Really nice ideas (in my opinion) for a Fallout 1 MOD

[Makenshi]

I know absolutely nothing about how to make a MOD, and thought I’d like to learn, I really don’t have the time for it now (job related pressure). Maybe after I’m retired, in a few years… That’s why I’m posting this, in hope that you guys (Killap, MIB88 and others) will like my ideas and put it to good use.

First there are ideas for some places, and then there are general game play ideas. There it goes:

Vault 15:

1. Change the Hunting Rifle in the toilet ground on second floor to the locker in the third floor, replacing that goddamn SMG. It makes the 10mm pistol obsolete before it’s even used (don’t tell me to shoot rats, for God’s sake), and the game too easy – I kept bursting people’s faces since the Khans until the super mutants in Necropolis.

The Khans base:

1. Change their armors: Garl should be wearing Leather Armor, not Metal Armor, and the rest of the raiders should be wearing Leather Jackets, not Leather Armors. The idea isn’t to make the combat with them easier, it’s to prevent the player from getting Metal Armor too early, making both Leather Jacket and Leather Armor obsolete before they’re really well used. The way the game is, the Jacket is taken after cleaning most of Vault 15 and left when the first Khan raider is killed; then the Armor is taken from his body and used until Garl is killed and his Metal Armor taken.

Besides, a bunch of Leather Jackets is easier to carry than a bunch of Leather Armors, preventing (or reducing) the “coming and going” between the Khans base and The Hub, as if the Vault Dweller didn’t have a goddamn water chip to find and could waste time selling armors. And the Jackets are cheaper than the Armors, so the player won’t have almost ten thousand caps so early.

2. Change their weapons: too much Desert Eagles for my taste; change them for 10mm pistols, leaving just Garl with a Desert Eagle. If I well remember the bastard has a SGM, and it’s still early for a burst weapon. Other option is to leave Petrox and Diana with Desert Eagles and Garl with a Shotgun. In any case, erase the shotgun in the fridge (or is it in the desk?).

Junktown:

1. Include 2 additional bodyguards for Gizmo, both wearing Leather Armor and using Hunting Rifles or Shotguns; that will harden this battle, which is too easy for my tastes. Put them in the following arrangement (one each side of Gizmo):

2. Izo isn’t even a shadow of Kane, the right arm of Decker, down in The Hub. Adjust him to be more dangerous, give him some brass knuckles, or give him a Shotgun instead of unarmed. Also, make it possible to pick up his Metal Armor, it’s time to get one now.

3. Change Killian to be wearing Metal Armor, so he looks more respectable and make things balanced for those who wish to play an evil character, which will pick his Armor along with the dog tags. Also put a Metal Armor as one of the rewards for getting proof against Gizmo, making things balanced for peaceful guys that wish the Metal Armor but ain’t willing to kill neither Izo nor Killian.

4. Change Killian’s weapon to an SMG (if I well remember he uses Desert Eagle) and make the ‘SGM and some 10mm bullets’ be one of the rewards for getting proof against Gizmo, instead of ‘Shotgun and some shells’. Again, goodies and evil ones can get the SMG (The Hub is the next town, time for some bursts!).

5. Add the possibility of telling Killian about the morbid business of Doctor Morbid with Bob ‘Iguana Bits’ of The Hub, so that the crazy doc may be arrested.

The Hub:

1. It pains me to see that so much cops use Combat Armor but the sheriff Justin Greene and his deputies use Metal/Leather Armor, so I think it’s time to give Combat Armor to them as well. I’d remove those cops in Metal Armor in the town’s entrance too, as they’re not a good sight; in my opinion, every cop in The Hub should be in Combat Armor, including that lonely cop in front of the Children of the Cathedral’s hospital near the water merchants. Remember that The Hub is the biggest town in Fallout 1.

