Anyone for a trip to mars?

[greenknightfury]

As for your wanting a more inclusive helmet for the combat armor type: The helmet from the Ranger armor (like the sniper in the opening movie)/ riot gear from LR(same armor different paintjob) would be perfect I think, even has the gasmask/rebreather bit attached already.

 

I really like that idea for the shield...keep it to light armor even if it is airtight, that way it extends the usefulness of some of the early pressure suits and makes for a strategic balance; do you want to run in clad in power armor, guns blazing, or do you want to stealth the levels using light armor and the shield (which can stop a few hits before resetting but not enough for guns blazing). Makes for a more varied possible playstyles, which is always a plus.

[devinpatterson]

Ranger armor (like the sniper in the opening movie)/ riot gear from LR(same armor different paintjob) would be perfect I think, even has the gasmask/rebreather bit attached already.

 

Looks like a winner to me

 

I really like that idea for the shield...keep it to light armor even if it is airtight, that way it extends the usefulness of some of the early pressure suits and makes for a strategic balance; do you want to run in clad in power armor, guns blazing, or do you want to stealth the levels using light armor and the shield (which can stop a few hits before resetting but not enough for guns blazing). Makes for a more varied possible playstyles, which is always a plus.

 

The shield is ridiculously overpowered, even the lowest setting is 50% DR, so we definitely need something to trim it back.

 

Unfortunately Kibblesticks moved on to other projects, but that begs the question do we want to have some aliens? Kibblesticks felt strongly about the cheese, but I figured one alien encounter with them in deep sleep/cryo would be ok. Equip them with sheilds and make them the normal zeta mega damage sponges. That should test should test any player and be a worthy challenge to receiving the shield, but it is pretty near the end of the mod.

[devinpatterson]

Oh also, I'll contact the Porject Nevada author(s) and ask to use their visors. That way it will be more immersive, plus we can add some heavy breathing/respirator sound effects.

 

Here is the visor for the T45D;

 

http://newvegas.nexusmods.com/mods/images/40040-1-1296589289.jpg

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Awesome, I love that mod, Powered Power armor is another must-have. Edited September 11, 2012 by TrooperScooperMKII

[devinpatterson]

Awesome, I love that mod, Powered Power armor is another must-have.

 

Definitely, US tech at it's peak

 

So in the final confrontation, there was a couple points that got me thinking.

 

Maybe Presper should have access to an alien shield. It's about the only way I see him being a physical threat. I mean the story line says he's done a fair share of work for the NCR, and traveled quite a bit, but he's not going to be a serious combat threat. But if we give him an alien shield and the player has to deal with his team, that should give him a *lot* of cover.

 

2nd and a (potentially) much larger project involves just what the player is really fighting for. Presper is going to spin his multi race/species genocide as essential for humanity. And he's going to accuse the Courier of being a traitor to his own species if s/he tries to stop his plan. In my mind just the supermutants (ie Lilly and Marcus show that there is hope for htem) and ghouls (I'm assuming they have got to be some kind of mutation) are reason enough to stop Presper from extinguishing all mutants from the face of the planet. But I could definitely see some players agreeing with him.

 

So I want to make this personal. I'd like to make a relationship with a mutant before the courier leaves earthside....something that is strong/appalling enough that the courier has a reason to risk everything to stop Presper. I'm thinking we need a mutie babe that the courier can fall for hard, and she should stay earthside so that if Prespers plan becomes a reality the courier would looser her.

 

No reason she shouldn't be NCR since they'd accept her (they do have ghoul rangers), and the first part of the mod is pretty heavy with a NCR presence since they are the ones tracking Presper to Bloomfield Space Center where the real action begins. But it would at least allow the earthside part of the adventure for the player to fall for her.

 

She could be a supermutant or a ghoul, but some players are going to have trouble bonding with such a character in any way other than a companion. So I'd suggest our mutie be more along the lines of an exotic beauty, where her mutation actually enhances her beauty or adds a beneficial ability(ies). Now, I don't know if that means something as minor as purple hair, cat eyes etc or as major as her being a psycher, but it should be clear that she is a mutant and would fall just like all the rest (or live the rest of her life in a bubble ie vault) if Presper succeeds.

 

I know that's a pretty sparse sketch, but I think it gives a little bit of an idea of what I'd like to achive and the reasons I think we need to. I'm pretty sure we can annoy Maryberry into voicing her, and maybe she can write up the dialog as well since I doubt many of us are going to be able to generate that frame of mind very well.

