Saturday, October 31, 2009

On My Own...

"Hi Nos,
I've been thinkink a lot lateley about fo3. While I do love the game. I've decided not to reinstall it. I seem to have my pc working ok, but I think I'll move on and get something new to play. I'm giving you permission to do whatever you like with the rr mod. If you want to keep it moving along.
"

Fuck. Looks like ttomwv has decided FO3 isn't his bag anymore.

I can't blame him. I fight burnout on a constant basis, and have on more than one occasion had to fight down the urge to delete it all and slink back into the shadows.

Still, it puts me in a bit of a shitty position. There are large sections of the RR Companion Vault that I had nothing to do with. The prisoner system and sorters, especially. I don't know how they work, I don't use them.

I can't debug or improve them at the moment... and being as I don't use or like either system, it's doubtful I'll bother to learn how.

He suggested that I try to pull in help from someone new.

I'm leery. ttomwv and I worked well together. We didn't have a long history by any means, but it was one totally free of drama or personal conflict.

That is an exceedingly rare thing in life; on the internet especially.

I'm going to put the word out, see if anyone else wants to sign on... but if responses in the past to community outreach are any indication, this will be a total flop.

I'm not going to abandon the mod. There are still places I want it to go, companions I want to see.

Horrible attacks I want to enact upon the vault... *cough* Did I say that one out loud...?

Anyway, the worst this means for the moment is a slowdown. I'm not going to abandon my other mods by any stretch, so the RR Companion Vault will just have to queue up with the rest and wait its turn, I suppose.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

The Universe Conspires...

...against me.

Just settled into scripting. Working on the Companion AI...

...and the fucking power goes out. Was only out about a half hour... but I lost all the work I had done on the new experimental plugin.

Fortunately - as evidenced by the fact I am posting this - my PC didn't fry from a surge, so I do not need to embark upon a bloodbath.

Still annoying.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Vault 1 Redecoration Project, v2 WIP

So, I know some of you aren't thrilled with the new pictures I hung up in the vault.

Well, to tell you the truth, neither am I.

It breaks up the gray... but seems too teenage.

So, as part of the next version, I took them down.

It isn't ready for upload by a long shot... but I wanted to post up some initial shots and show off what I've got thus far, I think it's a serious improvement.



You can see here the new bedroom under the reduced - or as I call it: non-blinding - lighting. Black and white marble tile, marble pillars. Added some ceiling tiles, and raised the vault lighting emplacements so that they sit below flush.

The walls are going to get a workover too, I just haven't decided which textures to use.




Here, I kicked the lighting back up to show off detail better. Got rid of the ammo cans, and set the lockers into the walls, to increase floor space. Added a second Enclave locker. I liked the ammo cans... but they seemed a tad redundant, now that the Vault 1 supply system is in place. May as well store ammo in the guard house communal container, or in the armory.




This is the back wall of the museum. I removed all the weapon display cases, and added new ones set into the wall. The top ones can be a bit tricky to put weapons into, but it worked fine for me.

You'll also notice I redid the wall. Most of the others will get a similar treatment. Some just don't fit right, and will have to stay Vault walls.




Here's the new marble tile that's going to cover the museum floor. You can see I've got some serious clipping and alignment issues yet to deal with.

That part takes forever, and is annoying, to boot.

Friday, October 16, 2009

Driven Up the Wall

Right fucking up it, I tell you!

Can Nvidia not put out working fucking drivers anymore?

Shit. Installed 190.38 a few months ago, to ostensibly "improve performance" with FO3.

It doesn't.

Not only does it not, but every other time I restarted the computer, Nvidia's invasive, pain in the ass of a control panel helpfully reset my desktop resolution to 800x600 and randomly reordered my icons.

Tonight, after FO3 wouldn't start because the driver had b0rked AGAIN, I had enough and updated to 191.07

Now I can't play FO3 for more than ten minutes before my framerate drops from a low-but-playable 25 to one frame every third second.

The shit's unplayable.

Going to try one set of "fixes" someone posted in a forum, and then I'm rolling the fuck back to 186.18

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Nos' RR Companions v1.2 LIVE!

