Immersive Technology (Re)Distribution by Faction

[Corbaine]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm a survival player who chases down immersion mods and gameplay overhauls that makes Fallout 4 more realistic and sensible. I'll tell you, this game has made me frown more times than I would have liked to :mellow:

 

SPOILER NOTICE: This post freely refers to story content and developments, and makes no attempt to hide it.

 

 

1. Just how big an overhaul are we talking about here?

 

Honestly, I don't know. As I see it, it comes down to changing the equipment NPCs spawn with, what merchants sell, what items are worth, and the loot that appears in containers. This would be working purely with existing vanilla assets. Fallout 4, as it is, just...'redistributed' if I could put it like that. No other gameplay or mechanic tweaks. Just redistribution.

 

 

2. Justification: Why does the current system break immersion?

(Skip to the next section if you just want to see my suggestion)

 

In the Fallout universe, we find a civilization that has been reset to the stone age, with a caveman-like society dwelling in the burnt-out husks of a time long forgotten. Yes, bits of technology is still there, *but* the vast, complex and incredible expensive infrastructure that is required to make it function is gone. And there is no united government, millions of people, nearly endless resources or the extensive expertise available to get it back up and running. And with every new generation, the knowledge of the past fades.

 

So, considering that the most impressive city in the Commonwealth is a shanty town in a baseball stadium who has only gotten as far as rigging the pre-war plumbing and electrical infrastructure to accommodate a few dozen people, protected by guards equipped with make-shift armor and pipe weapons, how on Earth can Arturo sell me a dozen mini-nukes, a few hundred plasma cartridges and the latest in combat armor advancements?

 

Bethesda, for reasons unknown, are seemingly content that an increase in a player's level is all that is required to unlock all the secrets of the time past and make them readily available for you to waste at your leisure. I mean, it's not like humanity has collapsed and these things are extraordinarily valuable, right?

 

Consider for a moment; "where does that ammunition come from"? Arturo states that he hand-tools everything himself. Considering he only has a few hours each night to make ammunition and weapons (?), is it possible for one person to churn out thousands of rounds of various ballistic calibers, fabricate advanced energy-based ammunition, produce low and high-end explosives, smith a few dozen melee weapons and forge dozens of armor pieces? Surely not? You need quarries, mines, factories, power, laborers, engineers, scientists, etc. to pull that off. I mean, where on earth does he get the materials to continuously make military-grade equipment? The knowledge? And that's Arturo. I'm not even talking about Trashcan Carla.

 

It boggles the mind.

 

3. The Actual Suggestion - Part 1(Factions):

 

Here follows a broad, per-faction breakdown of my proposal:

 

Raiders:

Raiders are low tech and ferocious. What they lack in technology, they make up for in psychological imbalances, excessive drug use and an utter disregard for life (including their own).

 

Power Armor Raiders with Fatman Launchers

• Leave "as is".

Regular Raiders:

• Raider Armor (Various Weights & Mods)
• Metal Armor (Various Weights & Mods)
• Pipe Weapons (Various Mods)
• Crude Melee Weapons (Various Mods)
• Molotovs (%?)
• Jet (%?)
• Psycho (%?)

Legendary Raiders:

• Heavy Raider / Metal Armor (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Pipe Weapons (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Crude Melee Weapons (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Molotovs (%?)
• Jet (%?)
• Psycho (%?)

Raider Bosses:

• Raider Power Armor (Always) (Various Mods, can be fully modded)
• Automatic Railway Rifles (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods) (The epitome of hand-made firepower)
• Sledgehammers (Fully Modded)
• Baseball Grenades
• Psycho Jet
• Overdrive
• Stimpaks

 

Gunners:

A strict military faction without the confines of a humanitarian government. NO ENERGY WEAPONS, but they have access to all the proper ballistic weapons.

 

Regular Gunners:

• Leather Armor (Various Weights & Mods)
• Combat Armor (Only available to Officers and Elite units, because it is presumably a limited and valuable resource)
• 10mm Pistols (Various Mods)
• Combat Rifles (Various Mods)
• Combat Shotguns (Various Mods)
• Combat Knives (Various Mods)
• Frag Grenades (%?)
• Buffout (%?)

Gunners - Legendary:

• Heavy Combat Armor (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Assault Rifles (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Power Fist (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Frag Grenades (%?)
• Buffout (%?)

