Anyone for a trip to mars?

[TrooperScooperMKII]

I like the ideas, Devin. A scenic terraformed dome sounds cool, and a nice area for the (back)story to shine uninhibited by life-or-death combat. Of course, given the level of combat outside of that dome, even sentry bots and baby cazadores would seem like a reprieve ;D .

The death claw variants are definitely cool; the stealth in particular can be put to good use in a Predator-esque horror base.

Imagine being stalked by those things...

[devinpatterson]

Mining operations.

 

It would be cool to have a smelter and other industrial equipment to make Saturnite http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Saturnite Then we could have Sautrnite power armor. Add a few DT's (maybe +3) and cut the weight by a third. That would be one awesome suit. Perhaps add a chrome or stainless steel look? That could add a small bonus vs energy weapons. Maybe the gauntlets are all built in power fists? Probably wouldn't be any complete suits at the facility (the military would have all of them), but we could have a mini quest to put together a complete suit from parts.

 

Saturnite is made by BigMT, but they have been gov contractors several times and I'd like to have them on the mars project since a lot of the OWB stuff is tie in's to them.

 

- HQ: Launchpad, armoury, barracks, command centre, interstellar communications, Mainframe.

 

If no one has called dibs on the mainframe I'm going to start working on her holo projection and personality/back story. I'm thinking that she would pop up on various holo projectors (located on terminals) a foot tall and have dialog and other interactions throughout the whole mars project. In HQ there will be other areas she will be full size and a have all the capabilities of the dead money holo's (immunity, holo bolt energy weapon etc).

 

For the back story I'm going to go with her not being evil/malicious (in fact the opposite) but absolutely 100% determined to keep the quarantine. Nothing leaves mars....0% risk of any infection reaching earth. Even if she has to nuke the whole project and herself in the process. She will sympathize with the player and express regret over having to sanitize previously infected staff (and those not infected but in the wrong place at the wrong time when the S hit the fan).

 

Initially she will do everything to help the player as long as it doesn't endanger the containment. But if by the end of the mod, the player hasn't won her over or destroyed her, she use every means at her disposal to prevent the player from heading back to earth (including the failsafe nuke in the base, teh bomb platform on Demos etc).

 

So in the beginning the player and AI share a common cause. Stopping Presper....at any cost. We can assume the AI is powerless or at least ineffectual against Presper. He has come prepared; emp weapon, AI command codes, killer virus etc could all be in his bag of tricks. The military/enclave either rebelled long ago against the mainframe (when it denied them access to return to earth) or were corrupted by Prespers influence/bribes (probably both story lines). So it's in the mainframes interest to have the player survive as it's agent. Perhaps failing to mention that (at least initially) it has no intention of letting the player ever return home.

 

A nice advantage aside from the plot fitting well with the AI quarantine & Prespers plans, is the mainframe can be a guide (via a little holo projection on terminals scattered throughout the project) through the whole story. We don't want to underestimate how much that can add to the experience. She can fill in details to flesh out the back story of each facility, the history of hte mars project, guide the pc from quest to quest etc.

 

But no part of the mod should be impossible without her support, just a poorer experience in terms of story telling. That way hte player has a choice to continue from the very beginning as her ally, enemy or totally oblivious of her.

 

And of course the standoff at the end will be even more interesting/challenging if the player develops a connection to her during the course of hte mod.

 

So to return home I'm thinking there could be multiple ways the AI could be handled;

1. It should be possible for the player to physically destroy her, but very difficult.

2. Multiple speech checks through dialog during the mod can eventually change her mind and make a rare exception of allowing the courier to return home.

3. A deal can be struck....kill Presper for a ticket home.

4. Kill Presper and acquire his bag of tricks (command codes etc) to defeat the mainframe.

5. ???

 

For the above story line to work the AI is going to have to have some serious resources/firepower. It's essentially been holding the base for over two centuries from space ghouls and/or FEV monstrosities as well as the descendants of the military/enclave that weren't exactly overjoyed at being told they weren't going home.

