Return to Shady Sands

[BadPenney]

Oops, I hope I haven't inadvertantly pushed back the release date by forcing you to redo all the quests with companions. I can always just tell them to stay home if they are problematic LOL :whistling:

I'm not going to take it that far. Just want to make sure there are no fatal errors. If bringing a companion causes a player to fail a mission then they may just need to change their approach. Adapt and overcome.

 

Companions are rather trigger happy so maybe it would be best to set the npcs to ignore firendly fire that way the entire town won't go bananas with a stray shot or every time an npcs runs straight through the lines of fire. Not very realistic I know, but it's your call.

Unless you want to play psycho killer, there should be no reason for weapons fire in town (other than a bit of sport from the sniper towers at targets beyond the perimeter). Because of that, I've set up the town to turn on attackers as a group. I see no other way that a little settlement like this could survive. If you want to lay waste the town, I want them to give you a run for your money.

 

The stats on the PA are really nice, it will definately come in handy once those upper tier enemies Broken Steel and Point Lookout put in start showing up...since I'm getting Mothership Zeta when it comes out I'd even expect to use it against the aliens up in space hehe.

I've tried to keep the armours within the range of protection provided by vanilla pieces, just with variations on the themes. "Eating" stealthboys just seems to be a tech dead end to me, so I incorporated it into power armor because it seems like a logical next step. I didn't want to go overboard though, because overbuffed equipment removes the need for strategy and tactics, and that is a lot of the fun, in my opinion.

 

I think the philosophy about the Universal Camo Pattern is that, theoretically, it belnds in every single environment...hence the universal label.

I guess that it is better than a bright red jacket with white breeches. Most of the world still depends on the naked eye in combat.so it works well enough. Eventually though, unless someone develops refrigerated ghillie suits, thermal imaging is going to make most all camouflage useless, at least at night or in cold conditions. They're spendy, but I've already seen thermal imagers for sale online.

 

PS. I'll remember to keep my comapnions in wait mode whenever I dilly dally with Summer, ahem. :whistling: Btw is that "Quest/Reward" a one timer or repeatable?

I think my videos have shown quite a lot of what you can expect, but there are a number of things that I am going to leave unsaid so that you have a chance to discover them for yourself.

[BadPenney]

I think this mod is nearly in the can. I'm doing a playthrough with a companion and looking for tweaks to make.

 

So now I'm thinking of how to pack it for upload. I want it to be compatible with the Fallout Mod Manager, but know nothing about what is needed to do that. Is the process self-explanatory? If not, is there a tutorial for that? Or do I just zip the .esp and data and let FOMM handle the files for each player who has FOMM installed?

 

I'm also unclear about the maximum filesize that can be uploaded. I expect that I may need to create more than one zipped file to get all the data onto the site, but would like to keep the number to a minimum.

[Archonon]

This is great news BadPenney!

 

With the Oblivion Mod Manager there was a format where all the files were compressed in a way that the mod manager uses it directly called .omod. I don't know if Fallout's Mod Manager has something similar. Many people prefer the whole .omod format as it's simply dropping the file in an omod folder in your mod manager's folder but I prefer the classic installation method and is what I'm used to.

 

I would recommend setting up a rar with the files inside the appropriate locations in place so that when the files are extracted they go into the right places; you should also include a readme file with instructions for newbies who might not be used to installing mods.

 

As far as size allowed for uploading, I'm not entirely sure. You could divide it and upload several files to decrease upload/download size, particulalrly with sounds and voice files which usually are the largest.

[BadPenney]

After a bit of searching I found that the maximum per file size at TES Nexus is 300Mb. I'll assume that FO3Nexus has the same limit.

 

I'm familiar with a method of zipping files that, if expanded within FO3's DATA folder, will place files in the appropriate sub-directories. I've used 7-Zip for this in the past. Do RAR files allow a greater compression?

 

I'm running into some difficulties playing my mod with a companion tagging along. It seems that they don't like to follow me into some of the interior cells that I've created. In some cases they wait outside, but sometimes they are simply gone when I come back out. I'm guessing that they are searching for me somewhere, because they are not "fired" when they finally return. Their disappearances also tend to correspond with erratic behavior from the Shady Sands NPCs, such as termination of AI packages and sometimes absence from town. I wonder if my scripts are clashing with the companion protocols. I expect that my scripts could stand to be cleaned and simplified to a point beyond my skill.

 

I would recommend telling companions to wait outside while you go about town chatting with the residents to avoid losing them. In one case though, Star Paladin Cross did not follow me into the cavern that contains the radscorpion den during the first quest. Although I met up with her when I returned outside, it made her useless as far as a helper in the quest. She also tends to engage any enemies that I try to sneak past when she is following, but that is why I don't like companions to begin with. It is hard to be a stealthy sniper when you have some idiot tagging along who likes to cut loose on every fly and rat within range.

