E Pluribus Unum - Connecting the stories of FO3 and FO4 (Design document critiques encouraged!)

[Kentington]

Design Document:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1uP-XNsnDRpMWFBQ0syd1FieDQ/view?usp=sharing

Document updated 12/31/2015

Post updated 1/1/2016

The Basics

A hero in exile. A thriving nation forged from the toxic hell of the Pitt. A new ally for the Commonwealth, perhaps. But after a simple scavving mission goes awry, the Lone Wanderer and Sole Survivor must stand together against a threat like nothing they have faced before. Welcome to E Pluribus Unum - an ambitious quest mod aimed at connecting the stories of Fallout 3 and 4.

EPU is intended as a post-main-quest experience for characters who did not side with the Brotherhood of Steel. Over the course of the mod, the player ventures into the Pitt, traverses subterranean tunnels and the Appalachian Mountains, and pursues a terrifying hive intelligence into the depths of Vault 84. Along the way they will learn the tragic story of a civil war that gripped the Capital Wasteland, meet many familiar faces who joined the Lone Wanderer's exodus to found a new nation, and take on sidequests with multiple resolutions. And of course there are plenty of new perks and items: suit up in Hellfire Power Armor, grow plants from enemies' still-living bodies with the Propagator, or read several new issues of the Wasteland Survival Guide.

Features include:

• Discover the tragic aftermath of Fallout 3's events, and the Lone Wanderer's determination to rise from the ashes
  
• Enter the Pitt, a major hub city, many of whose citizens are returning characters from Fallout 3 with their own sidequests.
  
• Explore the Appalachian Mountains: a no-man's-land between the Pitt and the Brotherhood-occupied Capital Wasteland. This location is its own worldspace with plenty of interesting sites to discover.
  
• Six main quests and twelve sidequests, many of which have alternative resolutions available depending on the player's perk choices and playstyle
  
• New weapons and armor, including old favorites like the Tesla Cannon, Auto Axe, 10mm SMG, and Hellfire Power Armor
  
• Nine new perks unlocked through magazines or quests
  
• Combat missions in cyberspace; recycle enemy programs into virtual weapons and armor with the aid of your Pip-Boy's software
  
• Freely travel between the Commonwealth and the new areas after completing the main quest
  
• Bigfoot. Well, sort of...
  

Project Status

The first public release of the EPU design document has gone live, and I would very much appreciate community feedback. We aim to work out any possible lore inconsistencies and optimize the design before the Creation Kit drops and my team starts work in earnest.

At the moment the team has sufficient scripters and level designers; we are currently seeking additional modelers, texture artists, and voice actors/actresses. In particular the role of a male Lone Wanderer is still open (we do have an actress for the female LW).

Stretch goals

Way back in the day I wrote a Fallout 3 save importer which read the Lone Wanderer's stats, quest choices, and facial geometry and spat out an NPC companion for New Vegas. Due to the shift from FaceGen to a proprietary facial geometry in newer Bethesda titles, this may prove difficult to update, but FaceGen is well-documented enough that I intend to try mapping its values to the various adjustable face parts in FO4. (You'll still be able to make tweaks to the Lone Wanderer's face, but the importer should give you a good base to work off of). In any case, if you don't have an FO3 save file or don't want to use it, you can still create your Lone Wanderer manually.

[Ethreon]

So where does New Vegas fit here?

[Guest deleted2588518]

Sounds interesting. I have a few questions.

 

Q. How would you handle your "Cyber-space" combat? Fallout's computer technology isn't that advanced. Or do you plan on using something similar to say, Broken Steel?

 

Q. Are you importing assets from FO3 or making new assets based on FO3's assets?

 

Q. You are working on a method to import old character data from FO3/NV so our "Lone-Wanderer" is accurate to our own play style? I hope I read that correctly.

 

Q. Will the Appalachians be more like Point Lookout? Hillbillies and whatnot?

 

Q. Traveling back to the Pitt (Pittsburgh), are you going to import the map assets from FO3 or attempt to recreate them in a different style?

