Rappel down cliffsides?

[Nychus01]

I find myself frequently needing to scale down cliffs. One can do this by walking horizontally along cliff faces, inching your way down from ledge to ledge - the Courier can stand on near-vertical cliff faces without sliding off, probably some kind of oversight, but useful. This gave me the idea of finding climbing equipment, like the Ropes from the STUN mod, maybe something to stake them with, and turning them into consumables which can be used to rappel safely down a cliff face or off the top of a building, one time each. Naturally, if you get shot or attacked by a Cazador or something while rappeling, you ragdoll and fall the remaining distance, taking whatever damage that would normally inflict. Maybe toss a Strength or Endurance check in there to see if you hold on, factor something like that into how quickly you can descend. Hit the jump key to push away from the cliff and drop faster. Another option for letting go of the rope and dropping the remaining distance, attempting to land naturally. Maybe even stop-to-shoot, but have to remain stationary if you do that until you make it all the way down.

 

I'm a GECK noob, and in any case this would likely require some animation work. Thought I'd toss the idea out there in case anyone else is familiar with "cliffing" their way into valleys instead of taking a roundabout route.

Edited August 5, 2018 by Nychus01

[Nychus01]

Heck, it would almost be adequate just to use the "crouch-walking while holding a rifle" animation, putting the rope in their hands and rotating the Courier's worldview 60-90 degrees onto their back depending on the slope of the surface they're on or something.

[WeissYohji]

That sounds like an excellent idea for a mod! I'd download and use it. It would be awesome for plugging some Fiends from the mountains west of Vegas (especially Cook-Cook). Ditto sniping NCR and Legion troops further east. One of my favorite things to do after finishing Lonesome Road (Read: After nuking both factions) is to go north along the mountains from the Legion raid camp where you find the captured Powder Gangers, then snipe Legionaries, NCR Rangers, and the raiders in and around Ranger Station Charlie. I'll use a Stealth Boy while up in those mountains and plug the raiders southwest (near the train tunnel), shoot some Legion NPCs lying in wait to attack the caravan traveling along the road, and take out a Ranger or two at the ranger station proper. Rappelling would make this even more fun to do.

[devinpatterson]

Heck, it would almost be adequate just to use the "crouch-walking while holding a rifle" animation, putting the rope in their hands and rotating the Courier's worldview 60-90 degrees onto their back depending on the slope of the surface they're on or something.

Yeah, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about animations and that's probably the "right" way to do it, but I think the chance of finding someone to do them is a real long shot.

It is possible to do a hack, that might work. You can do a play group (the two handed while crouched weapon) while a script moves the courier in the z axis (as well as the rotation). This is done for Illisiums's rideable creatures that I ported to NV. It's kludgy, but it's the only thing I can think of without creating new animations.

[Nychus01]

That sounds like an excellent idea for a mod! I'd download and use it. It would be awesome for plugging some Fiends from the mountains west of Vegas (especially Cook-Cook). Ditto sniping NCR and Legion troops further east. One of my favorite things to do after finishing Lonesome Road (Read: After nuking both factions) is to go north along the mountains from the Legion raid camp where you find the captured Powder Gangers, then snipe Legionaries, NCR Rangers, and the raiders in and around Ranger Station Charlie. I'll use a Stealth Boy while up in those mountains and plug the raiders southwest (near the train tunnel), shoot some Legion NPCs lying in wait to attack the caravan traveling along the road, and take out a Ranger or two at the ranger station proper. Rappelling would make this even more fun to do.

Interesting! Any idea how to get started? I'm pretty much brand new at Geck aside from fixing typos in named objects and dialogue in other mods.

[dubiousintent]

You might want to start by looking over some of the tutorials linked under the "Animation" section of the wiki "Getting started creating mods using GECK" article.

 

-Dubious-