Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Laziness

I've been... attempting to unwind. Not going near the Nexus for the purposes of support.

Played a bit of FO3. Relaxed via stripping, cleaning, inspecting, and reassembling my new MRP (and damn, is that quick change barrel system slick...).

Still, all good things must come to an end, so here I sit. Still not touching the GECK for awhile, but I was looking up the viability of a random quest generator.

Things... do not look promising, but what do I know?

While I was perusing forums, I came across something else, though, that drew my attention; and reminded me why I'm usually ten minutes away from turning my back on the entire FO3 community at any given time.

There was a post - I'm not going to link it because, really, it wasn't decent enough to warrant verbatim reproduction - lamenting the fact that you can't have a "girlfriend" in Fallout 3. Of course, there were the usual bitches that Bethsoft didn't write any form of romance into the quests.

I'd normally jump on board with that sentiment... but considering how piss-poorly Clover and Cross are designed, I can't say as I'd be first in line to try out their idea of a proper lover for the player.

The participants continued on, lamenting even the lack of a partner in mod form. They then discussed things that said girlfriend could do for the player, including "increasing charisma while with you" and "going places and getting stuff for you".

At this point, I'll spare my female readers' tempers and resist the urge to make a joke about staying in the kitchen, making sandwiches.

Firstly, I'm disappointed that such is the extent of these peoples' imaginations. A dream partner... and all you can think of is shopping for you? Pathetic. What's next? "Sweep the vault while I'm gone"?

But mainly, it's the lack of initiative that makes me cringe. You want a partner, a companion... hell, a maid? Create one.

Pick a companion system. RR, SCC, EZ, copy the vanilla followers, copy Tarrant's setup... it all works. Make her look like you want, add some dialog, create a few packages...

You can quite literally have damn near anyone you want in the game; provided you're willing to accept some limitations on hair styles, outfits - and most importantly, put the time in. Sure, it takes forever, but it's hardly complicated work. There are several of us who have already done the shit work of laying the basics. The rest is just details and RefIDs.

Really is a microcosm of 'modern society' on the whole, I think. Where so few people are willing to simply step up and make what they want; instead standing around loudly complaining that someone else won't do it for them.

Would you really want to emotionally invest in a companion someone else created, anyway? I know I don't.

(although I'll confess Nathyrra of NWN XP3 did have her moments)

I dunno. Maybe I've just spent too much time hip-deep in the AI, and ascribe things to it that I shouldn't.

10 comments:

  1. I agree. People who have the nerve to complain about not having something in the game should take the time to open the GECK and at least TRY to learn how to use it before they start complaining. Let me elaborate on that by saying that it's really not as difficult as it might seem when you first look at it. Furthermore, there are a ton of tutorials, some not-so-decent granted, but plenty of attainable info just the same, on how to add just about anything you want to the game. And if a person is disposed to have someone else do most of the hard work for them, well that's been done too. As Nos pointed out, there are several companion systems on the FO3Nexus that simply require you to create a NPC, add some scripts and packages to it and then place it in the game. RR Companion Vault is a fine example of a companion system where a couple of fine people have kindly done all the technical work for us to give us a mod that allows us to easily add our own companions to the game. It would not be such an elaborate matter to add the desired AI packages, dialog or quests that you want to a new companion to make him/her do/say whatever the heck you want. Granted, I haven't done that myself in the pack of companions I'll likely be releasing later this evening; instead I've simply given each character a basic wander package for two main reasons: firstly because I've dropped a few new characters into quest areas and I simply don't want them to screw something up and secondly because, like the creators of the RR Companion Vault, I want to leave other player/modders a little space to work if they would like to further customize the characters for their own personal use. Hopefully once I release this new pack of RR Companions, a total of 130 characters that I've whipped up in about two weeks, perhaps the community will see how easy others have made it for us to add these characters to the game ourselves. (Right now the most time-consuming detail that's holding me up has nothing to do with the GECK -- I want to take 130 screenshots and that's gonna take the afternoon I'm afraid, taking external distractons into account.) But it is my intention to have the characters released today, and my hope that they will inspire others to start making and uploading companion packs for RR Companion Vault. If enough people do so, at least then perhaps the people complaining that they need someone to do it for them will have a little less to complain about.

