The American Way

[charwo]

I am well aware that in Fallout 3, the biggest difference from New Vegas and Fallout 2 is the consistent scavenger versus rebuilding feel. While I have problem having Fallout 3 200 years after the war instead of 100, I think that in principle, this is not a bad idea. But...once you beat Broken Steel and all the DLCs, there's not much to do but sandbox playing can trying to amass the biggest pile of caps. I propose a post Broken Steel mod to extend the life of the game, and also take it in a way that hard core gamers and roleplayers could find both challenging and fun. Less an add on that a spiritual , epilogue DLC, this will by and large be a DLC focused on rebuilding, business investment, and generally making the post-Enclave Colombian Commonwealth a better place.

 

The basic requirements for this mod would be Fallout 3 and all of the DLCs

 

Main Quest:

The main quest will be based around forming a government in the Capital Wasteland. The initial design will be for a good or neutral character reforming the United States federal government, rebuilding large sections of the Mall, and ends with the swearing in of the first post-War Congress on the steps of the mostly restored Capitol building. Because by this point the Lone Wanderer will be beyond the biggest mover and shaker in Capital region, you can be sure who you unite the various settlements will determine just how brutal or nice this reconstitution of the United States will be. You could even be president! This will involve operations to connect the settlements, re-establish an industrial base, make new settlements, such as repairing and refurbishing most of the Vaults, creating a labor force that will do you bidding, eradicating the last of the supermutants, making a final peace treaty with the remnants of the Enclave and a probable, though by no means inevitable war of annihilation with the Brotherhood Outcasts, similar in many, many ways to the war between the Western Brotherhood and the NCR.

 

Side Quests:

Like the Merchant Empire subquest, investing in various businesses and helping to restore them. Examples such as rebuilding the Nuka Cola Factory (Specifically clearing the place, repairing the equipment, draining the Quantum liquid in the storage tanks which will allow you in the long run to buy and/or brew Quantum), creating a Mirelurk Farm, as all the Mirelurks are dying, inside the Anchorage Memorial, and building a steamboat shipyard to open up trade all along the Eastern Seaboard (they'll look like the Duchess Gambit, but can be sent to other places). To that end, you can establish trade treaties with the Pitt, the Point Lookout, and possibly fund and direct battles within parts of Columbia Commonwealth that don't exist on map (specifically flushing out the eastern edges of DC) and bringing in Annapolis, Baltimore and Richmond under your control via proxies, much like NCR did with Vault City.

 

The big one though, will be the establishment of a bank. You will be able to use your massive fortune to extend credit out to people in the wasteland for their rebuilding projects. You make long term money by using your wealth as a means to finance other projects, much like an early modern bank.

 

And just for the hell of it, a mysterious and sinister group that wants you to help them retrieve the obelisk in the Duchwich building.

 

Mechanical additions:

An addition where if you craft in Megaton, Tenpenny Tower or Rivet City, if you lack the proper components, you can by them at the bench for a slightly inflated cost based on barter.

 

Add the stun gun and boning knife from the Butcher Pete mod, but force you to buy a hunter trait that will allow you to sit down and harvest meat (and human will yield strange meat). I wanted a thing where you can capture raiders but instead of selling them as slaves, you can send them to a Capital-wide justice system that will turn them into working prisoners, which in turn would effect the pace of rebuilding.

 

A way to restore the functioning of the subway tunnels. This would involve quests to clear the tunnels and then restore the subway functions, with or without the Presidential Metro animations.

 

Wanted to take the concepts of the field grill and wonder meat machines from FWE and make a business mod where you can get as much as you have materials (with a calculated waiting time,)

 

Most importantly, I want to make the mod have vast effects on the Wasteland based on player actions. The big ones are removing spawn areas for raiders and supermutants by way of quests, the repaving and repair of roads and buildings .More than that, building a rail link between the Pitt entrance and Bethesda, possibly with a stop at Paradise Falls. This will mean in game that the rail link between Pittsburgh and Washington DC will be reestablished, which can bring massive rewards.

