Is there a mod that works within the main quest, possibly by using a companion, to better explain the parts of the Main Quest that have plot holes or just bad exposition?
(Note - I am not knocking FO3 overall.)

For example, for TES III: Morrowind, there is a mod named Julan Ashlander Companion. This NPC goes with you along the MQ and gives commentary in places that actually better explain some of the MQ decisions. Specifically, in one place the MQ sends you into an ancestral burial chamber to retrieve a tribal item with a very poorly designed motive. Julan explains it as "they don't expect you to succeed, but to die there and add you as tomb guardian - it's a trap." Basically the MQ is not changed, but the less well-thought out portions make more sense, both in and out of game in this mod.

So, has anyone done something like this for FO3?

...which bits need explaining?

Yes. While some areas could have been developed better, Raven Rock comes to mind, I don't think any part of the main quest really needs further explanation. It's all pretty clear and straight forward to me.

It's not that they need explaining in the sense of "what just happened". It's that even in the game reality some don't have any real reason for happening/surviving, or are ignored once they do happen. Or the reasons the game gives some plot points, well, are just plain ludicrious. Now I'm not trying to bash FO3 here, but let me give you two.

The megaton bomb is not part of the main quest, and three dog does talk about it on the radio and how much he hates you for it. So someone does notice. And LL surviving with only barricades... How does this need surviving? Who is to say that only wooden barricades would not be enough?

I fully understood the entire story and dont really see any parts that need explaining... I think they did a very good job. Now some things could be better, like the specific dialog and such, but overall it was easy to follow. :shrug:

I think we have found your problem. You seem to have forgotten you are playing a game set in a pulp sci-fi world, and there is no reason Little Lamplight has survived 200 years beyond the fact that it's an interesting place to visit, and that the reason you can blow up a town but not become a pariah is that detonating a nuke is an awesome thing to do, but if you were shunned afterwards it'd cut off vast chunks of gameplay.

E: The clamouring realism crowd may do their very best to try and deny it, but Fallout is basically a game about doing over-the-top things in a ridiculous sci-fi postapoc setting rather than a detailed and consistent world simulator. Just stop anolysing events as if they were 'real' and start thinking of them in the context of a pulp sci-fi novel or tacky movie.

Look guys and gals, I'm not trying to start a flame war. If there is a mod that does this, please tell me. If not, please tell me. That's it.
Thanks.

No, there isn't and more then likely wont ever be.

Thanks for the information.

A bunch of little kids would pose no threat to a Super Mutant so there's be no reason for them to attack in the first place. And they probably wouldn't be mature enough to be converted into Super Mutants themselves.

Y'know, if you need to be over 16 to be converted as a Super Mutant it would be a better explanation for LL's survival and Big Town's existence and problems than "we don't trust Mungos" ever was.

After 200 years of only living with other kids, and the only advlts you see are trying to take you away to be made a slave, I am prty sure you would also form a dislike for advlts. It is natural human behavior.

Whether explaining is needed or not, a detailed companion in the style of Julan Ashlander Companion that has lots of interesting comments based on where you are, what quests you are doing, etc. and has a few quests of his own would be awesome.

He is somewhat comparable to Companion Vilja for Oblivion, but I haven't seen anything like this for Fallout 3 yet.

Julan Ashlander Companion for Morrowind and Companion Vilja for Oblivion are my favourite companion mods.

It looks like a case of "If you want it, you have to make it yourself."

re: LL surviving the SMs with just the wooden barricade.



I actually enjoy the gaps and untold sections of the game's plot. It lets you use some imagination and creativity to fill in the blanks for yourself.

I guess I agree with Alfred Hitchcock when he said: "Nothing is more frightening than an unopened door."

The monster that scares you the most is the one that is inside your own mind. And it's appearance varies from person to person. What scares me the most might not phase you in the least, and what terrifies you the most may seem silly to me.

I think that is why I almost always like the book better than the movie. Written word, when executed with style, only tells you that the monster is real, and it is dangerous, and it is going to find you sooner or later. The movie has to show you something that looks like a monster, and is scary. That really only rarely works...

I think the writers for Fallout 3 did a pretty good job telling this story.