Fallout 3 reloading

[SpartanISW108]

Hey guys.

I was just wondering how on Fallout 3 when the PC reloads a half empty magazine the PC pulls the charging lever of the weapons upon entering a new magazine. In reality this would empty the chamber of the weapon by discarding the bullet loaded thus requiring another pull of the charging handle to load a bullet.

 

Is there any sort of mod that could add this feature into the game

-reload from a not completely empty magazine and you get magazine capacity+1 loaded ammo for the gun
-reload from a not completely empty magazine and the PC DOESN'T pull the charging lever
-reload from a completely empty magazine and the PC DOES pull the charging lever

Do you guys know if this would be possible or not?

[prensa]

ilyasw - Hello!

"I was just wondering how on Fallout 3 when the PC reloads a half empty magazine the PC pulls the charging lever of the weapons upon entering a new magazine."

The Fallout 3 animation for Rifle - Automatic (2 Hand)'s, like the Chinese Assault rifle, is quite correct.

Replace the magazine, pull the charging handle back & release.

"In reality this would empty the chamber of the weapon by discarding the bullet loaded thus requiring another pull of the charging handle to load a bullet."

No, because the magazine is inserted before the charging handle is pulled.

The charging handle is pulled back which would indeed eject any chambered round if there was still one in there but it's also immediately released which chambers a fresh round from the newly inserted magazine on it's way back to it's starting position (completing it's cycle).

Pulling the charging handle back & ejecting a chambered round would only leave the weapon empty if there was no magazine inserted or if the magazine was empty.

If the charging handle is not pulled & released after inserting the magazine then no round will be chambered. The weapon would only have a round ready if it was chambered before the new magazine was inserted, giving you a full magazine & "one down the pipe".

The charging handle is effectively cocking an automatic rifle, that's why it's also called a cocking handle.

So really the only thing the animation is missing is the appearance of an ejected round when reloading before the weapon was completely emptied. A minor detail that would be really fiddly to implement.

"Is there any sort of mod that could add this feature into the game

-reload from a not completely empty magazine and you get magazine capacity+1 loaded ammo for the gun
-reload from a not completely empty magazine and the PC DOESN'T pull the charging lever
-reload from a completely empty magazine and the PC DOES pull the charging lever"

Well I wouldn't want to say impossible to do. :smile:

Just a lot of effort for a very minor tweak.

For a start the pulling of the charging handle is controlled by the reload animation .kf that the weapon is using, the same thing that's controlling the magazine swap out style. Whether or not the animation plays the charging handle pull or not depends on whether the model in use has the correct bolt animation label on a moving part.

You'd need to run a script that detected how full the weapon was & play a different reload animation that had the charging handle pull stripped out & only contained the magazine change.

It is possible to use scripts to replace weapon animations with new ones, there's a very good tutorial of how to do this for reload & jam animations here:

http://www.svartberg.com/tutorials/fallout3_customreload/customreload.html

So tweaking that method & I'm guessing it would be possible to do what you're listing but it seems a lot of effort for little gain to me.

The animations in many cases use "shorthand" for certain things & it works just fine. For instance the spent magazine just gets pulled out & placed back if you watch carefully. But no one does, it's shorthand mixed with some sleight of hand.

Best not to over examine such things or it can drive you crazy. :smile:

Hope this helps!

Prensa

Edited April 15, 2013 by prensa

[SpartanISW108]

ilyasw - Hello!

 

"I was just wondering how on Fallout 3 when the PC reloads a half empty magazine the PC pulls the charging lever of the weapons upon entering a new magazine."

 

The Fallout 3 animation for Rifle - Automatic (2 Hand)'s, like the Chinese Assault rifle, is quite correct.

 

Replace the magazine, pull the charging handle back & release.

 

"In reality this would empty the chamber of the weapon by discarding the bullet loaded thus requiring another pull of the charging handle to load a bullet."

 

No, because the magazine is inserted before the charging handle is pulled.

 

The charging handle is pulled back which would indeed eject any chambered round if there was still one in there but it's also immediately released which chambers a fresh round from the newly inserted magazine on it's way back to it's starting position (completing it's cycle).

 

Pulling the charging handle back & ejecting a chambered round would only leave the weapon empty if there was no magazine inserted or if the magazine was empty.

 

If the charging handle is not pulled & released after inserting the magazine then no round will be chambered. The weapon would only have a round ready if it was chambered before the new magazine was inserted, giving you a full magazine & "one down the pipe".

 

The charging handle is effectively cocking an automatic rifle, that's why it's also called a cocking handle.

 

So really the only thing the animation is missing is the appearance of an ejected round when reloading before the weapon was completely emptied. A minor detail that would be really fiddly to implement.

 

"Is there any sort of mod that could add this feature into the game

 

-reload from a not completely empty magazine and you get magazine capacity+1 loaded ammo for the gun

-reload from a not completely empty magazine and the PC DOESN'T pull the charging lever

-reload from a completely empty magazine and the PC DOES pull the charging lever"

 

Well I wouldn't want to say impossible to do. :smile:

 

Just a lot of effort for a very minor tweak.

 

For a start the pulling of the charging handle is controlled by the reload animation .kf that the weapon is using, the same thing that's controlling the magazine swap out style. Whether or not the animation plays the charging handle pull or not depends on whether the model in use has the correct bolt animation label on a moving part.

 

You'd need to run a script that detected how full the weapon was & play a different reload animation that had the charging handle pull stripped out & only contained the magazine change.

 

It is possible to use scripts to replace weapon animations with new ones, there's a very good tutorial of how to do this for reload & jam animations here:

 

http://www.svartberg.com/tutorials/fallout3_customreload/customreload.html

 

So tweaking that method & I'm guessing it would be possible to do what you're listing but it seems a lot of effort for little gain to me.

 

The animations in many cases use "shorthand" for certain things & it works just fine. For instance the spent magazine just gets pulled out & placed back if you watch carefully. But no one does, it's shorthand mixed with some sleight of hand.

 

Best not to over examine such things or it can drive you crazy. :smile:

 

Hope this helps!

 

Prensa

 

Oh poo, sorry, I was a bit intoxicated upon typing that, I didn't really proof read what I typed. I didn't figure that cycling the bolt on a half mag reload wouldn't leave the chamber empty. My bad :3

 

I don't have the animation skills or scripting skills to be able to do that unfortunately -sigh-