Fallout New California: An Analysis of New Vegas' Total Conversion Trailblazer

Fallout: New California set out to accomplish the dream of a total conversion fangame for New Vegas before nearly anyone else. Let's find out what we can learn from this ambitious early attempt.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00-1:18 Intro
1:18-7:44 Vault 18
7:44-13:03 The Companions
13:03-19:53 The Open World
19:53-34:43 NCR Route
34:43-39:26 Raider Route
39:26-42:13 Enclave, Shi, Wild Card Quests
42:13-48:16 Endings
48:16-50:55 Themes
50:55-54:57 Conclusion
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Become a member: / @ramblelime
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Lose 10 years off your lifespan: / ramblelime
Thank you for watching :)

[@MrRattlebones640]

The New California slightly fumbled so The Frontier could fall flat on its face

[@ADJackD]

Honestly thenonky reason to download is because unfortunately the modder for the driving mod couldn’t make it standalone

[@CourierSix-]

​@ADJackD it's a stand alone now

[@ADJackD]

@@CourierSix- thank god,5(@5 list from Mutantmodder with classic overhaul mods need to be updated.

[@tony-nv2ln]

@@ADJackD 40:14 rèrre😅ee 😊

[@ADJackD]

@@tony-nv2ln what?

[@obsidiancrow450]

honestly the fact that the vault content was basically completed years before the full release says alot. Something switched in development philosophy and it never went back.

[@Marcelelias11]

Iirc what switched was that a TON of the people worked in New California jumped ship to The Frontier, and left only two devs to finish the rest by themselves

[@obsidiancrow450]

@@Marcelelias11 yeah but design wise its like 2 totally seperate games. alot of what happens in the vault has nothing to do with the second act. Its not just flawed by not having enough man power, its flawed in where that man power was put.

[@obsidiancrow450]

@@Marcelelias11 also in tales of new reno 2 theres probably more content 3x that of fallout new california

[@cyberninjazero5659]

​@@obsidiancrow450I think one of the big problems it runs into is how person/companion focused it feels the story should be but just isn't. Sure if you go, Enclave or Psycho sure you wouldn't have Companions but on a normal route your fellow Vault Survivors are the emotional core. Why are you doing anything after leaving the Vault? To ensure a safe life for all of you. But as the mod came out the Companions fell off hard and never recovered.

[@atlasgraham154]

@@obsidiancrow450 And they've talked about this in length, on lots of occasions. If you're interested, you can still find the design documents for what they wanted to do. Everything was going to be more connected; the Companions, obviously, would have carried some of the Vault with them. Jen's Dad was supposed to have escaped, giving you a Wasteland Scout play through through him. There was supposed to be more stuff about the Scouts, if I recall, as well. But, like the guy above said, the Frontier pulled everyone away from the mod, leaving behind an unfinished main story, broken scripts that had to be found and fixed/axed, unfinished assets that had to be finished/scrapped, and because the Frontier itself ran on smear campaigns and safe-space fueled hate bubbles they completely shit on New California during their entire development which, honestly, probably turned the mod into something of a pariah in the community. Why go to this obviously inferior mod that these guys say is crap when you can stick with the Frontier and make it big? Hilarious how that worked out for them in, really, but I'm going off topic. The point is, New California had big ambitions, and they had hoped that they would have the manpower to see them through. Instead, that Manpower turned out to be incompetent, lazy, or jumped ship for what they thought was the bigger shinier mod -- or all three. The two people left had to put their full drive in fixing what was left broken, sifting through everything that was left, and than focusing on the bare bones for the main story -- all the while asking for help, hoping it would show up, and then pressing on because all the Mod Authors who had the talent to help were working on the Frontier, or doing their own thing.

[@uglyweirdo1389]

I think everyone can agree that teenagers aren't human. Very good observation

[@StupidDumbIdiotImbecil]

Fr fr Ong

[@roughrambo1000000]

Based

[@ajflink]

I would argue bratty kids too.

[@uglyweirdo1389]

@@ajflink Children are better and more important than anyone except babies and John Turturro

[@ajflink]

@@uglyweirdo1389 I was referring to spoiled rich kids that went through 20 kittens in 1 month because they had them "put to rest" after it scratched them when wanting to play. Those kind of bratty kids....Okay. Hopefully there are none that cartoonishly evil.

[@valothebrute4028]

New california, despite all its flaws has to be one of my favorite mods. I can still see the passion the developers had for it in alot of areas

[@myron4445]

agreed

[@fafale8731]

nope, same type of shit as new frontier 😑

[@valothebrute4028]

@@myron4445i enjoyed playing new California. i did not enjoy the frontier

[@t.t6294]

NC was probably one of the worst fan made mods I've played. the first area was good but everything else was a disaster. the writing was so bad it made Fallout 4's main story look like a masterpiece

[@kurogamig]

Totally agree with you! I enjoyed the mod like no other! It has bugs and errors but the story was magnificent! Frontier i did not play because after reading and watching hundreds of opinions and gameplays, i've decided not to go for it...

[@AndreasSelzer]

The two things I did not like was forcing this to be a backstory for the Courier and how they got some of the lore incorrect, such as the Courier literally being in the Divide when it exploded.

