I had a great idea watching The Dark Knight just now.

See, I've had a very unsatisfying time modding lately. Nothing seems to inspire me, though I can clearly see all my finished WIPs in my mind's eye. I finished a house I'd been making in Anchorage (another one!) and decided immediately that I didn't like it and deleted it right away. (Yes, I backed it up in case I suddenly change my mind later.) Working on anything else feels like a chore right now.

But the idea of a castle made of scrap has been in my mind for nearly a year now.

Then The Dark Knight gave it to me:

What if James had a lot of money?
Money that he'd put aside for research but never been able to put into practice?
What if you inherited a castle of scrap out in the Wasteland, under which there was a fortified bunker full of gadgets and stuff?
You build your own custom weaponry in the game - wouldn't that feel better if it was part of your own custom arsenal and you were a vigilante hero of the Wastes?

I'm disinclined to actually make you wait until to get the castle, but I will put it somewhere a little out of the way so that it does force you to level up a few times before you get there, so you do spend at least a little time battling the elements. It's not a true "homage to Batman", and there wouldn't be any references to it as it's not going to be linked in any way to the franchise. It's just the idea of a rich, fairly comfortable eccentric braving a dangerous environment purely for the sake of doing good that I thought was quite a nice idea.

Certainly at the moment I wouldn't be including any vehicles. There are other mods to add those things that could do it a lot better than I could.

I think thats a good idea. But I was thinking more a long the lines of a quest to it and its non related to your father. Like you are going through the library and you stumble upon a book about a guy who was rich and famous before the war. His mansion was in DC and it is said in his houses basemant was his lab where he developed lots of military equipment. So you go look for it and find it. But of course the mansion itself is basically scrapped but his lab was in a vault like structure. Eh just a rough idea.

Oooh ... how about if James found it and did it up? Hence having it? But then had to leave it?

Aw, you got me so excited. I thought you'd be making a Batcave. Still sounds pretty cool. Will you be adding modded "gadgets", or will you just be compiling high-tech gear from the game?

Please, please make it so the entrance is a bookshelf in the mansion's half-demolished library with a switch behind several books that opens a door like in . That would just be awesome.

I'll bear your suggestion in mind, Captain. I'll see if that's possible.

Here's an early editor shot of the exterior, showing the metal perimeter walls and four turrets. I'll do some more work - add some vegetation and try to make it look a bit more imposing. I've also started work on the interior of the actual house bit.

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e367/princess_stomper/The%20ScrapCave/Scrapcaveext.jpg

Sort of a 'I am Legend' countrified.

This is it with a bit more work on it

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e367/princess_stomper/The%20ScrapCave/Scrapcaveext2.jpg

I'll have to come up with an excuse for the trees - like maybe they're a radiation-resistant kind, or even artificial, but I wanted them there. The statues on the door pillars are from the fountains, though I've added bins-on-fire to create a 'sconce' effect.

James/owner of the place ??

This is shaping up nicely. Can't wait to try it.

What kind of research?

Are you going to write some backstory, for that research and/or other stuff included in the mod? (Yes, I know you didn't make James and the Fallout lore, but still...)

Well, I'd assume it'd be for PP.

If you are using that backstory, it should be near the Potomac.

That looks great, Princess!

I'm almost certain James wasn't a one trick pony along with Cathrine.

Seeing as I really don't think he would have spent time on anything else.

You should put a Protectron in the place to keep guard of it, its your butler. When you first enter the house it should immediately greet you and say that you look exactly like you father (some mumbo-jumbo that gets you to inherit the house)

I love the pic! It is inspired and unique. I'm looking forward to walking around in it when it's done.

Or actually mistake you for your father and call you James?

A Mister Handy would make more sense.

Ah, that was my next question: I have built some sort of servants' quarters (just one small bedroom) but I was wondering if the butler should be human or robot. Robot would be easier, and I suppose make more sense - why would humans work as butlers when most butlers were robots?

How many companions do most people use? I'm trying to decide how many bedrooms to add.

The entrance hall, upper corridor and that one bedroom are now complete. Screenshots to follow.

Yeah, a robot would be better. As for bedrooms, I think it should fit with your little background story. There should be two. One with a queen-sized bed (for James and Kathrine), and one with a crib (for the PC, who hadn't been born yet). I don't see why number of companions should matter, seeing as they don't sleep and James wouldn't have accounted for many visitors. A guest room, maybe?

Actually,

This looks very interesting

Yeah but there are already Mister Handy's in Megaton/Tenpenny house. Protectrons also don't make a noise when moving around

Spybot perhaps? (shrugs)

-Mush-

Protectrons aren't exactly practical to have around the house. A Mr. Handy is better in combat, and could help out with day-to-day tasks. Perhaps having a different type of robot would be a nice change of pace, but from a realistic point of view, a Handy would be best.

Maybe some people care more about voiced characters than I do, but I think a ghoul that is unconditionally loyal to James would be pretty cool. Perhaps a friend of James's from before the PC was born, devastated when James goes into the vault and wants to make him proud. Experiments on himself and eventually gets himself ghoulified. Maybe you have the option to tell him that in which case he'd be a bit sulky, or lie to him and make him all excited.

Yeah, sounds good. Surely James didn't just have the Lone Wanderer, and then think, "I give up on Project Purity, I best head to Vault 101.". Maybe after Catherine died, James declared he wanted to focus on his child, and the Brotherhood of Steel (its heard somewhere they were guarding the place) tried to capture him to force him to work, so he ran. Then he settled at/built the Scrapcave, and after a while living there headed to V101. You could even have a holotape there talking about how he's leaving for V101.

Just some digest from my brain.
Looking really good so far! I want it. O_O

It's an interesting idea, but I think that would create an awful lot more of extra work (e.g. voicing it) that I'm not sure I want to include this time around. It's something I'll keep in mind, though.


I'm thinking more perhaps that it's somewhere he lived before Project Purity - before Rivet City. Perhaps somewhere he started to work on it but realised he didn't have the resources he needed, so went to Rivet City to find experts to collaborate with.