Giant robots (ridable)

[devinpatterson]

Oh, Enclave could definitely do this - possibly even something quite advanced and capable of quite fluid mobility. The Brotherhood might also be capable of repairing something on this order, although it'd be a larger, slower pre-war model.

Liberty Prime is arguably Robert House's greatest achievement in robotics and quite possibly the largest Bot ever made. So I believe the tech exists/existed but I don't think it is something that can be reproduced by any of the current FONV factions, I just don't believe they could match the largest and most succesful robotics company in it's pre-war heyday. But I do think the enclave and BOS can repair, maintain etc them if found (just like the DC BOS) and if they have the resources or help from the courier. However with the Enclave well past the peak of it's power and long considered irrelevant in the west, I'm not too sure how much a part the Enclave could play in the Mojave. Maybe the mech (or mechs) should be discovered in a different region, or by the mojave BOS.

 

I'd also recommend making them remnants that simply can't be duplicated with teh current infrastructure and manufacturing of the present day. A left over of pre-war glory that is unmatched anywhere in the world. War machines of the ancients....

 

I'd imagine it being a program conducted alongside T-51b in the last days of the war to provide super-heavy assault units to counter Chinese Chimera tanks.

Yep "Chairman Cheng will fail: China will fall!"

 

The way I'd coordinate it is as a unique set of power armour that automatically 'setscales' the player to 2.5 or something (depending on how tall you'd want it to be, anywhere between 2.0 and 5.0 could work). When picked up, it's automatically equipped, simulating the player getting into the mech. When unequipped, it's automatically dropped and the dropped item possesses the model of the full-sized mech.

So we have pros and cons to each method, a few that come to mind. For armor, some big advantages are that (except for making the actual mesh) it's a *lot* easier. It's also *much* better performance. The script that provides control over a bot (as opposed to the armor solution) is taxing on low to mid machines and firing is a bit of a hack and has a split second delay (even on high end machines).

 

Some disadvantages are that it uses an human animation which will somewhat break immersion. ie it won't move or feel like a mech. We might be able to mitigate that somewhat by always having it move as if encumbered, or wounded (at a large size it will probably move as fast as a normal person runs, even while encumbered).

 

I think there are some liberty prime assets on FONV nexus we might be able to use. Alternately I think I could alter some enclave power armor. But I'll try to look at it this weekend.

[jesterskull25]

Expect big things out of this

[MarchUntoTorment]

Definitely leaning towards the 'armour' solution. For the heavier robots, have them over-encumbered to simulate slower movements. Worst comes to worst, we tweak the animations a little. At any rate, a mechanical whirring soundbyte during movement should go a long way towards making them feel heavy and mechanical. For the models, we can use at least some power armour mesh assets.

 

People we're going to need (overlap IS possible), in order of importance -

 

1) A concept artist

2) A texture artist

3) A modeller

4) Someone to make the mechs themselves (handle scripting, weapon design, etc.)

5) Someone to design the questlines

6) A writer

7) Voice actors

 

I can do at least 6) and 7), and may be able to help with 4) and 5). However, anything artistic is well outside the scope of my experience (my attempts at visual art have failed in spectacular fashion).

 

Plot Ideas -

 

Mod is started by one or both of the factions contacting the player. Prerequisites are an Idolised reputation with the Brotherhood for the Brotherhood to contact the player and 'For Auld Lang Syne' completed for Enclave to contact the player. First quest of both factions is finding nuclear fuel for the machines. Only one faction is joinable - joining one puts the player in direct opposition to the other. I recommend sorting their factions separately from the in-game factions to prevent conflicts or quest-breaking. Naturally, this is a late-game quest, hence the late-game requirements.

 

- Brotherhood force is an expeditionary unit sent out by Elijah to retrieve pre-war tech from further East. They found the robot and returned to use it in the Brotherhood-NCR War, only to discover that the war was long finished. Unable to move freely due to the heavy NCR presence in the region, they hear about the Courier's involvement in the Brotherhood and contact them to assist them in acquiring nuclear fuel for the mech.

