I was thinking, "How else can I make my game difficult?" when I realized that what gave me the advantage over the NPCs (besides human intellect) was the ability to use stimpaks. I'm fairly positive that this would be insanely difficult to do, but I haven't seen it attempted. Is this possible? Does it exist already and I've missed it?

If anyone's interested in the challenge, I'd be happy! =D

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Talk:Stimpak

Yes, most NPCs will use a Stimpak when their health is low and they're in combat. They won't typically use one out of combat, except for those whom you can give a Stimpak to through dialogue, such as Sydney and Dogmeat, in which case they'll use it immediately; granted they're considered companions, but you also can't access their inventories like you can with most companions. Deadlykris 17:54, July 8, 2010 (UTC)

Out of combat a script can be added to an NPC something like what is already attached to the companions (not at my computer but it goes something like this):

oncombat end

reset health
reset limbs
etc
etc
etc

end

Hm, that's a neat function. I wonder, then, if they do use Stims, if it could be added to their loot lists (unless it already is and they're just using them during combat. If so, I've never noticed). Still, thanks for the reply!

I've always found it interesting that a game can be out for years like Fallout 3 has been and everyone misses a simple no brainer like this. I can't think of one mod where NPC's have used stimpacks lol, and it would make so much sense in terms of making combat more difficult which is the aim of countless mods around --- so, why has no one done it yet?! I'd find an answer to that question very interesting indeed. As to why I have not done it, well, I have no idea how to mod -- but what about the people who do?

I wish I did. I've fiddled with the GECK once or twice, but only for recommended changes for the "old" MMM (before the menu option). Even if it's as simple as adding it to loot lists, I wouldn't know where to begin. I figure, only Raiders, Talon, Enclave, Outcasts, BoS, and NPCs would use them (Essentially, no Muties, no Feral Ghouls). That should be fairly easy in concept.

I think I saw a NV mod that did this... check that out

Did a quick search of "Stimpak" in the NV forum with no real luck. Tis why I continue my challenge to those left modding Fo3 regular. I haven't the intention of getting NV. =x

I thought that they already used stimpaks.

I know during one session I was shooting up a caravan with mod added guards and when I went into VATS I noticed that one of my targets was nolonger holding an assult rifle but a Stimpak. When I left VATS the Stimpak quickly dissapeared and the rifle came back out. I assumed that the caravan guard was using the stimpak on himself. I thought that this might be default behavior as I didn't remember reading about such a feature in any of the readmes. If it was modded behavior then I'm afraid I couldnt tell you which mod it was as I have completley reworked my load order several times since then.

I'm also pretty sure that this is in the default game, although it doesn't seem to happen very often in FO3. It is definitely in NV, as I've witnessed it a number of times.

So, in my opinion, it would seem like the need is to give the NPCs more stimpaks and then perhaps try to write a script that would make them use one, if their health is too low.

After seeing the way the NPCs in NV were injecting themselves, I thought it would be really cool if they PC did the same thing. So I'm currently working on adding the same NPC Stimpak animation to the player character, which will become part of my Realism Tweaks' Med-Tec module. It currently works only when you assign a hotkey to the Stimpaks, but I'm hoping to be able to make it work through a key press (probably defaulting to the H key). If the player is in first person, my script switches to 3rd person, and if you have a weapon drawn, the script holsters it. The entire animation takes about 5 or 6 seconds, during which the player's controls are disabled, which makes you very vulnerable during combat . . . just like in real life, where you cannot call timeout to take care of your injuries.

Edited: now also works when you use a stimpak in your inventory (kicks in after closing your PipBoy).

I spent like 2 hours learning the geck to try and get your Med-Tec module compatible with FWE Arwen. I'm still not sure why you say it requires Realism Core. I took your word for it and I tried to make that compatible as well which basically doubled my work-load. On the plus side, I got your new combat/sneak settings for the AI. Anyhoo... long story short it was frustrating work since I had to learn on the fly, and when I got in game "Morphine" did absolutely nothing/had no tooltip and I just got fed up and deleted everything lol.

But-um, yah -<.>- the game would have been too hard anyway since I have FWE set all my loot to rare anyway so I really have a small amount of stimpacks, and then I'm running the veryveryhard mod which makes me deal only .33% damage and take 200% from enemies with a global damage multiplier of 1 so ammo is scarce and it requires a lot of switching of guns/maximizing conservation and intelligent combat on my part to survive. No food healing would have meant I'd have to make the game easier in some other respect. It's already about as hard as it can be with increased increased spawns and soft unleveling @ 25 and loot reductions, cap reductions, harsher traders... all with tough to kill enemies.

