I know, one would think I'd have the new code fully integrated into the master, and perhaps a new beta release - what with me extolling the virtues of the new stuff and all the other day.
Trouble is, the way I had originally set it up, I didn't like the way companions "popped in" when you crossed a cell barrier in the open wasteland. They tended to end up in front of you a lot.
So, I rewrote the code, and added a check on the player's Z axis heading; along with some code that moved them around based on which quadrant of the compass you're facing. Seems to work correctly; though I only set up the heading check for exterior cells. In an interior, the companion will only pop in one time - since the cell barriers are doors in an interior and all.
Thus far, I've had the code running from game start, up to Sloan, back down to Primm, across Primm Pass, north through Novac, Freeside, and into the Strip and the Lucky 38.
Picked up my Suite in the Lucky 38 at level three. No crappy Novac motel room for us this time!
Before I do any releasing, I still want to try out the casinos. I'm hoping that this new code will completely preclude the need to monkey with existing game scripts.
I'm also learning more about the engine, still. I've worked up a new theory on why the quest script seems to "freeze", but I won't bore you guys with it.
The 'return to' code works correctly for both Lucky 38, and Novac motel room, as well. The option to send the companion back to those will only appear if the room in question has been obtained. Those are the only two explicitly stated player houses that I'm aware of in the base game. If anyone knows of others, let me know about them and I can probably get the option added.
I'm glad to hear about the z-axis improvement. Even with the current released version of the script I had experienced them occasionally appearing in my line of fire and getting shot. Had I known it was fixable I would have complained about it and got out that sharp stick you're so fond of.
ReplyDeleteBut to be honest, I'm finding that there's usually not much need for me to complain since you generally expect from companions the same things that I do.
Well, except for the strap-ons, but nevermind...
Depends on which companions you mean.
ReplyDeleteIf you mean NCCS, then yes - we have similar expectations (and that last one would be nice, too, if someone could make decent animations for it. What? I'm a guy - if participation isn't possible, watching is an acceptable consolation prize...), but for my personal companions, I have way more in the way of expectations.
I'm not okay with them just "working"; I expect them to be the best NPC companions to ever set foot into the wasteland - and I don't stop modifying their code and packages until that aim is reached.
I may not necessarily share my improvements with the main system in all cases, but I do keep working at making them evolve.
Oh, also:
ReplyDeleteI had forgotten all about the pop-ins from the combatend block.
But since I've got my 360 degree pattern of spawns more or less worked out, I'll add the same conditions to that code so that they don't appear in front of you outdoors.
Will have to chance it indoors; since the code is dependent on a Northmarker to denote 0. Many indoor cells don't have one (slack devs again), so the standard code will have to stay there to keep them from teleporting in weird ways.
DRM is BULLSHIT!
ReplyDeleteDigital Rights Management? Why is it whenever I see this I feel like I have no rights?
Just go ahead and stamp the bar code on my forehead and let's be done with it!
I apologize for posting a comment that has nothing to do with NCCS or any other Nos mod, but I just felt the need to print that publicly somewhere without getting myself banned from some pious gaming community, and under the heading "leashes" seemed appropriate. Thanks.
Fight tha powah! And so forth.
ReplyDeleteWon't get any DRM love from me. I hate the shit, myself.
Although I would point out that it's got nothing to do with the "rights" of you or I, and is solely about screwing over the consumer in the name of the corporate bottom line.
True. Which is why I like to see myself as a sort of female Robin Hood. Is a multimilliondollar corporation really gonna miss 50 clams here and there?
ReplyDeleteAfter I calmed down a bit, I got around to making a more politically correct statement here:
http://www.thenexusforums.com/index.php?/topic/273524-fonv-on-off-line-computer/page__view__findpost__p__2466856
Perfect example of why I rarely buy digital media.
ReplyDeleteIf I have a hard copy, then fuck you; I can install it whenever I want. If it's wholly digital? One little command in the authentication server, and I've got a $50 decorative desktop icon.
Same with music. Always buy my music on CD. If I own a disc, the I can play it, rip it, use it as a goddamned skeet target if I feel like it.
I remember awhile back - early this year, as I recall - right after the Kindle was out, there was some book they'd been selling "E" copies of left and right, and then came a dispute with the copyright holder. Amazon helpfully deleted every copy of the book from the Kindle of everyone who has purchased it. Don't recall whether they got refunds or not, but I don't think they did.
That was when I decided no digital distribution for me. Hard copies only, plzkkthxbai.
There are a few exceptions. That Vampire: The Masquerade game, for example. That had been out of print in disc form for years, and a $20 game being rendered unusable would be a hefty annoyance... but not ulcer-inducing.
Hell, I'm just glad they haven't been able to make authentication servers for guns, thus far. At least something in this world still works, even when the internet goes kerflooie.
LOL. That last paragraph should be the Fallout motto.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree wholeheartedly. If I can't burn it to a disc or something and the only way I can access it is through some server that's graciously letting me use it for a fee, I also feel like I never know when the rug might get yanked from under me.
Aside from $5 or $10 at the most, the only major Steam purchase I've ever made was the "id Megapack" for $60, and I wasn't taking much of a gamble there since I'm already familiar enough with the formats of those games to either make backups of them or get a cra-- er, I mean find an alternative means of launching them without Steam. The niftiest thing about my tried and true classics is that all I need to run them is the WAD files and one of like dozens of sourceports that are available free and legal all over the place.