Anyone for a trip to mars?

[devinpatterson]

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.

 

Sounds good, that can be our run and gun, segment. Or alternately a survival horror (or both).

 

I definitely see the fertile area thing as a place where all kinds of odd creatures and plants could be found

 

I think it would be a good change of pace to do a jungle. I can't recall any mods that have massive foliage, but I'm guessing morrowind probably has some, so I don't think it's beyond the ability of the game engine. Might be a little choppy, but I bet we could use some tricks to optimize it.

 

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.

 

Yes I think the vault 21 stuff will cover some of that. I can work with cockroach to make it more of a beetle shape. I don't anticipate any huge problems unless there is something funky with the skeleton. I think I can also work with the bloatfly's to make them closer to a real fly in appearance.

 

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.

 

I have to admit I'm more partial to the martian stuff being archaeological ruins, strange alien machines, remnants of an ancient language etc. Rather than any re-creation of actual biological entities. I like the idea of steeping them in mystery, playing up the ancient, mystic, long lost race dead many centuries before the first man appeared. But that's not written in stone....if we come up with a great plot line that involves living martians than I'm good with that.

 

Or possibly something in between. Perhaps we could have just missed the martians. I think from the late 1800's until the end of hte 19th century (20, 30 years?) they thought there was canals on mars. Maybe that was a last gasp of a (very advanced) dying race to save it's planet. So mankind would have only missed them by two centuries.

 

Few different ways to go on that one.

 

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).

 

 

Tech-priests are a rich environment for ideas. It spins off in multiple sub-plots;

 

*Logans run and soylent green plots, due to the extremely restricted resources. I'm thinking of at least two ways that could originate;

 

The first would be a mainframe that is simply doing the most logical thing to keep the colonists alive. Nutrients have to be re-used so logically the dead become food. In the same respect the computer might consider humans most productive ages between theirs 20's to their 40's. After their 40'sthey may drain more resources than they contribute. So they are "renewed" at 45 (or 30 or whatever). The mainframe isn't evil, it's just using cold, basic logic.

 

The 2nd way would be for there to be a secret, ruling council. Lets say ghouls, that have been alive since the first colonization. Perhaps they are suvivors from a nuke the chines sent to one of hte more military oriented locations or a B.O.M.B site on one of the mars moons. They happened to be out of the base when the great war started and as such were only heavily irradiated as opposed to being incinerated. Due to the logistics that would imply, at least originally, a chinese base on or near mars (within striking distance), so that could be another local to explore. Regardless of their origin they control things from behind a veil of secrecy and have since the very beginning. Maybe they were high ranking officers that were on a transport when the nuke hit. But whatever the case they had a lot of authority. As they began to ghoulify they were forced to hide their transformations and separate themselves from the other colonists. Whether out of spite or self preservation they follow the same cold logic as the mainframe from the previous idea, but of course don't apply it to themselves. They may have seen dozens of generations of humans cut down long before their time by being "renewed". These guys (as opposed to the mainframe) would fit a pretty clear definition of self-serving evil.

 

In either case one aspect would be different from logans run. It wouldn't be a utopian type society of leisure, social life, shopping etc like the movie. They wouldn't have the resources. So it would be much darker with an iron control of the people that must not be questioned, a totalitarian oppressive society. Teh players job could be to take down this regime (mainframe or ghou). Fight the power!

 

*Perhaps worship of a mainframe as their oracle/leader. It could be a massive mess of damaged hardware putting out random gibberish that only the priests can "interpret". That could lead to some fallout quirkiness/comedy. Ie. "The all seeing oracle has decreed that boots must be worn as hats, and the holy hokey pokey will be performed at the zenith of each day. So it is said, so it shall be done for the oracle is wise beyond all others. Ahhhhhmmeeenn".

 

*paranoid mainframe. Something along the lines of the paranoia rpg. I never played it but I like the theme. From teh website; "Paranoia is a humorous role-playing game set in a dystopian future similar to Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, Logan's Run and THX 1138. The Computer serves as the game's principal antagonist, and fears a number of threats to its 'perfect' society, such as The Outdoors, mutants, and secret societies (especially Communists)" The paranoia mainframe is apparantly constantly killing those that work for it (or placing them in dangerous situations where the get themselves killed), so it has a long line of clones for each person.

