America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave

All my blog posts for my Fallout 4 mod & final year Honour’s Project; America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave, which was a thesis investigating how modding can serve as a gateway to the games industry.

02
May
2022
Announcing America Rising 2

Announcing America Rising 2

Hi, everyone!

On this day in 2017, America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave launched on Bethesda.net and NexusMods and was received better than I could have dreamt of. At the time of writing, it has reached 952,640 downloads across all platforms! I’m forever grateful for the support.

As many of you know, I have been working on additional content for the mod ever since. New quests, new locations, new equipment and new characters. I had labelled this the “2.0” update.

However, I came to a realization. Not only was I adding a lot of new content – I was making significant changes to existing content in the mod, too. I was re-writing dialogue, I was overhauling locations, progression, and more.

With so much changing, I made a decision – the “2.0” update for America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave is cancelled.

Instead, I’d like to present America Rising 2.

Why America Rising 2?

At its core, there’s a fundamental difference between how the stories in America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave, and America Rising 2 work. Those of you that have played it will know that America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave‘s story is a side adventure to Fallout 4. You can play it at any time, and it ultimately does not make a difference to the game world of Fallout 4, aside from a few new locations and encounters.

However, America Rising 2‘s story approach is vastly different. It’s split into a 3 act structure, and follows along with the Fallout 4 main quest. You’ll help them with their goals, and they’ll help you – to progress in the Enclave’s questline, you’ll need to progress in Fallout 4’s questline. And yes – the Enclave will help you get into the Institute, too.

Because this is so different, I wanted to make sure players that don’t like this shift are still able to play the original America Rising.

What are the story implications? Are all the quests and characters different?

All the main quests from America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave are in America Rising 2 – some of them have been changed extensively, some are exactly the same. There’s also a huge amount of new quests. America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave had 7 quests make up its story. America Rising 2 currently has 18 and counting.

All the characters are still here – General Ward’s still the star of the show, as is Doctor Kane. Some have had rank adjustments; such as Captain Peterson and Lieutenant Fitzpatrick – but everyone will make a comeback.

On top of that, we have new characters to support the extended story. Colonel Whitehill and Chief Engineer Myers, as well as an unannounced new companion.

Will I be able to destroy the Enclave?

Yes, yes you will. They are the bad guys, after all! What good’s a bad guy if you can’t get rid of ’em? If you make them hostile (be it by completing the game with another faction, disagreeing a little too much with the leadership, or simply shooting them in the face) you’ll be locked out of the Enclave, and they’ll fire at you on sight.

You’ll need the help of your allies to eliminate them once and for all, but I won’t go into too much detail about that yet.

Will I be able to run America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave alongside America Rising 2?

Please don’t do that. I beg you. Untold misery will befall your game.

Seriously though – no. I’m most likely going to implement a warning message if America Rising 2 detects you’ve also installed America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave. The two mods are completely different structure-wise, but they use a lot of the same locations. Not only are they narratively incompatible, they will be from a technical standpoint, too.

What does this mean for America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave?

There’ll be no more new content coming to it. After I release America Rising 2, I will probably go back and patch some of the larger and more common bugs people run into in America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave, but otherwise you should consider it as finished.

Is there a release date yet?

I know you’ve all been waiting a very long time. Implementing what is essentially a fifth AAA-quality main-story path as a mostly one-man team while working a full time job is, perhaps, a little too ambitious – but that sums up my modding career, doesn’t it?

I don’t have a concrete release date for you yet, but I am feeling confident about Q4 2022. I really can’t wait for you to get your hands on this – I’m so proud of how this is shaping up.

How much of America Rising 2 is done?

Right now, all but one location is implemented. Site Gamma is being re-implemented with an (I believe) improved flow. A few locations need some minor clutter passes, but for all intents and purposes about 95% of the level design is completed.

Most characters are implemented, most main dialogue is implemented – of the Enclave main quest, 18 of the 19 quests are implemented.

