[WIP] Weapon Addition and Replacement Suite (WARS)

[UlyssesBennett]

 

Actually, on the topic of support patches; anyone who thinks they may want to make a patch for a third-party weapon mod they like can get a head-start on that during the beta if they take part in it, since I'll also make the WARS Support Tutorial available during the beta. (The finished tutorial; obviously I already posted that draft of it a little while ago.)

If a finished / updated tutorial is available I'd be happy to go through it and try now and you could test it / add it to the add-ons for testing.

[antistar]

Cool; the more support patches available - and the sooner they're available - the better.

 

I'm working on the Levelled List part of the tutorial right now, and uuurrrrggghhh, I hate it. I was dreading this part. It's kind of difficult to explain nested LVLIs at the best of times, and I'm up to the most complicated part; explaining how to work out how many spare mags NPCs should spawn with.

 

The Levelled List stuff should be the last really significant chunk of the tutorial I need to write though, which is good. I'll be very glad to have it done, so I can get on with getting ready for extended play-testing. I think the tutorial will be crucial, but man, it's a real pain in the bum to write.

[Mavkiel]

Any updates? Inquiring minds want to know!

[antistar]

Yes, I've now finished writing the tutorial, basically. Hopefully the levelled list part will be clear enough. I may still add a short section mentioning a few miscellaneous balancing things for people to be aware of when adding support for a weapon. Components and perk requirements for crafting weapon mods, setting the levels that (attached) weapon mods can start spawning at - stuff like that. That'd be pretty short by necessity, since it'd vary enough for each weapon that I couldn't go into much detail anyway.

 

After setting up the levelled list script injection template, I did something similar for formlists. WARS uses a few formlists to define which weapons certain perks and Legendary effects apply to - and also which weapon mods can be attached/detached in the field using the Weapon Modification Kit (WMK - a reference to that old mod of mine). This formlist script injection template should make it easy for people to handle those things in weapon support patches.

 

I finished the FN FAL support in WARS - Lend-Lease (WARS-LL), and also added support for Subleader's Uzi. Earlier I'd mentioned wanting to add support for this M1905 Revolver, but I haven't been able to get a reply from its author re: some permissions stuff, so... I might not be able to support that one, unfortunately.

 

Support patches can be made without needing to include anything from the third-party weapon mod in question (the user just needs to install the original mod, as usual) - meaning that permission isn't required for them - but there are some art asset errors in that mod. If I fixed them myself, I'd need permission to redistribute the fixed assets.

 

It's a shame; I've been looking for a .38 Special revolver like that to include/support in WARS for years.

 

So instead I covered the Uzi, since it occurred to me that WARS has 9x19mm but didn't have a proper SMG using it. I mean it does have the Skorpion, which in WARS can come in .380 ACP or 9x19mm, but that's definitely on the low-tier end; more of a machine pistol.

 

I'm not planning to cover any more weapons in WARS-LL before the release of WARS. Being a compilation patch of sorts though, I felt like it needed at least two weapons in it to begin with. ;)

 

 

Now it's time to whip my load order into shape so I can do that extended play-test finally, and check for conflicts between WARS/PEACE and the mods I want to use, while I'm at it.

[UlyssesBennett]

Yes, I've now finished writing the tutorial, basically. Hopefully the levelled list part will be clear enough. I may still add a short section mentioning a few miscellaneous balancing things for people to be aware of when adding support for a weapon. Components and perk requirements for crafting weapon mods, setting the levels that (attached) weapon mods can start spawning at - stuff like that. That'd be pretty short by necessity, since it'd vary enough for each weapon that I couldn't go into much detail.

.

 

 

When you're ready, I'd be happy to try if you're ready to distribute. Or proof read if necessary.

[antistar]

Hey, thanks. :) I'll need to do at least some of my extended play-test before I'm comfortable putting it into others' hands, of course. I don't want to waste anyone's time (including my own) if there are any obvious issues that need to be fixed first. It'd be unfortunate if you spent time making some support patches but then had to redo a bunch of work because I needed to change something out from under you.

 

I guess that will still be a possibility if you were to start making a patch during the closed beta, but a lot less likely if I've had a chance to check how it all behaves in normal gameplay beforehand.

 

I can see about quickly adding that part about misc. balance aspects and then put up a link for what should be the more-or-less finished tutorial so that you (or anyone who wants to) can check it out, though.

[antistar]

Okay, here's the updated draft of the tutorial, for anyone who wants to have a look. I'm considering it finished unless I later think of something I forgot to cover, or I need to clarify something, or whatever:

 

- WARS - Third-Party Weapon Support Tutorial

[WaterHazard]

And how's the playthrough coming along? Enjoying F4?

[antistar]

Not there yet; I did that update to BAM (and PEACE of course) as a minor Christmas present - adding the M14 Pistol Rack.

 

Also, jwarner got back to me about the M1905, graciously giving me permission to update and use the assets - so I've been implementing that. I'm adding it to WARS itself instead of Lend-Lease, since I needed to edit all the assets for it anyway. (I.e. it wouldn't be using any of the assets from the original mod.)

 

If anyone's interested in the technical details, the green channel in the normal map needed to be inverted to fix highlight/shadow directions (some renderers use it one way, some the other), the spec and gloss textures both needed to be inverted (I'm guessing the original source was metal/rough rather than spec/gloss) so that shiny is shiny and dull is dull, not the opposite, and all the textures needed to be re-exported with mip-maps to avoid moire artefacting. All things that are relatively easy to miss when porting, but you get a much better result if they're fixed.

 

On top of that I chopped up the meshes a bit so that I could have different materials for wood, steel and brass, and re-did the snub and long barrels to get a smoother result.

 

Anyway, the M1905 is done now except for testing.

 

 

In addition to all that, I have family visiting for Christmas; less time for modding at the moment, unsurprisingly. ;)

[Crylec]

Hey Antistar I kept tracking your development of WARS and I'm wondering in percentage estimate of how far is the mod complete as well are you using bullet count patch?