Looking for some level design feedback...

[BoozeJunky]

Hey, I'm working on a FO3 player-home mod which uses assets from Lonesome Road. As it currently stands, the idea is that the silo was just a demo for a Vault-Tec contract with the DoD to provide silos more capable of withstanding a direct hit in case of a Chinese first strike. (Most missiles have been relocated to the West Coast now that China (and not Russia) is the primary strategic threat. Hence, why DC is full of bombs - stockpiles of "Super Crockett" aerial drop and tactical field nukes). The concept is intended to be a small, cheap, minute man fast response site with a minimal staff - however the Vault pieces and the Silo pieces aren't meshing well together and it's growing quite large. I could use teleporting doors, but the transition from Vault to Industrial to Vault again is (I think) too jarring. So I want to ask a question...

 

If you were to download and play this mod, would you rather have a larger vault with more amenities, or a smaller - more military industrial look with some living conveniences tossed in more haphazardly? I really like the concept of a smaller space,  but I want that "Vault" looks... and I REALLY like the idea of making the bedroom have a large close-up view of the nuke, like the first section of the Ashton silo. (As it is now, the bedroom has a view of the Atrium/Warhead and mentioned area more of a mainframe/launch center)

 

Here's how it stands now. Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

I like the idea of a security check-in, and having the armor right next to the door is a big plus. Currently, you have to go back INTO the main chamber to access the security office though. It makes more sense that way, but might be a hassle too. I have a "security check-in" box with two activators hooked into the same storage container, so you can drop commonly used ammo and weapons in there. Also, I plan to have a full armory in the sub-level, but the same cell as the entry-way, so I can share storage between the ammo boxes in Security and the Military Crates in the armory. No real "displays", but will have a few shelves and tables for that purpose.

 

The Main Level, mostly living quarters. The Briefing Room overlooking the nuke has been converted into bedroom/entertainment area. Features a full diner, clinic, companion quarters, base commander's office, and a bathroom w/ shower. Most of which overlook the atrium/warhead. Being a demo, the nuke is non-functional, but I'd still like be able to work on having a "launch mode" which sets off the klaxons and locks the blast doors.

 

I haven't worked much on the sub-levels yet. They're mostly a placeholder for now. As it stands, I plan to have the mainframe/computer room overlooking the missile, the armory, maintenance/workbench room, and miscellaneous storage. And this might be beyond my skill for now, but I'd like to also put a dumpster in the very bottom room below the missile so that you can do a "test fire" of the engines, get the smoke and effects, and when it's done - it purges that container of contents (incinerates the trash).

[Halstrom]

Whoa, where did you get the missile tube and "reactor" room? Are they NV vanilla assets or DLC. I hadn't seen them before, I wanted something like them for my mod I'm working on.

[Kaz Aanh]

Woah. Looks great.

 

Main level is looks really nice. It may be a bit complicated for a beginner player to navigate through them or even get lost, that would frustrating. Making rooms more varied will help a lot.

 

Here are some tips from my experience :

 

- what is story behind this map, why players are here ?

- what is the objective of your map for the player

- each enviroiment has its main focal point . I see your main focal point here is a rocket silo , thats great . That will be the first thing player notices. And it should stay that way if you plan making it a small vault,. Otherwise you should think about adding more focal points or make it  bigger and re-plan your map around it.

It should be visually appealing.

 

- every table, chair and even paper on the groud should have a story behind it and connected to each other, you can't randomly place items around your map

- some landmarks to guide player where he should go, no one likes to get lost in the same looking hallways. ( for hard mode you could use noise/colour/decals )

- enviroiment can tell its story too ( what happened here before player has arrived )

- multiple pathways , to make your map feel less-linear

- if you are going to make many rooms ; will exploring them be rewardable for the player?

- if you plan on making bigger vault will it be aligned to the storyline? Describing why it is so big.

- do you aim for casuals or fallout veterans ?

- what kind of gameplay there will be ? Battles ? Puzzles ? Diplomacy ?

- if it will be about constant 24/7 fight you should consider to make a little "safe-places" , where player can rest, buff up, find something usefull , read some lore ( in computers, logs etc ), tight and narrow rooms are great for this. ( Deadspace 3 and L4D was using this )

- how are you gonna make your map memorable ( you have a silo thats right )

- feel and atmosphere

- backtracking ? After completing the main objective will play have to walk back the same way he came out or will use a new "exit" way. ( Skyrim dungeons use this feature )

 

 

- I call this one "Artifical Freedom". It mainly should be done in the open areas ( linear ) but you can do the same in your vault. Like make a new hall/hallway/room/stairs/ and block it with something unpassable ( sofas, shelves, half-open/sealed doors or barrels . So player will have this feel "hey I'm not locked in some can" And will virtualy make the player think "he is in the big vault" but in reality it was a small vault.

 

And you can even block some upper/lower floors via this technique. The only limit is your imagination how you will use it.