[@Burning_Alive]

Same, I felt like it was off to such a great start, it even made me reconsider my couriers backstory until I got to the part where your a mutant, also after that first part it felt very unpolished, rushed, lack of content, and overall unfinished. Still thought it was fun as shit and well made but definitely disappointed me with how un-flushed out it was and how it does some fucky wucky’s with the lore

[@DiscoveringOne]

It was Added in the end because there was a big pressure from people to make this into courier backstory and So the game could progress to Main game, but Developers themselves admit that they regret putting it in and Hope that someday somebody will make a submod So it would be changed

[@Burning_Alive]

@@DiscoveringOne I don’t believe that considering most people hated that and didn’t want that

[@wulf2863]

Even bethesda messes up with the lore so it was whatever to me

[@Burning_Alive]

@@wulf2863 you just perfectly explained why I hate bethesdas fallouts

[@peckneck2439]

Both NC and Frontier have completely forgotten that they made mods on top of games that runs on ancient, barely functioning engine that has NOT been designed for large combat scenarios. I remember when i played Frontier for the first time and i came across a vault. I don't remember which one that was but it was completely overgrown and you could get a crossbow at the end of it and it was so overfilled with Ghouls my framerate was tanking all the way to 20FPS.

[@diewott1337]

That's the curse of Bethesda's modding scene. Fallout and Elder Scrolls are some of the easiest games to mod (it still takes effort, but compared to others it's much easier), so a lot of people try to make these games into things they aren't and sometimes, they can't be. So you have multiple mods trying to make Fallout into CoD and Elder Scrolls into Dark Souls (and etc.) because that's easier than modding those games.

[@0lionheart]

@@diewott1337 large base of resources, knowledge and volunteers too, must be an attractive destination for people with (overly) ambitious story ideas. I've yet to play a large Fallout mod that really _felt_ like Fallout though, y'know. Both New California and The Frontier felt like bad fan fiction through the lens of differing other media (anime and Metal Gear Solid, respectively). I think they get too excited about their epic stories, and forget that this series doesn't tend to have grand plotlines.

[@BriteRory]

@@0lionheart Fallout 1.5 Resurrection is the only total conversion mod I've played that genuinely feels like a natural extension of the series, even astonishingly so in some regards. Of course, it is a conversion of Fallout 2 and not one of the Bethesda games, so far less people likely are familiar with it. It is a masterpiece and absolutely accomplishes nearly all of what it intended, and perfectly recreated the aesthetic and tone of the very first original Fallout, even down to the mid-90s CGI animations and the original soundtrack, which is absolutely perfect. Of the other two big ones that I'm aware of (both led by the same guy, from what I remember), Fallout: Nevada stands in relation to Resurrection as Fallout 2 does to Fallout; it is much larger and denser, has vehicles and tons more weapons, a remarkable amount of original art assets, and a great original soundtrack, but it somewhat overreaches and for anybody who doesn't speak Russian suffers immensely from translation efforts. The follow up project, Fallout: Sonora seems to be a much tighter, more narratively coherent and inter-connected affair, and likely is that teams magnum opus, though I only tried the first version with automatic translation and refused to get into it until the English translation is finished. From the talking heads alone it looks like it could be the best Fallout mod ever made, and I cannot wait to experience it once the translation is finished.

[@darkcheaker]

I've played NW in 20 fps back in 2010s. This is the way.

[@pompeythegreat297]

20fps is lore accurate

[@AfterburnerOG]

Didn't the Frontier sap a lot of the modding talent that worked on New California at some point and basically left it for dead?

[@nagger8216]

Yup, it's why the vault feels so different from the rest of the game, everyone bailed after that prologue sequence. So I guess you could say New California walked so the Frontier could run lol

[@yeayea115]

​@nagger8216 and then the frontier stepped onto 25 landmines

[@daimpthing]

​@@yeayea115Ran straight into a minefield

[@funninoriginal6054]

​@@nagger8216 Run straight off a cliff you mean

[@YomamaYodaddyYobjtchassGranny]

@@daimpthing😂😂 I was boutta say new frontier was just a dumpster fire.

[@filyard]

24:05 I actually had to do the water quest by carrying the jugs since (I can't remember exactly why since I played the mod back when it initially released) my character didn't allow me to do it the other way, so I got all of the jugs, dropped them on the ground so they would count as a single item and carried it physically all the way to the city from the village.

[@kisa.5228]

I'm deeply sorry for you

[@Hobobatman1000]

Gigachad move

[@BrandanLee]

That is hilarious. If you grab the brahmin from the side quest in Union City, you can use them to carry the jugs too.

[@cookieplays2266]

This is real Sigma Wastelander Type (very rare)

[@YomamaYodaddyYobjtchassGranny]

You sir are a god

[@datguyuno98]

Martin Purvis deserves so much more recognition he's great

[@MartinPurvis]

Thank you! 🙌🙌🙌

[@myron4445]

fr he’s great

[@costlessfreedom3137]

Bro said the Mojave desert is empty

[@dividewalker5673]

Still dropping bangers

[@thegreatazal5021]

@@MartinPurvishey I still listen to “looks like I’m going to hell” to this day it’s somber and catchy and just plain great.

[@coopernut]

I like the casual Nuka Cola looting after everyone is distressed from the explosion of their home

[@user-xg4ey7km4m]

I will say I love the weird organic horror that follow the mutants around in thie game.

[@The-jy3yq]

Which was the case in classic Fallouts (and even somewhat in Tactics) but then was dropped in FO4 for no apparent reason I don't consider 3's Centaurs and by extension NV's Evolved ones to really be _organic_ to classic's vision of failed(be it in process or ideas) FEV experiments

[@current3109]

Supermutants in fo4 look so goofy

[@B-zk9bt]

@@The-jy3yqThis!!! I hate the Mutants in 4, they look like overgrown orc toddlers instead of bulked up deformed monstrosities. I also wish Bethesda did more with FEV, I wish they explored more of what FEV can do. We know it makes more than just Super Mutants, Psykers, Centuars and other horrors can be born from the virus. I wish they made new FEV creatures for 4, The Institute is a somewhat stereotypical evil science group for the sake of evil, ala Big Mt. but minus all the nuance and interesting interactions you can have with the scientists, so it would make sense that they’d be all over FEV experimentation. Tl;dr: FEV is a cool concept, I’d love it if Bethesda did more with it.

