Seattleite

Okay, so I have no idea what you're talking about. I have been without internet for a while, and have seen nothing about Fallout 4 other than the official trailer. So here's my questions. What makes you think there's no skills or traits? Even if there aren't, so what? I can just axe those parts of the mod, that doesn't mean much. I'd still rather do this in Fallout 4 than New Vegas simply because the modding kit will be much better (if how FREAKING HUGE of an improvement the Skyrim CK was is any indication) and I can create a more unique experience with it.

I'm BACK! Finally, after over a month with no internet connection, I am back online and ready to waste my time again.

I'm going to be making a large total conversion mod for Fallout 4 once it is released. I'm making a thread here about it for three reasons. First, the Nexus doesn't have a Fallout 4 forum quite yet. Second, I *was* going to do a large Half-Life 2 total conversion and had a thread for it on this site, but I scrapped that project in favour of this one. Third, I get substantially better feedback from this community than I do the nexus. So if there's any questions as to why I'd bring this up here, there you go. The game takes place in the universe of my tabletop game, more specifically it takes place on Earth (for the record, I've never run a campaign on Earth before) in the year 205x. (The year is forty years after the mod is released, so it should be 2056 or 2057.) The player is given no information about the setting by the game itself until the scripted intro sequence, as there is no opening cut-scene, leaving them to figure the setting out as they go along. All I'm going to provide about the setting right now is the transcript of the scripted intro sequence, because that's what I want to get feedback to right now. Hopefully, you should be able to figure out a bit about the setting from that alone. (By the way, I'd appreciate knowing how much you can figure out from the intro, as part of any feedback you wish to provide.) The intro starts an awful lot like vanilla Fallout 4 (because if it ain't broke, don't fix it) with them getting ready for the day, using their mirror as the character creator. The difference is, however, that here both characters survive the intro, so there's actually a point to customizing character #2. Once you leave the bathroom, you grab the food stamp card off your counter and walk down to the grocery store across the street. There's a tall fence around the city topped in razor wire, and shorter fences between the districts, and outside all the buildings are abandoned and decrepit. This should be a big red flag, and the black bear wandering around right outside the fence should be a red flag as well. The card, for the record, only has $100 on it, but there's apparently no sales tax in this setting... Which suggests that sales tax can't be enforced in this setting, which also suggests a considerable government breakdown. But that'll probably fly over most people's heads. That said, $100 in 2057 money is... Not much, to say the least. Though you do *both* have cards, it's the middle of the month and the other one is empty. (And yes, these cards *do* actually refill in-game, at a random time in the first week of each month, and can only be spent on food items.) And this game has two methods to buy items. You can either open up a barter menu by talking to a vendor, which isn't an option in all places and definitely isn't here, or you can just go activate the items you want that are sitting around in the store and go to check-out, where a fixed value is removed from your account automatically for each item you picked up. (In places where you can barter, this is cheaper but has less selection. In places where you can't barter, such as here, it's more expensive than bartering but it's your only option so deal with it.) Once you've purchased $80 or more in groceries, you can leave. After you leave, the other child starts a conversation with you, telling you they're going to go outside the fence tonight to scavenge. They also tell you to go looking for them if they aren't back by 4. The following dialogue will make it clear this is a regular thing if you object, but the conversation ends with them saying they'll be okay, and asking if you trust them. But before you can answer, a cop opens fire on the bear through the fence, cutting you off. Fade to black. The next scene starts with an alarm going off at 4:00 AM, the other child clearly absent. Fade to black again, and fade back in to the player handcuffed in the back of a police cruiser just inside the gate, being interrogated by officer B. Calhoun, who has a clip board. Officer B. Fife is walking around by the gate, cursing under his breath, and officer B. Miller Jr. is standing next to the car, smoking. (Calhoun, Fife and Miller. D'ya get it?) I actually have the dialogue written for this scene. Fife: "Hey Calhoun, I can't find the little shit's bolt cutters. Ask them about that." Calhoun: "Not important Fife, shut up." Miller: "I'll help you look in a minute, Fife. Leave Calhoun alone." Calhoun, to the player: "Ignore Fife, he's an asshole." Fife: "I heard that!" Calhoun: "Good for you, asshole!" (Such camaraderie in this department, truly a sight to behold.) Calhoun, to the player: "...Alright, kid. I hope you understand I have to file a report on this. So let me fill out what I already know..." He scribbles at his clip-board for a second. "December 25th, 2057, 4:15 AM... Thanks for that, by