Creating custom Damage types and Resistances, works, but oddities in CK

[Majorfatboy]

Okay, bear with me here, explaining this might get a bit messy:

SHORT VERSION:
I want to make a new, separate damage type, and with it, a matching Damage Resistance. I've sort of done it, but there's a few kinks in-game.
There's also a few kinks on the Creation Kit side of things, and I don't know if it's because I'm doing something wrong, or if I'm up against a limitation of the Creation Kit/Engine. So I need to figure out the CK/E stuff first:

LONG VERSION:

1: Attempt to make "Ballistic" Damage Resistance under Miscellaneous>Actor Value:
-Can only select "RESOURCE" OR "VARIABLE", unable to make the form Type "RESISTANCE"; Do not know how important this could be. "VARIABLE" does seem to work, though.
-If I copy-and-rename a pre-existing damage resistance that is typed as "RESISTANCE", it will change to "VARIABLE" upon saving the plugin and exiting the CK.
-Can appoint this new damage Resistance to an armor.

2: Create "Ballistic" Damage type:
-Can create a new form in Miscellaneous>Damage Type
-Under "Resistance" drop-down list, can appoint my custom "Ballistic" resistance, but ONLY if I created said resistance in the same session in CK. Otherwise, any custom damage resistance made by me is NOT available in this drop-down.

Example:
1: Create custom damage resistance
2: go to a damage type, click on resistance drop-down; Custom damage resistance is available.
OTHERWISE:
1: Create Custom damage resistance
2: Save plugin and exit CK
3: Load CK and plugin
4: Go to a damage type, click on resistance drop-down; Custom damage resistance will NOT be available.

Also, if I do create and appoint a damage resistance in one session, then save-and-exit, upon reloading of the CK and plugin the resistance drop-down will be back to NONE.

Oddly enough though, the association is active in-game, as the test gun and armor created still work (more or less) as expected; The gun does "Ballistic" damage, and the armor stops "Ballistic" damage.

 

This was tested in-game using NPCs wearing nothing, then my custom "Ballistic" armors, with me shooting them with both a "normal" damage .38 revolver, then with a "Ballistic" .38 revolver, both at the same amount of damage:

-Both guns delivered the expected damage amounts on the naked NPCs.

-The NPC's wearing vanilla combat armor took full damage from the "Ballistic" .38, as vanilla combat armor naturally does not have any resistance to this new damage type.

-NPCs wearing my "Ballistic" combat armor, with a Ballistic rating of 100, had no damage done to their health pools when shot with the "Ballistic" .38, but took damage from the "Normal" .38.

There's some problems in-game with these new damage types and resistances, but there's no point in trying to fix them until I know what's going on in the CK side of things.

[RaidersClamoring]

Most if not all of the vanilla damage types are designated "HARDCODED" in the object window list and in the form itself I believe, in toned down letters.

 

It's probably a better idea to create a new one from scratch as copying these will be a gamble and might be why you are having these issues.

[Majorfatboy]

Most if not all of the vanilla damage types are designated "HARDCODED" in the object window list and in the form itself I believe, in toned down letters.

 

It's probably a better idea to create a new one from scratch as copying these will be a gamble and might be why you are having these issues.

Other way around: The Damage Resistances have the "HARDCODED" flag, the Damage types are fine, and I can add/remove that flag with FO4Edit if needed, it doesn't seem to change any obvious behavior.

And yes, creating entries from scratch was the first thing I did, but as I said up above, any form I created for Damage Resistance only gave me "VARIABLE" or "RESOURCE" for type, while the vanilla resistances were all typed as "RESISTANCE". And not knowing weather or not the distinction is important in-game, I also tried copy-and-renaming a pre-existing Damage Resistance as a way conning my way to that type.

[RaidersClamoring]

Oh I see. Apologies for the sloppy reading.

 

If the hardcoded flag is what determines whether you can set a new actual "RESISTANCE" record, I suppose this is indeed a limitation you will have to get around using spells, perks and such. I don't think removing the flag will change what's going on under the hood, rather it will just remove the flag.

Sad news if this is the case... I was planning on adding some DTs myself.

[Majorfatboy]

I don't think removing the flag will change what's going on under the hood, rather it will just remove the flag.

That's what it looks like so far. I gave it a try, adding and removing the "HARDCODED" flag via FO4Edit; no perceivable change when the plugin is then loaded in the CK.

 

 

Sad news if this is the case... I was planning on adding some DTs myself.

 

Good news is it does work. One problem I was having was that the UI didn't display what the damage/resistance values were for the two test items:

My test weapons were a pair of .38 revolvers (made from a copy of the .44mag);One with a "Ballistic" damage of 30 and 0 "normal" damage, and the other with just 30 "Normal" damage.

My test armors were a copy of the Combat Chest piece with it's vanilla ratings, plus 100 "Ballistic" Resistance, a vanilla Combat chest piece, and no armor.

Everything did exactly as expected; The right damages going in/out, but in the pipboy there was no display for the "Ballistic" revolver's damage, and only the two vanilla damage resistances were displayed for the armor.

I've got more testing to do on it (today's workload was 4 hours of trial and error to get my health scale implemented in-game, God help me), but it's not totally ruled-out.