 

I'd guess the ghouls and/or FEV monstrosities could be somewhat nullified by holograms since they couldn't hard the projections. But at best it would be a stand off since holograms can't travel very far at all. So a substantial portion of the mainframes strength would probably be bots and turrets.

 

We also need a facility for Apocalyptic Girl's and my suit/armor (Xera) mod, or it can be folded into the main base. Rosa (the mainframe and a potential alley in the suit/armor mod) shares a lot of qualities with the mars project's AI, the spec forces op in that mod is at war with her as well and she (Rosa) is greatly concerned about containment. So I think that could fit really easily.

 

- City Dome: (Just a personal idea that I think fits quite well) Place designed to hold the newcomers from Earth but ended up being a refuge for the victims of the HQ Space Ghoul attack. Heavily militarized but with a strong rebel/terrorist element.

 

Can you expand on this idea Kibblesticks? Especially curious in re: to the rebel/terrorist element.

 

- Various Research Domes owned by various coporations.

 

These can be industrial facilities/buildings as well if we want a little variety instead of a multitude of domes. I'm thinking that domes should only be used if the contractors need a very large area or a bound ecosystem for their research (bio-weapons, terraforming, agriculture etc).

 

- F.E.V Dome, epi-centre of the jungle. Abandoned after hull breach either by chinese missiles or readically mutated flora and fauna (I prefer the latter).

- F.E.V research facility (I'm thinking built into a cliff face somewhere?): F.E.V overrun, experiments with fetilization and sterilization. Experiments with all sorts of off limits research.

 

I can see that as a dome and a separate facility, or one dome (or one facility) all combined. The only really essential part is that, at some point, containment was breached and the toxic/FEV jungle (and fauna) got out and went to town.

 

I was also curious if we should make the humans taller and lankier (as well as physically weaker) due to the reduced gravity. 1/3 gravity and 6 or 7 generations could have a marked effect.

 

I'd also like to include dwarfism, giant-ism (not the lanky humans above, but the typical pituitary gland tumor), albinism and other minor real life mutations for variety. There are a lot of potential carcinogens in the environment, everything from FEV, rads, chemical, biological etc so it would be easy to justify.

[devinpatterson]

So where does old two-brain fit into this?

As in, is the captain/scientist part of the main quest at all?

 

Well do you see him as a npc or a companion, because he's basically your project.

 

As a (possible) companion you can delve into a much deeper character study, but it's also going to be a lot more work.

 

As a npc, I suspect he would be more isolated because of his "condition" so I don't see him as a leader of the military/enclave, probably more of an outcast. But that doesn't mean he can't share as a important character in the main quest. He could have a needed quest item/information, or a "gate keeper" tons of options.

 

Mcarthy-bot and his lab-coat sidekick/scapegoat, that one of the research facilities would be a good place for them...

the question is, what were they researching?

I postulate that the facility was researching genetic modifications/mutations,

 

If I get the basic concept of where you going (and I admit, I think I must be tired because I don't think I'm quite following you) that the Mcarthy-bot is in the FEV research center, but where do the ghouls fit in (especially the wife/child ghoulification)?

 

I like the ideas, Devin. A scenic terraformed dome sounds cool, and a nice area for the (back)story to shine uninhibited by life-or-death combat. Of course, given the level of combat outside of that dome, even sentry bots and baby cazadores would seem like a reprieve ;D .

 

It would be nice to have a reprieve and possible home base. Plus I really like how it would punctuate the vision of what mars "could have been". If you can, try to help me come up with an idea that explains why it hasn't been destroyed/raided/invaded by the other factions/creatures yet.

 

Predator-esque horror base. Imagine being stalked by those things...

 

Yeah it will be fun making deathclaw (and other genetically engineered creature) variants. We'll only be limited by how much modeling we want to do and what actor abilities we can add (without too much grief).

 

Expanding a little on the predator theme we could include deathclaws (these would be original not descendants) with cyber tech. Nothing outside the fallout universe technology wise, but maybe a plasma caster in place of an arm, or some power armor pieces (chestplate perhaps). The idea of a cyber deathclaw should instill a riotous amount of fear.

 

I know Tumbajamba has done one like that and he strikes me as a generous guy that would let us use his models.