the way, perfect way to start my morning. Okay kid, let's start with your name." The name menu appears. Calhoun, to the player: "Now I need a quick physical description. Doesn't need to be too in-depth, just height, weight, distinguishing marks, that stuff." Attribute menu appears, with all attributes at 1 and 30 spendable points. The other child's stats will match yours. Calhoun, to the player: "And now, any unusual abilities, especially those that would cause problems in general containment, though I don't think you'll spend more than a couple weeks in jail. Be honest, this is for your safety." A menu appears for spell selection, which can also be accessed later. Yes, spells. The player has 4000 vitae for spell purchases at this time. This is enough to purchase four arcane or divine spells (though spells also use vitae to cast, so spending *all* of it would be a bad idea), or forty nature spells (and there aren't even that many in the game). Go nuts, you can get a decent set-up here. The other child will also receive any spells you purchase. Calhoun, looking it over: "Nothing too extraordinary. Not these days, anyway. Now all that's left before we get to the meat of the matter is your criminal record. Now, at your age this is largely a formality, but if you have any outstanding warrants or felonies, you need to let me know now. And I will check this, so don't lie to me." The player receives 50,000 experience and levels up five times. The perk table opens to allow them to spend it all. The other child receives any perks you do, and any increases to your attributes will also be reflected on theirs. Calhoun, smiling just a bit: "Sounds like you've just been a kid so far. Keep it that way. Now for why we're here. Why were you trying to get outside? I mean, you know once you're out we can't let you back in, right? And you know how dangerous it is out there? Did it sound like fun, like it was some kind of adventure? It's not. It's just a bad idea. So we're stopping you here, and maybe when you're older you'll understand why." Miller, groaning: "Could you GET more cliche, Calhoun? Just ask where the kid's bolt cutters are so we can confiscate them." Calhoun: "Shut up, Miller. You were the one saying to leave me alone, remember?" The scene is interrupted by a fireball flying in and striking Miller, exploding and setting both him and Fife on fire. Fife runs off back into the city, while Miller tries to draw his weapon and takes two flaming bolts from a young man outside the gates, and he goes down screaming. Calhoun scrambles for the rifle in the front of the squad car, but is pulled from the seat by the man, who proceeds to stab him to death. He walks over and stomps on Miller's head before coming over to you. Unnamed man: "Let me get those off you. These people have no shame." He reaches over to Calhoun, then unlocks your handcuffs. "They'll arrest people for anything nowadays, but there's no way I'm letting them put a child in a cage. Especially not for something that should be your right anyway. Now go on, get out of here. Go do whatever you were doing outside, and come back in one piece, okay? I'm going to lock the gate behind you, but there's a concealed hole on the north side somewhere when you want back in. It's under a bush, you can only see it from the outside. Just please, be careful." The man walks you outside the gate, closing and locking it. He waves goodbye, and the player is free to move. The voice of the other child can be heard in a building right on the other side, calling you. The building is old and decrepit, with roaches everywhere. The child's voice can be heard upstairs, where they can be found sitting on the floor, injured. A dead dog can be seen laying at their feet with multiple gunshot wounds, and a living (and abnormally immaculate) dog can be seen laying next to them, wagging its tail. The child's arm and one leg are torn up, and there's an empty .22 revolver sitting on the floor next to them. They're relieved to see you, and they explain what happened. Apparently while they were out, officer Fife changed the lock and they couldn't get back in. They decided to wait in here for you to come get them, and were attacked in their sleep by the dead mongrel. Thankfully, the other dog came along and pulled it off of them. They ask you to help them walk, but the player has no choice but to break the bad news to them. Then they break bad news of their own when they tell you that hole in the fence was fixed weeks ago and you're legitimately stuck out there. (I hope you cleaned out the fridge on your way out of the apartment. But if not, don't worry, the stuff you got will keep.) When you're getting ready to leave, the dead dog rasps and shakes, standing up back up, and now you have to fight it when the other child's gun is empty and you either don't have any other weapon or at best you have something weak as hell you picked up downstairs. And the living dog inexplicably does no damage (there's an explanation for that, but later), so you do need to fight. Thankfully, the dog is much more fragile when it's already dead and rotting, and while it has a bit of damage resistance, doesn't bleed or anything like that and can keep moving without its head, it'll be easy enough to destroy it. If you have any and are willing to use it, offensive magic will make this fight a complete joke. After this, what the player does is up to them, but the initial quest is very simple and open-ended, just being to get medical attention for the other child.

