Introduction: Greetings, I am a new member here who recently became fascinated with the idea of the Conqueror mod, and would like to share some thoughts that came to me on the topic of creating a custom faction in-game.
Let's get to it!
Note: This could be an add-on pack for the Conqueror mod, in case some users feel they don't need the features.
Be aware of [Problem x] boxes. These will be explained at the bottom.
Identifying Your Faction: At some point, the player could be given a holotape that would allow him/her to begin the foundation work for giving the faction an identity. This could be done by selecting the faction theme, which could even draw from other faction packs like the Enclave, or any other symbolisms that can be added later, and giving it a name, which would be a prompt that simply says "Name your faction: ". The cherry on top would be the ability to change these later in the game [Problem 1].
Manufacturing Gear: Essentially the player is allowed to create factories that produce specific types of equipment, one for arms, the other for armour. The way the player selects the item to be produced is by adding it to a specific container for each of the two. These factories could be advanced industrial plots, but from playing the mod, I found that it would be easier if the workshop UI had a bit of a rearrangement. Any-who, that's irrelevant to the post. These plots could come in two varieties, 2x2 or 3x3. The difference between these is output and power requirement. Additionally, their upgrade trees, as far as I can think of, could be divided into two focuses: Production over Safety, or the other way around. The idea was for the event that a worker could actually perish while working there, and that would decrease happiness temporarily (this will have a purpose later). So, the way the author gets resources into play is by reverse-scrapping the equipment. In this case, if with the contraptions dlc you can craft the light leather armour out of x,y,z, then it would be possible that the yields from scraping an item be used for crafting it [Problem 2].
Equipping Your Troops: The next step is through another set of plots. There are armouries where soldiers will get their gear personally, or a plot with an assigned settler to deliver these items to the soldiers one at a time. I don't think this should be automatic, and it would be better if the player could activate a terminal or use a holotape to give this order, so the process becomes voluntary and allows the player to have more control over what's happening.
Globalizing gear: It would be a shame if the player wanted an uniformed army, but each settlement had it's own set of equipment. To counteract this, there could be a plot with the purpose of replicating equipment choices for all your owned settlements. So if you place it in Sanctuary Hills, all factories in the commonwealth would be churning out the selection from Sanctuary. I suppose this plot could only be built once... [Problem 1]
Giving Your Troops Ranks and Specified Equipment: Now that we have industry and armament out of the way, we could use that handy holotape to generate a menu where the player can create units for specified roles, if desired. Gear/Rank restrictions could be optional, I think. Historically, firearms replaced bows because they were easier to use. The difference here is that a low ranking grunt armed with a gauss rifle may not be as accurate as an elite with the same weapon, so you can have a quality vs. quantity going. This way, if you really didn't like the super mutants, you could make a unit made to face them effectively. This would be the best part. Experimentation. Specifying equipment would be the trickier part though... Maybe if you had a container for each rank, you could throw in there what said rank would have on hand.
If the player would so desire, he/she could start a feud, or be feuded on by another faction. Let's say your settlements are very industrious, have a lot of power generation overall and robots walking about. That would get the Brotherhood of Steel's attention, and given their demeanour, if you're not a high ranking member in their quest line, they may start raiding you, or send a representative once their x number of assaults get crushed. This could give opportunities for an alliance, slander, questioning or war (these are the options on the dialogue wheel, presented clockwise). This would of course make the player an enemy of the Institute and a possible enemy of the Railroad, depending on choices.
Or maybe you get along well with the Institute. In that case, the Railroad may try to coerce you into sabotaging them, or convince you of their cause. If not, then the railroad will attack you in different ways. They might send an operative disguised as a traveller to your budding city, who will then search for important infrastructure and leave an explosive charge, disabling it until repaired. Or if you really annoy them, they might try to assassinate your governors. This can be prevented by... oh my... [Problem 3]
On the other hand, the player is a friend of the Railroad, and the institute will become an enemy, and the brotherhood a potential one. The institute has three ways of telling you they're not around for giggles. The first is a very large (configurable) wave of gen 1's and 2's attacking your settlement. The other is for them to sick a courser on you or a settlement. They won't capture the settlements, just murder everything in them (like in University Point) and make them neutral again (neutral settlers will arrive after bodies de-spawn). The third is by beginning to replace your settlers with synths. This happens based on happiness. If it's low enough, even soldiers will be replaced. When enough people have been replaced (maybe 40% population), they will go berserk and again, University Point. This can be avoided by setting up special area detectors that will try to find the component of a nearby synth. To build one of these the player should get one or two synth components.
