no
Because you have 3 slots that level independently of each other that you can switch between at a computer terminal in your house or in some location in the world.

Slot 1 ( Your default starting slot )
Level 8 : Soldier ( 2 ) Trader ( 0 ) Rogue ( 0 )
All Skills all base stats and leveling perks saved to Slot 1

Slot 2 ( Secondary )
Level 18 : Soldier ( 0 ) Trader ( 2 ) Rogue ( 1 )
All Skills all base stats and leveling perks saved to Slot 2

Slot 3 ( Third )
Level 28 : Soldier ( 0 ) Trader ( 0 ) Rogue ( 4 )
All Skills all base stats and leveling perks saved to Slot 3

So while your character can gain as many as 90 levels total the level cap for each slot is still 30.
The trick to this is that Once you pick up a new ability from leveling any one class to X level that ability becomes available to you at any point in time regardless of class or level.

So if I gain the "Berserk" ability for leveling a tier 2 soldier to X level then I will have berserk available as an ability for my level 1 slot 2 trader.
In many cases these abilities will not be as strong when used with the incorrect class some would end up being even stronger.
And the entire system would revolve around action points being a far more important resource.

TheCastle,
that's actually fairly simple to implement.
Just create perks, that when selected fire a small script that adds two activator ingestibles for the appropriate ability. This allows the player to bind it to one of the regular FO3 hotkeys. (That it adds two items is only there so the hotkey doesn't go poof when you use the item)
When that item is used it simply starts another script that readds the item(obviously so you can use the ability more than once), does whatever effects the ability is supposed to do and also substracts the AP cost. Also you can easily build a small timer into that script that prevents the the ability script to be fired before X time has passed.

Just my 2cents
But personally? I think a system like this doesn't really suit a game with strong FPS elements like Fallout.

Yeah that's my thinking too. All of the abilities would be an object like that where it runs a fairly straight forward script.
I am actually more worried about things like what happens to the overall game when I go from being level 28 to level 1 with awesome gear? Will I bounce between my specs and level them together or level one to max and start over with the next?

This actually is the strange thing about the concept. While I definitely see where you are coming from on the class system being further evolved. I agree it was a bit of a stretch to begin with.
But in this respect as a whole the above change would make FO3A fall more into the fantasy RPG spectrum rather than attempting to duplicate ultra realism. Maybe its a nitch that has not really been filled thus far?

edit: better wording of the last statement...

Taking fallout 3 further into the realm of the RPG through a strong class system and abilities with cool downs.
Yes no?
Good or bad?
Why?

I went ahead and tried out a simple ability called "sniper shot".

I put it on a 30 second cooldown with a cost of 60 action points to use.
When in effect it does an additional 10 damage per point of agility on my next attack. In this case my agility is 8 with an actual implementation I would add a modifier for base damage encouraging a sniper rifle or high base damage weapon.

Its fairly simple to play some kind of an effect on the target when he is hit. For the example I didn't bother with that. ( Not sure if I am too keen on playing some flashy RPG effect in this game but some extra blood spurting out would be awesome. Maybe a message saying how much damage? ) The trick for this will be to be able to poison my weapon with an effect without bringing up a pop up menu.

Action point base increased to 100
Action points per agility set to 10
Action point restore rate dropped down to 0.25

I ran around fort Banister for a bit taking on talon company mercs with this ability.
At first it was somewhat easy to pluck a target or two with my hunting rifle. I one shot the first target with ease but my action points went pretty low and stayed that way while I tried to take pot shots at the others. At this point I was more or less waiting on my cool down rather than just fighting it out and using Vats constantly. I felt very reliant on this ability to do the kind of damage I needed with my current crappy weapons.

Its possible that I would need to consider a penalty of some sort for going below a certain amount of action points. Not sure yet. Perhaps an exhausted condition.
My first impression was that this felt pretty cool honestly. Didn't feel out of place at all really. Extra blood spurting out of a hit target, sparks if its a robot, plus a cool sound effect when I activate it. I should do some more testing combined with that sprint mod and see how that changes things.

