Fallout The Frontier: Unraveling New Vegas' Biggest, Messiest, Strangest Megamod

You've heard a lot of things about Fallout: the Frontier. Now that the dust has settled, let's see what's really going on in the frozen wasteland of post-nuclear Portland, Oregon.
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timestamps:
0:01-5:55 Intro
5:55-10:35 Technicals and Aesthetics
10:35-14:55 Mechanics
14:55-16:31 Companions
16:31-56:17 NCR Campaign
56:17-1:01:13 NCR Side Quests
1:01:13-1:14:37 Northern Legion
1:14:37-1:28:08 Brotherhood Crusaders
1:28:08-1:30:25 Conclusion
Music from: Fallout 1 ,2, 4, New Vegas, and the Frontier, ending song is the instrumental for Brazil by Maria Muldaur
Three Dog footage stolen from ShoddyCast: • The Storyteller: FALLO...
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/ discord
Thank you for watching :D

[@SarahImperial]

Former Frontier project lead here. I took over the rework after tgspy stepped down from the position for a myriad of personal reasons (understandable, considering the death threats and stress and what not). To be quite honest, when I saw this video in my recommended tab, I was very hesitant to click it as I've distanced myself hard from the Fallout fandom for the past year, but curiosity overcame me and I came away from this pleasantly surprised Funny story, so, the way I joined the Frontier was I was actually someone who came in after the mod had been fully released and lambasted by the community with criticism and controversy and I wanted to see for myself if the stories about the devs were actually warranted, and I eventually stayed on because I saw the potential in the project and I wanted to help fix it. First job they gave me as a glorified intern was to transcribe the entirety of the NCR MQ and the side quests, with two other people working on the Legion MQ and Crusaders MQ respectively for ease of comparison, consistency checking, figuring out how everything connected, etc. - that eventually became me doing the whole damned mod since the other two either didn't do their job or got kicked off for reasons I don't remember or want to recall, which kinda led to me being the person people would turn to for questions about the Frontier's lore, writing, places, characters, etc. Even more so considering the extremely messy history of how the Frontier was written in the first place (lots of poor communication in the past) so I knew how every piece fit together better than the writers did (though, obviously the writers knew more about their own stuff than me, I'm talking about as a whole). That also meant I was painfully aware of the faults in the Frontier (helped by the fact I actively went out and sought all the criticism for the project I could to lay a solid foundation for fixing the mod) and I've always been the kind of person who wanted to fix things for other people, even to my own detriment, so I ended up becoming more and more involved in the project, more than I had ever planned to. A lot of it was right place, right time, but I eventually became one of the heads of department on the team and when TG mentioned that he was going to leave the team, he appointed me to be the project lead. With so much riding on the project and a lot of people putting their all into the rework, I felt pressured to take the role and I said yeah. Now, I've worked in leadership positions in video game projects before - I've had a long history in RPG Maker Games and Fire Emblem ROM hacking - but I had never worked on something of this size before, and I knew basically nothing about modding Fallout NV. TG was also our main coder and eventer, so we were down one of our most important pillars and myself coming in to replace the role was... inadequate, to put it bluntly. I didn't have nearly as much experience, both with leading a project this big or with modding Fallout NV, to compensate. After about a year, give or take a couple months, the stress eventually got to me and I left without saying a word publicly, though I did tell the heads of department about my increasing worries and anxieties regarding the project. I imagine some people resented that, I've definitely heard a few third-hand stories of how pissed some of the developers were, but I had to think about myself and my own mental health first over a position I really should have said no to. It's honestly a shame, really, because I still do truly believe in the potential the Frontier had. Hell, as I'm typing this, I still have three notebooks in my desk storage filled with ideas, concepts, notes and other shit I had put together. One of the big things we were planning to work on was making a more player-driven NCR questline where your actions and your relationships with people (tracked with a background "reputation" value, similar to the reputations in vanilla Fallout NV) helped decide how pliable some characters were to your suggestions or becoming close to you, even offering a couple pathways towards the ultimate goal of how Project Gungnir - the replacement for Archimedes II that served as both the kill-sat it was in the original mod as well as an ark of sorts that could revitalize the wasteland, similar to the GECK - would be used, or influencing some of the major characters like Blackthorne or Conrad (the replacement for Rancor) to overcome their past or changing opening their worldviews, kind of a narrow focused version of the "How should we rebuild civilization in a post-apocalyptic world?" question asked by Fallout NV. As someone who enjoys Fallout NV immensely, with over 5k hours on the game, I wanted to give players that freedom and influence that I felt was missing throughout the Frontier. As much as I had high ambitions for the mod, though, I also had to accept the limitations we as a dev team had. To be blunt, I was just not up to the task of leading the project, and the developers were all suffering from low morale - I wouldn't say the rework's death was inevitable, but it would have been a massive uphill battle, one that the dev team just wasn't going to be able to win easily. Honestly, with how messy the development of the mod was, I'm honestly surprised it came out, but even in spite of the glaring problems, I respect the absolute hell out of the developers who made the Frontier. I can't even describe how much blood, sweat, and tears were put into it and how much the good aspects of it shouldn't be overlooked just because of the controversy surrounding it, and I'm glad that there are people out there who do appreciate the Frontier for what it has to offer. I think Agent Fuse, Xilandro, Cellblock Psycho, and mac are still making Fallout NV mods, though I'm not 100% certain, it's been a while - if they or any of the other developers are still working on projects of their own, please check out their work, they absolutely deserve it; they're great at what they do and shouldn't have their whole portfolio dictated by them having worked on the Frontier. Sorry if this comment is a bit long-winded and rambly, been mulling with these thoughts for a while and I just kinda typed as they came to me, lmao

[@xvx_k1r1t0_xvxkillme7]

Surprise Surprise, the Fallout Fandom is filled with vitriol and Toxicity. Didnt surprise me as half the fanbase of Fallout hate the Modern World so much they would rather have an actual Nuclear War Happen.

[@eddie142]

This is some really neat and unique insight, Imperial. Thanks for sharing. I'm sure it must have been a roller coaster to put it nicely. But hey, can't build character without hardship, eh? It's a pity overall that Frontier is as deeply flawed as it is, but it's sheer size and amount of content(much of it still quite good) is nothing to sneeze at as it is an achievement on its own.

[@LiveseyKnight]

@@xvx_k1r1t0_xvxkillme7 every fandom has bad actors mr edgy, btw what's with the capitalization of modern world lol?

[@Snicketbar]

I actually tried to reach out to you guys when it was announced that there was going to be a rework. Not sure if I got the email wrong or if it was lost in the masses of messages that you were getting. Never got a reply back nor a notification that it didn't exist. So, I don't know what happened. Like you I was very vocal...or critical about how the mod turned out. I even wrote up a reworked concept that basically scrapped the Legion entirely and just made them the Scavs. It made no sense that they were there. (in my opinion anyway.) Since it seems like such a wasted concept to make them just well-equipped raiders/cannon fodder. Alone with the option to join them. I wrote a whole concept draft with a bunch more, but that's one of the ideas I had. But alas it doesn't matter anyway.

[@Snicketbar]

@@SarahImperial Well, that explains why I never heard back. I sent a message to an abandoned/invalid email address.

[@AndreasSelzer]

The biggest Red-Flag should have been the fact that it was set in Portland, Oregon.

[@crimsonpaladin7312]

I’d have to disagree, Portland is an excellent location to make a fallout game in, everybody there already looks like they’re living in the apocalypse 😂

[@andrewmeyer3599]

As an Oregonian, Portland is a cesspit

[@SirCheeseEater]

@@crimsonpaladin7312 I live right next to it. You're right. Everyone be tripping on that Jet-Psycho mix.

[@No0neat]

Does this means that Fallout: Miami is also a red flag since it's set in Florida? 🤔

[@Marcelelias11]

@@No0neat I'm not American, and never even stepped foot in America, so take this comment with a grain of salt, but from what I gather, Florida is a mess. But it's a funny mess. Portland, not so much.

[@Meta_Mage]

The entire NCR campaign felt like a modder flexing his insane tech skills making these sequences possible in this horrible engine. A real waste of talent.

[@LeriHunter]

horrible engine and actual lack of creativity, which is ironic for a self-professed "kojima fan" "Hey, this is the same moment as Wolfenstein/Call of Duty/Red Dead Redemption/XXX/That Garry's mod jumpscare map" shouldn't be the norm for a mod. One event is a tribute. Twenty is just plagiarism.

[@newstages95ay87]

​@Ben RNG Clearly they've never owned an airfryer to can this shit and redo it

[@muchossaugus9927]

Flexing his skills? Maybe, thing is, all this stuff is quite broken and crashes quite a lot so I doubt its skills. More of a lack of knowledge and not knowing the engines limits.

[@Nixdigo]

I want to point out writing is a skill and it isn't a common one. It takes someone truly great to be able to do both write and game design. A game can have good writing and be a bad game a good game can have really bad writing.

