Alice in Wasteland - The Rabid Hole

[A.J.]

View File

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlIEPe1wDbw

 

 

 

Alice in Wasteland - The Rabid Hole is an uvoiced tale, inspired by some movies (neither Alice in Wasteland nor Alice in Wonderland...). It is composed by a main quest and seventeen side quests, with different ways to complete them. There's also a hidden quest and a bonus quest that will lead to a little reward if the main quest will be finished in a certain way.

There are some hard fights, but it's mainly dialogues, situations, thinking how to put together every single piece of the puzzle, trying to figure how to reach the end.

 

 

 

It doesn't take a lot from the story of Alice in Wonderland. The characters are references from the tale, also they sometimes could tell you sentences from the book. But everything else is inspired from some movies I love.

 

Beyond that, it brings an important concept I've gained reading that story, the same feeling I had watching those movies. What you see, what is happening, what NPCs tell you: everything can be read in different ways.

 

And about the lore... It doesn't care about Enclave, BoS, NCR, Legion and everything happening in the Mojave, NPCs live their own separated story and it seems as they don't care about anything else. No, it's not in lore and it isn't supposed to be. And... well, there will be some bit of magic in the air, but... it's a tale.

 

 

 

This is essentially what I had in mind and I tried to follow when I did this mod:

 

- I love Fallout's sense of freedom and I tried to stick to it as much as it was possible for me.

- I tried to give the player the opportunity to use different approaches. The GOOD one is the hardest one, as always. The BAD one can be easier sometimes, but also more dangerous: you can end up in a cul-de-sac, breaking the quest, as it can happen in the vanilla too. But until you won't break the main quest it's all ok.

What really counts for me is giving the opportunity to do it, it's tied with that freedom concept I was trying to achieve. No essential people (only the "mothers" are essentials...), few doors impossible to be open, you can attack whoever you want, rob them, it won't be the quest itself that will judge your actions, the consequences will be quite natural. Sometimes a bad approach could even be useful.

- All the speech challenges are hidden and you won't take XP from them: this means that playing with two different characters you'll see "natural" changes in the dialogues with the NPCs.

And remember that you can only ask about things you actually know: you can't ask mr.X about mr.Y if you still have not met him or heard about him.

- Male and female characters will have a slight different playthrough and dialogues.

- The pipboy will be used as a log, in first person: you'll find "that guy told me to go there" and not simply "go there".

- What you see, usually, is what you perceive: you'll meet a "well dressed man" and he will be such until he won't tell you his name, or someone else who knows him. I find Perception is very important, i think it's the way your character has to tell you what's happening, this doesn't mean it is really the truth.

- There won't be arrows to point you to your destination. But usually the informations given are enough, if they're not it means you can still achieve more informations in some way. Or it means I forgot something, yes. Anyway, you shouldn't end up roaming the whole Mojave looking for a spot, at least not the main ones.

- I didn't place a lot of notes written in first person. I preferred putting some "details": they, all together, help picturing the whole situation.

- Freedom applied to the quest: as I said you can finish them in different ways, but since few places will be closed, you can do some quests even if you... still don't have them, simply they'll trigger different situations.

 

To start the main quest, take a look in Freeside. But if you are playing the vanilla NV, you can also forget about this mod and simply wander around the Mojave to find the few new spots etc. they are part of the landscape. Just like in vanilla side quests, you don't need to do them following a certain order.

 

 

 

I tested very much the mod, mainly with a female character. My main concern were the fights, they weren't easy in my opinion and I nerfed enemies a lot. The weapons you carry with you are what really makes the difference.

 

If you find a hard place you can still level up and go there later, as in vanilla game.

Anyway here some examples:

 

- I tried it around level 15, Hard settings: I did it, but still there were some places not really easy. If you like hard challenges, and your Mojave economy isn't made easier because of some mods (as adding expensive weapons etc.), I suggest you to be around this level. But you should have nice equipment.

- I tried it around level 5, Hard settings with basic weapons: it was really a pain, but still I went through a bunch of contents.

- I tried it around level 32, with Project Nevada, Very Hard settings and a lot of weapons: I found it easy.

- I tried it around level 22, with ED-E, Project Nevada, Very Hard settings: a nice ammo consuption as always, but a companion definetely makes your life easier.

- After nerfing the fights, last playthrough: I did it at level 7, Hard settings, Delilah, PN and AWOP (without nerfing the loot): I ended it at level 11, I found it not very hard. I preferred sticking with this difficulty, I like the story, I think it's more important than the fights themselves.

