Mapping Triggers Entities Testing Credits

Look at the area you want to add the ladder to. You will need to start the ladder at one elevation level higher than the floor, and end it at a height equal to whatever it is you're wanting to climb onto. Remember also that a character cannot go up more than one elevation level, so if there's something taller in the way, you'll have to remove it, or put "caps" on the other side so that a character can climb back down.

The best way I've found to work with ladders is to scroll over to an unused portion of the map and build the ladder there. Build your ladder, the tiles for which are found in Generic Tiles/Ladders. Place each tile one level higher than the one below it. (A scroll wheel comes in very handy here, since you can scroll up or down elevation levels with it.) I recommend switching "Show Tile Bounding Box" on for this, since it places a box around the tile and makes them easier to line up. If you happen to misplace the tile, use Ctrl + the arrow keys to maneuver it into position while it is selected.

Once you've built your ladder, go into "Select" mode (either by pressing F1 or clicking on its box near the top of the screen), set your elevation to the base level of the ladder, press and hold Alt and drag the selection bow around the ladder. This will select the entire ladder. You can then maneuver your ladder into position using Ctrl and the arrow keys. If you need to change the elevation, press Ctrl + Page Up/Page Down.

If you're looking to select entire stairs/ladders, find one that you like, then switch to "Select" mode and use the "Visible Check" option. This will select one tile at a time, but you don't have to have the cursor set to the same elevation as the tile. Press "Shift" to select multiple tiles. If you click no an already selected tile while holding "Shift" you will unselect it. If you want to save things between maps you'll have to copy (Ctrl + C) the selected tiles, then use the "Save Clip" option. Name the file something useful, then switch to the map you're going to place it in and use the "Load Clip" option.

1. I tried to make a mission... when placing the terrain, if I click and drag my mouse (to put the selected terrain on a bigger spot.) it colours it in seperate colors... like they are not on the same level... ??? 2. What is the invisible tile for ?

- Different color tiles: Usually the different color tiles mean that they are on different levels, but often times the bug-ridden editor screws up. I wouldn't worry about it. But if you want to be certain you're not screwing up tiles placement, make sure you have "Show Tile Info Pop Up" checked/ticked under "View", and point your cursor at the offending tiles. A second or two later you will see a box pop up with all sorts of info in it. Among this is the elevation of the tile you're pointing at.

- The Invisible Tiles are for purposes of "roof popping". Without these an actor will have to walk all the way up to an exterior wall before the roof pops off for you to peer inside. Place some of these along exterior walls, in stair cases and holes in ceilings to better help a player see what's inside a building.

A note on these tiles: they often don't register as "invisible" when you first place them, e.g. you will see them cast a shadow. Use the "Update Tile Info" under "Tools" to rectify this. Also, look at the missions that came in the core campaign for ways of doing things. (You might as well rip off ideas, since according to the EULA MF owns everything you do with the editors anyway...)

1. What is a spawn point? 2. Is there a trick in putting doors? Because that's not covered in the tutorials. 3. How do I put in windows? I mean big ones not those little ones that are on the wall tiles... I want a big window... 3-4 tiles large... how? 4. In the case of windows does the roof popping work this way: you get to a window with your character, then the roof pops? Or do you need to put some invisible tiles there? 5. About buildings that are taller: do you apply the second floor on the roof and build up the stories just like the first? 6. And is it possible to make a building that you can fit in only when/if you are not standing? "Half-tall" buildings... 7. How do you make a non-flat roof? (triangular, pyramidal)

1) Spawn points are points at which players enter a map. This can be the PC's squad in a campaign or a team in MP.

2) Doors are not tiles, but rather entities. That's probably why GB didn't cover it.

The best "trick" I have is to find the appropriate door in "Entity Mode" (put a tick mark in that field near the top of the screen, or press "F3"). Place the door near where you want it - it probably won't be facing in the correct direction, but don't worry about that for now - and go to "View" and click on "Show Tile Bounding Box".

Now go to "Edit Entity" mode (F4). You should see a bunch of information on the entity that is selected, which should be your door. The field you are concerned with is "Animation Rotation" which changes the direction that the door is facing. For doors, there are 4 Animation Rotations (0-3). Play with this, the "Is Open" and "Opens Outward" fields until you have your door positioned and opening in the correct direction. Remember that you don't want the door swinging out of view when it is open, so sometimes what you'd expect a door to do in "reality" has to suffer for the sake of playability.

3) There are no large window tiles. What you can do is to play around with a combination of "caps" and 1/2-sized (short) walls.

4) Roof-popping works when your character gets up to a wall, regardless of whether or not there is a window there. The invisible tiles are best put around an entrance, or if you have holes in upper-level floors, put them in the hole so that the roof doesn't pop back on when the active actor is standing under the hole. I suggest opening some of the missions in the core campaign and taking a look at how they're used. (When all else fails, resort to "Monkey see, monkey do". *lol*)

5) Upper-stories on buildings can be a bit tricky. You have to make sure that your building fits the floor since only the "Plains" (plain-jane dirt) tiles have smaller tiles (down to 1x1 unit) than the standard 6x6 units. Most walls are two "world units" thick, and you want your floor to cover the top of the wall half-way. Use the "caps" to make a ring around your floor and fill up that other unit on top of the wall. Then simply place your walls one level higher than the floor and "caps".

