Say goodbye to alternate start mods

[-Na Shagul-]

because I can't even fathom how that would work in a game where the entire main quest revolves around you being your perfect, loving, on rails family man/woman hell bent on finding their babby with no other incentive other than 'i must, i love'

Other than ripping out the main story as well. I wouldn't mind being a wastelander who just joins up with the brotherhood for some no-strings attached carnage.

[Shahadem]

Also alternate start doesn't really add to roleplay because the game doesn't support what you are trying to do. The game doesn't interact with you differently simply because you decide to start as something different. The story doesn't magically transform around your alternate start, the game doesn't transform around your alternate start. All the alternate start does is shift you to where you would be X number of hours after starting the game normally without having to actually start the game normally and do all the work to get back to that point in time. Maybe some mobs are now nonhostile towards you and other mobs are now hostile instead of passive, but your ability to interact with the game world has not significantly changed. Therefore these alternate start mods should not really be considered to add to the ability to roleplay.

[MrLady]

how does it feel knowing that you were wrong lol?

[Hobo Misanthropus]

If you want the best Alternate Start experience ever, take up a PnP game.

[Vomit Heart]

The main quest is the worst part of the game,the story is nonsensical rubbish

[Tired of your crap]

Necro'd, woo. Thanks for reminding me to unsub from this discussion.

[Ygolnac]

Alternate starting mods are usually made to NOT follow the main storyline.

A "you are not special" start, as a settler or normal citizen or raider, in survival mode. You just want to live another day.

In Skyrim the alternate start mods disabled the main quest completly, no dragons, no thuum, etc.

Only problem i see here is how the hell a random commonwealth citizen has a pipboy, but i'm sure there will be workarounds for that too.

[Tim Timsen]

Originally posted by Ygolnac:

Only problem i see here is how the hell a random commonwealth citizen has a pipboy, but i'm sure there will be workarounds for that too.

"Some guy/chick who was looking for their kid had it. Yeah, had."
Or
"I found it in a trashcan."

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by -Na Shagul-:

because I can't even fathom how that would work in a game where the entire main quest revolves around you being your perfect, loving, on rails family man/woman hell bent on finding their babby with no other incentive other than 'i must, i love'

First of all, as you've undoubted discovered over the past year, nothing in the game requires you to be a "perfect, loving, on rails family man/woman". Yes you care for your "babby", but everyone in history who ever had a "babby" cared for their "babby". Even Kim Jong Il loved his "babby" Kim Jong Un!

The problem with an alternate start mod is not that you have a "babby", it's the voice acting. Pretty hard to get the voice actors to do some new lines for an alternate start mod. But other than that it's no more difficult than with Oblivion, Fallout 3, or Skyrim. The problme with alternate starts is how to get the alternate character back onto the storyline railroad.

Oblivion: How do you get the character to Joffrey, and install a motivation to go find Martin? Once that happens everything falls into place. An alternate start I did simply made me have a dream telling me to go see Joffrey.

Fallout 3: If dad is not my dad, and I'm not from the vault, then how the heck am I going to fit into the story? One answer is that he's still your dad, but you're a 10 year old kid instead. Another answer is to completely ignore the main story. Never found an alternate start mod I liked because of it. Oh well.

New Vegas: Easy, you still get shot in the head, only you don't necessarily get buried in Goodsprings. As long as you have a motive to find Benny for revenge, it works.

Skyrim: An alternate start needs a way for you to discover you're dragonborn. And that is your first dragonfight. You don't need Helgen, you don't even need the Western Watchtower. You only need to fight a dragon and then discover you can suck its soul. Meaning you can start anywhere as anybody.

All of these work, but all of them have problems. Time needs to be taken making the mod to remove inapplicable conversations, fixing up scripts, etc.

Okay, so what about Fallout 4? Well the story depends on you searching for your kidnapped son. And there are enough conversations related to you coming from Vault 111 that getting rid of it would be problematic. But there are ways to deal with it. For example, you can start as a ghoul (Kellog breaching the vault introduced radiation into the cryo process when you got refrozen). Or maybe you're a synth with false memories, which you eventually discover through the mod's addition of various terminal entries and other clues. Or heck, simply with some selective dialog editing, and starting the Institute off hostile to you, you could end up being just about anyone seeking out the Institute for some reason.

It's a solvable problem. The only thing that makes it more difficult than other games is the character voice acting. But there's enough voice audio that a good modder could make the character say just about anything.

p.s. What the frak is a "babby" anyway?

[Yhwach]

Originally posted by Total Bread™:

how does it feel knowing that you were wrong lol?

Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro Necro

[Brandybuck]

Originally posted by Ygolnac:

Alternate starting mods are usually made to NOT follow the main storyline....

In Skyrim the alternate start mods disabled the main quest completly, no dragons, no thuum, etc.

Try Skyrim Unbound. Best alternate start mod ever, and most bug-free. Start as anyone from anywhere with any background, it can even be completely random. But the main storyline is STILL there. You have to option to turn it off, but by default it will activate when you kill your first dragon.

[Atma]

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

Yes you care for your "babby", but everyone in history who ever had a "babby" cared for their "babby".

This is not even remotely true...

[Tim Timsen]

Originally posted by Atma:

Originally posted by Brandybuck:

Yes you care for your "babby", but everyone in history who ever had a "babby" cared for their "babby".

This is not even remotely true...

Yeah, there are people who get kids for the money.

[Ygolnac]

BTW, I'd like an alternate start mod that disables the mainstoryline. It's a little bit invasive RPwise.

Honestly, if you try to immerse in character, you should just rush the main plot to get to your son, everything else should be pointless.

Hey, my son has been kidnapped by mad scientists that usually transmute humans into machines. Ah, wife was headshotted. In my timeline, it happened 2 weeks ago. So yeah, let's build a settlement!

Moar sandbox beth, don't listen to ME fanboys. And quit those useless romances.

[Atma]

Originally posted by Tim Timsen:

Originally posted by Atma:

This is not even remotely true...

Yeah, there are people who get kids for the money.

I was referring more to mental illness or just plain maliciousness, but this also happens.

Heck, my mother in law has 2 children from her husband's last marriage because his ex-wife popped out 2 babies in hopes of keeping him attached to her.

When he still wanted a divorce (surprise, surprise), she didn't even want the children and left.

[R.4.V.3.N]

Frost Mod

Removes main quest. Instead, it's like free for all Metro