Black Steel update

[Brother None]

Lich has passed the tinkering stage and is now working full-blast at his mod:<blockquote>I started regular work on my project. Before it was mostly exploring inspirations and experimenting. Now I've made a completely new story. This will be a simulation of a single person's life after a nuclear war. Will he/she survive in the radiactive wasteland? The radiation is small now but everything has been mutated. You've been hidden in a shelter for some years, it's time to walk outside and explore the world. But danger is lurking everywhere. You can meet other survivers that will tell you about nearby areas, where they live.

Features:

-increased realism, RPG details, life simulation
-many new areas to explore, start area is your "home"
-many new items to find, like wilderness food
also:
-experience gained only from locations (removed randoms)
-pip boy removed to increase realism and difficulty
-no starting quest other than survival, big quests opened up around level 4-5

Experience system: small locations with NPC that will help you about medium locations, where you gain exp and items, that will be useful in final big location (to enter there and do some things)

Already i got unofficial demo v1.1 that complete change starting area (alternate Arryo) It's only for testers. To be BSM tester you must be just Fallout fan and interesting with Black Steel project. PM Lich if you're interested.</blockquote>And since sending us the update, he's reached v1.2 of the demo, adding a new starting location plus new location s14 where Klamath was.

Some new screenshots:
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[The_Chosen]

-increased realism, RPG details, life simulation

Since you want to Increase RPG realism, WHY take out the Radom Encounters??

I think Radom encounters would make the mod more realistic...

Sorry my english...

 

[Big T]

I think Radom encounters would make the mod more realistic...

Y'know, in all my life, I've never been walking along (seeing myself from several miles above with green circles and place names scattered about and a black mist on the map squares where I've not been), suddenly encountered a bunch of enemies who were not visible a moment earlier, slipped into TB mode (not to ignore the isometric camera angle) and been able to load, save and restart my life, down to choosing new starting stats.

Maybe it's just me though.

 

[The_Chosen]

Y'know, in all my life, I've never been walking along (seeing myself from several miles above with green circles and place names scattered about and a black mist on the map squares where I've not been), suddenly encountered a bunch of enemies who were not visible a moment earlier, slipped into TB mode (not to ignore the isometric camera angle) and been able to load, save and restart my life, down to choosing new starting stats.

Well, You dont live in a Wasteland with NO LAW and tons of thugs crawling above the desert...

But some of what you said is correct, lets correct:

The Radom encounters will be present, but MUCH MORE reduced... or you rarely will encount someone in the desert, but some time you find!

(Sorry my english again... i'm at work and typing fast!)

 

[Kahgan]

hnf, while I don't think taking out the random encounters is a good idea, tons of thugs is a litle on the heavy side(well, relatively speaken)
So remember the desert is HUGE, so meating other people would be fairly rare...

 

[Per]

I approve of the no random encounters idea. One of my gripes with Fo2 in particular was how after a certain point you could quickly and relatively easily gain any number of xp that way, rendering inconsequential how well you had done in the rest of the game. I mean, why even script a difference between 100 xp (slapping the widow and eating her dog) and 300 xp (feeding the widow and putting the dog in the pound), when you get some 5,000 xp from a bunch of deathclaws in the desert?

This looks very promising. Who wants to bet on the track records of single-author mods versus team-made mods in the near future?

So remember the desert is HUGE, so meating other people would be fairly rare...

Exactly. All those scores of Hubologists, press gangers and marauders around SF, all carrying high-tech gear... where did they all come from? How were they all supported? Why weren't they back at Hubologist HQ preventing it from getting wiped out by a lone tribal?

 

[Rev. Layle]

no random encounters is a good thing to me. if there are to be random encounters, i would make them:

1) rarer
2) less combat oriented (i loved this about FO1 - there were a lot of just odd, non-combat encounters, unless you were near the millitary base or in the southeast, still could have toned down on it a bit)

 

[SNorth]

I wonder how quick we could finish Mutants Rising with a guy like Lich helping us? Lich, do you have a full-time job or any commitments other than working on mods?

 

[bdweller]

Chosen? What the fuck are you doing here? Didn't you said NMA is for freaks?