 

Our plot line would obviously be downsized considerably in scale (from a city to a base), and it's paranoia would be focused exclusively on chinese communists (until the player shows up). There's never any evidence of chinese operatives and that in itself is proof of their cunning conspiracy. We could keep the humor or make it a very dark view (or a little of both). Either way the player becomes the wildcard that the computer hates/fears the most....obviously a chinese operative.

 

It could be a straightforward run and gun to destroy the mainframe while dealing with various clones (using tech from vault 108, the "Garys"), or it could be a much more subtle plot line involving the player being recruited by the mainframe to ferret out who the operatives are and dropped in a paranoia rpg style adventure while trying to work behind the scenes to create an uprising and/or sabotage/destroy the mainframe.

 

*For the people in the bio-jungle, we could do something similar to that star trek episode where the people are on a starship (I think it was a hollowed out asteroid) and don't even know it. Don't remember the exact episode, something like "for the world is hollow and I have touched the sky". It would be a little more difficult to pull off since it's much smaller in scale (ie it'd be a tiny mini world). If they're in a covered valley it would be more believable than a glass dome. Surprisingly there is precedent for a valley that functions as a vault, called the nursery. The only difference in this situation being that it would have a transparent enclosure over teh top, but in all other aspects be teh same (although on a smaller scale).

 

Perhaps the surviving colonists could have morphed into two competing tribes. One, a nature worshiping religion that stresses balance with all living things etc. Using plants, animals, herbs, anesthetic poisions etc as their technology. Maybe even expanding that to include using animals and plants as weapons (ie seeds that grow into wall of briars in seconds, pets that act as protectors etc. The've even prospered to some small degree and have a stable society/tribe. Something of noble savages. They could be descended from military personal.

 

The other tribe could be the equivalent of the morlocks. Descended from the original scientists, they live underground, hidden in the subterranean bases facilities. They may have become dark and twisted in nature/character or even have physical changes thanks to experiments in FEV (or other viral/radiological agents). Perhaps they were exiled, from the bio vault valley, shortly after the war, for carrying out dangerous and immoral experiments.

 

From here we could take the traditional morlock storyline;

 

They'v turned cannibal and keep the maintenance of the base running so that the first tribe of noble savages are a food source for them. There technology and/or fev induced mutations gives them a combative advantage, but the noble savages are quite capable fighters. So the morlocks come slealthily in the dead of night to take their prey, aided by sleep gas or other advantages. This has given them a legendary/supernatural aspect to the savages.

 

Or alternately they could be roughly equals with the savages bio tech countering the morlocks fallout tech and weapons. Each holding their own domains but not powerful enough to take the the enemies territory. This has resulted in a stalemate with constant raids for decades. The player would tip the balance for one tribe or the other.

 

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.

 

Might be good to keep them separate so we don't have any "bleed over" from the various bases. If we go with any of the plot lines from above, they will work better if they are isolated from each other. A lack of space suits could be a natural barrier to travel and even be a game play mechanic for the player. If his/her suit is damaged he/she is forced to go through adventure to acquire a new one (or items to repair the old one). It could even be a driving source for the plot lines. And since the spacesuits would be easily damaged (small arms fire etc) it would be easy to have that "hook".

 

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.

 

Good deal no fear88, we need lots of help. Whether it's ideas, or resources, it's all appreciated. I'm not too sure about old world blues though, because I don't think they had any tech related to space travel per se. Some stuff has connections though, like the botanical research.

 

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!

 

Myself I'm leaning toward the ancient long dead martian race, it appeals to me more than a varient of hte zeta alien lines, but I'm not committed to it. I'd just like to give them (martians) a epic backstory, whereas if we include living martians in the storyline I have the impression it will diminish them to the somewhat ridiculous level of the zeta aliens. But that's just my initial thoughts, I havn't given martians any deep consideration.

 

Maybe a back story that features a race that was closer to the martians of John Carter, before they passed from the ages. Overtones of mysticism and eons of culture. Something like the lore from doom 3.

 

Re: the low gravity I'm not too sure. Did zeta have low gravity on the excursion outside the saucer? If so I could probably learn how to do it from the dlc.