[@mortemtyrannus8813]

@@LeriHunter The exact, word for word moment, in some cases. The Wolfenstein one being the biggest example. Literally just copied the scene in it's entirety from The New Order. Even if twenty events weren't plagiarism (they are, like you said, I'm not disputing that), this one event alone was definitely a case of plagiarism.

[@witchboy44]

The only character I can accept calling you “courier” or “the courier” is Ulysses Edit: After all the replies and comments I think though my point is a little weak saying that Ulysses is the only character that should call you “courier” I’ve formed a new opinion, that FONV’s NPCs calling you courier or a courier makes in world sense and it doesn’t feel like it’s unnatural or that your some godlike hero, whereas in the frontier it totally does, I’d like to thank the people who replied to this comment, it’s given me more insight to my issue with that in the frontier

[@soap9277]

I haven't played the mod, but I've seen other videos covering it. Every time some NPC was like "woah, are you THE legendary courier," it made me want to rupture my eardrums. They say it so often, it's not even funny after a while. It gives me flashbacks to MGSV where everyone would call me "Boss" Every few seconds while I walked around Mother Base, but it's at least understandable for that game. In The Frontier, you could hypothetically walk in having done none of the quests from the base game, and everyone would still be like "wowee, Mr. Courier, sir, could you sign my nipples? My daughter back in California is a big fan, could you also sign this irradiated teddy bear I found so I can send it to her?"

[@witchboy44]

@@soap9277 the last point is super true, especially since the mod can let you jump to level 20 and you don’t even have to bother doing anything else

[@soap9277]

@@witchboy44 It's just insane to me. I understand the angle they wanted to go with, but it didn't work out well in execution.

[@BrotherMag]

​@Soap the original untouched mod exists out there somewhere but the driving on ncr quest drove me crazy😅 The npc yelling (witness me!) Was so funny

[@AJadedLizard]

Well, and House, and the dude you work for in Primm.

[@kingchirpa]

Honestly the best thing about this mod that no one talked about was the world itself. The cars you could find scattered around the world combined with the fact that you could drive through the entire city without a single loading screen really gave me the scale of what a post-apocalyptic city should look like.

[@utes5532]

The fact that the map isn't really designed to be driven around kills me though. So many streets are blocked or obstructed by rubble and car wrecks. The car's jump mechanic can help you deal with these, but it's pretty clear that the world designers didn't really take cars being a valid and smooth way of traveling into account a lot of the time. Not to say the cars are unusable, but ironically if you cheat a car into the Mojave, you have a much better time what with the less obstructed desert areas and even a lot of the roads aren't that clogged by car wrecks or other props.

[@nilascolas9357]

​@@utes5532 what made it sucky for me is that there was only one bridge to get across the giant river. I guess it might be realistic but still, made it annoying

[@chrisdiokno5600]

Yeah, the driving system was dope

[@bjorntrollgesicht1144]

Word. And a lot of the side quests were in fact well written and engaging. It's the NCR quest and the creep stuff that got past the QA messed the whole thing up.

[@Akabans999]

Plenty of people talked about drivable cars and tanks and mods large open areas its just that evrbody were more intrested in drama about perevert and mod team lashing out followed by harping on abot NCR story line and all its balant rip offs.

[@happymartin6778]

Last i checked, the reason the NCR questline was as it was, is because the writer was a huge Kojima fanatic, dubbing himself a "Disciple of Kojima". Also he formed the main backbone to all the scripting to the whole mod, Cars included, especially the cars, and while the other team members didn't LIKE him because he was a dick, they HAD to put up with his shenanigan's because him leaving means taking all of his scripting with him. And then they just all blamed the furry anyway because it was easy.

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

The drama and the blame game that followed the backlash 100% amplified the backlash for sure. The complaints I see about how the backlash buries the mod's pros is honeslty because for several months the drama around the creative team just WOULD NOT DIE and this combo'd with people pointing and laughing at the cringier side content in it like the snakemen who can't even snake speak properly def buried pros. Add in a dash of misinformation like people who were trying to say America's feet had more polies than 2B's backside didn't help.

[@radiofloyd2359]

Ok no, you're getting a couple things wrong. NCR guy was (by all accounts known) a dick, and he was a dumb huge Kojima fan. Cars guy (at least the guy that made the good cars) was Xilandro, and he's the guy also developing B42 and inshallah a cars standalone mod eventually. The furry guy was ousted from the team because he was into fictional pedophilia. He was never blamed for any content he didn't make, but he did end up becoming headlines because of how fucked it was to have there be a possible literal pedo working on the mod at some point. Rikku always said that it was him who made the horny lizard gang and the deathclaw encounter and Odin also owned up to the fucky America slave line. I never saw anyone from within The Frontier devteam try to blame the pedo furry for anything he didn't make (which is first and foremost icons).

[@RusHeretic]

I will always blame the furry. Whatever it is hard or easy, furries are always to blame.

[@LonelySpaceDetective]

oh my god wasn't the hunt down the freeman guy a kojima fanboy too this is too perfect

[@Xilandro]

You just mixed 3 different people into one, so last you checked - you didn't check at all. Dude responsible for NCR was one guy. That's the one who was extremely toxic and bullied whole team to do things his way. Dude who called himself disciple of kojima was another, although they both were kinda dumb that way. And dude who made cars - that'd be me, and I was one of the devs who went blind through the whole thing busy with actually working on the thing I was supposed to work. As for "blamed the furry anyway" - not the team. But when we tried to explain to yall, no one listened. So, dude, check your info, cuz you're part of the problem, spreading inane bs.

[@FelipeJaquez]

"I want to have drivable vehicles in Fallout: New Vegas!" The Monkey Paw curls one finger in response.

[@sora.7973]

Yeah! Dude, all I wanted was that one mod that allows you to fix the broken car near the Novac Highway then it said it needed "thefrontier.esm" now I'm stuck in this rabbit hole.

[@jackgrove4621]

not really. The vehicles mechanics were done to perfection.

[@windex9248]

⁠@@jackgrove4621I think the comment was in regard to the mod itself being what it is and not necessarily the vehicles mechanics

[@chadhardt6136]

@@jackgrove4621 the whole idea of a monkey paw is to give what you wished for in a counter-productive or overall awful way. the vehicles are perfect, its about the shit around the vehicles

[@Calbeck]

Still funny how the one dev who DIDN'T put porn in the game was the one the dev "outed" for unrelated stuff elsewhere on the Internet and then took down the mod to remove HIS perfectly fine content but NOT any of the stuff everyone was having issues with.

[@LordCooler101]

That is the one thing more than anything that I will continue to hold against the Frontier dev team. They literally threw one of their own people under the bus to try and shift blame when that Zoo guy unironically did nothing wrong. It was just easy to blame the furry for all the fetish stuff when the guy as far as anyone knows wasn't actually responsible for any of it just puts a really bad taste in my mouth and it does not say positive things about the Frontier dev team.

[@Thesavagesouls]

Yeah I still can't believe they got away doing that. Still I think the frontier was important to highlight the degeneracy of theses modding communities.

[@Hero0451]

⁠I know at least one or two people were decent but by fucking hell the majority are shitty people that should possibly never go into the game industry again. This mod is a showcase why

[@SuperRPGgamer]

Oh nice to see you here

[@juliet4093]

god this mod was marketed as a lore friendly experience lmao

[@originalname4701]

It may not be lore friendly but it's..an experience alright

[@Robsonski96]

It's not even lore-unfriendly... It's lore-HATEFUL.

[@SqualidsargeStudios]

I mean if you see who was the lead that made all the decisions for it, it would all make sense.

[@Robsonski96]

@@SqualidsargeStudios You're talking about ZuTheSkunk or whatever his name is? You DO realize that he's not responsible for all these controversial things in this mod. Yeah, he's a sick pervert but he created his creepy shit OUTSIDE of the mod. He was just thrown under the bus by the rest of the devs when they needed a patsy. It wasn't him, it was them.

[@oldylad]

@@Robsonski96 yeah i dont think people get that the weird shit got in to the mod and nobody else said no to it. I felt like it was obvious that he was a patsy and it was more or less an accepted thing that none of them stopped lmao

[@anthonymack8076]

Hey! I worked with my friends on the folk radio. We are all folk artists in north georgia and Im so happy that yall liked the music!

[@ramblelime]

Phenomenal work!

[@bepisbump]

You are legends

[@matthewtorres1473]

Hey dude, is there anywhere to find more of your music? I don’t see any links in your channel deets

[@anthonymack8076]

@@matthewtorres1473 The album is called “highland echoes of the appalachian mountains” by north georgia piper!

[@funnyperson7656]

Loved the music, anywhere i can find it?

[@acarter9806]

It's kinda odd how there was the whole big stink about not wanting to humanize the Enclave when the mod then proceeds to humanize the Legion and in doing so makes a far better story out of it than the one which refused to delve into the bad guys. It definitely feels like there's just different disconnected groups of people with varying levels of skill that worked on this mod and rarely if ever talked to each other.