[@starwars90001]

I think when it comes to the courier thing you have to look at how this mod reframaes the courier as this legendary being. If you play this mod and Frontier together goes from a random who becomes great to a legendary hero/villain who was always meant to save or doom the Wasteland. The endings of this makes courier too great, it's not they have a story it's that their story is too big for beginning for NV.

[@kazumablackwing4270]

I guess doing it that way might take the edge off the cringy, over the top courier dickriding that happens in The Frontier...as long as you don't think too hard about it. In the overall scheme of things, the events of NC amount to little more than a series of border skirmishes on the southern frontier of the NCR territory, so it's unlikely many outside the region would know about the one who would eventually become the courier...even less so if you do the NCR questline in NC, since you're essentially burned and likely scrubbed from the records at the end, so it's even less likely that Blackburn & co. would even know about your NC exploits, let alone be able to connect them to your NV exploits

[@freakklomp]

@@kazumablackwing4270 yeah in NC if you do the NCR questline, you are completely scrubbed from everything. every soldier that knew who you were wont even talk about it.

[@aster8320]

New California is easily my favourite New Vegas mod of all time. I've played it through several times and gotten most of the different endings. It's incredibly flawed in a lot of different ways, but there's just so much passion and love for the Fallout series in this mod and it shows. I hope the devs are successful in their future endeavours, they deserve it!

[@RedSaint83]

Same. It shines with passion, and I don't think I've dived as deep into at mod like with NC. Just great storytelling, and I liked the focus on teen vault dwellers with all the drama that follows.

[@freakklomp]

@@RedSaint83 for sure. thain and rick have lots of passion for what they did. sadly it was already taking too long and thain really didnt want another 4 to 8 years to work on FNC. it would have been released next year or something instead. sadly without help thain and rick were the only ones that worked on it for 95% of it all, besides VA and music and such.

[@starrothejanitor5488]

One problem with this mod and the Frontier that I don’t see get stated often was the fact that all of the female characters look like they’re from a different game.

[@scottmisso7670]

This mod felt like a gradient to me, like it started off sprinting and ended in a crawl. Which, honestly, I can see why that might happen. Things like this being passion projects tends to mean the start of the project is full of hype and interest which dwindles, and that's very evident in the mod. But honestly, I'm partially okay with that, because we actually got to see this mod come out. That being said this mod is a tough play because the companions are just so dead, and eventually it kinda loses its charm. But at least for a little bit it captured what makes me love Fallout. Haven't watched the video yet, just wanted to get my thoughts down first.

[@kazumablackwing4270]

The fact that some of the devs for The Frontier launched a hate campaign against NC and actively poached talent from the project didn't exactly do them any favors either

[@freakklomp]

@@kazumablackwing4270 sadly in the end thain and rick were the only ones to be working on it for 95% of it.

[@lenkatherat7993]

New California has had a permeant place in my mod list since it came out. As tiring as it is to playthrough it after 5 times I will always have a soft spot for it. Discovered it back when Project Brazil dropped and have been in love ever since. And it is a tragedy that the mod ended with 2 people dragging it to the finish line. Everything about it screams to be cooked more, even the clone plot line is interesting enough to be great with work hell I think it is great when you find out the Father is just delusional. I have been waiting since the last update for someone to come around and finish the mod and will still hold out hope that one day someone with the know how will do it... unlikely as it is.

[@carpetbeetle8349]

I'll likely never uninstall Star The Wandering Courier

[@freakklomp]

hi, admin from the FNC team here. glad you enjoyed fnc so much. you're right, thain and rick have made the mod 95% themselves, besides little things and VA/music. if there was more help FNC would have turned out much better. we got a 1.0 document in the discord that anyone can look at and even make it if they want to. they could change things sure but thain does want to vet it of course. project brazil itself (the thing that makes you the clone) would also have been more fleshed out.

[@colbywarren4364]

@@freakklomp do you ever see a team coming back to rework on the mod or finish it?

[@freakklomp]

@@colbywarren4364 not at this time i'm afraid. i believe we have 2 working in the back doing some minor fixing and stuff. but since thain and rick moved on to work on their own IP, they just dont have the time to finish it. seeing rimworld SOS2 is also in the works still.

[@charlieni645]

Rambeliime and Noah Gervais dropping high calibur Fallout videos on the same day. Ain't that a kick in the head?

[@AppleshyJedi]

Came here after the notification to say the same thing. Now I know how I'm spending the next 10+ hours!

[@BriteRory]

Woah, Noah just dropped a Fallout video? Damn, thanks for the heads up! His Dark Souls video was the background to my work for many days.

[@AppleshyJedi]

Yep! Barely 3 hours ago, retrospective on the entire series, including Van Buren

[@cloakedhornets6515]

Wasn't aware of Noah Gervais before but I'll check out his stuff. I do enjoy me some hours long essay videos (so long as they're well done).

[@AppleshyJedi]

@@cloakedhornets6515 my recommendation is starting with his video on traveling the real world maps of Fallout 1/2/New Vegas. It was my introduction and to me, is the best way to experience his content for the first time.

[@equalequines4]

babe wake up new rambelime just dropped

[@concept5631]

I am woke.