That's right, I got around to uploading it.

Still isn't done. I have some more dialog to implement, animations to add, and voices to mess with.

Still, it's a step in the right direction.

At some point, I have GOT to rewrite my blog post on the mod, since it's months out of date, now.

http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8090

Reminders...

Testing some new companions, and running my normal pack through its paces before uploading 1.2.

Decided to test the sit package at the dinner table in the player's bedroom (gotta love Redecorated) and one of the new companions sits down across the table from me with a plate of food, starts to eat, then stops, looks up at me and smiles.

Nights like this remind me why I mod in the first place.

I do so love seeing my creations live.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

GotY?

Yeah, okay. We all knew Fallout 3 would win it.

But am... annoyed.

Was in Hastings earlier, grabbing the next volume of Rosario + Vampire (screw you. I like romantic comedy and vampires) and happened to cruise the game rack.

You can now get Fallout 3's GotY edition for $50.

I paid $50 for the base game on day one it was available, so why am I pissed?

This $50 one comes with ALL FUCKING FIVE DLCs. ALL OF THEM!

I can't get them on Windows live for $50!

Zeta's not available on disc yet at all, but when it is it will cost $50 or $60 (depending on Zeta's price) to get the four DLCs I'm missing.

Granted, I'm not overly fond of the DLC. I bought Operation Anchorage the day it went live, and it was absolute shit.

However, the Pitt and Point Lookout have both looked semi-interesting. Hell, I dunno.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Truly...

...we're either in bizzaro world, or living in the end times.

"I just noticed There's been several endorsements since you put your new stuff up. You got us in the top 25 for the last 2 weeks. Sweet. I'd have to say with this update youv'e made your mark on the RR mod."


...top 25? My work?!

I'm speechless.

I shudder to think of how high in the rankings we'd be if half the shit I tried in development had actually worked right...

New Versions!

Got them uploaded this morning, but had to sleeeeeeeep.

So, now, I present you with linkage:

RR Companion Vault version 4.9

My RR Companions Pack

My Alternate Guards pack

Monday, October 5, 2009

RR Integration

Working on shoehorning all the new crap into the RR Companion Vault master.

Got most of it done, but am expanding some of the conditional dialog.

I've got the wardrobe, armory, sleep system, "relax" system, and "go home" system all run with dialog lists that the companion will choose their response from randomly, with special entries for based on companion alignment, player alignment, location, state of dress, or how much the companion does/doesn't like the player.

I have to wonder. Does sitting here giggling at my own dialog mean I'm a good writer, or that I've just been at this too long?

Regardless, expect the companions to get downright snarky at times, or even prone to separation anxiety if they like you a whole lot.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

New Screenshots

Got around to taking a few, to show off the non-scripting side of what I've been up to.

Most of what you'll see here hasn't been uploaded yet, but will be soon-ish.

RR Companions Vault Picasa folder

Saturday, October 3, 2009

RR Vault Updates

Still working, but people keep distracting me.

Wasted two days on converting my tracking system to an inventory item driven menu, rather than a terminal. It just isn't working. I've got it narrowed down to a couple last ideas that might work, but menus like this just weren't made to drive quest stages. So it's on the back burner for now, while I finish up work on things that will actually work.

Had to pull several occlusion planes, since they conflicted with the windows that were for some reason added to RR Refurbished all over the bleedin' vault.

I'm officially "on the team" for the base mod. I have to be aware of how my improvements will effect other mods, you see.

Not happy about this shit in the least, but I only had to pull four or five planes, and Refurbished is so overloaded with crap that the planes didn't help that much, anyway.

Copied the removed planes over to my Redecorated Mod, so users of it will at least derive the full benefit. Should help offset all the pictures I hung up.

Think I'm going to write in some AI mods, and finish off that sleep dialog, and then call it good for awhile.

I'm really getting a hankerin' to work on the Girls again, and see if we can't get some advanced features going there.

I've really let myself take on too much, haven't I?

Oh, well. S'not like I've got jack nor shit else to do, these days.