Dawn of Steel-The Rise of the Mojave Brotherhood

[MarchUntoTorment]

I'll concede the point on the Boomers - I forgot that the deaths of the Paladins wasn't common knowledge in the Brotherhood. I think that McNamara would, in that case, try to leave well enough alone, since their artillery is, realistically, the only weaponry in the wasteland that poses an overwhelming threat to a squad of Paladins. It seems that Gameplay and Story Segregation is in full effect when it comes to the battlefield advantages posed by power armour (and rightly-so, for the sake of game balance).

 

Anyway, I think that you're correct - they'd try to locate any individuals who wanted to defend the Wasteland, who displayed exceptional technical knowledge or martial skill. As time went on, they'd probably try to recruit younger Wastelanders (ages 8-16), and train them from the ground up.

 

I also quite like the idea of a quest where you have to deal with a rogue splinter faction of the Brotherhood who disagree with McNamara's policies - maybe Hardin tries to split off? And the player either has to talk them down (with various consequences for the Brotherhood as a whole), or wipe them out, which would be no mean feat.

 

Regarding the Knights of HELIOS, my story reasoning was that they assumed that the Mojave was lost and made a run for it eastbound - quite possibly running into Caesar's Legion along the way. It was only once word started filtering through the Legion tribes that neither side had won at Hoover Dam that captured the Knights' interest, and they headed back west, figuring that it was possible that a resurgent Brotherhood had seized the Dam.

 

As for why they didn't hear? Well, I've taken to imagining them as not a squad of Paladins, but a group of Knights who were press-ganged into service during the Battle of HELIOS - the Brotherhood has far more armour than it does men, after all, and so it needed all the troops it could get. This also makes sense, since all members of the Brotherhood - regardless of their Order - are heavily trained for combat, and taught to use power armour.

 

However, the best sets of armour are, naturally, always in the hands of the Paladins; hence, our little team of Knights were equipped with T-51b sets that had been partially cannibalised to keep the more frequently-used sets in service. Since probably the most delicate component in a T-51b set would be the helmet's integral radio, their armour would lack comms, with the Knights expected to communicate verbally and through hand signals.

 

When the order to retreat was given, they were holding the line at the extremity of the perimeter, and didn't realise the situation. It was only a scant few minutes later, with the NCR overrunning their positions, that they called a retreat and made for the desert - and headed eastbound.

 

Without a means of communicating with the Brotherhood, they made their way into the badlands of Utah. From there, they remained on the run from the Legion, surviving day-to-day as best they could; they figured that the Brotherhood was as good as dead, after all.

 

It wasn't until the Legion began vanishing from the region that they became curious as to what had become of the Mojave. Investigation of the situation, likely through communication with civilians in the area, revealed that the Legion had largely been slaughtered at Hoover Dam - and rumour had it that the NCR, too, had been annihilated, with an unknown force seizing control of the Mojave. The logical deduction stood that the Brotherhood would be the only faction in America who could feasibly have pushed them out; while unlikely, since they believed the Brotherhood destroyed, they agreed it was worth a try.

 

So our group, calling themselves the 'Knights of HELIOS' - now battle-hardened, wielding heavy melee weaponry to preserve ammunition and battle-hardened from years of combat with the Legion - began the long walk back west, until they learned the true fate of the Brotherhood, and rejoined them. That's when the player meets them, and what happens next is up to us.

 

Thoughts?

Edited February 18, 2015 by MarchUntoTorment

[Degby1]

I think we all pretty much agree on the core implications of this mod. - The Dam, The Fort, Expanding, Infrastructure (more so for the Viva New Vegas but easily implemented into this one), Boomers (I don't think neither of us wants to go to war with them) Big Mt, Hopeville, HELIOS, militias, recruitment and that Knights of Helios sounds like a feasible idea so what would be the next step to getting this off the ground? Would players need the Viva New Vegas Mod in order to play this one?

 

I think your right in that any advanced tech that comes from Dead Money or OWB would be limited ! Perhaps Elijah left some prototype schematics that the player has to track down before becoming craftable/available. Also if DM were to be looted by the BoS, then would we need the "Return to the Sierra Madre" mod or is that something that could be handled in this mod.

