Nos is back in the new-old west. Yee-haw. Even used a male character just for you, Herculine.
(disclaimer: in the real world, I neither own nor would ever wear a stetson.)
Well, I'm about two and a half hours into the new game now.
I picked up Samantha from the Goodsprings Saloon, and have had her and [CENSORED] from Goodsprings, through two powder ganger camps, and then through Primm and the Bison Steve hotel.
I did finally encounter some issues. Still none of the horror stories that have come up over on the Nexus. By and large, everything still works. Following, inventory, teleporting, sandboxing. Combat behavior is a little off - but that was true before the patch. For some reason they sometimes have trouble deciding who's hostile and needs a bullet in the ass. This doesn't happen to my personal companions; so it's probably a combat style thing.
And now, screenshots.
We have weapon drawing and sneaking.
Following me into another cell.
And sandbox behavior.
Edit, later:
It seems when I reinstalled, I restored the wrong copy of my premade companions plugin. I copied the old one, before the sitting and sneak menu were implemented. I overwrote that with the correct copy, and now everything works fine:
So, NCCS works correctly 100% in v1.3 of FNV, as far as I can tell; and I need to pay more fucking attention to organizing my backups in the future.
Yes, organized and backed up archives are a good idea. You don't want to loose all of your hard work (like LostRider did) or have to track down and re-download all you favourite mods. Assuming you can, of course...
ReplyDeleteSo far I've not noticed any issues between NCCS and the new patch. Granted, I've only run it a few hours since I still seem to be fixated on games that are decades old; but you know how we females are -- one morning I'll wake up and one of my many other personalities will be asserting itself and I'll be playing it again like it's brand-new.
ReplyDelete@Druuler: My backups aren't bad - each version of each of my mods gets its own subdirectory, so I can revert to earlier versions or check code or what-have-you should the need arise. The issue in this case was I usually keep the latest version in the mod's main directory; and that's where I restored from. Turned out I hadn't updated that one since like January. Shortly after I posted the "bugs" it occurred to me that I had probably run the wrong version and I went a'lookin'. Seems I was right.
ReplyDelete@Herculine: You'll get no complaints about schizo-gaming from me. I've been on a huge Oblivion kick (as you no doubt noticed from the emails), but I was just in the mood last night for NV, for some reason. Now that I know the mod isn't broken, I'll probably slink off and go back to turning Oblivion into the world's greatest sex-sim or whatever the hell it is I'm doing to that poor game.
Heh, schizo-gaming, I like that. Describes me well too :)
ReplyDeleteBTW, now you've got me wondering how many peoples Oblivion installs don't even resemble the original game, and how scary some of them must be ;)
@Kirtai:
ReplyDeleteI think it's a fitting term. Game-whims seem to be pretty random, and make no sense whatsoever on the whole.
As for Oblivion conversions: be careful what you ask, someone may answer. Warning! That image database contains much adult content, and even more that's just plain weird. It's also predominantly in Japanese, so reading is difficult.
I try to stick to things that are at least legal to depict; but the people who created Lovers have made some pretty sick plugins.
you got mad moonspeak skills, Nos? or just patience? There's some mods for FO3/FNV on .jp sites I'd kill to track down and use. I still haven't see a GOOD twintail hairstyle for my Shoujo Death Squad of DOOM companions on Nexus, but I've seen a couple on those sites I'd kill to get my hands on.
ReplyDeleteAlso, side question - any idea how difficult is it to convert clothing, etc from Oblivion to FO3/FNV? There's a bunch of outfits and such in Oblivion I'd kill to import in as well.
Mad moonspeak skills? You kidding? I can't read a chicken-scratch one. Can only tell the difference between romanji and kanji based on how they're arranged on the page (as I understand it, kanji are pictographs - each one representing a whole word or idea; where romanji were developed more akin to a western language - each weirdass drawing being the equivalent to a letter; something about kanji not working well with a keyboard...). And then of course there's the third one (hiragana? katakana? I can never remember) where each character is a syllable sound. Annoyingly complex language.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I learn quite quickly and can operate fairly well based on pictures, and what clicking the button does in testing. Once the mod is loaded and we're inside the game engine, I know where all the button are, even if they're re-labeled, or shops are renamed or whatever. Only time I really have trouble is with inventory items and spells; since they can do damn near anything - and Oblivion won't display Japanese characters for me, so it's all total gibberish and couldn't be translated even if I could read the garbage.
