Of UFO’s, Nazis and secret antarctic bases

[devinpatterson]

There's a mod called "Misanthropy Pure: Warzones" Which actually adds a crashed rocket site along with BoS fighting Super Mutant Behemoths, which your post instantly reminded me of. They put it right up in the snowcapped mountains near Jacobstown, nice and away from NCR or Legion presence. And I wasn't talking about really far into the desert, just right off of Red Rock, seeing as that too is devoid of anyone who would really want to explore it.

 

Hmmm interesting. I'm somewhat partial through to a new world space with the saucer in a deep crash crater/depression. That would be a fairly manageable worldspace for LOD (level of detail) stuff. That's not taking into consideration any town or other areas though.

[MajikMoshos]

Forgive me, because it's about to get really wordy in here.

 

You make a good point in regards to the timeline, that's something that'll need consideration. Now a huge fireball streaking through the sky might be a challenge to animate, so let's just say the ship crashed sometime before the Courier wakes up in Goodsprings - the alien's been travelling through the Wastelands for a few months or even years by this point, avoiding humans and fighting his way through vicious creatures. I'd imagine a nice star wars reference could be thrown about in an enounter with a hunter over some gibbed/vaporised Deathclaws - "Dees' blasts are too dang accurate for Bruthahood Lasers". Maybe that's a Wild Wasteland thing...

 

For the Nazis, they could awake shortly after the events of MSZ - signals given off from both ships buzz them, slowly awakening key engineers first. During this time, their Alien slaves have been maintaining the underground zone, immune to the rads brought fourth in 58. Actually, something you have to recall is the divergent timeline. The nuking of antarctica could be moved anywhere from 1958 to much later - giving much more time for the Nazis to develop tech before being forced into cryostasis. In this time they figure out a way to keep the Alien slaves under their control, using Metallic Head-bands that function similar to slave collars - injecting a massive amount of poison straight into the brain, causing the aliens to gooify (if that's even a word) into a mass of whiteish pulp. Anyway, the awakening process is slow - the Nazi's don't have functioning satelittes and need to repair and replace equipment damaged by the EMP from the Nuclear blast. In the four or so years between FO3 and NV, they've got a full on underground stronghold up and running, scout ships starting their rounds around the southern and later northern hemispheres, taking in the sight of a post-apocalyptic earth. They never find the crashed ship in this time due to never moving as far up as Nevada. But when the alien finally sends his signal - then the Nazis send out their welcoming party. For now, they're not ready to take the world just yet, but soon they will be.

 

Back on the topic of our alien buddy; you say he could have a party - I say he's better off having to fend for himself and his mate (who'd play into the story later...). Any other members of his party are dead, though the Aliens encountered with the Wild Wasteland trait could be a rescue party - or rather, one that wants little ET dead for whatever reason (Political Situation back on his homeworld, something too complicated for human understanding). He's spent years travelling with his dwindiling companions trying to build a transmitter, but none of the human tech cuts it - when he finally catches sight of the Mothership burning through the atmosphere, his eyes light up with hope at the prospect of a safe future for him and his mate. Of course when the Nazi's finally showup, they take her for testing while our Alien hero gets cut off from his beloved. Their interest in her?

 

She's fertile.

 

If the courier allows themself to get captured and DOESN'T side with the Nazis, he/she'll be locked up in a cell until ET eventually busts him out and starts a riot (assuming there are still aliens in antarctica, slaved under the Nazi rule). In the confusion you meet up with ET once again. This would likley be the easiest path to take for lower level players but would still demand decent skill in lockpicking and science, lest your chances of escape drop dramatically.

 

Or perhaps one could attempt a speech check to make the Nazis take you along as a 'guest'...unarmed of course. This would give you time to explore (most of) the base to your liking, while perhaps setting up a plan of action - including making it easier for your alien 'pal' to get into the stronghold. You'd also slowly learn more about the Nazi plans - hoping to unlock the key to some of the Alien's greatest traits through genetic splicing, all in their attempt to create the Ubermenchs.

