Anyone for a trip to mars?

[devinpatterson]

So I was thinking, repconn has plasma rockets and we have a company that is producing them now for international space station. They estimate a larger one could push a rocket to mars in about a month. Of course fallouts world has much more advance plasma technology than our real world tech. Mars is probably the most habitable planet, and hte vault wiki lists the vaults as an experiment to "either re-colonizing Earth or colonizing another planet if Earth turned out to be uninhabitable."

 

While there could be a million ideas for Mars outside of the fallout universe, I'm initially focusing on fitting it in to our 50's sci-fi setting. While I'm not really a fan of the 50's view of science (grew up on the cyberpunk sci-fi, gibson, bear etc) I do appreciate the juxtaposition of a retro culture and advanced science, and when in rome....

 

So, I was thinking a large glass dome with a micro citiy/base, and inhabitated by the a faction of the enclave.

 

On the practical side of things, most of the FO/NV assets are already here, space suit, rockets like NV's greenbean, ray guns (laser) etc. Add a little bit of red and the honest hearts landscape becomes a martian vista. Raging martian sandstorms would be a handy LOD solution.

 

Once the FO aspects of the universe were firmly established, the martian lore, quests etc could be expanded on.

 

So would anyone be interested in seeing it produced or be willing to contribute help and ideas?

[ihazbadluck]

I would love to see something like that. It would be fairly easy seeing as their is a plethora of media about 1950s moon bases and stuff related to space. I can't help seeing as the only 3D Modeling I know doesn't work well with video games and I am currently behind on writing my fan fiction, but I can make something like this the focus of the next chapter of the fan fiction I refered to. It would also help with expanding some of the lore and generating intrest in the idea.

[thrill606]

Your just full of awesome ideas devinpatterson. Well I'm working on a few projects at the moment but I know that your still working on Sunset Sarsparilla Wild Wild West world, so I guess this project might be put on hold until your finished with that. If thats the case I should be done with my current projects by the time this starts and I'd love to help with anything that involves graphics like textures pipboy icons and maybe I'll have learned modelling by the time you start working on this.

[greenknightfury]

I'd be glad to give you any ideas I get especially as I was just thinking of this idea, well this or a moon-shot. Can do some flavor text writing too, although as I've mentioned before...the Geck hates me so I'd be sending it to you in private messages through here.

 

 

Some amazing scifi sources to draw from with the fifties. Just a quick search turns up an interesting idea from Fallout lore angles:

 

Our Coming World (1950) by AC Michaud is a self-published utopian vision of a Mars that starts with the abduction of a B29 bomber crew. The Martians are humanoid, with many different colors, and can fly under their own power(yeah the flying isn't happening I know). These technically advanced Martians live an average of 300 years and have perfected a germ-free, socialist civilization that stresses communal living, centralized supply chains (think Bellamy's Looking Backward). A tour of Mars is interspersed with jeremiads against a morally decayed post-war Earth civilization.

 

 

Or perhaps something more like a Total Recall idea with domed mining/archaeology dig cities with surviving populations...either full of inbred mutants, normal folk, or a mix of the two, a valley domed off and then a GECK device tested in it would provide for a nice fertile area to grow/raise food for a population of descendants.

Edited December 6, 2011 by greenknightfury

[apixaez]

I quite like this idea .. but I do agree that some new kind of mutated humans would be needed instead of your usual radscorpions and what not .. maybe you could include it as an option when the ghouls @ repconn go for their great journey .. or that they leave a bigger rocket behind that has it's destination set to Mars when other wealthy humans left to Mars all those years ago when the bombs started dropping.. :)

[devinpatterson]

I would love to see something like that. It would be fairly easy seeing as their is a plethora of media about 1950s moon bases and stuff related to space.

 

That's what I'm thinking as well. It was a time where they thought science would make colonization of the whole solar system a reality in the near future. And of course fallout "SCIENCE!" is even more impressive. A lot of illustrations and 50's sci=fi stories to help us keep in that retro mindset.

 

I can't help seeing as the only 3D Modeling I know doesn't work well with video games

 

No worries, I'm far from capable with blender and nifskope, but I usually succeed on most my projects by continually bashing away at the problem and with help from the other forum members. Plus I really don't think we have to do too much custom material on this one, at least for the core mars base(s)/landscapes. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if we actually end up doing more re-textures than original models.

 

It would also help with expanding some of the lore and generating intrest in the idea.

 

That would be great, It's my primary focus (lore/history) for the mod at the moment. I think the basic concept is sound, vault-tec and the shadow gov (later the enclave) whole existence seems to center around re-colonizing earth or another habitable planet (as I presume it's new masters/ruling gov);

 

"The Enclave, responsible for the experiment (officially known as the "Societal Preservation Program"), considered themselves prime candidates for recolonizing the world after a nuclear holocaust and to this end commissioned the construction of their own shelters, isolated from the vault network. The purpose of the vault experiments was to help prepare the Enclave for either re-colonizing Earth or colonizing another planet if Earth turned out to be uninhabitable."-vault wiki under true purpose.

