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

[Deleted2547005User]

Vindr20

 

That would be the perferred route. I would like to add more features like that, but that goes far beyond the scope of RFCW. That said I wouldn't mind getting in touch with the guys at Project Nevada to make a special version for RFCW. This way SuperSonic64 and others can get these features while keeping the lore to the game.

[Deleted2547005User]

pwinkle

 

The plants from New Vegas are desert plants, and wouldn't grow any where else, with the maize of course. Maize will make an appearance, and may some of the desert plants but only in hydroponic gardens, which are almost non-existent in D.C. I had a thought at work today about finding someone who could make new plant meshes for the Capital Wasteland for the hardcore players. Including, but not limited to:

 

Mutfruit Shrub

Crunchy Mutfruit Bush

Potato Plant

Carrot Plant

Sickly Pear Tree

Sickly Apple Tree

 

Any more suggestions are welcome. Also, if I'm wrong about any of the locality of the New Vegas plants, let me now.

 

 

pwinkle and Lt. Albrecht

 

The Enclave Armor will stay the same but there will be a limited introduction of the old Mark I armor for the lower ranking soldiers and can be found in a few places.

 

I don't think Geckos are really D.C. but half of the creatures in New Vegas aren't strictly Nevada unique.

 

Rats, Mantises, and Crows can be introduced. Also, all variants of those creatures and creatures already in the D.C. area can be viable.

 

 

SuperSonic64

 

We are slowly addressing the DT differences, but it's something that will take several updates to fully correct. As an added note, in the Prototype the T-51b Power Armor has already been made a unique 'prototype.'

[Dysthe]

I wouldn't remove canon perks on the basis they were overpowered. Frankly not all of us like to play a "special" character or multiple characters.

 

I don't know how you'll do the giant story arc mentioned in this thread. I adore the idea, but it requires a lot of work. I want to see this mod, the requiem mod, to completion. I would concentrate more on varying the capital wasteland. One of the strengths of New Vegas was how much stuff and variety it had. Textures were varied; items were well-placed. Fallout 3 had very little of that.

 

I would start with Megaton. I would first make it bigger. If possible, I would rearrange the existing layout. In the cannon, it is a very layered town. It needs more people and inhabitants. You could expand the existing families, or create stories for the unnamed dwellers. I would build bridges and buildings across the center of the town and stack them. (The bomb underneath, in that cesspool of a Church...) I would light up the streets with (few) signs and/or lights from New Vegas. Megaton always had the Christmas lights. A little more around specific areas (Brass Lantern, Moriatary's, Supply, entrance) would not be too far removed. I would vary some of the walls and elements with different materials. The player house available needs help and expansion, as do others. I would try to add interest to the individual NPC houses.I would entirely redo Moriarty's with elements from the strip. It needs to be significantly bigger and more aesthetically interesting. Even Fallout 1 had better digs for bars. As others have said, it needs a table. It also needs a chip changing area. There also needs to be a blackout scene with Nova. Nova needs a dress change. The proprietors needs more varied clothes. Gob and Moriarty both need dressier outfits. There needs to be an actual let-out "corner" room. Layout-wise I would think a mix between the current Moriarty's and the Atomic Wrangler (minus the stage, not cannon). The Craterside supply needs appropriate New Vegas crafting and ammo benches. The Brass Lantern bar needs to be distinct visually from Moriaty's. Moriarty is more successful and wealthier.

 

I would then move to Tenpenny Tower and outfit it with the New Vegas elements. Obviously some elements would remain the same, but the catalog has greatly increased in size and some of the strip elements, clothing and objects would be beneficial. Similar to Megaton, I would expand the Tenpenny apartments, either by the existing families or unnamed dwellers. I would borrow heavily from the Strip, especially the Tops (and in part the Ultra-luxe). The player apartment suite needs to be altered. If it were possible, I would change the downstairs lobby to entirely shops, bars, and a possible casino area. I would expand the area's size. I would move the shops up to the second floor of the lobby and retain the bar (and casino if desired) at the bottom. All of the bedrooms and suits I would move to the upper floors. You might even include a restaurant and stage. The clinic and wellness center might even be moved to the basement for that respective stage area. Quests could be added to Tenpenny tower, depending on what you are able to do with it. I would increase the ghouls, as well. The Tenpenny Tower quest is cumbersome, even if you cleaned up the "nice" solution, there would still be the other options. Three ghouls is too few for a large expansion.

 

I would then deal with Big Town. Wallpapers and elements needed to be varied and added upon. This town needs more of a town-like feel. It needs more variety in the houses and clearer definitions of clinic (and possible shop space). It needs to be expanded to the houses outside the fortified center. Big Trouble in Big Town forced the residents inward, but after the quest is complete there should be more of a community. (Or you could enclose the residents in their houses outside the fortified area.) It would be nice if Big Town had some sort of landmark. It's similar to Novac in its out-of-the-way but quest-carrying status.

 

Next on the list, I would look at Canterbury Commons. Canterbury Commons has more in common with Freeside. There is much that could be done for this town, considering the amount of similar locations in New Vegas. I would ramp up the "trading" and caravan element. I might include a new shop for the Gun Runners from New Vegas at Canterbury. (Perhaps pursued through a quest like the other merchants...?) Also, the Mechanist might be explored further. I would outfit this town as much as possible. The point is that it is still unique from New Vegas, but interlinked. It is a ways up to Canterbury, and as the main trade center, it might want to include a hotel and spruce up the bar.

