Adding UO things to Fallout 2

Blackened

I should set a cutom tite
I have the idea to create a mod that adds some things from Ultima Online to Fallout 2. But I am not sure it could be done by me. I need to know there things:

•Is it legal to use UO things in my mod (like mining for Valorite, Agapite etc. - metals that are present only in UO)
•Is it legal to import images from UO? I guess it is, because the GGG(Gauss Gatling Gun) in the Megamod uses the image of Gauss Minigun from Fallout Tactics
•Does creating a Fallout mod requires any knowledge computer language(like C++ or Jass)? Or I can just download some kind of editor and do whatever I want?
If it requires any, could anyone provide me a wikipedia link of description about it?

Edit: Please reply even if you know answer to one of the questions.

Edit2: LOL, I misspelled Jass(Jazz) :oops:
 
legal? Since when has that mattered, but it would technical be illegal to distribute UO stuff, but who cares ;)

If you want to start modding by adding new weapons, maps, items etc... you can just use the official fallout mapper

If you are going to make new art the best program to convert them into Fallout 2 format is Frame Animator

Both programs can be found in the downloads sections (click on the 'Files' button at the top of the page).

Some changes require that you script them, new dialogues for example.
 
Thanks for your help.

Well, I am going add Mining "skill" that increases as you continue mining, but there will be a cap that depends on your level.

After that, there will be Blacksmithy that works similar to the one in UO (and mining will be like the one in UO). The chance to make a certain item will be 100% if I can't make it otherwise. Maybe I will think of some way to get Tinkering, Animal Taming, Lumberjacking, Tailoring and some other skills in the game.

Can this be done without any complex scripting that requires any programming knowledge?

Edit: I have done some images. Please, someone tell me how to upload them so that they load with the page(not appear as a link).

Edit2: Yeah, I get it. Now I am uploading them.

http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=uobaseso0.png

These are the UO metals: three types of necklaces, a ring, earrings, a bracelet and a single ingot for each metal.

From left to right, they are: Iron(obviously), Dull Copper, Shadow Iron, Copper, Bronze, Gold, Agapite, Verite, Valorite.

By the way, this image has been cut from a screenshot I took. I haven't uploaded it anywhere else. Feel free to upload it to any UO site without crediting me, just please note me if it gets famous :D

Some Brass Knuckles I have done:
dullcopperknucklesxg0.jpg

shadowironknuckleszo4.jpg


Hope I think out how to have a Valorite Advanced Powered Armor MK. 2 without overpowering it.
 
You will need to write or modify some scripts and create some new proto files (and probably more) to make these things work.

I would suggest taking a look at MIB88's Megamod, as he has implemented both skills and mining (to a limited extent) and it would give you a good idea of what will need to be done.
 
Blackened said:
...Maybe I will think of some way to get Tinkering, Animal Taming, Lumberjacking, Tailoring and some other skills in the game.

Can this be done without any complex scripting that requires any programming knowledge?

No extensive programming is required. Really. But, you will need to know how the game pulls information from certain files in order to work. So, a little creative scripting would need to be done. You could change some of the skills in the game. Or maybe you could take advantage of some of the unused perk slots in the game to do this (see Timeslip's trait engine tool). Or something could be made as a new karmic title (even though it would not really be a function of karma, it would just appear in that part of the character screen) and would provide certain benefits. Finally, as Morticia pointed out, something could even be done regarding the Mr. Fixit! mod. A few different options, as you can see.
 
I was actually wondering if I add some items to Mr.Fixit that require Blacksmithy instead of any regular skill.....will it work?

@Morticia: In fact that mine in Modoc gave me the idea of this mod.

Will learning C++ help me in modding Fallout 2?

Edit: I'm done with all Brass Knuckles. Here they are:
http://img186.imageshack.us/my.php?image=knucklesgz7.jpg
Some of them don't seem too fallouty to me. I am creating them by selecting a normal Brass Knuckles in the Photoshop with the Rectangular Marquee Tool and adjusting the Hue/Saturation/Brightness (ctrl+u).

For most of them I use the Colorize option. They took me several hours - I adjusted the colors finely. The problem is that when I want a brighter color I usually increase the brightness and this makes them partly transparent. It doesn't looks very good to me. Any other way to create them?

Edit2: I found out that there are two more options(Light Levels and Color Balance). I am going to remake all those knuckles.
 
I couldn't begin to give any help or suggestions about Photoshop. Those knuckles look fine to me. Of course, you'll need to find the Fallout palette file to use, and that will be where you say, "WTF happened?" when you apply it to your hard work. (Grrrr...)

