 File: Experimental.cfg

This configuration contains some not-fully-tested tweaks.


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The Sim_statistic Debug Options stuff has moved to the Respawn 
Control configuration (RespawnerControl.cfg).


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Alternative Pripyat Gulag
Alternative Lab X16 Gulag - removed; not supported in new game

Alex-Tommy has made some suggestions to improve the operation of 
the game; see the "Alternative Pripyat Gulag" entry. 


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Explosives Carry - Light
Explosives Carry - Heavy

You can carry (or at least pick up) explosives if you enable the 
ability to do so.  This feature allows you to selectively enable 
the can_take attribute of six different explosive containers in 
the game, half of which are light enough to be carried in the 
vanilla game.

Use the tooltips to see the current weight of the fuel cans, 
canisters, tanks and barrels, as well as that of the dynamite 
box.

If you enable the heavy items without changing the weight you can 
carry, you will be able to pick up the heavy containers but you 
will not be able to walk with them.  You might find it useful to 
help you get barrels up steps. 

Note that not all barrels, fuel tanks, etc. in the game are 
explosive items.  If you look at a red barrel while close to it 
you should see a prompt to pick it up if it is an explosive one. 


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Explosives Weight - Light
Explosives Weight - Heavy

You can use this option to change the default weight for the 
six types of explosive containers you can enable to carry.


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Live Stalker Ranking

Mr. Fusion's AI tweak is now in the Experimental_AI.cfg 
configuration file.


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NPC Smart Flashlights

This AI tweak has been moved to the Experimental_AI.cfg 
configuration file.


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NPC Death Crash Fix

When an NPC dies, the death manager will process the NPC's 
inventory and remove most of his items (PDA, harmonica, guitar, 
food, drugs, ammo, etc.) and then recreate a typical inventory 
with ammo for the slot weapons (pistol, rifle/shotgun) and optional 
items like medkits, antirad, vodka, artifacts, food and the like. 

The ammo deleted is a full box used by the game for reloading. 
The game always attempts to delete this ammo, resulting in logged 
complaints in 1.0006 ("!SV:ge_destroy: [xxxxx] not found on server" 
and "sv destroy object [xxxxx][NOTFOUND]" errors) because the 
vanilla death manager is deleting it first. Sometimes the game 
crashes with an "e_parent && e_entity" error if the death occurs 
while the NPC is reloading.

The fix checks the ammo to see if it is used by the active weapon. 
If so, it skips the deletion and lets the game delete it later. 
While this prevents the crash and eliminates the related log 
complaints, side effects include more occurrences of spastic 
physics behavior (where the NPC will "rubberband" and stretch out, 
either embedding himself in a wall or return to its normal shape 
a long way from where he died) and more dropped weapons if the 
"store weapons in backpack" option is used.

These spasms occur because the physics engine reacts strongly to 
any portion of the body intersecting anything in the environment 
(ground, walls, steps, etc.), and this intersection happens 
because the physical body moves when anything with mass is removed 
from inventory. The body is not fully "physical" when the NPC 
initially dies, so the death manager deletions don't cause as much 
trouble. (After a short while the body is no longer physical and 
you can walk through it without bumping it. But the engine deletes 
the ammo before that.)

If the side effects bother you, you may want the vanilla form. 
The crash is not common if you do not use the bak/Rulix mini-mod 
to force NPCs to reload early, and you can always just reload the 
last save if it does happen.


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NPP Blowout Timer

You can set the default countdown value at any time prior to 
triggering the blowout timer at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.


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Psi Emitter

The vanilla game normally uses rupture damage to lower your health 
while you are in a psi field like that around the Brain Scorcher. 
The ZRP default is to lower your mental health (the blue bar in 
inventory) instead.  If you wish to return to the vanilla effect, 
check the checkbox and click Apply.


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Time on HUD

This tweak has been promoted to the _ZRP.cfg configuration file.


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Weapons

These settings affect the config\weapons\weapons.ltx file.

At point-blank range the probability that an NPC's shots will 
hit you is 1.0 (100%). This probability will drop to the value 
given by the novice difficulty setting in defines.ltx (default 
0.20 or 20%), at the distance given by hit_probability_max_dist 
in config\weapons\weapons.ltx. The percentage of hits to shots 
fired will remain at this probability beyond this distance.

The default value for hit_probability_max_dist is 10 meters. 
Set it higher to increase the effective accuracy of the NPCs.

NOTE:  This does not apply to your accuracy.  That is determined 
by the accuracy of the gun combined with the accuracy adjustment 
determined by your stance and whether you are aiming or not. 
A gauss rifle in good condition will always hit the target if 
you aim or low-crouch.  See the debug notes to learn how to 
display the damage you are doing to NPCs and mutants.


Both fire_dispersion_base_k and bullet_hit_power_k affect your 
weapon when an add-on silencer is attached.  Normally such a 
silenced weapon is 25% less accurate and hits with 20% less damage. 
You can tweak it to keep the weapon's default accuracy (1.0) or 
even improve it (e.g., 1.25).

This only applies to the default add-on silencer in the vanilla 
game.  It does not affect weapons that are silenced by default.


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Weather:

Don't use either of the Weather tweak entries if you already use 
a mod that modifies the weather.

Weather 1:

You have three choices besides the default:

"Good Weather on All Maps, Soft Rain after Midnight" - It rains 
softly a couple of times in the wee hours of the morning, and 
the weather will still cloud over from time to time.

"Normal Weather on All Maps" - The standard weather that you see in 
the Cordon and other places can now also be had in Dark Valley, 
Yantar, Red Forest, Pripyat and the two NPP outdoor levels.

"Normal Weather on All Maps, No Lightning Bolts" - This attempts to 
remove the lightning from the normal weather.

Weather 2:

"Vanilla Weather" - This is the default weather in the original 
game. This choice works with the Weather 1 entry.

"Immersive Weather" - You can optionally use a modified vanilla 
weather system that takes into account your progress in the game. 
As you make changes to the environment in the main storyline, 
those changes can be reflected in the behavior of the weather 
on the associated levels.

Please note that the Weather 1 tweaks may make this change moot.