 

Arefu and the Family should be tightly bound. The surrounding locations were never very reflective of their plot. I would focus on the agriculture and the vampire aspects. That and the location on the overpass are what makes Arefu distinct from the other locations. I would expand the town and bring it closer to the station. The Blood Ties quest was closest to the cannibalism quests of the Ultra-Luxxe. This is where the tie-ins between the games should make themselves abundantly clear. It may be in the interests of the modder to even weakly link the causes together between the games. The Metro Station is very grungy compared to the luxury of the Ultra-Luxxe, but they have much in common. They might be a potential faction too (the list of factions in Fallout 3 being: family, arefu, megaton, lamplight, big town, rivet city, commonwealth, canterbury commons, slavers, oasis, enclave, brotherhood, etc)

 

Paradise Falls and Evergreen Mills needs a wealth of material. Eulogy's pad in particular requires many meshes from Gommorah. It's important to limit the casino elements in the Wasteland, but the Raiders and Slavers crept closer to the more seedy side. It would be nice to get some of the blacked-out scenes. Companions like Clover have always suggested that they would do "something" to you. (I think the only male that offered anything in FO3 was Butch, and only for girls.) There would also be some potential scenes with Dukov.

 

Most settlements need refurbishment and inclusion of meshes. Not every place needs a major overhaul. Little additions of objects would help. Some variation away from the locker-mesh hallways in the buildings in the Capital Wasteland would help. A merge with some of the open all houses and locations in Fallout 3 mods would help. The Pit DLC also might benefit from some additional meshes in the main slaver compound. The Mothership Zeta DLC might show more specifically New Vegas type elements. Point Lookout DLC could benefit from the textures and small additions (like different types of alcohol and crafting benches).

 

If you were to create a transition quest to New Vegas, I'd do it at the end of Broken Steel.

[Nihilisaurus]

I wouldn't remove canon perks on the basis they were overpowered. Frankly not all of us like to play a "special" character or multiple characters.

The idea of RFCW is to get everything working and balanced next to each other, part of the reason for replacing all the FO3 guns with their New Vegas doubles was because the Fallout 3 guns (by and large) do half the damage of their Vegas cousins. Balance is an issue here, which is the reason for the whole T51B fiasco etc.

 

I don't know how you'll do the giant story arc mentioned in this thread. I adore the idea, but it requires a lot of work. I want to see this mod, the requiem mod, to completion. I would concentrate more on varying the capital wasteland.

Agreed, although your goal of linking the two games by a large and engaging quest is admirable, it should probably wait until the two areas are fully worth joining.

 

One of the strengths of New Vegas was how much stuff and variety it had. Textures were varied; items were well-placed. Fallout 3 had very little of that.

Vegas had much better settlements. Goodsprings, Novac, Westside, Primm, Jacobstown, by and large they felt more 'plausible' than a lot of FO3's towns. Where do the people of Megaton and Rivet City get food to feed themselves? Not a clue. Jacobstown, Goodsprings? Well Marcus straight up tells you how Jacobstown supports itself, and looking around goodsprings there's clear evidence they're a farming community.

 

I would start with Megaton. I would first make it bigger. If possible, I would rearrange the existing layout. In the cannon, it is a very layered town. It needs more people and inhabitants. You could expand the existing families, or create stories for the unnamed dwellers. I would build bridges and buildings across the center of the town and stack them. (The bomb underneath, in that cesspool of a Church...) I would light up the streets with (few) signs and/or lights from New Vegas. Megaton always had the Christmas lights. A little more around specific areas (Brass Lantern, Moriatary's, Supply, entrance) would not be too far removed. I would vary some of the walls and elements with different materials. The player house available needs help and expansion, as do others. I would try to add interest to the individual NPC houses.I would entirely redo Moriarty's with elements from the strip. It needs to be significantly bigger and more aesthetically interesting. Even Fallout 1 had better digs for bars. As others have said, it needs a table. It also needs a chip changing area. There also needs to be a blackout scene with Nova. Nova needs a dress change. The proprietors needs more varied clothes. Gob and Moriarty both need dressier outfits. There needs to be an actual let-out "corner" room. Layout-wise I would think a mix between the current Moriarty's and the Atomic Wrangler (minus the stage, not cannon). The Craterside supply needs appropriate New Vegas crafting and ammo benches. The Brass Lantern bar needs to be distinct visually from Moriaty's. Moriarty is more successful and wealthier.

Integrating Vegas content seamlessly into the Capital wasteland is priority #1, so I think we can justify many of the changes you want, but let's start from a gameplay perspective.

 

So, our player's coming out of the vault for the first time. They're carrying between one and three? four? 10mm Pistols (probably a bit excessive there, renders all the 9mms useless apart from ammo conservation early game), a few police batons and they're wearing a vault 101 security outfit (can't be equal to the mojave security outfits as they overshadow standard combat armour), or a plain vaultsuit. Assuming they're playing hardcore (if they're not then it doesn't matter, first we must presume they are so we don't leave them stranded 1000 miles from any food or water all the time) then what will our new player need? Food and water in small quantities, good opportunity to introduce a means for Megaton's inhabitants to support themselves. The water (for plot reasons) will be radioactive, but there's some spare land around megaton that could fit a small shack and a little field of maize that could be stolen (bad karma) or bought from one of the traders in town.

