I was thinking of alternate starts in FWE today, and it hit me that a really good one would be "Cryogenic Subject."



I think that this could also make a very interesting Main Quest Overhaul, in the vain similar to the movie Terminator Salvation. Guy wakes up, war has come, unsure of fate, saves people, kills stuff. I'll elaborate later, but feel free to post your ideas to.

Not sure about rad-away (The war hadn't happened yet!), but everything else sounds cool. Perhaps repurpose one of the vaults to give you somewhere to wake up (That would also justify giving you some radaway in a container or something), but definately sounds like a neat idea!

That sounds pretty cool. I'd play it! And I'd finally have an excuse to name a character Phillip J. Fry!

Maybe you need a blurb in there that you're father was being treated for the same disease(it is genetic after all) and his tank opened up a few years ago, and that's why you want to find him. Otherwise you are talking about overhauling the main quest. Or at least all the dialog about you being from a vault and how people in Rivet City new your mother. And if you overhauled one Alt. Start then folks would be clamoring for you to over haul the rest and that would take a lot of work. Or so I would imagine. It's not like that's something I've thought of or even considered. And definatley not something I would have already started planning in secret. :ninja:

If he/she's has been in a cryo-chamber for 200 years, where would they get all that stuff? You should start the game with nothing but your skin and have to find the items you'll need to survive. And I doubt that Vault-Tec would devote all those resources on a simple security guard. Maybe some war-hero or high-ranked dignitary's son/daughter would be more appropriate.

If it were a first trial of the treatment sort of thing, they might. It would also sidestep the issue of "Why am I the only one?"

That's a pretty cool idea for an alternate start.

You should start in a tranquility lounger and have all of those things in a footlocker or on a table. Cool idea.

I thought maybe he could appear outside of Vault-Tec HQ.

That works too.

The basic idea sounds good.

Here's my take on it:


Yeah, it wouldn't fit too well with the MQ's reference to "the vault", but alternate starts never do.

Here's my take:

First, recruit Skykappa for his amazing destructibles, tilesets, textures and general awesomeness.
Next, recruit WillieSea, so he can script some magic in.

Your character wakes up in a malfunctioning vault. You were not the only cryo patient. Unfortunately most of the others had radiation leak into their capsules, mixing with the heavy doses of coma inducing medicines, low temperatures, and 200 years, the radiation has mutated them, and they have awoken. They are not happy.

Your capsule opens, you have a suit...and that's about it. You walk a few steps into the darkened hall and BAM, a scripted event (Thanks willie) a corpse flies through a wall (Thanks Kappa) followed by a hulking monstrosity. Thankfully it doesn't see you at first, it begins...doing something to the corpse (Eating/looting/whatever). Then the beast notices you standing horrified. You're weak, so you look for something to defend yourself with.

There's a pipe running along the wall, run over and rip it off (A pipe mesh container, open it, grab the pipe weapon), and get to work.

Thus starts the "Rude Awakening" alternate start/quest mod.


You're welcome

LOL yeah i saw this and thought: Futurama much?

Also sounds a bit like the movie Pandorum, at least my spin on it did

Yea.. Haha... ha... ha... :ninja:

How about waking up in one the existing Vaults that been taken over by mutants? Lol . . that would be rough.

Regardless, it's worth pointing out from a balance standpoint that the skill bonuses and/or perks should be fairly limited. I tried to keep things to a total of +20 to skills, with a -10 to other skills, or +10/-5 and a perk. The alt starts should not change SPECIAL's . . . as you can just account for them by raising lowering stats in the SPECIAL page of the monitor.

Otherwise, I like the idea.

Well here's my take on the main quest thing, kind of stylized in the way the main quest tutorial level is.

Birth: You are born, you choose your name, age, and gender. Depending on the latter decision, you are named after your aunt or uncle, who died of a rare genetic deficiency.

BINK VIDEO: 3 Years later

3: Your father has you on his lap, and is telling you stories about him and his bro/sis, and how you remind him so much of him/her at his/her age. Your father dusts off a book his mom used to read to them, and reads it to you. This is the SPECIAL book. After reading, he puts you to bed.

BINK VIDEO: 16 years later

19: College at a Pre-War Roosevelt Academy, this would be where you would meet a few random NPCs, someone from Vault-Tec looking for good students (or perhaps, subjects...) for their programs. You take the SATs, determining your TAG skills.

BINK VIDEO: 4 Years later

23: Things didn't really go according to plan since college, you still work at Vault-Tec, but you're a security guard and not a scientist. You do get a prototypical Vault Issue Pip-Boy though, so that's cool. Your mother calls and tells you how proud she is of you regardless. After the phone call the Vault-Tec on site Doctor informs you it's time to take your standard issue physical. During the physical, you give blood, look at light prompts, and practice firing a side arm. After the bloodwork comes back, the Doctor informs you that you have a genetic deficiency known as RADS, rapid age deterioration syndrome, the same deficiency your aunt/uncle may have had. The doctor informs you that there are options in the modern age for a young man/woman such as yourself.

BINK VIDEO: 1 Year later

24: You stand among several others in a cryogenic study suit, as a doctor in front of a large crowd says that this is a chance for redemption for all the sick and infirm, that someday these men and women will one day live again. You are then prompted to enter the cryo-stasis pod, which then begins a lengthy bink video upon closure.

BINK VIDEO: The video shows your pod being lifted, while your final vitals and syndromes are being listed, you can see your parents in the audience wave good-bye as you are lifted into the air and but into the cryo-stasis shelving system, the system briefly lists your actual physical location, Vault-Tec V-100cs near Vault-Tec HQ, and then you succumb to sleep.

The classic flashforward starts saying 1 year later, then the number starts rolling slowly at first, then faster and faster until it reaches the double digits, then triple.

More later.

That just repeats the same format as the default intro. There's no need to have any of those time shifts, it's not exactly an original approach. You may as well just play out the default start.

The format is the same, but the story is different. I think the format works.