Can't help much with hair. I had a link ready for you, but then re-read your comment and noticed you were talking about the Fallouts, and not Oblivion. My hair resources are somewhat thin for FO3/NV. I don't know if Growlf's twintails and other hairs have even been ported over. Have you tried the ones that came with Ling's? I recall it had some 2ch hairs - one of which was a twintail I think.
You're right, though, I need to start paying more attention to the various forums I trawl. They all have FO sections; I just don't generally read them.
As for converting meshes, that depends. Do you have many years of experience 3d modeling, and know the inner workings of Blender and/or 3DStudio Max? Since you had to ask, I'm going to assume you belong to the second group (as I do) whose modeling skills are limited largely to copying egm files, and changing texture paths in Nifscope. In that case, you're fucked.
Oblivion and the Fallouts use a totally different skeleton. To convert, one need only (as I understand it) open the appropriate skeleton in Blender, open the outfit over it, and make the appropriate adjustments so that it will sit right. Probably more in-depth than that in practice, but that was the gist of it that I saw explained in a tutorial I cruised a couple years ago.
Someone released an Oblivion skeleton for FO3 awhile back, so that you could use the armors direct... but then none of the default game armors will equip right; so unless you're in the mood to change the entire game's outfits over to Oblivion equivalents it wouldn't work well.
On that note, a total conversion like that wouldn't be an immense undertaking... Would probably end up kind of cool. You'd never be able to release it on the Nexus, of course; but it could make for an interesting game. Shoe-horning half of Apachii's Goddess and Heroes stores into the base Fallout 3 world? It would make the "immersion"-twits cry, but would probably be cool to see in action.
That kind of overhaul would definately give FO a different feel. Might be something I would run on my game, but not something I would try and create myself. I'm having enough fun learning the GECK and FO3 Edit without worrying about Blender, Nifscope, etc.
ReplyDeleteI do hope to try and learn those tools eventually, though. I know of a modder that wants to work on a Resident Evil: Nemesis mod with me.
Resident Evil, eh? As a mod for FO3, or a mod of the game RE: Nemesis, itself?
ReplyDeleteI used one of the existing zombie mods for FO3 to test the prototype of my Operator combat style. I needed something that was what the zoomies call a "target rich environment", and that seemed to fit the bill.
Wish I could have recorded it. That was something else watching three of my companions kill a horde of zombies as fast as they could reload or switch to a new weapon.
I've seen some of the Japanese sites before, bizarre doesn't begin to describe some of them :)
ReplyDeleteYou can use Google translate or Chromes built in version to read those sites, assuming you can tolerate the weird stuff machine translation can throw out.
@darksong,
A Shoujo Death Squad of DOOM? Sounds like that would be fun combined with an increased spawn mod for mass carnage (like that zombie mod)
Now you've got me thinking of a horde of Lop eared elf minis in Oblivion laying waste with massed magic barrages or two handed swords bigger than they are, hmmm :)
I've tried machine translations, but I usually have better luck just going by pictures. Some of those translations come out in ways that would make Seuss accuse you of being on a bad acid trip.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have any screenshots of it, but I do remember Herculine mentioning once doing the giant weapons bit with her Shojos in FO3. Miniguns, I think it was?
I don't generally use the mini variety companions in Oblivion, but I do admit that handing on a giant sword or hammer would be pretty funny.
Sort of both, Nos. I came up with the idea for doing a RE mod a while back after finding FuzeTek's two attempts at RE mods on the Nexus. I've since been talking with him and mentioned my idea and he thought it would be great, especially if we could some how connect what I want to do with what he is doing.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, we have slightly different views on how the mod should be implimented. He's a Resident Evil purist, and I'm not. The mod he is currently working on is an almost exact recreation of RE:2, and he intends it to be just that. I, on the other hand, would like to have it more workable in the Fallout environment than that. *shrugs* Nothing keeping me from doing both styles I guess.