Lastly there's the gunners, super mutants, children of atom and the different raider groups.
These will attack you from time to time, but you can convince/threaten them not to or ally with them.
The gunners will demand caps every few weeks, but if you destroy their main bases they won't bother you any more. On the other hand you can pay them to harass other factions so they stop their attacks until the end of the contract. The super mutants just want to have a good fight, or a meal, or because they're ideologically stuck... Maybe all of those. But if your character manages to somehow defeat a behemoth or some really tough mutant leader with a melee or fist weapon, you might get some respect. The children of atom will only attack the settlements closest to the glowing sea, as they see your civilization as an affront, and will launch squishy ghouls and priests to "cleanse the unbelievers" (lore needed). Maybe they can become allies if you side with them on Far Harbour or if you replace the leader of that sept with the synth option. As for the raiders, they'll be the bread and butter of attacks (we need some non-negotiable minor faction, for entertainment's sake). Maybe if they use different tactics based on what group they're from. And not forgetting Nuka World, but I've never touched the dlc, so I can't really type much about it.
As for other activities, if you think you're up to the challenge, perhaps you can send one of your own as a diplomat with a message for war, peace, distance, a meeting or maybe a temporary cease-fire.
Did not mention the Minutemen since you are their general, but perhaps if Preston Doesn't agree with you (assuming you didn't end him at the museum), he may actually take matters into his own hands, and create a separatist group, which will reinforce neutral settlements greatly, oh, and mind The Fort, he may actually start using it!
[Problem 1] = Thing is, I've never used the Creation Kit, so I do not understand it's limitations. I'm just enthusiastic about the mod and want to contribute.
[Problem 2] = Maybe a better, less convoluted system would be in order. Modded items may not be subject to being scrapped.
[Problem 3] = Don't really know how to prevent that sort of shenanigans, since the Railroad are masters of subterfuge. I'm sorry, but I couldn't think of anything that would be functional or lore-friendly. Same as the Synth Detector Mcguffin.
Thank you very much for reading this wall. I love your work.
And I am aware of the rules regarding posts and their delete-ability. If I may ask a favour, please send me an e-mail if anyone removes it and an explanation as to why, since I'm new to the community.
Thank You.
Let's get to it!
Note: This could be an add-on pack for the Conqueror mod, in case some users feel they don't need the features.
Be aware of [Problem x] boxes. These will be explained at the bottom.
Part 1: Identity Crisis?
Identifying Your Faction: At some point, the player could be given a holotape that would allow him/her to begin the foundation work for giving the faction an identity. This could be done by selecting the faction theme, which could even draw from other faction packs like the Enclave, or any other symbolisms that can be added later, and giving it a name, which would be a prompt that simply says "Name your faction: ". The cherry on top would be the ability to change these later in the game [Problem 1].
Part 2: The Army, Military Intelligence
Manufacturing Gear: Essentially the player is allowed to create factories that produce specific types of equipment, one for arms, the other for armour. The way the player selects the item to be produced is by adding it to a specific container for each of the two. These factories could be advanced industrial plots, but from playing the mod, I found that it would be easier if the workshop UI had a bit of a rearrangement. Any-who, that's irrelevant to the post. These plots could come in two varieties, 2x2 or 3x3. The difference between these is output and power requirement. Additionally, their upgrade trees, as far as I can think of, could be divided into two focuses: Production over Safety, or the other way around. The idea was for the event that a worker could actually perish while working there, and that would decrease happiness temporarily (this will have a purpose later). So, the way the author gets resources into play is by reverse-scrapping the equipment. In this case, if with the contraptions dlc you can craft the light leather armour out of x,y,z, then it would be possible that the yields from scraping an item be used for crafting it [Problem 2].
Equipping Your Troops: The next step is through another set of plots. There are armouries where soldiers will get their gear personally, or a plot with an assigned settler to deliver these items to the soldiers one at a time. I don't think this should be automatic, and it would be better if the player could activate a terminal or use a holotape to give this order, so the process becomes voluntary and allows the player to have more control over what's happening.
