» Fri May 27, 2011 10:24 pm Overview
The 500 Rads Bar mod aims to add more choice, fun, depth, and longetivity to Fallout 3. It adds an interesting and detailed new location (The 500 Rads Bar), many new NPC's (over 50), and, most importantly, over 15 new, well designed and interesting quests. The mod's plot focusses on designing and running a wasteland business, in any way the player wants to. Want to run an exclusive club for the wealthy and affluent? Hire a posh barkeeper, negotiate a deal to sell clothing, purchase a wine contract, hire some light security, perhaps construct a diner's club, and Bob's your wealthy uncle. Want to run a shady wasteland joint where slavers and raiders stop for a drink? Hire a mob boss to watch the bar, help the slavers capture the kiddies of Little Lamplight, hire some shady characters to patrol your bar, build a drug lab, and Bob is your shady and nasty uncle. The combinations are almost limitless, meaning your Bar will truly feel like your own. With multiple paths to completion, this mod should also have a decent amount of replayability inbuilt. And yes, the Bar will make you money, which varies depending on the products, the buildings you construct you sell and the men (or women) you hire.
Plot Summary
The 500 Rads Bar mod should be fairly lore friendly, for all you Fallout lore nuts
Here's a quick run-through of the plot. Many years ago, an ambitious and intelligent enterprenuer by the name of John Holloway realised that with competition scarce in the wastes, the potential for a one-stop-shop type business was enormous. Sick of living in fear of the wastes, surronded by the feeling of powerlessness and wishing to control his own destiny, Holloway set out to make his dream a reality. Taking up arms, he set off to search for a suitable lcation for his business. After months of searching, he finally discovered a location he deemed perfect. A bombed out bank; the vault-like tunnels under the bank still intact, even after the bombs fell. Hiring a team of 12 wastelanders to work as builders, he began constructing the bar. Within a few years it was finished, and to Holloway, it was like his dream had been brought to life. He hired guards, constructed defences, and soon the Bar was almost impenatrable. Almost impenatrable. The bar opened for business, and within a year, it's reputation had grown enourmously. The profits were huge. The bar was at the peak of it's success when disaster struck. A cold and premediated assualt from within the Bar killed everyone inside, and ravaged the bar. Spoiler
. The bar was slowly reclaimed by the wastes.This part is much more detailed, but if I tell you that it will spoil the associated quest 
After almost 10 years of searching, Holloway has finally found someone he deems worthy to rebuild the 500 Rads Bar. Yes, that's right. You. I'm too lazy to write what exactly will happen next; if you want to know, read the next section.
Detailed Structure Breakdown - Contains Spoilers
The mod begins when the player finds a note on their Megaton or Tenpenny bed, addressed to a certain Mister Holloway, who is residing in Rivet City. Speaking to Holloway will be the first step of the player's journey through the mod. There will be a wealth of dialogue options to select from, catering for every single character type I could think of. The conclusion to this conversation will result in Holloway offering to give you the 500 Rads Bar, in exchange for the player completing a task for Holloway. At this point, the player can accept his offer (starts a new quest), or purchase the Bar off him in simple caps. Many different perks and karma levels will give you a better deal, whichever option you decide.
If the player agrees to complete a task for Holloway, they will be given a difficult quest involving hunting down the man responsible for the massacre which destroyed the Bar originally. This will be a difficult treasure hunt throughout the wastes, involving detective-style skills, interrogation, charm, combat and logic. WARNING: This quest will not baby you in any sense of the term. You will be required to use deductive thinking and intelligence to unearth the truth. For this reason, I have included the option to go back on your decision to complete Holloway's task, and buy the bar outright instead. The quest will have multiple ending (at least three at this stage; perhaps more). There will also be multiple paths to completion; the more obvious clues will lead to a trail which will take much more time to follow.
Once you have completed Holloway's quest (or just bought the bar), the Bar is yours. You begin by clearing out the Bar from any dangers. Bad for business if a customer steps on a landmine or is eaten by a mutant, you see. This will be a very combat intensive, shoot-then-ask-question sort of affair. Once you have completed that, you are instructed by Mister Holloway to begin searching for a team of staff to run your bar. You will have to hire a bartender (regular trade, like food, drink, clothing, scrap, and so on), an armourer (guns, ammo, armour, explosives), and a basemant dealer (drugs, slaves, stealth equipment). There will be 5 bartender candidates, and 3 candidates for each of the other positions. On the surface, the choice will look very simple. Each character you can offer to hire for a fixed income (the same amount for each character), and they will all have a different personality.
