A way to fix NPCs wasting their APs

[Sagez]

Hello everyone,

A long time ago I was really surprised to see how NPCs in Fallout 2 (Fallout 1 probably as well but I'm not sure) are tossing their action points away after killing an enemy. They just pass their turn even if they still have some APs left - APs that could be spent!
Let's say we have a guy with 10 APs (lets call him X), X shoots another guy - ,,Y'' - using 5 points, Y dies then X ends his turn wasting the rest of his points (5 points left) instead of shooting Z guy.

I asked about this strange mechanics and then forgot about it. But yesterday I actually tried Darek's advice and... combat in Fallout is fixed! Originally it looks like this in ddraw.ini:

;Causes npc's who complete their combat turn with ap left over will try and find other ways to spend it.
;Only npcs with ap left equal to or greater than the value given here will be considered.
;Set to 0 to disable
NPCsTryToSpendExtraAP=0

Just change 0 to 1 and save.

I loaded my game, went to New Reno with my team (Marcus, Cassidy, Dogmeat) and started killing mobsters. Companions can now kill even twice during their turn! No more wasting, no more too long and tedious fights, no more stupid & unfair turn skipping.
It just works!

But seriously I feel that this easy fix balances the game nicely especially for high-charisma party-dependent characters. For example Goris starts with 11 action points (13 max on his final level), Dogmeat has 15, K-9 has 15 too - you probably know how painful it is to watch them kill someone with their first move (using like 3 action points) and skipping turn, therefore wasting A LOT of unused action points. It's just unfair.

Yesterday I shared this fix on wykop (Polish reddit) and got loads of likes, so I guess many Fallout fans will welcome it.
As far as I know no mods actually use it, that's really strange!

I hope some of you will like it too.

Do you have any idea why the devs did that?

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

It might have been an oversight, there's so much weird missing/cut/dumbed down stuff in Fallout 1-2.

It might have been balance to stop enemies 1 hit killing a companion and yourself in one turn.

 

[Lexx]

NPCsTryToSpendExtraAP isn't a holy grail, though. I've noticed that with this function on, the ai often walks closer to its target after attacking. So they shoot their gun at you, then use the remaining APs to get closer. This is bad, because 1. it results in critters creating blobs, and 2. if it's your turn, the enemy is a few hexes closer, so you got an advantage.

 

[ThatZenoGuy]

NPCsTryToSpendExtraAP isn't a holy grail, though. I've noticed that with this function on, the ai often walks closer to its target after attacking. So they shoot their gun at you, then use the remaining APs to get closer. This is bad, because 1. it results in critters creating blobs, and 2. if it's your turn, the enemy is a few hexes closer, so you got an advantage.

I never really noticed too many enemies shoot and run closer, most I see shoot and stay still, or if melee, just charge. ;(

 

[Question2]

NPCsTryToSpendExtraAP isn't a holy grail, though. I've noticed that with this function on, the ai often walks closer to its target after attacking. So they shoot their gun at you, then use the remaining APs to get closer. This is bad, because 1. it results in critters creating blobs, and 2. if it's your turn, the enemy is a few hexes closer, so you got an advantage.

Same issue here...companions in particular keep walking closer towards enemies, which is bad because it gets them killed and prevents you from using AOE or burst weapons.

Is there any way to make them use the APs to move closer only if they are using melee weapons?

 

[burn]

Try reducing burst control level (which isn't really burst control, but rather a CtH control)

 

[Question2]

cth control?

 

[Risewild]

Chance to Hit. If they have a lower chance to hit setting on they will shoot from farther away. IIRC.

 

[Question2]

Oh, thats not the problem. The problem is if you set the left over AP to something like 3, a NPC with 9 AP will fire a rifle for 5 AP, have 4 lAP left over, and then run closer to the enemy because he cant think of anything else to do. Its problematic when you have a ranged character running closer to deathclaws for example.

On the other hand if you set the leftover AP too high, it defeats the point because then a character with 3 or 4 AP leftover cant use their attacks.

 

[Risewild]

I might be saying something really off here because I never got into modding the classic games except graphic work, but I always thought that they move closer to the enemies with their remaining AP so they get a higher chance to hit the enemy.
Yes, it is very stupid, but I always thought that was why .
So would they still move closer if we somehow managed to decrease their chance to hit minimum value to attack?
Now I am curious.

 

[Darek]

...So would they still move closer if we somehow managed to decrease their chance to hit minimum value to attack?
Now I am curious.

If I understood you correctly, then nope. When they have a lower chance to hit than what their min_to_hit is set to, they will surrender and run away.

 

[Question2]

I might be saying something really off here because I never got into modding the classic games except graphic work, but I always thought that they move closer to the enemies with their remaining AP so they get a higher chance to hit the enemy.
Yes, it is very stupid, but I always thought that was why .
So would they still move closer if we somehow managed to decrease their chance to hit minimum value to attack?
Now I am curious.

In the unmodded game, when a NPC kills a critter, they immediately end their turn regardless of how many APs they have left, so they dont move closer.

I think NPCs have a tedency to move closer to shoot the player because they usually have lower combat skills, the player usually has a higher AC and they dont have perks like night vision to help them out.

 

[burn]

Oh, thats not the problem. The problem is if you set the left over AP to something like 3, a NPC with 9 AP will fire a rifle for 5 AP, have 4 lAP left over, and then run closer to the enemy because he cant think of anything else to do. Its problematic when you have a ranged character running closer to deathclaws for example.

It's not problematic if you don' enable NPCsTryToSpendExtraAP in the first place.

 

[Question2]

Well, yes, but the point of that line is to enable NPCs to spend extra AP on attacking other enemies, which they dont do in the base game.

The problem is that they also spend the extra AP on moving closer to enemies, which is usually a bad idea.