A Requiem for the Capital Wasteland - Areas of Foucs and Merger Wanted

[pwinkle]

Well I hate to be the guy who risks changing the course this discussion was going in, I've just read through all the comments and love some of the ideas I'm seeing btw, I have to just post my ideas so they're at least out in public to be considered.

I saw on the main nexus page that you're going to be doing some crossover (campfire, etc in F3 and Assault Rifles in NV) but I just wanted to ask to what level you were planning on doing this to?

I'd personally think it'd be best if there could be a complete mixing of all the weapons and armours levelled lists between both games, basically (non-exhaustive list btw):

-Anti-Material rifles bein carried by Lyons BOS.

-CW raiders using some of the extra helmets the fiends used.

-Sunset sasparilla (in small quantities ofc, lore). (Maybe another Festus?)

-being able to find all the NV weapons/armours in the CW, and vice-versa, it always seemed ridiculous to me that apparently different parts of the USA had different weapons/military equipment.

-Is it possible to add blackjack to the CW? I'd love to see a scavenged table in Moriartys'

-Give GNR and Radio New Vegas each others songs, so they have more variety. (I know this is only the case as they'd buy the rights to use the music as they're making each game, but I'd refuse to believe no discs of the rat pack in DC survived)

 

As for your story and trying to think of a way to implement the idea of establishing the divide, how about just dropping subtle hints throughout F3. Like in the museum of tech, theres a flag on the wall by the entrance, why not have it so when you activate it/are close to it a box pops up with something along the lines of "You see a flag of the old world and are filled with a sense of pride, but you start to question what kind of government would let all this happen."

Maybe even see if theres a way to spend time with ullysese before you establish and nuke the divide,, make him a quest giver or something.

 

Okay this probably ended up being more than my fair share, but I needed to get the ideas out so you could at least contemplate them :P

Good luck with the prototype, You've certainly got me hooked to this thread now though.

-Pwinkle

[Deleted2547005User]

Pwinkle

 

The weapon swapping will be limited to keep it Lore friendly, mainly introducing weapons that would be common and likely available in the area. You won't see Cowboy Repeater toting Raiders in the D.C.. The amount you'll see won't be huge, but enough to let you know that there has been a change.

 

Armor wasn't something I thought of but I will now take some time to think of it. The Fiend helmets will stay in the Mojave, but the Combat Armor will make some appearances. Like I said, I'll have to delve into the matter further to sort it out.

 

Sunset Sasparilla is a western item, and Nuka Cola Quantum is a eastern drink. Both will remain in their respective places, but you'll be able to find them together on Mothership Zeta in the Special Edition version.

 

I never thought about casino tables in D.C.. We'd have to make generic textures for the tables but it would make sense to have a few tables here and there in underground parlors.

 

Including songs from one into another is a difficult process, one I've no real experience in.

 

I like the idea behind the flag, and I plan on making the flag a persistent symbol for the player in my mod to constantly reinforce the ideals that established the Courier's Mile.

[darthbdaman]

While I like the ideas that have been posted for transitioning areas, they all seem very complex. And while there is nothing inherently wrong with that, eventually you stray too far from what you were originally trying to do; link the two wastelands. I would like to see the McCarran Monorail used to take you to Vegas from where ever you end up coming from. Now you would still have to walk through some new areas. I like the idea of using Vertibirds to get across long distances. Perhaps your Vertibird crashes and you have to cross through a destroyed city to get to the metro system to eventually use a train to get to the Mojave. but making the sequence too long stops it from being a transition area, which is what it should be.

 

If you plan on making a separate versions for story/freeplay, I would recommend making Mothership Zeta only with Wild Wasteland in the story version.

[bastardofbodom]

I had an idea. If the player has Mothership Zeta, perhaps they could find a written note hidden somewhere in the Mojave, the author of the note being Paulson. It could describe how maybe he heard strange noises and how he's gonna figure out what's going on. I know, it's a very minor detail, and the likeliness a note from the 1800s survived a nuclear holocaust is very small, but it would be a nice little easter egg.

