Instead of making the UC faction a loose tribal group, you could just leave them as they are and create a new original bandit/tribal faction that is loosely based on Raider groups by having the bandit denizens of Kenshi to wield looted NCR equipments and crudely mimic the tactics of the NCR faction on the same lands that they are in.

That way, you won't have to make too many changes with the factions that originated on Kenshi and just mess around with the faction relations on how they view the NCR expedition force that landed on their island continent.

Furthermore, given the standards on how certain factions view each other, you could have the major groups such the United Cities to be open with trade but remain wary toward the newcomers, have the Holy Nation be hostile to the NCR since the Okranites hates progress and the NCR represents an old world that is solely based on ambitions and capitalism, and the Shek Kingdoms to scoff at the NCR for depending on ranged weapons and science but remain neutral toward them.

Along with that, the Hivers and Tech Hunters would probably seek closer relations with the NCR for having advanced technologies and other forms of otherworldly curiosities. Bandits and other minor factions would vary, I guess.

As for the plot, you could explain the NCR's appearance over in Kenshi by creating an origin story that they were messing around with old world technologies from Big Mountain and found a way to travel to other worlds like Stargate. Either that, or you could say they found Pre-War technologies that were messing with the idea of alternate dimensions and set up a research base around it until they pressed the wrong button.

At the start of the questline, the NCR have landed on a part of the lands that has probably put them at a tactical disadvantage so they need to create a suitable defensive position to maintain their foothold by first dealing with the hostile bandits/tribes in the area before they can expand.

Next, they will need a supply line so their options would be enact trade with a major faction, a minor faction, or find a way to be self-efficient by allowing the player faction to assist them in procuring necessary resources.

As for the end results, I'm not really sure how the NCR will be affected by player's actions with or without their direct intervention so you'll have to do a little brainstorming.

Other than that, this is the best I can do so far.

I'd like to suggest keeping some parts of the base game the same. Such as the cannibals and screaming bandits since they'd fit in a setting like Fallout.

The crab raiders could be changed up to be Mirelurk Raiders instead; their crab armour textures could be changed around (or you could make a whole new armour set for them).

In terms of scenario it could be similar to the Star Wars overhaul made for Kenshi, where the factions are stuck on the island. (Not really the best suggestion I can come up with but do with it what you will)

Like Kurteous said the United Cities should be kept the same, and you could make the Rebel Farmers up North a raider group which consists of Bandits using NCR weapons against them.

Also, while I like the expeditionary idea I feel like if it a mod that'll be overhauling the game by a bit, the expedition should be kept as more of a game scenario rather than a story line, as you could do a lot more by keeping Kenshi's theme of "Creating your own story" rather than keeping something linear. (though I might've misread it a bit).

I love the idea of new questlines! Especially for New Vegas mod, it'd make the most sense for there to be a questline where you'd have to take down the Shek Kingdom (Mutants) for the Holy Nation (Knights of Avalon). You could quite literally just modify some of the dialogue that both Major faction leaders have to fit the scenario.

Also also, I feel like it'd make more sense for the Knights of Avalon to be more like Caesar's Legion rather than the Brotherhood of Steel. They could be a massive legion sporting medieval looking armour similar to the Holy Nation. Rather, the Brotherhood of Steel could fit more as either Tech Hunters (though I'm not sure how it'd work considering the NCR's hostilities towards them), the Flotsam ninjas as their goals in contrast to the Brotherhood of Steel's are quite similar, and they somewhat fit game narratively, or the anti-slavers (because bethesda favors them so much in every games story lol)

Now as for the Second Empire, they could be a bigger group of remnants from the Enclave, as they fit the narrative of having once attempted to take control of the island but failing miserably and resorting to complete isolation.

This is all I got for my suggests but hey, I think it'd be really cool to see another overhaul for Kenshi (despite how ass breaking trying to code on it is).

I'll try to add more suggestions for this potential mod later on if I can

First of all, thank you for the suggestions!

The idea behind the UC is to add diplomats for each of the desert cities, with whom the player can interact. Each diplomat would have a quest or requirement that must be completed before they agree to open negotiations with the NCR expeditionary force.

I already have the beginning of a quest where an NCR NPC asks the player to mediate a negotiation with the Hivers (Distant Hive Village). Once the requirements are met, a new world state is triggered: a radio station is established in the village, and trade caravans begin to run between the Hivers and the NCR expedition camp.

The plan is to do something similar for each UC city. Some nobles might ask the NCR to help them deal with a raider group, or even to undermine a rival noble in exchange for gaining more influence. In return, the NCR would be able to establish recruitment centers and trade posts in those cities, slowly expanding its presence.

As for how the NCR got into the world of Kenshi — the idea is that the game actually takes place within the Fallout universe, on the Santa Catalina Islands. I'm working toward a full conversion of the game into the Fallout setting. That said, I also plan to release everything as modular, standalone mods (armors, weapons, factions…) so that players who just want the Fallout aesthetics but still want to play in Kenshi’s world can do that too.

But nothing is set in stone — I have very little free time to work on this mod, so maybe I'm dreaming a bit too big.

The next step is to expand the uniform options, including deserter versions that the player can use if they don’t want to be identified with the NCR.

