Base Effect

Link to TES4 Construction Set Wiki: Magic Effect

A Base Effect is a fundamental "magic effect" in Fallout 3 that defines a particular way of modifying the player's stats or starting a script whenever the player consumes an Ingestible (food item, drug, or chemical) or is affected by an Actor Effect ("ability") or Object Effect ("enchantment").

Unlike in Oblivion, Fallout 3's base effects are very versatile, including the ability to add new effects and delete existing effects. Fallout 3 gives the developer near-total freedom over which stats are modified by an effect.

Base Effects Dialog

Name: The name of the effect. Note that a base effect cannot be added to an effect item if it has no name.
Effect Archetype: An effect must be based on one of the archetypes listed below.
Assoc. Item: Many of they archetypes have an associated item. For example, Value Modifier uses the associated item to define which value it's modifying.
Resist value: The type of resistance used for this effect.

List of Existing Archetypes:

Archetypes are hard-coded types that define the basic behaviour of the Base Effect. You may select an archetype from the drop-down list.

Archetype	Assoc. Item	Description
Bound Item	Yes	Should theoretically call an associated Armor or Weapon item, automatically equipping it on the actor. Unused in the default game.
Chameleon	No	Applies a stealth field refraction shader to the affected actor proportional to the magnitude.
Concussion	No	Displays the concussion visuals for as long as the effect lasts.
Cure Addiction	No	Should theoretically remove any addiction. Unused in the default game.
Cure Disease	No	Should theoretically remove any disease. Unused in the default game. Because radiation is defined as a disease, this may have undesired repercussions if used.
Cure Paralysis	No	Should theoretically cancel any Paralysis effect. Unused in the default game.
Cure Poison	No	Should theoretically remove Poison-type effects from the actor. Unused in the default game.
Dispel	No	Should theoretically cancel all effects affecting the actor with a cost less than the magnitude. Unused in the default game. Because no effects have any cost in Fallout 3, the behaviour may be undefined.
Invisibility	No	Should theoretically render the actor entirely invisible and immune to detection until the actor activates something. Unused in the default game.
Light	No	Emits light proportional to the magnitude. Used only by the Pip-Boy light in the default game.
Lock	No	Should theoretically lock a container, setting its Lock Level equal to the magnitude. Unused in the default game.
Open	No	Should theoretically unlock a container if its Lock Level is less than the magnitude. Unused in the default game.
Paralysis	No	Freezes the affected actor's animation and makes them go into a semi-rigid ragdoll state, causing the actor to topple over.
Script	Yes	Attaches the Assoc. Item script (which must be an effect script) to this base effect.
Summon Creature	Yes	Should theoretically spawn a copy of an associated creature or summonable NPC. Unused in the default game.
Value and Parts	Yes	Modifies an associated actor value while simultaneously modifying all of the various body parts' condition ratings by the same value. Used to give stimpacks their ability to heal limbs broadly or target specific limbs. Only used with an Assoc. Item of Health in the default game, for stimpacks. Other behaviour may be undefined.
Value Modifier	Yes	Modifies an associated actor value without affecting the body parts. Well tested in the default game with a wide range of associated values.

Flags

Hostile: Effect is treated as an attack. Only effects checked as Hostile can be resisted.
Detrimental: Effect is applied as a negative to the Damage pool for the actor value.
Recover: When the effect expires, the attribute return to their previous state.
FX Persist: If checked, the visual effect on the target persists for the entire duration. Otherwise it only plays once.
No Hit Effect: No visual effect is played on the target of this effect.
No Death Dispel:
Self: Effect can be cast on the caster.
Touch: Effect can be cast on touch.
Target: Effect can be cast at range.
No Duration: The effect is instantaneous. The Duration field is not available for objects with this effect.
No Magnitude: The effect is "all or nothing." The Magnitude field is not available for objects with this effect.
No Area: The Area field is not available for objects with this effect.
Use Skill: Allows the editor to display the skill pull down to associate a skill with that use of the effect.
Use Attribute: Allows the editor to display the attribute pull down to associate an attribute with that use of the effect.
Painless: Disabled the hit effects and pain vocalization for Hostile effects (used primarily for radiation).
Display Name Only: Certain effect archetypes will display a hard-coded expression identifying what they do when the user hovers over the item in their inventory (e.g., a Value Modifier Health base effect will display HP+[value] in the game engine for any ingestible that includes it); if this checkbox is marked, the effect will display its name instead. Note that by default, script effects do not display any expression, but will display their name if this checkbox is marked. If multiple script effects all have the checkbox marked, their names will be concatenated when displayed (e.g., an ingestible with an "Morale" script effect and a "Satiation" script effect will include "MoraleSatiation" in its displayed effects).

Sounds

The sound associated with this effect. Only one sound will play if there is more than one effect in the spell.

Effect Sound: The sound played at the caster when he initiates the spell.
Bolt Sound: The sound that travels with the effect object as it moves through the world.
Hit Sound: The sound played when the effect hits a target.
Area Sound:

Visual Effects

NOTE: If an object has multiple effects, only the visual effects for the most expensive effect is played.

Effects NIF: The file name of the graphic effect played on the caster.
Effect shader: Shader used on spell target.
Object Display Effect: The effect shader played on the item if the effect is an object effect on a weapon or piece of armor.
- Note: The two Effect Shader options above seem to be nonfunctional. Existing Base Effects apply all shaders via script.
Projectile type: The shape of the projectile for target effects.
Projectile speed: A multiplier of the base speed for the projectile.
Light: The light object that is carried with the projectile as it moves through the world.

Description

Brief summary of the effect.

Specific Base Effects