Fallout 1 Modding

Sirgalahadwizard · Post by **Sirgalahadwizard** » Thu Aug 15, 2002 3:55 am

Yeah, I just got back into modding fallout.

I was wondering if there were any programs out there that I could use to make .FRM graphics replacements for inventory items. Im going to replace the .223 autoloader with a P-90 (which uses 5mm ammo), I got the gfx made already, but I need some kind of program which'll do it. Oh, I only have paint shop pro 5 also - so I can't use Spray (which heavily relies on photoshop - it's the palette crap, and PSP5 can't save alpha channels).

Any programs to make .acm sound files with too? I wanna replace some sound effects.

Im also wondering how exactly the ammunition stats - like Damage Mod, AC Mod, Damage Multiplier, AC Multiplier work.

Here's how I think it works:
*AC mod reduces or increases the target's AC by the given percentage (-20% means they lose 1/5 of their armor class temporarily).

*Damage Mod - Same thing, except that it modifies their Damage Threshold (+35% means the target gets a 35% bonus to whatever their current DT value is). That would make power armor have 16 points of damage threshold against normal damage instead of 12.

*The Damage Multiplier and AC Multiplier are actually two values combined together to make a fraction. AC Multiplier is the numerator, Damage Multiplier is the denominator. I think it multiplies damage done after armor is factored in... ie, a 2/1 damage mod would make it do double damage, and a 1/2 damage mod would make it do half damage.

Im puzzled about the Damage/AC Multiplier though... since AP ammo (which would seem to do less damage) seems to do just as much damage as JHP.
I reached the previous conclusion by testing out ammo on pig rats in fallout2 - a damage mod of 5/1 made them take about 60 damage from a 10mm pistol, and a damage mod of 1/5 made them take less than 5.

Im wondering if fallout 1 does the math the same way that Fallout 2 did?
Maybe I should do the same experiment with Fallout 1?

I figured I would warn everybody who is currently modding fallout with the FIME (fallout items mode editor). All in all it's an excellent editor for messing around with .PRO files... but it has some problems with negative numbers, especially concerning drugs.

I found out that my new poison antidote really actually gives you 58000-something poison level and you die right away. It's caused by a bad numbering routine in the program concerning hexadecimal numbers. Most programs accept hexadecimal numbers from the left to the right... from decreasing location to increasing location. But not fallout... it does it backwards. So:

Negative 20 on Normal: 236 255 255 255
Negative 20 in fallout's .PRO files: 255 255 255 236

I've only really found this bug twice - once when I was modding fallout2 (which concerned ammunition)... and with drugs in both games. This can be corrected manually with a hex editor - I suggest the Universal Savegame Editor (if you can find it - gives normal numeric values for hex).

Red · Post by **Red** » Thu Aug 15, 2002 6:24 am

Um, fallout uses Motorola byte ordering, it's a FIME bug, not a game bug...

Sirgalahadwizard · Post by **Sirgalahadwizard** » Thu Aug 15, 2002 10:59 pm

I found out the problem with that though.

FIME isn't putting all the numbers in. It thinks that it's a 2-byte when it's actually a 4-byte... it'll do "0 0 255 236" for -20 instead of "255 255 255 236".

Figured that out last night. Fixed all my drugs with UGE.

Does any1 have info for the other, more important questions I posted?

Red · Post by **Red** » Thu Aug 15, 2002 11:14 pm

Makes much more sense...

If BIS doesn't realease their editors, and since both FIME and FIC authors are gone guess I'll have to make my own util... Grrr.

Sirgalahadwizard · Post by **Sirgalahadwizard** » Mon Sep 23, 2002 9:40 pm

I found out that the Damage Mod influences damage a weapon does BEFORE going through armor.

This is sad because it means that it severely limits our ability to work magic with ammunition.

Here's what it means... A poison dart for a dartgun doing 1-5 damage but having a damage mod of 20/1 would actually do 20-100 points of damage... if it multiplied damage after armor was applied it'd never do any damage to an enclave soldier unless he/she took a critical.

It means that any weapon that has it's own unique ammunition type (one style of cartridge) might as well just have a damage mod of 1/1, since giving a different value will only make the actual weapon damage amount a lie.

And it means that AP ammo really isn't that good at all - it would need at least -60% DR mod to be able to punch through (having a 1/2 damage mod and all).

Im pissed.