Vault 88 - Redesign

[RoNin1971]

Hi guys,

 

Intro:

When first entering the vault the place looks huge, especially with all the extra sections.

...but after 5 attempts to build a vault to my likings, it turns out to be way to small & the parts to build with are severely lacking.

 

This was the point where a started using mods, but after searching and testing various v88 mods, i found there wasn't one to realy increase the size (ex. height).

 

Besides that, i totally dislike the entrance, which just makes no sence to me (with the double "screening" area)

 

On top of that i was dissapointed at ending up at the bottom of the 'cave' with only a way to build your vault upwards, instead of downwards as expected.

 

So, I'm working on my own mod for Vault 88 now.

 

:about the mod

- I enlarged the main cave towards the south & west (entrance) side, by about half its size on the floor, double in height.

 

- Moved up the entrance to level 6, and moved it back by about 8 units. The cave is even a bit bigger from this level up as it is on the floor.

 

- Totally revised the entrance area, which is currently much more realistic. Or so i like to think.

 

- planning to expand all area's & add at least 1 new "South-Section" & more tunnels.

 

- & a list of other ideas & plans.

 

:TL;DR

Until now my Vault 88 mod has just been my personal playground, but i'm thinking about sharing it (some day)

 

For that i would like to know what you guys would like to have or change (or remove). So i might make it meet your needs too, instead of just mine.

 

Any suggestion or idea is welcome. Any help too.

[psychotic29a]

Looks like I'm a bit late, but are you still working on it? It sounds great, I would love to try it out. I had the same problem with vanilla vault 88, it was just too small for me.

[MarkusTay]

I've seen a few 'finished builds' versions of V.88, but I usually prefer to build my own settlements. However, in the case of V.88, I would have preferred if we had some of the Vault finished for us. I've just never done anything with the pace aside from some limited building in that first cave and throw down some beds for people to sleep in (and plant crops.. which will still grow without sunlight, because, ya now... Bethesda).

 

Come to think of it, they should have either forced us to build a greenhouse/grow-room (like they have in V.81... which is ridiculously TOO SMALL), or given us some new crops that grow underground (mushrooms, or some cool stuff bio-engineered by Vaultec).

 

I'm actually on my way back there right now - I HATE having to do the quests with that DLC - they have ZERO replayability, but you can't just skip them because you have to unlock the stuff. I really feel like they dropped the ball with this one. We should have an 'auto-complete' option for certain sections based on blueprints we find/steal/hack our way to. I say 'option', because you could still build from scratch, or do the 'auto-build' and then tweak it to your liking.

 

yeah... and DIGGING. We should have been able to expand in directions if we wanted to (they could have made it cost an enormous amount of caps, like how terraforming is handled in other games).

 

And why can't I set-up a shop in that old drug store? That would have been awesome! Opportunities missed, and all that. That part should have been part of the exterior cell, so we could assign people to work there and make some caps (and have traders stop by). Can't do much with that manhole exit that comes out in the middle of all those Supermutants. Isn't there another exit somewhere? I haven't bothered with the other sectors since the first time I played-through this DLC, so I don't recall. EDIT: - I just checked, there isn't. We have three other 'sectors' to clear-out, but only get two other exits - there is something someone could work on; expand the one sector missing an exit and give us one with some above-ground stuff going on there.

[Omegacron]

I've always thought the biggest flaw with Vault 88 was the connecting tunnels. They give you huge caverns where you can build 3-or-4-stories of Vault goodness... and then connect them with tunnels too small to fit vault hallways in. That, combined with an NPC's ability to teleport outside of your vault for no good reason, is what makes it a headache.

 

Note: Yes, I realize that NPCs teleporting past obstacles is essential to pathfinding, but you'd think player-placed walls in a settlement would be an exception.

Edited January 9, 2019 by Omegacron

[RoNin1971]

Looks like I'm a bit late, but are you still working on it? It sounds great, I would love to try it out. I had the same problem with vanilla vault 88, it was just too small for me.

