Tesla Pistols/Rifles

[MajikMoshos]

Throwing round an idea for any enthusiastic modelers out there. The idea is to present advanced Tesla weapons of Chinese origins, that aren't too overpowered compared to other energy weapons but function in their own special way. They'd match each other visually, and remain lore-friendly and orginal in-game while not simply being retextures or mashups of vanilla meshes. Unless of course you're so good at mashing up and retexturing that it looks completely original. I'm currently working on a mod at the moment involving a new faction, and would like to give them weapons that you wouldn't normally see on the Legion and NCR - to try make the mod feel like a good DLC. The faction in question is none other than the Shi, making a stealthy comeback from Fallout 2.

 

Now I'm open to suggestions from anybody, especially modelers and texture artists, on how to make these work and what you're visualising. If you can make a quick sketchup that'll be cool too.

 

Each weapon could have appropriate chinese character decal, with both a clean and dirty look depending on user preference. They're hi-tech but lore-friendly, produced by the Shi after the bombs fell and used by the more elite members of their faction. There might be some uniques too. Main inspiration for this idea comes from AnOneTwo and Cabal's THOR.

 

Here's a list of what I've come up with just now:

 

Tesla Pistol

Equivelant to the Dart Gun or 22, this fires a quick, quiet bolt that can incapacitate a target. While it's more efficient than the Dart Gun, its ammo is costlier. The Tesla Pistol deals fatigue over a short period of time, so targets aren't immediatly knocked out unless the user possess a high sneak/energy skill. A sneak attack crit with standard and bulk cells is an instant knockout provided the energy skill is decent.

MODS

Hi-Cap Battery

Doubles Ammunition Capacity. Visually produces a more intense glow inside.

Shadow Sight

An appropriate but lore friendly mid-range holosight on top of the pistol.

Entropy System

Increases fire rate. Extra wires and tubes visible on the exterior.

 

Tesla Protector

The energy equivelant to the lever-action shotgun, pellet-spread and all. It doesn't home in or deal fatigue damage like the pistol, but it does have a chance to briefly stun the target, dealing a penalty to perception and agility on a critical hit, lasting as long as the dps damage does. The bolts would fizzle widly in an arc in front of the gun with each shot.

Mods

Hi-Cap Battery

Double ammo capacity. Nice glow inside.

Panda's Heart

Spread decrease. A new stock and exterior components on the rear of the gun.

Panda's Fury

Increased damage. Slightly longer Barrel, the arc of bolts reaching furtherer.

 

Tesla Repeater

Standard Tesla rifle. Somewhere in between the Laser and Multi-plas, as an equivalent to the Trail Carbine. Slight pellet-spread when using Bulk and standards, but higher accuracy and zero spread with Max and Overcharged. Crit knocks the target away, forcing them onto their backs, and deals greater health-loss per second. Fires a single powerful bolt with each shot that quickly dissipitates by the time the next shot is fired. It chews up a ton of ammo though. Likeley to OHK weaker turrets and robots with a high enough energy skill.

Mods

Hi-Cap Battery

Doubles Ammunition capacity. An intense glow emanates within the rifle barrel.

Crane's Eye

A sexy long range scope is built into the rifle.

Crane's Claw

Decreases spread subtantially. Four-pronged claw placed over the barrel exit, coming to a fine point.

 

Shining Star

Telsa Super Sledge/Mace. It has spikes, isn't too slow and can knock back a target far and away - if you can meet the 10 strength, 100 melee requirement. Otherwise you'd be slugging it around, to slow to hit most targets, and unable to really launch anyone back. Within the handle you'll see all the beautiful reactions going on inside, lighting sparking on each hit and letting out a thunderous raw on crit. The special vats attack is a jumping attack that drives it down on an opponent, pulverising anyone who isn't in decent armour and squirting lots of blood and giblets on a kill.

 

Each weapon has a mod in common - the Hi-cap battery. This is to keep it in line with WMX, which grants similar weapons the same mod. In this case, the Tesla weapons all share the battery upgrade.

 

These are related to a mod I'm slowly putting together between study breaks, one that'll bring in the Shi as a shadowy faction hoping to get in on the Hoover Dam situation by aligning themselves with one of the major powers - House, The NCR or Caeser's Legion. Whoever they choose is entirely up to you, and will determine aspects of their ultimate fate - whether they end up pulling the strings, assimilating or falling depends on key choices made during questlines. Hopefully one could allow them to work as an ally complete with their own ending slides. Of course choosing the Wild Card option would have consequences, forcing the courier to fight them straight after dealing with the Legate. I have yet to release the mod, and have only now started to revisit it during the mid-semester break. I don't expect to fully return to the project for a few more months however, working on it in small peices. The prolouge will hopefully be released in Alpha status once I've organised a few mods and completed the level layout, but won't feature the shadow faction in full until later.

Edited April 23, 2011 by MajikMoshos