[WIP] Mojave Motorcycle

Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:07 am

It's now available for consumption!
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1299211-beta-mojave-motorcycle/

---

So, I'm getting close enough to done that I figured I'd keep a journal of sorts about the last mile of development.

Yes, you've seen them before: drivable vehicles (especially motorcycles) but they have all sorts of issues. They mangle your keybinds (no fault of the authors' mind you; the script extenders just lacked functionality that now exists). They leave you with a modified SpeedMult. They turn on a dime. They often don't accelerate/decelerate. They can't crash. Wheels that either don't spin, or never stop spinning. In general, they just don't drive like a vehicle.

Well, I set out to change that. On the art side, it's basically the same old motorcycle you've seen a half dozen times between Fallout 3 and New Vegas. But I rebuilt the scripts that power it from the ground up; this thing drives unlike any other ''vehicle'' that's been available for New Vegas (well, or Fallout 3, for what that's worth). You crash and go tumbling. If you submerge in water, you have to drag your motorcycle to the surface. You can't turn or brake when airborne (well, or accelerate). Oh, and you can't fight while riding, it's for transport only; group of nasties rushing you? hop on the motorcycle and flee or pull a heavy weapon out of the trunk and start firing.

I did a lot of tinkering with the motorcycle meshes to make them as resistant as possible to falling through the world, and put in a system to try and keep you, the player, from winding up embedded in rocks. Not that you can't wind up stuck in a rock without a motorcycle, but still, I did what I could.

So... now I'm working on sounds, safeties that let you fast travel while riding the motorcycle (but without letting you take it out of the wasteland overworld), a locator item (because honestly, when you crash, and you'll crash a lot unless you stick to the roads, it's really easy to lose track of the thing), and implementing features via the game's weapon mod system, as the motorcycle counts as an equipped weapon, so I should be able to let you modify it by adding weapon mods to it.

No pictures yet. Not like they'd do it justice; I'll see about recording a video at some point.

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Sarah MacLeod
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:27 am

I love the sound of your mod, and I actually think this one might be more than a half-baked speed increaser. That said, for a weapon mod, alot of people like to see their things ingame change when they use a mod on a weapon/armor/whatever, perhaps you could add something that reskins or changes the motorcycle? That or maybe just use a 'reinforced' mod that increases the HP of the vehicle (I assume motorcycles have a degrade/HP style system?)
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Charlie Ramsden
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:34 pm

I know people like to play dress-up, but the weapon mod system is limited to 3 mods, so would be inadequate for paint jobs. Also, the motorcycle model isn't actually tied to the weapon item. I plan to use 1 slot for a beacon item, so when you dismount/crash you'll have a compass mark leading you to the motorcycle, and the other 2 are undecided. I was thinking 1 could be a headlight, but haven't worked on that at all yet.

The motorcycle itself is indestructible. It uses fuel (if you're on hardcoe), but it's you who takes a beating when you crash / get shot. Consider that these motorcycles have survived for centuries, and many of them don't take any damage when shot (only some of them are explosive when damaged); they're built sturdy. Since the motorcycle is a weapon, when you're riding it I repurposed its CND gauge as a throttle/speedometer, and was able to give it a dummy ammo type to add a little MPH label as well. Currently the only perk that affects your speed when riding is Travel Light, which raises your max speed from about 60 MPH up to about 66 MPH (10%, like it says on the box). I had originally disabled it from increasing your speed, but then came up with an alternative idea; if you have that perk and wear light armor you get a speed advantage, if you wear medium armor crash damage is reduced, if you wear heavy armor you get the obvious DT benefit of the armor but no advantages for the motorcycle itself. Also, certain helmets (namely the motorcycle helmet and... metal helmet if memory serves) reduce head damage if you crash.

Also, even though I keep pointing out that the motorcycle is a weapon item, you don't equip it/carry it around with you. It doesn't magically appear out of thin air. It has a physical presence which you mount, which forcibly puts the weapon version in your inventory and equips it. When you dismount/crash, the world model is back and you lose the weapon item version. It's also a safe container, even if you uninstall the mod; wherever the motorcycle last was will be a suitcase holding all the items you had in the Motorcycle's trunk.

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Bryanna Vacchiano
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:22 am

If you were to fast travel while on your bike it would travel with you correct?

Also as the third mod, a sidecar that allows your companion to ride with you, (perhaps boost ED-Es speed to motorcycle speed when riding (is that possible?))
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R.I.P
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:54 am

Edit - In response to CD -

Yes, if you fast travel, you stay on the motorcycle as long as you travel to somewhere within the outdoors Mojave Wasteland (and fuel is deducted at a simple as-the-crow-flies cost). If you travel to somewhere like Freeside (or somewhere indoors via a mod-added map marker), the motorcycle is left behind where you were when you initiated the fast travel.

