congratulations on making a mod that doesn't break down and crash.
The credit for the stability of the mod is all on the shoulders of the Fury Road team, as the core game is still almost entirely Fury Road.
Okay, now before we begin talking about the mod, a few questions. I'm assuming the scenario is still using the original map from Fury Road, as it doesn't look much like the American Southwest and there are some weird locations for factions. (The NCR is in the far East, for example!) Correct?
Yeah basically the map was a pregenerated one for Fury Road, I just grabbed it and used it. It is actually the mid west great plains area I think. My goal was to redesign, moving the factions around a bit and adding new terrain features etc. after completeling the initial makeover of the factions. Think of this map as the nursery where the core game can grow and develop before getting it's own mapscripts etc.
Also, who is Christopher Lehman? Another leftover? Shouldn't the Enclave be led by Dick Richardson?
Yes Christopher Lehman was left over from the original Fury Road faction, i hadn't got around to researching the key enclave leaders in detail yet and also the idea of a low level civil servant becoming "next in line for the throne" and turning into a despotic psychopath really appealed to me and felt it would be great in terms of giving an air of hypocrisy to the Enclaves claims of being "the only legitimate government" as it is being run and led by an unelected official. Also as this is kind of set in the infancy of the fallout world, think fallout 1 and even prior to it, with all of the factions just beginning to emerge, the fallout 2 and three characters wouldn't apply to much. Having said that of course John Bishop of Reno is a fallout 2 character but he is very old in FO2 so shhhhh....Don't think about it too hard hehe.
Now some comments on the core scenario; you're probably aware of these issues, but still, just to make sure, I'll address them here. First, the Fallout scenario is far too short.
yes again this is a Fury Road game element, my eventual goal would be to make a much larger game, it could also be argued that fossil fuel isn't applicable to the fallout world as in the future it is nuclear and fuel cell and fusion and battery sources of power that are used and populate the world. My feeling on all this was as I was using Fury Road as a base i did not like the idea of just ripping out all of their efforts, one because it would be a lot of work and two it was a lot of work making it in the first place. So i felt that Fury Road represeents the Dawn of the Fallout scenario and eventually the resurgence of FO's "present day technologies" would render it all obsolete in the mid to late game. a WW2 era tank is nasty against spear weilding tribals and pistol weilding thugs but against a power armoured soldier with a plasma rifle it would be just as effective as a box of tissues. So adjustments will be made there.
Second, hero units are too easy to come by. They shouldn't just randomly appear in piles of rubble; they should have a large requirement for getting them.
Yes i think you are partly right about this, part of the random appearance idea i think was that these heroes simply emerge on the world stage from out of no where, think about the player character of the FO series as well as Mad Max. In terms of the game though i think you are right or perhaps they simply need to be modified, to be more like great people, or somewhere in between. Anyway something that can be discussed further down the road.
I'm also not so sure that many survivors should come out of the rubble. Scrounging it for stuff via workers is more realistic. Survivors could come from villages (vaults), though.
Again I think you are partly right, but do not think of the ruins as rubble think of them more as war torn, partially collapsed or disused structures, but to the lonely wanderers of the Waste they still provide sources of food and equipment, can goods, clothes etc, as well as relatively warm and secure structures to rest and live in. They are then discovered by one of the 'organised factions' and asked to join them, whether with an outstretched hand or the barrel of a loaded gun depends more on the faction in question hehe. Of course they also provide a wealth of resources for the scavenging factions too.
Now, let's go to what you wanted me to talk about, factions and leaders. I think I'll list how I see each of the factions, with their strengths, weaknesses, and my explanations and ideas.
A positively marvellous idea my dear fellow! (here is my take on the factions.)
The New California Republic
Strengths: Egalitarian and Broad-based; focused on building a modern nation-state.
Weaknesses: Relying on whatever and whomever it can scrape together to run its nation-state, which isn't necessarily enough.
