I've been playing since release but have only recently started having this problem, especially while defending The Castle against the Brotherhood. I thought maybe I was shooting them down too fast. My Castle has 15 heavy laser turrets around the walls so vertibirds don't even get close before they blow up. They kept turning into "zombies" and I couldn't finish the battle. It helped a little when I turned the turrets off, but I was still getting a few zombies with just my Minutemen shooting them down with their guns.
Your fix seems to take care of the problem. I was able to finish the battle with ALL turrets on. Not a single vertibird zombified (or even got a chance to land, heh).
Wondering: I think, iirc, that Karna's Aggressive UFO Attacks modders resource uses the vertibird race for its model(s)... so, presumably this fix should work for those, yes? Or would I have to use the alternate/optinal file for M's Abominations? Or...??
Wondering also how this might apply to, e.g., RascalArts' Zetans - Alien Invaders mod and/or the alien invasions in GrilledTurkey's Project Zeta? If they, too, also use the vertibird race for their models, then this should work for those, too? Or would it require a patch?
The UFOs that appear in M's Abominations are a MOD-specific race called the UFO race. Not patching this UFO race causes bugs. The UFO race references the vertibird race as a model, but fixing the vertibird race did not prevent the bug.
Zetans, Project Zeta...I've never introduced this mod, so it's a guess. If the UFO races that appear in those mods are mod-specific races modeled after the vertibird race, I don't think my patch will work. (I don't see any bug reports saying "UFOs don't crash", so maybe the bug doesn't occur in the first place)
Thanks for your feedback... appreciate the cogitating (your informed guesswork is prolly a lot better than mine). I've never run into "UFOs don't crash" for either of RascalArts' mod or GrilledTrurkey's Project Zeta that I can recall... 'tho I *have* run into it with Karna's Aggressive UFO Attacks modders resource, so I guess I'll have to go do some poking about in xEdit now armed with your your insights (always good to have an excuse to learn more).
I've never seen that happen, but can staggering also cause a zombie state? Enemies such as the Mirelurk queen don't seem to stagger, so I came up with a way to give them the same "NoStagger".
Hello seki5656 and thank you for this bugfix. It works fine.
Any solution for another zombie vertibird, when staggering effect applied during fall animation?
I don't know if it's the same issue but I have often observed vertibirds that are supposed to crash and explode (0 health) but instead fly into the ground and continue flying "underground" (you can see it indirectly and follow its path if you have marked the Vertibird as a target with Recon sights).
I have often witnessed the phenomenon of vertibirds going underground. And setting "NoCripple" stopped it from happening as far as I can see.
I'm guessing that if the vertibirds' legs break during the crash, they won't be able to reach the scene of the explosion and will continue to dive into the ground.
In my last playthrough I could observe that the Vertibirds no longer spin forever in the air. So in that regard your bugfix works as intended. In the same playthrough however, some damaged Vertibirds would still fly into the ground. So I'm thinking this is a similar, but separate issue. In my new playthrough I have not seen this yet, but I'll keep an eye out.
After all, if you stagger the Vertibird, will it dive into the ground? I might try it myself... It would be nice if it was a problem that FO4Edit could deal with.
I'm happy to say I completed Defend the Castle vs Brotherhood of Steel without any issues at all, which is a first. The quest can be very problematic, even without Vertibird problems (See Bugs section Defend the Castle | Fallout Wiki | Fandom).
The crippling of a Vertibird is meant to trigger the erratic flying - this is by design. The Vertibird only 'dies' (explodes) when it's health is zero. A crippled Vertibird is not 'dying' - so will continue to fly erratically until it becomes 'uncrippled'.
A better solution would be to change the 'crippled' script (VertibirdMobilityScript) to force a 'crash' (i.e. death) after a short time.
Also if the 'crippling' effect on shotguns etc causes this then that also needs to be fixed (you shouldn't be able to shoot down a Vertibird with a shotgun!).
My interpretation was that the Vertibird would "fall" by moving to the ground and then exploding after its health reached zero, so if it couldn't move, it wouldn't be able to die. In other words, I thought that the value of "Legs for movement = Right/LeftMobilityCondition" should not be zero.
"Kneecapper" will reduce "Right/LeftMobilityCondition" to zero even against opponents who have no legs or who have "Adamantium Skeleton". Since "Crippling" does more damage to legs, I thought it would have no effect on a Vertibird with no legs. For the time being, I also shot a Vertibird with a "Crippling" weapon, but I remember that it didn't work.