IMHO, all the ramdom encounter stuff in fallout2 was at least annoying, so i'm with lich here.

And Lich, please keep the good work. Although i liked more the first concept of black steel (something about the same fo2 world but far more destructed and junk filled i think) this is better than the whole diablo2fallout conversion

 

[DirtyDreamDesigner]

Yeah, Lich, please just stick to this, it seems, at least to me, that this is the best concept yet.

Oh, yeah, and no more Warhammer/Dune/whatever combos, mkay?

EDIT: They may look great and have a great atmosphere, but, oh, boy, they definitely don't fit the Fallout universe.
Keep up the good work.

 

[Zaij]

This is like the 6th time he's changed what Black Steel is all about.

 

[Brother None]

This is like the 6th time he's changed what Black Steel is all about.

Yes, but all he's done so far is think up concepts. When thinking up concepts, one is apt to change what it's about it

I think/hope he can stick to one thing while actually working on it, as he's solidified ideas over the past period

 

[Frog]

Umm, why pip boy has been removed ? How will that make game harder ?
Maps and quests ? Somone could just write it down an a piece of paper. A bit extra work but nothing that would make game harder. Rahter more annoying if you'd ask me.
And I quite enjoyed reading all these holodiscs from my pipboy. Not utilising this option is wasting a nice oportunity to add some mood to the mod.
Plus you could just disable some options ... lets say pipboy is damaged and wont be repaired till some certain point in the story.

 

[Brother None]

Yeah. Most annoying thing about removing Pipboy is that the PC can't sleep without it. Huh?

Maps still work, in the demo

 

[Lich]

About randoms:
Already its possible to just walk south for GECK and dont made any quests, because all equipment and exp you can find on way (hubologists, deathclaws) That make you dont want waste your time on making 100 exp quest. When exp and items is harder to find- you will pay more atention to details, so made every quest, visit all locations to gain high level exp. (and then finish game, because you can finish it only when have some exp- no one get trough the game in 15 minutes) And one more thing- world emptiness is typical postnuclear atmosphere.
Already i got concept about random needs of food and water when walk on worldmap.

About Pip-Boy:
Stimpacks was already prior source of HP, i removed them all and now everything that look like food can be eaten. But this food mostly increase +5 hit points, so probably player will dont want carry that much of them so just "wait until healed". I remember when i was in Military Base location, this was strange when you heal some days in one level and lot of mutants are just below (or even just behind door) Now you must have some knowledge where find food on wilderness and how use them wisely.

You will be not typical comic hero. Game will be harder and more strategic (and atmospheric). Olways prior thing will be "how survive this".

Some new items:
To increase realism i made containers from plants. You can find fruits on green bush. There will be also some wasteland weapon. Ammo will be hard to find so i made Red Ryder riffle for cactos stings. These stings you can find on cactos (container). Plant containers got zero space, so you can put here only items that got size= zero (like fruits)

 

[Murdoch]

So, in essence the main char was alive before the whole 'nuclear apocalypse' happened, right? So presumbaly they know where things are or at least used to be. Moreover, he/she can use the maps and the compass they had in the vault to navigate around the terrain that he/she knows the general idea of (where roads go, landmarks and the like). All of this results in navigation being much less of an issue; all he/she needs is some indication of 'where are all the white women at' now, capiche?

And even after a decade, gas stations would still be around, cars would be here and there, the local camping store would still be around (all being out of gas and such, obviously). All the knowledgeable survivalist would need to do is visit those places to get supplies and ideas about what's going on. Not to mention that GPS satellites would still be transitting, or that people may be using radios or even cell phones still. Or are we still set in the alternate FO timeline that lacks effective transistors, etc?

And of course the science nerd in me must point out that while the horrible mutations resulting in deathclaws are pretty unlikely in the FO1 timescale, deathclaws and brahmins after 10 years (perhaps 2 generations) is even more far fetched. So I must ask Lich (who's ideas and project I support wholeheartedly, btw): are you going to account for this and other discrepencies that inevitably popup with only a 5 or 10 year post-apocalypse scenario? Perhaps thru an FEV like event? I've got some ideas on how to implement FEV so that it has some decent basis in science, if you're interested .