 

I know this one is a long shot so feel free to shoot it down in flames BUT (and a big BUT) what if the BoS, in being hard pressed to develop new tech and weapons and expand their influence, went on a rescue mission to break Elijah out. That really would demonstrate the Couriers and the BoS prowess and mental fortitude, breaking into an "unbreakable" Vault. What happens next to Elijah is a matter of choice - prison (work release), reintroduction into the Order etc. Don't need to spend too long debating this one though, I only mentioned it as I read DM and Holograms being of value to the BoS.

 

Thinking of these as a set of quests, splicing McNamaras dialogue tactfully could work as long as it were only a couple of sentences. He could hand the player a note/holotape (dossier) which would contain all the pertinent information and the quest variable to progress.

A generic Knight/Paladin could be renamed and given a follower package to accompany the Courier to Big Mt or the Divide, either on foot or via Vertibird. The Vertibirds themselves could be stored in Hidden Valley (although the DERVISH camouflage system might prove problematic) or perhaps taking over the NCRCF and using that as a Vertibird staging area, given its proximity to HV.

HELIOS One, that would be a simple travel package or placement of BoS troops there. The question would be whether or not to have a terminal that allows the player to manually fortify it or to have the changes already in place with a quest completed condition.

 

The Knights of Helios implementation I don't know. However MarchUnto wants to play it. I would make the suggestion that perhaps a radio signal is picked up on the pip boy and you go and meet them. Or having McNamara give you the quest. To make it easier to splice McNamaras dialogue here is his voice actors page - McNamara

 

Next would be custom weapons and armour. Could just be a T51b retexure or even refurbishing a suit of Remnants Power Armor. As for guns, I think using something special would be required. Either a new mesh by splicing different gun elements in Nifskope, asking permission from Project Nevada to use some of their assets or using these one's here - Future Weapons

[MarchUntoTorment]

I think that Viva NV, in its current priority incarnation (getting the pre-dam dialogue out and clearing post-game conditions) would be a necessary base mod. Then again, it could be completely integrated into this one.

 

I don't think that even the Brotherhood would go after Elijah once the Courier explains what their former elder's plans were. Elijah's not just mad with technology, he's a genocidal monster who'd happily wipe out an entire civilisation just because he could. So that's a 'no' vote for me on the Elijah thing. Plus, heading to the Madre would be a mistake, even for the Brotherhood - they're neither equipped nor trained for the sort of intense street-to-street fighting against the Ghost People they'd see, and I've no idea how T-51b holds up against the Cloud.

 

I'd think that it's probable that the 'back yard' of HELIOS One (where the solar reflectors are located) would be used as a Vertibird staging ground, if the Brotherhood could lay their hands on any Vertibirds (which is not a given, remember - unless the player hands over the Remnants' one). It's got the open space to land on, and if we're going with HELIOS being their new 'citadel', then it'd be convenient, too.

 

For convenience's sake, I'd just have the place fortified when the player gets there. Manual fortification would be a nightmare to code. If we want to get a little more creative, we can have multiple 'in-progress' incarnations of the fortifications on a timer; for instance, after one in-game week, you see the first walls rise, in the second in-game week, they're reinforced and higher, third week, there's guard towers, one month mark, they've got turrets installed... you get the idea. But that's more work than I think we need right here.

 

Regarding the Knights of HELIOS, Devin and I already had an initial vision for them - a squad of elite Brotherhood troops wearing tabards over their T-51b (like traditional knights), and wielding heavy melee weaponry. Weaponry can be borrowed from Bingles' Melee Collection (since it's an open resource), since there's a great range of stuff there we can use. Since they've been out in the field a while, I imagine it'd be improvised stuff - maybe Shishkebab Mk IIs (greatsword-sized Shishkebabs) and Sub-Zero lances, with perhaps the squad leader wielding a Pulse Claymore. Check the mod page for all of those weapons, and more - it's got about twenty we can choose from. But yeah, that's the vision we had for them.