[SuperSonic64]

I read through the prototype notes and I have no idea if this has been addressed. Fallout New Vegas increased the rarity and value of skill books and got rid of bobble-head benefits completely. When I picked up skill books in the capital wasteland, I noticed that it would give a +3 boost rather than the +1 boost they originally gave. Part of Fallout 3 balancing issues came from skills being too easy to level up to 100. Would it be possible to nerf the skill books and bobbleheads to keep your character from becoming a god before he/she gets out of the capital wasteland? I don't like using them right now because they're too overpowered. Also, is there any eta on when the prototype comes out? I like the mod, but playing in the capital wasteland reminds me how much better the weapons and armors were handled in Fallout New Vegas.

[Deleted2547005User]

darthbdaman

 

The basis behind the travel mod is to give the player more challenge to cross the country instead of easy Mario tunnels. It is optional. This travel nod is more of an actual mod based on RFCW. It isn't meant for the lore-strict players and for those looking for an easy trip. It is more like a DLC for RFCW centered around explaining the Lone Wanderer's travel westward.

 

bastardofbodom

 

I've been thinking about going with Athense's suggestion to have Paulson return to the Mojave. A note written by him may be too farfetched. It is a good idea, but four hundred years is a very long time for paper to stay paper. You would need to have something that old tucked away in a humid free atmosphere. I'll still consider it though.

 

SuperSonic64

 

Skill books are going to get a massive overhaul in Fallout 3. I plan on reducing them to a limited number, replacing them with magazines. Good catch on the glitch, though I haven't heard anyone on the testing crew have this issue, so it may not exist in the Prototype. Most of the skill boosting perks are either going to be nerfed or rethought like the Size Matters perk in the Prototype.

[pwinkle]

I was thinking, what would you be doing about the plants from NV?

I saw you're putting campfires from NV around DC, but I assume this means you'll putting be dotting the various desert plants around, otherwise the survival skill will effectively become useless until you get to NV

And what about the various creatures, I know for lore reasons nightstalkers should stay NV exclusive, but what about the deathclaw variants, bighorners and the mantises. I think all of the creature in F3 are already in NV, but it's make sense for there to be cross over... Okay maybe we wouldn't see the spore carriers in the CW, as they're meant to be rare even in NV, but EVERYWHERE has bugs, crows and rats :P

 

Plus, I was thinking about the Enclave power armour confusion.

The 'standard' suit from F3 is meant to be the advanced power armour Mk2 first mentioned in FO2. There are some issues about how the version in FO3 and FO2 look different, but I'd just put this down to the fact that they're two different games, on two different engines, likely designed by two different sets of artists. For all intensive purposes I'd say the FO3 Standard armour is the Advanced MK2 from FO2, just ignore the fact they look different :P

The Remnants armour is meant to be the Advanced Mk1, I always imagined it would look bigger and rounder (like this mod: http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/13753) but tbh it's pretty close to the original FO2 artwork. I'm not really sure how this could be implemented into FO3, honestly though I'd recommend making the 'mark 2' rarer (also works, as i think the MK2 was almost meant to be a west coast exclusive), then have this as the standard armour that most enclave troops are in.

Worth noting though, I reckon it'd be best if they were labelled as MK1 and MK2 respectively.

 

 

BTW, I know my posts may seem biased towards improving FO3, thats only because NV already has much of the stuff that F3 had in it.

 

EDIT: The wiki page on this subject is quite comprehensive actually, I'll give you the link in case you wanted to read up on anything.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Enclave_power_armor

Edited April 14, 2012 by pwinkle

[Nihilisaurus]

I was thinking, what would you be doing about the plants from NV?

I saw you're putting campfires from NV around DC, but I assume this means you'll putting be dotting the various desert plants around, otherwise the survival skill will effectively become useless until you get to NV

And what about the various creatures, I know for lore reasons nightstalkers should stay NV exclusive, but what about the deathclaw variants, bighorners and the mantises. I think all of the creature in F3 are already in NV, but it's make sense for there to be cross over... Okay maybe we wouldn't see the spore carriers in the CW, as they're meant to be rare even in NV, but EVERYWHERE has bugs, crows and rats :P

 

Plus, I was thinking about the Enclave power armour confusion.