Explanations and Ideas: The NCR is probably the largest territory under one government in the Fallout world, so my idea is to give them a boost in producing settlers. However, since they are often dealing with people who have questionable morals and education, as well as the tattered remains of America's infrastructure, they might not have any more advantages than that, initially. Perhaps their early combat units could also be comparatively cheap but weak. As a future goal, though, the New California Republic could become more powerful eventually, via building up their country and improving their peoples' standard of living; my idea there is to give them free happiness points for certain buildings.(Me) All excellent ideas and echoing my own thoughts, I view NCR as essentially the most advanced of the non-'Strong 3' factions, eventually developing into the most democratic and stable form of governance in the wastes, i need to think on the weaknesses of this faction but i do like the idea that you had, their expedience to unite the world for a better tomorrow would have some negative impact working with undesirables. I am also thinking of adding a building to the game which is essentially a refugee centre that allows you to 'build' refugees and boost your population in this way representing the use of resources to both find and process the wanderers and stragglers of the wastes into function members of a faction. For most factions this would come with an unhappiness modifier, but i felt the NCR would have a unique version that didn't have these negative effects (or perhaps it would looking at your idea for a weakness).
The Civilized Ghouls
Strengths: Hardy.
Weaknesses: Poor.
Explanations and Ideas: Given they are the result of being in areas where radiation was heavier, and actually surviving, they should have the mutant ability to enter areas infected by fallout, as you already had one of their units be. Since they can be healed by radiation, maybe a March promotion would be a good idea. However, other than positive mutation, there isn't much of an advantage to living in areas hit by radiation; let alone that mutation can have negative effects as well. Perhaps their cities could start with some unhealthiness points, which players would need to work to compensate for. (Me) again great ideas echoing my own i like the idea of them being poor and struggling, they are all spread out and not very popular, often shot on site being that many are feral and driven mad by the radiation effects. The ghouls in fallout 3 discovered that the radiation emitted by 'Glowing Ones' can actually help to fix them up when they come apart, also Fallout 2 has a band of Ghouls living next to a slightly leaky Nuclear power station, but the effect on the ghouls is actually quite pleasant somewhat like a day spa. I also thought that the idea of them growing radiation heavy mutated fast growing food stuffs in the middle of a 'Hot Zone' would be interesting, I would imagine that eating a meal that helps to restore the molecular bonds of your flesh would be quite a pleasurable delicacy, even if it is entirely deadly to any non-ghoul. the 'negative mutations' idea is also good, perhaps this could be a stage in their development as a faction that, like you said, would need to be overcome. Another element of the ghouls in fallout is that they seemed to have an aptitude for engineering and the sciences. this could be developed in there nature as a civ, generally they are physically weak, but brainy. they would also, in the right circumstances, be quite healthy due to the healing effects of radiation. if you can call having a face like a rotting omelette healthy.
The Brotherhood of Steel (Strong Faction 1)
Strengths: Good at obtaining and harnessing useful pre-war technology.
Weaknesses: Generally isolated from society; made up of small, tight-knit, elitist cells.
Explanations and Ideas: Being generally an amoral faction, obsessed with technology, and a secret society with little regard for outsiders, the Brotherhood should be well-armed, but small in number. A good idea would be to give them considerably more free techs than most other factions have, particularly those related to salvaging stuff from ruins. A production bonus, such as I made for my resourceful trait, might also be good. However, they should also be handicapped when it comes to building Settlers, and maybe even Workers (the rationale behind the latter is that they wouldn't be opting for a broad set of goals on the land they control; rather they'd be exploiting key objectives as much as they could), and those units that they build should be strong, but slow to produce and perhaps requiring more technologies/prerequisite buildings. (Me) Again excellent ideas, i do not know if you have read my strong faction ideas near the beginning of this thread but i will add it to the bottom of this post just in case.Part of there unique strength will be their abilitiy to gain the cooperation of the wasteland inhabitants leading to less negative effects for towns they conquer or annex. They essentially run a protection operation, in exchange for manpower and resources they provide legitimate security for those towns against the threats of the waste.