 

and

 

"The U.S. government's real plan to survive a nuclear war was simply to find another planet to live on after having helped to destroy the Earth. A spacecraft designed to ferry the human race to another planet was either under construction or ready to go before the Great War broke out." vault wiki under the enclaves true plan-FO2 cut content.

 

So I feel like we're on solid ground lore-wise for the main story line. We just need to tie up loose ends in the plotline (like why they havn't returned to earth, assuming there are any "they" left) and really embed that FO character/atmosphere, then we'll have a good base/foundation to build the mod on.

 

Your just full of awesome ideas devinpatterson.

 

Oh thanks, but I can't take credit for this one, mars is kind of a staple of video games, and I'm a big fan of the doom series.

 

Well I'm working on a few projects at the moment but I know that your still working on Sunset Sarsparilla Wild Wild West world, so I guess this project might be put on hold until your finished with that. If thats the case I should be done with my current projects by the time this starts and

 

I tend to jump around from project to project (last week I made some assets for the ufo nazi mod) depending on what interests me in the moment.....it's probably not a good thing. But I don't think there's any huge rush on the mars project.

 

I'd love to help with anything that involves graphics like textures pipboy icons and maybe I'll have learned modelling by the time you start working on this.

 

Yeah I think we'll have martian versions of most items, and the pipboy would be a good example. It will probably be subtly different having to account for an harsher exterior environment and different duties (ie keeping track of remaining oxygen for instance on exterior trips and areas that have been depressurized).

 

I'd be glad to give you any ideas I get especially as I was just thinking of this idea, well this or a moon-shot. Can do some flavor text writing too, although as I've mentioned before...the Geck hates me so I'd be sending it to you in private messages through here.

 

Sounds great :thumbsup: but I'd post them in the thread instead of PM's. The reason is you could have an awesome idea, and other people can build on it making it even better. Where as with the PM we just have to brains working on it.

 

Our Coming World (1950) by AC Michaud is a self-published utopian vision of a Mars that starts with the abduction of a B29 bomber crew.

 

Good deal, I'll see if I can't get hold of a copy

 

Or perhaps something more like a Total Recall idea with domed mining/archaeology dig cities with surviving populations

 

Yeah that would one of the larger questions. The scope of mars colonization. I'm leaning more toward a small scale vault-tec pop. Mainly because you don't see any public awareness of mars colonization. I was thinking originally something along the lines of a few vult-tec facilities in domes, that are in co-operation with the pre-enclave gov, but completely under everyone else's radar unless they have a top secret security clearance. Mostly scientific teams. But that's not written in stone, we just have to be able to justify it in FO lore.

 

That would be for the origin of course, over 2 centuries things will change radically. FEV experiments may have resulted in only monstrosities existing in the base (ala doom). Perhaps they have significantly expanded and now have a actual, functioning martian (any human born on mars would be definition be a martian) population. Or maybe it's a incredibly corrupted little dictatorship where social structure and absolute power have created a isolated, twisted, and bizarre little society. Alternately it's just a ghost of it's former self, long abandoned with technological treasures waiting to be recovered. Another possibility is a base completely devoid of any organic life, where the robots have evolved some sort of self-consciousnesses over the two centuries. etc etc, tons of ways to go on this one, and that's without even touching on any native martian life. lots of opportunity for unique and memorable story lines.

 

a GECK device tested in it would provide for a nice fertile area to grow/raise food for a population of descendants.

 

I like that, a dome or very small trench vally that has been enclosed, with massive vegatation and martian mutant variations on the plant life. It will also be a nice break from the bleak martian landscape and journeys with the base(s) interior(s). Probably should have some laser cannons on it to protect from incoming meteors, that we can use for interesting game mechanics. For instance it could be a good way to blast a behemoth (not that I'm suggesting we have a behemoth, just an example) or to blow open the vault door (those things weight like tons) on a near by research facility etc.

 

I quite like this idea .. but I do agree that some new kind of mutated humans would be needed instead of your usual radscorpions and what not ..

 

I hadn't really given much thought to any native versions of creatures or altered human inhabitants of mars. I'm sure any lab made creatures like cazidores (and I think night stalkers were made in OWB) and the vault 21 critters (mantis, spore plants, carriers) could be there. I'd assume various vault-tec project personal communicate and share knowledge on research projects (although technically the OWB stuff is Gov run, I think the shadow gov, gov proper, vault tec and west tek seemed to work together on joint projects). They'd be preparing martian versions for Terraforming. And normal versions of the vault 21 critters would be in the geck dome/valley.