Globalizing gear: It would be a shame if the player wanted an uniformed army, but each settlement had it's own set of equipment. To counteract this, there could be a plot with the purpose of replicating equipment choices for all your owned settlements. So if you place it in Sanctuary Hills, all factories in the commonwealth would be churning out the selection from Sanctuary. I suppose this plot could only be built once... [Problem 1]
Giving Your Troops Ranks and Specified Equipment: Now that we have industry and armament out of the way, we could use that handy holotape to generate a menu where the player can create units for specified roles, if desired. Gear/Rank restrictions could be optional, I think. Historically, firearms replaced bows because they were easier to use. The difference here is that a low ranking grunt armed with a gauss rifle may not be as accurate as an elite with the same weapon, so you can have a quality vs. quantity going. This way, if you really didn't like the super mutants, you could make a unit made to face them effectively. This would be the best part. Experimentation. Specifying equipment would be the trickier part though... Maybe if you had a container for each rank, you could throw in there what said rank would have on hand.
Part 3: Diplomacy and Minor Factions
If the player would so desire, he/she could start a feud, or be feuded on by another faction. Let's say your settlements are very industrious, have a lot of power generation overall and robots walking about. That would get the Brotherhood of Steel's attention, and given their demeanour, if you're not a high ranking member in their quest line, they may start raiding you, or send a representative once their x number of assaults get crushed. This could give opportunities for an alliance, slander, questioning or war (these are the options on the dialogue wheel, presented clockwise). This would of course make the player an enemy of the Institute and a possible enemy of the Railroad, depending on choices.
Or maybe you get along well with the Institute. In that case, the Railroad may try to coerce you into sabotaging them, or convince you of their cause. If not, then the railroad will attack you in different ways. They might send an operative disguised as a traveller to your budding city, who will then search for important infrastructure and leave an explosive charge, disabling it until repaired. Or if you really annoy them, they might try to assassinate your governors. This can be prevented by... oh my... [Problem 3]
On the other hand, the player is a friend of the Railroad, and the institute will become an enemy, and the brotherhood a potential one. The institute has three ways of telling you they're not around for giggles. The first is a very large (configurable) wave of gen 1's and 2's attacking your settlement. The other is for them to sick a courser on you or a settlement. They won't capture the settlements, just murder everything in them (like in University Point) and make them neutral again (neutral settlers will arrive after bodies de-spawn). The third is by beginning to replace your settlers with synths. This happens based on happiness. If it's low enough, even soldiers will be replaced. When enough people have been replaced (maybe 40% population), they will go berserk and again, University Point. This can be avoided by setting up special area detectors that will try to find the component of a nearby synth. To build one of these the player should get one or two synth components.
Lastly there's the gunners, super mutants, children of atom and the different raider groups.
These will attack you from time to time, but you can convince/threaten them not to or ally with them.
The gunners will demand caps every few weeks, but if you destroy their main bases they won't bother you any more. On the other hand you can pay them to harass other factions so they stop their attacks until the end of the contract. The super mutants just want to have a good fight, or a meal, or because they're ideologically stuck... Maybe all of those. But if your character manages to somehow defeat a behemoth or some really tough mutant leader with a melee or fist weapon, you might get some respect. The children of atom will only attack the settlements closest to the glowing sea, as they see your civilization as an affront, and will launch squishy ghouls and priests to "cleanse the unbelievers" (lore needed). Maybe they can become allies if you side with them on Far Harbour or if you replace the leader of that sept with the synth option. As for the raiders, they'll be the bread and butter of attacks (we need some non-negotiable minor faction, for entertainment's sake). Maybe if they use different tactics based on what group they're from. And not forgetting Nuka World, but I've never touched the dlc, so I can't really type much about it.
As for other activities, if you think you're up to the challenge, perhaps you can send one of your own as a diplomat with a message for war, peace, distance, a meeting or maybe a temporary cease-fire.
Did not mention the Minutemen since you are their general, but perhaps if Preston Doesn't agree with you (assuming you didn't end him at the museum), he may actually take matters into his own hands, and create a separatist group, which will reinforce neutral settlements greatly, oh, and mind The Fort, he may actually start using it!
[Problem 1] = Thing is, I've never used the Creation Kit, so I do not understand it's limitations. I'm just enthusiastic about the mod and want to contribute.
[Problem 2] = Maybe a better, less convoluted system would be in order. Modded items may not be subject to being scrapped.
[Problem 3] = Don't really know how to prevent that sort of shenanigans, since the Railroad are masters of subterfuge. I'm sorry, but I couldn't think of anything that would be functional or lore-friendly. Same as the Synth Detector Mcguffin.
Thank you very much for reading this wall. I love your work.
And I am aware of the rules regarding posts and their delete-ability. If I may ask a favour, please send me an e-mail if anyone removes it and an explanation as to why, since I'm new to the community.
Thank You.
----------= Mortdreth =----------
