"AIExt" - Comments on Squad-Controls?

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Dubby

Where'd That 6th Toe Come From?
(from the ExtAICoreScript.txt file)
Code: 
;FOLLOWER CONTROL MENU KEY	(FCK = Follower Command Key)
short		FCK_Menu				;Pauses gameplay & brings up a crosshair-targeted sub-command menu
									;menu commands:
									;	"Player-targeted commands"
									;	"Object-targeted commands"
									;	"Combat Group settings"
;SQUAD CONTROL KEYS									
short		FCK_shoutJointAttack	;I will fight *only* my leader's combat target until it is dead or leaves the combat zone
short		FCK_shoutSupportMe		;I will fight any of my leader's enemies when they attack my leader *only*, and will maintain a close distance to my leader and heal him/her/it if I am able and it is necessary
short		FCK_shoutCoverMe		;I will fight any enemy of my leader that has targeted my leader until they are no longer targeting my leader or have left the combat zone
short		FCK_shoutSpreadOut		;I will fight and act independently of my group, as long as that decision is not against my group leader or another member of my group
short		FCK_shoutHelpMe			;I will provide recuperative support for my leader, and distract my leader's attacker(s) if I am able to
short		FCK_shoutBackOff		;I will ignore hostile actions from my combat target for a while, preferring to avoid confrontation when possible
short		FCK_shoutStayClose		;I will behave independently of my leader's behavior, but will maintain a close distance to my leader as much as possible
short		FCK_shoutStandGuard		;I will attempt to establish a defensive perimeter around my current location, attacking enemies of my group on sight and warning neutrals to stay away from this area

The "Menu" is a simple message box display that allows the player to select a variety of commands to give to their followers (all of them). The targets for these commands are either the player, the followers, or whatever (or whoever) is in the player's crosshairs. This includes things like locked doors, computer terminals, hostile mines, traps, etc. The squad controls can also be accessed from this menu, but for convenience they have their own set of hot keys.

The Squad Controls are instructions that the group leader can give to the members of the group. This is something that both the player and eNPC's are able to do. All the other commands in the "Menu" box are only for the player & his/her followers.

Most of the squad commands involve some rather tricky trigonometry and hot-wired pathfinding hacks.

My question to you guys, is what are your recommendations for squad controls? Do the ones listed pretty much "cover everything", or should there be others? Should any of the ones listed be changed or removed?
 
As always, really impressed with Dubby's work. I'll see if I can't think of anything Dubby and then post it here.
 
Can these be split up on a character-by-character basis? Like if I recruited Fawkes, Dogmeat, and Charron is it possible to do it Fallout 2 style where you say "Fawkes, you distract him, dogmeat stay back, Charron establish a perimeter"? Or is it the entire squad only?
 
right now it's the entire party. this is partly because by default, the game only understands -one- follower for the player. (dogmeat is a creature and doesn't count)

this thing is designed to react to -any- type of group structure. a combat group (a squad) made up of 7 super mutants for example will select one to be the leader of that group. then that leader enpc takes into account that it's a leader when doing its per-frame program loop, and can assess whether it should give a squad order and which one to give. when it gives a squad order, that order goes into a data structure for that group which the members access during -their- per frame program loop, and if their leader has given out a command, they will usually obey it.

the same mechanism the player uses for their followers is the same mechanism that enpc's use in dynamic combat groups.
 
Has the amount of followers you can have been cracked yet? Because if you can only have one I'd say dialogue trees are a good way to do it...to keep it from becoming too shooter-y, plus you don't want to have constant control of followers because that takes away from the sense that they are their own characters instead of just tools for the player to use.

if you can have multiple followers and they can't use individual actions, then hotkeys are the only way to go I suppose.
 
bhlaab said:
Has the amount of followers you can have been cracked yet? Because if you can only have one I'd say dialogue trees are a good way to do it...to keep it from becoming too shooter-y, plus you don't want to have constant control of followers because that takes away from the sense that they are their own characters instead of just tools for the player to use.

if you can have multiple followers and they can't use individual actions, then hotkeys are the only way to go I suppose.
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I would agree with your second comment but old school RPG's always had party members that obeyed without question (Usually never explaing why :P). I think it would be a good kick back to have controlable party members to this degree.

That and if you don't enjoy giving them orders, you can always just set them to stick close.
 
