Raiders of the Commonwealth [Planning, WIP]

[PoliteRaider]

Raiders of the Commonwealth

Not going ahead, at least not in this form.

So I wanted to give this one a try but it's just not catching my passion, especially after discovering the vanilla system is already much more complicated than I gave it credit. I don't want to dismantle the existing raider groups but at the same time I don't want to try to build my own content being restricted by the vanilla groups. Before starting my research I thought this would be much more of a blank slate to work with. Guess I didn't give Bethesda enough credit.

However, I've already started creating some unique raider outfits, so I'm going to continue and release that as a much smaller mod. After that I'll also make a mod to put the unique outfits appropriately on the vanilla raiders already in game according to which group they belong to (I figured out how to do this with FO4Edit so I don't need to wait for CK, although there's a good chance the CK will come out by the time I'm finished making the assets anyway).

Apologies to anyone looking forward to this mod. If someone wants to take over the original plans (such as they were) you're more than welcome to, and in case you're worried about permission you can use or change any of the ideas I've had with my blessings (not that there's really more here than the very basics).

This is a design document for my own planning, but I am making it public here to share what I'm working on, get suggestions and potentially find collaborators to work with.

 

The purpose of this mod is to make the raider faction more interesting to interact with in Fallout 4. It is intended to divide raiders into unique “tribes” each of which has their own turf within the game. Each tribe will use different equipment to help differentiate them and vary their combat style. New side quests will be added which allows the player to permanently deal with each tribe and no longer have hostile encounters with them, some by appeasing them and some by destroying them.

 

This will not include DLC added areas such as Far Harbor, although depending on the success of this project there could always be later additions like Raiders of Far Harbor.

 

Development of this mod will be in two stages, although I'm going to be working on planning and asset creation for both stages now while we're in the pre-GECK period.

 

Stage 1: Differentiate the raiders into the unique location-based tribes.

~Create new textures and potentially some unique models for each of the tribes to visually differentiate them.

~Implement the raider groups in game with unique factions, levelled lists, strategies and potentially even some unique voice-acting for in-combat spoken lines.

 

Stage 2: Implement quests to allow the player to neutralize each raider tribe in unique ways.

~Design at least one quest for each tribe. In many cases these may be quite simple, such as paying them off or fighting a unique boss. The most complex quests would be used for higher level tribes (from south and eastern high level areas of the map) to add additional late-game content.

~Adding additional quests to create a wider range of ways that the player can neutralize each tribe. At the very least it would be good to have a “good” and an “evil” option (although this mod will attempt to avoid moral simplicity or strict black and white situations).

~Script and record voice-acting for the quests.

~Create new interior cells for some of the quest locations.

~Implement the quests in GECK.

~Create the reactions for other followers and factions to your character's choices during these quests.

 

Is there a stage 3?: Potential Future expansion.

This is simply speculation, since I'd prefer to focus on the solid plans for now before dwelling too much on the unknown landscape of Post-GECK fallout 4 mods and DLC. However there could potentially be sequel content expanding this mod to other areas, or additional content such as a raider follower or similar. Suggestions on this are welcome, but anything considered outside of stage 1 or 2 will be a lower priority for immediate consideration.

 

Design principles

 

~This mod isn't intended entirely for “playing a raider character” although it should be somewhat compatible with people wanting more of that experience. Instead it is built around the idea of the character interacting more with these raiders as an outsider.

~Some of these quests will involve making significant choices, some moral and some strategic.

~The raiders won't necessarily be more sympathetic as they're still violent groups who are out for themselves, however I want to breathe a bit more life into them. So this will explore some understandable motivations to some raider groups.

~This mod doesn't intend on including slavery based or themed options. That will need to be provided by other mods.

~Although this intends to be a mature approach to the raiders and thus include some adult themes, it is not going to include any explicit sex-based content.

 

Likely problems and anticipated solutions

 

This mod will require extensive modification to the raider faction, levelled lists and many cell locations. As such it's likely to experience compatibility issues with other mods interacting with the same elements.

The best way around this, given the scope of this mod, is to consider this mod as a complete overhaul and expect that this will be the primary raider-based mod that a person installing this mod will use in a given play-through.

