An independent New Vegas mod.

[devinpatterson]

Chrissy_M_ of CAGE - Continue After Games Ending fame is allowing us access to his CAGE assets/resources and will work with us on the project. His help and the work he has already done will be invaluable. I'll probably be fairly busy over the weekend reading through the forum thread on CAGE.

 

I'll also be necroing various subjects in teh post. Partly to expand on them, and partly to try and gauge how popular they are so I know what priority to give them.

 

I'll revamp the front page with some more recent info (file downloads, some pics, progress etc).

 

I'm also going to split off the DLC's into their own forums. I love the idea of expanding on them, but this thread is already insanely big and anything we can do to streamline it will be to our advantage.

 

For now we're going to leave hoover town in stasis until LuciaofArroyo has free time.

[MarchUntoTorment]

Awesome!

 

Anyway, I think that our first priority should be the removal of pre-battle dialogue from all NPCs. Could take a while, though, since you'd have to go through every single character's dialogue individually. With that said, if you need a hand, I might be able to go looking through the world in-game to compile a list of characters with pre-battle dialogue.

 

Oh, and a later suggestion would be the inclusion of a heavily damaged/ruined Fort if the player chose to have the Boomers bomb them, although that would take quite a while.

[devinpatterson]

Anyway, I think that our first priority should be the removal of pre-battle dialogue from all NPCs.

Yeah it would probably be a good thing to knock out early. I may spend some time looking through CAGE in case Chrissy_M already took care of it (actually I'll PM him now).

 

Could take a while, though, since you'd have to go through every single character's dialogue individually.

Sometimes, like I'd bet Oliver has his own dialog quest, but often one dialog quest can be used for a lot of NPCs.

 

With that said, if you need a hand, I might be able to go looking through the world in-game to compile a list of characters with pre-battle dialogue.

That would be great, although if anyone else wants to check the dialog quests that would free me up to do other things. I can find a global or a var from another script that gets flipped at or close to the end game, and we can add that as a condition to all the pre-battle dialog to filter it out.

 

Oh, and a later suggestion would be the inclusion of a heavily damaged/ruined Fort if the player chose to have the Boomers bomb them, although that would take quite a while.

I don't konw but I was kind of under the impression that the bomber only hit the dam. I would have thought if they were going to bomb the fort they would have done it before the courier got there (soften up any resistance) and the models would have already reflected that. Maybe it didn't because of the AA/Howitzer in camp. But then again I do have that fire over the fort/camp (a persistant bug that I don't know how to squash yet). So maybe they did drop some payload there. ??? don't know.

 

I know in my case they hit the dam and then took off, don't think they touched the fort/camp though (judging by how it looked when I got there).

[devinpatterson]

So one of the old subjects; RANGERS

Very iconic of the NCR, I'd like to take a page out of the fiends setup and make a ranger race. Not strictly post hoover dam, but I think it would add a lot of character. By making them their own race we can make them a more solid body type. What I'm shooting for here is the concept art below;

 

pic;

 

 

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110127152231/fallout/images/2/22/NCR_Ranger_concept2.jpg

 

 

 

I think it's worth spending some time on them, since they are something of the standard bearer bad-as* of hte NCR. If they turn out well it might be worthwhile to do the same with the legion, since these guys are the modern spartans (heavy duty physical conditioning). Maybe not as solid as the rangers, but better definition and a bit more solid.

[MarchUntoTorment]

I imagine the Rangers to be more solidly-built, with the Legion soldiers a bit lighter and more muscularly defined (they'd need more emphasis on speed due to their close-combat tactics).

[devinpatterson]

In regards to changes on the Strip I would probably recommend getting permission to use the following mod New Vegas Restoration which cleans up the strip and removes the gates. I know that there are other mods which do the same thing but this one has received the most endorsements and the team behind this mod also offers a restoration mod for Freeside too which cleans up Freeside but still keeps it's slummy look.

OK I'll check with them and also scan their thread for any performance problems. I assume the developers split NV into cells for that reason. I didn't really have a problem with opening up the camp/fort since once the battle is over, activity drops way down over there. But with teh strip it's always busy, lots of actors.....

 

It would be good if we could see the restoration of the Strip through a series of stages with workers instead of seeing it magically change after paying the required amount of bottle caps.

Sure, it's no problem to do it in stages

 

The only other changes I can think of in regards to the NCR version are adding in the NCR Securitrons you created and maybe a change of management in the other casinos.

Well I think we have quite a bit we need to change. For example we don't want any NCR occupying hoover for a house faction ending. The fort/camp is another area that is heavily dependent on the faction ending. It can be a ghost town, teaming with activity or anything in between, depending on whether it's a house, legion, or a NCR/indepedent faction ending.

 

So right now I'm looking at trimming dialog (we'll add more soon, post battle appropriate) and changes to teh biger locations based on factions. Some are straight forward, but others are a bit more.....subjective. And I'd love to hear feedback on how everyone sees (at the very least) the strip, the dam and the fort/camp with each faction ending.

