Fallout: Old World Scars - Dev Blog :)

                     **FALLOUT: old world Scars**

While I typically do a lot of Source engine projects, it's been a long time dream of mine, since skyrim came out, to do a bespoke open world mod for a bethesda game, tried with skyrim, with new vegas, but Fallout 4 has been the best case so far, mostly because the editor is far better held together compared to the others (oh lord if you think new vegas is unstable, wait till you see it's editor)

Old world scars/ Drifter is the working name for my Fallout 4 based project, a full bespoke landscape and custom campaign, which has been a side project of mine for a year and a half now, mostly sat in planning documents.

Creation engine's a unique beast, but it's been a great experience in getting to grips with open world & quest design, as well as the likes of scripting with papyrus and learning how to write for dialogue trees.

I'll show what I've got so far!

                             **The World**

This mod is set in the Canadian wilderness, far from major cities, but still hiding many pre-war secrets from the days of US annexation prior to the great war

This is my current area of focus for the project, with about 1/5th of the area space at least landscaped, a dozen noted locations to discover, one claimable settlement, and a few early wip dungeons. My goal for now is to produce the starter half of the game world, fully populated with loot, encounters, interiors, ect.

every added location helps to prove out more of the mod's more survival and crafting orientated approach.

                               **Factions**

Being so far away from typically established games, the mod features almost exclusively unique factions, specific to the setting.

  • The Hunters (WIP Name) - A co-operative of Survivors within the region, whilst largely independent, all work together to keep their life in the region sustainable.
  • The Poachers (WIP Name) - A mix of Super mutants and Descendants of pre-war Canadian rebels, they reside within the eastern half of the region, Hunting for outsiders that trespass into their territory
  • Steel Trail Nomads - A nomadic tribe, renown for their expertise and seemingly religious commitment to pre-war trains and their old tracks, they travel the remains of north America, repairing miles of track for the sole purpose of journeying across the continent. Splintering into sub groups as new trains are found and made operational during their travels.
  • Chicago Tech Hunters - A broad covering name for those Travelling far from the ruins of Chicago, Tech hunter companies, opportunists and settlers all from the same ruined city travelled far north under the promise of a secret military base stocked with enough to supply an army (or one massive payday), they've descended apon to the region in droves, disrupting the otherwise unassuming region.
  • The Bastion - Pre war ghouls Residing within the remains of a remote military base. terrified of the outside world, they are highly isolationist and well fortified, still holding onto pre-war weapons, resources and training.

Most factions will see re-use of assets from Fallout 4 and it's DLCs, but some will be receiving unique faction armours and clothing, the poachers for instance, already have themselves a faction outfit, helping to establish them in the world better.

I'll share more soon regarding gameplay vision and roleplaying as part of the project, but I think this is sufficient for a first post.

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Very exciting to see cool New Worlds stuff for FO4 that isn't the massive huge TCs like folon. Back when the game's CK first came out I had dreams of making a small quest area set in Truckee, CA and did some landscaping. It definitely looked way worse than this, I love your tree choices and use of rocks! Those cliff-top POI sightlines really inspire me. it really reminds me of what I wanted that project to look like. rootin for this

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Looking good so far!
Definitely keep us updated as development goes on, I think this would be a great way for me to get back into Fallout 4 without the whole rigamarole of the Sean Chronicles

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Thanks for all the really nice comments already!
Hopefully now I've got enough trust by the big forum machine to post multiple images, let's see!

I wanted to show off a commissioned piece for this project that's been completed this year, the Poacher's armour set

 Concept and Backstory

The Poachers in this campaign's lore delves into some of their pre-war history of Canadian resistance cells after the annexation, composing of civilians turned partisan fighters, and former Soldiers who went AWOL instead of being assimilated into the united states war machine.

These lot, unable to survive direct fights, focused on guerrilla warfare and ambush tactics, techniques that survived down generations into the Poachers that are rumoured about in the Valley today.

Their armour is a combination of stolen US supplies, generations of wear and tear, and their unique modifications to operate in the dense wilderness.

Concept Art was commissioned by a good friend of mine under the name of SnekSucks, if I ever start my dream indie game, they're the artist I intend to drive the overall direction. It helps they're also a big Fallout buff, and helps me work on faction and quest ideas to better fit into existing cannon.

 3D assets

3D assets have been handled by a artist under the name of Mr.Sandman, one of the character artists aboard Fallout London, they were commissioned to translate the concept into the playable 3D model, and help with implementation.

their base model provided a great foundation for the full set, which we were able to implement as moddable upgrades in armour workbenches, and can appear in different configurations on NPCs

The full suit made it into engine and the mode fairly recently, with all versions craftable through the armour workbench. It's just a matter of getting a set from a Poacher, which, once fully implemented, will prove much harder than anticipated, those ambushing, guerrilla warfare tactics apply against the player too, which I hope to show in time!




Only thing to fix on these in game now is a broader, default setting that adds a very strong, backfilling light effect to NPCs, so hiding in foliage is not as powerful until that is fixed.

I'll share more from the project soon, would like to chat about some of my unique factions in future, while I do more broad world building.

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this is looking p sick imo

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