Having finished the bug fixing I couldn't help but sit there at my desk, feeling like it wasn't enough. I wanted my games to be awesome, to have quality to them. This was just an upgrade to Graphics, and even then it was a basic one. Having spent 100 P already on this, I felt it only right to invest at least 1000 to make it more impactful.
I went back to the graphics of the game and started to do an in-depth upgrade of all of the locations. Buildings were given actual textures beyond the plain-Jane greys, browns and yellows. Roads were given some variety with cracks and auto-generated differences; sourced from an extensive list of different types of crumbled road.
NPCs were the next visual to be fixed as I merely increased the realism on them and put some extra detailing into their exterior appearance. Having guards smoke in some instances, having some leaders look more clean and seem more put-together. Following those details I began to implement minor reflections and specific smell-based and audio-based mechanisms.
Rats were given a stinky smell, Power Armour sounded like the tanky awesomeness it was meant to be, whirring cogs and grinding of stabilizers making it more surreal. Death Claws sounded akin to bears but with more tiger and lion mixed in, a guttural growl leaking from them. Several different areas would have new smells, audio and especially graphics.
This had cost 890 P, leaving me at 18067.5 P in total left.
Sitting there I decided to implement one final feature. Multiplayer. Fallout was not meant to be a massive multiplayer game, but, the Multiplayer I was speaking about was more along the lines of a 2-4 Man party with increased difficulty to match the complexity of the single player experience. Along with this addition I also implemented the concept of boss monsters fully.
Certain caves and areas would have more powerful variants of the creatures there. These bosses consisted of: Robots, Mutated Creatures, Humans, Mutants, Factions and Military Base variants. The loot of each of these bosses was random and would draw upon what is visually on them. If you fight a human boss with power armour and kill them, you now have power armour. Of course, there were positives and negatives to these fights as killing certain bosses could have consequences to conversations and relationships with certain towns.
I was impressed by myself when this was completed, although it cost 1000 P. It had all the aspects of Fallout but extended the original idea of Fallout. And, I wasn't just going to have Fallout 1 as content in this game, no. This was going to be all of Fallout in one game... Dividing the game into 'Acts'. Much like Path of Exile 2 and 1 where the game was divided into Acts of the campaign, I wished to do the same for Fallout.
Fallout 1's story would be act 1, Fallout 2 would be act 2; with all of the items received in Act 1 coming along with increased stats on monsters and such. This would continue until Fallout 4 where I will then start releasing DLC content, for a small price of $1 each. That was my plan for the future though, and it all started with the proper implementation of this update. I didn't want people to pay for sequels or for exorbitant DLC when I could gain Points through play time... I didn't want to be another EA, Bethesda or Ubisoft.
Finishing the final fixes and edits, after hours of working away at this, I finally was able to stop and bask in the greatness of making so many cool changes.
"Let's just launch it."
I pressed the update button a moment later, as a grin crawled across my face.
|Points: 17067.5 |...
Damian was exploring the second level of Vault 15 now as he killed several moles and rad-rats. He had found a hunting rifle in a bathroom not too long ago followed by some interesting journals surrounding the schism that apparently happened in this vault.
This vault was lived in by people from diverse cultures, religions and demographics. Everything from Muslims, Christians, Buddhists and even Hindus were living beside one another within Vault 15.
The journal explained that this had caused some powerful tension within and lead to the formation of three distinct groups. 'Hold on, is that the reason why the vault door seemed to have exploded from the inside?' Damian slowly pieced together a story in his mind as he continued to read.
These factions supposedly protested against one another and constantly vied for influence and power inside the vault. This was until one group got the upper hand on the others and started to commit violent acts. Supposedly whoever wrote this journal was a member of the losing groups as it went on to say that they had plans of running away from their vault.
"So this seems like a huge experiment... Was that what this 'Vault tech' was into? Societal experimentation and manipulation whilst thinly veiling it with providing shelter and a future for humanity?"
He pulled his pistol and shot a rad-rat trying to sneak up on him as he closed the journal. Deciding to move ahead with this information he continued to systematically move forwards through the second level.
One rat, two rats...
One mole, three moles...
They all died as he moved through room by room, gathering and collecting goodies and materials that were left behind. One in particular was a leather jacket that came up on the pip-boy as armour. Ammunition was present also, but sparse, mainly being for the hunting rifle.
Finishing off this level and finding another rope to get down the non-functioning elevator shafts, Damian moved down to the next level. On level three there were a cacophony of squeaks and noises that were easily noticed by him. In front of the elevator entrance there was even a rad-rat. It was at this time that a message came through on his pip-boy.
{DING! Update to game has started, you do not need to leave, the game will auto update}
Cursing his luck to have an update in the middle of delving, he pulled his pistol and shot the rat in the head, instantly killing it and splattering its brains all over the cement floor. Swinging on the rope he jumped over to the entrance and took a quick look around.
Everything got blurry for a moment as the visuals of the game altered. What was once heavily pixelated had now become much clearer. A smell of iron hit the air instantly and the coolness of the chamber spread out over what he thought was the sensation of his skin. The environment had become more gloomy, the smells of putrid flesh, rot, decay and blood suffusing every inch of the space down here.
