An independent New Vegas mod.

[darkus37]

Hoover Dam City

 

Uh, I wanted to ask about the layout - I realize that the game Dam isn't exactly to scale, but I assume that the city will cover the entire upper area of the Dam; and Lucia's mention of elevators implies sub-levels. How deep are we talking? I ask since it might interfere with the layout of the generators and the machinery rooms. The area held by the NCR should probably remain as guard barracks and the like, but it would be nice to know approximately where the secret lab entrance is (perhaps accessed via a secret elevator in the commanders office?). I'm also really liking the idea of several terraced floors on the outside of the dam, perhaps as a Hanging-Gardens-Of-Babylon-feel to it:

 

http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/seven-wonder-ancient-world-4.gif

 

Now, this would obviously have to be adapted, but the Central Checkpoint area on the top of the dam could be rebuilt into the Elevator machinery room - it would control the elevator going down the center of the Dam (replacing the stairs displayed on the image above). There would have course be stairs or ladders for a more traditional descent/ascent between the levels.

 

 

Edit: I just realized that the sides of the Dam on the bottom are the areas you fight through against the Legion; which means the central area is most likely just drainage and machinery for the turbines - still not exactly great places for city sub-levels.

 

The Secret Lab

 

I was thinking about the secret science lab and I think I have a workable concept for it - I previously had this idea of a group of creatures who escaped from the Thorn and were loose in the sewers under New Vegas. They were attacking the squatters, requiring the Courier to deal with them. So why not adapt that idea and have the creatures be inside the secret lab, and to have been held in stasis for 200+ years. The attack on the Dam caused the machinery to malfunction and for them to wake up and explore. The Courier would be tasked with investigating several missing engineers and would stumble into the secret lab area.

 

I'm also picturing the secret lab to have a central ZAX mainframe with a personality that is sort of like Marvin from A Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - super intelligent but really depressed. I've also thought about having a talking eyebot (like ED-E) with some hyper patriotic/anti-communistic programming (think of a mix between the Book Chute and Toaster from The Sink in OWB).

Edited July 29, 2013 by darkus37

[LuciaofArroyo]

Uh, I wanted to ask about the layout - I realize that the game Dam isn't exactly to scale, but I assume that the city will cover the entire upper area of the Dam; and Lucia's mention of elevators implies sub-levels. How deep are we talking?

 

 

The the thing everyone has to take into account is that this is a massive undertaking and while some of us may have a great understanding of what we're doing most don't(I'm included in that) I understand everyone wanting to dream big but we also have to remain grounded in reality.

 

 

Well - check the screenshots I posted last time Darkus http://forums.nexusmods.com/index.php?/topic/691109-an-independent-new-vegas-mod/page-58&do=findComment&comment=8573908 - it sounds like a lot to do, but really we're not talking about something huge and complicated, Hoover Dam has only 2 outdoor areas that require building work, and that's the top of the Dam that was covered in my last post, and then the basin of the Dam, the "downtown" area as it was called in Van Buren, which we haven't really talked about yet, but it'll consist of nothing more extravagant than shanty shacks, and a couple of junkwall buildings maybe 3 stories high that cover chunks of the basin wall. It's big, but in terms of work to do to it, it's nothing complicated.

 

Once these two areas on Hoover Dam are completed, then building inside of Hoover Dam is a much simpler task. We don't even need to create new areas, only to add junk walls inside of large rooms and halls, scrap metal walls to divide and make rooms-within-rooms to make a kind of "underground town" scattered around the office levels and power plant areas. That's all I had in mind for it myself, and when you think about it, it's not hard to do. The ambitious and slightly more difficult buildings would be outside of the Dam; the downtown area and the top area of the Dam, which I covered already in that earlier post.

 

 

I think, once we've got a clearer idea of this area and we can all agree what we want to include, then we should start a new thread with an introduction and explanation, and then offer up areas to whoever wants to build them. Basically we've got NPCs and scripting taken of to do what we want to do, all we need are builders at this point.

 

 

The Secret Lab

 

I was thinking about the secret science lab and I think I have a workable concept for it - I previously had this idea of a group of creatures who escaped from the Thorn and were loose in the sewers under New Vegas. They were attacking the squatters, requiring the Courier to deal with them. So why not adapt that idea and have the creatures be inside the secret lab, and to have been held in stasis for 200+ years. The attack on the Dam caused the machinery to malfunction and for them to wake up and explore. The Courier would be tasked with investigating several missing engineers and would stumble into the secret lab area.

