Critical Immunity?

[PaladinHeart]

I've been having a few problems with triggers not working properly due to the ramdomness that critical hits (especially HTH) adds to gameplay. Is there a way to make an entity immune to criticals? My super mutant tends to get blinded before he shoots the intended target and therefore doesn't see the target once blinded. :-/

It's the player doing the damage to the super mutant so I have to take into count all the possibilities. Should I give the super mutant a really high armor class? Of course the player has to hit the super mutant at least once and it is critical that he super mutant fire off his shot at a different entity as soon as this happens. I don't really know what to do about it..

It looks great when it works right but if he gets blinded it really messes up the scenario.

I'm considering taking out criticals entirely, with a 0% or perhaps even negative chance for all entities in the game. They tend to take away from the strategy and add a "lucky" element that I really don't want in my campaign. It would be nice to leave them in the early game however for early players that could benefit from the occasional "lucky" hit.

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

Not that I know of, you can play around with the criticalchance entry under derived but I'm not sure if that affects the characters chance or resistance.

Maybe better to rethink your triggers, the can see trigger is a tricky one. It'll fire even if your entity is facing away from the target and the range goes on for miles and miles which is why using zones is important with the can see trigger. I'm pretty sure that the trigger will still fire even if the entity is blinded, about the only thing that stops the trigger from firing are tiles blocking LOS. Perhaps something else is affecting the triggers assuming that is you were using the can see condition?

[PaladinHeart]

I'm not using the "can see" condition.

Actually the player hits the super mutant and then the super mutant attempts to fire on an object (which a trigger then destroys once the target is damaged a car falls, blows up, and blocks the player's escape).

I'm not really sure if it's better to frustrate the player by forcing them to reload every time a little mistake happens or just skimp on the interesting scenes and provide alternate outcomes for when the triggers, or player, screws up.

I could set it up such that if the scene doesn't play a certain way then the player misses out on special items and even events that happen later on in the game.

I guess I'll go back and add more triggers, taking into account the various possibilities. Urgh..

Ah. Then again. The event happens fairly early in the game. I doubt a level 3 to 5 character being able to kill a super mutant with hth combat. Wouldn't most players realize they need to run after hitting a super mutant at that level?

Hmm.. I'm not really sure what to do now. I was kinda cheating with the event and had a level 50 character whereas the player would have a level 3 or so.

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

Oh sorry misunderstood your post.

What you want for something that complicated is use one of those programs that can record in game. Then record the sequence working (just script the mutant without the player in shot). Make a bink movie and then just have a trigger to play it when the mutant can see the player in zone x and has less than max hitpoints. While the movie is playing you can trigger the barrier into place and kill the target.

Complicated to set up (making the movie and such) but more likely to work every time.

[PaladinHeart]

Oh sorry misunderstood your post.

What you want for something that complicated is use one of those programs that can record in game. Then record the sequence working (just script the mutant without the player in shot). Make a bink movie and then just have a trigger to play it when the mutant can see the player in zone x and has less than max hitpoints. While the movie is playing you can trigger the barrier into place and kill the target.

Complicated to set up (making the movie and such) but more likely to work every time.

It needs to be a bink movie right? I don't have much experience with those programs but I do like the idea. The only problem is if my computer doesn't record the movie fast. I attempted using such a program to record movies while I was playing Doom 3 and the movies were a laggy mess. Though I'm sure Fallout Tactics wouldn't be nearly as taxing on my system's performance.

Oh my! My maps haven't been worked on since August 2003... :-(

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

Conversion to bink is fairly simple, the tools are available free the hardest part is recording the gameplay so you have the correct sequence.

[PaladinHeart]

Yeah I can imagine that would be difficult. I think I will just have backup triggers fire in case the player does something they shouldn't do. It's not professional but I think the end result is what's important.

I will just fix it so that my maps respond to any if not all possibilities. A good mapper should try and break their creation when testing after all.

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

Well not that difficult, I've never used the recording programs but you'd just need to set up a simple version of the same map with just the required actors and have the pc off screen. Then have the triggers fire at start up, start recording and load the map (or however it works) and then once the sequence finishes stop the recording.

Then you'd just need to edit the beginning and end, not that difficult. In the rad tools just do a quick convert to bik and then you can analyze the file, take a note of the starting and end frame numbers then convert it again this time starting at frame x and ending at frame y. It sounds a lot more complicated than it is. It's not as difficult as setting up the triggers.

[PaladinHeart]

Yeah but that's one more thing to learn. Plus I'd have to try and find a recording program (free) and it takes time to find one that you really like.

I'll do it if I can't think of a better workaround. It is a good idea though.

I'm actually kindof afraid to mess with the video part of the editors. After all there was one campaign I played (the one that's suppose to be like an RPG.. I forget the name) where you had to ride a train. Something went wrong with the video. I had to just delete it. I think it kept locking up when the video had to load or something like that. So I'm kinda thinking my videos would just end up doing the same thing.

[requiem_for_a_starfury]

Ah the infamous train ride in Awaken. The lock up was nothing to do with the bik file. In the trigger they had play bik movie, deactivate engineer and go to mission x. Like that without a blocking command anywhere in sight. If they had just added B wait 1 second in between the deactivate the engineer and the go to mission command then it wouldn't have locked up.

[PaladinHeart]

Ah. Thanks. I was wondering about that.

That campaign had a few flaws. The creator started you out, all too often, in hostile situations that would have worked in Fallout 1 or 2 but even in turn based mode doesn't work in FOT. Especially where my strategy usually involves hiding behind objects and launching grenades and other explosives at tough enemies. :-P