[RELz] Real Time Lockpicking and Hacking

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 12:24 pm

I am pleased to share with everyone my first completed mod for Fallout: New Vegas.

Most of the details are included in the readme which is included below. If you encounter serious issues or find some serious flaw in my execution, please share it with me here. Other than serious bugs I don't plan on changing this mod much. I may make a second pass on it after I've had the chance to play with it myself for a while and when NVSE has its first official, non-beta release.

Get the New Vegas Script Extender at: http://nvse.silverlock.org/
Download at the New Vegas Nexus here: http://www.newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=38188


Death to minigames!


Real Time Lockpicking and Hacking for Fallout: New Vegas (beta 1)

by TheFlyingBuddha

********************************************************

REQUIREMENTS:
This mod requires the New Vegas Script Extender (available at http://nvse.silverlock.org/) v1.0 beta 5. Because NVSE is effectively beta at the time of this release, this mod is effectively in beta as well.

OVERVIEW:
The goal of this mod is to bring lockpicking and hacking back into the realm of the rpg. Instead of being skills which simply gate your access to a minigame these skills are now used for skill checks, performed in real time, which means less time spent in minigames, more time spent in the game world considering things like stealth and nearby enemies or npcs who might detect your tampering. This mod also adds the ability to use mines for destroying locks.

This is achieved by running a script when you press the "Z" key when in activation range of a locked terminal, container, or door. While holding the Z key, a six-second series of sounds and animations (in third person) will play ending with a skill check (or the setting of a timed explosive if you are using a mine).

When the check is complete, you will hear a feedback sound and a message will be displayed letting you know if you succeeded, failed, or critically failed. If you are setting an explosive, you will have five seconds to move from the area before it explodes and the check result is displayed.

If you release the Z key while planting or making an attempt, it will be immediately abandoned with no check made or explosive set.

The check performed is a roll against the player's skill, with the level of a lock acting as a penalty. The roll needs to be less than the player's skill modified by the difficulty of the lock. Failed rolls then check against the relevant attribute and a luck roll to determine if the check critically failed. Critical failures will incease the difficulty of the lock by one category, but will never raise them beyond Very Hard. You can attempt very hard locks at 76 skill, Hard at 51, Average at 26, and Easy at 1 with 1% success rate for each given level. Each point spent after those amounts will increase the chance of success by 1%. So at 100 skill, you have a 25% chance to succeed at a very hard task. You will never critically fail at these tasks but it may still take multiple attempts to succeed.

With explosives, the mine's skill requirement will impact your chance of success with powder charges offering no bonus but plasma mines greatly improving your chance of success.


During the attempt there are periodic checks to see if any actors or creatures nearby detect you. If they are hostile or are the owners of the cell and you are detected, expect to be attacked.

This mod does nothing to the original minigames and they can still be accessed normally.



KNOWN ISSUES:
Science checks on Very Hard will be cheesable with no limiting resource. If you want to spend ten minutes plugging away with a 1% chance to succeed on a very hard lock, be my guest.

Detection may be spotty at best as the only NPCs that will get angry are the **owners** of cells. As it is, in the vanilla game NPCs did not react to lockpicking and hacking, only to actually opening a locked or hacked containter.

Currently lockpicking and hacking will have no effect on karma.

I haven't tested this, but presumably you could shoot the explosives you set using this mod. They would detonate early, but the check should still complete as normal a few seconds later.



DISTRIBUTION:
Please don't reupload the work of others without permission. That's just common courtesy. Feel free to play with the code. If you create something better with my ideas, share with me, please!
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Veronica Martinez
 
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Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2006 9:43 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 12:33 pm

This mod sounds interesting and I will have to definitely try this out, though more for the convenience factor than the rpg factor (Hacking makes me want to kick puppies :S)

Sadly I can not try it out immediately, but I do have a question...Is there any potential for conflict due to "z" already being mapped as "grab object"?

