Readius And Overcoming Some Challenges

[Deleted2628341User]

I've seen several posts regarding a Readius/PDA mod for Fallout 4, most of which are a few months old at this point. Hopefully I'm mistaken but I don't believe AlexScorpion is making mods anymore, and they were the original mind behind the Readius in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. For me as I'm sure it was for other, it was a must-have mod. I can make the pip-boy tolerable in FO4 with re-textures and such, but a recreation of the Readius would be very, very welcome. I'm not nearly skilled enough to do this, but I do have some ideas on how to overcome some of the inevitable challenges that would accompany the creation of this mod.

 

I think the first and foremost biggest challenge would be the vault door switches (aside from the acquisition scene, but I'll get to that). Vault doors in FO3 simply had a lever that the PC interacted with to open it, and vault doors in New Vegas were mostly just broken (open by default with no animation). Bethesda decided to make vault doors more interactive by doing a couple things. 1. Every vault door has some sort of opening/closing animation. 2. Every vault door has a console that requires a direct connection with the pip-boy via a specialized cabled interface. Cabled eh? How about we make that connection wireless? This could potentially mean making a simple texture change to the vault door console and adding a "connect" button to the readius in order to form a wireless connection and allow the door to then be opened or closed.

 

Another challenge would be the animations. This could be handled in a myriad of ways, but I think the simplest would be adding a slim profile multi-function dial to the readius that would be able to use the existing animations use to turn the dial and flick the little switch. Maybe just reposition the fingers a little bit so it makes more sense, but would more than likely be easier than creating brand new animations. This is of course assuming the tools are available for modifying animations. Also I'm assuming new animations would be needed for the left hand since it's unlikely the old animations from FO3 or FNV could be used again in the updated engine.

 

Finally the acquisition scene in Vault 111 when you first get the Pip-Boy normally. This could be handled several different ways. I think the easiest would be to completely remove the power-up sequence, replace the scientist skeleton with a super low-level ghoul and you loot the device from them. Before you say this makes asking Struges what a ghoul is redundant, first the ghoul would be named (Scientist or Overseer, whatever they were pre-war) so for new players they still don't know what it is necessarily, so when you ask what a ghoul is it's kind of like an "Oh, that's what that thing was" type of thing.

 

There are a few things I didn't address, like the animation of moving the device around, or holotapes. Holotapes could be inserted on the side of the device more like a floppy disk or an 8-track rather than one of those old VHS recorders... Yes now you know I'm old. As far as the animation of moving your arm/hand around, I have no idea.

 

I know that regardless of how a mod like this is approached, it will be a lot of work. Hopefully this helps those more skilled than I overcome some of the challenges that the changes in FO4 will most likely present when it comes to this sort of mod.

 

Sorry for the super long post, but I wanted to throw this out there. I wish I was able to do this myself but I mostly just tinker with the GECK/Creation Kit and dabble in a little bit of scripting... May someone more skilled than I succeed where I cannot.