2. Now there’s a trouble: if all the cops are in Combat Armor, the battle with Decker will get easier, which is a bad thing. Prevent this by changing Decker’s gang to wearing Leather Armors instead of Leather Jackets, except for Kane, who’s already a real motherfucker anyway.

3. The .223 pistol is the best Small Gun in Fallout 1, so I don’t think it should be available before taking the water chip back to Vault 13. Besides, it makes the 14mm pistol obsolete before it’s even used, just like the SMG does with the 10mm pistol. If possible, erase Irwin from The Hub and make him appear only when player comes back to The Hub after delivering the water chip to the vault (just like the Children of the Cathedral’s member that appears in Junktown).

4. Add the possibility of telling the sheriff Greene about the deal between Bob ‘Iguana Bits’ and Doctor Morbid of Junktown, so that the bastard dealer may be arrested.

Necropolis:

1. I may be wrong, but if the Vault Dweller killed the super mutants at the watershed, how the hell it was discovered by the Master that it happened? So I think there shouldn’t be those invading super mutants that wipe out the ghouls. Or at least there should be survivors of the attack in the sewers, just as it’s told by the ghoul survivor that is hidden behind the shelf. Or maybe the player could arrive in town (if the players decides to go back there) right in the middle of the invasion and try to help the ghouls defend the city. Whatever, it’s just an idea.

The L.A. Boneyard:

1. Katja is usually a late game character, assuming the player goes either:

a) To places he/she knows of (highlighted in the map after someone points the direction to the place, as Ian does by telling the Vault Dweller about Junktown and The Hub);

b) Or places that should interest for the quest (when you are in The Hub and discover that there may be a water chip in Necropolis, there’s no sense in going to the Boneyard. In Fallout 2, for example, after leaving the Den there are Redding to the south and Vault City to the east, and logic demands that the Chosen One goes to Vault City, because he’s after Vault related things).

So I think she should be boosted up by using Metal Armor and having some Frag Grenades (20 would be nice ^^), not Throwing Knifes.

2. Fix the quest to find the spy of the Children of the Cathedral among the Followers of Apocalypse.

3. NEW: After clearing the deathclaw's nest for the Gun Runners, the Vault Dweller can get weapons and loads of amno, or give them to the Blades so that they can fight the Regulators. It would look nice if, after choosing this 2nd option, the Blades remained well equiped. If I well remember, they only appear in combat armor wielding lasers and all during the battle (correct me if I'm wrong).

General game play:

1. Don’t know if it’s possible, but apply a combat control system to the game, making it possible to tell the party members what to do and use, just like in Fallout 2. It would be really cool to have the party members in Power Armor (or at least Combat Armor), helping ‘til the very end.

2. Make the characters appear with the armor that is wearing, like in the B-Team MOD for Fallout 2.

3. Make Dogmeat wait if told to do so, like in Fallout 2, so he is not ‘Deadmeat’ in the end of the game (actually I ended the game with it alive once… injected some psycho on it, and locked it in an empty room before battle when possible. But it was too much trouble, too much load game…).

4. I’ve played Fallout 2 with B-Team MOD as well as with patch 1.05; in both the party members, when having their look changed by the use of armor, use not only the weapons that they claim to know how to use, but ANY weapon in the game. Of course, they are a threat only when using weapons in the same category that the ones they claim to use. Example: Sulik says “we be good with fists, spear, big hammer, sub-machine gun”. In fact, the only gun he uses is the SGM, and no other you give him. But with B-Team or patch 1.05, he equips any weapon, and is a nice shooter with Small Guns (Gauss Rifle man…), thought he’s hopeless with grenades, mini-guns, laser rifles, etc.

I wrote this entire 4th topic to ask: was this intentionally put in by the creators of B-Team MOD/patch 1.05, or is a game system related ‘bug’? Is it possible that, with the modifications above (combat control system, armor, etc.) applied to Fallout 1, this will happen? Don’t blame me, but I’d love to have Ian, Ticho and Katja with Plasma Rifles (hope they’re good with Energy Weapons…) and dressing Combat Armors.