 

Q. Who's going to voice act the Lone-Wanderer? Male and Female.

[Kentington]

Sounds interesting. I have a few questions.

 

Q. How would you handle your "Cyber-space" combat? Fallout's computer technology isn't that advanced. Or do you plan on using something similar to say, Broken Steel?

 

Q. Are you importing assets from FO3 or making new assets based on FO3's assets?

 

Q. You are working on a method to import old character data from FO3/NV so our "Lone-Wanderer" is accurate to our own play style? I hope I read that correctly.

 

Q. Will the Appalachians be more like Point Lookout? Hillbillies and whatnot?

 

Q. Traveling back to the Pitt (Pittsburgh), are you going to import the map assets from FO3 or attempt to recreate them in a different style?

 

Q. Who's going to voice act the Lone-Wanderer? Male and Female.

 

• See the design document. Long story short, the protagonist ends up with an unwanted brain chip and must use their Pip-Boy's countermeasure software to fight off attempts at controlling them in virtual reality. Hostile programs drop memory blocks when defeated, which can be crafted into virtual weapons and armor.
• Most of the art assets we need are already in Fallout 4 (for example, the Saugus Ironworks props cover most of what would be needed for an industrial area). Everything else, including returning items, will be re-made by our modelers. A straight import would be jarringly ugly considering the generation gap between the engines.
• Actually, that part is already done - my old program can read the LW's stats directly from your save file. Converting the old skill-and-perk format to FO4's mechanics should be relatively trivial. The difficult part will be converting facial geometry.
• See the design document. The population is almost entirely tribal, but not played for laughs like the cartoonish swampfolk of Point Lookout. Depending on choices the player makes, at least one tribe will be consistently hostile.
• See three entries above.
• We only currently have a female voice actress. While she does not have a substantial public portfolio, I intend to post a few samples for public comment.

[Guest deleted2588518]

Everything sounds good. The document is clean and it looks like you're taking this seriously. So I'll keep an eye on it. =)

 

The only thing that feels out of place is the cyber-space aspects. The brain implant things is kinda neat and fits into FO4 really well. I would personally suggest moving from VR to meat space and have the LW fight to hold control of their thoughts instead of a shoot out in VR. Less shooty bang, bang and more detective, puzzle story. We've already got enough shooty bang, bang.

 

But that's only my opinion.

[TeamBacon]

 

EPU is intended as a post-main-quest experience for characters who did not side with the Brotherhood of Steel.

 

 

Why would anyone not side with the Brotherhood of Steel?

[Kentington]

 

Why would anyone not side with the Brotherhood of Steel?

 

Perhaps because they are a thinly-veiled allegory for how dangerously alluring the combination of totalitarianism and a cult of personality can be? Don't get me wrong, I love how morally ambiguous the factions are in FO4 and certainly don't miss FO3's boringly-good Brotherhood, but it's a little unnerving to see so many players miss the point and wholeheartedly embrace this particular faction.

 

In any case, the schism between the Lone Wanderer and the newly-reoriented Brotherhood forms an important part of EPU's backstory, and it wouldn't make sense for them to work together with a Sole Survivor who took the BoS route.

[Guest deleted2588518]

Not to mention this new Brotherhood is falling a little too close to a Nazi allegory. Complete with brown shirts.

[shadowfx78]

Very interesting looking forward to seeing this come to fruition. Revisiting the Pitt sounds neat.

[mazakala]

Interesting... I've been thinking about (and working a little) on a similar mod idea, but centered around Mothership Zeta. Curiously enough, I had the exact same ideas about Sarah Lyons being betrayed by BOS hard-liners (Maxson) and Sarah's body being on ice (on board the Mothership) :D
But that's where the similarities end. The LW could never prove that Sarah was set up, but severed ties with the BOS out of mistrust. Threatening the BOS with Zeta's orbital deathray, the LW banished them from his/her pet project, Purity. Humiliated, the BOS ventured to the CW under Maxson, looking for a new battle to boost morale.