Frost-like rework w/ hostile settlements & patrols. Retake Boston!

[aprn7676]

Every settlement is not only occupied by hostile groups, but by patrols of hostiles from the same group. A random assignment at the start of the game could place factions at each settlement. The strength, level, gear, numbers, traps, and other defenses like turrets would be set up to make the game more difficult the farther you go from the NW corner of the map where you start...

 

You come out of your deep freeze right after your son is taken and wife is killed. Shawn's captors are getting away. You know you'll die if you engage, . . . because you are too weak and not properly geared.

 

You want to find your son, but first you must survive. Shawn will be captive at a random settlement along the extremities of the map. As you head to Sanctuary, you fight off a couple weak and poorly armed foes and make yourself a basic base of sorts. Less extreme than FROST - this explore and conquer style mod will allow some settlement building but perhaps using a gated system or schematics to make building well fortified settlements impossible until well into your exploration. You notice that the further you go, the more deadly and plentiful are your enemies. You want more than mere survival. You want to take back Boston from every crazed psycho you run into.

 

Similar Far Cry 3, taking a settlement means the patrols assigned to that settlement will not respawn (rather than disappear). Respawn rates are high enough that you have to be tactical about spending your limited ammo on an assault. Say you take Ten Pines. If you aren't successful, the wasted munitions will really slow your progress. If you are successful by means of sneaking in and dealing with the occupants, the patrols will eventually attack and possibly retake your settlement if you haven't dealt with them. Their patrol will overlap with that of other nearby settlements. Raiders at one will have a really short detection distance for, let say, the supermutants at Outpost Zosma and their patrols. Trying to get them to attack each other will be a viable strategy but a dangerous one.

 

Most factions sort of exist, but are altered to fit a story line that's bare bones (computers and notes). All factions are hostile and battle with anyone else for terrain and settlements. There are no 'good guys' and no one to join. "Survivors" like in frost maybe hostile if approached or threatened but also may not be. A few limited traders will exist. Building stores in your settlements will be extremely costly to keep an economy that feels like a challenge all the way through. Minutemen and BOS might be nerfed or eliminated for balance. The Railroad could be renamed and made into an organized group of raiders at odds with the gunners and everyone.

 

Diamond city is a fortress and will prompt players to stockpile their best gear/ammo at Hangman's Alley. You'll need power armor, missile launchers, maybe even a fatman - just to get in the front door. Taking it over as a settlement will be key to successfully moving further east and south because it will have a larger number of patrol groups attache to it being in a hostile state. Those groups will have a random chance every few days in game to walk through any player owned settlements east or south of diamond city ( ). Spectacle Island and the castle will be offer a significant challenge as well.

 

This way, the player feels there is more than survival to the game and a sense of accomplishment for taking back Boston (and then Fry Harbor and Nuka-World?). Also, the random find of Shawn in one of the settlements will be a nice goal to work toward!

 

This idea is inspired obviously by FROST but also from mods like War of the Common Wealth, More Enemies, and NPCs travel. The last in particular has set up patrolling groups of every faction with a lot of customization for how big the groups are and how many on the map. I personally like that Frost has eliminated all the quests which I've already done a few times. I like how Horizon allows for a challenging play-through with settlement building. I like how both make your ammo and money really feel valuable and rare. I'm hoping someone will want to combine all these aspects in one mod along with my "re-take Boston" scenario adding to the fun of building up your settlements.

 

Thanks for reading :)