For what concerns the abilities, it is done in a way that many kinds of players should be able to do it, no matter their stats. The only real requisite is a base of 25. Essentially, 25 Lockpick and 25 Repair. Low levels should still be able to play it. High level players will find ways to skip some parts of the mod thanks to their stats or moneys, but... less fun.

 

There's only a certain point where it can happen that you "don't feel ready": this means exactly that, you are not ready. Not for your level, but for your combat abilities. Not a huge value anyway. There's an alternative end which requires some stats, just like in vanilla.

Playing as it was the first time, it took me about 8 hours to complete it and unlock all the contents, with many reloads because I was dying etc. because I'm soooo slow, I take my time exploring and reading everything.

 

I suggest to leave your companions at home. No, better: essentially, they can come, but there are some things in Chapter IV that "shouldn't" be made for companions, it's a matter of concept. Also, in chapter III a companion will break your... "view". But it won't break your quest, don't worry... Anyway, places are navmeshed and you already know how it works: when you snap your fingers they will follow you, always. So... when you find a hard fight, you can still bring some backup with you.

 

 

 

I'm a fan of survival mods and low loot. I thought very much about this aspect. I think I didn't place a lot of stuff around, but I did sometimes, following some rules I gave to myself.

 

The quest provides something useful for your playthrough. But it could be a nice ammo consumer, based by your difficulty level. There are some spots and quests that aren't useful for the main one: they are there as a source of equipment and moneys.

You won't gain a lot of experience from the quests. Still, I took 1-4 levels (depending by my level of course) when I killed all the enemies and I unlocked all the contents.

 

The only time you'll gain a bigger experience will be at the very last, especially triggering a certain end. As I said, there are more ways to finish the main quest. Essentially, if you'll finish it and you still will have A question haunting your mind, it means you still didn't do everything. But the ability to unlock the contents depends by how you played through the quest.

In some cases you'll be able to trigger a couple of extra contents that should in some ways answer to that and also you'll be able to build your own house: not a luxury aseptic attic, it will be my concept of confortable wasteland home.

 

 

 

- 01/04: added TTW Compatibility Patch. Thanks to nyaallich for this. Adding this .esp on the bottom of the Load Order will move the Alice door to the modified station of TTW. You will be able to enter both in Alice station (the one with the rabbit graffiti near) and TTW station.

- 28/02: v3 is online.

Many grammar corrections by Chancellor Kremlin

Knockdown fix by Chancellor Kremlin

Solved an issue where "the black guy" stalking AlChestBreach was breaking the start of the mod

Soundtrack included as loose file

MAYBE Beatrix fix (can't test it, it's just a feeling)

 

Installation Instructions:

 

- Requirements: Fallout NV and NVSE. Archive Invalidation enabled for the textures.

- Install: manually extract the archives (Alice - Assets, Video and Alice.esm) under Data folder, then tick the Alice.esm in your load order. You will have: Alice.bsa and Alice ESM inside Data, four bik files under DataVideoAlice. Better if the ESM is on the bottom of your load order.

- Uninstall: manually remove from Data folder the files Alice.esm and Alice.bsa; manually remove the four Chapter files from the sub-folder VideoAlice.

- Cleaned and checked errors with FNVEdit and PU.

- Conflicts: I tried with AWOP and NVInteriors, everything was good. But I'm aware it could conflict with other mods. I THINK it could create a little issue with CotW in a certain quest, I'll test that when I'll have some more time.

- General issues: even if I tested it many times, I'm aware that due to the complexity of some things there will be errors. Essentially I started this quest when this summer I wanted to learn how to use the GECK and the other things concerning general modding. If you have troubles don't hesitate to write me. If you find it will change the name of certain cells (in a different language than english), please PM me with details, it's a thing I couldn't check on my own.

- Console: its use is dangerous, really weird things can happen. Following the main quest, you can TGM but avoid to TCL, COC, UNLOCK doors that can't be open or SETAV SPEEDMULT.

- ENB users: I'm one of you, I love ENB. But I used IMODs, some effects can't be visible if you are using certain ENBs. I suggest you to turn them off. Also, the lights are tweaked for vanilla without ENB.

If still you want to use them, nothing bad will happen of course: if you get stuck for some seconds, it's simply because a fade to black effect is running.

