AgeRace
A function included in the GECK for Fallout 3.
Contents
Description
AgeRace changes an actor to be an older or younger version of their current race.
In Fallout 3, this command is used only to set the player's age from adult to child before the vault tutorial quest and the Tranquility Lane quest, and back to adult again on completion of these quests.
Giving this command a positive parameter will change the target actor to be older by that many steps, up to the maximum available. A negative value will make the actor younger by that many steps, down to the lowest available.
This is done by having each age step be a separate "race", and having them linked by the "older race" and "younger race" dropdowns in the "General data" tab of the Race form's properties window.
With the default Fallout 3 races, only humans have these "age races", so the AgeRace command will not affect Super Mutants, robots, Ghouls, or other non-humans.
If you view all "RACE" type objects in the GECK, you will see that there are four race groups that have age subraces: AfricanAmerican, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic. These each have three ages, eg: AsianChild, Asian, and AsianOld.
This means that the valid parameter values for the default Fallout 3 races are: -2, -1, 1, 2. Trying to set the actor to an age younger than a child will set the actor to be a child; trying to set them older than old will set them to old.
They also all have eg "AsianOldAged" versions, but the ~OldAged versions are not chained with the "older"/"younger" dropdowns, so are ignored by the AgeRace command.
Syntax
[ActorRefID].AgeRace AgeValue:int
Example
JoeREF.AgeRace -2
Whatever the age of Joe, he will be changed to be the child version of his current race.
Player.AgeRace 1 If the player is currently a child, he will be changed to be the adult version of his current race. If the player is an adult, they will be changed to an old person. If the player is already old, they will be left unchanged.
Notes
- Any character this is done to uses the default face textures for their new race.
- If the player's chosen hair is now invalid for the changed race, the default hair is shown instead. If you change them back, their hair will be restored.
- For NPCs the same applies, but their hair will not be restored when changed back.
- Bethesda's code generally assumes you are playing as an adult. Specifically, completing the Tranquility Lane quest will turn you into an adult if you are a child, (since it uses agerace -1 at the start, then agerace 1 at the end), and the Broken Steel DLC will not start unless you are one of the adult human races.
- If custom races are added in mods, there is no real way to test what "age group" the player is currently in, but "agerace -99" is prettymuch guaranteed to set them to the youngest possible value for their race, and "agerace 99" to the oldest.
- You cannot assume that "agerace -1" then "agerace 1" will return the player to their original race, for two reasons: if they were already a child, then the -1 would be ignored; and the race listed in the "younger" dropdown of one race does not have to have that race listed in its own "older" dropdown. A more rugged way to do this would be to use [MatchRace] to "back up" the player's current race to an invisible NPC, then agerace -99 them, then once you are done with them being young, use MatchRace to restore their race back from the hidden NPC.