I'd offer advice, but I'm a Resident Evil non-ist.
ReplyDeleteSaw the movies, mainly 'cause I never get tired of watching Milla Jovovich hurt people. Never was much on the games. My brother was huge into Resident Evil 2. He yammered about it constantly; but I only played for maybe an hour, tops. Way too convoluted for my taste. Plus, I hate "survival horror". Constantly being almost out of ammo, low on supplies, having to run from half the enemies to conserve resources or just to survive. Boooooo-ring.
I personally much prefer games where I can lay waste to my enemies in suitably epic fashion. Bonus points if I get to use the environment against them.
heh, Biohazard (Resident Evil to us Americans). I just want to recreate The Hive from the first movie in the game engine, so can raise hell in it.
ReplyDeleteAs for my Shoujo Death Squad of DOOM(tm) I loves my girls. I keep tweaking them. names appearances and weaponry to give them themes. Rekka is my flametrooper, Arashi uses Thor (mod that is basically a Tesla minigun-looking thing), Hikari is my gatling laser trooper, etc.
I'm using "WARZONES - Misanthropy Pure" mod, and that coupled with this odd bug I've got with the NCCS companions of them often teleporting in far ahead of be when entering new cells, can lead to hilarious results. Got all 14 of the gals geared up and loaded for bear - enclave power armour and big guns, and went to one. Said glitch kicked in, and I was by myself, and the troops were in the middle massacring things. Good times were had by all except my CPU, that was crying a bit. :D
I'm thinking the teleport glitch is not really an NCCS issue, but likely caused by the other companionish mods I have loaded. Once I get my computer rebuilt, I'll look into seeing if I can eradicate that, or to ask Nos to look into this behavior.
(Blogger keeps puking for methods to post as, let's see if creating a googlebloggerwhatever account will work)
@Nos: So you would be more interested in playing a FO3 Doom mod than a Biohazard/RE one, I assume. FuzeTek's work is, as I mentioned, a re-creation of the original Resident Evil 2 game, and a very good one at that. I would much rather play a version that gives me more "realistic" ways of solving problems. I swear, I don't know how anyone ever wanted to work for Umbrella. I mean just look at how many puzzles they had to solve just to get to the washroom ;)
ReplyDelete@DarkSong: I have heard rumours about someone having started a Hive mod on the Nexus, but it died unfortunately. I agree it would be a real cool idea to build, but I'm not sure I'd like the size of the finished product. It would be a massive mod. And be highly problematic in finding and fixing any bugs.
@Darksong: The hive was actually one of the inspirations for the initial layout I have planned for the NosCo HQ in FONV - an underground complex, with the areas branching off from a central tower that has the staircase situated around it. Nothing on that great a scale, but the same sort of idea.
ReplyDeleteMinus the hordes of undead, of course.
I haven't seen your teleporting issue thus far. They come in sort of weird sometimes, I'll grant; when the engine tries to teleport them in, sees that they'd be in a wall, and moves them to someplace better - but it's not usually that far away. I'd be interested to hear if you should ever find out whether it's another plugin doing it.
@Druuler: I'm not much on DOOM either, truth be told.
With RE2, it was just the absurdity of it all. I remember one spot where I was watching my brother play; and he had found a stone... thing. A star or a pony or some shit, and he had to backtrack to an area near the start, to put the stone into a recess in the fountain to open the way to move into some new area... I just wonder if a door concealed behind a mirror, with a keypad lock wouldn't be more convenient all around for these secret organizations.
Another thing that gets me with survival horror is that one shot almost never kills anything. RE2 had no real ability to aim, so it was rather like playing an old side-scroller - there was no locational damage, it was all based on the number of generic hits with each weapon. Totally crappy, in my opinion.
I mean, at least in Fallout, I can understand why shooting a man wearing power armor in the face with a pistol doesn't kill him. Less enchanted with some other damage models in the game, but then I have seen people and animals both soak up some severe damage in real life and keep going; so it's not completely outside the realm of possibility...
