Items, actors and how they apply to the campaigns.

[Cranberry]

I have two queries regarding Fallout Tactics and how items tie into the game proper.

Firstly, I rechambered the M249 to fire 5.56mm rounds. I changed the supermutants appearing in the Actors folder to carry this ammo instead of the old 7.62mm. Are all super mutants with these weapons derived from these files? If not, where and how do I also need to edit this to make it work?

Secondly, the Needler Pistol, after much confusion, has been replaced by the P90 (that having been displaced by a new weapon). This gives me the worthwhile opportunity of changing the Needler ammo to 5.7mm to fit the P90 (no more 9mm for this gun). So, I'm going to need more 5.7mm in- game. I'd like to do this either by putting it on corpses in the Super Mutant missions, increasing the Quarter Master's supplies, or by giving it to the mutants themselves, (even though they can't use it they might in theory carry it as a trinket or to whack stuff with) or possibly the Reavers. Any pointers on how to do this?

This is going to be a public mod, so the solution here must be space-effective. If mission files must be resaved their number must be highly limited. Replacing bos.cam is obviously out of the question

Finally, can you elaborate for me what weapons can and cannot do to modify or put demand on the abilities of the wielder? According to tests so far, I can only apply a Strength requirement, and nothing under the Effects tab works. I've no idea what the Modifiers tab does. Do you know whether the Bonus To Hit and Critical Chance modifiers listed in the firemodes work?

[Sirgalahadwizard]

You're going to have to fire up the map editor to do this. Simply "plant" some ammo on specfic characters, or if you dont want the characters carrying it around (powerful weapon), place GOBS of it in lockers or treasure chests.

There are a few places you can do this and still keep pace with the game:

*Misson 03 (rock falls), the raiders' safe.
*Mission 04 (macomb), the library or the treasure chest with the glasses.
*Mission 05 (peoria), just about anywhere underground you want to - it's a storage vault.

*Mission 06 (quincy), the train station, the treasure chest in the prison, the locker in the powerplant, the church (has 2 deathclaws guarding a metal armor mk2), the whorehouse - can put it in the basement.

*Mission 07 (mardin), lotsa places - the graveyard (where the dead ghoul/roaches are), the refrigerator near the puffer mines, the leader's treasure chest (one that has 10000 RP's in it).

*Mission 09 (st louis) - the mutant's base, the treasure chest with the enfield rifle in it <ooh, another item to replace>, the smashed bunker out in the middle of nowhere (directly south of minefield), the treasure chest in the MG nest that has the mutant w/ rocket launcher in it (right before you get to the mission objective), you can put it directly into the APC <edit the APC's vehicle .ent file, that's what i do>.

*Mission 10 (jefferson) In the first - trapped building, Upstairs on the railroad building near the SM with a flamer, a treasure chest near ANY of the generators, the heavy machinegun robot turrets could have it (in addition to their enormous supply of 7.62), one of the old delapitated buildings, the building with the roadblock .50cal SM guards, the area underground that has the radiation, the basement of the "factory".

***As for editing Quartermaster items, HOW THE HELL DO YOU DO THAT!
Where the hell is the file for it...

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I have given my ghouls all sorts of neato artefacts - grenade pistols, P-90 smgs, browning auto rifles, and enfield rifles primarily. Same thing with the reavers, to a smaller extent. Ghoul random encounters are rare in comparison to beastlord encounters - and most often ghoul encounters are short on ammo & drugs.

Finally, can you elaborate for me what weapons can and cannot do to modify or put demand on the abilities of the wielder? According to tests so far, I can only apply a Strength requirement, and nothing under the Effects tab works. I've no idea what the Modifiers tab does. Do you know whether the Bonus To Hit and Critical Chance modifiers listed in the firemodes work?

Um, simply change numbers. In the effects tab, it will *change* your current status in much the same way as how power armor changes strength. In requirements tab it will *require* you to meet the conditions before you can even use the item. You can make an item require a certain percent amount of skill in a skill of your choice, or require a person to have a certain endurance rating in order to use a certain kind of armor.

At one time I was making metal armors and environmental armors simply give you a -1 to agility rather than negatives to your skills.

The bonus To-Hit and Critical Chance modifiers do work. Critical Chance adds X number to your own critical chance (so a critical chance modifier of 20 for a single mode on a sniper rifle gives you +20 to your own, measily critical chance). Bonus to-hit makes it easier to hit the target basicially the same way that .223calibre ammo made it easier to hit things in Fallout 1/2... it temporarily gives you increased percents to the weapon skill that the attack uses.

I feel that this is self explainatory... But it does piss me off that whoever made the FT Tools didn't provide an accurate readme/documentation on how the entities editor works, there's some things in there that even I still dont know the function of.