 

I know we've talked about this before, but I'd like to refresh the topic since I'll be implementing it shortly (high priority) and I'd like to have different peeps visions of the shape of things to come (at least for those locations).

[Devilman1975]

Regardless of which faction the player supported during the game I hope that the Lucky 38 remains the player's home. I mentioned before the idea of using assets from the Run the Lucky 38 mod http://www.nexusmods...as/mods/40531/? with the exceptions of the Enclave staff and some additional areas which I thought were over the top. I would also like to have the option of opening the Lucky 38 to the general public in the Independent, NCR and House versions. I doubt that the Legion would allow the player to run a casino and House himself would have to be convinced through a high speech and/or barter check to open up the place. If slavery is reintroduced into the game in the Legion version then I'm sure that the Lucky 38 can serve as a slave market but this would require removing all the casino gear first.

 

I'll go into what changes I can see for the other three casinos in each version. Sorry but it's going to be a long post again.

 

Gomorrah

 

NCR - Judging by the dialogue from NCR tourists about how the NCR should "straighten out those thugs from Gomorrah." I can imagine the NCR not willing to tolerate a group like the Omertas and wanting to change the management. They may wish to keep prostitution legal in that casino considering how many NCR troops and tourists enjoyed visiting the working girls.

 

Independent - I would either choose to keep Cachino in charge of the place or replace him with Carlitos and Joana if the quest Bye Bye Love was completed. Alternatively the Omertas can be forcibly removed from the casino as the player is not bound by pre war nostalgia for Vegas crime families as House was but this would force the player to recruit staff from the local area or replace them with robots. The player can choose to keep prostitution legal, offer medical services for the girls and maybe even help set up a high class escort service. Removing prostitution would turn the Strip into a dull place and have some negative effect on the cut received from Gomorrah.

 

House - I can't imagine any significant changes made in the House version but I can remember Jane telling me that Mr House was giddy as a schoolboy when I got rid of Nero and Big Sal. I assume that despite setting them up House was not fond of them personally. All he cared about was getting his cut on time.

 

Legion - Despite the Legion's attitude towards prostitution I can imagine this casino being the Legion's favorite place for "Roman orgies". In consideration for their assistance during the battle of Hoover Dam I can imagine Nero and Big Sal being allowed to remain if Caesar survives but that's an assumption due to the Legion's back stabbing nature. Lanius on the other hand didn't much like the idea of relying on the Omertas to help secure the Strip so I can certainly imagine that Nero and Sal's decapitated heads will end up on display just to prove a point.

 

The Tops

 

NCR- Despite not having any love for the NCR I can't imagine the Chairmen causing problems for them. Maybe some will choose to go back to their former tribal ways and call themselves Boot Rider's again.

 

Independent - When the Chairmen learned that Benny tried to take control from House they began to regard him as a rat. However when the Courier does the same thing to House they don't seem to do much about it. Maybe because they were a warrior tribe and consider honor to be important they might respect the Courier for killing Caesar and kicking both the Legion and NCR out of the Mojave. I can see no change in regards to the Chairmen in this scenario.

 

House - The Chairmen seem to have some respect for House (asides from Benny of course) and realize if it wasn't for him they would still be wearing gecko hides, poking their heads out of ruins and scalping people for giggles. Again I can't see any changes here.

 

Legion - In this scenario I can't see the Chairmen willing to work with the Legion and will either choose to oppose them or flee from the Strip going back to their tribal ways. Whatever the case their casino will fall into Legion hands.

 

The Ultra-Luxe

 

NCR- The results of the quest Beyond the Beef should factor into what happens to the White Glove Society. If Mortimer's plans were stopped then I can't see any changes in the Ultra Luxe. If the player supported Mortimer then the NCR will suspect the White Glove Society of being involved in the disappearance and murders of the NCR investigator and tourists and will use that as an excuse to remove them.

 

Independent- Again Beyond the Beef should have some affect for the Ultra Luxe. If Mortimer was stopped then things should stay the same otherwise I'm sure that rumors of NCR tourists and investigators disappearing will seriously affect that casino's profit margins and the player's cut.

 

House - No change if Mortimer was stopped. If the player helped Mortimer in the main game then he/she is given the choice of reporting the White Glove's Society's cannibalism to Mr House. House then orders the player to deal with them as he/she see's fit as this is a breach on their contract with House. If the player has not reported them to House then I'm sure that he'll eventually hear about the White Glove Society's cannibalism post Hoover Dam and have them dealt with.

 

Legion - When working for the Legion in the main game the player is asked by Caesar to offer the White Glove Society an alliance with the Legion and can blackmail them into an alliance with them with knowledge of their cannibalism. After looking on the wiki I found out that this quest has a potential bug when working with the Legion. I would recommend removing the White Glove Society altogether and have Caesar or Lanius use the Ultra-Luxe as their personal palace as it is the most impressive looking building on the Strip.

[devinpatterson]

Alright i can do that. i already have a mod that restores Freeside, like it cleans it up and adds a lot of stores and other shops to it,

OK so this seems to be a good match for your interests and skills, and covers your question re: your previous post in teh other thread. Ideally we want to pair everyone with what they'd prefer to be doing....when possible.

