How to get rid of those damn red circles...

[Max-Violence]

OK, so if it's hardcoded that, "there shall be a red circle under every actor hostile to the PCs," then I'm thinkin' the only way to get rid of 'em would be to find the (I'm assuming) .zar image of the red circle and replace it with... NOTHING!

I.e. make a .zar image of blank, transparent "air" to use. Hopefully, all we'd have to do is to make the new "image" and name the file the same name as the "normal" one (i.e. redcircle.zar) and put it in the right folder (probably core/gui/game or something).

Anyone have any further info?

... or has this already been discussed before my time and declared impossible?

[OnTheBounce]

This was actually discussed very recently in the NMA Modding and Hacking Forum. Click here to go to the topic.

I do have a question, though: Why would you want to do this?! You're taking an indicator of friend/neutral/enemy away. Or is that what you want to do so that people won't automatically know who's hostile and who's friendly?

OTB

[Max-Violence]

Or is that what you want to do so that people won't automatically know who's hostile and who's friendly?

Bingo!

Well, personally, I'd only "use" the ability for more RPG-ish maps, not the military-oganization-out-to-kick-some-ass maps that I'm makin' now

Another big reason to remove 'em would be mines - kinda defeats the purpose of making mines look small if they've got a big-ass red circle under 'em!

[OnTheBounce]

Another big reason to remove 'em would be mines - kinda defeats the purpose of making mines look small if they've got a big-ass red circle under 'em!

But the red circles don't show up until they're detected. Once they're detected I think the player deserves a bit of a place-marker for them.

I think that the no-red-circle plan has possibilities, although only in limited applications, like you said.

OTB

[Insane-Lark]

OK, so if it's hardcoded that, "there shall be a red circle under every actor hostile to the PCs," then I'm thinkin' the only way to get rid of 'em would be to find the (I'm assuming) .zar image of the red circle and replace it with... NOTHING!

Having no experience whatsoever in mapping, reading the above bit left me with a question. The general concensus thus far is that this would have limited application on maps, but I ask, if you replace the .zar image with *nothing* would you be able to do so on a map by map basis or would it affect the whole campaign?

I ask this because, as far as I know, all of the maps would be accessing the same image files & it seems that changing the setting would affect all enemies, or am I proving my ignorance in not knowing that each could be modified seperately?

[Red]

No you can't.

What you'd want to do is use the -path option for your mode and have your new "empty" zar replacing it in the proper location.

[Flamescreen]

Or is that what you want to do so that people won't automatically know who's hostile and who's friendly?

Bingo!

Well, personally, I'd only "use" the ability for more RPG-ish maps, not the military-oganization-out-to-kick-some-ass maps that I'm makin' now

Another big reason to remove 'em would be mines - kinda defeats the purpose of making mines look small if they've got a big-ass red circle under 'em!

Well, if you don't want the player to tell them apart, why not paint them all green? Better than painting nothing, since then(if green) you can't distinguish them from your party even. Also if you paint nothing, I would think it is difficult to aim, since you'd have to rely solely on the display of the aiming stats(e.g. 100%).

[Forty-six & Two]

Or is that what you want to do so that people won't automatically know who's hostile and who's friendly?

Bingo!

Well, personally, I'd only "use" the ability for more RPG-ish maps, not the military-oganization-out-to-kick-some-ass maps that I'm makin' now

Another big reason to remove 'em would be mines - kinda defeats the purpose of making mines look small if they've got a big-ass red circle under 'em!

Well, if you don't want the player to tell them apart, why not paint them all green? Better than painting nothing, since then(if green) you can't distinguish them from your party even. Also if you paint nothing, I would think it is difficult to aim, since you'd have to rely solely on the display of the aiming stats(e.g. 100%).

Actually it would be pretty cool to have no circles at all. Although it wont do much for recognizing cuz sentry dont look at the color of circles you know.What bout the PIPboy minimap then?! Guess that wont change....

[OnTheBounce]

What bout the PIPboy minimap then?! Guess that wont change....

I had an interesting idea regarding the PipBoy MiniMap the other day. I'll spill the beans since I think it actually has a broad applicability, rather than leaving it for "y'all" to discover in my next map.

I can understand that in the core campaign the MiniMap would be a product of the BoS's high level of tech. However, not everyone in the Wasteland is so lavishly -- well, relatively speaking -- equipped. So how does one account for the MiniMap when the characters are a band of Raiders, independent mercenaries, or something similar? I can't, so I came up w/a workaround: the Motion Sensor.

