Sunset Sarsaparilla's Wild Wild West World

[devinpatterson]

So Sunday night I lost Sunset20.esp. It's completely corrupted and I have no idea why. I'm reverting back to sunset19.esp, but I lost the first floor of robco hq, the forward ncr post, a small part of overpass raider town I'd completed and some bots. Mostly I'm PO about the ncr post and raider town. It takes a lot of time to place everything on the overpass because it's tilted 30 degrees. There's no snap to function like building an interior, so everything has to be placed very carefully (not a simply drop) so part of it isn't floating above the asphalt or sunk below it (thanks to the funky angles on the overpasses). PITA :down:

 

No actual assets like models were lost, so it will be easy to redo the creatures.

Edited November 22, 2011 by devinpatterson

[thrill606]

That sucks that you have to do that stuff again.

 

I also had another idea about a Sunset sarsaparilla variant, but I'm not sure if its possible because I've only made weapon and armor mods and never any consumables.

Maybe a variant called Sunrise Sarsaparilla that adds a amber colored low light vision like cateye.

[devinpatterson]

That sucks that you have to do that stuff again.

 

I also had another idea about a Sunset sarsaparilla variant, but I'm not sure if its possible because I've only made weapon and armor mods and never any consumables.

Maybe a variant called Sunrise Sarsaparilla that adds a amber colored low light vision like cateye.

 

Hmmm that's an interesting idea. Yeah you can usually play around with shader effects, so it shouldn't be a problem to add an amber effect. I'll definitely look into it. We do have a lot of other varieties as well (honey misquote, banana yucca, tequila etc), but the more the merrier.

[greenknightfury]

 

Did not even know about the radio, I never really listen to it so wasn't aware it screwed up stealth....makes sense though.

Interesting idea on the fast travel and drained weapon ammo. Maybe by using a fission battery to charge the combat/security pipboy it could restore ecp's and mf's.

While I like the fast travel idea, what do you imagine, would be the in game/lore explanation for it?

 

Well all you are really doing while Fast Traveling is going to a certain place you have been which your mapping software in your pip-boy can perfectly guide you to. This is just an ability to set ones other than the ones in the normal game, some of which make no sense other than you setting the GPS/mapping software to remember the spot, so really it is just a player controlled extension of that . Honestly most of the locations of the map would be totally unmarked on standard mapping software..or even not there at all when it was created, so it would be updated by the character exploring and marking the map/editting it through some interface they don't let you ingame access. So really what this in-game would be explained as would be is an upgrade to that function, an "Advanced Dynamic Mapping and Important Location Module" or "A.D. M.A.I.L Module" (the acronym was unintentional but laughed when I noticed it so hell I went with it!)

 

I do have two pipboy variants very similar to the couple you listed above;

 

The medical one can have (with upgrades) several medically related abilities; living anatomy perk (you see all living opponents health on your hud), health/rad/addiction/cripple regeneration, auto stim and other auto injectables (ie below 20% get a dose of psycho if you havn't run out etc). For hardcore mode it will also regenerate other stats (ie sleep, food etc) as long as it's stocked, and it can be used as a workbench for medicine & consumable only (due to it's chemical analysis circuitry) recipes with the correct addon module. In addition there may be some instances in the mod where a life may only be saved with hte medical pipboy.

 

Which plays into "food pills". Food pills were a sort of little piece of americana in the 50's. In the same way that people in the 50's thought science would provide flying cars in the near future, there was also the belief in a complete balanced meal in a pill. Well things may have turned out differently in reality, but it fits in well with the fallout universe and it's lore. They will heal the same amount and speed as other meals, but are weightless. So they'r nothing amazing, but a fun little bit of atmosphere for sunset.

 

Love that! I didn't think anyone remembered food pills but me! *chuckles* Even better than my idea on the pipboy variant too!

 

 

The technician/engineer pipboy can have (with upgrades) several abilities such as; allows you to disable as per Robotics Expert perk, acquire robotic followers (in addition to placeable/portable turrets), shows living anatomy on robotic only opponents, increases to hacking, etc. In addition some terminals can only be hacked with the tech pipboy.

 

A very interesting aspect I'm currently working on is remote control, being able to actually see and act through a robot. This initially stated out as a mini quest in the mod. You would fly a eyebot through the reactor ducts to disable safety protocols from inside the reactor itself. As you fly through you have to zap other security eybots with your trusty eyebot laser and engage in a eyebot on eyebot battle royale. But later I thought it would be cool to be able to control other bots from protectrons to security bots. It's only in the initial stages at the moment. And even if I can get it working reliably it wouldn't be included until the later chapters (after the villa). But I thought it would be an interesting game mechanic.

