Bringing Life to Holotapes, one tear at a time

[Zac1993]

So I guess most of us knew of the one "Memory" quest that we have to do and it's really pretty cool.
I'm hoping that this concept can be expanded into more memories with the contents being the various holo-tapes that can be found in the wasteland.

The activation can either be the holo-tape itself or just some form of ghost or scar in space/time that the player can interact with.

 

I don't really know how to make it lore-friendly lol, just make it a perk or something? Mental Mutation lol

 

So how it works will be like this, let's take for example the... Ranger Cabin

 

From the wiki:

Just a day before the bombs fell, a girl ran away from her home presumably because she found out she was pregnant and was shunned by her parents when she told them. The girl recounts her story of leaving home and hiding out in the cabin in the runaway's holotape, which can be found inside the cabin.

 

The recording:

October 22, 2077.
I finally told them tonight, and it was bad. Real bad.
Dad was shouting, telling me I should be ashamed, that I had to get out of the house.
Mom just cried, and somehow that hurt worse than anything else.
She didn't say a word, not even when I packed my things.
I can't go to John-- he doesn't even know yet.
Maybe he'll never know.
If it weren't for the cabin I wouldn't have a place to sleep. Just need some time to think.
Last time I was here, I was just a little girl playing clubhouse in this old cabin.
Now I'm really scared.
Will anything ever be right again?

 

 

So things to note, bombs fell on Oct 23, 2077.

Anyway, it can be like this.

 

Upon activating the trigger ( holotape, scar, ghost, etc... ) screen fades to black => loading screen => world is now tinged in blue => You now control the girl and can only walk towards the cabin. Behind you... well, either invisible blockers or build the current area in the same skybox as the memory quest (Kellogg).

 

You will appear in front of a cabin, nothing should be interactable. You see a girl walk into the cabin, it should be pristine because bombs haven't fallen yet. You go in, activate the girl to trigger next part of the memory. She then closes the door, to prevent the player from getting out again, goes to the bed and sit down.

The girl then pull out a holotape and starts talking. That's where you reuse the holotape content.

 

Once finished, start the bombs dropping outside the window. Probably just some white flashes etc. Throw in some "This can't be happening" or "Mom... Dad...?" dialogue from vanilla for extra impact for the girl, flash to white and back to real world again. I'm assuming that the bombs drop at midnight lol. Oh come on, it's about the feels you get from now actually watching the scene play out, not how accurate it actually is.

 

Soo... people love to have choices, I guess when they first activate the holotape, throw them a pop up screen stating, "view memory", "play audio only", "cancel"?

 

I wanted to suggest some form of incentive for them to hunt for these but I realized that there are a lot of holotapes. Perks will be too OP. Maybe a trader in Diamond City will be willing to buy these for a modest amount of caps? Trade in rare tapes for weapons?

 

Then for those areas with multiple tapes, playing those memories may also result in fighting with ghouls etc. No issues there, the NPC will just win the fights they are supposed to win, die in fights they are supposed to die in. Other memory scenes that might be cool could be Father leaving his last words for the player, the Eddie Winters series, The Lost Patrol, The Silver Shroud Script ( LOL ), etc

 

This can even be a framework! Allowing others to create their own "memory quests", holotape journey etc. It will be crazy if someone made a holotape reference to fallout 3 and build a small likeness to it hahaha.

 

Welp, that's the end of this post. Hope you guys could see it the way I see it and if you do, hope you like it :).

 

Thank you guys so much for reading. Maybe leave a like, subscribe for more quality content and I hope to see all of you, beautiful sons of guns again, next time. Just kidding, heh.

[pra]

I posted something similar, too, a long time ago, but can't find it anymore. meh :/

 

This would require A SHITLOAD of work, though. So, probably won't happen :/

 

 

 

My idea was something like: you find holotapes containing brain scans, like the one the Institute used to make Nick. You take them to the Memory Den and use a Memory Lounger to basically enter a cell referenced in the holotape.

 

If you don't want to run to the memory den, you could do some technobabble, like, a "Mem-Boy", which "reconstructs memory fragments from residual mnemonic impressions in physical objects and feeds them into your brain". I imagine it like a helmet with vacuum tubes sticking out of it.

 

Doing the framework should actually be the simplest part imo. Doing the content for it, now that is the actual problem...

Get me some willing content creators, and I'd do the framework for you.

 

edit: my idea for the framework would be: if it's holotapes, you need to attach a script to the tape with a reference to a marker within your cell as the reference. Maybe also options whenever to disable player controls, to start a quest, to call a function, or whatever. Then you put that into a special container or terminal, and the player gets moveto'ed to that marker. The framework would then also add a script for the exit, which can be put onto whatever you want to be the exit.

 

Without the holotape, I'd put those properties onto an invisible marker which can be put in some significant location. The script of the device would then look for these in a certain radius.

Edited November 12, 2018 by pra