Developer log

[hexer]

We'll post short updates here about our daily activities.

 

[hexer]

I'll start first.

Last night I finished converting about 400 critter files from FO2 format into FOnline. Maps are next!

 

[Kane Vollstrecker]

Good Work hexer.

 

[Kane Vollstrecker]

NEw Enclave Armor And Helmet...

 

[DosBuster]

I'm attempting to figure out how to use a dialogue tool and also thinking of cool insults... you know staying away from the usual DICK JOKES LOOK AT ME NOW MOM insults. That and adding depth to what would usually be a blank cannon fodder character.

 

[Kane Vollstrecker]

Or This....

 

[hexer]

The first map has been converted!
It's a long process that involves opening and saving the same file in 6 different versions of Mapper.

I will now try and set a Guinness World Record.

 

[hexer]

Dude, where's my elevation?

I converted over 50 maps before entering the land of dreams last night. A few will have to be converted again - I failed to notice my map elevations 2 and 3 were lost in the process!

 

[DosBuster]

I'm starting design work on my first area! Yay! Well really I'm scared I hope I can pull through and make something good.

 

[hexer]

Good luck bro! There are plenty of writers in the team so they'll advise you if you have doubts about anything.
I can't wait to get home from work and continue working on it!

 

[hexer]

Only 38 maps left to convert! I also cleaned up all proto files which were used by FOnline's (demo) game The Life After.

 

[hexer]

Just finished converting the maps! I'll transfer the new art tonight and then start face-lifting those FO2 maps inside FOnline engine. Basically, I'm continuing where I stopped after switching over to Fonline.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Just finished converting the maps! I'll transfer the new art tonight and then start face-lifting those FO2 maps inside FOnline engine. Basically, I'm continuing where I stopped after switching over to Fonline.

Are you going to keep the same amount of maps or you will fuse some? I remember that in FOnline there were some cities (Den, to recap) where you had a fuck-huge continuous map. For example, I can see good part of the outside of Boulder Dome fused together (Jackals' Camp, Baggers' Camp). I can see the B.O.M.B being a huge-ass epic contiguous map with unique art that makes you want to have sex with it.

Can't see others fused together, or certain areas would look too small. One of the advantages of isometric is that you can always imagine there's more to the area than what you visited.

BTW, are you going to try and make the Denver citymap work in FOnline? I thought having a citymap for Denver which you could explore is THE perfect approach between the newer's Fallouts greater emphasis on exploration and the older Fallouts' emphasis on the world map, getting rid of the boring hiking simulation in-between. Add something like Wasteland 2 map and you could have THE perfect world map, but I'm digressing.

 

[hexer]

Are you going to keep the same amount of maps or you will fuse some? I remember that in FOnline there were some cities (Den, to recap) where you had a fuck-huge continuous map. For example, I can see good part of the outside of Boulder Dome fused together (Jackals' Camp, Baggers' Camp).

I've been thinking about fusing the maps together but it all depends on performance. I've received some complaints about FOnline being slower than Fallout 2 and will probably avoid anything that slows the game down. The game should run smoothly or else I foresee many rage-quits.

I can see the B.O.M.B being a huge-ass epic contiguous map with unique art that makes you want to have sex with it.

Hehe, you too?

BTW, are you going to try and make the Denver citymap work in FOnline? I thought having a citymap for Denver which you could explore is THE perfect approach between the newer's Fallouts greater emphasis on exploration and the older Fallouts' emphasis on the world map, getting rid of the boring hiking simulation in-between. Add something like Wasteland 2 map and you could have THE perfect world map, but I'm digressing.

I'll check it out but at the moment, the plan is to implement Dogtown's minimap inside the worldmap - the city would be lay out over multiple sectors with bigger and smaller green circles.

My laptop is too slow to run Wasteland 2 but I'll check out Youtube too see what's the deal with that.

