[WIP] Weapon Addition and Replacement Suite (WARS)

[antistar]

Here's a video showing off the 12 Gauge ammo sub-types:

- 12 Gauge ammo type testing

 

 

Here are some new screenshots, too:

 

- 12 Gauge 01

- 12 Gauge 02

- 12 Gauge 03

- Loadscreen 01

 

In the screenshots you can see the FRAG-12 projectile (which is also used for Pulse Slugs), the flechette projectiles, and a bunch of empty 12 Ga hulls in various colours, from some earlier testing.

 

That loadscreen conveniently showed up when I was recording the video, so I thought I'd show it. I've made a bunch of loadscreens with hopefully helpful tips, since WARS adds a number of new features.

[nexusguy]

i've seen the progress video before, great job! Can't wait to use it in game!

[antistar]

As an update:

 

Lately I've mostly been busy with epic feats of tedious data entry, filling out all the script properties and whatnot for the weapons, setting up the ammo sub-types for ammo swapping, etc. The other night though I had one of those times when you wake up at like 4am with a great idea for something, and then can't get back to sleep because you start thinking about what to do with the idea.

 

For me it was to do with the Dropped Mags system in WARS. I've shown a bit of that in a couple of videos:

 

-

-

 

I.e. the player and NPCs physically dropping magazines into the game world when they reload, with the mags being containers with spent casings (an abstracted form of gathering them up off the ground) and in the case of the player, any ammo that was still in the magazine when they reloaded.

 

The idea I had was - since I've already got that in and working, couldn't I then have those dropped mag containers return a "loose mod" magazine when they're "picked up"? (Since the dropped mag containers are disabled/deleted when emptied.) And - crucially - could I have those loose mod mags be consumed when you reload?

 

It turns out I can! In other words, you now need to carry extra mags with you if you want to be able to reload your weapons... which makes sense. It's something I've wanted in the game for a long time. I'll stress that the whole Dropped Mags system is optional, though. It can be toggled in the MCM menu. (I should possibly call it the "Physical Mags" system or something...)

 

It basically works like this. If you reload:

 

- With a larger mag in reserve, you'll drop the current mag and switch to the larger mag.

- With no larger mag, but a mag of the same size in reserve, you'll just drop one of those mags.

- With a smaller mag in reserve, and no more of the current size, you'll drop the current mag and switch to the smaller mag.

- With no more mags in reserve, you'll drop the current mag and switch to "no mag", which gives the weapon a capacity of only one round.

- With no mag attached, but any mag/s in reserve, you'll switch to the largest mag you've got.

 

 

Having no mag attached can unfortunately look janky when you reload, since it'll usually be the actor grabbing thin air where the mag should be. Obviously I don't have custom reload animations for this for every weapon it would apply to; that'd be a gigantic amount of work.

 

Also, the magazine switch happens at the end of the reload, for various technical reasons. (Animations, script events, etc.) This system wasn't easy to make.

 

Oh - to be clear, this system (for better or for worse) doesn't involve needing to actually load the magazines with ammo - or tracking how much ammo is in each mag in your inventory, or anything. The extra mags in your inventory are just the regular loose mods you get when a weapon mod is detached from a weapon. (Though I'm changing them to use the actual models for the magazines so that they look the part.)

 

This system also applies to NPCs, though it can be toggled separately for them - and optionally further set so that while they require and drop magazines like the player, they will retain whatever their last attached mag is. This is mainly in case it turns out to be tedious to manage spare mags for followers, settlers, etc. NPCs have basic AI that allows them to pick up weapons and ammo... but it doesn't extend to picking up magazines.

 

 

The system seems to be working fine so far. Now I just need to do some work in support of it, like adding mags to NPC loadouts, loot, vendors, etc. Also things like making all mags craftable with the factory machines, so that it's easier to make them in bulk.

 

I like how this is shaping up; I think it will have a fun impact on considering your character's loadout. E.g. you could try to carry a bunch of those Beta C-Mags around, but those things weigh like a kilo (2.2 lb) each when empty. Maybe you'd be better off just taking a bunch of regular thirty-round USGI mags; they're much lighter.

 

Also; hooray! You've found a flash new weapon... but have you also found enough matching mags for it to be practical to use?

[UlyssesBennett]

Sounds great dude, can't wait, saving my next playthrough for this mod

[nexusguy]

That's a really cool addition! Quite immersive, in fact you could call it "Immersive Magazine" or "Realistic Magazine" system.

[nexusguy]

Hey I meant to ask, is Isathar still working on AmmoTweaks v2? Also, hows things? Everything ok over there?

[antistar]

Funny timing - I was just about to post a bit of an update. Yesterday, was the plan - but I ran out of time.

 

I haven't heard how AmmoTweaks v2 is going in a while. Last I heard, isathar was having some problems with getting Internet access.

 

By now though, I've done so much on my end to add to and extend AmmoTweaks v1 to better fit WARS, that I don't know if it would be worth the (probably considerable) extra development time it would take to switch to ATv2. I am still doing the ATv1 implementation (and anything I've added that requires F4SE) in an add-on plugin for WARS, so it would be easy in that sense to switch. (Since it'd mainly be a case of just... not using that add-on plugin anymore.)

 

That also theoretically makes an XB1 version of WARS more plausible, since it would just ("just") need a different add-on plugin - that doesn't require F4SE - to handle the extended features (ammo swapping, durability, etc) via scripted ingestibles or whatever.