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  2. Wow. That's a considerable vote of support there. Thanks.

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  3. Also: A hundred and thirty screenshots will take at LEAST an entire afternoon; if all you want is a basic ID-type frontal shot.

    If you're going to try and be cool about it and do different poses and/or situations, expect it to take several.

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  4. Heh, in terms of FO3 girlfriends, I would have to say that I favor Moira, even if she does tangle my DNA like a kitten with a ball of yarn. :P She is proactive, and trying to make the world a better place, she's cute, and she has a mini nuke that she was planning on using as an excavation tool. What's not to love?

    A girlfriend need not be a Companion, especially when she has her own things to do. (What can I say, Sidney is the second girl, same story - she's got her own life to attend to. She's tried the life of a wandering adventurer, and decided to settle down.)

    Somebody did do a seduction mod. If I recall properly there was even one girl that you could marry.

    She's an old fashioned girl.

    A very old fashioned girl.

    Okay, so she's a ghoul... O_o

    I am trying to dissect Thieves' Arsenal, running into problems even trying to open it in GECK - I think I need to fall back on the older TES Construction Set. I do want to take it apart to see how they handled the random quests for Odd Jobs.

    In regards to screenshots, have a 'photo contest', with the stipulation that the characters be wearing their default clothes. 130 posed pictures is a lot of screenshots.

    The Auld Grump, a LOT of screenshots.

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  5. Or my problem with Thieves' Arsenal could be that my Zip file is corrupted....

    Oi! I just spent two hours working over a dead file.... The fresh copy opened just fine. :/ I should have been warned when I noticed how small the file was. If I had opened it on my older computer (where Oblivion lives) I wouldn't have had that problem.

    It is obviously time for bed.

    The Auld Grump

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  6. Now, see, I'm on the opposite side of the fence.

    I thought Sydney was a whore, and Moira just plain annoys me.

    I personally like the companion type. But then I've also found out that few things in life are as great as knowing that the woman you love is fully capable of watching your ass if a fight breaks out at any given time.

    We won't get into what a turn-on it is to sweep and clear buildings together...

    You know, I'm actually surprised the Thieves' Arsenal would open in the GECK. Since OBSE and FOSE don't have all the same options, I'd have expected the GECK to soil itself with script errors.

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  7. Heh, no I opened it with the TES Con Kit - I was just so annoyed that until I downloaded a fresh copy I couldn't open it at all.

    I still haven't done more than check to see if it would open - at the moment I am sleep typing, having made the mistake of eating something with MSG. (For some people, like me, that is akin to popping caffeine pills, no sleep, but no concentration either.)

    I suspect that despite being the older version of the engine, TESCK is more robust than GECK. :/ Certainly it seems like folks have done more with it.

    I am going to try it with GECK tomorrow, if I don't end up going to a movie instead. Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is leaving town.

    I think Moira appeals to my inner engineer. Not that she has a lot of competition, most of the gals of FO3 are pretty unappealing. (Amata? Hell, even Butch ends up being a truer friend....)

    The Auld Grump

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  8. Eh. Amata was never in the running for me. Nuke V101 for all I care.

    Clover was the one that had potential, had they not made her ugly and annoying. Her and Carolina Red.

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  9. Aaand, I have come to the conclusion that I have no idea how the script in Thieves' Arsenal works.

    I am tempted to print it out, since I think that my biggest problem is that I am looking at only part of the scripting. TA is a pretty big mod.

    I still have no idea how it randomizes things - it looks like it calls a routine, but then I can't find the routine. I know it is there, but I have no idea where.

    Conclusion: Too much caffeine, not enough brain. (Or looking at code after 2:00 Ack Emma is a bad idea, Dr. Pepper keeping me awake, but destroying concentration.)

    Going to lie back, read Military History Quarterly, and let my brain wander off.

    The Auld Grump

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  10. I can relate. Gone looking around a few mods like that myself.

    For the life of me, I still can't figure out what half of Arwen's "tweaks" and new game settings actually DO. Other than, you know, break my companion system.

    Even if you do decipher it, there's still no guarantee that it'll port over. OBSE had a lot more options than FOSE currently does. You might be able to get the crew to add more... but there tends to be a fair bit of time between their beta releases.

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