Realistic Arroyo, Fallout 2 setting improvement project v.1

[Silencer]

Re: Realistic Arroyo, Fallout 2 setting improvement project

Limit Easter Eggs.

Uhm... Why so? That's what they are, easter eggs, not actual part of the setting. Although you could get rid of that pesky MechWarrior reference in New Reno.

Remove Hublogists.

I disagree. Hublogists are a valuable addition to a PA world, I think, such cataclysms can expected to spawn bizzare cults. You could strip them of their tech, but otherwise, they could stay.

Fix New Reno to trading center with rival groups, not prohibition-gangster/"OMG drugz and whorez" town.

Again, I think New Reno fits into the world, bar the extremities: grand casinos and yakuza.

Take out easy loot from Navarro base, try to improve balance.

Why so? At this point, it's a matter of choice. I don't remember the game being vastly unbalanced when I was playing the first time. But perhaps more stealth/speech ought to be needed to get into Navarro w/o bloodshed.

Do something with Redding.

Do what?

Would like to find a way to replace gold coins with caps (have HUB influence).

I'd love caps too, but I doubt that hub influence would stretch as far as Vault City...

Maybe change Vault City, and make it the only advanced place

Agree, but mind the balance between it and NCR

Reduce talking Death Claws to primitive group with only one leader, few able to parrot words and point to things.

Agree.

 

[Dack]

Re: Realistic Arroyo, Fallout 2 setting improvement project

Who has actually played the mod?

Arroyo is a small, isolated shady sands type place now; not a group of primitives then filled a temple with traps and has a town full of guns close by.

It still seemed exactly like Arroyo to me. If you want to give it a different feel a couple of new town maps would help immensly. Or you could just touch up the original maps some - replace a few tents with adobe houses, add more furnature, equipment, etc.

The kicker is that you left in all the tribal NPC models (minus the bridge guard). If they aren't primitive anymore then why is everyone still wearing loin cloths? Give 'em some clothes man!

Bugs:
-Grave markers and a shovel, but no actual graves so you can't dig anything up (maybe that was intentional)
-If you go through the cave on the main arroyo map you end up back inside the temple with the door locked (doh!).

 

[EnderWiggin]

I don't get why people say New Reno was un-Fallout-y.

In times of desperation and strife, people turn to vices to forget their troubles. I totally buy drugs, alcohol, gambling, and whores in Fallout. No one objected to that, but they object to someone being of charge of, and profiteering from said enterprises.

Go back to 50's radio programs, and you'll see a lot of mobster influence. If Fallout has it's unique 50's style as people are quick to point out, then the mobster theme fits right in.

I agree that Fallout 2 had too many easter eggs, but I don't understand everyone's beef with New Reno.

 

[Human Shield]

Yeah, Arroyo isn't changed that much. I put a reference that they don't feel the need to trade for better clothes for everyone. And it is one of the only places where you can see the tribal models, and the art in Fallout 2 is great. And making new houses with roofs is tough with the mapper. New version improves Arroyo, I like the changed bridge area. This is mostly a mod so that I can play through Fallout 2 without rolling my eyes.


Better version. Explains some more stuff. Download here or at NMA if they ever end up hosting the file.
+++++++++++

FO2 Setting Improvement v2

Trys to alter FO2 to come more in line with Fallout 1's setting.

-----------------Current Changes:

Replaces gold coins with beautiful, beautiful caps.

Changes some silly Easter Eggs, now more useful.

Replaces Temple of Trials with short path.

Lots of new Arroyo dialogue, better reason for getting GECK.

Altered Arroyo maps.

New Navarro dialogue.

Enclave in NAVARRO no longer hands out plasma rifle and Adv. Power Armor to new recruits (great policy guys). Now they hand out yellow key pass for uniform. Enclave in Navarro now have less adv. Power Armor to hand around to guards.

NO MORE SUPER DEATHCLAWS! Never again hear this out of mouths of Fallout 1's savage killers:

"I have spent many sleepless nights, deep in thought, pondering just such issues. I have finally come to the conclusion that the burdens and responsibilities associated with the gift of intelligence are countless. There are only two choices available to any thinking being. Either accept life as it comes and make the best of it for yourself and others, or simply cease to be. I have chosen to accept the challenges of life. If this makes me a threat to humankind, then I pity the small mind that finds it so..."

The Enclave experiments were failures, no one can alter their animal instinct to survive. They won't attack you as long as you don't threaten their survival. Goris can still join.

----------------------------

++++Installing:

Extract using folder names to your Fallout 2 folder.

Rename PATCH000.dat to something else or mod mite not work.

