New mod coming up

Magnus

Magnus

Water Chip? Been There, Done That
Modder
I'm working on a mod to alter some things, and would like to hear what you think:

Flamethrowers and Molotovs doing Flame damage (currently they do Explosive damage).

Two types of scorpion tails, one big (20lbs) and one small (5lbs) for big and small scorpions.

Thrown explosives a lot more powerful.

Car and fuel regulator priced higher.

Useless weapons (switchblade, brass knuckles, laser pistol and so on) revamped.

Generally speaking, blunt melee weapons will have a good base damage and not much higher max damage, sharp weapons should do relatively low base damage and high max damage, as they are more likely to inflict serious wounds, but also more difficult to handle properly. An example: Sledgehammer doing 7-8 damage instead of 4-12, Sharp spear doing 4-15 damage instead of 4-12, and so on.

Reduced sell prices for some weapons (f. ex. plasma pistol), to make your economy a bit more challenging. As it is now, before you get to VC you don't have much money, but there are few things to buy. After you've been there, you've got 5-6 combat shotguns and plenty of other stuff to sell, and you keep accumulating until the end.

Bridgekeeper and Chris in Navarro switching models. This way, the bridgekeeper will now be dressed in purple like the inventory robes and Chris will look less conspicuous.

Leather armor unavailable until the Den.

(maybe) AP ammo working as it should, reducing AC by a whole lot more and eliminating DT if i can figure out how, but doing less base damage than JHP

(maybe) Getting radiated by a few points every hour while in Gecko (but nowhere near the Glow from FO1), more in the Reactor itself. This might be hard to work out, but it gives the player a reason for keeping Rad-x and Rad-away.

And so on. This will be a modular mod, so you can pick and choose what things you like the most.
 
sounds nice. I was about to ask if I could help, but these type of mods are best done manually by the person who thought of the mod.

I've always been interested in making a major game enhancement, but that type of contribution requires allot of work.
 
Thrown explosives a lot more powerful.

Reduced sell prices for some weapons

(maybe) Getting radiated by a few points every hour while in Gecko (but nowhere near the Glow from FO1), more in the Reactor itself. This might be hard to work out, but it gives the player a reason for keeping


Some great ideas here. Especially improving thrown
weapons (who ever tags thrown?!)

Reduced value for guns has been suggested many times in this
forum and i think it one of the semi-critical flaws of FO2. I
would support that wholeheartedly.... i mean $4000 for an H&K
combat shotgun? way too much, and thats with about 6% barter.
reduce sell value of players weapons, and increase buy value.

I also agree with ramping up the radiation. Poision and rad resistance
count for precisely stuff-all in FO2 cos you never get radiated anywhere other than obscure places like inside the reactor. Hell, if i could mod code (i can only do graphics) i'd have the game regularly radiate the crap outta the Player and send them running for the RAD-X :twisted:

You go girl!
 
Josan12 said:
...cos you never get radiated anywhere other than obscure places like inside the reactor. Hell, if i could mod code (i can only do graphics) i'd have the game regularly radiate the crap outta the Player and send them running for the RAD-X :twisted:
Click to expand...

I have no idea how the player gets radiation on the worldmap, but I know it happens. But, it would be very easy to put a code in the obj_dude script that gives radiation over time. You can set it to something like 1 point every hour, or however you want, and even have it vary depending on the map you are on. The problem with this, though, is that this script would not be running while traveling on the worldmap. So, for example, while in town you might go through a couple of Rad-X and a Radaway to cover the 1 day in town you spent, you would not gain nearly as much radiation while walking for a week going from Modoc to Vault City.

As for the weapons and cash, you could just add a code to the scripts that cause all weapons to be destroyed when you kill the critter. (Time consuming, but easy.)
 
I really like the idea of thrown weapons being more powerful. I love playing with grenades whenever I can. However I once tried changing Molotovs to fire damage and they stopped exploding, so I'm not sure that can be done.

One mod I'd like to see. I never really liked the fact that you can only get (most) stat bonuses once you've got only one area left to explore (unless you use shortcut techniques). I think it would be more satisfying to allow Dr. Troy to also perform the operations once you get the memory modules so you can gradually raise your stats as the game progresses. Of course he'd charge a fortune and recovery time would be longer than in SF, but at least it would give you something else to do with your cash.

And yeah, radiation should be MUCH more of a problem (it's one of the core concepts of the setting for crying out loud). I like the idea of radiation gradually building up over time, and you should definitely get radiated in Gecko at least until you fix the power plant.
 
There should be some radiation in Broken Hills as well; it is a uranium mine, after all. Possibly in the Toxic Caves, too.