 

Next, we need some campfire space. If the player tagged survival then they may have been lucky enough to find a small number of broc flower and xander root (these things are vital for making stimpaks, so as there are still stimpaks in DC 200 years later, I'm going to presume there are the component parts growing in DC) they'll want a campfire to make a few doses of healing powder. There's not really an obvious location for a fire in megaton, so either one is going to need to be added, or a substitute must be found.

 

Crafting is easy, replace moira and the houses' duff workbenches with their vegas equivalents.

 

Then we've got ammo modification/reloading. Obvious solution is to put the bench in moira's shop, and give her the components to sell. Pretty good solution, though her shop would need a few small alterations so the new components don't feel too out of place. An extra light or two to illuminate the reloading bench, and a few ammo cans/wood crates (empty/locked most likely) to show where the new stock came from.

 

Finally, if we're integrating gambling Moriaty's is the place. A low/mid stakes table for roulette and Blackjack should do it, a small cashier's window in one corner and upstairs a few non-useable prostitutes performing the gomorrah dance animations, for flavour.

 

That would integrate the game mechanics, if we're integrating the feel, megaton needs more room for a way to support itself, some small farming etc. If the walls need to be expanded and have more variety, then the junk pieces that block up the holes in mcCarran's stone wall could be used, or sections of wall from the fort. The town itself isn't too bad, it just feels much smaller than it is because much of the top left side is wasted space, it's further round than you have to go to reach the player house, and it's not on the way to craterside supply, the doctor or (usually) moriatys - the one time the main quest forces you to go there, and the only time many players go there in FO3 I think. If there were to be more things of interest around the town such as a campfire or some other useful objects, things that made you go to more than three places, then the town would feel much bigger. Combined with some tweaking so the place looks like it can just about (and only just about) feed itself, then it feels much more like a whole, feasible settlement. But that's depending on how much you're willing to mess with the capital wasteland itself.

 

I would then move to Tenpenny Tower and outfit it with the New Vegas elements. Obviously some elements would remain the same, but the catalog has greatly increased in size and some of the strip elements, clothing and objects would be beneficial. Similar to Megaton, I would expand the Tenpenny apartments, either by the existing families or unnamed dwellers. I would borrow heavily from the Strip, especially the Tops (and in part the Ultra-luxe). The player apartment suite needs to be altered. If it were possible, I would change the downstairs lobby to entirely shops, bars, and a possible casino area. I would expand the area's size. I would move the shops up to the second floor of the lobby and retain the bar (and casino if desired) at the bottom. All of the bedrooms and suits I would move to the upper floors. You might even include a restaurant and stage. The clinic and wellness center might even be moved to the basement for that respective stage area. Quests could be added to Tenpenny tower, depending on what you are able to do with it. I would increase the ghouls, as well. The Tenpenny Tower quest is cumbersome, even if you cleaned up the "nice" solution, there would still be the other options. Three ghouls is too few for a large expansion.

 

Tenpenny tower was billed as the home of the rich and mighty in DC, and turned out to be the home of a dozen intolerable snobs, one engaging character (Dashwood), two pretty useless shops (lings and the 'boutique', which *always* had a worse selection than craterside supply) and a handful of over-confident armed guards. Moving the tower would mess with a lot of the interactions in the area. However, it is in need of changes. If it's the home of the rich, then obviously they're going to have high-class goods on sale to cater to them. The lobby itself has room around the upper balcony for a small parade of such shops, each one taking the place of a rather useless (and unoccupied, as far as I recall) bedroom. The original vendors can be moved into some of these new shops, leaving their previous space open to add in some Vegas content such as gambling. This would allow opportunities for higher tier New Vegas weapons, armour and ammunition to appear in small quantities for the player to acquire (and for once a decent reason to side with either faction in the 'Tenpenny Tower' quest).

 

The fancier Vegas outfits would give the residents some much needed evidence of class, and some of the better looking fortified walls would make a good replacement for the lines of rebar-filled concrete. However, still leaves the problem of how they're surviving. The answer of course, to the question of how rich people survive, is poor people. The area's not too dangerous, with few monster and raider spwaners. Adding (outside the walls) some wastelanders living in shacks, farming etc and some patrolling Tenpenny security guards (maybe a watchtower or two?) should illustrate this theme. If you want to go full adytum with it and put a wire fence round them all that'd work too. Would nicely show how Tenpenny tower survives, and give opportunity for casual 'borrowing' of food for hardcore mode users.

 

I would then deal with Big Town. Wallpapers and elements needed to be varied and added upon. This town needs more of a town-like feel. It needs more variety in the houses and clearer definitions of clinic (and possible shop space). It needs to be expanded to the houses outside the fortified center. Big Trouble in Big Town forced the residents inward, but after the quest is complete there should be more of a community. (Or you could enclose the residents in their houses outside the fortified area.) It would be nice if Big Town had some sort of landmark. It's similar to Novac in its out-of-the-way but quest-carrying status.

