Fine... f*ck it... let's try to fix Far Cry 5!
May 26, 2018 3:51:52 GMT
mikeweeks2346 and predaaator like this
Post by JRavens on May 26, 2018 3:51:52 GMT
OK I give in. At the very least I can do a simple mod o fix Resistance Points and touch up some things here or there.
It would probably really only be minor edits. I just don't see being able to do a hardcore mod or a huge overhaul. Here is what I THINK (sic) I could and could not do:
I CAN'T... cannot... absolutely can NOT fix the weapons. It's just too monumental of an undertaking and they are all so completely off kilter that it would be a massive undertaking to try and create some kind of balance (hell something I never really achieved with FC4... five would be impossible in my estimation). With all the DLC and Live Event weapons, etc etc... it's just a bad idea.
Also there really isn't much I can do about the endings. Changing scripted story sequences is just beyond the means of most modders. We are talking motion capture sequences, animation, scripting, sound files... it's a lot. Way more than I can bite off. I don't think I could do much anyway. Short of cutting them off before the "gotcha" reveals. even that may not be possible. Definitely not something I would be eager to tackle despite them being one of the chief dislikes of the game. Then again most Far Cry games have polarizing endings. It's always the journey and not the destination when you play a Far Cry game LOL.
Alter Resistance Point awards. mlleemiles pointed out the databases to me responsible for awarding RP (he's pretty cool like that ) and I decompiled them tonight and I think I have a solid grasp on altering money rewards, perk point rewards, but most importantly RESISTANCE POINT rewards. I could zero out or significantly lower the RP for random encounters (rescuing hostages, killing VIPs, stopping convoys, etc.) and if necessary adjust things like story mission and outpost rewards. To make this effective I would need YOUR help in sorting out exactly how much RP is required to liberate a region and exactly how many story missions and outposts reside in each individual region. Basically we need to "math the crap" out of this so that a player can liberate a region by either playing through all the story missions and/or liberating all the outposts. This puts the power back into the players hands as to when they want to push the story forward or not.
Remove Startup Videos - this is a dumb little thing that drives me nuts. I can just swap all the intro videos for blank .biks I have been doing this on my personal install for a while now. This is a QOL thing for me. IF there is a launch parameter like -skipintro or whatever and it cuts through ALL the videos (including the Dunia truck and barn loading screen) then I guess this would not be necessary. I've not seen a way to do that so let me know if there is.
That one "ending screen" - oh boy do I dislike this screen. If you choose a certain ending then your loading screen gets swapped for an optional loading screen... that actually makes no sense because you play the game and what is reflected in this "changed" screen is not what you see in the game. It's just a constant reminder that you picked a "bad ending". On top of that it glitches a lot and the original loading screen pops up. I would simply swap out the special screen for the original. After you've seen the unique screen there's no reason to ever bother with it again. It's a neat effect the very first time and then never again. It's one of those "hey look isn't this cool what we did?" kind of things that quickly loses it's... "charm".
Adjust keys - this is a maybe. Mostly the keyboard controls are fine and keys are a very personal preference. I wouldn't go crazy like I did in FC4, but I would like to explore either adding TRIM keys to the plane controls or at worst swapping the BANK controls for TRIM. Flying planes is a right nightmare with keyboard and mouse all because you bank AND turn when you use the keys. I would also like to look at the parachute deploy because the initial deploy is press and hold which feels way too slow. I've eaten a lot of dirt trying to open my parachute. It works fine from high altitudes (which to be fair is where a parachute SHOULD be deployed) but anything lower than treetop range and you can get in bad shape real quick. Beyond those I don't think the keys need tinkering with unless someone else has a gripe. Unlike FC4 you don't have to press and hold on a lot of items... and I'm not going to try to tinker with wingsuit deployment because it feels better in this game and I could never get it sorted out right in FC4.
Some things I would LIKE, but honestly don't know if they are possible (probably not):
* Liberated regions no longer spawning enemies - this was adjustable in FC3 and 4 via the encounter charts. I don't know if FC5 still uses the same sort of system (probably not) If so I could assure that occasional enemies could still spawn even in liberated regions.
* Craftable smoke grenades and pipe bombs - Not sure how crafting works in FC5. Just seems a little silly that you can craft say a proximity explosive, but you can't make a pipe bomb... which is literally the one thing that someone could actually craft in real life. Low priority for sure.
