Living wasteland - Caravans and Packs

[DDigit]

Edit: I've decided to develop this mod myself.

 

Heya folks,

 

First off, I've been using the Fallout 3 Balance Overhaul mod by Xodarap777 and i can highly recommend it.

 

One of the major dissapointments in F3 for me was to find out the writers at Beth hadn't done their basic homework on radiation and post-nuclear survival. When i found out that in a real world situation the water most probably wouldnt still be irradiated, i wanted to smack Beth in the face for making the most Bullshit main quest (or dumbest dad character) ever.

 

But if you take a critical look at the F3 wasteland, there's not a lot to indicate 200 years really have passed. Wastelanders hardly seem to have made any attempts to get things back up and running. The best they've been able to do is Megaton and Rivet city, both of which really aren't very big or advanced. What makes things worse is, there doesn't seem to be any effort underway to change anything anytime soon. (the Rivet city council is planning on fixing the railing on the upper deck, thats about it....)

 

This, i hope, may be changed through the magic of modding ;).

 

A mod with the purpose of creating a more realistic wasteland and inhabitants would need a few components. Because I realize most of you probably can't be bothered to read an extremely long post, I'll discuss only a few components here.

 

 

 

Larger Caravans, Raiding Parties and Packs:

 

 

The least these lazy wastelanders could do is set up some decent trade routes and properly equipped caravans (remember the one parked outside the Hub in F1? that was some 150 years ago, yeah.....). All there is atm are a few 3-man caravans, counting the brahmin! So, make the caravans bigger, say 2-3 traders with some 2-5 guards and a few brahmin. Should be doable, right? Maybe even add a few more caravans and routes?

 

But where there's trade routes and caravans there's..... Raiders!

 

If only the useless raiders of the wasteland would spend less time fashioning armor from bicycle parts, they might actually get organised and DO something. There are settlements and caravans begging to be raided! So, set up a few raider "caravans" whose paths cross with the trading caravans and perhaps with a few settlements. (How awesome would it be to see megaton under attack by raiders/mutants?!) Ofcourse, you'd have to beef up security and make sure nobody essential gets killed. Raiding parties would start from and return to the existing raider hideouts (I am really hoping that Evergreen mills to New Reno mod comes out). The composition of these raiding parties should be considered well to make for some interesting battles.

 

 

***Edit: The following paragraph concerns random animal/enemy packs, this idea may have to be abandoned for this mod in favor of another, more specialized creature spawn- and rebalance-mod.

 

Then there's those other wasteland dangers, bugs, robots and animals!

 

Hunting in F3 is a breeze, and apart from the occasional Deathclaw, anything you can get in your sights is basicly doomed to end up as lunch (or scrap metal for robots). I'm having trouble understanding why all these wastelanders are too chickenshit to go out and do something. But instead of trying to make them lead usefull lives, it might be easier to make the wasteland as horrible a place as they seem to think it is. For one thing, make animals travel more in packs. 2-5 molerats, 1-4 flies, 2-5 ants, 1-4 robots (not the really big ones), 2-4 scorpions, 1-3 yao-guai, that kind of thing.

 

***

 

Last but not least, the dreaded Talon company and the Mutants!

 

These guys have their own agenda, creepy! The mutants and mercenaries seem to be relatively well spread out and "packed", but they don't really do very much other than pick the occasional fight. Similar to the raiding parties, mercenary and mutant "caravans" could be on specific missions, to kill/rob/destroy/pillage specific people or places (I'd like to see a REAL super-mutant attack on the citadel, or a BoS raid on a mutant village). Something I'd personally like is to have the talon faction be set to friendly as default. Only when you come too close to them (or if you're a good guy and they have a contract to kill you) should they attack i.m.h.o..They're dicks yes, but why would they waste ammo on any wasteland shmuck on the horizon?

 

Oh and I'd almost forget... the BoS and the Outcasts!

 

These fellows should be on regular patrols, helping out caravans and taking out baddies. Maybe they could even raid some super-mutant villages and hideouts. Outcast patrol routes should be near their base and should go along places where one would most likely find interesting technology. They should only occasionaly cross a trade caravans' route. Brotherhood patrol routes should be longer and more along the caravans' route. Ofcourse who knows what might happen when a BoS and an Outcast patrol meet.........

 

To top this thing off there could even be some quests and rewards involving hunting the packs and fending off raids. (gettng hired as a caravan guard for example, or alternately a q for robbing the caravan)

 

You might argue that the wasteland would get a bit crowded, well you can always lower the total number of spawns/encounters.

 

If you think a modular Living wasteland mod is a good idea and want to support it by posting your own ideas for a module (for example, weather effects), call your post Living wasteland - "subject". Mind you, the purpose of this mod is to create a more dynamic and "living" wasteland, not to add weapons, armor, models etc. Also, it would be preferable to make this mod in such a way that it could be integrated into or run together with later overhaul mods.

 

Thanks to all you modders out there for making our games more fun.

 

 

Other Living wasteland topics:

Settlements and proper defenses Link

Lord of the wastes (quest module) Link

[KaeEbonrai]

Very, very nice indeed. =) Kudos to you. ;)

[DDigit]

In the other topic, Setllements and Proper Defenses, Fenon suggested really big combat-"caravans", like 10 BoS fighting 20 Raiders. Personally I think groups that size would be too big for the already crowded wasteland (counting all the stuff this mod wants to add), but one big "war party" per faction might be okay. Personally I think 10 man is the limit (balance wise and perhaps even performance-wise ;)).

 

The Challenge: Think of the most interesting composition for a faction war party.

 

Remember, a town like megaton should stand a chance with some beefed up security (described in the Settlements and proper defenses topic) so don't overdo it! Balance it out for an exciting battle and consider that good weapons are supposed to be somewhat rare and expensive. If you could, try to describe at least 2 sides in a battle, either 2 war parties or a war party and a settlement defense set-up.

 

Here's some examples:

 

(note: I'm using Fallout 3 Balance Overhaul mod by Xodarap777)

 

Super mutants: Even without the best guns, this composition is still very strong with the behemoth.

 

1 Super Mutant Behemoth

2 Super mutant masters with a Minigun and a Rocket Launcher

3 Super mutant brutes all with Assault rifles and Sledgehammers

4 Flesh beast thingies (damn I forgot the name)

 

 

BoS: Lacking the strength of a behemoth, but making up for it with technology.

 

2 Big robots (those robots with miniguns and rocket launchers)

3 Brotherhood Paladins With Miniguns, Sledgehammers and Grenades (and later on gattling lasers?)

3 Brotherhood Apprentice/Initiate (whatever theyre called) with 2xAssaullt rifle, 1xCombat Shotgun and all have combat knives

2 RoboBrains

 

Location: Super Mutant fortification just between rivet city and the purifier. BoS war party on patrol encounters Supermutant war party that's just arrived at the fortification.

 

I'd love to see that :D.

 

I left out the fat-man launcher on purpose btw. I think it's a little too imba for these kind o fights. What i would consider using it for is settlement defence, maybe have a guard stuck up in a tower somewhere with a fat-man (so he'd kinda be like a fat-man turret).

[OniB]

the fatman is a little bit too "starship troopers" for my liking

 

i like

when you nuke megaton you can pretty much walk right up to ground zero before any radiation is detected

kinda stupid if you ask me

 

and where are all the nuclear power plants, if the fallout universe was so nuclear friendly

 

damn you bethesda