Mod newbie, feedback needed

[Mktavish]

So I guess you are standing on the man hole in game looking down to then determine how much of the screen it takes. Then going to the spot you want to put it , and determining from the edges of the screen ? Kudo's to inventiveness :thumbsup: ... your going to do just fine once you get the Geck running . You'll be surprised what usefulness you can dig out of it .

 

On the difference from horizonal / vertical versions you notice in game. They are all based on the same model / .nif file. Albeit there may be quite a few base-id versions in the object tree , for others reasons we'll talk about later. But the in game rendered versions ... are all Ref-ID's.

So when I mention "MegatonSewerExit01" it is a base-id object that you would drag/drop in the render window to create a "Reference Identification" object with 3D data in the world about how it was placed.

So when you drop something in ... it has it's default orientation ... then you manipulate it around how you want it ... in 360 degrees on 3 axis points. Then there is the Scale field also ... you can go to 2 decimal places above below. Also only 10.0 times larger , or .01 smaller.

Which is plenty of scale variation for most any object imo.

Then , you can take a grouping of all static objects , and turn them into a SCOL object. So they can all be manipulated together. But that is for objects only found under "Static" in the object tree.

How ever fear not if you find an activator object you want to add to a SCOL . You can turn it into a static object if they didn't have one in the tree already :)

 

Alrighties then , I'm gona cut off there with the Geck chat till later or more questions.

[DigitalBlasphemer]

I do know from watching the tutorials that I'd have to make a copy of the item I wish to create, rename the copy to make it unique to the mod and easier to find, and also so I can tweak it without messing with the original.

I've been studying hardcore and this task seems less and less daunting.

I have a feeling that once I get my PC going, I'll have this interior space created in a week with all the cosmetics taking another week or so implement, and then another week to make everything absolutely perfect.

That said though, I have another question...or rather, a few questions...

 

1. How do I create an NPC?

2. How do I generate that NPC's demeanor? (Hostile/not hostile)

3. Can I resize the unique NPC?

4. How would I attribute appropriate sound files to the NPC? (ie, speech, growls, grunts, sighs, cries, etc)

5. How big can my interior space be before it's too big?

6. How many additional interior spaces can I attach via exits to the original?

[DigitalBlasphemer]

Oh, a very important question to add to that list:

7. The Nuka-Cola lamp...

I've seen two types, both types have one difference, the light source.

In one version, the light source is a light bulb under the lamp shade.

In the other version, (the one I wish to use),the bottle on the base lights up.

 

My question is, can I place a lamp with a light up bottle base in my bunker and givee it a dynamic action?

I want to make it to where I can toggle it on and off.

[Mktavish]

Oh geeze that's a lot of various subjects. Which is best focused on individually ... and better done when you have the GECK at your fingertips . Cuz also I am betting you will answer most of your questions having it in front of you.

 

But lets go with your last question there. Making a lamp work with player activation.

 

It's all in the script usually using "Begin OnActivate"

 

Which turns on the light object or off ... based on what could be classified as a "dip switch"

 

In the script it declares , then saves a variable value slot so to speak.

In this case we would use an int or short variable. Which they are the same thing for my understanding. So a script would look like this for example ...

 

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

SCN MyLightScript ; this is the Script ID which must always be at top

 

Int iSwitch ; this is the variable to say ON/OFF 0= off 1= on

 

Begin OnActivate PlayerRef ; start of the block , also specifies player only

 

If iSwitch == 0

MyLightSource.Enable ; turn on the light

Set iSwitch to 1 ; sets it to do something diff next time

elseif

iSwitch == 1

MyLightSource.Disable ; turn off the light

Set iSwitch to 0 ; sets it back to original position

 

endif ; only need one endif cuz I used elseif

End ; Stops it reading code

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

 

This particular code block will only read once per activation , instead of every frame like "GameMode" Which means as many times as your frame rate happens per second. Hence OnActivate code blocks in scripts are more efficient to run , if you can get it done with them. But ultimately you need to run a fair amount of stuff in continuous read blocks to get it to work properly. Just need to keep the processor cycles in mind ... more on that later.

[DigitalBlasphemer]

Makes sense.

So this particular addition wouldn't bog the game down any noticeable amount, would it?

[madmongo]

1. How do I create an NPC?

 

Method 1: Select NPC on the left side of the Object Window, right click somewhere on the right side of the Object Window, and select New. Give your NPC a unique editor ID, go through all of the tabs and set up the NPC however you want.

 

Method 2: Pick an NPC that is close to what you want and right click on Edit, change the NPC's ID to something new and unique, and then go through the tabs and change whatever you want.

 

2. How do I generate that NPC's demeanor? (Hostile/not hostile)

 

Alignment and Disposition on the Traits tab, Aggression, Confidence, Aggro Radius Behavior, Aggro Radius on the AI Data Tab. You can also do things with scripts to force them to attack under particular circumstances.

 

3. Can I resize the unique NPC?

 

Yes. On the Traits tab there is a height which is by default set to 0.00. A height of 1.0 is 100 percent, or normal. 0.00, somewhat confusingly, means "use default", which also works out to 100 percent. If you want the NPC to be 5 percent taller than a normal person, use a height of 1.05. Similarly, if you want them to be 5 percent shorter, use 0.95.

 

If the NPC can sandbox, furniture markers expect a standard size person and strange things happen if your NPC is too big or too small.