Support for companions is no cake walk, and a sidecar isn't the approach I'd take; I'd have them just ride on the back of the motorcycle. A sidecar would mean a big bulk sticking out to your side with no collision, so it'd wind up inside walls and rocks that you drive near, and so just look generally unconvincing. Yes, you could conceivably boost ED-E or any other companion up in speed, but I currently have no plans to support companions. You go racing off... they slowly hoof it to you.

Also, why the fuel cost? The ''trunk'' of the motorcycle is a safe, bottomless container. Moving it around should be worth something. It's practically as effective as having a house on wheels since you can keep an army's worth of equipment in there. That said, if you're not on hardcoe, there's no fuel use; it's the motorcycle's equivalent to eating, drinking and sleeping.

---

Finally put in cruise control, which I think finalizes the controls, barring some miracle that lets me control the vanity camera angle via script.
So, the controls are farily logical. The controls match up with whatever controls you have set for movement, so assuming you have default controls:
- W is acceleration; you don't accelerate if rammed up against a wall or if airborne
- S is brakes/reverse; if you're braking and come to a complete stop, there's a delay before reverse kicks in, or alternatively, you can let go of S then repress it to start backing up immediately
- A tilts left; when airborne you can't right yourself, you'll stay tilted left and you can tilt farther to the maximum angle
- D tilts right; same deal as tilting left
- E dismounts from the motorcycle; if moving above a certain speed, you're thrown off the bike the same as if you'd crashed. you also mount the motorcycle with E
- Q is cruise control; not quite the same as most real cruise controls, it simply locks the throttle at whatever speed you're currently moving, W or S will disengage cruise control, so you need to be holding Q with you release W or S
- F resets the camera to be behind you; when driving, you can use the mouse to freely rotate your view around the same as with the vanity camera

That's it. The 4 Pip-Boy hotkeys still work (namely TAB, F1, F2, F3) and you can turn your Pip-Boy light on and off. I'm considering adding a working headlight, and may or may not hijack the Pip-Boy light to control turning it on and off; dunno yet.

I'd love to have a ''point the mouse in the direction you want to go and the motorcycle handles turning to face that direction'' but there doesn't seem to be any way to change the direction the vanity camera is facing short of reseting it to be right behind you. So for now, you drive with the keyboard, and look around freely with the mouse.

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josie treuberg
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:46 pm

Got acceptable driving sounds in. It was pretty easy due to previous experience getting animations working, and due to work done by some of the previous motorcycle mod authors before me. Having a few years worth of trailblazers before me, I've been able to learn from all the tricks and solutions to pitfalls the previous authors had worked out. Animations were definitely a nightmare situation compared to sounds. That said, I'd kill for a way to prevent New Vegas from unloading ''critical'' resources, like animations and sounds.

Also, I'm an idiot and spelled this thread ''Mohave'' when I'd been so careful to spell it ''Mojave'' everywhere in my mod. Erg.

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Kathryn Medows
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 11:47 am

[img]http://i39.tinypic.com/nvd2k5.jpg[/img]

A stupid fire ant lit me on fire as I was doing doughnuts to get a picture of the dirt trail. Not the best picture, but me being on fire looked really neato.

Also, I got a functional dirt trail tied into the system that checks if you're on the ground or airborne. Was more efficient to simply give a graphic to something I was using already than to spawn yet another object just for a puff of dirt. It's based on impactexplosiondirt.nif, but scaled down to a fifth the size and with adjustments to the debris bits so they weren't overwhelming. The important part was the effect is really immediate then tapers off, unlike most dust and smoke effects in New Vegas which sort've fade in.

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Olga Xx
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:00 pm

Lol now add the skull from OWB & some leather armour & your the Ghost rider :D
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Michelle Serenity Boss
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:08 pm

Heh. Looks good. I can't wait to try it out. :fallout:
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Meghan Terry
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 8:36 am

So will the wheels turn or not?
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Anthony Rand
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 8:29 am

Yes, the wheels turn. It's not apparent in that screenshot because it's a still image, but those wheels are spinning really fast.

The sad part is from the default camera angle when you first hop on, neither of the wheels are visible, so them spinning goes to waste unless you move your mouse (and so move the camera) a little.