[@Luyan7r]

Im awake darling

[@kazumablackwing4270]

I honestly don't mind the "become the courier" ending. It adds a bit of flavor to the player character. In my first playthrough, i went with the NCR questline in NC, and being essentially used, and then burned by them gave in-character justification to side against the NCR in New Vegas... particularly, choosing the yes man ending after packing my courier's already functionally immortal body with the OWB augmentations and both vanilla and project nevada cybernetic implants

[@ZiegIce]

Finally, someone who is okay with the connected courier ending. Was starting to really be concerned I was the only one.

[@hydroxide5507]

let me guess fo4 is your favorite

[@deepflare1028]

​@@hydroxide5507what does that have to do with what he said?

[@ZiegIce]

@hydroxide5507 I'm not sure if it's a joke or not, but no, New Vegas is my favorite. I got started with the series playing 3, then new vegas, then played earlier games before 4 came out. I enjoy 4's framework for modding, lol.

[@nagger8216]

I dunno, I'm okay with the clone stuff and being the Courier, but I'm not a fan of them being wasteland Wolverine and being at the Divide when it was destroyed, then surviving it because of their powers. That's some extremely lame cape shit, not to mention it contradicts Lonesome Road in several other ways. Then to top it all off they give the Courier amnesia when they survive being shot by Benny, thus completely ruining the point of even giving them a backstory

[@werwolfnate]

They could have pushed the idea even further and made the whole mod a stealth character creator for your version of the Courier.

[@threenations566]

I love this mod despite its shortcomings. I fully agree with your critique of it The desert felt very, VERY empty. Even in fallout 3 when you felt empty, you turned around and looked for a marker and boom, there several were. New California, it’s just the one and it takes 5-15 minutes to get to it. There were areas of the map that could’ve been massively expanded. Near the scrap metal merchants the desert there could’ve been the remains of a battlefield with hostile scavengers and skeletons from the brotherhood war with broken bits of power armour and if you get enough, you could build a suit The roads were empty except for the same old raiders. If you had 2+ companions, you would tear through them. Zero random encounters. It was incredibly empty. Athens tec was a great area but my god, it’s design was not great at all. Incredibly dark and not to mention - glitchy. The raiders line has too many bugs. The lack of vaults in the area was a disappointment - it would’ve been great to see the Viking raider vault or even the vault filled with obese people from the Nuka cola experiment. The companions could’ve had a lot more in terms of quests. Kurtz you could’ve tried to find his old home. Kira to find her place in the wasteland. The robots a old explorers camp or base. Johnny a way to kick his addiction and a purpose in life and Jenn a quest to settle the score between her and Kira and most importantly - a place for your companions to begin again per say - become the vault exiles and it would’ve been cool as well to see you undertake a mission to save former members of the vault who got scooped up by the enclave instead of mowed down by minigun armed troops (I get that was a reference to fallout 2 but shotguns with beanbag or being swarmed by people with cattle prods would’ve made it more in line with what Bragg was wanting to do) It is a good mod, it’s worth downloading but it’s too empty. When you miss or fail to do something in a quest you’ll find yourself reloading to do the ‘right’ thing per say because…there’s not alot else to do to make yourself feel like you’ve made up for it. The finale was good though - incredibly difficult but it was good and the storyline choices for the endings was also pretty good. The best is the prologue, followed by the end, the middle is far behind them both.

[@FloofMother]

The Viking vault stuff was supposed to be in the frontier when it came out but ultimately they didn’t complete the reference

[@nagger8216]

​@@FloofMotherI love how New California makes several references to the Frontier, meanwhile the Frontier threw New California under the bus and never even did those ideas. So much for that cohesive universe lol

[@FloofMother]

@@nagger8216 I mean, the people who worked on the frontier were also made up of people who worked on new California, so it was more of a writer revolt rather than animosity between two groups of people. I also think they might not have appreciated certain factions and plot points being foisted on them

[@alexwatts1064]

I played through Divinity: Original Sin 2 twice with custom blank-slate characters and really enjoyed it. Then I played through a third time as Ifan and it was legimiately one of the best rpg experiences I've had. A blank slate can be good, but there is something to be said for playing a character who already has depth and investment in the world.

[@wulf2863]

Playing as Fane is also absurdly good

[@BlueRanger57]

Thanks for covering this mod in-depth. I tried to start New California multiple times, but always ended up losing interest a few hours in. I really respect the effort this team of modders gave, but the way certain main questlines progress (especially getting kidnapped by raiders unintentionally) got really frustrating to me.

[@viejoven8877]

15:35 And that's the moment i could not play the mod anymore. I remember the emptiness just screamed "Unfinished", and though nice, not enough to capture my attention. Thanks for the analysis, i got the feel of it being full of possibilities, and very much unrealized.

[@scottski02]

Same, and it was a crying shame. The pacing of the escape from the Vault/dash to the NCR's headquarters was breakneck in all the best ways and a very tightly designed experience (performance issues with the big battle aside). Initially, making it to the city was a welcome break from the action, but it never picks up steam again after that point.

[@PARAN0IDxGERBIL]

I don’t remember the exact plot details now of course, but the fact that Chevy and Bragg can reanimate was such an awesome twist to me. Because I killed both of them in the beginning vault escape sequence. I actually killed Bragg twice in that sequence IIRC. Once in the very very beginning when he and Chevy are at the security office and then again when the enclave wannabes bust through the door. At the time I chocked it up to like “oh haha silly buggy mod. They totally overlooked the fact you could kill this fool earlier in the sequence. I’m so smart I sequence-broke the mod.” But then you meet them again and they’re like “yeah I can reanimate bro. You’re a regenerative clone too that’s why you can shrug bullets off like it’s nothing” Obviously it’s not much more than like fan fiction tier contrivances but it caught me off guard and I respected it Edit: you can even bring this up to Annai actually! And she’s like yeah they don’t exactly die like they should

[@theloreempire]

This mod deserves to be finished.