Gunner Bosses:

• Heavy Combat Armor (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods) or Power Armor (T-45b / T-51b)
• Miniguns (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Power Fist (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods) or
• Frag Grenade
• Bufftats
• Stimpacks

 

Brotherhood of Steel

The Brotherhood of Steel are the technological para-military monks, and perhaps the most iconic element of the Fallout series after the blue and yellow vault suit. They introduce energy weapons and T-60 Power Armor to the Commonwealth. What about all the energy weapons and power armor already lying around the Commonwealth, you ask? Hang on until we get to the Institute next...

 

Proctor Teagan:

• Only merchant that sells none-institute Laser weapons
• Only major heavy-weapons merchant
• Available quantity of ammunition and supplies should be considerably increased

Regular BoS:

• Laser Pistols (Scribes) (Mods based on Rank)
• Laser Rifles (Knights+) (Mods based on Rank)
• Gatling Lasers (Paladins+) (Mods based on Rank)
• Fatman (Paladins+) (Unmodded)
• BoS Combat Armor (Always Sturdy, Mods based on Rank) (No Light, No Heavy)
• BoS Power Armor (Quality based on Rank, goes up to T-60d)
• Rippers (Various Mods)
• EMP Grenades (%?)
• X-111 Compound (%?)
• Radaway (%?) (Scribes Only)
• Med-X (%?)

Legendary BoS:

• Laser Pistols (Scribes) (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Laser Rifles (Knights) (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Gatling Lasers (Paladins+) (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Fatman (Paladins+) (Fully Modded) (Anyone ever had a MIRV fired at them????)
• Bos Combat Armor (Heavy - Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Bos Power Armor (T-60e - Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Rippers (Fully Modded)
• EMP Grenades
• X-111 Compound
• Med-X

BoS...Bosses:

• Gatling Laser (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Rocket Sledge (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• BoS Power Armor (T-60f, Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• EMP Grenades
• X-111 Compound
• Med-X
• Psycho
• Addictol
• Stimpaks

 

The Institute

The Baba-Yagas of the Commonwealth. They are the most technologically advanced of all the factions, but also the least militant. While they stand at the top of technology food chain, they have one big problem; a constant need for raw materials. Research & Development is expensive, but creating more synths must be extremely taxing. So if you were wondering what happened to all the technological items that were once in the Commonwealth you need look no further for the culprit!

 

What one sees about the Institute is that they consolidate their resources around a small number of elite operatives, then provide their equivalent of 'average' equipment to their Gen 1 troopers, and treat the oldest models like trash.

 

Synth Requisition Officer:

• The only merchant to sell plasma weapons
• The only merchant to sell plasma cartridges
• The only merchant to sell plasma grenades
• Available quantity of ammunition and supplies should be considerably increased

 

Gen 1 Scavengers:

(It doesn't make sense that the Institute would waste resources on these when they are already capable of easily killing regular settlers without weapons...):

• No armor
• No weapons
• No synth component
• Various random junk
• Buffed Resistance similar to "Stronger Robots, Synths and Turrets" by CobraL0rd (that is real immersive value right there)
• Buffed Unarmed Damage
• Buffed Movement Speed
• Buffed Perception
• Explodes on death.

Gen 1 Troopers

• All the buffs from Gen 1 Scavengers
• Full Synth Armor (Weight and Mods depend on Rank, goes up to Sturdy)
• Institute Laser Rifles (Mods depend on Rank) (Pistols should be reserved for Institute personnel)

Legendary Gen 1 Troopers:

• All the buffs from Gen 1 Scavengers
• Full Synth Armor, Full Field Helmets (Heavy, Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Institute Uniforms
• Institute Laser Rifles (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Relay Grenades

Coursers (Oh boy...):

• Courser Outfits (Ballistic Weave V, none-recoverable)
• Plasma Rifles (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Missile Launchers (Fully Modded with Top-Tier Mods)
• Plasma Grenades
• Relay Grenades
• Stealth Boys
• Stimpaks
• Psycho
• Med-X
• Addictol
• Institute Bottled Water
• Institute Food Packets

 

The Minutemen

I have nothing to add on the Minutemen. Fundamentally I feel their technology is already very accurately captured in Vanilla Fallout 4, as they enter the territory of all the other factions, short of the Institute and Children of Atom, which is very accurate. We are talking ex-raiders, ex-gunners, settlers, ex-BoS, junkies, triggermen, scavengers, you name it.

