ProfMajkowski Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 So I finally decided to start working on a mod idea I've had floating around in my head for years. The idea is basically my Deranged Courier mod, except instead of just ambient sounds playing randomly across the wasteland, it'll be voices in the courier's head that'll get more intense as the game progresses. It's basically a mental health system, where certain actions and events will affect the sanity of the player character, both negatively and positively. As your sanity gets worse, the voices get more frequent and aggressive. I came up with a basic outline of how the mod could theoretically work and I'm pretty sure it's doable, I just don't have the knowledge needed to write the scripts for it. Anyway, I was thinking I'd create a new ActorValue (or maybe global variable?) that would keep track of the player's current sanity level (represented by a number) and the higher the value, the worse the player's insanity is. The "voices" and their intensity would be determined by this value, meaning there would need to be a script that would check the player's sanity level and then play the corrent sound file. I want to have voices/sounds that would just play at random while traversing the wasteland (similair to Deranged Courier, except played through a script instead of the vanilla ambient sound system), but I also want voices/sounds that would play in specific moments and scenarios, like during combat or when leaving Doc Mitchell's house for example. And as for things that would actually determine the sanity value, I was thinking it would be karma, sleep depravity and player level. The idea being that bad karma results in degrading sanity because it can be assumed that you've done some terrible things to get that bad karma, sleep depravity should be obvious, and higher player level results in degrading sanity because the courier has seen some s#*! when they near the end of the game. So that's the idea. All I need is someone that would help me write the scripts for this thing. Not even necessarily write the whole thing, I think I could maybe handle it myself with just some pointers and advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sullyvanj93 Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 Sounds like a fun idea! A couple things to consider: Firstly, don't mess with global variables. You'll want to create a new "quest" for the player's insanity and the "voices" they hear, and have a quest variable monitoring the "insanity level". Much easier that way. Second, it's actually quite difficult to have bad karma in the game, unless you're really trying at it. Stealing and murdering entire settlements seem to be offset by being even remotely decent in the questlines and killing a few evil characters. New Vegas really wasn't as black-and-white as FO3 (to its credit), so it might be more difficult than you think to use that as such a big contributing factor. And lastly, while it's not an overly tall order you're asking for, you'll find that most veteran scripters are going to be working on their own things, are tied up with other big projects, or have simply moved on to games that weren't released more than a decade ago. Even if you find some that are wanting to assist you in this, you'll likely need to come to the table with much more than just an idea to show that their work won't be in vain. If you're able to do a good chunk of the dialogue, have the events timed/initiated how you'd like, and only need some help with a few of the more difficult scripts to finish up, I'm thinking you'll have a much easier time recruiting someone to your team. For more basic scripts when you're first getting started, I may recommend a bit of back and forth with an AI Chatbot, as it can help you format the scripts properly and get you to start understanding the basics. You'd be surprised at how helpful they can be, so long as you feed it prompts effectively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfMajkowski Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 Thanks for the response! And yeah, you're right about karma. I've gotten so used to mods that edit karma gains that I forgot how hard it actually is to have bad karma in the vanilla game. As far as the work load goes, it is only the scripts I need help with. I will take care of all the "voices" and sounds and all the other stuff. Anyway, thank you for the tips! I'll try it with ChatGPT and who knows, maybe I'll end up making the whole thing by myself lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProfMajkowski Posted February 23 Author Share Posted February 23 UPDATE: So, after reading through the GECK wiki and studying what script functions are available and how they work, I'm pretty sure I can get this done on my own through some trial and error. Wish me luck I guess! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laclongquan Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Dust mod has an extensive effect system with Insanity aspect, you can look at it for inspiration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sullyvanj93 Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 9 hours ago, laclongquan said: Dust mod has an extensive effect system with Insanity aspect, you can look at it for inspiration. Ah yes, great idea! Online tutorials are great, but reverse engineering other mods will take you far! Best of luck, and feel free to reach out to the community if there are specific pieces you're needing assistance with! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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