Retrievable Projectiles; Methods & Limitations

[FiendishGhoul]

I'm currently revisiting my mod Goodsprings Schoolhouse Cellar, in the hope that I can work my brain around the notion of making its tranquilizer and poison dart ammunition retrievable by the player once fired, in the form of one syringe and one scrap metal or something similar. I've got a fairly workable idea involving effects and scripts going that would add a "damaged dart" to an NPC's inventory which would, OnAdd to the player's inventory be converted to the aforementioned components, but this does nothing to address darts fired into non-NPC targets such as walls or trees and similar statics. I've also attempted to reverse-engineer something akin to Fallout 3's Rock-It Launcher, firing something along the lines of miscellaneous objects, but that has it's own failings (namely, I'm pretty sure that the objects, my darts, would no longer behave as they are supposed to, sticking into their targets and so on instead of just dropping to the ground).

 

Additionally, I've completely failed to achieve another aim of mine, which was to make the darts behave similarly to the way that arrows did in TES IV: Oblivion, being visible sticking out of architecture, trees, NPCs & whatever once they've been impacted (beyond the basic impact data, ie, semi-persistently).

 

Optimally, my darts would behave thusly: when fired into an NPC, they would be visible on the NPC's person and retrievable (as damaged objects, preferably, as opposed to ready-to-fire-again darts) first hand. When fired into a porous static object (wood, etc.), they would be visible and, again, retrievable in some form. When fired at metal objects (walls, robots, so on), they would react accordingly and deflect, to be found nearby.

 

Am I asking too much of New Vegas' engine here? Should I follow my current trajectory and simply make the darts retrievable from an impacted NPC's inventory and forget all about static and other impacts? Can anyone explain the differences between the way that arrow projectiles were handled in Oblivion (and possibly Skyrim, I have yet to play it) versus how they behave in Fallout: New Vegas?

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance the community can provide!

[DogtoothCG]

Have you taken a look at the railway rifle yet?

[FiendishGhoul]

Have you taken a look at the railway rifle yet?

 

 

I am currently, and it appears that the only provision there is that the projectile is checked "Can be Picked Up".

 

As I understand it, this would prospectively allow for my darts to behave partly as I would like them to (visible and retrievable), but would also leave them able to be retrieved essentially identical to how they were fired, creating near-limitless ammo. I had intended to have them retrievable as "damaged" items, converted in the players' inventory to crafting ingredients via script or somesuch, to limit my weapon's ammunition for both the sake of balance and to encourage further crafting.

[Dandie]

http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/mods/35101//?

Maybe this mod could provide any help to you? Also, welcome back!

[Jojash]

What about setting the projectile to something other than the ammunition?

 

Possibly, you could set the ammunition to whatever you're using currently, but then set the projectile to the damaged item that you would like the player to be able to pick up.

 

To go into more detail, in the ammo object itself (for the undamaged version), under the projectile box, you would set it to "none", whereas on the gun, you would set the projectile to that of the damaged item. I can't say that I've tested this myself, but from a glance and from what's been written here, that could be worth a shot. (If this explanation isn't very clear, take a look at the 10mm pistol, and its ammo. The ammo doesn't have a projectile, whereas the gun does.) this should get you to be able to pick up the damaged darts. To convert them, the only way I can think of, would be to have a script checking to see if the player has any, and then converting them into scrap metal and syringes.

 

If that doesn't work, you might want to try something with the "OnFire" block. (Apologies for the vagueness of that link, if the function had its own page I'd have linked to that instead.)

Edited October 14, 2013 by Jojash

[FiendishGhoul]

http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/mods/35101//?

Maybe this mod could provide any help to you? Also, welcome back!

 

 

I have taken a look at that mod and my initial idea (adding scripted objects to NPC inventories) is nearly identical to what is happening there. Assuming that I can't make any headway on having my cake and eating it too, so to speak, this is the likely outcome.

 

 

What about setting the projectile to something other than the ammunition?

 

Possibly, you could set the ammunition to whatever you're using currently, but then set the projectile to the damaged item that you would like the player to be able to pick up. You can then put the conversion script on that item. I can't say that I've tested this myself, but from a glance and what's been written here, that could be worth a shot.

 

If that doesn't work, you might want to try something with the "OnFire" block. (Apologies for the vagueness of that link, if the function had its own page I'd have linked to that instead.)

 

 

I'm not sure that projectiles allow for scripts to be placed on them, but I'll continue to look into this. I'm also exploring some of the various scripting block options, but I wish that some of them were more well-documented. Additionally, I'm looking into something like a 0 force/ 0 damage null-type explosion and the use of a scripted Placed Impact Object, although I admit that I don't know much about that at all at the moment.

 

Either way, thanks to both of you! The search continues...

[Jojash]

I'm not sure that projectiles allow for scripts to be placed on them, but I'll continue to look into this.

 

No, they don't, aside from effect scripts that run on impact. I've amended my previous post to something that actually makes sense now. :smile:

Edited October 14, 2013 by Jojash

[Gribbleshnibit8]

Why not simply set the retrieved item from the projectile pickup to the damaged object? IIRC there is a field that lets you specify what is added to the inventory when a projectile is picked up (look at mines).

[FiendishGhoul]

Why not simply set the retrieved item from the projectile pickup to the damaged object? IIRC there is a field that lets you specify what is added to the inventory when a projectile is picked up (look at mines).

 

 

 

I believe that the mine pickup is determined by its Default Weapon Source, which seems to be hard coded to weapons only. Beyond that, I don't see any fields in the GECK that allow for specifying pickups.

[luthienanarion]

You could create an impact explosion that places an item you can pick up. You might have to rotate the item around after being placed based on the trajectory of the projectile.