I am VERY happy we are getting a new GECK with NV, I had never modded before FO3 GECK and found it to be fairly easy to learn.....and from what I've heard the GECK was a improvement over TES CS. But one thing that I think would be a great addition for the new CS is a better way to add voice dialog to match the mouth. Maybe this has been done since I haven't been active here for almost 9 months now.......maybe I'm waaaaaayyyyyy off, if so I apologize for any ignorance in advance.


But what would you all like to have in the new CS?


Thanks

I agree about being able to sync dialogue to mouth movements would be a great addition. I've always been puzzled why this was possible in the Obilvion CS and in the Fallout CS.

Other than that, it would be nice to have something inside the CS like a model viewer that would allow easy exporting and importing of new textures to models. Otherwise the Fallout CS is pretty great as is.

The four things that I would like to better understand / have improved:

1. The lipsync system as you said, may be broken or we may simply be missing a critical step.

2. The LOD system better explained and/or simplified.

3. A fix for the Navmesh bug (when overlapping meshes breaks pathing).

4. An improvement to the Object Pallete system to allow direct importing of objects from the GECK into the Palette using wildcards (instead of one by one).

Overall I think that's all I find is wanting from the GECK.

Miax

I'm not really a modder, and this would probably need a major change in how the game handles items, but a "tag" system for easy leveled list/perk changes/additions would be nice. As an example, a perk pack I have installed for FO3 increases the damage of the various Chinese weapons in the game. Now, I'm pretty sure it has to have a list of what weapons to give the boost to, which rules out mod-added weapons that would fit. With a "tag" system, it could just automatically apply tags to all weapons with the "chinese" tag. It could also help out in some quests, with one quest from FO3 using a specific list of weapons for a "fire-based solution" to one specific quest. And you wouldn't have to worry as much about breaking leveled lists if you want to add, say, new raider armor, just tag it and it should automatically get introduced to the list

Just so you know, the way MODs work with Gamebryo is that items that exist in the original game database are OVERWRITTEN by copies of the orignial that are edited to change the stat you desire. They are NOT the same items with changes applied but actually NEW objects. This overwritting process is what causes the "load order" to be important (last overwritten object loaded is what the game actually uses).

While lists like you mention are possible within the GECK they are handled just like every other object and are an entry in the DB that the mod adds. You CANNOT alter the orignal game data in any way via the GECK itself....you can only copy it, rename it and overwrite it with a mod file entry.

For example, I wrote a simple mod that adds the Nuka Grenade and the Unique Flame thrower to the Pyromanic Perk weapon list (the Flame Thrower was a bug that was never fixed, and I just think the Nuka should be since it DOES generate a fireball effect). It requires a mod file that adds the 2 new items to the list and then overwrites the original list when the mod loads (after the main game file).

Hence the "probably needs a major change in how the game handles items" part, which looking back on it, I should of been more specific on. I know the current limitations, about how you have to manually change lists like that. I've had to mod a couple of mod-added weapons to be able to use Scrap Metal as repair materials, which is something that applies to the vast majority of my weapons due to FOOK. My suggestion is supposed to be a way to avoid said limitations. I doubt they could add it by the time the game ships (Which I probably should of mentioned in my original post), but it would really help keep mods compatible

It is actually a really elegant way to handle item changes that avoids a lot of potential problems. If you didn't have overwriting, the game would be trying to use multiple versions of the same item, creating who knows how many problems. Because of overwriting, you can have multiple mods, and have mods loading last affect all the mods before them in the load order. This allows, say a mod that changes the amount of HP food replenishes to apply to all food in the game, even in new areas added by another mod, where if no overwriting occurred, the food would have default values in the new areas added by the other mod unless the author specifically incorporated the food mod into his mod. It would get messy real fast.

I understand wanting to keep mods compatible, but the way things are now keeps more mods compatible than not. Sometimes things are just going to be mutually exclusive unless you merge them by hand like you are discussing. It may be cumbersome in some cases, but that's the hand dealt. (Who loves getting to use a bunch of gambling metaphors and sayings now that we are discussing New Vegas? I do!)

+1

The fact that the game allows records to be over-written with a simple, "last entry wins" approach gives the modding community the basis for changing things simply. I can only imagine how aweful things would get if we had to change each-others mods directly - the conflicts generated would be unpractical for the community. With over-writing and the ability to parent/child plug-ins as masters of one-another allows for a great deal of flexibility, but all of it would be for naught if we didn't have Fo3Edit frankly. With Oblivion we had Wyrebash and TESEdit, with Fallout3 its been mainly Fo3Edit and with New Vegas I suspect it will be Elminster again that saves our bacon.

For starters they could include all the scripting commands from FOSE.

All I want is the ability to create new card games, preferably with their own card textures.

(me wants Tragic Cards )

Hmmmm good question, the card game code is actually new to the GECK/Fo3 engine, so it remains to be seen wether they hard-coded it as a mini-game like lock-picking, or if they coded it in via the GECK using a set of animations controlled by scripts and perhaps some new functions. Lets hope for the latter! I do think in any case that we'll be able to change the texture of the cards, irregardless of how they coded it in.

Miax

Honestly I think it would be easier for you to open that mod in the GECk and add more items to the list, I've never worked with item lists myself but it shouldn't be an issue, I can't imagine it's that hard. I could be wrong though, I always did mostly level building and texturing.