However, the choice will have much more impact than just that. Asking around, searching candidates houses (illegally), and even following the characters
will reveal things about them. You can then question them about it, and they will reveal their "extra service" to you. This is complex, so I'll give an example. Investigating one particular character will reveal that they are a drug addict. Questioning them about it will result in them owning up to it, and them saying, "if you hire me, I'll sell you chems for cheaper than anywhere else in the wastes". Hiring this character will give you the least amount of caps per week out of any option, but you'll have access to loads of chems. Only one character does not have a special service; that character makes the most money for you each week. So choose wisely. Each character will also affect the look and feel of the bar.
NOTE: You will also have to hire a janitor, from two options. This choice WILL NOT affect the bar in any way, save for how it looks.
The next major step is obviously working out how you will defend the Bar. Will you hire a roboticist, and construct hordes of robotic guards? Perhaps you would rather human guards patrolling your Bar? Maybe you will go for a minimalist approach, with an unarmed bouncer, a sniper and a gate guard to keep things safe. Perhaps you will even hire an animal trainer and biomimetrics specalist, and protect the bar with human and mechanical wasteland creatures? The options are limitless. Once you are satisfied that your Bar is defended as you want it to be, you can tell Holloway to open the Bar for business. Customers will immediately arrive (dependant on who you have hired and the choices you have made). It is at this time that you can begin to collect money. Money collected per week will be dependant on buildings you have constructed, staff you have hired and the inventory your Bar stocks.
The next step to acheiving Bartyrdom is aqquiring items for your Bar to sell. Will you make a food and drinks only, traditional style bar; or will you stock weapons, ammunition, and explosives for the war-like customers? You can even deal in drugs and slaves. Once your bar is open, Holloway will explain to you that once you have aqquired one "batch" of a certain item type, that type of item can sustain itself by trade alone. Therefore, it will be your task to obtain that first, initial batch (or as I like to call it, the initial shipment). There are 12 different item types, each with an associated quest. For example, getting an initial slave shipment involves luring Little Lamplight kiddies over to Paradise Falls, while getting weapons involves infiltrating and taking down Weaton Army (don't worry, it has been made... sufficiently better defended *evil laugh here* ) Here is a list of the twelve product types:
Items sold in main bar:
Alchohol
Food
Nuka-Cola
Clothing
Scrap
Medical Equipment
Items sold in bar armoury:
Ranged Weapons
Armour
Ammo/Explosives
Items sold in bar basemant:
Drugs (chems)
Slaves
Stealth Gear (Mellee Weapons, bobby pins, ect).
Once you have at least six of these item types in your bar, Holloway will explain to you that an amazing opportunity has come up. He has learned of a skilled engineer, who was captured by the enclave. This opens up a large quest where you must break him out of an enclave prison. When you succede, he comes and works for you in the bar. He will collect five different kinds of resources, which will be used in the various new buildings and upgrades you will be able to construct. You hand in things, and this raises your Resource Stockpile. I was inspired by the brilliant Foundation mod by Giskard; see that mod for an example. These resources are:
Raw Material - Gained by handing in things like scrap metal, lead pipes, cups, plates, and utensils, and so on.
Science - Gained by handing in sciency things, like Fission Batteries.
Engineering - Gained by handing in complex mechanical devices such as vacume cleaners and steam gauge assemblies.
Knowledge - Gained by handing in books.
Medicine - Gained by handing in medical supplies.
Buildings will be constructed by collecting the correct amount of resources, and sometimes you will also need to complete an associated quest.
Screenshots:
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/5679/screenshot12o.png
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/8149/screenshot4ggf.png
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/3660/screenshot13s.png
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http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/7799/screenshot16v.png
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/8697/screenshot17hjc.png
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/1182/screenshot18d.png
Progress
BETA TESTERS NEEDED!! I will be releasing the 0.2 beta to beta testers only within the next two or three weeks. Post here if you want to be a beta tester! We still need about 8 more.
Writing/Concepts: 95%. I have mostly ironed out the kinks in the plot, but ideas and concepts are still welcome.
Exterior Design: 70%. The Bar's exterior has been completed.
Interior Design: 60%. The entire Bar exterior is completed, but still needs to be cluttered. Hollow's house is also finished.
NPC Dialogue: 15%. Holloway's entire opening speech has been finished (that thing was huge!) but there is still much to be done.
Voice Acting: 15%. Many characters now have voce actors assigned to them.
Scripting: 20%. The first few quests have been completed, and the others are ongoing.
Modelling/Texturing: 30%. Many textures and models have been completed by Drag0ntamer.
Recruitment
I will always be in need of voice actors/actresses. Just check out the http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=945677&hl=Holloway for character listings and details.
