An independent New Vegas mod.

[darkus37]

About Vault 21 - revised idea summary:

 

Vault 21 was part of an experiment to test not only the whole gambling premise, but also to test FEV results on luck, intelligence, and perception. The vault was divided into two equal sections, the control group, or those without being injected, and the test subjects who were injected. The control group followed the "public" experiment where everything was solved through gambling. The test subjects were injected with a modified FEV strain at birth. These injections had wide-ranging side effects from incredible increases in mental abilities to autism to mental retardation. Those with hyper skills were more prone to psychotic breaks but for the most part, the average test subject only gained minor mental abilities that set them apart from others. Those with more extreme reactions tend to die quicker with an average lifespan of 40-65. Flash forward to 2271. The nuclear power plant in the test subject section suffers a minor meltdown. This fills the test section with minor amounts of radiation. It is enough. Most of the subjects managed to escape and a lockdown of the section is made. Not all reach safety. The test subjects left behind began to experience terrible side effects with the minority that had extreme reactions to the FEV experiencing brain mutations, becoming psykers. Some retain their intelligence and personality - most do not. The emergency lockdown saves the rest of the vault from the psyker rampage. Thankfully, the psykers cannot sustain themselves and burn out, dying off. After the threat ends, those with psyonic abilities begin to erase all memory of the rampage from minds and computer logs as well as any mention of the experiment. The lower and test sections remain sealed to let any residual radiation be cleaned and the area repaired without having to cover up again and again. Despite their efforts, shortly afterwards Mr. House makes contact and makes his offer. Vault 21 is split into two yet again - the control subjects want to remain within the vault and the FEV enhanced wish to leave. The FEV enhanced win due to their abilities and leave, spreading across the Mojave and beyond. Mr. House discovers the reasons behind the sealed off sections and deciding it's not worth tempting fate, strips the areas of technology and seals them permanently. Mr. House then publicly claims the reason for sealing areas of Vault 21 is to force the dwellers to interact with the surface world. While the FEV enhanced get their freedom, most do not experience it for long. A great number experience almost laughably bad luck, many dying or being maimed horribly after leaving the vault.

 

What do you think?

[Skyviper086]

Wow. I was just thinking about something like this. It always sucked you kill house and yet New Vegas isn't yours.

 

Anyway. I've read most of this and skimmed the rest and what you guys are presenting sounds really cool.(not that you need me to say that it is because you know it is.)

 

I was thinking about something though and wanted your opinion.

 

With the blessings from J3X do you think it would be cool to use a portion of EC mod. Call them Mercenaries instead. Each time you call them up it charges you, i.e airstrike 10,000 caps, ground support 2,000 caps per unit plus additional caps depending on what that unit does.

 

Also propaganda. The neutral towns like Goodsprings and Primm. Maybe one could use propaganda(or force) to influence these towns to join your cause.

 

I'm thinking more like the Fallout BOS game. You save a town and get recruits and what not. Perhaps different towns can have different types of recruits. I.E Novac they do a lot of scaving there so a recruit from that area can be a great mechanic or gunsmith. A boomer will be an explosives expert.

 

Feel free to ignore. But I like this idea.

[Skyviper086]

About Vault 21 - revised idea summary:

 

Vault 21 was part of an experiment to test not only the whole gambling premise, but also to test FEV results on luck, intelligence, and perception. The vault was divided into two equal sections, the control group, or those without being injected, and the test subjects who were injected. The control group followed the "public" experiment where everything was solved through gambling. The test subjects were injected with a modified FEV strain at birth. These injections had wide-ranging side effects from incredible increases in mental abilities to autism to mental retardation. Those with hyper skills were more prone to psychotic breaks but for the most part, the average test subject only gained minor mental abilities that set them apart from others. Those with more extreme reactions tend to die quicker with an average lifespan of 40-65. Flash forward to 2271. The nuclear power plant in the test subject section suffers a minor meltdown. This fills the test section with minor amounts of radiation. It is enough. Most of the subjects managed to escape and a lockdown of the section is made. Not all reach safety. The test subjects left behind began to experience terrible side effects with the minority that had extreme reactions to the FEV experiencing brain mutations, becoming psykers. Some retain their intelligence and personality - most do not. The emergency lockdown saves the rest of the vault from the psyker rampage. Thankfully, the psykers cannot sustain themselves and burn out, dying off. After the threat ends, those with psyonic abilities begin to erase all memory of the rampage from minds and computer logs as well as any mention of the experiment. The lower and test sections remain sealed to let any residual radiation be cleaned and the area repaired without having to cover up again and again. Despite their efforts, shortly afterwards Mr. House makes contact and makes his offer. Vault 21 is split into two yet again - the control subjects want to remain within the vault and the FEV enhanced wish to leave. The FEV enhanced win due to their abilities and leave, spreading across the Mojave and beyond. Mr. House discovers the reasons behind the sealed off sections and deciding it's not worth tempting fate, strips the areas of technology and seals them permanently. Mr. House then publicly claims the reason for sealing areas of Vault 21 is to force the dwellers to interact with the surface world. While the FEV enhanced get their freedom, most do not experience it for long. A great number experience almost laughably bad luck, many dying or being maimed horribly after leaving the vault.

