Fallout 76 modding

[xCrimsonWolfx72]

Am currently getting ready to do a whole bunch of re-textures for when Bethesda fully supports modding. The problem is Nifskope doesn't seem to want to open the nifs from 76, nor does Intel Texture Works wanna open the .DDS'. Anyone have any idea as to how that could be fixed? Perhaps the files are locked down?

 

Also I agree with that lockpick mod, completely cheating. That will surely be justifiable for a ban.

[Evangela]

Nifskope probably needs to be updated to support 76 nif files. What I'm saying is, the nif format might contain data that is not known to the current version of nifskope.

[ghostfc3s]

Hello fellow authors, one of my first thoughs with the announcement of 76 was well there goes modding!

 

 

These are my thoughts on the state of modding or potential to mod 76.(only my thoughts on it based on fo4 modding and modding other online games).

 

I do think in its current nonprivate server format we will be unable to do rebalances Ie damage mods, health mods, level lists.

 

Nor will be able to do *new* asset mods Ie orginal armor original weapons.

 

As all players connecting to a server will need to have the same file sets. Once private servers go up, to play on them the player will need to have the same file set and load order "client side" to link up and play on that server.

 

What we will be able to do until the CK and private servers will be reskins(textures) and potentially nif file swaps (new armor/body types) provided collision detection is not altered.

 

This generally achieved by replacing the vanilla file with authors custom file (renamed and place in the same file structure as the vanilla)

 

Comparable to the way you mod COD or Counter Strike back in the day.

 

3D models/.nif and custom animation/custom weapons

 

These we will be difficult to achieve for an online game. Current Nif structure for armour and clothing includes collision data and dismemberment date (meatcaps/segments). This where the engine register hits on the players. In the early days of FO4 modding we couldn't have armor that had dismemberment, with the improvement of nifscope and bodslide later additions had "segments" that allowed for dismemberment and vats targetting.

 

This will have to be discovered and new models will have to have the same values and collision as vanilla to work properly.

 

Keep in mind the cosmetic changes will only be client side and will replace all instances of the armor you are replacing. The affects will only be visible to you.

 

Weapons, and animation will also be client side "replacers" and be cosmetic only (until private servers).

 

Replacers/weapon "skins" for weapons will be very difficult to achieve specifically for functioning iron sights/scopes. As the values for pov are kept in the .esm/.esp file sets which once again will need to be universally the same for all players.

 

This means mod authors will have to attempt to line up sights as 3d models which will may or may not work based on custom weapon being made. Ie replacing the combat rifle with a M4/service rifle.

 

The animations, replacement animations will work as long as animation time is identical to the vanilla original. Once again that data of how long it takes to reload a combat rifle is kept in the .esm files. So authors will need to keep animation times identical.

 

Once again changes effect client side only.

 

Those are my thoughts on it.

 

I see that some users have managed to get new body types into the game with limited success so that is promising!!

[zanity]

The OP has some of the most nasty and toxic "respect Beth or else" dev responses I've ever seen- and proves just has nasty Toxic Todd has made our community. Beth deserves ZERO respect. If Beth's many 10/10 FO76 user reviews on Metacritic, clearly produced by the usual paid Indian troll farms (so called 'reputation management' services) don't convince you of Beth's rotten biz practises, nothing will.

 

Beth is no-one's 'friend' but a money making machine for the thoroughly ROTTEN Zenimax corporation (go Google the long criminal history of the top people at Zenimax- its hardly hidden). For sure we could 'like' Beth when it was making games that met our needs, but beyond this...

 

FO76 is a ten dollar game with another ten dollars worth of content behind a PAY-WALL of thousands of dollars in the microtransaction store- that Beth wants you to pay 60 dollars for. Never forget this. So awful and CHEAP is FO76, when you drop a nuke Beth even failed to model a ruined version of the game space.

