Balious's Help Thread

[Nightwatch]

Thanks Vintar. I try looking tomorrow when im not tired.

Another question is about lessen corpse time. As I am currently playing Zone Wars with my Mutant Wars addon and changed the amount of mutants spawned by a blowout there are bound to be lots of dead bodies. Well these bodies tend to lag me. Anyone know how to change this? and if so does it require a new game?

You can reassign corpse removal times by going to the config\creatures folder and opening "monsters.ltx" and "stalkers.ltx" files.

Find at the bootom of the each file:

Code: Select all

[monsters_common]
corpse_remove_game_time_interval = 3 ; --in hours
stay_after_death_time_interval    = 3 ; --in hours

and

Code: Select all

[stalkers_common]
corpse_remove_game_time_interval = 3 ;--in hours
stay_after_death_time_interval    = 3 ;--in hours

In this example corpse removal times are set as 3 hours. you can change it to your needs, but be careful to take relevant issues in your own set game/mod before assigning any number. But I think you can reduce it to 2 or 1 hour without a problem. If you see any, then you can try again.

By the rule, as it's not an all.spawn change, you should not require a new game, but, in experience, it's better to start a new game, because due to the previously registered corpses , etc, issues, you may find some (unwelcome) troubles.

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On the second question (actually it was the first one) I didn't quite understand the question. Maybe it's too late here, I'll check it later tomorrow with a more awaken head.

[Balious]

Thanks Nightwatch. Didn't get far but I start again anyway. Wolf died afterall. Just one question. corpse_remove_game_time_interval and stay_after_death_time_interval to me appear to do the same thing. corpse remove game time I believe means remove the corpse while stay after death appears to be how long they stay on the floor for after they died. This could actually be straight forward stuff but my head isn't 100% perfect at the moment.

About the ranking question. I meant when you go in the rankings in the PDA. You see all the stalkers with numbers. I would like them to change as the default settings make no sense. An example I think is in NEWSA. Every so often they change and get higher making the player have to work extra hard. Also is there a time factor of how they change? Say they change once a day or so.

[Nightwatch]

On the first matter, yes, it'd be preferable if you started a new game. And you are right on the variables issue, it has always been discussed that STALKER/Xray has far too many variables than actually it's needed; but having said that, my assumption is that the developers -as known- were planning to make this game far bigger and complex and they intended to use those variables in that more developed game and engine but their work was cut short by THQ. This is an assumption, of course.

On the second matter, three isn't a single time factor that would make that kind of change comfortably applicable. Many things affect each other, even though they do not seem to at the first glance. As I know that you would like to achieve the result yourself in a mod you're doing, I think you would like to find the working dynamics by studying the files, e.g. through NEWSA, AMK, ABC files. You need to learn how many things work in those mods and what scripts or other files affect things. Without using those measures and achieving the understanding of functions by the modder himself, it's not easy (nor advisable) for an outsider to offer solution to a specific question in a mod project and all the files involved in it that he doesn't know. Because one thing that works nicely in one mod, may not actually work same if it's applied into another mod exactly the same, because it may cause some problems with other files/functions that the modder has altered differently in his own mod. You see... It's always best to study the things first, then apply it to one's own work as it suits into that work.

[Balious]

Thanks Nightwatch.

Back to the corpse thing. I found the things i need to change in mutants.ltx but in stalkers.ltx I only saw this:
#include "m_stalker.ltx"
#include "m_person.ltx"
#include "immunities.ltx"
#include "damages.ltx"
#include "m_stalker_zombied.ltx"
#include "m_stalker_monolith.ltx"

I got it from the original stalker gamedata.

About rankings. I understand needing to study. But any chance do you know what some of the files are? I check when I can and don't want to waste your time looking for them but if you do know at least one of the file names it could help be abit

Thanks again for posting here and helping Nightwatch. And everyone else

[Nightwatch]

I don't remember right now what vanilla creatures folder consist, as I don't have vanilla installed for ages now. If it doesn't have those specific files, stalkers.ltx and monsters.ltx, then you need to obtain them from the extracted db base.
If you don't have access to those, then I can email those two vanilla files to you (I have an extracted database of course, though I haven't installed vanilla game) but I can only send them to you tonight (UK time) as I'm not at my home PC right now.

[Balious]

Didn't explain right again. One day I am sure I get this fully right

I have the extracted database and took the mutants.ltx and stalkers.ltx files into the zone wars gamedata. I changed the settings fine in mutants.ltx but in stalkers.ltx it only had this:
#include "m_stalker.ltx"
#include "m_person.ltx"
#include "immunities.ltx"
#include "damages.ltx"
#include "m_stalker_zombied.ltx"
#include "m_stalker_monolith.ltx"

Is this right or did I somehow extract files wrong at some point? I extracted them all in the right order starting with the first one and ending with the c one.

[Nightwatch]

Maybe I didn't specifically describe it in detail, but I guessed that you would proceed with "adding" those lines at the bottom of the "stalker.ltx" as the lines appear same as the "monsters.ltx"

Just add those lines at the bottom of the stalkers.ltx and change the numbers (hours) accordingly as you wish. I wouldn't recommend making it shorter than 1 hour though, it's up to you, your modding work.

[Balious]

Thanks Nightwatch. After I made that post I figured what happened if i added it in and it seemed I did the right thing. I am slowly learning how to mod

[Nightwatch]

You're faster than you think.

[VINTAR]

Hey balious. I think xr_statistics is one of the files that affect the pda.