Requesting a Writer.

[OHWceta]

On my last post I posted a little information on the Species' I plan on creating if that helps you guys out in what I want a story for.

 

Next I'll need to come up with some interesting characters and what they have to do with the whole scenario.

[stapletonj]

you might have a nice mod going on here. NecroPhoenix is an awesome writer. he can come up with some awesome ideas. so keep him in mind. good luck boyo

[OHWceta]

Yeah, I'm more or less trying to discuss ideas with several writers to get a broader range of ideas to pick from.

 

After getting History for the Vault I'll need to come up with some interesting characters and what they have to do with the whole scenario.

[JamesMilamber]

From the Fallout Wiki:

 

"It may be possible that Mirelurk Kings were created from Vault 92. Since the Mirelurk infestation happened at the same time the vault citizens became "crazies" it may have created an evolutionary link between humans and Mirelurks. The Mirelurk Kings are capable of a ranged "Sonic" attack. Also if you look through Herbert "Daring" Dashwood's terminal, there is an entry about Mirelurk Kings saying that they appear as if they were from entirely different species."

 

Sounds like you've got a good starting point right there...a Vault already filled with aquatic creatures and a canon excuse for them to be there. Just expand on it a bit - include some FEV research notes (experimenting on the effects of sonic control on FEV infected subjects, for instance), and between that and radiation you can pretty much make whatever bizarre mutations you want.

[OHWceta]

Alright, got that part out of the way.

 

Now how about some characters? What kind of characters do we want and what kind of characters do we need in this kind of scenario?

 

And what about a plot as to why you go into the vault in the first place?

[Bingo Bango]

Now how about some characters? What kind of characters do we want and what kind of characters do we need in this kind of scenario?

 

This depends on other decisions you make about the vault, but perhaps some characters that never left the place - an original inhabitant, ghoulified? The original overseer, frozen? Maybe a brain in a jar, begging for death, providing a moral choice whether to grant its wish or not...

You could have some outsiders in the vault that were trying to loot/investigate, but that leaves you quite limited when it comes to dialogue and interactivity - "Hey, what are you doing down here? Help me fight these things!" "OK." Or maybe some wastelanders taken prisoner by the vault's monsters ...

 

As for entering the vault in the first place, just wandering in is fine for most of the ones in the stock game, right? Otherwise, any reason other than the arid & overused radio-transmission-calls-for-help should be brilliant.

[Rossum]

Project Atlantis:

 

One of the various projects to preserve humanity (in a fashion) after a nuclear war. has several parts.

 

 

Underwater Cities - most of them just a few hundred feet below the surface but many can be a mile or so down. They are mostly metal hulls similar to submarines but stationary... some of them are submarines but not really designed to swim around much. The occupants are mostly human but have access to power armor thats designed mainly to protect against the crushing depths and not so much for combat. There are also robots that can do underwater maintenance (mostly to prevent barnacles and coral from damaging the hulls of the buildings). The underwater buildings are atomic powered and can handle all the oxygen problems and the food is mostly taken from either fishing robots or underwater fish farms.

 

 

Mobile Cities - Giant boats, like aircraft carriers or massive fishing boats. Some are actually just those boats that survived the bombs and have kept themselves in operation. A few others were designed to survive the war and to operate for years or even generations without coming back to the land. Their hulls are usually maintained by robots or were covered in a special non-stick compound that can last for hundreds of years.

 

 

Modified Humans:

 

Chimera Mermaids - these were the first experiments with modifying humans to life underwater. Since genetic modification has largely been limited to making embryos of new species or mutating people into Super Mutants with the FEV (which also makes them sterile) then turning citizens into mermaids were problematic but eventually succeeded. Chimera Mermaids are indeed half woman and half fish... they are created by surgically grafting together a human upper body with a fish tail and gills and using special drugs to modify the tissues to not attack one another.

 

The result is a creature who can breath air and talk (with human lungs) or breath water (with shark gills), eats human food (though raw fish works as well) and can be capable of intelligence (most of them have human intelligence but a few go insane from the drugs needed to modify the immune system). Chimera mermaids have human reproductive organs (which are covered by folds of flesh so they aren't visible normally). They give live birth to human children who will grow up like normal humans in an air-filled environment (either on the surface or in an underwater building). The human children are not especially mutated... about the same level of mutation as wastelanders.

 

Chimera Mermaids often wear masks while underwater... they can breath water with their shark gills but don't like getting saltwater in their human lungs. Some of them do get seawater in their lungs, its generally not fatal but the salt can damage the tissue and give them a raspy voice or even make them unable to breath air anymore or to speak. Mermaids can survive very deep oceanic depths because their body pressure is equal to the surrounding water. Power armor can be crushed by the depths but mermaids 'go with the flow'.

 

Most mermaids are quite intelligent people and at least know a bit about maintaining the tech and medicine they need to undergo the mermaid conversion process though only a few of their surgeons are skilled enough to perform the procedure. The proceedure is dangerous and painful and some wonder if its even a good idea when they could just return to the surface and start lives there as normal people. However, the leaders of the mermaid community say that they must keep doing this to maintain their tradition and preserve their technology.

