Idea for an immersive alternate start mod

[IQ88]

This is not a request, but an idea for how an immersive alternate start mod would work. It is a repost of a reddit post I made a few days ago (link here). Here goes.

 

Why an alternate start mod is necessary

The main quest in FO4 is one of urgency: find your son at all costs. Playing through the game I found myself constantly steering clear of distractions, including settlement building, because I felt the sole survivor would never rest until he found Shaun.

So urgency is the main motivator of the story. But at the same time as nudging you to finish the main quest the game expects you to level up your character as much as possible—this is evident in the steep difficulty curve of the main quest if you proceed with it directly.

There is a clear dissonance here, so what to do? A relatively simple mod might even out the difficulty curve. But I think the heart of the problem is that the main story discourages exploration while the gameplay encourages it. I propose an alternate start mod as a solution.

Alternate start: amnesia

Amnesia would enable the sole survivor to explore the commonwealth without urgency. Here's what it would entail:

• Clicking 'New Game' initiates character creation inside Vault 111, player standing in the cryogenic stasis chamber.
  • The player chooses look, stats and name immediately.
• When the player is done, the screen fades to white. Sound bits of the scene with Kellogg can be heard.
  • Kellogg: "It's alright... ", Nora: "I'm not giving you Shaun", GUNSHOT, Kellogg: "At least we still have the backup...". These lines/sound bits are intercut and cross-fade so it all happens quickly, and they have an echo to them so as to effect that the scene is sensed, but not seen, by the sole survivor.
• The player emerges from cryogenic stasis pod. The opposite pod (where Nora would normally be) is empty.
• The player receives a quest, but rather than Out Of Time[1] it is called Amnesia, and it reads:
  • Summary: "I find myself in some sort of facility with no memory or recollection of who I am or how I got here."
  • Objective: "Discover your identity".
• When the player exits Vault 111, they receive a quest marker in Diamond City. Myrna, the merchant with a grudge against synths, has a Wedding Ring on her priced at 500 caps. Buying it will start Out Of Time[2] at stage 10, where the player has to go to Sanctuary.
  • Upon obtaining the ring, the player character utters the appropriate line of dialogue "I will find who did this... and I'll get Shaun back. I promise", which is originally heard when standing in front of Nora's corpse.

That's the simple outline of how to start the main quest, the idea being that before the player acquires the wedding ring from Myrna they have all the time in the world to explore and cause all sorts of trouble in the commonwealth. Whatever pleases the player; it doesn't break immersion because there is no urgency. But the above is only half of the story. A series of scripted events would have to be adapted. I think (or hope) most of these can be circumvented by setting the main quest stage to 0, but some of the below items would require scripting and/or conversation editing.

Some affected scenes/events

• The initial conversation with Codsworth upon exiting Vault 111.
  • Either the player cannot talk to Codsworth, or the only options granted to them in the conversation are variations of 'I don't know what happened', 'Who are you?', 'What is this place?', 'Goodbye'. I am sure generic lines like these are easily found in the huge repertoire of recorded dialogue within the game. I suspect the former solution is easier, however.
• References to Shaun have to be removed in conversations outside the main quest (e.g. with the minutemen in Concord, such as the initial conversation(s) with Preston Garvey, and the initial sight-seeing (pun intended) conversations with Mama Murphy).
  • There are more than a handful of such references, they would need to be charted.
• Initial meeting with Piper. This is a great scene and an even greater introduction to Piper's character. But either it has to go, or the conversation has to be edited. Again, there cannot be any reference to the player looking for a lost person/child.
  • Piper's interview of the player must be put off. A plausible diegetic reason for her to want to do the interview (after the main quest is started) has to be found. I.e., why is she interested in interviewing you now, as opposed to before?

This is just to name a few things. There are likely many other scenes that need to be taken into account. But most of this can come later. Step one would be to implement core functionality, namely a working alternate way to start the main quest.

What are your thoughts? Have I overlooked anything? What would you do different?

[TeamBacon]

I didn't feel any urgency in the main quest that points me away from building up my character. I think that is all in your head. I pretty much knew that if I was going to be saving Shaun against this unknown evil, that it was very, very important to make as many allies as possible and build up as many guns and skills so I could stand a chance against this enemy.

 

I guess if you were born on Krypton and have laser eyes and unbreakable skin and can fly, then running straight in to fight the enemy doesn't seem like a bad idea. But I believe the whole theme behind Fallout 4 is about taking a character that stands ZERO chance to defeat the big bad enemy and building them into a character with enough skills, guns, and allies to get the job done.

 

I don't see this as necessary. If I am going to play an alternate start, I want a totally new story.

[Boombro]

You know, if you cut the intro to the moment you exist the pod and remove the wife/husband. You get the best fallout start and the most hollow.