Your version seemes an easier one, as deathclaws start to show op much later in the game ( as in from a higher level breakpoint.) In Your version centaurs and floaters start to show up from lvl 11 and deathclaws from lvl 12, in the earliest versions that i had it was lvl ~6 that deathclaws showed up.
This isn't “my” version
, it's the original, with a small patch by me.
However, the original spawned these critters as you describe (and I haven't changed it), it's Cubik's mod that pushes it back by 4 levels (if you use it).
Anyways, I'll try to keep in mind that I must provide you with WM2 that i have, though don't expect this early, i suspect it's going to be something like mid september that the ambient temperatures get back to normal. You may do something else in the meantime.
Suits me fine. The link will be dead soon anyway, this was just a test to see how and if I'm going to do this.
Anyway, I spend a day to collect my thoughts, and tried to give as many reasons and insights I could think of.
You may read this (if interested) or not (if too long)... I'm OK either way.
@Muttie..
So i ran a quick check on your patch, and it actually reverts the game back to previous patches, which is bad.. fishing is screwed and so is The Shelter boss.
basically the cubik's patch was sepose to be updated, but actually you just poked the files, You said You'll update, out.
Cubik's patch is not a patch but a mod. That's why I made it optional. People call it a patch, it really isn't. It's an interesting mod that changes mechanics. But it does not fix a single bug or error. It's not a patch.
And I did look into it and what it does in detail.
Here's my opinion on it:
Worldmap.txt
-It pushes the dangerous encounters back by 4 levels. This is good and bad. The good is that you're less likely to die, the bad is that these encounters are your best XP farms. Personally, I like the danger of these encounters. So for me it's a no.
-It enables Trappers, which the original mod had put on level 99, for some reason. This means free Gecko Pelts, instead having to hunt for them. No opinion on this one way or another.
-It increases the chance of random encounters. I believe this was supposed to be a fix before there was sfall and using it with WorldmapFpsPatch may be a bad idea. So maybe reset the random encounter chance in the txt when using this.
!Owen.int and DcBilly.msg
-XP for cooking; which can be nice, bit more rewarding, however, cooking is mostly about cash & healing items. The XP doesn't hurt, though.
-Reduced cooking requirements. This is a bit weird, as the requirements to catch fish is still the same. However, when you catch fish and cook them you'll burn less. Then again when you do fish properly, your Outdoorsman is probably (at least) about 150% (1 in 4 chance) and by then you have a 50% chance to cook (with this mod 75%). Still, less grind. Deathclaw Eggs are extremely rare and I wouldn't cook, but sell them.
-Restores the "manipulation" which Fast Cook removed. Arguably an error fix.
enemy.int
A chance to loot corpses based on Steal skill. This is most intriguing. The arguments against it are: you are supposed to craft weapons, not to find them. It requires to increase another skill (Steal), but you may be OK w/ only 100%. And the mod already has this option (arguably by accident) by blowing up enemies with explosives (I think glowballs may be nice for this) [see the original readme mentioning this]. The good points are: you get to test many weapons w/o having to craft them. And you find ammo on killed enemies. Both sounds like fun.
obj_dude.int and obj_dude.msg
-You get your Radiation & Poison level by examining yourself. I do not have a strong opinion on this. The mod has a Geiger-Counter which you are supposed to use. But you may also go with this idea.
-You get XP for each successful hit, plus a chance for extra XP (up to 180 (best case), I believe). Which is another XP boost, basically again addressing the grind problem. I don't know if this makes much difference to farming Centaurs & Floaters but it's free.
Btw, all these scripts by Cubik are really cool. I loved checking them out and I learned a lot from them.
If you want to use it, it's in the xfiles folder. You can add it if you want. May be fun.
However, people should understand that it's a mod (that can be fun to use) but it's not a patch that must be used.
And, I did update it.
In detail: The original worldmap.txt (on which Cubik's mod is based) had a minor bug*, and when I fixed it I also fixed the txt in Cubik's mod, so using it wouldn't rollback the fix.
*to be precise encounter table 30 had no map line. So when the encounter table would trigger, the engine didn't know what maps to use and would spawn the player on a black map.