[@Ghoster7564]

@user-ys9sg2wm5b are you trying to joke or are you just being stupid i cant tell

[@SefirothPH]

It was probably a post-hoc justification for not wanting to create a campaign for yet another faction

[@ScourJful]

I think another bad thing about this mod is it doesn't follow up on New Vegas' writing or what the writers set out. It takes a surface level idea of what they think NV is and runs with it. Case in point, humanizing the Legion when they were supposed to represent the sheer evil of humanity. The writers of NV even stated that the Legion is supposed to be evil, because the only good they have is that there is no crime, but that comes with the caveat that the criminals are the ones in charge. Hard to have crime when the government is creating slaves, murdering towns, etc. And it's supposed to be commentary about how shallow people with shallow understanding or empathy would willingly accept sexism, slavery, genocide, torture, dictatorship, and extreme cruelty for things like less crime instead of addressing the core issues as to why crime exists. The Legion kinda acts like a filter to catch people who fail to understand that. The people who unironically defend the Legion are the exact people the writers of New Vegas are laughing at and trying to make look dumb. This long diatribe just to say that aiming to humanize a faction that was specifically created to show a faction without any humanity is a sign of poorly understanding the game in the first place. Granted, this is the same mod with the under age sex slave so yeah, it checks out.

[@jonahulichny9874]

@@SefirothPH if that’s the case then the should have just said “we have enough on our plate as is” and left it that.

[@SefirothPH]

@jonahulichny9874 They should have but we know from other interactions that they have, or at least the lead guy has an ego problem

[@GG_Nowa]

This mod feels like different people all had different ideas for the group's writing and it's stiched together by being under the same mod

[@Valcuda]

It's 3 story mods in a trenchcoat

[@obsidiancrow450]

because it literally is. Even slaves harbor (arguably the best quest in the frontier) was made super early in development then that guy left.

[@zhengwenyu1587]

Sounds like a Frankenstein's Monster moment, combining all the best parts of a human turned into an abomination

[@Chadnvaldr]

judging by the pinned comment from one of the devs... yeah it pretty much was like that

[@UltimateGamerCC]

that's because people came and left the project, picked up and continued by whoever wanted to help, even if it was destined to be a hot mess, they just wanted to get it out and not let everyone's sacrifice be for naught.

[@JayTohab]

Management is an underrated role, and I feel like Frontier is a strong example of why mods can't fully replace new games yet. Producers and managers are often seen as antithetical to creative freedom, but good ones are critical to the quality of large-scale projects.

[@vladibalan]

In terms of results: a well managed team >> competent individual >> unmanaged gathering of humans.

[@JayTohab]

@@vladibalan That's a good way of putting it, yes.

[@landlockedcroat1554]

i introduce stalker anomaly

[@RepentInReprise]

I'm a manager at Walmart, and one good quote that one of my mentors told me is that management is like babysitting, but for adults. Lol

[@yunuss58]

Enderal is the only exception I know of

[@Wolf-E_VA]

i still remembering auditioning for a role as one of the wolf pack when it was still in development, honestly when i didnt get the role i thought i missed out on the role of a lifetime, but tbh after the whole mess that was the launch and the lizard people i honestly am really glad i had nothing to do with the mod mostly because of the controversy its a shame really because there are some actual real good parts of the mod and you can tell it had heart, it was a real death by 1000 cuts ignoring the horny lizard cult

[@BlastingBigLoads2]

YOOOO SAME. I was down but didn't let it get to me. Now with all this I'm glad i didn't get the role

[@alexanderrahl7034]

It's probably good for your VA career, not to have anything to do with this lol

[@ajflink]

A blessing in disguise.

[@ashwolf2006]

Good thing you didn't get picked since the wolfpack was a wasted potential, since some idiot thought it was a bright idea to kill them off early

[@moodyowlproductions4287]

Legate Valerius"you think this is a game...don't you"(the courier brake the 4th wall and looks at the players)

[@vinegar3617]

What baffles me is how the Enclave Space Station is only Act 3 out of 5. That's like the perfect setup for endgame, the entire mod could have been formed around that premise. It could start with simple NCR vs. Legion skirmishes, but as you travel the world you see more and more androids and strange mutant experiments roaming around fallen space cannisters and you eventually learn that Enclave remnants are planning to use a pre-war satellite superweapon to rebuild their forces. You could get the help of the Brotherhood of Steel chapter who want to occupy the station because they're the Brotherhood and that's their MO, and travel to a discontinued REPCONN test site to board a set of rockets in order to reach the station. The entire final arc of the story involves the NCR Exiles and the Brotherood of Steel fighting against the Enclave for control of the satellite, with no sort of horror and many dialog and skill options sprinkled in between (convince an Enclave platoon to help you, a la Sergeant Granite), and at the end, you get the choice to purge Portland of either the NCR, the Legion, the Brotherhood, or all of them. Either that, or you can choose to destroy the station to prevent anybody from using it. I feel like the Enclave Space Station could be a natural evolution to the Oil Rig and the original plan for Van Buren WAS that the Enclave go to space but it's amazing to me how squandered that opportunity is.

[@azeria1]

And they are theory's that the enclave are in space so it's still lore friendly

[@housewilma4904]

plus the station does exist in lore its the archimedes satlite source of the range finder energey beam. the mod just decided to make it a station like B.O.M.B also had but then just turned the thing into a wolfenstien cod mash up instead of FALLOUT. if they wanted horror they could even have a outbreak of dunwhich monsters from a corpse the enclave found on the moon.

[@Donnerbalken28]

Thing is, it could make sense from a pure screenplay perspective, in a Shakespear or classically theatrical script, which is composed from 5 acts (Introduction, climb, climax, rebounding moment, ending) instead of 3 acts (Introduction, climb, climax and ending), like most hollywood movies and video games are. To give an example what i mean: Macbeth has 5 acts. The first act introduces us to Macbeth, the witches prophecy and King Duncan. The second introduces Lady Macbeth and her attempts to push Macbeth to murder King Duncan. Then: The climax in the third act: Duncan is murdered, along with all opposition, Macbeth is crowned King. Act 4 continues by giving us an outline on how Macbeth rules Scotland (very shitty) and gives us a rebounding moment when Macduff enters the scene and Macbeth has his entire family killed. Macduff swears vengeance while Macbeth becomes increasingly convinced that he is undefeatable and Lady Macbeth starts to regret her actions. Act 5 then: The Prophecy of the witches comes to fruition: The wood of Birnam comes to his doorstep (by a combined force of English and Scots disguising themselves to lay siege to Macbeths castle) and Macbuff drops the hot sidefact that, while Macbeth cannot be slain by one of women born, Macduff was brought into the world via C-Section (Tell the Angel whom'st thou still has served - Macduff was from his mothers womb untimely ripped) and gets Macbeth killed. The story ends. What was my point with this, my vain flexing of my (actually fairly boiler plate) literary knowledge aside? They seemed to have made the decision to go with a 5 act structure for the NCR story, and in that context it absolutely makes sense to place the big centerpiece right in the middle of the story. The problem stems more from that the conflicts of the remaining 2 acts had nothing to do with the other three and probably was just an attempt by one of the lead writers to make himself look smarter as he is. As you rightfully point out, a 3 act structure would have made for a much better story. Pushing the rest into sidequest territory would have been more than enough.

[@thebreadbringer9522]

They shouldn't have involved the Enclave at all. Having a whole space segment is just too over the top, even for Fallout. At least how it was done here.

[@housewilma4904]

@@thebreadbringer9522 uh mothership zeta had a full on capital ship space battle. the design of the outside of archimedes 2 or even the basic idea wasnt the problem the ANTI WRITING was.

[@Archon...]

Credit where credit is due, it was ambitious of them to include both stinky feet slave girls and lizard love in the same mod.

[@brysonkuervers2570]

Hey don’t discount lizard love, there’s a reason certain people have an…affinity for Deathclaw’s of all creatures..

[@Douchey_Elkmen]

@@brysonkuervers2570 don't forget the Geckos too

[@CalebHatesAfrikaans]

​@@Douchey_ElkmenOkay I knew about the deathclaws but the fucking geckos of all things

[@Echoe-14]

@@Douchey_ElkmenNot the Geckos maaaan

[@TheRealRusDaddy]

@@Douchey_Elkmen”mmmm mmmm then sexy ass geckos”

[@whitestarlinegoodnight]

"Fallout is a JRPG now" is a pretty good succinct description of this mod

[@pancholopez8829]

Which minute mark is that again? Please tell me! Edit: Found it! 41:00 to 41:12

[@thegreygoblin5165]

Yeah but I actually enjoy JRPGs

[@gyroownstheworld]

Every time I think about the story of the Frontier, I always see it as a story written by someone that thought New Vegas was about THEM, when in reality it's about the Mojave and its people, and how you interact with them

[@elmecaniconaranja1126]

Thats kind of the ideology behind protagonist in fallout i believe. The Vault Dweller probably destroys the biggest threath fallout universe will ever see, he gets 1% recognition, gets kicked of his home and goes to live in a tribal village until he dies, with a few hints he ever lived, same with the chosen one, the lone wanderer and the courier. Fallout aint about men, but they monuments they create, the biggest faction and strongest currently I would say, the ncr, was literally build by a girl the vault dweller rescued. I think this concept of protagonist is HEAVILY inspired by Mad max and how the story was never about him. Lmao I dont even think fallout 4 is a power fantasy like this mod is.

