1st big, long quest: Go out and get a water purifier so the town doesnt turn into zombies.
Timelimit: Water purifier must be working in one year.
Failure: Half the town turns into zombies and the ones who didn't mob you when you come back.
What it involves:
*Go and find a purifier.
*Retrive a critical component for the Purifier (cant be reproduced)
*Find a fusion cell to power the Purifier
*Find the neccicary tools to fix the machine (fusion cell + soldering iron and some other duodads)
*Find scientific and repair journals/books to fix the machine (since it's high-tech stuff).
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Now, the way I want to set the game ["Aftermath"] up is that right when you think you've won the game, it gets more interesting. Sure, you save the village from a virus that makes rabies look tame, but then something X else happens to put you in jeopardy again (here's where my lack of brainstorming skill hurts).
Im thinking about starting the game in the Pacific northwest - Eastern Oregon. But that seems just a little too fallout-ish (or rather, fallout2-ish).
Reason: Water Purifier is located in a fortified junkyard on the coast in Portland, it doesnt work anymore but that doesnt mean that there still aren't bloodthirsty warlords guarding it.
The replacement part is located in a factory in silicon valley in San Fancisco. Haven't figured out where I should hide the fusion cell yet - probably some old military bunker in the mountains (cheyenne mountain?), but this is early on in the game so it shouldn't be too difficult (low-scale automated defenses - no "metal storm" or laser cannons, metal storm = minigun on steroids).
The tools are located in yet another factory in San Francisco - you dont find out aobut it until a certain time index - which you reach earlier depending on your luck score, and can be bypassed depending on your intelligence (can swing by both factories at the same time - get the component and the tools in one fell swoop).
The scientific journals are located in a delapitated university library in Seattle, which by the way is irradiated and infested with the plague. Oh, it's also swarming with large deathclaw-like creatures (mutated bears), which not only have taken over the library, but the underground fallout shelter tunnels and the surrounding area. This would serve to function as the first "boss" in the game, as it will be incredibly difficult to beat it.
The library is in poor shape from the h-bomb that got blown up over the city, father time, and all the "heavy traffic" that it's seen (plus all the weeds growing through the cracks in the walls). The elevators are completly inoperable, and the stairwells are heavily damaged (you have to zig-zag from floor to floor, and conquer some bears in the process).
The repair journal is on the 7th floor, and the science journal has been carried off to the Third basement level - where the most dangerous "goriz" are (pronounced "Gores", like "it gores things to death", the current name for the mutated bears).
If the player survives... they have the tools, the parts, and the instructions for the town's engineer to fix the filter. Here is where something happens, It would be logical for a raid to happen - word spread of a working water filter and raiders want it, but it just sounds too much like Fallout (remember Fo2? you get the geck and the village gets raided by enclave).
Aftermath Quests/Plot
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Sirgalahadwizard
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- Joined: Wed Apr 24, 2002 3:56 am
- Location: 7th floor of the west-tek facility.
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Archchancellor
- Vault Scion
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- Joined: Thu Apr 18, 2002 11:57 am
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Sirgalahadwizard
- Vault Dweller
- Posts: 151
- Joined: Wed Apr 24, 2002 3:56 am
- Location: 7th floor of the west-tek facility.
What do you mean?
It wouldnt convert to D&D format very well - because the weapon balancing requires a fallout damage threshold/reduction system... and a realistic physics engine to work out complex attacks like shotgun and minigun blasts.
If you wanna try, go ahead, jsut remember that im gonna want a (C) copyright pasted all over that f-er. (copyright 2002 "sirgalahadwizard" and Jason Simpson)
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Oh, and I keep posting stuff about my own fallout-style game to get people's ideas on it... brainstorming, that kinda stuff (dunt worry, if it were ever legal to release <copyright violations with interplay>, I would give you credit so long as you stepped forward and gave a good reason).
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As I had said, the whole "retrive the water purifier" quest - from your village to the ruins of seattle is actually just chapter 1 in a series of chapters... sort of like how in fallout 2, finding Ed (the mechanic) and getting info on V13 from his friend in vault city is only the first chapter in the game.
There are two machines that the village uses: Water purifier and Food irradiator.
Food irradiator = Glorified microwave (actually x-ray). Kills viruses and other contaminants. The village grows crops/kills animals and then feeds them through the machine to make them safe to eat.
Water Purifier = Glorified "PUR" water filter. Filters out contaminants and radioactive bi-products. Village boils water, then feeds it through the water purifier making it safer to drink.
Both of them are high-tech items, and require Fusion Cells for power. Fusion Cells are a form of portable cold-fusion... They can supply approximatly 10KT explosive yield of electrical energy given a certain quantity of D2O - just over a long period of time though (so you cant get them to blow up).