6) Yes, you can make a building that you can only crouch in. You are limited to using the tile types that have "half-walls", though. You build these exactly as you would a normal building.

7) You can make a pyramidal roof. You will need to use the "Post War Town/Wood" roof or a similar one since these have slanted roof edges. The reason the tutorial has you start off with the walls half-way off of the floor tiles, is because the walls are two "world units" (1 world unit is circa 10 centimeters/4 inches) thick. If you have them half-way on the tiles that way, you can make sure that your upper-story floor will fit in, nice and neat. This will leave a "ring" (let's call it that, even though it's not round) around your upper-story floor tiles that you have to put "caps" in to make the floor flush with the outer edge of walls. When you've done this, look at what elevation your floor tiles for the upper story are, go one elevation higher, and begin putting the walls for your upper story on.

Basically, you have to remember to build the walls to conform to the floor tiles, and not vice-versa. The reason is that, since floor tiles are 6 world units by 6 world units and none of the tile sets contain any smaller tiles, you will either have to do it this way, or put up with having gaps in your floor. There are two exceptions to this:

1) You can use "caps" to fill in gaps. This is especially usefull if you're using wood floors and would like to have something that looks like a support beam in it.

2) If you go to the tile set Ruined City/Road/Sloped/Cliff Face you will find a bunch of plain "dirt" tiles that are smaller than 6x6 world units. in fact, they go down as small as 1x1. These aren't very useful for buildings, however, since most upper story floors wouldn't be made of dirt. They are good for plugging gaps around the rocky mountains, especially on elevated ground. ("Upper mountain floors", I guess you could say.)

About the roof popping... it wont pop for me... only if I move my guy in the building... not as you said, when near/next to a wall... (Not talking about the invisible-tiles-at-the-doors trick)

If the roof won't pop for you there could be a couple of reasons.

1) You have not generated new Occlusion Data since you placed (or even just moved) the roof.

2) "Enable Roof Popping" isn't checked/ticked. This is under "View".

3) If you're moving the actor to a position near/next to the wall facing you it will not pop to roof until he/she/it is in the doorway. If you want the roof to pop from anywhere in front all you have to do is add those nauseating, pink tiles along the front of the building at the same elevation as the upper-story floor.

I can't seem to get my stair case to work. In my level I made two test stair cases. I have them both tagged as climbable. One of them when I click, the guy just sort of looks around and doesn't do anything. The other one, he climbs up them, but climbs them like they are a ladder. What can I do to get him to walk up the steps, but not to climb them like a ladder?

Highlight both of your staircases and turn the Climable flag OFF. That flag is for ladders, not stairs. In the case of one of your staircases the tiles are probably close enough to be recognized as a ladder (the one which causes the character to climb) and FUBAR in the other case.

In order for your stairs to work, simply place them on the map - using the "Display Tile Bounding Box" to line them up correctly if necessary - then use Tools/Update Tiles followed by "Tools/New Occlusion Data" and presto you should have a working stair case.

In general, you should not need to add flags to your tiles, although they often do not appear until you've updated the tiles and the occlusion data. There are exceptions, e.g. in the case of tiles you want flagged as an exit grid.

The floor-tiles in the missions are on level -1 not 0 as the tutorial said... now, which is correct/proper?

-The only real flaw I've found in GB's tutorial is his insistance on your using elevation 0 to start with. Maybe he just did that to make it easier to follow his instructions, but he makes it seem as though it were somehow vital. It really doesn't matter what your default level is. If you want to, you could start as low as level -128, provided that you didn't want any sort of depression. (The elevation limits are -128 to 128 for a level.)

-Indoor and outdoor floor tiles do not need to be on the same level. In fact, I prefer to put a "lip" of "caps" around my indoor floors, so that they are 1 level higher than the outdoor floors. Sometimes I go even further with this and will add up to 4 levels. This is especially good if you're going to add a patio/porch/veranda to your building.

The stairs and ladders are not enough! I want to add an elevator somewhere. Is this possible? I was thinking of adding in an exit area w/ doors that close behind your, or a way to maybe choose what floor you would like to go to, but I have no idea how to go about doing this.

You cant actually have an elevator that travels between floors in the same map.

If you use object script states with terminal switches, you can toggle to what map the exit grid sends you.

For example, with conditions: All Alive at Exit Grid Object Script State: Switch1

You can set the exit grid "elevator" to Action: Open Mission: Floor1.mis

Then have a separate switch for floor 2, and another for floor 3, etc... Create a trigger like the one above for each floor.

Alternatively, if you only have 3 floors, youll only need 1 object script state that toggles between which of the two other floors to send the elevator to.

-Talion

I need some basic explanations on the use of the campaign editor...

I know I have to make a new directory where my core is (not in the core! Right?) So lets call it "XCampaign". You have said something about mirroring directory structure... what? Should I make all the directories? I mean all of them???

And of course ...you know... how to set up my world map, and stuff...?

5) Yes, make a new directory in the following address:

C:Program Files14 Degrees EastFallout Tactics

I would suggest simply copying and renaming the "core" directory. Then go through all of the sub-directories and delete all of those pesky files. (Liberal use of Ctrl + A followed by Delete is recommended here.) This way you won't screw anything up if while trying to set up a host of sub-folders. If you modify any file, place it in the identically named folder in your custom directory (e.g. "XCampgain"). There are some folders that you will probably not use, but keep them for now and if you're worried about file size you can always strip them out later when you're getting ready to distribute it.