 

For the sake of excitement, a few of these actually do get created by the Quest's end, and they will be HARD. I'm thinking something of a cross between a human and a supermutant in size and musclemass, but of course with blone hair and blue eyes that are just a little larger than normal. Even unarmed they can throw the courier around like ragdolls.

 

This would be where your speech check comes in - a high level in Intelligence, or strong Medicine/Science/Survival skill will allow you to show your knowledge of Genetics and Evolution towards the 'Welcoming Party' and the High Command, impressing them with your skill as they realise you might be useful. Meanwhile, should you have a strong standing with the Legion you could display a general liking for Authorotarianship and knowledge regarding Nietzsche, something to help you earn some more bonuses with the Nazis. Of course they're still gonna stab you in the back towards the end because you're just too irradiated for them.

 

If being captured or made a 'guest of honour' isn't your liking you can instead stick with the alien and help him fly to antarctica - if you refuse he'll simply force you to tag along, using something akin to a slave collar only inside the Courier's chest, planted in there via syringe. This would also allow you to understand his language from then on. Now you'd either stowaway on a scout ship for the stealth option (convicing ET to go along with it requires a stealth skill around 50) or assault it head-on so the alien can fly it there himself. Then there'd be the likleyhood of getting shot down by the Nazis somewhere over antarctica, where you'd have to tread a long way through the snow and treacherous ice, fighting Polar Yao Guais and Mutant Penguins (sideaffects of the US Nukes and early Nazi experiments) until finally reaching your destination. If your Luck is high enough though, you manage to land much closer to the Nazi Base without setting off any alarms.

 

Anyway, that's probably enough for today, but to save time I won't delve much more till a few other users get their chance to make suggestions. I'd really like to see this mod come through, it has the potential to be EPIC.

Edited May 18, 2011 by MajikMoshos

[devinpatterson]

I was thinking that it might be kind of cool to have the nazis already in teh saucer exploring with several search parties. That way your facing not only NV wildlife, mutatated abominations, drones etc, but several seperate nazi encounters. That might be enough actors to flesh out the hulk of the ship.

 

I'd also like perhaps start the quest off with a new radio station that has alien jabber on it. An attempt to send a distress call.....this might be what gets the nazis in the air and out to the crash site. They realize that a surviving alien would be invaluable in their research to decode, translate, teach etc. That story line would imply the aliens in the antarctic being all dead of course, but that does make sense. After all it'd be pretty tough (impossible?) for anyone but a super hero like the lone wanderer to take the ship if the aliens were aboard (unless they were in cyro stasis). It also makes a little plot hook to keep the alien companion with you, since if the nazis get him it's just going to be bad news.

 

Could also make it feel like a race against time to find him first in the crashed hulk

 

Just had a weird idea....what if the crashed saucers impact created a zone full of strange stalker anomalies and artifacts. Might throw a little bit of weirdness into the world-space if the plagiarism doesn't turn the player off. Perhaps the power supply core was ruptured resulting in the effect. The anomalies would be more like traps with fire, lightning, cold etc effects. The artifacts could be items that add resistances through actor effects or immunities. Probably too derivative, but thought I'd mention it since it came up while I was typing this.

[MajikMoshos]

You and I are on a pretty similar track my friend.

 

I understand where you're coming from with the radio - I was implying the signal would be picked up by the pipboy just like in MSZ. This could be after a certain point in the vanilla storyline - say, upon dealing with Benny in the Tops. By that point in time a player should be at a high enough level to stand a chance (mostly) against the challenges to be presented here.

 