 

That devs of Fallout 4 tools are telling you to CRAWL at the feet of Bethesda and beg the 'right' to change your game - cos you are nothing but 'dirty cheaters' if you mod WITHOUT Beth's explicit permission is sickening.

 

Everything is broken in FO76, including once again textures PURPOSELY stored in vastly inefficient forms to artificially inflate the amount of GPU VRAM needed (Beth wants the recommended specs to be 'high' to give the impression to the naive that the engine is 'modern'). I should know. I originally played Fallout 4 out-of-the-box on an old 1GB 6870. Fools who believe the lies spewed by Beth would tell me my initial terrible experiences were down to ignoring Beth's recommended specs. But heavy modding later, with vastly BETTER textures and low level VRAM OS hacks (which fooled Fallout 4 about the true amount of VRAM), the game ran excellently, all on HIGH. Beth had literally sabotaged Fallout 4 to make it seem like it needed far higher specs than it really did. Cos Fallout 4 could be freely modded, this sabotage could be mostly reversed.

 

The giant clue is an engine looking as bad and dated as FO76 does, yet runs far WORSE than state of the art engines doing far far more like RDR2 and Dying Light.

 

That the modding tool devs now think themselves in bed with Bethesda makes me sick. Zenimax loves nothing more than idiots WHO WORK FOR FREE, producing work that makes the owners of Zenimax even richer. Of course, ex-nexus modders who now work for Beth's creation club are the POOREST paid artists and coders in the industry- a very unfortunate fact.

 

But one job of FO76 was to make the free modding community turn toxic, because this community has NO FUTURE in Beth's future plans. Beth is NEVER going to support non-Creation Club modding of FO76 (and to Todd's credit, he has said this loud and clear over and over and over again). And those pie-in-the-sky 'private servers'? Todd has stated recently, IF they ever happen, they will be RENTALS from Beth's own private server farms. So no officially allowed third party modding of FO76 ever. And no 'private servers' on your PC ever.

 

Which leaves unofficial modding (and the toxic attitudes and actions taken by current dev tools against this) and the inevitable VERY unofficial reverse engineered thin server module which will allow you to play offline. When this module first appears, this community will be in fuill blown civil war, just as Beth desires.

 

Modding made Beth successful in the 'difficult days'. Believe me, they have zero gratitude for this. Today zenimax asks "don't these HACKERS simply eat into our potential micro-transactions profits?" and Todd answers "why yes, that is exactly what they do".

 

It is clear from posts of modding tool devs that they would have prefered the Nexus to have BANNED FO76 mods pre-emptively. I have suspicions why the nexus did not (everything is 'politics'). But the only reason Beth hasn't acted against the nexus YET is the astonishing commercial failure of the launch of FO76- and Beth's current 100% focus on getting the PAID mainstream journalists to say something positive about the game. Honest trusted independent Youtube game review channels, like Worth-a-Buy and Jimpressions have been 100% negative. Beth thinks that at this moment, it is sensible to leave PC FO76 'modding' alone.

 

This changes when 'cheating' (like that actually means anything in a 'game' as lame as FO76- 'cheating' would actually make this game more interesting) becomes a hot button issue in the yellow gaming 'journalist' outlets. These fake news outlets are chomping at the bit to demonise modding and the Nexus. Conflating 'cheating' and 'hacking' with the Nexus modding community - with the assistance of quotes from skyrim/fallout 4 mod tools devs- would have Todd Howard howl with delight.

 

The LAST saving factor for our community was the fact that many old school gaming 'journalists' loved Skyrim and Fallout with mods. But now Beth is mobile, microtransaction and 'gaming as a service' only, THESE journalists are being sacked and replaced, one by one- replaced by faux SJW types with the theme "modders are yet another example of entitled toxic males". Beth wants and needs paid journos to sing the praises of FO76, and laud all the ways it is NOT Fallout 4.

 

Reading this in the FO76 section of the Nexus? Know this is but the 'calm' before the storm. The storm is coming and this community (general PC game modding) will never be the same afterwards.