Your world map will require an image. There are plenty of satellite photo sites out there -- mapquest.com is the one I'm using -- that you can get photos from. I'm working on this myself right now, so I don't have any definitive answers on scale, etc. The scale seems to be roughly 30 miles per square, and you can alter the size of the squares if need be. You'll need a program that can convert the *.jpg files you'll be downloading into *.png format. This format supports the use of alpha channels, and from what I understand, an invisible alpha channel is used to make terrain slower/faster to travel over. The darker the shade, the slower the travel.

Most of the work on your campgain file isn't going to be done with the campgain editor, but rather a text editing program. Use one to modify the "campaign.txt" file and then import the data into the campaign. The campaign editor is really pretty straight forward, however, and glancing at the ReadMe then rolling up your sleeves, taking a deep breath and plunging in should do the trick.

You will also need to modify the file "GenericMission.txt" and rename all of your missions (core, and SRE).

Cheers,

OTB

Is it posible(how?) to link/bound/glue/or_something_like_that two missions in the purpose of achieving a town effect like in FO2... you know what i mean...

Yes, you can link missions together like a FO/FO2 town in FoT. You can use the trigger "Go to mission" rather than the "End Mission: World Map". There is a problem with it, though. Let's say that you're going to do this with three missions. You would have to end the first mission with "Go to Mission 2", the second mission with "Go to Mission 3" and the third mission with "End Mission: World Map". This means that every time you go into that town, you would have to go through all three maps in order to leave. I think you might be able to solve this with switches, but that would be pretty cheesy too, since you'd have to have something (pop-up world text, an NPC "tour guide", etc.) let the player know that he/she could do this.

In order to have the non-entry-level missions not display on world map you simply don't put the triggers in to uncover them. Basically, this is what the three Vault-0 missions do in the core campaign.

Cheers,

OTB

You have a mission; one mission has 4 edges, right? , so you define 4 game-zones right next to those 4 edges (N,S,W,E) now comes the tricky part:

I think you can make it in 2 ways(one of 'em not sure if possible)

(The simpler way - not sure if this is possible) you make those zones IN THE EXITGRID'S "zone" = >

Triggers:

All at exit grid - AND in zone N *action* go to mission 2

All at exit grid - AND in zone S *action* go to mission 3

All at exit grid - AND in zone S *action* go to mission 4

All at exit grid - AND in zone E *action* end mission

Said not sure if possible because I donno if you can put the zone IN the exit grid

The other way … this IS a tricky one

You put the zones right in front of the exit grid 1 tile wide =>

Variable: TOWN_PART_TO_GO_TO

Triggers:

Player in zone N *action* set TOWN_PART_TO_GO_TO = N

Player in zone S *action* set TOWN_PART_TO_GO_TO = S etc

All at exit grid - AND TOWN_PART_TO_GO_TO = = N *action* go to mission 2

All at exit grid - AND TOWN_PART_TO_GO_TO = = S *action* go to mission 3 etc

(Maybe the syntax I have used is not correct but you can see the big picture)

Of course you make this for all 4 missions

Using your idea of zones/grids you could even get as fancy as laying out 9 maps like this:

A B C

D E F

G H I

Using the grids and zones you could have Mission A leading to the World Map, Mission B, Mission D, or even Mission E if you wanted to put a grid on the SE corner...

Don't worry about the syntax. You don't have to write the triggers yourself, you simply select them from menus, although occasionally you have name things, and in that case you just have to make sure that you get the names straight each time you use them. (Yes, they're case-sensitive, too.)

PS If you can think of something regarding dialogue, good luck. Dialogue would make this game every bit put this game in a league above both FO/FO2 and FoT. The only way seems to be to re-write the game engine, though. MF/IP/14° East might have a thing to say about that, though.

Yes, I'm saying your idea of combining the exit grids and zones would work. That is great because it is simple, since setting up zones is as easy as poiting and clicking three times and giving the zone a name. (I'll have to check to see if it is possible to put a "Quantity Unit" trigger in with the "All Alive" qualifier, that way you can't park people in different exit zones and give the game heartburn. *lol*

Cheers,

OTB

This is a trigger headache, btw.

What you need is a couple of mission variables that your triggers check. When your mission variables initialize, make a mission variable called "First_Visit_Complete", or something equally informative, and set it to "False". Also, make one more for each of the visits that you want it to affect. (Second_Visit_Complete, etc.)

For your mission ending, you'll need:

Condition: "Bos has all alive at exit grid", and "Mission Variable 'First_Visit_Complete' is 'False'.

Action: "Set mission variable 'First_Visit_Complete' to 'True'", plus any other things like mission debriefing, changing the campaign variable for this mission to complete, etc.

So now you have the triggers recognizing that you've been there once. For you next visit you'd need something like this for your mission ending:

Condition: "BoS has all alive at exit grid", "Mission variable 'First_Visit_Complete' is 'True', "Mission variable 'Second_Visit_Complete' is 'False'

Action: "Set mission variable 'Second_Visit_Complete' to 'True', etc.

Do you get the picture? Also, remember that if you want the number of times you've visited a place to affect other areas make those mission variables campaign variables. Also, make sure that "Nuke Triggers on Exit" isn't ticked for the map(s) you're working with, since this disables all of the triggers when you leave the map

First I would like you to tell me about those triggers you mentioned... and an idea how to make some messages in the msg. window about reputation (karma ?) I would like to be shown with the changes/amount off 'em.