They work by running an electric current through Deuterium (heavy water) and performing electrolysis... then the Deuterium collects on a palladium rod (here's the sci-fi part) in such density as to start fusion. You end up getting inbetween 50-100x as much electricity out of the thingamagigger as you put in.
This is based almost exactly on that hoax those guys did back in '89 that mysteriously no laboratory has been able to replicate.
In aftermath... cold fusion is re-investigated about 35 years from now and they figure out how it works... generating the famed "mechanized armor" suits (like power armor but bigger) and several big-ticket energy weapons (plasma guns and gauss weapons), as well as an army of robots and cheap spacecraft.
It wouldnt convert to D&D format very well - because the weapon balancing requires a fallout damage threshold/reduction system... and a realistic physics engine to work out complex attacks like shotgun and minigun blasts.
If you wanna try, go ahead, jsut remember that im gonna want a (C) copyright pasted all over that f-er. (copyright 2002 "sirgalahadwizard" and Jason Simpson)
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Oh, and I keep posting stuff about my own fallout-style game to get people's ideas on it... brainstorming, that kinda stuff (dunt worry, if it were ever legal to release <copyright violations with interplay>, I would give you credit so long as you stepped forward and gave a good reason).
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As I had said, the whole "retrive the water purifier" quest - from your village to the ruins of seattle is actually just chapter 1 in a series of chapters... sort of like how in fallout 2, finding Ed (the mechanic) and getting info on V13 from his friend in vault city is only the first chapter in the game.
There are two machines that the village uses: Water purifier and Food irradiator.
Food irradiator = Glorified microwave (actually x-ray). Kills viruses and other contaminants. The village grows crops/kills animals and then feeds them through the machine to make them safe to eat.
Water Purifier = Glorified "PUR" water filter. Filters out contaminants and radioactive bi-products. Village boils water, then feeds it through the water purifier making it safer to drink.
Both of them are high-tech items, and require Fusion Cells for power. Fusion Cells are a form of portable cold-fusion... They can supply approximatly 10KT explosive yield of electrical energy given a certain quantity of D2O - just over a long period of time though (so you cant get them to blow up).
They work by running an electric current through Deuterium (heavy water) and performing electrolysis... then the Deuterium collects on a palladium rod (here's the sci-fi part) in such density as to start fusion. You end up getting inbetween 50-100x as much electricity out of the thingamagigger as you put in.
This is based almost exactly on that hoax those guys did back in '89 that mysteriously no laboratory has been able to replicate.
In aftermath... cold fusion is re-investigated about 35 years from now and they figure out how it works... generating the famed "mechanized armor" suits (like power armor but bigger) and several big-ticket energy weapons (plasma guns and gauss weapons), as well as an army of robots and cheap spacecraft.
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Sirgalahadwizard
- Vault Dweller
- Posts: 151
- Joined: Wed Apr 24, 2002 3:56 am
- Location: 7th floor of the west-tek facility.
I would like to say that "Aftermath" in no way bears any relation to another game released a long time ago named "The Aftermath". This was brought to my attention and I had no intention to use the name (I came up with the name off the top of my head).
The primary form of currency in Aftermath will be known as "Bits" and "Pieces". Currency as in, things you carry around which have almost no functional use, you typicially carry lots of them, they're worth money, and you can trade them for other things.
Think of "Bits" as your standard 1$ bill, and "Pieces" as a larger denomination (like $10s or $20s). Bits consist of odds and ends like washers, bolts, screws, etc. Pieces consist of more complex odds and ends - spark plugs, lengths of unstripped wire, small tools, magnetic coils (magnet with copper wire around it), drill bits (no pun), etc.
Bits vary in price - bits that have accumulated small amounts of damage aren't worth as much. Bits can't be rusted or destroyed - a ripped washer or a stripped bolt are worthless... so bits are typicially made of stainless steel or aluminum (they have to survive 40 years of decay to get to you). Pieces must be in complete working order or they're garbage - a faulty spark plug isn't any good for anyone. The debatable difference between a damaged and undamaged part is where the equivalent of "barter" skill comes into play ("damit to hell, it only has a little scratch, it'll still work...")
However, those principals concerning damaged parts will only be taken up to determine how much of the stuff you get - you wont actually carry around washers, bolts, etc that are seperated (in your inventory you'd see a pile of assorted bolts/nuts/screws/etc - same goes for "pieces"). Currency also has weight, for "bits" it's about 1 lb for every 100$, for "pieces" it's about 1 lb for every 1000$. There will be a currency bottleneck, but it wont be a bad one like Fo2 had... as you can go rummaging through piles of junk for a few hours to find some money (if it hasn't already been looted).
Next alternative for currency is ammo - which is somewhere inbetween "Bits" and "Pieces" depending on the type of ammo (obviously rockets, shotgun shells, and large pistol ammo are going to be expensive).