Tried changing mod to a .DAT file and running with Modrunner but first map change would cause crash, let me know if anyone can get it to work.

 

[jona0]

Hello!

>Tried changing mod to a .DAT file and running with Modrunner but >first map change would cause crash, let me know if anyone can >get it to work.

Good, you didnt do it as a DAT-version! This way it can be used for Mac-Players, too (without the need of a PC-Emulation....)

Till now, there is no "modrunner" for Mac or is it?



Greetings
Jona

 

[mEtaLL1x]

OKay, I've come to a conclusion that our opinions are diametrically opposite. There is no point in continuing this debate. (for us and Ashmo, that is)

I don't get why people say New Reno was un-Fallout-y.

Neither do I. New Reno is one of my favorite cities.

 

[Ashmo]

The point is: if you don't like what this mod stands for and a lot of people DO, then just don't comment on it.
There are enough other mods you can try to influence, why chose the one that deviates the most from what you would like to see changed?

 

[Silencer]

The point is: if you don't like what this mod stands for and a lot of people DO, then just don't comment on it.

Ever heard of dissent protecting democracy? Although I reckon Human Shield's got a pretty good vision of this mod, he's not going to abandon it if a few people dislike it...

Good, you didnt do it as a DAT-version! This way it can be used for Mac-Players, too (without the need of a PC-Emulation....)

Wouldn't be mad if you did tough...

 

[tassak]

ok this is my first post...and its gonna be a offensise one, im affraid...(actually thanks to you i registered here atlast ) so here it is...
geez man....so like...what is fallouty according to you? i think that fallout 1 IS pretty fallouty...but then....fallout 2 is pretty fallouty too, you know...and whats the prob with ren reno...you ever played the Mafia game? ave czech people...they know what is good. so be nice and let them do mods and stuff, ok? imo your mod is gonna be very unfallouty and....welll just boooring, but then...its just my opinion and like somebody else said before....you can ignore me. and please...dont say that there are people who need your mod...they are just as unfallouty as you are...
anyway...have a nice one dude

 

[Member of Khans]

The Mod is great
Unfortunenally it doesn t work with the German Version.
So I have to thank you twice: Your mod lead me to buy the english version of F1...and I'm totaly suprised: It has much more atmosphere (I think it depends on the bad German translation )
And if you're are going to make all the things you wrote in other mods it would make much more sense...

 

[thenenea]

Just a matter of taste

Hello guys! It's my first post in the forums but I've been playing Fallout 1 and 2 for years. First I want to congratulate Human Shield for his idea and hard work. I know I've tried some modding of F2 on my own and gave up soon after (I'm sooo lazy... ). Din't have time to try the mode yet (maybe I'll get some time this weekend) but I think the ideas are good as long as you take great care in the balance of the game. While changing gold for bottle caps shouldn't create any major problems, modding New Reno is going to be another issue. My idea on the "new" New Reno is that you shouldn't take out all the mob influences in the game but rather restrict them to certain groups. Who knows, if the Fall ever occurs maybe some good, old Italian mobsters would survive. So I would go on with your idea of making it a large trade hub and change the original families in the game so that one is a trade union ( or something like that ) other is some sort of freelancer/hunter league/guild and of course there would be an Italian family and a Russian one (maybe even a Yakuza/Triad one). This could be interesting because each of this groups would have it's different agenda and style, different accent and methods (for example the Italian family could hire you to beat one guy with a baseball bat, while the Japanese would ask you to infiltrate quietly the Russian compound....). The Freelancer/hunter guild could be situated where the boxing ring is right now (boxing could be kept as a pastime for the members of the guild and you could choose from a list of opponents).
The Easter eggs are sometimes exaggerated but I wouldn't remove them altogether. To make some very angry people happy maybe you should put all the minor variations in different directories in the archive so they could be installed as everyone desires. Of course I refer to the caps/no caps, eggs/no eggs options and not to the changes made to the locations. After all the locations changes represent the mod itself and whoever doesn't like that shouldn't play the mod.
On the Redding issue, I think that Redding could become much more than it is in the game. After all they are the only provider of nuclear fuel in the game so why are they just some backwater town ? MONOPOL !!!! They should be very rich and have access to some great tech from all the other cities.
Technology should be differentiated between the large towns. Vault City could have access to some high quality ( but very expensive ) small arms and some miniguns (taken from the excess defense turrets) and cheaper than average medical items. Books should be unavailable though (they've transferred everything into their vault database, remember ? ). New Reno should have a lot of submachine guns and cheap pistols plus some grenades and basic explosives. And melee wepons, too. And some one shot silenced sniper would fit greatly (for the silent assassinations ordered by the Russians). NCR might be an intermediate of the other two, but with few energy weapons available and some mass produced cheap weapons and ammo for them (UZI, Bren, Shotguns) these weapons should have their accuracy reduced, though...Generally I think all the NPCs in the first part (until you reach VC) should have very basic/poor quality firearms so that the Modoc assault rifle you get from the Ghost Farm would be the first good rifle you get. Also if you pickpocket a lot ( I know I do...) you won't be able to get rich so fast. Also, this way you will be forced to follow the normal progression of the story since traveling to Redding or NCR first (before VC) would be possible but very dangerous. It would also make the very expensive/high quality guns you first encounter in VC to worth fighting/killing for.