 

Raiders are used as the opponents in some quests and changes to the raider faction may make these quests unstable.

Where possible keep quest related raiders as unaffiliated raiders who don't belong to any of these new “tribes”. The vanilla “raider” faction will remain unaffected by any changes with all tribe based raiders being given unique stand-alone records.

 

What sort of help will I need?

 

Voice Acting: I would like to implement unique in combat lines for some of the tribes, especially those with very unique personalities and combat styles. Once I have some of the dialogue scripted, I'll be approaching some of the voice actors on the site to begin plans to record this dialogue. Also many of the quests will require some custom dialogue for NPCs.

 

Mesh design: Although I can retexture my 3d modelling skills are fairly limited. If someone is able to develop some unique outfit meshes that can be worn by some of these tribes it would be incredibly useful to increasing the distinctiveness of the groups.

 

Suggestions and advice: This is a really big project and since the aim is to make a really diverse commonwealth it will be limited if there's only one person's ideas in here. I'd love to hear from other modders and mod users with their thoughts on this mod.

 

Sharing resources: It would be great to be able to use clothing items, weapons or other assets created by other modders to assist with differentiating the raiders. Also as work on this proceeds, I'll be developing assets that potentially other authors will be able to use in their projects. I intend to keep an eye out for opportunities to share some of these resources with other authors to make it more efficient for everyone.

 

Scripting assistance: Even though most plans for this mod are fairly simple from a script perspective (it's likely to only need a couple to implement the more complex quests), I might need help at some points if I get stuck. I don't yet know Papyrus scripting. I have previous coding experience with high-level languages and I'm familiar with Object Oriented design principles, but my specific knowledge of the Fallout 4 engine is limited.

 

GECK assistance: I haven't worked much with the Creation Kit before so I'm anticipating that I may get a little stuck at some points.

 

Compatibility assistance: I will need to talk to authors of other mods that are likely to be run alongside this mod to make sure that I keep my mod compatible with their work.

 

I'm going to be adding to this document as I continue working on this design. Comments, questions, suggestions and similar are welcome. Let me know what you think.

Edited March 15, 2016 by PoliteRaider

[azrielmoha]

If this mod became a reality, you may consider to talk with the creator of Raider Overhaul, that mod give the raiders a new look and make them more diverse , with new outfits, and armors. You have to do a compability patch between your mod and his.

[lilkandeekid]

Polite Raider is going to clean up the raiders, love it :laugh:

Definitely down to help out with whatever, hit me up with a PM.

[minngarm]

I was actually going to do something similar (all bet to a lesser extent in regards to encounters), but was going to work on a new weapon list first including 38 and 22 caliber revolvers and such (basically expanding on the weapon mod lists of existing weapons so that you can use your own style weapon at lower or higher levels with effect as well as having NPCs equipped with them.) You may want to make note of changes in detail so others can make mods compatible if you are going to dive hard into this.

Edited March 7, 2016 by minngarm

[MLeonhardt]

I can do voice acting, especially for Raiders.

Hit me up and I'll send you a couple bullshit lines.

[PoliteRaider]

For anyone watching this, sorry about the slow progress with updating the details. I had some computer problems I've only just fixed and I've also just started back at university so my free time has massively diminished during the week, but I'll be able to have a lot more details up here once the weekend comes around.

 

If this mod became a reality, you may consider to talk with the creator of Raider Overhaul, that mod give the raiders a new look and make them more diverse , with new outfits, and armors. You have to do a compability patch between your mod and his.

 

I definitely agree, I adore the work that author has done. The junkyard mech is one of the most beautiful things I've seen for Fallout ever. That's the sort of aesthetic that makes me want to play post-apocalyptic games. I just want to make a bit more progress first before I contact them, to make sure that I'm not wasting their time with vaporware and so I have a clearer idea of where our mods might clash/overlap/etc.

 

Polite Raider is going to clean up the raiders, love it :laugh:

Definitely down to help out with whatever, hit me up with a PM.

 

Awesome. I could definitely use some assistance and it was great working with you on the arcade mod. As I mentioned in the message I'll probably have more information once I reach the weekend and I'm not buried in university work.

