Critter Armor Addon (For Fallout 2 RP 1.2)

[B-2Admirer]

As any Fallout player probably noticed, most human NPCs who clearly look like they wear armor and clearly have additional protection don't actually have any armor in their inventory. This may seem illogical and/or frustrating to some players, for example because you can find and kill infinite number of people who wear Advanced Power Armor, but can only get a single suit for your own use during the entire game. The first one who addressed the armor issue in Fallout 2 was terryk1463, and I thank him for his work because, although I eventually took a totally different approach to the problem than him, I would never have started if it's not been for his mod for Fallout 2. The idea of terryk1463 was to modify the script for each critter whom he deemed armor-wearing so that if the critter was killed a suit of armor would be added to his inventory. This doesn't seem right, however, because a suit of armor taken off a killed critter would most likely be damaged and wouldn't provide the same protection as a brand-new one. MIB88, who adapted terryk1463's mod to Megamod for Fallout 2, added Repair (for all types of armor) and Science (for more resistant ones) skill checks to the armor-creating code to reflect the need to repair a killed person's armor suit prior to further use. This is a sensible addition, but his adaptation still shares some things that I consider illogical with the original Lootable Armor Mod. Namely I can't agree with the following things about MIB88's adaptation.
1) The type of armor created is usually based on killed critter's protection, disregarding his appearance (this one is inherited from terryk1463's mod). I find it rather weird that after killing a person who wears one type of armor (or no armor at all) you'll get a completely different one. The readme for terryk1463's mod says "... some NPCs have the ability to camouflage their armor. That is to say, they appear to be wearing one type of armor but actually have the protection stats for a better type of armor ... You will encounter this phenomenon, for example, if you choose to terrorize Vault City". So, one supposedly can hide a suit of combat armor under a suit of metal one? Give me a break.
2) Only the player is checked for the skills necessary to get the armor. I don't see why the Chosen One would refuse a little help from one of his party members. Also, I should think that using a Tool of a Super Tool Kit will make the repair process easier than doing it with bare hands, but there is no check for these items.
Hakimio's adaptation of Lootable Armor Mod for the Restoration Project has all those drawbacks and on top of that done with the old and buggy Noid compiler. Also Hakimio didn't bother to edit those critters' scripts, which weren't in the original Fallout, but are in the killap's Restoration Project.

Because of all the aforementioned things I decided to create my Critter Armor Addon for RP, and did just that. Key features are:
1) One generic piece of code for armoring and dearmoring, no need to edit hundreds of critters' scripts. Will make it much easier for me to adapt the mod for RP 1.3 when it comes out.
2) The type of armor given is based primarily on a critter's appearance and secondary on his protection. So, if a metal armor-wearing critter is killed, the script calculates his overall protection and then proceeds with Metal Armor or Metal Armor Mark II or Tesla Armor, choosing the one which provides overall protection closest to that of the killed critter.
3) The process of acquiring armor is rendered realisticaly:
* Not only the player, but also his party members are checked for Science and Repair requirements necessary to get the armor off a fallen critter.
* Having one of the repair tools in the inventory (again, the party members will be checked as well as the player) will make a skill check easier to pass.
* The damage dealt to kill the critter is taken into account. If you blasted a hapless person with a Vindicator minigun, you'll need to have a very highly developed Repair skill to have a chance of getting his armor (but even having Repair at 300% will by no means guarantee this). On the other hand, if you killed a person with a single fatal small-damage critical hit you'll most likely be able to get the armor no matter how low you Repair skill is. However, if a Science skill requirement exists, it'll stay the same regardless of the damage done, because a Science skill requirement represents the armor complexity rather than the complexity of the repair process. One exception: if you managed to kill a critter without causing any damage, which doesn't seem to be possible with the current version of sfall, both Science and Repair requirements will be dropped.
* Examine an armored body and your character will estimate the damage to the dead critter's armor and the complexity of repairs.
* You don't have to meet the requirements upon a critter's death to get his armor. As long as you're able to access the body, it doesn't matter how many days or years passed since his death. Even if the map where the bodies are has decomposition turned on, the bodies will not disappear untill you either took the armor off them or ensured it's damaged beyond repair. At the moment you meet the requirements the armor is yours. To see if you can repair a critter's armor, just access his inventory. If you see a suit, don't hesitate to take it... unless you don't need it.
* After you take a damaged armor suit off a critter, there will be a fade-out and game time will be advanced by the amount of time needed to perform the repairs. The length of the repair process will depend on armor complexity, the amount of damage dealt to kill the critter, the number of people in the party able to perform repairs, their skills and the number of Tools and Super Tool Kits available.
* You'll get XP for repairing armor. The amount will depend primarily on the armor type and secondary on the amount of damage dealt to kill the critter.
* You will not be able to perform the repair in combat mode because it's totally unrealistic.
* After you take an armor suit off a critter, the critter will change his appearance accordingly instead of stupidly remaining armored after his armor is gone.