 

So in the immersive spirit of this redistribution, I recommend Far West Minutemen, as Morphion and all the talented modders working with him nailed it. Really, great work, all of you.

 

If there was an ability I would like to see added to Minutemen though, it would be for a squad to shoot up a flare and call for backup from other Minutemen, and for Minutemen radiant quests to be randomly completed without the player's intervention, perhaps with an increased probability per Minutemen settlement, as if everyone wasn't just waiting for you.

 

 

Children of Atom

As with the Minutemen, I think they've already been implemented spot-on with their unique look, gamma weapons and nuclear explosives.

 

I haven't gotten far enough to really see it in action yet (I seem to be starting a new game weekly with all the mods I'm checking out at the moment...) but if anyone is interested the Church of Atom Overhaul, by carnagefiend and everyone who contributed to the mod, looks very promising.

 

(Now if someone added a glowing Atomite with weapons and armor...and the blast from Glowing Ones and the ability to call in feral ghouls to assist it - that would be something.)

 

 

4. The Actual Suggestion - Part 2 (Game Economy Changes):

This should most likely be an optional file as it will introduce a considerable amount of difficulty:

• Level should no longer matter when it comes to what merchants have on offer. If you can afford it, you can buy.
• The value of ammunition should by increased by 500% - 1000% (No more mass-production ammunition factories. Intended to be used alongside mods like Professional Ammo Crafting by EdmondNoir.)
  • Now if you play with the contraptions DLC, or with kinggath's incredible Sim Settlements, those ammunition factories really start becoming their weight worth in gold. That infrastructure didn't exist - you are building it now. Become the Gun Runners of the Commonwealth!
• The value of medical supplies should be increased by 300% - 500% (No more mass-production pharmaceutical companies. You're better off making it yourself.)
• The value of armor should be increased by 500%
• The value of weapons should be increased by 250%
• The value of unique weapons and armor should be reduced to 50% and 20% respectively if it will be affected by the above percentage increases.
• None-faction merchants' selection should be limited to very basic weapons and armor
  • 10mm Pistols, .44 Pistols, Hunting Rifles, Double-Barrel Shotguns, Combat Shotguns (Rarely), Combat Rifles (Rarely) and Assault Rifles (VERY Rarely)
  • Leather Armor, Metal Armor and Combat Armor (VERY Rarely, Helmets should be added)
  • .38, 10mm, .44, .45 (rarely), .308, Shotgun Shells, 5.56 (rarely), fusion cells (VERY rarely) and fusion cores (VERY rarely). Scavenger weapon lists should be updated to be inline with regular weapon merchant selections. (in short, no pipe weapons, more 10mm pistols and shotgun and hunting rifles, etc)
  • Smiling Larry will, once he's a level 4 weapons merchant, have the buying power to negotiate with all the factions, making him the only merchant in the game that has *some* weapons from the other factions on offer, albeit at a rarer rate than normal. The biggest advantage here will be access to rarer ammunition such as 5.56 and fusion cells. His overall absurd wealth of ammunition and weapons should be considerably reduced.
  • The Scribe, as with Smiling Larry, will be the only none-faction merchant to have a steady supply of combat armor at level 4.
• The value of alcohol should be considerably increased by 500% - 1000%. In such a destitute world, it would become one of the most valuable commodities.
• The value of individual junk items should be increased by 400%
• The value of shipments should be increased by 200%
• Because anyone can grow food, and anyone can put down a water pump, basic food and clean water prices should stay 'as is'
• If possible, Doctors' should:
  • Cure only 25% health at a time
  • The health cure price should be 50% of a stimpack's price
  • Cure only 25% radiation at a time (if you had 500 rads to cure, you would need to pay the doctor twice)
  • The radiation cure price should 50% of radaway's price
  • Cure only one addiction at a time
  • The addiction cure price should be 20% of addictol's price

 

5. The Actual Suggestion - Part 3 (Loot Changes):

 

