Burham Springs design document/3

This is part 3 of the Burham Springs design document for Van Buren, the cancelled Fallout 3 by Black Isle Studios.

General

 * There are many smoke plumes and clusters of flame at specific locations in Burham Springs, the Mines, and the Toxic Caves. They will all be extinguished when 11_Fire_Extinguished = 1. Also, related sounds stop then, too (see Sound Requirements section).

Town-Specific

 * Phil, Sparky, and Frank are buddies, even though it might not seem like it. If anyone starts shit in New Canaan (attacking or stealing from one of the three), they are all on the same team and will go after the PC and his or her companions, full bore.
 * Sparky can become extremely agitated by very loud noises (like shouting right next to him, a shotgun blast near him, etc.), and will attack the source.
 * If/when the entrance to the mine is blasted (see the Blow Up the Mines for CoS quest), the screen shakes and it is loud. It is loud enough that it can be heard at Phil and Sparky's place as well as Frank's place. The trio will investigate and attack the PC and company.

Dungeon-Specific

 * Neither the geckos nor the gehennas are on teams, but they will investigate sounds of combat if they hear it, and will attack humanoid opponents over each other.
 * The entirety of the mines is filled with smoke and a lot of fires while 11_Fire_Exinguished = 0. Without 90% Bio Resistance, the PC will take increasing amounts of Bio damage for every fifteen seconds spent inside. It starts at 1 point, then 2, then 4, then 8, then 16 (forever). If the player leaves and returns, the amount resets.
 * In the Toxic Caves, radiation poisoning is really, really bad. If 11_Pump_Fixed = 0, simply standing at the bottom of the ladder will result in accumulating 1 rad every second. Standing in the shallow toxic waste results in gaining 5 rads every second. Standing in the deep toxic waste results in gaining 15 rads every second. After 11_Pump_Fixed = 1, the danger areas recede according to the dropping toxic water level. The 1 rad/second rate is in the front (lowered) area, and the 5 rads/second is in the area around the Agricola Lab entrance. After 11_Pump_Fixed = 1 && 11_Hose_Fixed = 1, all areas are at the 1 rad/second rate.
 * The PC will be able to interact with the pump hose in the Mines to patch it up using either Mechanics or an inventory item. This sets 11_Hose_Fixed = 1.
 * When 11_Pump_Fixed = 1, the toxic waste in the Toxic Caves drops/recedes to only the area around the Agricola Lab entrance. When 11_Pump_Fixed = 1 && 11_Hose_Fixed = 1, the toxic waste disappears completely.
 * After 11_Pump_Fixed = 1 && 11_Hose_Fixed = 1, the player can walk down into the area marked in red outlines on the Toxic Caves map. This gives access to a functioning vault door that opens to the Agricola Lab.
 * While in the lab, using any sort of weapon that causes Ballistic, Heat, Electrical, or EMP damage will cause the Agricola MR robots to activate and attack in the lab.
 * In the computer room (Agricola Lab), the player will be able to find an Agricola Fire Suppression Manual Override book. A character with a 75+ Mechanics and this item in his or her inventory can either use Mechanics or use the item on an Agricola MR to activate its Fire Suppression routine. Once it is done for one robot, it should display a message that says, "You have activated the Agricola Mining Robot's fire suppression manual override. You proceed to perform this operation on the other Agricola MRs." It should then, fade out and fade in to a cutscene of the Agricola MRs tooling around the mines, drilling into the walls and putting out the fires. After this is completed, the Agricola MRs return to their stations and it fades back in on the player. Also, 11_Fire_Exinguished = 1.
 * The same scene can occur if the PC interacts with the central computer in the lab using a 115+ Science. This is started through dialogue, but essentially arrives at the same end result. After fiddling around, the player gets an in-dialogue message indicating that he or she has completed the beta fire suppression software and transmitted it to the Agricola MRs. The same suppression scene as before plays out, and the robots return to their stations.

Cool Shit
This area is cool because is a combat-heavy romper room with a few badass NPCs, a lot of cool shit to buy and salvage, and a messed up environment.