 

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

 

I think it has a lot of possibilities, especially with all the mars and 50's sci-fi lore. I think it especially fits fallout lore because we are talking about a time that is very similar culturally (all though not chronologically).

 

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.

 

Well the most minimum component is the vehicle, a plasma rocket. And repconn is already set up. To be honest the best spot would be bloomfield airforce base, since they were already building a rocket (or rockets) for trips to mars. Then the s*** hit hte fan and they had to cannibalize them for use with the bomb platforms.

 

What we still need is a plot device for going to mars. Something that acts as a hook to draw the player in.

 

And you could have a Big Mountain scientist(s) linked to this "shadow government" idea.

 

I can't take credit for the shadow gov, it's a long held staple of fallout lore. It's essentially the gov behind the gov. This article has some info on the shadow gov and one (only?) surviving arm the enclave.

 

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

 

Couldn't agree more, with isolation and no oversight you could have some very strange social structures/communities.

 

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).

 

I like it very much as well, something about strikes a chord with Lone Wanderer.

 

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..).

 

The problem with fallout is it's pretty tough to come up with a completely original monster. I can make minor alterations to skeletons and fairly extensive operations to meshes, and re-textures are no problem. But we don't have anything that resembles a worm or snake. So any appearance of a creature like that would have to be second hand. Ie a cave in that would appear to be caused by a creature burrowing beneath you and pulling you under. Other mutants are possible, though I kind of like the idea of the martian vistas being desolate, lifeless landscapes.

 

you should have some references in there, pay some homage

 

Yeah easter eggs for Doom, logans run, soylant green etc.

 

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

 

Yeah I really am. When I have to devote time/work on in one area it's less time for other areas. So any help is greatly appreciated.

 

So currently I have a virus. It mainfests itself as the ping.exe process and eats up a shitload of cpu cycles (can bounce between 1 and 100%). It's resisted everything I'v thrown at it, so I'll probably be nuking my system partition. It may eat up the whole weekend (lot of backing up to do). And of course next weekend will be Xmas. But I'd like to keep the ideas rolling in so when we start actual work on the mod we have a wide selection to choose the best ideas.

 

If anyone has additional ideas to contribute they'r always welcome.

[kibblesticks]

Oops didn't realise my images took up half the thread space, anyone know how to hide stuff in those nifty spoiler boxes so I'm not forcing people to scan past my images?

[adman85]

Those computer troubles sound horrible. Good luck there.. Hate to see a man parted from his technology.

 

As for plot devices, I know a lot of people who would be drawn to anything enclave or alien. Whether it be perfectly lore friendly or not.

 

Maybe have the ship actually land in the distance as the player nears the particular area for cinematics, then when the player nears the area he encounters the enclave occupants (or doesn't, maybe the player has to search inside to find a lone, crazed pilot, or just corpses and a disturbing "black box" recording)

Either way you can use this encounter to introduce another hook, whether it be rumors of aliens, or advanced tech, or a tear in the fabric of reality leading to "hell".

 

At this point the player would have to say, refuel the ship somehow, (a little fetch and retrieve to give them a chance to gather up supplies for the long haul). And if it was big enough, you could make the ship a player home too, it's a good place to store loot until the flight back.

And there's another point.. You could stop the player from leaving the mars site immediately by damaging the ship on entry, making one of the main missions to repair the ship (maybe eventually give the player access to some recharging fuel cells, for trips back and forth later on)

 

And if you're into the classic fallout style scenario then there could be an old unused radio system set up somewhere (whether in the airport or repcon, or even on the ship ride over), that the player can fix and eventually tune to have a conversation with a stranded (possibly crazy) enclave member(s) on mars.

(There was an enclave radio in fallout 1 or 2, where i think you could trick the guy into giving away their location, or annoy him and get attacked by an enclave squad)

 

Just some ideas, I'm sure I can think of more.

 

As for physical things I can do in the geck etc.

 

I can overhaul (and duplicate to create "new") weapons, perks, creatures, effects, messages, ammo, ingestibles, misc items, leveled lists and I generally know how they work. Though some of the variables leave me baffled.