 

4. How would I attribute appropriate sound files to the NPC? (ie, speech, growls, grunts, sighs, cries, etc)

 

You need to make a quest to handle the NPC's dialog and other sounds. You can use existing voice types, but be careful. Sometimes all you need for certain default game dialog to trigger is to have the NPC set to a particular voice type. If you want to guarantee that your NPC only says what you want them to say, create a new voice type and assign it to them.

 

The lip generator is missing. You can use the lip generator from Oblivion or Skyrim, or there is one available for download somewhere on the Nexus. Without lip files the NPC's mouth won't move, which looks weird when they are speaking. The lip generator needs wav files.

 

5. How big can my interior space be before it's too big?

 

I don't remember off the top of my head. If things get too far from the cell origin (0,0,0), the Havoc engine barfs and your cell ends up being a mess.

 

Another issue that you can run into is if your cell loads too many textures (because you have a big area with too much stuff in it) then you'll run the game out of memory and crash it.

 

Older PCs like what was current when the game was released will have slowdown issues if there are too many objects to render, but most folks these days have a PC that can easily handle drawing lots and lots of polygons so object and polygon counts are nowhere near as important as they used to be when the game was originally released. Still, try to keep things simple.

 

6. How many additional interior spaces can I attach via exits to the original?

 

I dunno. Quite a few, I imagine. How many did you have in mind?

Edited January 25, 2020 by madmongo

[Mktavish]

 

 

6. How many additional interior spaces can I attach via exits to the original?

 

I dunno. Quite a few, I imagine. How many did you have in mind?

 

The thing to keep in mind ... when making a door a portal ... it becomes that ... so you can technically link it to any number of arrival points via a script.

Linking 2 doors together via the built in stuff ... is just that ... they still function as a teleport.

You have to make your stuff all in exterior cell to get it to have no loading screen.

Definitely doable , even with interior kit pieces.

 

And with doors/teleport ... you could have 1 in the same cell that it transports to just 2 ft away. But going through that teleport , you would see a loading screen.

[dubiousintent]

Re: adding images. Please see the wiki "How to markup images (etc) in forum posts and comments" article. (But I think you are past needing to do that now.)

 

-Dubious-

[DigitalBlasphemer]

Thank you all for the detailed answers.

The NPC idea I had was a mini fire gecko that was not hostile and lived in the bunker. I was thinking of having it scripted to randomly breathe fire, as well as pace around, lick it's eyeball as they are wont to do, etc. No dialogue, just have it there as like, a pet of sorts.

 

I was also thinking with the multiple interiors of creating a secret vault.

I'm gonna refer to Fallout 3, specifically the sewer type entrances that look like cross crossed bars with a huge split down the middle, (as if someone previously had cut the bars and pried the grate open, lol, yeah, that one). There's one of them next to the large shallow rectangular pond in the DC ruins and it leads to a cavernous network under DC that's filled with leaking pipes and mirelurks.

There's also this same type of pried open sewer grate in New Vegas, right next to a cesspool with an old blue and yellow truck, (explodable, engine blows up if you shoot it too many times). Next to this truck is a powder ganger camp, (I forget which camp, but it's the one north of Primm).

Anyway, this cesspool is irradiated, causing 1rps and the truck has a bed frame falling out of the back, a cabinet, and various miscellaneous items such as plates and cans.

For this pried open grate, there is no entrance in the game, even though it looks like a super obvious entrance to a sewer and is unobstructed by anything.

I was thinking to make a sewer system running at a short, descending slope, coming to a flat area with 2 paths, one heading the direction Primm would be and straight, but blocked by a collapse. The second path would be facing the sewer entrance with a vault door control panel and a vault door. (Any numbers that aren't already claimed by modders or exist in the series?)

I forget the experiment vault-tec was running for this idea, though I was going to have multiple interiors for it and a unique boss NPC.

Any tips, pointers, anything, hit me with it.

[Mktavish]

So that is cell ( -14 , -7 ) in WastelandNV world space.

Using this base object "SewerEntranceDoorSTATIC" which is the grate ...

but this is the door frame piece base object ... "SewerEntrance01" The concrete cube with a rusty culvert pipe sticking out , that you place the grate inside.

And this grate being a Static object , does not have activation capability.

So you would need to replace it with this base object "SewerEntranceDoor01"

Then you would have a working Activator ( door ) to link to any other door.

Albeit this particular door is not of the animation type , to move out of the way like a lot of other doors do. The big gear vault door for example ... but still any door can be linked to another for teleportation (which always has a loading screen) And this particular door would need to be a teleport since it won't move out of the way , if that makes sense ?

 

So when you mean multiple cells , you just mean this door would go into the same tunnel system each time. And from there , you have a choice of doors ?

Or for example ... the first time you come in , it is a cell version that has the direction towards Prim blocked with rubble. Then after doing some Quest tasks ... you have a second version of this cell with the rubble cleared ? So then every time you use the sewer entrance it will load to the second version instead of the first ?

 

If that's the case ... the simplest way to do that is have 2 different references of "SewerEntranceDoor01" stacked on each other. But the second one flagged "Initially Disabled" And in a Quest Stage , or Dialogue response put ...

MySewerDoor01Ref.Disable

MySewerDoor02Ref.Enable

 

But of course there is a bunch of set up stuff I am glossing over ... just a mention to help you get the idea.

 

Hope that helps