Since starting my new FWE games, I've noticed something out of place.
A cellar door, in one of the burned-out houses in Springvale. This has been driving me up the wall, and tonight finally got to be enough and I went a-searchin' for what in the holy hell it was.
Since I hadn't seen it previously I assumed it was an FWE thing - some ratty basement player home the guy integrated with all his other swiped mods.
I started looking through plugins, and after twenty odd minutes had come up with nothing. The Springvale "cell" of the wasteland wasn't even showing as being modified by FO3Edit (Steeeeeeeerike 947 for that wonderful program).
As I'm reading trees and muttering profanity, my girl cheerfully reminds me that I can use the console in-game to get the load order code for the item from its hex ID.
...Fuck.
Yeah, I feel smart. I mean, hell, I've only been modding for Fallout 3 for a year and a half, and using the console since the day the game hit stores...
So, after reminding her how blasted smart she is, I fire the game up, get the code, and compare it against my FOMM load order.
Turns out the cellar is part of Broken Steel. Has something to do with the Church of Atom - though I didn't look through quests for specifics. Weirder still, there are a couple dozen statics in the house that show in the GECK, but not in the game. I had though I had a conflict override problem going on with something else, until I noticed one of the statics had an Enable Parent set up. Sure enough so did the others. They're not going to appear in the game until I meet whatever's required by some quest or other.
Strikes me as a bit odd, really. I can understand the other stuff not appearing, but leaving a key-required cellar door in the wasteland for the entire game with no clue as to what it goes to or why? Why not have the cellar door covered by rubble or something; and only noticeable when the other stuff appears? Seems cleaner that way, but it could just be me, there. I have odd sensibilities, I know.
That does bring me to another wonder, though: when creating Broken Steel, did Bethsoft just go nuts and include everything they had written on cocktail napkins and shit? I mean, this DLC modifies a shit ton of the game, most of which has nothing to do with the main quest or its eventual continuation into further mediocrity.
I guess it's just RPGs in general, huh? All about the side-quests. Universe fucking forbid you write a compelling and well thought-out main story, and make the side stuff secondary; or just leave the player alone to sandbox it for the most part.
I think you're right on the mark about the cocktail napkin bit. Broken Steel is full of such fool's errands as the Church of Atom spin-off. Since the advertised purpose of this expansion was supposedly to play beyond the default level cap, you'd think there'd be some kind of new main quest designed for players of higher levels, something like the Shivering Isles, for example. I'm in the same club as you in regard to finding the DLCs for this game rather disappointing. But then I suppose none of us should be at all surprised. All the DLCs for Oblivion did minor things like add armor for your horse or lame player-can-take-over-for-free real estate. The best expansions I ever played for that game were all player-created mods, many of which were of epic proportions. So I guess it only makes sense that all the best stuff for FO3 is made by us folks too.
ReplyDeleteOh, man, the DLC for Oblivion was horrid.
ReplyDeleteThe expansion packs were one to one, too. Shivering Isles was great; Knights of the Nine was total dreck.
Deepscorn Hollow wasn't terrible, though. A bit inconvenient to get to, but the dark minion was sort of handy. The one with the pirates was okay, too; the ability to sell stolen goods mostly.
FO3 DLC though has thus far been total shit. Operation Anchorage was a joke. The Pitt had zip for useful items or perks. I am not holding out hope for Broken Steel, either.
I realize they can't cater to everyone's taste... but I have to wonder if there's anyone who WAS impressed by their deluge of DLC.