Unfortunately, there isn't much justification for having the player get radiated in other towns or while wandering the map. The War was in 2078, if I remember right. FO1 happens in 2161 (eighty years later), and FO2 starts in 2241 (another eighty years). It's been sixty-five years since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the background radiation levels there aren't noticeably above normal. After 160, the only 'hot' places will be real sources of radiation, such as nuclear reactors.
 
I have a sneaky Idea!!!

WRT random radiation on the World Map.

In FO1 you occacsionally got random encounters with a blank map and a message saying you had to find water and wasted an hour or that you stayed your thirst by drinking one of your flasks.

Can't this script be edit such that the game randomly checks if you have a rad X / away in your inventory and acts accordingly?
 
That sounds like a good idea, but I don't think it would work. I think that those encounters were something the engine handled. In FO2, scripts don't run on the worldmap... there is something else at work. For somebody who is really interested in pursuing this, they might have to ask Timeslip if he could create something.
 
MIB88 wrote
As for the weapons and cash, you could just add a code to the scripts that cause all weapons to be destroyed when you kill the critter.
Click to expand...
That would be a great Idea, but I would alter it a bit. You could define a set of vars, which would be set in the damage section if you hit critical and then be checked in the destroy section. I.e. if you hit your target *critical* in the left/right arm, would cause it to have no weapon when dead.
Whereas if you're going to just modify the protos instead, you could just make them not lootable. That would just match MIB88's suggestion. But then again that would apply for all critters of that proto.

Wow, I love to have no life ;)
 
Kanhef said:
There should be some radiation in Broken Hills as well; it is a uranium mine, after all. Possibly in the Toxic Caves, too.
Click to expand...

These both get my vote. Pools and open barrels of toxic waste should be a red flag (what is this, Tromaville?) :) Walking through the pools should really mess you up, rubber boots or no.

Unfortunately, there isn't much justification for having the player get radiated in other towns or while wandering the map.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but then again, North America was more or less blanketed with dirty bombs if I uderstand the mythology right, and I'd say radiation in normal areas would build very slowly. Plus, even if it's not totally realistic, it's still a core concept (the name of the game is Fallout, after all). And where did ol' Puking Charlie in VC get radiation poisoning for example?

Maybe some random "hot spots" like you could (almost never) encounter in F1 might be appropriate. If they're there, I've never found one. I think the toxic dump is the only place in the game you can get seriously radiated unless you fix the Gecko plant by hand. As it is, you can get through the entire game with (maybe) one anti-rad drug. To me, this kills an important element of the game.
 
I guess it does fit with the overall theme. A little factual accuracy can be sacrificed for a better game. We should also consider the '50s perception of radiation and how long it lasts.

Charlie got it from the contaminated groundwater. Same as Val's mother. Those hot spots in F1 weren't too hard to find you wander around the Glow. They'd fit in in the area east of San Francisco, where you can run into wanamingos, floaters, etc.
 
More thoughts on radiation:
1) I really like the idea of certain locations radiating the player at some rate over time: Gecko - at least within the plant itself. It is broken; Toxic Caves - the boots could still prevent the extra toe, but, yeah, rubber boots ain't gonna stop radiation poisoning; Broken Hills - at least within the mine and inside the refinery.
2) Random locations in the wasteland - maybe a new random encounter could be created that comes up somewhat frequently: You stumble across a crator. The encounter map could have no vegetation. Could you just put an item in the crator (a rock or something) that irradiates at a certain rate within a certain circumference?
3) Mutated monsters - I've never really liked the you-got-radiated from being hit successfully by certain creatures. It's been so many decades I just don't see a whole race of animals remaining radioactive over several generations. Unless this were linked to a contaminated water souce or something like that.
4) In general I think it would be great if rad-x and radaway were something other than great bartering items.

Misteryo
 
Radiation

Using timeslip's new hacks, i plan on setting a global script that increments the player rad level by 1 every X game hours, where X equals:

(K+EN)*(2*rad resistance/10)

(I'll have a different system for the fast metabolism trait, and i'll need some expert help to seriously up the healing rate that comes with it, to compensate for the reduced rad resistance.)

On the worldmap and everywhere else except the hotspots below,, K in the formula is 4 on easy game difficulty, 3 on normal and 2 on hard.

K is 1 in the TC upper level, Arroyo hunting grounds (green goo), Klamath rat cave bottom level and in Gecko before you fix the plant, it goes up to 2 there after you fix it. These values are regardless of difficulty.

In the TC lower levels and BH mine, you get a rad level every minute, regardless of difficulty, but only every five minutes if you wear some kind of power armor. I'll add dialogue to Smiley the trapper about "having used nearly all the radaway in that locker on the wall over there", since he's been there for a while.