 * The Combat Boys will get to lay waste to a lot of really tough geckos, gehennas, and molechs while striding through smoke and flames.
 * Phil, Sparky, and Frank are weird, quirky guys who don't take shit from anyone, and can dish out plenty of pain on those who cross them.
 * Phil and Frank sell a lot of really cool equipment and pieces of equipment. Also, the player can recover even more stuff in the bowels of the mines and caves.
 * The environment is extremely dramatic -- an Old West mining town burned to a ground -- but still burning and fucked up and full of mutants.

Task List
The Tasks section is a list of all the work that needs to be done for the area. It is a good summary for the producer, other designers, artists, and programmers as to what has been done in the area, who to check with if you have questions about certain tasks, and so on.

This section is only useful if it is used. If we're several months into the project and no one has been using it, then it will no longer be used or updated. There's no sense in wasting time doing additional bookkeeping if it's serving no purpose.

Location Checklist
I'd like these categories to be balanced out among random encounters as well, when possible (obviously, not all categories will apply).

Ending: A brief, one-sentence explanation of the possible endings for this location. These are described in more detail in End Movies, below.

Economics: This is just an entry to make sure that you have given some information in the location that gives clues on how it manages to stay afloat financially in the wasteland; you don't have to beat the player over the head with it, but just make sure it's communicated in some fashion in the location.

Power/Infrastructure: How does the community get power, if necessary? (Tribal communities and farming towns don't need much beyond the ability to make fire.) Again, someone in the town should make mention of this, or there should be scenery to support it (campfires, generators, atomic reactor, and so on).

Food: What do the inhabitants of this area eat? Someone in town (maybe the flophouse owner or farmer) should mention it.

Tie to Another Area 1: I'd like to see the areas tied together more – either with inter-dependent quests, or family members spread out across locations, or something that gives the player the feeling that each location in the game is not an isolated location all into itself.

Basically, ask yourself how does the location interact with other locations and groups in the world? Includes neighboring settlements (for Denver, it's Boulder and Circle Junction) and ones far away (what information or consequences may be given/occur in Black Canyon or when speaking with Lt. Gov. Dodge once you find the Denver salvagers allied and well? And would the ghouls like to know that Denver is occupied… and that it could easily be taken? Sure they would!)

This should probably consist of most of the major players in Fallout, including:


 * NCR
 * BOS
 * Ghouls
 * Super Mutants
 * Tribals

Just some things to consider.

Anyway, that's the bare bones checklist, and it's subject to revisions. Here's an example of how the list could be filled out:

Room for Improvement
Store: If a deal is made with New Canaan (see New Canaan Connection quest), Phil and Frank can start to offer more items (traded from New Canaan, but not taking away from New Canaan's store supplies)

Store Frequency: As above.

End Movies
WHERE TO GO CONDITIONS

'''1. DESTROYED MINES! (WTG)'''

'''2. SUPPRESSED FIRE! (WTG)'''

'''3. NEW CANAAN DEAL, FIRES BURN! (WTG)'''

'''4. NEW CANAAN DEAL, FIRES OUT! (WTG)'''

'''5. NEW CANAAN DEAL, FIRES OUT, TREATY MADE! (WTG)'''

Random Notes
This section is just for random notes you've made on the location - brainstorming ideas or whatever. It's like a word junkyard for stuff you might use or might not, but you haven't ruled them out yet.

Appendix
Include a summary of changes you've done in a document at the end, and dump it into the Source Safe comments, if you can. Chances are, you'll have to email this information to certain people on the team, so it's worthwhile to record here.

06-25-01 – Fallout Location Template document created.

06-28-01 - Added comments from Steve Bokkes (QA Quest List), Dave Maldonado (Appendix and Item and Character Summaries), and Feargus (Quest Importance and Scope). Added spawning and difficulty level information to the Scripting section as well as an "estimated play time" entry into the Area Summary section.

07-09-01 – Added comments from Dave Maldonado and added "character's sex" (male/female) to the location checklist.

12-24-02 - Added Emotional Porn and Random Notes section, straightened up the document, reformatted some tables.

1-11-03: Added PIPBoy functionality to carrots, added timeline information to history.

5-30-03: Added all the designer comments, including comments from the scripters.