 

This might be a good place to mention some basic concepts I have been trying to keep in mind for the park. One of these is that I'd like there to be three ways to approach the park. 1. Combat, pretty self explantory, you kill anything that moves. 2. Stealth, once again pretty straight forward. By flying under the radar you avoid the heavy weapon protectrons and other challenging targets.

 

3. Now the interesting one, the technicians/robotics path. This involves using science and your wits to achieve your goals. Hacking, jury rigging and science based puzzles are the order of the day. For combat you will be using robotic followers as opposed to being a personal, walking aresenal. This is where the technician/engineer pipboy comes in. I'm also going to ask talkietoaster if I can meld in his RobCo Certified - New Vegas as a perk tied to the technician/engineer pipboy. In addition, in order to balance the gameplay mechanics for the followers I'v invented a couple of limitations;

 

Firstly, awesome! Secondly, I didn't even look at his name when I downloaded it, Talkietoaster! Priceless another Red Dwarf fan!

 

1. A bandwidth limiter. The Sunset bots used a customized version of the Robco unified operating system and continued to evolve and change over two centuries. So their current code varies greatly from other bots in the wasteland. As such the bots are never fully "reprogrammed" by the player. Instead a programming "template" is placed over their core functions altering their code executions at run time. This is essentially lobotomizing/zombifying the bots, by preventing their higher functions. This means the pipboy must essentially constantly interface with the bots to prevent the execution of the higher sub routines. This takes bandwidth, therefore the pipboy can only control a limited number of followers. Initially this will be very limited (maybe one or two) but software modules (via holotape) and/or hardware modules (higher bandwidth wireless transmitter) will be potentially available as spoils of war. These upgrades allow more followers and if we place them accordingly in the mod we may be able to scale them to the players threat level. This way by the time they are getting to the later parts of the mod, where the biggest threats are, they should have more followers.

 

2. EMP. This is an interesting game mechanic for the leader of the follower bots. Essentially what it does is make it possible for the bots equipped with powerful emp weapons (like the eye in the sky's) to zap a bot follower which turns it instantly hostile again (ie it reverts back to it's programming). This makes it something of a gamble for the tech/roboticist. While the EMP bots are comparatively rare if they can hit two or three of your followers you could be in serious trouble. Keeps it interesting :tongue:

 

In addition to bots, I hope to implement portable mini turrets as followers. It's part of the reason I was working on gauss and plasma turrets. I wanted to make a varied threat against the player, but also be useful for strategic situations. For instance a gauss mini turret would be a better choice to cover a large open area because of it's high range. A plasma mini turret would be a better choice for quick high damage output, but there range is limited etc. They count against your follower limit, and they also weigh a fair amount (I'm thinking 50lbs) so that's another limitation on their number. The larger turrets will probably weigh too much to move.

 

Sounds great! I tend to do the stealthy/hacking path if there is one to anything. *grins*

 

There is a mod that adds deployable robot/turrent kits that you can build, buy, or even disable them and then package as the kits. It is one of the perks mods I believe, not sure I downloaded about 7 mods that day. *laughs* Their kits are quite heavy too. Not hard to end up with over a hundred pounds of the kits quickly.

 

EDIT: Ok it is definitely a perk mod... More Perks Mod some very awesome amusing and useful traits and perks there.

Edited November 23, 2011 by greenknightfury

[greenknightfury]

Just realized a perfect backstory type bit of lore for the A.D. M.A.I.L. Module (fast travel marker device) it would be a device for military scouting, industrial uses (marking new construction, path of new roads or mines), and search and rescue uses (marking where a person was spotted from the air and transmitting the location so that ground crews can find them). So with the high level of construction along with the size of the park and it's remoteness having such a module around makes perfect sense. Edited November 22, 2011 by greenknightfury

[devinpatterson]

So started work on the heavy protectrons. Decided to go a route similar to old world blues with several "Mark" series. I hope to have a Mark I through Mark V. This pic shows relative sizes of each model. The mark I is the vanilla/standard protectron model.