It's been a loooong time, but to still answer (for those interested) I gave up on the mod as i broke a few things, without any idea what exactly and how to fix.

After that I haven't played or modded FO4 until Dec. 2020. Decided to give it one more try, but this time i'm not creating a vault 88 mod, but a new vault/settlement similar to vault 88. (entrance location still to be determined)

I created my own cave building set with retextured (material swaps) parts from the cave set and the DLC06 cave parts.

 

I was well on my way when again something broke. At some point i used FO4edit to remove 'changes' to other cells, and after that i tried adding a circuitbreaker to allow turning on/off the lights within the main cave. But i can't interact with it in game. (used the pack-in, which should function, even if it doesn't have anything to enable/disable). In a new cell it works fine.

 

So, I had to start over, AGAIN :-(

This time however I'm just going all the way. (& keep regular backups :P)

Took all the 'cave' (& rock & cliff) nifs, changed & retextured them with nifskope. Added some stalactites & stalagmites i took from a skyrim mod, created a new geardoorroom (a mix of the V111 & V114 versions) & 2 different wide doors, to fit with the wide door passage. A slightly modified and retextured version of the institute security door (activator) & a seriously modified version of the V111 door. This is a fully functional door, incl. open & close animation.

 

It's going to have 2 types of tunnels. Rocky tunnels connecting areas where you can build hallways, and some dirt tunnels you can't build in. (the rock functions as a visual indicator where you can build hallways)

 

The (pre-build) entrance area is (going to be) much bigger and there is more then one way to enter the main cave.

I'm experimenting with 'levels' to possibly 'dig out' on the floor, but I'm not sure about that yet. I'm keeping any pre-build parts you can turn on/off in mind (most noteably for tunnels)

 

Currently I'm still working on the models, as I want to finnish those before (re)building my caves & stuff. (so I won't ever have to do that again, as I had to with all my material swaps before)

Collisions are a big problem though. ( i recently downloaded (but not yet installed) 3DS 2013, and planning to use the official plugin during my 30 day trial to do all that, as there is no other way (besides the 'copy from existing models')

 

Currently still looking for more stalactites & stalagmites, which i would like to make scrapable.

Trying to think of more stuff to add.

Finnish my textures for the wide doors (normal & specular)

New vault suit & stuff.

 

Note: It does not have a number as other vaults. (just "My Vault" instead of "Vault ###")

At the moment I only have a test cell, where i'm planning to collect all models & 'actions' (like open/close geardoor, turn lights on/off, testing my doors etc, etc.) before re-building my caves. Although i could still show screenshots from my previous, broken, cell for anyone interested.

 

Not sure how far I'm gonna go with the models, as it takes a lot of time.

Although there's a lot of stuff I would like to add, as buildable in game, there are a lot of mods out there doing that as well and i want to avoid conflicts.

Might add some of that as another mod. Like my grated catwalk & wide door, but that would require the passage too (which needs work/new model for that.)

Wider windows, roof part to fit with atrium and some more stuff are on my wishlist too.

[romalight]

Hello. One idea i have is maybe, close to a exit where is a track and a train, maybe if you expand this track and send the character to a new very large station, have rooms for many things. Some other solution is to use scrap mods or disable some walls if we can do this. The only thing about Vault 88 i don't like is that don't have light. That's all. Thanks.

[RoNin1971]

there is a mod which cleans up & expands on the Vault 88 subway station

Not the tracks, afaik.

 

I've been thinking about that, but for the moment I'm not touching 88 anymore (but I might add a station to my new vault/settlement, and maybe, just maybe, I will connect it to 88 by expanding the tunnel.)

 

What do you mean by 'don't have light' ? It's to dark? Where? (I personally would like it darker)

[romalight]

Thanks for the answer. Yes is dark always because the light of the sun don't go down there. That force me to build pillars with light but they illuminate as an altitude level and the sense left is a dark environment in general. If I want to have crops in the soil, I will necessarily have to put lights so that the character who walks can see, so if there is going to be a attack, i can repair them. The settlers don't....care about lights to see and do things, but i do :cool:

That's all. Thanks.