- I really can't figure if the quest itself is hard. So I included some extra documents under Downloads. One is the list of the quests: useful if you want to see if you did everything, not a great spoiler. Then, I included the list of the locations: this is a spoiler, I would avoid that, you will loose the sense of the exploration, the quest already should provide all the infos to reach these places. I also included some General Tips if you feel lost at start and you don't want to give up: the first page is general tips, the second page is Chapter I small walkthrough, the last page is what you could do to continue the quest if you still are lost. As last resource I included the complete walkthrough: I know it could be frustrating when you are stuck and you can't realize if you had an issue with the quest or if you still can't figure what to do, that's why I included it. It's the definitive spoiler, you will loose all the fun, so... don't use it until you are crying or banging your head against the monitor. Or both.

 

 

 

- Eronel, Kendo and Xazomn to allow me drawing one of the characters based on their amazing Mojave Delight.

It was definetely too much important for me. As I always love thinking... "if Beauty had a name, it would be Mojave Delight"

 

- A Big Thank you to Chancellor Kremlin for his grammar corrections

 

- A big Thank you to LL for this hosting

 

- A big Thank you to Bethesda for the amazing playground

 

- A big Thank you to the modders and their creations. It is thanks to them if this past summer I started exploring the wonderful world of modding

 

- A big Thank you to LL's nice scripters and everyone that found a minute to answer my questions, you really showed me the light everytime I was ending in a dark tunnel with the GECK

 

- A big Thank you to Desert Bufalo and his neverending search for perfection

 

- A big Thank you to DigitalMemories, Randagio, The Doctor, Snake, Spikes and Cary

 

- A big Thank you to "Suiko" and "Evan": in some ways... if it wasn't for you, I would have never found this passion

 

- A big Thank you to those I forgot

 

Permissions:

PM me if you need anything.

 

 

 

 

 

- The files are split due to file size limits -

You only need Main, Assets and Videos

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• Submitter
  A.J.
• Submitted
  03/05/2014
• Category
  Quest
• Requires
  NVSE

 

[Nessa]

I think I had this on my "try eventually" list on the Nexus. I'll give it a go now. Nice to see another Quest mod for FONV. They are sorely needed!!

 

I also have quite a few mods in my lineup, I'll let you know if I run into any conflicts.

[A.J.]

I also have quite a few mods in my lineup, I'll let you know if I run into any conflicts.

 

The LO isn't very important and generally you shouldn't conflict, the only mod I think that could give an issue is CotW and of course mods that share the same locations, but I'm not aware about them. Let me know if you run into troubles.

[Nessa]

I think NV interiors and AWOP conflict actually. The gas station south of New Vegas. I think that's AWOP anyway, I really need to do my homework on that one. Everytime I'm in the area I'm thinking "I need to get the hex numbers for the doors" and then promptly forget!

[A.J.]

Wait, I run both AWOP and NVInteriors, but I've never seen conflicts with Alice's locations... where exactly?

[Nessa]

Oh incidentally a few minor things about the esp before I forget.  It has the esm flag set and there appears to be an unnecessary edit to the Barracks01 static object. Possible bad edit on the script VFSBeatrixScript. Possibly not, I haven't checked what the heck that script even does in vanilla.  (And I have no idea who Beatrix is at the moment either!) And... some minor edit conflicts that are inconsequential. Though.... "Bauli del venditore sotterrati". Somebody is using the Italiano version of FONV!! :cool:  (I wonder if I'd like the idiot male characters in FONV more if they spoke Italian? Probably not. )

 

The Geck doesn't make things easy. I try to be careful and I still have to clean my mods every edit it seems.   That and I've heard there are actual differences to resources based on the language. Most distressing!

 

Anyway, I have most of the major quest mods loaded and no conflicts to speak of yet!

[Nessa]

Wait, I run both AWOP and NVInteriors, but I've never seen conflicts with Alice's locations... where exactly?

 

No, not Alice locations. AWOP and NVInteriors. It's.........  OK I'm doing my homework...  Will edit in a minute!

 

EDIT: Alrighty, here's the scoop! AWOP and NVInteriorsComboEdition conflict at the Poseidon Gas Station south of New Vegas and east of Repconn. AWOP has a door going to a tech fiend hideout and NVInteriors has a door going into Pappy's something or other Gas Station. There's probably some patch somewhere that I'm unaware of.

 

So, no Alice conficts of course!

[A.J.]

Awww yes I remember those locations! It's the gas station near the dead soldier you must recover for Morales, right?

