A swords & sorcerer/Wizards & Warriors, etc VR mod

[devinpatterson]

Well, you can use my stuff if that helps.

Yes that would definitely help

 

I'm sure that would probably be the only setting where the magic wand actually belongs :tongue:

 

There's a bit more medieval stuff on the Skyrim side of things,

Excellent :smile: All original meshes? I'v never back ported from skyrim to FONV, but I'm guessing it will also be good practice with FO4 coming up. I'm hoping there will be a lot of additional original meshes/resources in the Oblivion nexus I can use as well. Perhaps even get me started on Oblivion, it's been sitting gathering dust forever.

 

I think a hyborian type adventure may be the easiest (next to a western) in regard to assets, but a medieval setting is probably a close second. I seem to remember some resources pertaining to teh mysteries of the orient on the Oblivion nexus as well.

 

Thank you very much for the resources.

[Moraelin]

Well, I started making stuff in the FO3 days, so my couple of Oblivion mods are really just backports of even older stuff than what's on NV. The bat'leth is probably the only one that's up to date. But other people have made spectacularly good stuff for Oblivion, so if you can get their permission, yeah, that would be some good stuff.

 

Bearing in mind though, that the Oblivion .nif format was somewhat more primitive, and lacking the good stuff like setting the shader (the alpha of the normal map and the glossiness value are literally the only things you have to controll how shiny it is.) So it might be possible to polish that stuff even further, as it were.

[Moraelin]

And yes, unlike the FO3/NV stuff, where I occasionally used triggers, magazines or whatnot from the vanilla weapons, all my Skyrim stuff is made from scratch. Mostly because I didn't like the vanilla weapons at all :p

[devinpatterson]

And yes, unlike the FO3/NV stuff, where I occasionally used triggers, magazines or whatnot from the vanilla weapons, all my Skyrim stuff is made from scratch. Mostly because I didn't like the vanilla weapons at all :tongue:

Excellent. Worlds withing worlds

[Moraelin]

Aye, I'm pretty excited about the VR idea, tbh. Sounds really cool.

[devinpatterson]

Aye, I'm pretty excited about the VR idea, tbh. Sounds really cool.

Me too, a lot of great possibilities with so many assets. I was thinking about starting with the western, because it would be very easy (FONV already has lot of western themed assets in the vanilla game), but it's a low bar and wouldn't be nearly as interesting as a fantasy setting.

 

I'm also quite intrigued with a oriental VR, something along the lines of the later historical periods (after 1000AD) mirroring Japan, China and Korea. Something that would reflect the culture, and mysticism of that fictionalized setting. There's so much to draw from, a gargantuan treasure trove of lore.

 

The possibilities are staggering.

[Morgwynn]

How about a fantasy western with a posse of cowboy undead hunters with pistols that shoot magic fireballs that do extra damage to undead but normal damage to everyone else.?

[devinpatterson]

How about a fantasy western with a posse of cowboy undead hunters with pistols that shoot magic fireballs that do extra damage to undead but normal damage to everyone else.?

There are some interesting fantasy western resources. I bought a Sload of rpg books and materials at a garage sale and I remember one of them had the "Deadlands" game. I only flipped though the pics, but it's theme is something akin to what we're discussing. Another one is Orson Scott Card's alternate history books like the Seventh Son series. They have a lot of the pioneer folklore and Native American beliefs as a reality in the old west fictional fantasy setting. Hopefully people will contribute additional resources (fiction, non fiction, rpg's whatever would make for an interesting setting) to see if a viable and compelling little universe would be warranted.

[DaemonGrin]

Just had a thought! CELEBRATE!! anyway...I don't know how many Evil Dead fans there are here but what about doing something akin to Evil Dead Army of Darkness. The courier's character in the VR game could be a guy from the future transported to medieval times. The player would need to find raw materials to replenish ammo ie brass ore, salt peter, etc.. at an alchemists table and/or use medieval weapons. If the player is an energy weapon user since it's a fantasy concept there could be a way to have a mage recharge his energy cells no idea how he would go about getting more cells though. Or there could be a script that removes all gear from the player and checks for energy and guns skills and adds a unique weapons based on it and the energy weapon could be a recharger. Or along the Evil Dead lines random spots in the cells could have chunks of the future spread out where ammo could be found.

 

Good luck,

Geoff

[devinpatterson]

.I don't know how many Evil Dead fans there are here but what about doing something akin to Evil Dead Army of Darkness.

I think we have at least two categories of VRs in lore already.

 

The first is wholly military applications like Operation Achorage. I think we can assume there were many programs based on past and future military campaigns. VRs were also used for specialized training (like power armor training). I'm sure there were probably VRs for homeland security during the initial exchange of ICBMs, one for the Gobi desert campaign etc etc. Obviously their theme is military oriented.