Sorry for the double post. Anyone have any feedback on this?

That is a cool concept.

However, it seems like it might make the game a bit too much like a mmorpg.
Abilities are fine, but that should be something that you can't just use several times a battle (or even once per battle).

Also, do stimpaks use any AP?


And don't forget an ability for my precious power fist. :hehe:

What about non weapon affecting abilities?
One that I can think of is:

Will to Live.

use once per day (only after sleeping in your house or at an inn).

Effects: Ignore crippled limbs, Increase health by X (don't know yet), increase movement speed, REDUCE DR to 0!
Will only stay active for a certain amount of time, then if you have not healed your hp will slowly decrease.


Need some working out but could work

Stims shouldn't drain your AP however eating food does drain AP in the current FO3A but in a system like this I would maybe consider allowing food to restore it. Maybe indirectly through the hunger system?

Your power fist and hand 2 hand users in general would definitely get a "one inch punch" or some other such ability that's for certain.

So you say, having an ability that you wont typically use more than once per fight sounds better to you right? Longer cool downs like 5-10 minutes longer?
I like your idea about an ability you can use to heal yourself X amount for a certain amount of time. I think that the hardest thing to do with coming up with new abilities is to make sure they provide something that feels different enough from the chems and foods already in the game. Though I guess some overlap is not so bad especially if they stack.
Sniper shot + phsycho would stack very well.

Will to live would be a good ability if it also raised rad and poison resistance for those tricky moments after a fight and you are about to die from something else. I do see what you are saying about it making the game feel very mmorpg though.

Id be popping back and forth from sniper positions using sniper shot, berserk when ever I felt safe and stone skin if they got too close lol
Oh yeah what game am I playing? lol!

Oh and let me build a gun turret before those pesky ghouls find me shooting those super mutants! Damn not enough action points! Ill just place some land mines like every other normal human being jeeze lol..

Sounds good to me.

And also LOL.

I don't know, I think I talked myself down again when thinking about it. This is the first time I have been conflicted about a new system like this. But then I realize that one of the reasons I am doing this is to experiment and prototype ideas. Even if they sometimes sound crazy you never know. I might get an idea from this project and run over and make a FPS/RPG hybrid on the UDK. *shrugs*

Well I can do this to test the waters a bit before fully committing to the idea of class abilities.

Soldiers get bullet time
Traders can build a turret
Rogues have a Sneak attack

If the abilities svck or change the game for the worse then take them out. The leveling system idea is almost completely off the wall too. leveling 3 different specs and switching between them any time?
*Shrugs*

Alright for now I am going to stop talking about this and get version 3.2 out the door. Its mostly just bug fixes and stuff like that.
Its more important right now that I figure out the ins and outs of HUD system in Darn UI and getting those hud elements in place. Imagine playing this mod without any message spam
That *is* a feature I know 100% that would help the game.

Alright.

Version 3.2 is pretty much good to go. Ill have a release for it tomorrow.
Many things have happened in this time. For now I am going to put off the leveling and class system ideas to be an optional plugin sometime down the road. For now I have bigger fish to fry.
DeathTard, If its possible I would like for you to Coordinate with me on making sure your compatibility patches work properly in the new version and if possible we can get your files up on the FO3A Nexus page. Ill PM you my email address and you can send them there.

