Experiences with Broken Steel

[DaWrecka]

Let me start by saying that these aren't problems in TTW itself, although the first could possibly be addressed by TTW.



Do you remember, back in the days of yore, when a mod called CREBSOR was common? "Custom Race Endings Broken Steel Override" was the full name. It was necessary because, well, let's be frank here... The EndingBinksScript is a goddamn mess. Clearly written by a temp with only a basic knowledge of programming, it's a mess of redundant code and poorly-constructed conditions. It was this poor construction that directly-caused the bug; the ending sequence would fail to continue properly if the player wasn't using one of the four races which were available to them in the vanilla game. (There were other races, but only AfricanAmerican, Asian, Caucasian and Hispanic were available to the player during chargen) TTW doesn't actually do much more than touch the EndingBinksScript, so the bug is still front-and-centre if you're using a custom race at the end of Project Purity in TTW. I spent a little time re-factoring the script; making it prettier in the process of squashing the bug into paste. I've attached a text file with the contents of my version... if you will, compare it to the version present in Fallout3.esm. And try not to keep your brain switched on full while you're reading that one. If you have any programming expertise, it's the sort of thing that could have you screaming at your screen in incoherent rage.



Of course, once I'd fixed this bug, I ran headlong into a different one. This one, unlike the first, was more the result of a confluence of mods interacting in disadvantageous ways than Bethesda hiring poor coders (although that's certainly part of it) - although one that does highlight a feature missing in TTW.



First, it's worth explaining something. I've always hated the fact that by default, TimeScale was set to 30, so that 2 seconds of real time was equivalent to a minute of game time. I hate this because, even before I learned of TTW, it led to the frequent occurrence that I'd enter a house in daylight, and upon leaving find myself saying "What the ****ing ****! How does the Mojave go from bright daylight to the middle of the night in three goddamn minutes?!". Maybe others could tolerate this, but it was a total immersion-destroyer for me. Of course, this led directly to my learning that the hardcore needs system is totally goddamn broken if you use any value of TimeScale but 30. It's fine while you're just wandering around, but if you sleep or wait... If your TimeScale is set to 15, your meters will fill at double the normal rate. If you're using a TimeScale of 1, they'll fill up 30 times normal rate - so waiting or sleeping for 2 hours imposes crippling dehydration and starvation penalties, while 3 hours becomes "instant death". Fortunately I found [url=http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/mods/34718/?]Imp's TimeScale Adjuster[/url], which actually manages to give you the ability to set a non-insane TimeScale while, somehow, slapping the hardcore needs system in its stupid face and saying "No, dummy, do it this way" - so I can sleep or wait for three hours or more without all the water in my body simultaneously evaporating. Unfortunately, as I've recently-learned, it doesn't work for direct access of the global time variables...



So what was happening was that pretty much immediately after materialising in the Citadel, I'd be immediately dead. This, for some reason, would cause the game to freak out and lock up, so actually figuring out it was because my character died took a while. Turned out that my character was getting killed by dehydration, starvation and sleep deprivation all at once. Yes, the hardcore system was buggering up. The stage 0 script for the DLC03BS1 quest sets GameHour to 23.98, and the hardcore system takes that as a cue. The hardcore system doesn't care about GameDay, just GameHour, so depending on the time it was when you assaulted the control room of Project Purity, it will immediately slap you with anywhere up to about 23 hours of dehydration, sleep deprivation and starvation at once. Debilitating normally, but utterly destructive if you're not using the default TimeScale. I had to force my way through it by advancing the time two hours at a go until I got to 2300, resetting my hardcore values in between. (A two-hour difference would make my dehydration value go from 0 to about 920. I wish I was kidding.)



So in my case, I've gone "bollocks to it" and excised the "set GameHour to 23.98" line in my copy of the script. I don't think I lose anything of consequence by not coming around in the Citadel precisely at midnight every time.



But coming back to the feature I said was missing in TTW... Simply put, TTW doesn't make any attempt to reset the player's hardcore values after they come around in the Citadel. Seems like a minor oversight, but a significant one nonetheless.

[RoyBatty]

So does it mess up HC even with default timescale? I honestly hate that too and would like to play with a time scale that's 1/10th of real time without it hosing up a bunch of quests and HC mode.

[TJ]

Minor, or significant? Make up your mind. 

I'll consider the binkscript fix, as it does meet my requirement for a vanilla fix being included in TTW. I'll also take the hardcore needs thing under advisement. 

Now for something for you to take under advisement: with TTW, using a timescale other than 30 is probably breaking more than hardcore needs.

[DaWrecka]

[quote=TJ]

Minor, or significant? Make up your mind. 

[/quote]
Alright, that is a bit of a poor use of language. What I mean is that it's not a big thing for anyone who's not screwing with TimeScale, but at the same, I think restoring HC values at the start of Death From Above is important-enough to implement, while at the same time being small-enough to be straightforward.

[quote]

I'll consider the binkscript fix, as it does meet my requirement for a vanilla fix being included in TTW. I'll also take the hardcore needs thing under advisement. 

Now for something for you to take under advisement: with TTW, using a timescale other than 30 is probably breaking more than hardcore needs.

[/quote]
Hmm... don't suppose you could be more specific?