[WIP] Weapon Addition and Replacement Suite (WARS)

[guto8797]

I have been following this project on and off for a couple of years now, and it always seemed to me like the sort of over-ambitious project that would never be released, but looking at the list of features that have been implemented already and the videos, I have to say I am glad I was wrong. Its looking more and more like the sort of mod entire playlists are built around.

 

I am a sucker for good looking weapons and especially good reload animations, and if all weapons are half as awesome as the videos that have been released look like, then I am sold, it just looks so so good, and it sounds awesome to boot. The China Lake is one of my fav's, can't go wrong with the PWOM!

 

I am continually amazed at the sheer amount of work people will put into a mod just because they want to test their skills and improve the community's enjoyment of a game. Even a single weapon from this list would be a top mod on its own.

 

I do hope that more oldies make it into the mod, I am a fan of bolt action rifles and the like, the Lee Enfield, Garand, AK, etc. There are some good mods out there, but this looks like it will be straight up incompatible or unbalanced/clashing against other weapon mods, but i am perfectly happy if no other weapons make it since this already looks like an insane amount of effort. Are there any plans to tweak the levelled lists for weapons? I felt like you progress through the tree too fast in vanilla FO4, i basically was never forced to use pipe rifles and just a few quests into the game you start getting laser weapons and other "Late-game" stuff, which means that you lack that satisfying progression. I am just afraid that the awesome weapons in this mod like the AR-15 and the crazy amount of mods for it will become too commonplace for it to feel special to find one.

 

Also hope that patches will be available for things like VIS-G or See-Through Scopes, but that's a later worry.

 

Either way, thanks for putting this much work into the mod. I have just finished a FO4 Playthrough, but I wasn't exhaustive, and I look forward to revisiting the game when this mod releases. I know that no release dates are provided, but do you feel like the mod is approaching your vision, or is it still some ways off? Sorry to be bothersome, and stay awesome.

[antistar]

Well thanks; I just hope the mod lives up to expectations (including my own). :)

 

Speaking of animations, I'm currently re-working the Skorpion animations since I'm not really happy with my first go at them. The new reloads are coming along, and I'll do new equips too. (Possibly including an "unfolding the wire stock" variant.)

 

Re: incompatibilities and other weapons making it in; I will be writing a tutorial on how to add WARS support to other weapon mods - along with making some patches for other weapons myself. I can't do either of those things until WARS is closer to being finished, but they pretty much have to happen, so that's the plan.

 

I've made a lot of levelled list changes (related to weapons, weapon mods and ammo). That included changing the levels that things show up at, though not always by a huge amount. The changes were more around where things spawn. Different factions now have more noticeably different weaponry. (E.g. raiders get crappy makeshift weapons, Gunners get the good stuff, Brotherhood of Steel get Energy weapons, etc.)

 

Re: item sorting patches; I'm planning to use Ruddy88's Simple Sorter myself. Something like that should remove the need for dedicated patches; just generate your own.

 

I think that the main thing left before WARS approaches my vision for it is AmmoTweaks v2 integration (and I need to wait for v2 to release first), but I won't know until I get to do some proper play-testing.

[guto8797]

A few extra things I have to ask

 

The removal of recoil from energy weapons make sense, but how does it pan out in gameplay? Doesn't it make energy weapons unsatisfying to use, as they become point and click flashlights?

 

And regarding the eventual AmmoTweaks v2 integration, does the condition mechanic from that affect the quality of the receiver? Or are those two separate? I know its not really viable in terms of workload, but getting gun failures due to bad quality would be neat, but the work in animation wouldn't be worth it.

 

Also, any plans to tweak power armour? According to the wiki it should be able to shrug off everything with less energy than .308, its kinda weird how a dog bite can get through it.

[antistar]

I find Energy weapons unsatisfying to use generally (that's one of the reasons I don't use them myself), but laser weapons specifically being unsatisfying or not for having no recoil may shake out during testing. They still sound the same and have the same animations - which includes some weapon shake - so they may not feel too different in that sense.

 

(Plasma weapons still have recoil, by the way.)

 

The idea with the Condition mechanics from AmmoTweaks is that when it comes to ranged weapons in WARS, it's converted from a CND meter to a DIRT meter (so it fills rather than depletes). The dirtier a weapon gets, the more likely it is to suffer damage, which for the receiver would step it down one condition/quality level. Dirty weapons can be cleaned with a cleaning kit, but if the receiver gets damaged, you'd need to swap it out at a workbench. (I.e. crafting/attaching as normal at the workbench.) This dual dirt/physical-wear-and-tear mechanic was inspired by 7.62 High Calibre.

 

My understanding is that there are a number of gun failure types in AmmoTweaks v2. E.g. a jam, which requires a reload to clear. Actual jam-clearing animations would be great, but I'm not sure that's technically possible in FO4, and it would of course be a ton of work to do all those animations, yeah.

