An independent New Vegas mod.

[devinpatterson]

PC's been down off and on for the last few days. I'm upgrading to a sli setup and a 2500k (unocked). I think this is going to very a great tool for modding as well. Besides being significantly faster than my 3.7+ callisto (AMD,black), i't lets me simulate everything from a low end pc up to a high end 4000+ geforce 670 setup. This way we can see how the mini battles during the military campaigns play on a range of potential machines. This way we can keep teh same bsa core, but put out a few different esps. I'm hoping to make a low end, mid/normal and a really high/demanding esp. I'm hoping I can throw a bunch of actors in battles with the high end mod, I'd like to see upwards of 20 (if we can optimize and tweak) actors in the groups you come across. I feel like that would really drive home a better idea of the scale battle.

 

Also I was curious as a side project what do people think of expanding on jacobstown mutants? Making them a faction with some actual military prowness. Nothing overwhelming, they'd still be a minor faction but enough that they could be a few strike teams in there.

 

And 2nd (more importantly), just expanding the mutants in re: to personalities. This mostly hinges on bringing out each super mutants past life before exposure to the supermutant process. And I'm figuring that in the many years since the masters death much of the nightkin/SM's original personalities would re-emerged and reasserted themselves in the SM's psyches.....along with the trauma and horrors of what they had done.

 

For example Charlie. He's very uncommon as he's one of the rare adolescents exposed to the supermutant process. He's smaller, has his spiked rat stick and specializes in hunting rats.

 

Or Frank who was a sleazy businessman that bought his way into vault 17 before the Masters army turned everyone (that survived) into supermutants (maybe nightkin only). He's a used car sales man and sleazy lawyer type all rolled up into one, constantly trying to get an angle on people and take advantage of everyone around him.

 

Or say a female supermutatnt (or I guess more likely nightkin) that was very vain in life and the change in her looks have caused a schizophrenic break. She can only see herself as she was, so maybe she tries to play the seductress toward the player (if male) and you'v got this 10' hulk cast in a insanely ridiculous role.

 

But essentially I'm looking to bring out character in each supermutant instead of a empty lumbering target. And in the Mojave we have an excellent setup due to the backstory of vault 17.

 

In addition it would show a evolution/development of Jacobstown, which is what I'd like to do with many sites in the Mojave. Keep their essential nature and theme relatively intact but expand and detail if possible.

Edited July 1, 2012 by devinpatterson

[darkus37]

Sorry to hear about your computer. I'm glad your up and running again.

 

I have to say, at least on my part, I thought the battle in Hoover Dam was very well paced and exciting. The numbers were relatively low, I think that at the most there was like 30 npc's and that was because they were respawning.

 

I think you should separate this idea into an individual mod.

 

It's a good idea to expand them, but you should also keep in mind their backstory. The Jacobstown mutants are several different... tribes if you will. Marcus, the leader, had a similar job in Fallout 2 in a town called Broken Hills. It was a mining town with groups of super mutants, ghouls and humans working and living there. After Fallout 2 ended, he took the super mutants from there and joined with several other groups before settling down in Jacob's Town, named afterthe BOS paladin who first tried to kill, and then became a very good friend of Marcus. You can then have super mutants from different vaults and towns of varying intelligence and personalities like the types you mentioned.

 

I always found it odd that the end-game didn't involve them coming to help at Hoover Dam. I keep visualizing Nightkin assassins taking out Legion snipers, super mutants with chain guns advancing on the front lines... but that brings up a 300-esque situation that could explain why the legion didn't advance in another location, say Camp Guardian?

 

If this is brought into reality, the only other major thing would be a BOS presence at the Hoover Dam.

[devinpatterson]

OK finished (more or less) my upgraded system and want to get busy modding. Here is a repost from the ncr vegas thread that applies to Yesman.

 

It's been a while since I've played the full game through so my memory of some conversations might be wrong or colored by my own ideas:

 

No sweat, there's going to be a ton of things I'm going to forget or get wrong and vice versa, an advantage of the group process is that one guy catches what some one else may miss.