 

http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/downloads/images/7201-1-1279751186.jpg

 

The actual modeling shouldn't be too hard, although the weapons animations might be tricky. If the animations are a real PITA Quetzlsacatanango has some deathclaws rigged to super mutants and they have plenty of weapon animations.

[TrooperScooperMKII]

OK, so:

HQ is the MF's base, protected by the holograms and turrets, etc.

 

 

the ruins: probably several, of varying size/condition

 

one of the dig sites should link &or be in proximity to the:

a "Resident Evil" research dome with the double-brain bot as the sole survivor, possibly overlapping with the Predator-Nightclaws (hunting you)

-speaking of which, the bot is probably the "freest" of the potential siedkicks/companions; alongside the MF he/they are a good source of backstory/narration, in fact if/when the MF turns on the player they might well be the only source of narration

 

basically I see their dome as a pre-processing for biological artifacts from the ruins, with a good bit of in-house genetic modifications. It might even be a side facility of the FEV, iwth a smaller scope (i.e. medicine purposes only) and it may have gone through a quarantine just before/after the War, letting it escape the ensuing mutations more or less intact

 

The heavy-duty modifications/experiments are "further along the line" in the FEV dome/facility; unlike the pre-processing dome, this base was completely overrun.

 

The City:

under control of the Enclave, presumably Presper is located there, as well. the player needs to overthrow him, somehow; possible dilemmas range from outright terrorism to siding with the Enclave (convincing them might be hard, but if the player has the MF or the brain-bot companions, and/or some relics/tech, then it might be easier...)

[devinpatterson]

HQ is the MF's base, protected by the holograms and turrets, etc.

 

and don't forget heavy, heavy bot presence.

 

the ruins: probably several, of varying size/condition

 

Hadn't really given any thought to multiple ruins since it's just one alien base. What would differentiate one ruin from another, ie whats your story line/scenario for the different ruins?

Or did you mean multiple dig sites as just alternate entrances/exits to the same ruin/base?

 

double-brain bot as the sole survivor,

 

Sure, it would take a pretty unique individual both mentally and physically to survive in an area like that. He sounds like a good candidate.

 

possibly overlapping with the Predator-Nightclaws (hunting you)

 

It's possible to overlap the bio-weapons with the FEV research or even terraforming, but it will be a richer story if it stands on its own IMHO. The bio0weapons division may use FEV to promote mutations, but it's essentially genetically engineered creatures for military purposes. And most of the critters will be at least based on creatures that survive on earth.

 

FEV research is much wider research/applications and (most often) more spectacular failures. The creatures I have in mind for the FEV (whether facility and/or dome) are going to based on the visual style of the "failed FEV subject";

 

 

http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/8720/failedfev.jpg

 

Something more akin to resident evil, deadspace etc.

 

-speaking of which, the bot is probably the "freest" of the potential siedkicks/companions; alongside the MF he/they are a good source of backstory/narration, in fact if/when the MF turns on the player they might well be the only source of narration

 

Yep, not having to breath gives it a much wider range sans a suit.

 

 

presumably Presper is located there, as well. the player needs to overthrow him, somehow;

 

Well Presper's mission is to get the data, samples and means to deliver the FEV, then unleash it on earth. So from the moment he touches down on mars (probably sending command codes to the defense system and AI) he is moving from one objective to another as quickly as possible. He is also aware of hte player's existence shortly after he/she arrives so this is more a chase than anything else. At least that's how I see it.

 

Don't get me wrong your story line is interesting, but I just don't see any reason for him to "hold up" anywhere. He came a long way and risked everything to do something he is fanatical about, so I don't think he'll be sitting on his butt. But the other aspects I agree with, that's why I was saying over time and several speech checks/evidence the player can "turn" Prespers enclave followers. I don't think we want to deal with multiple companion/follower types (the scripting, possibility for general PITA etc), so by turn I mean no longer server Presper, but not alley with the pc.