-Tesla armor adjustments to bring it back down to more normal standards
-Some dirty water sources now cause a poisoning effect
-Damage dealt from poison has been reduced considerably
-You can now sleep in random beds regardless of how hungry you are
-Radiation system now works more logically with rad diffusion taking you below 200 rads
-If you crouch down and stand still your radiation level will go down more quickly when above 300-400 rads
-The weight levels of hand to hand, 2 hand, and one handed melee weapons have all been adjusted
-Well fed effect of damage resistance has been changed from 5% damage resistance to +1 endurance
-Stat boosts from survivors confidence have been reduced considerably
-A bug was addressed with night ghoul eyes ( MMM Support )

-All DLC is now properly supported with separate plugin files

-Optional Full support for Phalanx
-Weapon Adjustments with ranges have been made compatible with FO3A ( This will most likely be kept even after EVE and Iron sight support down the road )
-Health of followers raised. ( K-9 had to be given higher initial health and no PC Level Mult because of the higher damage in FO3A )

-Optional Full support for Enhanced Weather. ( In FO3A the rads from weather effects like rain and snow are more acceptable and are adjusted to fit core balance )
-Radiation from Weather effects never radiates you above 600 rads
-Radiation from weather effects can be canceled out if your rad resistance is above 30.
-Stim potency raised for NPCs only ( Stims are meant only for emergency combat healing in FO3A )

-Optional Casual plugin has been created. ( FO3A is much tougher than the standard game in a number of ways. I intend to make sure that people can still jump in and enjoy the new mechanics and features without having to be godly )
-Stimpaks heal for more and reduce hunger by -5.
-You and your limbs take less damage from enemy attacks.
-Ammo is still more rare than standard Fallout 3 but is considerably more plentiful than default FO3A

================================================================
The full list of Modules in the standard instal look like this.

CT_FalloutAdvanced.ESM
CT_FalloutAdvanced - DLC Anchorage.esp ( Optional )
CT_FalloutAdvanced - DLC Broken Steel.esp ( Optional )
CT_FalloutAdvanced - DLC Point Lookout.esp ( Optional )
CT_FalloutAdvanced - DLC The Pitt.esp ( Optional )
CT_FalloutAdvanced - DLC Zeta.esp ( Optional )
CT_FalloutAdvanced - AAOFF.esp ( Optional )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All Enhanced Weather modules go here
CT_FalloutAdvanced - Enhanced Weather.esp ( Optional )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All MMM modules go here
CT_FalloutAdvanced - MMM.esp ( Optional )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All Phalanx modules go here
CT_FalloutAdvanced - Phalanx.esp ( Optional )
CT_FalloutAdvanced - Casual.esp ( Optional )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All RH_IronSights - FOSE modules go here ( Very Good Work Deathtard
RH_IronSights_Basic - FO3A Plugin.esp ( Optional )
RH_IronSights_Basic - FO3A Plugin - Anchorage.esp ( Optional )
RH_IronSights_Basic - FO3A Plugin - Point Lookout.esp ( Optional )
RH_IronSights_Basic - FO3A Plugin - The Pitt.esp ( Optional )

Support for additional mods by Deathtard are not yet tested by myself, busy as heck on this version update. ( Next version is the big push for compatibility )
I have COL Enclave Re-placer but I just haven't had a chance put it into the game.

================================================================
Potential Compatibility and plans for the next version

Version 4.0 is going to be a big change in direction because focus will be in assessing compatibility with RH_IronSights, Energy visuals enhanced, Fallout 3 re-animated, COL Enclave Replacer, T3T weapons, classic fallout weapons and other such mods. With permission from the respective authors will begin the initial ground work for combining some of these mods and even if possible helping out with other mods.

One of the biggest things I feel will be the push to make additions to the UI and allow the new systems to have their own hud elements. FOSE will be required after this version.
More news soon.

Good news on the new version!

I will update all of my mods for this version!

Hey Deathtard have you had any luck contacting Roguehollow at all?
I have had no luck so far, he might be away or busy not sure.

edit: This regards RH_Iron sights support.

I have not been getting any replies from him though I was about to ask weijiesen (creator of EVE) about it.

ok good.
Hopefully we can touch base with Roguehollow soon.

