Video trailer

Here's the trailer. You can see that I'm not a video director. Actually this is my first attempt doing this kind of editing.



Watch on YouTube for HD version.

Long pause in blogging

Oops! Two months and no updates. What I've done since September:

- play Civ V

- play Fallout: New Vegas

- made a video trailer in YouTube (not public yet)

- complete BoS in mod

- complete Super mutants in mod

- halfway completed Ghoultown

So fun and fun. Late nights, both playing games and working on the mod.

The Brotherhood of Steel and super mutants are opposing factions. You can assist both and still continue the main quest. Currently BoS has more for you to do, but let's see... you never know.

When I'm writing this blog the mod is 82-83% complete. Which means that there is still one area / faction to be done plus the ending (final 10%). I find it more and more difficult to "close" the project. My goal is to get a release done by end of year. Sadly it will not have everything originally planned, but that just means that I will keep updating the mod next year... or start a new project with FO community.

The screenshots show the airfield. It looked great when I completed it, now after playing New Vegas, it just looks small :-)

Next topic: super mutants. Finally.

Open air dungeon

What do you call an open air dungeon? My area is mostly a dungeon, an adventure site with enemies, traps and loot, but it happens to take place in a abandoned trainyard or industrial area. To me "dungeon" is something that is underground. Well, not important, sometimes I just wonder how to describe what I'm doing :-)

I enjoyed the couple of small train stations that were in Fallout 3. Also i wanted the mining town to have next to it ruins of an industrial area. Mining being one of the economic pillars of the city and naturally there would grow some small industry close by. The ore and the manufactured goods would need to shipped easily. The train network would help there.

So that was the design goal or idea what I wanted to achieve. Here are some images to show you how I managed to implement my vision.

Train station

This time I have been busy doing quests and interiors for Mining Town. Fortunately one of the quests takes place a trainyard / industrial area just a short distance from the town. I love doing ruins and designing locations.












The train station was fun to design, especially since I picked the ParadiseFallsBuilding07 model as the exterior of the train station. The front of the building is jagged, like a saw or something. There are no such pieces in Geck. I had to improvise = fun.












The inside is built with Facility static set using Pits and regular rooms. I've also scaled some of the pit walls so that there are no overlapping surfaces and messy thrashing texture conficts. The jagged egde is built with walls in 20 and 340 degrees angle. There is some issues how the parts fit in the north and south ends of the building (front door is at the eastern wall), but I 'm very happy how this location looks in the actual game. Take a look.

Screenshots-a-plenty

Just more screenshots :-)

Mining Town

Below is a set of screenshots from Mining Town. Last week of July was spent shaping the architecture. Most August has been making it alive: NPCs, quests, FX, AI packages, shops and such.

The first two shots demonstrate east gate of the town. First is a day shot, second a night shot. Guards have a AI package routine that turns lights on and off depending on daytime.

The layout and visuals are a bit too much like Megaton: a hole in the ground and I'm using buildings from Megaton. Still, it's a nice town and I think it feels more fallout than Megaton. Also I did Dunghill in March. I've learned much since then. Work is faster and NPCs have more things happening. Design is better too. Dunghill is mostly just one faction. Mining Town has three plus some independent NPCs. Town's role is still pretty much the same as Dunghill: it is one of the potential allies or enemies the player can gain.

Here is an editor view of the town. There are still 3-4 buildings missing that are needed for what I have in mind. Then I can start creating the BoS and the supermutants.

Junkyard Mutants raider gang

July was great: outdoors training, drinking beer and couple of hundred hours of FO3 mod development.

This entry has an image of the Junkyard and it's inhabitants: the Junkyard Mutants raiders. Backstory:

This lovely old farm used to have fields and animals in the past. Then the industrialization arrived and farm's younger generation changed the farm into an automobile garage service. Later on when business was slow, they turned it into a small junkyard for old cars.

Then the war started... and ended. The farm still exists but the hardworking people living there are long gone. In their place is a gang of scum: the Junkyard Mutants raiders. Name sounds worse than it really is. All members are human but still as mean as the mutated wildlife stalking the wasteland.

I put a lot of love into this area. It's still not quite done, but the quests are done. The biggest fun is that if you have a clever character you can join the raiders and rise in their ranks. I'm happy how the small quests worked out and how they mix with the overall bigger Vault quest. Or if you just hate raiders you can blast your way in and have a challenging fight on your hands.

