@ UniversalWolf
The good about small mods is they're mods that one person can finish in a reasonable amount of time. A bird in hand is worth two in the bush. If 100 people spent a few hours each working on one single npc, in a few weeks we could have 100 new or much-improved npcs in the game.
@ Everybody having trouble with the Mapper (not meant to pick on CPL in any way, as he merely raised some very common points we see all the time)
The
only two files required to use the Mapper are the mapper package itself from Interplay, and the City Limit Remover patch (called CityLimit49 or F49). Inside the mapper package from Interplay, the
only two files needed are mapper2.exe and mapper2.cfg (though the instruction manual Fallout_Editor.pdf may come in handy too). Probably many people will also want to use Mash's hi-res stuff as well.
Some old stuff that may have been useful in the past but should now be
completely ignored are Dim's Mapper and the "M2" patch for the mapper.
The process to use is: put mapper2.exe in a folder (or just "install" the whole package if you want, it's just a self-extracting proprietary zip file that also has all the original teeming-with-bugs scripts you should never use), then modify mapper2.cfg to find your files, then install F49, then install Mash's hi-res patch. When installing F49, only modify mapper2.exe-- these days sfall does all the necessary work on the game executable (fallout2.exe) in a much better way. Then make some empty Fallout2\dev\proto\ folders in your root directory and you're all set.
Using the mapper largely seems complex only because all the old articles contain a lot of irrelevant info. In the past there were two main problems:
--That stupid WATCOM crap set Fallout modding back at least five years.
It's all completely unnecessary, and was written by expert computer programmers for expert computer programmers. As most people are not expert computer programmers, of course endless confusion and hopelessness were the only inevitable results. Using the Mapper and scripting are two completely separate endeavors, yet all the old documents throw both at a new person at the same time. Of course a mess is the typical result.
--Many of the old articles were written by people strangely fascinated with demented stuff like hex-editing and assembly code. All that is a distracting waste of time and creates confusion for those who don't know any better. The amazing stuff Timeslip does with DirectX is a different matter, but that's not the typical stuff most people who want to do some general modding will ever be concerned with. A good rule of thumb for making new maps, characters, items, scripts, and so forth is: if you think you need a hex-editor, you simply don't know enough about what you're doing to even know what questions you should be asking. Stop and learn some more, then come back to the issue later.
To use the Mapper effectively, a person needs to learn four basic ideas:
1) How to get rid of dat files and use folders instead. Dat files are a relic of the past when a cutting-edge computer had only an 8 GB hard drive and disk space was critical. Now dat files are just an obstacle to modding. My keychain flash drive has more disk space than desktop computer I was using when I first started fiddling with Fallout.
2) How to make a Fallout2\dev\proto directory and what this directory does.
3) How to edit mapper2.cfg to find all your files.
4) What the various game files do; in other words, how the game works "under the hood." Basically the game consists of text files, script files, map files, and proto files. Once you learn which is which and what they do, learning how to change most of them is a mere formality.
All this info is available in numerous discussion threads in this very forum. Here's why I (and presumably most others) don't want to write a modern tutorial on the subject: 99 percent of all questions will come from people who simply don't know how to use their own computer. The questions will have nothing to do with how to install or use the Mapper, but will all be about how to use the latest versions of Microsoft Windows anti-operating systems and why the Mapper won't work on an iPhone. These discussions are just too frustrating to invite. For example, the forum regularly gets questions associated with points (2) and (3) above. Both sorts of questions immediately indicate a question-asker who usually knows so little about the fundamental basics of how their computer works (as opposed to how Fallout modding stuff works) that helping them is likely to be a serious headache.
If, after doing independent research in the treasure-trove of knowledge that is this forum, people have specific questions about how to do this or that then I think experience shows we have lots of people around willing to help. The trouble is only when "specific questions" are thought be such things as "This whole thing doesn't work" and "I double-clicked on some file and got some 'exception error'" that clearly indicate the person posing the question really needs to read a book or two about the basics of how to use their computer. Specific questions likely to get a helpful response are almost certainly going to be about topic (4) above, and not about topics (1), (2), or (3).
As I said earlier, scripting is entirely different from using the Mapper. Knowing how to script is not necessary to use the Mapper in many cases, and particularly not necessary for the basic stuff most beginners will want to do with the Mapper (add some items, change some scenery, add an extra enemy soldier, etc). There's no way around the hard facts here: the Fallout Scripting Language is not merely a complex computer programming language, but an old and somewhat obscure computer programming language that is furthermore poorly documented because it was a developed as a proprietary tool for a small group of people who were already experts and whose desks were five feet away from each other if questions arose. Unless you have some experience in computer programming languages, you're probably not going to be a scripter unless you dedicate yourself to the task for months. The good news is "experience" does not have to mean "professional expertise." I'm just a hobbyist myself, and no sensible person would hire me for a paid job programming anything. I'm a writer and artist, not a computer programmer guy. Before taking up Fallout scripting, my only "programming" experience was working with
Inform 7-- a revolutionary work of genius that is so unlike any other "computer programming language" that using it doesn't really even count as learning computer programming. The only reason I'm now able to accomplish any scripting task I want is: many, many hours of studying and practicing, making mistakes and learning why what works works, and why what doesn't work doesn't. Anyone who wants to be a Fallout scripter and is not already a professional computer programmer will have to follow the same course; unfortunately there are no shortcuts on this issue.
I just started a new game and I'm in Klamath. I haven't gone to Trapper Town yet, so I shouldn't have to worry about that.
