how to change actor and other stats 'on the fly'

[stork...err]

I've messed with weapon ltxs and done other tweaks on xmls etc. here and there, so now, after my first baby steps I want to take a giant leap into modding and have no idea how to proceed.

My idea is to create stats for the player that can be changed as you play and 'level up'. Now how the heck you do this has me stumped. I would have no problem changing all the stats outside the game and then starting it up and boom changed actor speed or jump height or whatever but how would I go about making these same changes in game, as you are actually playing?

Would it involve some sort of customactor.ltx with a whole bunch of 'if then' scripts so that when certain factors are reached your movement speed, healing speed etc changes? Or would it take something more drastic like changing the x-ray engine code?

The closest I've seen to this sort of on the fly stat change is when you advance in rank from rookie to experienced etc but these changes are not varied enough for what I want to do, I want multiple changes on multiple factors.

Any help appreciated but really good definitive help would be best Thanks.

[Nightwatch]

Hi stork...err Welcome to the Stalkermod and thanks for posting your question.

There are two points to be raised as an answer.

1-- One of them is the nature of STALKER game as GSC created, which defines STALKER a more "realistically-playable" game in comparison with other similar genre games in broader spectrum. That is true that the game contains surreal and other elements that some can put them into the sci-fi fantasy catagory (such as various creatures that don't exist in real world), however those elements are the products a highly-damaged environment, eco-system; whereas the STALKERS (and the Army, and other human elements) are not those who are affected by these catastrophic environmental changes, simply (as suggested) they were not inside the Zone at the time of the said catastrophe took place. They are outsider at greater extent and they play normal human beings trying to overcome the extreme adverse conditions inside the Zone. Therefore, creating an abnormal human who increases his abilities along the time, in this Zone, would contradict the idea behind the creation of the game.
--Well, this is the scenario point of view.

2-- Secondly, from the technical point of view, if one were to employ a system that could facilitate the character (the player) to increase/enhance his abilities over the time, then the only way to achieve this would be to write a dedicated script for this purpose. And this of course could not be achieved by any kind of tweaking of any available files in the game.
It would need to be a custom script and this would require the knowledge of handling LUA scripting language.

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However, there are some available mods that aims to achieve a somewhat similar process, but by the process of introducing a logical (rather than mystical) development ladder, in which the character (the player) slowly and increasingly get access to higher protection and defensive/offensive means, and -significantly so- in parallel to the way the player (chooses to and manages to) progress along the game.
This is also achieved a rather complex scripting implementation in the game, and one of the finest (probably the finest) examples is the ABC mod. (this mod also incorporated to NEWSA.SIMBION_T, of course, by courtesy of the ABC mod author Russo . The link may be found in my sig)

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Rather a long answer, but I hope it answers all aspects of the question.

[stork...err]

Hey Nightwatch thanks for the speedy reply, and the welcome.

As to your first point...at the risk of completely alienating you and possibly many others, let's just agree to disagree (if you really wanna press the issue and want details, feel free to pm me, I would enjoy the discussion.)

Thanks for the site, intriguing. Especially relevent is this quote:
"Your skills (including the utilization levels of your armors, weapon repair abilities, even your aiming skills) and the quantity, grade and the ferocity of your enemies will change depending on how you choose to progress and how you manage your progress throughout the game."
Pretty much what I want to do, but not quite. Would you by any chance know anyone on the team? Would they be interested in talking to some guy who has no experience in modding and wants to design a whole bunch of stuff without being able to help them actually program anything?

As to your second point (if you still want to talk to heathen like myself) I'm a relatively intelligent biped with opposable thumbs, how likely would it be that I could pull off something like a dedicated script with no knowledge of lua? I've got this idea that I can't seem to shake and the great ease of modding via the gamedata folder has gotten me hooked. Alternatively, how likely is it that I could find someone with experience in this area and who might take pity on an enthusiastic but basically ignorant modder and point me in the right direction in terms of actual programming?

[Nightwatch]

There are various literature on modding which can be accessed from this forum through the links on this section:

Important Links to Modding Questions and Answers
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=145

You first need to extract the vanilla database before proceeding with any work.

The idea is not new and it has not interested me in the past, furthermore I'm too busy with NEWSA patch and the new version works.
Other modders may show interest, you need to keep enquiring. Good luck.

[stork...err]

Cool, thanks for the point in the right direction. Uncool in that you won't do all the programming for me while I boss you around, that's just rude...

The idea is not new? I was looking for a mod like this so I could learn from their experience but had trouble finding anything, I had trouble finding any questions even about the idea. Is there some sort of link or contact you might have? Even just a quick rundown of what you've heard would be interesting...

Thanks.
I'm off to scratch my head at lua for windows...

[Nightwatch]

Sorry, nope, I can't think of any old posts and links on that matter. All I remember, the idea had been raised a few times most in the past, but no modder hat paid a serious interest in it, due to to the no1 of the reasons I put in my earlier post. Things can change, though I wouldn't bet on it, you can still continue to bring the issue to the view. About the previous discussions (they were little and very short) you can perform searches in various wording combinations on Google, if there's still any reachable content, Google will find it over the internet.