 

I'm also picturing the secret lab to have a central ZAX mainframe with a personality that is sort of like Marvin from A Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - super intelligent but really depressed. I've also thought about having a talking eyebot (like ED-E) with some hyper patriotic/anti-communistic programming (think of a mix between the Book Chute and Toaster from The Sink in OWB).

 

 

It sounds good, this is the Lab concept from Van Buren right?

 

I'd love to use sandcrete stuff but I've had problems getting most modder resources to work. I must be doing something wrong I can only mod buildings if there file is already avaible in the geck so I'd need some explanation on that part.

 

 

You're setting them as active files in the GECK, right?

 

I've had problems saving .esp content myself, sometimes, but not all of the time esp mod content (not esm mod content) will show up in the GECK, and i'll save the file having used some of the mod content, and then reopen it and the mod content will be gone. I don't know what causes it to happen, but it's a pain when it does happen.

 

This is why I was asking Devin to merge those items mods into my NPC esp.

 

It might not be a bad idea to download sandcrete and meo, and merge those two together as an .esm which should be much more stable for you to use. My knowledge of textures and terrain is next to nothing, but in theory a merge into an esm would solve the problem, gunslinger.

 

Lastily I've mentioned this to Devin but if anyone doesn't know I'm going to be starting college soon (living there atleast) my free time could be quite limited I just don't know. I will try to help though.

 

 

:O

 

Hell, when I was in college I spent more time in front of a computer than I do now lol

[gunslinger6792]

Just to clarify here were you talking about about making a player house inside one of the hoover dam towers? I could try something there or make a completely new room area.

[LuciaofArroyo]

Just to clarify here were you talking about about making a player house inside one of the hoover dam towers? I could try something there or make a completely new room area.

 

If it's easier to create the interiors first, and then we can worry about the exterior later on, then that's fine by me.

 

Do you want to have a go at revamping the Visitors Center? It'd be the NCR Command Station, a big office space with a office suite at the top for Brigadier-General Cassandra Moore, since she gets promoted. In the NCR version, the player would be awarded the suite, so effectively it could be a spot for a small player home. Get some use out of the Sierra Madre furniture if you can, that stuff is too cool not to use and it blends in nicely with the wallpaper :smile:

 

The Visitors Center interior basically needs to be cleaned up, less junk all over the floor, and have it looking more professional with desks and typewriters and terminals, some communications and monitoring equipment downstairs... this would be a major location in the NCR version, and can be used in the Independent version too, since NCR wouldn't be pushed out of the Dam entirely. That way we get a lot of usage out of it.

Edited July 29, 2013 by LuciaofArroyo

[devinpatterson]

The Secret Lab

 

I was thinking about the secret science lab and I think I have a workable concept for it - I previously had this idea of a group of creatures who escaped from the Thorn and were loose in the sewers under New Vegas. They were attacking the squatters, requiring the Courier to deal with them. So why not adapt that idea and have the creatures be inside the secret lab, and to have been held in stasis for 200+ years. The attack on the Dam caused the machinery to malfunction and for them to wake up and explore. The Courier would be tasked with investigating several missing engineers and would stumble into the secret lab area.

Just a couple quick comments here. The secret lab should be completely sealed until the player opens it. It's a big part of the theme from the working notes in the wiki. Not only from a historical perspective ("The guard in the guard post was ordered to leave and seal the exit hatch if ever such an emergency happened, and the guard followed orders well.") but also as a cool story/plot device, (the player being the first).

 

That being said, there is no reason you can't have critters in the Thorn from one of many different mutagens; radiological (some nukes or other sources of rads), chemical (toxic goo) or biological (fev) down there and have the scenario your discussing. Let me know what you have in mind for the critters and an alternate source for the mutagen and we'll implement that story line, but no reason to tack it on to the sub level.

 

I'm also picturing the secret lab to have a central ZAX mainframe with a personality that is sort of like Marvin from A Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - super intelligent but really depressed. I've also thought about having a talking eyebot (like ED-E) with some hyper patriotic/anti-communistic programming (think of a mix between the Book Chute and Toaster from The Sink in OWB).

Sound like it would be a good one to implement in a dialog quest if the player has the WW perk.

 

 

Do you want to have a go at revamping the Visitors Center? It'd be the NCR Command Station, a big office space with a office suite at the top for Brigadier-General Cassandra Moore, since she gets promoted. In the NCR version, the player would be awarded the suite, so effectively it could be a spot for a small player home. Get some use out of the Sierra Madre furniture if you can, that stuff is too cool not to use and it blends in nicely with the wallpaper :smile:

There you go, great spot for a Player home

[devinpatterson]

In re: to the sub level, it will probably be discovered while weeding out possible legion survivors.