Found this link to the 'Mr Fixit Mod' you might get started with. http://www.teamx.ru/eng/files/index.shtml You could use it to compare with what MIB88 has done. They say it's easy to use, but you won't catch me trying to do anything that complicated! :shock:
 
Blackened said:
I was actually wondering if I add some items to Mr.Fixit that require Blacksmithy instead of any regular skill.....will it work?

You are putting the cart before the horse. There is no Blacksmithy, of course. Figure out how you want to add blacksmithy like I said in the first post (trait, skill, perk, karmic title) and then we can figure out if it will work (or work with Mr. Fixit!).

Blackened said:
Will learning C++ help me in modding Fallout 2?

Yes, it will definitely help. Or, you could do as I did, and not learn how to use the language first, and just reverse engineer everything. That's what I did initially.
 
I figured out how to make it - add them it as perks - every skill point will add a level to the perk. But I am not sure it is possible to have 100(or 120)levels of a perk.

Anyway, it doesn't matters - first I will make the graphics. This could take me about a week, but it's hard to leave something improvable. So maybe two or three weeks if I am home all time...but probably I won't be.
 
Blackened said:
I figured out how to make it - add them it as perks - every skill point will add a level to the perk. But I am not sure it is possible to have 100(or 120)levels of a perk..

I don't think this is possible, as is. I mean, think of your perks... you get them at special events (quest completion, when the character levels up, a few others). Some of that is determined by the engine. I'm pretty sure you are limited to 3 ranks of any given perk. Also, though, you can't just "mix and match" this stuff. By that I mean you can't mix assigning skill points that you get when you level up to perks. If you want to use skill points, then change one of the skills. You gotta be careful though, that you don't select a skill that is used heavily throughout the game already.

There is another option, but it means you can't just assign as many points as you want, nor would you be able to see how many you have. It can be set so that you learn 20 points worth of the skill from one person. Maybe 15 points from another person in the game. Maybe get another 10 just for making it to a certain level. And so on. This could be done quite easily. Then, once you have a certain level of the skill (as they were earned over time), it could open up the possibility to create different things.

Blackened said:
Anyway, it doesn't matters - first I will make the graphics. This could take me about a week, but it's hard to leave something improvable. So maybe two or three weeks if I am home all time...but probably I won't be.

No, now is indeed the time you want to figure this stuff out. No sense in spending all sorts of time on artwork when it can't even be implemented in the game. I know you might not want to do it, but it has to be done. Like a lot of mods I remember being mentioned, people have all sorts of ideas for stories and new things to implement and are all ready to make graphics and do other fun stuff. But then, the idea just totally evaporates because no one wants to do the harder stuff (or they discover it can't be done).
 
The main idea is Mining and Blacksmithy, then I will start with the others. So first I determine if this is codable, then make graphics for it, implement it and start with the other things.

Here is what I have in mind: first you mine some metal using a pickaxe or shovel(models from UO). As you continue mining your skill increases - by 0.1 for each "swing". With every use there is a chance(based on your Mining skill) to get ore. At 65 skill, there is also a chance to get Dull Copper Ore instead of Iron one, 70 skill - Shadow Iron and so on until Valorite at 99.

After 50 "successful" uses(wearing 50 pieces of ore) your pickaxe/shovel wears out - it disappears. You must smelt the ore to ingots by using it on a forge. There is a chance that you fail smelting it - in this case it disappears instead of turning into iron ingot. As your Mining skill increases, the chances you smelt something increases too. The more "rare" ores are harder to smelt. You can gain Mining by smelting.

Every minable spot contains some kind of metal - you can get either Iron Ore from it or ore for the metal it contains(if you have enough skill for the second option). After you gathered about 10 piles of ore, the minable spot runs out of metal - it will become usable after 30 minutes or so.

After that you create metal items out of the ingots by using Blacksmithy near an anvil and forge. You must use Tongs - they have random amount of uses - if you have 34 uses this means that you can make 34 attempts to make item(also giving you 1.0 skill points). As your skill increases so does the chance to make successfully an item. Failing to make an item still takes the materials needed for it.

Some items require higher skill and it is harder to make them even if you have the skill. You can make items out of different types of metal when you have the skill that is required to gather them - for example, to mine Agapite you need 90 Mining, therefore you need 90 Blacksmithy to craft something out of Agapite.