I added the line from 1.02d:
maps=Coast Encounter 5, Coast Encounter 4, Coast Encounter 1, Coast Encounter 8
Which as you can see are all "coast" maps, which may explain your comment on "random encounter not working with fishing", as it would not work when using encounter table 30, but it does now.
as for fishing, it's now impossible, as getting to the edge of the ocean and entering map still yealds desert map. coastal maps are only during encounters, and ifishing doesn't work in encounters.
Yes, you must trigger a random encounter to "find" a fishing spot. However, it does work. I just did a quick test to confirm it. Had a spore plant encounter. Dodged out of combat and started fishing. I got bitten once, and I caught a fish. It's a bit clunky and finicky, but this mod is from 2005. Maybe this could be improved, but idk... not sure I want to.
Otherwise,
I'm not sure what you mean by "random encounters" not working, maybe the encounter table 30 bug (see quote above)... (?)
Then again,
I couldn't change this, this is engine stuff or very advanced scripting. I would have to make a check if the tile is coastal and then replace the default 0 map (desert1) with a coastal map. I wouldn't know where to begin.
An alternative would be to add "fishing spot" locations (like a city) along the coast... that may work... but idk, having to "find" a fishing spot by triggering random encounters is not the worst mechanic, imo.
the three guides mercenary in heaven and both fisherman and miner in fod homot don't uncover combat, mining, and fishing zones at all, and they used to.
The mercs never did such thing. No idea where this is from.
However, it's a good idea. In fact I have a WM2_project_notes document with several points on "improving" the mod and that is one of them.
Having Darlok reveal Radville (the easiest dungeon) and Braeden the "normal" mine would be a good way to direct the player.
If I would also reveal the other dungeons (car workshop is hard to find) and how or when is another matter, not sure how I would do this. Or do it at all.
If interested here are some other "issues" I found:
-One quest requires 10 Metal Armour but actually checks for 20. However, this is irrelevant as a player can neither carry 10 nor 20 Metal Armours.
-Two citizens request a "necklace". There is no such item in the mod.
-Several citizens don't say how much they pay for the items they want.
-There is no indicator if the .44 JHP ammo of master.dat 1.0 or 1.01+ is used.
-Missing Worldmap TownMarkers.
-Bandits and Cannibals kills give karma, which makes me want to skip these fights. Their inventory does not get destroyed. Bandits and Cannibals could get tougher based on player lvl.
-Player is idolized in Infested Flagstaff.
-Map scripts are a mess, need complete overhaul.
-The Random Loot boxes all have a skip in the numbering. Lvar5 is missing, Lvar3 is twice.
-[Some "technical" stuff I don't want to get into here...]
-Minor map fixes (several odd hex blockers that need to get removed, plus more; but all details, maps are fine)
-
The vault-net dialer forcing a dead end when not having a circuit board. edit: MADE A memory MISTAKE: Circuit Board is required to enter vault-net and does not get used up : so again the design of this mod is impressively stable, they did think of these things. I just got confused...
-How does vault-net work with the BoS when the map transition has not happened yet? [test]
...
-Balance (
gimme a break...) [joke (kind of), I'm actually impressed by the balance. As said this mod is very solid imo, the problem is not that it's badly balanced, but that it is based on extreme level grind]
...
-A character starting with ST 1 cannot survive the radiation of the starting location. LOL
...
-Add in caves again to have more explore options.
-Craft Water Flasks at wells.
-Ammo is too scarce... imo... but not sure. Cubik's mod may help here actually. Or using glowballs.
-More fluff.
-No option to craft flamer fuel for the starting weapon of Big Guns. Making the weapon useless.
...
-Engine bug: Accessing an unconscious critter when cycling through bodies does not trigger pick up proc.
And so on...
There's more, just a quick run down of points I've collected. Lots of work, not sure it's worth it.
However, I would like to stress again, that I think this mod is very stable. Don't think the list above insinuates that it's a broken mess or anything. It's not. It's fine.
Most of the points above are rather inconsequential. Some would be nice if fixed (town map markers would help) but necklaces not being in the game, for example, is irrelevant.