 

As for implementation, I like the idea of the player picking up a radio signal and being sent by the Brotherhood to retrieve them, and maybe debrief them. I think that there could be some interesting quests integrating them back into the Brotherhood - I imagine they'd all have some serious PTSD, having spent as long as they have in Legion lands, living pretty much without hope. They're going to be damned fun to write, that's for sure.

[Stronglav]

Dawn of Steel.

 

I am alone who thought of:

 

http://images.vfl.ru/ii/1424271059/51f3b78f/7826198_m.jpg

[Degby1]

Yeah you're right, the Sierra Madre idea is too far fetched. I said it was a long shot so I never expected it to be pursued, but I was putting it out there anyway given that everyone has ideas floating around.

 

To code the HELIOS fortification would be a nightmare most likely, but I've noticed that the mod Nipton Rebuilt uses that same delivery system and that modder stated he was inexperienced with scripting. But again your right on that it isnt about making more work for yourself and for convenience sake having HELIOS already beefed up would save a lot of f*#@ing around. The time delay sounds effective but then again as you said, do we really need to go into depth with minor features like that.

 

As for Vertibirds, I can assume that the Enclave Remnants took the only working one in the vanilla game with them. However there is the crashed Vertibird near the Nuclear Test Site and there are additional ones on the Long 15 if nuked.

 

If you havent read my earlier post, make sure you check out the mod Silverpeak Bunker. It's no longer on the Nexus, but, can still be found on fileplanet. The reason I bring that up is because they have so many elements that correlate to Dawn of Steel and directly relate to Knights of Helios, here I'll point out a few

 

1. Upon completion of Eyesight to the Blind and If I Could Make You Care, The Courier is handed a note and a key to a West Tek Bunker, made 'Star Paladin' and only directly reports to McNamara (Although you don't speak to him during the mission)

 

2. The Courier can recruit 2 BoS Knights and send them to HELIOS One and the Old Mormon Fort. They can also be sent to Vault 22 to initiate a 'lockdown' as part of the main quest takes The Courier there to meet with a Paladin in the Circle of Steel, who like evil surgeon Elijah, wants to use chemical and biological weapons against the NCR.

 

3. The Circle of Steel wear outfits and carry weapons almost exactly as you described for the Knights of Helios. The exception being that the CoS use Enclave armor for F3 with tabards and a BoS logo spray painted on. They also use the Midwest Brotherhood power armor with tabards.

 

4. New Vegas Steel gets reactivated. Weapons (which you dont get to see) and to benefit Freeside (which just gives good rep)

 

5. Freeside outpost for the 'Apostate BoS' where they also recruit locals.

 

I also checked that Bingles page, some good improved stuff on there! Theres also another mod that was integrated into NVEC where you could wield Protonic Swords. Perhaps giving them to the KoH as a gift might reward some appreciation from the group, they do sound like they would be fun to write.

[devinpatterson]

3. The Fort - maybe the Brotherhood would try to repurpose its machinery to mass-produce weapons and armour? A lot of the components from the manufactory (the Securitron gatling lasers, the motor servos, and their armour plate) could quite easily be used to produce new sets of power armour, or produce components to refurbish damaged sets. Plus, it fits better with their attitude.

While I can see an argument for the securitron vault being a manufacturing facility (to some degree or another), for example the audio sounding like assembly. I'm portraying it as simply secure storage, for reasons of game balance I mentioned earlier. Some other mods may expand on the vault to a small degree, but having an army of securitrons should be enough of a win.

 

 

4. HELIOS One - I imagine, as I said, them fortifying it heavily......I imagine the Brotherhood building up vast scrap walls, reinforcing the exterior of the structure, and positioning automated turrets at numerous points around the perimeter. Maybe constructing 'guard towers' from which to position Paladins.

Sounds good. The roof has a lot of flat space at all four compass points for sniping/observation.

 

5. Euclid's C-Finder Although you'd get a lot of Brotherhood rep for giving them the C-Finder, I imagine.

sounds good.

