Fallout Aftermath

[damonicos]

June 6th 2255

Your a Trapper from Klamath
Thirteen years after the explosion off the coast of San Fran, Things here are much the same.
You Live in what's left of an old Mall on the West side of town, Rats being the most common threat, a nuisance of about 20lbs of fat, fur, and balls that crawl out of the dark places around town.
A Gun store was opened here in the west end, though they don't carry many guns. Mostly gear for trapping, skinning equipment, spears, knives, rope, and so on, on good days the Odd Stimpack.
The East side has a Doctor now, though he's not cheap. Moved into the old Dunton place.
You Can't afford much these days. Word is out that NCR is using some new paper script as currency so the general value of the bottlecap has plummeted.
You Must Work, Your Mall abode and spear won't suffice.
You can head out in search of gecko's as you always have. Though the skins aren't worth nearly as much now
You know The basement may have things worth finding. Many have gone down and never came back. (You recall that one guy clad in leather armor and his shiny looking side-arm) But you don't want to BE that guy either. He had Armor and a Gun... You're bareback with a spear.
Buckner's Buccaneers is always looking for guards for her caravan, And These days Caravans are the only way your making it to your destination in one piece.. However last time you asked they told you Gun, Ammo, and some kind of Armor are *Required*.... maybe if you ask again, reallly nicely.
That doctor had a help wanted sign up, perhaps thats available.
Or Maybe its time to leave Klamath. Take a Caravan to Arroyo maybe, You heard it has grown into quite a paradise - Though it is said no one may enter it... but maybe if you ask reallly nicely.
You know the wasteland is unforgiving, And trekking it alone is suicide.
You are not some "Chosen One" on a heroic journey, Your goal is merely to live, and who knows! maybe make some friends and discoveries along the way.

This is the Idea behind my Mod. At least This is how I would like the game to begin. Though I know very little about modding, Im pouring through tutorials and walkthroughs of all kinds and just trying to wrap my head around it all.
Im Going to go back to step One, And write all my steps as I go. In hopes that things I do wrong can be pointed out.
I realize this is an OLD game, And im sure most if not all of you have Moved on to bigger and cooler things, But I dreamed of doing this to fallout when I was 15 (15 years ago) and Now I see It is actually Possible! Im Stuck. I figure If i spend enough time staring at the code i will eventually start to get it, (Or just have alot bad dreams and headaches)
Anyways I Hope To actually be contributing to NMA before too long!
Thank You all so much just for being such Dedicated Fallout 2 Ers! I have dabbled in just about every mod I could find and Loved Them All. Thank you!

Damon

 

[CPL]

I think the best way to start, since doing a mod like this can be a lot of ambitious work, is write out the story line as much as you can (you have a good start to it already,) map out the different scenarios for every location in your game, then build it up piece by piece taking small steps and don't take on more than you can handle at once. Get a good plan and stick with it. I've noticed that mods have a high mortality rate because of burnout or other issues and they never get off the ground. It could take years to even remotely finish anything. It all depends on how much time you have to put into it. Good luck in your endeavors and I hope this will come to fruition.

 

[phobos2077]

I remember myself back in 2005 trying to start similar ambitious project...

I agree with what CPL said. Fallout can be a hard game to mod. It doesn't mean you shouldn't do it though, but I would suggest following course of actions:

1. Carefully design the general idea of your mod. Answer those questions: What will make it different? How can I make it live at least to an alpha stage? Is this just a temporary desire, or you can dedicate some portion of your time for the next several years to slowly work for your pleasure without burning out? This is very important, the process must give you some pleasure, or else you will quickly burn out when difficulties (technical or design) will arise.
2. Why would other people want to join your endeavor? Make a working prototype which will highlight best parts of your mod - make a small town with a couple of quests, focus on details, carefully design characters and write meaningful dialog. If you can make a decent demo, it will attract players, players are potential modders and you need them to help you finish the job. (while it may seem you can do everything by yourself - large mod is not only maps and scripts, you need at least a decent writer and an artist. You might want to add some new graphics so the game will look fresh)
3. Focus on basic things first, don't be distracted for long with some complex ideas like advanced mechanics or large quests. Build a skeleton (eg. map with general layout of all buildings, all NPCs, write dialog for most important NPCs and make the main quest line), then, when you are happy with the result, expand upon it by adding more content.
4. Remember how many (almost all of them, actually) other similar projects died in the past. Don't be discouraged by their failures, but you can learn something from their experience. Just be ready that something like this can happen and plan for it (like making project open-source, so it may continue after you).

Good luck