The main problem is the level grind, see next point to get an idea what you have to reach...
and the shelter boss is back to his sick 999hp despite his maxed out resistances and thresholds. given how much action points the fucker has, and how strong weapon he weilds, it is almost not possible to beat him once he initiates his attack. It's either you sneak up on him and do an insta death critical or it's game over. in the fixed version he had only 50HP, and you revertted it back to the broken 999. I don't mind, he only wasted me once, when i missclicked 1 on the keyboard instead of "a" and thus switching off my sneak mode, so only that time that cyborg attacked first, although I consider this zone OP in difficulty for the average jo playing this game, probably the devs too, hence the hp nerf for the cyborg. Basically the best gun in the game, the Advanced Space Marine Gun, may sometimes unload 1,5 of a clip on on the cyborg ~750 bullets and the cyborg is still alive.
this is still only possible due to me using Bonus Rate of Fire+ fast shot triat so that this gun bursts 1/5 of it's clip 100 bullets with 1 ap attack.
Disagree.
Cyborg patch:
I don't know what your patch is but the original authors never gave the Cyborg 50 HP. The "cyborg patch" which confused me for a while (as there is no documentation on what it does) is, as I believe, just adding the proto to the game as the base version of WM2 was missing the Cyborg proto. So you would have fought a Gun Thug (talk about worst possible pick; gun thugs are horribly weak, actually a design flaw of Fo2 imo).
Wild Guess:
Did you know that proto readers* can not display WM 2 proto files correctly? If you would check them it would say "50 HP" for the Cyborg, but that's not true. In-game you will get 999 HP.
Maybe that's the explanation.
However, if you fought a Cyborg with 50 HP, idk, how that happened.
*Cubik's reader works a bit better but has also issues, best solution is to “edit as text” file.
"They want do to give the Cyborg 50 HP?!"
The Cyborg is the final boss of three. The other are the Guardian, the Alien Warlord and finally the Cyborg. If you study the mod, it all adds up, some examples:
-The random loot box inside the Cyborg dungeon, requires a trap roll w/ -100 else it hits you w/ 400 to 500 critical damage. To lockpick it is a roll w/ -200.
-To get to this point you probably need Power Armour which requires 175% Science and 175% Repair. On top of your weapon skill which should also be around 200%+ and the aforementioned need to disarm a trap (100%+) and lockpick the box (200%+).
-Look at these numbers and then say the Cyborg should have 50 HP.
This is "
extreme" end-game. This is how the mod is balanced and designed.
Another example;
All these end bosses have maxed out resistances and 999 HP. In fact, the Alien Warlord is set to have 50.000 HP, but the engine caps it at 999 HP.
Anyway, all this is clearly intended. Three
extremely powerful end game bosses.
Solutions:
-As said, these dungeons are extreme end game. So when you hit them you should be way beyond level 24 so that means after Sniper and all that jazz, the entire shebang and some. In fact, I believe you should be fully stacked out with Sniper, Fast Shot, Bonus Rate of Fire, Action Boy, Bonus Move, Better Criticals and some. When I stopped playing I was about level 18 to 20 and I hadn't even reached Combat Armour yet. Anyway, you should be a monster yourself when you fight the Cyborg.
-Better Criticals and a one AP weapon, then cripple him (runs away) or instant kill him. Easy.
-The Cyborg is susceptible to getting crippled (runs away once blind) [which, I believe, is actually a dev oversight]. But that's another way.
-The Cyborg has no resistances against EMP (because „Cyborg“), so you may try crafting EMP grenades. Which is also a strong reason why 50 HP is a bad idea, as each EMP grenade does about (100 to 150 damage vs 0/0% resistances). Use that against a 50 HP Cyborg and this fight becomes a joke. I don't have much experience with Sniper, but if it also crits w/ grenades, then chucking EMP grenades against 999 HP should take the Cyborg down in one turn. If it doesn't, I may be open to the idea of bringing it down to a number the EMP grenades can break in one turn – but probably not. Because I think the player also has to run a risk and that is needing another combat turn.
-The Advanced Space Marine Gun is way too ammo intensive to be useful imo, but I believe the idea is to use it as a "one shot" weapon against these end-bosses. In addition, wouldn't the Advanced Space Marine Gun do devastating damage with Sniper (i.e. when it crits)? Wouldn't that create damage up into the thousands? Not tested... but I think that may be another option.
Point being: these bosses are a challenge for a very high end character. The design makes sense, and there are tricks and ways to deal with it (0/0% EMP resistances), crits, special weapons etc.
And if beginners complain about it they need to break the habit of a lifetime and learn the strategies.
I see no reason to change this.
, and don't you try to diminish Your efforts..