5. If all the above is possible, then push the luck and make the party members gain levels, just like in Fallout 2.

Hope you guys like it! 8)

 

[Per]

1. I may be wrong, but if the Vault Dweller killed the super mutants at the watershed, how the hell it was discovered by the Master that it happened?

1. The mutants have a weak telepathic connection to the Master.

2. A patrol sent to check up on the mutants could have arrived at any time.

3. Necropolis was already scheduled for invasion like the other settlements.

So I think she should be boosted up by using Metal Armor and having some Frag Grenades (20 would be nice ^^), not Throwing Knifes.

She can't use grenades, unfortunately.

1. Don’t know if it’s possible, but apply a combat control system to the game, making it possible to tell the party members what to do and use, just like in Fallout 2. It would be really cool to have the party members in Power Armor (or at least Combat Armor), helping ‘til the very end.

This is probably impossible unless you pull off the old "Fo1 in the Fo2 engine" project, which is massive and will never happen.

4. I’ve played Fallout 2 with B-Team MOD as well as with patch 1.05; in both the party members, when having their look changed by the use of armor, use not only the weapons that they claim to know how to use, but ANY weapon in the game.

That's because those armour looks, being used by the player character, have all the weapon animations, which is what decides whether a weapon can be equipped.

Example: Sulik says “we be good with fists, spear, big hammer, sub-machine gun”. In fact, the only gun he uses is the SGM, and no other you give him.

The H&K G11E, HK P90c, .223 Pistol and 14mm Pistol should work too.

Is it possible that, with the modifications above (combat control system, armor, etc.) applied to Fallout 1, this will happen?

Yes.

Also, please shrink your sig pic down a little, it's pretty big and I don't see what good it does.

 

[Wasteland Ghost]

2. Fix the quest to find the spy of the Children of the Cathedral among the Followers of Apocalypse.

Try beta-version of Fallout Restoration mod.

2. Make the characters appear with the armor that is wearing, like in the B-Team MOD for Fallout 2.

3. Make Dogmeat wait if told to do so, like in Fallout 2, so he is not ‘Deadmeat’ in the end of the game (actually I ended the game with it alive once… injected some psycho on it, and locked it in an empty room before battle when possible. But it was too much trouble, too much load game…).

Try new Fallout NPC mod .

 

[Makenshi]

Don’t know if it’s possible, but apply a combat control system to the game, making it possible to tell the party members what to do and use, just like in Fallout 2. It would be really cool to have the party members in Power Armor (or at least Combat Armor), helping ‘til the very end.

This is probably impossible unless you pull off the old "Fo1 in the Fo2 engine" project, which is massive and will never happen.

Wasteland Ghost said above that there is already a FO1 mod that does it, so it ain't impossible. It happened.

I’ve played Fallout 2 with B-Team MOD as well as with patch 1.05; in both the party members, when having their look changed by the use of armor, use not only the weapons that they claim to know how to use, but ANY weapon in the game.

That's because those armour looks, being used by the player character, have all the weapon animations, which is what decides whether a weapon can be equipped.

So I think she should be boosted up by using Metal Armor and having some Frag Grenades (20 would be nice ^^), not Throwing Knifes.

She can't use grenades, unfortunately.

Not in the original, but in the mod she could. Even if it's with the "armour looks have all the weapon animations which is what decides whether a weapon can be equipped" argument.

Example: Sulik says “we be good with fists, spear, big hammer, sub-machine gun”. In fact, the only gun he uses is the SGM, and no other you give him.

The H&K G11E, HK P90c, .223 Pistol and 14mm Pistol should work too.

I know that, for all these weapons are SMG's. I just used the 10mm SMG as an exemple of a type of weapon he uses instead of using a cathegory (small guns) like the players does. Hell, I think the rules should be equal for the player and the party members: weapon cathegories (such as Small Guns), not weapon types (SMG's).

