Playable Ghoul Mod Idea (Minor spoilers)

[banchouboo]

I'm fairly new to modding and have never used the creation kit before, so I'm not sure exactly how difficult this would be, but I have plans to attempt to make a playable ghoul mod when the GECK is released that is more than just character creation. I'm not sure how many people know this, but if you just stay in Sanctuary pre-war without going in Vault 111, the nuke will just fall and kill you. So my thought was if the Vault-Tec rep could survive and become a ghoul, who is to say I couldn't too? From there I'm not sure exactly how I'd work from there for the time skip and voice and such (There are already voice changing mods that make voices higher/lower, I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to add the sort of gravelly effect that ghoul voices have) so while I wait for the GECK to come out I'll think and read suggestions people have here.

[tomomi1922]

For instance, there is already ghoul skin and you can replace your character skin like another nude skin. May require some digging to find the ghoul skin texture in FO4Edit and/or BAS extractor. But I know for 100% sure you can do it right at this moment with available tools. And what makes a ghoul different? probably give him/her the Ghoul perk by default.

 

But this presents a huge challenge against the existing plot. How do YOU become a ghoul? Or you don't care about it that much and just be a happy ghoul playing the game as Bethesda intended. But if you do, and I am sensing this is your bigger concern than just skin and perk. If you didn't get to Vault 111 in time before the explosion, the witnessing of Shaun being taken away has to come from a completely new perspective. It has to assume that your spouse and Shaun did make it down to the Vault before you to start this infant taken away story, or else, you may very well create a brand new game. Perhaps you have been unable to open the Vault for the last 200 years, and not knowing what really went on inside (if your spouse and baby still even survive for 200+ years, maybe you would expect to see great grandchildren now). And Kellog came along with Institute Tech giving you an opening for you to sneak in with them. And then how do we create some kind of time passing to allow Shaun to grow up (and without you knowing?) Maybe initial encounter with Kelliog, he defeated you and successfully lock and freeze you in the pod and you wake up years later thinking Kellog barely left.

[banchouboo]

For instance, there is already ghoul skin and you can replace your character skin like another nude skin. May require some digging to find the ghoul skin texture in FO4Edit and/or BAS extractor. But I know for 100% sure you can do it right at this moment with available tools. And what makes a ghoul different? probably give him/her the Ghoul perk by default.

 

But this presents a huge challenge against the existing plot. How do YOU become a ghoul? Or you don't care about it that much and just be a happy ghoul playing the game as Bethesda intended. But if you do, and I am sensing this is your bigger concern than just skin and perk. If you didn't get to Vault 111 in time before the explosion, the witnessing of Shaun being taken away has to come from a completely new perspective. It has to assume that your spouse and Shaun did make it down to the Vault before you to start this infant taken away story, or else, you may very well create a brand new game. Perhaps you have been unable to open the Vault for the last 200 years, and not knowing what really went on inside (if your spouse and baby still even survive for 200+ years, maybe you would expect to see great grandchildren now). And Kellog came along with Institute Tech giving you an opening for you to sneak in with them. And then how do we create some kind of time passing to allow Shaun to grow up (and without you knowing?) Maybe initial encounter with Kelliog, he defeated you and successfully lock and freeze you in the pod and you wake up years later thinking Kellog barely left.

I think that sounds like a good idea, it'd require a lot of work, but I think it could be doable. Maybe it'd be plausible to go in yourself (before Kellogg; perhaps even not too long after the bombs fall) and freeze yourself so you (expect) to get out when your spouse does, then from there everything could continue normally and for the most part all the dialogue (about being frozen and such) would fit in perfectly and your confusion to all the changes in the Commonwealth would make sense, there would only be a few immersion-breaking pieces of dialogue involving ghouls.

[tomomi1922]

The freezer pod is almost like a prison. Once you step in, you would have no idea when or who will wake you up/let you out, or if you even have a chance to wake up anymore. So freezing yourself is something a sane person would not likely do. He/she would start the quest to find ways to unfreeze the pod to save the spouse and child. For plot wise, it is a lot better that somehow you are forced in the pod. I thought about my previous idea .... adding voice to Kellog can be very tough, hard to find someone to sound like the voice actor and also process audio quality to be like FO4 quality. So maybe Vault-tec at the time cannot or do not have the mean to save your life from all the radiation poisoning, and the only way to keep you alive is that freezer pod. And over the time, even your life is preserved, radiation poisoning slowing affecting your skin and it turns "ghoul like" over the 200 years.

You can do most of these as epilogue, or can do a quick movie scene of random Vaul-tec employees trying to save you by dragging your body into the freezer.