The basic requirements for getting each type of armor follow.
40 Rp Robes
45 Rp Leather Jacket
55 Rp Leather Armor
65 Rp Metal Armor
70 Rp Combat Leather Jacket
75 Rp Leather Armor Mark II
75 Rp, 70 Sc Environmental Armour
80 Rp Metal Armor Mark II
105 Rp Bridgekeeper's Robes
105 Rp Combat Armor
110 Rp, 75 Sc Tesla Armor
110 Rp Combat Armor Mk II
115 Rp Brotherhood Armor
120 Rp, 105 Sc Power Armor
135 Rp, 110 Sc Hardened Power Armor
145 Rp, 125 Sc Advanced Power Armor
150 Rp, 130 Sc Advanced Power Armor Mark II

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INSTALLATION AND REQUIREMENTS
*****************************
This addon requires Fallout 2 Restoration Project 1.2 and sfall 1.49a or above. Please note that RP 1.2 installation comes with an earlier version of sfall, so to install this addon you'll have to download sfall 1.49a or above separately if you didn't already. sfall can be downloaded at http://timeslip.chorrol.com/sfall.html

To install, extract the contents of sfall.7z and CritterArmorRelease.7z to the directory where Fallout 2 is installed (default is "C:\Program Files\BlackIsle\Fallout2\"), overwriting the matching files. You don't have to start a new game to enjoy this addon, but you won't be able to get the armor of the critters who were killed before you installed it.


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TECHNICAL NOTES AND POSSIBLE ISSUES
***********************************
* Although not usually done by mappers, it's possible to actually clad a critter in armor (add a suit to his armor slot) instead of just setting his protection values to simulate an armor suit. For example, many made men in New Reno do have real suits of armor. How this addon will handle a critter like this depends on whether his armor suit matches his appearance or not. If it does, then you'll be able to get the suit regardless of your skills, but not in combat mode, and after you take his armor off, he'll change appearance to reflect it. If his suit doesn't match his appearance, the critter will not be affected by this addon in any way.
* There are no critters in Fallout 2 who look like the dearmored versions of nmmaxx and nfmaxx, so right now their appearance is changed to hmwarr/nmwarr and nfprim after dearmoring. Depending on how they died, this may or may not be noticeable.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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I thank Timeslip for enhancing the functionality of sfall to allow me a realistic approach to the issue of critter armor in Fallout 2.


Download link for the addon is http://depositfiles.com/en/files/vswihv0ql Have fun playing.

 

[Elitech]

1st of all - sounds fantastic.

2nd - contact killap through the RP topic/thread (post there) and ask him to include it as an installer option in RP?

 

[B-2Admirer]

1st of all - sounds fantastic.

It works as advertized, I asure you

2nd - contact killap through the RP topic/thread (post there) and ask him to include it as an installer option in RP?

I hope he'll find time to read this thread and decide for himself.

 

[hakimio]

Re: Lootable Armor Plus (Mod For Fallout 2 RP 1.2)

Namely I can't agree with the following things about MIB88's adaptation.
1) The type of armor created is usually based on the killed critter's protection, disregarding his appearance (this one is inherited from terryk1463's mod). I find it rather weird that after killing a person who wears one type of armor (or no armor at all) you'll get a completely different one.

You are wrong. This wasn't intentional and will be fixed in next megamod version.