 

Also, while because of cell rules it will be impossible to walk into Arlington and DC, but the rubble can be cleared, which means that you'll have a waist high fence, but you'll be able to activate it and walk topside.

 

My questions in laying out this proposal are three fold:

1. Would there be support for such a mod, especially considering I won't even try to do voice acting?

2. Has any of this been done before?

3. Is there anything in this proposal that is impossible or so difficult that it wouldn't be worth it?

[TheStrictNein]

Possible, yes. Will people support it? Hell yeah. The only problem is most of the authors with the talent to do this have either moved on, left completely, or don't mod anymore. To be honest, the community has moved past a mod like this.

[charwo]

Well, would it do to generate a demo mod?

 

What I mean is do a small part of the mod itself as a demonstration? In this case, a major project would be connecting the subaway line in a way that you can create a secure underground connection between Tenepnny Tower, Megaton and Rivet City. Because that would be overwhelming, and I know nothing of modding, would this be enough to show intent:

 

A quest free mod (it won't be intended for play but will not conflict with the base game) which will show a cleaned up and fortified Warrington Trainyard and once you enter the building, maybe with the main rail door accessible as well as the side door, you will be able to follow the tracks from Warrington all the way to Anacostia Station near Rivet City, Warrington Trainyard to Fairfax, to Flooded Metro to DCTA Tunnel to Foogy Bottom to Metro Central to Museum Station to Anacostia. The tracks themselves have to be clear because presumable pack animals will be using these safe routes. Along the way, all of the other Subway exits will be blocked off with broken Concrete barriers with two non-hostile ground turrets aimed at the concrete barriers, in case some one does actually manage to move them. This would represent an early part of the subway clean up, with the idea that as you clear more and more of the stations, the routes will open up more and more. And....if you can find the DC powerplants. you can fix their power generation and eventually power the subway system, allowing you to rebuild the fast transit system as a toll road.

 

Also, I was thinking as a non-broken steel part, to add large, possibly worn American Flags that will be visible far in the distance. Like, you could see the American Flag near Megaton from Vault 101's lookout. The idea is that although there is no government in the Wasteland, place that fly the American Flag are considered safe zones, and the American Flag functions as a flag of truce and non-hostility. It's a small, but potentially important modification.

 

I will state right out I can't program my way out of a wet paper bag, so I would probably need someone to program the AIs and such for me. What I could do is the bulk of the grunt work, provide visual examples of any artwork that would be needed and map out the dialogue trees. Basically produce the thing. I don't think that Fallout 3 has nearly reached it's potential as far as modders go. And what I want to do I have never seen anything this ambitious. And I think that I can assemble an ad hoc ream of those who are left and those who are latecomers like myself, if I can show the way.

 

So....is the demo plan solid?

[wowboy23]

Hi... I'm new to the modding community here on Nexus, but I used to mod the hell out of FO1&2 throughout my undergrad years, and continued to work on mods during my time in the Air Force.

 

You have the basis of a very good idea here... to turn FO3's open ended ending into a nice, strategic simulation, that would provide the player with an almost indefinite amount of playing time.

 

How I would tackle this would be to do it in very small phases. For example:

 

Phase 1) The first objective I would add would be to revisit Vault 87. After telling Elder Lyons about the source of the Super Mutants, you are given a bomb and told to trek back to V87 and plat the bomb in the most radioactive part of it (where you got the GECK.) When you plant it, you are transported outside the entrance and all entrances to the Vault are blocked off. While I would hate to end Super Mutant spawns throughout the wastes, I would have this stop them from spawning in the DC ruins. This also stops Three-Dog from warning people from scavenging in the ruins. (Also, if you choose to destroy the Enclave HQ at Adams AFB, they stop spawning throughout the wastes)

 

Phase 2) Add scavenger NPCs to the DC ruins. Add more caravans to the wastes. For this phase, I would have a quest from the Brotherhood to visit all the major settlements of the wasteland (Megaton, Rivet City, Underworld, Big Town, Little Lamplight, etc.) and have mini quests to either recruit them into a kind of "Confederated commonwealth" get their assurance that they will remain neutral, or render them unable to offer any opposition. At the conclusion of each mini-quest, the settlement will either raise an old world flag or a white flag. When a settlement joins, they also get additional Brotherhood guards, and 1-2 of the local NPCs join the Brotherhood.

