Where I Hang My Hat VII: Starlight · 10:52am Jul 30th, 2016
art by Brisineo
I spent some time this week playing around with We Happy Few. The game looks like it will be really amazing… eventually. What was released on Tuesday was an open alpha, so there are a lot of things that are not yet implemented. Most importantly: plot. Right now, there is nothing to do but run around and survive. The game plays a lot like the spiritual successor to Sir, You Are Being Hunted.
So far, the graphics are beautiful and the mechanics are solid. Crafting is nicely handled, and combat is simple but effective. I haven’t had much experience with sneaking yet as there hasn’t been a lot of call for it: I spent almost all of my playtime in the Downer slums. They do not make it too simple to get into the town itself. Once I had achieved that goal, however, I no longer had anything to progress towards and thus there wasn't a lot of point in playing.
My only real issue was the save system; I hope they implement save slots or something so I don't have to force-crash the game in Task Manager if I want to go back to a previous point. I also wish the game didn't involved so many buildings that are just window dressing. With Sir, You Are Being Hunted, you couldn't enter the buildings, but every building had a purpose because every one was lootable. Here, you can go inside of buildings, but only specific ones, and all the others are just filler. Being procedurally generated, that often makes for a lot of filler... blocks and blocks of it, feeling like world-bloat.
I look forward to when the full game is released. But for now, I’m putting the game on hold and going back to Fallout 4 . I have barely touched the new Vault DLC this week. Instead, I decided to finish up work on one of my oldest settlements now that mods and DLCs have given me some new building options and the ability to add a lot of polish to my older work. So for my final blog before starting the new episodes, I’m offering up another of my settlements. This time: Starlight!
Starlight was one of my first settlements, and it grew fairly organically, with new structures built and new areas developed as needed. The area gives us two unique structures – the screen and the movie house – which are very distinctive and fun, but don’t have a lot of usable interior space. Between them is a large, open, paved area. Before recent DLC additions, there was limited garden space and only one significant water source. I decided I wanted to put a purifier down in that center pool and then build my primary structure around it. I also decided that this would be the settlement where I played with metal building pieces, trying to keep to the somewhat futuristic motif of Starlight. I also strove to keep Starlight feeling post-apocalyptic, using weathered and grungy parts and equipment where I could.
Of course, as always, my settlements are not in the same league as some of the breathtaking settlement designs I have seen shown off online. But I put a lot of effort into these, and I hope you enjoy having me share them with you. I look forward to your comments.
art by MrLolcats17
Starlight Drive-In
Click images for larger versions.
Before I knew that I would be getting Castle, I had designated Starlight to be the headquarters of the Minutemen. While the settlement is no longer their primary base, it is their regional office. Starlight’s central location makes it easy to dispatch reinforcements to settlements all over the area.
Starlight Center
Built around the settlement’s water purifier and (first) generator, the Starlight Center’s first floor houses a host of shops while the second floor acts as the regional office of the minutemen. The second floor also has a small lounge, and the vendor space for Starlight’s weapons merchant.
Starlight Center - Mall
Starlight Center – Minutemen Regional Center
The radio in the lounge is tuned to Radio Freedom.
Diner
Naturally, the heart of Starlight is the old diner, which I’ve restored to the best of my ability.
The Cubes
The Cubes is my name for the modular housing complex build for settlers and their families. I tried to add a bit of unique flavor to each through interior décor and exterior clutter.
Screen & Lofts
I needed to do something with the screen, but after months of indecision, I finally went with the obvious and covered it with light-boxes. I am not ashamed to admit that I used God Mode to create these. It was enough of a chore just constructing it without worrying about running out of materials. I built elevators on each side of the complex, then constructed a fourth-floor strip of additional housing which I called “The Lofts”. At the base, I broke out my new pool toolkit and created a swimming pool to give Starlight a communal recreation area. The pre-existing screen structure houses the Minutemen’s barracks, workshop and engineering center. There is a patio on the top which is not pictured.
Starlight Pool
Showers and Bathroom Facilities
Aside from Angel’s personal space, the facilities are the only part of the settlement where I largely used cleaner textures.