Ambient dialogue needs to be re-implemented but is mostly already written. The “destroy the Enclave” questline is concepted but not yet implemented.

No voice acting has been done yet – I’m leaving that to the very end, when all dialogue is locked in and final. Our incredible voice cast does what they do for free, and I don’t want to keep pestering them with new lines over time. All America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave voice actors will be offered the chance to reprise their roles, and I hope all of them accept.

To give a rough percentage, I’d say maybe 75% of America Rising 2 is completed. Maybe that doesn’t seem right after 5 years of development – but a big bout of burnout circa 2019-2020 as well as having to start fresh at one point certainly slowed things down. Thankfully that’s all in the past!

Can we have some screenshots!?

I thought you’d never ask.

Posted by Thomas in America Rising - A Tale of the Enclave, America Rising 2
18
Aug
2019

Sitrep | America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave 2.0.0 Introduction

Hello everyone!

Welcome to another update on the development of America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave. It’s been a year since the release of The Oil Rig Update for America Rising, wherein I increased the size of the Enclave’s main base and the player’s quest hub by approximately x4, and greatly increased the stability of the mod.

Since then I’ve been quietly working away at Version 2.0.0 of America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave, and I think it’s finally time I give you a quick look at what’s to come. First, a bit of background.

While America Rising is far more stable now than it was at launch, it is a large and complex quest mod – that means there are still issues that can arise when things are done in orders I simply hadn’t anticipated (That’s on me, not you guys!). I’ve completely rebuilt the codebase, and added far more checks so that in Version 2.0.0, if anything should go wrong (which should be far less likely, might I add!) there are plenty of opportunities for the mod to self-recover itself and allow you to continue playing as if nothing happened.

This means that, yet again, your progress up to now in the live version –  1.1.2, will unfortunately not carry over. I know this is very annoying, but hopefully the following will justify it for you all:

  • Version 2.0.0 is still a ways out, and it’s unlikely to launch this year – plenty of time to enjoy the current version of the mod!
  • Version 2.0.0 is based on an entirely new plugin – In fact, the mod will no longer be a .esp but rather a .esm master file. I’m very excited about this – it means others will be able to make their own addons to America Rising, much like Sim Settlements!
  • This transition has made the mod far more stable on my end, and should do so for you too
  • The big one… Version 2.0.0 will be the definitive, content complete version of America Rising. Quests dealing with the Brotherhood of Steel, the Institute and the Railroad will all be included. Careful scripting has been done to allow America Rising to tie into Fallout 4’s main quest, and my vision is for The Enclave to be a faction you can use to complete Fallout 4 with

Now, with that out of the way, on to the sneak peaks! I certainly won’t be spilling the beans on everything I’ve done till now, but I want to give an indication of what to expect;

Revisited Locations

I’ve identified locations that simply weren’t where I wanted them to be – a prime example being the Vault 111 Government Area. I’ve done an extensive rework of clutter, lighting and environmental effects in it, and various other places. Below are two befores and afters of the Vault interior!

Revisited Quests

I felt some early game quests in America Rising were fine, but had scope to be made far larger and more engaging – so I’ve done just that. My favourite example is the second quest; Calling Home.

In the live version of America Rising, you travel to a small fortified comms station, enable the Radio Tower, fend off a few waves of Raiders, and return to General Ward to turn in the quest. To refresh your memory, below is the comms station as it is currently.

Now though, Calling Home will have you travel to a sprawling SatCom array via a ruined car tunnel, and deal with infiltrating a fortified Raider Camp on the way.

At the SatCom array, you’ll have to complete a small minigame to calibrate the Satellite Dishes, and finally align them. All the while, your temporary companion Sergeant Peterson will be providing contextual hints and dialogue, pushing you in the right direction. Below are a few shots of the SatCom array and surrounding areas – all within its own brand new worldspace!

