FT Improver - a way to improve Fallout Tactics

[Ardanis]

Hi

Like Corpse, I would be happy to see:
1) ammo flag that overwrites weapon's AoE (slugs and AP rockets affecting only one target)
2) weapon flag that overwrites ammo's damage type (energy weapons not restricted to energy only)
3) customizable ammo variants - not crucial though, as I sort of managed to balance things out using standart values

Also, it probably doesn't belong here, but just in case:
4) critters in random encounters often have no ammo.

 

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

Is this tag name applied to a main PC or to an entire player squad?

It's applied to each member of the squad including vehicles.

The tag names are lost after game state save. Could you tell me whether it refers to both PC (PC have tag names specified through spawn point) and NPC (NPC have tag names specified in the editor)? If a PC is a prefab PC, does it lose its tag name after game save?

As far as I remember it didn't matter how the pc or npc was given the tag name it was destabilized by entering another map. Unless the tag name was the same.

If every PC could have its own tag name specified through trigger editor, would it be useful in modding?

Yes.

Do you mean that exist two identical tag names and this causes the problem?

Well two different tag names, though the game doesn't like multiple entities with the same tag name. The only way I've found of preserving npc's tag names is to return them to the recruit pool before leaving a map, then re-recruiting them once my main character has arrived.

If the spawn point have empty tag name field, then it clears PC tag name field or its inversely (if the spawn point's tag name field is empty in the editor then spawn point's tag name field is filled with PC tag name in the game)?

As far as I know the spawn point's tag name is given to the pc even if left empty.

Look what I've just found.

I performed many tests with this condition, but unfortunately the condition is always TRUE.

Interesting, but isn't that the list of attack animations? Wouldn't it need to be a list of mode[0], mode[1] etc for the trigger to work?

Also, it probably doesn't belong here, but just in case:
4) critters in random encounters often have no ammo.

Loot is randomly generated in random encounters as a percentage of what the entities are equipped with in the entity editor. To have them more carry more loot then they need to have a much much higher level in the first place.

 

[TwoEyedYum]

Interesting, but isn't that the list of attack animations? Wouldn't it need to be a list of mode[0], mode[1] etc for the trigger to work?

It can be a list of actions, and trigger intended to check current action (like when someone reloads weapon). Tried myself and didn't got any results from that trigger, it just work as "always" condition...

 

[TwoEyedYum]

Loot is randomly generated in random encounters as a percentage of what the entities are equipped with in the entity editor. To have them more carry more loot then they need to have a much much higher level in the first place.

HMM! Why then muties always run on me, carrying brownings without ammo? I'll try to modify default RE entities, moving ammo to first position in default item list. Maybe then M2 will be deleted first if that "percentage" lowered?

 

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

It can be a list of actions, and trigger intended to check current action (like when someone reloads weapon). Tried myself and didn't got any results from that trigger, it just work as "always" condition...

I haven't got the game installed here, but those are the animations that the character sprite uses if you attack using a weapon mode linked to that animation, it's nothing to do with the weapon itself. If mode[0] is single shot is always going to be linked to the 'single' animation even if no action is being taken. Probably why it's working the same as 'always'. The condition would need to take other factors or look at a different criterion.

HMM! Why then muties always run on me, carrying brownings without ammo? I'll try to modify default RE entities, moving ammo to first position in default item list. Maybe then M2 will be deleted first if that "percentage" lowered?

No, it's a percentage of each item, so if you've given the entity 30 rounds of ammo then they only spawn with say 3-5 rounds depending on character level, encounter difficulty and game difficulty.

 

[jarekfall]

Hi

Like Corpse, I would be happy to see:
1) ammo flag that overwrites weapon's AoE (slugs and AP rockets affecting only one target)
2) weapon flag that overwrites ammo's damage type (energy weapons not restricted to energy only)
3) customizable ammo variants - not crucial though, as I sort of managed to balance things out using standart values

Thank you for the interest and for the suggestions. I will consider them.

Interesting, but isn't that the list of attack animations? Wouldn't it need to be a list of mode[0], mode[1] etc for the trigger to work?

Thank you for the answer on my exhaustive questions.

I'm surprised too. This is the WeaponModeEquals condition. The name WeaponModeEquals is an internal name for the "WeaponMode [weapon tag name] is [weapon mode?]" condition. I will explain what test I performed. I changed weapon animation name to a different value than the name specified for the "weapon mode" from condition. I also changed weapon mode display name in the entity editor to something else than the name specified for the "weapon mode" from condition. I even changed weapon's spread arc "burst" to other value. Finally I removed all weapons from a map and even edited the decompressed mission data in the hex editor, to check whether the condition was really saved in a file.

It can be a list of actions, and trigger intended to check current action (like when someone reloads weapon). Tried myself and didn't got any results from that trigger, it just work as "always" condition...

But how??? Do you have "WeaponMode is" condition enabled in your trigger editor?

 

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

Thinking about it some more if the condition is dependant on the animation being performed should the tagname be that of the entity carrying the weapon?

 

[jarekfall]

I also removed all entities from a map and the condition is still TRUE.

Animation name is specified for each weapon mode and it's stored only in a weapon entity. The condition should check what weapon mode (not animation name, because two different weapon modes can use the same animation names) is set currently in a weapon specified by the tag name.