 

But we wouldn't be limited to just those. To my way of thinking, the staff at west-tek and later when the military secured the project, gov scientists were really reckless with the PVP and FEV testing. How much more unrestrained would they be if they didn't have to worry about near by population centers, chinese spy's or other impediments to their research that would plague scientists on earth? And of course FEV projects always come back to bite you in the ass. Maybe one base would be all FEV work, and the resulting horrors. That could be our doom level/base.

 

maybe you could include it as an option when the ghouls @ repconn go for their great journey .. or that they leave a bigger rocket behind that has it's destination set to Mars when other wealthy humans left to Mars all those years ago when the bombs started dropping.. :)

 

I would love to see Jason and his followers survive, but lets face it, they'r idiots, probably got themselves killed shortly after launch. But as far as reppconn yeah I was thinking it's a good spot, since it's already set up for space travel. The wiki also mentioned the bloomfield space center had a mars rocket(s) in process that were stripped for the B.O.M.B projects, so it's another posibility. It's in southwest AZ.

 

I havn't been able to fire up the geck (or even game) in the last week or so, but I'm hoping to have some free time this weekend. Assuming the soul sucking Xmas shopping (couldn't find eveything I need online :down: ) doesn't eat it all up.

Edited December 8, 2011 by devinpatterson

[greenknightfury]

Heh meant i'd send any flavor text or writing for the mod would be sent through here as a PM if you wanted my help. Ideas I love tossing out there and kicking around.

 

I love the idea of seperate base/facilities for different types of experiments. The 'Doom' style one for FEV experiments is a must I'd say.

 

I definitely see the fertile area thing as a place where all kinds of odd creatures and plants could be found (things seemed to hint at Punga being engineered plants since they absorbed and eliminated radiation while providing fruit that was tasty and was for all intents and purposes natural Rad-Away; and grew far better in the special soil and lights that made them grow as "refined Punga". So having lots of that growing in the artificial jungle/swamp on Mars would be great.) I'd also think that exposure to plants grown and exposed on purpose to mutagenic compounds would cause so interesting mutant insects to appear in the dome (impossible to ship fruit or vegetables without ending up with some bugs or their larva/eggs hitching a ride) so some giant spiders, mutant flies, some beetles and mantises are also likely.

 

What would really be awesome would be a archaeo-biological lab where samples of ancient native Martian life were experimented with to clone some of them. This would be great to add odd critters and also I'd love to see a intelligent martian race. Fun part is that you'd be able to easily talk with them as English would be all they knew. Of course the humans might have undergone big changes too...even dividing into radically different species considering some of the scientists of the first generation would be desperately doing thing to themselves based on thier work to ensure the survival of themselves and any offspring, the multiple theories and tenchniques would lead to splitting into tribes and lead eventually to very different groups with almost cult-like following of the teachings of the 'Great Ancients' (or 'First Ones', 'Holy Parents', whatever).

 

Thinking about it...having the different facilities connect to the fertile valley would make a lot of sense and would give a great center point for the colony.

[nofear88]

I support this fully, f you need help, I can be very creative. Use of Old World Blues and such would be a starting point.

[LordFlashheart]

I support this fully, f you need help, I can be very creative. Use of Old World Blues and such would be a starting point.

 

 

Sounds like an excellent idea!

 

You could also have a quest-line featuring the Human colonists fighting the aliens from Zeta (admittedly we don't know where the come from but who cares, fighting aliens on another planet!) - you could even for hardcore users do something along the lines of combat on the surface of Mars, with a lower Gravity thing for extra fun!

[adman85]

This does sound like a cool idea for a new worldspace.

 

I agree with the above sentiment about linking it to old world blues, the repcon facility doesn't really seem high tech enough for a project this big. And you could have a Big Mountain scientist(s) linked to this "shadow government" idea.

 

As for creatures and the like, inside this mars facility (or facilities? I don't know how big you are intending) you could easily throw in some FEV crazyness, especially if you have some crazy scientist behind one of the curtains. Warped mutants and ghouls (for lore you could even say the scientist was working on ways to breath martian air)

 

This is really the perfect setting for some cabin fever style situations with the enclave (they could be split up into sub factions)

 

And the idea of traversing the bleak martian landscape in a spacesuit to get from facility to facility sounds great (to me that is, sandbox Jim). Putting some mutants out in the martian desert could be feasible, maybe even some Tremors style underground critters (anyone else remember that movie series? nevermind..).

 

If your inspiration came from doom somewhat (and I can see how most of this would remind you) you should have some references in there, pay some homage. Fallout has always been full of cultural references, they add to the hilarity.

 

Hope to see a team working on this.

 

(i'm pretty beginner styles but I do know my way around the geck and FNVEdit, if you are in dire need of help)