New Equipment

I’m very excited about this. Version 2.0.0 of America Rising will come with a host of new equipment for The Enclave – new uniforms, weapon paints, robot paints and more. I’m considering releasing this as a side mod shortly, so people don’t have to wait so long to get their hands on the gear!

Fallout 76-style Enclave Officer Uniform

I adored this uniform as soon as I saw it in Fallout 76. I’ve managed to replicate it to a quality I’m pretty happy with thanks to Outfit Studio.

Enclave Combat Armor

In the live version of America Rising, Enclave Troopers not in Power Armor use conventional black-tinted Combat Armor over black fatigues. Thanks to Payton Quinn very generously allowing free use of his Fallout 3-style Enclave Officer uniform, I’ve used it as a base for some custom Enclave Combat Armor. I’m so pleased with how this turned out.

Closing thoughts & Discord Server

Hopefully as you can see, I’ve been hard at work! I’ll be putting together a standalone release of some Enclave equipment shortly, and I also wanted to mention that I’ve launched a Discord server for fans of my mod to better keep up to date with what I’m working on! Invite link here: https://discord.gg/s3QDvZh

You can also catch sneak peaks on my Twitter profile here!

Posted by Thomas in America Rising - A Tale of the Enclave
11
Oct
2017

Sitrep | The Oil Rig Update – Version 1.1.0

Introduction

Hey, everyone!

It’s been a long time since I updated you guys. I’ve been busy with work, but I have been working on A Tale of the Enclave whenever I had time to spare. If you read my previous Roadmap blog post, you’ll know that these are the features I wanted to implement in this coming update:

  • Adding a side questline about restoring/refurbishing the Oil Rig
  • A total/from scratch rebuild of the exterior and interior. Increasing the scale significantly, as well as adding a civilian population & making the production facility useful to the player
  • Adding a player companion that was cut
  • Retexturing significant parts of the Oil Rig’s interior architecture
  • Creating a large amount of Enclave banners and posters to push that patriotic feel home!
  • Looking at integrating other mods (Such as X02 Power Armour and Enclave Officer Uniform) with the respective authors’ permission

Now, due to my limited time these days, and me wanting to actually release this update in our lifetimes, I’ve had to change the list up, but hopefully it’s still to your satisfaction. In my development file, loaded in the Creation Kit right now as I’m typing this, the following features are DONE:

  • A total script rewrite/refactor of all the quests in A Tale of the Enclave. This doesn’t mean the quests will play differently (Except for one I’ll talk about below), BUT it should mean the vast majority (if not all!) of the bugs you’ve been encountering with the questline should be gone!
  • Retexturing significant parts of the Oil Rig’s architecture, rebuilding the Oil Rig from scratch and increasing its scale. Hopefully it makes the structure feel more Enclave-y for you guys. I’m finally happy with how the Oil Rig looks!
  • The Welcome Party has been significantly reworked to accommodate the new Oil Rig!
  • Creating a large amount of Enclave banners and posters. Placed around the Oil Rig, and also available for you to place in your own settlements if you want!
  • Compatibility with Unoctium & DogtoothCG’s X-02, X-03 and Enclave Officer uniform mods. What this means is that if you are using any of the mods on an individual basis, NPCs in America Rising will equip them. If you don’t use them, then they’ll only use the X-01 armor and my other uniforms. Seamless integration!

Here’s what I’m working on right now:

  • A residential area. My vision is to have this be very much up to the player, and it will in fact act as a unique settlement.
  • The companion

I also mentioned in the roadmap I wanted to add a sidequest about restoring the Oil Rig. Due to the time I have available these days, I’ve decided I’ve had to drop that (at least for now). I could put together something quick and easy, but I wouldn’t be happy with the quality. Instead what I’ll be doing is adding various repeatable/radiant quests that some of you have been requesting! I know it’s not the same, but for now it’s the best I can offer.