 

I can and have placed objects into the fallout world with success before, but I'm definitely no cluttering expert, I find injecting things through leveled lists usually works best.

 

I can manipulate simple scripts to do simple things, attaching home made on hit effects to weapons for example. (I repeat, simple)

 

So basically I can work the GECK to get a result most of the time, though there are still many things beyond me or that I simply haven't learned yet.

 

Creating textures for example I cannot do, and will not have the time or resources to learn for a while, I also have not learned how to navmesh, which makes me sad. And I have never tried making a worldspace.

 

But I'm willing to help out, even just for ideas.

 

EDIT; Nice one Kibblesticks, Is that first shot a window looking into space? Or am I seeing things?

Edited December 15, 2011 by adman85

[greenknightfury]

A hook idea...I can give a few:

 

1.) The classic: Radio signal suddenly being broadcast from Repconn listing off a systems check for launch. When you investigate you find that the rocket is set to head to the Mars experimental colonies.

 

2.) Seeing a streak of light and plume of smoke accompanied by a huge roar coming from Repconn and finding a rocket sitting there. Turns out this is an automated emergancy shuttle rocket set to bring a special team from Repconn to Mars in case of certain things happening at the colony and one of those conditions just triggered (some vital system has broken down or a restricted section has been breached).

 

3.) You stumble across the information that a rocket is prepped and waiting at Repconn to head to a mysterious facility with mention of tech and biological experiments, but giving no indication that it is Mars till you leave the atmosphere.

 

4) Distress call being relayed through Repconn from the Mars facility by someone that almost by shear luck got the radio working or (if you go with the mainframe idea) by the mainframe panicked because of something someone in the colonies is doing.

[kibblesticks]

I'm loving these ideas guys! I don't want to impose as you fellas clearly have a strong idea of what it is you want to create. However last night I couldn't help myself and created these biodomes that I think have a sufficently 50's scifi vibe about them. They're completely modular so you could use one or fifty and they can link together any way you like.

 

 

 

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j454/kibblesticks/The%20Deep/BioDomesModularCapabilities02.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j454/kibblesticks/The%20Deep/BioDomesModularCapabilities.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j454/kibblesticks/The%20Deep/BioDomes.jpg

 

 

 

Also, on the topic of a supercomputer being worshipped I have an idea that I think fits Fallout's dark humour. A computer that uses the brains of historic figures to reach judgements that are deemed more worthy than those of lesser men. I imagine it would sit in the middle of a room filled with rows of shelves. Each row contains dozens of identical rectangular devices and in each device sits a cross section of brain (on show through a clear glass side panel of course). Four of these "brain-drives" can be inserted into the machine at once to produce a mind capable of the wit of Shakespeare combined with the tactical genius of Alexander and the compassion of Mother teresa. The brains have been grown from dna samples collected from the bones or personal effects of the dead historical figure.

 

The machine looks like this:

 

 

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j454/kibblesticks/The%20Deep/BrainMachine-1.jpg

 

 

 

Idea could use some tweaking but I think it has the potential to be dark and funny. Also it fits in with Bethesda's obsession with brains and self aware computers. :biggrin:

[devinpatterson]

Oops didn't realise my images took up half the thread space, anyone know how to hide stuff in those nifty spoiler boxes so I'm not forcing people to scan past my images?

 

Kibblesticks, good to hear from you amigo :thumbsup: Yeah it's just spoiler and a trailing /spoiler both inside the same square brackets you use for images, quotes etc.

 

I know a lot of people who would be drawn to anything enclave or alien

 

Yeah, I like them (enclave) as villains too. I mean how evil would you have to be, to gamble with the fate of a whole planet and the human race, in a grab for power.

 

or just corpses and a disturbing "black box" recording)

 

I like that, I wonder if there's anyway to spin it as having taken off shortly after the war and been a floating tomb for 2 centuries. Powering back up when it drifted into earth orbit and received a signal from a satellite beacon. The occupants long dead from radiation poisoning, or worse.

 

The worse is an idea I was playing with for sunset park. What if your a ghoul who's body is incapacitated, but your brain continues to function. A type of sensory deprivation for two centuries. Maybe they suffered a rupture and lost most of their 02. All the crew members died a slow death, from suffocation, but ghoulification set in before one crew member expired. However damage to the life support meant no heating and he was frozen solid in a twilight consciousness for over two hundred years.