TC goo (and all other goo) radiates you by 5 levels per step, BH radon gas poisons you by 10 levels. If you wear power armor, these values are set to 1 and 3, respectively. I'll try to find more occasions where poison plays a huge role.

To anyone expecting these updates to come soon, be patient. I'll work on them, but I have more experience with hex editing than with scripting, so weapon/thrown changes first. BH poison should be quite easy to accomplish, same with Gecko and TC, but I'll have to get the source code scripts from Killap, not to lose the fixes he's made in those areas.

Cheers.
 
Re: Radiation

I love it! Your formula seems well thought out and balanced, and the special values for hotspots make great sense.

I especially like this idea:
Magnus said:
I'll add dialogue to Smiley the trapper about "having used nearly all the radaway in that locker on the wall over there", since he's been there for a while.
Click to expand...

In fact, any little one-liners like that you can come up with regarding the different locations would make this mod even better.

I wish you all the best working on this thing.

Misteryo
 
Good luck, Magnus.

alexweiln said:
You could define a set of vars, which would be set in the damage section if you hit critical and then be checked in the destroy section. I.e. if you hit your target *critical* in the left/right arm, would cause it to have no weapon when dead.
Click to expand...

This was what I eventually had planned for the lootable armor part of the Megamod. If the critter was killed with a critical shot (had one of the special animations play) then there would be no armor to retrieve. I'll work that in eventually. Easy code, just time consuming.
 
Thanks for all the support guys.

I'll also remember to seriously increase the rad item reward from Wossisname the ghoul in Gecko, since he says that "it's a dang lot more than you'll ever need"

RadX will now last for a full 24 hours, to simulate the digestion of it.

The red module will now increase EN, and not ST. This is part because of the new radiation threat and part to make melee characters with a base ST of 6 viable, and not a waste of char points.

I also plan to make all module upgrades available at Vault 15 by doctor Wossisname, but for a fat stack of cash. You will also be able to talk to the doctor in the VC vault about these modules, but he'll say that even though these modules were intended to be used when the vaults were opened, he won't do it because he's too moralistic and holy.
 
All those changes you just mentioned are great ideas.

How 'bout this? Add a character in Klamath in a new small building: McGuff's Wasteland Oddities. It's a one-room shack with some items in jars on shelves: Three-Legged Gecko Fetus and the like. When you enter the shack, dialogue with McGuff opens automatically. Something like this:

[You hear a crackly ticking noise.]
MCGUFF: Whoa there, Stranger! Looks like you've picked up some rads in your travels.
PLAYER: What are rads? Who are you? What is that noise?
MCGUFF: You're just off the bus, ain't ya? Well, not your fault, being a Tribal and all. But you are one lucky sonnovabitch you found me. We don't see many tribals wandering the waste, and those you do see are generally puking their guts out or dead, on account of the background radiation.
PLAYER: Please explain.
MCGUFF: Okay. You hear that clicking noise? That's my geiger counter. And no you can't have it. I use it to test the things people bring in to trade to me. It's clicking now because you have been irradiated. It works like this...

And McGuff could go on to explain radiation, rad-x and radaway, with some advice on using them. "They're worth a lot of money, but don't you go trading 'em just 'cause you're short of cash." And, "You can let your rad levels build up for a while before taking your next dose of radaway, but make sure you're taking a dose every 10 days or so." And, "My advice? Get yourself a geiger counter at the first opportunity. And use it." And, "Watch out for hotspots! You find one, you back out quick and take yourself some rad-x before going back in."

And, if you pass a speech check, The Chosen One could even explain his mission to McGuff, who could be won over by the nobility of the quest and offer a radaway and a rad-x for free. (The medicines will be hard to come by at the early stages of the game.) Something like this:

MCGUFF: That's quite a story, Stranger. And against my better judgement, I reckon I believe you. My, my... don't that just take me back to my youth... days when the wasteland was a desolate and scary place... when survival was serious business... when ilfe was full of hard choices... not at all like it is these days. These young people with their silly jokes and pop-culture references that I never get... Here, Stranger. Take these. You're going to need them more than I will. And if you ever find something strange out there, a one-headed brahmin for instance, you be sure to bring it back to old McGuff's Wasteland Oddities! Bye, now.

And you'd get around 250 xp for learning about radiation.

Might be a nice way to introduce the gamespanning difference in how radiation works.

Misteryo
 
WOW!

I've got to tell you how amazing I thought that writing was!

If you can I'd go for the whole shebam and write a proper dialogue tree. A couple of different paths and you'd be sorted.

A good one, a rude one, a stupid one, a sleazy one ...... etc!

Good work both of you!
 
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