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Annika Marziniak
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:58 pm

So I'm finalizing the hardcoe mode fuel usage: it's 1 flamer fuel to start the motorcycle, then 1 flamer fuel per mile traveled. If each individual flamer fuel item was 1 gallon, that'd be horrible gas mileage, but it's not. And a mile is really far in New Vegas since the world is so scaled down. With the small stockpile I'd had lying around, I doubt I'm ever going to run out. It also makes crashing have a penalty besides the damage you take since it'll cost 1 fuel to start the motorcycle up again. My advice for new playthroughs will be to save any flamer fuel you get when liberating the Bison Steve.

Also, unlike probably 90% of mods out there, I didn't put it in a box in Goodsprings. Though it's not terribly hard to find (the Mojave Motorcycle is broken down when you find it, in need of some trivial repairs) on a new playthrough you'll still either have to make a dangerous beeline for it, or simply play the game as intended for a bit until your travels take you near its location. I wanted this mod to fit into the game seamlessly so that even if a new player used it on their first playthrough, it wouldn't be out of place. Think of it like the Highwayman in Fallout 2.

So let's see... aside from fuel and the amount of damage you take when you crash, things seem to be wrapping up. Oh right, I still need to decide what parts are required to fix the thing, based on your repair skill, when you first find it. I'm aiming to get a beta released before the Terraria update on December 1st...

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Juliet
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 11:13 am

You should need a motorcycle gas tank, maybe add the ability to craft one from a few drained flamed tanks and a pressure cooker, to replace to old rusted out gas tank.
Maybe a few hunks of scrap metal, a steam gauge assembly, and some scrap electronics.
A fission battery or two to replace the old drained batteries already in it.
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herrade
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:05 am

I like that idea, Comrade. :goodjob:
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Emily Graham
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:09 pm

You should need a motorcycle gas tank, maybe add the ability to craft one from a few drained flamed tanks and a pressure cooker, to replace to old rusted out gas tank.
Maybe a few hunks of scrap metal, a steam gauge assembly, and some scrap electronics.
A fission battery or two to replace the old drained batteries already in it.


Don't leave out the Motorcycle handbrake. Plus the leaf blower or vacuum cleaner sure look like motorcycle parts to me. Looking forward to this mod. The attention to detail is quite attractive.
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Pants
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:25 am

Thanks guys. That saves me the leg work of having to remember some of the more odd and interesting parts and makes sure it's not something boring like ''10 scrap metal.'' I think I'll be cruel and make it also require the very heavy wood chipper if your repair skill is under 25.

I fixed an interesting quirk last night... getting knocked down while on the motorcycle (like if a bighorner charged you and knocked you down). Before I put in code to account for that, instead you'd be in a buggy semi-knocked down state (the motorcycle riding animation was interfering with you turning into a floppy ragdoll) where you'd never get up and turning would make you roll around super fast. It was as weird-looking as it sounds.

Also, something worth noting in my design is it ''remembers'' whether you've repaired the motorcycle before or not even if you uninstall-then-reinstall/update the mod. It's essentially a side-effect of having the motorcycle's trunk be a safe storage container that won't vanish if you remove the mod. So even though I'm not going to make the repairs an epic quest, if I did, you could rest safe knowing you'd only need to do it once (per character that wants to use the motorcycle).

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Mylizards Dot com
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 9:21 am

An interesting mechanic that just wound up happening... if you have a broken leg, when you first mount the motorcycle, you have to wait a moment before starting to drive else you'll instantly be tossed off the motorcycle. In addition, if you break a leg while driving (say, from a long fall, or because of an enemy attack crippling your leg) you have a chance of being knocked off, but it's not guaranteed. That said, riding around with a broken leg while under heavy attack is a great way to get knocked off the bike (any attacks on the crippled leg have a fresh chance of knocking you off). I didn't add this mechanic on purpose initially; it was a side-effect related to dealing with the player getting knocked down while riding the motorcycle, and at first I tried to stop it from occuring, but after playing with it for a while I found it reasonable.

Also, don't try and drive while over-encumbered; store your crud in the motorcycle's trunk. It would be easy enough to make the motorcycle make you ignore being over-encumbered, but I decided against that.

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NO suckers In Here
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 2:23 pm

A motorcycle (and a car for that matter) have a maximum load they can carry so I think tying that into whether or not the player is over-encumbered is a good idea.
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Juliet
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:51 pm

I like the idea of containing a leaf blower or vacuum cleaner in the parts too.

Maybe make it a slower start up if your *whatever side the kickstart is on* leg is crippled, and turn slower if one or both of your arms are crippled.

Motorcycle helmet could protect your head from damage more than anyother helmet (for obvious reasons) and for wearing biker goggles you could get a speed boost while riding or something.
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Mélida Brunet
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 7:31 am

I'd already thought of that for the helmet; I've included the metal helmet as well because it appears to be a motorcycle helmet. I'm not sure what to do with the goggles though; speed isn't really any good (the game barely copes with the speeds I have the motorcycle going already)... they could improve acceleration or something, but I'd prefer something a little more logical. I suppose I could add a blur effect at high speed and then have the goggles prevent the blur effect, but I'm not sold on that idea either. Regardless of if I have the goggles do anything, I don't expect them to make it into the initial version.