The problem with what you want to do is that there is so much hard-coded into the game engine that you'd have to take some steps that would probably look pretty cheesy. You can't get a reputation gain to display in the text window like it does for experience.

Things that are set off by triggers are set up to do things a certain way, and this goes beyond editing simple text files to get it to do what you'd like it to do.

Triggers involve two things: a condition(s), and action(s). For instance, let's say that you have a prisoner (with a tag-name of "Prisoner") on your map that can be freed and the PCs will get experience and a reputation gain if he/she makes it to a certain point alive. You could set up the following trigger:

Condition:

'Prisoner' has exactly 1 alive at 'Escape Zone'

Action:

Deactive 'Prisoner' Award 200 xp to BoS Add 100 Reputation to Main Character

This would cause the 'Prisoner' to disappear, the text box would read "Gained 200 experience points" and if you checked your Reputation and just happened to go up a level you'd notice it.

The only thing that you could do it do add another action "Display World Text", which causes a window to pop up like you've seen when either General Barnaky or Dekker lets you know that you've completed an objective. You could have a node in the speech file for the mission that could say something along the lines of:

"Good job, you're my hero for saving this poor woman."

[+100 Reputation]

If that's the route you'd like to go, it is "do-able". AFAIK, you'd have to hack the game to get it to display in the text window, though. Sorry to disappoint.

Cheers,

OTB

1. Is there a possibility to make a trigger/ event (or something) in this way: on the world map you have 2 towns: A and B; you get some quests that require that your character walks from A to B to A to B and so on, when he had hit this road n times a trigger/ event (or something) gets him a SE (I donno... something like a fellow saying "you come by here many times in the last days... hm... here is some food so you wont starve" yes this is a trivial example but you get my point) 2. Is it hard coded or settable the amount of XP needed for the level up, the amount of rep points needed for the rep to grow? If hard coded where can I check all the numbers (calculation purpose)

1. Yes, you could make a trigger that did that. You would have to set up a couple of "campaign variables" to do this.

For your example, let's use the following:

CVAR_X_Visited_Once CVAR_Y_Visited_Once CVAR_Z_Gave_Food

In mission "X" you would add a trigger:

Condition:

"BoS All Alive at Exit Grid" "'CVAR_X_Visited_Once' is 'False'"

Action:

"Set variable 'CVAR_X_Visited_Once' to 'True'" "End Mission: World Map", etc.

Do the same thing for town "Y", changing the appropriate items. Then you would need the following in your mission for town "X":

Condition:

"Variable 'CVAR_X_Visited_Once' is 'True'" "Variable 'CVAR_Y_Visited_Once' is 'True'" "Variable 'CVAR_Z_Gave_Food' is 'False'"

Action:

"Unit 'AA' will use Speech Node 'MYY_Old_Fart_01_W'" "Give item(s) tagged 'Gift_Food' to BoS"

If some of this seems unclear, it will become clear as you learn about Triggers, Speech and Entities.

2. I'm pretty sure that the XP and Rep levels are hard-coded into the engine. (You could change the titles for Rep, with a text-editing program, though.) If you want to know the XPs need to gain levels, you can use the "Level" function in the Entity Editor to increase an entity's level and look at the XP field each time you do it. The Rep points needed to advance a level seem to be the same as in FO2, but don't quote me on that. I don't know where you could get a hold of them, either. (In fact, I'd like to know myself...*lol*)

1. I now know how to add speech and rpg elements. But how can I give items from the NPC to the Human? They seem to need some kind of a Tag name and only things I can tag is to make a door need key tagged 'key1' then create a key with tag name 'key1'... But what about stimpacks, bullets etc?

One easy way is to trigger speech when your player sees the NPC. First you musta have created at least the player 1(you, human) and player 2 (the NPC) in the LEVEL / PLAYERS - screen. Then place your starting char (or if it's a campaign, forget it) and the NPC. Then trigger like this:

Conditions PLAYER HUMAN --- CAN SEE --- PLAYER NPC Actions FORCE SPEECH --- PLAYER NPC --- UNIT *Text File* (M01_playernpc_A00_W, M03_playernpc_C03_W etc... )

And that's how it works. Or then you can make the windowed speech work as click speech. If you don't want the same windowed text to show up next time or change it to a floating text, try this:

Conditions SPEECH OCCURED --- PLAYER HUMAN --- PLAYER NPC --- EVENT *The text file discription* Actions CHANGE CLICK SPEECH -- PLAYER NPC --- UNIT *Text File*

-Kashluk

Is there a way to respawn enemy soldiers in single player campaign , during the battle and latter revisit ? Like to have enemy reinforcement to make the game more challenging. Plus the maps are beautiful I like to hang around and play with them much longer than just one pass through.

I've never tried respawning enemies in SP, but here is something that works:

All of the enemies do not need to be visible on the map when players enter. All you need to do is to have one or more "Player Indexes" set up on "Deactivate". While you will see them on the map while you are editing, they will not appear when you start the mission.

In order to simulate reinforcements, you can simply have a trigger(s) set up so that they are activated when something happens. You could, for instance set the trigger up so that they are activated when the players reach a certain point, or if enemies in a certain area take a certain number of losses, or only have a certain number of people left alive in an area, etc., etc.

