Change Doctor and First aid skill AP costs

[nadeauhugo]

Do somebody know if there is a way to change the AP cost for using first aid or doctor skill?

I would like doctor skill in my mod replaced by "REST", so you can cure everything from hit points to crippled limbs, but it will takes time : A LOT of AP, like 50. You can get better at it since like any other skill as you can get better to prepare good conditions for rest, and objects like tents and pillow will give you a skill bonus and heal rate bonus. Please help!

 

[nadeauhugo]

PROBLEM SOLVED!! : To change ANY AP cost, install FT Improver, open Improver_data folder, APCTstructures.txt (watch out! I had also the file APCTstructs.txt which didn't work of course and gave me a bad tasting false hope at first), then change the last digit of any action there. That is THAT SIMPLE. Yess. I cannot say that often bhaha, but best game to mod EVER.

 

[Gizmojunk]

Doctor and first aid are linked [mechanics-wise]. Mechanically the PC is afforded exactly six attempts to heal via medical self-treatment per day; but only three of those can correct crippled PC/NPCs. The player must prioritize, and there is never a guarantee of successfully curing the crippled; sometimes it takes more than one day or two. First Aid is for simple injuries [hitpoints], and Doctor is for removing crippling injuries [the penalties], and heals some hitpoints as well. These skills take different amounts of time, and give a different amount of XP for success.

In Fallout, the crippled PC either has to find a doctor, or they have to be one in order to correct crippled limbs &/or eyes... This shouldn't be cured by resting... It's not an option of the unskilled... it costs them either goods or time; it should not come free with a nap.

First Aid can be increased by magazines, but Doctor is a character path; a commitment of the PC's level-up skill points. The Doctor skill cannot be permanently improved any other way. It's the same with other 'path' skills, (like steal, traps, and sneak...). Changing them adversely affects game balance.

 

[nadeauhugo]

Hehe thanks really for the reply. Good and complete idea you have on theses skills. There are some infos I didn't have, like the exact 6 attempts. You know if failed first aid can cause dammage and crippled or only Doctor can?

I can understand the idea about game balance but you have no idea how much I want to change that game! And talking of balance, I always found awkward and BAD for Doctor and First Aid skills that we could find Stimpacks about EVERYWHERE, steal them from about anybody in bunkers, etc. My plan is to have a game with no stimpack or close to no stimpack, no hit points given by food (just a lower hunger level), so the main cure will be First Aid (camping or rest) and Doctor. I finally choose First Aid for resting because the skill start higher and As Doctor takes less time but it's harder, it will be also more effective and cure fractures as well. The idea is to have no skill better than the other, which is almost impossible, specially in the original game... And finally, I always thought that it was stupid to spend a complete doctor bag worth 5000$ on only 5 attempts!! That was something way too precious in the game, even more than stimpacks which are for everyone and non-specialised item of more advanced technology.... SO! I think at least all theses items should be at least MORE RARE, maybe same price as for the fact they are so rare and maybe technologic, and at the very least 25 charges... Or they should at least have another name and image, like SuperSpray, Docto-matic or something!

 

[FUBAR]

It could possibly be years before I'm at the stage of actually realizing this thought, so you'll have to forgive lack of fine-tuning, and all the old dogs have likely heard of it, if not used it themselves.

Give most every weapon 'special effect - poison' and change poison so it reads 'Bleeding'. Now you can create a chem that removes poison/bleeding, and make it a sprite of a first aid kit.

As that was written a few thoughts came up.. instead calling it 'Untreated Wounds' or something of the like. Having kits that vary from a few rolls of bandages to proper anti-septic medicine and suture kits, going from simply stopping the bleeding to adding a marginal amount of (temporary?) hitpoints. Hell, wonder if we can set it so the bleeding comes back, and sooner depending on the quality of equipment used.

 

[nadeauhugo]

Oh it is totally possible and easy to implement too I think! I played a lot with chems and it is very easy to create temporary or permanent effects using them. This is well made, I mean you can even create multiple effects and random effects using the chems. And apart from permanent effects, I found that the longest duration of a chem is two months in-game time. More than that, it creates a bug (an effect with a duration of 0 seconds...)

The only problems I find with your idea is that it could be a little odd to use Doctor and First Aid skill in your mod because they will not affect untreated wounds (poison) at the end... Also, to have two skills using medical equipments, and another set of medical equipments to heal untreated wounds could be maybe a bit confusing. Maybe then using a skill like "rest" or "camping" like me could help your mod to be more clear. In fact, that is why I wanted to use camping on the first place. To have only one skill related to medical supply. This way it is easier to understand the relation between objects and skills. My only problem at this moment with camping is that the character using camping stays in stand position of course (...) and move his/her hands for a long time, which do not fit well with the idea of sleeping or resting... A while ago, I thought instead of a chem that heals you, but makes you sleep or uncouncious for serveral hours. But I am really not sure that could work.

I made some tests and it took me 25 in-game days to cure 5 of poison without any treatment. I tested it again with more poison resistance (75%) and I got the same result (??), and a last time with more healing rate (3 instead of 1), and again, same result. But I tested it with 10 poison finally and it took me more than two monts to cleat it, don't know why. Maybe poison is healed only with damage done to the character and not through traveling and time? Strange...