About coding all this:
Mining: Maybe setting the uses(like Geiger Counter or First Aid Kit) to 50 will do the wearing off. Are you sure perks are capped at 3? I think that long time ago I was able to set something to more than 3 in Fallout Tactics by using character editor. Anyway, I'm not going to change any Fallout 2 skill(like Doctor, Steal...)function for something(like Mining) in the mod.

PC's base EMP Resistance could be used for Mining and its base Threshold - for Blacksmithy. Or maybe increase the base value of some skill and decrease its current value by the same amount, so that the difference between the current and the starting base amount of that skill will be used in some rolls(like Mining).

Using Tongs on anvil or forge(I'll put some in Modoc using UO graphics)will open a dialogue asking you what item do you want to craft. Maybe this will do it. I will look at the Fallout 2 data files to see how the things are. First I will invent everything else, then I will add the graphics.

Things(other than Blacksmithy/Mining) I am likely to add:
•Tinkering - use it to craft any tools for other skills for the mod and such things (like Wrench or Super Tool Kit). Most likely the new metals will be available only for weapons - like Pickaxe, Wrench or Spear. And so far I am not planning for different material weapons to have more damage or cost less action points.
•Alchemy: Create potions from bought materials and use them to add ST/AG(like drugs without addiction), to heal yourself/cure poison or use to throw at the enemy(explosive).
•Animal Taming: Tame any animal(actually almost everything or everything non-humanoid including floaters and centaurs)and use it as NPC. It should either be able to level or there will be upgrades for it - like injecting FEV to it - a dialog option from some of the doctors and then buying(or crafting)armor for it - at the beginning you have a normal Gecko(with 25 hp, not the tough lil' ones), at the Enclave you have a normal Gecko with injected FEV and powered armor to fit its size. Of course, balance first.
•Poisoning: Poison some of your sharp weapons using one Poison Potion crafted by Alchemy or a Lesser Poison Potion purchased from a store. I doubt I will ever implement this.
•Tailoring: Craft anything leather in the game using normal, Spined, Horned or Barbed leather. I still have no idea how to get them. Spined could be extracted from normal/golden gecko skins, Horned - fire gecko(I will use the latest unofficial patch in the mod) and Barbed - I still have no idea - maybe from skinning Floaters/Centaurs/Super-Mutants. It is very probably that I won't add this skill.
•making exceptional items: This will allow to craft exceptional quality items by using those skills. But it will be hardly to make it balanced, so maybe it won't be added.
•adding artifacts from UO: It will be nice if I add such, but it will be hard to think of a way how to get them. Maybe I will add UO monsters. Most likely they will have very low/zero DT, making them vulnerable to most Big Guns. Some of them should be able to be destroyed only with laser/plasma damage - Energy Weapons. This way I will make those weapons more balanced. But anyway, I doubt I will implement any of this.
•adding spells: When in combat mode, hold the left button on your main character and select the binoculars - the way you use Mr. Fixit, but it doesn't works in combat, so they should be compatible. After that you will get a menu asking you which spell you want to cast. There will be different types of magic - Magery, Necromancy..I don't know what I will implement. Different spells will cost different reagents(purchasable) and different amount of action points. Spells should mostly do damage/healing. But I really doubt there will be spells in this mod.
 
Blackened said:
Here is what I have in mind: first you mine some metal using a pickaxe or shovel(models from UO). As you continue mining your skill increases - by 0.1 for each "swing". With every use there is a chance(based on your Mining skill) to get ore. At 65 skill, there is also a chance to get Dull Copper Ore instead of Iron one, 70 skill - Shadow Iron and so on until Valorite at 99.
[/quote]

Partially possible. There is no way I can think of to keep track of a .1 increment. Just make it 1. Then instead of 65 to mine copper, make it 650, and so on. Just increase everything by an order of 10. The rest of this is possible.

Blackened said:
After 50 "successful" uses(wearing 50 pieces of ore) your pickaxe/shovel wears out - it disappears. You must smelt the ore to ingots by using it on a forge. There is a chance that you fail smelting it - in this case it disappears instead of turning into iron ingot. As your Mining skill increases, the chances you smelt something increases too. The more "rare" ores are harder to smelt. You can gain Mining by smelting.

Partially possible. I can see making the tool becoming worn out after so many uses, but it won't matter if it is "successful" or not. That is to say, the tool will be used up whether you get ore or not. The rest is possible.

Blackened said:
Every minable spot contains some kind of metal - ... After you gathered about 10 piles of ore, the minable spot runs out of metal - it will become usable after 30 minutes or so.

The first part is doable. I don't understand what you mean by "it will become usable after 30 minutes".