 

Big town and little lamplight are one gigantic plothole. But that aside, if we're making bigtown into something interesting an plausible, can I suggest we take inspiration from junktown? The place is under constant attack by raiders and Super Mutants, so surrounding the settlement with an ad-hoc wall made of (non-explodable) vehicles and scrap makes good sense, if the place has held out for this long they've got to have some ability to defend themselves. Not enough to be successful, but enough to scrape by. Inside the walls, there should be enough people to make the place deserve to be called a town, it's probably worth doing what beth did with megaton and making the town interior a separate worldspace. That'd give you a little leeway on making the town's contents fit inside the walls, as well as removing concerns about having too much in the cells.

 

Next on the list, I would look at Canterbury Commons. Canterbury Commons has more in common with Freeside. There is much that could be done for this town, considering the amount of similar locations in New Vegas. I would ramp up the "trading" and caravan element. I might include a new shop for the Gun Runners from New Vegas at Canterbury. (Perhaps pursued through a quest like the other merchants...?) Also, the Mechanist might be explored further. I would outfit this town as much as possible. The point is that it is still unique from New Vegas, but interlinked. It is a ways up to Canterbury, and as the main trade center, it might want to include a hotel and spruce up the bar.

Trade hub. Needs:

-Non-unique caravans a la Mojave Outpost/Novac. Set them up to travel to/from other settlements so there aren't only four traders in the whole wasteland. Also, another opportunity to integrate more content.

-A few mercenaries & traders sandboxed to give more life to the place

-A proper bar. Who ever heard of a trading post without a bar?

 

Shops are kinda optional, with that many caravan traders there's not really much need for any static shop. Though adding one could be good insurance against the possibility traders will have very little of what the player wants or needs (which does happen).

 

Arefu and the Family should be tightly bound. The surrounding locations were never very reflective of their plot. I would focus on the agriculture and the vampire aspects. That and the location on the overpass are what makes Arefu distinct from the other locations. I would expand the town and bring it closer to the station.

Don't move the town, that's a lot of work and a lot of incompatibility you'll be introducing. It'd probably be better to expand the ground-level ranching setup arefu had, perhaps removing the mirelurks in the waters underneath the town. If they need to be closer, adding extra tunnels that lead to the Family's lair is a better solution than moving the entire town.

 

The Blood Ties quest was closest to the cannibalism quests of the Ultra-Luxe. This is where the tie-ins between the games should make themselves abundantly clear. It may be in the interests of the modder to even weakly link the causes together between the games. The Metro Station is very grungy compared to the luxury of the Ultra-Luxxe, but they have much in common. They might be a potential faction too (the list of factions in Fallout 3 being: family, arefu, megaton, lamplight, big town, rivet city, commonwealth, canterbury commons, slavers, oasis, enclave, brotherhood, etc)

That's clutching at straws a little. The members of the White gloves who eat people do so because they think it's utterly delicious and beyond compare. The Family are a bunch of crazies who think they're vampires.

 

Paradise Falls and Evergreen Mills needs a wealth of material. Eulogy's pad in particular requires many meshes from Gommorah. It's important to limit the casino elements in the Wasteland, but the Raiders and Slavers crept closer to the more seedy side. It would be nice to get some of the blacked-out scenes. Companions like Clover have always suggested that they would do "something" to you. (I think the only male that offered anything in FO3 was Butch, and only for girls.) There would also be some potential scenes with Dukov.

Paradise falls could benefit from some expanding. All these slaves, even if most of them are going to the Pitt surely they keep some to do the menial tasks the slavers won't. The slavers have little to offer to override the enemies you'd make siding with them. A slavery overhaul that doesn't break NPC spawns etc should be mandatory (but probably not integrated). I'd reccomend FNNCQ for the part, as it only uses one building and is 100% compatible with the vanilla slavery system.

 

 

Most settlements need refurbishment and inclusion of meshes. Not every place needs a major overhaul. Little additions of objects would help. Some variation away from the locker-mesh hallways in the buildings in the Capital Wasteland would help. A merge with some of the open all houses and locations in Fallout 3 mods would help.

Chucksteel of DCInteriors and NVInteriors fame is doing a special version just for requiem.

 

The Pitt DLC also might benefit from some additional meshes in the main slaver compound.

The Pitt has a lot of unique stuff already, and a good explanation of how they survive (raiding stuff from the surrounding area and forcing the slaves to run the machinery to produce weapons and ammunition for them).

The Mothership Zeta DLC might show more specifically New Vegas type elements.

Adding some vegas loot is a planned addition to Zeta in requiem, IIRC. Makes sense, if you take wild wasteland there are even some aliens there.

 

Point Lookout DLC could benefit from the textures and small additions (like different types of alcohol and crafting benches).

Lever action weapons. We already have the lever action rifle, a small number of cowboy repeaters/trail carbines and (maybe) a very rare chance of brush guns at high level wouldn't feel too incongruous, considering they're meant to be hillbilly swampfolk. Following on from that theme, the hunting shotgun would fit as well, I reckon. Old-school weapons like those would add variety to their ranged weapons beyond Lever action 10mm, Double Barrel Shotgun or hunting rifle, if only in small numbers. The tribal weapons like spears, machetes and such would fit with the tribe living in the cathedral.

 

Whether or not they fit in DC, Geckos would fit right in with the swampland feel of point lookout.

 

I don't think Geckos are really D.C.