The Wasteland Tribes
Strengths: Well-versed in living off the land wide and fast spreading with bonuses against wild life and melee fighting.
Weaknesses: Technology is never available in large quantities.
Explanations and Ideas: (Me) My theory is this. All of the disparate tribes unite under a great leader to fight the war against the sky spirits minions (advanced cultures) they are able to spread (security) culture quicker as they do not fear the wastes as much as it is simply their home. As a decentralized faction (each village is self sufficient) they have a bonus to costs of distance to capital and number of cities. we could also make there starting building different (so village instead of town) which gives a different set of buildings for both them and the factions that conquer them. All of their units build faster, children are trained from birth in the way of the warrior, but all of their units will be generally weaker. The way I envisage this faction working is that they will grow and spread rapidly and build vast hordes of tribal warriors but they will need more units than other factions to effectively wage war and defend themselves. Also they will have a limit on their high end gun-weilding units as they have to scavenge, capture and trade for these advanced technologies. I also thought it would be good to give them an immobile/invisible/defensive only set of units for their villages in the form of traps. (think swinging logs and punji stick pit traps etc.) which would add an element of mystery and danger to them when other factions think about attacking them.
The Master's Army (Strong Faction 2)
Strengths: Big and powerful.
Weaknesses: Badly outnumbered as a result of being sterile.
Explanations and Ideas: Given that they're super-mutants, they could have infantry units considerably tougher than those of other factions, on top of being immune to radiation. But with their inability to reproduce sexually, they would be difficult to produce. I'm not really sure how to translate them into game terms, though. Being unable to reproduce also seems to mean that their cities wouldn't grow under normal conditions, but I don't know how to stop that. Perhaps a better choice, though, is to assume that they're constantly harvesting humans for use in their experiments; hence their cities could grow but they would have free unhappiness and unhealthiness points in them. (Since that would be done through a trait, logically the trait should give them some advantage, as well. Maybe a bonus to research.) Also, whenever they train a supermutant, a city could stop growing during production. I am unsure of what this faction's approach to vehicles should be, though it seems that it should be different, somehow. (Me) again great ideas i like the idea of freezing growth during unit production. I was thinking they would have a big advantage in melee fighting. Another approach I was thinking of as mentioned in the 'strong factions' section, to limit the number of units they can build normally, and maybe have some units that have to be promoted from refugees or other unit types. With this in mind they could have unique buildings such as FEV vats that boost gold production so that they have the funds to upgrade(dip) these basic human units. Also they would have access to certain twisted creations such as the multiheaded centaurs, somthing akin to a mutant guard dog.
The Enclave (Strong Faction 3)
Strengths: Prepared in advance.
Weaknesses: Ineffective/Tyranical at actually governing a territory.
Explanations and Ideas: Perhaps a good idea would be to give them some strong units for free, right from the start--but perhaps not; it might be too much of an advantage. Another idea is giving them the actual ability to produce strong units, instead of just salvaging them from old bases. Their handicaps would presumably be similar to those I proposed for the Brotherhood. (Me) your thinking is much the same as mine (great minds and all that) Enclave would be the most advanced faction, gaining access to high end equipment and things ahead of the other factions even the brotherhood, like highest quality power armour and vertibirds. They may also be able to produce centaurs (having access to the ealry FEV research note) as well as intelligent slave deathclaws and things. their big weakness is as you say their tyrannical policies, higher-ups and soldiers have it pretty good put everyone and everything else is just a tool and a means to an end. Unhappiness and unhealthiness follow in their wake. Also most of their economy would end up like a slave labour force with inherent issues there. lots of negative buildings and effects when using, towns and villages, needing to maintain strong military presences perhaps to stop upheaval and rebellion.
The New Reno Families
Strengths: Cunning, resourceful.
Weaknesses: Infamous jerks.
