Questions from an inexperienced modder

[philios82]

Hi folks,

 

I thought I'd take the plunge and give modding a try since I've got some time on my hands, I've decided to start off with a player house and then move on to more complicated stuff once I've got the hang of it. I've got a few questions that I could use som help with though.

 

1. To create a 'safe' container (for storage) I should set the container to a persistent reference? This means that any item the player puts in will stay there forever right?

 

2. Is it possible to have the same container in two cells? So for instance, the house has a storage locker included as standard. If the player pays to have the house upgraded, the interior of the house is changed to a different cell but another instance of the storage locker is included which still contains all of the players items.

 

3. I want to make the house upgradeable, so the player can pay to have the place cleaned up etc. I know how to set the external door as an active parent to another disabled door so that when a script runs on the door to disable it, the other door is enabled and now leads to a different cell (the cleaned up house). But is there a way to set up a door to lead to different doors depending on certain conditions? So if the player buys upgrade pack 1 the door leads to one interior cell and if the player buys upgrade pack 2 the door leads to a different cell?

 

4. If I wanted to have the exterior of the house changed after the player has paid to have it upgraded, I could use the 'opposite state of active parent' idea for the whole building (obviously being careful with the navmesh), but would this mean that there would always be two buildings loaded into memory for that spot? Would this take up a lot of memory?

 

5. Are there any 'small town style' two or three story buildings in the Geck at all? I want to create a small hotel and can't find any appropriate looking buildings.

 

Thanks.

[lightguidste]

Hi folks,

 

I thought I'd take the plunge and give modding a try since I've got some time on my hands, I've decided to start off with a player house and then move on to more complicated stuff once I've got the hang of it. I've got a few questions that I could use som help with though.

 

1. To create a 'safe' container (for storage) I should set the container to a persistent reference? This means that any item the player puts in will stay there forever right?

 

2. Is it possible to have the same container in two cells? So for instance, the house has a storage locker included as standard. If the player pays to have the house upgraded, the interior of the house is changed to a different cell but another instance of the storage locker is included which still contains all of the players items.

 

3. I want to make the house upgradeable, so the player can pay to have the place cleaned up etc. I know how to set the external door as an active parent to another disabled door so that when a script runs on the door to disable it, the other door is enabled and now leads to a different cell (the cleaned up house). But is there a way to set up a door to lead to different doors depending on certain conditions? So if the player buys upgrade pack 1 the door leads to one interior cell and if the player buys upgrade pack 2 the door leads to a different cell?

 

4. If I wanted to have the exterior of the house changed after the player has paid to have it upgraded, I could use the 'opposite state of active parent' idea for the whole building (obviously being careful with the navmesh), but would this mean that there would always be two buildings loaded into memory for that spot? Would this take up a lot of memory?

 

5. Are there any 'small town style' two or three story buildings in the Geck at all? I want to create a small hotel and can't find any appropriate looking buildings.

 

Thanks.

 

the preference option has more to do with enabling the device for scripting

and i think there is an easyer way of solving the upgrade option than creating several cells with almost identical layout by making removable / insertable items turn active / disabled thru a triger in a script saves space in the mod.

[WastelandAssassin]

1. other than what you said, make sure that it is not set to respawn, otherwise it will be cleaned from items every 3 days

 

2. if you place two copies of the same specific container in two cells, that should work

of course, give that container a unique ID, and use that one wherever you want (the unique ID is what you should also do for question 1)

 

3. i think that lightguidste is correct about a better way of doing the upgrades

i know that there is a way to place an object, but have it not appear, than after a specific trigger, you make that item active, so it appears

not sure how to do this, but i remember talking with people about it a long time ago, but they said it is very much possible

 

5. if you have Old World Blues, you could use the houses in Higgs' Village

don't know of any other houses like that in the game, but there may be some in the GECK, that i don't know of

 

i think you should really check this site, as it may just have the answers to your questions, or at least tips as to how to achieve your goals

Edited October 1, 2011 by WastelandAssassin

[philios82]

 

the preference option has more to do with enabling the device for scripting

and i think there is an easyer way of solving the upgrade option than creating several cells with almost identical layout by making removable / insertable items turn active / disabled thru a triger in a script saves space in the mod.

 

Okay that makes sense thanks.

 

 

1. other than what you said, make sure that it is not set to respawn, otherwise it will be cleaned from items every 3 days

 

2. if you place two copies of the same specific container in two cells, that should work

of course, give that container a unique ID, and use that one wherever you want (the unique ID is what you should also do for question 1)[/Quote]

 

Thats exactly what I wanted to know, cheers.

 

 

3. i think that lightguidste is correct about a better way of doing the upgrades

i know that there is a way to place an object, but have it not appear, than after a specific trigger, you make that item active, so it appears

not sure how to do this, but i remember talking with people about it a long time ago, but they said it is very much possible

[/Quote]

 

I know how to do that, the real problem comes with the navmesh, I don't want to have NPC's bumping into things. I think I'm right in saying you can't change the navmesh by script or while the games running?

 

5. if you have Old World Blues, you could use the houses in Higgs' Village

don't know of any other houses like that in the game, but there may be some in the GECK, that i don't know of

[/Quote]

 

I don't have any of the Dlc unfortunatley. I have searched through the Geck quite a bit and not found anything, I was just really hoping I was wrong :wink:

 

i think you should really check this site, as it may just have the answers to your questions, or at least tips as to how to achieve your goals.

 

I've found that stuff already but thanks for the tip. I've worked through the tutorials and can do the basics, I've also found some other tutorials on other sites, there are just a few bits, like what exactly a persistent ref does, that I was confused about.

 

Cheers for the help guys.

[WastelandAssassin]

not really sure about what you can or can't do in game

 

however, from what i recall of my old conversation with the few modders, i believe we came to the conclusion that NPC's won't hit the objects, as they aren't actually there (at least as far as i know)

 

if you had Fallout 3, i would have suggested you check how the house upgrades work, but i don't know if you can use this

you could try looking at how the upgrades for the Lucky 38 Suite works, but i'm not sure how helpful it will be (then again, i guess it can't hurt looking at that, right??)

 

good luck, and don't mention it

[philios82]

 

you could try looking at how the upgrades for the Lucky 38 Suite works, but i'm not sure how helpful it will be (then again, i guess it can't hurt looking at that, right??)

 

 

 

I can't believe I didn't think of that, thats a great idea.

 

Cheers!

[lightguidste]

the nav mesh did not seem to bother mods i made with things poping up / out but then i mostly made wall decorations and turrets spawn / despawn so nav meshing was not such a big deal