A USSR inspired Power Armor + Quest. Looking for help.

[Bauldric]

So, I've been modding my games for about 4-5 years now (since I got my first computer that could play video games) and I've always wanted to make a game or something (which I will be starting college for soon instead of continuing a Psych Degree) but I have never done more then troubleshoot mods for my own use. Recently I've started playing with Outfit Studio (and consequently Blender and 3Dmax) so I am feeling more confident that maybe making my own mod is not outside of my scope. Animations, texture work, level making, and scripting are all things I've not even touched. This is the scope of my skills.

 

With that Prefaced, I will get into what I want to do. I want to make a quest mod that will introduce at the end of it a suit of Unique Power Armor as the ultimate reward. I won't go into too much detail about the story idea behind it since I don't want to give much away yet but I will give you a brief overview of what it is. I want to make a quest where you come across a bunch of Raiders attacking an old abandoned military base, upon killing them you find out the place is guarded by an old russian ghoul piloting a suit of unique looking Power Armor. A suit of Power armor that seems to emphasis on vertical movement (So a jet pack pre-attached and maybe more equipped to send you upward then over long distances) and with some kind of pre-attached armament (Shoulder mounted cannon or missile launcher, maybe even hand mounted instead. As well as maybe a custom mesh but AT LEAST a custom skin. I am thinking with my skills probably the easiest way to do it is retrofit a t-60 or something.

 

To get this suit of Armor you find out that the ghoul is protecting a settlement that houses his "children" which are poeple he has raised and protected for as long as they can remember. They live inside this cleared out base that they retrofitted as a town. The ghoul has booby trapped the place to high heaven and how you prove to be worthy of his power armor and settlement is by reaching him and not hurting any of his children. At the end of it he deems you worthy of his home and duty which also entitles you to his power armor. I figure the reason why he relinquishes all of it to you is he is gravely wounded in the fight with the raiders and you find him dying at the end of it. The quest mod would hopefully run you 30 minutes to an hour of time and give you this custom Power Armor.

 

I figure the first part of the endeavor would be to get the Power Armor up and running and then go for the quest mod from there. My idea of the Power armor is either in design a retro fitted U.S Power Armor or maybe even a Russian Prototype Power Armor that was designed for the Great War. My original idea was that maybe the Ghoul was it's original Pilot and had maintained it since then. I am thinking it is an Endgame Power Armor that takes Two Fusion Cores Simultaneously to function and higher material costs to maintain. The trade off to this though is that it's better than the X-01. I don't want the player to obtain this too early in the game. The last bit about the power armor is I want the ghoul to explain it's history to the player a little bit or for the player to find his Diary or Early Mission Logs for just after the bombs drop. This settlement will have a high population of Ghouls and will have orphans from around the commonwealth too. Think of it as Diamond City for the outcasts and uglies but not criminally inspired.

 

My project design board would be as such:
-Prototype Power Armor design and functionality within Game Engine and release a Stand-Alone mod just for the power armor as a proof of concept or beta testing performance with Game Engine. I want it to be unique even from a Gameplay perspective if possible. If not, the quest mod will become the focus so it will be at least unique in look and story. With the end of official development coming up I think this is the time to start working on a project like this. This is the main part I am looking for help for since this is where I have the least know how to do.

 

-Second would be the Quest Mod. I want to have a proof of concept up within a month or two for the quest mod but I can work on this by myself. I figure I won't need too much help with it before I get to scripting of in-game engine events and voice acting but I would still love help and people to bounce ideas off of.

 

I know this is very ambitious for someone who has not really modded before but I have 5 days a week off at the moment and very little money so I want to start teaching myself new skills and working towards meaningful things within my hobby of video games. I hope to one day maybe take this a step further but until then I am sure this would be a good place to get a glimpse of what I would be getting into and how long it will take to work. I am giving myself till december to get this project in a somewhat workable version that is in an alpha state at the very least. If anyone is interested or has feedback please PM me or leave a message here. I love modding and I love the modders that sink there time and skills into this stuff and I want to start giving back in some way. I figure this is a good first step.

 

Love you all, and I hope to hear good things! Cheers!

-Bauldric