 

So for cleaning up free side I'd recommend that for NCR, but not House ending. That's partly to differentiate one faction ending from another, but also reflects House's nature. He is fairly ambivalent in re: to freeside, much more so than the NCR IMHO.

 

You can simply put them together if we split mods (this is in reference to your question below), however if we are grouping all endings into one mod you need to disable them and have a parent object for a enable/disable state. That way we can turn them on or off like a switch via script.

 

For now do them as you would normally and I can merge the mod myself and add anything we need for those considerations myself when I fold them into the main mod.

 

and all i have to do is just add some NCR soldiers to it.

And you want to keep in mind that it may or may not apply to the ind ending, and definitely not to the house or legion ending. so do you want to "theme" your mod now. Say start working on the NCR faction ending primarily? I think it's hte most popular ending.

 

Also since the ending cutscene shows that if you have the Brotherhood fight with the NCR in the battle it says that the Brotherhood helped the NCR patrol the highways of the Mojave so i can add some brotherhood patrols with the Eyebots you made around the highways and make the Highway patrol station

If you make the bos eyebots you want to make them initially disabled (and preferably enable via a parent, otherwise you should make a list including each referenceID), as only players that have upgraded ed-e via the BOS will have bos eyebots in their world.

 

( next to primm) the main out post that the patrols will come from. But i don't want to make it so where the NCR is everywhere i would like to add some more gang factions that are like the powder gangers and fiends,

To be honest, there will probably be less gangs/fiends after a NCR victory. The major determining factor for the end game slides seems to hing on Three-Card Bounty. So those have to be done in a way that can be altered by script (ie different for each player depending on # of fiends leaders killed).

 

as well as make a new loction for the powder gangers and have the NCR take back control of the prison.

Yeah I can definitely see the surviving powder gangers moving further out, and we know from teh end slides that the NCR faction ending results in the NCR retaking the prison. But in the house & ind ending they stay around. legion ending they flee or are killed. So that means all of this has to be dependenet on the players previous actions (ie controlled via script).

 

Are there going to be separate mods like one for the NCR one for the Legion and for the Independent and House or will this just be one big mod?

I'v worked very hard to do everything via script so one mod can do it all, but at some point I am sure I will come across something that I can't do without having seperate faction ending mods. I think it's inevitable that there will be different mods. *But* even if there are different faction mods, we will still have to use scripting for many facets anyway. You saw an example of that in the fiends and camp McCarran. Even though you have a NCR faction mod (Eureka!) the result is very different for McCarran depending on how many (if any) fiend leaders the player previously killd.

 

In the examples above you see how each faction ending radically alters many different locations. What I'd recommend is that you pick/do one faction (and it sounds like your leaning toward NCR) and follow the end slides on locations that are detailed in them. For locations that are not detailed run by us what you have in mind, because we want to make a cohesive whole (and by the same token chime in on what other people suggest, so we can sort of get a group consensus) from each persons work into a larger mod that is internally consistent.

 

So....who/what faction would you most want to work on?

[devinpatterson]

Regardless of which faction the player supported during the game I hope that the Lucky 38 remains the player's home. I mentioned......

OK brother I'll try and respond to your post when I have more time to make a cogent response.

[Devilman1975]

I forgot to cover Vault 21 and Michael Angelo's workshop in my last post. Here's what I got.

 

Vault 21

 

NCR - I don't foresee the NCR having any problem in letting Sarah have ownership over Vault 21. Since House will be out of the picture I'm sure that she'll continue to run it as a hotel and maybe add in a few casino tables and slot machines. I also think that she'll invite back the former residents of Vault 21 who opposed Mr House's takeover of Vault 21. I'm sure that some of them will either have settled into new lives already like Doc Mitchell and some others may have already met an untimely demise in the wasteland. I'm also sure that she'll try to restore the rest of the Vault that was covered in concrete by House. We were never given a decent explanation to why House went through all the trouble of securing Vault 21 just to fill it up with concrete. I would assume that House wanted to prevented people from digging their way into the basements of the other casinos or that the developers just wanted an excuse not to create any additional levels for Vault 21.

 

Independent - I can see the NCR scenario for Vault 21 being used in the Independent version as well. Only difference that I can see is Sarah requesting a loan from the player to restore Vault 21 instead of going to an NCR bank. Are there still plans to use the psycher vault experiment quest idea? If so then I think that the Forecaster kid located at the 188 Trading Post could have some connection to this experiment and can be one of the Vault's original inhabitants.

 

House - No change for Vault 21 if he's still around.

 

Legion - I can see Vault 21 becoming a Legion barracks or somewhere to house high ranking Centurions and Frumentari. Sarah may not be too keen on letting them move in but I don't think she'll have any choice in the matter. I don't know if a Legion takeover will force Sarah and her brother to overcome their agoraphobia and leave the Strip.

 

Michael Angelo's Workshop

 

I don't foresee any changes for Michael Angelo in all versions and that his talents as an artist will be recognized by all factions. I can imagine that he'll be hired to help with restoration efforts on the Strip.