Fallout 4: The Lost Chip
OVERVIEW
“The Lost Chip” is a singleplayer side-quest mod for Fallout 4. In this quest, the player enters the Boston Data Research Center to rescue the missing computer expert Connor where the player is involved in the combat between Gunners and Raiders. They imprison Connor to get the chip which is believed to be able to launch the super computer in the Research Center. The super computer restored important and valuable data about prewar reserve. After rescued Connor, the player learned that the chip has been taken by Gunners who fled to the power room. The player is requested to get the chip back and restore the power to launch the computer.
PROJECT INFO
DESIGN GOALS
GAME: Fallout 4
GENRE: Action role-playing
ENGINE: Creation Engine
DEVELOPMENT TIME: 135 hours
( 9 weeks* 15 hours/week )
PLATFORM: PC
• Multiple factions combat
The player needs to defeat the Gunners and Raiders who are fighting with each other. The combat is scripted with multiple trigger boxes and enable/disable marker.
• Lighting and guiding lines guidance
The Boston Data Research Center is a four-floor building with complex structure. The lighting and guiding lines are used to guide the player finding the critical path. The emergency lights and lamps are the basic guiding lighting as well as other flashing lightings draw the player's attention.
• Exploration
The level encourages the player to explore the Research Center with supplies as rewards.
PLAYTHROUGH AND SCREENSHOTS
MAP WALKTHROUGH
In the Boston Data Research Center Ext, when the player talks to the resident Anna, she will tell the player the computer expert Connor with a small expedition team went to the Boston Data Research Center and not came back for two days. The player is requested to rescue Connor.
Following Anna’s instructions, the player finds the Boston Data Research.
The player enters the building and fights with raiders. Also, the player will find there is no way to go underground, so he must go upstairs.
After the player entered the 3rd floor by elevator, he needs to defeat the gunners and find the path to the 2nd floor. And the player needs to get the password for the terminal to unlock the security door to the 2nd floor. The password could be found in the gunner leader.
After the player entered the 2nd floor by stairs, he needs to defeat the gunners and raiders, and use stairs to the 4th floor.
After the player entered the 4th floor by the stairs, he needs to combat with the gunners and then to rescue Connor, who is prisoned in the underground floor.
The player talks with Connor and learns that the chip was taken by gunners, who fled to the power room.
When the player reaches the power room, he needs to fight with the gunner survivors and get the chip. Also, the player needs to restore the power.
Then the player returns to the computer room and talks with Connor. Connor asks the player to launch the super computer. If the player refuses to do that, the Connor will beg the player.
The player succeeds in launching the and gets the holotape with data.
The player talks to Anna again and give her the holotape to get the reward.
POST MORTEM
What went well
Better communication with Professor
I tried to improve my communication with Professor. Skinner in DFS, especially in the RTM milestone, which I really need his help to earn a good grade. I realized that I must find problems and issues in my level and when I have no answer about them, I need to get help from him. I had five meetings with him during the one and half RTM milestone week. It helped me better understanding his feedback as well as addressed some new problem and their potential solutions.
More playtest
It came from the lessons I learned from LD2 that more playtest means better iteration. In the RTM milestone, I asked five playtesters to give me their feedback. I observed their performance while they played my level and also gave them some specific questions based on former feedback. Even the observation itself can help me to notice some problems I didn’t find during development.
Got exterior help
When I met the problem of storytelling, I took Professor. Skinner’ suggestion to ask for help from other native speakers. Nick helped me to revise all dialogues and other material like quest log in my level. And he also gave me some valuable suggestions about how to reflect personality in their words.
What went wrong
Over scope
My initial design is a four-floor building and an exterior cell with animations. Prof. Skinner reminded me that it’s over scope after he reviewed my LDD. So I cut off the animation. Then in the game complete milestone, it turned out that the exterior cell and the interior space of main building are still too big for me to finish. Eventually, I only kept half area of initial design.
The bad results of over scope are low time efficiency. In the initial gameplay milestone and early phase of the game complete, I took a lot of time working on the exterior cell. But when I decided to cut the entire cell, all time and work are wasted which could have been used in other aspects.
The reasons behind of over scope are my ambition about DFS project, underestimation about new techniques difficulty and balance between thesis and DFS. Because of my failure in LD 2 Fallout 4 Project, I was very eager to build a level in good quality and on a large scale for my portfolio. And I tried the following new techniques: scripting animation, adding new terrain and building new exterior cell. And there are some limitations like no LOD of building, which make it hard to implement them and meet the quality standard. And DFS was in the summer semester. I was struggled to get the balance between them.
Poor design in quest layout
Professor. Skinner has shown me the whole process to design quest layout: first, set up a basic layout. Second, add an initial critical path; Third, add twists, and highlight moment on the critical path. Also, add background story to the level. I realized that in my first version of LDD, most of my quest layouts only have basic critical paths but are lack of twist to make it fun. It reminded me that always thinking about why during the design process.
Wrong pipeline
During my development, I built the interior cell first and then tried to find a matched exterior building in the game. It was a bad result of the wrong pipeline. If I could have estimated that this level won’t have an exterior cell, I should find an unused building first and then design interior layout based on itself.
What I learned
Better Fallout 4 mod pipeline
I learned a better Fallout 4 mod pipeline which also works for other game like Skyrim. First of all, having a clear idea about where this mod should be in the game. Then, following the design process of the quest layout, I mentioned above. And keep playtesting in every milestone to iterate.
Creation Kit and Perforce
Use debug log
I learned how to set up debug setting and use debug log to solve problem.
Package level regularly
I learned that packaging level regularly is a good manner which reduces the risk and improves the efficiency.
Script combat
I learned how to script combat with trigger boxes and enable/disable markers.