[X] Plan Legacy of a Madman
[X] - Servants of the Light. This is the idea of a religious group, the former US military, who are responsible for the current isolation of the uranium complex. After the death of the commander, the chaplain led the detachment, faced with the horrors of a nuclear holocaust, and set the task - as far as possible, to forever bury the uranium storage facility so that no one could ever get to the potential source of such destruction. To protect themselves from radiation, they still use pre-war protective suits.
[X] - Heralds of doom. These people are former supporters of the New California Republic scientist Presper, who a couple of decades ago conceived the destruction of the whole world with nuclear warheads and a new plague virus. His plan did not materialize, but he had enough supporters who decided to continue his work and stopped at the fallen orbital station BOMB-2, using its walls and air tightness to protect against deadly sandstorms.
[X] - A tribe of pygmies. These are not really pygmies, but rather local mutants, former miners who mutated under the influence of local specific conditions and turned into creatures slightly superior in education to cavemen. However, gradually their society developed, and knowledge was restored on the basis of pre-war records. They are mutants and even cannibals, but not insane, who will attack superior forces. On the contrary, they can become allies for the faction, providing their services as guides.
[X] - Presper. This scientist is undoubtedly a genius, the likes of which no longer remained in the post-war world, but his obsession with a strong humanity goes beyond reason. He could leave many hidden weapons of catastrophic power, and not only in the national park itself.
[X] - Sierra Marde. We will give players a new location, the Sierra Marde Casino, sheltered by a monstrous cloud, to which each faction will go for something of their own. The Republic needs the gold of the casino, the Legion is looking for weapons there, and the Brotherhood is interested in the technologies for the production of goods, which will allow them to compensate for the small number of their workers.
The centerpiece of this update for our game is the story of Viktor Presper, who distinguished himself with his activities in the Grand Canyon before moving on to reach the orbital weapons platform. In this regard, he is extremely similar to Daniel from the previous update, who also acted as the main character in the update. But along with this, there is a colossal difference between them. Where Daniel still influences the fate of the world, Presper has long gone, but the entire Grand Canyon bears traces of his activities.
He does not serve as a target for the players, his role is a frightening reminder that the New World may still hide many monsters of the past, who are just waiting to wake up and devour it, destroying everything that is dear. In the end, the players do not know how his story ended in the world of this game, and maybe he will meet again and strike a blow at the new world.
Each faction is associated with his person, united by hatred for his person and divided by his efforts, thanks to which all the inhabitants of the Grand Canyon are in confrontation with each other. Presper's followers hate him for leaving them here, but they follow his instructions, in some way becoming even more radical in their views than he once was. The descendants of the military could leave here, ceasing to receive doses of radiation, from which less and less viable people are born in each new generation. But the appearance of Presper only strengthened their fanaticism in their purpose and the need to protect this place, even at the cost of their children. He used the pygmies, using their knowledge of the area, promising them the same gifts that Caesar himself once brought to the future Legion, but he abandoned them, which is why they initially hate all aliens.
For this reason, each of the factions from the very beginning is extremely hostile to those who came to the Grand Canyon. They see each of the factions as those in whom there are enough of those who could become the new Presper. And this becomes the reason why they initially, albeit inconsistently, try to protect the Grand Canyon from invaders. However, getting to know them better, players understand that each of these three factions is to some extent a reflection of their own. But the reflection is distorted and refracted, almost beyond recognition.
The Brotherhood of Steel will find similarities with the Servants of Light, since both sides serve as defenders of the New World from the terrible weapons from the old. But instead of rationality and service to ideals, the Servants of Light turned their task into a full-fledged religion, for which each of them is ready to die. And if the Brotherhood was eventually forced to abandon its own ideals, then the Servants remained faithful to them.