To activate them you will have to set them to a certain type of AI. This could be "Stationary", "Waypoints" (which could be used to have them appear at a certain point and move to another point), or Random Waypoints. You can also set the priority at which they move, the speed, etc.

If you have questions regarding how to do any of the above, read the ReadMe that came with the editors. After that, if you still have questions, I can help you more if you'd like.

Cheers,

OTB

I was thinking about an NPC disappearing - appearing in a map...

So I opened the first bunker map and looked at Nanuk...

So I know now how to "deactivate" and do the "stationary at anywhere" thing with the triggers... but how do I do it from the editor? How do I place "Nanuk" there and mark him deactivated???

Activating and deactivating entities is easy. Here's what you do:

Set up a Player Index and make sure that it is set to a particular Team. The AI for an index can be set to "Deactivate" to have the actor(s) not be on the map initially. Alternately, you can set them set to "Stationary", "Way Points", etc. and then have a trigger which deactivates them, which just changes their AI. If you have them set to "Deactivate" initially you will have to set up a trigger that sets their AI to "Stationary", etc. A good example of this is the guards that appear if you get into a fight in any of the bunkers.

You can also affect smaller numbers of actors or even a single individual within a group by using "Tag Names". These are added to entities either when you design them using the Entity Editor, or you can assign them using the "Edit Entity" function in the Level Editor.

Speech Trees

Well it's not speech trees, and it is a bit of a story and scripting chore, but it is possible to create missions where player choice has real effects on what happens. I've started crunching out a "quick and dirty" pair of missions that allow this.

In a nutshell, #1 is a special encounter where you recieve a garbled radio transmission. You get a text window with the info, a few seconds after it closes, you receive a second message giving the coordinates. The player is presented with two options and exit grids. If you choose to investigate, you walk into grid #1 which links you directly to a "hidden" mission. Choose not to investigate, walk to grid #2 and get an end mission report and some other "things". I've got mission #1 working as advertized. Now I'm starting #2, which at this point will be a defensive "holding action", or in reality, another scripting test bed.

NPC interaction will be dificult but not impossible to implement. Until I get smarter and more familar with the editor, the only way I see to implement it is to have the NPC give his speech, presenting the PC with instructions. If you want to help save my village, pick up the blue rock from that table, etc. Klunky, yes. Hokey, ok yes. A scripting nightmare if many such decisions are offered in a level, guilty as charged. Pratical and worth the effort? For my money, yes.

I open a mission... lets say the farmer special encounter; how can I see what stuff he has on him ?

- Looking at people's stuff. It depends on where the stuff was added, but there are only two options.

1) With the mission open either click on "Edit Entity" or just hit the F4 key. Left click on the appropriate entity, then scroll down to where his inventory items are. If it was added in the mission, it will be displayed here. If there is nothing there, or to see if he has still more stuff...

2) Open the Entity Editor and open the appropriate entity file. (You can see the entity file name displayed at the top of the Level Editor when you have an entity selected.) Just look under the "Inventory" and "Equipped" tabs.

I created a vehicle and set it so that it requires a part to fix.

I created a drive shaft entity to be the part you have to use to fix it.

I made the drive shaft origionally a generic item, that didn't work so I made it a repair item.

I have the option to use the object, but when I do the guy just gets into the jeep, he doesn't fix.

Anyone know how to make a vehicle that requires a part to repair it?

I have been tinkering with this for the past few days and here's what I've found:

1) Create a "Repair Item" and save it. You won't need a tag name for it. Optionally, place a tick/check mark in the box "Remove on Exit" under "Collectable". I'll explain that later.

2) Create a vehicle which is going to need repairing. Place a tick/check mark in the box "Needs Repair Item". You may also click on the blank bar at the top and set a modifier for using the item. Positive numbers represent a penalty. If you are soft/merciful you can put a bonus to the Repair Roll by entering a negative number.

3) Click on the elipsis for the field "Required Repair Item", then navigate to the Repair Item you created earlier and double-click on it.

Now, when a character goes to repair the vehicle, he/she will have to have both the Repair Item as well as a Tool Kit in his/her Active Item Slots. So far I've only used fresh Super Tool Kits and they are completely used up in the process. This also does not repair any damage to the vehicle, but simply restores it to a state where normal repairs are possible. The Repair Item will not be used up during the operation, and this is why you might want to tick/check the box "Remove on Exit". This doesn't seem to be an option if you're going to have the vehicle that needs the part on a seperate map, however.

Cheers,

OTB

PS If anyone has anything to add to this, I'd love to hear it. "Knowledge not shared is lost," and all that.

PPS After further experimentation I've found that all you need to do is use your Repair skill while having the Repair Item in your active item slot. The Repair Item is then used up, so you don't have any unsightly, loose ends hanging around. You are then "go for launch" for repairing any HP that the vehicle may or may not be lacking.

1. ...nope... this time you don't get me ... the action should make something like: when on squares n,m,p,o or r (in the worldmap) make available an encounter and get it automatically... you can't get that encounter before: "Variable 'CVAR_X_Visited_Once' is 'True'" "Variable 'CVAR_Y_Visited_Once' is 'True'" "Variable 'CVAR_Z_Gave_Food' is 'False'" but then you'll get it automatically when on certain squares... that was my question...

2. Clear, thanx (what is the index for computer controlled chars. ? if possible... you know someone to shoot at...)

1. To be honest, I'm not quite sure if you can do that. You could set up a mission in a specific square that would only be open when certain conditions were met, but I don't think you can alter the chance of a Special Random Encounter with variables.