Minutemen Barracks
Workshop
Engineering
Garden
On one side of the workbench shack, Starlight’s farmers have planted a mutfruit orchard. On the other is a garden with a variety of vegetables. Beyond that, you can spot the Bunker Hill caravan outpost. The repaired fence runs the entire parameter of Starlight.
Starlight Wing
Here is a little area I created for Angel and her current traveling companion to take some time out and enjoy the evening.
And, of course, how could this be “where I hang my hat” without Angel having her own personal bit of space.
Angel’s Loft
Starlight
As always, please let me know what you think. And share any screenshots of the settlements you have been working on. Or, for that matter, any screenshots from your Fallout games you would really like to share.
Man, Littlepip looks good in tights. ;o
That aside, damn impressive building. You have patience I never will.
Damn, people have way more creativity then I do. Next settlement I need to kick my damn imagination into gear. The only creative thing I have made thus far since I restarted was an execution pillory.
It is quite neat, though not as good as your other settlements. But it doesn't look well defended. You got to care for defenses in the harsh wasteland.
4121914 The Starlight Center is ringed with turrets, and the lot is patrolled by a stealth-capable assaultron.
Between those and how heavily armed everyone is (assault rifles and combat shotguns, mostly), the attackers in this area don't stand a chance. To boot, there are three suits of power armor stored along the far side of the diner that settlers can jump into when needed.
4121948
Ah, that's more like it! I'm paying poor attention to what I read. Sorry >_<
4121948 Great settlement, one thing I struggle with is furnishing my settlements so its nice to see what other people do and many borrow an idea or two
We Happy Few. Because Nazis had to have a trophy on english earth.
And I just plonk crappy little beds down until the quest marker goes away before wandering off and never coming back.
I am waiting to see what you do with the Vault - tec DLC. Mine went cuckoo and ate my saves so I'm starting over again.
God... I haven't at Fallout 4 for months now. Glad to see people liking it though.
We Happy Few looks... well, like bioshock. But I like what I've seen so far. And a city without memories is very Big O of them, though these poor blokes seem to suffer from various forms of ptsd and given the standard: a whole lot of highly addictive medication.
By the by, is that how the Ministry's dealt with "Shell shock" and civilians who they deemed mentally unsound? A few of Audie's little helpers, and off you go? I'm sure that went swimmingly for all involved.
(For those in the unaware, Audie Murphy, his full name, was former soldier and film maker who was incredibly unhelpful and disgustingly addictive barberturates for his war trauma. Wanna know how bad this shit was? A dose of jet condensed into pill form and put in the center of a party time mentat were but half so asprin in comparison. Audie finally said "Fuck this shit, I took an entire platoon and a fucking tank, this ain't nothing on that"
Hey Kkat! I’ve been looking for those post of you from a long time, I don’t know why I didn't comment before. I like your settlements, you always put so much detail in each work! I also love to work with the settlement mechanics, but I can’t be so patience with decorating, so I usually have fun working with different structures and styles for towns, fortress, camps, etc, and let the detailing decorations for later.
It’s a shame though that at least three of my best settlements ever were lost when I tried to upload some mods. (Since then I try to use the less amount possible of mods).
(Also, I don’t remember if I said you this in any other place but Fallout Equestria was a magnificent work of literature that made my cry and felt connected to it, and it’s by far one of my top books on this site and in my entire reading career so seriously thank you)
I wanted to share some pictures of the four last settlements I’m experimenting on.
Unlike you, I like to work primarily with “realistics” post-fallout styles, preferring “dirty” furniture, and ruined or improvised-like buildings.
Well, this is the Slog, it was my first massive experiment with the warehouse walls and in general things of the workshop expansion. I already worker mostly with the metal walls of the Snap And Build so they become my favourites since the first moment. In this case I was inspired by a “prison” motif, (which is most appreciated in the entrances) trying to get the feel of a closed (safe) community.
The Slog
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This is an image of one of the two entrances to The Slog. In that time I used considerably more turrets for defense, which now I don’t like how they look so I’m probably gonna scrap some of them later.