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If you trade (barter) with a person they may offer you credit if they can't make change with you - but if you push your luck or dont pay your debt off for a long time they'll fetch an order of indentured servitude against you and you'll have to work it off under the guy you racked it up for - this is a bad thing for female characters... as some of the debt will come in the form of "services" (depends on your contract)
Other alternative is escape, but I assure that the player wont get all their possessions back (and might have to shoot their way outta town to get em all back - making you an outlaw... one step away from being a raider).
Other characters are in servitude and you can get some NPCs by buying their freedom. There aren't many NPCs in the game (player-helpers), and they really come in handy sometimes. :twisted:
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The raiders, or whatever you want to call them tend to think of themselves as royalty or something superior. Not all "raiders" are created equal though.
Some of them are just rude dudes with some knives and clubs and some leader guy with a neat gun and a primative suit of armor; Some of them are heavily armed, armored, and high-level badasses.
Their activities aren't equal either, some are highway robbers and conduct raiding parties on little villas that cant protect themselves very well, some few others try to setup some kind of government, and then there's big slave trading networks.
The slavers are trained soldiers... and a man with a shotgun is a very dangerous foe in this game (at least to common folk, and at least until you get a suit of armor), so they have a way of getting people to surrender. As I said before, not all raiders are created equal... there are smaller networks of slaver thugs like the ones in Fo2, and there are big corporate "human resources" groups who actually have a big stronghold somewhere. The market for slaves is big in places that need lots of manual labor.
The raider bits might seem a little corny, but I hadn't addressed the issue of how the raiders would be organized yet. And the only thing that will permanently get rid of raiders of all kinds is some kind of government or a law-enforcing body more powervul than they are... as "raiders" are a bi-product of anarchy (for example, pirates are considered raiders - just on boats instead of on land).
The primary form of currency in Aftermath will be known as "Bits" and "Pieces". Currency as in, things you carry around which have almost no functional use, you typicially carry lots of them, they're worth money, and you can trade them for other things.
Think of "Bits" as your standard 1$ bill, and "Pieces" as a larger denomination (like $10s or $20s). Bits consist of odds and ends like washers, bolts, screws, etc. Pieces consist of more complex odds and ends - spark plugs, lengths of unstripped wire, small tools, magnetic coils (magnet with copper wire around it), drill bits (no pun), etc.
Bits vary in price - bits that have accumulated small amounts of damage aren't worth as much. Bits can't be rusted or destroyed - a ripped washer or a stripped bolt are worthless... so bits are typicially made of stainless steel or aluminum (they have to survive 40 years of decay to get to you). Pieces must be in complete working order or they're garbage - a faulty spark plug isn't any good for anyone. The debatable difference between a damaged and undamaged part is where the equivalent of "barter" skill comes into play ("damit to hell, it only has a little scratch, it'll still work...")
However, those principals concerning damaged parts will only be taken up to determine how much of the stuff you get - you wont actually carry around washers, bolts, etc that are seperated (in your inventory you'd see a pile of assorted bolts/nuts/screws/etc - same goes for "pieces"). Currency also has weight, for "bits" it's about 1 lb for every 100$, for "pieces" it's about 1 lb for every 1000$. There will be a currency bottleneck, but it wont be a bad one like Fo2 had... as you can go rummaging through piles of junk for a few hours to find some money (if it hasn't already been looted).
Next alternative for currency is ammo - which is somewhere inbetween "Bits" and "Pieces" depending on the type of ammo (obviously rockets, shotgun shells, and large pistol ammo are going to be expensive).
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If you trade (barter) with a person they may offer you credit if they can't make change with you - but if you push your luck or dont pay your debt off for a long time they'll fetch an order of indentured servitude against you and you'll have to work it off under the guy you racked it up for - this is a bad thing for female characters... as some of the debt will come in the form of "services" (depends on your contract)
Other alternative is escape, but I assure that the player wont get all their possessions back (and might have to shoot their way outta town to get em all back - making you an outlaw... one step away from being a raider).
Other characters are in servitude and you can get some NPCs by buying their freedom. There aren't many NPCs in the game (player-helpers), and they really come in handy sometimes. :twisted:
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The raiders, or whatever you want to call them tend to think of themselves as royalty or something superior. Not all "raiders" are created equal though.
Some of them are just rude dudes with some knives and clubs and some leader guy with a neat gun and a primative suit of armor; Some of them are heavily armed, armored, and high-level badasses.
Their activities aren't equal either, some are highway robbers and conduct raiding parties on little villas that cant protect themselves very well, some few others try to setup some kind of government, and then there's big slave trading networks.
The slavers are trained soldiers... and a man with a shotgun is a very dangerous foe in this game (at least to common folk, and at least until you get a suit of armor), so they have a way of getting people to surrender. As I said before, not all raiders are created equal... there are smaller networks of slaver thugs like the ones in Fo2, and there are big corporate "human resources" groups who actually have a big stronghold somewhere. The market for slaves is big in places that need lots of manual labor.