Its going to be interesting to pull these mods apart and see what makes them tick then put them back together in a singular package. Proper Iron sights can be a heck of a project by itself though. My experience working with the call of duty tech has shown that little features like this can be very time intensive to get right. If its even off by a little bit it can be annoying. To think, back in the day, when I worked on CS condition zero I never felt like Iron sights were even important at all but now its hard for me to imagine playing without it.... :facepalm:

This will be interesting.

Also "YourEvilTwin" on the Fookunity forums is working on a mod called EWE (Energy Weapons Enhanced).
It has all the effects as EVE, AND new, lore friendly, weapons.
It adds a lot of diversity for energy weapons.

I have played the prerelease beta and it would be a great addition.
It should be on nexus soon.

One more thing, DON'T USE MY PLUGINS! they are outdated and will need to be tweaked/remade.

Edit: I started playing Crysis again (with a mod) and now i'm addicted! TheCastle, save me!!!! :unsure:

Edit 2: I have sent some messages to weijiesen and your evil twin about EVE/EWE compatibility/integration.

LOL
Great going to lose you to Crisis now eh hah

Oh as far as plugin compatibility RH_Ironsights works fine out of the box with no problems currently in version 3.2
The version of EVE and new lore friendly weapons sounds enticing. Its possible too that the guys on the FWE team might be interested in an effort to integrate Iron sights into more mods too.

Question on RH_IronSights
Are the new meshes/textures working on all the weapons (easy to notice on the laser rifle)?

I notice that there is a red beam effect of some sort on the top of the laser rifle.
Otherwise I haven't noticed much else. I have only been using the basic version at the moment. Honestly it looks like maybe its missing a laser sight on the top of the gun. not sure really.

That laser is the iron sights.

I guess its working then.

Alright I am going to do one last pass of testing stuff out and if that works out ok ill package up version 3.2.
bbl

New version is up.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=8964

Enjoy!

SWEET!!!

Must resist urge to play Crysis...

I'm working on the EVE patch now.

awesome!
Its good to hear some good news today, I have been having a crappy day... :/

I have been considering the concept of a dynamic difficulty system in FO3A. Its possible that it can be done and I feel like I have a pretty good grasp of the concept. And if I get stuck I can consult some people at work who created the system for Sin Episode(s), who had extrapolated a fully dynamic difficulty system off of the core concepts Valve had already put in place with the second half life. Its a very weird concept and system when it is explained out. It sometimes might come off to canning the entire experience but in action when played what it really seems like is a true and constant feeling of just barely surviving through every sequence. And once the system gets a good lock on your abilities it never lets go.

For those of you who do not understand the concept. Dynamic difficulty is a system that keeps track of everything the player is doing over the course of time then begins making choices to adjust how tough combat is and what kinds of items become available. No matter how good you are a system like this will leave you living off the bare essentials, hiding and fearing for your life. And likewise if you are not so great at the game it makes life easier for you when you are down. It is the essential parts that make up what I like to call a game director or a dynamic story telling device. Being nearly dead and struggling to survive you might find that stash of stims you absolutely needed around the next corner.

Its less about setting up pre scripted encounters and more about saying:
"Hey this guy has been playing for 4 hours and has yet to see a single ghoul. Lets raise the chance of a ghoul encounter."
"Hey this guy has been out of stimpaks for 45 minutes and his health is below 75% most of the time, Reduce the spawn counts of most badguys and make it possible to find stimpacks in additional loot tables."
"Hey this guy hasn't fired a gun of any kind in about an hour and has no ammo. Increase the chance of finding ammo in the world."
"How long has the player been in this location without any combat at all? Lets spawn a random raider group and make them check out the general area. Based on this information this is how tough the raiders should be."

This would mean that places you think are safe would have wondering patrols of Ghouls, raiders, super mutants or enclave. You never really know because the system uses allot of weighted factors and rules to determine these kinds of events.

That would be a interesting idea.

There is a holdup on the EVE patch (I am having a busy day).

Make sure to update the version # in your sig.