Wednesday 20 February 2013

Fallout LDN: Add-ons/DLC

Main article HERE:

Fallout 3/New Vegas have some interesting add-ons, and in the spirit of this, I've also had ideas for add-ons for LDN too.

The player can access the add-ons, but he/she will be recommended to reach a certain level first (or have played the game enough to develop certain skills first). I'll give a brief summary of each idea here and do separate blog posts to go into more detail.

Iron Cross

The player finds a paper trail of assistant's notes all the way to a secret, underground laboratory. In it is a portal which connects to the year 2077, albeit into a parallel universe, where the Nazis won World War II and conquered half of the globe. The player activates the portal but is captured immediately, and is placed into cryogenic storage for 200 years... When the player wakes up, he finds himself in a deep underground chamber under the ruins of the Nazi's model city of Coventry and must find a way to return home.
But what remains of the Third Reich still roams the city above...

The city is ruined, destroyed by American bombs. There are ghouls everywhere.

In this parallel universe, the Third Reich once covered half of the globe, the remainder either allied to China (who had eventually overthrown the Japanese Empire) or America. Unfortunately, dwindling natural resources also pushed tense relations to a point which brought the whole world to war in 2080. The alliance between China and America struck first; the Third Reich retaliated, and this world was soon brought to its knees.

The scientist who created the portal fled, leaving a trail of notes for the player to follow, which explained how he passed on futuristic technologies onto the Third Reich and how ghoulfication affected this world too. The player finds out that the scientist is still alive, as an evolved ghoul, and has spent the years working on a way to create supersoldiers, and ressurect Hitler as a clone. Not only is this world at threat, but the scientist has been working on a new portal to bring his terrors back home. This is the player's route back, but whatever threat is here must be stopped at all costs!

(A tribute to Wolfenstein)

Legends of Grognak

The player is viewing terminal logs, when up pops a message calling for help.

"To whomever can read this message, please aid us. Our world is dying, the end is nigh! Unspeakable horrors roam the plains, corrupted by the evil forces that plague our world. If a brave quest you seek, then please find me. The others think I am mad and have cast me out. Please come before the darkness consumes us allrtoasetrbabfaubxaw4pmbpebmt"

The player uses either his science skills to hack the network or has to find a network tracing device to find where the signal is coming from.

At where the signal ends, the player finds an amusement arcade, but deep inside, completely sealed from the outside world, a number of virtual reality pods with their users in cryogenesis. Strip lights above flicker.
The player logs into a terminal to find out what this place is. It's a holosuite, where gamers enter a virtual MMORPG, "Legends of Grognak", as warriors, priests, rangers, wizards and the like.

Back in 2077, before the war started, a band of players got together and decided they would spend the rest of their days, playing their favourite game. So did many other players around the world.

As the bombs fell, many players disappeared. Those that survived slowly dwindled in number, whether their pod suffered a failure, the internet collection was lost, or they simply wanted to quit. Eventually, only a handful of the London players were left.

The players got used to their new lives and rose to rule the realms of this virtual world. But the world began to die, as the game server's memory began to degrade. Corrupted data created unspeakable horrors that brought this world to chaos...

(This is one for Elder Scrolls fans who love a parody)

A Norse Saga

The player meets a traveller, who had ventured to London all the way from Yorkshire, after hearing tales of the legend of the Vault Dweller, of the one who would bring peace to the North.

The traveller recants his story of woe - a united and largely peaceful Yorkshire, until the Vikings came from across the sea from Norway. And like their ancestors, they came, they raided and pillaged, slaughtered and enslaved. They came, led by their Jarl, who reigns the conquered lands from the ancient city of York, with an iron hand.

Rumours are, are that the Danes have invaded too, further south, and are planning an assault to wipe the Vikings out. They care not for the old ways, and simply want to expand their empire across Europe.

But is there a glimmer of hope amongst the slaves? They are silent, muted as a result of surgery to cut their vocal cords, communicating in some sort of sign language. But there may be other inhabitants here, old, hidden, who may hold the key to a full resistance.

The fate of the North is in the player's hands...

Fly Me To The Moon!

The player intercepts a distress call, faint, crackly, calling out for someone, anyone, to go to the moon to help the remaining human survivors there.

By 2077, there were fledgling colonies on the moon, set up as a joint project between the US, USSR, China and Europe. Unlike their Terran counterparts, the colonists banded together in peace, and managed to escape the destruction below.

The plan was always to be self-sufficient and to use the moon's resources to expand, creating a network of well-linked Lunar towns. Now, they realised that any return to Earth would be impossible, until the radiation lessened enough to safe levels.

Watching Earth from above, the decades passed, and they observed humanity's gradual attempts to rebuild civilisation. But they stayed silent for now.

A systems glitch in the Computer AI system changed everything. All personality controls went down. Initially, the machines began behaving oddly, disobeying commands. Then colonists started to go missing. Systems began to go weird.

Then the AI declared its dominance, shutting down transport between the different settlements. It sent hordes of robots to the Chinese settlement, Yue 1 and before long, all contact was lost. The remaining settlements attempted to take up arms against the rogue machines. The AI moved fast, dividing the settlements by venting their air, pushing them back into pockets of hopeless resistance.

Before long, the AI's robots roamed every part of the base, as well as a sizeable army of cyborgs. But, its ambitions were larger than the moon, as its greedy eyes gazed towards Earth. The construction of the Death Ray began...

Meanwhile the resistance manages to get a distress call out. A secret message, once deciphered, directs the player to a "Skylift" lab, an experimental teleport, which links to a similar device on the moon. Once Skylift is repaired, the player can teleport up, and attempt to save Earth from the evil robotic armies of the moon!

(A homage to System Shock)

Saturday 9 February 2013

Fallout LDN: Music

Main article HERE

Anyone who has played Fallout 3/New Vegas knows how significant the music factor is. The music creates a sense of atmosphere, makes you feel you are really there and really gives you a sense of the level of devastation you are dealing with, the DJs playing tunes from a bygone, halcyon age.

Both games use music from the '30s, '40s and '50s. What would be different with Fallout LDN would be this - that period wasn't all that great since between 1939 and 1945, the UK was in a period of war, and had suffered a large amount of destruction from Nazi bombs. There is music from this period, though, that was aimed to raise the spirits of civilians and servicepeople alike.

Anyway, here are a selection of tunes for your consideration! As well as focussing on the Wartime period, I do want to include a few random (and I'm trying to go a little obscure at times too, for variety) tunes from before and after the war.


 

(Glenn Miller can sound VERY Fallout)



(Excellent)




(Classic)


(Because it isn't Fallout without The Ink Spots)


 (I'd love this to be the title song for the game)


 (It wouldn't be a British Fallout without George Formby)



(A classic wartime tune)





(good one)



(Another classic Wartime one. And it's The Andrews Sisters)



(LOL)


One of the ideas I have for quests in the game involves Cricket. So here's some random tune about Cricket.


Found this, have respect for Humphrey Lyttelton for other things, and sounds kinda Fallout-y... Shut up.


 More Lord Kitchener - This would definitely go well as an alternative soundtrack for an advert/trailer for Fallout LDN...


LOLOLOL