* Some "benefit" to booze and pot - no idea why these are even in the crafting wheel except as a joke. Don't actually know if they give any kind of buff currently. TBH it may not even be worth wasting time on. Again super, super low priority.
* Capture events. I seriously doubt these capture events can be altered by me to be less intrusive or silly. I'm sure we could cut them off at the LUA files, but then that would screw up story progression so that's not really a viable option. I would just love to find some way to suspend them in certain situations... like being 100 meters from the ground or inside a building
I admit that I doubt very seriously these can be effectively altered by me to be more palatable. This is the sort thing that really needs to come from Ubi, but won't.
Things I can't or don't want to try and touch:
* The weapons (see above)
* The economy - I think the grind is fine and making changes would require a massive overhaul touching lots of large files (loot drops, shop files, etc.) And like weapons this hedges around all the DLC / Live Event stuff so I prefer to just stay out of those areas of the game. Not to mention they are MASSIVE changes to the shop files (and multiple copies of them) which would make editing things problematic.
* Outfits, skins, etc. - this ties in with my concerns about trying to adjust the economy. Just leave it all well enough alone.
* Spawning - unless by some magic stroke of luck I stumble across some obvious code or magic number that controls spawning distance there is little chance of me being able to adjust the crazy aggressive spawn distances where enemies and items appear and disappear right in front of you. This has been an issue back to Far Cry 3 and we never really solved it. Now in FC5 it's so much more prominent... I think that's because of the higher resource impact on consoles (longer rendering distances, higher resolution textures, higher poly objects, etc etc). The game is just super aggressive at trying to keep cpu intensive stuff low. It's immersion breaking and annoying, but I'm not convinced it's fixable with any kind of modding adjustments.I think it's core to how the engine operates.
* Enemy health - mostly I'm fine with the combat the way it is (even though loads of weapons are ridiculous). Turkeys are a little silly (3+ sniper shots?!? what are these turkeys made of??), but I think that's intended Far Cry humor. Adjusting health without adjusting weapon damage values doesn't make any sense and it's again more than I want to chew on.
WHEW!
Well then. That's pretty much my thoughts. What do you guys think?
Anyone care to help me "math the hell out of this thing" and at least try and fix the resistance points issue?
That alone would make the game much, much more enjoyable for lots of folks.
It would probably really only be minor edits. I just don't see being able to do a hardcore mod or a huge overhaul. Here is what I THINK (sic) I could and could not do:
I CAN'T... cannot... absolutely can NOT fix the weapons. It's just too monumental of an undertaking and they are all so completely off kilter that it would be a massive undertaking to try and create some kind of balance (hell something I never really achieved with FC4... five would be impossible in my estimation). With all the DLC and Live Event weapons, etc etc... it's just a bad idea.
Also there really isn't much I can do about the endings. Changing scripted story sequences is just beyond the means of most modders. We are talking motion capture sequences, animation, scripting, sound files... it's a lot. Way more than I can bite off. I don't think I could do much anyway. Short of cutting them off before the "gotcha" reveals. even that may not be possible. Definitely not something I would be eager to tackle despite them being one of the chief dislikes of the game. Then again most Far Cry games have polarizing endings. It's always the journey and not the destination when you play a Far Cry game LOL.
Alter Resistance Point awards. mlleemiles pointed out the databases to me responsible for awarding RP (he's pretty cool like that ) and I decompiled them tonight and I think I have a solid grasp on altering money rewards, perk point rewards, but most importantly RESISTANCE POINT rewards. I could zero out or significantly lower the RP for random encounters (rescuing hostages, killing VIPs, stopping convoys, etc.) and if necessary adjust things like story mission and outpost rewards. To make this effective I would need YOUR help in sorting out exactly how much RP is required to liberate a region and exactly how many story missions and outposts reside in each individual region. Basically we need to "math the crap" out of this so that a player can liberate a region by either playing through all the story missions and/or liberating all the outposts. This puts the power back into the players hands as to when they want to push the story forward or not.
Remove Startup Videos - this is a dumb little thing that drives me nuts. I can just swap all the intro videos for blank .biks I have been doing this on my personal install for a while now. This is a QOL thing for me. IF there is a launch parameter like -skipintro or whatever and it cuts through ALL the videos (including the Dunia truck and barn loading screen) then I guess this would not be necessary. I've not seen a way to do that so let me know if there is.