Once goofy squeaks and screeches had become almost horror-like as the darkness of the space concealed mostly everything. 'Aren't I lucky to have Ghost as a perk...' Besides that little blessing he marvelled at the enhancements to the game so early in its sale. It seemed that the creator was putting in a lot of effort into the game.
"I really need to buy stocks in this..."
...
Ned was also exploring the third floor now as the changes kicked in. His audience was super excited with the bits of story they had receive, active discussions occurring in the chat to the nature of the Vault and what this 'Vault tech' had been trying to achieve.
Then the update had struck and the entire twitch chat was exploding. Violence was now more gory. Noises were more accurate. There was smells from what they could see, as Ned almost threw-up. Everything has become more visceral, pixilation was still there but much more tame...
It was as if the Dev had been paying attention to the streams...
Ned moved forwards in the game, watching as the rats were a lot more realistic looking. Puss oozed out of some of them and they stunk to high heaven. Even living in Queens like he did, he had never smelt something so utterly revolting.
"This stinks guys!" His voice was mildly smothered as his virtual hand covered his virtual mouth. A level of detail that even he didn't expect and he already expected awesomeness from this dev.
*PLOP* *PLOP* *PLOP*
His knife slit the throats of several rats as they dropped to the ground with a gut-wrenching sound of slapped meat. Blood coated his hands and iron filled his nose as he walked through the Vault's 3rd floor.
Immediately he noted several lockers, which he proceeded to open with brute strength, holding an SMG, 100 AP rounds for said SMG. The next locker had dynamite and two grenades...
"That is crazy... I have a feeling that the game will get even more difficult from here."
Saying that he exited out of that room and turned to the left, killing the rats with his pistol before finding two consoles in an open space before him. He didn't know what exactly they were, but they were glowing and constantly bring up a 'DISCONNETED' message. Getting closer he soon found that the water section of Vault 15 had been destroyed and caved in...
"Doesn't that mean that the water-chip is lost?"
Immediately his Pip-boy went off and he gained 500XP, 18 skill point now available for him to put into any one of the skills. Immediately he got his Melee weapons up to 100% and then got his repair up to 33%. His weapon was getting damaged as he used it, therefor he wanted to maintain it more.
"Hmm, i should complete searching before I make assumptions."
'Good call' was spammed in the chat as the now 600 viewer audience was enraptured by the enhanced graphics of the game.
...
Meanwhile, in Gotham...
"Be on the watch out for the bat! He could turn up anywhere..."
Several thugs were assembled around the back of an industrial storage building shooting shit as handcuffed people were pushed into an open truck. SMGs and pistols were held openly as they kept their eyes on the sky.
Some wore rabbit hats whilst others simply had unicorns or other toys hanging off their sides. Many had coloured hair and were the less than savory sort, especially the ones that were slapping the handcuffed people's asses, men or women.
At the top of a nearby building though, two eyes peaked down at this display. Eyes that saw the lack of cameras and recording devices in this area. Eyes that knew all of the patterns of the guards. Eyes, that understood who was behind this operation, and needed to know where he was.
Loud bangs resounded behind the thugs, all of them pivoting to aim at the noise. A single thug with shaved head and a Disney Princess scarf hanging off of his neck looked apologetic as he hovered right above a piece of metal scaffolding that had fallen.
"Sorry guys! Didn't mean to..."
"Just watch where yah fucking walkin Garry!"
"S-sorry!"
One guard on the outside perimeter turned only to black out in the next second, a small thwacking noise following as he was dragged away. Some guards turned to the Garry figure once again, frustrated with the noise he was making. Then the next guard was dragged away, the only evidence of a scuffle being the small collision of fist in face.
This continued until a singular guard was left. This guard was the one looking into the truck and ensuring none of them escaped.
"Guys, are we done yet? Anymore to go...?" His thick Italian accent offset the American as he nervously strained his hands on his SMG.
"Yes... You are done..." A deep masculine and husky voice responded from directly behind him as he flinched.
Trying to turn he was met half way in an arm-bar as the black cloaked figure pulled him onto the ground. No visual was fully made between the two men, but everyone knew who this was, especially in their business.
"You, will tell me, where, the Joker is..."
"Ahhh! Fuck...! I- I don't know where he is, I swear!"
"Lies..."
A pop and crackle followed as the joint of the man's right shoulder dislocated under the pressure of the arm-bar. Veins flashed all over the man's face as it turned red from excruciating pain.
"I- I DON'T KNOW....! P-please, believe me...!"
"Unfortunate."
*SMACK*
The Italian went unconscious as the cloaked figure stood up straight, the silence in the air palpable beside the human trafficking ring he had just stopped from smuggling.
"Robin, free these people. Give these over to the police." A man in red and green costume dropped down from a nearby water pipe and walked over, the people inside the truck beginning to step out.
"Got it Batman! I'll get it all sorted."
Batman nodded before walking away and vanishing in nearby shadow, inside of the building. His hunt was on, and his prey would certainly run.
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