Making new AI packets & battlecries

[deadguyinadumpster]

I'm completely new to Fallout modding, and have decided that the first thing I want to try is to make a new random encounter featuring pyromaniacs. I used the critter editor to make a new .pro file, and made sure the pyros were available in the map editor. I want them to have their own battlecries, so I opened combatai.msg and followed the format to enter new dialogue for pyros. I then opened AI.txt, copied the Tough Khan AI packet, and modified parts of the copy to make a pyro packet. Just to see what would happen, I went back into the mapper and tried to edit a critter. That's when I noticed that an error message was appearing where the critter's AI packet should be listed. Clicking on it made the mapper crash. So I went back and returned AI.txt and combatai.msg to normal, then modified them each one at a time to see which was causing the problem. It looks like they both do, as modifying either one makes the mapper crash when I click on AIpacket. So I tried modifying combatai.msg in a different way. Instead of simply adding new stuff in at the end, I tried replacing the dialogue for some unused character named Kaga with the dialogue for my pyromaniac. It still made the mapper go screwy.

Is it even possible to make new AI packets and battlecries, and if so, what am I doing wrong? Sorry if these are stupid questions, I've been trying to learn how all this works through trial and error but I'm feeling a little stuck.

 

[Xavierblazer]

You could handle the battlecries through scripts.

Assign a script to them(lets call it pyromen.ssl)

Make an msg file for them like this:

{100}{}{Fire...good}
{101}{}{Does it burn}

now place this in their script under map_update:
floater_rand(100, 101)

and add the necessary hostilities and such.

 

[deadguyinadumpster]

I guess I could do that to handle basic battlecries, assuming I can learn how to script. I had been planning on simply copying the script of a random encounter raider and modifying the AI packet inside it. I know that many enemies in random encounters make comments during combat that come from scripts instead of combatai.msg (the slavers’ “these will fetch a good price at the market”, for example), but the only preexisting script-generated comments I can think of are ones that they make when they’re either attacking or running away. I don’t think there are any script-generated comments in the game that make enemies say stuff when you take aimed shots at their limbs. I think all of those come from combatai.msg. So would it even be possible to script them to say stuff like “Big deal, I burned it off anyway” when the player hits them in the groin? Or could I only do that by modifying combatai.msg?

Even if it turns out that I can script them to make comments about getting hit with aimed shots, I am still curious as to whether or not it’s possible to modify ai.txt and combatai.msg in order to create new ai packets and battlecries from there. And if it is possible, I wish I knew what I was doing wrong. I noticed that there’s two .txt files called aibdymsg and aigenmsg that refer to combatai.msg, so I added pyro info to those too but am still getting an error in the mapper. There’s a line in those files that refers to “packet_num”, and it’s the only thing for which I don’t know what value I should enter. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t refer to the ai packet, since the packet_num for the same character type differs between the two files. Anyone have any idea what packet_num in aibdymsg.txt and aigenmsg.txt is referring to?

 

[Xavierblazer]

Since your just starting out, I recomend doing something not as complicated as making a new AI packet. Try making some scripts that do basic things. When I started out, I made a small town in the mapper, then I copied and edited scripts to my liking to make inhabitants. If you have trouble scripting then check out some existing scripts and examine it one line at a time. If you come across something you dont understand or have never seen, look it up in the docs that came with the mapper.