Currently writing story and characters for a mod and would love feedback.

[Northernwastelands]

I am currently working on a mod. I am working on story and characters and i would love to get feedback and discuss it. I won't be giving away too much so here's everything i'll be giving. Feel free to ask questions.

I'll go over some plot synopsis.

It takes place on a more northern region, specifically Niagara Falls. (I vacationed a lot there as a kid so it's a location i'm quite familiar with)

The area is at war between the USA side and the CAN side, both sides wanting it for the potential to capitalize off of the location as a tourist attraction, but also out of a petty feud that's been going on for centuries. Those of you familiar with Fallout lore know just why there'd be such a conflict between between the two sides. And there's people in big power even fueling the petty rivalry for monetary gain, national pride, etc.

There's also rumored to be hidden technology within the area that's said to be guarded by a horrible monster feared and hated by both sides. This hidden technology is desired by both sides as well as a secret third faction.

There are four factions. The side that wants to claim the region for USA, the side that wants to claim it for CAN, the side that wants to claim it for neither of them but for themselves and the side that want to unite the people of both sides against USA and CAN to be independent.

That's the main story but another big aspect of it are the companions.

Creating the companions is a joy that i can't put into words i like how implemented they are and the cool ways to interact with them, how they interact with each other and how the player can drive their stories and change them as people, for better or for worse.

I decide to base the companions on a theme and i decided on high school character archetypes and stereotypes you'd see from old 70s movies and television. Such as the jock, the nerd, the rebel, the teacher's pet, etc.

Yep, i got characters from the companions to minor NPCs.

There's not that much so far but i like them.

I want to emphasis the petty feud because a theme i wanna work with is people, especially nations, letting small petty things fuel their need for fighting and war.

Another thing i wanna explore is how people can blame each other over everything bad that's happening, over events that happened long ago, letting old pain continue to effect the present and refusing to let go.

Basically i want to delve into how humans can allow themselves to start big problems over little things, how people can make a mountain out of a mole hill and rope others into their crazy views.

I also wanna delve into other subjects such as tribe mentality, corruption, forbidden love, etc.

I plan on giving the companions a good amount of content. Each one has story lines and quests with not just themselves but with other companions too.

I am also thinking of a little attraction where you can ride an irradiated moose.

More detail on some of the companions. Keep in mind i have yet to come up with actual names for them.

The Rebel

A young lady living alone in a hut.

There's quite a few raider gangs in her area but they don't bother her due to her sniper skills. They hire her for her sniping so she has gained their respect, she even has the nickname of "Raider princess".

Although she doesn't take all jobs they offer, she only goes for jobs taking out people from the bigger factions instead of any more innocent people from small towns. She does this not only out of her own morality but also it's just more fun for her.

Her favorite hobby is just relaxing and smoking weed.

Her karma is neutral.

The Nerd

An underappreciated genius who strives to prove his intellect to the world.

He's good at creating energy weapons, good with machines, and good with computers.

But he's not good with fights and is gullible. People call him pathetic for it and sometimes believes them.

Maybe he needs to prove his worth to himself as well.

His karma is good.

The Weird Kid

A crazy killer, specializes in unarmed combat.

He rules over a small town of escaped asylum patients due to being the most fearsome of the bunch.

He has a strange obsession with deathclaws, seems envious of them due to their power and freedom.

Once he finally killed a deathclaw he took its hand and he got his own hand surgically replaced with that of the deathclaw's. Now he uses his deathclaw hand as his most valued weapon.

He's learning how to use his left hand because usually he's right handed but, well, he replaced it with a deathclaw hand and he can't really use it for anything he needs a normal hand for.

Clearly he hasn't thought through his plan, he acknowledges this in hindsight, but he doesn't care, having a deathclaw hand is just too much fun for him.

His karma is evil.

It'll take years i know, possibly even over a decade, but i know the time will be worth it as long as i get to deliver something great to the community.

I plan on taking it slow and work on little bits at a time. Right now i'm working on the story and script, then i'll get to concept art and designs, etc, so on and so forth.

