The value in the plugin that is supposed to govern the Automatron random encounter frequency was set as "unknown" instead of "float" as it was in the ESM. I've fixed this on my end -- very easy in FO4Edit. I've got a bit more fussing with mods to do before I'm ready to play and test this to see if that had anything to do with people saying this mod doesn't work. If anyone is ready to try it right now before I get around to it, feel free to inform us of your results. (Probably needs to be a new game.)
Just want to highlight this post for anyone wandering through at this point. This mod *does not* actually work out of the box, you need to go in with FO4Edit, and change the variable types from unknown to float for the two things this mod is trying to change. This mod author had their heart in the right place but somehow overlooked this.
exactly, without that fix you keep encountering them at every corner. Also, the vanilla RE's dry up after a while, while the Automatron ones don't, so it's best to use the value at maybe 5 percent or even less..
Wanted to bumb this post for visibility. I set the load screen at 5% and the ecnounters at 10% last run(while also fixing the float value) and those seemed about right.
Cross posting to see if I get Lucky enough for some talented mod author to see my wish list:
So I asked the UF4P guys to take a look at this issue, I got a very interesting response from them.
"The way this was implemented leaves little doubt that it was intentional. It's just bad game design and everybody on the team will agree on that, but it's just that and not a bug. Thus, this is an issue that is best addressed by mods. Though, simple mathematics won't solve the problem, because of two reasons:
(1) Quite a number of base game REs won't repeat once having been witnessed by the player. Most of these are scene and travel type encounters, e.g. Arth vs. Arth, the named feral ghoul emcounter, Hadrian's body, the dead postman (this will stop repeating when it has consumed all letters; on average, it will occur 4-5 times), the Stash encounters (there are three of them in a loose sequence and each one occurs only once), the tier 4 vendor encounters (they stop repeating once the respective vendor has been recruited) and others. Thus, the base game encounters dry up over time but the Automatron ones don't. Therefore, chance values calculated on the basis of RE quest numbers are still favoring Automatron REs, the more the further the game is progressing.
(2) There are exclusion keywords on many triggers that limit the number of encounters that may be chosen [NB: the keywords do not exist on the trigger refs in the base game but are added at run time, once a trigger loads for the first time on a running game. Thus, to find out which restrictions apply to a specific trigger, you have to check the respective property on RETriggerScript. Don't ask me what Beth had in mind to do it that way; it's a pain in the ass to fix specific trigger keywords on a running game]. Thus, individual triggers have individual chances to spawn Automatron REs and this further complicates matters. "
So my interpretation of this response is that as the non-repeating encounters dry up, the player is left with the infinitely repeating ones, with the way this works according to the mod. author you would become inundated with rust devil and rogue robot encounters.
So without the mod the only thing you can do is go to Nuka World provided you have that DLC and complete the 3 quest for Shanks. Then you have nuka world raiders added to the mix of DLC random encounters.
I am unsure how Nuka World effects this mod. I suspect Nuka World does the same thing as Automatron such that this mod. fixes one DLC issue, but if you start the Nuka World DLC and do the 3 quest for Shanks, the same issue can occur again except that it is now Nuka World Raiders.
My 2 Cents (not a criticism of the mod in anyway just a wish list).
One fix I would like to see is the following after the Automatron DLC is completed.
Reduce the Rust Devil random encounter change to the same as all other random encounters, which is already done by the mod. Reduce the Rogue Robot encounters to only occur if you receive the Rogue Robot Quest from either Ada or the Mechanist. --- The reason for this is that you can rescue settlers and recruit them to settlements but only if you receive the quest from Ada or the Mechanist. If you rescue settlers during a random encounter event you don't have the option to recruit them, which sucks if you are trying to farm settlers as that is a percent chance as well. Other option would be as follows: Reduce the rogue robot random encounter change to the same as all other random encounters, which is already done by the mod. -- Modify the game mechanics such that I can recruit any settlers I happen to rescue during the random encounter.
What about DLC01WorkshopRobotAttackChance [GLOB:0100FD12] which is also at 50% chance? Is that the chance for settlements to be raided by robots perhaps? Does the Mechanist quest perhaps change these variables after you finish the quest?
If bethesda knew what "quality control" was, then yes, all of these variables would be reduced post-mechanist. They don't, and they aren't. There are any number of strange bugs in this game, but this is literally nothing but laziness.
This mod will work on a new save however it will not on a current save. There is a workaround however. There are console commands that achieve the same result as this mod since all it does is alter a couple global values.
"set DLC01REPercentChance to XX" This is the command to reduce the actual encounters. Where XX is the percent of getting an Automatron Random Encounter.
"Set DLC01LoadScreenRate to XX" Changes the load screen chance. Same thing as other command.
I haven't tested whether this needs to be done every so often or if it stays for the rest of the save. If nothing else add those commands to an AutoExec Batch file and be done with it. I hope this helps someone.