TheDamned
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Tom Flanagan
 
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Joined: Sat Jul 21, 2007 1:51 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 11:21 am

This mod sounds interesting and I will have to definitely try this out, though more for the convenience factor than the rpg factor (Hacking makes me want to kick puppies :S)

Sadly I can not try it out immediately, but I do have a question...Is there any potential for conflict due to "z" already being mapped as "grab object"?

TheDamned


Perhaps with a locked sasparilla crate. Maybe you'd just be able to pick while you walk away with it though.

Hmmm... now where does this leave me...

Wants:
Flares
Sensible lockpicking
Chalk and spray paint
Kickable small animals (sprint mod add on maybe?) ... :wacko:
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Setal Vara
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 12:28 pm

Thank you, Buddha :bowdown:
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Prisca Lacour
 
Posts: 3375
Joined: Thu Mar 15, 2007 9:25 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 11:13 am

Not sure if you saw this over on Nexus, so I'll post it here, too. I absolutely adore the idea of this, it's a great little mod. Though the loss of karma loss is a really negative thing, since there aren't enough ways to lose karma as it is, and too many ways to gain it. So if you could possibly add that in in a future version, I'd really appreciate it. Also, XP granted from lockpicking/hacking seems to be missing, too. For a character that's not that combat heavy, this can be a drawback.

I really like where you're going with this, I honestly do, it's fantastic. And the inclusion of karma-loss and proper XP gains will make it perfect.
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Rachell Katherine
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 11:14 am

Not sure if you saw this over on Nexus, so I'll post it here, too. I absolutely adore the idea of this, it's a great little mod. Though the loss of karma loss is a really negative thing, since there aren't enough ways to lose karma as it is, and too many ways to gain it. So if you could possibly add that in in a future version, I'd really appreciate it. Also, XP granted from lockpicking/hacking seems to be missing, too. For a character that's not that combat heavy, this can be a drawback.

I really like where you're going with this, I honestly do, it's fantastic. And the inclusion of karma-loss and proper XP gains will make it perfect.



Ah, yes, thank you for pointing out the XP. I hadn't even thought about that. I will try and add the XP and the karma in relatively soon. Maybe today or tomorrow.


As for conflicting with Z, part of the reason I picked Z was precisely because it was already mapped to grab. Since almost everything you would use this on is immobile it makes use of an existing key without causing issues. As someone pointed out, certain movable containers might do weird things but the script also disables your controls while your working on an attempt so you shouldn't be able to move the mouse while you're actually opening something.



If someone finds the oddball case of the Locked Container They Simply Have to Move, let me know and I'll work around it. But for right now I consider it the most elegant key to use since it's already assigned to a simple function that shouldn't conflict (as opposed to 'E' for example).

During the next pass I'll also try to add an option to change the key and it also needs a script to remind you about NVSE.

Thanks for the feedback.


EDIT: Flares would be a pretty nice add on. I may just have to look into that myself.

Also, a commenter on the nexus mentioned that things don't look right in third person if you are using the third person center camera mod. I'll grab that mod and see why that would be and see if I can resolve it.
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Sebrina Johnstone
 
Posts: 3456
Joined: Sat Jun 24, 2006 12:58 pm

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 7:50 am

Ah you are aware of the xp bug.

Well I will redownload it when it's up.

Btw, nice mod. I liked it when it was in FO3 and liked it here as well.
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Big mike
 
Posts: 3423
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 6:38 pm

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 9:19 pm

kisck ass mod ... next ... real time pipboy
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Emma Copeland
 
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Joined: Sat Jul 01, 2006 12:37 am

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 1:41 pm

One of your new mods should be real time chats. :P

*steals a stimpak*

Player: go go go
Trader: Hi, would you like to t-
Player: [censored] can you please buy my stimpak
Trader: Sure, here's 5 caps.
Player: FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-
Security: Stop right there criminal scum!
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Czar Kahchi
 
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Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2007 11:56 am


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