Customisable weapon (WIP) : Marauder Axe

[saleswomanfromhell]

So. First time ever posting here. Normally dont have reason to post anything.

 

Anyways, since most of the dlc's are out, and the the melee weapon modding options within the vanilla game has so far been, honestly, now that buyer's guilt has worn off, disappointing. And I dont think they would improve for the final DLC. And I almost always played a ranged character cos of lack of satisfying weapons in FO4...And I know 3D modelling. And texturing and some animating...And I got to asking myself. Why arent I making my own stuff.

So I am. And I am posting here because I have never modded Bethesda games. And surely I will run into problems. And thought it would be good to post here and ask for help when need arises.

http://i.imgur.com/MX2qCsI.jpg

As you can see. The Marauder Axe should be highly customisable. I am basing the dimensions on the Super Sledge.
As much as I love aesthetic changes on weapons, the real important thing is that the parts, as you upgrade them and swap out mods, offer changes in damage output but more importantly should offer different advantages and disadvantages so that each part is never obsolete(other than the very starting mods).

For example, the three axe heads shown here. The first is a standard. The second is a hooked axe and it offers a chance to disarm the opponent. The third head is a blunt crusher head. It offers substantial increase in damage and chance to stagger but it also consumes substantially more stamina to perform a power attack. The exact numbers and balance are not yet set. but that is the gist of it.
Similarly, metal handles add more mass, and thus more damage. But also swing slower. And vice versa for the lighter wooden handles. The more ergonomic-looking handles also gives AP bonuses.

There will be 4 mod slots(that I have planned so far)
Head - General damage output increase and some functionality at the cost of swing speed or AP cost
Handle - General increase in swing speed and decrease in AP cost and AP bonuses
Handle Guard - Damage reduction increase when blocking, at the cost of decrease in swing speed and weapon swap speed

The 4th mod type will be adding, I guess you could call, elemental damges and general DoT effects to the weapon
http://i.imgur.com/HHQTvuB.jpg

Just shown here are the 3 so far that I am happy with the visual design. There are some others but they look not up to standard yet. Anyways, each one show here adds electric damage/stun effect, fire damage and cryo damage/freeze/slow effect. I didnt like how some vanilla weapons that did have such mods didnt have the mod show up visually on the screen enough. So even though swinging an axe strapped with flamer fuel is, realistically, a bad idea, I am designing more for readability while trying not to clutter the screen TOO much.

Other mods I am thinking of, but not happy with it yet, are
Bleed Damage - For DoT damage
Explosive Damage(working on the same concept as the Ballistics Glove from FO:NV) - For gibbing/AOE/cool
Added Weights - For MOAR DAMAGE. And bigger chance of stagger
Added rocket thruster - FOR MOAR SPEED. The weapon is being based on the Super Sledge afterall.

These mockups and concepts, as with all mockups and concepts, may or may not be in the final mod. I will learn what I can and cannot do and change elements as needs arise. Already, I can foresee changing how the mod looks for the flame mod, just because I dont think I can emulate the shish-kebab flame effects to a satisfactory standard. I will most likely change it to a heated coil type of add-on, as seen on the super sledge.

Enough talk. The progress so far...Because I wasn't going to post without having SOMETHING to show. Here is the base form of the axe all modelled out(not textured). And then (lazily)placed at an approximate angle that it would be seen in the game.

http://i.imgur.com/fTTc1xp.png

It looks promising so far. Usually, going from paper concept to 3D and execution turns it to a garbage. But this looks ok. And it's not blocking too much of the screen and I am happy with the amount of details that show. Clean enough and not too busy but also not too bare. Especially since there will be additional mods attached to it.

The base model, as you can see is done. The challenge isnt the mesh creating or the texturing. The challenges are actually figuring out how to use the modding kits and getting everything to work together. Like I said, I dont know pretty much nothing in regards to Bethesda modding.

At worst case scenario, I cant get any of the fancy stuff to work. Then I would at least have a heavy 2-handed melee weapon that I could get to work by itself.
At best case scenario, I get most of what I want to get working and I learn stuff for future mods...Maybe...

I will first try getting this basic mesh to work, tweak things by playtesting. And once all dimensions are set, the hands grip roughly the right place and the sizes are correct, get to working on the textures. And then the mods. So on and so forth. And...thats about it. Progress updates as progress happens

Umm...thats about it.

Updates :

Update 1

Update 2

Edited July 29, 2016 by saleswomanfromhell

[OunceStripes]

I can't give you a particular advice but I just want to say that it seems promising. Keep it up!

[WastelandAssassin]

I wholeheartedly agree with you on the fact that melee weapons in Fallout 4 were mostly underwhelming

and it's true that there aren't many mods that add good ones

with that in mind, your concept looks extremely interesting, and will surely keep an eye on this

 

In case you need help in the future, i can't quite offer any myself, as i haven't tried modding Fallout 4, but i would direct you to MikeMoore http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/users/4626144/?

he is a very talented mod maker, focusing on adding melee weapons for Fallout 4, so he will probably have all the information you may need

 

best of luck to you, and eagerly waiting to get a chance to swing these babies around

WA

[saleswomanfromhell]

Thank you for the interest you have shown me. And thank you WastelandAssassin for pointing me towards to MikeMoore. I sure could use some help in the not to distant future.

Update

After fiddling around, I got the model in the game, with very little trouble. And by very little trouble, what I really mean is that I spent the last 2-3 hours figuring out what went wrong with my model and then finding out that I put an incorrect path to a file.

http://puu.sh/qhyoW/1b0e0daf27.jpghttp://i.imgur.com/o1HyhWM.jpgStupidity (and the clearly garble placeholder texture) aside. The axe isnt too obtrusive for the field of view. Pretty happy with my first ever butchering of an esp file.

On modding itself, Nif seems to be the weirdest thing for me since I've never handled Nif. It seems to work in a very interesting way from other...mesh files. I guess it is more close to an MDX file from Warcraft 3. That aside, Creation Kit takes forever to load but FO4Edit seems to work fine. Will take some time getting used to but right now, seems p straight forward.

Edited July 28, 2016 by saleswomanfromhell

[mkborgelt13]

That looks very nice, great job!

 

"Interesting" is a word for .nif files. I've been frustrated with them lately.

 

If you are ever trying to copy/paste branch to combine two .nifs (upgrade component and base axe), and Nifskope isn't working, import both into bodyslide and then export as 1 .nif. Took me a long time to figure out. So hopefully you can make use of that.

[saleswomanfromhell]

Update 2:

http://i.imgur.com/PHuWqh9.jpg
Just throwing on some textures while in zbrush just so I could get a better grasp on what real life materials the parts should imitate before I get to sculpting on finer details

[ninjarat314]

Just found the this and I have to say keep it up, you're doing great! XD
When/if this gets released you've definitely got an endorsement from me, if I may say one thing, just kind of a nitpick/nagging thought but the handle on the first picture's crushing-axe variant, the protruding handle type thing might benefit from a small wrapping on it, like electrical tape or something. Just an observation, really like what you've done so far.

[Wunderbot]

Looks promising! Will gladly use it on my raider char.