Blackened said:
After that you create metal items out of the ingots by using Blacksmithy near an anvil and forge. You must use Tongs - they have random amount of uses ... As your skill increases so does the chance to make successfully an item. Failing to make an item still takes the materials needed for it.

I don't know of a way to do this like you want. "Near an anvil and forge"... I don't think so. Or setting a number of uses for tongs? No. The only way I could see it working is if you attach a script to said anvil/forge. Use it, and a dialog box would pop up telling you your forging options. Or, the same script could pop up when you use tongs. However, I can't think of a way to be able to use this item as you want only near a specific type of scenery.

Blackened said:
Some items require higher skill and it is harder to make them even if you have the skill. ...

This feature can be implemented.

Blackened said:
About coding all this:
Mining: Maybe setting the uses(like Geiger Counter or First Aid Kit) to 50 will do the wearing off. Are you sure perks are capped at 3? I think that long time ago I was able to set something to more than 3 in Fallout Tactics by using character editor. Anyway, I'm not going to change any Fallout 2 skill(like Doctor, Steal...)function for something(like Mining) in the mod.

Fallout Tactics does not equal Fallout 2. If you don't want to remove a skill and add Blacksmithing, that is your choice. Know that adding skill points is out of the question, then. Limiting the uses of an item is possible.

Blackened said:
PC's base EMP Resistance could be used for Mining and its base Threshold - for Blacksmithy. Or maybe increase the base value of some skill and decrease its current value by the same amount, so that the difference between the current and the starting base amount of that skill will be used in some rolls(like Mining).

WHAT!?!? Um... No. Just... no. You can't just raise and lower EMP by a script. It's set by proto files. So, if you want a critter to have an EMP resistance of 10, then set it to 10. You want it to gain a level and have an EMP resistance of 50, then you need another proto. But, regarding the player's character, it still isn't possible to be changing derived stats. As for that part about increasing the base value of some skill and decreasing its current value... I have no idea what you mean. Finally, even if your idea was possible, this means no more using EMP grenades agains enemies really close, unless you are a master blacksmith, which makes no sense.
 
There will be a forge near every anvil.

Whatever of this is implementable seems good enough to me. I will continue with the graphics. Or maybe I should start coding it...and then add the graphics...

About the EMP: Every non-robot NPC has 300% DR and 0 DT. The PC has 0% DR and 0% DT, but any armor gives +300%. Anyway, it is unrealistic for the player to get hit by anti-robot damage. In New Reno when you box you gain some permanent DR/DT. It is described in detail in Per's Nearly Ultimate Guide(New Reno section, of course). So maybe it's possible for EMP DR/DT to be lowered/raised by script?

With the base/current values here is what I meaned:
Using FUCK, I saw that there are base and current values for the NPCs - I was able to change them(but I didn't changed anything since I just wanted to compare the stats of all recruitable NPCs). In his second phase Vic's HP is equal to the sum of the values of his "base HP"(under "base stats") and his "extra HP"(under "extra stats") in the proto file for Vic in second phase. Also, under "base stats" there are skill points too.

I mean, if the PC also uses this, Blacksmithy's value could be equal to "[base Doctor] - [a value presenting the starting base Doctor]" - every time I gain in Blacksmithy, I gain +1 to the base value of Doctor and -1 to the extra value of Doctor(so my in-game Doctor skill remains the same: if I am not mistaking, its value is [base Doctor + extra Doctor]; so if I gain [x] amount of Blacksmithy, the new value of "base Doctor" will be "base Doctor + x", while the new value of "extra Doctor" will be "extra Doctor - x" and therefore the PC's Doctor skill will be [base Doctor - x + extra Doctor + x], which equals the original "formula".

When the PC has 0 Blacksmithy his base Doctor value will be a+0 (actually I don't know what is the starting base Doctor value, maybe it's like the one you have with 0 SPECIAL, so I am using "a" for it). So the Blacksmithy level will be determined by [base Doctor - a]. That was the idea I had in the previous post.

Well, actually this is not so important now, since I already know it's codable.

Edit: The base values thing could be invalid if negative extra values do not work correctly. By the way, I forgot to mention that this could be done with any other skill aside of Doctor(or maybe it's clear enough, I don't know, my national language is not english).
 
first of all sounds really cool good luck with it. I cant wait to get my hands on sum player killers.
apparently the latest version of fallout franchise is illegal in my country anyway.


but I prefer there old stuff to their new stuff.
 
I wasn't able to work on this until my latest post. Now I haven't got internet from my PC(I don't know until when). I'll start working on the mod again, but I haven't got much free time. It won't be completed soon.
 
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