Also, please shrink your sig pic down a little, it's pretty big and I don't see what good it does.

It's done. Take it easy man. The good it does is make things look cooler, IMO.

2. Fix the quest to find the spy of the Children of the Cathedral among the Followers of Apocalypse.

Try beta-version of Fallout Restoration mod.

2. Make the characters appear with the armor that is wearing, like in the B-Team MOD for Fallout 2.

3. Make Dogmeat wait if told to do so, like in Fallout 2, so he is not ‘Deadmeat’ in the end of the game (actually I ended the game with it alive once… injected some psycho on it, and locked it in an empty room before battle when possible. But it was too much trouble, too much load game…).

Try new Fallout NPC mod .

Nice to know that, but the idea is to put everything in one single big mod.

 

[Dude101]

Actualy the new Fallout NPC mod is compatible with the 1.3 patch which is being intergrated into the Fallout Restoration mod.

One mod!

 

[Per]

Wasteland Ghost said above that there is already a FO1 mod that does it, so it ain't impossible. It happened.

I didn't know that "a combat control system to the game, making it possible to tell the party members what to do and use, just like in Fallout 2" had happened. Since WG didn't quote the same part I did, I'm still not entirely sure.

Hell, I think the rules should be equal for the player and the party members: weapon cathegories (such as Small Guns), not weapon types (SMG's).

I think it's a nice touch that you can't give everyone the same (optimal) weapon of their category, and the in-game justification works pretty well.

It's done.

Thank you.

Take it easy man.

You think I wasn't taking it easy? You mustn't have seen what counts as angry around here.

The good it does is make things look cooler, IMO.

I don't have a problem with sig pics in general (except that they're a pain to load when I'm on a modem), but I don't really get the ones that just contain the poster's name and nothing else.

By the way, you can use board code in your sig, so you don't have to imagify that quote you have there.

 

[Sorrow]

Vault 15:

1. Change the Hunting Rifle in the toilet ground on second floor to the locker in the third floor, replacing that goddamn SMG. It makes the 10mm pistol obsolete before it’s even used (don’t tell me to shoot rats, for God’s sake), and the game too easy – I kept bursting people’s faces since the Khans until the super mutants in Necropolis.

What's wrong in bursting people's faces since the Khands until the super mutants in Necropolis?
What do you mean by "the game too easy"?
Does 10mm SMG make playing without cheating (ie. reloading after PC dies or something goes wrong) too easy?

 

[Silencer]

too much Desert Eagles for my taste;

Why not get rid of them all for that matter?

Izo isn’t even a shadow of Kane, the right arm of Decker, down in The Hub. Adjust him to be more dangerous, give him some brass knuckles, or give him a Shotgun instead of unarmed. Also, make it possible to pick up his Metal Armor, it’s time to get one now.

Could be nice.

Change Killian to be wearing Metal Armor, so he looks more respectable

No. Reason: Talking head.

Add the possibility of telling Killian about the morbid business of Doctor Morbid with Bob ‘Iguana Bits’ of The Hub, so that the crazy doc may be arrested.

Again, you'll not be able to record new voice acting. Better leave that to Kalnor.

Sulik says “we be good with fists, spear, big hammer, sub-machine gun”. In fact, the only gun he uses is the SGM, and no other you give him. But with B-Team or patch 1.05, he equips any weapon, and is a nice shooter with Small Guns (Gauss Rifle man…), thought he’s hopeless with grenades, mini-guns, laser rifles, etc.

Actually, he's quite good with Bozar, too.

 

[Makenshi]

too much Desert Eagles for my taste;

Why not get rid of them all for that matter?

I believe the idea behind a mod is to make the game run either the way it should run or the way we'd like it to run. I'd like it to run the way I posted here; and I posted to share my 'dream', both to let people know/comment it and in hope that some crazy guy decides to make them reality.