I'm always excited to learn new things. Right now i'm learning 3D modeling. Can't wait to make new outfits, weapons, etc for the mod.

[madmongo]

Canada was annexed for its resources by the U.S. prior to the Great War. Obviously a lot of Canadians weren't too happy about this and there is even a possible Canadian terrorist mentioned in FO3 (Danielle Faye, a "victim" of car theft who gave inconsistent testimony to police in Germantown, MD, and had a Canadian flag in her trunk). The Niagara River makes an obvious border between the folks in the area who "seceded" from the U.S. on the Canadian side after the Great War and the folks who were original U.S. citizens on the U.S. side of the river. There is also sabotage at Niagara that is mentioned in Point Lookout, though exactly what happened isn't specified.

 

I like your setup and I think it works well with the known lore.

 

if the Peace Bridge was damaged after the Great War, or maybe Buffalo was nuked in the Great War and the bridge collapsed, this would place extra emphasis on Niagara Falls since the Rainbow Bridge would then be the only decent bridge across the Niagara River. Whichever side controls the bridge (the New Canadians or those loyal to the old U.S.) would then have massive control over trade in the area. There is also a railroad bridge over the river north of the falls, but that's easy to deal with. You can either have the bridge be collapsed or you could have a train stuck on the bridge making it impractical for brahmin caravans.

 

One of your factions would probably want to just blow up the Rainbow Bridge just to stop everyone from constantly fighting over the stupid thing.

 

There used to be a power plant at Niagara Falls. It was the first major hydroelectric plant in the world and was retired because the old 25Hz generators wore out and would have had to have been completely replaced, along with all of the other gear that operated on 25 Hz (normal for the U.S. is 60 Hz). Given the resource wars of Fallout, it would have made sense for the hydroelectric generators at Niagara to be upgraded and replaced to help alleviate the resource shortage. You have models for hydroelectric generators in FNV for Hoover Dam, so you don't need to make new models for that. I think there are also tunnels under the city of Niagara Falls that are used to siphon water off of the Niagara River to operate the plant. The generators would likely fall into disrepair after the Great War, but if someone was setting up a secret lair with hidden technology, the old power plant would be a good place to do it since all they need to do is repair the generators and then they have power for their secret technology.

 

Making animations for FNV is difficult and there are no good tutorials. I took what information out there but even then it took a lot of trial and error to figure it out. There are a lot of hidden gotchas such as if you have your start and end tags incorrect in the animation loop, you can't just fix them because the GECK apparently stores something in its entries for those animations, so the only way to fix it is to rename the fixed animation to something else so that whatever the GECK uses internally is updated along with the fixed animation. The long and short of this is that creating a new animation for an irradiated moose that you can ride is going to be a lot more difficult than you would think. I would drop this entirely from your mod unless you really want to spend a lot of time figuring out how to do animations in FNV.

 

I would place your "raider princess" on the top floor of an abandoned building. The Niagara Falls area is built-up cities on both sides of the falls. Raiders controlling different blocks of the cities makes more sense to me than a "raider princess" in a hut someplace. A high location like the top floor of a building is also a better sniper position.

 

I wouldn't put much emphasis on tourism. While that may be what Niagara Falls is known for in our world, in Fallout, most folks are just trying to survive and don't have the luxury of going on tours just to see some pretty waterfalls. New Vegas gets tourism in the Fallout world because Mr. House recreated the old casinos using local gangs, and those casinos are an oasis in the desert that also provides gambling, recreation, and sex for NCR soldiers in the area. If you want to draw people into the Niagara Falls you need to have something more than just the falls to make them want to go there. There are casinos around the falls, so maybe someone has rebuilt a couple of those. Gambling and trade would be good reasons to draw someone to Niagara Falls.