 

[FUBAR]

Oh, you've my complete agreement on the use of the medical skills; two is too much. There's been thoughts of doing away with the skills altogether.. A base for my mod is that combat is truly deadly, most every weapon will be capable of a one hit kill against an unarmoured target (though grazing hits are still possible). One of the first things that needs to be done in order to have weapons all behave reliably was to keep all creatures' hp's on a set table of values. Player Characters became a problem with all their leveling up and gaining of hp's; within a few missions they would be able to accept hits from weapons that would have felled any man-sized NPC.

Bad balance that; methinks it might bring back the challenge if the player has to rely on natural health regeneration and over-priced and rare healing chems to heal actual hit points, while all readily available medical supplies focus more on stabilizing the wounded (eg. first aid kits), providing temporary hp's (eg. morphine), and having sever side-effects and addictions (eg. morphine). This also may force players (like me) who prefer to keep the same squad game-long to talk to the Yeoman more often.


You've many fans of your work, and I'm one of them. The Sum is much anticipated, and you've done many things with this engine I never thought possible. Seems a safe bet we'll learn much from each other as time passes; my only fear is that we'll side track each other many times.


On another note: you mentioned levels of poison, can it be then that the 'antidote' chems remove poison by levels? If it works so, a simple set of bandages will do for a single wound, but if the entity receives multiple hits, or a very large hit (depending on how the system works), they will need a full trauma pack with an IV, suture kit, etc..

 

[nadeauhugo]

He! Thank you so much for your comments! Good to help me put more and more energy to it! I must say all these changes I made to the engine came to my mind very progressively. I really didn't intended to add that much code to it at first... But as the project went on, more and more ideas came and that's how it all happened. Now it takes SO MUCH TIME for me to just MOVE a line from the bottom of the list to the top when needed… (RRRRG!)


I don't know exactly on which part we'll side track or how often, let's just say it is my main goal to make a VERY different mod… But it is certain we will learn from each other yess! I am really the "thanks for sharing" type, so don't hesitate to grab and use anything you like from my work. I already did that with mods and maps I was able to get my hands on.


And here a lot of fantastic things are comming! If you are curious, I recently created a lot of automatic AI triggers that makes independant groups pity you and stop hurting you, specially if they killed one of your squad member. (you can also make them flee their base if you kill enough of them...) There will also be triggers to make animals attack you if you have fresh meat in your inventory… It's funny, you drop the meat and they stop strait running at you, often staying a long time on the meat you just drop! Also some triggers to add a heartbeat sound or sickness sounds if you have too much poison or low HP. And so on…
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Talking of poison, yess, about EVERYTHING in tactics works with points or numbers. Always have that in mind. Poison, Radiation, HP, Skills, even Sex, Perks, Traits… So, if you have around 50-75 Poisonpoints, your char will lose HP very very often and die quickly. That could be about the maximum you can get before taking too much risks. You will have to make a lot of tests, but yess simple bandages could cure only a small amount of Poisonpoints, and specialized equipments all of them. Just look at the antidote chem, try to find somewhere a number which is not 0 and you'll understand.
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Oh you may had already think about this… but anyways here is an idea that could solve the problems you talked about. I added this method to my mod some months ago and it worked, but as I found it may be too complicated for newbies (a lot of non-gamer will try my mod) and not critical for my mod, I let it go for now.


My idea is to automatically add a chem (with the sprite of any item desired) in the inventory of the tagged player char at the beginning of the game, anything that fits the story, as an item the player MUST use as a first QUEST. This item works exactly like the "Elixir of life" chem, creating some permanent effect. It gives a permanent +70 or +100 HP. Choosing +70hp is interesting, cause the hp then starts at 100 with 5 EN and 5 ST… better number than 30. And it makes chars with less than 100 hp look weak or disadvantaged...


Then you only start the game, I mean activate the exit grid if the player used that specific chem. You could even calculate with a trigger the amount of ST and EN of the player and give him a stronger or weaker chem with more or less HP bonus to reflect the STATS, but I think it is better AND EASIER to give a fixed bonus. Having more HP per level will still be considered as a HUGE advantage on the game because it can help you stay alive more than anyone. I think this way people will still want to put points on EN, taking any chance of staying alive they can find.


To verify if the character took the chem, you use the condition : Player has more than 80 derived stat MaxHitPoints at Anywhere.


You can also use this chem to create as many changes to the main character as you want, the only way to change skills starting levels, for example. But I am quite sure you CAN'T give ANY perk or trait with a chem, never.


After that, you have to add damage to each and every weapon, and a HP bonus to recruits too. You can let go giving bonus HP to NPC, as you can choose precisely how much HP they have.


Then the problem with all other less important elements of the game is delt with and you don't have to worry about them anymore. Leveling stop being that powerfull, the two skills Doctor and First Aid have MUCH LESS effect, which is very nice, (the three skills per day starts being a bit more usefull, like in Fallout 1 and 2) the ARMOURS are less effective too, fruits and food gives almost no HP, so you don't have to change them, stimpacks give you less than 10% of your HP back. The trauma pack and all, already very rare, can be used to create significative but costly healing. You can add more addiction to them too. And finally, even the special perks have less effect, but are still interesting to take. A + 4 HP per level is still nice, but represent only 4% bonus to HP.

I think it is better than simply getting rid of all or some of the skills, because they are hardcoded. That means they will stay there no matter what, and look like a bug or an unfinished part of your mod... And because everything in tactics is related, you will have unused perks that will still appear, unused traits, etc. etc.