 

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/5868/markiv.jpg

 

I'v only finished the mark III as of yet. It was pretty tedious work getting the meshes just right on the skeleton, but all the animations look spot on except for the reloading animation and it's only slightly off. Just a tiny bit off the rotation, don't think anyone will notice;

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANyTTIJVKZo&feature=youtu.be

 

I hope to be able to do the same with the Mark IV and Mark V models, hope they'r not too big for the skeleton. Mostly the biggest problems are the shoulders (that's why you see them sticking out in the IV and V in the pic above) and the fingers.

 

I'm not sure how much attire the Mark series will have, it will depend on what niche they fit in to within their little robotic ecosystem. They might just be security with heavy weapons, especailly the mark IV and V series. If they have western attire, I'll try to whip those up at a later time (they aren't needed in part/chapter 1, just a single Mark V without clothes/hats).

 

I'd also like to add a block of history to the park;

 

Instead of the civilians and park employees being routed and pacified outright, I'd like to propose a running war against the mainframe for a decade or two (more or less, the exact number of years isn't that important). This is primarily so we have survivalist caches with armaments and history scattered about the park. But it's also so we can simulate some forced evolution of the protectron (and other bots) during the war with the park survivors. Some models can be explained as simple anti-vehicle/aircraft bots designed before the war to protect the park from the Chinese.

 

But they would be further developed and refined by the mainframe and disembodied scientists during the war with the surviving humans. New models would include the larger mark series, anti-emp bots (they will have a tesla like energy shield to protect against emp weapons), armored bots (they will looke like a cross between a protectron and power armor) and perhaps other specialized models. After all we had current/ex-military, hunters, and woodsmen/campers in the park when the S hit the fan. I don't think they would have given up easy. And since the park was stocked with heavy weapons to combat chinese chimeras tanks (and what have you), I'm sure they would have been used against the bots if the humans could get their hands on them. The new protectron/bot models would be a response to those weapons and (and unique human tactics) as the war with the survivors progressed. And of course there would be additional progress from the docs in the two centuries that passed, but at a more leisurely pace and probably in more creative directions than purely military. We'll be able to hash that out more accurately when we flesh out the docs (vault tec tech(s), general atomic neuro surgeon(s), etc)

 

In the end though, those that didn't escape (not sure if anyone did) the park were killed or pacified. The pacified humans kept to provide the mainframe with grey matter, they degenerated and forgot their past, coming to rely on (and in some cases worship) the mainframe.

Edited November 23, 2011 by devinpatterson

[Slydessertfox]

Awesome job with this mod so far.

[greenknightfury]

@ devinpatterson : Very cool upscaling work dude. Yeah the thing with the shoulders I might have an idea for solving, adding a fender-like thing that would fit over the area. That would hide the ball sticking through without having to scoop out a big chunk of the body and look like reinforcing/ armor for the joint.

 

I can see the IV and V being something like heavy construction bots that the mainframe had modified into the 'tanks' of it forces actually. The amount of heavy digging, construction and landscaping needed to build a park like this they would have used something like that. And keeping them around makes sense since if the park does well

expansion plans would be worked up and they would want to be able to do the work quickly. The mainframe converting them during the fighting makes sense as they are huge highly durable and they would be using wielding design lasers (far more powerful, shorter range) so they could literally wade into the fray and destroy enemy forces, most likely used to disable and dismantle the vehicles of the 'rebel forces'.

 

For some ideas of other types of bots than purely military (or the actor/entertainer type we already have) I've got a couple ideas (don't I always heh heh):

(names totally redo able just quick and dirty ones to differentiate them)

 

1.) Maidbots: Protectron models wearing apron and maid cap, basically an nod to Rosie from the Jetson's but also you'd expect some robot domestics that weren't Mr. Handys.

 

2.) Scutbots: General use bots given the type of 'move this, fetch that, dispose of this corpse in the reaction mass incinerator' jobs, you know, the scut-work. Might be more of a design hassle but I see a modified robobrain, take off the brainpan and slap something like a sentrybot head there and give it protectron hands instead of those slicing claws they gave the robobrain (How do they do any fine work without destroying it I'll never know).

 

3.) Resourcebots: The need for nutrients for the brains (and the uses they could put ethanol to) would be met most simply by simple farming and the taking of animals that enter those fields ( "An electrofield fence turned to a killing voltage and just driving along it to gather up the animals after your crops is very efficient method of hunting." possible quote for one of these) these would most likely be like the scutbots but with the robobrain claws still attached, perfect for slicing up the gathered carcasses and harvesting the crops. Originally these bot's farming would have been meant to supplement the food supply of the park.