Hakimio's adaptation of Lootable Armor Mod for the Restoration Project has all those drawbacks and on top of that done with the old and buggy Noid compiler.

Can you name any of the bugs you found in the compiler? It's not buggy, it's just outdated and doesn't support few new functions added by timeslip. This only means that there might be few lines of ASM code in decompiled source code if some new function was used in the binary file. This is rare and the ASM code that is produced by Noid decompiler can still be compiled with Noid compiler. You could also just decompile the binary files produced by Noid compiler with TeamX int2ssl decompiler and still get clean code. As simple as that.

Key features are:
1) One generic piece of code, no need to edit each critter's script individually. Will make it much easier for me to adapt the mod for RP 1.3 when it comes out.

Yeah, and unlike you I have published that one piece of code, which is called THE PATCH. DUH!

Because of the large number of edited scripts I took great care not to introduce any bugs. In fact before creating this mod I ensured that I had an SSL source for each script which would recompile into an INT 100% identical to the original. That wasn't easy because killap ignored my email when I asked him for the sources, so I had to manually edit many of the decompiled scripts to make them compile into the original INTs.

Don't really get it. Why was it so hard for you to write a simple BAT or BASH script to decompile all the scripts? And why exactly did you need to edit all those scripts just so they would compile? Last time I checked sslc compiled all the scripts produced by int2ssl without any problems. BTW, you could have just decompiled my scripts and use that code as a base for your enhanced version.

Download link for the mod is http://depositfiles.com/files/mh4jfx9ja.

You could have used some english website like mediafire.com to host your files. Not many folks here at NMA know russian.

Anyway, thanks for all your effort.

 

[MIB88]

Re: Lootable Armor Plus (Mod For Fallout 2 RP 1.2)

Namely I can't agree with the following things about MIB88's adaptation.
1) The type of armor created is usually based on the killed critter's protection, disregarding his appearance (this one is inherited from terryk1463's mod). I find it rather weird that after killing a person who wears one type of armor (or no armor at all) you'll get a completely different one.

You are wrong. This wasn't intentional and will be fixed in next megamod version.

No, he's right. In the original version of Lootable Armor, there actually were critters who appeared to wear one armor but dropped another. I didn't like that very much, either, but I included the mod as it was originally made. However, I have changed a number of them whenever disparities were pointed out (usually as "bugs" even though it was intentional), as I did a while ago with some of the guards in Vault City.

 

[B-2Admirer]

You are wrong. This wasn't intentional and will be fixed in next megamod version.

MIB88 already answered you. I quoted the part of terryk1463's readme where he clearly says that the armor type is based upon protection, and not appearance. Even if MIB88 changed this for a few critters, this doesn't change much since most of them are just as in original terryk1463's mod.

Can you name any of the bugs you found in the compiler?

Easily. Read this. The bug Anchorite's referring to is produced by Noid compiler (I encountered it myself). So please, do a little research before claiming it's not buggy.

Yeah, and unlike you I have published that one piece of code, which is called THE PATCH. DUH!

Ahem. Clearly you're much better at writing than at reading By saying "one generic piece of code" I meant that each modified script in my mod has the same piece of code added to it. That's why it will be easy to adapt the mod for RP 1.3 or anything else. On the other side, the approach taken by terryk1463 and later copied by MIB88 (no need to mention you, I suppose) requires the modder to account for each and every proto (more precisely the ones with protection corresponding to different armor types) associated with the script to determine which armor to create, so the code insereted into a script will depend on what protos are associated with the script in the game that's being modded. This makes adapting the mod to another game rather difficult. Not to mention that determining armor type by critter's proto while ignoring appearance is a bad idea. Why? Figure out yourself.

And why exactly did you need to edit all those scripts just so they would compile? Last time I checked sslc compiled all the scripts produced by int2ssl without any problems.

