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[WIP] Big Bad Gunners: A Faction Mod (waiting on CK/GECK)


jkruse05

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Admittedly I haven't attempted a mod of this scale since Oblivion, and I never released that, but I currently have plenty of free time, and likely will for a while, so, I'm starting some pre-development and script writing work on a Gunners faction mod. The idea is to stick to vanilla assets as much as possible, but to create a faction that will at least include the option to be a 'bad guy'.

 

Development notes, really interested in feedback.

 

Act 1

No major changes needed

 

Act 2

Add a Gunners specific quest for just after the Brotherhood shows up. Second Gunners quest overall.

 

Hunter/Hunted - Add extra radio dialogue and make Gunners friendly/helpful if part of faction. Possible orders to terminate K1-98.

 

The Molecular Level - Add option to build Teleporter at a Gunners base, requires a mechanic character and a settlement area.

 

Act 3

New set of quests leading up to "The Nuclear Option" Should include neutralizing Minutemen and Brotherhood before Institute. Railroad poses no real threat to Gunners. Potentially integrate submarine to destroy Prydwen, Assassinate Preston, Sturges, destroy The Castle if "Taking Independence" is completed, kill Ronnie Shaw if "Old Guns" is completed.

 

Quests regarding Institute will be passive, essentially just "do what father says and report." Will go until Beryllium Agitator is to be retrieved, then report and somehow sabotage it after getting it.

 

Joining

Several ideas

1. Recruiter shows up after killing so many Gunners.

2. Opportunity to help Gunners, possibly over radio

3. Recruiter in Goodneighbor

4. Injured Gunner tasks you with completing his job, for a cut.

5. Use an existing quest involving Gunners

 

Faction Side Quests

Will involve settling a power struggle. At least 5 quests. Two choices of leaders, one (Captain Bridget? ) will cull the existing Gunners ranks of ex-raiders (Tessa, Baker, Ryder, and Clint will all go, along with everyone at the Mass Pike Interchange and Hub City Auto Wreckers) and return to more moral, but still mercenary roots. Some Gunners locations would be filled in with other enemies (Raiders, Ghouls, Super Mutants), due to reduced ranks. MacCready may be willing to join you after this.

 

The other (Captain Wes?) will cull the "Old Blood" and embrace the purely 'for profit' standing of the current Gunners. Will only involve two or three officers and their loyalists, probably at the two Vaults (75 and 95).

 

If siding with the old blood, the Brotherhood and Institute will still be destroyed, but the Minutemen will be left alone. If no side quests are completed the existing leadership remains for Main Quest, can be turned around afterword.

 

Final Assault

Will be similar to Minutemen, but no real concern about letting people evacuate. Agitator will already be sabotaged, strike will be focused on retrieving tech before it blows.

 

 

 

Faction Benefits

Early-Unique combat armor upgrades, or armor upgrades in general (apply skull insignia), discount from Dreth

Late-???? possibly something with vertibirds

 

 

Other

There are several occasions throughout the game where other factions' activities could be reported to Gunners leadership. Definitely report on Institute technology throughout.

 

Kid in a Fridge-Option to help Bullet, Possibly add faction specific option to talk down Bullet

The Devil's Due- Potential integration as a side quest, or joining quest.

Atom Cats-option to talk down the Gunner's attacking, or turn on Atom Cats, possibly change Gunners to standard raiders

HaluciGen, Inc.- Possible integration as a side quest or joining quest

Ness- Gunners won't side with her if you are a member

MacCready will refuse to join, or even talk much if you are a member of the Gunners. Barnes and Winlock ignore you (disable most dialogue)

 

 

Long Term/Low Priority

Possibility to kill Preston and his party at any point (would end minutemen quest line) + Jewel of the Commonwealth alternate quest giver for killing the group, perhaps a note referencing Valentine

3 types of repeatable and/or radiant quests, possibly extorting some of the settlements that have settlers by default

Gunners insignia skins for Automatrons

Companion unique to Gunners with own questline.

Rerecord Captain Wes' old lines to match new voice (if used)

Make Gunners Plaza more of a settlement/fort, refine daily schedules and interior areas

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that sounds like a monumental task mate! :S

I get your point with Gunners vs Lore - they did use to be friendlies, however, i think another faction as focus, might make the mod idea more credible, and fall into more people liking :)

awesome idea tho - true to the Vault Dweller! ^^ now we're only short a slaver career, then we're back in 1997! xD haha...

Working on a Lore mod myself, but its purely literature, books, holotapes and such, ment to educate the players who havent played F1 and F2 (i havent played BoS and tactics for some reason! :S -must find them somewhere! ^^ )

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This is a great idea. I like the idea of the old-school versus the new-school story-line. I guess old-school is kind of like De Niro in Heat - cold, ruthless, highly professional, but with some sort of honour code. I could definitely get into that. Looking forward to see how this develops.

