Called Shot Body Part Names

dude_obj

Vault Senior Citizen
Moderator
I have some new critters and they have the called shot pics, which are the NA suffix files. Some have entirely new body parts like wings and such, and don't match any existing body types. I can see the text configuration for body parts in combat.msg like this:

# Gecko
#
{1680}{}{the head}
{1681}{}{the left claw}
{1682}{}{the right claw}
{1683}{}{the body}
{1684}{}{the right leg}
{1685}{}{the left leg}
{1686}{}{the eyes}
{1687}{}{the groin}
{1688}{}{uncalled}

But I can't see anything that points to these lines 1680-1688. The gecko AI packet (\dta\ai.txt) has this information:

[Gecko]
aggression=50
attack_end=50140
attack_start=50140
body_type=None
called_freq=20
chance=0
chem_primary_desire=284,81,103
chem_use=always
color=58
font=101
general_type=None
hit_eyes_end=50080
hit_eyes_start=50080
hit_groin_end=50090
hit_groin_start=50090
hit_head_end=50000
hit_head_start=50000
hit_left_arm_end=50010
hit_left_arm_start=50010
hit_left_leg_end=50070
hit_left_leg_start=50070
hit_right_arm_end=50020
hit_right_arm_start=50020
hit_right_leg_end=50060
hit_right_leg_start=50060
hit_torso_end=50030
hit_torso_start=50030
hurt_too_much=crippled, blind
max_dist=10
min_hp=0
min_to_hit=0
miss_end=50160
miss_start=50160
move_end=50120
move_start=50120
outline_color=55
packet_num=26
run_end=50100
run_start=50100
secondary_freq=20

Nothing in there seems to associate with the body parts. And there doesn't seem to be anything in combatai.msg or cmbatai2.msg related to geckos.

Does anyone know how or where the system points to the body part names in combat.msg?

I also wonder how the system knows where in the called shot pic to render the text. For example, here is new called shot pic for security robot:

mabot3na.gif


Since each critter type could be different I wonder if there is something in the called shot FRM that indicates where the body parts are.
 
Take the first number in critters.lst after the prefix string, multiply it by 10 and add 1000, find the result in combat.msg.

Weee!

Took me 2 hours to figure this out, damn you!

As for the body parts, you should simply match the normal renders (so critical hits can properly cripple/blind)
 
Another similar puzzle here, in the same file combat.msg, there is critical hit messages at the bottom. They are numbered like this:

5000 - men
5100 - women
5200 - children
5300 - super mutants
5400 - ghouls
5500 - brahmin
etc

I see no relation to postion in critters.lst or information in ai.txt and cmbatai2.msg. Also, after adding new critters, I'm getting wrong critical hit messages for not only new critters but also some original ones. Any ideas how these line numbers are derived?
 
I don't think is the critter.lst file that this relates to but kill types; observe the order of kill type labels on proto.msg and compare with the those in combat.msg.

Kill Types in proto.msg
{1450}{}{Men}
{1451}{}{Women}
{1452}{}{Children}
{1453}{}{Super Mutants}
{1454}{}{Ghouls}
{1455}{}{Brahmin}
{1456}{}{Radscorpions}
{1457}{}{Rats}
{1458}{}{Floaters}
{1459}{}{Centaurs}
{1460}{}{Robots}
{1461}{}{Dogs}
{1462}{}{Manti}
{1463}{}{DeathClaws}
{1464}{}{Plants}
{1465}{}{Geckos}
{1466}{}{Aliens}
{1467}{}{Giant Ants}
{1468}{}{Big Bad Boss}


combat.msg
# 5000 series - men (including generics)
# series 5100 - women
# series 5200 - children
# series 5300 - Super Mutants
# series 5400 - Ghouls
# series 5500 - Brahmin
# series 5600 - Radscorpions
# series 5700 - Rats
# series 5800 - Floaters
# series 5900 - Centaurs
# series 6000 - Robots
# series 6100 - Dogs
# series 6200 - Manti
# series 6300 - Deathclaw
# series 6400 - Spore Plant # Was The Master
# series 6500 - The Player

# Fallout 2:

# series 6700 - Gecko
# series 6800 - Alien
# series 6900 - Giant Ant
# series 7000 - Gun Turret -- WIP! Won't Work!
# Series 7100 - End Boss
 
Ah yes, the kill types were made more generic like this:

#
# Kill Types names
#
{1450}{}{Men}
{1451}{}{Women}
{1452}{}{Children}
{1453}{}{Primates}
{1454}{}{Plants}
{1455}{}{Insects}
{1456}{}{Brahmin}
{1457}{}{Rodents}
{1458}{}{Canines}
{1459}{}{Reptiles}
{1460}{}{Scorpions}
{1461}{}{DeathClaws}
{1462}{}{Centaurs}
{1463}{}{Floaters}
{1464}{}{Ghouls}
{1465}{}{Aliens}
{1466}{}{Super Mutants}
{1467}{}{Robots}
{1468}{}{Turrets}

To add new critters ... and I can now see exactly why some insects had brahmin messages and reptiles had centaur messages. So this is fixable but the critical messages need to be a bit more generic because some insects have different body parts.

Thanks!

EDIT: If anyone else is interested in changing the kill types, I learned the hard way that its a mistake to change the order of these. I changed the order of critical hit messages in combat.msg to match the kill types in proto.msg (which had been changed to the above list). This matched the critical messages to the right critter type (brahmin etc), but I was then getting wrong body parts in the critical messages. Seems that each are different, if you look at the list of messages, it doesn't match the body parts, I'm thinking this must be hard coded in the engine.

I can still accomodate new critter kill types by making some of the names and messages more generic (insects, rodents, reptiles, etc) but changing the order of the originals proved to be a mistake. I could at this point try to fix the body type messages, but its easier to go back to the original list, make some more generic, then change the critter protos. So I'm now using the following kill types in proto.msg (these are what show up in the mapper critter proto editor:

{1450}{}{Men}
{1451}{}{Women}
{1452}{}{Children}
{1453}{}{Super Mutants}
{1454}{}{Ghouls}
{1455}{}{Brahmin}
{1456}{}{Scorpions}
{1457}{}{Rodents}
{1458}{}{Floaters}
{1459}{}{Centaurs}
{1460}{}{Robots}
{1461}{}{Canines}
{1462}{}{Insects}
{1463}{}{DeathClaws}
{1464}{}{Plants}
{1465}{}{Reptiles}
{1466}{}{Aliens}
{1467}{}{Primates}
{1468}{}{Gun Turrets}

Then in combat.msg I just need to change the messages for rodents, canines, insects, and reptiles to be more generic, and add some new messages for primates and gun turrents.
 
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