 

You could stop the player from leaving the mars site immediately by damaging the ship on entry, making one of the main missions to repair the ship (maybe eventually give the player access to some recharging fuel cells, for trips back and forth later on)

 

I was following somewhat along similar lines. I was thinking that the u.s. we had B.O.M.B platforms that were in orbit, and it makes sense to have a much smaller scale version on phobes or deimos to protect the colony. Might just have small yield nukes for use against spacecraft. But everyone on the station is long dead, and the mainframe is running a automated defense program. On approach a code is issued over the military band to teh players rocket. He/she doesn't respond correctly and it's "go time" for the deimos/phobes missile base. But by the sheerest of coincidences (computer glitch, missile malfunction etc) the nuke is way off and the rocket is able to make a crash landing. All circuits fry'd massive, structural damage. Can go with it needing to be repaired or have to find an alternative form of transportation.

 

It's a good explanation for why no one has come in or out of the planet, the codes would be ultra top secret, possibly irrecoverably lost. If they exist the story arc will deal with repairing/recovering a ship and getting those codes. If the codes are lost to the antiquities of time the story arc is going to end with the player traveling to the moon base and destroying (or disabling, bargaining whatever) the moonbase's mainframe.

 

 

OK gotta take a break, sorry for the short answers, I'm recovering from food poisoning. Feel like a mule kicked me in the gut a half dozen times. I tell you for a guy that never gets sick (or very, very rarely) this was a real wake up call........my luck is awesome. Look forward to hashing out more stuff when I catch my wind.

Edited December 17, 2011 by devinpatterson

[xXJonthEXx]

Ok i may not be the best at 3d modeling, but if i can help with 3d models, i would love to.

[apixaez]

that looks pretty awesome kibble..

 

Did you have spacestations in mind aswell devinpatterson or would that be something for in the very late stages? :)

Edited December 17, 2011 by apixaez

[greenknightfury]

I like that, I wonder if there's anyway to spin it as having taken off shortly after the war and been a floating tomb for 2 centuries. Powering back up when it drifted into earth orbit and received a signal from a satellite beacon. The occupants long dead from radiation poisoning, or worse.

 

The worse is an idea I was playing with for sunset park. What if your a ghoul who's body is incapacitated, but your brain continues to function. A type of sensory deprivation for two centuries. Maybe they suffered a rupture and lost most of their 02. All the crew members died a slow death, from suffocation, but ghoulification set in before one crew member expired. However damage to the life support meant no heating and he was frozen solid in a twilight consciousness for over two hundred years.

 

 

Got a good idea for that angle: Safety systems that detected the fatal radiation bath the ship took exiting the atmosphere (it passed directly through a fallout cloud immediately after the detonation of a bomb), these systems followed thier programming and put the ship into sustained orbit till the radiation levels dropped below lethal and is returning to it's origin point for refueling before taking the trip to Mars. As for disabling the ship...the idea of having it out there in orbit for 200 years is a good reason for all kinds of systems to suddenly fail as you enter Mars' atmosphere. Basically disintegrating around you as several systems overload and damaged areas of the hull give after all that time in orbit. luckily the emergency chute for the crew module is still intact enough to let you survive landing. Then you can't leave until you manage to collect the necessary parts and fuel for the rocket set to return to Earth that is still in shape enough to survive the trip, gathering the parts and fuel from various points all over ( taking them from parts storerooms and disabled return vehicles from the different facilities). The codes idea can be used even with that, they being the last needed thing to gather since without them you will trigger the defenses and be blown to bits before you ever reach Earth orbit. Alternately you might be able to find and juryrig an alien module into the rocket that would make the defenses ignore it as they do the alien ships. I'd put them both in as options ideally codes from some really nasty work/fights and searching, the module found easily but with a high skill needed (or just the right parts which would be scarce at least one of them) to rig it to the rocket.

 

Love the idea with a ghoul put into what amounts to poor mans cryogenics! LOL Have him revived enough to beg you to bring him to Mars with you since the tech there should be able to help him and he isn't sure that the tech would exist elesewhere.

