Site News and Notes

Fallout4 2016-02-20 16-53-13-64.avi_snapshot_00.20_[2016.02.25_01.44.17]

Hello! So an update on where things are at, I’m optimistic I’ll be able to cast most of the what I’ve mapped out so far for Fallout 4 by the time the Creation Kit comes out. The actual modding part will probably take about a month, so an alpha version should be out by May-ish, but a more likely target date will be June or July.

The mod will be a mix of quests and NPCs similar to the Fallout 3 Bundle, albeit the NPCs won’t have nearly the depth you’d get with an unvoiced protagonist. That’s why I’ll probably give this mod a new name. It’s an entirely different beast, and I don’t like to dwell on the past anyway.

Atomic Radio I can probably put out in a day or two after the Creation Kit release, since the hard part for that is done. The initial release will have about 4 new Grognak trailers, a half dozen commercials, and about 3 or 4 new sketches, including 2 horror ones. All in all I hope to get to the 5 hour mark before the Creation Kit comes out. More importantly, it’ll have proper time conditions and randomizing scripts.

Lastly, here’s some notes on changes to the site layout:

  • First major change is an infinite scroll, this will load new posts forever and ever if you scroll down, but since the pages only load if you scroll it shouldn’t use up too much bandwidth all at once, more of a gradual thing.
  • Changed the site favicon to Vault Boy
  • Twitter feed is now at the top of the right sidebar
  • Font for the site header is now a bit different, thought this looked a little cleaner
  • I figured out how to set the music player with an expandable playlist, this should allow it to take up less space overall. Click the button on the left to see the whole thing. Another quirk I noticed is that the player will continue to run even as you navigate to separate pages, which eliminates the need for a pop-out player.
  • I pared down the header button so it’s less of a clusterfuck for mobile users.

Granted the header’s still a bit involved since it shows every entry in the drop-down menu, but at least now it’s manageable. First thing I eliminated was the drop-downs for the forums and the casting calls, then the donation button, since it’s pretty much a waste of space. Not sure if the screenshots is pointless either but it doesn’t take up too much real estate and keeps the header full.

I considered separating the Fallout and TES downloads, but I wasn’t sure what to call it. The fact that it says downloads makes it pretty clear that’s what it is, if it said Fallout/TES you wouldn’t know what you were clicking until it was too late and now your room is filled with bats. So I left it alone. Besides, wouldn’t have made a lick of difference for mobile, and that was the whole point.

10 thoughts on “Site News and Notes

  1. Kris, have you considered for the F4 mod to require a silent main character mod? I mean, most of us are gonna use that anyway, especially when the mod kit is out and people can really work on a more polished version of the silent mods already available. It would help with your creative process and expanding the characters. I don’t know. It would be awesome to have an Interesting NPCs for F4.

    1. I’ve considered it, but I want to try it with a voiced PC first, especially if it’s gonna be this way going forward for Bethesda games. This will be a good trial run to see what works, what doesn’t.

      A voiced PC will limit the amount of things I can do obviously, the same way voiced NPCs placed limits, but so far it hasn’t been too much of a hindrance with regard to the skeleton of a quest, just the amount of dialogue and the way player decisions are made.

      I don’t know if I’ll ever make a mod like Interesting NPCs again. If you’ve played the Fallout 3 bundle, that’s what the Fallout 4 mod will be, on a larger scale with more interconnectedness between the quests and NPCs.

      It’ll also be the first chance I get to use NPCs across 2 separate games, and I plan to use some callbacks and easter eggs for people who’ve played the DC and NV quests.

  2. You are right, Interesting NPCs is a titanic enterprise. It will be interesting to see what you come up with for F4, even if it doesn’t hold the same scale. I have to say I haven’t tried the Fallout 3 bundle yet. I was about to make a Fallout 3 run with it installed and then a F4 run but then when the latter got released and was kind of a bummer RPG-wise…I stopped the whole marathon…

    Are you done with Fallout 3 then? I’ll probably make another F3 playthrough but I’d rather wait until you decide your F3 mod is finished.

    1. cool, new locations should appear on your map, although some followers are at vanilla locations. I think Chapel you have to dismiss him once to get his quest too.

  3. Cool, thanks for the heads up! :)

    So, just to be clear, is the fallout bundle 0.04 everything I need or do I need extra files for background NPCs?

    Thanks in advance, I know I am gonna love your mod.

  4. Four more questions (Sorry, to late to edit my previous post):

    1- Can I travel with one of the vanilla (human/ghoul) companions and one of yours at the same time? That would be three plus Dogmeat :)

    Do yours use the same system as vanilla ones?

    2- Load order suggestion? Does it matter? I have Unofficial patch, FWE, EVE, Fellout and Project Beauty installed.

    3- Are the new location icons in your mod compatible with the “high res map” mod?

    4- Is it compatible with the “NPCs Travel” mod? ( The creator flagged some doors in DC so the NPCs won’t use them)

    Thanks!!

    1. v0.04 is everything, background included.

      1. Yes, you can technically take all 7 companions with you, since they’re all separate ESMs. There is a dialogue that turns essential status ON/OFF as well, it is OFF by default but in FO3 death is

      2. Probably doesn’t matter.

      3. The new locations use the vanilla map markers, so I’m assuming any mod that changes those will also change those.

      4. I’m guessing compatibility would only be a problem if we both tried to edit the same thing or use the same building, which seems unlikely.

  5. 1- Nice, although 7 is an overkill. I will balance them throughout the playthrough. :)

    2- Ok. Cool.

    3- I won’t use it. Just to be sure.

    4- Ok, I’ll give it a try. Should be compatible enough.

    Thanks again ;)

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