Edited March 26, 2023 by madmongo

[Northernwastelands]

 

Canada was annexed for its resources by the U.S. prior to the Great War. Obviously a lot of Canadians weren't too happy about this and there is even a possible Canadian terrorist mentioned in FO3 (Danielle Faye, a "victim" of car theft who gave inconsistent testimony to police in Germantown, MD, and had a Canadian flag in her trunk). The Niagara River makes an obvious border between the folks in the area who "seceded" from the U.S. on the Canadian side after the Great War and the folks who were original U.S. citizens on the U.S. side of the river. There is also sabotage at Niagara that is mentioned in Point Lookout, though exactly what happened isn't specified.

I like your setup and I think it works well with the known lore.

Thanks. This piece of lore is exactly what lead to the inspiration for this.

 

if the Peace Bridge was damaged after the Great War, or maybe Buffalo was nuked in the Great War and the bridge collapsed, this would place extra emphasis on Niagara Falls since the Rainbow Bridge would then be the only decent bridge across the Niagara River. Whichever side controls the bridge (the New Canadians or those loyal to the old U.S.) would then have massive control over trade in the area. There is also a railroad bridge over the river north of the falls, but that's easy to deal with. You can either have the bridge be collapsed or you could have a train stuck on the bridge making it impractical for brahmin caravans.

One of your factions would probably want to just blow up the Rainbow Bridge just to stop everyone from constantly fighting over the stupid thing.

Yes, i think the Peace Bridge should be destroyed due to the symbolic potential of it and how much meaning it would have for an ending where the bridge starts getting rebuilt. Might even take on different meanings depending on what faction wins.

And a quest about destroying the Rainbow Bridge would is also a great idea. Thanks for that one.

 

 

There used to be a power plant at Niagara Falls. It was the first major hydroelectric plant in the world and was retired because the old 25Hz generators wore out and would have had to have been completely replaced, along with all of the other gear that operated on 25 Hz (normal for the U.S. is 60 Hz). Given the resource wars of Fallout, it would have made sense for the hydroelectric generators at Niagara to be upgraded and replaced to help alleviate the resource shortage. You have models for hydroelectric generators in FNV for Hoover Dam, so you don't need to make new models for that. I think there are also tunnels under the city of Niagara Falls that are used to siphon water off of the Niagara River to operate the plant. The generators would likely fall into disrepair after the Great War, but if someone was setting up a secret lair with hidden technology, the old power plant would be a good place to do it since all they need to do is repair the generators and then they have power for their secret technology.

I too had that power plant in mind but i didn't know what to do with it until you brought up this idea. Thanks.

 

Making animations for FNV is difficult and there are no good tutorials. I took what information out there but even then it took a lot of trial and error to figure it out. There are a lot of hidden gotchas such as if you have your start and end tags incorrect in the animation loop, you can't just fix them because the GECK apparently stores something in its entries for those animations, so the only way to fix it is to rename the fixed animation to something else so that whatever the GECK uses internally is updated along with the fixed animation. The long and short of this is that creating a new animation for an irradiated moose that you can ride is going to be a lot more difficult than you would think. I would drop this entirely from your mod unless you really want to spend a lot of time figuring out how to do animations in FNV.

Yeah, i should bring things down a bit or more. But i'm still going to have moose. Maybe even a secret boss moose man.

 

 

I would place your "raider princess" on the top floor of an abandoned building. The Niagara Falls area is built-up cities on both sides of the falls. Raiders controlling different blocks of the cities makes more sense to me than a "raider princess" in a hut someplace. A high location like the top floor of a building is also a better sniper position.

Well duh! Of coarse! Why didn't i think of that!? Thank you so much!

 

 

I wouldn't put much emphasis on tourism. While that may be what Niagara Falls is known for in our world, in Fallout, most folks are just trying to survive and don't have the luxury of going on tours just to see some pretty waterfalls. New Vegas gets tourism in the Fallout world because Mr. House recreated the old casinos using local gangs, and those casinos are an oasis in the desert that also provides gambling, recreation, and sex for NCR soldiers in the area. If you want to draw people into the Niagara Falls you need to have something more than just the falls to make them want to go there. There are casinos around the falls, so maybe someone has rebuilt a couple of those. Gambling and trade would be good reasons to draw someone to Niagara Falls.

Makes sense. I'll also take this into consideration.

All in all, thank you.