How Tracking Enemies Footprints Could Be Made

[simplywayne90]

This is just a random thought,

This may be utterly impossible (like moving vehicals) but I'm posting it in the off-chance it's not.

I'm not a modder in any way at all. I'm an idea person,

I leave it to modders to chose whether or not to create what I think of.

 

Firstly,

 

----------------------------How the Footprints Could Be Modeled----------------------------

 

Using a software like Blender or Studio Max,

Load up the creature/human your making a footprint for.

Then edit them to just feet (Or whatever they move on),

Now I've not tried this but I can imagine that the "Ankle/Leg" (Top of the foot) area is hollow/see-thru

To fix that I'd suggest flipping the feet upside down to where your looking at the bottoms.

Now you have a left and right footprint.

 

***Note: From guessing I'd say the left-side foot would become the right-side footprint, and vis versa.

 

 

----------------------------How They Could Appear In-Game----------------------------

 

Now I know nothing of the G.E.C.K, so I'm skipping the part of making each footprint a seperate object.

 

Anyways, Continuing along.

 

Assuming its a static object in game now.

 

I'd suggest a series of scripts or a singular extended script

 

A Script that tells the game if the PC is within a reasonable distance (So that populated cells arn't covered in footprints, and thus also affect game-speed and clutter)

 

A Script that that identifies what terrian type the trackable creature is walking on (So you don't have footprints in solid roads/concrete/inside)

 

A Script based on PC Survival skill that either decreases that amount of footprints left behind or increases (So a skill of 20 makes it very hard to find footprints and track/sneak up on enemies, While with a skill of 100 you can follow them very easily and sneak up on them.)

 

A Script that identifies footprints to the correct creatures. (So a centaur won't leave power armor footprints.)

 

A Script to make the footprints fade over time (Maybe similar to what happens to gun shells)

 

Optional: A Script that makes only naturally hostile enemies leave footprints (so you only can track things that would normally attack you first)

 

----------------------------Examples Of Possible Footprints----------------------------

 

A Glowing footprint for Glowing Ones and Troopers.

 

Dragging marks for centaurs.

 

Sludge Spots for Ghouls And Ferals

 

Large bare feet with cracks for Super mutants.

 

Shoe prints for normal humans/Raiders (bloody prints)

 

Large shoe like prints with cracks for Power Armored Troops/Brotherhood

[simplywayne90]

Ohhh, brilliant idea wayne. I think i know of a better way to place them in game too. there isn't really a script function to identify terrain, buuut... what you could do, is set it so, while you have a perk, or high enough survival, whatever it is. it runs a script on every npc/creature in the cell with you. that script would place an explosion every few seconds, only while the npc/creature is moving. the explosion would be invisible, no damage, no force, nothing, and have a customized impactset, depending on the type of creature or npc. then, instead of explosions creating a scorch mark on the ground, you replace it with a texture of the footprints of a left foot and right foot slightly in front, or vice versa, doesn't matter. impactsets do get to change decals based on the terrain they hit, you just make the explosion do nothing unless you're on dirt (which includes grass and sand in-game)

 

what do you think? anyone feel like doing this? i'm working on a vehicle, haha, i don't believe they're impossible, every version i've seen was half-completed, and i have a working beta right now that's buggy, but interesting...

[simplywayne90]

Here are a lot of updates for this thread for those who may be interested

 

----------------New Idea For Vehical Tracks and Improvements....Possibly------------------

 

Just now as I was typing this, I realized this could also improve vehical mods, one of the problems I have with a lot of vehical mods is that from a moving train to a tank, they don't ever seem to leave any dust or tracks or even budge anything on the ground, they float and it looks bad.

 

Perhaps with a few tweaks, you could create some vehical tracks, or little explosions or little dust kick-ups behind them so it looks like they actually are effecting the ground their riding on.

 

 

How about a script that places just the decal of two prints at the location and heading of the entity making the prints; and does this every time it moves. These decals would fade with time, but be track-able by sight.

 

***About the vehicles; I had a lot of fun making this... [its still a work in progress.]

 

In the beginning, you can use FOSE function "GetFirstRef" and "GetNextRef" to establish a list contaning all creatures in the current cell (of couse, you can add distant checking to reduce the list size), and this list can update every few seconds(or mins whatevet).

 

Then all you need to do is to place a object when anyone moves(I think it can be made ungrabable/unmovable, so it looks like a footprint), and attaching a script to the object that removing itself after a certain time. This idea might have problems when dealing cross-cell issues but it provides a easy way to implement this.

 

 

Scripting fake explosions to leave decals on the ground is a clever way to go about it. I would have likely never even thought of that. It makes sense that it could work. I know the decals sure should, but it would be time consuming I think.

 

Sprint Mod uses no-damage invisible explosions to jiggle the cam a bit while sprinting. Didn't know about them until I went into water for the 1st time after installing it and heard:

BOOM!, whoosh, BOOM!, whoosh, BOOM!, whoosh. I was like "who the hell is shooting at me? I don't see anyone!!" lol.

 

For some reason, even though the explosion do no damage, they still make auto-water react at though an explosion is going off (sends water flying like a cherry bomb in a pond).

 

Just a little thing you might want to keep in mind if this ever materializes ;)