Maybe game designers and game programmers didn't understand each other.

 

[Corpse]

I know this may be a bit too much to ask but is there any possibility of adding more trigger conditions and actions?

If so can a time system be implemented so triggers can use current time /date to set NPC schedules in maps, advance time, etc.?

 

[jarekfall]

I know this may be a bit too much to ask but is there any possibility of adding more trigger conditions and actions?

Certainly.

When we play the game the time is passing (for example, we see a dusk), so the game has some time counters and maybe also some date counters. We just have to find these counters and create some conditions and actions that will check and change the state of these counters.

Let us hope that I will find the free time.

 

[Corpse]

That would be great, I figured the time counters are there just was not sure if implementing new trigger conditions and actions to access and manipulate them was possible.

Anyway, I do hope you find some free time.


Keep up the good work!

 

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

IIRC timers don't stop unless another trigger is used to stop them, even if you go to the world map. Could be useful if they could be reference in other maps.

 

[Corpse]

Ok, I didn't know that.

That means you could set a global timer that starts on the first mission and never gets turned off; this could be used to set triggers in various maps for some fixed events. Awesome!

Still that global timer couldn't really be used to set NPC daily schedules on a map unless you set another one that resets every 24 hours; but this would require far too much work with triggers which would slow down game play and be a huge pain in the arse IMO.

A new trigger condition that checks current time (and one new action that allows you to advance it) would be far more useful.

 

[jarekfall]

It's high time to tell you the truth about Fallout Tactics executable files.

BOS.exe and FT Tools.exe files as you probably noticed have similar size. The difference refers mainly to GUI. Both files contain the same tools. All FT editors are available in BOS and FT Tools files. It means that both files contain also MicroForte Sprite and Tile editors and a few small tools for testing. So I've decided to finish my work on "FT Tools.exe" file, I will be working only on "BOS.exe" file.

Currently MF Sprite and Tile editors (next SE & TE) are useless, they both require configuration file for animation frame importing. To be honest with you, I'm not going to release these two editors, but don't worry, you lose only a little. They only allow to import or delete a collection of images. All configuration data must be provided at the start of importing, there is no further modification available. It does not allow to work on individual animation frames. TE is even worse, it does not allow to modify sequence of animation frames. SE has limitations in sequence editing. You create sequence by specifying a list of values separated by comma. SE doesn't have an advanced sequence player, as this you've seen in Sprite Creator, sequence player actions don't affect the way a sequence is played (not refers to "jump to" and "repeat all" actions), so overlay sequences can't be played simultaneously. In SE, functions for changing colors of entire color palette of individual layers are only for preview, the effect can't be saved in a sprite file. Generally, these editors would be necessary if we wouldn't have Sprite Creator nor RedViewer.

 

[TwoEyedYum]

Pretty obvious cause of same splash screen and menus ^^ But still thanks for explanations!

Btw

In SE, options used for changing colors of entire layer's color palette are only for preview, the effect can't be saved in a sprite file

Hm, can you make something like this function in next releases of your SC? Possibility to change color of Gauss projectile into green or red (without editing every picture manually and use 3Dmax) makes me sweat

 

[jarekfall]

Yes, this functionality would be useful for color palette modification. I already have this in my plans, because several users requested this functionality.

 

[Corpse]

Have been trying out sprite creator to fix some of the bugged character sprites. Managed to fix the sound glitches on the mutantArmor (heavy stand, minigun crouch, rocket prone and crouch attacks had no sound), climb movement on the raiderHuge, UnarmedAttackOne of the pacification bot and pickup on the behemoth and lifter.
Added heavy weapon stand, walk and attacks to the behemoth but unfortunately the game does not allow some races to use weapons other than of the unarmed class, it works however if you change the behemoth to one of the unique races but unfortunately you lose the walk / run sounds which brings my next suggestions.

Any chance of making walk / run sounds customizable and removing these weapon restrictions?

Hm, can you make something like this function in next releases of your SC? Possibility to change color of Gauss projectile into green or red (without editing every picture manually and use 3Dmax) makes me sweat Rolling Eyes

You know you don't have to edit every frame or any for that matter; just export the palette to .act , open it in photoshop, modify the palette colors and finally import the modified palette.
I haven't tried sprite creator for this but spray11 does the job nicely.

 

[TwoEyedYum]

Spray sometimes behaves weird, so i dont like it after wonderful SC Will try through

 

[Corpse]

Yes, it does have problems opening certain files and does some weird shit from time to time but oh well, its the devil I know.

 

[jarekfall]

The sprite creators from MF were probably very bored with sprite creation process.

I know that sprites have many, many more bugs than you've mentioned in their sequences, and even in collections (several bugs) some images and their overlay images are incorrectly placed. For example, in the mutant armour sprite the StandAttackRocketSingle seq. doesn't have specified the overlay special action and thus it doesn't use its overlay sequence. I was even thinking to create a sprite patcher, that would fix all these sprites automatically, but my free time is too restricted.

I already have in my plans a patch for the UniqueOther race that will let users specify the sounds for the race dependent actions.

As to the new weapons for the Behemoth race, is behemoth's weapon coloured with red tints? Did you compare the weapon requirements with behemoth's stats?

I didn't add to SC the function for color palette importing, because I didn't want to cause bad habits at somebody inexperienced with graphics editing.