 

So lets move toward what would make good story lines. I see all three options do-able, but only two of them being interesting from a players point of view.

 

1. Yesman behaves and the securitrons continue they'r normal behavior. Boring but reinforces the securitron presence which is strongly associated with NV.

 

2. Yesman is not installed and since the NCR can't have robots going about a perpetual law enforcement program dictated by a dead/deposed tyrant (house) in a NCR town, they have to be taken out of the equation. There could be the typical violent way, or something more technically minded. Like for example the lucky 38 mainframe needs to be disabled. Not just the screen and terminal in the penthouse, but the actual mainframe in the lucky 38's substructure. It would in addition be protected by turrets and securitrons. So the player has at least two choices on how to go about that.

 

3. Yesman goes bad (or at least is not "pliable" to NCR wishes) and that the plotline we discussed previously. It could be a potentially huge adventure. It could be something simple like it decides to clear the city of peeps. But it could also be much more nuanced. Say for example it doesn't get violent per se, but decides some of the NCR orders are suspect or debatable and overrides or just "interprets" them differently. Moore would assign you the task of taking care of yesman/the mainframe, and much like the BOS or Khans (from "for the Republic 2") you find a way to create a "truce" of some type both sides can live with. Maybe Yesman is willing to reprogram the mainframe for human control on the condition that it's allowed to take a securitron body and become the players companion.....exploring the world. Maybe some other compromise would work, where Yesman is integrated somehow into the NCR power structure in return for his help. Mayor Yesman. Or maybe he's just gone all bad (or the player just wants to kill him) and violence is inevitable.

 

Some of those are already determined by the players behavior before the hoover dam battle (especially in re: to Yesman).

 

Plus I'm sure you can think of more plotlines in re: to the securitrons.

[darkus37]

In most situations, whenever a force takes control of an area, it works to consolidate it's power so that it can't be removed. So:

 

1) Replace all the personal at Hoover with Securitrons. No exceptions.

2) Two securitrons at every entrance in the strip.

3) Lucky 38 - at least 4 securitrons at the basement area protecting the power plant.

4) Securitrons patrolling around the perimeter of New Vegas.

 

Quest wise, you have to decide where you want Yes Man to go. Benevolent-ish dictator, AI monster, etc.

If you're going with the status quo, nothing changes.

If you're going with other choices, new billboards with propaganda proclaiming how much better life is under the new leadership. (Would be a good idea for the NCR as well).

 

An example of a quest, if you chose a benevolent-ish dicator:

 

1) You get a quest that a serial killer is preying on prostitutes.

2) Evidence points to a gambler. You approach the area where the gambler is walking when suddenly securitrons appear, proclaim him guilty and kill him before you can do anything. They warn you to move along.

3) You begin an investigation and eventually find the real killer. Depending on the way you deal with the situation, you either, A) let the situation continue, or B) force there to be a real justice system.

[DaybreakerPrime]

The only problem I can see is that the ending of New Vegas is so much about all the different options and possibilities. To eliminate all of those and just choose one, even if it's the best one or the favorite one, seems wrong. But each ending would be like a different beginning ... how can you have that many different beginnings? It seems like it would need a mod for each one.

[devinpatterson]

2) Two securitrons at every entrance in the strip.

3) Lucky 38 - at least 4 securitrons at the basement area protecting the power plant.

4) Securitrons patrolling around the perimeter of New Vegas.

 

Yep sounds good, increased security is definitely on the agenda. I havn't been able to piece together anything specific just vague clues on the number of Securitrons. At least 125 in their vault and at least 20 on the strip. This last figure comes from a clash with the chairmen (aka Boot Riders tribe, aka the tops) in which 20 securitrons were dispatched to "convince" them to join House. So at a minimum were talking a 5 fold increase in security. And we can bump that up or down some, but we shouldn't change it by a factor....so that we don't fry the power balance.

 

1) Replace all the personal at Hoover with Securitrons. No exceptions.

