Mod concept: Tremors

[Xbalanque84]

I was watching a New Vegas shitpost video recently when a certain word nudged my muse: "perfection." Looking at the terrain and geography of the Fallout Mojave, I suddenly realized a connection I hadn't noticed before: New Vegas would logically be in the same general area as Perfection Valley, Nevada. What if there was a valley that caravans gradually learned to steer clear of over the years, because no one who entered ever came back? What if something there survived far worse extinction events than the bombs dropping unscathed? What if an accident of geology is the only thing keeping them from escaping into the Mojave and eating literally everything that walks?

 

For those who don't know what I'm talking about, A) I pity you, and B) I give you this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlzvh0cR9q4

 

I am already aware of some Fallout 4 mods that modify Bloodworms to graboid size, but what I'm thinking of is a bit more ambitious. Specifically, a quote from Bert Gummer comes to mind: "Never thought I'd have to shoot through dirt..." The graboids (and their tentacles) would be functionally invulnerable unless they surfaced... which they would be ill-inclined to do. Even exposed on the surface, only the worms' tentacles would be vulnerable to small-arms fire, melee attacks to the main body would result in knockback (though a ripper would probably f*#@ them up a bit), and nothing short of high caliber rounds, heavy weapons, explosives, or energy weapons would have a chance of making a dent in the main body. Attacks would consist of either tentacles' biting attacks, tentacles wrapping around your leg (which you could escape via a well-timed VATS sequence), or bite attacks from the worm's main beak (both above ground and underfoot insta-kills). Basically, you would be forced very quickly to learn the geology of the surrounding terrain of the valley (or just stick to high ground) to avoid being insta-killed. As long as you're in physical contact with the ground, they can hear every move and sound you make (especially if you're standing on safe ground), and they will literally wait nearby until you try to make a run for it or something else draws their attention (some added difficulty for survival players, you risk dying of thirst by staying in one place too long). And don't think about outrunning them: while you could hypothetically reach sufficient max speed to outrun them in short bursts, you don't have enough stamina or chems to keep it up on the open desert. And while it is possible to hide by standing still when in the open, graboids are canny enough to grasp what you're doing; they would simply fall back to the waiting game until you or something else attracted their attention with more noise... or use their tentacles to feel around the last spot they heard you.

 

Worse, these worms are smarter than you'd think. Crippling or blowing off a tentacle would make the worm that owned it increasingly cautious, sneaky, and less likely to take the bait for any traps you set up. They can be tricked into swallowing non-edible objects, but they are just as likely to notice it's not meat and spit it out... straight up into the air like a geyser (which can be a problem if the item in question is a fused/timed explosive). For the purposes of gameplay, wounded graboids (specifically, those with crippled tentacles) could have a higher likelihood/shortened window to realize whatever bait you laid isn't edible/a bomb, and thus an increased likelihood to spit it back out. (Would also reduce most robots short of a Sentry Bot to scrap, though Eyebots, Mister Gutsies, and other hovering models would be unlikely to attract their attention unless they made noise.) Loud noises (e.g. those coming from explosives or gunfire) are physically painful to them, and will force them to back off momentarily before circling back; worse for you, as soon as the ringing in their ears stops, every single graboid in earshot will be homing in on the explosion site (or anything walking/running away from it). If possible, you could have them come to recognize the danger associated with gunfire, prompting gradually more cautious stalking over the course of the campaign.

Unlike the movie, I don't know if it would be feasible using the game engine to trick graboids into running full speed into solid barriers or off a cliff. But I do know something from the sequels that would be enticing enough to make this "The Floor is Lava" game from Hell worth it: a schematic for explosive remote controlled cars and the associated detonator. All but guaranteed to grab a graboid's attention, and a remote detonator to make sure it doesn't have time to realize what's up. LOL You could even include Bert's compound and his obscenely large weapons cache as the reward/home base. Maybe have his skeleton sitting in a chair with an anti-tank rifle pointed at the floor.

 

Other ideas:

• Rocks as a thrown weapon: used primarily to make noise and lure graboids to a particular spot. Cheap and plentiful, but don't actually hurt graboids. Luring successful when worm either fully surfaces or tentacles start waving around on that spot, searching for prey.
• Schematics for meat-wrapped explosives: reduces or removes the likelihood of a worm coughing up the bait.
• Schematics for some kind of noise-making device, perhaps a variant of the RC bombs.
• Use companions and NPCs to make noise to cause diversions: can use walkie-talkies to coordinate over long distances.
• A new module for ED-E: allows him to transmit loud noises while floating just out of reach for a worm to grab him (barring a full-body lunge/breach, that is). Send your robotic companion to cause a distraction while you make a run for it, then call him back in stealth mode.
• A special breaching animation that launches half of a graboid's body out of the ground: graboids can perform in front of you to cut off your escape/get at persistent sources of sound beyond their reach (does not apply to high ground/safe zones).
• Special corpse and death animation for graboids that swallow explosives: shoots a geyser of dirt, blood and guts in the air that rains gibs down over a wide radius, leaving behind a crater filled with gore and the graboid's beak.
• Seismographs or ground penetrating radar devices: used to track the movements of graboids, both as personal devices and possibly a big one at Bert's compound that let's one track them across the whole valley. Added bonus of showing rock formations one could shelter on.
• Custom animations of mobs and NPCs getting pulled underground.
• Skeletons in high places, perhaps with associated journal entries about them dying from thirst and starvation, recounting how their buddy just got slurped after trying to make a run for it, etc.
• A noticeable lack of megafauna that can't fly (that, or make them just as likely as you to get eaten by graboids)
• Graboids breaching through the floor of buildings without a solid stone or concrete foundation: don't think you're safe inside, climb up on the roof!
• Possible scripted events (e.g. pole vaulting) from one high point to another.
• Assuming one goes as far as writing a story-based quest for this mod, perhaps a geological event (e.g. an earthquake) breaks open the mountain perimeter to Perfection, providing a potential avenue for the graboids to spread into the Mojave. This could prompt you to either try and exterminate the worms (unlikely to definitively eliminate them), or go poking around in some caves or mines which you would have to collapse or cause a fault to shift to cut off the graboids' escape route.
• A crazed super mutant character (potential companion?) obsessed with keeping quiet.
• Solving a question never asked before: do graboids like the taste of ghouls?

I realize there's more to the Tremors lore to potentially work with, but A) I absolutely refuse to view anything past Tremors 3, and B) I leave that can of worms (no pun intended) entirely up to anyone who decides to run with this idea. Shriekers and Ass-blasters can wait, I just want to see someone do something with giant worms that force you to think and explosive RC cars. As I have neither the talent nor patience to do this myself, however, I am deferring to the experts (ie actual modders) and offer this idea to toy with if they so choose.