 

7. Reinforcements - It's occurred to me that with an open chapter of the Brotherhood now in control of a substantial and tech-heavy region, it's quite possible that other surviving Brotherhood chapters in the West who'd gone underground after the war with the NCR might make their way to the Mojave, to bolster the Brotherhood there. Maybe even ex-Brotherhood soldiers who integrated into the NCR, akin to the Enclave Remnants, would join the Mojave chapter. Thoughts?

If there are they are going to be pretty small, say something along the lines of the remnants. Individuals or very small groups. The BOS chapters in the core region are mostly held up in bunkers fighting a last ditch stand against invading NCR forces as the war begins to wind down. They would have to travel through NCR occupied land all the way to the Mojave. So maybe some individuals with a little back history, but no reinforcements of any real substantial value.

 

There might be some communication or more with the capital wasteland BOS (WHO have captured vertibirds which could make the trip to the west coast)or the midwest BOS (who are geographically closer) since neither is (to the best of my knowledge) under fire like the western chapters. So we might be able to build something around those two chapters.

 

Regarding the Knights of HELIOS, my story reasoning was that they assumed that the Mojave was lost and made a run for it eastbound

Thoughts?

I think it's unlikely McNamara left his people to fend for themselves, exiled by circumstance. I think the 100% lockdown was just a short period and they have had special operatives coming and going for years. But once again, I'm not sure, and sometimes we make allowances if it's for a story line that really needs to be told.

[devinpatterson]

Perhaps Elijah left some prototype schematics that the player has to track down before becoming craftable/available.

Elijah is/was a genius and did create some marvels of tech, who knows what else he may have left behind.

 

Also if DM were to be looted by the BoS, then would we need the "Return to the Sierra Madre" mod or is that something that could be handled in this mod.

I think we would just have DM as a master and place our adventure in the DM worldspace. I don't think there would be any need for a wholly separate mod per se. And really we have enough to do already.

 

 

splicing McNamaras dialogue tactfully could work as long as it were only a couple of sentences.

Don't worry about audio, I wouldn't want to be limited in anything we do by a lack of sound files.

[devinpatterson]

So that's a 'no' vote for me on the Elijah thing. Plus, heading to the Madre would be a mistake,

It is really hard to imagine rescuing Elijah for me too. I mean unless there was a story plot that he was essentially required to stop an evil greater than himself, where the brotherhood had no other choice. I think we'd be more or less reintroducing him as a new villain. You just know it's going to come back to bite you in the butt.

 

even for the Brotherhood - they're neither equipped nor trained for the sort of intense street-to-street fighting against the Ghost People they'd see, and I've no idea how T-51b holds up against the Cloud.

Yeah, the ghost people are probably better handled by the courier who knows how to deal with them, plus a small group or lone inidividual will attract much less attention. Even though power armor would seem to be the best vanilla/standard armor in teh game (sealed system, respiration etc) to traverse the Sierria Madre we don't really know the full capability of the cloud and just exactly what it is the think tanks unleashed.

 

I think because of the nature of the game and quests in general, it should usually be the courier that performs these tasks.....if they have the potential to be interesting. Journey's to DM, OWB and LR depend on some special survival skills that are best reflected in teh courier and allow our players to enjoy a adventure. Involving BOS beyond say a paladin companion or two will complicate things, and even though it may lend some believe-ability or legitimacy to the idea of the BOS supporting the player, I don't believe it's going to add much to the fun. Unless it's a mod that is centered around keeping your teammates alive as a challenging play mechanic.

 

Junk can also just show up on the scribes workbench as a little nostalgic nod toward the DLCs. Items or creatures specific to those locals...more atmosphere/decoration than anything.

 

Regarding the Knights of HELIOS, Devin and I already had an initial vision for them -

To be fair and give credit where credit is due, the Knight of Helios are completely your concept. Don't get me wrong I think it could be written up as an interesting angle, but it's probably not as well suited to this chapter as it might be to another. Say a splinter or outcast chapter of the midwest BOS would probably support the lore your describing better. They have more diverse weapons, attitudes, and recruitment and could have been lost far longer from their main chapter. They even have the possibility of non human members to add more flare. Plus it's probably easier to write that since we don't have the same story line boundaries that are set by the Mojave chapter.