 

[hexer]

Hrm, hrm... After I spent some time now working with FOnline's mapper, I think I'll try to speed up the mapping process by doing as much possible with Fallout 2's mapper. And then finishing the map inside FOnline. There's to much clicking involved with placing walls and tiles and although the standard copy/paste is supported I don't want to create repetitive maps. Each map must be interesting and as unique as possible.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Hrm, hrm... After I spent some time now working with FOnline's mapper, I think I'll try to speed up the mapping process by doing as much possible with Fallout 2's mapper. And then finishing the map inside FOnline. There's to much clicking involved with placing walls and tiles and although the standard copy/paste is supported I don't want to create repetitive maps. Each map must be interesting and as unique as possible.

Doesn't that mean you would have to convert the map each time?
Perhaps someone in FOdev can you help with that?

 

[hexer]

Yes, I would have to convert some maps again. For caves and such I have tiled mapper which I already praised in the main topic.
It took me about 3 days to convert all the maps. But doing all the mapping inside FOnline's mapper would definitively prolong the work for more.

I'll ask around on fodev for advice.

 

[Surf Solar]

The mapper can get tedious for a Starter but eventually you will work much faster with it. Dont forget that you can Do new fancy coloured lighting etc. When you convert your old maps over

I'd also say that smaller maps are better. It's a lesson I learned myself as well, dont make it too overly big, rather have neat small to Medium sized ones.

 

[hexer]

All Boulder Dome's maps are 80% finished! The final 20% will be done inside FOnline mapper. Hmmmm, on what location should I work next?

 

[Lexx]

Copy&paste isn't necessarily leading to repetitive maps. Most elements in the maps are bound to repeat itself. Like house walls, tents (all tents look the same), etc. If you copy them from another map (or a special template map), you save a lot time and clicking. The same goes for ground and roof tiles, which I always copy&pasted from different maps.

 

[felipepepe]

Or This....

How about a sleeve-less icon?

I think the arms don't add much to the icon, and make it too large next to other armors.

 

[Kane Vollstrecker]

felipepepe you will laugh i have made this Armor without the Arms like yours but hexer had said it looks like the Mideastern Power Armor so i have change it.

 

[Whisky]

Working on a quest involving Larsen's crew (NCR soldiers locked out of the Boulder Dome) and The Jackals. Part of it was described in the docs, but not how its implemented. Quest outline described in the spoiler tag:

Spoiler

-Quest requires a decent amount of Medical or Speech skill. If Speech, you goad Larsen into revealing that his team got kicked out of the Dome for being violent RadAway addicts. Medical allows you to spot his symptoms immediately.

-If you succeed the check, Larsen asks you to meet the leader of The Jackals, Banshee. As he has heard they intercepted a cache of RadAway. They are officially allied with the same goal of getting in the Dome, but they have mutual distrust of each other. Because The Jackals are hostile cannibals to most people, Larsen gives you a pair of fatigues to wear so that they will think you're with him.

-If you're an Idiot PC, you don't need to do the checks, Larsen will send you to get you to leave him alone, not expecting you to succeed.

-The Jackals will attack on sight if you're not wearing fatigues. They will also attack you if you insult them or imply that you're not with Larsen.

-Banshee will agree to give you the RadAway. With a moderate Medical check, you will notice that the RadAway is slightly discolored. Questioning Banshee about this will eventually lead to violence, but if you ask him once, nicely enough, he'll mention that their herbalists, lead by Crazy Bitch, ensured the RadAway was pure.

-If you confront Crazy Bitch about this, she will spill the beans, the RadAway is spiked with tranquilizers. She does not know what to do in this situation, she does not want The Jackals to get in the Dome, as she believes it contains the poisons of the old world, but she does not know if wiping out Larsen's crew will prevent them from getting inside or help. Despite working together, The Jackals and Larsen are really in a stand-off as both do not want the other inside the Dome, at the same time, their combined forces are a greater threat to the Dome and killing off Larsen's crew could make The Jackals too weak to invade. You can convince her of the merits of either argument with a Speech check for a small XP boost and this will lead into another quest where you can get her to convince Banshee to leave Boulder.