 

gunslinger6792 you may want to make the NCR home a separate mod so you can release it on it's own, for people that havn't completed the game. Then I can merge it back into the main mod. I can also make the home available to the player by just tying it into the "for the Republic" quests. That way the player can enjoy it once they'v done part of that quest line (we can determine later, how much needs to be done to gain the players quest, and can also base it on faction rep). As such you may want to avoid DLC dependencies (dead money) if you can pull it off without them.

 

Speaking of, Luciao have you used an extensive amount of your assets from DLC's? Do you think that you will definitely be needing them? Typically it's good practice to reducle dependencies, so I was curious. If you have them and really need them, then I'll probably start using them as well.

[devinpatterson]

any files? if not ill be trying to turn the long 15 into the checkpoint it used to be, or restoring dry wells

Lucia put up a NPC resource.

 

For my part, no. I spent Sunday working on blender learning some new tricks and nifskope/NiVis nodes (which I feel I am close to cracking). But I learned a lot, including a hypothetical workflow for a conceptual proof of concept mod Display Weapons in Inventory (to add visible weapons displayed on the player if it's in his/her inventory). Which means it's ready to move from an alpha to a beta, and I'll probably put up a poll to see what weapons people want converted first.

 

In regard to this mod, I'll be working on the strip when I get home from work.

 

 

edit: my geck keeps crashing when I try to replicate the worldspace

 

OK you can't clone a exterior cell. To the best of my knowledge there is no work around for that. Yes it will crash....every time.

[devinpatterson]

BTW Kingwilfre16 welcome to the geck a limitless source of frustration and pure evil. On a side note you might want to look into stripping out everything except the long 15 via FNVedit, or seeing if it's possible to export the worldspace with it.

 

If not you'll need to use a method similar to what I did on the dam/fort/camp. You can use a script which enables everything you want and disables everything you don't, if your adapt at scripting or willing to learn it. Barring that you can go for broke and just edit the original cell(s) by hand, and only add the mod in this specific circumstance, ie for this mod, or a solo mod you put out for those that didn't bomb the long 15. I can work up a simple script to tap into the global or script var to determine if the long 15 was nuked, but it won't do you any good unless your willing to have all your changes done via script.

[gunslinger6792]

I'll end up (if I have the time) making the house as seperate mod. The question becomes where to put it. Inside the dam, the water tower, or the welcome center? The first two can be done without upsetting the vanilla game and quest progression the welcome center cannot. I could rig up the welcome center but you guys would have to find a way to implement it in and handle any NPC loss as a result. We also need to define what we want the house to accomplish. Is it a home/command center and either way how big? I can make a home just big enough for one person and a companion or I can make it big enough for several people. Also what do we want it to look like? Give some idea's to work with and I can go from there. Also if you like the feel of a specific place in fallout 3 or NV or theme let me know. I know devin mentioned some old world blues stuff. That can be done also or I can just keep this FNV data to cut down on dependencies your choice I'll back you either way.

 

For the record I'm in favor of converting one of the water towers or making a separate room/cell inside hoover dam thats connected via a door.

[devinpatterson]

I'll end up (if I have the time) making the house as seperate mod. The question becomes where to put it. Inside the dam, the water tower, or the welcome center? The first two can be done without upsetting the vanilla game and quest progression the welcome center cannot. I could rig up the welcome center but you guys would have to find a way to implement it in and handle any NPC loss as a result.

 

For the record I'm in favor of converting one of the water towers or making a separate room/cell inside hoover dam thats connected via a door.

Not the welcome center per se, I was under the impression Lucia was suggesting the room above it. Followe the stairs up and there is a smaller room with a desk, before heading to the top. A NCR power armored troopers stands near it (it's near where you locate the dead engineer. It is part of the hoover dam visitor center cell (HooverDamIntODeck) but it's out of the flow of traffic, easy to get to from the outside and you can pop out on the roof quickly. The only downside is it's a little small.

 

EDIT: plus it has the advantage of being near your peers, as if you were a commissioned officer, as opposed to being off in some remote dank section of the dam. But there are also rooms we can grab and convert into a player office down by Cassandra. Either way I can do the scripting that will result in the changes you make happening (if the player follows the NCR quests and earns a house) for you.

Edited July 29, 2013 by devinpatterson