 

I can see, if you do use that, a quest where you have a choice...hand this ghoul over to a tribe in one of the facilities...that will basically use him as a paralyzed oracle, or find the tech that could repair his body or replace his body entirely with some model of brainbot chassis as several types were being tested to see thier utility when used as workers in conditions that humans can't work safely in. (the brainpod types from OWB, the typical ones that roam the wastes maybe new types if somebody whips em up lol) If you replace/repair his body you would gain an ally, either as a companion or willing to give you repairs and trade supplies with you...maybe even set up the launch facility as a home for the player and any companions he does acquire on Mars.

Edited December 17, 2011 by greenknightfury

[devinpatterson]

A hook idea...I can give a few:

 

Some solid ideas Greenknightfury, but I was alluding more toward what would be the motivation for the pc. Good old fashioned exploration/adventure would be enough, but it would be great if we could come up with a reason that the player is driven to go. Something that will be a continuing theme throughout the mod.

 

But in reference to your ideas to start the show, I'm partial to the radio signal being received from mars at the repconn facility, especially if we can think up a plausible reason why it started just recently. Perhaps one of the offspring of the researchers gains access to a transmitter and sends out a distress call, due to a approaching calamity for him on the red planet. Perhaps he could be a tech-priest, that may be confusing the radio transmitter with an alter to supplicate/pray to his god. I especially like the idea of it being sent to repconn directly as opposed to over the whole planet, that way enclave remnants and other powerful factions won't catch wind of the message and come sniffing around.

 

In fact It would probably make more sense to have the message sent to bloomfield base. They are where the mars rockets would be launched from and where any transmissions would be sent to. While it makes much more sense, I'm hesitant to have our journey start there, because I'd rather put our work into mars than divert manpower into making an airfield.

 

But if we do go that way it's not terribly far from the mojave (SW arizona), and the vault wiki already has a lot of ideas laid out for it. For example they list the "rusty hooks" a raider gang with their own back story and several of the characters somewhat fleshed out. In addition the wiki has notes on the various buildings and locations in bloomfield that show it's an interesting locale. The wiki also has this very interesting tidbit; "In November, 2076, the Enclave seized control of Bloomfield Space Center. They knew nuclear war was just around the corner, so they tried to refit the Hermes-13 and convert it into a vehicle that would take selected personnel (mainly themselves) off-planet, destination yet to be determined. Unfortunately for the Enclave, the bombs started dropping less than a year later. All were either relocated to "hot-spots", or took cover away from Bloomfield." That could be our ticket to ride.

 

But then we'll need a reason for the player to be drawn to bloomfield.

 

 

I'm loving these ideas guys! I don't want to impose as you fellas clearly have a strong idea of what it is you want to create.

 

Not at all, feel free. Nothing is written in stone, the only minimum aspect I'd like, is for the mod to reflect the 1950's/fallout feel (at least graphically).

 

However last night I couldn't help myself and created these biodomes that I think have a sufficently 50's scifi vibe about them. They're completely modular so you could use one or fifty and they can link together any way you like.

 

Looks good, and your right, they fit well with the 50's sci-fi look.

 

From your comment about the spoiler tag and adman85's comment, it looks like you had some additional pics up. Is there anyway you could repost them or link to them? I'm afraid I missed them.

 

A computer that uses the brains of historic figures to reach judgements that are deemed more worthy than those of lesser men.

 

Could you expand a little on this htought in regards to how it would used via actual gameplay? Is it essentially background/lore and atmosphere? Or does it tie directly into a plot line?

 

Also it fits in with Bethesda's obsession with brains and self aware computers. :biggrin:

 

I'm also beginning to think this was a staple with 50's sci-fi too.

 

Ok i may not be the best at 3d modeling, but if i can help with 3d models, i would love to.

 

That sounds great xXJonthEXx, any help is appreciated. If anyone does voice work we could certainly use help in that area.

 

Did you have spacestations in mind aswell devinpatterson or would that be something for in the very late stages? :)

 

I think both phobes and deimos should have bases, but I haven't thought about a free floating space station. Both moons are several km's across so they can easily house sprawling bases. Perhaps one could be a functioning u.s. base and another a blasted chinese base.