Edited March 26, 2012 by devinpatterson

[VaultPi]

just re saw the Iron Giant, recalled that he was from mars, and thought a robot that eats scrap material to repair it's self

[kibblesticks]

presumably Presper is located there, as well. the player needs to overthrow him, somehow;

Well Presper's mission is to get the data, samples and means to deliver the FEV, then unleash it on earth. So from the moment he touches down on mars (probably sending command codes to the defense system and AI) he is moving from one objective to another as quickly as possible. He is also aware of hte player's existence shortly after he/she arrives so this is more a chase than anything else. At least that's how I see it.

 

Well my thinking behind the city was that it'd be nice to have a place with some semblance of a "modern" society (megaton/RC in FO3, Vegas/Freeside in NV). The idea was to transport vault survivors to Mars. They'd obviously need somewhere to house these citizens (read workers), so the construction of this pre-fab city would have begun as soon as the main base was established. Up until the ghouls overran the Command Centre, the city lay deserted, awaiting the arrival of the refugees from Earth. However, during the battle of the Command Centre, one of the military generals banded together as many uninfected as possible and took the monorail transports to the city. A few brave soldiers stayed behind to sabotage the raillines and prevent the infected from following. The survivors reached the city, and with most of the VIP leaders dead, the general took charge.

For the next few years, the survivors worked hard to bring the City's functions back online. Once they managed to activate the robotic janitors, life became fairly easy. However, their monorail connection was damaged and citizens were forbidden to enter the terminal under pain of death. The general didn't want to risk the contaminated infecting the City. Many citizens began to suffer from isolationism, depression, claustrophobia, and severe restlessness. Civil unrest increased over the next few years, causing the general to step up his military control. Many of the citizens were scientists and representitives of various organizations, they questioned why they should have to follow the self-imposed rule of the military. Riots broke out and many rebels were executed.

 

Skip forward a hundred or so years and the 6/7th gen military are atill in control, as the weapons and maintenance codes pass down hereditary lines. They manage to keep order by imposing child birth limits on non-military personel to keep numbers at a manageable level. However, the City was built for thousands and only holds a few hundred. There are plenty of places for rebels to hide, and not enough military to track them down. The main group of rebels have an ideology which runs; we get back to Earth or die trying. They believe that their incarceration in the City Dome will only lead to the eventual death of them all, and would prefer to try and re-take the Command Centre, regardless of the risks. The military maintain that the command centre is off limits and that citizens should try and make the best life they can here and now. There is plenty of Propaganda from both sides plastered all over the city walls. In the rebel part of the city, graffiti and posters adorn every surface. The military operate out of the dome's centeral tower and the area surrounding it is run with military efficiancy.

 

I thought perhaps we could include some brainwashing stuff in here as well. Vault-tec built the vaults for this very reason, to study the effects of isolationalism and other unforseeable events on a population. Wikia quote:

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.

So it stands to reason they'd have some way of combating it. I think the problem we have with any civilisation on Mars is the same; what have they been doing all this time? Surely the bleakness of their situation would have driven them mad? And with little to do but wait for the food to grow, how have they been entertaining themselves? I actually had an idea about that. Unbeknownst to the general population, most of the facilities had robotic workers intially, to grow food and provide maintenance. Once the first residents from Earth arrived though, these bots would have been de-activated, to ensure the citizens had work to occupy their time while the scientists went about forging a new world. I was thinking about this in relation the Agri-Dome. Perhaps another way of forcing the tribals to stop living in their "perfect" daydream world and start accepting the help of the technologically advanced misfits their predessecors had previously cast out (if we go with that story for the agri-dome that is).

 

Sorry if the above isn't very coherant, kinda just brain farted all that out just now :tongue:

 

Edit:

There's a little bit of a plot problem, since you'd imagine all of the specimens would have been created sterile, but maybe some of them mutated and what you see today are their descendants.

 

Could tie into feritlity research in the FEV facility. Perhaps the original Mars F.E.V allowed for fertile subjects to be bred, but the scientists were ordered to alter it to make the subjects sterile before shipping the virus to Earth. I can imagine even the r-tarded American government forseeing a situation where they release the virus and it's mutations quickly overrun the Earth if not kept in check.

[greenknightfury]

Have been replaying OWB and found some interesting things to apply to this (as well as the notes I've mentioned before i.e. the nightstalkers) as well as some stuff to contribute to various ideas here.

