[WIP] Weapon Addition and Replacement Suite (WARS)

[antistar]

Does this mean you've started your qa playthrough.

 

Tempering excitement

Oh no, there's still a bit to do before I can start the playthrough. I've just had a run of days in which I haven't had time to work on the mod, too - so I'm partway through implementing the Fat Man. The art and projectile/explosion records are done - need to do the AmmoTweaks/extended WARS features implementation now.

 

After that I need to look at the DR/ER/HP values of some of the creatures again. Like making sure creatures that logically seem like you'd want to use hollow-points on actually have low/no DR but maybe high HP. (E.g. Yao Guai. And probably the same with feral ghouls but maybe HP regen instead of very high base HP?) Stuff like that.

 

Then there's just some minor odds and ends - like assigning the new colour-coded box assets to the loose weapon mods I haven't done that for yet. (So that different types are a bit more distinct on factory conveyor belts.)

 

After that there's probably a bit of compatibility/support patch work to do, along with getting my load order set up for the playthrough.

 

So not too much to go, but I'm definitely not already playing the game. ;)

[UlyssesBennett]

The amount of detail and thought that you've put into this never ceases to amaze. Honestly amazing, almost like you've out more thought into it than the original developers.

 

Makes waiting all the harder, yet at the same time worthwhile. Thanks for the update and thank you for the dedication to the forum.

[antistar]

If I have put that much thought into it, it'd be a function of how long WARS (and PEACE) has taken to make. I've had a lot of time to think about it. ;) (It was the same with Clockwork, since that took nearly five years to make.)

 

As much as I think there's more and more to criticise in BGS' games as time goes on (definitely "A Promise Unfulfilled"), I have a lot of sympathy for people trying to make games. It's not the same as making a mod. (Unless the mod is getting into "total conversion" territory, arguably.)

 

With the probable exception of rote retreads like Call of Duty - or mindless, cynical shovel-ware like Candy Crush and its clones - games in development are a chaotic mess, with the developers desperately trying to discover what the game even is up until very near to release, usually. It's an erratically moving target, while modders generally get a (more or less ;)) stable platform to build on, once the game is finished.

[Mavkiel]

Slowly cleaning up my mod list to get ready for war/peace :)

 

For war, any new guns will need to be patched to mesh.. but the only weapon pack I really would be tempted to do that with is one that adds a dozen or so mini gun variations... For peace, I am a little more hazy on what might conflict. Would armorsmith extended no longer be needed? (Not wedded to any dependent mods for it.) Or what about sim settlements? Or weather packs? I admit been following war a heck of a lot more then peace lately :tongue:

[antistar]

That'll be me soon too; getting my load order sorted out so I can do the playthrough test of WARS and PEACE. Just need to look over the creature HP/DR/ER values, like I've been talking about. Everything else is done now, in terms of getting WARS and PEACE feature-complete. The last couple of days I've been bringing the War and Peace patch - and the WARS and PEACE patches for Manufacturing Extended and Better Manufacturing - up to date. Just finished that up.

 

In terms of things that are most likely to require compatibility patches, for WARS that would be:

 

- Just about anything to do with weapons. So weapons, Object Mods, Loose Mods, ammo, and crafting recipes for those things.

- NPCs and Race records, for the HP normalisation and some DR/ER edits. I've got some FO4Edit scripts for that, though; I'll have to remember to make those available to make it easier for patches to be made for this.

- Levelled Lists. Mainly relating to weapons and ammo, obviously.

- Perks. Mainly the weapon skill perks (Commando, Gunslinger, etc), of course.

 

 

For PEACE, it would be:

 

- Armour and clothing. Some stats are tweaked, and notably basically all clothing had pockets added, and/or the ability to modify them to add pockets. (Part of PEACE's "more STR means more carry weight bonus from equipment" system.)

- Power armour. Similar to above, since I gave PA their own line of Load Bearing Equipment mods.

- Food, drink and medicine. Lots of changes here.

- Survival Mode. PEACE uses an edited version of the monster "HC_ManagerScript" that controls Survival Mode. (Though I did roll in UFO4P's fixes to the script.)

- Technically I should mention weapon OMODs and Loose Mods again, since PEACE also edits those to give them realistic/reasonable weight values as part of its encumbrance overhaul.

- Levelled Lists again, probably. A number of edits there. (E.g. adding new items, and removing items from "death lists" for creatures so that they don't have a cut of meat from their own body in their non-existent "pockets", somehow.)

 

 

Mods relating to Legendary effects are likely to be straight-up incompatible with both WARS and PEACE since I was trying to make them not rely on the existence of literal magic in order to be possible, and I don't think I've seen mods that add/edit Legendary effects do so in a way that would... complement that, let's say.

 

Also Armorsmith Extended will likely conflict heavily with PEACE. PEACE does a number of the same things that it does, though with a lighter touch, from what I can tell. Whether that's a good or a bad thing might depend on how much you like the full range of Armorsmith Extended's changes.

 

I should probably write up a tutorial for adding PEACE support for clothing/armour mods too, actually... though it's pretty easy - especially for normal apparel (not power armour). For most apparel it's basically adding one Mod Association keyword for each pocket/pouch/bag size OMOD it can have, and if applicable, adding the default pocket size OMOD it should have to its Object Template. And that's about it.