The 'standard' suit from F3 is meant to be the advanced power armour Mk2 first mentioned in FO2. There are some issues about how the version in FO3 and FO2 look different, but I'd just put this down to the fact that they're two different games, on two different engines, likely designed by two different sets of artists. For all intensive purposes I'd say the FO3 Standard armour is the Advanced MK2 from FO2, just ignore the fact they look different :P

The Remnants armour is meant to be the Advanced Mk1, I always imagined it would look bigger and rounder (like this mod: http://fallout3.nexusmods.com/mods/13753) but tbh it's pretty close to the original FO2 artwork. I'm not really sure how this could be implemented into FO3, honestly though I'd recommend making the 'mark 2' rarer (also works, as i think the MK2 was almost meant to be a west coast exclusive), then have this as the standard armour that most enclave troops are in.

Worth noting though, I reckon it'd be best if they were labelled as MK1 and MK2 respectively.

 

 

BTW, I know my posts may seem biased towards improving FO3, thats only because NV already has much of the stuff that F3 had in it.

 

EDIT: The wiki page on this subject is quite comprehensive actually, I'll give you the link in case you wanted to read up on anything.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Enclave_power_armor

GECKOS! Marts Mutant Mod added geckos to DC, but they were rigged to a shrunk deathclaw skeleton and so looked a bit odd. Also, it'd show something else for DC's alpha predators to eat other than wastelanders. Plus, gives more use to campfires for cooking their meat and tanning their hides.

 

As for the armour:

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Advanced_power_armor_mk_II_(Fallout_2)

http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060523211249/fallout/images/c/c7/Apoweras.gif

 

It looks exactly the same as Advanced power armour mk 1 but darker. The problem is it's really a matter of preference, some like the bethesda FO3 design whilst others (I'll be honest, me) loathe it. However, if you set it up to give them a mix of MkI and MkII, a simple ESP to edit what model the armour uses would satisfy lore purists and fans of the FO3 design.

[SuperSonic64]

Damage Threshold could also use addressing. I've noticed with some of the raider armors and capital wasteland super mutants, it didn't make a difference whether you shoot them in the chest or in the head. Usually, a little armor indicator tells you when you've hit them in a place with armor. Damage resistance would also have to be nerfed a bit then because combat armor and power armor in new vegas had around 10pts less of damage resistance than their fallout 3 equivalents. As for how to deal with the t-51b power armor in fallout 3, I would just make it some kind of prototype. Given their was a winterized version of it in the anchorage bunker and several in new vegas, it would make sense for it to be prototype locked behind multiple layers of security. Weapons wise, I would just replace the .32 caliber rifle with the .308 hunting rifle and remove the revolvers. I doubt revolvers were that common in d.c. anyways. If any feature of any mod were to be added, I would at least add the grenade hotkey from project nevada. I've noticed that every other raider has a grenade and it tends to be immersion breaking when you have to go into the pipboy every time you want to retaliate. Zoom-able scopes would also be nice, but I know you guys said fose would be difficult to implement. Those two features would make explosive and sneak classes more viable, especially given all the open space that fallout 3 has.

[vindr20]

Damage Threshold could also use addressing. I've noticed with some of the raider armors and capital wasteland super mutants, it didn't make a difference whether you shoot them in the chest or in the head. Usually, a little armor indicator tells you when you've hit them in a place with armor. Damage resistance would also have to be nerfed a bit then because combat armor and power armor in new vegas had around 10pts less of damage resistance than their fallout 3 equivalents. As for how to deal with the t-51b power armor in fallout 3, I would just make it some kind of prototype. Given their was a winterized version of it in the anchorage bunker and several in new vegas, it would make sense for it to be prototype locked behind multiple layers of security. Weapons wise, I would just replace the .32 caliber rifle with the .308 hunting rifle and remove the revolvers. I doubt revolvers were that common in d.c. anyways. If any feature of any mod were to be added, I would at least add the grenade hotkey from project nevada. I've noticed that every other raider has a grenade and it tends to be immersion breaking when you have to go into the pipboy every time you want to retaliate. Zoom-able scopes would also be nice, but I know you guys said fose would be difficult to implement. Those two features would make explosive and sneak classes more viable, especially given all the open space that fallout 3 has.

 

Might they simply recommend that the player get's Project Nevada?