 

This is somewhat related to a point I wanted to brainstorm. In essence it's whether or not to have a chinese presence on mars, and directly related to that, how the research base/colony "died". I see at least two ways this could have unfolded.

 

The first;

If the U.S. started a research center or colony, I'm sure the chinese would see that as a spearhead of american acquisition and attempt the same (if technologically capable). We don't have any info about a chinese version of the enclave, so I assume the chinese didn't have any plans to settle a post apocalyptic world as the enclave did. They wouldn't implement their martian activities for the same reasons as the u.s. (societal preservation, research, etc). I see it more as a way to "plant their flag"/stake their claim to mars. I'm basing this theory a little bit on the history of antarctica prior to the 1959 treaty. Where 7 nations rushed to make claims in the early 1900's to various parts of antarctica even though at the time, the land was considered barren, and antearcticas oilfields and mineral resources hadn't been discovered.

 

So we have both a u.s. military presence and research presence on mars, as well as a small chinese military presence. The chinese installation is much smaller. Mostly just a symbolic place to fly their flag from. The war on earth triggers a parallel sequence of actions on mars, the chinese ground base is utterly destroyed, the chinese moon base virtually a cinder. Both the u.s. ground base and moon base are heavily damaged in the nuclear exchange. For many death is quick and merciful, but there are survivors that are able to weather the battle and they become the actors in our story.

 

The 2nd way;

Only the u.s. has the technology to place a facility on mars. In addition the base is still pushing the envelope of the u.s.'s science, so they are heavily dependent on a multitude of supplies from earth. As such the bases downfall comes when all supplies (that are not currently in route) from earth immediately stop, at the onset of the great war. This would be a much slower demise than the first option. The chain of command breaks down and there would be chaos, mutinies, riots etc. Without supplies and a fully functional base, decisions about resources will determine who lives and who dies. Energy/man power, that could have saved the base (by finishing it's construction and making it self sufficient) is wasted as the colonists and researchers are embroiled in conflict. This means the downfall of the colonists would come as result of in fighting among themselves and the loss of their supplies/resources, as opposed to a quick violent battle that reflected the situation on earth.

 

There could also be some relatively minor alternate twists on the 2nd option. Like a chinese blockade of the mars colonies starting during the 2066, chinese invasion of alaska.

 

There may be other ways the story could unfold that I have overlooked. I think the key is that whatever the plot line is, the martian installations have to be degraded to the point that they couldn't have any influence on earth and thus fallouts lore. So no super advanced martian enclave coming down to earth to rule the planet.

 

The first option has the advantage of an irradiated chinese ground base and moon base to explore. Might be interesting locals.

 

On the other hand I think the 2nd option has much more potential for atmosphere and character. The player would be able to find info about how the base degenerated into chaos, the horrors the personal went through etc. It would also make more sense for some of the scenarios I laid out earlier. For example it's easier to see how the soylent green and logan's run scenarios develop, as resources are rationed and become increasingly scarce over time.

 

Got a good idea for that angle: Safety systems that detected the fatal radiation bath the ship took exiting the atmosphere

 

Sound reasonable to me

 

I can see, if you do use that, a quest where you have a choice...hand this ghoul over to a tribe in one of the facilities...that will basically use him as a paralyzed oracle, or find the tech that could repair his body....If you replace/repair his body you would gain an ally, either as a companion or willing to give you repairs and trade supplies with you...maybe even set up the launch facility as a home for the player and any companions he does acquire on Mars.

 

Interesting idea, I can see right now that our friendly neighborhood ghoul is going to have a difficult life ahead of him.

 

So I was looking at some 50's sci-fi movie posters to get an idea of the artwork and I was thinking that a lot of the old shows might make interesting encounters in the research centers. For example "the thing", "the fly" and "invasion of hte body snatchers" all have modern remakes and classic storylines. They deal with alien life forms or scientific research gone wrong. Both aspects of our mars project. Do they seem worth pursuing?

 

From a practical point of view the "body snatchers" and "the thing" probably won't involve any new models, since the viallans are essentially with shape changers, they'll use vanilla models. For "the fly" I don't think it would be hard at all to put a boatfly head on a human nif.

Edited December 17, 2011 by devinpatterson