» Tue Jun 17, 2014 9:56 pm This idea is for a game somewhat different from what one would expect from a RPS game like Fallout and I see it as an spin-off in the same universe.
War, War never Changes, but seriously who gives a…
We have had our “The World has ended” games, we have seen the destruction, the chaos, but with the exception of the Fallout 3 DLC we have never had a real chance to do what I have always wanted to do in the Fallout or other such game. I want to rebuild! Just for once in a Fallout game I don’t want to be the Lone Wanderer/Courier. I want to be hired by one of the fractions to rebuild a state. Don’t turn away! I’m not talking SimCity here.
Oh good you’re still here. Ok let’s first choose a state that hasn’t been used before.
Colorado is good because of the direct link to nuclear war as they controlled the US Nukes at Cheyenne Mountain Nuclear Bunker (CMNB). Ok I’m sure you are imagining a story involving exploring CMNB and you should do so because the previous gameplay would be very much present.
Back to being the Hired Creator (needs a better name, but will do for now). You start by entering the area as a “Lone” Orphan who is the last survivor of the destruction of an orphanage that was funded by the Followers of the Apocalypse. You are known to have been taught by some of the best, now missing minds from many factions in who to better the world. Some nasty stuff went down and you think you are alone.
Of-course you’re not. You have been trained to help tame the untouched nuclear wilds and the factions want your help.
While they are out looking for you your first main task is to establish your own base of operations. No not going out and buying a home, going out and building one. Not just a home mind-you but an expandable fortress that would one day rival Megaton!
This is going to be how the factions find you your Nameable HQ. You chose out of some travellers who are passing by who you want to stay. Some can’t stand the others so choose carefully because their personalities will not only change the tone of the budding township but also the reaction to outside people and the factions who will want you to build Colorado for them.
But I’m ahead of myself. First you need wood, stone, or more importantly scrap! You have to decide how to progress on your town do you want to start with a wood hut, or a scrap metal building, or would that caravan down the road make a good start?
Along with you is your trusty two headed Brahmin you can use this for larger objects and you can have it drag your swag back. Of-course you have to defend the creature or you are stuffed.
As you are by yourself without and faction support or villages to help you must do the legwork. Forget a ton of menus you have to chop some wood (at an accelerated rate for enjoyment sake), or prepare your scrap, or stone, or whatever. At this stage you can chose between a few different shapes and looks and in the future you can expand until there are more buildings and walls. Don't worry though in the future your major projects will see you with helpers gathering what you set for them.
Your HQ will be entirely of your own design; location (near start and near water), layout, and types of people, materials, and flag. With the flag option you can design out of customization shapes or even savable drawing made in-game (like paint).
You’re the Mayor you decide, but not out there, not in the wastes. You have a small town growing and you have been found. The NCR, the East Coast BoS, a faction of the Great Khans, Slavers, Super Mutants, and a new faction have sent ambassadors your way.
The land needs colonization and with the greatest minds gone from the school where you grew up (Training level), they want whatever knowledge you have from them. Of-course you have your own price for the wisdom these great men and women gave to you. You must be in charge of building this new settlement and the independence of your HQ.
Who you chose to work for at the start doesn’t have to reflect how you will work for in the future, but we will get back to that.
You will now get a small amount of town revenue out of these ambassadors as you have to build an Inn for one of your township loyalists and they will pay you through him or her.
Now you have money to trade as your people need food, a small outpost, a few supporters, and access to the greater factions of the world. You can go out and explore old fashioned Fallout style, get stuff for your town or just better gear for yourself, or go into the story that I made up of different segments; Exploration, Clearing, and Construction.
Exploration: The factions know what was there before the war, but they do not know now. They are willing to send someone with you to explore, or you can find companions throughout the map at border outposts owned by the factions. You can go by yourself of-course. The Brahmin gets left behind.
Clearing: clearing happens when you discover enemies, or people. Two examples for this: You come across a group of Travelers squatting there. The NCR wants you to move them on or convince them to stay as members of their faction in an outpost there. The Super Mutants want to build an Inn and will let them stay if they will help them with human food preparation (not cannibalism), the EC BoS just want them gone so they can set up a science station, and the Slavers want you to join them on a hunt to capture them and sell them at one of their border outposts.
Example two: you come across a den of Centaurs. The NCR and BoS are in agreement wipe them out, The Super Mutants want to tame them (leads to tame your own mini game?), the slavers want the meat, and the Great Khans want some hard to get component from one of them through a capture.
Construction: You have found and cleared some land and it is time to build. Based on you moral choice or just what you think that the land needs you listen to the arguments of the factions and make your choice. NCR Outpost, Super Mutant Inn, EC BoS Science station, Great Khans want a Lab built near the plants in the area, Lookout Post for Slavers looking for marks.
Now you build, they have their specifications for the building of your choice, but you have freedom to create inside this, as well as special conditions.
The other factions might be upset but they are not stupid. You get pulled aside and told that the EC BoS wants an electronic monitoring devices inside the Great Khans Lab. Or that the Slavers want a special house built inside the NCR walls (if you build them walls).
Once construction is complete on a project people move in and more adventures await from them and their personalities. Their personalities that could be different based on the facilities that you built for them, and even from what you made them from.