 

What do you think?

 

 

Awesome! (Maybe THAT should be another game all together.)

[devinpatterson]

Wow. I was just thinking about something like this. It always sucked you kill house and yet New Vegas isn't yours.

 

Too true, because in some way what happens after hoover dam, looks just as interesting as the story line before. There is a 2nd battle at hoover involving the courier (and Cass), Yesman, future NCR/Legion expansion etc..... a lot of loose ends to be tied up.

 

With the blessings from J3X do you think it would be cool to use a portion of EC mod. Call them Mercenaries instead. Each time you call them up it charges you, i.e airstrike 10,000 caps, ground support 2,000 caps per unit plus additional caps depending on what that unit does.

 

I think we may use the core mod if J3X OK's it, but probably more in regard to the existing factions/groups already in play. It's certainly possible we may introduce new factions, but I don't think we have any plans to do so currently. We already have a lot of pieces on the board if you include both minor (jacaobs town mutants, BOS, fiends, etc) and major (NCR & Legion) factions.

 

But I do want to simulate some large scale battles. It will function similar to teh dam, in that you will have a vector/direction to a objective, a landscape/environment to restrict you path to a few direct choices and along that direction you will encounter clusters of small groups.

 

The game engine just can't cope with 100's much less 1000's of actors, but if we split them up by throwing small groups of (half a dozen, maybe a few more) one at a time in succession you get the impression of a large battle. But instead of just running through and killing as you go, I'd like for your men (well bots) to be interactive and include tactical (and some strategic) choices at key points. That's where the EC mod could come in handy if simple msg box scripting doesn't work.

 

A simple tactical example could a battle against legion forces in a high walled canyon. As you enter the canyon a group of securitrons could be at the mouth of it. You can direct them to accompany you or direct them to gain the high ground and use missile attacks against those in the canyon floor.

 

This won't be anywhere as complicated as even the simplest military simulation, but it will have choices that actually affect the battles outcome and I think the EC mod would make that easier to accomplish.

 

Also propaganda. The neutral towns like Goodsprings and Primm. .....

I'm thinking more like the Fallout BOS game. You save a town and get recruits and what not. Perhaps different towns can have different types of recruits. I.E Novac they do a lot of scaving there so a recruit from that area can be a great mechanic or gunsmith. A boomer will be an explosives expert.

 

Yeah definitely had the towns on the radar as part of unifying the Mojave, but hadn't thought too much about the recruits so I appreciate the idea. I wish I had played the BOS game, as well as FO1 & 2, but I'm sure the plot outline is in the Wiki or some site. I'll try to research the story line.

 

Feel free to ignore. But I like this idea.

 

Feel free to contribute, it makes for a richer mod

[devinpatterson]

Now, if what you want to do is a slightly more independent New Vegas, one that doesn't take place after the main quest but during, then we're cooking with gas.

 

The main quest is convoluted and essential to the end game, so I don't want to touch a single line of it if possible.

 

However, in either case, you don't have to go think too long about Yes Man as an antagonist. Yes Man is programmed to follow anyone's command. So, if you would like, once he uploads himself into the Lucky38, someone broke in and took command of it.

 

It could apply (outside influence) but there is a more direct course of action that may be initiated by Yesman himself.

 

The thing about Yesman (and it's only something you get a chance to see if you had played through the independant ending or checked the talk link in his wiki page) is there's a gamechanger at the end. Yesman says;

 

"I didn't want to make a bid deal about this until after we won, but, well...."

 

"I found some code snippets in one of Mr. House's databanks that will let me, um, reprogram y personality! To be a little more assertive, basically!"

 

"So that's what I'm going to be doing, and it's going to take me a while, so it'll seem like I'm off-line. But don't worry, everything will be okay!"

 

Then he goes into how the securitrons will protect NV.

 

So we have an enigmatic ending that hints at a real wildcard. Just how "assertive" will Yesman be? Will the player have any control over him? We're basically going to be in uncharted waters on this one. I havn't found any design notes or hints at what Obsidian had in mind in that regard.