Edited November 24, 2011 by greenknightfury

[devinpatterson]

Awesome job with this mod so far.

 

Thanks Slydessertfox, don't hesitate to post if there is something you'd like to see added.

[devinpatterson]

@ devinpatterson : Very cool upscaling work dude. Yeah the thing with the shoulders I might have an idea for solving, adding a fender-like thing that would fit over the area. That would hide the ball sticking through without having to scoop out a big chunk of the body and look like reinforcing/ armor for the joint.

 

Yeah the shoulders can be a problem, but that's where the rigging comes in. The Mark III had the same problem (but to a lesser degree), but by adjusting the meshs on the skeleton I'll hopefully be able to accomplish the same work as I did with the III's. But having said that if the torso is just too wide I may extend/enlarge the shoulder fenders, while keeping the joints smaller. It would keep that broad shoulder look I'm trying to achieve to project a hulking/huge protectron. Mostly it's the fingers that are the real time consuming/tedious work. So most likely I'll use the mark III hands with the IV & V's. But we'll see how things go.

 

EDIT: Just finished Mark IV. Everything worked out pretty good and they are ready for primetime. I would have liked the shoulders to be wider, and actually edited the skeleton (first time, other than siimply removing bones), but could only go so far before he turned into a handicapped/gimped bot. All the animations are good, the only thing I might change is moving the fenders back so they are more centered over the shoulders. It will depend on how easy it is to do.

 

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/800/markivv.jpg

 

Essentially these are base units we can use to create specialized branches. For example once they'r done I can start working on the armored models (borrowing parts from power armor) and that should be interesting. I'd also like to include some additional visual clues to their series identity (ie which mark ver) and for the sunset protectrons in general. I'm not going to go crazy and make a unique model for every encounter, but I'd like enough variety to keep things interesting.

 

Models;

Armored models. These models will probably be paired with the heavy weapons protectrons, but I listed them as a separate category because not all of them have to be heavily armed. Visually they will most likely have the lower half (shortened), pauldrons and perhaps other parts of power armor, but no helmet. A rarer sub variety will be the saturnite/cosmic metal models. They will be shinier like the bos textures in fo3.

 

EMP models. They have a tesla energy shield that is emitted from tesla nodes/conductors (like the tesla armor) on their body and from the dome on their head. This gives almost total immunity from emp attacks (along with energy weapon resistance) and are armed with emp weapons (modified tesla canon embeded on/as the right arm). Besides the visual special effects they will have a strategic/gameplay purpose. They are the spoilers for robotic followers, causing follower bots to revert to a hostile state if hit. They will also be very dangerous for power armor, causing extra damage and paralysis to the player (ie hte servos in the power armor are disabled for a few seconds).

 

Laser or energy weapon model. Mirror finish (if I can figure it out, otherwise just using the shinier bos protectrons texture from fo3), armed with aer-14 tech (the green lasers) for the laser models. Multicasts for the plasma models. They may use embeded weapon models like a laser gatling gun or simply have upgraded dome and hand lasers. I'm kind of iffy/on the fence about these.

 

Heavy weapons protectrons will have embeded heavy weapons on both arms and will likely be armored. These are the mainframes big guns; They will be armed with fatmans, heavy machine-guns, gauss weapons etc. Pretty much mini boss fights.

 

I also need to retexture or add decals for the various models. The emp/energy models lasers will have that hazard laser radiation sign on them, the fatman heavy weapons bots will have the traditional radiation hazzard sign, the shock hazard sign for the emp tesla models etc. This will give some flair to their appearance if they'r not wearing western attire (since I kind of imagine most of the mark series being more utilitarian and not meant for public exposure in the park). But they will also act as an visual clues so the player knows how to go about strategically dispatching them.

 

The specialized models will have relevant perks (like plasma spaz for plasma models) if they'r not too much of a pain to convert to actor effects. Otherwise we'll just fake it, and up their damage.

 

I'v also tried to make the mark series reflect a progression in other areas/stats. The old world blues mark protectrons were the same in all respects except health. In my opinion it didn't lend any "weight" to their reality. So as the marks progressed I added bonuses for each mark level beyond the first to; str +1, end +1, footfall weight +20, dt +8, health +90, combat skill +10 etc, trying to reinforce that realism. Those stats are all a baseline, I'm sure they will probably change with game testing, and since I'll be using a level list for most bots, they will vary quite a bit depending on the player.