 

I was actually going to do something similar (all bet to a lesser extent in regards to encounters), but was going to work on a new weapon list first including 38 and 22 caliber revolvers and such (basically expanding on the weapon mod lists of existing weapons so that you can use your own style weapon at lower or higher levels with effect as well as having NPCs equipped with them.) You may want to make note of changes in detail so others can make mods compatible if you are going to dive hard into this.

 

Thankyou, I definitely will be making sure to share that sort of information. I don't want this mod to cause problems for anyone else's mods.

 

I only haven't so far because I haven't got the information yet to share. I'll be posting up some more specific details once I have a bit more of my design complete.

 

I can do voice acting, especially for Raiders.

Hit me up and I'll send you a couple bulls*** lines.

 

Great. I really appreciate that.

 

I'm just working now on what sort of voices I'm going to be needing, I'll send you a message with the details as soon as I've got it so you can see what ones might be in your vocal range.

[PoliteRaider]

Vanilla Raider Gangs.

There's more of these than I thought, and they've actually got some personality to them.

 

Forged ~ Slag (Saugus Ironworks), ~Bedlam (Dunwich Borers)

 

1. Sinjin's gang (Goodneighbour, Water Streets Appartments and Milton General Hospital)

2. Tower Tom's gang (Beantown Brewery & BADTFL offices)

3. Red Tourette's gang (Federal Ration Stockpile)

4. Sully Mathis' gang (Thicket Excavations)

5. Jared's gang (Corvega & Lexington), Gristle (Concord)

6. Griswald's gang (Monsignor Plaza)

7. Walter's gang (Walden Pond)

8. Ernie's gang (Easy City Downs)

9. Cinder's gang (Revere Beach Station)

10. Scutter's gang (Hyde Park)

11. Demo's gang (Hardware Town)

12. The Drug Den Gang (Drug Den)

13. Bosco's gang (DB Technical High School/Medical Center Metro)

14. The Camp Kendall gang (Camp Kendall)

15. Judge Zeller's gang (East Boston Preparatory School)

16. Gaff's gang (Shamrock Taphouse)

17. Ack-Ack's gang (USAF Olivia)

18. Boomer's gang (Outpost Zimonja)

19. Chancer's gang (Andrew Station)

20. Cutty's gang (Poseidon Energy)

21. Helter Skelter's gang (Malden Center)

22. James Wire/Gabriel's gang (Libertalia)

23. Lefty's gang (Parson's state)

24. Rags' gang (FMS Northern Star)

25. Slab's gang (Pickman's Gallery)

26. Slough's gang (Quincy Quarries)

27. Ricca's gang (College Square) ~All Deceased~

28. Unknown gang (Hangman's Alley)

L&L Gang (Random)

Combat Zone Raiders.

Edited March 10, 2016 by PoliteRaider

[minngarm]

thinking the best bet would be to start with the first 2 raider gangs you encounter, and work on developing them both as the first iteration and as a way to test it out.

[lilkandeekid]

Ya thats a few more gangs then I thought there was.

Lots to work with atleast right haha?

[PoliteRaider]

Okay there's definitely a couple of gangs missing from that list that I still need to track down. If anyone can think of one that I'm missing that you've seen in game, please let me know.

 

thinking the best bet would be to start with the first 2 raider gangs you encounter, and work on developing them both as the first iteration and as a way to test it out.

 

Thanks, that's a good idea and a very practical approach.

 

Ya thats a few more gangs then I thought there was.

Lots to work with atleast right haha?

 

Oh definitely, it just changes the way I'm going to do things. Up until I started checking what raiders were in the game they had the appearance of just being raiders, so I figured it wouldn't disrupt anything to break them apart into different distinct gangs. However Bethesda was just a little more subtle than I realized and actually did put a lot of thought into this, even if (presumably due to time and budget constraints) it was hard to see in game.

 

So instead of replacing Bethesda's raiders which was the original plan, I think I need to just improve on their raiders by making some of this existing structure a bit more visible to players. It's funny, for all the complaints you hear about Fallout 4, there's often so much more in the game that just wasn't quite made clear or easy to spot. Bethesda obviously put a lot of work into this, it's just sad that it isn't quite visible some of the time.

Edited March 10, 2016 by PoliteRaider