 

- Enclave force is a remnant of the East Coast who fled Adams Air Force Base with a cache of advanced technology, including two incomplete mechs. Having fled west, they see a Vertibird in Enclave colours flying overhead and hail it. It's Daisy Whitlam on one of her test flights, and in the short conversation, they discover the identity of the Courier, who has proven himself willing to help the Enclave. Thus, they contact the Courier to assist them in finding fuel for the mech.

 

Four mechs, two per faction. One less-advanced, one more-advanced per faction.

 

Less-advanced mech is heavier and clunkier, but also completed; usable after first quest is completed to find fuel. Uses over-encumbered animations to simulate heavier, less-precise movement. Models of the Brotherhood's type were heavily used in China; the Enclave's type was in the process of being fielded against the Brotherhood when Adams AFB fell. Brotherhood's mech primarily uses gun-type weapons, Enclave's mech primarily uses laser weapons.

 

Second robot only becomes available at the end of the questline for each faction. Movement speed slowed manually, but uses fluid animations and is roughly twice as fast as less-advanced mech. Lorewise, was only partially completed before the war began. Both were found in production facilities as prototypes. Brotherhood's mech uses guns and lasers, Enclave's mech uses railguns and plasma. Both have heavy melee weapons available to them, unlike the first mechs. Final boss of both questlines is the enemy's second mech.

[jesterskull25]

dude if we just follow the lore I set up (at the bottom), we wont need voice actors, plus the other info should be narrow it down by a lot.

 

Unless we want to take it one step futher, but I think WE SHOULD make a quick one to test out and build hype, then we can work on making a lot "Gundams style" stuff later

 

 

 

 

( there are bunkers on oppisite sides of the map ( or at least a huge empty area), one is an abandon Brotherhood of steel bunker with an abandon half finished robot, the adandon enclave bucker has the same, there is two "friendly" AIs on the computers at both of them what to finish before the other and they will give you the "keys" to the finished bot, somehow you can visit both before starting the one you chose to repair. After repairing that one, the other has been repaired by "Insert Unfriendly Repairman/ Pilot" who is pilot and going on a ramage, and now the AI ask you to please defeat the other for "reasons"(maybe destory the other AI and Pilot), Alternatly the AI (being one AI all this time) repaired the other by itself, install itself into the other robot, and now wants to kill you for "fun"? The only good area I can think of is the area around the Nipton Pit stop, one side being around Cresent Canyon East and the other being far behind Nevada High Patrol station but I dont think you get access to these bunkers until after getting to Vegas, maybe hide the keys (and maybe a note telling why these bunkers were abandon) in North Vegas Square playpark in the dirt(require shovel) cause the freeside Kids always somehow get near the really dangous loot.)

Edited March 15, 2014 by jesterskull25

[MarchUntoTorment]

In order of development cycle, here's what I recommend -

 

1) Getting the robot together; the basic files of one of the original mechs, whichever one's model is finished first. Simply used to test design, bugs, gameplay and maybe mess around with balancing a bit.

 

2) Basic mod - contains both original mecha, and the short quest with the rogue AI.

 

3) Full mod - four mecha, fully-voiced questline. Also might be interesting if the mecha appears being piloted by another NPC at Hoover Dam if the player completes the questline.

[jesterskull25]

we just have to see what devinpatterson or someone else thinks.

Edited March 15, 2014 by jesterskull25

[devinpatterson]

we just have to see what devinpatterson or someone else thinks.

 

Well I picked up a extra day of work, so I'll be making some $ today, but I can work a bit on modding tomorrow. And maybe give a better thought out/reasoned opinion on which way to go. At the moment I'm a little more focused on the actual mechanics of the mech and less on the story line of the mod. But I'll try to throw my 2 cents in later.

[MarchUntoTorment]

I definitely suggest the armour as the way to go - both the workload and the system performance are going to be greatly improved by it, relative to trying to script a whole new setup. There would be issues to handle, and the armour would probably have about a billion 'can do, can't do' flags attached to it, but hey.

[jesterskull25]

So should make this into a project now not a request

[MarchUntoTorment]

I concur.

 

And to our great lord of scripting, Devin -

 

Is there a function in the GECK with NVSE to bar the player from entering doors when they put on a set of armour? Or would we have to take the quick-and-dirty route and enable all doors in the Wasteland to automatically lock when the player wears the armour?