 

The second example is Future-tec (div of Vault-tec), headed up by Stanislaus Braun, which produced VR and life-preserving technology. There were at least the following VR programs; Tranquility Lane, Toucan Lagoon and Slalom Chalet (in the Vault 112 server) mentioned, but it's not unlikely there were many more considering how long the vault inhabitants lived for. Future-tec is portrayed as a civilian contractor, but like it's parent company Vault-tec, the line between gov/military and a civilian company appears to be *very* malleable. So I think it's actually a mix of civilian and military work. Their theme seems to tied exclusively to the life preservation tech and so show cases positive, appealing environments to live out a lifetime extended to centuries.

 

I believe we could get away with a few more categories that are solely or predominantly commercial...even though there is no mention of it in the standard lore and the tech is very cutting edge.

 

We know that civilian companies can gain huge riches and influence with plenty of funds for R&D, in fallout's hyper capitalistic world. Some of these civilian companies rival military tech. Later in it's life BigMT catered primarily to the civilian market. Some of these massive corporations worked on Govt\Military projects (Poseidon Energy, General Atomics, etc), others like Greenway were opposed to the military industrial complex. But I believe they had the resources to develop VR in house or under contract. So that's "the how", the justification for civilian technology equaling the two former categories (military and future-tec).

 

As to "the why" I can think of at least two scenarios;

 

Another category that we may be able to justify hinges on the fallout entertainment industry. Vault-tec has a national television channel (channel 9). Perhaps other entertainment corporations are equally powerful. In our world corps like Sony entertainment and 20th century fox have revenue in the billions. Perhaps these pre-war entertainment companies license things like comic book heroes and such, in the same way as Sony and Fox do with Marvel comics. Perhaps they produce Grognak the barbarian & Captain Cosmos movies. If so they might want to be on teh cutting edge of entertainment and realize VR is the future. Leveraging their intellectual property rights, they may have produced these VRs as the first wave of what they see as the next big thing in entertainment. Other genres that are popular flicks, like westerns or war movies could fit nicely in this category.

 

I realize this might seem like a bit of a stretch considering the cost of the server and the lack of a any large audience that can afford them. But if we're talking about a limited number of prototypes (perhaps located in studio sets or some such) I think it could fit in the fallout world nicely, and would reinforce existing lore, since they feature iconic characters from the pre-war entertainment industry.

 

Another category could be the filthy rich's playthings. I believe Robert House almost surely had a VR on his server where he spent time in environments of his choice, while his decrepit body was encased in a metal sarcophagus (not to mention, was entertained by his sexbots). I think these types of servers will offer the most flexibility as they would be VRs built to order and could be anything from a humble little neighborhood, to the most bizarre fever dream creations.....all depending on who commissions them.

 

I remember a PKD book (I think it might have been total recall) of a billionaire tycoon that built a replica city of his childhood on Mars (complete with androids), where the bots recognized him as the child he once was. A sort of ultimate narcissism that ultimate wealth can provide. The same could be reflected in a VR much less expensviely. Or perhaps one has lost a loved one (child, spouse etc) and in the VR, that loved one continues to live on...unchanged for the poor soul that simply can't let go. Or perhaps the server has a captain cosmos, or Ralphie VR, made for teh kids and they get to spend their time blasting aliens or guiding Ralphie safely away from General Winters. Really there's probably no end to the possible scenarios.

 

Ouch, that's more than I intended to type, but it does illustrate some examples. Hopefully others can think of more, because we need justifications for the VRs as well as the VR settings themselves.

 

In re: to the evil dead, I like to think that every timeline in every parallel universe (that reached 1981), has an evil dead with a corresponding Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi....as that would surely warm my heart. But I think the evil dead isn't really in the pre-war fallout world's gestalt. Maybe for something like that, as well as the fantasy western and other more obscure settings, a total conversion might be a better solution. You don't have to justify a TC's existence or have it tie into the fallout lore. It can "simply be" as one among many alternate universes. And it has the advantage of allowing more customization because you can start off with a new character that is much more tightly integrated into the world. The actual implementation of a TC isn't really much different than a VR, just a philosophical variance.

 

Also if possible I'd apprecaite it if anyone has some extra time to comb through the oblivion nexus for assets we can use. The have to be original (can be edited versions of oblivion assets as those are copyright), but I suspect there is a treasure trove of them just waiting to be found. I already have a lot of weapons, clothes and armor would be a important category to explore as well as any tile sets (we have plenty of cave tile sets from FONV, but some dungeons would be nice).