 

But like the last post, I'd say we have a wide spectrum ranging from a helpful Yesman that aids the player, to a comical but harmless Yesman that is in constant infatuation at teh world and his new found sentience, all the way to a full fledged antagonist that has calculated the courier is it's greatest threat. I do know NV doesn't evolve into a the calculator from FO tactics (ie a skynet) scenario, because the end slide state (after some rough patches);

 

"Supporting the ideals of independence, the Courier was recognized as the man/woman responsible for a truly free New Vegas."

 

So it implies (IMHO), the population isn't wiped out in a machine war

 

Two of those plot lines are very cliche though (the "oh I'm alive" and the kill the courier plots), and I'm hoping we can come up with a more original plotline. Or possibly mix all three if Yesman's code is unstable?

 

He could be helpful and fairly similar to his old self, but simply less of a pushover (ie a little more assertive) continuing to be the players agent initially. Then as the game continues aspects of his personality and motivation could reveal themselves.

 

On the other hand, if you go with the sentient Yes Man AI or virus, it could be stipulated that it can only travel to similar systems, i.e. the vault under the Fort, and the final boss could be found in OWB securitron disassembly.

 

Oh yeah he was made to occupy the lucky 38 mainframe, so (at least initially) his abilities are probably limited to occupying robco systems. But using Victor as an example I don't think it's a stretch to assume he can control any secruitron (they are all tied into the lucky 38 mainframe). I'd like to work out a way to talk to any securitron and have Yesman's face appear on it if you summon him.

 

If you are going for more post-game content, then that too changes things. Here are some ideas:

Yes-Man: it will basically be securitrons patrolling the streets. Access to McCarran airfield tram and the NCR embassy will be blocked off. Securitrons will patrol the New Vegas perimeter.

 

I think those are all posibilities as well, depending on the player's wishes and his rep with the NCR. If it's at least neutral the player can have the option to continue to have diplomatic relations with the NCR (keep the emabasy open and NCR troopers and citizens on the strip) or not. If the player has some influence with Yesman or removes him and assumes control of the lucky 38 mainframe he can certainly have secruitrons patrolling the perimeter.

 

Mr. House same as the above.....The scope of this thing is getting too big I think. It's an admirable project, and I would like to see it, but you should be realistic with your goals.

 

We won't really touch on House, NCR or Legion end games, our focus is on the independant NV ending.

 

But of course that doesn't preclude a alliance later with one or more of the factions. For instance being friendly or getting back in good graces with the NCR will return a lot of the NCR troopers to the strip (and/or the dam depending on palyer wishes). Allying with Legion will have a dark effect on the strip with slaves traded openly on the streets and legionaries frequenting NV amenities resulting in a very oppressive/threatening atmosphere.

 

Maybe even really odd combinations like a BOS NV alliance that has brotherhood paladins patrolling the strip......ok, maybe not, but just an example of a minor faction alliance. Just all depends on the players wishes, karma and choices.

Edited June 24, 2012 by devinpatterson

[darkus37]

I concur that the main questline is convoluted, but I think it's unfair to leave it at that. Will you be making more post-game content for each faction?

 

My main problem with the mod is that, like many others, I chose to side with the NCR. My reasoning was that while they are not perfect, it is at least a stable (but corrupt) government attempting to rebuild. A Mr. House guided Vegas would have continued the status quo, with the securitrons eventually taking over Hoover Dam, but stopping there. He might patrol the area, but only where it would be cost effective for him to do so. In effect, making a city-state. But that would be bad in the long term because it would lead to stagnation, and honestly, how much longer could Mr. House really live? As soon as he kicks the bucket, the place is open for conquest. An independent Vegas has a similar problem - even with an army, you could only effectively control New Vegas and the surrounding area. Even broken, the NCR and Legion would eventually become threats again, and unless the courier would go through the same process as Mr. House, he would eventually pass from old age leaving the control to Yes Man and who know how that would go. The Legion would have probably razed the area and made new settlements removing the taint of New Vegas.

 

I actually had this idea, I posted it here not too long ago called Law And Order. Essentially, it was supposed to be the next step after Hoover Dam. If, for example, you played as the NCR, then you would lead the attack on the Fiends, taking over Vault 3; taking control of Red Rock Canyon; as well as decimating the Legion camps, Cottonwood Cove and the Fort like you did for Nipton. The NPC's spawning there would then be NCR. There could then be side quests of getting building materials to create new "forts" for the troops. Each town in the Mojave would then get an outpost, like Pimm had with NCR patrols going to and fro. If you side with the Legion, you would then attack NCR strongholds with the raiders falling in line. A bunch of crucified people would then show up along the highways while the legion would patrol the area.