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Act 1

No major changes needed

 

Actually, telling Preston to F-off and leaving him to get eaten by a Deathclaw would be an awesome Act 1 "major change" I could get behind as a bad-guy mod. :devil:

 

Yeah, it's not really necessary for the faction, but that IS in the plans. Look at the low priority section. (might even just do that as a separate mod, since it shouldn't be super difficult)

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Yeah, it's not really necessary for the faction, but that IS in the plans. Look at the low priority section. (might even just do that as a separate mod, since it shouldn't be super difficult)

 

 

I had an idea to "fix" that quest, and I don't mind sharing it or having it stolen by someone better than I. There already is a dialogue option to tell Preston "No", and then he get's pissy with you. This triggers the "Clear Concord of hostiles" quest objective.

 

My idea, is that clicking "No" triggers an optional objective: "(Optional) Leave Preston to his fate." If the player leaves the area for 24 hours without clearing Concord, the optional objective automatically completes and a new objective appears: "Return to the Museum of Freedom". Upon re-entry, you'll find a few raiders, and the bodies of Preston and the others. Looting Preston's body, you will find a Note in which he details how shortly after the Sole Survivor came and left (if the SS took the power armor, could say how it was their only means of escape), the raiders broke in and killed them all.

 

I saw you had the notes for killing them at any point. My idea wasn't to have the player kill them directly, that can be done easily by making them killable and triggering a fail on any open quests they have pending for you. My idea was simply to give the player a choice.

 

Also, for low priority items, I would like the option to:

Complete Cait's companion quest without getting her clean.

 

 

In my perfect RP choice/consequence (evil) mod, apathy should also be an option. You already mentioned "Kid in the Fridge". What happens if I get Billy out of the fridge, tell him "you're own your own". The next time I come by, I should find his corpse being eaten by a mirelurk or something.

Edited by JTL2
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More I think about it, this is a great idea, albeit a hugely ambitious one.


I'm not sure there is any version where the Gunners and the Minutemen can co-exist. They are too philosophically opposed, in much the same way as the BoS and the Instutute are in the vanilla game. The Commonwealth just can't contain both these factions. Both are 'indigenous' on-the-ground factions (unlike the BoS and the Institute). The Minutemen want to support the Commonwealth, while the Gunners want to exploit it. Both factions can offer security and protection to the Commonwealth. But that's where they differ: the Minutemen offer hope, the Gunners rule through fear.


To be honest, for me this was always the biggest problem with playing the vanilla main quest with the Minuteman (even though they're the guys I always end up working with): it feels like the vanilla game has been designed for a Bos vs. Institute showdown. Doing a Gunners vs. Minutemen showdown, however, works perfectly and feels like a more natural alternative.


I think the idea of controlling and exploiting the Commonwealth applies to both the Old Blood and New Blood Gunners. The Old Blood Gunners may have some sort of basic moral code, but they're a long way from being good guys.


Also, the whole Quincy Massacre represents too much water under the bridge. There could be an interesting side quest where the leader of the Old School Gunners asks the Sole Survivor to make contact with the Minutemen in an attempt to wash away the bad blood - but I'm not sure the Minutemen would ever accept that peace offering.


The only main faction I could ever see the Gunners working with is the Railroad. Like you say, the Railroad doesn't present a direct threat to the Gunners. In addition, the Railroad, which is perhaps lacking in footsoldiers, could hire the Gunners to help move synths around (this is essentially what the Sole Survivors ends up doing in the vanilla game anyway). This would make sense given that the Gunners are mercenaries and will work for whoever if the price if right. As for the Railroad, they might not like the Gunners much, but they need their services. In other words, there is no love lost between these two factions, but they can at least work and co-operate with one another.


Unless I missed something, there is one area that hasn't been fleshed out properly in the vanilla game. Bethesda did a good job on the lore leading up to and following the Quincy Massacre (Clint's betrayal of the Minutemen, etc.) But I never understood the dynamics between Captain Wes, Ryder and Cruz. You find all their holotapes at Gunners Plaza and it seems there was some sort of shenanigans going on, but I never figured out what exactly that was all about (Wes' orders to Cruz to retreat on a previous mission, and then Wes blaming Cruz for the retreat). It always felt like there was a missing beat to that storyline, one which could maybe be resolved/utilized in this project.


Anyway, just chewing the cud. Not sure if there's anything worthwhile in all that. Best of luck with the mod, and looking forward to playing it one of these days.

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Quincy Massacre? Spoiler alert! I must have missed that on my play-through (but I was with the Railroad). :pirate:

 

But I agree, as the Railroad was often classes as terrorists and were not afraid to kill anyone, even humans, who stood in thier way. It was an interesting story choice to say a synth's "life" was more important than a humans.

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Quincy Massacre? Spoiler alert! I must have missed that on my play-through (but I was with the Railroad). :pirate:

 

But I agree, as the Railroad was often classes as terrorists and were not afraid to kill anyone, even humans, who stood in thier way. It was an interesting story choice to say a synth's "life" was more important than a humans.

 

Nah, it's nothing major. It's just a bit of backstory for Preston - it explains how he, Sturges, and the others ended up in Concord. Preston refers to it a few times in conversations. Also, a couple of settlers mention it in passing. Later, if you visit Quincy, you can kill some of the characters who were involved in the original events. There's no formal mission, however, which is good because it gives projects like this one possible story strands to explore.

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