[@ajflink]

Martin Purvis seems like he made genuine retro music. If you said "A Wish or Two" came out on an obscure album before 2000, I would believe you without question.

[@nightheartreviews9955]

One of my favorite things is how the paths have fluidity. I was taken as a slave, ran to the ncr to be saved, and later worked with the shi

[@oGrayFox]

In my opinion, the biggest reason it failed is scope. The Vault is the best section because it is a contained, tight, well designed area where quest design and dialogue could take priority. Filling a gigantic open world full of stuff to do is such a massive ask that it’s no wonder quest design and everything else felt rushed. You can also tell by how empty the world feels. Having made a (small, fraction of the size of New California) worldspace mod myself, the amount of effort required to make one is staggering. Honestly, it’s a miracle New California exists at all. I remember looking at a Google doc which essentially tracked tickets and their completion and the amount of uncompleted tasks is staggering. I’d love to see this team attempt something smaller in scope like a 4-5 hour DLC adventure instead. Ultimately, the team bit off more than they chew. They’ll forever have my respect for attempting it and getting a completable game at the end!

[@thedinkster7547]

Somebody ring the Dinkster?

[@ihazcheese]

Wow. This is a REALLY solid, well thought-out and executed analysis. Best I've seen in years from someone who isn't a mainstream content creator. Even so, it still holds it's own. Something fresh and new and I welcome it wholly. Very well done, strange lime man.

[@Grey440]

This mod is at its best when it sticks to its own lore whenever to try to connect itself to the original games it goes down a cliff the raider alliance is really fleshed out and each gang has there own backstory and lore the black vultures are my favourite there done really well but then there’s the super mutants which are unity but awful

[@oceanman943]

Definetly! Shi was way too out of place but Voiceless was awesome for example. I wish they had their own ending even!

[@AltaryaDeFlammes1996]

Y'know, its something I went through the entirety of this mod multiple times over and to this day I'm still not sure if I ever found(let alone finished) any sidequests This really is the curse of fan projects at work again, always with so much potential and always abandoned

[@lenkatherat7993]

I had to use a guide to find the one and only side quest outside of the cow herding guy and its at an out of the way ghoul town with no way of knowing it is there besides an announcement on discord.

[@ZekeFreek]

I feel like a lot of projects, mods, rpgs, just games in general really, tend to go hog wild at the start and then thin out immensely the further into them they get. I'm not sure if there's an actual solution to that beyond just, better planning maybe, but it makes a lot of experiences feel super uneven.

[@amannamedsquid313]

Could be fatigue, at the start everyone is super hyped and passionate and neat ideas abound. Then as time goes on, ideas are cut out or watered down, budget gets used up, deadlines creep closer and that same passion at the beginning is gone or is at least severely diminished. One solution could be start at the end and work backwards maybe? Or one teams starts at the end, one at the beginning, and then then work their way to the middle? I dunno.

[@archivehans]

This is why you need someone to head a project, A director that makes sure everything is up to a standard.

[@Reach42a]

I wrote most of the notes you find on bodies, good to see this thing getting some love

[@-libertyprimev1-902]

Gotta love how the "Courior Prequel" ending was apparently added later due to several people wantinh a way to carry over their player/gear/companions/ect into New Vegas, then it ends up being one of the things people hate the most about the story... Not to say the specific people who asked for a carry over ending did a u-turn and flamed the ending they asked for, there's enough of that fanbase over generalization c**p in the Fallout Community (and every community for that matter) as is, but more as a cautionary tale of "You can't please everyone" for any lone person or group of storyteller(s)... It's not Always the best idea to listen to fans even when it's done with good intentions, you will invariably give yourself a sour taste in your mouth through compromises and in many cases sour the mouths of more people than the ones you were trying to sweeten. *At the end of the day it is YOUR (or YOUR TEAM'S) story, write and end the story how YOU (or YOUR TEAM) want to!*

[@funninoriginal6054]

Why did you censor the word "crap"?

[@-libertyprimev1-902]

@@funninoriginal6054 force of habit from all the shitty mute flags so many social media sites have nowadays...

[@newbienoah9461]

@@funninoriginal6054 KZbin gets funny with the comments if you include something it considers profanity

[@sonicmastersword8080]

Fallout 3's and Fallout New Vegas's world structure is best explained with how American cities developed. On the East coast, all the metropolitan areas are compact and closely spaced together. As you head West, the influence of industrialization, notably the automobile, steamship, and steam engine/later diesel, become ever more apparent in that the cities are now more gridded in structure and the whole is more spaced out. This is especially true with the municipalities that dot the West Coast. There is some compaction, but most of it is sprawled out over larger regions due to the automobile becoming a staple of American life during these cities boom years, especially post World War II. This is part of the reason why Fallout II has the Highwayman. It takes place over the majority of California, with a decent portion actually being empty landscape. Traversing the post-nuclear apocalypse within these regions as they are now would be miles of emptiness with occasional nuclei of manmade structures and establishments.

[@taavikaivos2352]

After 10h workday getting a new ramblelime video sure feels nice

[@scottski02]

I must have played this mod years ago when it first dropped. I still fondly remember the breakneck pace of the escape from the Vault, to the confrontation with the raiders, and then the mass battle. As 2D as the companions could be at times, I was still invested in keeping them alive through the gauntlet of raiders and battle setpieces. There were so many interactions between them I was interested to see how their relationships with each other and the player would progress through the whole mod. Then the pacing grinds to screeching halt once you make it to the city, and I eventually stopped playing halfway through because of how empty the world map was. It all makes sense now learning that the first act was completed years before the full release.

