About this mod
Stops the Mole Rat Disease from being given to the player without them being damaged by an infected Mole Rat. Does not cure the disease if it has already been contracted.
- Requirements
- Permissions and credits
During a quest in Vault 81 the player may come into contact with a specific Vault 81-specific mutation of Mole Rat. This mutation carries a disease known (unimaginatively) as "Mole Rat Disease", which lore-wise is contracted after being bitten by one of these mutated Mole Rats. If contracted by the player, the disease provides a permanent -10 HP penalty, and it cannot be cured without the player permanently losing access to a number of other benefits and resources.
THE PROBLEM
Although lore-wise the disease is contracted after being bitten by an infected Mole Rat, in-game the player can contract the disease a number of other ways:
- The player's companion is attacked by an infected Mole Rat
- A friendly NPC is attacked by an infected Mole Rat
- An infected Mole Rat attacks anything at all
- The player happens to be in the right section of Vault 81 and the game just f%$#ing feels like it
The root cause of each of these scenarios is a missing condition check on the "Give Disease" effect that Vault 81 Mole Rats carry. Rather than triggering the effect whenever the player is attacked, the effect triggers whenever ANYONE is attacked by an infected Mole Rat, and sometimes when the Disease effect is initiated. Since the effect is a script that manually applies the disease to the player, any attack by an infected Mole Rat on ANYTHING will give the player Mole Rat Disease.
THE FIX
The fix for this was actually fairly simple: add a condition to the "Give Disease" effect that Vault 81 Mole Rats carry which only allows it to trigger when the target is the player. This prevents the script from running unless a Vault 81 Mole Rat actually attacks and successfully bites the player.