 

You can use this to make "Small vault" look like big one ; the pros of this are "

- you can put lots of detail in your "main" areas

- a lot less of optimalization

- less navmesh work

- more intense battles/puzzles since you focus on the smaller content

 

- overlapping areas, for example when you enter to the room A you can see room B but its blocked so you unable to move from A > B directly, you will have to find an alternate way

( A > A1 > A2 > B )

 

[BoozeJunky]

They're from the Lonesome Road expansion to NV. I just dumped the entire BSA into my FO3 data folder and have been picking out assets and adding them to the GECK as needed. Most of the sub-levels are made using vanilla FO3 Utility Room and Vault assets, except for area directly adjacent to the silo where it splits into the room. So it will require LR, and probably New Vegas full as well since I'm using the Vault 19 entrance mesh as well.

 

 

Also, (and I'm editing this in here because I don't want to triple post) this is what I was talking about earlier in regards to the bedroom.

 

This is the bedroom as I've got it now. It definitely has more of an inviting "home" feel to it, but the window is rather small and doesn't give the best view of the nuke. Even if I put it in an area where I could have multiple windows, the atrium is still large enough that you don't get a really spectacular view.

 

This is more like what I'm getting at. Ignore that the bed and furniture are too pristine for that environment, it's just there to give a better concept of the space. It's definitely more of an ugly environment, but it won't look quite as bad in-game with proper lighting. The upswing of the trade-off is that you get a great close-up view of the missile, and a blast window the player can open and close depending on their mood. With a darker lighting scheme, it would have a much more "post apocalyptic" feel and fit better (I think) with the Fallout atmosphere than some pimped-up personal vault.

 

Edit: Added a few screenshots of a build I've been working with in a test cell. This one actually looks a lot more like a conventional missile silo and is a much smaller space. The bedroom is far from finalized, but here is a much better concept of the look I'm going for. At least, for the master bedroom.

 

[BoozeJunky]

Woah. Looks great.

 

Main level is looks really nice. It may be a bit complicated for a beginner player to navigate through them or even get lost, that would frustrating. Making rooms more varied will help a lot.

 

Thanks! Yeah, I noticed I have a tendency to get disoriented a bit in a my own vault because of how regular the hallways are. I can't really vary them much without either expanding much larger than I want, or running into clipping issues. Thankfully, the GECK has plenty of "This way" signs, so that should help a bit. I also planned to liter the halls with vents, access panels, etc to help provide visual markers.

 

 

 

- every table, chair and even paper on the groud should have a story behind it and connected to each other, you can't randomly place items around your map

- some landmarks to guide player where he should go, no one likes to get lost in the same looking hallways. ( for hard mode you could use noise/colour/decals )

- enviroiment can tell its story too ( what happened here before player has arrived )

- multiple pathways , to make your map feel less-linear

- if you are going to make many rooms ; will exploring them be rewardable for the player?

- if you plan on making bigger vault will it be aligned to the storyline? Describing why it is so big.

- do you aim for casuals or fallout veterans ?

- what kind of gameplay there will be ? Battles ? Puzzles ? Diplomacy ?

- if it will be about constant 24/7 fight you should consider to make a little "safe-places" , where player can rest, buff up, find something usefull , read some lore ( in computers, logs etc ), tight and narrow rooms are great for this. ( Deadspace 3 and L4D was using this )

- how are you gonna make your map memorable ( you have a silo thats right )

- backtracking ? After completing the main objective will play have to walk back the same way he came out or will use a new "exit" way. ( Skyrim dungeons use this feature )

 

That's some really good advise, and I think I've got most of that down. Even used a that artificial freedom trick in my first build to block off some excessively long hallways that felt too empty. For the most part, and at least initially, there isn't going to be a main quest or any enemies to fight. It's just going to be a player home you stumble across. Maybe find the door code in one of the military bases. The whole thing is basically a demo model Vault-Tec put together as a promotion to sell more Vault spaces and (hopefully) secure a DoD contract. A small crew operated it on a test run for a few weeks, but left after the bombs fell to assist in rescue and relief efforts around DC, so it's still pretty much pristine and has that "showroom" feel to it.

 

Though if I do decide to populate it with enemies later on, it'll probably be Super Mutants since it's located just South East of Germantown (near Gaithersburg, MD) where a real-life Nike Missile base used to be. Dunno if the Nikes there were the older Ajax series or nuclear armed Zeus/Spartan variety, but converting the area to a silo didn't seem a huge stretch.

 

 

- feel and atmosphere

 

I guess this is what I'm most wanting feedback on. I really like small spaces (tdx's Sosus station for FO3 and Mobile Truck Base for NV are great examples) but I know they're not as popular with the community. What's most popular seems to be the big or fancy homes with lots of impressive interiors and amenities, but they don't "feel" right for the game. Ultimately, I'm going to design what feels best for me, but since I plan to release this as well... I just thought I'd get other people's opinions on what progress I've made so far, and see what they wanted in a player home. Then try to find a happy medium between the two.