 

All of these models are on the back burner except a mark 5 heavy weapon protectron (I need that in the robco headquarters R&D floor to foreshadow the mark series appearance in part/chp 3+). So while there's no immediate rush, I'd like ideas on additional models that I can put together, so I can start tinkering with them. Also concepts for model changes from I to V (if there not too complicated/difficult) would be appreciated, something that would give the impression of progression. In addition ideas for civilian bots that are potential threats would be appreciated. For example I was thinking about modifying a robobrain (because of hte track) to be a robotic combine or tractor that runs the player over in the fields.

 

This is a little bit of a tangent, but....I'd previously floated the idea (not sure if it's in this thread or the private board) of a mini rebellion in the mainframes own mind. When the mainframe hibernates some personalities of assimilated brains may emerge (partially or fully), to secretly work against the mainframes interests and for the tribals (or others) benefit. This is partly for atmosphere to drive home the fact that their are human consciousnesses enslaved in the mainframe. But it's also a game/plot device. Some special dialogs or information may only be obtained through this channel.

 

So, I was thinking, in a similar vein, it might be interesting to have to have a small number of rebel bots (maybe just one, maybe 2 or 3) that play a analogous role. These could be sleeper agents that were reprogrammed by the rebels long ago, or by the sleeping minds in the MF. Either way it would add a few more potential allies for hte player. We'd have to differentiate them from the sunset sam AI that plays a similar function. One way to differentiate them from sam would be to give them unique/quirky personalities, or to have them only play a single part in a limited quest. Something along those lines. They may or may not be in league with sam.

 

 

 

I can see the IV and V being something like heavy construction bots that the mainframe had modified into the 'tanks' of it forces actually. The amount of heavy digging, construction and landscaping needed to build a park l

 

That's a good idea, I was going under the assumption that they would be military anti-tank/vehicle bots, but the construction bots works too. Or both, the MF using what's available to it may have mixed models/parts etc.

 

1.) Maidbots: Protectron models wearing apron and maid cap, basically an nod to Rosie from the Jetson's but also you'd expect some robot domestics that weren't Mr. Handys.

 

The apron is probably do-able if it's a seperate mesh from the legs (but it may clip too much). If there is an existing cap (and I'm sure there's probably a french maid costume out there somewhere) that would be easy, so I'd tentatively say that is a possibility.

 

I was going to have mr handy's do the cleaning, but a maid protectron has more character. Perhaps maids in the villa and mr handys in the mainstreet (hotel). Although whether it's a maid or mr handy, I had a little encounter in mind. The first time the player sleeps in a villa bed he wakes up with a mr handy (or protectron maid) in his room, with a hammer in one hand, a knife in the other and a tire iron in the last. It would go right into dialog "Oh hello sir, I was just......cleaning up a little" just for a bit of humor.

 

2.) Scutbots: General use bots given the type of 'move this, fetch that, dispose of this corpse in the reaction mass incinerator' jobs, you know, the scut-work. Might be more of a design hassle but I see a modified robobrain, take off the brainpan and slap something like a sentrybot head there and give it protectron hands instead of those slicing claws they gave the robobrain (How do they do any fine work without destroying it I'll never know).

 

That one might be a little problematic. Changing the head sholdn't be a problem per se, but I think the skeleon for the arms differ quite a bit between the bots. So they may be pretty tough for someone of my skill level to rig correctly.

 

3.) Resourcebots: The need for nutrients for the brains (and the uses they could put ethanol to) would be met most simply by simple farming and the taking of animals that enter those fields ( "An electrofield fence turned to a killing voltage and just driving along it to gather up the animals after your crops is very efficient method of hunting." possible quote for one of these) these would most likely be like the scutbots but with the robobrain claws still attached, perfect for slicing up the gathered carcasses and harvesting the crops. Originally these bot's farming would have been meant to supplement the food supply of the park.

 

I was thinking of them raising their own cattle (although now they are brahmin), because the cattle feature prominantly in a few mini quests and as a encounter (a stampede). I made up various re-textures like jersy and different size horns, even some utterless ones for mutant males (I guess in lore both male and female have utters), but the basic concept could still work in re: to a slaughterhouse for nutrients and bots to process them. And the electric fences could still be there to protect livestock from predators (wild or tribals). So all the elements you describe could be included even if their purposes are slightly different. And it would be a unique (not to mention gory) locale.

 

Some interesting ideas to tackle after the holiday...

Edited November 24, 2011 by devinpatterson