Alton, IL is an upcoming large-scale modification for Fallout 3. It takes place in my hometown- Alton, Illinois and the areas surrounding it, such as Godfrey.

So there you have it- Alton, IL. One of the largest mods for Fallout 3 out there, or at least it will be when it's finished. I've been working on it since May of last year, and a few months of that time was spent simply learning how to use the GECK. I also have to balance a sophomore year of high school with all honors classes as well, so that definitely doesn't help the speed of the project. The one thing I ask of you guys is to not ask when it'll be released. All I'll be able to tell you is, "When it's done."

For a sense of scale, Alton will be much larger than Point Lookout. For a sense of quality, none of the landscapes will be flat, and none of the ground textures will be repeating default textures. After you wake up from that crash, you'll get that same feeling you got when you stumbled out of Vault 101 for the first time. Remember, this is an add-on, not a conversion mod. Nothing in the Capital Wasteland will be changed, moved or deleted- this is a whole new world.

I've gotten a few questions on this, and I'm going to clarify- I've decided not to use Global Travel System. I don't have anything against GTS- it's useful for a lot of things- but it wouldn't work out in my mod. You get there by a plane that you will find at the newly-discovered Dulles International Airport in DC. A simple boat ride wouldn't leave you stranded like this crash would. Towards the end of the questline in Alton, the way you get to DC will also be the way to travel back to Alton.

I'm trying my absolute hardest to make this feel like a Bethesda quality world- which is the reason it's taking so long. Remember, I'm a one-man team. And to be honest, I don't want a large team- I'm a control freak . The other reason is I'm trying to really capture the look and feel of not only Alton, but Bethesda-quality content.

What I am looking for is voice actors with quality equipment. Otherwise I'd do it myself . Male and female voice actors are needed.

There is one guarantee- I will not abandon this project. I've been disappointed in the past by people who have left their projects unfinished and unreleased, and that's not going to happen with Alton. Is it going to take a while? Yes. But trust me, it'll get done.
I'll post updates in this topic with more screenshots as I add new content to Alton. I hope you like what you see so far, and (reasonable) suggestions for new content or changes to current content are always appreciated .


Contact Me: Any personal concerns, questions, or suggestions can be emailed to eljhhck(AT)gmail(DOT)com so my PM inbox doesn't fill up .

http://www.elijahhouck.com/
http://eljhhck.deviantart.com/gallery/#Alton-Fallout-3-Mod
http://www.youtube.com/user/BethModder

I daresay you'll need a time machine if you want to meet an expected release date of "early 2010".

Whoops. Copied/pasted parts from a different forum.
Anyway, I'll post screens soon for those of you that don't feel like browsing the site.

Well this sounds promising

Perhaps put some percent complete bar things, of quests, landscapes, etc, so people can tell how far you've progressed

This looks good. I hope you keep your promise and finalize it. I wish you best luck and a long breath.

Good luck with this project!

Alright, here's my take on this: I just recently moved out of Alton due to breaking up with my Boyfriend. This mod is going to play with my heartstrings like a fiddle. Also, good to hear you're adding the scenic portions of the bluff road. Hope to see a good rendition of the Piasa Bird

If I can find a good texturer, I'd love to do the Piasa Bird. I'm great with the GECK, but when it comes to new textures, I'm pretty terrible.
But it's really cool to meet someone from Alton that'll play through the mod, since it's a town of only 30,000. You can expect most of downtown Alton (down by the Mississippi) to look almost exactly the same as it does in real life, as well as the edge of Godfrey (up by Schnuck's, Walgreens, Imo's, and all that good stuff). A lot of it, like what Beth did with DC, isn't really recognizable. But there are still plenty of monuments, like the Elijah P. Lovejoy statue and the Clark Bridge, that'll be there.

New trailer for everybody-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iByg_yZOk84
I would recommend watching it in HD, since, well, HD is epic.

Okay, wow. Those screenshots are pretty damn impressive.

I can't wait to see this finished.

Thanks . I've been trying my hardest over the past year and a half to get this as close to a Beth-quality world as possible, so your comment means a lot!