Change Killian to be wearing Metal Armor, so he looks more respectable

No. Reason: Talking head.

Add the possibility of telling Killian about the morbid business of Doctor Morbid with Bob ‘Iguana Bits’ of The Hub, so that the crazy doc may be arrested.

Again, you'll not be able to record new voice acting. Better leave that to Kalnor.

Now you're damn right. Forgot about Killian being a talking head

But to me Lars should be the one to talk to, not Kalnor

Sulik says “we be good with fists, spear, big hammer, sub-machine gun”. In fact, the only gun he uses is the SGM, and no other you give him. But with B-Team or patch 1.05, he equips any weapon, and is a nice shooter with Small Guns (Gauss Rifle man…), thought he’s hopeless with grenades, mini-guns, laser rifles, etc.

Actually, he's quite good with Bozar, too.

Really? Gonna try a Rocket Launcher than

 

[Wasteland Ghost]

Actualy the new Fallout NPC mod is compatible with the 1.3 patch which is being intergrated into the Fallout Restoration mod.

Actualy Fallout Restoration Mod beta does not have 1.3 patch integrated. And they are not compatible.

I didn't know that "a combat control system to the game, making it possible to tell the party members what to do and use, just like in Fallout 2" had happened. Since WG didn't quote the same part I did, I'm still not entirely sure.

Be sure, it happened .

 

[Silencer]

But to me Lars should be the one to talk to, not Kalnor

Wait, is Kalnor the gate guard, or the guard sarge? If he's the former, then yes, I must've meant Lars.

Really? Gonna try a Rocket Launcher than

Actually, if you give him Bozar and set to "Stay Close", he almost won't shoot you in the back, with a RL it might not be so rosy

 

[Talisien]

Silencer has a good point.

"Oops, (player) was hit instead of Enclave Patrolman.

You were critically hit for 107 damage, blowing through your armor. You fall to the ground, cursing your companion for exposing your organs to the light as you die."

Change their armors: Garl should be wearing Leather Armor, not Metal Armor, and the rest of the raiders should be wearing Leather Jackets, not Leather Armors. The idea isn’t to make the combat with them easier, it’s to prevent the player from getting Metal Armor too early, making both Leather Jacket and Leather Armor obsolete before they’re really well used. The way the game is, the Jacket is taken after cleaning most of Vault 15 and left when the first Khan raider is killed; then the Armor is taken from his body and used until Garl is killed and his Metal Armor taken. .

Since you seem to be wanting a more realistic feel, I think a better idea would be to mix unarmored, leather coated, leather armored, and metal armored gang members. I would think that a real gang, living in the post-apocalypse, would wear whatever they could steal, scavenge, or claim as spoils of war. It wouldn't necessarily end up with the higher ranking and/or more important members getting the best gear. It would be sort of random, based on who had the best luck within the gang when it came to raiding and trading or gambling with their fellows. Garl would definitely have the best available, since he controls the gang, but the others should be pretty much random. Except maybe the woman who does all of the repairs, she could probably MAKE metal armor. In fact, that may explain how the Khans all have metal armor to begin with

 

[Makenshi]

I never said I wanted it to be more realistic, my idea is to make the game a bit harder in the long run - Junktown battles are too easy, even without any armor. Besides, I've played too much D&D and Diablo, and my mind is petrified in the idea of getting better and better equipment gradually, just like in Fallout Tactics.

But your idea is damn nice too, remember me of Mad Max 2, raiders and defenders used really cool, crude and personalized equipment.

Silencer has a good point.

"Oops, (player) was hit instead of Enclave Patrolman.

You were critically hit for 107 damage, blowing through your armor. You fall to the ground, cursing your companion for exposing your organs to the light as you die."

Yeah, he had a great point actually. He's battle-hardened
Let's just say I got excited, but the truth is that the Gauss Rifle is the best option if you want damage and safety

 

[Talisien]

I don't know if I'D call the gauss rifle safe. It has the best chance of blowing through armor of any weapon I know of. I usually hand off a H&K 11E to my goon squad. I'd prefer a burst from that to a gauss rifle shot. Although I'd rather not get shot at all...

