(Planned) Fallout 4 TC (Feedback requested)

[Seattleite]

Basically, I'm going to be making a total conversion for Fallout 4, which does NOT take place in the Fallout universe (it doesn't even resemble it, really). Right now I'm waiting for the GECK, the script extended for the GECK, and for me to start and finish an overhaul mod that I'll be making first in said GECK. I will also wait for at least a little DLC to come out, and I will be incorporating content from all the DLCs into the TC mod, so you *will* need all the DLC to play it. If I was to estimate the start time, late 2016. If I was to estimate a completion time... Probably some time in 2018, it'll take a while. This is a big project and I am not planning around having much help (though if I do, hey, bonus).

If you don't have time to read a long post, that's the gist of it.

 

The player character is a little kid, living In Everett, Washington, in the year 2057. They live in a public housing building, sharing an apartment with another kid their age. How they managed to have an apartment in public housing without adoptive parents and half said parents' extended families is never explained. (Suffice to say, public housing would generally try to cram people into as small of a space as humanly possible. Eight people? One bedroom, count yourself lucky if there's more than a single twin bed.) How the building doesn't have roaches is also a complete mystery, those are normally universal in community housing. (Maybe the meth lab on the other side of the building has something to do with it?) To say you two lucked out is to understate the issue.

 

Intro:

 

The intro starts an awful lot like vanilla Fallout 4 (because if it ain't broke, don't fix it) with them getting ready for the day, using their mirror as the character creator. The difference is, however, that here both characters survive the intro, so there's actually a point to customizing character #2. Once you leave the bathroom, you grab the food stamp card off your counter and walk down to the grocery store across the street. There's a tall fence around the city topped in razor wire, and shorter fences between the districts, and outside all the buildings are abandoned and decrepit. This should be a big red flag, and the black bear wandering around right outside the fence should be a red flag as well.

 

The card, for the record, only has $100 on it, but there's apparently no sales tax in this setting... Which suggests that sales tax can't be enforced in this setting, which also suggests a considerable government breakdown. But that'll probably fly over most people's heads. That said, $100 in 2057 money is... Not much, to say the least. Though you do *both* have cards, it's the middle of the month and the other one is empty. (And yes, these cards *do* actually refill in-game, at a random time in the first week of each month, and can only be spent on food items.) And this game has two methods to buy items. You can either open up a barter menu by talking to a vendor, which isn't an option in all places and definitely isn't here, or you can just go activate the items you want that are sitting around in the store and go to check-out, where a fixed value is removed from your account automatically for each item you picked up. (In places where you can barter, this is cheaper but has less selection. In places where you can't barter, such as here, it's more expensive than bartering but it's your only option so deal with it.) Once you've purchased $80 or more in groceries, you can leave.

 

After you leave, the other child starts a conversation with you, telling you they're going to go outside the fence tonight to scavenge. They also tell you to go looking for them if they aren't back by 4. The following dialogue will make it clear this is a regular thing if you object, but the conversation ends with them saying they'll be okay, and asking if you trust them. But before you can answer, a cop opens fire on the bear through the fence, cutting you off. Fade to black.

 

The next scene starts with an alarm going off at 4:00 AM, the other child clearly absent. Fade to black again, and fade back in to the player handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser just inside the gate, being interrogated by officer B. Calhoun, who has a clip board. Officer B. Fife is walking around by the gate, cursing under his breath, and officer B. Miller Jr. is standing next to the car, smoking. (Calhoun, Fife and Miller. D'ya get it?) I actually have the dialogue written for this scene.

 

Fife: "Hey Calhoun, I can't find the little s***'s bolt cutters. Ask them about that."

 

Calhoun: "Not important Fife, shut up."

 

Miller: "I'll help you look in a minute, Fife. Leave Calhoun alone."

 

Calhoun, to the player: "Ignore Fife, he's an a**hole."

 

Fife: "I heard that!"

 

Calhoun: "Good for you, a**hole!" (Such camaraderie in this department, truly a sight to behold.)