[@lego007guym8]

Perfect way to put Lovecraftian horror. That's why I've always loved the small Lovecraft stuff the Bethesda fallout games do; they tell you just enough to creep you out, but no where near enough to understand what's going on.

[@NinjaTyler]

That's a big part of what made early SCP stuff great, just enough to creep you out but not enough info to ruin the unknown. Later people tried too hard to make it overly mysterious to the point it was frustrating how little was explained or too much was explained instead ruining the unknown.

[@lego007guym8]

@@NinjaTyler Yeah, that's the kinda thing that originally drew me into SCP. Some of the later stuff had me stick around for a while (since I won't say no to some good sci-fi world building), but eventually if got to convoluted.

[@simple-commentator-not-rea7345]

You're actually praising Bethesda for doing very little? That's practically their entire memo

[@fuzzy7644]

It's funny you mention SCP since all I think about now is how it's basically for Furries now. smh. I do like when Bethesha do simple world building in their fallout games. In fact if there was one thing I would praise about Fallout 76 (which isn't a lot) is that when it came up it was super ballsie to release without npcs to talk to, it meant that any story that the game had was from people that were already dead or long gone which was honestly super interesting and in some ways sadders or even scarier.

[@housewilma4904]

heavily recommend the children of uq-qualthoth mod for fallout 4 if you like the lovecraftian plotlines it ties together the dunwhich threads from past games. from donwhich building of fallout 3 to the cult cave of 76 and the lost city the cabot patriarch got his alien crown from in 4. very well written very well designed the enemies are annoying though if you choose to let them spawn in the normal map.

[@cicero_21]

I was a QA tester during the final month of work on the rework. Lemme be honest with you. There’s a lot that isn’t told. There was no internal accountability on that team at all, and the dev chat constantly erupted into days-long drama and infighting. It was the first time I did stuff with FNV modding, and it is the last time. I, like Imperial, also distanced myself from that whole community due to what happened.

[@battenburg6089]

I worked on Fallout 4: Capital wasteland, Miami, and New Vegas, and that entire time in the back of my mind I thought "What if I join the Frontier? It looks awesome". Needless to say, from what I saw of the dev team, what they talked about, and of course, the things that made it into the mod. I can say for certain I would have been removed from their team from criticising it all. Thank goodness. I will say though, it is a shame the rebuilt version of Frontier was cancelled, but I understand how difficult it would have been to repair everything.

[@simple-commentator-not-rea7345]

How fucking unfair that meanwhile Fallout 4 is getting another update

[@povotaknight2063]

​@@simple-commentator-not-rea7345 counterpoint, fallout 4 is actually a decent game, and a pretty good non fallout game.

[@shiringasai]

@@povotaknight2063 You cant put fallout 4 and decent game in the same sentence.

[@povotaknight2063]

@@shiringasai Fallout 4 is a good, if flawed game.

[@Ozzianman]

​​​@@povotaknight2063 It's a good shooter, but fails as an RPG. No point in playing FO4 when there is FO3 and FONV

[@anonamous936]

You know you can fast travel while in a car and take it with you, right?

[@ramblelime]

YOU CAN WHAT

[@swami1751]

​@@ramblelime lmao

[@everythingpony]

​@@ramblelime you didn't know that?

[@BrokenCartridge.]

​@@ramblelime I swear every single Fallout analysis video has said a feature that exists, doesnt exist lol

[@muellermat]

@@BrokenCartridge. Then the issue is making it clear to the Player. Wich Sounds easy but ist quite hard. You can't just dump it in a readme. Maybe an option would be to put it in when you jump in your vehicle or at the Same Point where you learn the controls.

[@mohabexpert123]

24:55 to be fair, this looks so good, because it is lifted directly from Lonesome Road

[@LeonTam89]

I wished Tiberius Rancor was named something else. The moment I was introduced to him what little that was left of my sense of disbelief went out of the window and never returned.

[@ZMCFERON]

That was when?

[@mayalewis2956]

Man had a post it note on his head that said spy in big capital letters

[@evak5673]

Judas Iscariot would have been just as on the nose

[@Phobos_95]

Former Frontier dev here, voice of the Breach Outreach's Bob Frost, and writer of the Breach Outreach lore. I'm 46:05 in and I have to tell you sorry- the dark maze sections are supposed to be illuminated by the skull torch. I recently watched a friend do a playthrough of it and they had the same issue... and with how vital seeing where you are going is to most of act 4 I gotta figure the fact it doesn't cast light is the true death knell of NCR route playthroughs in the future. I wonder how it happened... perhaps one of the rework team members absentmindedly deleted the script? Ah well. Loving the video so far by the way. Always nice to see an analysis that isn't malicious, that appreciates the MANY great qualities of the OG team's efforts. If you're ever curious about why some decisions were made, or the thought process behind some segments, feel free to hit me up! While actually booting up the mod fills me with an overwhelming sense of dread and panic, I love to reminisce about the simpler times.

[@Asimov_]

Holy shit its Phobos himself

[@Rogue_Nine416]

great to see you're doing well, phobos!

[@thegermanfool8953]

yo

[@Hario360]

❤ Thank you so so much for all the hard work that you and the original team committed to the mod. It had blemishes here and there but overall I really did enjoy my nuclear winter.

[@radiofloyd2359]

Oh shit Phobos. Also, my guess is that a JIP LN or xNVSE update broke it tbh, we all know just how much the NCR quest was built on papier mâché

[@ExtraThiccc]

This has to be the best review of the frontier I've ever watched, no blind anger, no immediately discounting every new idea because it's a new idea, genuinely a fantastic critique of what is, admittedly, kind of a trash fire

[@simple-commentator-not-rea7345]

None of the overly forgiving apologist act like there's always with Fallout 4

[@mechanomics2649]

@@simple-commentator-not-rea7345 What are you talking about? Everyone shits on Fallout 4 lmao

[@simple-commentator-not-rea7345]

@@mechanomics2649 Yeah, but when I do it, I sure get a lot of comments that go something like "Waagh, get laid loser! Quit saying FO4 is a bad game!" or "Waagh, New Vegas overrated, some people just like different things!" I wonder what I'm doing wrong? I was lead to believe that when I bad game is bad, you make it clear, but apperently there are right and wrong ways to do that too.

[@raditzhoneyham]

@@simple-commentator-not-rea7345 maybe it's because you're whining instead of actually saying anything useful... Evident by you whining about not whining well enough

[@onesaucynougat7471]

@@simple-commentator-not-rea7345 because most people who call fallout 4 bad are usually annoying and make their entire personality fallout new Vegas

[@TRECTADACTYL]

iirc the VA for wrench left because at some point the character had a perk which implied beastiality with her dog

[@greenleader3520]

Wow that’s depraved. I completely understand and support her decision to not have her name attached to that.

[@galactic1776]

I was watching a playthrough of the launch version of this mod and that perk was mentioned and shown. I don’t know for a fact if it’s what caused her to leave, but I wouldn’t be surprise

[@invidatauro8922]

1:18:25 The Mid-Western Brotherhood... kicked her out... for being a mutant.... The guys that allow ghouls, super mutants, and DEATH CLAWS.... kicked out this girl... because she can't feel pain.... Jesus Fucking Christ.

[@unoriginalperson72]

Not feeling pain is worse than having your skin peeling off

[@Pigness7]

As a modder who was inspired to get into the modding sphere after the failure of the fronteir (I thought I could do better naritively, I was a bit silly in that aspect) I wish the fanbase was in better shape nowlike it was back in the day. we've grown so nihilistic and antagonistic about a franchise we once loved, just pushing us apart as a fandom. hopefully we'll get back together and learn to accept eachother for liking whatever games and mods we like.

[@thescotslair]

pigness modder/moderator

[@deitus1375]

I don't have that impression of the fandom at all

[@axios4702]

@@deitus1375 As someone who likes Fallout 3 and thinks New Vegas ISNT the second coming of christ, I do, you probably either don´t spend too much time engaging with the toxic side of the fandom or are just lucky to be in the majority.

[@sigerious232]

Vegas is still shit tho ayy lmao

[@EplusNis4ever]

@@deitus1375 try coming out as someone who doesnt mind some polymer in their fallout guns and see what happens hahaha

[@EssenceEater]

I haven't finished the video yet. But I will say that The Frontier is an absolute masterclass in pushing an engine to it's very limits, pushing and even shattering boundaries in what can be done in a mod or even a game as old as New Vegas. That being said, it's also a cautionary tale in mismanagement, not giving credit where it's due, how one person can corrupt an otherwise incredible piece of media and lastly: What overambition, over-promising, and outright lying can do to something that should have been a windmill slam dunk in the modding scene.