 

The Beatrix script should be a fix and not an issue, so don't worry about it. The Barracks edit I remember I removed it, I assume it's a consequence of different hex IDs. The esp with the esm header is intended, but it won't be painful, I promise you ...

Italian words were removed, I'm quite sure those are new IDs referring to merchant chest (and since they're "invisible" you shouldn't be aware of it in game)

[Nessa]

Awww yes I remember those locations! It's the gas station near the dead soldier you must recover for Morales, right?

 

 

Exactly right! I only found out about the conflict by accident. Just looking at it you don't notice it really. But one day I must have got the AWOP door. I was confronted with angry tech raiders instead of an empty gas station!

 

 

The Beatrix script should be a fix and not an issue, so don't worry about it. The Barracks edit I remember I removed it, I assume it's a consequence of different hex IDs. The esp with the esm header is wanted, but it won't be painful, I promise you ...

Italian words were removed, I'm quite sure those are new IDs referring to merchant chest (and since they're "invisible" you shouldn't be aware of it in game)

 

Yeah nothing major. About the esm flag, what advantage does that have? (I can't think of any way that would affect gameplay at least!)

 

Yes, the Italiano is only present on the Vender Chest cell which has no affect on gameplay at all. Besides, it sounds better in Italian anyway.

 

OH, there may be a conflict with The Inheritance. Looks like there's some playing around with vacant vanilla buildings in the North Vegas Square area. I don't recall there being a building there in Inheritance so it may be nothing. I'll just have to do a play through to find out.

 

 

[Nessa]

Confirmed conflict with Strangers Abroad. That uses the train station building in Freeside as well. I should add, I much prefer your version. In this case, I'd think a patch for Strangers Abroad would be more appropriate. (In that mod, the building is a warehouse.) Could simply shift the entrance over to the side and allow both mods to work. I'll probably do up a quick patch.

 

Oh! That reminds me! A minor bug. There are two train station doors. From the outside, the left door warps you to the right door in the interior and vice versa for the other door.

 

Oh yes, and great work on the video sequences! A pleasant surprise!

[A.J.]

Yes if I remember well the shop in North Vegas should be a building used by Someguy after the main quest, one of the extra quests.

 

The two doors of the train station always did me that trick even after correcting it twice. It is lazyness, I didn't want to redo the door from scratch...

 

There are many mods that introduce new interiors, while Mojave is always the same small place, as I wrote in the description I'm aware there could be conflicts like that. But shifting a door so that you can enter in two different interiors in the same building is realistic as using tcl to hook the right door when they are overlapped... so I only cared about AWOP and NVInteriors which are in my opinion the ones that require attention. I also wanted Freeside Open but unfortunately I couldn't manage to make a patch for that since it crashes my GECK.

 

Flagging it as esm makes navmesh working properly. It also solves the different face / body skin color, but it's secondary for me, I mainly did it for navmesh.

[Nessa]

Yes if I remember well the shop in North Vegas should be a building used by Someguy after the main quest, one of the extra quests.

 

 

Well, I must have never played through whichever Someguy series uses it then. I only have the Inheritance loaded as I....  am not overly fond of Vegas Bounties.

 

The two doors of the train station always did me that trick even after correcting it twice. It is lazyness, I didn't want to redo the door from scratch...

 

 

Totally understandable. The Geck is soooo annoying sometimes!!

 

There are many mods that introduce new interiors, while Mojave is always the same small place, as I wrote in the description I'm aware there could be conflicts like that. But shifting a door so that you can enter in two different interiors in the same building is realistic as using tcl to hook the right door when they are overlapped... so I only cared about AWOP and NVInteriors which are in my opinion the ones that require attention. I also wanted Freeside Open but unfortunately I couldn't manage to make a patch for that since it crashes my GECK.

 

 

AWOP and NVInteriors are the important ones anyway. I love Freeside Open (at least the version done by the guy who did the Restoring New Vegas mods) but it was just too much of a hassle with other quest mods. Plus the Geck crashing issue. (I had that too!)

 

 

Flagging it as esm makes navmesh working properly. It also solves the different face / body skin color, but it's secondary for me, I mainly did it for navmesh.

 

That I didn't know. So navmeshes screw up if it's not an esm as well? What a mess! I normally use esms so I have avoided most of that apparently. I think I'll make use of that trick for one mod I'm fixing up... provided I ever finish it!!

[A.J.]

well... let's just say that if you want a broken navmesh just stick with ESPs... seriously, I spent too much time behind that, it's definetely enervating, I concluded ESP isn't viable for navmesh. The subtle thing is that you won't notice it easily when testing your mod since it's noticiable after the first play, when you reload a savegame, then the navmesh will be completely mad.