 

I believe isathar is setting up config files for AmmoTweaks to be used with DTF, so that may result in power armour protection feeling better. Whether I tweak it myself or not depends on how things go in testing.

[ARahimi]

Can we toggle the Condition mechanic or is there no MCM we can tweak with?

[antistar]

That's an AmmoTweaks thing, obviously - but last I heard (and from memory) there is going to be a toggle for that, yes.

 

I believe weapon durability ties into the balance of various parts of the mod though (and I'm planning to do the same with it in WARS), so disabling it will probably not be recommended.

[antistar]

As an update:

 

... Not sure where to start. I've read that the bushfires in Australia are making international headlines, so you've probably heard what's happening here. It's... just horrific. Near-apocalyptic stuff.

 

And I'm lucky, relatively speaking! I live in Canberra; we've got fire on three sides and have been suffering badly from the smoke (the AQI got a lot higher than mentioned there; I saw it go up to ~5300 at least), but haven't had any fires threatening us directly yet. Yesterday was just horror conditions everywhere though. A very bad day. It was the hottest it's ever been in Canberra; 44 degrees Celsius (111.2 Fahrenheit). An extremely anxious day of watching satellite images and fire maps and weather reports and news reports - keeping watch in case a fire sprang up nearby, or near my parents' town.

 

We're all fine though; so far. The weather has eased with a cold change coming through. Hopefully it never gets that bad again... but summer is only 1/3 over, and here it usually only gets hotter as it goes on.

 

 

As for WARS, I've still been working on it throughout all this, as much as I can. Trying to keep my mind off things, partially. Even yesterday I managed to get a fair chunk of the folding-stock unequip animation done for the Skorpion. (In between alt-tabbing across to check on the fires.) I've already done the folding-stock equip (except for the drum mag version), and the new improved reload anims. I think they're much better. Beyond the fires, this has all been slowed by the usual Christmas events with family and friends - though not New Year's Eve this time since that's when things really started to go bad.

 

Speaking of which, I've been making backups, as always - so if my place does burn down, WARS and PEACE shouldn't be lost. I've got an online backup of the final files (i.e. plugins, models, textures, etc) for WARS and PEACE, and an external HD backup of the source files. They're just too big for an online backup; the Substance Painter file for the SA80 stuff for example is 5.5 GB just on its own.

 

If I have to evacuate, I'll take my computer with me, of course. If I have to evacuate but don't have time for that, I'll take the external HD. And if it comes right down to it and I have to run and jump in the nearby lake, well... I've got the external HD in a special triple-sealed waterproof bag (along with my passport). I really hope it doesn't come to that (obviously), because 1) if the fire is bad enough that may not work, and 2) the lake in question is filthy. Basically though, as long as I survive - and I almost certainly will; considering how bad things are, very few people have died - WARS and PEACE will survive too.

 

 

Anyway... shouldn't be too much longer for the new Skorpion animations; after the unequip I really just need to do the third-person versions of the reloads.

[Tenurialrope3]

I'm not much in tune with current world events, so this is the first time I've heard about this now.

I do hope everything goes well (or as well as it can) for you and everyone else that is or might be affected by the fires.

 

(And as of writing, it's snowing here where I live (I don't live in Austraila, mind), so it's quite some contrast to read about wildfires.)

 

Stay safe.

Edited January 5, 2020 by Tenurialrope3

[crawe1x]

Good to hear that you, your parents, and the mod are all okay (in that order, lol!). I read somewhere that those fires might take months to burn out. You should come to the UK, where you can slowly drown to death on six months of drizzle.

 

Looking forward to the mod. I reckon I've got one more playthrough of FO4 in me, and it's going to be with WARS (at the very least) and hopefully PEACE. Doesn't matter if it's this year or next. Besides, given Beth's half-arsed approach to their most recent titles, I doubt Starfield will be playable any time before 2024 and ES6 around 2028, which is how long it will take modders to fix the games! Assuming Beth doesn't kill off the modding community altogether, lol.

 

Anyway, gripe over. Take care and keep up the great work.

[antistar]

Thanks guys - and we could certainly do with some of that rain and snow here.

 

To give people an idea of the unprecedented scale of these bushfires, you can have a look at this map showing active fires in New South Wales. Note that while you can zoom out to see the whole continent and more, this map is only showing the fires in NSW. There are more in other states and territories (maybe less so way up north, where I think the wet season is finally getting started) - notably in Victoria to the south.

 

And to give context for those not too familiar with it, Australia is geographically about the same size as North America. You may think "well at least the fires are only kind of along the coast there", but the thing is, that's basically where the majority of Australia's population lives. Most of the country is a desert, after all. (Switch that map over to satellite view and you'll see what I mean.)

 

A huge percentage of Australia's population - maybe even a majority, by my extremely rough guess - is at best worryingly close to some gigantic bushfires right now. Scary times.

 

 

I mention all this partially because it's unsurprisingly on my mind a lot, but also so people know why work is a bit slow on WARS and PEACE at the moment.