DC's filled with waterways though, I know the climate isn't as hospitable to reptiles as nevada, but a few small colonies would add a little more variety to the wildlife. I mean why are mirelurks the only things that live in the water? Surely they've got to be hunting something.

 

Regardless, your decision. Though point lookout is ripe for them, what with it being hot, damp swampland.

 

 

Anchorage could really do with some weapon integration. The terminal in the citadel says the R91 was only used by the national guard, so what is it doing in Anchorage? In Nellis, a large military base, we're shown Assault and Marksman carbines were in the arsenal, and Nellis is far closer to Anchorage than DC. Energy weapons today has its front cover filled with military stories in New Vegas. So how come there's no energy weapons loadout available and none of the soldiers use them? Adding the kits to the selection isn't that hard, the Quartermaster's dialogue is pretty generic and reuseable. This would also give the option to allow access to a few different energy weapons loadouts. For example: Energy weapons sniper (Laser rifle, scope mod, Laser pistol, ammo), Energy CQB (multiplas rifle) and so forth. Furthermore, the Grenadier's kit gives you a handful of frag grenades, and a shotgun. Why not a Grenade Launcher or Grenade rifle? It'd also be possible to make the battlefields more interesting by adding some props, like the artillery guns from around nellis and such.

 

All, of course, suggestions. Though hopefully over the summer I'll have time to help, if you want me. (Though like starship troopers, only "Til I die or you find someone better.")

Edited April 15, 2012 by Lt Albrecht

[vindr20]

If you do a Project Nevada Patch, keep in mind that several of the Fallout 3 weapons were ported to NV in PN, and have adjusted stats and modification opportunities as well as iron sights. Making a patch might well be worth it just to get rid of any duplicates.

As far as helmet visors go, you'd probably be able to just reuse ones already created, and a lot of your work would be done for you as any armor that you've converted to the FNV version would already have a visor from PNV, a good example of this is T-45d power armor.

[SuperSonic64]

I have no idea if this has been addressed, but how do you finish both the new vegas story and capital wasteland story without broken steel? Both games had an ending, but broken steel make the capital wasteland explorable after said ending. Also, duct tape if anything needs to be added to the capital wasteland. Several items, including weapon repair kits can't be made without it and its one of the few items I can think of that wouldn't break the lore of the capital wasteland by adding. As for plants, it wouldn't be surprising to have hydroponic broc flower and xander roots plants in labs in dc, or as an expansion for the player home given their use in creating stimpacks. Deathclaw eggs wouldn't be a bad idea either, given its use in creating wasteland omelets for hardcore players. Drug wise, finding slasher in vault 112 and steady with the drifter and arkansas would be funny.

[Dysthe]

 

So, our player's coming out of the vault for the first time. They're carrying between one and three? four? 10mm Pistols (probably a bit excessive there, renders all the 9mms useless apart from ammo conservation early game), a few police batons and they're wearing a vault 101 security outfit (can't be equal to the mojave security outfits as they overshadow standard combat armour), or a plain vaultsuit. Assuming they're playing hardcore (if they're not then it doesn't matter, first we must presume they are so we don't leave them stranded 1000 miles from any food or water all the time) then what will our new player need? Food and water in small quantities, good opportunity to introduce a means for Megaton's inhabitants to support themselves. The water (for plot reasons) will be radioactive, but there's some spare land around megaton that could fit a small shack and a little field of maize that could be stolen (bad karma) or bought from one of the traders in town.

 

Next, we need some campfire space. If the player tagged survival then they may have been lucky enough to find a small number of broc flower and xander root (these things are vital for making stimpaks, so as there are still stimpaks in DC 200 years later, I'm going to presume there are the component parts growing in DC) they'll want a campfire to make a few doses of healing powder. There's not really an obvious location for a fire in megaton, so either one is going to need to be added, or a substitute must be found.

 

Agreed. It would be good to think of the gameplay aspect. But I wouldn't put the campfire in the town, but outside. (Aesthetically, it's a little harder to place than the skyrim spit. If you created a new indoor mesh (or even used the skyrim spit), specifically for the interiors, I would have no problem at all.) The outside campfire would easily work in the Raider development on the overpass outside the vault. There are campfires in the game, but more may need to be added. I would look for areas with people (raiders, wastelanders).

 

That would integrate the game mechanics, if we're integrating the feel, megaton needs more room for a way to support itself, some small farming etc. If the walls need to be expanded and have more variety, then the junk pieces that block up the holes in mcCarran's stone wall could be used, or sections of wall from the fort. The town itself isn't too bad, it just feels much smaller than it is because much of the top left side is wasted space, it's further round than you have to go to reach the player house, and it's not on the way to craterside supply, the doctor or (usually) moriatys - the one time the main quest forces you to go there, and the only time many players go there in FO3 I think. If there were to be more things of interest around the town such as a campfire or some other useful objects, things that made you go to more than three places, then the town would feel much bigger. Combined with some tweaking so the place looks like it can just about (and only just about) feed itself, then it feels much more like a whole, feasible settlement. But that's depending on how much you're willing to mess with the capital wasteland itself.