I haven't had internet for a while, but while I didn't I sat down and started writing a design document for this and... The more I wrote, the less I wanted to actually make this mod. For a couple reasons. 1. Source is too restrictive, it'll be difficult to make it stick out mechanically. Most other engines would be better, and ultimately I settled on the Creation engine. 2. The HL2/Black Mesa resources are nice, but I was just going to the community too much and sometimes just for placeholders, and due to the plethora of Source games and the way the community operates the art styles vary wildly. Fallout 4 will have a better resource set, if I make the right mod, so I'm doing that. 3. I can do sci-fi and dystopian futures well enough, but I only chose that because it's easy to do in Source. I prefer dark fantasy and post-apocalypse, so that's what I'm doing. 4. The setting I was going to use I want to shelve for now. Not saying it'll be gone forever, I just want to focus on the settings of my tabletop game until it gets enough brand recognition. When more people know me as "One of the guys who makes Change." than "Seattleite", I'll consider making games in my old setting again. So that's it. I'm scrapping this project entirely and switching to a Fallout 4 mod, with a modern dark fantasy setting. I'll upload a brief overview and the script (as in dialogue and stage notes, not code) for the intro sequence later today, in the appropriate forum.

Animated.

8/10. I wasn't the least amused, but then that finale made it all worth it. 3glyp0_yUx0

Your character moves the muzzle in a little circle... But in BM somehow has perfect accuracy. Here though, the circle affects the stream... And the recoil shoves it out *hard*, so you hit all of everything. But it inflicts massive non-locational damage, so it basically fucks up everything in front of you if you can control it. (Where as the tau is way less damaging, but with perfect aim and a critical hit can one-shot anything imaginary at full charge. Literally, the crits do 500 before shot placement. Hitting the weakest area of an enemy, we're talking 1000-8000.)

Because your character sprays with it like a Ghostbuster on crack? (Seriously, the animation is the same as in Black Mesa, check it out. The stream spiralling around in a 15 degree cone makes perfect sense with the way the thing moves when fired.)