That's because DLC01LoadScreenRate is flagged as a constant by the Automatron, where as DLC01REPercentChance is not. Removing the "constant" flag would allow changing that number with out having to modify an esp each time.
DLC01REPercentChance is not flagged as a constant but is set by default to 50 allowing it to be changed as needed. I think it being set at 50 was to coincide with the DLC loading (rust devils arrive in the commonwealth, hence their presence every where and a new quest begins) but it never gets reduced at any point (such as finishing the quest they may have been meant to be seen less often once they get their asses kicked during the quest line)
https://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/3502925-the-unofficial-fallout-4-patch/page-562#entry61048442 maybe it's worth adding one more correction so that the populations did not suffer these damned robots?
40 comments
Also, the vanilla RE's dry up after a while, while the Automatron ones don't, so it's best to use the value at maybe 5 percent or even less..
I set the load screen at 5% and the ecnounters at 10% last run(while also fixing the float value) and those seemed about right.
So I asked the UF4P guys to take a look at this issue, I got a very interesting response from them.
"The way this was implemented leaves little doubt that it was intentional. It's just bad game design and everybody on the team will agree on that, but it's just that and not a bug.
Thus, this is an issue that is best addressed by mods. Though, simple mathematics won't solve the problem, because of two reasons:
(1) Quite a number of base game REs won't repeat once having been witnessed by the player. Most of these are scene and travel type encounters, e.g. Arth vs. Arth, the named feral ghoul emcounter, Hadrian's body, the dead postman (this will stop repeating when it has consumed all letters; on average, it will occur 4-5 times), the Stash encounters (there are three of them in a loose sequence and each one occurs only once), the tier 4 vendor encounters (they stop repeating once the respective vendor has been recruited) and others. Thus, the base game encounters dry up over time but the Automatron ones don't. Therefore, chance values calculated on the basis of RE quest numbers are still favoring Automatron REs, the more the further the game is progressing.
(2) There are exclusion keywords on many triggers that limit the number of encounters that may be chosen [NB: the keywords do not exist on the trigger refs in the base game but are added at run time, once a trigger loads for the first time on a running game. Thus, to find out which restrictions apply to a specific trigger, you have to check the respective property on RETriggerScript. Don't ask me what Beth had in mind to do it that way; it's a pain in the ass to fix specific trigger keywords on a running game]. Thus, individual triggers have individual chances to spawn Automatron REs and this further complicates matters. "
So my interpretation of this response is that as the non-repeating encounters dry up, the player is left with the infinitely repeating ones, with the way this works according to the mod. author you would become inundated with rust devil and rogue robot encounters.
So without the mod the only thing you can do is go to Nuka World provided you have that DLC and complete the 3 quest for Shanks. Then you have nuka world raiders added to the mix of DLC random encounters.
I am unsure how Nuka World effects this mod. I suspect Nuka World does the same thing as Automatron such that this mod. fixes one DLC issue, but if you start the Nuka World DLC and do the 3 quest for Shanks, the same issue can occur again except that it is now Nuka World Raiders.
My 2 Cents (not a criticism of the mod in anyway just a wish list).
One fix I would like to see is the following after the Automatron DLC is completed.
Reduce the Rust Devil random encounter change to the same as all other random encounters, which is already done by the mod.
Reduce the Rogue Robot encounters to only occur if you receive the Rogue Robot Quest from either Ada or the Mechanist.
--- The reason for this is that you can rescue settlers and recruit them to settlements but only if you receive the quest from Ada or the Mechanist. If you rescue settlers during a random encounter event you don't have the option to recruit them, which sucks if you are trying to farm settlers as that is a percent chance as well.
Other option would be as follows:
Reduce the rogue robot random encounter change to the same as all other random encounters, which is already done by the mod.
-- Modify the game mechanics such that I can recruit any settlers I happen to rescue during the random encounter.
Just a wish list.
DLC01REPercentChance [GLOB:0100AF69]
DLC01LoadScreenRate [GLOB:01001EEB]
"set DLC01REPercentChance to XX" This is the command to reduce the actual encounters.
Where XX is the percent of getting an Automatron Random Encounter.
"Set DLC01LoadScreenRate to XX" Changes the load screen chance.
Same thing as other command.
I haven't tested whether this needs to be done every so often or if it stays for the rest of the save. If nothing else add those commands to an AutoExec Batch file and be done with it.
I hope this helps someone.
DLC01REPercentChance is not flagged as a constant but is set by default to 50 allowing it to be changed as needed. I think it being set at 50 was to coincide with the DLC loading (rust devils arrive in the commonwealth, hence their presence every where and a new quest begins) but it never gets reduced at any point (such as finishing the quest they may have been meant to be seen less often once they get their asses kicked during the quest line)