Sexxxing Up Neon

[Reigor]

Speaking from personal opinion, Unmodded Neon in Starfield does not hold up to its mystique or potential as a "pleasure city". It has drug use, but no gambling, prostitution, or other vices. Neon, because of its nature of being an unregulated corp haven where only money talks, should not only have Los Vegas like entertainment, but is also perfect for some really dark story lines and activities, for example human trafficking, slavery, and snuff. 

 

So when the Starfield CK is eventually released, how to add what Neon is missing while being staying close to the vanilla narrative?

 

The first thing I would tweak narratively (and its game effect) is Aurora. Aurora is supposed to be a psychedelic euphoric. Its banned everywhere except Neon and is only legally sold at the Astral Lounge.

 

Why is it banned? As far as I know the game doesn't say. The only thing I've picked up while talking to NPCs is that its addictive, but so are a lot of legal drugs. And Starfield has 24th century medtech that cures addictions. It doesn't really make sense.

 

So what if Aurora had another side effect, a LL worthy one, like being a potent aphrodisiac? Taking it makes people horny. This could lead to unwanted situations, especially if Aurora also lowered inhibitions. An explosion of rapes and sex crimes after the drug was first introduced back in the mid 22nd century could have led to the United Colonies, and later the Freestar Collective, to ban Aurora's sale and use.

 

In a controlled, isolated environment like Neon, this side effect could not only be mitigated but exploited, by providing Aurora users with plenty of sex workers, strip clubs, sex shops, etc...that horny tourists would spend their money on and make Neon a more attractive destination. These are services that should be in a city like Neon anyway, but in this scenario would be much more prevalent, with the corps getting in on the action, like Ryujin having an "XOXO" adult entertainment subsidiary.

 

Yes, this is an excuse to sex up all the advertisements in the city as well as the clothing the npcs wear using a mod like Souls of the Cities.

 

Now all this sex would lead to exploitation. Perhaps there would be registered independent sex contractors who struggle with all of the fees and pressure to sign up with a corporation. A "nice" corp might provide a home and other services (medical, food) for their adult entertainment workers as well as protection from abusive clients. 

 

A "bad" corp might not only lock their sex workers into exploitive contracts that make them little more than sex slaves, they might also use them to sate the dark fantasies of wealthy clients. Private BDSM clubs where the slaves are really treated like meat, or actually ARE meat, could exist behind the locked doors and guards of the Towers. 

 

And if a contracted whore goes missing, well work accidents happen, right?

 

Outside of Bayu Plaza and the Ikuchi Market where the paying tourists are at there is Ebbside and the Underbelly, the slums and industrial part of Neon. Tourists aren't the only ones in Neon that take Aurora, many of the residents do as well. And in a Aurora is an aphrodisiac scenerio they will need outlets for their lusts as well. 

 

Ebbside and the Underbelly can then be places where uncontracted sex workers, streetwalkers, whores, and their pimps and madams, would exist and "flourish". Also, as a consequence why Aurora was banned outside of Neon, people, especially women, would need to be careful in Ebbside's dark corners and allies less they be preyed upon by would be rapists, both violent and/or seductive.

 

And it should be said that Aurora itself, being an addictive aphrodisiac, could be forced on whores to keep them "in the mood" to look for clients as well as their next hit.

 

As for the darker activities. The Underbelly could have entrances to another zone that is the "guts" of Neon. Nestled between the processing plants and other infrastructure are maze like passages that lead to forgotten rooms. There then could be black corp labs, death match rings, snuff studios, and other horrible activities that the player could get caught up in and lead to more than one "bad end". 

 

There is also the story potential as well of course. Besides participation, there is investigation, finding missing people, and other possible missions that could be made. This might be a good zone for radiance mission board style quests. "Rescue X from Lab A" sort of things. 

 

Those are my thoughts so far. What sort of activities and missions do LL folks want to see in Neon? What would you change specifically? What mods from other BGS games would you like imported? Please share!

