons and now crappy skill levels.

[wendigo4700]

I want all the caravan guards, to be energy weapon tagged. So if I'm not suppose to use the CaravanGuard1TEMPLATE. How else am I suppose to change'em?

Seems I'm getting more confussed, the more we talk about it :smile:

 

So these screenshots here, are wrong?

http://imageshack.us/f/9/b83x.jpg/

 

and

 

http://imageshack.us/f/191/rl0v.jpg/

Edited September 18, 2013 by wendigo4700

[pkleiss]

What I am sating is that none of the caravan guards actually use the traits portion of the template. No matter what is entered on the traits tab of the template, none of it will be used on the traits tab of the guards. That is becasue the use traits flag on the guards data page is not checked. Even when using a template, there is no rule that says you must use every single tab from the template. You can mix and match. In the case of the guards, they all have different voice types so there is no way they could share the same traits. Among the other traits on the traits page is the class. On every single caravan guard, the class had to be assigned manually. That means you don't edit the template, you edit the guard. Change the class on each guard to energy weapons and give him an energy weapon and ammo on his inventory tab and you are done. One problem with this is that the use inventory flag has been checked. It must be unchecked to alter the guard's inventory.

 

If you look closely as the flags checked on the data pages of the guards, you'll see that only 5 boxes are checked. These specifically refer to specific pages on the template. Use Stats is checked, and lo and behold, the stats tab is shaded out. Use AI Data is checked and the AI Data tab is also shaded out. For each lag that is checked, that tab on the character sheet will be filled in by the values from the template specified. When a flag is not checked, that page is open and must/can be edited by hand. The only caveat to this is the Use Base Data flag which refers to some of the basic flags at the top of the form such as essential and respawn.

 

As for your images, the first one isn't wrong, it's just irrelevant. The reason it's irrelevant is because none of the traits info from the template is passed to the guards (because the Use Traits flag is not set on the guards data page). So any information on the traits tab of the template is unused and basically useless.

 

The second image is also not necessarily wrong. You can modify the template to manually give each guard the energy weapon skill becasue the Use Stats flag is set on the guards data page. However, you can accomplish the same thing by just changing the class of each guard to soldierenergy. That will automatically bump the energy weapons skill without having to manually alter the stats in the template. The less you alter the template, the better, IMO. In the end, it's six of one and half a dozen of the other, both methods will give your guards energy weapons skill over big/small guns. It's just cleaner to do it by setting the proper class than overriding their stats.

[wendigo4700]

I think we are talking past each other. Or maybe its just my limited english, that stops me :sad:

 

"The second image is also not necessarily wrong. You can modify the template to manually give each guard the energy weapon skill becasue the Use Stats flag is set on the guards data page"

Thats what I'm doing right now. So I just dont understand your first part, that none of the caravan guards uses the template.

 

By going to "caravanGuard1TEMPLATE" all the caravan guards should be edited at the same time.

So I should highlight each individually caravan guard, and put a checkmark into "use trait" and uncheck "use inventory"?

 

But if I uncheck "use inventory" for each individual caravan guard, his inventory will become active. Which kinda removes the purpose of doing everything in caravanGuard1TEMPLATE. If I want them to have the same stuff.

Edited September 18, 2013 by wendigo4700

[pkleiss]

I think what you seem to be missing, is that the caravan guards are using the template, just not all of the template. An NPC has several data tabs: Traits, Stats, Factions, AI Data, AI Packages, Inventory, Actor Effects and Scripts. These caravan guards do use the caravan template, but they don't use all of the template. They are only using template data from four tabs, namely: Stats, Factions, AI Data and Inventory. The guards ARE NOT using the template data for Traits, AI Packages, Actor Effects and Scripts.

 

I didn't say the guards are not using the template, I said they are not using the traits tab of the template. If you look on a specific NPC that uses a template, there is a boxed area in the lower left of the page that is called Template Data. If a tempalte is specified, then this actor is inheriting data from a template. But, and this is a big but, the check boxes in the Template Data area determine which tabs will be filled by the template and which ones won't be filled by the template.

 

If you want all the guards to have the same equipment, then go ahead and edit the template inventory and make sure the Use Inventory box is checked on all the guards - like you've said. That is correct. earlier I thought you wanted each guard to have different skills and thus, different weapons - which would preclude them from using inventory template data. But if they are all going to have the same energy weapons, then yes, edit the template only.

 

I also saw that you were editing the guards stats with an offset to add to their energy weapons skills. While that will work, I was saying that you could also just edit their class and have the same effect without having to remove the Use Stats flag.

 

So, in summery, what I am saying is this...

 

If every guard is going to be skilled with energy weapons and only use energy weapons, then you should only edit the template inventory, adding energy weapons & ammo (and removing their default weapons & ammo) and edit the guards to modify their class, setting it to soldierenergy.

 

Everything else I said was just to show you that there were more than one way to accomplish your goals.

[wendigo4700]

Thanks man. I really appreciate your help so far.

 

A few questions

 

1) When I set NPC / Creature level and combat skill. Can I take them beyond level 30 / combat skill 100. Or will that make the game unstable, if it defects any values higher than the highest default?

 

2) If I want an NPC to be melee class, which one to pick then? RaiderMelee?

 

3) Which one of thse two screenshots here, are the actual health of the selected item?

http://imageshack.us/f/69/30fh.jpg/

 

and

 

http://imageshack.us/f/843/u78i.jpg/

 

4) Why not just keep an NPC default class, and then only edit his tag skills?

Edited September 20, 2013 by wendigo4700

[wendigo4700]

Those are my final questions above. So anyone that wanna share their knowledge, feel free to jump in.