The raider bits might seem a little corny, but I hadn't addressed the issue of how the raiders would be organized yet. And the only thing that will permanently get rid of raiders of all kinds is some kind of government or a law-enforcing body more powervul than they are... as "raiders" are a bi-product of anarchy (for example, pirates are considered raiders - just on boats instead of on land).
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Sirgalahadwizard
- Vault Dweller
- Posts: 151
- Joined: Wed Apr 24, 2002 3:56 am
- Location: 7th floor of the west-tek facility.
The political strucutures of the waste are pretty freely-minded except for the occasional indentured servitude. It's when the raiders/bandits/slavers take charge and starts telling people what to do that they get pissed... Of course the people cant do anything about it when they threaten to grab people off the street at random and shoot em in public view should there be the slightest hint of insurrection ("I'll kill the first fucker who says anything, then ill kill his family... children first.").
The "merchants", if you want to call em that tend to be sort-of leader-like in the community... and any elders that truely would be the leaders of the community tend to have things to sell too. Elders are typicially elected via a general consensus in the community, and usually after a previous elder either dies or cant lead anymore.
Elders are considered very wise because they're usually old (obviously) and had to live back when things were alot worse (including the newer virus problem) - and some of them are citizens who actually survived the war and have alot of knowledge of the pre-war and post-war world (though they're venerable - in thier 60's and older).
As for military action - there's no true warrior caste... the people who usually do the fighting are typicially the young and physicially active, the strong, and the experienced... females aren't barred from defense, but discouraged (since they're the guarantee that the village will go on surviving). Experienced usually means someone who's travelled around and got into lotsa fights before, can also mean anyone who has aqquired a gun - can use it and actually has ammo for it.
About half of communities are farming communities - trading food for money and things to help feed the other communities (and keeping some for themselves too), in part because not everyone has food purifiers... That's part of the reason why the town the player comes from is in such danger - not only do the food purifiers represent a quantity of survival and protection, but economic dependance as well - if they cant make the food safe to eat they cant sell it (they'll get shot if they sell contaminated food and people get sick/die).
The reason why the food needs to be purified is in most part due to the virus - the CRM (chinese retrovirus mutation), not radiation... cooking food wont get rid of it and neither will boiling water and it's practicially everywhere (not everywhere, it doesnt come down with the rain and is hard-pressed to travel on dust particles, but it's in the ground and in streams/rivers).
Water doesn't need to be "purified" if it's collected from rainwater, but with the long-term colder climate caused by the nuclear war ("nuclear winter") rain cant be depended on. For the most part radiation can't be avoided - it's in even more places than the CRM is, it does come down in the rain, and it is in the soil, and it is in the food chain. Radioactive fallout reduces the average lifespan of everyone to about 40 or 50 (dying of old age in many cases means some kind of cancer).
The "merchants", if you want to call em that tend to be sort-of leader-like in the community... and any elders that truely would be the leaders of the community tend to have things to sell too. Elders are typicially elected via a general consensus in the community, and usually after a previous elder either dies or cant lead anymore.
Elders are considered very wise because they're usually old (obviously) and had to live back when things were alot worse (including the newer virus problem) - and some of them are citizens who actually survived the war and have alot of knowledge of the pre-war and post-war world (though they're venerable - in thier 60's and older).
As for military action - there's no true warrior caste... the people who usually do the fighting are typicially the young and physicially active, the strong, and the experienced... females aren't barred from defense, but discouraged (since they're the guarantee that the village will go on surviving). Experienced usually means someone who's travelled around and got into lotsa fights before, can also mean anyone who has aqquired a gun - can use it and actually has ammo for it.
About half of communities are farming communities - trading food for money and things to help feed the other communities (and keeping some for themselves too), in part because not everyone has food purifiers... That's part of the reason why the town the player comes from is in such danger - not only do the food purifiers represent a quantity of survival and protection, but economic dependance as well - if they cant make the food safe to eat they cant sell it (they'll get shot if they sell contaminated food and people get sick/die).
The reason why the food needs to be purified is in most part due to the virus - the CRM (chinese retrovirus mutation), not radiation... cooking food wont get rid of it and neither will boiling water and it's practicially everywhere (not everywhere, it doesnt come down with the rain and is hard-pressed to travel on dust particles, but it's in the ground and in streams/rivers).
Water doesn't need to be "purified" if it's collected from rainwater, but with the long-term colder climate caused by the nuclear war ("nuclear winter") rain cant be depended on. For the most part radiation can't be avoided - it's in even more places than the CRM is, it does come down in the rain, and it is in the soil, and it is in the food chain. Radioactive fallout reduces the average lifespan of everyone to about 40 or 50 (dying of old age in many cases means some kind of cancer).
