New and varied caravans

[devinpatterson]

 

 

Not implementing vehicles and mounts in fallout, always seemed like a huge lost opportunity. The community has done an amazing job, stepping up to produce some great solutions (like Ermeso's XRE vehicles). I'v been working on doing my tiny little part with wagons/carts. Here is an example.

 

(First one is normal walking speed in geck, 2nd is brahin running in game. Video;

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8O4VAhw58w&feature=youtu.be

 

Link in case the media tag fails

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBqkBXnMBJY&feature=youtu.be

Link

 

 

 

 

I would like to use these on caravans, including a upgraded version of my DIY caravan and various other lore friendly caravan companies. Possibly even as pack animals for some factions. Perhaps one could accompany a NCR patrol and haul a cart full of supplies, weapons ammo etc. The crimson caravan and other caravan houses would benefit greatly from a brahmin train hauling much more cargo via wagons or carts. The player may have a a brahmin and cart (or several) that allows him/her to haul far more, essentially creating a mobile base.

 

So I thought I'd throw the idea out there and see what models people would like put together as well as ideas for implementing them in a lore friendly way in game. You'v seen a few of mine, listed above, but I'm curious to see what other players would like.

[devinpatterson]

There is also some good ideas from the brainstorming of a previous, related project here; Trade Run Caravan Mod - Is this even possible?

[betto212]

about trade . The vendors accept all kinds of junk . they may accept only things useful to them and pay bad for that.

[dangman4ever]

Yeah caravan additions has always been in my mind when I'm wandering through the Mojave. Specifically, I want to see caravans actually leave the Mojave outpost. Two minimum: One traveling north through Primm (after you get rid of the escaped convicts of course), onto to Goodsprings (after you've dealt with the Powder Gangers), through Sloan (after you clear the Death Claws) and finally ending up in Camp McCarren. The second caravan will go through Nipton (after you clear out the ants and actually visit Nipton) and follow the path that the player is suppose to take to Novac.

[devinpatterson]

Yeah caravan additions has always been in my mind when I'm wandering through the Mojave. Specifically, I want to see caravans actually leave the Mojave outpost. Two minimum: One traveling north through Primm (after you get rid of the escaped convicts of course), onto to Goodsprings (after you've dealt with the Powder Gangers), through Sloan (after you clear the Death Claws) and finally ending up in Camp McCarren. The second caravan will go through Nipton (after you clear out the ants and actually visit Nipton) and follow the path that the player is suppose to take to Novac.

 

Sounds good. Also looking for ideas for unique/varied caravans. I have a few ideas (but havn't made the models for them yet);

 

A tribabl caravan. A rickety wagon cart (maybe covered in vines with a brahmin skull on front) pulled by a bighorner. The merchant sells fetishes/charms, herbs/poisions and tribal weapons/armor.

 

A large caravan where a brahmin is pulling a cadeliac pilled with junk.

 

A robotic tinkerer that has a Mr handy or Mr Gutsy, loaded with junk strapped on to it. A janiotorial/floor polisher model (they are in some of the janitor closets in NV, they look a bit like a small john deer rideable mower, but I can't find a pic of it at the moment) loaded with junk following the bot.

 

Stuff a little bit out of the ordinary.

[rockitten]

How about a caravan mobile home?

 

And ideally, we can even assign some companion (such as the useless Raul or have the ex-caravan owner Cass as the driver.....) to the caravan by issuing token into their inventory .....

[devinpatterson]

How about a caravan mobile home?

I'd like to, but I think a car is as big a load as one brahmin/bighorner can haul. For something the size of a motorhome or bus I think one would need a team of brahim and the follow packages just aren't tight enough to make them stick together. At least not as close as we would need to make them appear to be a team.

 

I was playing with an alternate idea that might work, but it seemed so processor intensive & problematic I ditched it. Basically it would use a method similar Illyisms's rideable creatures mod that I ported. The basic concept is you restrain a actor (the mount) and the player (the rider) and move them around via script. It's advantage is you can keep all the brahmin at an exact distance from each other and that shouldn't vary. This way a 4 or 6 brahmin team would look like they are all roped together. *But* it's taxing for a single mount much less 4 or 6 brahmin.

[rockitten]

 

How about a caravan mobile home?

I'd like to, but I think a car is as big a load as one brahmin/bighorner can haul. For something the size of a motorhome or bus I think one would need a team of brahim and the follow packages just aren't tight enough to make them stick together. At least not as close as we would need to make them appear to be a team.

 

I was playing with an alternate idea that might work, but it seemed so processor intensive & problematic I ditched it. Basically it would use a method similar Illyisms's rideable creatures mod that I ported. The basic concept is you restrain a actor (the mount) and the player (the rider) and move them around via script. It's advantage is you can keep all the brahmin at an exact distance from each other and that shouldn't vary. This way a 4 or 6 brahmin team would look like they are all roped together. *But* it's taxing for a single mount much less 4 or 6 brahmin.

 

Or, as those (mercenaries) that "escorts" the Traveling merchant in the vanilla game, they just following to a virtual point relative to the merchant. I prefer this option as that can be use for "cattle run & Shepard" option as well.

 

But if that can't work, And other solution may be:

1. All Brahmins are "sitting" on a virtual seat on the trailer.............

2. The Brahmins are "clothes"/"weapon" mesh/text that only the caravan "NPC" can use......

Edited October 22, 2013 by rockitten

[devinpatterson]

Or, as those (mercenaries) that "escorts" the caravan merchant in the vanilla game, they just following to a virtual point relative to the merchant.

Yeah those are the follow packages I was describing above, but they just arne't "tight" enough. As you move the distance between followers would change and destroy any illusion of them being all roped together.

 

And other solution may be:

1. All Brahmins are "sitting" on a virtual seat on the trailer.............

No not really. The way I make a wagon is to insert it into the scene root of creature. I can insert all kinds of crap in there. I can have a flying bowling ball above the brahmins head and trail of junk following behind it, along with any number of items about. But I can't insert a creature into teh scene root of a static (much less several creatures) and even if I could it wouldn't move the scene around. Plus you can't have duplicate bones and more than one brahmin in the scene would be multiple bones.

 

2. The Brahmins are "clothes"/"weapon" mesh/text that only the caravan "NPC" can use......

No, not really. When clothes is worn/equipped it's not actually worn over the flesh of a model, instead it replaces that model. Your thinking in terms of a real world analog and fallout doesn't work that way.

[rockitten]

Well, I see your frustration now.

 

First of all, an ox can pull 3 times their own weight (Large oxen can pull up to 10000 pounds!) , so a "vanilla game sized" caravan doesn't seems too crazy for an ox load for me.....

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1c6uKfrEfj0/S9EuQjhi8uI/AAAAAAAAFDg/_CKB_yuVgZY/s400/ox_car.jpg

 

And after all, from my experience from many "homemade" mods, making a mod simple and resource friendly (which are critical for mods stability) is way more important than "how many Brahmin is realistic" :blush: I have seen too many mods that have snowballed to an extent that even the creator him/herself can't figure out how to finish or where the bugs are from........

Edited October 22, 2013 by rockitten