You make a good point about the antarctica aliens - perhaps by this point they've died out, all thanks to a lack of females or perhaps even a lack of food. They would probably be frozen, the cold preserving their bodies. However if they're alive they won't be fighting you anyway since the Nazis keep them as slaves, and the moment you come in to liberate them they'd change Maybe take a page out of District 9 - the working class aliens don't actually know much and are likley illiterate in their own tounge. Maybe they've never actually seen their world for countless years - technology's marched on. Keep in mind that 10000 years ago they may not have had FTL travel even. They can't solve the modern alien tech since it's possibly millions of years out of their leauge. Now, to compesate for their lack of FTL travel, they mave have whole breeding pens built inside the old ship...which the Nazis used for their own purpose - creating the master race. I'd assume those subs brought women in as well, the intent being to finish the plans for the perfect Aryan Supermen in Antarctica. Maybe something in the alien pens allows for...mass breeding? Of course, all attempts have failed so far - the nazis needing to use genetic material from a superior alien to activate the machine. Unwittingly, they don't realise that this fuses the alien DNA into the humans, creating the Übermensch - think of it as an Abonimation that leans more towards the human side than alien. It'd be a new creature type and could gib similarly to the aliens. That and it can use guns - the Super Mutant animations would work pretty well here. Perhaps this can create the moral dilemma of possibly having to kill the Alien's mate if you lack the right skills, can't retrieve certain items and tools or can't convince a Scientist to seperate her from the machine without resulting in death.

 

My idea involving the mate would be so that the alien is your temporary companion once you reach Antarctica, and can force the courier to come along if they don't comply (otherwise what's to stop a player giving up after looting the mothership?). This is assuming you don't get captured or try to side with them in the first place. Thus his mate provides 'ET' with the desire to head for antarctica, dragging along the courier under the belief that the courier is one of the Nazis. Over time he realises you're not, but still won't trust you. Of course whether or not he intends to turn the Earth to dust afterwards will be up to you. Perhaps the Alien would spare the planet if he understands that not all humans are Nazis? This would probably require a strong speech check. Otherwise you'd have two choices - Either destroy his only method of calling home and convince him you're not responsible, or kill him. Obviously with the latter he can't become your companion. With the other two situations you'd have to convince him to travel with you - which would be impossible if you killed his mate.

 

Now in regards to the Nazis already beating the Courier there - perhaps they keep their identity a secret. Assuming you put the town in, the people might remark about the funny-talking folk who passed through, asking about 'dat big fireball'. Meeting them at the ship they'd pose as regular salvagers - the Courier however can discover their identities himself, either through pickpocketing, killing them or with a clever speech check involving a Perception of 2 to pick up the accent (with a hilarious exchange if your perception's at 1) and Intelligence to realise they're Germans. Another perception check makes you realise they're not telling you something, leading to a bloody fight. Otherwise they'd tell you to just turn back, giving you three chances and getting their guns ready (as opposed to catching them off guard during the conversation). Alternativley you can watch from a safe distance as they enter the ship themselves. Of course they'd post guards outside regardless, and inside the Courier discovers even more of them. Upon triggering the next part of the quest, a stronger force will arrive to capture the alien - this would be a battle you're bound to lose, so perhaps they'd knock you out instead of killing you? I'd imagine one of the Germans there would be a particularly tough Boss, likley a lieutenant serving under the Leader.

 

I'll leave it there. Really can't wait to see this start coming together.

[TrooperScooperMKII]

WRT the mod's trigger- the PC level would work as a good base, but I think that adding a requirement for in game days would be a more elegant solution. IE the PC needs to be at least level 5-10 (pretty well developed, but not that far into it, as this is just the floor cap) and has to pass a number of days in game. This should be somewhat random, ideally with an increasing chance as time goes on. This is so the PC doesn't immediately see the ship crash at day one; given the "racing the Nazis" aspect and the rather noteworthy event of having a ship crash into the desert, simply having it on the backburner doesn't make any sense.

 

I don't think that the aliens would be as OP as you might think. If I interprete MZ correctly (I haven't played it) then the crashed ship was fighting another group of aliens. In any event, the aliens would probably be rather few in number between depressurization and atmospheric reentry. Besides, the Nazis have advanced Human tech- not quite on par with alien tech, but not exactly a horse-vs-tank scenario- and have studied and even acquired second hand alienware. Between casualties, injuries, low supplies and general attrition I don't see the aliens being capable of surviving the hordes of the Reich, though it would be a bloody and brutal battle, i.e like how the Khans would fall if the NCR ever attacked, but the NCR can't/won't devote huge resources in a fight that would see huge casualties.