And lets keep the "Starfield sucks" comments to a minimum, there are other threads for that.

Edited March 18 by Reigor

[DocClox]

I certainly agree that Neon needs to be a bit less PG-13. There's already decent poster replacers, but the party girls could do with showing a little more skin. Needn't be actual nudity either, but the occasional miniskirt or bare midriff would go a long way to making the setting more believable.

 

I've often thought that with all the elevators in the game, it would be easy to add in another level here and there. A gentleman's club in the trade tower would be easy enough, for instance. You could also (just about) get away with a sub level between Bayu Plaza/Ikuchi Market and Ebbside, or possibly between Ebbside and the Underbelly. Add in a new elevator stop and you have a lot of space for squalor, poverty and exploitation.

 

Regarding mods... I find I prefer playing the slaver to the victim, so I'll be hoping for something along the lines of PAHE/DoM, or even Just Business.

 

It would also be nice to be able to get to know and interact with the less-than-legal inhabitants of these new areas. Certainly, we're going to see some player-gets-enslaved mods, and I agree that the occasional rescue-the-victim mission would be fun. But it would be nice if I could live that setting and be more or less accepted by the locals. Usually you're either sent to wipe out the entire level, or else every single encounter is aimed at putting a collar on the player's neck. It would be nice to just live there, you know? Do the occasional mission for the bad guys; sometimes negotiate the return of someone's daughter; maybe spend some time sampling the local delights when not working.

 

 

Edited March 20 by DocClox

[Veniat]

3 hours ago, DocClox said:

Regarding mods... I find I prefer playing the slaver to the victim, so I'll be hoping for something along the lines of PAHE/DoM, or even Just Business.

 

It would also be nice to be able to get to know and interact with the less-than-legal inhabitants of these new areas. Certainly, we're going to see some player-gets-enslaved mods, and I agree that the occasional rescue-the-victim mission would be fun. But it would be nice if I could live that setting and be more or less accepted by the locals. Usually you're either sent to wipe out the entire level, or else every single encounter is aimed at putting a collar on the player's neck. It would be nice to just live there, you know? Do the occasional mission for the bad guys; sometimes negotiate the return of someone's daughter; maybe spend some time sampling the local delights when not working.

 

 

That is honestly why I don't play or mod Skyrim much, half the sex mods seem to be all focused on a female PC getting raped or enslaved, there's nowhere near as much content with any story for male dominant PCs. 

I honestly hope there'll be a lot of focus on Neon, more desperation and sexual corruption; other than the smell people on Neon didn't really seem to have it that bad, it was a horrible place but perfectly livable. I'm hoping for more open prostitution and sex, like whores having sex with their clients down dark alleys, seeing the capsule-style rooms being used as places to hook up, more kidnapping or evidence of women and men being chained up in some of the hideouts. 

[espguy]

Another problem with neon (and aquilla city) is the size, theyre kinda small for being some of the biggest cities of humanity.Hopíngg for a mod that expands them.

[Karma92]

I agree first thing i will do when ck2 drops, and londinion rebuilt

[Miauzi]

Vor 18 Stunden sagte espguy:

Ein weiteres Problem mit Neon (und Aquilla City) ist die Größe. Sie sind etwas klein dafür, dass sie zu den größten Städten der Menschheit gehören. Ich hoffe auf einen Mod, der sie erweitert.

 

Because the word humanity is simply a complete exaggeration... a tiny fraction of today's humanity lives in the "New Worlds"... a city with perhaps 50,000 inhabitants is already a mega-city

If you look at the construction of Neon and compare it with today's (stationary) oil rigs - then include modern cruise ships in the conceptual concept... Neon might have 20-30,000 residents - that's it

The "Plazza" is correspondingly small - cruise ships for 5,000 "guests" are not more lavishly equipped in this respect

Of course, you can also leave out any hint of realism - the amount of "science" is really only present in minimal doses - in fact everything is pure "fiction" ... so you can also give the aspect of a functioning food supply - there yes, all residents eat fish - and despite the city's fixed position, the local fish population always replenishes as if by magic... or have you ever heard the term "fishing fleet"??