@DarkSong:
ReplyDelete"WARZONES - Misanthropy Pure"
That looks awesome, might be worth getting NV just for that since I don't see anything for F3 like it.
@Nos:
"Minus the hordes of undead, of course."
What, no plans for an undead filled basement with an outside hatch to let you unleash them on any so foolish as to approach?
Kirtai, you must be new around here.
ReplyDeleteI don't need undead. I have hordes of heavily armed redheads that take care of the trespassers. :D
Good point, though the undead would make nice targets for when they're bored and no convenient trespassers are in sight :)
ReplyDeleteI've seen some amazing video of a combo of FWE with the BoS DC Ruins Patrols that looks just epic. Once I get this computer rebuilt, I fully intend on trying it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7b0mjp1wRA&fmt=22 if you're interested in seeing it.
ReplyDeleteHmm, anyone got a good modeler in their back pocket? I want to have a Pfeifer-Zeliska .600 Nitro Express Magnum pistol for my FNV enjoyment. :D
Sorry, I'm steering clear of FWE in the future. Too much of a pain.
ReplyDeleteAnd while I can't offer a Zeliska revolver, I do know of a .600NE handgun in FO3...
That looked awesome, though I'm a little annoyed at FWE since it contains some stuff like the terminal hacking devices that I can't find as individual mods. I don't want to have to install the whole thing just for that.
ReplyDelete@Nos: Is that the handgun from that video? Looks cool though I have got to wonder at the weapons people put silencers on...
@Kirtai: No. The handgun in the video looks like one called "That Gun" - it's a relic of past Fallout games; a revolver chambered in 5.56mm. The one in the video looks to have been modded to fire explosive bullets.
ReplyDeleteMy problem with FWE is all the crap you can't get rid of, like the stuff in the video. Sprint mod and bullet time mod and hacking and lockpicking replacers and ten tons of other useless nonsense.
hmmm, now that I look at it, FWE is one of those metamods that jams too much stuff in. Damn.
ReplyDeleteAll I wanted out of it was the epic battles. I'll look more.
And the model for that .600NE in FO3 is fugly. Back to looking for a tame modeller. :D
It is indeed ugly. But I don't have a modeler in my pocket, so I use what I can get.
ReplyDeleteI've heard of "That Gun" but not seen it before (got the first two Fallouts from GoG but haven't played them yet).
ReplyDeleteSome of the stuff in FWE looks quite interesting, except that it seems to come as this huge blob that affects everything.
FWE is kind of a mess. As I recall, the authors basically took every mod they had downloaded and liked, and shoved it all into one ubermod, then made a bunch of "realism" and "immersion" changes. The result is a mod that conflicts in some way with damned near everything; and is almost impossible to pare down to just the bits you like.
ReplyDeleteI've played a few versions for awhile; and the main goal seems to be making everything harder. By default, everything is rarer - chems, ammo, weapons, food; weapons do more damage, but everyone gets more health except the player - who gets less. Accuracy goes into the toilet until you've got high weapon skills. Skill points get halved; bobbleheads don't give extras anymore; and you're constantly being reminded that you haven't eaten/drank/slept enough lately.
The alternate method of lockpicking via explosives never worked right for me; and the sprint mod has an uninstall option, but won't actually uninstall - so if you don't want to be sprinting, you have to re-bind it to a new key (defaults to your move forward key).
Frankly, the only mod that's more of a mess is FOOK2, and that's only because it's the same thing taken to the next power, but with no regard whatsoever for players being able to run other mods at all.
I don't mind it being more difficult, if it wasn't such an... everything mod. And the sprint bound to move forward is just silly.
ReplyDeleteBack to the actual subject of the post, what I would really like is if the game was made more difficult by giving npcs real world small unit tactics.
Though giving all NPCs AI like NosCo brand Red Haired Operatives(TM) would be a bit much; entertaining but terrifying :O
You know, I've actually considered it.