[@callusklaus2413]

I'm from Portland: It's honestly surreal how well they did recreating the city. I haven't played it, but I have seen enough footage that would make me wonder if I could navigate areas in the city by my memory without the pipboy. That said, I don't know why people think the PNW is a frost bitten wasteland. We are on the same latitude as France and Spain, and we have the rainshadow effect from the Pacific and Cascades, and the Puget Sound and Vancouver BC area are continously warmed and cooled by the sea. But fair enough, it's a cool aesthetic!

[@SgtPineBox]

There is an upcoming mod for fallout 4 that takes place in the Seattle Area and it looks really promising (it's called Cascadia)

[@OmegablueWolf]

the NCR story really felt like it was trying to be SpecOps the line trying to tell you that you are bad and should feel bad for playing games for fun. The rifle you get in the Zero-g segment was so fun, using the ammo switch key as the trigger for an underbarrel weapon was cool!

[@juliagoetia]

That wasn't really the point of Spec Ops The Line though. It was more of a meta commentary on the nature and framing of the classic military shooter narrative that was over-saturating the gaming market at the time. Asking the question of "What kind of person would you have to be in real life, to do the kinds of things your typical action shooter hero does? And what would the consequences of those actions really be? And by promoting these types of stories so heavily, what ideas and ways of thinking are we unintentionally reinforcing?"

[@MangasColoradas941]

​@@juliagoetiatoo bad it sucked at it

[@juliagoetia]

@@MangasColoradas941 Riveting discussion, your opinions are so well thought out and nuanced.

[@user-yp6vy1oq5d]

@@juliagoetia No, it was exactly 'yo player wtf why are you trying to have fun you sick bastard?!' and bashing you for playing the game while never actually giving you any choice. Even white phosphorus scene was hilarious rather than tragic because the game tried to damn hard to frame it as PLAYER BAD! even though you were never given any alternatives. It's pretentious, shallow, vapid and a slog to play.

[@301klink2]

@@user-yp6vy1oq5dif I remember right there was an alternative way. It was just incredibly hard

[@dreadedworld8864]

The fact there is a character named America who talks about her feet says a lot about America

[@kotzpenner]

@@amadeusagripino6862 based

[@nagihangot6133]

@@amadeusagripino6862 Amen.

[@thornescapes7707]

The biggest question is this: Why can a group of unpaid modders put cool vehicles in New Vegas, but Bethesda cannot add them to Starfield?

[@kaloyandraganov9462]

There are vehicles in starfield

[@mortemtyrannus8813]

@@kaloyandraganov9462 In the same way there's vehicles in every Elder Scrolls and Fallout game. No, having spaceships that are just fast-travel points doesn't count as having vehicles, no more than Morrowind's gondolas around Vivec counted as vehicles. When you can actually physically fly from planet A to planet B like in the X series, Elite Dangerous or No Man's Sky, then you can claim that Starfield has vehicles.

[@kaloyandraganov9462]

@@mortemtyrannus8813 Except neither ES nor Fallout have vehicles that can do more than that while in starfield there is space combat where you directly control the vehicle

[@mortemtyrannus8813]

@@kaloyandraganov9462 So did Fallout 3, or are we forgetting Mothership Zeta? Again, until you have real vehicles, that can actually fly between planets, don't pretend that Starfield's spacecraft are anything more than glorified silt striders.

[@kaloyandraganov9462]

@@mortemtyrannus8813 Mothership zeta is closer to a controllable turret and idk it just seems like you have some arbitrary standards for what constitutes a vehicle. Does it move? Yea. Is it a machine? Yea. Do you control it? Yea

[@adamk3017]

Let The Frontier NCR Main Quest be a Monument of what happend when unchecked Hubris ruins a Decade Worth of Blood, Sweat, and Tears

[@ajflink]

Fallout 3 was great. Fallout New Vegas was an upgrade across the board with the game engine as a foundation. Fallout: The Frontier? Have writing that regresses lower than the base game of Fallout 3 and Point Lookout and have moments lifted from other games instead of inspired. Ray Chase is too precious to be a voice in this mod, and he did it for free with supposedly the only stipulation being that he had to be the villain and wear sunglasses. I remember seeing him and the voice actors for Ignis and Prompto playing Final Fantasy XV together on a live stream and joking around and putting on voices for their characters like a bunch of friends goofing around. I guess he really just enjoys games.

[@thescotslair]

I still want that Fallout Equestria Review

[@Sickcrazyneet]

Like... The books?

[@AceOfBlackjack]

@@Sickcrazyneet the flash game?

[@killshot314]

Soon my man. Soon

[@Sickcrazyneet]

@@AceOfBlackjack ah, so the video is not gonna be like 20 hours long

[@killshot314]

​@@Sickcrazyneet Nah, the books xD It's the books. From his previous vid on Fallout: Equestria was on the book and he said it was pretty well written for a Child-friendly pony franchise and mature balls-to-the-wall wasteland series. Safe to say it'll be an interesting video for him to dissect. Can already see what critics he has for the story xD

[@EpicTyphlosionTV]

The worst part is that the rework for this mod was canceled about a month ago. I don't know if they've released what they have or not, but regardless, it means this mod will never be what people like me were hoping it would be on release. Which is a damn shame. Some aspects of it were pretty nice, and things like the car system still blow me away.

[@derkurier2710]

Something i kinde wanna bring up about Wrence is in her Original Perk Description was it "kinde implied" that she is intimate with her dog

[@conorlemon4417]

23:30 bold words for someone who's entire universe is inside my magic gaming box I keep in my living room.

[@cellblockpsycho5819]

It's a shame that the Rework will never come to frution, as we had a lot of fixes planned for some of the story beats. Reguardless, I enjoyed the video man! Nice work as always!

[@danielsurvivor1372]

We? You worked on the mod? What happened? And all I care about is Unsafe Harbor side quest, is it alright and functional? I hope someone ports it as a separate mod, it was unironically one of the, if not, best RPG quests on par if not better than beyond the beef from New Vegas

[@Clodical]

Oh yeah unsafe harbour is out, I'm pretty sure, you have to be in the frontier go to the NCR Mess hall and speak to the soldier at the table to the left and you'll start the quest

[@bhall0429]

​@@Clodical if I remember right you can also stumble upon one specific location and brooks will force greet you and start the quest that way. Admittedly it's been about a year aince I played it so I could be wrong

[@GoatBoat22]

Thank god it’s over a rework of a dreadful mod who nbody asked for or maybe the furry did huh😂😂

[@Fullmetalnyuu0]

@Mortons Fork You acting like replying like an ass on every comment is a full time job that has a 7 figure salary

[@cat_jk00]

Lived in Eugene for a year and went up to Portland probably 5 times in total, and I cannot believe there is something Fallout related that I cant point to and say "I've been there!" the main bridges into downtown next to OMSI in particular.

[@JimUK]

The New Vegas modding community has a problem, many of its self appointed leaders don't understand the game, in fact I'd be surprised if they'd clocked up more than 100 hours playing it, nothing demonstrates this more than the Courier being treated like some kind of wasteland Jesus.

[@noconsequence4486]

That's just what happens to Fandom over time, if the series itself doesn't flanderize something then you can rest assured that the fans will

[@Donnerbalken28]

Hmh, i think the bigger problem is that they took the wrong lessons from Lonesome Road. Lonesome Roads story is more or less a meta-commentary on the agency of the player character and what you are willing to do when you are pushed to the brink. It wasn't executed very well and pretty serves as the most overt example of "idiots idea of a good story" in an otherwise brilliantly written game.

[@JimUK]

@@Donnerbalken28 To me it felt like it was made by Fallout 3 players, this was underlined by them using awfully outdated custom faces and hairs made for Fallout 3 when vastly superior ones have been made for New Vegas. "Idiots idea of a good story" also fits Fallout 3 so I think we're both onto something.

[@manformerlypigbukkit]

@@Donnerbalken28 lonesome road is just some guy droning on about shit you don’t know or care about, so if the devs took inspiration from there, of course it fell apart

[@forward4703]

​@@manformerlypigbukkitI think you would enjoy lonesome road more if you payed attention instead of just blindly running from waypoint to waypoint wondering what you're gonna shoot next

[@RyanBride620]

I think the reason all the other plots are much better written then the ncr is that people who worked on the mod said the guy who made ncr wouldn't take any input and was known for his skills technically. So they just had to piece together these set pieces he made with a story, while the others were made story first

[@ob2kenobi388]

10:20 Yknow I never really considered that-Radio New Vegas talks about the effect you've had on the Mojave, but the few times you're mentioned specifically it almost always uses words like "A third-party negotiator" or "A civilian contractor" or "An unknown party" or stuff like that. Just one of those things you appreciate without really noticing it, I suppose!