-If you give Larsen the spiked RadAway (He will not notice the discoloring due to his withdrawl symptoms.) his crew will pass out in an hour. You can kill them and loot their stuff or The Jackals will.

-If you give Larsen non-spiked RadAway that you found elsewhere, he'll be grateful and reward you.

-Idiot PCs cannot detect the spiked RadAway, but they can give RadAway that they found.

Also going to work on one involving Medical treatment:

Spoiler

On Helen and Eddie's children. Medical check fails are possible and in one case, doing the more verbose and complicated dialogue option will make things worse.

 

[hexer]

Cinema, gym, pool, lounge... life was good for Boulder Dome's residents. (I'm working on Boulder's residential apartments map)

Whisky Great implementation! I wonder what you have in store for those sick kids

 

[hiver]

Working on a quest involving Larsen's crew (NCR soldiers locked out of the Boulder Dome) and The Jackals. Part of it was described in the docs, but not how its implemented. Quest outline described in the spoiler tag:

Spoiler

-Quest requires a decent amount of Medical or Speech skill. If Speech, you goad Larsen into revealing that his team got kicked out of the Dome for being violent RadAway addicts. Medical allows you to spot his symptoms immediately.

-If you succeed the check, Larsen asks you to meet the leader of The Jackals, Banshee. As he has heard they intercepted a cache of RadAway. They are officially allied with the same goal of getting in the Dome, but they have mutual distrust of each other. Because The Jackals are hostile cannibals to most people, Larsen gives you a pair of fatigues to wear so that they will think you're with him.

-If you're an Idiot PC, you don't need to do the checks, Larsen will send you to get you to leave him alone, not expecting you to succeed.

-The Jackals will attack on sight if you're not wearing fatigues. They will also attack you if you insult them or imply that you're not with Larsen.

-Banshee will agree to give you the RadAway. With a moderate Medical check, you will notice that the RadAway is slightly discolored. Questioning Banshee about this will eventually lead to violence, but if you ask him once, nicely enough, he'll mention that their herbalists, lead by Crazy Bitch, ensured the RadAway was pure.

-If you confront Crazy Bitch about this, she will spill the beans, the RadAway is spiked with tranquilizers. She does not know what to do in this situation, she does not want The Jackals to get in the Dome, as she believes it contains the poisons of the old world, but she does not know if wiping out Larsen's crew will prevent them from getting inside or help. Despite working together, The Jackals and Larsen are really in a stand-off as both do not want the other inside the Dome, at the same time, their combined forces are a greater threat to the Dome and killing off Larsen's crew could make The Jackals too weak to invade. You can convince her of the merits of either argument with a Speech check for a small XP boost and this will lead into another quest where you can get her to convince Banshee to leave Boulder.

-If you give Larsen the spiked RadAway (He will not notice the discoloring due to his withdrawl symptoms.) his crew will pass out in an hour. You can kill them and loot their stuff or The Jackals will.

-If you give Larsen non-spiked RadAway that you found elsewhere, he'll be grateful and reward you.

-Idiot PCs cannot detect the spiked RadAway, but they can give RadAway that they found.

Spoiler

Is there anything that the player needs to do to get Larsen to trust him, or to motivate him to use the player for this purpose. (except trying to abuse the dumb character)
If not, there should be, something of a sub quest to handle, or a consequence that affects it from something that happened previously.

If you guys do go with medicine skill as i generally suggested, the Crazy bitch, for example, could be one of the NPCs you meet that can teach you a few tricks, in this case specifically how to create those "traquilizers" or how to spike drugs with them, or similar. It may be she extracts some stuff from some mushrooms or some plants, to create that chemical... maybe some dangerous mutated insects that you would go and kill for her - which, when you learn it from her, becomes an option you have, knowledge you use. And it may tie into some other future situation too.

- this would also require some medical skill to unlock.