Possible Bug/Feature with Living Anatomy perk?

[Haenlomal]

Hi all,

Just need some input from the rest of you about the Living Anatomy perk. For reference's sake, here are the descriptions for the Living Anatomy perk.

You have a better understanding of living creatures and their strengths and weaknesses. You get a one-time bonus of +10% to Doctor, and you do +5 damage per attack to living creatures.

This Perk confers +20 skill points to Doctor. Since characters with this Perk have greater knowledge of anatomy, they also do +5 points of damage with every attack to living creatures.

(Note: The +20 skill points is overridden by content in the Readme file, which states that the bonus should instead be +10%)

Judging by the descriptions, it seems that all critters should receive the +5 damage modifier per attack, with the exceptions of robots and turrets (which are considered internally by the game to be robots anyway).

However, I've discovered that for whatever reason, aliens and wanamingos are also not affected by the Living Anatomy perk. It might not be obvious from normal gameplay, but quite obvious if one looks at the relevant section of the assembly code. More specifically, a conditional check is made against both aliens (0x10) and robots (0x0A) before allowing Living Anatomy to do its work.

The big question is: do you think this was intentional on the part of the developers? Or do you think this is a bug? If it's a feature, I'll leave it alone. Otherwise, I can fix it up relatively quickly.

Cheers,

-- The Haen.

 

[Josan12]

I'd say it's a feature. I guess the idea is that it's a bonus that applies to any creature with *known* anatomy. In the aliens body part targeting image some parts of the aliens/wannamingos anatomy is labelled with a ? IIRC, suggestion the creatures anatomy is unknown and therefore not valid. Same for robots as you'd need to be an engineer to understand their 'anatomy'.

IMO, of course.

 

[Blackened]

This would be either a newpost-worthy discovery, or a bug. Why don't you ask the devs? Since wanamingos (the ones called "aliens" are wanamingos too, just with different in-game names - i think it's confirmed by the Fallout bible) are, AFAIK, based on the same as centaurs and floaters, I think it should effect them as well if it affects wanamingos.

Hmm, I never noticed before that it only affects living creatures.

Anyway, good job on fixing the original game. It's the universal way to improve everyone's Fallout experience.

 

[Lexx]

I'd say Josan12 is right. The aliens and wanamingos might be living creatures, but the player has no clue about their anatomy. So "living anatomy" perk must be rather useless in this case, else the player would know.

 

[Darek]

I got the same impression as Josan12 when I read your post.
So one more vote for "feature".

 

[Blackened]

Yeah, I had the same impression. But, like I said, aren't centaurs and floaters under the same category as wanamingos? (aliens = wanamingos)

 

[x'il]

While the arguments for it being a feature sound very reasonable, Blackened's point seems good too, i mean, in the case of floaters specifically; centaurs have some people in the mix so it's somewhat believable for them, but the floaters? either i don't remember at this moment or never knew, but what are the floaters anyway?

 

[killap]

I too vote for feature. I mean, you said you found conditionals which exclude these critters. Incorrect logic in a conditional is a bug, but adding a conditional to specifically do something can't be a bug. Perhaps the bug is not including floaters and centaurs in those conditionals.

 

[General Patton]

...either i don't remember at this moment or never knew, but what are the floaters anyway?

I believe they are flatworms mutated by FEV.

 

[Glovz]

I agree with killap, intentional with the possible bug being floaters and centaurs not being checked for as well.

 

[Haenlomal]

Hi all,

Ok, I'll leave Living Anatomy alone. I could see the argument from both sides of the coin, so I thought I'd toss it out to the rest of you to see what you think. I think it's pretty clear most of you think it's a feature.

On a related note, I don't think excluding centaurs and floaters from that list is an error. They have been around since the original Fallout, some eighty years ago. It stands to reason that people know more about how they work and function during that time. While the "aliens", according to the in-game canon, are unknown creatures that nobody seemed to have met before.

Thanks to everyone who gave their input.

-- The Haen.

 

[Sephis]

I'm going to have to agree with Haenlomal, Floaters and Centaurs have been around quite some time now. I think there is some general knowledge on their body. I think there should be a gained attribute in game (I'm not sure what they are called but a perk you've gained after doing a certain something like combat implants) that allows you to do more damage after you've killed something enough times.

 

[.Pixote.]

This isn’t exactly related to the Living Anatomy perk issue, but during the discussion I considered that the human understanding of the anatomy of certain critters would be possible only if they killed one and autopsied it…but the problem seems that certain critters don’t meet up in random encounters. Everyone meets slavers fighting farmers, or slavers and dogs, occasionally spore plants and mole rats…but never the Enclave fighting Floaters/Centaurs, or NCR and Deathclaws. Maybe someone should consider changing some random encounter scripts so it’s possible for some more unusual random encounters, because I would love to encounter the Enclave fighting Deathclaws.

 

[earthdude]

The other way of approaching this is that you gain access to the benefits of the Living Anatomy perk for unusual creatures after obtaining some additional knowledge. The obvious one would be once one reads the files at the EPA one could gain the benefits for the floater and centaur. Or if one had a sufficient level of doctor and one used doctor on a corpse of an unusual critter (as I think Pixote is suggesting), then there would be a chance that one learned enough to gain access to the perk for that creature. Perhaps one would have to perform several autopsies to really understand the creatures vulnerabilities and normal variants that would potentially affect things.

 

[Not Lost Hope]

When doing aimed shots at wanamingos it displays bodyparts such as "Eyes???" or something like that, it's pretty clear your character has no idea what he's aiming at.

 

[Skynet]

Maybe someone should consider changing some random encounter scripts so it’s possible for some more unusual random encounters, because I would love to encounter the Enclave fighting Deathclaws.

I concur. I hate that there aren't any enclave vs X encounters.

 

[Sephis]

Maybe someone should consider changing some random encounter scripts so it’s possible for some more unusual random encounters, because I would love to encounter the Enclave fighting Deathclaws.

I concur. I hate that there aren't any enclave vs X encounters.

They probably aren't scripped that way so nothing makes the enclave patrol easier to handle for you. They do carry some pretty end game stuff.

 

[Jet and Cookies]

Maybe someone should consider changing some random encounter scripts so it’s possible for some more unusual random encounters, because I would love to encounter the Enclave fighting Deathclaws.

I concur. I hate that there aren't any enclave vs X encounters.

They probably aren't scripped that way so nothing makes the enclave patrol easier to handle for you. They do carry some pretty end game stuff.

Pretty easily justifiable in-game, story-wise as well. I mean, you consider how many Enclave troopers there are in each patrol, and how frickin' many there are in the grid sections around Navarro, and it's not difficult to imagine patrols that have pretty much scoured the area of all threats.

 

[Lexx]

If the enclave is still hiding for everyone, it makes no sense to spread them out a lot.

 

[.Pixote.]

Pretty easily justifiable in-game, story-wise as well. I mean, you consider how many Enclave troopers there are in each patrol, and how frickin' many there are in the grid sections around Navarro, and it's not difficult to imagine patrols that have pretty much scoured the area of all threats.

Tell that to a stupid floater or centaur

…those critters would just wander around scavenging for food, but there would be a chance to encounter the Enclave fighting such critters…it would be super cool to see the outcome. Potentially the Enclave soldiers would run out of ammo, and the whole thing could be reduced to an endless slug-fest so extra ammo might be required for the soldiers. Of course the Choose One will happy join in at the appropriate moment…