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In this image we can see a view from the south angle (the one looking to the Forged territory). The problem with this kind of walls is that they can become too repetitive together, I’ve trying to avoid this kind of plain walls with windows to avert that, using more interesting forms and for my exterior walls. We also can see both entrances here, with it’s respective guard towers and footbridges.
Inside, the town is divided in a residential zone, with farms and big yard with benches and tables for eat and recreation, a laundry and a communal bar where meals are made. They also managed to install a huge screen for movies and news projections. The other is the commercial side, where the market, a caravan post and the clinic are installed. While there is also some residences in the commercial area most people live in the main barracks installed over the old showers. The old showers were also reconditioned and fulfill their original purpose again.
In the center of the town there is an abandoned construction site which was reformed in a watchtower. To be honest, I never liked so much that tower but it was my first try with the elevators and I couldn’t convince myself of destroying it.
Residential area:
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Commercial area:
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(Market)
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This is an example of my “standard” residential room for two people; with basic commodities and lacking further decoration.
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After the Slog, I went and worked in the one I consider my best settlement so far: Nordhagen Beach. It’s build like well developed town and I think I actually managed to get that feeling of “maze” and “realism” that in-game towns have (like Far Harbor or Diamond City). It was also the first time wich I worked with terraced levels (playing with the differents levels) and with full-urban towns (all the town is build over floor structures). It may not compete with the real pros of settlement building but I’m a really proud of it. (And it was inmensily fun to make).
Nordhagen Beach
The town is also divided in three areas; the port, the commercial district and the residential district.
Entering by the only entrance we found the commercial hall, with a easy acces to the local Motel-Restaurant. (And I love the Prydwen background view)
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Here we have an aerial view of the commercial district:
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Each shop has it’s own building, the Armor and Weapons shops (level 2) and the Restaurant/Motel and Clinic (level 1) also having a full houses in their upper floors for their owners. Several ladders give us access to the maintenance esplanade and the trader shop ( level 4), the artillery esplanade and the first public bathrooms/showers (level 2.5) and the Clothes shop (level 2). Another ladder let you go from the level 2 to the port (level 3). The access to the residential area is heavily guarded and only can made by the level 1 (main entrance) or by the port. (Although there also a backdoor in the Restaurant)
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Here we see the caravan post (level 2), the maintenance esplanade in the left and the trader shop in the right (both level 4).
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Maintenance esplanade, level 4 (though it also cover recreational functions, that’s why there is also a grill and benches)
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Artillery esplanade and (the right building) commercial public bathroom/showers (level 2.5) .
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The bathrooms and showers are even bigger but I couldn’t fit all in this photo. There is also a second public bathrooms in the residential district and some private in the Restaurant and the shops.
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In this view from the main entrance we can see the armor (right) and weapons (left) shops (level 2).
In the next picture we can also apreciate the restaurant (it in the right) and the guard tower(in the left, with the blue glowing sign):
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The motel-restaurant. It has two rooms (plus one for the ownes), a small bathroom, kitchen and dinner room. It’s also the most decorated building I’ve ever made. (Oh yeah, and I have a super annoying deathclaw pet).
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This is the guard main building. The first is the resting room, while the second is the armory. There is also a third floor for storage and access to a balcony for vigilance of the bridge (Though, all the exterior wall is connected by a hallway in the second floor, so guards can easily mobilize without worrying about ladders and levels)
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This is a view from the exterior of the main entrance. (One can notice the detail of the broken roof where there was an unscrappable collapsed electricity tower)
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Ladders from level 1 to leve 2 and hallway to the port, with the enter to the Shopping store and and shopping store warehouse (in level 3)
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And here we can see the main connection to the residential area, watched by this guard bridge (level 1)
Also, in the left of the bridge there is the access to a secondary generator and a ladder to the only room with dirt floor where the workshop and the water pumps are:
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But before going to the residential area (which is smaller) I wanted to give a look to the port area (level 3)
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The ports has two docks, one closer to the shore for small rowing boats and one which extends over the water for larger boats. There is also a building (in the upper righ corner) which works as a administrative and commercial office. (My idea is to work my better settlements next to the coast, like the Castle, Spectacle island, croup manor and kingsport lighthouse).