 

I'm not planning to do that myself. If someone else really wanted to though, and released such an add-on on beth.net for XB1, I could probably release the main WARS plugin (plus art assets, etc of course) on XB1 so that they could be used together. Assuming the size isn't prohibitive, that is. As far as I know, they've still got that incredibly restrictive 2 GB limit on XB1.

 

 

Anyway, what I was originally going to post about was Xilandro's B42 Dropmag mod, for FNV. It popped up the other day, and does something similar to the Physical Mags system in WARS.

 

Something Xilandro did there, which I quite liked the idea of, was having any unrecovered ammo be moved into the Goodsprings Mojave Express drop-box when it gets cleaned up. It inspired me to do something similar - since previously any unrecovered ammo/mags/casings were just gone when they were cleaned up. (And they get cleaned up when you leave the cell; to avoid save-bloat.)

 

In my case, I added an "Ammo Recovery Post" that you can build at settlements, if you have Local Leader rank 1. Cleaned up ammo/mags/casings are (behind the scenes) moved to a holding container in a utility cell, and the recovery post allows you to pay a fee to move the contents of the holding chest to the recovery post's inventory (since it's just a container). The fee is based on the contents of the holding container, multiplied by a configurable multiplier.

 

So essentially you're paying a commission (say, 50% of the value of the items recovered) for the ammo/mags/casings that someone's gathered up for you, from out in the field. (Because remember - the player's not the only one that drops mags. With default settings, anyway.)

 

That's in and working, though I haven't done the art for the Ammo Recovery Post yet. It'll probably be something like the Scavenging Station, but kit-bashed to have more of an ammo theme.

 

 

Before doing that (which didn't take very long), I was doing a whole bunch of tedious but necessary work on weapon spawning. I've got NPCs spawning with different amounts of ammo (and mags, as appropriate) based on their level, and on things like whether the weapon is a primary weapon or a sidearm, is auto or semi/manual, etc.

 

In order to have all relevant NPCs spawn with a ranged weapon, ammo for it, possibly a sidearm (plus ammo for that), and a backup melee weapon, I had to go through and edit the inventories of a lot of NPCs. (WARS was already editing a number of NPCs in order to normalise HP values anyway, so...) Otherwise, an awful lot of NPCs would have spawned with a single weapon... and no ammo for it.

 

Ugh, what a pain. Had to be done, though.

[nexusguy]

That's awesome! Also, yeah, tweaking small stuff is tedious, copy-paste driven development is something that is easy to do but, given the amount of stuff to change, it's a pain in the ass, for several reasons. It's good to see new features even at this stage of development! I don`t know how you`re capable of keeping the discipline to build a complex work of this caliber (pun intended), when I have trouble in finishing my DnD campaign, again, kudos to you and shame on me again. :pinch:

[Mavkiel]

Looks better and better. How compatible is it with other mods? I'd imagine merged patch would take care of any leveled list issues.. Just trying to figure out what I should keep my eyes on when this releases.

 

From the video clip, new types of ammos. So I'd imagine there'd be a need to create patches for any weapons you add in?

 

Sorry for getting into nit pickey details, on workers comp, since I fell down some stairs. This is an ideal time to figure out any potential issues :P

[antistar]

That's awesome! Also, yeah, tweaking small stuff is tedious, copy-paste driven development is something that is easy to do but, given the amount of stuff to change, it's a pain in the ass, for several reasons. It's good to see new features even at this stage of development! I don`t know how you`re capable of keeping the discipline to build a complex work of this caliber (pun intended), when I have trouble in finishing my DnD campaign, again, kudos to you and shame on me again. :pinch:

"Copy-paste development" - that's a pretty good descriptor of my last week working on this, yeah. Elbow-deep in levelled lists. The result is that all NPCs should, in the context of WARS, be properly armed now, at least. (I hope it's all NPCs - some NPCs have their equipment changed at certain points in a quest, and I had to try to handle that too.)

 

 

Looks better and better. How compatible is it with other mods? I'd imagine merged patch would take care of any leveled list issues.. Just trying to figure out what I should keep my eyes on when this releases.

 

From the video clip, new types of ammos. So I'd imagine there'd be a need to create patches for any weapons you add in?

 

Sorry for getting into nit pickey details, on workers comp, since I fell down some stairs. This is an ideal time to figure out any potential issues :tongue:

WARS overhauls weapons and a number of other combat-related mechanics, and when I say "overhaul", I mean it. Weapon mods will need a patch to play nicely with WARS, yeah - and to take advantage of its features. I'm writing an illustrated tutorial on how to add WARS support to third-party weapon mods, though. I was working on that just now, actually.

 

When it comes to levelled lists, it will depend on which lists the other mod is editing, and how. Any levelled list where WARS and the other mod are both just adding some new items to it would probably be fine with some kind of automatic merge, but there are other lists where WARS is making more significant changes. Those might need manual patching to maintain functionality in WARS and/or the other mod.

 

How to handle levelled lists when adding support for the typical new-weapon mod is something I'll cover in the tutorial. In the past I've preferred automatic merged patches via xEdit for levelled list compatibility - rather than adding items to levelled lists via script - but the latter may be a better option for FO4. Automatic merged patches in xEdit are described as "unsupported" for FO4, and from my quick tests... yeah, they don't seem to work in the way I'd need them to.

 

So I may have a template quest script set up for people to fill out the properties in, to add items to the relevant levelled lists in WARS.

 

 

Oof, that's unfortunate that no-one told you about stairs. I hope you have a speedy recovery there.