The Heralds of Doom are akin to the New California Republic, of which they themselves are. After the death of Tandi and the troubled times in the Republic, they believed that the Republic was doomed. Doomed because of weak people, because of the lack of a worthy leader capable of leading the people. They believed that it was necessary to cleanse the Wasteland so that the worthy would repopulate it. Their methods are monstrous, but their actions are based on good beliefs. And it will be a shock for them to learn that the Republic not only survived, but also became stronger.
Pygmies are similar to the tribes of Arizona before the coming of the future Caesar to their lands. Savages who do not know how to handle weapons and practically do not know agriculture. Cannibals. Any civilized person will be sickened even by the idea of communicating with them, but the oldest of the Legion's officers will remember that they themselves were the same until the moment when Caesar began to preach to them the ideas of materialism and dialectics.
Finally, the crowning glory of this update is the attempt to break into the uranium storage facility. This is not just a bunker, an underground storage facility where mined and purified uranium was delivered. Everything is much worse - this is a whole fortified area that was prepared for the potential activities of Chinese saboteurs, who would probably try to take control of this place. The American government was not worried about possible casualties and environmental damage from such a terrorist attack, but about the slowdown in the supply of weapons for the American army, which was already approaching the capital of China.
Therefore, the first task for the players will be to overcome the external defense systems, represented by numerous turrets, minefields and other systems. Some of them are ordinary opponents, while others are real bosses, because the boss does not have to be a human or a giant robot, it is rather a set of mechanics that must be observed.
As soon as the external defense systems of this station are broken, one of the main factions hostile to the player appears, which will immediately try to destroy his forces before they can break through the gates of this fortress. And players will have to move into enemy positions, breaking through their ranks in order to kill enemy commanders in battle.
But while there was a battle against one of the factions, the other manages to break through to the entrance to the fortress, hack it and go inside. And the third wing of this raid consists of chasing in their footsteps, destroying their commanders as well, until they are overtaken and killed right in front of the entrance to the vault itself.
But it will not work just to take the uranium, because the internal systems of the fortress are protected even more, and now they are not just turrets, but a full-fledged army of robots that were disturbed as a result of this assault and now they are rising. Players will not only have to destroy the first robots, but also try to escape from this fortress. After all, an army of robots acting on the commands of a long-dead country is the danger that forces the vault to collapse by walled up along with most of the uranium. But we still manage to extract something, although this is a pathetic fraction of the tons that were inside.
Now we take a look at the Sierra Marde casino, where all parties to the conflict go. Their motivation in this matter is understandable, and like any reasonable state it happens - it is extremely selfish. They want more power, more money, more devastating weapons.
And as soon as news about a casino that had survived from the pre-war times spread throughout the Wasteland, where, according to rumors, almost everything possible could be found, few believed in them. But the stories were very similar to each other, describing a tall building shrouded in a rusty Cloud, which seemed almost intact over time. The scouts fully confirmed these words, and then all three sides sent their expeditions there. But they did not and could not know that the casino systems are superior even to the military, and in order to get inside they will need the help of the inhabitants of the Villa, and at the same time - its prisoners.
The fundamental difference between the Sierra Marde and all other places in the Wasteland is that players will not have to interact with entire factions, but with individual characters. The reason for this is the intimate setting of this update, which shows the connection between individuals and this casino, the reasons why they do not try to leave this place. Something that still pulls them inward, making this place their grave.
Choose three options:
[] - Dean Domingo. This ghoul is not only an actor, but also a swindler who has been trying to get inside for two centuries. The desire to commit the greatest theft in history after the death of the world gradually turned into an obsession, despite the fact that the pre-war treasures in the New World are no longer needed.
[] - Vera Keyes. One of the greatest actresses of her time was Dean Domingo's partner in his robbery. But her fate was much less favorable, because during the Great War she was in her room and was locked. Faced with the prospect of death, she decided not to postpone it, and took a lethal dose of drugs. But even this did not take her out of the casino's captivity, for a few days later a hologram with her appeared, which demonstrates amazing intelligence. Now she just wants to get to the casino systems so that someone erases her identity.
