Ziggy the Zombie - A Companion/Quest Mod

[XxNightAngelusxX]

So, I've been meaning to post this for a while and life hasn't allowed me the time.

 

Basically, I'm no modder. I can barely change simple things in the GECK. I can't make someguy200-level quest mods on my own. And frankly, there aren't enough amazing mods on the nexus that rival someguy's professionalism. Come on, guys. We can't let AlChestBreach go out of business here. We've gotta make new content!

 

I'm an author & an artist. I tell stories all the time. I can write an amazing story. But I can't program for s***. I can't use the GECK for s***. I would love to write stories for compitent modders, people who have a knack for modding but who are running out of story ideas. Here's my first idea for a quest mod;

 

 

 

Ziggy the Zombie - I've had this idea for a while. I tried this mod myself and didn't get very far at all (like I said, I'm technologically impaired). The story starts when you find a loner ghoul near the ant farm chopping up ants with his axe and wearing wastelander hobo rags and a pip-boy. You speak to him and find out that he can't really talk, and most of his dialogue is written movements and animated hand gestures. With an intelligence or a speech check, you decipher that he's looking for someone that he lost. You offer to let him join you, and he becomes your companion.

 

When you open his inventory, you find a note labeled "To Whom It May Concern," The note is from Taizela, a young adventurer who used to investigate the Enclave's old projects. The note reveals that Ziggy is not a genuine ghoul; he's the product of a desperate supersoldier project that the Enclave performed not too long ago, shortly before the NCR drove them from the area. You learn that the secret facility that Taizela visited was full of kidnapped patients, most of whom were labeled by a letter of the alphabet. Patients X and Y were combined into one person, patient Z. Patient X was a violent lunatic hopped up on drugs and completely unresponsive to requests. Patient Y was as docile and obedient as could be. The Enclave hoped - after all their other projects failed horribly - that combining the two people into one would make someone who was both bloodthirsy and obedient. They were almost right.

 

When Taizela stumbled into the chamber where patient Z was held, she accidently triggered his resurrection, and patient Z came to life. After thumbing through his files and reading "patient Z" over and over, Taizela decided that giving him a proper name would be more fitting. So, she named him Ziggy the Zombie. The two of them made a narrow escape, and from then on, they stuck together and traveled the wasteland for years, always avoiding the Enclave scouts who would occasionally pursue them. The note ends with a request to its reader, stating; "If you've found Ziggy without me, then that means I've met my end out there. He probably doesn't understand what's happened, so please, break the news to him gently and find him a place to stay. Look after him - or if nothing else, find him a home. This is my last will and testament. Please do right by him, because he's the only person that's ever been undyingly loyal to me, and he doesn't deserve to be left on his own."

 

At this point, you will have three choices; you can tell Ziggy that he's allowed to live comfortably in the Lucky 38 suite (if you have the suite in the game already), you can suggest that he go to the Followers and take up a job as a hired guard, or you can keep him with you. The first two options will end his quest and forever end his companionship with you. The third option will keep his quest going.

 

If you are interested in finding out what happened to Taizela (which will be necessary to the quest), you can ask Ziggy what he remembers about the last time he saw her. He thinks for a moment, then runs off to an isolated bunker entrance near the Northern Passage, and you follow him. He stops at the bunker entrance and points at it. You ask him what's inside, and he makes a bunch of wild hand gestures, symboling guns, ghouls, deathclaws, and firepower. Please note that most of his dialogue - since he can't talk - will be written descriptions. Example; <He raises his hands and cranes his fingers like a deathclaw, then makes a motion as if he's firing a rifle of some kind>

 

inside the bunker, you will find a variety of creatures and humans that've been driven mad after they were experimented on. You can pretty much add any creature and any person from any faction to this bunker and make them hostile. This will be the grand fight scene of the quest, so please, go all out (make a lot of enemies, but don't make them overpowered). This would also be a good place to add lobotomites from Big Mt. The bunker must also be noticeably Enclave. The Enclave soldiers will be lying dead all around the bunker due to the containment breach.