[@MartinPurvis]

That was a very enjoyable watch, thanks for the kind words! 🙌🙌🙌

[@idontknowshark]

Glad to see you branching out! I love it when twitch streamers make youtube videos.

[@blowedup3207]

Awesome approach to coverage. Thanks for fair work.

[@xt43]

Have you ever considered covering the Fallout 3 mod Mothership Zeta Crew? That mod, its story beats, and the saga of its development feels like such an "of that era" time capsule of ambition and potential that I still look back on fondly, for all its flaws. Could be juicy stuff to get your teeth into for a video lol

[@nagger8216]

I'd love a review about MZC, even when I was mainly modding New Vegas I knew I had to play it. As you said, it was definitely "of the time." I remember it being *the* mod for Fallout 3

[@yuza1032]

It's so cool that there's someone making actual reviews and analysis of Fallout and Elder Scrolls mods. I like watching Let's Plays of them and have played them ever since I bought New Vegas over a decade ago but not many dived too deep into the actual game and narrative design behind them and given me ideas to think about walking away.

[@Just_Another_Gravemind]

You can't imagine the absolutely ecstatic joy I have to see you upload!!!!!!!!!! :D

[@mateusz73]

Being able to launch the cruise missile on the highway battle was cool

[@IxodesPersulcatus]

The Enclave ending's got big "sperm cell swimming towards the egg montage" energy

[@Marcelelias11]

21:32 Well, I might be a *bit* biased as a Musou fan, but I think that increasing the amount of enemies is a good thing, and something all games should do (as long as the performance doesn't suffer)

[@coreytindall3025]

I followed the mod on Facebook and by the time of release they just seemed done with it and wanted to move on to other things. Sad to see how it went down but i still play it from time to time and hope other mod authors and projects can learn from it.

[@deitus1375]

Well whatever you think about the mod we must all agree that the whistling song in the intro movie is absolutely perfect.

[@mossy3565]

The vault section is great, so great in fact that the whole mod is worth a try just for that.

[@egghamilton7205]

33:48 I like how every single time this is done, even by Obsidian, its just a pale imitation to the choice planned for the end of Fallout: Van Buren. In that game, the entire plot revolved around stopping these nuclear missiles while also trying to cure the New Plague. What made the choice more compelling than, say, "Bull or Bear", was that you could not stop at least one missile. You HAD to choose where this thing was going to end up, and most of your targets would be disastrous for the already unstable wasteland youve been playing in so far. Tl;dr Van Buren's original nukes idea already presented a solid moral dilemma and every other attempt at it kind of misses the point by reading WAY too into it

[@ryokutraining9430]

I really enjoy that you talked about the themes of the mod

[@FridoBiggins]

Finally, i've been waiting since your frontier review for this 😘

[@dnz_mafoo]

loved every minute man keep doin what youve been doin

[@TheCHEF1911]

It's funny that you say that the mod peaks in the vault. I felt exactly the same way, and now I know why. Great analysis.

[@a.o.skurtt]

i just let out an audible "OOOOO!" when i saw a new video by you and on this subject. thanks!

[@Lyriam87]

Awesome video! ...and actually i liked the endings too, and also the fact that the story goes on even if you make a mess (and i did, in my first playtrough) I had to install a mod to clear all the perks that this mod gives, when you start the actual game, to make a proper respec... and i really hated the various checks on SPECIAL attributes instead of skills

[@megalobsterface3552]

i am someone who did the raider questline first. I remember actually really liking Kira out of all the companions that the very start of the mod presented, and she said she wanted to stay away from the NCR town and go attack the raiders because they might know where her parent s are or something. Doing that makes it so she gets kidnapped and the raider boss uses her life as leverage to get you to do what he wants. And then the mod forgets that motivation and all the NPCs in the game treat you as if you're doing raider shit of your own free will and you are actively choosing to hurt them specifically. You never get to see Kira again, finishing the raider questline has her dying off screen and your character not caring. You can try to free her on your own, but she's in the center of the raider base and every raider instantly turns hostile the second you even look at the cage she's in, and I don't really think she has anything unique to say even if you do end up doing that. Then I somehow ended up siding with the Shi??? I don't remember ever interacting with them up to the point they were helping me in that final quest, and the randomly japanese woman was my second in command for the ending slides, where the game says I was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Caeser's Legion. Fun mod, 0/10.

[@Ajarylee-qh9ln]

That matches my experience... I don't really remember why I liked Kira, or really much about her, but I did, and I guess that's why I got captured by raiders. I didn't know until now that it was possible to avoid that. I didn't progress past the raider camp though, because I chose to rescue her, and everyone turned hostile. I actually didn't mind that - it was a tough fight, but not an unwinnable one. However, it turned the game into a slideshow and I couldn't keep playing because of that.

[@ItCBitC]

I remember trying to play this when it first came out and stopping after the bridge fight because I would crash every 10 minutes, on the dot. It was a clean install, no other mods. I told myself I'd give it a shot when they patched it, but I got spoiled big time by a friend and after hearing the stuff he was saying, didn't want to continue. He also kept saying the things you did: Unfinished.

