I toyed with the idea of another portable tent or house type mod, but I'm disinclined to like the exploits players can use to get around many implemented realism measures (like dropping things on the floor, if I made chests empty back into the player) so I'd like to make it placeable-permanent.
I've got a bit of a grasp on what I need to know to make the house itself, but it's the ideas I'd like to implement alongside it that come to bother me. For example, if the player decides they want to set up somewhere out in the boonies (in a DLC location, or suchlike), I'd like to not leave them completely stranded with no amenities. So the first idea is instead of the boring respawning supplies, a way to order supplies in.
Okay, simple. I know how to make a placer that will place a special container down, where you can set the order via a "radio signal" to call that order into the Crimson Caravan. What I'd need to know for that is, how can you make the script delay the delivery of the goods for three days, AND randomize the goods that get dropped off? If I add leveled lists to the container instead of straight items, and the container isn't set to respawn, will the goods respawn every three days? The three days thing is the serious problem I've got, because I definitely don't want it to be instantaneous. I like some semblance of realism. [Clarification: I want it to take three days before the player gets the goods he payed for, not that he gets goods every three days.]
Also - electricity bothers me as well. My first idea was to make the player have to use an energy cell per hour of light, but then I thought it would be cool if I just had the player build, borrow, beg, or steal a windmill and have it add 4 hours of use to the lightswitch every day.
The problem with that, is...how do I make the light track the time it's on and reduce the variable as needed? If that's overly complicated, I think I could cobble together a script that'd let the player put a EC in, the light stays on an hour, and an hour later just goes out.
My overall goal is to end up with a nice player-built home that the player has as much control over as possible, deciding what and where things are built, hopefully allowing every Courier to carve out their small piece of heaven in Vegas. Maybe even with a few extra touches like buying a brahmin and building a small barn/enclosure for it, so you could get brahmin milk from it, which I think I could manage. I'm just not a very good scripter, which is where I'm really stuck. I don't want to get started on a project I'll never be able to finish. If I could get some advice on the scripting parts, I think I could have this out in a couple weeks.