 

Phase 3) Next major questline will begin with the player having to clear the Capital of Super Mutants and Talon mercenaries (who also stop spawning after Jabsco is killed, another condition of this quest.) When this accomplished, Brotherhood guards will spawn throughout the building, and representatives from each town that joined forces with the Brotherhood have assembled to form the new government. Here is where I would start the strategy portion. While I wouldn't go so far as to have the player actually assume a titled position, he is still THE hero, and would hold George Washington-like respect. Basically, he would be president, without being called it (I would stop short of actually having an election because I can forsee additional work to make this happen with little reward, other than to be called "President") So, whatever you say will most likely go.

 

For the government decisions, I can see having the player decide on the tax rates. If taxes are too low, no additional guards would be hired for caravans and caravans will be attacked. This can lead to food shortages, which will lead to civil unrest and riots in the towns. Also, with fewer guards, raiders would be encouraged to rally together and perform large raids on towns. If the taxes are too high, there will be plenty of guards, but people will be broke and riot.

 

This is just one example. I'm sure we could get creative and come up with a lot more stuff to put into the wasteland government.

[scottym23]

Hi... I'm new to the modding community here on Nexus, but I used to mod the hell out of FO1&2 throughout my undergrad years, and continued to work on mods during my time in the Air Force.

 

You have the basis of a very good idea here... to turn FO3's open ended ending into a nice, strategic simulation, that would provide the player with an almost indefinite amount of playing time.

 

How I would tackle this would be to do it in very small phases. For example:

 

Phase 1) The first objective I would add would be to revisit Vault 87. After telling Elder Lyons about the source of the Super Mutants, you are given a bomb and told to trek back to V87 and plat the bomb in the most radioactive part of it (where you got the GECK.) When you plant it, you are transported outside the entrance and all entrances to the Vault are blocked off. While I would hate to end Super Mutant spawns throughout the wastes, I would have this stop them from spawning in the DC ruins. This also stops Three-Dog from warning people from scavenging in the ruins. (Also, if you choose to destroy the Enclave HQ at Adams AFB, they stop spawning throughout the wastes)

 

Phase 2) Add scavenger NPCs to the DC ruins. Add more caravans to the wastes. For this phase, I would have a quest from the Brotherhood to visit all the major settlements of the wasteland (Megaton, Rivet City, Underworld, Big Town, Little Lamplight, etc.) and have mini quests to either recruit them into a kind of "Confederated commonwealth" get their assurance that they will remain neutral, or render them unable to offer any opposition. At the conclusion of each mini-quest, the settlement will either raise an old world flag or a white flag. When a settlement joins, they also get additional Brotherhood guards, and 1-2 of the local NPCs join the Brotherhood.

 

Phase 3) Next major questline will begin with the player having to clear the Capital of Super Mutants and Talon mercenaries (who also stop spawning after Jabsco is killed, another condition of this quest.) When this accomplished, Brotherhood guards will spawn throughout the building, and representatives from each town that joined forces with the Brotherhood have assembled to form the new government. Here is where I would start the strategy portion. While I wouldn't go so far as to have the player actually assume a titled position, he is still THE hero, and would hold George Washington-like respect. Basically, he would be president, without being called it (I would stop short of actually having an election because I can forsee additional work to make this happen with little reward, other than to be called "President") So, whatever you say will most likely go.

 

For the government decisions, I can see having the player decide on the tax rates. If taxes are too low, no additional guards would be hired for caravans and caravans will be attacked. This can lead to food shortages, which will lead to civil unrest and riots in the towns. Also, with fewer guards, raiders would be encouraged to rally together and perform large raids on towns. If the taxes are too high, there will be plenty of guards, but people will be broke and riot.