[@zozocecp]

I played without mods, more specifically, without the running mod. I refused to go with the super mutants at fort daggerpoint, siding with NCR. Yeah, after that the whole area is overrun with super mutants and you have to run away. They never stop spawning, you couldn’t kill enough to open a path for even a minute. Only way I could even get through it was by walking on top of objects where I couldn’t be reached and hoping my companions could live long enough to get as many off me as possible. Oh yeah, you have to do this TWICE. Once running away, and once GOING BACK. Not to mention super mutant hordes will keep spawning on the map after that. It was literal hell without being able to run. Don’t know how I got myself to actually get to the end.

[@thehomie6059]

martin purvis literally wrote nothing but bangers and needs mroe recognition

[@KaisaWitchFromHilda]

Hey ramblelime, love the quest mod reviews you do, but at some point will you review the quest mod called Autumn Leaves? It'll be a nice change of pace with the two huge content DLC-sized mods you did reviews on

[@Name74906]

The prologue is honestly some of my favorite modded content for New Vegas, it's a shame it never truly reached its full potential. I played and replayed the beta prologue before the full mod came out over and over, doing every choice, finding every secret, and working through the "ideal" route to get the most perks, stats, loot, and companions. (Which I think was literally everything if you build your character in a specific way.)

[@doctorcorvus1319]

I actually like how fanfictiony this mode is as it make me take it *seriously* and *not seriously* at the same time, but also makes me think about what the developers and creators wanted to tell their own story in a unique way in this universe, as in my personal opinion, people who do fan made things or write fanfiction have a general understanding or genuinely love the series they write about, it’s why I look past the flaws of the mod and story. People put their love into it and I’m not going to bash them on it. Just because something isn’t polished or plays right doesn't mean it can tell you a interesting story.

[@chickencurry420]

I think the hate for the Courier ending comes from the fact that it tries to establish a direct and "canonical" tie to the base game. All the other endings involve So-and-So going this way and becoming Caesar's Legion now there's more Legion dude. Such-and-Such went that way and did a thing, now there's eyebots roaming around and the NCR sets its sights on the Hoover Dam. It's all trying to tie the story directly Fallout NV's story. Your character went to New Vegas and got his fuckin block knocked off, here's our lore to explain why the Courier survives and NV can happen. But the problem is they established things about the Player Character that should generally be up to the player to decide in an RPG like NV. But to play Devil's Advocate, you kind of already were playing a NV prequel so you already "are" that character in a sense. Then NV begins proper and you're still you as you play through the "end"game. At the end of the day, RPG fans typically don't like be definitely told who they are, they we like to decide for themselves. I agree with you that a blank slate can feel impersonal (See: Halo ODST or GTA Online) but part of the fun of roleplaying is knowing that your character's personality, motives, etc. all exist in your own head. And you can still tie a story element to your blank slate Player Character and have it work (See Jade Empire or any TTRPG ever). This mod tries to tie WAY too much to a Player Character that was designed to be a blank slate.

[@nexus3756]

one of my top rated and favorite conversion mods. Loved everything about it including the flaws. and people seriously said this was "bad"... well.... at least it is getting justice with the frontier...

[@zaphero5518]

Dang I really hope you check out the Molerat companion mod if you love playing with making the Courier a more set character. He looks like the best companion possible with excellent everything and he was your sidekick before you got shot in the head and lost your memory! He's right there in Goodsprings waiting for you to get better! I def want to use that next New Vegas playthrough!

[@shushupyounaughtyminx4832]

It would be cool to see you cover more Fallout 3 mods. There are so many talking about New Vegas that I feel the modders who make great stuff for 3 are often forgotten.

[@nagger8216]

Most of Fallout 3's modding scene was basically hijacked by New Vegas and Tales of Two Wastelands, a total conversion mod that ports Fallout 3 into New Vegas, so it gets all the benefits NV added along with the engine upgrades modders have made to it over the years. Most modern Fallout 3 mods are through TTW, but it's not as popular as vanilla Fallout 3, unfortunately. So a lot of that stuff gets overshadowed when people visit the Fallout 3 Nexus and see it's basically dead. But no, it's still very much alive with TTW, and there's A LOT of patches for New Vegas mods to carry over anything they add into the Capital Wasteland. I even remember one mod that overhauled a lot of the characters and unique weapons that was exclusive to TTW for awhile that was eventually ported over to base Fallout 3, but there's probably tons more that aren't being ported over. They also port a lot of mods from base Fallout 3 too, and plenty of tutorials to teach others as well

[@adeadarcadia]

I remember doing two playthroughs of this at the launch and the update: playing through this felt like misremembering the present moment

[@randomguyblank1616]

Hey since you reviewed a fair bit of Fallout mods, which one would you say if your favorite so far?

[@boltfantasticated9705]

I liked this mod, it's probably one of the few mods that were successful that were of this scale.

[@orangeishjuice8374]

There was so much I loved about the mod. I really wish it was fully fleshed out. I remember when you first left the vault and if you have Johnny as a companion he goes into a coma from withdrawal and you have to scavenge a clinic to find medicine in a specific amount of time before he died. And the fact that you can find the companions after the main story in the Mojave. I really wish it would have been more fleshed out

[@zennim125]

i only played it after it was finished, i already knew it was prequel to new vegas and i played it like that and did the california ending and helped everyone to get along i really loved the slow build up of lvls, how you are not meant to get overpowered even after the end because you are meant to transition to vegas i don't remember much about the ending, only that it was perfectly serviceable as a transition, i wasn't expecting a grandiose ending where my character retired as a king or anything, it was fine

[@genericusername9934]

Hey ramble, I’m not sure if you read comments at all but I just want to say I love your channel! Honestly my favorite fallout KZbinr next to warlockracy

[@mecca6801]

This mod had so much potential, it's amazing that the team didnt get hired and this was made cannon!