I want to talk about something, but I don't have time to wait for the design document. This thing is the epilogue. You know the basics, city's destroyed, most of the population is dead, soldiers come through on occasion, the coastline is so full of marines you won't ever touch the water, that stuff is pretty well understood. But there's three things I must elaborate on. I've already mentioned that there are some... "unique" enemies in the epilogue, but never explained what those were. Those are most of the enemies of Half-Life 2, the episodes and Black Mesa that were never used in the game. If I can, it'll also include all the Left 4 Dead special infected. But how can these appear in this setting, when it's not connected to the Half-Life/Portal or Counter-Strike/Left 4 Dead universes at all? The simple answer is... They don't. It might be a bit suspicious that they all regenerate health, that the damage they deal slowly regens over time, the players are the only ones who can see them, they can't harm regular enemies (though they can be harmed by regular enemies should they get hit by an attack) and regular enemies can't detect them (though they do detect, and ignore, regular enemies). In case you hadn't guessed, they aren't actually there. These enemies are 100% figments of their imagination. There's also weapons that are imaginary available in the game. These are all the Half-Life 2 and Black Mesa weapons that didn't get included (except the gravity gun). They're all extremely powerful against imaginary enemies and every one has a unique special effect on them as well, but have absolutely no effect on real enemies. Imaginary enemies only spawn when your sanity is 0 (and thus, your perks are all inactive), and imaginary weapons and ammunition can also only be found in events that spawn when your sanity is 0 as well. I'll run down a list at the bottom of this post. The coastline of the city is completely impregnable, because the closer you get to it the more marines show up. And if that wasn't enough, they have fortifications and vehicles out there. There are LAV-25s that are flat-out immune to every weapon in the game except the rocket launcher (only available in the epilogue) that can kill you straight through any armour in the game in just a couple shots from their 25mm cannons (though it could take a good number from their 7.62mm machine guns if your armour is good enough). There are Ah-64 apaches that will kill you even faster, in a single shot from its rockets if it uses them (no matter how much armour you have) and are vulnerable only to the rocket launcher (though they have MUCH less health than the LAV-25). There are even M1 Abrams tanks that are completely invulnerable (I mean it, nothing you have can hurt them in the slightest), one-shot anything with their main gun, and have heavy machine guns that will rip you right apart in no time flat. And towards the coast there are plenty of heavy machine gun and TOW emplacements. I said it before and I'll say it again: You'll never reach the water. The third thing I wanted to clarify is that in the epilogue, and actually in the game as a whole though it's most noticeable here, there are two spawning categories for enemies: Placed and directed. Placed enemies are always on the map and respawn whenever you rest (they *do not* respawn in the main game). There aren't many of these (in the epilogue), and they tend to be weaker (in the epilogue). Directed enemies are controlled by an AI director, with a random chance to spawn at given intervals, at key events and so forth. These do not respawn, and the events that trigger them are all one-time only (and so is the loot available in these). There are real and imaginary enemies in both categories. Imaginary enemies only spawn when your sanity is at 0, and imaginary events only exist to be triggered at those times as well. Pulse rifle: Slot 6 (Secondary Weapon). Primary attack discharges the rifle for 10 locational damage, 10 non-locational damage and a 20% chance to critically hit. Secondary attack strikes with this weapon's stock for 12 damage. Alien pulse ammo, 30 round capacity, fully automatic, 600 rounds/minute, very high recoil, high accuracy, highest (non-ballistic) penetration, 10% slowdown. This weapon only affects imaginary enemies. You may have this weapon in addition to your normal 6-slot weapon. Hivehand: Slot 6 (Secondary Weapon). Primary attack fires a homing hornet for 1 non-locational damage and cannot critically hit. Secondary attack throws a left hook. This weapon replenishes its allotment of hornets upon rest. Chambers a single hornet each second. Enemies struck by this weapon are stunned for one second. May have ten hornets chambered and 100 hornets total, fully automatic, 600 hornets/minute, medium recoil, medium accuracy, does not stun enemies with armour points (and only deals 1 damage to their armour points) but otherwise ignores armour, 5% slowdown. Tau cannon: Slot 7 (Primary weapon). Primary attack charges the weapon, and it deals damage on release equal to 10 per second of charging up to 100 damage at 10 seconds, with a 50% chance to critically hit. Secondary fire strikes with the weapon's stock for 6 damage. Uranium ammo, 100 unit capacity, charged, extraordinary recoil, extremely high accuracy, ignores hard and soft armour, 10/second uranium use, 20% slowdown. This weapon only affects imaginary enemies. You may have this weapon in addition to your normal 6-slot weapon, but not in addition to the pulse rifle. Gluon gun: Slot 7 (Primary weapon). Primary attack fires a stream for 100 non-locational damage per second with no chance to critically hit. Secondary attack throws a left hook. Uranium ammo, 100 unit capacity, continuous stream, extreme recoil, shameful accuracy, ignores soft armour, 10/second uranium use, 40% slowdown. This weapon only affects imaginary enemies. You may have this weapon in addition to your normal 7-slot weapon, but not in addition to the Tau Cannon. Snark: Slot 8 (Explosive). Primary attack throws the snark at the target, where it chases them down and bites repeatedly until killed. (Snark stats will be on the enemies list later.) Secondary attack throws a left hook. Max 10. This weapon only affects imaginary enemies. You may have this weapon in addition to your normal 8-slot weapon. Bugbait: Slot 8 (Explosive). Primary attack throws the bait at the target, drawing a single antlion to attack them. (Antlion stats will be on the enemies list later.) Secondary attack throws a left hook. Max 10. This weapon only affects imaginary enemies. You may have this weapon in addition to your normal 8-slot weapon, but not in addition to the snarks.