Well, I'm a perfectionist And, like I said, would hate to introduce any bugs. A sure-fire way to check if a script decompiled correctly is to compile it back and see if the result is identical to the original INT. When it's not, it's usually because of declaring variables or procedures in different order, which supposedly doesn't affect the script functionality in any way. There are more serious cases, however, when int2ssl produces warnings or errors, the most common being "Some unreferenced imported varables found. Because of it it is impossible to specify the real names of global variables". That's why, being a perfectionist, I wanted to have perfect sources. This may sound alien to people like you, but most certainly doesn't harm anyone in any way while very likely to be beneficial

BTW, you could have just decompiled my scripts and use that code as a base for your enhanced version.

Err, are you implying that my work is an enhanced version of yours?? Please, don't speak about the things you have no idea of.

You could have used some english website like mediafire.com to host your files. Not many folks here at NMA know russian.

My dearest simple friend, depositfiles.com certainly does have English interface (and also German, Spanish and Portugese). The language is selected automatically based on the client's IP. PM me your email and I'll send you a screenshot

Anyway, thanks for all your effort.

You're welcome.

 

[Ravager69]

A little tip - if you'll have sufficient skills, then you'll end up with A LOT of obsolete armor with this mod. Not saying that currently you don't use about half of armor types, this will only serve to produce easy cash for the player, as you kill lots of people in this game.

The overall idea of aquiring armor through salvaging old ones is fun and I have a similar idea, but not on such a scale.

There's a reason why 99% of enemies don't drop armor - game balance. You might consider re-working your mod, since it'll probably be a big balance-breaker in the current state. Of course I know that it is optional feature, but I'm only saying this in hope that you will try a diffrent path.

What you could do is add some raw materials here and there (like metal plates in Klamath and Den), which could be later crafted into a suit of metal armor (MKII if you have high enough skill). Or add a workbench to Batlhas' house, where you can harden your leather armor\jacket into MKII one or two times. Also, certain NPCs (that are hard to kill or rarely met) could yield you a repairable suit of armor.

This mod has a lot of potential, so don't give up.

 

[Recon Rover Rick]

A little tip - if you'll have sufficient skills, then you'll end up with A LOT of obsolete armor with this mod. Not saying that currently you don't use about half of armor types, this will only serve to produce easy cash for the player, as you kill lots of people in this game.

The overall idea of aquiring armor through salvaging old ones is fun and I have a similar idea, but not on such a scale.

There's a reason why 99% of enemies don't drop armor - game balance. You might consider re-working your mod, since it'll probably be a big balance-breaker in the current state. Of course I know that it is optional feature, but I'm only saying this in hope that you will try a diffrent path.

What you could do is add some raw materials here and there (like metal plates in Klamath and Den), which could be later crafted into a suit of metal armor (MKII if you have high enough skill). Or add a workbench to Batlhas' house, where you can harden your leather armor\jacket into MKII one or two times. Also, certain NPCs (that are hard to kill or rarely met) could yield you a repairable suit of armor.

This mod has a lot of potential, so don't give up.

I always thought having a luck check would benefit this mod, myself. I mean, it makes sense; if you're lucky you don't hit the armor badly enough to negate its value as armor.

 

[Jesse Heinig]

A little tip - if you'll have sufficient skills, then you'll end up with A LOT of obsolete armor with this mod. Not saying that currently you don't use about half of armor types, this will only serve to produce easy cash for the player, as you kill lots of people in this game.

The overall idea of aquiring armor through salvaging old ones is fun and I have a similar idea, but not on such a scale.

There's a reason why 99% of enemies don't drop armor - game balance. You might consider re-working your mod, since it'll probably be a big balance-breaker in the current state. Of course I know that it is optional feature, but I'm only saying this in hope that you will try a diffrent path.

What you could do is add some raw materials here and there (like metal plates in Klamath and Den), which could be later crafted into a suit of metal armor (MKII if you have high enough skill). Or add a workbench to Batlhas' house, where you can harden your leather armor\jacket into MKII one or two times. Also, certain NPCs (that are hard to kill or rarely met) could yield you a repairable suit of armor.

This mod has a lot of potential, so don't give up.

This is a really good idea to make Repair and Science skills more useful, and it fits with the crafting skill systems that tend to show up in RPGs nowadays. Hell, if you wanted to go all-out you could have a few kinds of custom armor that can only be made by salvaging components and having the right skills.