[@ajflink]

Rock was banned pre-War in Fallout?! That's pure evil!

[@ThomasSpettel]

a great mod, wished there was more enclave theme stuff and quests

[@scarecrow2097]

It's nice to see am not the only one who had no problem with the star player being the courier xD

[@justin9744]

He laughs at the super mutants going to space but the ghouls did it in Come Fly With Me and that’s one of the best quest lines.

[@evanallen5377]

I appreciate the credits music, clever

[@purpleblah2]

New California kind of lives in the shadow of Project Brazil, where the game was much more focused and condensed. I was looking forward to the full Project Brazil, but once you step out of that vault, it feels too wide open, like there's too much to do, and too much ground to cover, and the full mod ends up similarly spread too thin. It also feels like the Vault Companions could've been condensed into like, 3 or less human characters. It's cool recruiting a bunch of characters, but once you get to the initial safehouse, you're like: "What am I gonna do with all these guys?". You could have the nerdy purple haired e-girl GF, (Kira my beloved) the edgy tribal kid who doesn't fit in with the other jocks (Ben, Eric, and Johnny), and the popular girl with a heart of gold (Jamie and Jenn), also just a robot dog is fine, you don't need a hulking death machine coming out of the Vault. Also, they could've had Wastelander companions too. There are so many interesting factions and characters who could have unique points of view, but as far as I can tell, you don't get any permanent companions after leaving the vault. You could carry on the grand Fallout tradition of recruiting the first random guy you meet in a bar. When they all get kidnapped in the raider route, I was like "do I really have to rescue them?" Also the whole end-game is just you saying "...what?" over and over. ALSO, the NCR re-invented the internet and they didn't DO ANYTHING WITH THAT besides the dating site chatroom? Also it's kinda weird the Shi in the mod are Japanese and not Chinese, it makes me feel like one of the mods was a huge weeb who also somehow thinks all East Asians are the same.

[@AlChestBreachFan7]

I promise I’ll be back after I finish Noah Gervais’ 9 hour fallout retrospective ❤

[@gotterdammerung5527]

I'll last played this mod 3 years ago. Did they ever add anything else to it? I liked how once you completed the quest your childhood friends followed you back home to Vegas. Always wondered if they added anything else

[@TheRedMeerkat1]

Using the theme from Brazil in the credits is genuinely genius

[@Yuyo545]

It's been so long since i played this/the project brazil beta that the somg actually gave me nostalgia

[@atomic_bomba]

11:35 This whole conversation was super weird but fitting given the vaults... situation.

[@Sillybutts]

Excellent video

[@harz632]

You don't have to actually pass Braggs checks or be locked out, if you fail to impress him he still sends you to his sister where with high charisma and intelligence you can get her approval and that makes Bragg warm up to you.

[@malbasedvalentine3210]

Wait a minute…the courier isn’t technically a blank slate at all. Ulysses pretty much made that very clear with your character being the cause of Hopeville’s destruction. You’re even nicknamed *courier six,* which completely destroys any semblance of a blank slate if you were to ever try to deviate from the courier route with any mod. I think my biggest problem is how absurdist it all is. You being apart of both game events, and end up becoming the character you play in another game who happens to have superhuman abilities. I think it certainly could have worked if they didn’t step into a shit storm by also including fallout 1 and you being a clone. Because as you said, it found out that you aren’t one, but most will already checkout immediately when one key character is saying the opposite with complete confidence. It will certainly leave a sour taste in my mouth when I play New Vegas after New California, when they really couldn’t just remained more grounded you just been the average person who became someone when you joined the enclave…

[@ryanjamesbaldock5370]

Are we ever going to see autumn leaves 🍁 👍?

[@loganberlew3191]

I always do the New California -> New Vegas playthrough, I RP as a Starr Player who joins the Desert Rangers after NC and ultimately become a Courier after the ranger treaty, then I run through the Someguy2000 series

[@DanielTheGamer100]

I loved this I played it a few months ago the locations the enemies new stuff it was cool as hell

[@2midgetsinatrenchcoat454]

I actually really like the fact that this mod leads into the beginning of New Vegas, And I'm of the opinion that if it were a more well-received mod people in general would not have nearly as big of a problem with that fact. It's cool to be able to sit around and dream up a possible back story for your courier, But it's also cool to be able to play a multi-tens of hours long backstory if you so choose.

[@MannyJazzcats]

He's back,for real 🙌

[@ripHalo0002]

you're going to Brazil!

[@Pigness7]

I do like the lore explanation of the prewar government banning rock and punk and metal but the music still isn't fitting, I'd prefer if it was more like black sabbath or older metal, that feels a little bit more fitting with the fallout aesthetic.

[@gloomyjz]

14:56 I need to know what mods for the visuals bro please

[@38procentkrytyk]

34:00 Huh! Never expected to say it but... Broken Steel for Fallout 3 has the best choice out of those examples because you nuke actual place in the game. I know this is shallow "kill good" or "kill evil" but while other examples bring some light to life philosophies; Frontier changes dialogues to the mod which is slowly ending, Brazil leads to endings and those always end with you being a Courier (except genocide) and finally Lonesome Road... you just unlock new dungeons which is far cry from morality choice game expects you to make.

[@Andrewbaysura1]

I really wish they didn't abandon the mod... I played it several times and honestly liked it. There is SO much potential and honesty I would be happy if they got everyone, or at least some of the people who worked on it to finish the mod, add more character and life to the companions, etc.

[@snokey1153]

You are exactly right 35:45, I love maxson in 4