2. You'll have to set up the "Team Matrix" for this. Go to "Level" and set up two teams and set their alignment to a negative number. The lower the number, the more they hate each other. Then, press the "Players" button (in "Level") and set up a new player. Name it whatever you want - I like "Travelling Dildo Salesmen" myself - and set the team to "2". Any targets enemies you want to place on the map will have to have their "Player Index" set to "2". Also, set Index #2 to "Player: Computer".

How do you program keys to be able to unlock specific doors? And how do you program holodisks to say things?

You will have to create an item of the "Key" type. You'll have to assign a "Tag Name" (e.g. Back_Door). Then use the "Edit Entity" function and assign the identical "Tag Name" to the door(s) you want it to work on. It's as simple as that.

I'm not sure about Holodisks. I haven't had to put any together yet.

I'm making a mod where the main character is, essentially, a bad guy. In fact, he's a member of a Raider gang. So how can I set up the level where you start (i.e., get your instructions from the gang leader) so that there are Raiders who won't attack the main character? Does it have anything to do with "Entity Edit" and "Team," etc.? I don't really know what I'm talking about... I don't want the Raiders to be controlled by me for battle purposes, I just want them walking around like the NPC BOS scribes and stuff in the bunkers.

Basically, is there any way to make non combatant raiders who will never get violent?

Well you can get any character to be a good guy. All you have to do is go to team on the level tab, with the grid like thing. left click and right click on the boxes to make them like or dislike each other. diehard goodguys would be a blue box with a 10, same with bad guys -10 with red box.You can also make your allies (the raiders) dislike another group, like BOS and they will fight each other.

Not sure if you know this but also on the level tab is the player... button, inside it is where you can set what teams are controlled by Humans, or Computers which is where you make the raiders who will like you. To make a Char part of that team, before you place one down, it has team at the top of the entity bar, change that to the number your raiders are.

Ok, I was thinking "Wait, it really would be impossible to make the hostages join a player's team, so what should I do?" So I reffered to mission23 and looked at all the prisoners there. Then I learned of a magical thing called "waypoints" Also looking at that I learned how to script speech files and zones! I now have the [near]perfect hostage system!

Player talks to hostage, hostage runs through way points, hostage reaches safe area, and team 1 gains 1 reputation. CT recues all hostages, earns 4 reputation, wins the level. Hehe it's a start.

Well now that I've got the hostage system down, anybody got any ideas on how I can implement awarding money to the winning team? I know how to do it just for the CTs but if the terrorists won they'd get no money at all.. So I need ideas on that, since that'd be kinda difficult. I was thinking "npc gives item to player" but.. dunno.. maybe I'll just have the vendor give money out if the condition is that their team wins, then they buy shit from vendor. yah :D

Condition: Hostage NPC Can see Human Action: Hostage NPC Joins Human's team

As for buying mercenaries, that's a bit more difficult. I would suggest you do like suggested by someone else and have a merc require the completion of a quest, first. Otherwise, try this:

Have your player find a merc commander and buy a holodisk that is tagged with a merc's name. Then go find that merc in his barracks and talk to him. He says his intro. He then detects that you have his holodisk (assignment?) and joins your team (player index). The better mercs would have more expensive holodisks, etc. As for weapon shops and all that, just use normal people with the ability to barter. You'd have to manually place all their equip on them using the entity editor, though. Please keep in mind, dont make all (or even really good) weapons available right away. That would make the game much too easy. Easy games are boring...

Black Isle had different set of triggers and actions due to the fact that FO2 was an rpg and this is a combat oriented game. This one is no less complex, though. In fact, I'd bet FOT is MORE complex. FOT has far more better fighting scripts. It has waypoints. It has mobility, aggression, communication, and other settings that werent there in the previous FOs. Think about how bad fighting was in the earlier FOs. Enemies didnt have any strategy at all in the previous FOs. Stand, shoot, die. Lets see you program an action scene like Kansas city in FO2. See you in 20 years.

The only thing about Vault City I cant think of how to do is the speech oriented components. In fact, a city in FOT is more realistic due to the addition of waypoints. People can actually walk around in FOT and make the city look alive. FOT has plenty of complexity. No, it doesnt have many RPG elements but they arent necessary: this isnt an RPG. Everything asked for in this thread can be done. And it would not take that long at all. Scripting a city would be no different than scripting a bunker and I've already explained how that merc thing could be done.

For me, I'd be far more worried about tiling the map than triggering it. Good tilework takes 10 times longer than scripting for me. And the scripting will get faster when I learn the stuff better and dont need to experiment as much.

-Talion

This is a guide to not as much editing and creating entities like new guns and whatnot (which is fairly self evident) but also how to get your new descriptions to appear in the game instead of "No description available".

-Create your new entity, or edit an existing entity. In either case, it is HIGHLY recommended you give it a unique name.

-The Description name under the Name section should match the Entity's real file name in whatever Entity directory in correct for that kind of entity and it is CASE SENSATIVE. There is a seperate directory for each kind of entity.

I think although I am not 100% sure that you have to follow the conventions of that item name-type that Microforte used. For example, if you want to create a new kind of MP5 from the original mp5Sub.ent file, you have to name your new weapon something unique and append the "Sub.ent" onto the end of it like all the other SMGs in C:Program....EntitiesWeaponsSMG. Note the upper case "S", and that all other characters are lower case.

