True alternative start - framework - need scripting help/advice

[SandMouseAnarchy]

Hi all :)

 

Among other things I'm working on at the moment I'm also exploring the possibility of my own alternative start mod.

 

The alternative start mods that exist already are great, but they all still start at the character creation scene in pre-war sanctuary.

 

 

What I'd like to develop is a framework whereby instead of the intro video for a new game - the player is given a menu to choose an option for where to start. Eg: pre-war sanctuary, vault 81, nuka world, institute, bos in Cambridge etc.

Then when the option is selected an appropriate video plays (fo4 intro, or the nukaworld trailer etc) then the world space loads up and places the player near a light, repositions the camera and starts the character creation menu.

 

 

Technical difficulties -

 

I've read that there's a lot of things that need to run at the start of a new game that run while you're in pre war sanctuary, that can't be avoided - probably the reason those alternative start mods don't cut that bit out.

 

so the work around idea I'll be trying is -

 

Skip the intro video, the game starts normally, but as you enter the sanctuary character creation scene, the screen stays black with the game still starting up normally in the background,

The 'where to start menu' shows and then the intro video plays.

while the video plays, the game kicks the player out of character creation, and let's everything load normally again in the background. The opening quests etc are automatically completed, and when the intro video finishes the player is teleported to the new location they picked and any new intro quests can be started - like defending the bos in Cambridge or finding that cat in vault 81.

 

Does anyone with knowledge of the starting procedures/quests etc know if this is possible without breaking the game? What to look out for? What to avoid?

 

Thanks :)

[SKKmods]

If you want to do this purely through scripting with no external DLL code injection/intercept you may struggle (I did with SKK Fast Start).

 

But don't be told, create a start game enabled quest and attach an instrumentation script that logs the set stage events of key start game enabled quests to figure out what is going on and see if you can find a script intercept point.

Event OnQuestInit()
   RegisterForRemoteEvent(pMQ101, "OnStageSet")  
   RegisterForRemoteEvent(pTutorial, "OnStageSet") 
   RegisterForRemoteEvent(pMQ102, "OnStageSet") 
   ;plus a bunch of others I cant remember
EndEvent

Event Quest.OnStageSet(Quest  akSender, int auiStageID, int auiItemID)
   Debug.Trace ("MYFILTER Quest " + akSender + " Stage " +  auiStageID + " Item " + auiItemID)
EndEvent

 

As to breaking the game, yes you will for the first couple of hundred hours of trial and error releases. Read THIS for an overview: https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/articles/1038

[SandMouseAnarchy]

Thank-you SKK50 for the great reply, exactly the kind of advice I was looking for ^.^ and cool article, thanks for the link, it was very helpful.

 

It sounds like MQ001 and MQ002 will need to be completed in the background before the player is teleported to the new start location. That way everyone's mods will start up as normal, like you wrote about in that article :)

 

Are the S.P.E.C.I.A.L and 'choose name' menus stages for MQ001? Or are they required to be set before MQ002 finishes?

[SKKmods]

Depending on how aggressive your dismembering the game will be, you can either totally ignore the base game quests once you have an intercept, or if you want to offer the choice to run any of the main quests you will need to learn MQ101 and the early stages of MQ102.

 

Best to step through the quest stages (and alias scrips, and quest scripts and "used by" links) in the creation kit to see what needs to be done for player and world setup. Bonus marks if you run the various fast and alt start mods scripts through Champollion to see how they get stuff done.

[SandMouseAnarchy]

Thanks again for a great reply SKK50! Real gold.

 

Yeh, the mod - I hope - will add little lore friendly starting quests for each location picked, so unless the vanilla start option is picked, I think it would be best to pick the main quest up like the 'start me up mod' with a quest "rumour of a vault" or something like that where the player would have to go find vault 111 before the quest to tell nick valentine starts.

The mod will keep the game mostly vanilla, no real dismemberment ;) so just like you say, I think the first major milestone is going to be understanding MQ101 and MQ102 and seeing how the other modders did theirs. Good shout with champollion, I'll go check that out :)

 

Thanks mate!