And this tiny spaceport - how is it supposed to get food from... which farm planet again with these tiny ships?

You just have to look at the "nightly" hustle and bustle in a food wholesaler - to understand how much food such a city needs EVERY DAY!

The authors of this universe should have taken a few weeks to read 3-4 good science fiction novel cycles... I have more than 500 science fiction novels on my bookshelves - several thousand read... but still There has never been a large single city on an ocean planet WITHOUT outposts or fishing fleets...but none of that exists on the planet!

The construction of "Neon" is one of the reasons why this game is so bad for me!

[Reigor]

Overall size of Neon I don't think needs to be expanded. Just add more interiors that are connected to elevators. This might need some sort of utility mod so that different location mods that use the same elevator, for example the Trade Tower, play nice with one another concerning access. 

 

 

On 3/20/2024 at 5:56 AM, DocClox said:

Regarding mods... I find I prefer playing the slaver to the victim, so I'll be hoping for something along the lines of PAHE/DoM, or even Just Business.

On 3/20/2024 at 9:22 AM, Veniat said:

That is honestly why I don't play or mod Skyrim much, half the sex mods seem to be all focused on a female PC getting raped or enslaved, there's nowhere near as much content with any story for male dominant PCs. 

 

Narrative wise, there should be room for both styles of play. A system/storyline that enslaves the player shouldn't prevent opposite with the player being the slaver or the white knight. 

 

 

On 3/20/2024 at 9:22 AM, Veniat said:

I honestly hope there'll be a lot of focus on Neon, more desperation and sexual corruption; other than the smell people on Neon didn't really seem to have it that bad, it was a horrible place but perfectly livable. I'm hoping for more open prostitution and sex, like whores having sex with their clients down dark alleys, seeing the capsule-style rooms being used as places to hook up, more kidnapping or evidence of women and men being chained up in some of the hideouts. 

 

Yes, exactly! And Neon being divided up into different sectors allows for different "themes".  Using prostitution for example, one could have high class escorts in the Trade Tower, working in the VIP rooms of the Astral Lounge. While in the Ebbside slums its rough and dirty back alley sex and exploitive pimps. Meanwhile over at Ryujin they are installing neuralamps into their kunoichi operators to help them seduce their targets or to their dolls to puppet them.  

 

 

1 hour ago, Miauzi said:

Of course, you can also leave out any hint of realism - the amount of "science" is really only present in minimal doses - in fact everything is pure "fiction" ... so you can also give the aspect of a functioning food supply - there yes, all residents eat fish - and despite the city's fixed position, the local fish population always replenishes as if by magic... or have you ever heard the term "fishing fleet"??

I agree the fishing fleet is missing. Where are the boats like the ones depicted in the concept art? I would say that Neon likely gets enough

 

food from the surrounding ocean and grows plants in hydroponics or floating farms. Luxury food would be imported. These could be added in as well as stuff like the spaceport being more active with traffic coming and going.  

 

 

1 hour ago, Miauzi said:

The authors of this universe should have taken a few weeks to read 3-4 good science fiction novel cycles... I have more than 500 science fiction novels on my bookshelves - several thousand read... but still There has never been a large single city on an ocean planet WITHOUT outposts or fishing fleets...but none of that exists on the planet!

The construction of "Neon" is one of the reasons why this game is so bad for me!

 

Well that is BGS' problem, they had relied on their devs to be both programmers and writers. They have done this since at least Oblivion and always had an existing IP, TES and Fallout, to write the equivalent of fanfiction. And it worked well enough until they decided to make a brand new IP on their own. Instead of doing hiring a team of dedicated writers, they did it the old way and we get the results we have. 