 

[B-2Admirer]

A little tip - if you'll have sufficient skills, then you'll end up with A LOT of obsolete armor with this mod. Not saying that currently you don't use about half of armor types, this will only serve to produce easy cash for the player, as you kill lots of people in this game.

To be fair, I can't agree with that. The thing is, even without this mod there is simply not enough money in Fallout 2 to trade all the junk you can collect for. Myself I never bother looting corpses for anything but ammo towards the end of the game, when you get to the only two shopkeepers who have large amounts of money to trade. And bear in mind that armor suits are large and heavy, so you can't carry many of them, because the trunk has limited volume and NPCs have limited carry weight.
At the start of the game the player usually doesn't have Repair and Science skills high enough to get anything but Robes, because the first earned skillpoints are most likely to be spent on combat skills or Speech. The only way this mod could have significant effect on the first stages of the game is if you get Vic, who specializes in Repair, but that makes sence, I suppose, because if an NPC has a developed skill then getting him into your party SHOULD make a difference.

The overall idea of aquiring armor through salvaging old ones is fun and I have a similar idea, but not on such a scale.

There's a reason why 99% of enemies don't drop armor - game balance. You might consider re-working your mod, since it'll probably be a big balance-breaker in the current state. Of course I know that it is optional feature, but I'm only saying this in hope that you will try a diffrent path.

What you could do is add some raw materials here and there (like metal plates in Klamath and Den), which could be later crafted into a suit of metal armor (MKII if you have high enough skill). Or add a workbench to Batlhas' house, where you can harden your leather armor\jacket into MKII one or two times. Also, certain NPCs (that are hard to kill or rarely met) could yield you a repairable suit of armor.

Well, I was thinking about a different way to improve realism of the mod: make all the armored critters drop unusable damaged armor and have a workshop somewhere in the game where the player can combine several suits of damged armor into a single working one. How many suits he's gonna need will depend on his skills. However, this requires adding many new protos and frames and altering maps, which is not the scale I'm currently prepared to work on, and doesn't quite fit into the concept of restoration project.

This mod has a lot of potential, so don't give up.

Thanks for the encouragement. Currently I'm working on the ability to take armor off already dead critters, permanently placed on a map, like Enclave troopers at Klamath Canyon or Military Base. It's easy to add the skill checks and armor-placing code to a map script, but some kind of saved variable will be required to ensure that armor is created only once, and I wonder how to do it with minmal alterations and no conflicts with the rest of the game. I'm not much of a scriptor, so if someone can provide me an advice, I'd be grateful.

I always thought having a luck check would benefit this mod, myself. I mean, it makes sense; if you're lucky you don't hit the armor badly enough to negate its value as armor.

I was thinking about using a skill roll instead of a strict skill check to reflect the different possible damage to an armor suit of a killed critter, but unfortunately I don't know how exactly the success of a skill roll is related to the player's skill level and luck. Once again, I'd be grateful for information.

 

[MIB88]

Some of that sounds like some stuff I wrote in my notes that I keep about things I want to add to the mod, like these:

-Maybe make it so that the Brotherhood armor and above can only
be fixed at a special facility that has all the materials and
tools.
-Plan to change scripts to reflect armor being dropped by critters
only if repair skill is high enough or has the armorer trait (have art already for new title)

And I have been asked about the possibility of dropping armor pieces instead of full sets of armor. Easy to implement if the art was made... just time consuming. It's not at the top of my list of things to add/change, but it's there. When asked (has happened several times in PMs), I tell people that I don't have art for such a thing. Graphics isn't my thing. I'm not about to take it up, either. But, it doesn't motivate anyone with these ideas to take up any aspect of modding, so 'F' it. Obviously not that big a deal.

Can't remember who I was discussing it with, but we also talked about luck playing a factor and how the critter is killed playing a part. If the critter suffers a critical death (the dance of fire, for example), maybe there is no armor to retrieve. I just couldn't figure out a way to do it except by altering every critter script, so put the idea on the back burner.

...However, this requires adding many new protos and frames and altering maps, which is not the scale I'm currently prepared to work on...