[Section8]

Firstly, I rechambered the M249 to fire 5.56mm rounds. I changed the supermutants appearing in the Actors folder to carry this ammo instead of the old 7.62mm. Are all super mutants with these weapons derived from these files? If not, where and how do I also need to edit this to make it work?

That's a pretty good start. There may be a few places where mutants have had extra 7.62mm ammunition added in the level editor, so you might get some guys carrying "rogue" ammo, but that's not too much of an issue.

Secondly, the Needler Pistol, after much confusion, has been replaced by the P90 (that having been displaced by a new weapon). This gives me the worthwhile opportunity of changing the Needler ammo to 5.7mm to fit the P90 (no more 9mm for this gun). So, I'm going to need more 5.7mm in- game. I'd like to do this either by putting it on corpses in the Super Mutant missions, increasing the Quarter Master's supplies, or by giving it to the mutants themselves, (even though they can't use it they might in theory carry it as a trinket or to whack stuff with) or possibly the Reavers. Any pointers on how to do this?

SGW has the right idea. There are plenty of chests/containers about that you could drop some 5.7mm caseless into, and in theory, you could have the player accumulating it from the get go, and only give them the P90 (I hope you changed the manufacturer to FN too ) a bit later on.

This is going to be a public mod, so the solution here must be space-effective. If mission files must be resaved their number must be highly limited. Replacing bos.cam is obviously out of the question.

In that case, I'd look for which missions are a bit smaller than others and put extra ammo and custom ents into them. Mission 2 is tiny, 7 & 12 are small compared with the missions around them, so you might want to explore them as possibilities.

Finally, can you elaborate for me what weapons can and cannot do to modify or put demand on the abilities of the wielder? According to tests so far, I can only apply a Strength requirement, and nothing under the Effects tab works. I've no idea what the Modifiers tab does. Do you know whether the Bonus To Hit and Critical Chance modifiers listed in the firemodes work?

AFAIK, the entity editor gives you all variables related to an entity whether they have an effect or not. It does kind of suck (well, it really sucks) but there's still a few things you can play with.

But it does piss me off that whoever made the FT Tools didn't provide an accurate readme/documentation on how the entities editor works, there's some things in there that even I still dont know the function of.

So sue us. If you've got any queries about functions of the editors, ask away, and I'll do my best to answer.

[Jimmyjay86]

Gareth, I think everyone here appreciates the invaluable help you are giving us. It's great that we are finally getting more tips and info on what is possible with the way the game was programmmed. I assume you are offering this info "unofficially" but I thought I'd ask if there was a chance in us getting any unused sprites, tiles, or graphics that were created for Tactics. Perhaps some of those that still exists somewhere and will forever be unused in a future sequel to Tactics? We could send you some really good American beer if you could find any....

[OnTheBounce]

...I thought I'd ask if there was a chance in us getting any unused sprites, tiles, or graphics that were created for Tactics. Perhaps some of those that still exists somewhere and will forever be unused in a future sequel to Tactics?...

The car, the car!!!

Even if we have to resort to using the car sprite for another type of vehicle I'd love to have the car!!!

Ooof....sorry. I'll try to contain myself nex time... :oops:

OTB

[Flamescreen]

I assume you are offering this info "unofficially" but I thought I'd ask if there was a chance in us getting any unused sprites, tiles, or graphics that were created for Tactics. Perhaps some of those that still exists somewhere and will forever be unused in a future sequel to Tactics? We could send you some really good American beer if you could find any....

Hey, STOP READING MY MIND, WILL YA?
I would love the car also. I see JJ86's attempt to bribe you doesn't have an effect. How about me throwing some local beer also?

[Cranberry]

My confusion was due to the bonuses not being obvious. IIRC, the Hit bonuses didn't show up in game on the character sheet, or anywhere else obvious. I might have missed it, though.

My next question: Is it possible to rename an ammo type? I'm testing this stuff in a small single player map before I modify the game proper and 5.7 weapons are asking for Needle ammo (which is what I modified)

[OnTheBounce]

My next question: Is it possible to rename an ammo type? I'm testing this stuff in a small single player map before I modify the game proper and 5.7 weapons are asking for Needle ammo (which is what I modified)

Yes, absolutely. All you have to do is to open the ammo.txt file located at the following address:

C:\Program Files\14 Degrees East\Fallout Tactics\core\locale\game

There you will find the entry:

{name_Needle} = {Needle}

Just change the "Needle" in the latter set of braces to "5.7mm" or whatever you want. (IIRC "5.7mm Caseless" is a bit too long and will get chopped off in certain views.)

If you want to add custom ammo types to the game in addition to the extant ones, that's a bit more involved. Let me know if you want to do that and I'll explain it.

OTB