[] - Mutant. This split personality mutant came to the casino, following his signal, which became for him the only reason for his existence. A veteran of the Master's army, gone mad, he subconsciously gave in to the hope that he could "start all over again" if he made his way inside this casino, thereby getting rid of his fate.
[] - Christine. A Circle of Steel operative, she was sent to the Sierra Marda in secret for the Brotherhood of Steel, not a casino target. Her target was Elijah, as one of the leading leaders of the Brotherhood of Steel, she believed that such a repository of technology could lure him out of the bunker under HELIOS One. Having disguised herself, she is now just waiting for the opportunity to strike at him.
[] - Worker. This is the last of the former installers at Villa who were exposed to radiation, but survived to become a ghoul. And the suit helped them protect themselves from the Cloud. Once they just lived in the Villa, having learned that the world around them died, but gradually they went crazy. Slowly, only a couple a decade, but in the end there was only one left, unable to even self-inflict injury that could kill him, at least not yet. Now he is kept from madness only by the desire to get inside the casino, which arranged for him a fate worse than death.
[] - Write-in.
Also, keep in mind that this update contains elements of the horror genre. Of course, we cannot give in the conditions of this genre a full-fledged feeling of lack of resources and omnipresent danger. But we can easily make the game uncomfortable for him with the appropriate atmosphere. She has to put pressure on him. The player must feel like a stranger to this place. The Sierra Marde, at first glance, should give a sense of the falsehood of all the hopes associated with this place.
Choose one option:
[] - Music. We can solve this with the help of a bourdon, sometimes such things are much more eloquent than words and descriptions. Very low music, which practically turns into infrasound. Such a sound perfectly creates a sense of danger, which is everywhere at the same time, since, unlike high-pitched sounds, it can be listened to for a relatively long time.
[] - The unknown nature of the Cloud. The cloud is one of the main components of the atmosphere of this add-on. But we can try to exacerbate this atmosphere by making it a separate mystery. From time to time, players will stumble upon evidence of cloud activity. But what is it really? Who created it? What consequences does it have besides the death of people who get there?
[] - Contradictions. We can try to create this atmosphere in another way, a little dishonest though. Why don't we fill them with conflicting testimonies about Villa and the casino besides the usual books and notes? Their task is to confuse the player, make him doubt what he has learned, try to find an explanation, but only stumble upon a wall of mutually exclusive events?
[] - Write-in.
Well, of course, after the release of this update, you will have to tackle the following:
Choose one option:
[] - Divide. We have already mentioned this place as a path that leads in Mojave almost directly from Shady Sands and where the mysterious Ulysses hid. This place is so important that there was even a battle for it, however, it turned out to be outside the attention of the players themselves. But they can see the consequences of this battle, which ended in nuclear explosions, which immediately attracted all the factions and required them to investigate what happened.
[] - Coup in Vegas. Mr. House awakens at the Lucky 38 casino, finally receiving a platinum chip from the Courier. Together with an army of robots under his control, he tries to expel all three forces from the Mojave, but does not know that his three deputies are already weaving intrigues against him.
[] - Exodus from Mount Black. The Black Mountain Supermutant Society, ruled by the peaceful Marcus, is heading for a split of its own. It has three factions at once. The first are followers of Marcus, what a peaceful existence with people. The latter are followers of Tabitha, promoting ideas of supermutant supremacy. And finally, crazy and schizophrenic super mutants who, instead of superiority to one of the parties, threaten to turn it all into a bloody carnage. All factions are interested in one of the outcomes, but none are definitely interested in the uncontrolled massacre in the middle of the desert.
[] - Big Mountain. A pre-war research center with a huge number of prototypes of a wide variety of technologies that survived the Great War and were to be used in the hands of the American army. But instead, they ended up in the hands of mad scientists who still continue to rule this place.
[] - Write-in.
