Project Van Buren

Soggy-Mutant said:
Wait, are you going to try and remake the entire game?
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Not remake, finish it. I know it sounds crazy and the the actual probability is converging to zero. Since I have finally found out who has the code and tools for it, I am gonna TRY to convince them to let us use this 17 year old piece of commertially useless and unfinished engine.
One thing that is motivating me for doing this is that the engine has lot of stuff already working, secondly - and now I know some of you may not agree - it has that old vibe I love about classic Fallouts (which is quite hard to reproduce in modern games).
But of course, there are things that speak against me, like the engine being technically deprecated and still not fully implemented features in it. That would be a challange.

Anyway, works on my Unity project had to be stopped for a little while as I needed one particular feature of HDRP 4.0.0 which works only in Unity 2018.3, however some of customized shaders and my post-processing settings do not work in 2018.3 yet since it's still a beta, so I have to wait. Meanwhile, I may try something out with that old man Jefferson :D
 
Whatever comes of this, as long as you're learning and honing your skills while having fun and sharing what you're doing - I'm all for it. It is quite the ambitious endeavor (to put it lightly) but keep it up at your own set pace and enjoy yourself most importantly.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Ed of Vault 13 said:
Whatever comes of this, as long as you're learning and honing your skills while having fun and sharing what you're doing - I'm all for it. It is quite the ambitious endeavor (to put it lightly) but keep it up at your own set pace and enjoy yourself most importantly.

Thanks for sharing.
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Thank you for your kind words. You are totally right, enjoying and having fun is the core element in development. I cant even remember the last time I was that happy and proud of my work like when I finally finished animation blending to my liking :D I was quite demanding about how it is supposed to look like, and firstly actually thought I will not be able to do pivoting like in AAA third-person animation controllers. But if you try long enough, you'll get what you're after :D You can have a look

https://streamable.com/h5m1e
 
Wow, it's great to have another attempt at making the real Fallout 3! I became somewhat obsessed with it myself and thus have some questions for you:
1. Are you going to release a full game when it's done or can we expect a playable demo first?
2. Do you also aim at making ghouls and supermutants playable races?
3. Will the game have the plague mechanics or will it be too complex to add?
4. Are there any ideas from the original unfinished game that you want to remove or will you remain as faithful as possible to them?

I wish you good luck. Those screenshoots looks amazing!
 
Sagez said:
Wow, it's great to have another attempt at making the real Fallout 3! I became somewhat obsessed with it myself and thus have some questions for you:
1. Are you going to release a full game when it's done or can we expect a playable demo first?
2. Do you also aim at making ghouls and supermutants playable races?
3. Will the game have the plague mechanics or will it be too complex to add?
4. Are there any ideas from the original unfinished game that you want to remove or will you remain as faithful as possible to them?

I wish you good luck. Those screenshoots looks amazing!
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1.The playable demo is the most probable option, mainly for having a good feedback. Since it is fully community fan-made, and thus non-commercial product, I have no interest in hidding things from you all as I would be in case of proper market release.

2.No. This concept was created while Chris Avellone was involved in the development and the plans with this game were actually very different back then. I am using Josh's design instead which I simply find more "Fallout-ish". So no other races. I want this game to be highly narratively driven as Fallout 1 was, and I think that playing as a Super-mutant would ruin the immersion as well as it would not make much of a sense for such a character being set as a protagonist in given narrative (maybe ghoul would be better suited for this, but still, I can see some collision in storyline that would not make sense if the character was a non-human).

3. If a plague spreading over time and some time limits coming out of it is what you mean by "plague mechanics", then I cant explicitly say yes or no, as it hasnt been completely decided yet. Spreading and time limits are pretty sensitive topic in open-world RPGs, for they do invoke a sense of pressure and thus contribute to narrative aspect of the game, however, any kind of "bordering" players options and free will is kinda against open-world game premises. I would say I can see that being implemented in way of some compromise between both aspects, but I can not say that for sure at this stage of development. But I guess it is possible to force the player (without being uncomfortable) to do the important stuff before becoming a pornstar in New Reno, if you know what I mean :D

4.Well there is one major "removal", or rather major redesign of the very end of the main story, as my designer and I felt like space travel is too much for Fallout. It still makes sense without it however and both B. O. M. B 1 and 2 are naturally part of the plot. Other then that, the changes we made are mostly enhancing the original design. For example New Canaan and Jericho water threatment plant were merged into one location called just Jericho at the end of the original development. We splitted them back, or rather, made New Canaan being that "name carrier" of this location, with water plan being an essential part of it. We also restored New Jerusalem (or what is left of it) to the south as it is well-designed location and it nicely connects to the local lore.
 
You are going to cut out BOMB001?

But if anything that place would have been one of the highlights for me. And I do not think space travel is out of place in Fallout, it should just not be common.
 
I have to agree with The Dutch Ghost about space travel not being out of place in Fallout.

Fallout world was quite advanced before the bombs fell, they would definitely have space stuff.

In classic games it is talked about space programs, the Enclave wanted to travel through space, the whole thing about Fallout and Vaults was so the Enclave could travel deep in space. Mr House wants to take humanity to space, Repconn made real space rockets, the Shi think they could achieve space travel very soon in the future (Fallout 2), etc.
Both Mr House and the Shi think they can achieve space travel in the near future, and they are using scraps of technology and industry after the great war. So if they can do it in a post apocalyptic setting, I would think that space travel would have been common in pre-war Earth.

I would think that the pre-war world would have plenty of space technology, but not interplanetary stuff (traveling to other planets or beyond). How I see it is that they were focused on keeping things close to Earth. Space stations, satellites and maybe some trips to the moon (but not colonization of it, yet) would probably not be uncommon in the pre-war Fallout world.
 