Not really. No new maps. Nothing to alter except the scripts you already altered, unless you want shopkeepers to sell components (something I may move to one day if I get this implemented, instead of whole sets of armor). You are looking at maybe 5 new protos and artwork if you wanted to keep it very simple. True, you could make it so that, eventually, you need to collect 5 different components to put together power armor. But to start off, I think you would only need the following:

-scraps (for robes)
-leather armor pieces (for leather leather jacket, combat jacket, Mk I, Mk II)
-metal armor pieces (for MkI, Mk II, Tesla)
-combat armor pieces (for Mk I, mk II, Brotherhood)
-power armor pieces (for PA, APA, APA Mk II)

Anyway, good luck with your changes.

 

[Ravager69]

Well B2, I will say it again - not every critter needs to drop armor, it's just more obsolete equipment and cash resource (earning cash needs to be hard, so the player needs to move his ass to actually get it).

I was always into making equipment hard to get, it's just fun to work hard to beef up your dude\dudess. Having all critters drop armor if your skill is high enough is, well, too easy. Think about it - how much you need to damage a Power Armor in order to kill someone inside? Extensive. Now how are you going to repair that armor in field, with your bare hands? Repairing any kind of armor without spare parts is basically impossible, since you need to patch\replace to compromised parts.

Anyway, if I were you I'd start making changes that'd be in-context with the game - some creative way to aquire good armor in a couple of places, instead of massive spawns.

 

[Josan12]

Anyway, if I were you I'd start making changes that'd be in-context with the game - some creative way to aquire good armor in a couple of places, instead of massive spawns.

I have to agree with Ravager on this. What's realistic isn't neccesarily what makes good gameplay. My advice (though no-one's asking for it ) would be to take what is a good concept, but get creative with it in a way that won't break game balance (by introducing lots of easy loot items) and will work with the challenge of the game. I particularly like the luck check idea, and the idea of having to use multiple suits of armor, plus a certain skill, to be able to garner a complete salvaged suit ...

 

[B-2Admirer]

Good news for people interested in this mod. I think I've figured the best way to code armor creation for the permanently placed on a map dead critters. Armor will appear at the moment you've met the requirements. One nice feature is that when you take armor off a corpse, the dead critter will change his appearance to the unarmored one. Cool, isn't it? But the code for map scripts will not be generic, so I'll need some time to modify them.

Josan12, Ravager69, MIB88, Jesse Heinig, your ideas are read and appreciated. The next thing I'd like to work on is replacing strict skill checks, which I dislike, with skill rolls, but without knowing how exactly roll_vs_skill works I can't do it.

 

[Oracle]

I somehow would like to see luck to be implented into the armor drops. so even if you would have a high repair it still doesn't mean the armor would be there.

Blasting an ememy away with burst, explosions or fire weapons should also have a role but that would be way to hard to put in I can imagen

 

[B-2Admirer]

Blasting an ememy away with burst, explosions or fire weapons should also have a role but that would be way to hard to put in I can imagen

I'm not sure it even worth pursuing, because ultra-vilolent animations occur only on the "Maximum Blood" violence seting, so the player can just turn down violence and collect all the armor he needs.

 

[Blackened]

-scraps (for robes)
-leather armor pieces (for leather leather jacket, combat jacket, Mk I, Mk II)
-metal armor pieces (for MkI, Mk II, Tesla)
-combat armor pieces (for Mk I, mk II, Brotherhood)
-power armor pieces (for PA, APA, APA Mk II)

I like that idea.

But I still can't get, what the hell has lootable armor to do with the restoration project?

 

[Jesse Heinig]

Blasting an ememy away with burst, explosions or fire weapons should also have a role but that would be way to hard to put in I can imagen

I'm not sure it even worth pursuing, because ultra-vilolent animations occur only on the "Maximum Blood" violence seting, so the player can just turn down violence and collect all the armor he needs.

Since the violence setting is controlled in engine, it MIGHT be possible to determine if an enemy suffers a massive damage kill even if the animation is constrained, but I'm honestly not sure.

 

[B-2Admirer]

The mod is updated, now you can take the armor off a dead critter, permanently placed on a map.

 

[JaW]

The mod is updated, now you can take the armor off a dead critter, permanently placed on a map.

Doesn't work for me