I would agree with your second comment but old school RPG's always had party members that obeyed without question (Usually never explaing why :P). I think it would be a good kick back to have controlable party members to this degree.

That and if you don't enjoy giving them orders, you can always just set them to stick close.
Click to expand...

Fallout never was a party-based rpg. And while having AI controlled buddies that can only be given vague orders often lead to being shot in the back, it made them feel like you were actually travelling around with someone instead of just being one hivemind of Playable Character. I dunno, maybe that's just me.

Did followers in Fallout 3 have their own inventories? I know they were less directable than in Fallout 2 but I can't remember much. I never really used followers in Fo3, dogmeat would always die instantly and the others would fuck up the third person camera (especially fawkes)
 
Sugestion:
Force cover- will force companion to cover and stay ther for some fixed time( will not shoot to enemy if not attacked) or next order and heal itself if he have food or stimpacks to max hp also if player is near his companion in meele range then companion will try to heal player if player have less than 70% of hp using stimpacks but not leaving his cover
Force medic- will force companion to be next to player and heal him to max hp if he have stimpacks

I think from my point that stimpacks should be the only way to get healed from companions since its more logical to be stabed by a needle than get a molerat meat on ur wounds

Object target commands <- this makes companion to help with open lock/hack ?

Also so special command per companion would be good to nothing to drastic or to good so only one special one per companion and can be used only once per day
Stamina rush: Companion will use 1 psycho, 1 jet and 3 stimpacks ( if companion dont have them in inv skill wont start)from his inv and will gain 100 skill points in the highest weapon skill 3x more AP if he is holding that weapon and faster AI reaction for some fixed ammout of time.
If his prefered weapon is meele then he also gain 2x mora running speed and somr more DR
But he will get 2x more dmg than normal and his armour and weapon durability decrease rate is higher in case of meele this can not apply

In additional if ther would be some medicine based companion he could be able using some drugs combination to resurrect dogmeat :D
 
Could you force the towers you hack from the terminals to be friendly? That would be great.
 
robots are handled slightly differently because they're programmable. this can be done with a few settings in the core, for detecting if a node is a robot.

question is, what mods should be checked on the core's startup / loading sequence?
 
question is, what mods should be checked on the core's startup / loading sequence?
Click to expand...

Terminals with specify entry (command text, name or id) if i understand it right
 
Well terminals are not in all places so we can use pipboy:
Use meele fight animation without any weapon ( when left weapon strike so its looks like its targeted by pipboy )
Robot must be on the crosshair then a window will pop-up with a minigame or not that depends becouse i dont know if u can hack minigame import into some other window.
After minigame player could chose from neutral/friendly status so that robot will not attack a player and/or help player to fight or companion status so that robot will fallow player. Each option would require skill check and skill check would be higher each lvl somethingk like in case of comapnion 45+(2xlvl)
neutral/friendly status would be for from 15 to 30 mins dependable on robot class and lvl
Companion status would be from 5 to 10 mins again dependable on a robot class and lvl
In both cases player would be notify if hacking effect would ware off but in case of companion status robot would change to neutral/friendly status for 30 sec to 3 min dependable on robot lvl and class
Or something like this :D
Adding some extra energy cell consumption per robot lvl and class



Another way is to make some kinda of scramble effect that pipboy emits in some radius that makes robots neutral or friendly
It would be swichable and would comsume 2 energy cells per 3 sec. It have only a chance to change robot status dependable player scienc skill. Could use EMP explosion animation.
Scramble effect can be also add to some granade or a rocket in this case it would only change status to neutral with some low time duration like 1-2 mins

Adding this function to pipboy could be in some way of updating it via some terminal or some special chip upgrade which u can make thrugh schematic. To make it a bit harder( for players and moders :D) this chips/update will be a AI chip which actually need to learn different hacking ways to hack in to robots so skill check could be changed for AI lvl, this lvl would be generated via player when he hacks a terminal so in example player would need to hacks 10 terminals for AI to gain lvl 10( starting from 0 AI lvl :D) which is needed to hack some simple low lvl robots with neutral/friendly status change, 20 lvl AI for the same robot companion hack. This would look good if player could set his own time for status change each sec or min would cost some energy cells ( energy cell cost would be showed to player after setting the time and some button to go back and set time again ). As for science skill each 10 science skill points player would be to upgrade a bit of his ai lvl via some terminal( optional every terminal would have a function for this) or some button in pipboy.

All values are optional just for example, energy cells to :D
 
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