 

I wouldn't put farming inside Megaton. If anything, I would expand Springvale. Megaton is already connected to it. The area's used later in the Broken Steel quests. Again, there's still the issue of gameplay. It is important to still consider the entrance into the town. I'd keep the ruined front the same. I wouldn't add anything too helpful, because the player still needs to go to Megaton, but I think there should be a small agricultural area. I'd put a plot out back of the other closed house next to Silver's place and open the interior. Add a farming NPC or two. You might even want to add another house or repair one or two of the broken outliers, add NPCs, farm plots. It's not close too close to the Raiders, but if Springvale was upgraded as a small agricultural area/broken suburb for Megaton, it might be useful to put a barricade up between there and the school.

 

The answer of course, to the question of how rich people survive, is poor people. The area's not too dangerous, with few monster and raider spwaners. Adding (outside the walls) some wastelanders living in shacks, farming etc and some patrolling Tenpenny security guards (maybe a watchtower or two?) should illustrate this theme. If you want to go full adytum with it and put a wire fence round them all that'd work too. Would nicely show how Tenpenny tower survives, and give opportunity for casual 'borrowing' of food for hardcore mode users.

 

Your suggestion of adding some farming wastelanders in shacks outside the walls (and appropriate servitude and snivelling from them and/or hatred of the snobbish residents) would do well. It would makes sense if there was a little taken-advantage-of community in the surrounding area. You'd have to keep them away from Tenpenny's pot shot blasts. There also might be some additional dialogue/quests related to them, regardless or because of the decision made for Tenpenny Tower. I would enclose the entire area ala Freeside was to the Strip. You'd have to rewrite Roy Phillips' entrance a little further out. I would be sure to add a New Vegas water pump to the outside Tenpenny suburb. Tenpenny Tower's greatest advantage was that the water was cleaner. That should factor into why anyone would want to live there, over the other towns like Megaton and Rivet City.

 

Big town and little lamplight are one gigantic plothole. But that aside, if we're making bigtown into something interesting an plausible, can I suggest we take inspiration from junktown? The place is under constant attack by raiders and Super Mutants, so surrounding the settlement with an ad-hoc wall made of (non-explodable) vehicles and scrap makes good sense, if the place has held out for this long they've got to have some ability to defend themselves. Not enough to be successful, but enough to scrape by. Inside the walls, there should be enough people to make the place deserve to be called a town, it's probably worth doing what beth did with megaton and making the town interior a separate worldspace. That'd give you a little leeway on making the town's contents fit inside the walls, as well as removing concerns about having too much in the cells.

 

Junktown isn't a bad idea. Big Town was always supposed to be a makeshift fortress. It may be nice to add some references to Lamplight in there. There wasn't much connection aside from the dialog. I suspect some of the teenagers left with their toys. There were more objects overall with New Vegas -- I can't remember how many of them were associated with children. If there were more, it would be helpful to add those elements to Big Town, the raider-infested schools/nurseries, and/or Little Lamplight. They're grown children, but they've essentially lived as a jaded Calvin and Hobbes fighting off real monsters (Mutants) for the last few years. I don't remember being very impressed.

 

Overall, I think it would be best to make as many of the towns a separate world space as possible. Big Town absolutely necessitates it. It might be advantageous to close up all of the major settlements, especially if you did expansions to them. I didn't even go into areas like the Republic of Dave, Girdershade or Andale.

 

Girdershade especially needs help. There's nothing to it. It isn't even worth enclosing, but it isn't in a good location. There's a random encounter spot very close by. In one game, I remember the wounded deathclaw near town. As for the two residents, I'm not sure how either of them support themselves. Sierra seems to subsist entirely on Nuka-Cola. I think Ronald hunts game, but we never see him out and there's no mole rat jerky, squirrel on a stick, mile lurk cakes out or anything. The interior of Sierra's house is better, but there's nothing interesting at all to Ronald's place. There's the issue of staying true to the cannon -- it's kind of the point that there's only two people, but it isn't very remarkable other than the crazy-lady-who-wants-me-to-get-Quantum-Nuka-Cola.

 

Republic of Dave is more substantial. It already has brahmin. It could use farm buildings and structural variation. There isn't much advantage to the metal shack (and it's so repeated through the capitol wasteland that maybe a New Vegas style structure would be more appropriate. I would give it more land. The enclave show up nearby later in game, but otherwise there isn't too much around it. Old Oldney's not that close.

 

Don't move the town, that's a lot of work and a lot of incompatibility you'll be introducing. It'd probably be better to expand the ground-level ranching setup arefu had, perhaps removing the mirelurks in the waters underneath the town. If they need to be closer, adding extra tunnels that lead to the Family's lair is a better solution than moving the entire town.

[...]

That's clutching at straws a little. The members of the White gloves who eat people do so because they think it's utterly delicious and beyond compare. The Family are a bunch of crazies who think they're vampires.

 

Expanding the ranching setup would be fine. You'd still have to consider the original storyline though. (The Family did kill Arefu's Brahmin...) Arefu does need to be larger, though, even if isn't moved. I wonder if you could enclose and build down the overpass. I saw a setup with a under overpass bar on one of the embiggening mods. It would be interesting if the town went all the way down with entrances (at the top past the explosion cutscene) and at the bottom towards the lake and farm land. That way you could still get the cutscene and feel of the original Arefu, and also make a more substantial community.