And a final word. Thanks for the mod, keep up the good work. I'll try to play test it asap and post some feedback. Also if you like any of my ideas please write an e-mail or post in the forums, I'll be glad to help.

 

[thenenea]

Some feedback...

I played the mod a little this weekend so here is some first impressions and bugs:

1. The mod is very nice. I liked the idea of the trader outside Arroyo. However I think her items should be only for sale ( I pick pocketed a leather armor and a Desert Eagle the first time around ) maybe at a discount price. That's a little bit too easy (considering I've already got a 10 mm pistol from the Elder's hut).
2. The new path where you actually get the vault suit should most probably end in a small tent or hut (that's what Klint actually says but the gate seems to be some teleportation device/portal because as soon as you pass through it you're presented with the Vault suit movie).
3. The mod is not compatible with Win XP, at least not with my system. The game works fine with the other mods I've got (longmod, neonighkin, 1.4 unoficcial patch, car mod, h&k mod) but it locks with your mod right after the discussion with Klint. He tells me about the reading and I step on the zone exit area in order to follow the short path in your mod. That's when the game locks. It worked fine on Win98 though so maybe you should check what's not working on XP (I've tried with "run in compatible mode with Win98" too but is the same problem).
4. In Klamath, the subquest where you have to protect the "moo-moos' " from the "bug man" cannot be completed anymore. It always says "you've failed to save all brahmin". I'm not sure if that's really a bug because I've found the remains of a brahmin in the area where the robot and the crashed verty-bird are. Are these two somehow connected ?

 

[Human Shield]

Re: Some feedback...

1. The mod is very nice. I liked the idea of the trader outside Arroyo. However I think her items should be only for sale

Setting up a swap obj box is annoying but I am working on them.

3. The mod is not compatible with Win XP, at least not with my system. The game works fine with the other mods I've got (longmod, neonighkin, 1.4 unoficcial patch, car mod, h&k mod) but it locks with your mod right after the discussion with Klint. He tells me about the reading and I step on the zone exit area in order to follow the short path in your mod. That's when the game locks. It worked fine on Win98 though so maybe you should check what's not working on XP (I've tried with "run in compatible mode with Win98" too but is the same problem).

Did you rename patch000? Other mods mite adjust MAP.txt file.

4. In Klamath, the subquest where you have to protect the "moo-moos' " from the "bug man" cannot be completed anymore. It always says "you've failed to save all brahmin". I'm not sure if that's really a bug because I've found the remains of a brahmin in the area where the robot and the crashed verty-bird are. Are these two somehow connected ?

I didn't touch Klamath scripts, don't know.

 

[thenenea]

The bug !

Yes, I renamed the patch and also tried after removing it alltogheter. It does the same thing.

The bug in klamath is very strange. I' ve reinstalled the game on win 98 and applied only patch 1.2 (not 1.4) and your mod (also renamed patch000) and I still get the same thing. Strange. I'll try to reinstall WinXP to see what happens.

Question: How do I activate the debugging in the game ? Because I cannot see the error message that pops up when the game crashes.

Suggestion: Maybe when your full mod will be in a more advanced state (modded a few towns ) you could also check the files that are updated in patches 1.2 and 1.4 for compatibility. Select the compatible ones and correct the others and integrate them into the mod. This would make things much easier for the average lasy guy like me... Maybe ask help from the guys that made the 1.4 unnofficial patch ?

 

[Silencer]

Just one thought: In the beginning, you learn that your character has a geiger counter, but it won't appear in your inventory, so that 'you don't lose it'. It's a bit strange that you don't see *this* particular counter, yet hav a chance to obtain many in the game and see them. How about replacing the virtual 'Geiger Counter' with a radiation-sensitive 'film' that had been stuck onto your clothing or body?

(You know, like docimeters used by soldiers travelling to 'ground 0') Would certainly help the realism, IMHO