[@romulusnuma116]

I'm happy I avoided the frontier when it actually came out so I could experience it through videos like this with someone actually digging deep and meeting the game on its own terms

[@generalungbasabogwadi2720]

I played it when it came out and have the same opinion as Ramble, overlooking the glaringly bad parts of the mod there are a lot of decent things it had. Most frustrating thing for me was the fps issues in the city which made exploring/combat a chore

[@sussy_61]

​@@generalungbasabogwadi2720 PLATFORMING IN GAMEBRYO ENGINE IS THE WORST, NOT FPS 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@generalungbasabogwadi2720]

@@sussy_61 No.

[@Hunter-ib9ks]

@@generalungbasabogwadi2720 Is it worth checking out this mod? Like is the Brotherhood campaign/sidequests worth playing? Because the NCR and Legion campaigns seem too cheesy

[@generalungbasabogwadi2720]

@@Hunter-ib9ksI'd check it out, the main questlines aren't great but the stuff the dev team managed to do with NV's engine is amazing, and the world space is equivalent to the Mojave so there's bound to be stuff that appeals to different people

[@meddle98]

Nothing will be funnier than “the character named Tiberius Rancor is actually the bad guy” was supposed to be a serious twist and not a prank

[@thomaslake7978]

I think the mod's linearity can largely be laid at the feet of "games be hard." Branching storylines (even if they only branch once and quickly merge!) create an enormous amount of additional busywork. The "everything but the kitchen sink" approach speaks to me of a group of excitable creatives without someone "boring" to keep everything on the rails.

[@harrisonzima3460]

"Fallout is a jrpg now" made me laugh out loud.

[@FreeBird-ws2ye]

remember Frontier is 10gb car mod

[@ongogablogian4396]

The devs deserved any and all ridicule. Throwing certain members of the dev team under the bus while ignoring their own poor decision making.

[@DefinitelyNotATrolldier]

The thing that annoys me the most about this mod is that most of the faces feel like the developers are expecting that every single person who plays their mod to have Fallout Character Overhaul installed, Specially Blacthorne and the other main characters.

[@Ceyrenn460]

Honestly giving the Frontier a second attempt with a Legion playthrough after the NCR playthrough was so much of a refreshing take on the Frontier.

[@georgemurdock7670]

Ofc, the legion is always the right choice

[@ZMCFERON]

The only mistake the Legion made was using a Mormon for anything but a translator

[@concept5631]

​@@georgemurdock7670 🙄

[@andynonya1490]

I like how the Legion's ending mimics and rhymes base New Vegas's ending where the courier gathers up different factions to join together and defeat the NCR.

[@IGCproductions2001]

Remember Everybody, it's not plagiarism if the amount ideas you stole is so large that no single company can sue you.

[@steelbear2063]

Actually yeah that's true. There was a game that was made completely out of stolen assets. But because each asset was somewhat minor and they were taken from a legion of different games - in a weird way that game ended up being its own original thing

[@emojisarepurecancer8097]

​@@steelbear2063 well, the publisher took no chances with that stunt and pulled the game off the shelves (Limbo of the lost I believe?)

[@steelbear2063]

@@emojisarepurecancer8097 Yeah that's the one. Basically if the game itself was good it all would've been fine (probably)

[@siegfriedhiryu4660]

@@steelbear2063 THE KING OF LIMBOOOOOOO

[@loomers4232]

I really find it really dissonant that in this Mod a rogue battalion of the NCR has a fuck ton of vertibirds, tanks, and generally modern weaponry while the actual NCR in the game is still sending people out to walk across the wasteland on foot. Like, I can suspend my disbelief sure, I know that the NCR army stationed at the Mojave Wasteland is basically just recruits and the real main army is doing whatever the rich landowners want them to. But still IF the NCR had tech like that, having one general go rogue and stealing a SHIT load of vertibirds and tanks would make him and his forces a HIGH priority target for the NCR, they went on a DECADE LONG WAR against the Brotherhood of Steel over this tech. So having McFart General Man going rogue with this VERY important tech is just goofy to me.

[@derekmensch3601]

I'm pretty sure they say that the vertibirds were at the Portand base

[@WarPenguinDude]

Man. The Frontier and the controversy surrounding it makes me sad. On the one hand, yes it absolutely did deserve every bit of criticism it received. On the other, it never received the recognition it deserved for it's astonishing world design and scripting capabilities that was made in an engine comprised essentially of popsicle sticks and partially chewed bubblegum. I do feel that there should be a certain level of forgiveness going into reviewing fan made projects, particularly because they're not going to be made with the level of polish any studio made project could be made with actual funding and management. That's just not a fair comparison. However, it also doesn't mean said project should be free of critique. And there's a difference between tearing a game/mod to shreds and giving it the proper critique and constructive criticism it deserves. I remember that this mod was fucking HYPED by fans. I remember people saying this is what's going to save the franchise and that fans can write stories a million times better than what Bethesda could ever do. And after release, I remember people saying that this is why we don't have fans writing stories and why any fandom is the absolute worst. I remember people ragging on the mod community and talking shit on mod authors and projects that had absolutely nothing to do with The Frontier. None of it constructive. And I know that these are two different groups of people. However, statistically speaking, so many people in such a discussion are bound to overlap... What The Frontier should've been was a learning experience. A learning experience in game design and writing. A learning experience on management for big projects like this. A learning experience on hype and expectation. And we have learned nothing. Fantastic video.

[@nickhutcheson8580]

​@Joseph Hetzenauer are yoy spam? We get you like the mod already lol

[@jackwong5816]

The learning experience should be: don't dedicate time/effort without pay, and that modding big projects is pointless because it is a bitter audience that sees everything on an AAA level and doesn't distinguish between "mod made by amateurs in their free-time all done remotely" vs "game made by paid pros in the same office." There's literally no point to doing big mods with story. Want to do a big mod? Add new gameplay, not dialogue.

[@jackwong5816]

The writing deserved every bit of criticism it received. Just a pity everyone on the team got shit on equally. Even those who made nothing but armors, or sounds, or any assets. Didn't even matter if you weren't part of the writing team, or did literally nothing but make assets, you got stalked, attacked, and shamed regardless. Fallout community is the worst. Release mods for yourself, or if you release publicly don't mod story or dialogue, and turn off comments.

[@nickhutcheson8580]

@@josephhetzenauer1890 lol are aren't furthering a discussion just posting spam haha

[@nickhutcheson8580]

@Joseph Hetzenauer so tell me how it's a good idea to make a plot like the ncr quest line that is all Linear and offers no choices ? And then ends with a 3 hour battle on a spaceship? What part of any of that is fallout ? It's not people being haters it's not respecting the lore and the whole point of fallout .

[@Teddythebear577]

I think the best way to describe the jump between 3, nv, and 4 is 3 was a showcase on how cool fallout could be in terms of graphics and mechanics and new vegas was the next step in the genre while 4 was a sequel to 3

[@patrickmullen9485]

Lol. Someone actually wrote a troubled teen fanfic self-insert named “America” and thought it was good writing.

[@myron4445]

actual frontier analysis r always so good

[@libenhagos9335]

1:19:40 appreciated that about Enderal too. Can't recall any other game that breaks up their main quest like this.

[@protocolsummit103]

Honestly that was the most tame review of the mod and I really liked it, waiting for something similar in length about New California since the OST was sneaked in the background.

[@dashiellgillingham4579]

Death of the Author is an extraordinarily useful tool to make good analyses, even if I think we should be framing it as 'the book is the storyteller, the author is it's parents'.

[@aristedes9449]

As an author, I absolutely revile Death of the Author and the rancid academic anus it crawled out of. The curtains aren't red to symbolize blood, they're red because the dye was easily available, it says so RIGHT THERE ON THE PAGE IN THE FOOTNOTE.

[@DimT670]

It is basically the only way to objectively explore anything, because at the end of the day, you interact with the work, not the author Plus authors constantly put messages and themes in works by accident or subconsciously, fail at their primary goal for the work etc, so what they say about the work has often nothing to do with the actual work

[@thewanderingdumbass]

As someone who was not interested in the Frontier (mostly because how big it is), I honestly wish there was an option to pull out the goodbits such as Brotherhood or Legion, because from this review those two factions seem REALLY good to playthrough.

[@Asimov_]

My first playthrough of the frontier was entirely legion. My 2nd and last was crusaders. Both were fun as hell tbh. Never played ncr so never had that negative of an experience with this mod

[@Asimov_]

@@josephhetzenauer1890 From what little I played up until I got into either of the first two factions, I 100% agree. Amazing set pieces and dumb fun imo, just not... fallout, yk?

