What is the best way to go about changing actors?

[HomicidalGrouse]

For instance, say I want to update all Gunners in the game with new abilities, perks, inventories, etc...

 

The easiest solution would be to change all Gunner actors. This doesn't seem like the cleanest way to do it though.

 

Is there instead a way to duplicate actors and then replace the vanilla ones in leveled/spawn lists?

 

So yeah... what's the best/cleanest way of editing enemies?

[EveningTide]

All of the "Lvl" version of the actors is the easiest way, since 90% of the gunners in the game are leveled actors.

 

There's usually 6 versions. Example LvlGunnerxxx01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, etc. Including Legendary. There will be a male and female version, aggro, certain weapon, etc.

 

This of course will give rise to possible conflicts with any mods that edit these actors. But the aforementioned method keeps you from editing the leveled lists - which is even more likely to be edited by other mods.

Edited October 1, 2016 by EveningTide

[damanding]

This tutorial shows you how to use scripts to add to formlists so that you don't introduce mod conflicts. Then you can add to vanilla lists all you want. http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/12192

[BipolarOne]

You make a template as a base. Then other actors are set to use that template an flagged which parts to use from that template. The way most people do it though is wrong and/or stupid, so just do the opposite of them. Bethesda does it wrong and/or stupid as well, so scratch that as well. LOL, sad but true.

[BipolarOne]

If you asked me, first you would test a new ai in various environments. You would build or merge good ranged ai with melee ai for this, and begin with just one base actor. Then test with more than one actor in various environments. Then make that actor the template, make other actors that use parts of the template actor for iteration. Test that. Kit them out in different ways, get them to search more than 5 feet in front of them, run around, act crazy, flee, flank, an generally get them to act like degenerate gamers. Then edit weapon entries to tell the ai at what range they can start firing, when to switch weapons and/or styles based on the weapon. It works like this, ai will only fire a weapon if it's in the set range in the weapon, so have them advance with long range weapons, switch to pistols, switch to melee based on that. They're not all crazy, so many of them would run an flank over much larger distances, but if it's kitted out to somewhat mimic the player's actions, you'll find that it's incredibly dangerous because it's a computer doing this, not some person on the keys, in other words the player will lose and die, the player will feel bad, the game won't sell, hence we walk a delicate line between the hero complex, big boss theory, and the exploitation of human nature for profit. Then write scripts for it. It's a lot of work to fix it. Which is a great reason to leave it all the hell alone, and live to fight another day.