Mod idea for Evergreen Mills

[txriddle]

Evergreen Mills, and the main quest…

 

I rampaged through Evergreen Mills recently and felt as if I had eaten a Big Mac when I could have had prime

rib. A potentially interesting location was just another dungeon crawl. As I thought about the physical assets

present in EM, a lot of ideas popped up for a much more interesting area that could be incorporated into the

much-maligned Main Quest.

 

I'll bullet some thoughts then briefly describe the scenario-

 

> The complex structure of EM implies a more organized Raider group than the normal groups. But there doesn't seem

to be any hierarchy,leaders,etc there, aside from the trader, beyond the generic mobile-targets-that-shoot-at-you rabble with a bit of slave trading.

 

>Why are raiders bothering to keep a Behemoth captive?

 

>The foundry building is a potentially useful industrial facility being used as a cheap hotel with rec facilities.

 

So- what could EM be?

 

There is some sort of Raider organization with EM as it's headquarters. They are working on a weapon- a group of

brainwashed/mind-controlled/?? Behemoths clad in a super size new type of Power armor made possible by the

following:

>Raiders find a prewar cache of a unique alloy and realize it's potential for armor.

>Raiders kidnap 2 scientists + families from the Commonwealth(or other offstage place)-one a specialist in

metallurgy/power armor/weapons and the other a specialist in mind control/drugs/brainwashing.

>Raiders capture a Behemoth, as a first test of the process, to be conditioned, armed, and armored.

 

The goal is to improve their chances of controlling the rejuvenated Wasteland after the rumored Project Purity is implemented.

 

The Brotherhood learns about the project but they have no resources to deal with the threat. Until that threat is

neutralized they can't move against other opponents

 

You can infiltrate- using a Raider outfit, haircut, and a possible dummy item that changes your faction with

the Raiders to neutral- from there you can use speech, evidence of kills such as Brotherhood holotags, etc to

gain trust and get access to a lab area where the scientists are doing their work or use

sneak/lockpicking/hacking or science skills to become an assistant to the scientists.

 

From that point you could save the scientists + hostage families from their captors while sabotaging the

project, use a self destruct system to destroy the equipment/materials/etc. or follow some other path to deal

with the threat.

 

I have no significant modding experience but I am very willing to help more experienced folks make such an area a

reality.

 

txriddle

[DDigit]

There have been quite a few excellent ideas for Evergreen Mills, the best one of which i think is the "Evergreen mills to New Reno" idea (making it somewhat an F3 equivalent of New Reno). I think you've got some good ideas yourself, but it would be such a shame to have a couple of great mods that won't work together.

 

So I'd suggest teaming up with all the Evergreen Mills inspired people. I think the idea of making it a proper "town" is the general consensus. Within that town there should be more than enough room for lots of interesting npcs, quests and storylines, including some of the ones you named.

 

Perhaps there should be a simple "What to do with Evergreen Mills" topic (maybe sticky?)

 

BTW: I hope to make Evergreen Mills the hometown of some raider "raider parties" and the raider "war party" as described in the Living Wastelands - Packs and Caravans topic. (Link). This won't neccesarily include a lot of modding to EM though.

[Lessabos]

Firstly when i found EM i think that it is some kind of mines , but i was a bit dissapointed that expect boblehead there is nothing special anyway it was very funny when i whit my sniper rifle shot down the generator and watch the death of raiders by the hand of behemoth .....

[txriddle]

Thanks for the thoughful reply, DDigit.

 

I really enjoyed New Reno and would be delighted to contribute, in some way, to making a FO3 version.

 

I don't see any conflicts between the suggestions I have and a project to make a mod with the flavor of New Reno. The link you included in your post has some excellent ideas and poses some interesting questions about agendas for the raiders and the Talon company.

 

If there is a possibility that the wasteland could be restored then the question arises- who is going to serve/rule/administer/exploit/enslave the greater community that would follow? It makes it much more interesting to have the various groups- including the SuperMutants- be contending to dominate the revived Wasteland. After all, that's what war is about and "War Never Changes".

 

And it's easy to envision rumors spreading about Project Purity and the GECK from the Enclave, BOS, etc. to provide motivations for the contending factions. It's much harder to imagine them being able to confine that information to their groups.

 

The main-quest-addition could be only accessible after the PC has gotten to a certain point in the main quest and has the skills to deal with a lot of skill checks in conversations(preferably in an modded environment that forces the kind of skill choices that FO1/2 forced you to make)/combat/etc.

 

A big job- but there seems to be a lot of talented, motivated fans who want to create improvements to the garage-sale-20pound-box-of-Lego-blocks Bethesda has created.

 

txriddle

[DDigit]

We're all waiting for that G.E.C.K.......

 

I dont know about editing the purifier area to let big battles take place there, might cause problems with the main quest, a lot happens there. It seems like a great idea though to have factions fight over a valuable fortified position somewhere (military base?).

[txriddle]

I agree about the battle inside the memorial- may be best to cut Autumn out or rescript , save the PC from having to sacrifice , and have a showdown elsewhere with the weakened factions after the purifier/GECK has been activated. End movie gets cut but you remember what you did, right??? :^>

 

txriddle

[Weasel_Scourge]

@txriddle

 

Why not just essentially double the size of the quest(after several betas/updates and what have you)? You could have your original idea played out to begin with, providing what sounds like a very exciting and engaging quest(especially compared to some of the vanilla quests), but what about after? At that point you could transition into a sort of "found-a-city" type quest where you can cooperate with one of several factions (regulators, talon co./ brotherhood, or maybe even enclave) and essentially sell them the rights to run the city thats sprouting up there in the fashion that Rivet City did. There would be several advantages to owning a flourishing city thats easily defendable and brings in alot of assets. And depending on which faction you choose, they could run the city and pave the way for what kinds of quests you would recieve from the city thereafter. Just a thought, but it seems like a really fun way to combine the 2 mods, unfortunately it also sounds like an inhuman amount of work.