Here's how I set up the Motion Sensor:

• Set up a "Skill Consumable" entity.
• Set the weight to 7 lbs., the price to $800. (That is, if you want to stay canonical. )
• Put "20" in the field by "Outdoorsman" under "Effect". (This means that the item will only give the bonus when the character has the item in his/her hand. This is slightly different than the RPGs, which only required that you have the item in your inventory to receive the bonus, but I feel this counteracts the lack of battery life that the item will have in FoT when set up this way.)
• Set the "Skill" under "Consumable" to anything but "None" and both the "Total Uses" and "Uses Remaining" at "0". (If you leave the skill as "None" the game will crash if you click on the item.)
• Give the item a Tag Name.
• Set up Preserved triggers on your map to jam/unjam the minimap based on whether or not one of the players has the item Equipped (in an Active Item Slot).
• Optional: Alter the desc (which in the RPGs read "A Wattz Electronics C-U model motion sensor. Detects the movement of biological material over a distance of meters using a tuned radar device. Having one in your inventory will also help you avoid outdoor encounters (+20% Outdoorsman skill).") to whatever suits your taste. For instance you might want to change the part about having it in your inventory as well as the part about only detecting biological material.

So what do "y'all" think?

OTB

[Viktor]

Sounds like a winner to me!!

[Forty-six & Two]

What bout the PIPboy minimap then?! Guess that wont change....

I had an interesting idea regarding the PipBoy MiniMap the other day. I'll spill the beans since I think it actually has a broad applicability, rather than leaving it for "y'all" to discover in my next map.

I can understand that in the core campaign the MiniMap would be a product of the BoS's high level of tech. However, not everyone in the Wasteland is so lavishly -- well, relatively speaking -- equipped. So how does one account for the MiniMap when the characters are a band of Raiders, independent mercenaries, or something similar? I can't, so I came up w/a workaround: the Motion Sensor.

Here's how I set up the Motion Sensor:

• Set up a "Skill Consumable" entity.
• Set the weight to 7 lbs., the price to $800. (That is, if you want to stay canonical. )
• Put "20" in the field by "Outdoorsman" under "Effect". (This means that the item will only give the bonus when the character has the item in his/her hand. This is slightly different than the RPGs, which only required that you have the item in your inventory to receive the bonus, but I feel this counteracts the lack of battery life that the item will have in FoT when set up this way.)
• Set the "Skill" under "Consumable" to anything but "None" and both the "Total Uses" and "Uses Remaining" at "0". (If you leave the skill as "None" the game will crash if you click on the item.)
• Give the item a Tag Name.
• Set up Preserved triggers on your map to jam/unjam the minimap based on whether or not one of the players has the item Equipped (in an Active Item Slot).
• Optional: Alter the desc (which in the RPGs read "A Wattz Electronics C-U model motion sensor. Detects the movement of biological material over a distance of meters using a tuned radar device. Having one in your inventory will also help you avoid outdoor encounters (+20% Outdoorsman skill).") to whatever suits your taste. For instance you might want to change the part about having it in your inventory as well as the part about only detecting biological material.

So what do "y'all" think?

OTB

Yea. Another cool use of the motion detector is making it a "heartbeat sensor" for those of you who love Rainbow Six this will surely sound familiar .

The idea I had was to make the motion detector give a high perception bonus so that you could see farther through walls and detect stuff. You could just change the races.txt so that perception could go higher than the max of 12 (I think it is) Theres one problem though which is the reason im not gona use it just now. I noticed once that even though the item isnt in the selected quickslot it still gives its bonuses, so if worn together with a weapon that char will have an awesome bonus to his attack modifer because of the higher perception, and that would off blance alot of things maybe. This could be counter acted by giving the moton detector a high science or maybe int requirement. That way make sure no assault squaddies can wear it.

[OnTheBounce]

You could just change the races.txt so that perception could go higher than the max of 12 (I think it is).

Or, you could give it a really high bonus to PE (e.g. 7) so that even someone w/average PE would be bumped up to 12. That would make it a pretty powerful item, though.

I noticed once that even though the item isnt in the selected quickslot it still gives its bonuses, so if worn together with a weapon that char will have an awesome bonus to his attack modifer because of the higher perception, and that would off blance alot of things maybe. This could be counter acted by giving the moton detector a high science or maybe int requirement.

What you're talking about here is exactly why I haven't set up a Motion Sensor along the lines you're talking about. I considered using the sprite for the Reaver Scanner and having it set up to give the character the Death Sense perk, but I haven't played w/it. Basically, that would make it easier to detect sneaking opponents, but wouldn't jack anyone's PE up into Super Sniper Land. It's sort of a messy work-around, but I think it might have some potential.

BTW, has anyone setup a StealthBoy yet? I'm open to a work-around on this one as I haven't figured out anything to do w/it yet. (Camouflage, perhaps?)

OTB