 

Neon for me was special because I was intrigued by the concept art and the initial premises. Made a damn speculative speculative history fanfiction about it.

 

Anyways, I don't want to be too negative. There are other BGS sucks threads.  I want to see ideas on how to make the city better LL style. 

[Veniat]

On 3/22/2024 at 10:12 AM, Miauzi said:

 

Of course, you can also leave out any hint of realism - the amount of "science" is really only present in minimal doses - in fact everything is pure "fiction" ... so you can also give the aspect of a functioning food supply - there yes, all residents eat fish - and despite the city's fixed position, the local fish population always replenishes as if by magic... or have you ever heard the term "fishing fleet"??

And this tiny spaceport - how is it supposed to get food from... which farm planet again with these tiny ships?

You just have to look at the "nightly" hustle and bustle in a food wholesaler - to understand how much food such a city needs EVERY DAY!

The authors of this universe should have taken a few weeks to read 3-4 good science fiction novel cycles... I have more than 500 science fiction novels on my bookshelves - several thousand read... but still There has never been a large single city on an ocean planet WITHOUT outposts or fishing fleets...but none of that exists on the planet!

The construction of "Neon" is one of the reasons why this game is so bad for me!

I honestly just assumed there were hydroponics bays, fishery by-products and stuff like seaweeds pretty good as fertiliser, if you add in basic aquaponics to supplement the naturally fished products you could support a settlement the size of Neon easily.  In this specific instance, I actually don't blame the writers at all, I blame the map designers. 

It's an old problem Bethesda have had, not enough set objects. Like, when you play New Vegas you can see a bunch of unaccessible doorways and paths that imply a structure is a lot bigger than what you think; when Bethesda makes stuff on their own they rarely add those extra elements to imply scale, so it always boils down to game engine limitations. The map makers are just kinda bad at working around the game's limitations to imply that there's more than what you can see. 

[DocClox]

23 hours ago, Veniat said:

It's an old problem Bethesda have had

 

Yeah. You can't feed a city the size of Windhelm from two cottages, each with a vegetable patch in the back garden. The trouble is that endless fields of agriculture just isn't very interesting to wander through. Terry Pratchett had fun with this idea in a couple of the Discworld books where he describes the main characters traveling through the endless (and very boring) fields of cabbages around Ankh-Mopork. If there's only a limited amount of space on the map, how much of it do you want to spend on something that is, necessarily, rather dull?

 

Even in Starfield where they have the space (except maybe on Voii Alpha, anyway), they still scale things down. New Atlantis isn't anywhere near large enough to house all the millions of citizens it ought to have. I think it's something best considered as a genre convention, like superheroes punching each other through walls, or anima characters all havig very big eyes. Not particularly realistic, but a staple of the genre.

[Veniat]

11 hours ago, DocClox said:

 

Yeah. You can't feed a city the size of Windhelm from two cottages, each with a vegetable patch in the back garden. The trouble is that endless fields of agriculture just isn't very interesting to wander through. Terry Pratchett had fun with this idea in a couple of the Discworld books where he describes the main characters traveling through the endless (and very boring) fields of cabbages around Ankh-Mopork. If there's only a limited amount of space on the map, how much of it do you want to spend on something that is, necessarily, rather dull?

 

Even in Starfield where they have the space (except maybe on Voii Alpha, anyway), they still scale things down. New Atlantis isn't anywhere near large enough to house all the millions of citizens it ought to have. I think it's something best considered as a genre convention, like superheroes punching each other through walls, or anima characters all havig very big eyes. Not particularly realistic, but a staple of the genre.

Yeah, with Skyrim and Fallout it kinda made sense; the vaults needed some more locked doors though, especially in Fallout 4; everything was just laid out when there wasn't enough stuff to keep the vaults functioning, or house a sustainable population. 

In Starfield they could've afforded to add a few extra buildings in the background, or some additional platforms around Neon or other areas.