Due to the urgent nature of the main quest, ive been cracking my head on how an Alternate Start can work and STILL be able to connect to the main storyline if the player wishes to.

Some spoilers ahead. Stop reading of you don't wanna get spoiled, then again u shouldn't be in this part of the forum anyway lol.


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Pick whoever you want to be from list of choice via a menu system. Character creation doesn't start here.

When the game starts, have a text box with a little background story. Eg: if you chose a caravan merchant, story might go how you spent your day. Or if you chose a raider start, story could be how you had a successful raid. Whatever the story, ultimately the character will sleep.

*cue*
This first dream would actually be the playable pre-war time and character creation starts. Dream will end once character creation is completed and the player is brought back to the wasteland.

At this point, let the player continue with the game until the next sleep, and the pre-war sequence continues and stops at maybe the announcement of nuclear war on tv.

Next sleep will continue the prewar scene and this will continue in a series of "dreams" when you sleep until you reach the part when you finally emerge out of vault 111, and the ends the final flashback dream.

At this point, there could be a message box or something that says something like "hmm...strange dreams...should I investigate further?"

At this point, the player can either pursue the main quest, or just do whatever he/she wants. This will hopefully allow players to ignore the main quest and justify it as nothing more then a jet induced drunken dreams.

Waddya'll think? Makes for a more immersive alternate start without breaking the main quest?