Also in the bottom of the picture you can see a door with a “guards” sign over it. This marks the end of the exterior wall, and the guard’s hallway that goes all over to the main entrance in the other extreme of the town.
Here we have a closer look:
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The port has one connection to the commercial district and two to the residential:
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The right door, goes from the port (level 4) to level 2 and 1 of the residential district, and also has an elevator for transport of products
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And the left door.
Each of the four doors (three to the residential district, one to the exterior) are watched by lovely well skilled robots (since in this game I specialized myself in robot construction)
And finally we come to the residential district. Here we have a central yard, a garden, a workshop, a laundry, another set of public bathrooms, three empty one-room buildings, a community center (with an overwatch office in the second floor) and one apartment building (with it’s own communal kitchen and dining terrace) in level 1, and another smaller apartment buildings in level 2.
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Residential “patio”.
Facing to the port:
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Community center (I started to work on it with the latest expansion so it’s still needs a lot of work).
And well, that’s all. Sorry to put so many pictures in this, but I was really proud of Nordhagen, I just love to walk in that maze of a town, and it stills lacks a lot of work. (There are a lot of empty rooms still).
I work those rooms from time to time, as I’m now focused in other settlements (a terraced fortress in Manor house and experimenting with an industrial complex in Abernathy farm); which I was hoping to share with you in other posts (If you don’t want to hang me for posting so many pictures, sorry again
)
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That's amazing!
I really love all the thought and work you put into those. You made some brilliant design decisions. I wish Angel could visit them.
hi hi
I think in some ways people playing games get accustomed to everything in the game world being placed there for a purpose and with a meaning, and while I totally think it is legit for people not to enjoy sandbox~y games, I think perhaps to a degree some games have gotten so good at projecting a narrative that people don't need to come up with any of their own meaning and purpose to be immersed in them. (And some have argued that a distinct difference between a game and a toy is the predefined objectives.)
When a procedural generator ends up making everything look extremely alike, that is one really easy way to break immersion, but on the other hand, I'm not sure if having a large amount of content without an inherent purpose is necessarily a strike against a game. At least, as long as there exists enough depth that people can come up with their own goals, their own story.
I mean, in the real world, there's tons of random stuff that has no inherent meaning to it, and only has meaning and purpose when something purposeful interacts with it. (Like people) But there are some other gaming conventions too that influence the way gameplay works, which involve limitations of technology. When hunter gatherers in real life go out and about, there are a couple primary gathering methods they use.
• There is a point to point method when they know exactly what they are looking for, they go out, find it, and carry it back home once they have enough or can carry no more.
• There is a wandering method where people go out scouting first, identify things they might want to pick up, and then only pick things up on the way back once they know what is available and how much they can carry, leaving the less important stuff behind.
Games tend to have weird carrying limits, either seemingly infinite, or seemingly too small, and inventory management is almost always a pain, and they tend to have issues with tracking countless objects unless they are in specific containers. Nobody wants important things to magically disappear after all. But in real life, if someone was going to be doing any large works in a short amount of time, what would probably happen is they would get an entire group of people to work together, gathering the materials and assembling them. The pyramids and roman aqueduct certainly weren't one person operations, but NPC characters in video games aren't exactly convincing enough to play the part. (yet) I think if anyone ever manages to come up with some really involved NPC behavior that isn't just an overly complex pre-scripted sequence, we might actually get some procedurally generated worlds where the countless random spaces don't feel meaningless.
I think what first stands out about Starlight is how personal it looks. Part of that is probably because of the themed pieces you used, but also there's a bit of an iterated feel to how things especially around the pool look. Like someone built part of the place without really knowing how big it would turn out in the end. I guess I could say it feels like it wasn't built with a perfect schematic in mind ahead of time, like how old medieval villages didn't have a master plan.
Also, the garden totally reminds me of the garden my folks have in their backyard. Right down to the little fences to keep the critters out.