Making a vault; undecided on backstory

[cniall]

I'm trying to make my first mod for Fallout, and like God knows how many others I'm making a vault. However, I'd like to have some form of backstory for the vault and am now torn between two ideas:

 

1. The vault is a control vault, working as advertised with no in-built social experiment, but when the bombs began falling the residents could not enter (power failure to the main door, maybe?).

2. The vault wasn't owned by Vault-Tec but rather another organisation; Vault-Tec could have been hired to build it or the designs for it could have been stolen from them. Though construction of the vault was completed, it was not completed soon enough (maybe on 22nd or even early morning on 23rd October 2077) and those who were intended to inhabit the vault never did.

 

Each of the above has its own merits; the former seems more realistic but would probably make for a rather boring area, whereas the latter could make a more interesting environment but seems strained and would likely be more difficult to make.

 

As my modding ability progresses, I suppose I could find ways to make the first idea more interesting (perhaps revealing its locations to one of the various Wasteland factions like the Enclave, BoS and so on) but for now I really can't decide which to make. What do you guys think is more appealing?

 

(It should probably be noted that I'd prefer the vault to be pristine even if I think of a different idea to use and that however I make it, it probably won't be very good seeing as it's my first mod)

[mazakala]

I like the first one better, probably because I'm such a lore fanatic. Anyway, I don't see any reason why it would be boring! It'd be fun if you added a few hundred skeletons outside the vault door >:D

[cniall]

Mm, the first one does seem to fit in more naturally, as noted. It'd also give me a chance to implement some means of opening the door again with a small quest; maybe rigging a few fission batteries to the door control pod would work. I can't see the door mechanism needing too many fission batteries, especially since I'm tempted to believe that they can produce a pretty significant amount of power when necessary. Perhaps the power issues could be extended to cover the entire vault, with systems needing to be repaired and brought online before certain areas can be accessed.

 

The more I think about the first idea, the more tempting it seems, though I'd still need to find some way to give the player a reason to go to the vault. Maybe the vault could contain a large amount of high-tech equipment as part of the social experiment; this would also fit quite well with the power issues, with certain systems only being usable after repair.

[mazakala]

The more I think about the first idea, the more tempting it seems, though I'd still need to find some way to give the player a reason to go to the vault. Maybe the vault could contain a large amount of high-tech equipment as part of the social experiment; this would also fit quite well with the power issues, with certain systems only being usable after repair.

 

I don't think it's essential to have a good reason for the player to go into the vault. Back in the day when I played Fallout 2 I spent a lot of time trying to get into the lower level of Toxic Caves despite having no clue as to what would await me there. The natural curiosity of the player should not be underestimated, it's much more exciting trying to get to an area when you don't know what's waiting for you :yes:

[cniall]

Yeah, while there shouldn't necessarily be a good reason for the player to enter the vault I just thought it'd be better if the player had some form of reward for bringing the vault online; while I don't want to make it too hard to get the main door working and enter the upper levels, I wasn't planning on making it too easy to bring the remainder of the vault systems online and felt that some reward -- not necessarily in items, possibly a more extensive backstory or something -- would be appropriate. Exploring a control vault isn't too interesting in its raw form.

 

I'll have to give it some more thought, anyway. Most of the things I'm considering are way beyond my ability at the moment anyway. I've only read through some of the Bethesda-supplied GECK tutorials and while I can build the cells and have terminals unlock doors, that's pretty much the limit of my ability. Hell, I can't even make a terminal open a door yet (changing myLink.unlock to myLink.activate on the terminal's result script and linking it to an unlocked door didn't work for some reason), heh.

[Tony the Wookie]

If you are looking for a reason to go to your vault, I have a town in need of a Water Purifier to repair their old one...

 

I was just going to raid Vault 108, but if your interested I could send them toward your Vault.

 

I am also building some new furniture meshes and such, and I can save you a copy of the perfect condition version before I start tearing it down to fit the Fallout world, if you are interested in useing that in you vault.

 

This is the mod that I have just started on, if you are interested in working the story into mine or whatever

 

http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=137271

[cniall]

I appreciate the thought of including my vault for the water chip, but it's not necessary. I'm yet to decide if the vault would be a control vault or have some social experiment (probably involving high-tech equipment as previously stated, since it would fit into the power failure story fairly well) but there's no need to have it integrated into another mod for the sake of a reason to go there. I'd certainly appreciate it if you were to send me the perfect-condition furniture meshes, though; the range of furniture in a condition fitting for an untouched vault is relatively small and any expansion to that would be great.

[Tony the Wookie]

I appreciate the thought of including my vault for the water chip, but it's not necessary. I'm yet to decide if the vault would be a control vault or have some social experiment (probably involving high-tech equipment as previously stated, since it would fit into the power failure story fairly well) but there's no need to have it integrated into another mod for the sake of a reason to go there. I'd certainly appreciate it if you were to send me the perfect-condition furniture meshes, though; the range of furniture in a condition fitting for an untouched vault is relatively small and any expansion to that would be great.

 

ok, I will send the furniture to you before I start destroying it :biggrin:

 

but right now I am working on the exterior of my town, so it may be a while before I get back to working on my furniture (I decided to build the exterior of the town first, and then build the enterior one building at a time)

 

but from the way you talk, it doesn't seem like you are going to be needing if for at least few weeks while you get all your other stuff figured out

 

if you want to see some of the untextured furniture I have started there is a few couchs on the page I gave you a link too, they are really just the prototypes

 

I will probly end up with a lot of different furniture, since I want to personalize it for different characters and houses/shops, and really, furniture is not that hard to make in 3Ds Max

[cniall]

Yeah, I won't be needing the furniture for a while. I'm very new to the GECK and scripting -- while I have some experience with Perl, the language used in Fallout 3 is pretty different, particularly in that it seems to be more object-oriented where I was more comfortable with imperative programing with a little bit of functional thrown in -- so I need to get used to more advanced features of that before I need any specialised content like the furniture.

 

I'll be going on holiday for two weeks on 28th July, as well, with Internet access that is at best limited and at worst non-existent. I can't work on the mod there, either, given that F3 and the associated files are on my desktop and my laptop isn't powerful enough to run F3 and is running Linux anyway.

 

When it comes to the stage at which I begin needing the specialised content, I'll see what I can do in Blender for the furniture as well as using whatever you provide. While Blender and 3DS Max are pretty different, furniture is fairly regular and shouldn't be too hard to make with a little experience.

[Tony the Wookie]

Yeah, I won't be needing the furniture for a while. I'm very new to the GECK and scripting -- while I have some experience with Perl, the language used in Fallout 3 is pretty different, particularly in that it seems to be more object-oriented where I was more comfortable with imperative programing with a little bit of functional thrown in -- so I need to get used to more advanced features of that before I need any specialised content like the furniture.

 

I'll be going on holiday for two weeks on 28th July, as well, with Internet access that is at best limited and at worst non-existent. I can't work on the mod there, either, given that F3 and the associated files are on my desktop and my laptop isn't powerful enough to run F3 and is running Linux anyway.

 

When it comes to the stage at which I begin needing the specialised content, I'll see what I can do in Blender for the furniture as well as using whatever you provide. While Blender and 3DS Max are pretty different, furniture is fairly regular and shouldn't be too hard to make with a little experience.

 

Well, just remember you have to learn to unwrap and texture the furniture as well :wink:

 

That is where the real fun it