 

Little worried about maintenance personal, but I guess a bunch of Mr. Handy's could probably take care of the dam as well as the NCR *if* they have the know how.

 

Quest wise, you have to decide where you want Yes Man to go. Benevolent-ish dictator, AI monster, etc.

 

Actually I would love to figure out some way that these outcomes center on past or near present decisions by the PC. Nothing straightforward/obvious like a big evil or good button, but hinging on the PC's decisions or even his/her own Karma. That to me would be ideal, if possible.

 

If you're going with the status quo, nothing changes.

 

In the beginning (after the initial riot/panic is put down) we'll be going with the status quo simply because of the end slides and because of logistics. Yesman won't be done with whatever the heck it is he's doing for a while and I want to focus on re-assigning the NCR in both NV and hoover as well as cleaning up all the hoover battle effects (from fires to audio markers). It's probably hte cut off for the 1st beta.

 

But that doesn't mean we don't need to really turn out the ideas, we'll need some solid quest lines on Yesman all too soon.......

I'll be getting off work earlier tomorrow so maybe I'll have some time for my addled brain to come up with something then, and I'm sure you'v got ideas on the whole Yesman story lines.

 

To eliminate all of those and just choose one, even if it's the best one or the favorite one, seems wrong. But each ending would be like a different beginning ... how can you have that many different beginnings? It seems like it would need a mod for each one.

 

Yep, but that's not the scope of this mod. We're working on a NV independant ending and another mod with a NCR ending. I'm sure other people will tackle alternate choices like legion.

Edited July 12, 2012 by devinpatterson

[greenknightfury]

I love the sound of this! I've always hated not being able to play after the ending since it's just a huge cliffhanger....and yeah it does kinda sound like this is the genesis of a series of different Broken Steel-like mods that continue the story from where the end leaves off lol. The only "continue after the game ends" mod I have been able to find is unusable as it crashes the game at startup every time, so it would be great to see this done (I definityly think it would be cool to see for every choice too, even if i'd never end up using the Legion one lol).

 

 

I'd love to see you helping to win over the various independent towns (made much easier if you are max faction with each one of course).

[devinpatterson]

I love the sound of this! I've always hated not being able to play after the ending since it's just a huge cliffhanger....

 

Yeah I'v got to get back to work on this one. I did get a lot of the exterior dam cleaned up (as far as battle conditions, npc packages etc), but havn't started on the interior. The first release is just going to center on cleaning up hoover, integrating the new securitrons and the (possible) riot in NV. So it's pretty modest, could probably do it in 5 or 6 hours if I had a big block of free time.

 

Then I'll start working on expanding the actual story line, which is where I'll need lots of possible ideas from you and anyone reading this thread.

 

so it would be great to see this done (I definityly think it would be cool to see for every choice too, even if i'd never end up using the Legion one lol).

 

Definitely good to have all endings, but I chose this one, not just because it was my personal favorite (it's kind of a toss up between independant nv and NCR), but because it left the most storyline and factions intact. If you have to loose a major faction, it might as well be house, since his story is already told.

[greenknightfury]

Very true with the point about the factions..heck you can leave everybody but the Legion to do their own thing with independent NV.

[TrooperScooperMKII]

Actually, couldn't an independent Strip side with the Legion as a vassal? I've never finished the independent questline but I think that you attack them less than the NCR... I mean you kill house and take over the Dam.

One other thing: what if, as an out of the box plot upheaval, House wasn't actually dead? I mean plot-reasons aside, the entrance to his chamber is rather... poorly protected, to say the least. I mean for a guy that's survived two hundred years... (even in stasis, even if he never let anyone else inside the Lucky 38, etc...) you'd think he'd plan for any possible coup, sort of like IIRC professor Xavier(?) from X-Men has a cabinet with "contingency" plans on every one of his subordinates... each x-man had a file with his plan on how to kill/neutralize them if they went rogue/evil.

So what if he was lobotomized or something, or just lying about the bacteria thing, or something? Maybe he's actually a digitized brain, i.e. victor?

Just throwing things out there.