Is it possible to change vanilla stuff without actually messing with the vanilla files?

I made a recycler tool, which turns most materials found in actors into money. In order for this to not be OP, I've left some materials out of the recycling pool, like concrete and metal. I've noticed materials in some actors can turn into other materials when they become part of the map.

So, I'd like to change some vanilla content so when an actor dies, their parts settle down with "recyclable" materials instead. Doors are also a problem. Even though they are actors, you can harvest them for a lot of money even when they are still working.

I've tried making actors use the same name but it doesn't work. I also tried with materials but the game crashes...

As an example, you can go into Base.rte and open up index.ini. You'll see a few IncludeFile lines, just go ahead and comment out the .ini files that you want to change, and make your own versions. This is a fairly clean way to swap in your modded files without messing with the more important vanilla files.

You could also write a global Lua script to modify parameters of actors during a match, which is kind of like fixing it in post, so to speak. Could have performance overhead.

If I were you though, I'd get the recycling mod to work with a wide variety of materials, probably by coming up with a formula based on the material's parameters to determine how valuable it is. You'd have to find a way to balance it so you got roughly how much money you put in back out of an object or a bunker piece. I doubt prices are balanced properly such that this could even work, but it's something to think about.

For example, the gold you get back could scale inversely with the structural integrity of the material, since maybe harder materials are harder to recycle. It could also scale with any number of things, such as how bouncy it is, its priority, or even how colorful it is.

Hmm... I could do that. I was hoping that using the same Index ID and PresetName would be enough but that doesn't seem to work like it does in externalized moddable files in other games.

Also, I took a closer look at the materials and realized I missed something completely relevant to this. Most materials turn into the same set of "scrap" materials when they settle so it's not necessary to include most materials in the list, only those ones.

Recycling yields a lot of coin, though. Since every pixel turns into gold, recycling a body is like mining a gold chunk of that size. I'll need to do some rebalance. Maybe reduce their harvesting speed and increase their cost will suffice.

Edit:
Scratch that, doors are still being a problem. It seems that the metals used in doors somehow settle into scrap materials even when they are still working.

Yeah, doors are a bit special.

You should be able to add decimal amounts of gold. If not, you can store the gold in a variable that you can subtract from when it gets given to the player.

Working with specific materials only is a nice workaround, but keep in mind it won't be compatible with any other mods who might have their own materials. (good or bad depending on what you're aiming for)

That sucks.

I'll post about it somewhere. I don't think it's gonna be of much help but it kinda sounds like a bug.

Also, about specific materials. That sounds like a nice idea, though. I have a possibly outdated tech somewhere in this forum. I'll add a new material, Plasteel, and make drones and weapons be made of that. I'll rename the Recycler to Cleaner and make it so it only clears waste materials... but harvest Gold and Plasteel. That way players will be able to effectively clean their bunkers but still be able to get some money from cleaning the Plasteel made stuff.


This gives me an idea for a new faction, too. I remember wanting to add The Strogg a long time ago but I had no idea how to make it so they could harvest corpses and organic material... now I know how to do that so yeah.