Landscaping

Here is an old picture of a canyon. I've updated it since with more cliff props and textures. Originally it's purpose was to make an obstacle and stop player from marching directly to super mutant camp. And of course it serves as a barrier keeping super mutant patrols wandering too near civilization. Brotherhood of Steel serves also that purpose :-) Now, the area has become an adventure site.

This worked better than I thought canyon is impressive, you don't want to fall in. The walls are hard to climb and the sight is really nice. Of course there is adventure and loot to be found. After all, dangerous areas must have best loot ;-)

Here is another image that shows landscaping. There is a caravan heading south, I'm escorting it. Yes, there is a escort mission even everybody hates them. It's an action filled trip and caravan driver discussion subjects change dynamically depending where he is. Worth talking to him if you take this quest.

Anyway, there is a dried river bed, some hills, cliffs and a ropebridge. I've noticed that the eye finds really fast "what is wrong with this area". Areas that are flat are the easiest to spot. Still editor is good enough that you can fix those areas in few minutes with landscaping, some rocks, texturing and some random junk.

4 Explorers

Again "long-time-no-see". A bit health problems in June, but now I'm mostly on my feet again. So last time I mentioned the Four Explorers: Jade, Sam, Mark and you the player. At the start of the mod you four are given task to explore the wasteland. Mission is to find any civilization and report to the Overseer. Though you start together, soon you must go your separate ways to find adventure.

Jade is the part of the vault administration. She's smart, ambitious, tough and knows how to survive. A natural leader that can see the "BIG picture" :-) She's happy to finally get out of the vault.

Sam is part of the vault science department. He's a natural with computers and mechanics. The big guy is also a big fan of baseball and captain cosmos. Leaving the vault gives him a great oppotunity to witness things that he has only read about.

Mark is one of the fine security officers in Vault 44. He's a good natured guy that always finds time for nuka-cola and some rock'n'roll in the Vault 44 atrium. When he is off-duty he also likes target practice and gambling. He's one of the luckiest people you ever meet.

So, these are the guys that are going to the surface wasteland with you. You know them all by name, but you mostly work or hang outwith other people. Getting to know them might be worth it. See you in the wasteland :-)

Hard at work

Over a month and no update. Well, been busy with Real Life (tm), new games (Alan Wake, Red Dead Redemption) and modding. Anyway, progress with mod is great, still a little worried if I can meet my deadline (August) with all intended content. New areas:

* Radiated ruins is a radioactive ruins of business park area. There are still some surviving buildings, but most have collapsed due to bombing. Enemies lurk in dark areas but precious loot is to be found. Beyond the ruins there are silhouettes of powerplant and electricity pylons.

* Powerplant is a home to one major factions; the Ghouls. Inspired by FO2, Van Buren, "I am Legend" and I think there are even some X-men references in my design material. The powerplant exterior design succeeded nicely and I'm very happy with the interior so far (1 of 2 done). So, even though there are other works that influenced design here, there are still original ideas and I'm happy with the characters & places & scenarios I've designed.

Both these areas are in the northern part of the map. Sam, one of the four explorers, is heading this way. I wonder what is his fate :-) My next blog entry will introduce the Four Explorers.

One thing I'm very proud of is the system of script that responds to player killing some patrols in the wasteland. Some members will try to run to base and warn others making that faction hostile to player. Player can of course set up traps or just shoot the scouts to stop them alarming the whole base :-D

See you soon with Sam, Jade and Mark :-)

Designing playable locations

In Fallout designing playable locations is a bit different that let's say designing castles or dungeons in Neverwinter Nights 2. Even with fantasy settings that have "long lost civilizations or ruins" have a different feeling to them than Fallout setting locations.

In my opinion you have to first not to think about the adventure player is going to have. Well, not completely true since when you think of a location you have an idea how it fits into your story or quest. But point I'm trying to make is that first you should design the area as it was originally planned for: a shopping center, a gas station, a library or a powerplant. Put in place buildings, roads, parking areas, bus stops, houses etc... all the things that are needed there in real world. Think: Why did this area exist in the first place?

Then break your area, destroy it, nuke it! Imagine what the place would appear like after nuclear holocaust or 100 years of non-activity. Is there power? Is there ruins? Are there cars? Has the river water flow stopped? Make your area show the contrast of what was and what is.

Finally make it fun: have raiders built a base into the area? Has someone moved all the rubble and scrap to make a fortress? Have mutants spawned into the area? Is there still some unlooted treasure? Can you find desperately needed resources there? Can I charm the enemy to attack it's allies? Are there still some 100-200 year old robotic defenses active? Oh, and add multiple ways to "win" the area: fighting, negotiating, hacking, lockpicking or just exploring diligently. Personally, I think shooting and fighting are always the option for retarded players and should (and will in my mod)) always give less XP and less adventure than any other approach. However, this is Fallout and some ultra-violence with black humor is a must. But only when used rarely. Of course if someone likes to roleplay a mass-murderer, go ahead, but I find it boring.