 

On the White Gloves, of course, you're correct. They were cannibals, but they transitioned to blood under Vance. It's been a while since I played. The White Gloves are closer to Andale then they are to the Family, although they would never associate together (because the society is too stuffy to consort with inbreds, and because presumably Andale is eating human flesh to survive). Still, it would be beneficial to create a more unique Family setup in the underground. They were crazy, but they gave a useful perk and they were willing to protect the town (if you chose that option). They need a more unique area. I would play it like the cult it is, but add a few New Vegas touches. Vance's rooms were always supposed to be higher class. Brianna was supposed to be a prostitute. You shouldn't take the identifiable elements of the strip, but some of the details. If you were to create a storage room for blood, you'd be incorporating that freezer area in the Ultra-Luxe. It should look more seedy and truer to character, but not classy. They're not very far from Raiders.

 

Paradise falls could benefit from some expanding. All these slaves, even if most of them are going to the Pitt surely they keep some to do the menial tasks the slavers won't. The slavers have little to offer to override the enemies you'd make siding with them. A slavery overhaul that doesn't break NPC spawns etc should be mandatory (but probably not integrated). I'd reccomend FNNCQ for the part, as it only uses one building and is 100% compatible with the vanilla slavery system.

 

It's important to note that you don't have to annoy the slavers to get all the slaves out. (Simple tricks: waiting an hour inside the pen will do the job for the old ones) Plus you could have gotten the kids out without provoking them at all. If you integrated a faction system to Fallout 3, you would want to register those differences.

 

Also Eulogy's pad needs a major refurbish, ala Gommorah and Wrangler. The walls and floors should be retextured with those red hot colors. You might add a movie-playing projector. It's always indicated that Eulogy was shooting porn. (For inclusion, it would have to be semi-tasteful of course). He's living in a theatre. It should LOOK like an old theatre, not another DC building. With New Vegas, we have the materials. It might also need more girls. The slavers are presumably making lots of money. We should see the money in action. Eulogy's a showy man. Even if you didn't refurbish the Pitt with more wealthy textures/objects, Paradise Falls would show more wealth. The wealth is an incentive for people to side with the slavers. Optionally you could even provide a room at Paradise Falls.

 

Oasis needs very little, other than some inclusion of not-exclusively-Nevada plants and a campfire. Rivet City doesn't require much more than some NPC clothing variation, a few more items sold, and some re-texturing, object variation here and there, more alcohol in the bar. You could expand it to more rooms, including a player room from Weatherly, but it's not absolutely necessary.

 

I think the biggest difference is in small things. We need to vary the couches, the lockers, the decks, the floors and walls. New Vegas had more to offer than Fallout. Granted, it was in better shape since House blasted away the bombs, but there should be more in the old DC buildings.

[pwinkle]

I think that Paradies Falls could really be bolstered by some of the Legion and Khan decorations, just to add little touches.

-The slaves should all be put into uniforms, like the legion slaves (They're not only used to identify the fact they're slaves to the soldiers, but to remind the slaves of what they are, breaking their spirits that bit quicker)

-I agree that the slaves should definatly be put to work, girls should be working on the bar and/or being made to dance. I cant say this without sounding like a bloddy horrible person, but they're supposed to be getting humiliated and abused, they SHOULD be afraid, esp the women.

-Stockades, I know these are actually from the pitt, but there should be slaves locked up for misbehaving for all the people to see.

-Crucifictions, same thing really. They'd put the weak or any real trouble makers up, nobody would want to buy an old weak slave or one whose going to kill them in their sleep. So they'd be strung up as a reminder to the other slaves. (These features would also work well in Evergreen Mills)

-A big tidy up, esp in Eulogy's pad, i like the idea of making it more like a cinema... The fact that he'd be filming porno there is brilliant for flavour.

But otherwise a big tidy up, the main issue is that Bethesda seemed to think that the best way to show you're in a post apoc wasteland would be to just make eveything dirty. There's not really a lot that fits the theme of "The wasteland is full of people working hard trying to make a life and have some normality." For example Freeside, kinda glitzy but rough, not overly dirty. I could get there being papers and debris just lying around in the DC ruins, but when I went to the RC Market and saw rubble, paper and just junk lying all over the floor at how lazy bethesda had been at trying to portray this settlement as a post apocalyptic settlement.

 

DIRTY IS NOT APOCALYPTIC, ITS JUST DIRTY!!!!

 

On that note, the RC market should be FILLED with traders, and the flight deck could have either a hydrophonic garden or solar panels up there, as lets be honest theres a lot of unused space up there.

Megaton should be more like the Flavelas in Brazil, slums, tightly packed and creating that constant feeling of "I'm about to get stabbed". If you were going to expand it I'd request that you make it work on a layer system, not just this 'place it anywhere on the hill' system they have in play. It should look like earth has been excavatedo form levels, then the buildings are constructed on these flat levels, bridges and walkways can still be used too, if Megaton were to actually be constructed it would actually just fall down, those thin collumns shoudln't be able to support the weight of several buildings, people and furniture.

 

 

Sorry for the wall, and for probably sounding so entitled. I just wanted to put a little bit down and it kept expanding as I realised that the game is actually designed really badly :P

[bastardofbodom]

I think that Paradies Falls could really be bolstered by some of the Legion and Khan decorations, just to add little touches.