People will also react differently to your town based on who you side with at each stage and factions could become hostile. If you side with the Slavers slaves will avoid your town, and you might miss a former slave with an expertise you could have used in your growing town, though you might get something very special either way.
As for a special faction specific reward for building whatever you did, you get some caps and some new technology that you can implement in some way to your town. Super Mutant Centaur capture tech could yield pens and construction into Centaur Wrangler Guild house for your town, the Bos could give you access to water cleaning tech that they have been working on at the Jefferson Memorial and you could use this to increase your water output and increase your rad suit resistance.
Obviously as the Construction Storyline Missions progress you’ll be building more and more complex things, from towns to a city but to whom will you give to that city will depend on the next factors I’ll talk about now.
Action Story: Of-course there is the Action story as well. Separate at the beginning of the game and converging at the end the Action oriented missions would help along the story of your orphanage destruction, where the great minds have gone, what is in the legendary CMNB, and who is the mysterious new faction in the area?
Now while there would be two main stories that would combine at the end both Action and Construction with your “unique to you wasteland” there is another factor that could change the end. Your town and how high in certain values that you build up during its construction, it has the potential to give you a choice to unite Colorado under your flag at the end of the game. The game WOULD continue at this end so that you see your world and how people are surviving in it.
The End would have several factors if you intend to take over you need to have allies so if you have pissed off too many factions it could end bad and the wastes could revert to being just wastes. You could succeed you won’t have another big city because your HQ City will be the capitol and you can build “something special” on the city site.
If you ally with a faction that you are still on friendly terms with you can keep your independence but you will lose a lot of favour with the others some more than others based on whom you chose.
If you ally with the Enemy who killed your orphan family and kidnaped or killed the Great minds you’ll be hated by everyone and you’ll use the secrets of the CMNB to wipe out your enemies. This is the opposite of everything you’ve tried to accomplish and thus is for you dumb ass playthrough.
No matter what there will be your War never changes battle with the evil mentioned above and battles with any raiding factions you have angered enough will keep you busy defending your town after the game is over.
That is the Main storylines, so now onto the rest of the options of the HQ building and recruitment and of course missions outside the main.
During the game you have to upgrade your HQ with people, technology, animals, buildings and more. People will either pass bye and you can convince who you want to stay, they will seek you out based on your adventures during the main game and the side quests, and you seek them out yourself. Some will be swayed by money given or promised returns from the HQ, others will say yes or no based their moral objections and some will based on their faction and what you have done.
Say for instance you save some slaves on the railroad and help them get to freedom in the NCR in a side quest. Word gets around about you and escaped slaves will come by looking to help you or even set up a railroad in your town if you give them permission.
You could also meet some old man who has set up in the wastes who was once a sheriff if your gun skill is high enough he might join your town to be the Law and help protect your town from raiders, or minor factions. If you want him that is.
There are plenty of ways this can be done and as time goes by different people you have recruited might get together and bring more people into your town (children if you haven’t figured it out).
By the end of the game I want it to feel as if you have spent years there I want to see the towns children grow up and help or hinder you at the end based on your interactions, and your creation to feel like a community that has evolved with you actions.
The town would have a life of its own beyond the people as well. If you build a garden and plant a tree let it take forever and a day to grow and you can feel all the more achievement for it. Drought and rain would affect it based on how you protect that tree would also project to each part of your HQ’s buildings, animals, people, technologies, and the laws you have given them.
Laws are simple like your own 10 commandments. No slavery would upset the slavers. No murder, or theft might be par-for-course, but what about a cult based around you or an element of your choice? Or a law outlawing Nuka-Cola? Up to you.
Of-course there is a word that inspires both trepidation and joy for different types of gamers globally and that word is “Romance.” I’m not talking about a ruddy dating sim, or even Dragon Age style. So let’s not go mad here this IS Fallout after all. I mention romance because this game is built around rebuilding an entire wasteland in all of its forms and children as mentioned above are a part of this. To make a Romance in Fallout would be extremely difficult because it would have to be in Fallout style. A companion romance would be possible, but problems come up if you are playing a female character because it’s hard to explore the wastes when you decide to have a kid. If you made it so you had a child near the end of the game there could be a year of building some grand town/city/building and once it is complete you can leave the kid at home with a minder and bring him or her gifts back from the wastes. All of this could be ignored and you can be a loner.
If you are good your son might go shooting rad roaches around the town walls with you, or if you are evil your son/daughter may one day (in the prologue maybe) even kill you for your HQ if you didn’t love them enough, or leave to be the lone wanderer of the next game. Who knows?
Side quests: Some side quests are epic one offs, others will lead to repeatable quests like a Slaves Railroad. Repeatable quests are a just for a game that will continue after the story completion. With people cheer or booing you to give you that emotional boost as you continue.
Ok, ok before we end you are probably wondering about the “something special” I mentioned earlier. Well you won and the land is yours so it could be a forest, a trade outpost for the factions who now want to trade with you, or do something insane and build a huge statue of yourself and make people worship you like a god!
This like all things in my mind is a WIP.
Copyright to Fallout and term belongs to gamesas. Ideas and story belongs to Ben Falconer Bridges.