 

It seems to me that even vanilla companions cause my mod to become less stable. I expect that companion mods might be even less sympathetic. I'm not sure what to do about that at this point, other than recommend that a player forego the use of companions. Maybe FO3Edit can help iron out issues like this? Not being familiar with it, I've been holding out from its application until I got close to the finish.

[crxer]

if its just a companion problem you should still go ahead and release the mod its not that big of an issue in my opinion just dont use companions when playing through the mod, i for one can't wait anymore haha but yea hopefully you can release it by tonight!

[doomboy536]

In my experience, companions are only useful for playing as a Rambo-esque character. If you want to go sneaking around, you've got no business bringing along half a dozen other people with you. If there is a particular area that is proving buggy with companions, warn people about it in the Readme. I personally can't wait for this mod to come out, it looks fantastic, and I don't mind leaving my companions behind for something that looks as awesome as this.

[Archonon]

I agree, if you are having problems with companions you can simply instruct the player to not bring them along while they are in Shady Sands. If the mod works without problems if companions are not used, then you can release that ahead and simply make an update if you ever figure out what happened to the companions.

 

Perhaps you can contact Elminster for questions regarding FO3Edit and see if that utility can help you for a later update.

 

I'm not sure if Winrar has greater compression than 7zip as I've never used that one; 7zips can be extracted with Winrar or Winzip however so you can really package it with 7zip and it will be perfectly compatible for people who have the other 2 programs as well.

 

Also what patches are you currently using? The game used to have problems with companions following you into interior cells but this was fixed with 1.5 (Which of course had a whole bunch of new problems such as the disappearing static objects, the crash on save and the error in skintone with npcs). Most of these problems were reportedly fixed with patch 1.6. Are you currently using patch 1.6?

 

Is your GECK patched to GECK 1.5 which was the last released update for the GECK?

[BadPenney]

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/imageshare/images/1103832-1248052493.jpg

 

Fawlkes followed me into the radscorpion den. He said it was "Too fun". This pic has had the brightness boosted for readability. The real cavern is a good deal darker.

 

It seems that I let some NavMesh problems slide as a result of not considering companion followers. So this has ended up being a good thing. In some cases I had altered the topography without updating the NavMesh for the area, causing problems like radscorpions materializing halfway inside walls and rocks as well as the follower problem. One of the interior cells that Paladin Cross glitched with had no NavMesh at all. Even though it is a pivotal room for the plot, I had place no NPCs in it and didn't create a NavMesh because of that. So I'm reviewing areas for NavMeshes now.

 

I haven't updated to 1.6 patch because I didn't want to introduce more unknown variables in the middle of creating this mod. Before uploading to Nexus I plan to make a full backup onto a DVD, package and zip the mod nicely, update my patches and drivers and then re-install the mod as if I were downloading it to be sure that it all expands properly.

 

I'm anticipating an upload at the beginning of August. That will give me time to tidy up, create a good readme, and also my data transfer allowance will be renewed by then.

 

It's nice that some of you are looking forward to playing it. It keeps my motivation up. I think that it will prove to be a modest effort compared to DLCs and such, but I hope you find it entertaining.

[Archonon]

It's great that you caught those problems with the NavMeshing, hopefully it won't be too big a pain to get it all in working order now.

 

About the patches, what patch are you using then? 1.5 or 1.4? I doubt it is 1.5 due to the giant problems it caused with mods: crashes on save after leaving an area with new outdoor objects, disappearing static objects in outer cells and discoloration of new npcs' bodies of different races other than white. This was due to an incompatibility that was created with patch 1.5 where the game could not use non-persistant references inside an esp. The fix that was developed was either making your mods an esm, or make all your objects into persistant references (Which is a save game bloat nightmare), or using Elminster's FO3Edit which marks it as an esm flag but is still packaged as an esp. 1.5 however introduced other essential fixes such as companions now enter indoor cells with you without problems, a lot of stability was introduced into the engine and other misc fixes.

 

1.6 then fixed the crash on save and the missing static objects. I've heard reports that the discoloration on npcs is still there with 1.6 but others say it isn't so I don't know. For all purposes reports are that 1.6 allows modders to make mods the same as usual as before the problems with 1.5. Personally I use 1.6 since it's necessary for the latest DLC, so if you are making the mod with an earlier patch then I will have no problems running it.

 

I really look forward to August then! On August 3 Beth releases its last DLC Mothership Zeta and now also Return to Shady Sands sometime early in the month too, a great beginning to the month indeed!

[GarbagePickles]

OH I'm so excited. This is simply epic. Beautiful, I can't wait.

 

"The anticipation is palpable, isn't it?" - Mr. Burke