If "Crippling" penetrates "NoCripple" and breaks your leg, you need to think of another way. Setting "Adamantium Skeleton" to Vertibird's NPC data is quick, but it also increases the possibility of conflict.
As you said, it would be nice if we could change the script. I can only make simple things using xEDIT, so it looks like I'll have to leave it to someone else.
I think your solution is a good compromise, but you should tell people the cost is loss of the "crippled flying" animation. It looks like "nocripple" just prevents the "crippled" event - however Vertibirds have a special script that responds to that event, so it longer occurs. I don't know why Bethesda did things differently just for Vertibirds - it makes for more bugs....
If it only hurts Vertibird's animations, I'm willing to compromise, but if it interferes with other Vertibird mods or quests, it's a big problem...
I would like to state in the explanation that introducing this MOD will interfere with the original animation and cause another bug. I'm sorry, but I rely mostly on machine translation for my English, so could you tell me what sentences I should write?
26 comments
I've been playing since release but have only recently started having this problem, especially while defending The Castle against the Brotherhood. I thought maybe I was shooting them down too fast. My Castle has 15 heavy laser turrets around the walls so vertibirds don't even get close before they blow up. They kept turning into "zombies" and I couldn't finish the battle. It helped a little when I turned the turrets off, but I was still getting a few zombies with just my Minutemen shooting them down with their guns.
Your fix seems to take care of the problem. I was able to finish the battle with ALL turrets on. Not a single vertibird zombified (or even got a chance to land, heh).
Wondering:
I think, iirc, that Karna's Aggressive UFO Attacks modders resource uses the vertibird race for its model(s)... so, presumably this fix should work for those, yes? Or would I have to use the alternate/optinal file for M's Abominations? Or...??
Wondering also how this might apply to, e.g., RascalArts' Zetans - Alien Invaders mod and/or the alien invasions in GrilledTurkey's Project Zeta?
If they, too, also use the vertibird race for their models, then this should work for those, too?
Or would it require a patch?
The UFO race references the vertibird race as a model, but fixing the vertibird race did not prevent the bug.
Zetans, Project Zeta...I've never introduced this mod, so it's a guess.
If the UFO races that appear in those mods are mod-specific races modeled after the vertibird race, I don't think my patch will work.
(I don't see any bug reports saying "UFOs don't crash", so maybe the bug doesn't occur in the first place)
I've never run into "UFOs don't crash" for either of RascalArts' mod or GrilledTrurkey's Project Zeta that I can recall... 'tho I *have* run into it with Karna's Aggressive UFO Attacks modders resource, so I guess I'll have to go do some poking about in xEdit now armed with your your insights (always good to have an excuse to learn more).
try it.
Enemies such as the Mirelurk queen don't seem to stagger, so I came up with a way to give them the same "NoStagger".
I'm guessing that if the vertibirds' legs break during the crash, they won't be able to reach the scene of the explosion and will continue to dive into the ground.
In my new playthrough I have not seen this yet, but I'll keep an eye out.
I might try it myself...
It would be nice if it was a problem that FO4Edit could deal with.
I can't tell if the stagger effect is activated or not...
So, all is well. :-)
Another win for the Minutemen!
The Vertibird only 'dies' (explodes) when it's health is zero.
A crippled Vertibird is not 'dying' - so will continue to fly erratically until it becomes 'uncrippled'.
A better solution would be to change the 'crippled' script (VertibirdMobilityScript) to force a 'crash' (i.e. death) after a short time.
Also if the 'crippling' effect on shotguns etc causes this then that also needs to be fixed (you shouldn't be able to shoot down a Vertibird with a shotgun!).
Interesting problem...
In other words, I thought that the value of "Legs for movement = Right/LeftMobilityCondition" should not be zero.
"Kneecapper" will reduce "Right/LeftMobilityCondition" to zero even against opponents who have no legs or who have "Adamantium Skeleton".
Since "Crippling" does more damage to legs, I thought it would have no effect on a Vertibird with no legs.
For the time being, I also shot a Vertibird with a "Crippling" weapon, but I remember that it didn't work.
If "Crippling" penetrates "NoCripple" and breaks your leg, you need to think of another way.
Setting "Adamantium Skeleton" to Vertibird's NPC data is quick, but it also increases the possibility of conflict.
As you said, it would be nice if we could change the script.
I can only make simple things using xEDIT, so it looks like I'll have to leave it to someone else.
I would like to state in the explanation that introducing this MOD will interfere with the original animation and cause another bug.
I'm sorry, but I rely mostly on machine translation for my English, so could you tell me what sentences I should write?