Risewild said:
I have to agree with The Dutch Ghost about space travel not being out of place in Fallout.

Fallout world was quite advanced before the bombs fell, they would definitely have space stuff.

In classic games it is talked about space programs, the Enclave wanted to travel through space, the whole thing about Fallout and Vaults was so the Enclave could travel deep in space. Mr House wants to take humanity to space, Repconn made real space rockets, the Shi think they could achieve space travel very soon in the future (Fallout 2), etc.
Both Mr House and the Shi think they can achieve space travel in the near future, and they are using scraps of technology and industry after the great war.

I would think that the pre-war world would have plenty of space technology, but not interplanetary stuff (traveling to other planets or beyond). How I see it is that they were focused on keeping things close to Earth. Space stations, satellites and maybe some trips to the moon (but not colonization of it, yet) would probably not be uncommon in the pre-war Fallout world.
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You have actually argumented against yourself with these statements. Enclave "wanted" to travel through space, though they ended up with testing prolonged isolation in Vaults and experimenting with several "space vehicles" when they took control of Bloomfield in 2076. As they were still very far from space traveling itself before the bombs fell in 2077, they eventually changed their plans anyway. Even Mr.House predicted that he would be able to send "people in orbit" in 50 years, which means he was far from achieving it, and please note that Mr.House was U.S. most prominent technical mastermind.

I remember that Bethesda's Fallout 3 have introduced a moon expedition lore into Fallout universe, but I think as it does not respect lore of previous entries, it could not be considered as canon... for our design based on original lore (of course it is canon for Fallout 4 and later installments)

I would like to note one more time that this does not mean that both BOMBs or any connected lore to them are cut. No, they are NOT. Only thing that was cut is actual travel into BOMB002, events before it as well as their outcomes remain the same while still making perfect sense.
 
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Hardboiled Wanderer said:
You have actually argumented against yourself with these statements. Enclave "wanted" to travel through space, though they ended up with testing prolonged isolation in Vaults and experimenting with several "space vehicles" when they took control of Bloomfield in 2076.
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I didn't argumented against myself at all.
I said the enclave wanted deep space travel (as in reach other planets or maybe even leave the solar system), while I point out that close space travel (orbital and moon) would be possible, as it is mentioned in previous games.
Hardboiled Wanderer said:
Even Mr.House predicted that he would be able to send "people in orbit" in 50 years, which means he was far from achieving it, and please note that Mr.House was U.S. most prominent technical mastermind.
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Even if he was the most prominent technical mastermind, it still takes him only 50 years to expand to space travel in a devastated wasteland where industry has stopped, resources are mostly depleted, roads and transportation is basic, lack of schools and universities to teach and train new technicians and engineers, lack of manpower, etc.
If it takes him only 50 years to put people in orbit and 100 to colonize other planets, I have no doubt that pre-war USA would be more than ready and capable of short space travel. They did have a space program before the war too.

And lets not forget that in Fallout 2 the Hubologists are ready to launch a space shuttle that was built before the great war, which shows that the USA had reusable nuclear space shuttles. The Shi Emperor calculates that they have a 95% chance of failing that because they lack fuel, improper sealant, poor leadership and lack of initiative. Which means that if they have proper fuel and sealant, their chance of success would probably be quite high (poor leadership and initiative doesn't really factor in the space shuttle condition, but on the condition of managing to get the fuel and sealant).

The Shi also think they can reach the stars in the near future.

So it is not only Mr House.
 
Actually the people at Bloomfield Spaceport were not working on putting a man on the moon, they were working on building a manned rocket that could go to Mars, clearly indicating that people had already gone into space.

When the conflict with China started the rockets were repurposed for the BOMB platforms to deliver reactors, and later on the Enclave took over to modify the rockets into escape vehicles (escape to where is the question as there were definitely no permanent colonies on other planets or in space)

Mr House's goal was to restore humanity's capabilities to go into space after all the infrastructure for that was wiped out by the bombs.
 
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Road to New Canaan, Great Salt Lake, Utah (early concept)
 
Hardboiled Wanderer said:
Speaking of petition, I have recently had a chance to ask Josh about the so called Jefferson Engine, the engine that powered Van Buren. He revealed that Obsidian actually has the code and tools from Jefferson. I've just got an insane idea, and I know it really sounds crazy, but why wouldn't we assemble some team of modders from here, TeamX, and other fallout communities, gather the official support of all the fallout communities around the globe (NMA, MadBrahmin, DuckandCover, Fallout.ru, you name it), and then go and ask Obsidian to provide us Jefferson's tools for fanmade, non-commertial restoration of Van Buren. The main argument supporting us is that the engine is useless for any commercial product Obsidian might have had in mind (heck, it is actually 17 years old), even Josh noted that. Armed with arguments and community, my insane mind thinks it is not totally hopeless effort. Ideas?
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Personally, I would prefer if such an insanely monumental effort of rallying the disparate elements of the Fallout community went towards something equally more & less ambitious - a petition to Bethesda to release the design documents for Fallout 1 and 2. However, the community is obviously a bit too pessimistic to ever believe that such a thing could possibly succeed. Still, a man can dream.
 
Never was much of an artist, but since I have to make most of the things myself, I tried some UI work. Would appreciate feedback on this one :D This is Inventory Menu

inventory_final.png
 
LuciusCorneliusSulla said:
Can't really tell how it works. Maybe add some placeholder items and buttons?
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Placement is mostly the same as in original Van Buren demo, you can refer to this screen:
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I just didnt want to add placeholders as I was working on this whole day and frankly I've got enought :D All texts and content will be rendered in-game, so... no need for adding them onto this image. This is just a layout.
 
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