 

Calhoun, to the player: "...Alright, kid. I hope you understand I have to file a report on this. So let me fill out what I already know..." He scribbles at his clip-board for a second. "December 25th, 2057, 4:15 AM... Thanks for that, by the way, perfect way to start my morning. Okay kid, let's start with your name." The name menu appears.

 

Calhoun, to the player: "Now I need a quick physical description. Doesn't need to be too in-depth, just height, weight, distinguishing marks, that stuff." Attribute menu appears, with all attributes at 1 and 30 spendable points. The other child's stats will match yours.

 

Calhoun, to the player: "And now, any unusual abilities, especially those that would cause problems in general containment, though I don't think you'll spend more than a couple weeks in jail. Be honest, this is for your safety." A menu appears for spell selection, which can also be accessed later. Yes, spells. The player has 4000 vitae for spell purchases at this time. This is enough to purchase four arcane or divine spells (though spells also use vitae to cast, so spending *all* of it would be a bad idea), or forty nature spells (and there aren't even that many in the game). Go nuts, you can get a decent set-up here. The other child will also receive any spells you purchase.

 

Calhoun, looking it over: "Nothing too extraordinary. Not these days, anyway. Now all that's left before we get to the meat of the matter is your criminal record. Now, at your age this is largely a formality, but if you have any outstanding warrants or felonies, you need to let me know now. And I will check this, so don't lie to me." The player receives 50,000 experience and levels up five times. The perk table opens to allow them to spend it all. The other child receives any perks you do, and any increases to your attributes will also be reflected on theirs.

 

Calhoun, smiling just a bit: "Sounds like you've just been a kid so far. Keep it that way. Now for why we're here. Why were you trying to get outside? I mean, you know once you're out we can't let you back in, right? And you know how dangerous it is out there? Did it sound like fun, like it was some kind of adventure? It's not. It's just a bad idea. So we're stopping you here, and maybe when you're older you'll understand why."

 

Miller, groaning: "Could you GET more cliche, Calhoun? Just ask where the kid's bolt cutters are so we can confiscate them."

 

Calhoun: "Shut up, Miller. You were the one saying to leave me alone, remember?"

 

The scene is interrupted by a fireball flying in and striking Miller, exploding and setting both him and Fife on fire. Fife runs off back into the city, while Miller tries to draw his weapon and takes two flaming bolts from a young man outside the gates, and he goes down screaming. Calhoun scrambles for the rifle in the front of the squad car, but is pulled from the seat by the man, who proceeds to stab him to death. He walks over and stomps on Miller's head before coming over to you.

 

Unnamed man: "Let me get those off you. These people have no shame." He reaches over to Calhoun, then unlocks your handcuffs. "They'll arrest people for anything nowadays, but there's no way I'm letting them put a child in a cage. Especially not for something that should be your right anyway. Now go on, get out of here. Go do whatever you were doing outside, and come back in one piece, okay? I'm going to lock the gate behind you, but there's a concealed hole on the north side somewhere when you want back in. It's under a bush, you can only see it from the outside. Just please, be careful."

 

The man walks you outside the gate, closing and locking it. He waves goodbye, and the player is free to move. The voice of the other child can be heard in a building right on the other side, calling you. The building is old and decrepit, with roaches everywhere. The child's voice can be heard upstairs, where they can be found sitting on the floor, injured. A dead dog can be seen laying at their feet with multiple gunshot wounds, and a living (and abnormally immaculate) dog can be seen laying next to them, wagging its tail. The child's arm and one leg are torn up, and there's an empty .22 revolver sitting on the floor next to them.

 

They're relieved to see you, and they explain what happened. Apparently while they were out, officer Fife changed the lock and they couldn't get back in. They decided to wait in here for you to come get them, and were attacked in their sleep by the dead mongrel. Thankfully, the other dog came along and pulled it off of them. They ask you to help them walk, but the player has no choice but to break the bad news to them. Then they break bad news of their own when they tell you that hole in the fence was fixed weeks ago and you're legitimately stuck out there. (I hope you cleaned out the fridge on your way out of the apartment. But if not, don't worry, the stuff you got will keep.)