 

Both WARS and PEACE should be fine alongside mods that edit weather, lighting, environments, atmospherics, whatever (mods like that should probably load after WARS and PEACE). Both mods make minor additions to some interior and exterior locations; placing a few items, moving some things slightly (like slightly moving a couple of perk mags that are used as schematics in WARS to locations that aren't quest/faction-gated), that sort of thing. The most significant there is probably PEACE placing some CAPtain ATMs in certain places, though I was always careful to do so in a way that wouldn't require editing navmeshes.

 

It's all minor enough that it should have no impact on precombines, as far as I can tell.

 

I wouldn't expect Sim Settlements to conflict heavily, but I don't know yet. I'll most likely be looking at that while getting my load order set up.

[Mavkiel]

Got rid of armorsmith extended and all mods that require it. Drawing up a list of mods I am probably going to use that will need patches.. Basically the "rebirth" series for adding in weapons (rifles/miniguns) adds in some fun options... Even with the new weapons added by war, I want more! (I really like rifles and miniguns).. I'd imagine miniguns will be a pain in the butt to patch.

 

Armor wise I use very little mainly retexture mods so yay me for compatibility. Weather mods.. (debating to go for a standard weather mod or silent hill themed one)...

 

So basically only sim settlements might be an issue depending on how your testing comes out!

[WaterHazard]

Well, i'm waiting for WARS and PEACE to be released to do a fresh new playthrough. Most of the times, i just went for more lore-friendly mods like the FAL and Deadpool2099's mods, but i do think that it's going to suck ass patching mods like Combined Arms and it's expansion.

[antistar]

Got rid of armorsmith extended and all mods that require it. Drawing up a list of mods I am probably going to use that will need patches.. Basically the "rebirth" series for adding in weapons (rifles/miniguns) adds in some fun options... Even with the new weapons added by war, I want more! (I really like rifles and miniguns).. I'd imagine miniguns will be a pain in the butt to patch.

How annoying a weapon will be to add support for will largely depend on how many OMODs it has, and on how it and the OMODs are set up. The more different it is to how weapons are set up in WARS, the more there'll be to change. It being a minigun or not might not make much of a difference, compared to that side of things.

 

Oh - if it's a weapon that can support a number of different ammo types, that'll add onto the workload too, since every ammo sub-type for every ammo type for every weapon needs its own dummy weapon, in order for NPC ammo-swapping to work. (Not quite as bad as it sounds; it's mostly duplicating a weapon record, changing a few values, duplicating again, changing a few values again, and so on.)

 

 

Well, i'm waiting for WARS and PEACE to be released to do a fresh new playthrough. Most of the times, i just went for more lore-friendly mods like the FAL and Deadpool2099's mods, but i do think that it's going to suck ass patching mods like Combined Arms and it's expansion.

Well, I'll be adding support for the FN FAL myself at least, in the "WARS - Lend Lease" add-on. Probably doing that next actually (along with the Smith and Wesson Model 1905 Revolver, since I think the Pipe Revolver needs a proper, factory-made .38 Spc counterpart), so that I can finish up writing the WARS support tutorial while I'm at it.

 

 

 

Right now I'm going through all the Races (creature types) in the game and filling out the FO4Edit scripts that determine the DR/ER range that NPCs can have. (Not including any DR/ER from armour for humans, super mutants, etc.)

 

Did you know that in vanilla FO4, high-level Triggermen have natural DR such that they could be stark naked but still somehow as well protected as if they were wearing a full suit of heavy combat armour? Yeesh. This is the sort of stuff I'm fixing.

 

There are three FO4Edit scripts; one each for HP, DR and ER. The scripts are based on FO4Edit Despongifier, and I have permission to distribute them (with the WARS Support Tutorial maybe?) so that people can run them on any mods they may be using that add new NPCs, and have their HP, DR and ER automatically normalised to work well with WARS. (It'll create a patch plugin, basically.)

[Mavkiel]

Yep did a wee bit of looking under the hood. I really wish someone would ask Todd if starfield will use a similar system with dr. How goes the testing? :)

[antistar]

Things have been busy, but I've just about finished filling out the DR/ER normalisation FO3Edit scripts; only a couple of races left to do. Then I'll test some of those a bit with some different weapons (just in the QASmoke testing cell) to see how they feel.

Some are easier that others (e.g. for most creatures with only skin/fur and no scales/chitin I'm just setting DR/ER to zero so that JHP works well on them), but it can be a little complicated to work out the formula I want for some races. E.g. the DR one for Stingwings looks like this:

//StingwingRace "Stingwing" [RACE:0005FBB1]
//Desired Range: 15-40
//Known Actor Base DR range: 20-60
//Race DR: 0 (Unchanged)
if race = $0005FBB1 then begin
    if (DamageResist > 30) then begin
        newDR := 20 + (Sqrt(Abs(DamageResist)*6));
        e := setDR(e, newDR);
    end;
end;

So there's some interplay between what I want the DR range to be, what the range is for vanilla NPCs of this race, what the range could be in mods, how big or small the desired/vanilla/potential mod ranges are compared to each other, etc. Maybe this sort of thing is simpler for people who don't hate maths, but that's not me, so... :wink:


Anyway, I should finish the last couple off today, which is exciting actually, since that means that WARS will be feature-complete*.

Still got some support/compatibility patch work to do, and the WARS support tutorial to finish off - but then I can get my load order set up and finally test WARS and PEACE out properly.

 

 

*Edit: This in post number 2500 of the thread, nice/oof. ;)

Edited October 23, 2022 by antistar