ReplyDeleteWell, a lesser form of one of my combat styles, anyway.
I can't for the life of me imagine Raiders having proper CQB or MOUT training; but I can see the Brotherhood, Talon, and especially Enclave forces being way better at urban combat than they currently are in the base game.
I just always figured it would conflict with the FOOK2/FWE/MMM/Arwen's mega-merge-patch that half the community is running in an attempt to get their PC to implode and collapse into a singularity.
I've never gotten real squad-level tactics running, since that would necessitate scripting specific units and wouldn't allow for you to choose the groups; but I have gotten cover behavior, seek & destroy, fleeing danger, and several other more realistic behaviors working.
One of these days, I'm going to have to apply what I know to all the default combat styles and see how it turns out.
Hm.
If FWE and FOOK guys can get by making the game harder across the board... you think I could get by with making the combat AI so good that it's suicide to play without one of my companion mods...? I could give the corporate motto up there a whole new meaning...
It would certainly be a very different approach to the more monsters, more damage and less resources style.
ReplyDeleteIsn't part of the attraction of FWE et al that they're more difficult? I don't know about making solo play suicide, but I can see the appeal that much more competent opponents would bring, hopefully without the conflicts of those other mods. (I'm not a modder so can't judge there)
BTW, wasn't F.E.A.R. admired for its nasty squad AI?
Heh, now I'm imagining the video linked earlier or that NV Warzones mod combined with *good* AI and a personal combat team. Something for the small unit combat fan :)
The only real problem I foresee is the bigotry the DLC has against companions :P
Difficulty is one thing; but these mods to me feel more like an ordeal.
ReplyDeleteI play games to relax, not to be fucked with in every possible way imaginable. If I want to deal with that stuff, I'll go play in the real world.
I guess there's some personal pride to be had; to be able to say that you played the game in that way and still won or whatever.
I was never impressed by FEAR. The AI wasn't that smart - its "squad tactics" consisted mostly of randomly spraying fire and then running away. Maybe I didn't have the difficulty cranked up high enough, though.
I've had idea for bringing better small unit tactics into Fallout 3/NV... but the problem is the scripting has to be specific.
I think I could write in a working fire-team, for example, that moved and attacked as a group... BUT you'd get just those four people - there wouldn't be any choosing your own team.
I've explored a few possibilities for being able to make your own teams... but the scripting was massively complex. I'm not sure the engine would tolerate it.
Hmm, while full on military tactics would be interesting, I was thinking more that you'd play with something like the advanced companions you've already released or similar.
ReplyDeleteNPCs could be given toned down versions of that same AI to make them a bigger threat without them stomping you.
This makes me wonder though, is there no replacement AI behaviour package for modders, to give a bigger selection of behaviours to NPCs?
I'll have to check out what the geck allows, I don't know enough about what is and isn't possible -_-
You can read about most of the options over the on the GECK wiki. The effects are pretty much identical in FO3 and NV.
ReplyDeleteYou have quite a bit of control over some things. How likely they are to seek cover; how long they'll stay behind cover; how far they'll range, looking for an enemy; how far away they're willing to engage in combat (though this one is limited by the engine's detection range); whether they'll flee if faced with overwhelming force; whether they'll flee grenades and such; how long a burst they fire from full-auto; how long a delay between shots semi-auto; dodge direction and chance.
There are melee options too, but I've never messed with the much. It's not like you can teach the NPC to parry and riposte. There's just no animations for that sort of thing.
You can do a lot with the combat styles; but there's also stuff you can't do. Working as a group, selecting weapons based on range and number/type of enemies.
I've been trying for over a year to figure out how to get them to pull a tactical reload, but there's just no provision in the engine for keeping track of number of rounds left in a mag; nor for forcing a reload. FOSE/NVSE might have them, but I don't want to make that a requirement for my companions.
Thanks, that looks quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't look like FOSE/NVSE would help anyway, there's nothing in the docs that looks relevant.
Which is why I haven't been trying to hard on that avenue. I've read through the lists for the various script extenders several times, and they all seem to be fairly useless for my purposes.
ReplyDelete