[devinpatterson]

I concur that the main questline is convoluted, but I think it's unfair to leave it at that. Will you be making more post-game content for each faction?

 

I think a lot of people sided with the NCR (I did on my first play through) and it is unfair to those people. I'll copy and paste my post to trooper;

"But I think we should focus our energies on like 90% independent Vegas and 10% other. Just because of the scope of the mod. I mean I wouldn't rule out a mod based on the NCR ending in the future, in which case the scenario you laid out would be very important.....but lets see if we can get this one up and running first."

 

But a fair amount of it can be saved and recycled for a NCR ending. As long as I keep a fairly clear log and liberal comments on teh quests it shouldn't be too hard to copy that to a NCR ending mod. Things that carry over will be quests against the legion, casino quests, concentrating independent towns under a single banner etc. Most of the stuff you'd have on your own (except you'd just be doing it for the NCR), you'd just miss out on the yesman, and house plots.

 

But there would be a lot of NCR specific quests to more than make up for it.

 

So what I think would be the best choice of action is to get this one up and running and then start on the NCR. I don't really have any desire for a legion or other faction ending.

 

I'll make a quick NCR ending thread to start gathering ideas.

 

My main problem with the mod is that, like many others, I chose to side with the NCR. My reasoning was that while they are not perfect, it is at least a stable (but corrupt) government attempting to rebuild.

 

Yep, I love the concept and idealism of the republic, it was a difficult choice for me.

 

An independent Vegas has a similar problem - even with an army, you could only effectively control New Vegas and the surrounding area.

 

Yep and it's part of the reason making a mod for it appealed to me. As a player you get a hand in the game, but your still a bit player. The challenges are all there, nothing gets handed to you. Anything you want, you have to earn, from the big guys. It's no fun just being anointed king, the fun is in the conquest.

Edited June 25, 2012 by devinpatterson

[Skyviper086]

Yeah definitely had the towns on the radar as part of unifying the Mojave, but hadn't thought too much about the recruits so I appreciate the idea. I wish I had played the BOS game, as well as FO1 & 2, but I'm sure the plot outline is in the Wiki or some site. I'll try to research the story line.

 

 

Lemmie sum it for you as best I can.

 

Fallout you were in vault 13, the vault needs water and the water purification chip supplies your people with water, so you were tasked to go get the chip. Vault 15 was to have the chip. En-route you find shady sands which *in Fallout 2 became the NCR* Well the chip isn't in 15 so you have to travel all over the place to find it. Of course you encounter tons of town like the Hub and the Brotherhood of Steel. You encounter best companion in the whole series called Dogmeat. I loved that mutt. Real tough dog.

 

In short your adventures lead you to a ghoul town called Necropolis. You are able to get the water purification chip from there. That's where you encounter the super mutants. Well you go back to give the vault overseer the chip. He tells you type out your report and whatnot. After you do that he talks to you about it and has concerns about the growth of the super mutants and he orders you to go back out into the wasteland to kill the mutants. There are two places you need to go. This is where the brotherhood comes in. By this time in the game you realize the BOS have the best equipment. You get power armor and sweet energy weapons from them. *well actually you could get energy weapons from all over the place its just easier to get from them* The BoS will aid you in taking the front of the base where the vats are.

 

Now in fallout 1 the vats are filled with F.E.V the Forced Evolution Virus. It was to take a decent human and turn them into a mutant, the perfect warrior. If they didn't have the right stuff they became ghouls.

 

The mutants followed a bad ass boss called the Master. The master ... was awesome. He would say one thing in man's voice like "You will die!" and this computer this creature of goo was melded too had a female voice and she would say "You will live!" and you had a few seconds of them bickering "Live!," "Die!" "Live" "Die!" he could summon all the enemies in the game from the goo covered walls and kill you. I always opted to trigger the atom bomb under his butt and send him to space... I like explosions in video games.

 

Anyway you kill the master and his army which splits up and you go home back to 13. Your overseer in one speech thanks you and because your actions might inspire others to leave he kicks you out. (If you had a pistol in your inventory at the end of his we're banishing you speech you could blow him away. If you didn't have a pistol then he just walked away.)