 

When you're getting ready to leave, the dead dog rasps and shakes, standing up back up, and now you have to fight it when the other child's gun is empty and you either don't have any other weapon or at best you have something weak as hell you picked up downstairs. And the living dog inexplicably does no damage (there's an explanation for that, but later), so you do need to fight. Thankfully, the dog is much more fragile when it's already dead and rotting, and while it has a bit of damage resistance, doesn't bleed or anything like that and can keep moving without its head, it'll be easy enough to destroy it. Magic can make this fight a complete joke, too.

 

After this, what the player does is up to them, but the initial quest is very simple and open-ended, just being to get medical attention for the other child.

 

 

You probably picked up on a few things in there if you read it. First, things are pretty bad if they're fencing off entire cities *and* fencing the districts inside them as a redundant defensive measure. Second, magic is clearly a thing in this setting. Not only can you purchase spells early on, but Miller is killed by somebody who can throw fire. It's pretty unambiguous. Third, things killed rise from the dead spontaneously, without outside intervention, in only a couple hours.

 

Beyond what you can gather from the intro, there's a good-sized world to explore, though it is smaller than Fallout 4 by rather a lot, and lots of large, sprawling ruins to explore with multiple unlocking paths and boss fights at the end. There's no overarching story, but there's a lot of little stories and eventually expansions will be added that take you to some pretty insane locations (Annwn being one good example) and these generally have stories.

 

There is a lot of magic and the supernatural despite its near-future setting (the presence of magic and the supernatural, I feel I need to add, does NOT mean conventional weapons are useless), and only for the past forty years. Civilization is slowly collapsing, as the world has been under attack by multiple factions of supernatural invaders for decades, new and dangerous supernatural creatures have entered the ecosystem, and the way most governments reacted to the sudden presence of magic has not helped keep people on their side. Your area has all of the invading factions present and at war within it, the US government is still present in some areas within it (such as your hometown of Everett), and plenty of towns have split off and declared themselves sovereign entities, whether they can really defend themselves or not.

The main supernatural factions are the celestials, death lords, raiders, demons, Angels and Presence cultists. Celestials were the first to invade, because they have come to the conclusion that human civilization will collapse if they don't intervene and run things for us until we can do it ourselves. The death lords and the lesser vampires invaded mostly because the celestials did, and they are opposed to the celestials and the gods on a fundamental level. Raiders invaded because Earth is a world they've never been able to visit before with a lot of interesting things to study and they just need enough bases around to do research from, though given that their "research" involves abducting living things and they don't really consider non-raiders to be people per se, their name is well earned. Demons, angels and Presence cultists are all invading to make people worship their respective gods, though they go about it in a different way. (Demons operate as a corporate republic, angels operate as a fascist theocracy and Presence cultists are a theocratic oligarchy.)

The factions above frequently clash with one another, in-game, whenever you're near their borders. These fights range from minor firefights between a few individuals to skirmishes to full-on battles complete with vehicles and fire support, and are all way out of your league, so it's best to just not get involved if you want to live. (Also, if you end up in one, try not to become a target and be cognizant of all the fire going around, because bullets and bombs will just as happily kill somebody who wasn't their intended target.)

 

The game world is dangerous, and the game puts a heavy emphasis on caution. Wounds are extremely difficult to heal, especially crippled limbs, it doesn't take much damage to break your little body, enemies crit often (though so do you) and crits deal out devastating special effects, with most penetrating weapons causing life-threatening blood loss from a single critical hit, even if the weapon's damage is normally fairly low. You can start a fight with somebody normally friendly, fights even with hostile creatures can often be avoided and stealth is a big element of the game.

 

Overall, this mod is intended to be darker and grittier, more challenging and more realistic, have stronger survival and stealth mechanics, heavy horror influences, many new places to explore and the simple and organic story of two small children trying to make and keep a place for themselves in a dangerous world they cannot meaningfully influence. If that piques your interest, keep an eye on this mod as it's developed.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Seattleite