Faction Gameplay Enhancement

After reading Lingwei's WIP thread on the Talon Company (an excellent project that aims to improve the talon company with a full quest line and player interaction)

I started thinking about alternative faction gameplay. The ability to play a character who is not the vault dweller(save the world) hero is severely limited in fallout 3. This is a large contrast to Oblivion, where you could be whoever you wanted to be and the game had quests and dialogue to support your character choice. eg mercenary (fighters guild) , magician (Mages guild), thief (thieves guild) and assassin (Dark Brotherhood).

The biggest problem is that Fallout 3 doesn't support alternative characters with quests or dialogue or NPC interaction. All the would be raider, slaver, trader or mercenary characters have only the players imagination rather than a in game devise to role-play.

Currently there are some some excellent slaver based faction enhancements eg FNQQ but not much else that im aware of. (although there have been some commendable attempts)

I think alternative faction game play is the largest feature that is missing from fallout3 and is a game enhancement that modders should consider a priority. Most other areas (new guns, armor, companions, towns, etc etc) already have significant number of mods devoted to these areas. Although of course new ones are always welcome.


Way forward.

- A faction based quest line is something that only the dedicated modder should contemplate due to the timeframe of 8months to a 1 yr+ involved to complete such a project.

- Smaller faction enhancement mods are doable within a reasonable timeframe - 2-3months.

- Concentrating on faction enhancements which are the most realistic to be completed.

-Trader faction enhancements.
-> rebalancing item prices so buying cheap in one location and selling high is a realistic proposition.
->the ability for a player to invest in a shop. The player needs to deliver x number of goods via brahim to x town per week inoder to receive a dividend from the shops trade. (if no deliveries are made then the shop cant trade)
-> Give the player the ability to run his own trade caravan with brahim (which would have an upkeep cost) and a guard (which you would have to pay a salary). Receive a trader perk. You only get the ability to buy low and sell high (at a faraway town) if you have the trade perk and a brahim.

Mercenary Faction Enhancements
-> the ability to guard trade caravans and earn a wage. The road warden mod had this ability but many people including myself had problems with the caravans disappearing and joining msg spam. The mod is now abandoned so it would be great if someone with scripting knowledge could debug and re release.
->expand on the ability to get bounty from the regulators. Adding new evil raider and super mutant bosses to kill for bounty ; removing the karma bonus as you are doing this for pay not to be a good guy ; expand and relocate regulator headquarters ; if you elect to be a mercenary then you dont get regulator faction perk - this is to enable player to be evil later on and receive regulator bounty hunter attacks on his/her character. Currently if you have the perk the regulator bounty hunters dont attack you which is kinda dumb.

Raider Faction Enhancement
-> Reorganise raiders into sub factions /gangs that have their own territory and gang colours. Player can be friendly or hostile to each gang.
- > When you first approach a gang you have the option of either a)paying them a small cap (bribe) fee in order to commence negotiations or b)engage them as hostiles and forfeit the chance to go on missions or receive bounty caps until cell reset or other determined time frame.
-> if you decide to commence negotiations (you have to be atleast evil karma level) then you can go on missions for them (eg kill rival raider gang members or attack trade caravan in return for caps or trade with them or enslave wastelanders or rivals and sell them to the gang, buy food for them at a town in return for caps as raider arn't allowed in town). Once you successfully open negotiations you receive a gang colours scarf or bracer which gives you membership of that faction as long as you are wearing it. Attacking a member of the faction will cause gang colours to be removed and you need to begin with negotiation again after a set time period has elapsed etc .

Talon Company Enhancement
-> Similar to raiders you have option of opening negotiations and going on kill missions or enslaving for caps or delivering supplies to other talon outposts
->you can command other talon members via companion share/recruit if you have completed x number of missions for the talons.

Modding Challenge

- are there any other reasonable straightforward things to mod in that could enhance faction gameplay ? (some of the above ideas would not be easy but are there to provide inspiration)

- are there any mods currently in progress that would enhance gameplay ?

- How much community support is there for faction enhancement mods ?

- Is there any modders willing to begin a faction enhancement project ?