[@Asimov_]

@@josephhetzenauer1890 100%

[@azeria1]

​@@Asimov_ I think the main issue is the ncr is the one you most likely engage with first as they are the ones that take you they if all three factions gave a way to get to the frontier it's better

[@Asimov_]

@@azeria1 100% espec because on the launch build I had to prepare a legion character when I wanted to play the legion in the frontier

[@theonehawker]

The amount of work put into this video is insane. The sheer quality of the editing, writing and audio quality is baffling, its so well structured, the humor is very well timed and surprisingly (for a fallout creator) pretty good! Honestly, I give you my upmost praise for the effort you put into this Please do us all a favor and keep pumping babies like this!!

[@Tjrissi96]

Ah, hello fellow ranger!

[@jpsplat]

as someone from Portland it was really REALLY cool to see my city in a fallout game! Im glad you liked the enviornment as well. I will always have massive props for this mod on that aspect alone. Writing was kind of bunk but its whatevs

[@simonnachreiner8380]

The thing I really liked about new Vegas and it's biblical tones is that it's actually subtle with it's tons and messages. Even in Honest Hearts when scripture is being handed out like communion wafers it doesn't feel forced, rather it's characters with complex backgrounds that hold to their faith like actual human beings. Frontier doesn't just lean on but rather humps the biblical metaphor with all the subtlety of a thermonuclear detonation

[@Jensegaense]

Big thank you for what you said in the intro. I am a huge fan of massive mod projects like these, I think they are some of the greatest expressions of passion for a game like New Vegas or Skyrim. But the honest glee people had in burning Frontier to the ashes has left so many modders disheartened to ever try anything close to it ever again, which breaks my heart. Frontier's still a mess, don't get me wrong, but people were so aggressively mean-spirited when saying pretty much anything in the days after release that any good-faith criticism got drowned out. I'm happy stuff like F4NV, VIGILANT (Vicn's entire mod-series tbh) or Beyond Skyrim are still being worked on, and I hope that they never face this kind of shit whenever they are fully released

[@tyraniusspartacus8073]

And Fallout London can't forget about it

[@slaythan9488]

just play tamirel rebuilt

[@jackwong5816]

Yep 100%. The glee people had in burning Frontier to ashes is what made me walk away from modding altogther. Just a thankless waste of time. I made literally every visual effect in the entire Frontier, plus all the power armors, 90% of the weapons, hundreds of sound effects, and the vast majority of all new props, and every new tileset. And that's not including the armors, textures, and even worldspaces I did. One could say just about every new asset found in Frontier is mine, minus a handful of things. And I regret all of it. F modding. Mod for yourself, and don't release publicly if anything.

[@Jensegaense]

@@jackwong5816 I know it won’t change your mind or anything, but I will say that the quality in those aspects shows, and I am glad that they exist. Sorry for the awful way people treated the team.

[@nolanburke3669]

@@jackwong5816 I'm sorry for the way people treated you along with most of the Frontier team. None of you deserve all the endless shit you all get just for a mod. Yet I very much disagree with you because what about mods like Chronicles Of Myrtana,Tamriel Rebuilt, pretty much any mod for the Mount and Blade games,Stalker Anomaly, Stalker Gamma for Stalker Anomal, The Nameless Mod, Deus Ex: Nihilum,2027,pretty much every module for all the Neverwinter Nights games and so on. Even the Frontier has value in it just for actually coming which a lot of mods don't even make it to that point

[@JellyJman]

Vegas made the radio talking about your questing did the right thing where it almost never mention the Courier as a person and also never calls him the courier 😂

[@evak5673]

The Mr New Vegas news segments don't even acknowledge that the same person is behind the actions being reported on. The most direct recognition you get is 'some courier was shot in Goodsprings'

[@JellyJman]

@@evak5673 exactly, it was a good design decision

[@loganbrown6441]

As an Oregonian, I can count on one hand in the last 30 years when we had snow in October-November. They should have replaced the snow with hops and coffee grounds to maintain realism. 0/10; would not recommend.

[@ramblelime]

something something nuclear winter

[@DagothDaddy]

Best thing about the mod was how it revived Fallout shit posting giving us people like Knight raven,Oblivion walker,Schizo Elijah,and No bark.

[@pacothemajestic]

Thanks for this, and everything else. Its rare for anyone to put considerable amounts of thought into content like fangames and mods, and I deeply appreciate what you've been doing, even if I myself dislike many of them you've covered. Video games, especially RPGs with a structure as open as New Vegas, are hard as hell to make.

[@LostProblematique]

About the NCR bit it PISSED me off that Blackthorne is so sad about everything bc its heavily implied the NCR could have definitely won at Hoover Dam if he'd just stayed and NOWHERE in the mod does it come up that the legion being here is, in a roumdabout way, HIS fault

[@johnydope812]

fallout when designed by reddit lmao

[@BrotherGr1mm]

I'm really excited to hear your perspective on New California. It's a mod that in my opinion has quite a lot of problems, but I haven't seen as much meaningful discourse about what went wrong with it. It feels like it got the charitable end of the stick, compared to The Frontier. I don't expect nor want you to tear into it but I'm curious about your overall thoughts on the mod, especially in comparison to The Frontier.

[@mrgiraffe6959]

Sort of like that stick comparison, NC has the opposite problem of The Frontier. The developers behind NC were way in over their heads and bit off more than they could chew. I've played it several times, and basically everything outside the main questline and areas are rather barren and underdeveloped. Even then, the main story isn't particularly great as a fallout story because mods always have the problem of not having a proper storywriter.

[@Faded______]

@@mrgiraffe6959 There's a mod for NC that fills in a lot of barren and emptyness of New California worldspace with more everything, from new areas to explore, new vendors, raider camps, patrols, new mini bosses, unique player homes, end game loot, lore, and dungeons. It's called Fallout New California Overhaul. It had a lot of bugs but someone on nexus recently made a bugfixed version for it to fix all the bugs it had.

[@VarskDarkness]

Yeah it annoys me that people are always like "New California Good, Frontier Bad" when NC's story is just as lore-breaking and a big problem with NC is the lack of content and quests. The Frontier is full of content, NPCs and quests whereas New California only has three side quests if you side with the NCR which is pretty abysmal.

[@VarskDarkness]

@@nachzehrersdeathknell1132 I've seen a lot of people praising New California since the Frontier came out. People are forgetting how bad it is.

[@azeria1]

I think it's because the frontier was way more hyped while NC wasn't frontier being on stream was arguably a big reason

[@florinaslan5482]

I know many people didnt like the Frontier but It was kinda enjoyable

[@Sparten7F4]

Something I see few people discuss regarding the Helios One flashback mission- These are not *soldiers* being executed unless I misremember. They are *conscripts*. I always took the hospital issue to be 'We don't have enough space or supplies for Conscripts without hampering actual soldiers, officers and staff getting treatment, and they don't have the same standing as these, so... Put them down.' Which is actually fairly realistic, albeit not for an American military. The Legions, in actual Rome, had similar positions regarding auxiliaries. They were expected to be disposable chaff and care for themselves, and would be worse than killed in this scenario but rather they'd be looted and left to simply suffer. Still plenty of issues around this, but I honestly didn't mind that aspect.

[@DimT670]

The auxiliaries were supposed to care for themselves, but they were a part of the regular army, and they weren't conscripts either, so they probably wouldnt have been treated like this

[@unoriginalperson72]

Bruh just use medicine skills bruh like it's such a no-brainer like bruhhnhh just use medicine to heal the soldiers playing a writhing animation

[@ademuran]

I hope you plan on reviewing Autumn leaves later . I don't see it talked a lot about nowadays but it was a real gem .

[@JaytheLay1]

This is the kind've video that I watched yesterday, then youtube autoplays again today, and even though I remember mostly every beat, the way you introduce us in, and generally your script writing and reading, just kept me throughout it again. Thank you for your work, I look forward to more!

[@SweetPeteInTheBackSeat]

I had a lot of fun with the Frontier, very primarily in exploring the open world. It felt so good to just explore a fleshed out and voiced worldspace with a fair amount of depth, all the while enjoying the cars immensely, per playing hardcore without fast travel. Elements of it were janky at times, certainly the more you got into the storyline (the Legion story delve into a vault lead to me such lost confusion over whether I was doing what was being asked of me - turns out 4 quest items were I was looking for were just missing their models so it concluded with me hanging out with a few headless robots) but there was such a great availability of new things to see that I still care for it & got some 55 then 25 hours of it across two playthroughs. What a blast.

[@GalahadTheSeeker]

I don't understand why calling someone who forced his bestiality/foot/slavery (or whatever the fuck it is) fetish on me a degenerate warrants me touching grass but ok.

[@lordfarquaad8601]

Yeah I thought that comment was strange, as if disliking it when game developers project their fetishes through their work is a "lol, cringe, get off 4chan" moment.