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SamanthaLove
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 5:27 pm

Ok, worked out the damage. Without any protective armor, it works as follows:
- at the lowest speed you can crash at, you take 50 damage
- at the highest speed you crash at, you take 200 damage
- it scales up linearly
- each limb and torso has a 20% chance of taking damage
- limbs (and torso) take 50% of the health damage you take from the crash (so take 50 damage, if a limb gets hurt, it takes 25)
- head always takes damage
- head takes 50% of the health damage you take

If you wear medium armor, health damage and limb (and torso) damage is halved. So you can take 25 to 100 health damage, and 12.5 to 50 limb damage. This doesn't make sense 100% of the time (combat armor has no sleeves!), but it's adequate and certainly gives a purpose to medium armor.

Your head is not protected by the medium armor.

If you wear biker goggles, your head takes 20% less damage (let's assume it's protecting your eyes). I may give the goggles a better purpose in the future, but I didn't want to neglect them in the mean time.

If you wear a motorcycle helmet or a metal helmet, your head takes 90% less damage. Wear a proper helmet unless you like having a crippled head all the time.

Technically the script is checking your mask slot, since those two helmets and the goggles all use the mask slot, so any mod that changes what slots those items use could interfere with this check.

---

So let's see...
safe to uninstall: check
driving physics: check
models: check (though I want to refine them a little more)
animations: check
lost motorcycle retrieval: check
fast travel: check (the hard part was letting you access your Pip-Boy at all)
crashing: check
dirt trail: check
sounds: check (acceptable, could use a better engine loop)
item mods: check (one is done, can add more later)
fuel usage: check
crash damage: check
access quest: ... think this is the last thing I need to wrap up

I've got my framework in place that requires different repair parts based on your repair skill, but I haven't fleshed out each tier of required items (<25 skill, <50 skill, <75 skill, <100 skill, 100 skill). So, that's likely what I'll be doing tomorrow. Looks like I'm on schedule to be ready just before December starts.

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Tamika Jett
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 6:33 pm

Acces Quest:
Find the motor cycle crashed in the desert (perhaps arround the racetrack) with a corpse wearing leather armor and a motorcycle helmet next to it, the leather armor and helmet will be in very poor condition, but a fission battery, a pair of biker goggles, a 9mm smg with a few rounds, and an Ace of Spades-Gommorah (just some random ideas for what a biker would have on him) can be looted of his body.

With either 70 repair (the amount of skill required to fix ED-E), or:
A motorcycle fuel tank
A steam gauge assembly
Scrap electronics
2 scrap metal
A vacuum cleaner or A leafblower
2 fission batteries
(if your repair is bellow 30) A woodchipper

With 30 repair you can craft a motorcycle fuel tank with 15 drained flamer cells and a pressure cooker.
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JR Cash
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 11:29 am

I was wandering around Nevada earlier and had a thought: most smart riders wear a leather or jean jacket to prevent road rash should they fall off their bike. Do you think having on leather armor would help absorb some of the damage you take should you crash? Say 15-25%?
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John N
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 1:48 pm

@CD: I have the location already set up (that said, you mention the race track; notice the creepy two-wheeled car thingie there? I'm considering making one of those driveable), it's just the items required for repairs that I hadn't settled on yet, so thanks for giving me a prototyped list. =) I'd actually decided on the location of the derelict that you repair months ago. Originally I put it outside Harper's Shack but the deathclaws made testing tedious because I'd have to clear them away any time I loaded a clean save so I moved it somewhere that wound up more sensible.

Also, I did a fair bit of testing at that race track to make sure I could manage to drive a few laps at max speed without losing control. It's not super easy to stay perfectly centered on the track during the turns, but it's doable.

@Jac: Believe me, I think leather armor WOULD make a lot of sense, but light armor is the only way to get a speed benefit (via the travel light perk) so I decided to only give damage reduction to medium armor for now. It wouldn't be hard to give other armors / helmets / etc. other benefits when riding the motorcycle, but none of that is essential to be ready for the first version (since I've already got a large swath of armor covered by medium armor, and 3 head-slot things that are specifically motorcycle related, there's at least some selection in place already).

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Bloomer
 
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Post » Wed Dec 07, 2011 3:06 pm

Understandable. The lesson here, as when ridding a real bike, is to not crash. :hehe:
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mike
 
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