Upgrading/Replacing/Rebuilding Buildings

[genolune]

I don't know the technical term for it, but basically I'm wondering how to do something like Nipton Rebuilt, Underground Hideout in FO3, Afterschool Special, etc. where you can get materials for a builder or pay caps to have something rebuilt or go on a quest for the builder, etc. I don't have any place in mind (mostly because I don't want to do a location that's already been done). I've been playing TTW so maybe I'll try to do all that for a location or two in Fallout 3. I'm actually really intrigued about the concept as it can allow you to have say the Enclave or Brotherhood of Steel or whatever build an outpost somewhere.

[dubiousintent]

Basically those are a series of stages in a quest, or possibly a series of quests. To start with you need to outline for yourself what you want to do: with prerequisites, and outputs at each step. From that you develop the dialog between the player and the quest giver (builder). Then you determine the conditions which control when each dialog is presented, which are controlled by your script(s). Generally these conditions are flags that something has been accomplished: set as various stages in the quest are finished.

 

Suggest the best way to get a handle on how this is done is to examine and layout the flow of some of those existing scripts, such as "Afterschool Special". I have found that putting the dialog and script stages in a spreadsheet works well for the purpose of decrypting the flow, because you often find you need to move the position (rows) of entries around to get the sequence of flow from one script to another correct. But that was before learning about "Obsidian Conversation Editor" (OCE) which is built into the GECK, so that might work better.

 

Not to dampen your enthusiasm, but this is an ambitious project. You need to have some experience with simple quest scripting first. Nothing wrong with starting by building the simplest of your proposed project scripts/quests first, and more complex ones later. That is where having an outline of what needs to be accomplished pays off big dividends.

 

-Dubious-

[genolune]

I got to start somewhere right? It's going to be some small location somewhere to really practice the scripting and quest writing until I get competent enough to move beyond a small player home.

[Mktavish]

To just see something built in stages first while your trying to get a handle on how to shape the story around it.

 

I suggest using some activators placed at the build site running an "OnActivate" script.

To just enable certain pieces per time. Use a switch or , I have used tool boxes for this purpose.

 

Script on it like this ...

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

SCN MyToolBox01script

 

Begin OnActivate

 

MyFloorRef.Enable

MyWall01Ref.Enable

MyWall02Ref.Enable

;etc ...

MyToolBox02Ref.Enable ; enable second activator

MyToolBox01Ref.Disable ; disable first activator

 

End

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Then later you can move this scripting into Result Scripts of dialogue , QuestStages , what ever.

Or even just put conditional If statements on the tool box script , and keep the tool box as a story component.