This brings a man tear to my eye it's so beautiful. It's amazing, don't stop. I feared you quit a while back, and I'm very happy you've gotten a lot done since then. You should consider getting a small team up to make sure this doesn't fall into the dust. It's hard to imagine someone who's great at everything in the geck, but you have proven your mapping abilities quite clearly. I'll be watching this, and wish you the best of luck.

Thanks a ton . I don't care how long it takes- I'm gonna finish it. I would probably regret leaving it unfinished and unreleased for the rest of my life, or at least for years. Oh, and your username looks familiar- are you a member at the Nexus or F3Underground?

And about a team- to be honest, there isn't much a team could do this late in the game besides voice act and create a world map in Photoshop (the texture for the Pip-Boy). I might put a team together for my next project, but with Alton well over 75% done, it's a bit too late for that.
And I don't want to sound like I'm bragging or anything, but over the course of the mod I've learned how to do everything except make my own models and textures. Anything within the GECK, with the exception of FOSE stuff, I can pretty much do. Although it's definitely slower as a one-man team, I'm a control freak and perfectionist, so for a project that is of my hometown, I kind of like it. And that might be why it's taken so long, but whatever. I can't stop from being who I am .

http://www.elijahhouck.com/emh/blog/

wow! this looks promising. I have a voice like old lady gravel with the nasal NE accent so am not going to volunteer for your voice thingie. Would love to see this though.

I got a lot done over spring break (and have over the past few months as well) and am finally nearing completion of the landscape. After that, it's the last few quests and finishing interiors.
Also, there's been a screenshot or two posted on my site as well as a birthday thing I did for my dad. Enjoy!

This mod looks like it will rock! Keep up the good work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks nice

It'll be nice to have a new place to explore, as much as I love FO3 it's to the point (actually been there for awhile now) where I know where just about each and every spawn point is. It's to the point where I even lay mines on the ground in areas where I know creatures/raiders/mutants/talon company will show up long before they actually show up

BUMP to keep this great mod at the top where it belongs.

Thanks, guys. I'm the same way with Fallout 3, Spite- I know waaay too much about it, mostly from modding it for the past two years.
Glad you guys are interested in the project, it's been a long journey, especially for a one-man team (well, besides my awesome crew of voice actors and beta testers). Oh, and for a sense of scale, Alton is over twice as large as Point Lookout.

Haha you gotta be kinddin right? Historic Alton or new Alton present.

If so, ya can't forget grafton, the small river rat town. Really lights up on the weekends.

Anyway good luck, I'll be sure to check it out when it gets finished.

A bit of both, actually. For example, Hopp Hollow, a modern day newish neighborhood, isn't there, and is instead replaced by fields that were once in its place long before I was born. On the other hand, since the bombs weren't dropped until 2077, the town has grown into more of a city. Not huge skyscraqers or anything, but there is more of a city-like feel both uptown and downtown by the river. If you know the area well, you'll recognize the Clark Bridge, Elijah P. Lovejoy Monument, the River Road, Bell Street, State Street, the Godfrey area, and quite a bit more. On the other hand, I've had to make a few changes for a better gameplay experience and shorter build time, for example, part of the border is blocked off by mountains. While Alton is pretty flat, the mountains look good (especially when I get LOD generated) and it saves me from having to landscape a ton of cells that you would see if the mountains weren't there.

Unfortunately, Grafton is a bit too far out for me to worry about. I didn't go that far down the River Road, as that would've added a lot of boring landscape without much to do.

Maybe you can keep adding on in future releases. Just a little at a time.

I haven't decided what to do afterwards. While I love GECKing (a term I've used quite often over the past few years ) quite a bit more than gaming, I think this will be my last Fallout 3 project. Afterwards, I'll likely either port it to New Vegas, which would take a ridiculous amount of work, or simply wait until Skyrim comes out so I can mess with the Creation Engine. I think the latter is much more likely, as this summer and the next school year is going to be pretty busy for me.

Skyrim!!! I like the sound of it!!!