 

[Brother None]

And even after a decade, gas stations would still be around, cars would be here and there, the local camping store would still be around (all being out of gas and such, obviously). All the knowledgeable survivalist would need to do is visit those places to get supplies and ideas about what's going on. Not to mention that GPS satellites would still be transitting, or that people may be using radios or even cell phones still. Or are we still set in the alternate FO timeline that lacks effective transistors, etc?

Consider a few facts here, amongst which that the main char (probably) starts outside of a major town and stays there for at least a decade. Little chance of knowing all the landmarks in the middle of nowhere, though he might know the whereabouts of nearby towns, yeah.

And of course the science nerd in me must point out that while the horrible mutations resulting in deathclaws are pretty unlikely in the FO1 timescale, deathclaws and brahmins after 10 years (perhaps 2 generations) is even more far fetched. So I must ask Lich (who's ideas and project I support wholeheartedly, btw): are you going to account for this and other discrepencies that inevitably popup with only a 5 or 10 year post-apocalypse scenario? Perhaps thru an FEV like event? I've got some ideas on how to implement FEV so that it has some decent basis in science, if you're interested .

Brahmin, deathclaws, radscorpions, ghouls and the like are all canon-established to be the result of massive amounts of radiation-induced mutation, which is not necessarily a matter of moving down the generations, though it could be

Remember, for instance, that all ghoul-mutations are first generation mutations caused by massive amounts of radiation. And ghouls are not just ugly, their physique is radically altered, as proven by the fact that they can live 200+ years

If humans can change that much through radiation alone, there's no reason to assume other creatures can not

 

[Murdoch]

Consider a few facts here, amongst which that the main char (probably) starts outside of a major town and stays there for at least a decade. Little chance of knowing all the landmarks in the middle of nowhere, though he might know the whereabouts of nearby towns, yeah.

If he has access to a vault, it probably means he was/is a survival nut and most assuredly would know all the terrain around the vault. And he would also have USGS maps showing all the natural springs, and groundcover for miles around him. Not to mention a freaking roadmap; something that TVD lacking bewilders me do this day.

If humans can change that much through radiation alone, there's no reason to assume other creatures can not

Yeahbut, in the real world, they can't. In the FO world, sure, apparently anything is possible. But ghouls and the like would be cooked literally and figuratively by that much radiation, according to the real world.


In the end though, this is all irrelevent. I am just trying to poke Lich enough so that he sees some of the issues that might crop up and affect the realism of what he is working on. Fixing them know by incorporating a cohesive mythos around his project seems to me to be the best way for his mod to achieve the level of sophistication he is going for.

To this end, I formally request we add the :poke: emoticon that I've seen elsewhere, like over in DAC eg.

 

[Brother None]

If he has access to a vault, it probably means he was/is a survival nut

Why?

Vault Dwellers were selected, you know, not people who "got in" somehow.

Yeahbut, in the real world, they can't. In the FO world, sure, apparently anything is possible. But ghouls and the like would be cooked literally and figuratively by that much radiation, according to the real world.

But then again, Fallout isn't the real world

The answer to all = SCIENCE!
Notice the exclamation mark

In the end though, this is all irrelevent. I am just trying to poke Lich enough so that he sees some of the issues that might crop up and affect the realism of what he is working on. Fixing them know by incorporating a cohesive mythos around his project seems to me to be the best way for his mod to achieve the level of sophistication he is going for.

Well, yeah.

And I might, I should update the smiley.pak anyway

 

[The Commissar]

If he has access to a vault, it probably means he was/is a survival nut

Why?

Vault Dwellers were selected, you know, not people who "got in" somehow.

There are people today who own private vaults for their own use in the event of an Apocalypse (Or to avoid paying taxes). People who build their own vaults do tend to be survival nuts too. Unless you think the government actively sought to shut down privately owned vaults? Even so, I'm sure many would have still existed, and their owners would have been far more prepared for the Post Apocalyptic world then the majority of the "selected" Vault Dwelling population.