 

So let me know what you guys think and if it's a green light, lets try to put together a companion taht will make the courier move heaven and earth to save her.

[greenknightfury]

So we couldn't figure out the stop a few hits then needs to reset idea for the shield? Dang...well then yeah making it light armor only is definitely a good way to stop people from Juggernauting the whole mod after they get it. Another way to limit it's insanity is set the enemies of the parts after you get the shield a couple levels higher than the others (say that most enemies would be +/- 2 levels of the player these guys would be =/+4 levels to the player) gives them some extra ommph....though we may need to think of another way to do that...hmm perhaps some damage enhancing perks for the enemies?

 

heh I always run Project Nevada since I found it.

 

BTW: there is a Vault Tec power armor (from who knows which of the 70-some mods I run lol) that can be found in Vault 11 in the mod that gives it, whether you have the Project Nevada choices for the visor on or off it gives you the same bordered visuals when you wear the helmet.

[devinpatterson]

Also she could be wounded in teh firefight by Presper's team when he commandeers the rocket, just before he escapes (she's stable, but won't be able to accompany the courier).

 

Regarding the launch itself I think we could have two rockets. Obviously Presper and half of his team escape (otherwise it's a very short mod) to Mars. But the other rocket for the 2nd half of Prespers team is where the player is going to have some fun. He'll be in a running battle up the launch support structure as the engines are cycling up to full thrust. That means a do or die on a giant scaffolding with a live rocket battling it out with Prespers team in the smoke and earthshaking vibrations.

 

Then if we can (and I already have an idea how to do this) we'll have the rocket actually take off, with the courier only having seconds to get in the capsule.

 

It will make a great end sequence to the first quest.

 

And of course all the NCR personal would have backed off as soon as the Rockets engine started (because they'r not insane ala the Courier), which is the reason why s/he won't have any allies to aid him/her in the coming solo adventure (also prevents companions).

 

I'd like for Presper to arrive a day earlier than the player though, so maybe we can figure out some reason his/her rocket is delayed (ie maybe Presper rigs his ship to provide extra thrust, maxing out the engines).

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Regarding the shields, is there a way to use the "destruction state" type function? Basically it works like how destructible cars work, only with multiple layers and doesn't need to explode :pirate:

[devinpatterson]

So we couldn't figure out the stop a few hits then needs to reset idea for the shield?

 

I believe we could do that, I was just trying to make it as close to possible to the ones in zeta, because it just isn't going to feel like theirs if it only takes a few hits. But I'm sure we can script that.

 

Hey maybe we could have two types;

 

One would have course be the genuine zeta alien technology shield. Incredibly powerful as it was in zeta (freak'n 50% damage resistance), but you can't wear *any* armor with it at all and it's not air/pressure proof. That means the player is still fair game when it comes to suits and the martian vacuum.

 

The second would be the prototype to reverse engineer the shield by researchers. A much weaker version that acts just like your describing. It makes sense in a way because the wiki lists most of the fallout energy weapons using tech that was based on alien origin.

 

I think clothes is classified as light armor, so it may be tough to exclude all armor but I'll see what I can do. And if the sheild (zeta, not the reverse engineered prototype) is still too powerful then we could always just make it only in possession of Presper (perhaps perishing with him). But it'd sure be cool loot for the player. Plus I think making it DR might be more balanced than converting it to DT. We'll see how it plays with some game testing.

 

whether you have the Project Nevada choices for the visor on or off it gives you the same bordered visuals when you wear the helmet.

 

Yeah I actually found a tutorial by the Project Nevada team on how to make the visors, so they are in :thumbsup:

[devinpatterson]

Regarding the shields, is there a way to use the "destruction state" type function?

 

I used a lot of destruction states in teh OWB expanded robo laboratory (and the holo projectors) so you could shoot up bot parts. But it's essentially a model/mesh replacement with a hook for a script. The shield on the other hand is a shader effect so they are (to the best of my knowledge) completely incompatible.

 

But I do believe the shield is actually made up of 3 different enchantments each a sort of level, one on top of the other. So they have a little bit of a built in destruction stage as you whittle them down. Strange thing is, I never noticed that when I played zeta, so I'm not sure it's accurate.

 

BTW maybe the "recharge" time can be a limiting factor on teh shield. Did any of you guys play Zeta recently? Did the shield drop and stay off or did it come back? And if so do you remember how long it took to regenerate (if it did at all)?