-The slaves should all be put into uniforms, like the legion slaves (They're not only used to identify the fact they're slaves to the soldiers, but to remind the slaves of what they are, breaking their spirits that bit quicker)

-I agree that the slaves should definatly be put to work, girls should be working on the bar and/or being made to dance. I cant say this without sounding like a bloddy horrible person, but they're supposed to be getting humiliated and abused, they SHOULD be afraid, esp the women.

-Stockades, I know these are actually from the pitt, but there should be slaves locked up for misbehaving for all the people to see.

-Crucifictions, same thing really. They'd put the weak or any real trouble makers up, nobody would want to buy an old weak slave or one whose going to kill them in their sleep. So they'd be strung up as a reminder to the other slaves. (These features would also work well in Evergreen Mills)

-A big tidy up, esp in Eulogy's pad, i like the idea of making it more like a cinema... The fact that he'd be filming porno there is brilliant for flavour.

But otherwise a big tidy up, the main issue is that Bethesda seemed to think that the best way to show you're in a post apoc wasteland would be to just make eveything dirty. There's not really a lot that fits the theme of "The wasteland is full of people working hard trying to make a life and have some normality." For example Freeside, kinda glitzy but rough, not overly dirty. I could get there being papers and debris just lying around in the DC ruins, but when I went to the RC Market and saw rubble, paper and just junk lying all over the floor at how lazy bethesda had been at trying to portray this settlement as a post apocalyptic settlement.

 

DIRTY IS NOT APOCALYPTIC, ITS JUST DIRTY!!!!

 

On that note, the RC market should be FILLED with traders, and the flight deck could have either a hydrophonic garden or solar panels up there, as lets be honest theres a lot of unused space up there.

Megaton should be more like the Flavelas in Brazil, slums, tightly packed and creating that constant feeling of "I'm about to get stabbed". If you were going to expand it I'd request that you make it work on a layer system, not just this 'place it anywhere on the hill' system they have in play. It should look like earth has been excavatedo form levels, then the buildings are constructed on these flat levels, bridges and walkways can still be used too, if Megaton were to actually be constructed it would actually just fall down, those thin collumns shoudln't be able to support the weight of several buildings, people and furniture.

 

 

Sorry for the wall, and for probably sounding so entitled. I just wanted to put a little bit down and it kept expanding as I realised that the game is actually designed really badly :P

You raise some pretty good points. Yes, personally, I think the slaves should be put in uniforms, since they are pretty much being kept as livestock, to be sold to others. But for the Legion and Great Khan decorations, I think canonically it wouldn't fit. The Legion and Great Khans are primarily Southwestern factions, and I don't think their influence would have made it all the way to the Capital Wasteland. Your idea of stockades is a great one. But again, for crucifixions, that seems to be a trademark of the Legion.

However, these are not my decisions to make. I just thought I'd give my two cents.

[liquideathshred]

I really like the idea of an epic cross-country quest, but I think things should stay canon/lore-friendly and not stray too far outside the box, so to speak. The whole Bad Company thing just reeks of fan-made fiction to me... There has to be a better, more lore-friendly alternative to fill that niche in your plotline. I'll do some reading and see what I can come up with.

 

While you're crossing the country, what about discovering a few more vaults? Maybe even one that's specifically mentioned in lore? there's a list somewhere on The Vault Wiki...

 

If we do this, we should do it right. Voice acting. I know people who do that kind of thing, i can possibly help if you want/need it.

 

Did anyone else feel like New Vegas didn't have enough random notes and stuff strewn about? I know we're talking about fixing up DC to make it nicer, but I feel like we're basically remaking two HUGE games here and it makes sense to me to include some of the really cool, immersive story elements that FO3 had to offer to the Mojave. The only time I really felt like it showed up in NV was in the Honest Hearts DLC, with the Survivalist's notes and his unique equipment.

 

What about cross-referencing the DLC? I like the idea of Paulson being referenced in NV, except I don't think a note makes sense because he was abducted like 400 years before Zeta takes place. Maybe a distant relative, ala The Mysterious Stranger's son? What about mentioning the Anchorage simulator to the BoS in Nevada for reputation points? Maybe the Outcasts and the West Coast BoS share reputation, and are opposed to Lyon's BoS... staged fights between the Outcasts and the Lyons BoS? Maybe the Outcasts eventually return to the West Coast... like maybe you can tell them how wiped out the BoS are, so they return as reinforcements. There's a lot of room there for a new questline and more events to change the player's impact on BOTH worlds.

 

What about Super Mutants? The Master is dead, but canon does not dictate whether or not Morpheus from FO1 was killed. Maybe make him return as the antagonist for a new Main Quest for RFCW, to tie the games together? Let's say he's trying to tie the Super Mutants from coast to coast into one army, and with the Enclave basically dead after Broken Steel and the East Coast BoS now preoccupied with water distribution, there isn't anyone to fight off the mutant hordes. BAZINGA, now you have a reason for why DC is crawling with big green assholes.

 

I say take Overlords out of the leveled lists and instead just make them mandatory with each group of Super Mutants, as a sort of "pack leader." Just one per group, but always appearing. That way, you have some discouragement from trying to farm Super Mutants at level 5, and they're not obnoxiously present at level 40.

 

That's all I got for right now, but i've been following this mod since day 1 and I'd love to help if I can. :D

 

Yesterday I reinstalled up to .5.1 A and i began in DC, but i'm having trouble with Doc Mitchell's house starting Ain't That a Kick in the Head.