 

In fact, I envision a standoff where the aliens are holed up in the core of the ship after a long and bloody last stand, threatening to blow the reactor or simply trying to get a distress beacon out before the Wermacht busts down the doors. This of course would be somewhat incompatible with being the first on the scene. Perhaps having the distress beacon telling of the slaughter/how long their supplies (water purifier? :) ) will last? IF the PC doesn't get there to relieve the siege then the Nazis storm the fort and the game ends there, with a cutscene showing the Nazis wiping out everyone and establishing a new world order. This could be an optional plugin for hardcore gamers, as it's more of an immersion/difficulty thing than anything else.

 

ETA: I also think that the Reich should have a Swastika 2.0; Hitler stole an Indian (Aryan) symbol of good luck and reversed it, so it's not surprising that the fear/hate conjured up by the symbol exists solely based on the wicked deeds of the men who bore it. That's how it works IRL, but this Fallout doesn't stick to those rules. :nuke:

I would start with darkening the red to a deeper crimson/maroon, the color of blood and fire. Also the swastika could be twisted and curved like a saw blade; hey, if the US flag was altered without a change in government, then the Reich can emerge from 200+ years of isolation with a new sigil :devil: .

Edited May 21, 2011 by TrooperScooperMKII

[LegionIX]

If you made a new symbol, then you might as well change the entire mod and have them called Neo-Nazis then. It wouldn't be the same. Keep the original symbol.

[ngin890]

This looks awesome! You all have really great ideas and I know this will make a really great mod. I would love to help, but I am without a computer for a while. If this is still being made when I get my computer then I would be honored to help out. For now I can be an idea person. I am fairly creative and would love to help.

 

I think that all of the nazi soldiers you meet should all wear SS uniforms. Due to the alien research they should be abnormally strong but not too overpowered. They should use new energy weapons and have a high skill. Officers should wear a similar uniform but a bit different to reflect that they are officers. An officers cap is a must as well. Nazi scientists could just have any lab coat and maybe a weak pistol, but they would just run away in combat. The nazis should have an elite unit though. The elites should wear the armor that OldCoot 46 posted except it should be black with nazi paraphernalia. The armor should have really high DT and give some good effects. The elites should have high health, powerful weapons and a 100 skill. Elites should only really be seen in very important areas or when you start to be a problem to the nazis. When you start really killing them then squads of elites should be sent out and they could be minor "boss battles" themselves. Also to stop the player from making the mod easy by wearing the armor you could have it that it can not be taken off a dead elite's body. The only way to get a suit would be in an armory pretty much right before the final encounter in the mod. It would be the help you need to stop the obviously needed, overpowered, Frank Horrigan-like end boss.

 

For weapons there should be Zeta-like weapons but hybrid with nazi weapons like MP40s. How awesome would it be to shoot a energy MP40? Also seeing that the nazis went into hiding long before plasma and laser weapons, if they developed them then it would seem really advanced to them. That way you could have laser MP40s and new plasma rifles with alien like blasters as weapons. Although normal to us, very high tech to the Nazis.

 

That is all I have to type now but I do have many more ideas. I know you want to make the Nazis evil, which they are, but it would be nice if you could work with the nazis and not always get betrayed by them. If you could show that you are very useful and one tough son of a gun, then the nazis should be smart enough to realize that betraying you will lead to their defeat. Some people don't like to include a permanent friendly relationship with nazis, but I would very much like it. It wouldn't be that much harder if you made the rest of the mod.

[Guest deleted2018789]

Nazis? Secret Antarctic Base? If you substitute the aliens as deformed feral ghouls (i.e. zombies)...sounds like someone's been playing a bit of Black Ops. Edited May 22, 2011 by Warlizard

[devinpatterson]

Nazis? Secret Antarctic Base? If you substitute the aliens as deformed feral ghouls (i.e. zombies)...sounds like someone's been playing a bit of Black Ops.

 

Well I suppose some nazis could have survived the 3 american nukes and became ghoulified......

[devinpatterson]

If you made a new symbol, then you might as well change the entire mod and have them called Neo-Nazis then. It wouldn't be the same. Keep the original symbol.

 

I havn't had time to look over TrooperScooperMKII 's message in detail yet (just stopping in the forums for a minute), but I will probably be keeping everything as close to the real nazis as the game engine allows.....(just the addition of some advanced tech).