Writing Side Quests for Beyond Boulder Dome

[KazFoxsen]

I'm working on the Beyond Boulder Dome mod team and have some ideas for side quests, but am unsure how to proceed. Sure, it's not so hard to write, but to successfully integrate good story and gameplay seems more challenging. I want to know what do you find makes a quest fun and worthwhile? The promise of a sweet weapon or being required to complete a quest to advance the story are all obvious motivations, but not every quest can provide these, so, what else drives you?

 

If there are any writers (or 3D artists) interested in joining our team, we could use the help. We've got a thread here on Nexus, and a page on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/BeyondBoulderDome. If interested, please contact our director here.

Edited October 5, 2011 by KazFoxsen

[Druid12]

Well, let's start with my humble opinion!)

 

I guess, the funniest thing in Fallout (after it's unique humour) is it's "pomposity". I mean, decisions like "kill Goliath with a jar of mayonaise and three toothpicks". So if you want a sidequest to be funny - make player act like bum, but during his scavenge searching for quest items let him feel like God, The Inventor, Da Vinci!

For example, you have a metal stick.

A simple metal stick like pipe.

No, really, a damn simple stick.

But then you find a battery with some wires, you connect wires to that stick, wear rubber shoes, recharge battery, turn power on and your stick can boil enemies' blood inside their veins... Gosh, you know such things better then me, I'm studiying journalism not science.

 

Then comes unusual character. For a sidequest a character can be whatever: complicated history and tragic background OR walking "party hard" shooting jokes like bullets - both will work! But one thing is for sure - no one likes "Paolo Coelho style" without humor and jokes but with anger-depression-pain-tears and naked... soul. Such a shame - naked Colonel Moore would have been much more interesting.

So at least one character must be optimistic and funny - even if he dies in first ten minutes. Or seconds.

 

One thing in making a character we must remember - appearance is vital! If you want your character to be favoured by players you must make something bigger then "generate random face"! I can give you some hints. It's all I can do, actually - my GECK bugs terribly and crashes when I try to change someones' appearance with direct mouse usage.

 

And as for plot. It's nice when sidequests are somehow connected with main ones. Like "Kill one Goliath to get mote toothpick for slaying another" or something, because it makes a complete, interesting, exciting story!

 

And map markers. Too much - sucks. Not at all - SUCKS!!!

But when vital stuff like "Find Hecto-Quantum Komaroid FACILITY" has it's marker and stuff like "Find Hecto-Quantum Komaroid ITSELF" hasn't - it's good. For me, I mean. So, challenge must not be too hard, but... it has to be anyway.

 

And fighting. You see, I think that Fallout isn't a complete action. Shootout is good, but permanent shootout-mod is BAD. Just find balance between calm wasteland and hot wasteland.

 

As for hot...

 

O, got to run, bye-bye everybody!

[Bdthemag]

Im going to have to disagree with the above poster on a few points. Please for the love of god, don't get too silly on the weapons. OWB is a perfect example on how to make weapons like that work, they're kind of crazy but they still fit in the fallout universe.

 

I also disagree about the part on characters, you don't have to make these kinds of characters and I hope you don't. Never make a character that just cracks jokes the entire time, it ruin's the atmosphere sometimes. And you don't always have to have a character with a tragic backstory, its been done way to many times really.

 

My suggestion for character's is that you shouldn't follow any kind of character stereotype, sure you can have a character who tells jokes but he can't just be there for comic relief. But then again you can't just have a super serious character, either way im sure you guys will find a good balance between the two.

[KazFoxsen]

Yes, an excessively angsty character is no good. That's why I wanted to kick Ulysses' ass (actually, it was more of the purple prose crap, but, anyway...)

 

What makes a quest more than just fetching, or a kill X amount of whatever, or a pass 50 Speech?

[drakeelvin]

The unexpected is always nice, throw in a little Spanish Inquisition! On a find item quest the map marker reference leads to the area, but when you enter that room you can have some surprises like The Spanish Inquisitors show up the instant you pickup said item -- makes for a nice surprise. Okay, maybe not the inquisition but maybe something above a gang of Fiends and below a pack of Deathclaws.

 

Having a little story with NPCs adds a lot of flavor. It doesn't need to be a major thing, just drop some hints as to some background on the NPCs it can be memorable. It's like salt.

 

One thing that's worked well for ages is the "hard-to-kill guy", the guy you want to face down but he always slips away time after time, leaving his minions to face you. But in the end you corner him (or her, they're even worse!) and have an epic battle.

 

What this game (vanilla) does not have is an epic physical puzzle. Like some kind of terrain thing where you have to solve a puzzle by navigating an area in a certain way. I think they tried to do this in Dead Money -- never played it but that was my impression reading the reviews.