-Update your entity with the Update command on the File Menu in the editor. This is a CRITICAL step. If you place your new entity without doing this it will work but will not have any descriptions. Even if you go back and fix the entity and THEN Update, the entity you made without doing that step is FUBAR so you'll have to delete it and place it again with the corrected version. I found that out the hard way after wasting about 5 hour trying to figure out what was wrong.

-Change the description in items.txt. Once again, case sensative and the names must match exactly with the actual entity file name AND the Description name in the properties of the entity.

Your new entry in the items.txt must also be in the correct place with all the other respective entites in the same class (for example, all SMGs you add must be in the //SMG section). I'm not 100% on the importance of this but it's a good idea anyway.

-Add whatever modes of fire you may have added to the entity to weapons.txt

-Change whatever descriptions you may have made to ammo entities to not only items.txt but ALSO to ammo.txt descriptions. Also once again case sensative and the names must match exactly with the file name and Description in the entity properties.

After you do this, you might want to Update again just for the hell of it. I didn't have to though I don't think (I was half asleep when I was doing this though).

If you've created your own weapons and ammunition, you might not want the original hard coded gear you start the game with to appear.

For example, say you redid the description for 9mm ball ammo and don't want mixed descriptions for the same item in your mod, or you made a new MP5 (one that can actually kill people, for example) and you don't want the original to appear. Or say you simply want to start your characters off with melee items or a pistol instead.

What you can do is simply take a cookie or iguana on a stick and name it "mp5Sub.ent" or whatever you are replacing's REAL entity name in the Core directory in your mod directory. The mod directory entity will be picked up first instead of the entity in the core directory. I've tested this and it works.

You don't need to follow directory or name conventions for your new entites after all. You can name your entities whatever you want and name the dir anything you want. BUT it IS case sensative. So no matter what you do you have to have exactly matching names in for entries in the items.txt, Description Name field in the Entity, and the entities true file name.

Is there a method by scripting or whatever to force one character as the Main Character?

Place all four entities on the map set to player index 0 (for example). Assign tag names to the entities. Set up an always run trigger to change the "main character" to player index 1. Place a two second delay, then change the other three to player index 1. This should force the first character changed to player index 1 to be the main character from that point out. -Lord Percival

Without making a campaign (which normally defines the main character as part of the creation/selection process), there is no specific scripting way to do this.

You could fudge it, however, by placing the single character you want as main on one player group (Player 1), placing the other squad members on another (Player 2), deactiviating the second Player group from the start, waiting a few seconds, then transfering those players to the Player 1 group using the CHANGE PLAYER action (you'll have to give the other squaddies tag names). This sounds a little confusing, but it should work.

I've created some new characters with specific names and a new mission that they are in. I've added their little blurb to the "character.txt" file like Talion describes but it doesn't show up when I play the mission. What am I doing wrong?

I remember making a few of these before I got stuck on making maps.

The way i did mine was completly editing a few of the characters that were already there, such as the prefab and a few recruits that i never use.

I did the story by going into the core/local/game folder and i opened up the characters file. this is were the character stories are located. just find the character you wanna mess with and start rewriting a story. You can change their names here, too.

I had to go even farther after that because otherwise, all that would change is the story. the character would look the same. so i used the entity editor and changed the sprite to a dog. after that, I had to delete the .zar file for that character in the core/gui/char folder, then replace it with the dog's picture(.zar file) but useing the name of the characer. - for example:

CORE_rec_hm07.zar is the original file.

I deleted the file and copied mp_dg01.zar, which is the dog's picture.

I then renamed "copy of mp_dg01.zar" into CORE_rec_hm07.zar,

which was the file I first deleted.

The *.ent file name is absolutely of no significance when assigning names and/or descriptions to people. The important part is the "Display Name". It is this that must match the entry in the characters.txt, not the name of the file.

For instance, if you have a recruit you want to name the file name could be "MyRecruit_01.ent", but the Display Name could be "JJ86_hm01" and you would enter the following in the characters.txt:

name_JJ86_hm01 = { Jimmy Jay }

desc_JJ86_hm01 = { Jimmy Jay began his career as a techno-archivist with the BoS. Then he decided that his talents could be better put to use in the field and put in for a transfer. He excells at repairing things and has a broad scientific background. He is also a fair hand with small arms. )

The advantage to using the "Display Name" rather than the file name comes in mainly with NPCs. For instance all of the non-Scribe, non-Elder BoS personell show up as "Warrior" and this is due to the fact that their Display Names are all set to "CORE_bos".

Cheers,

OTB

PS The *.zar file associated with your recruit must be named the same as the display name as well. In the above example the image for the recruit should be name "JJ86_hm01.zar".

What's the difference between Actor entities and Character entities?

Is it possible to use a unique item on an NPC that would trigger maybe a speech box, I want it to be "useable" on NPC that are IN my squad already?! (Uh... and can be this "special item" be a new "firing mod" of one of my hands? Like the 3rd right click on an empty hand)

And a very similar one: I want to make an NPC that has a crippled arm, but you can't heal him! You can heal him only with a unique item, as well a broken car that can't be used until you "repair it" with a unique item!

1) Actors are anything living or once living on a map. It includes that Raider that you had start the mission already killed, but not a computer console that the PCs can activate. Characters are squad members used in multiplayer games.