So, anyway: build, break & fun. That's my "design method" :-)

Dunghill

Hi! This time I'm showing you two images from the first town (probably) that player is going to find: Dunghill


Dunghill is a small town community that has been attacked by raiders for years and years. It's on the trading route making it interesting place to visit for new equipment and information about wasteland.

Unfortunately all those years of raider attacks have left the townfolk very unfriendly towards visitors and strangers. Those that don't have business, such as trading, are left outside the town walls. Getting in is the first quest of Dunghill.

Walls and the town itself is built from waste, destroyed buildinds and vehicle parts. I wanted to have look & feel of Junktown from FO1. This town is on the Wasteland worldspace so you can enjoy the barren, rough beauty of the wasteland on top of Dunghill houses. I've already made 90% of building indoors, scripted NPCs, written dialogs and such. Most of the quests will take you outside town but there's still stuff to do in town as well.

So, when you try my mod, it's a good idea to check out Dunghill before heading deeper into the post-apocalyptic wastes :-)

Designing Vault 44 Entrance

First I designed the vault entrance. I wanted it to remind Fallout 1 entrance. There is a small security station, supply room and observation / control room with windows to the room with big gear door. Also there is a small decontamination chamber next to the entrance that allows returning player to remove some of the radiation accumulated when adventuring outside.

So there is two parts of plot happening here: 1) the briefing and player leaving the vault and 2) when player returns to visit the vault during the adventure. Originally the entrance is locked, but it is unlocked when player accepts the quest from overseer to go exploring with other 3 "volunteers".

The Vault-Tek plan for this Vault was to preserve a piece of American culture. One of the things is 50's style diner (yeah, in this mod too :-), radio playing oldies and other things you'll find out by playing the mod.

Below is an image how the entrance area looks in Geck.

Gas station

One of the locations that has been "haunting" me is this gas station. It took about 2 months of learning and building the Vault 44 and main quest until the mod could be played to reach this location. The Vault is still not completely done. It will need more NPCs, clutter, dialog, terminals etc... but I wanted the player to actually play the mod from start to this point. Of course once you exit the vault (yes, you leave the vault. big surprise) you can go anywhere and even completely miss this location.

The fun part was designing the layout, buildings, NPCs you meet here, loot. Obviously I need to work a lot on the surroundings, but it's actually quite fun. Just flat surface looks bad, but adding hills, ditches, dry river beds, rubble and so on, gives pretty fast nice realism to exterior. So, I do design on paper and in Word / Powerpoint to sketch out any ideas and areas before starting GECK editor. I don't have a scanner, but could take some digiphotos plus add my files on this area (without spoilers of course). The Vault 44 was also fully designed in powerpoint diagrams before doing any cells in Geck. I'm pretty happy with the end results. But more on this topic in the next blog post.

Oh, I've edited curretly about 70 "chunks" in editor and my desktop calculates the Level-of-Detail meshes about 4 hours now. Since I have Quad Core I can do something else, but luckily there's FFXIII on XBox360 waiting to be played. Also I leave CPU doing work while I'm at work on weekdays.

About Vault 44

After playing Fallout 3 for a year, re-playing Fallout 1 & 2 I decided that it's time to contribute something to the community. FO3 has a ton of mods, but for a player like me who likes to explore, meet new people and solve encounters in variety of ways the offering is not as good. Sure there are many mods by talented and dedicated people, but most seem to just add new guns, modify the rules and add more enemies. All this is good and without these mods I may have never started a mod my own :-)

So, what is Vault 44 mod?

- New adventure, new beginning

- New areas / wasteland (= not california, not vegas, not Washington). (Technically speaking: a new worldspace with Level-of-Detail currently 24x24 cells)

- New quests

- No new models, textures or animations. (well, vault suits and doors are added using existing textures as base)

- Currently: you have to start a new Character! I have design plans for bringing your existing character to my part of Wasteland, but It's not currently implemented.

Some design changes:

- stimpak do NOT heal crippling injuries

- ammo is rare (invest in melee or unarmed ;-)

- repair is rare

- no fast travel except by payment or plot

- and other things that I will blog more later

Here's one very boring screenshot to get this blog going...

Blog created

Hi and Welcome!
This blog will have information about my Fallout 3 mod project: Vault 44