And, as for making the game harder... How does downgrading the enemies armor make it harder? I think that if you want to make it harder, instead of changing their armor, remove it completely and mod the stats of those particular enemies until they are as tough as normal. then they don't drop any armor to sell, which fixes your issues with the player getting too much money and too good of an armor early on.[/quote]

 

[Kahgan]

And, as for making the game harder... How does downgrading the enemies armor make it harder? I think that if you want to make it harder, instead of changing their armor, remove it completely and mod the stats of those particular enemies until they are as tough as normal. then they don't drop any armor to sell, which fixes your issues with the player getting too much money and too good of an armor early on.

[/quote]

Excactly. That's what they did in Fallout2, and it kind of makes sence, because the armour would probably be destroyed or at least in a very bad shape after the guy wearing it has been killed.

 

[Makenshi]

To Talisien:

I said to make the game harder IN THE LONG RUN, not in the raiders battle.

And about the gauss rifle... well, I believe despite it being a powerful weapon, it's hard to be hit by an ally using it (Fallout Bible shows that LV 6 Sulik has good Small Guns skill), while any burst WILL hit you if you are inside the 'bullet spray' area.

To Kahgan:


Now you said a big truth! Point for you man.

To everybody:


Talisien and Kahgan together gave birth to a holy idea in which I fully agree: armor should not be droped, but destroyed after lots of damage (specially Power Armor). UNLESS the wearer is killed with head shots/eye shots (what doesn't aplly to PA as well).

But their idea solves the problem of excessive cash early on the game, and forces the player to thrive for better armor, which will only be acquired by bartering or stealing (very harder option). Boo for armor drops.

 

[Talisien]

You know, you just gave me another idea. What if the armor WAS damaged when enemies were killed, but certain armors could be repaired with high enough levels in the Science and Repair skills? This would add another touch of realism to the game. You could add specific ways to find parts for each armor, like getting the part for the Power Armor at the Brotherhood of Steel base. They should be able to be done repeatedly, though, possibly with a bit of bonus XP for the act of fixing the armor; sort of like the XP you get for a successful use of the Steal and Doctor skills.

Plus, it would make you think harder about where your skill points would go. If you knew that you would soon have the chance to get your hands on some better armor, but also knew that you would soon reach a town like The Hub where people had a lot of good stuff that could be stolen, you would need to decide which would be more important.

And maybe weapons could fall into this category as well. It's far too easy to get a Plasma Rifle early on, just by luring out the gate guard at the Military Base, and then dropping him from far away with the Hunting Rifle. Maybe the more powerful and/or complex weapons should also be susceptible to damage, say from being thrown or dropped by a dying enemy.

This would also make choosing the Bloody Mess trait a little less appealing, if people knew that having all of their enemies die in gory ways would insure that they had to steal or pay for every weapon and piece of armor that they ever get.


*EDIT* Of course, this also leads to the intriguing possibility of upgrading equipment in the same way; turning Power Armor into Hardened Power Armor, Leather Jacket into Leather Armor, etc. It would give you lots more to do, just to get through the game. It would probably be one hell of a difficult mod to make, though, LOL.

 

[Makenshi]

New idea: The L.A. Boneyard

After clearing the deathclaw's nest for the Gun Runners, the Vault Dweller can get weapons and loads of amno, or give them to the Blades so that they can fight the Regulators. It would look nice if, after choosing this 2nd option, the Blades remained well equiped. If I well remember, they only appear in combat armor wielding lasers and all during the battle (correct me if I'm wrong).

Note: Last time I played Fallout 1, I noticed that these combat armored Blades are described in the text box as ERROR; usually the game crashes here as well. Has this bug been corrected in any patch? I played with patch 1.1.