Explanations and Ideas: This would possibly be another civilization that exploits its citizens, but to a considerably lesser degree than the Supermutants, and with more of an economic motive. Could get free unhappiness and unhealthiness points in their cities, but also free gold and culture. (Me) again some great ideas i was thinking of things like buildings with both positives and negatives, e.g. brothel (Unhealthy but happy) Cage fighting ring (Unhealthy, expensive, but boosts happy and unit exp.) things of that nature. Also to have the unique 'Jet' corporation (perhaps among others) that can be spread to other civs, giving reno gold and causing other factions unhealthiness, unhappiness, and loss of productivity. this could be one of the staples of their strategy.
The Raiders and Slavers:
Strengths: Lack of moral restraint.
Weaknesses: Lack of moral restraint.
Explanations and Ideas: These really seem like they should be barbarians, but if you wanted to make a civilization out of them, it could be similar to the above, only instead of trading happiness and health for gold and culture, they could trade them for production and maybe a little gold. (Me) the reason I put them as a faction was one that Fury Road already had a similar faction and two in Fallout 3 they had a very organised raider town, with a fairly well developed slave trade and a weapons market as well as food and lodging. I think that they should have, perhaps exclusively, the ability to use slavery to rush production, I was thinking they could have unique weaker but quicker to build vehicles (think Mad Max Road Warrior stlye trucks and buggies) But I think they have to be a faction as this would be a prevalent form of government and control in a post-apolyptic world, those with guns using those without guns for their own ends and comfort. Big unhappiness, perhaps some sort of negative for distance to capital or issues with tech and production, lots of stealing and slavery as the basis of development. Smart guys do not have the same prominence among the thugs and bully culture.
The Herbologists:
Strengths: Ability to heal the land making it more fertile, access to animal units, some form of indoctrination, perhaps with a 'corporation' of religion, tthat allows them to get bonuses for themselves by spreading it among the other factions, perhaps gold and tech bonuses or something. Maybe also negatives for the indoctrinated enemy towns.
Weaknesses: lack of industrialisation and production, to reflect the eco-warrior heal the world mentality
Explanations and Ideas: Original born out of the fact the fury Road had a Cult style faction, the fallout element came from the huboligists of FO2 spreading something akin to todays 'Scientology' I thought this faction could be a blending of factions such as the Techno-Cults of the Reavers (FO Tactics) and Church of the Atom (FO3) as well as the beast controlling Cult Beast Masters (FO Tactics). The Eco-warrior vibe was something purely of my own creation as i thought it would make a fun and unique motivation for this faction. Healing the trees and soil through improvements making them more productive would be cool, as well as developing a number of sustainable green technologies, perhaps with benefits to health, happiness, science, but expensive and/or taking a lot of production.
The three Strong factions:
The three strong factions are BOS/Enclave/SuperMutants. They will each start in a Vault (or similarly advanced) location. They will be able to build buildings unique to these sites, hydroponic bays, teaching machines etc.and these provide big boosts. when it comes to settlers however they have a unique version, basically these factions cannot settle anywhere other than vault (or similar) locations making their growth a much slower more controlled affair, their early units will be strong but will not be able to conquer towns (like a helicopter) as they do not have the manpower or resources in the beginning to successfully annex/control/manage larger areas and populations. So there early mission will be focussed more on discovering and securing the precious vaults rather than picking fights that could see them overwhelmed by the faster growing factions. In the Rise of Mankind mod they have advanced settler units that found towns with certain buildings right from the start (such as a port and marketplace etc) i would like to use a similar technique (if possible) to achieve this. Anyone who builds on a vault terrain square automatically founds with a vault building which will act as a prerequisite for other vault based buildings, and normal towns will found with a 'village' or 'town' building which will act as a prerequisite for other town based buildings. This will give the added bonus of the later game goals of the strong factions being that they need to conquer and control towns in order to gain access to certain building types and units. Another element could be that they have a limit on the number of units they can build in their vaults and have to conquer towns in order to gain access to limtless unit types.