Open Up The Strip

[potatochip]

It didn't take long for me to start noticing that the Strip's confined spaces actually didn't seem designed that way from the start. The whole area is loaded no matter which section you're in, and the only thing that changes when going through the various barriers is which NPCs are loaded into view.

 

After poking around with my mediocre GECK skills I realized you can simply delete the barriers and the Strip itself is almost completely functional aside from that NPC loading problem. Seeing it all opened up like that is much nicer than what we were given, and it seems like this is how the Strip was supposed to be seen. You can actually see the corner that Billy Knight, the comedian stands on by the Tops Casino, the luxurious plot of the UltraLuxe is open for your walking pleasure, and the Lucky 38's circular design is clearly visible. Simply watching characters walk down the street unimpeded really changes the atmosphere and makes the Strip seem like the big and glitzy place it should be.

 

Here's a bit of what it looks like after simply removing some of the wall meshes:

 

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9454/screenshot21l.th.jpg

 

Unfortunately, manipulating world meshes and placing NPCs is where my expertise ends, and getting the Strip to truly work right without the barriers would presumably need some script work. I'm wondering if getting all the necessary NPCs in the Strip loaded at once could be done without breaking too much. Or, for the sake of performance, have them load as you get closer to them. It would definitely be nice to see.

 

TL;DR: I'd like to see the barriers removed from the Strip, and be able to walk along its entirety without the unnecessary loading. And, if this is possible at all, maybe the same can be done for Freeside.

[Skarovich]

I second this. I felt it was always so restricting and almost broke the lore of the Strip to have it split up like it is. A single-unbroken Strip would be amazing.

 

I'd love to see the same thing done with North and South Freeside. Having to keep doing huge detours to get to the center bus-gate to get around that place gets annoying real quick.

[potatochip]

I'm willing to learn more about the GECK and possibly tackle this myself. At this point I'm mostly wondering if there might be anyone else around who is experienced enough to know if this would be a lot to deal with. It seems straight-forward enough at first glance, but who knows.

[McclaudEagle]

I think the main reason for the barriers would likely be the NPCs. The game's engine can only handle up to 30 NPCs in a single area, no matter how powerful your computer is. That's probably why they were added, to prevent people's games from lagging whenever they entered.

 

However, that doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be tried. I don't have the skills with scripts or NPCs though.

[Deleted1946494User]

I always wanted to do this to Fallout3, as there should be at least a wall where the end of the mall reaches the River, but preferably an opening into it.

 

Unfortunately this would require the entire contents of a world to be copied to another, all quest and storyline references would need to be copied properly and any broken links might corrupt the entire game

 

so if you were to open the barriers completely, you have to spend a stupid amount of time fixing the game :wallbash:

[sweetfox]

Look at the "real" Strip -

--1:30 Min--

In the E3 preview they didnt build in the stupid walls and it looked MUCH MUCH better

 

Sad point is that you can only have about 30 NPC´s but even with the walls it somethimes looks dead or something + the empty casinos....

 

WE NEED TO FIX THAT ^^ i would help but i never tried GECK sry

[intencemuffin]

to answer why the strip is split, it is because the beta testers found that it would knider lag on low end comps

And they only had 2 days to fix this before the release date so they quickly fixed it

 

Have you ever wonderd why is there half the world map that you can't go to its because simply they ran out of time and didn't want to delay the game launch

if you go outside the player borders in GECk you will find a tiny area with finished textures and a destoried car.

[HaikenEdge]

They'll probably release that as DLC content.

[SnowStyle]

On the video it is the 360 version of the game, so the question is, did they add the stupid barriers on 360 too ? which would be stupid there is no low end Xbox..

 

Anyway when i first joined strip i was really disapointed of those barriers and i also thinked would be way better to just remove them, splited in 3 parts make them really small.

I understand it is for computer lag issues but at least as a mod, everyone can test it and remove it if it lag too much for them, and good enough comps will enjoy the real strip, actually no one can.

[McclaudEagle]

I have attempted modding this, to no decent result. I removed the barriers with ease. All of the NPCs show up, but the problem lies with how the NPCs interact. So far, no one walks around and only a few of the strippers dance in the street. I have tried to work out why, and a possible reason could be that since the NPCs are cell specific, they can't interact because to the game, they aren't "there".