 

Rescue the Damsel. A rescue where the enemy actually attacks the rescuee (damsel) rather than you, so you are in a race against time.

 

Damned if you do or dont. So you have some choices but any choice has some benefit to someone but really sucks for someone else.

[Druid12]

Yeah, shame on me, used wrong words about characters.

Of course, people who's only weapon is a joke are lost men a priory. Forget-forget-forget. -me-nots, hahahahaha.

 

One thing that is present in every fallout (except F3 - it's just a beeping shitbag in my opinion) is the unique humor, "fallout humor", as I would call it. It's when characters do or say things which are normal for them but makes you ROFL.

For examle, a radscorp playing (and always winning) chess, as well as talking flower that can teach you how to defeat that nasty bug.

Burping bum (who just can't be outburped) from "Valdez" tanker - don't pretend you didn't see him.

A ghoul burried alive at Golgofa which can be rescued. He gets out of a grave and acts like nothing had happened. Also, ghouls are often represented as zombies, so a ghoul getting out of grave looks even funnier.

Finally, a ghoul in Den who is represented as a mummy. Hell, isn't that funny?

 

Agree with Drakeelvin - a background shouldn't be complicated but interesting.

As for me, sometimes I create character's whole biography and then take the most interesting parts, so you can give a player a certain ammount of information which makes character look like actual human being instead being a pack of textures upon mesh, but also you can provide more non-essential data through dialogues.

 

For example, if you rush through the main quest you'll find out that you're followers name is X, he's from Y and works as Z.

But if you examine him closer and spend some time to try all dialogue options, you'll see that he has a daughter, his wife was killed on Hoover Dam and he is quite a gambler with large debts.

Edited October 6, 2011 by Druid12

[drakeelvin]

As for me, sometimes I create character's whole biography and then take the most interesting parts, so you can give a player a certain ammount of information which makes character look like actual human being instead being a pack of textures upon mesh, but also you can provide more non-essential data through dialogues.

 

Exactly, put in enough so the player will fill in the blanks with their own imagination! Who knows, maybe they'll imagine your story, or something different, but it will be memorable!

[MojaveMike]

You mentioned something about a Hippie character, what's his story?

[KazFoxsen]

You mentioned something about a Hippie character, what's his story?

 

If you're referring to the main Boulder Dome thread, that would be Mark, a laid-back minor character who lives in underground Boulder and plays guitar. He's had an on/off relationship over the last 200 years with Mindy, a violinist. They're supposed to be a band, but they can't play together. If asked what the problem is, Mindy will say,

 

"I like to take my time and carefully construct a musical narrative based on classical tradition, while Mark...well, its like on our first date. I was content to hold hands and watch the leaves cascade, but he had to go sticking his tongue in my face, then BAM! Yeah, there were some really hot fireworks alright...then I started spitting out pieces of his lips! Tasted like burned bologna. Ugh!"

 

Then, they followed the crowds into the cave, seeking shelter from the bombs. I don't really have a specific side quest in mind for them right now, but it would be cool to talk them into playing a new song together on the stage. However, we need the music first.

Edited October 7, 2011 by KazFoxsen

[n0t0ryczny]

I'm not good about talking 'what makes it worthwhile', I'll toss out some examples.

 

Maybe some kind of commando mission instead of "epic final battle". Since almost all Fallout storylines end in tedious (or just silly) killing groups of random enemies why don't make a final mission a 'sneak and plant the bomb in their camp'. Examples of the 'final battle':

Water Purifier invasion by Enclave, Water Purifier assault by BoS, Adams AFB battle, whole Op Anchorage, Mothership Zeta, Hoover Dam battle, run and gun Honest Hearts finale, huge scorpion in OWB (that one is avoidable - glorious exception), stupid fight at Lonesome road finale. Even in Dead Money there was the 'kill all the ghost people' thing before advancing further.

 

Adding a personal motivation works wonders. Maybe some semi-serious flirty dialogue with some scientist? That would add another layer to the game, just show the player that scientists inside suits are real people trying not to loose their struggle to remain human.

 

Maybe some classic, like Anna's Locket quest from Fo 2? It could be fairly easy to make. Not mentioning the Wild Wasteland flavor.

 

Some sort of photo quest could be nice. You know, instead of 'go fetch me 15 books' or 'kill 15 cazadores'. Here, take this camera and bring me a picture of what we are really have problem with.

 

Some crazy Fallout humour. This is a must. Ghouls addicted to playing Tragic: The Garnering, some mad science (or, more proper, Science!). Or maybe (and that's both sick and a nice real world reference) photo quest involving cats.

 

P.S. Please add interiors to maximum number of buildings, also the ruined ones. Nothing breaks immersion like doors merely painted on the wall. Even if it is just a few square feet air pocket in collapsed house.