 

 

Some interactions are as follows:

 

1). a mermaid has fallen in love with a surface dweller and wants to become a normal human again... but doing so would require getting a pair of human legs to graft onto her body. The leaders of the merfolk say that that is an affront to nauture and would never allow it... but a rogue merfolk scientist thinks that she can arrange for that to happen. The Lone Wanderer is enlisted to help out, either by convincing the mermaid that its all a bad idea, helping her resolve her love with the surface dweller without the surgery, finding a suitable 'donor' to get the gal some legs, or maybe letting the surface dweller get turned into a merman.

 

2). The Lone Wanderer comes across a merfolk trader who is willing to exchange pearls and sea items for surface tech. They even might help get items from a sunken ship if the Wanderer has some good stuff to trade.

 

3). A less reputable merfolk is trading underwater stuff and weaponry (like a harpoon gun or a nasty serrated sword) for frag grenades, land mines, or other explosives. The player later learns of ships being sunk and attacks on areas near water.

 

4). The rogue mermaid scientist has developed a way to control mirelurks and gets them to attack surface people to raid their technology.

 

5). A group of humans have formed a cult and are worshiping the Siren Sisters who have brought them food from the underwater kingdom and have brought jugs of saltwater (make that non-irradiated saltwater since far out into the ocean the fallout would be so diluted that it would be effectively rad-free.) The people can then distill the water using a boiler or a solar-heater to get purified water. This is their more legitimate dealing because they also talk about how everything is better 'under the sea' They can convince many of them to do things for them with the promise that they can have their more loyal followers turned into merfolk.

 

6). Some sacred sharks (the special sharks that are bred to be used as the grafted tissue for a mermaids tail) are in danger due to a group of poachers capturing or hunting them. The merfolk have attacked the boats that hurt their sharks but need someone to go deal with the poachers on their surface compound.

 

7). Some of the merfolk have had bad reactions to their operation and have lept out of the water and tried to live on land. They will die from the elements or suffer at the hands of less reputable wastelanders or surface creatures unless the Lone Wanderer can rescue them.

[OHWceta]

I'm quite impressed with all the ideas everyone is coming up with so far. I will note about the whole "Mermaid" thing that I wasn't planning on actual mermaids and most of the hybrids will have human legs (maybe a little more streamlined and longer webbed toes for better swimming)

 

As for characters I wasn't sure what to do as far as people go but I do know there will be some vault dwellers who haven't gone feral. Like Gouls the "Merpeople" will have Feral variations and sane variations. Maybe a story or quest to help one of them? or several?

 

Perhaps there's something in the process and experiment that causes some to go Feral and others not.

 

BTW, I want to try and stay close to human body types so if I make a companion character they can be given most human outfits (Typically they'll be wearing old worn-out vault jumpsuits)

 

Here's Several animal traits found in sane vault dwellers.

Great Whites are highly agressive and like to talk badly about the Cetaeceans, though they are far from dumb brutes, sharks are highly intelligent, their society has probably given them mechanical and maitenance related tasks.

 

Hammerheads are the most social and curious, they tend to hate fighting but if convinced they fight very agressively. Usually they work as the hunter/gatherers or shopkeepers. Maybe one of them needs you to help them rid the food storage of some Feral Great Whites, or maybe there's one who wants to join you and explore outside their vault.

 

Cetaeceans are probably the smartest and most peaceful of the races. They tend to also be rather cocky and boastful, much to the annoyance of Great Whites. The overseer is probably a Cetaecean. They probably hold the widest variation in jobs, from medics to teachers

 

Lionfish tend to be rather grumpy and unfriendly with a selfish streak and will only help you if they get something out of it. They enjoy making things and get distracted easily making them good cooks even if others complain they take far too long to cook a dish

 

Most Jellies lose their sanity do to the vast loss in brain capicity in the experimental process. So a sane Jelly is quite rare. Most of them stick to short and simple phrases and refer to themselves in the third person. They have very little capacity for creativity and rely strictly on memory based logic. They are quite frail and not suited for most jobs besides sentry and gaurd duty. At least 2 gaurd the overseer's office. and a few will be roaming the halls.

[Rossum]

I suppose they wouldn't really need webbed toes. They would basically need gills and maybe some natural protection for their eyes. The rest can be handled with flippers or something.

 

I think gills on fish work by having the fish gulp water as it swims, then the water goes through their 'lungs' to extract the oxygen from it, and then it is expelled through the gills... so a human with gills would usually exhale through the gills on their ribs as they swim and when they walk out on land then they take a moment to expel the water from their lungs (by opening their gills and spraying out all the water) and then seal the gills up so that they don't dehydrate on land.

 

A blow to their gills on their torso would be painful like getting punched in the nose so that might constitute a weak spot.

 

Merfolk might commonly wear flippers on their suits that greatly enhance their swimming speed by decreases their running speed. Though they could change into different armor for when they are on land... like an armor made from Mirelurk shells similar in design to the AntAgonizers outfit.

[OHWceta]

Perhaps for the lionfish and somewhat for the sharks.

 

Shark gills vary slightly from regular fish gills, It's been a while since I did the study, I really need to brush up before I take marine biology.

 

The Cetaeaceans being part whale and therefore mammals and do not have gills. But probably a broader or larger chest to capacitate larger lungs for better breathing. I'm not sure how it works exactly. I do know that as opposed to breathing underwater that whales must breathe air but can hold their breath for extended periods of times like for several hours in some species, though in typical species an hour is about average.

 

As for the Jellies they will still "breathe" but not through their mouths, their body will get oxygen absorbed through their thin layer of skin