That one "ending screen" - oh boy do I dislike this screen. If you choose a certain ending then your loading screen gets swapped for an optional loading screen... that actually makes no sense because you play the game and what is reflected in this "changed" screen is not what you see in the game. It's just a constant reminder that you picked a "bad ending". On top of that it glitches a lot and the original loading screen pops up. I would simply swap out the special screen for the original. After you've seen the unique screen there's no reason to ever bother with it again. It's a neat effect the very first time and then never again. It's one of those "hey look isn't this cool what we did?" kind of things that quickly loses it's... "charm".
Adjust keys - this is a maybe. Mostly the keyboard controls are fine and keys are a very personal preference. I wouldn't go crazy like I did in FC4, but I would like to explore either adding TRIM keys to the plane controls or at worst swapping the BANK controls for TRIM. Flying planes is a right nightmare with keyboard and mouse all because you bank AND turn when you use the keys. I would also like to look at the parachute deploy because the initial deploy is press and hold which feels way too slow. I've eaten a lot of dirt trying to open my parachute. It works fine from high altitudes (which to be fair is where a parachute SHOULD be deployed) but anything lower than treetop range and you can get in bad shape real quick. Beyond those I don't think the keys need tinkering with unless someone else has a gripe. Unlike FC4 you don't have to press and hold on a lot of items... and I'm not going to try to tinker with wingsuit deployment because it feels better in this game and I could never get it sorted out right in FC4.
Some things I would LIKE, but honestly don't know if they are possible (probably not):
* Liberated regions no longer spawning enemies - this was adjustable in FC3 and 4 via the encounter charts. I don't know if FC5 still uses the same sort of system (probably not) If so I could assure that occasional enemies could still spawn even in liberated regions.
* Craftable smoke grenades and pipe bombs - Not sure how crafting works in FC5. Just seems a little silly that you can craft say a proximity explosive, but you can't make a pipe bomb... which is literally the one thing that someone could actually craft in real life. Low priority for sure.
* Some "benefit" to booze and pot - no idea why these are even in the crafting wheel except as a joke. Don't actually know if they give any kind of buff currently. TBH it may not even be worth wasting time on. Again super, super low priority.
* Capture events. I seriously doubt these capture events can be altered by me to be less intrusive or silly. I'm sure we could cut them off at the LUA files, but then that would screw up story progression so that's not really a viable option. I would just love to find some way to suspend them in certain situations... like being 100 meters from the ground or inside a building
I admit that I doubt very seriously these can be effectively altered by me to be more palatable. This is the sort thing that really needs to come from Ubi, but won't.
Things I can't or don't want to try and touch:
* The weapons (see above)
* The economy - I think the grind is fine and making changes would require a massive overhaul touching lots of large files (loot drops, shop files, etc.) And like weapons this hedges around all the DLC / Live Event stuff so I prefer to just stay out of those areas of the game. Not to mention they are MASSIVE changes to the shop files (and multiple copies of them) which would make editing things problematic.
* Outfits, skins, etc. - this ties in with my concerns about trying to adjust the economy. Just leave it all well enough alone.
* Spawning - unless by some magic stroke of luck I stumble across some obvious code or magic number that controls spawning distance there is little chance of me being able to adjust the crazy aggressive spawn distances where enemies and items appear and disappear right in front of you. This has been an issue back to Far Cry 3 and we never really solved it. Now in FC5 it's so much more prominent... I think that's because of the higher resource impact on consoles (longer rendering distances, higher resolution textures, higher poly objects, etc etc). The game is just super aggressive at trying to keep cpu intensive stuff low. It's immersion breaking and annoying, but I'm not convinced it's fixable with any kind of modding adjustments.I think it's core to how the engine operates.
* Enemy health - mostly I'm fine with the combat the way it is (even though loads of weapons are ridiculous). Turkeys are a little silly (3+ sniper shots?!? what are these turkeys made of??), but I think that's intended Far Cry humor. Adjusting health without adjusting weapon damage values doesn't make any sense and it's again more than I want to chew on.
WHEW!
Well then. That's pretty much my thoughts. What do you guys think?
Anyone care to help me "math the hell out of this thing" and at least try and fix the resistance points issue?
That alone would make the game much, much more enjoyable for lots of folks.