I'm sort of just rambling here at this point but I'm even considering not using power armor at all (I haven't gotten the training yet on this particular character, but from past experience it's too overpowered especially with the PPA I'm running... Or if I do get it I'll have to increase how much damage I'm dealt with my very very hard mod or edit all the PA's AR and then it will just be redundant. . . Gettin better gear without making the game easier.... sort of ruins the whole RPG aspect of the game. . . but playing an easy game isn't fun, and playing a game that's super hard WITH power armor would mean a game that's impossible without it. I'll just have to figure out a solution while I sleep.

I'm pretty amazed at how much has gone into this so far, really. On a similar note, while I'm not using FWE, I am using a series of mods that increases damage across the board for all weapons, as well as MMM at quite the full, fun, delicious settings, which makes most fights I pick a bloodbath if I stand still too long. Though I do like the concept. =3. I am seeing bunches of NV mods that I wish could be ported my way. I really don't want NV, I have my FO3 almost exactly how I want it xD. So, assuming that NPCs use stimpaks already, I suppose it's just an option of adding them to their inventory, or scripting or whatever you modders do that make you so awesome (I'm jealous =(). I'll give Arwen's mod a try, since I'm not running FWE, it sounds more compatible.

Arwens and FWE have similar goals with different ways of going about achieving them in my opinion. It'd be like the difference between making enemies harder with one mod increasing HP and another instead increasing their armor.

Not citing that as a specific example of the differences between them -- but that's pretty much how I view the two. That's the core of what Arwen tries to do -- just make the game more difficult and also more realistic. Aside from her Med-Tec module however, (which is vastly superior to Primary Needs included within FWE), I'd say they are both capable of accomplishing the same end result.

The difference being that FWE does many other things which Arwens mod does not, such as adding new weapons, armor, 3rd party mods such as sprint and bullet time.... Many of the FWE weapons are also iron-sight compatible if you search around... Both are pretty customizable as well although I can't say who has a more customizable version because I've only used Arwens tweaks for NV and merely read what her mod does on her nexus page. I prefer FWE because it seems to do more overall and there are more 3rd party mods that are specifically designed for compatibility with it through patches or just from the start.

I could go on but this is long already lol........ try both and decide for yourself.

Heres the script to have any NPC to heal once combat is ended.
if one is sniping enemies and waits in between attacks and the combat alarm goes away (you are hidden status from danger to caution then hidden ), this will probably kick in and the NPC will be at full health again:

BEGIN OnCombatEND
resethealth
restoreav perceptioncondition 100
restoreav endurancecondition 100
restoreav leftattackcondition 100
restoreav leftmobilitycondition 100
restoreav rightattackcondition 100
restoreav rightmobilitycondition 100
END

This seems to work added anywhere in the script of an NPC; also useful you want to have healed such as a guard or something after fending off occasional raids such as the Megaton Deputy Weld or the Rivet city Guards (why should they wander around at half health all the time)?.

For robots it is needed
resethealth
restoreav health 10000; resethealth doesn't heal damage to basehealth spell
restoreav perceptioncondition 100
restoreav endurancecondition 100
restoreav leftattackcondition 100
restoreav leftmobilitycondition 100
restoreav rightattackcondition 100
restoreav rightmobilitycondition 100
END

notice " restoreav health 10000" otherwise healing may not occur.

If an NPC is struck in combat and a "force healing" is to be used to represent stimpak use (I'm not sure how many stimpaks are actually used by NPCs in combat), then, I would think, I have not tried it, some sort of "on hit by player" command script would be used followed by a percentage random that would determine a certain amount of health would be restored back to the NPC.

But if one is going to go through all that trouble why not just add a random amount of health to the NPC to begin with?

IE I found this script Referencing Reilly's Rangers and MMM attached to the ranger NPC

short iRun
short iHealth

begin onload
if iRun == 0
set iRun to 1
if MMMzIncreasedSpawnsMax > 0 ; this refers to MMM more monsters spawning to git you function, change to ifplayer has kickass ability >=12 etc
set iHealth to (getav health) ; gets npc health
set iHealth to (iHealth * 2) ; doubles npc health, can be tripled, quadrupled, I imagine
setav health iHealth
endif
endif
end

So you see upon encountering level 12 or above Player, then maybe double that NPC's health which at the end of the day may have the same effect as adding stimpaks or script randomly to increase the health when hit by the pc.

the PC level multiplier for the stat is supposed to work to do something like this but with robots it always does not seem to function as expected (ie on a robobrain PC level multiplier even set to the lowest number seems to yield 1200 (or anothr egregious sum) over original 200 hit points no matter what level the Player is at whereas the protecrons seem to calculate out properly.