• Just one point on enemy loot: if the game allows for it, enemies' clothes and armor should only have a 50% chance to be lootable. If this can be set universally somewhere, great! If it needs to be set individually on each piece of equipment they might spawn with, it's not worth bothering with. If implemented, it would add a significant sense of achievement when you finally get the armor you wanted. Weapons, ammo and everything else in their "inventory", which they are not wearing, should have a 100% drop chance.
• Loot quality should be determined by container, not by player level. If you find a Gauss Rifle at level 1, awesome! Good luck with the ammo though...
• Military crates are going to be the ones you want to keep an eye out for. They should have a 50/50% of already being looted, but if they aren't it should be two or more weapons of at least combat rifle quality (going all the way up to Gauss and Plasma, at increasingly steep rarity of course) with a whole bunch of ammunition. If the ammo that spawns could be what the weapons that spawned used, great! If not, its still an upgrade from the current system. This only applies to weapons the pre-war military would have had access to. No pipe weapons, no Institute Lasers, etc.
• Ammo Boxes should have a decent chance to be empty. It should be really rewarding to find a good amount of ammo. If there are different lists for dirty and clean ones, the clean ones should have a better chance of containing ammo.
• Fusion cores should become incredibly rare loot. If you like your power armor, you should feel the need to keep an eye out for every pre-war fusion power generator and hoard those cores for the next big mission. The rate at which I find four fusion cores in Ammo Boxes is a bit...too generous.
• Safes should be mostly silver and gold items with pre-war money, and the occasional sidearm and /or a box of sidearm ammunition. No pipe weapons though. And nothing bigger than a pistol.
• Add more chems to chem boxes (raiders collect them, it is easy to see them having lots)
• First aid kits should be poorly stocked or empty on average, as these items will be consumed at a high rate in such a dangerous world. If there are different lists for dirty and clean ones, the clean ones should have a better chance of containing supplies.
• Pipe weapons should be removed from all weapon containers, unless there are list specifically for raider bases.
• The odd handful of bullets in toolboxes should now be much more appreciated.
• Faction weapons should be removed from all weapon container lists, except Military Crates, and anything that might be labelled a container specifically for that faction. Again, with the exception of Pipe weapons and other hand-crafted weapons.
• The container weapon list should now be in line with the revised weapon merchant list.
• The Institute containers are most likely already correctly set to have only Institute equipment. (I don't recall seeing anything to the contrary.)
• The Power Armor in the world should be T-45 and T-51, as explained with the Institute looting, if a reason was needed :happy:. T-60 should be limited to the Brotherhood and the Atom Cats. If the Institute had Power Armor, X-01 would be theirs. Otherwise a single suit of X-01 should be hidden somewhere deep in the Glowing Sea.

 

6. The Actual Suggestion - Part 4 (Three Slight Gameplay Balances):

 

Initially, I didn't think this was necessary, but I would like to end my longer-than-expected list of changes with three gameplay tweaks:

• Increase the defensive values of combat armor (50%?)
• Increase the defensive values of Marine armor (25% more than combat armor?)
• Increase the defensive values of Institute armor (50%?

Currently, what armor you wear is primarily an aesthetic choice, as the mods are identical and the defensive values kind of blur together. There would be no sense of achievement in finally finding a full set of sturdy or heavy combat armor as things stand at the moment. This would hopefully counter-act that.

 

 

7. Closing Statement:

 

Phew, what a mouthful. I was hoping to keep it shorter, but one thing keeps leading to another.

 

I hope that those interested can see the sort of game play experience this would create. Looking back at it now...it is kind of old-school Fallout-ish, isn't it? New Reno, Vault City...the good old days. Finally saving up enough for your first set of combat armor. That unique weapon that changes the game entirely when you find it. I miss that sense of accomplishment and of overcoming obstacles. Oblivion, Skyrim and Fallout 4, to me, robbed players of those simple joys and put them on a flat road that lead nowhere. It was always the sandbox-side and the mod overhauls that kept you playing, never the core game itself. Not in my case, at least.

 

So I'd like to propose this Technology Redistribution as a humble attempt to re-Fallout Skyrim, instead of Skyrim-ing Fallout.

 

I am open to constructive criticism and helpful suggestions. This was compiled "on the fly" over these past few hours, but the thoughts that lead to it are based on extensive game play. The numbers balancing would be subject to change after testing.

 

Thank you for your time.