2) Having your squad mates speak isn't possible. I wanted to add some flavor ala FO2 and have various characters run around spouting various lines. It didn't work. Too bad, it would have been very amusing, especially since I was going to have them react to each other as well. ("Myron, you step outta line and I'm gonna cut you...")

Doing something like adding another mode to your main character's hand would involve creating another race, or else all actors of the "BoS" race.

There are "Generic Items" in the game, but these do not have modes of operation. They are usually items that the PCs need to complete a mission, such as the Robot Arm in Rock Falls, or the Fusion Batteries in Peoria. You can't use these things for anything other than having them complete mission goals, though.

3) Crippled limbs are healed using the Doctor skill in conjunction with a Doctor's Bag, no ifs, ands or buts.

There are "Repair Items" in the game. You have to create an entity of that type, then have a vehicle that has the "Requires Repair Item" field checked/ticked. There is a field that you enter the name of the item in, or you can browse to it by clicking on the elipsis ("...") to the right of it.

I've been experimenting with that last bit. I found that the procedure is bugged. I had a character with a Super Tool Kit try to repair it, and he managed to. All it did was remove the need for an item and used up the entire Super Took Kit, however. (So if you're going to do this, I would recommend not having any Super Tool Kits available at that point...)

You won't have any problem tinkering with the editors if you do the following:

1) Open the FoT directory using Windows Explorer. If you used the standard install the address will be:

C:Program Files14 Degrees EastFallout Tactics

2) Set up a new folder there. Call it whatever you like. (Mine is called "OTB", for instance.)

3) When you run the editors, don't simply open them with your Start menu or a shortcut to them. Use the "Run" command from the start menu and type in the following command:

"C:Program Files14 Degrees EastFallout TacticsFT Tools.exe" -path whateveryounamedyourdirectory

Just copy and paste that entire line, to include the quote marks, and change the ending to your directory's name. The command will be available to you as long as you don't clear your history. So all you will have to do is use the Run command and make sure that that command is selected.

When you play your mod, just use the Run command and the following line:

"C:Program Files14 Degrees EastFallout TacticsBOS.exe" -path whateveryounamedyourdirectory

When you do it this way, it mirrors everything in your subdirectory, so even if you accidentally hit "Save" after you've been tinkering with something (a weapon for instance) it saves it in your directory rather than in the core folder. (Hehe...done that a few times...)

I feel this is important to describe to everyone as it is not adequately talked about in the editor readme.

In order to leave the original game files untouched, but still make it possible for people to run your campaign and get your custom item descriptions, and various other things, here is what you must do.

You must create a new folder in this path.

C:....14 Degrees EastFallout Tactics

Name it whatever you wish, for this tutorial I will refer to it as MYCAMP.

This what you want your BOS.EXE file to point to when running your campaign. So if you want to run your campaign with all of your custom item descriptions etc, you want to run "BOS.EXE -PATH MYCAMP".

Inside of MYCAMP you want to make new folders with these names:

Locale Tables

Inside of your new Locale folder you want to create new folders with these names:

Game Gui This will now enable you to edit probably all of the .TXT files you would want to.

For an example we will use the ITEMS.TXT file where many descriptions for items, recruits, etc reside. You can create your own ITEMS.TXT file from scratch, or copy the one from the original game and edit it. You want to put your ITEMS.TXT file here:

C:....14 Degrees EastFallout TacticsMYCAMPlocalegame

When running "BOS.EXE -PATH MYCAMP", it will use this ITEMS.TXT file instead of the original games ITEMS.TXT file. If you don't have an ITEMS.TXT file here, the game will automatically use the ITEMS.TXT file that is here:

C:....14 Degrees EastFallout Tacticscorelocalegame

This goes for all files. If you are running your campaign, and it is looking for a certain file, it will first look through your folders. If it can't find it, it will look through the original game folders. If it cannot find it there, it will look in the .BOS files. If it is still unable to locate it, something bad will probably happen. :)

You can use any .TXT file located in the folders of the original game that correspond with the folders you created in your MYCAMP folder. As I said earlier, the folders I had you create have the .TXT files you will probably want to edit. The only one in the GUI folder you will probably want to edit is the credits, so you can tell everyone who worked so hard on your campaign! :)

Now you will be able to manipulate and use various things in the .TXT files without corrupting the originals, and also allow people who want to play your campaign, retain their original game files.

1. How to try my maps... don't tell me to put it in the missions folder and than load it couse I have tried that and is not really working... I can see my building but I have no character to move around... maybe I donno how to set it up... same prob. whit the other missions as well loads them but no chars.

1. I'm going to assume that when you're play-testing your missions you are putting some sort of entity there to serve as your characters. If so, you haven't set them to your control. To do this, go into "Edit Entity" mode and left-click on the person/thing you want to control. Go to the "Player Index" field and enter "1". This will put them under your control when you fire up the map.

Remember that Single-Player missions don't have characters generated for them like campaigns do. So if you're not doing it already, add an entity to play-test with. It can be any race, but I wouldn't use Critters since they can't do things like climb ladders. (I had to shit-can a recruit from my recruit pool because of this. I was going to have a dog, but since I didn't feel like having "handicapped ramps" all over the place for him he had to go...) Just remember to set the "Player Index" to "1" and you will be "good to go".

Credits to: OnTheBounce (The answer man!) Kashluk TheUnKnown Jimmyjay86 Dark Raven JaTe Talion Duck and Cover And the many Board Guests

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