Of course there is. There ALWAYS is. That changes nothing. These things would not have happened as they did without the first world war, ESPECIALLY the Ottoman collapse, which would have happened slowly enough to be divided properly, avoiding the present turmoil in the middle east, and the rise of the USSR, which might not have happened at all and Stalin would definitely not have been involved because Lenin only included him at all. (And without Stalin, the USSR would have been completely different.)

Laying in bed with a gorgeous woman after a day working on my aunt's miniature farm. ...And listening to her complaints about scratching up her arms on the barbed wire. (Also wondering if she remembers that nobody asked her to work, she volunteered and can stop at any time.)

Ninja, fuck off. BTG, this isn't correlation. This is causality. The first world war absolutely bankrupted the Ottoman Empire, causing its collapse. It absolutely lead to hyperinflation in Russia, resulting in workers getting paid basically nothing, which IS the reason for the rise of communism in that area. And the treaty that ended the war DID fuck over Germany's economy when most of the German people disagreed with the surrender, letting the Nazi party use that and some scapegoating of minorities to rise to power. All of these things were caused by the first world war. Saying the first world war just "correlates" to these things is like saying that running out of gas just correlates with your car not working.

BTG: Is right that I am both aware he's not offended am I'm not offended by him. This is how I debate with my friends, too, and they do it right back. That's about all he's right on here, but hey, baby steps. (See, notice how I'm trusting him to take a joke? We should all be able to do that.) Rarity and Jeb: Chill. Y'all take this shit too seriously. Ninja: I can take a joke. I don't need to be upset or offended to insult you. (Just don't take it personally.) Binky: Trade the rage face for an eyeroll or a facepalm. Also, WWI also directly led to the rise of the Soviet Union, the end of the Ottoman Empire (which resulted in the middle eastern terrotories being carved up by ignorant old white men who knew nothing about the region's ethnic boundaries, which is half the reason for the present turmoil, the other half being the Soviet Union again), the collapse of the British Empire ("But we're still going strong!" my ass) and the collapse of the Austrian empire. And everything these things caused from the Cold War, to the drug war (no, seriously) to the fall of democracy in the US and the impending collapse of the US dollar, these are indirectly caused by the first world war.

Your idiot suggestions, no. But 9/11 and the war in Iraq, YES. A million times, YES.

Well, I think that's pretty stupid, considering that almost everything traces back to the first world war. The only reason the first world war isn't as popular is because it's a lot harder to pretend one side is entirely in the wrong and the other side was entirely in the right.

Well, it's meant as a lesson in history and geopolitics, so... No. Serious topics it is, then.

ME!ME!ME! I refuse to link to it, it's fucked up. Pretty sure most people wouldn't get it anyway.

I got a thread idea that is a game in a sense, but also might belong in serious topics, and I'd like to know which. Basically, the goal for each post is to bring up some problem in the world, and trace back its origins to the first world war. The point is basically to show how much damage the first world war actually did, and how much of modern society is shaped by it.

I have had four energy drinks, and now I'm drinking a glass of really cheap Merlot. And I am starting to feel... weird, around the jaw area. For a better post, I'm trying to start on a design document and I just can't find the words to start with.

Typing.

I can see that. You've never seemed the type.

(Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration.)

Unfortunately, I am... Less than surprised. A lot of people choose pricks to be their moderators, and then those pricks become worse and worse as they spend years being moderators, as their prickish personality just gets steadily worse when given even the tiniest sliver of perceived power. Thankfully, there's a handful of forums I'm on (including this one) where they don't have one of those (either by luck or by design), but it's hard to find them sometimes. Especially with tabletop RPG communities.

Yeah, that may be why he covered it all up by deleting every post I ever made. But... He's not even the only moderator on [site Redacted] that acts like that. To be honest, I don't mind being off the site with how everybody on it acts, it's the fucker's attitude that pisses me off. That entire site pisses me off, but this is the worst I've seen on it yet. And I hate to admit this, but that's my second account at that site. The first was banned because I sent a complaint to the site administrator about another moderator openly insulting forumites (he called a group of us who were talking about the positives of the chaotic alignment and negatives of the lawful alignment "dumbasses" and "terrorists"), and the moderator I complained about banned me for filing a complaint about him.