 

Once you reach the bottom floor of the bunker, you will find a room full of computers, and Taizela will be lying dead on the floor. If you trigger one of the computers, you hear an automated recording of Taizela's last encounter with the Enclave, who she just couldn't help to bring down.

 

"You can't stop me."

 

"Like hell we can't, girl. You and your pet zombie are outnumbered. Give it up already."

 

"f*** you. Ziggy... get ready to run."

 

"Girl - step away from the machinery. Now."

 

"No. You wanna make super soldiers out of everyone in the Mojave? You wanna terrorize everyone in the world with your sick experiments? Then here - see what you make with them."

 

*Audible buttons being pressed, alarm goes off* "CONTAINMENT BREACH! CONTAINMENT BREACH!"

 

"... you little *censored*."

 

"Ziggy - Ziggy, RUN! GO! I'LL MEET YOU ON THE OUTSIDE! JUST GO! GO!"

 

*Static consumes the broadcast, and the recording ends*

 

Ziggy then opens up dialogue with you, and he appears devastated. He growls, and he's visibly furious at seeing Taizela's dead body.

 

You have two options; you can convince him that everything will be okay, that Taizela died a hero after taking down the Enclave so that they wouldn't terrorize the world anymore, and that you'll always be there to look after him from here on. Or, you can share in his anger, and you convince him to grab onto it, to let the rage fill him up so that he might seek revenge one day.

 

If you choose the peace option, Ziggy will try his best to calm down, and he will remain a loyal companion to you after the quest.

 

If you choose the rage option, the anger will take over him completely, and Ziggy will go fully hostile; he will attack you, and you will be forced to kill him.

 

That's the end of his main quest.

 

I want Ziggy to be loveable, but also noticeably psychotic. He is foolhardy in battle and he prefers melee (mainly just his axe), and it's implied that he is sometimes cannibalistic, as you find strange meat pies in his inventory. I would like to make a lot of dialogue with him, just so you can ask what he thinks about the things he sees in the Mojave (the NCR, the lights in Vegas, etc). I would love to write his reactions to those little things. I really want to make him interesting and immersive, and roleplaying with him is an absolute must. He's supposed to feel like a real, genuine companion, a lost dog in the wasteland that you adopt and get to know. Ziggy is sweet and loyal, but he's also unstable, and he's incredibly intolerant of anyone threatening his life or the lives of those he cares about.

 

If anyone would be interested in pursuing this project, I've love to do the writing for you. I'd really like for this mod to have proper grammar and a certain immersiveness that feels like a part of the game.

 

Please get back to me. :smile:

Edited January 31, 2017 by XxNightAngelusxX

[devinpatterson]

I think aspects of the story are interesting, and touch on something I'v always thought could be compelling plot lines in regard to feral ghouls....namely the "devolution" of their mental processes. In clive barkers the hellbound heart or one of his books of blood, there was a character that was stripped of her skin and in a sort of undead state, not fully cogent of the horror of her condition but not completely oblivious of it either. That aspect of the story always stuck with me.

I'd reccomend adding a bit of ziggy's backstory detailing (at least partially) his "transition", I think it might help to create more sympathy for him. For instance maybe Taizela has kept a journal of Ziggy's mental decay, or perhaps asked Ziggy to keep a diary, that quickly becomes more confused and disjointed (not to mention handwriting that worsens to illegible squiggles) with each page.

I just skimmed your proposal, so apologies if its already been mentioned.

[XxNightAngelusxX]

I like that idea. I'd have to establish that Taizela figures out that Ziggy is progressively and slowly becoming more unstable, having mental side effects of his resurrection. He is made of the mind and body of two other people, after all. But I need a mod partner to make this work. ^^

[devinpatterson]

But I need a mod partner to make this work. ^^

Totally understand brother, but the best way to get that partner (or partners) is to keep posting compelling story-lines/dialogue and if it's good enough it will attract a seasoned modder.