Adapting the Radio NV Script to a Custom Radio Sation

[USASOCRanger]

Hello, I am working on a custom radio station and the station works fine more or less, but I want it to work better. The specific issue I'm having is that my topics are Radio Hello and then, depending on what stage of tweaking, 4-6 playlists. I have tried a variety of ways to make the station seem more natural and random such as linking specific songs to different playlists, linking playlists to multiple playlists. I've started taking a look at how Radio New Vegas works and it seems to be a simple enough situation. Radio Hello sends a greeting linked to a news story linked to a playlist which contains every song track. RNV also contains a script which seems to force the radio to play a certain number of songs before cycling back to Radio Hello. This is my first real Bethesda mod and I'd like to make something that stands out; I want the feel of a natural radio station; my scripting background, thus, for the GECK is null and would like some help understanding what this script does, how it functions, and what the syntax means. I appreciate any and all help.

ScriptName RadioNewVegasSCRIPT

short nStory;
short bDoTransition;
short nLastIntro;
short nLastTrack1;
short nLastTrack2;
short nLastTrack3;
short nTracksPlayed;

short bKimballMOD ;This variable keeps track of President Kimball's Method of Death
;0 - None/Default
;1 - Vertibird Bomb
;2 - Vertibird Crash
;3 - Vertibird AA GUn
;4 - Watson Exploded
;5 - Assassin (Fallback)

Now, I'm not interested in the bits about Kimball, but it is the short ____ script lines which drive the behaviour of the station; this is what I need to understand. If anyone can give me some n00b script help, I'd definitely appreciate it and, when this thing is released, yall will obviously be credited with helping me out.

[DopeChuck]

I'll split up the explanation into sections.

ScriptName RadioNewVegasSCRIPT

this names the script, it is required when creating a script. you can also use scn instead of ScriptName. For example, if I wanted to name my script "RadioWastelandSCRIPT" I'd use scn RadioWastelandSCRIPT.

short nStory;
short bDoTransition;
short nLastIntro;
short nLastTrack1;
short nLastTrack2;
short nLastTrack3;
short nTracksPlayed;
short bKimballMOD ;This variable keeps track of President Kimball's Method of Death
;0 - None/Default
;1 - Vertibird Bomb
;2 - Vertibird Crash
;3 - Vertibird AA GUn
;4 - Watson Exploded
;5 - Assassin (Fallback)

These are variables, you can see the documentation for them here

 

I believe the bKimballMOD is used by the station to decide what method of death to report if Kimball dies. (such as, if he died by vertibird bomb, it'd report that and not the AA gun)

 

Anything on the line after the ";" is a comment, it will NOT be run in the script.

 

 

For example, in my example script "RadioWastelandSCRIPT" here's what a possible "full" script could look like

scn RadioWastelandSCRIPT ;or ScriptName RadioWastelandSCRIPT

short nStory;
short bDoTransition;
short nLastIntro;
short nLastTrack1;
short nLastTrack2;
short nLastTrack3;
short nTracksPlayed;

short bEventHappened ;This variable keeps track of a special event (such as Kimball's death)
;listed below are the numbers to refer to what happened
;0 - None/Default
;1 - Something
;2 - A different Event
;3 - Event 3
;4 - Event 4
;And so on for however many is required

Good luck with the mod! If you have any more questions you can reply to this comment or PM me, and I'll respond asap (I'm currently developing my own mod)

Edited March 31, 2015 by DopeChuck

[USASOCRanger]

Alright great, that's exactly what I was looking for; a boot-kick in the right direction. Thank you sir and I'll be sure to harass you if I have any pressing concerns.

 

What are you working on, by the way?

[DopeChuck]

Alright great, that's exactly what I was looking for; a boot-kick in the right direction. Thank you sir and I'll be sure to harass you if I have any pressing concerns.

 

What are you working on, by the way?

It's a new mod called "Wasteland Defense Organization" I'm not gonna give too much away just yet. I'll hope to open to beta testing within the next few weeks. I'm working on it as much as possible! You can find the official thread here.

[USASOCRanger]

Essentially, I am just look for a scripting method to force the playlist to run X number of songs before transitioning back to Radio Hello. Not making much headway on this.