After that, I’d like to start working on integrating weapons and sounds to bring even more of that Fallout feel into the game.

Sorry to chime in late, and sorry if my opinion is way off but, @black rabbit, you should get in touch with Zeski; creator of the Grineer Race mod. He's super approachable, and idk if you've ever played his mod, but it's so well integrated into the game that I honestly can't imagine playing it without the CORPUS and Grineer crash landing on the moon of Kenshi. Might as well throw in Fallout too to finish destroying the moon.

Also, @Kurteous had a great idea with the Big Mountain experiment gone wrong that some how landed a large swath of the three main Fallout factions in the SoCal/Vegas region on to Kenshi. No one in Kenshi can even fully remember what happened at (The) Obedience, let alone what's on the other side of the moon after the fall of the second, and current build up to the fall of the third empire. You could incorporate all factions (the Legion included because - Lanius rules) escaping whatever's on the other side to establish supremacy of the continent. That is unless you JUST want it to be set in California, which I think will be a much harder conversion and I fear by the time you've worked out every delicate detail, you might have to port or remake everything in Kenshi 2 lol. I think people would be pumped that your phenomenal models were available as even minor factions in the game with no context. I really hope you plan on making veteran ranger gear with the same prime quality put into the NCR fatigues
😘👌🏻.
We only see the main battles in FONV, I don't think it's a stretch to think there could have been a large three way conflict between NCR, BoS, and the Legion over a piece of tech everyone either wanted to use, destroy, or hide from humanity, that ended up teleporting three moderately large contingencies to Kenshi.
I agree the Legion would be best to take the place of the HN. Maybe you could base them in the Floodlands and Leviathan Coast, or even Rebirth, and have them slowly wearing down the HN for a hostile takeover, with an even more hostile faction.
The NCR, though probably not too cool with slavery, they definitely have zero value for most human life, so they would easily fit in somewhere in the UC; somewhere no one would miss, like Bast, Sho Battai, or preferably Sinkuun, so they can remain standoffish towards the UC, but possibly have an uneasy trade partnership, because the NCR always needs bodies to throw at anyone not NCR. I could see them using the UC for recruitment purposes.
And the Brotherhood of Steel would probably fit in perfectly in Sonorous Dark (exactly where the Ouroboros Empire mod takes place), or more likely the border of the Ashlands, because of all the rogue skeletons and tech there. I assume they would really want to capture Cat-Lon, and set up a few strongholds preventing travel into or out of the Ashlands, to have free reign to find tech, capture skeletons, and possibly attempt to scavenge through old tech to find a way off Kenshi. They could have dangerously brutal patrols in all areas with old tech, like The Eye, Sonorous Dark, Obedience, etc.

Sorry if this wasn't helpful. Great gear mod so far! Can't wait to see you expand it further.

@Lord_Beefcastle First of all, thanks for the ideas and interaction!
The plan is to have it set on the coast of California. I even want to change the skybox if I can, but I know that will take a long time to do. That’s why I’ll be releasing the mods as stand-alone packs, which will later be used in a bigger conversion mod.

The last couple of days, I had to stop working on the mods because of work and bills… but next week I think I’ll be able to push out some more updates. The next steps will include more improvements to this mod to better integrate it into the game and make it easier for people to use (I want to add an NCR camp with a small quest that unlocks the armor research).

After that, I’ll work on the guns, the Legion, the Knights of Avalon (BoS-inspired), and the Desert Tribes (reworking the UC). I’m not sure about the order yet, but they should come together relatively quickly, I already have most of the assets ready.

As for talking to other modders, I’ll give it another try. I’ve reached out to a few already, but no luck so far.
And again, thank you for the ideas, and thank you very much for taking the time to interact with something I made.

That sounds awesome!
I actually learned most of what I know in FCS from dissecting Zeski's Grineer Race mod. He, and Don Fuego are both pretty quick to respond, especially if it's in regards to how they did or integrated something into their mods.

Dude....1. I seriously think making a decent Veteran Ranger suit of armor would draw the attention you need from veteran modders that can help you expedite your process with crafting a new(ish) Kenshi world. Based on your extremely well made armor kits so far, I don't think you'd have an issue besting the only Veteran Ranger armor in the workshop, which is kind of lousy (but I don't even know how to use blender, so who am I to talk). That will definitely get you the attention you need from other modders that might be able to help with more than just advice.

2. And this is a huge ask lol....please make Ulysses, Joshua Graham, and Lanius armor sets! That would most certainly land you in the 'most popular' mod section, and then you could get whatever advice or references you may need from some of the real OGs, circa 2017 modders.

As for guns. I think Zeski did a great job with his mod. The guns are stupidly OP in a world of crossbows and melee battles, but I think he's basically set most of the Grineer or CORPUS squads that could potentially come into a conflict with another faction to have poor gear, poor Perception, and lower skill levels than the faction they'd be facing. A group of Grineer in shoddy armor, with automatic rifles, and a crossbow skill level of 20 is still going to get beaten to death by a group of Dust Bandits with combat skills in the 30s+ range as soon as they need to reload. It works out great. Synergy, or whatever.