 

1) They attempted to make the Cazadores sterile and that didn't work too well even though they were building them from scratch. So them not correctly making the Mars experiments sterile correctly is easily foreseeable (as well as the effect of mutations caused by both the solar and alien ruins radiation).

 

2) I was right despite what the wiki says (and what the crazy B-movie character Dr Borous says) the nightstalkers were shipped that way to Big MT as a shipment of "dogs" for cyberdog research. There were several notes by the shipping department about them, starting with the fact that there was something wrong with these "dogs" that they were in fact very odd looking possibly mangy coyotes. Followed on the same terminal by a messege that when they tried to open ones cage it killed and tried to swallow whole one of the workers. Following the trail of notes scattered about it is revealed they had the stealth abilities and were laying piles of eggs all over when they escaped before the chit hit the fan with the war.

 

3) With the terraforming dome, I'd say a good way to cut it off so that it has remained pristine is that a number of factors worked to cause it. Isolation caused by the damage done during the attack causing it to be impossible to reach overland, with a huge nest of trog-like underground mutants in the tunnels leading to it for the monorail. Keeping those and what few jungle beasts can reach it out are the defenses/defenders: An almost army of maintence and docent bots (it was intended to be converted to a museum to the terraforming project at completion) and the ghoul that lives there (one of the original terraforming researchers) who splits his time between defending the place and working on plans to complete the project , changing the original plans and formulas to account for the new hazards and mutations (possibly a key person in the "complete the terraforming" idea we had with the GECK warheads, though as we said it would take a couple of generations even then to completely terraform Mars since no new warheads are gonna be coming from earth or the other facilities).

 

4) Really loving the idea of the City Dome especially as it ties nicely into the idea that this was going to be the center of the new Mars life after the terraforming and having it near the command dome is perfect since in my idea and just in a "makes a lot of sense" way, having the command dome be envisioned as the cultural/history/government center of the new world settlement would fit nicely. Love the whole system outlined too, it neatly parralels one I had outlined earlier as one of the possibly societies, the caste system the totalitarian government and the idea that they would be bored out of thier minds without entertainment or something to do. Might I suggest making the citizens that aren't rebelling obsessed with art and entertainment? Actors writers and performers of all types being the very beloved class (much like ancient Rome and other cultures that somewhat parallel the way this one is described) this also would tie it in a way back to the way Vegas is and be a nice nod to the nature of Vegas' culture for the player.

[TrooperScooperMKII]

This is really snowballing well. :thumbsup:

Devin, the brain-bot (really need to come up with a better name) is "free" in the story sense- i.e. being "crazy alone" for a while, he'd probably go along with almost anything; of course, the doctor's brain would probably reject a "genocidal" player.

I didn't think of it, but you're right, the bot probably wouldn't need a suit, just a hat for the brains. 8)

Speaking of which, what sort of bot is it going to be? Given the 200+ years of isolation in the FEV facility (story-wise it's probably best to put him/them there) amidst god-knows what, this isn't a standard bot... this guy's probably a walking tank, maybe even an alien relic (i.e. "mecha" type thing, a big friggin death robot tripod?)

for all of this, he does have a weakness.

Stairs.

 

The Captain (to the player): I'm sorry, meatsack, but you'll have to do this one on your own.

Doc: we can't traverse the narrow halls and stairways-

Captain: because you're fat.

Doc: Fat?!! Anthropomorphic fallacies aside, you're as much a part of this rust bucket as I am!

Captain: Fat red bastard.

Doc: So now I'm Santa Claus. How UnAmerican, doling out gifts to the needy, unworking youth of our inestimable nation..!

Captain: Don't mess with Christmas!

[greenknightfury]

Yeah, have to think of names for bots with brains in them to differentiate them from the flying fishbowl "brainbots" of OWB or the "robo-brains" trashcans with a brainbubble of the base games.

 

Some brain(heh)storming:

 

Neuro-mech

 

Cerebroid (android style more than typical bot sounding)

 

Think-tank (heavy robot frame like a sentry bot set up for one or more brains)