 

By the way, I don't know if this is the same issue, but I've read there was a famous bug of navmesh from the times of Oblivion, which Beth solved only in one of the last patches of Skyrim.

[shardoom]

This has been on my 'try eventually' list for a while too.

 

I can tell you straight away though if this mods alters the train station. (the one where the ncr and the kings have a shoot-up next to)

It'll conflict heavily with 'Tale of Two Wastelands' effectively stopping the return trip to D.C.

[A.J.]

Maybe yes, maybe not. I can't install TTW so I can't tell you. If it's the "same kind of conflicts", like a shared door, it's not a big deal. Think to the Strangers Abroad that Nessa addressed, I installed it yesterday and even if the two doors are overlapped you can still click on both of them, choosing where to go.

[shardoom]

Tale of two wastelands changes the entire building. That old train station doesn't exist for TTW.

If it has been a simple door thing I'd have just said a minor conflict.

As it is though it'd be a pretty huge conflict.

 

(I am a TTW user)

 

(A possible solution might be to move the door location to the 'old' TTW train station, which is the big building in Freeside North.

As you walk from the kings to the strip, it's the huge building that seemingly has no door on your left.)

[nyaalich]

I thought that the train station had been relocated in v2.4 of TTW.  Or maybe I'm thinking of the DC one.  What I know is that I couldn't fucking find one of them (or my way out of one of them), so the between wastelands home mod was a blessing.

[shardoom]

Both train stations have moved. The Mojave one is the one that causes the conflict here. TTW overhauls the building completely .

In D.C they have added a completely new area accessed by a new metro system. The new union station is accessed via a previously blocked off section of metro tunnel. There are some useful picture guides though that show you how to find them.

[A.J.]

I suppose you should still see my door floating somewhere in that location then. If it's hidden by some of TTW new buildings (I don't know what they did there), you can simply COC inside the station with COC 000stazione everytime you must enter in it (but you should use its doors to come out, they are scripted)

[Nessa]

Strangers Abroad makes the building into a warehouse. And since the building really is a train station that's a tad annoying. I was thinking of swapping the Stranger's door for a basement hatch or possibly just attaching the whole thing to another building. Plenty of abandoned buildings in Freeside. For the time being I just uninstalled Strangers as it's in the midst of an update for part 3 anyway.

 

I had TTW installed only briefly as it was VERY boring playing FO3 without the majority of my FO3 mods.

 

ANYWAY, to get this back around to Alice.....  Got a kick out of the French NPC!   Also, love all the pictures of Italy.

[A.J.]

I'm playing strangers abroad in these days. When I first entered the warehouse I thought that since that station wasn't used since a long time, people simply used it in other ways. I just started, I'm stuck in a quest and I'll try to reload to see what will happen, but overall I find it very pretty. I'm obsessed with interiors and clutters, I like these ones. I also have met that puzzle in A Quest For Heaven-style (put fuel, ignite, power on the computer, etc.), very nice. I downloaded the big package with half part III, no matter if it's not finished, I really think these mods are a very good inspiration for my little modding life.

 

I think you're the only one that told me he noticed those pictures... *laughs* I really love that city, thank you for noticing them

[nyaalich]

Can some TTW users test this patch to see if everything is working correctly/looks right to them for the train station?

 

If you're facing the train station, there's a door to the right of the TTW station door that's covered in static.  This should put you at the center door of Alice's train station.

 

@A.J.:  I don't know what I did to affect the 00Buco cell (floundering in the rendering window, I'm sure), but I went through FNVEdit and deleted any duplicated records that didn't need to be in there/the one that didn't make sense (which was marking a door to a permanent reference that wasn't the door that I thought I was working with, I guess).

Alice - Train Station Patch for TTW.esp

[A.J.]

I don't know, nyaalich, it's not only that 000buco cell. FNVEdit addresses modifies inside the station, while they only should be outside. Personally, since it's just a drag and drop of two doors and a static, I would redo from scratch just to be sure.

[nyaalich]

Actually, the way that I did it was to only bring one door forward outside and link it to the middle door inside.  Then I disabled teleporting for the second door inside, set it to inaccessible, and boarded it up.

 

I sent you a pic of FNVEdit, but I can redo it if you feel more comfortable with that.

[A.J.]

Added TTW Compatibility patch by Nyaalich