 

Dawn of Steel.

 

I am alone who thought of:

sorry the link doesn't seem to be coming through.

[devinpatterson]

There are a couple of aspects I wanted to touch in in re: to teh BOS. The wiki lists the BOS as having a monopoly on power armor, supercomputers, and advanced medical technologies such as cybernetics. The supercomputers will tie in with the BOS's use and co-opting of the lucky 38 mainframe. The power armor is pretty much already in effect since no other faction as any significant number.

 

But the medical and cybernetics doesn't seem to really be utilized in teh game. I could see a lot of ways to add character to teh faction as well as rewards through this tech. For example, the battle at Helios was a bloodbath, we could certainly have some vets that have prosthetic cybernetic/robotic limbs for a great look. Not too hard to do in blender either. Some scribes could have a little bit of external cybernetics to give them some visual flash and wow factor. Cybernetic implants can always make great rewards as well. They'r usually some potent perks. And we don't have to ignore biological medical tech either, lot of possibilities there too. Wasn't vault city built on it's medical expertise and knowledge? Maybe there are some ideas we could use there.

 

The second and far more important part I'd like to explore is the members of the brotherhood themselves. Part of being a community means fellowship. I think we could spend a lot of time developing the characters of the BOS. For example lets take Scribe Vree from FO1;

 

As Head Scribe, Vree is in charge of knowledge gathering and preservation within the Brotherhood. She is intelligent, kind, and patient, happy with her work, and more than willing to help the Vault Dweller out, especially if she can be provided with more of the knowledge she seeks.

 

She is responsible for weapons development, as well as research conducted in Lost Hills under the Brotherhood. According to Talus, Vree is one of the most intelligent people he has ever known, as she was born with a natural understanding of physics and chemistry. She spends every waking moment doing research or analyzing and re-analyzing anything she can get her hands on. Unlike her assistant, Sophia, she doesn't consider history (even the Brotherhood's history) very important, in contrast to her keen interest in scientific and technological research.

 

That's an interesting character study, it humanizes her. I'd like to do that with a most of the BOS members. Make them seem like real people and the player will actually feel like s/he is truly fighting *for* something. Bring the characters personality to teh forefront and suddenly the BOS becomes even more interesting and has true depth.

 

It also gives us countless more opportunities for quests, that build the lore of the mojave chapter. Is Hardin a continual foil of the player, and a dangerous element to the BOS's evolution. Is there a bookish but smart and alluring scribe that has become enamored of the courier. Is there a young paladin looking to prove his fame and glory, but just hotheaded enough to take dangerous risks. Etc, etc.

 

Also MarchUntoTorment, check the display weapon thread, there will be a pic there you will like.

[Degby1]

Star Paladin has been Cybernetically enhanced to the point of her being a post-Human cyborg. Maybe have someone similar to her in BoS who gets 'hacked' and goes on a rampage before being put down. Then we have a "whodunit" quest of looking for who hacked into the cyborg.

 

The rest could just have artificial limbs (those who were badly injured). The Hidden Valley bunker could also be expanded by opening up the Unaccessable doors leading to other labs, weapons, troops etc. Vault 3 could serve as an outpost for the BoS and Hazmat suit wearing BoS could be deployed to Vault 22 and occupy it (if the data from the Pip boy is handed over).

 

The Knights of Helios wouldnt be a huge group i'd imagine. They would have probably been formed initially from the BoS soldiers who held back the NCR while they evacuated. Then any other additional patrols who became strande joined them and held up in a bunker somewhere. I'd imagine we'd be looking at 8-12 of them, which would reflect the Lyons Pride in DC and serve more as a Spec Ops unit.

 

As for the faction in general, personalising various characters is doable, maybe even expand Watkins and Stanton. I'm sure theres room for young Paladin upstarts looking to prove themselves and fight alongside seasoned veterans who have to keep the young ones in check. Everyone would have their own opinions of the War, the Courier, NCR etc. I'm sure there are also those who would support Hardin if he ever tried to usurp McNamara.