 

This is just one example. I'm sure we could get creative and come up with a lot more stuff to put into the wasteland government.

 

First of all before I talk about the quote above i'd like to say how much I support this idea whole heartily. Besides a few minor personal gripes I might have with the plot and story of fallout 3, I have no real complaints besides the fact that they almost completely ignored the entire rebuilding process and story. It would be fantastic for a large expansion to deal with this issue that inevitably has to happen for America (or whatever they will call this new nation) to grow.

 

Now to turn my attention to the quote, I have to agree completely with his concept of taking it slowly step by step and not rushing too much into this. The three phases he lists aren't complicated from a modder's perspective, but at the same time would drastically affect the game. This seems to be the combination of ideas that would yield the most results the quickest.

 

I'm not much of a modder myself and would honestly slow this project down and/or mess it up somehow if I was on the modding aspect of it, so I'll have to refrain from helping in that respect. However if you need to bounce any ideas off of an avid fanboy of fallout games and this mod i'd be more then willing to give my opinion and possibly share some ideas of my own!

[charwo]

Unless anyone demands otherwise, I will begin making that subway clean-up demo. In the final version it will run through Bailey's Crossraods, but for the demo versions....we'll see. Now, I know not just nothing, but NUSCHING! about moding, much like Stg. Schultz, so it might be a while before I post. Also....some of the art might not be what it will be in he final version. But....I'll see you guys on the flipside.

[wowboy23]

I'm actually starting work on the first phase I described.

 

I'm going to start by adding an NPC to the Citadel... Star Paladin Hobbes. He is going to initiate a quest to destroy Vault 87 and kill Commander Jabsco at Fort Bannister. At the conclusion of this quest, I want to have killed Super Mutant spawns in DC ruins and get rid of the Talon presence at the Capital.

 

Wish me luck :)

[charwo]

Excellent! If we both make it as far as we intend, then we should coordinate. Catch ya on the flipside!

[DigitalVixen]

After reading your posts, and liking the idea I thought about it a little bit and figured that perhaps it would make more sense to start in the DC ruins, rather than Vault 87...

 

Something like this, in a very, very short version...

 

1. "Fight for DC."

 

Overcome Supermutant/raider bases to remove them from spawn lists in the DC area, but if you aren't fast enough with clearing nearby bases they come back.

For the Talon mercs it makes more sense to kill their leader at the fort.

 

2. "Invite settlers to DC."

 

By means of speech, money or force move wastelander populations into the DC area to control and protect. As in, you have to actively go out and by quests that doesn't include killing but rather convincing (as an RPG perspective) people to move into the now safe DC area. This could tie into number 4, below, if you have that done it could be used to further your chances of convincing people to move into DC.

 

3. "The Metro."

 

Clean out the metro tunnels, killing of ghouls, mutants and whatnot in a similar way as done in the DC topside area, where spawns for some areas would come back if you weren't consistent enough.

3b. Restore the tunnel system to it's former glory with working cars. I saw a mod on another site that actually adds a new subway system, so while a huge, huge undertaking this would actually be possible to do.

 

4. "Start a bank."

 

Give the player the possibility to start a bank if he/she has enough money. This bank could then be returned to for new quests where you would decide on whom to loan money to. For instance perhaps two businesses in the same area wish to start to sell clothes, then it might not be a good idea to give the loan to both as they would neither be able to pay back, but loan it to the wrong person and they take the money and runs. You can do tons of twists on this. Another idea would be to exchange bottle caps for pre-war money, much like the central banks of old would exchange gold for paper money, using the money as a proof of debt and the caps as the real value.

 

5. "Call for elections for new government of the DC area."

5b. Possible clash with BoS?

 

6. "Stretch government to other areas of the DC area."

6b. All-out war with the Outcasts.

 

 

Okay, running out of time so I will update my post a little later and flesh out some of the points there.