I don’t want to give a release date yet because I don’t even know it! I will say that it should be soon(tm) though. Once this is out, I’ll get to work on Version 2.0.0 (barring any bugfixes I need to do) which will add more to the main quest!

That’s all for now. To tide you over, how about a few screenshots? (Typical disclaimer, this isn’t done yet, things will change, etc etc 🙂 )

Posted by Thomas in America Rising - A Tale of the Enclave
06
May
2017

The Roadmap

Introduction

Wow! That’s how I can describe these passed few weeks. A quick introduction for people who don’t know, before we delve into the roadmap and my plans for this mod!
I am a /Was a? Game Design & Production Management student at the University of Abertay Dundee, a four year undergraduate course. For my final year project (Called a Honour’s Project), I was investigating “How Can Computer Game Modding Serve As A Gateway To The Games Industry?”. As part of this project, I developed a mod for Fallout 4: America Rising – A Tale of the Enclave.

On the 24th of April, I submitted my dissertation & project, signalling the end of my studies at Abertay University. (Still waiting for my results – Fingers crossed!) On the 1st of May, I released A Tale of the Enclave on Fallout 4 Nexus and Bethesda.net for PC and Xbox One. On the 5th of May, the University had a prizegiving event – One where I won the “Achievement in Game Design & Development” from SEGA which was incredibly humbling. And now, as of writing this on the 6th of May, A Tale of the Enclave has over 22,000 downloads. This is absolutely breathtaking, and I can not thank everyone enough for the support.

Roadmap

Now, for what people came here for!

I’ve gotten a huge amount of feedback from the community, and believe it or not I’ve been reading every comment on all 3 mod pages, so I hope that this list is satisfactory. It’s in no way final, things may get added (Also keeping in mind I begin full time employment on the 15th of May (Woo money!)) so I won’t be able to work on this all day every day!

(Continuous) Bugfixing

I’ve been trying to track down and fix a lot of unexpected behaviour people have been experiencing, which has been quite challenging. I hope people don’t take this the wrong way, but I have three PCs at home, one of which I developed A Tale of the Enclave on, and two which have never touched the mod before. I’ve played the version on Nexus (As of writing, version 1.0.2) all the way through and not encountered any of the bugs people have reported, so they must be caused by some obscure mod conflicts. I’m doing all I can to track them down!

(Version 1.1.0) The Oil Rig Update

The first content update I have already begun working on is what I’m (appropriately) calling The Oil Rig Update. As my mod was done as part of a University Project, there were time constraints I had to work with. As such, I got the Oil Rig to a ‘It fulfills its purpose’ stage, but not to a ‘I’m so proud of this base, it really feels like a great hub location for the player!’ stage. I plan on addressing this entirely, by:

  • Adding a side questline about restoring/refurbishing the Oil Rig
  • A total/from scratch rebuild of the exterior and interior. Increasing the scale significantly, as well as adding a civilian population & making the production facility useful to the player
  • Adding a player companion that was cut
  • Retexturing significant parts of the Oil Rig’s interior architecture
  • Creating a large amount of Enclave banners and posters to push that patriotic feel home!
  • Looking at integrating other mods (Such as X02 Power Armour and Enclave Officer Uniform) with the respective authors’ permission

Little, heavily WIP teaser image:

Revamped Enclave Oil Rig teaser image.

(Version 2.0.0) The Railroad Update

I don’t have much to say about this yet as I am currently working on the Oil Rig Update, but version 2.0.0 will serve as an ‘Act 2′ of the mod, and will revolve around addressing the Railroad’s presence and activity in the Commonwealth.

(Version 3.0.0) The Institute Update

Much like above, this is just in the conceptual stage, but I plan on having Act 3 of the mod involve the Institute, and I hope on having some very interesting dynamics involved.

I hope this is is to everyone’s liking – Feedback as always on any of the mod pages is welcome!

 – Otellino

Posted by Thomas in America Rising - A Tale of the Enclave