 

So in fallout 2 the Vault wanderer from one starts a village called Arroyo. The village starts to die off and you are the chosen one to save it. You must find a Garden of Eden Creation Kit to save it. Just like in one you go all over the place. You even get a car to help you with fast traveling(which was a map showing a red line of where you were and where you are going) anyhew. You need to find a vault that might have it so you go to a place called Vault City, the entire town is Tenpenny tower. Stuck up people that enslave other people and you have to be a citizen to gain access to their vault. You could either pass a test *you had to be really strong and smart* or do some dirty work.

 

Forgot one thing; during your travels you see a family get killed by the Enclave and this big friggin dude orders their murder.

 

Back on track. Vaultcity leads you to NCR a town formerly known as Shady Sands and you basically find out about vault that belongs to the NCR that's been taken over by the Khans. That vault leads you to another vault which is vault 13 which is taken over by Deathclaws!!!! Who can talk!!!! So finally you get this geck to save your village and when you go back you encounter the Enclave! Remnants of America. They modified FEV to release into the jet-stream to kill everyone around the world because America believes everyone out there is a mutant. They kidnapped your entire tribe so they can run some tests because your tribe came from vault 13.

 

**This where you find out that the vaults were also an experiment. Some had very few supplies, some with only men in them, etc.**

 

The president in Fallout Two was a human you could poison. The one in three was a computer because the emperor the chi followed in FO2 was a computer. The emperor helped you get to the enclave.

 

Two ended with the enclave being a Mushroom Cloud. That's why Fallout 3 surprised the heck out of me.

 

Fallout BoS. Was cool, and weak all at once. It was cool because you took orders from a general voiced by R. Lee Ermey. Then later on you had orders voiced by the dad from That's 70's show *the one whose son dated the red head.*

 

Anyway the big story with that is the BoS came from the West. A storm from the Great divide separated the BoS East from West. West believing that they should keep to themselves while East believed that getting recruits would help. You fought for the East. You start as an initiate and move your way up to a general. The game was great because you were BoS it sucked because you really couldn't explore places and after you encountered a town it was useless to go back to it. All the equipment you needed was sold by BoS merchants that accepted BoS paper money. Ring pulls from the grenades were currency for the rest of wasteland.

 

Anyhew. You fight mutants off and then you encounter robots who were controlled by the Calculator. The Calculator was designed to protect humanity. Killing off everything on the surface so humanity could have a safe place to start again. Any that opposed the Calculator were destroyed. Well you wound fighting pacification robots and you could save the calculator or let it die. If you saved it could use your brain or someone's brain. Anyway if your character was evil the Calculator would make plans to take out both East and West BOS should the two ever meet.

 

Oh and in BoS. You had Mutants, ghouls, deathclaws, and robots that could join.

 

Several interesting things to mention.

 

In Fallout 2 you encounter a computer that was depressed. It was AI that with others became aware of what was happening. Some AI computers killed themselves and the others were bored and started the Great war to keep themselves occupied.

 

Super Mutants in BoS were working on a way to solve their sterility problem so they could mate and have babies ... yuck!

 

In Fallout 2 you encounter a ghoul that has a little tree growing out the side of his head. He makes fun of you for not having one.

 

I left out a bunch of stuff but that was the gist of everything. Fallout 3 did an okay job introducing people to the world of Fallout.

Edited June 25, 2012 by Skyviper086

[darkus37]

Not to nitpick (although I appear to be doing so), there have been 6 Falllout games (in time line chronological order):

 

Fallout

Fallout: Tactics (the game you identified as BOS)

Fallout 2

Fallout: Brotherhood Of Steel

Fallout 3

Fallout: New Vegas (aka Fallout 3.5)

 

Fallout: Tactics is mostly non-canon but is used to flavor the game lore. The only mention I've heard is that the midwestern chapter isn't doing so good. Which is kinda annoying since I worked hard to get the best ending for the game in my playthrough.

Fallout: Brotherhood Of Steel was the nail in the coffin for Interplay, the publisher of the fallout games. It was apparently so bad and so lore-breaking that people just didn't buy it. Being only released on consoles certainly didn't help. It's considered non-canon.

Fallout: Tactics 2 was a planned game that was supposed to build on the previous game in the series, but was canceled when Interplay messed up and closed Black Isle Studios.

Van Buren was the basis for New Vegas. A mostly completed tech demo was available but when Black Isle closed, it was scrapped. A lot of ideas were scrapped and reused in New Vegas.

[Skyviper086]

I'm with you about Fallout Brotherhood of Steel. I've watched a friend play that game and well.. not so good like you said.

 

I like the BoS. They're cool. Tactics was cool because I was BoS it wasn't cool because it wasn't like Fallout 1 or 2, No exploration or chance to interact without the cities.