"Trapdoor" development thread

[caramellcube]

There's a load of things about this mod I wanted to check with more experienced modders and players so I figured everything should go into a single development thread rather than spamming the forums with single questions (hope this is ok). At the moment this is available here under the title "trapdoor", though if it all works out I'll be changing the name for the 1st finished version.

Anyway, here's the synopsis...

 

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Before the bombs dropped, a combination of some particularly cheap land and a discount at Vault-Tec's personal shelter department encouraged a group to move to the DC area to set up their business. In a world filled with mass produced products, they made custom items, prototypes, and small scale production runs. Because of the danger of being so close to a primary target, the main workshop was located underground. Inside it was a prototyper, a machine that could assemble practically any 3d object if it had schematics and raw materials to work with. The underground shelter was designed to make full use of this, as a network of chutes would allow items to be moved from the workshop to anywhere in the facility, and could be used to repair or upgrade the facility automatically.

 

2 centuaries later, the surface building is almost completely gone. But the shelter, in whatever state it might be, is still hidden somewhere beneath. If the Lone Wanderer can find it, get past it's well secured entrance, take control of the mainframe, make repairs, and keep the place defended, it could provide a very nice upgradable player home, with lots of room for companions. It's previous ocupants seem to have left in somewhat of a hurry though, taking some of the technology with them and leaving only a single warning.

 

Don't open the trapdoor.

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If anyone has any good ideas for features or upgrades feel free to make suggestions, I'm also planning on having a number of scripted events such as mechanical failures that have to be repaired, attacks by talon or raiders, and various other things that the player will have to deal with, so suggestions are being taken for these too. This is likely to be a mod best suited to players with high science and repair skills, and while it's supposed to make the game more rewarding, it shouldn't make it less challenging. So far, I've got these added...

 

Item sorters (mostly working, but can't sort anything with a durability value)

Prototyper (can produce any item on the menus, but material costs could be more balanced)

Recycler (breaks down items into raw materials - pulp, glass, metal, and fissile)

Recycler Maintenance (2 faults so far, easy to fix)

Upgrade system (buildable nuka cola machine, infirmary, lab, apartment, display room, and more)

Main entrance defense system (functional, but needs more work)

plantable, growable crops (cave fungus added, partly done punga fruit)

working showers (upgrading purifier makes them more effective)

movable armoury (can select either of 2 levels)

laser barber

grenade chute (takes grenades from a player filled hopper and drops them on enemies)

 

Unfortunately though, I'm not very experienced with the GECK, so there's a few things I'd appreciate help with.

 

1) what items should the prototyper be able to make? I've got a few basic lists of tools (close combat weapons like the axe and shovel), weapons, clothing, ammunition, and components (like the sensor module or conductor), but I'm still trying to figure out where the balance should be between letting the player cheat getting any items they want, and giving the player a useless machine that only produces things they have too many of.

 

2) Is there a simple command to change the type of water given by a sink?

 

3) There's a couple of scripts that allow the player to blow up parts of the facility by starting a self-destruct countdown. Unfortunately the countdown pauses whenever the player moves out of the cell. Is there some way around this? The script is inside an activator that uses a GameMode block to check if it's enabled or not and counts down when it is. Is there a better way? I might just get rid of this option, it overcomplicates things, but it's just fun to blow things up.

 

4) On the same subject, the GECK wiki says that GetInCell only needs the first part of a cell ID, but when I try to use it, it refuses to compile unless it has a complete, valid ID for a cell, even missing off just the last digit won't work. Has this been changed or am I doing something wrong?

 

5) Anytime I use FireWeapon on an Xmarker with a mine as the weapon, I get a CTD. It works fine with grenades using the same code. I can take this part out as it's not really needed, but if it's an easy fix it may as well stay.

 

6) Is there any way to create a static or activator version of an item already in the game? In other words, if I want to give an object a .nif file, does it have to be something outside the .esm files? I thought I could just copy and paste the .nif file address but the box is locked so I'm guessing it's not possible for licencing reasons or something?

 

That's all for now, any suggestions, help or ideas are appreciated.