[@dieyng]

Because nobody forced you to play the mod and having something in a game is not really FORCING anything on anyone in the first place. As far as tolerance goes, I know fandoms often have a problem with that, but my mantra has always been, as long as it doesn't hurt me and as long as no one else gets hurt or forced to do something against their will, let people have their frigging kinks. A game is not reality, and in all official entries in the series, you were able to do horrible things. Sell people into slavery, sell kids into slavery, kill off whole towns, INCLUDING kids, have sex with robots, with super mutants. All this is more or less fucked up (not really the sex thing, it just makes you weird, not evil), but it's something players who want to be evil could do. Now, in a franchise like this, can you explain to me, how ANY of that optional content is significantly worse than what is in the actual official games? Yes, the stuff you can do is questionable (as it is with ALL Fallout games), but you don't HAVE to do any of it. You aren't forced to have sex with lizard people, you aren't forced to enslave a young woman who is seemingly mentally impaired. Just don't frigging do it. And the thing is, on top of that, the whole mod got pretty much ruined through this controversy. People put 3 years of their lives into this, and due to a few minor bits of optional content, just because of judgemental, entitled people like you, their experience was completely ruined, and they must have felt all their work was for nothing. Is the guy/the guys who created this content a degenerate? I don't know. Personally, I don't think having kinks is degenerate in itself. A lot of people enjoy certain stuff purely as a fantasy, no one gets hurt, no one suffers, so what's the harm? And no, I'm not into any of that stuff, even though you will probably think/claim that anyway, but I'm sure some of the stuff I enjoy as fantasies would garner the same reaction from you. It's not clear to me what makes you the judge of whether someone's kinks and fetishes are degenerate or not, but I usually find people who play these high and mighty judges of other people's morals, do have some pretty interesting things buried in their backyards, at least psychologically. And yes, I completely went and judged you because of a single, stupid comment on KZbin, even though I know nothing else about you. You see how that might be a problem? To judge someone as a person, condemn them and insult them, over a little bit of content in a giant modding project?

[@GalahadTheSeeker]

@@dieyngThe mod wasn't advertised as such and is therefore forcing that stuff on me since I had no idea that that type of shit would be in it the first time I played, like almost everyone.

[@fialovejbiftek]

@@GalahadTheSeeker That's the most stupid thing you could have said. Just admit you're wrong.

[@toolatetothestory]

I genuinely liked Rancor. He was so obviously evil it was actually fun. And the voice actor insisted he'd wear his sunglasses at all times. Which is so based. I also liked the Hanged Man and, OF COURSE, Skitters. Skitters is perfect.

[@tessfairfield6435]

This was a great review. I’ve heard a bit about this mod and watched a few other videos about it, but I felt this one was the most informative and interesting

[@Otuhh]

While I don't enjoy a lot of this mods content the best thing for me was the world. This is a true city. It's fucking huge and takes up most of the map. It feels relatively close to scale. Vegas (the city) was kinda small and Boston was more like a small downtown section with a baseball stadium in the middle. This Portland felt like a real city. It took time to explore all its areas (as long as they weren't quest locked) and the outskirts felt proper as well. My favorite moment was the silence of looking at the city while on a bridge going over to the corvega plant. Just standing next to a huge dead skyscrapers on a decrepit bridge while the background noise of the wind tearing through the sky just felt like I was a lone survivor in a giant crypt/graveyard of a by gone time. Yeah the story sucks and there's a lot of weird fetish stuff, but the world was fun to explore the only thing else I wish it had was more sewers but like a whole city wide system. 2/10

[@happmemes7677]

I’m binge watching all your videos and I cannot WAIT for the next one of these, I was distraught when I realised it wasn’t out yet. Thank you so much for this video!!

[@Arthutstut641]

Got your video randomly recommended. You are a great reviewer, concise script, nice tone, engaging subtle jokes and overall a relly respectful and insightful set of ideas. Great video man!

[@Richielikesballs]

Love all your videos dude, can't wait for the New California one since I've actually played it before. I hope that you can do this full time comfortably someday

[@dylanstreit3612]

Funny enough, the sequence in Act 4 where you shoot yourself/companion is directly ripped from Spec Ops: The Line. Near identical setup.

[@otaxCarbon]

The Frontier is proof that the fallout comunity does not know better

[@Jakeisvibeing]

@@Entropic_Meat_Machine new California lmaoooo

[@wulf2757]

@@Entropic_Meat_Machine New California is not a W bro

[@koroplays3200]

​@@Entropic_Meat_Machine is sim settlements 2 good though? I mean ya it's quite advanced for what it's capable of but it relies on very heavy scripting which the engine can't really handle.

[@CantRead1]

This is why fandoms need to shut up and sit down. Everytime when a fandom makes a fan game that's massive it's always a disaster. Frontier and Sonic Omens are great examples of this.

[@diewott1337]

​@@Entropic_Meat_Machine New California was literally left unfinished because almost nobody joined the project... That's not a win.

[@nelsonsham2368]

As far as I know, Fallout New Mexico is the next big mod in development

[@ramblelime]

Fallout London is still on track to come out this year. Fingers crossed

[@unoriginalperson72]

Fingers crossed but I'm not hopeful

[@APrimusHokie]

​@@ramblelimeDid it come out

[@felixh6458]

Oh shit you finally did it! This was by far the best video on the frontier I've seen very comprehensive love your stuff man

[@MartinPurvis]

Ah no way, I didn’t see this, thanks for the kind words again! 🙌🙌

[@BakaVHS]

This video would be at least 650% more effective if the title was THE DEGENERATES OF FALLOUT and the thumbnail was a vault boijack with the words LOSERS, CREEPS, PEDOS on it

[@-dusan5726]

20:18 no, it really isnt. Many armies have done this through history, and the only real gripe here is the fact that they didnt try to stabilize them.

[@brndtkng]

At 18:32 you say your rep as courier never precedes you except in the end, but I recall that when you go to nelson based on your ncr rep the ranger there will have different comments about you and what to do in the quest to free the troopers or outright not give you the quest

[@unoriginalperson72]

People all over the game recognise you if your reputation/karma is high enough, the difference is that they don't refer to you as "courier" all the time it's either just "you" or "you're that courier" and it's tied to rep, the frontier acts like courier 6's name is just "the courier" or "courier" and acts like they weren't just a glofied mailman and are actually jesus 2 and should be held on a gold platter and everyone knows who you are even if you just left Doc Mitchell's house.

[@graye2799]

5:20 i hope you aren't implying that there wasn't questionable things the devs said and the mod did.

[@Kevbo2040]

An interesting take on Frontier, trying to find the nuggest of good buried under the crap writing, crap gameplay segments, crap characters, and crap creep stuff. There's a lot of blatant New Vegas fanboyism, which is to be expected, but I won't lie, I am genuinely impressed to hear any NV fanboy *finally* point out how stupid the Legion is. Soooo many New Vegas fans insist that the Legion is "deep" and part of a "gray and gray morality" in NV, when they are literally so grimdark over the top evil it's practically cartoonish as a faction.

[@knightshade2654]

"You know, the Legion may be mass slavers, treat women as breeding sows, commit equivalents to Bitter Springs on a monthly basis, have a general with no political talent as heir, refuse any basic technology, and be ran be a guy who read Hegel once, but at least the roads are safe!"

[@Crypted112]

lol it's especially bad because it stands out so much. the NCR is basically america but slightly more exaggerated, it's brought law, order, safety, and a relatively stable government to parts of the wasteland but it's also corrupt, imperalistic, and controlled by brahmin barons. Mr. House is basically an immortal dictator who doesn't really give a shit about communities outside of Vegas but at least it's safe, prosperous and he leaves people alone. then you have the Legion, who are basically your average raiders but with a roman skin and some philosophical bullshit thrown in. they rape, murder, pillage, and enslave their way everywhere, treat women like cattle and don't treat the men all that much better, but hey something something safe roads so they're really just as "morally gray" as everyone else i guess?

[@randomnerd9088]

You forgot to mention the best companion - Skittters. Seriously though, good review. You hit a lot of my criticisms of the mod though in generality. Sucks to hear they aren't fixing or reworking anything, I really wanted my feedback on the crusader campaign to be addressed since yes, the dialogue is really not fantastic and it feels very hairbrained. Ironically it suffered from some of the same issues that the FO3 especially in regards to the traitor plot. Anyways, I was hoping you'd hit more of the side quests from the mod. The one with the sniper, while buggy, was a really cool setup for a quest and utilized the verticality of the map. Slave Harbor, obviously, was fantastic, though, having its share of clunkiness. I loved the quests you find dynamically because they utilized what I actually enjoyed about the mod - the world space. It's actually funny because the best content in the mod is what has little to do with the actual story, it is that disjointed.

[@brandondrake4609]

Thank goodness for the frontier. It brought me to this channel and to warlockracy.

[@thehatinthecat6960]

Honestly, this video made me reconsider downloading and playing the mod. The legion or crusaders campaign anyways, I ain't touching NCR's never ever, not even with a stick. For what I see and what I could gather from when it released, the main problem it had was lack of communication. It felt more like a merge of various different mods rather than a big cohesive project. Basically, people in charge needed to put their shit together, leaving their egos out of it. It's a shame some of the people working on the little things will never get the recognition they deserve, even sadder that some other quit.