So, there's a little idea I've been pondering over for a while. It's purely hypothetical at this stage, but I'd just like to gauge interest amongst you guys. My skills with the GECK are rudimentary, and right now I'm having serious problems even getting it to not constantly CTD (even with powerup), so like I said, hypothetical. But I've been looking for a modding project for a while and I think this might be interesting.

So basically for those of you who've played Fallout 2 you might remember the intelligent deathclaws in Vault 13 and Navarro. I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't, but I personally loved them and I was

Spoiler:

. I thought they had a great and ironic backstory, with lots of potential for worldbuilding and looking into a parallel society. I know that a lot of people might have a different opinion to me on this - even back then the whole "talking animals" thing divided a lot of people (I know Chris Avellone in particular didn't want them returning in any Fallout canon works), and that's fine. But I was personally disappointed with the deathclaws in Fallout 3, and while New Vegas did show them to have somewhat more of a society, the intelligent deathclaws from Fallout 2 didn't make a return. Considering at least two male intelligent deathclaws could have survived the events of 2, I think that it's more then possible to have a small, lore-friendly settlement of intelligent deathclaws you can interact with in the Mojave.

So here's my idea in a nutshell:
- you get hired by the NCR to track down an alleged deathclaw nest. You stumble upon it, but discover they are intelligent and the leader offers a peaceful solution to the NCR.
- other deathclaws want to attack the NCR
- you either kill them, attack NCR, or make a peace deal
- this small settlement would have a reputation system/vendors..etc (possibly selling "deathclaw scent" that makes deathclaws non-hostile?)
- after this has finished you can recruit the leader as a companion. he would preferably have his own quest, maybe a perk that makes wild deathclaws allies in combat..etc

Probably the hardest part of all of this would be finding any voice acting, but I'm not even really thinking about that yet. I'd just like to see what you guys, especially those of you who enjoyed Fallout 2, think about this idea. I know it isn't for everyone, but meh, it can't hurt to just put the idea out there. If anyone has any suggestions or anything I'm open. I know some of you probably think this is a horrible idea but hey, it's a mod after all

Oh my god I had this exact idea. Was planning on working on a Goris companion. Just need to retexture the deathclaw skin to be grey, make a robe that gets removed via a script during combat and add a voice.

I can't decide between deep gravelly or sophisticated British.

@"cyber_funk" LET'S COLLAB
I mean NV is set like 30 years after so I see no reason why Gorris couldn't have had a family of little deathclaws c:

I love the idea of him having a RP British accent.

This is a fantastic idea, I would love to see this happen! Would mouth animations be possible for the deathclaws? Maybe rig up something similar to the Super Mutant's mouth animations?

I really like the sound of this. Never knew there were intelligent deathclaw HAHA! I say a quest reward should be a deathclaw mask XD

Talking deathclaws? This sounds like it would be a fantastic project for someone to take on. I hope someone would be willing to take on the task of making this happen.

I know that AWOP had a talking Deathclaw too. It even told its own story of how he got there
But I am interested in a full quest mod that involves intelligent Deathclaws. I also have an idea with it too.

What if the final mission for the quest is to hunt down Rawr from Lonesome Road? And then when you ask the Alpha Deathclaw why, he will say:

"Rawr was once our brother you see. Way back then when I was still a young one, he would be the one to hunt for us. He fed us and protected us. Kind of like a guardian to us all. It went on for a long time and it was probably the best time of my youthful days. Until of course, a place called The Divide opened up."

Courier: What happened at The Divide?

Alpha: When its road opened, it was the perfect timing as the Mojave's creatures started to get less and less in numbers. Rawr saw this as an opportunity and traveled all the way to The Divide. After that...silence. And after the silence? A loud, earthshaking explosion happened. Smoke trailed up into the sky. We all deemed him dead after that, but then we heard a loud roar that came from The Divide. We aren't even sure if its still there. This will be my final and personal request from you dear traveler, please recover our brother Rawr. Bring him home.

And then boom! When you get to the Divide, you battle him instead and when you get back to Alpha and tell him all about it, they will be saddened that their brother is no longer the brother they used to know. You will then give Rawr's Claw to Alpha and Alpha, in return, will make a special gauntlet for you to use as a token of gratitude for helping out their nest. After everything in the quest mod is complete, a perk called "The Impossible" is also given to you. It can call in Deathclaws to aid you in combat for a short period of time.

@"njmanga097" I was always a bit weary of AWOP - I did use it, but the (understandable given the volume of content) lack of voice acting and the fact that it made my PC CTD in some areas always put me off. It's a shame because from what I've heard it sounds like it added a lot of neat areas. Thank you for your ideas too! I'm really happy at the good reception this has received. Right now I just have to iron out a few bugs in my load order and get my GECK working and then I should be able to start. You guys have been very supportive, and any further support you could give me would be really well recieved

Since this seems to have gathered a positive reception I'll go into a bit more detail about what I envisioned. So I had in mind a cave (maybe Little Lamplight-esque?) for the Deathclaw settlement, and maybe you have to do a series of quests to gain their trust (if you want to enter and help gain a deal with the NCR/attack NCR). And then for the companion I thought about the alpha (the potential companion), being the son of Gorris, and essentially you have to find out what happened to his father, so you'd have do to a lot of investigating, and it'd be like an emotional journey for him as he comes to terms with how others in the wasteland feel about him (maybe this quest could link in to the unexplained Enclave armor in the Deathclaw promontory?), and then essentially once you find out what happened he'd either choose to seek vengeance for his father and Vault 13 or choose to focus on his role as alpha. Idk, these are just my thoughts.

I think as well as voice acting another concern of mine would be not making the Deathclaw companion OP. Maybe either we could give him a weakness/reduce his combat ability or maybe give a penalty to the player (-NCR rep?). I don't know really.

Those are pretty good ideas as well. For the weakness, I'm thinking of whenever you have the Deathclaw companion with you, there will be a warning that all factions in the wasteland are hostile to you because you are seen as a great threat in the Mojave. The only places that aren't hostile would be the neutral towns.

I really like your idea with the avenging his father. This is just my thought; what if, instead of immediate revenge, he will get sick of all the fighting and start to do some diplomacy instead. And then he'll say that not all Deathclaws are just walking killing machines. After that, you can step in the conversation and probably have a speech check for either betraying alpha, start the fight in order to end it all, or end it still in diplomacy.

I can imagine some of the sarcastic lines you could come up with for the British sounding Deathclaw.

I would love to see a Goris companion mod at the very least.

And technically,even if the Deathclaws were wiped out by the Enclave, it is possible for Goris (or the other Deathclaw found in Navarro) to start a new Intelligent Deathclaw colony as, according to Chris Avellone, the intelligence gene was male-specific, so all they'd need to do is mate with a non-intelligent female. Chris Avellone also said in a revision that neither Goris or Xarn reproduced, but eh...I'm sure we can ignore that little detail...

Hey, that's got me thinking...

What about, for a quest mod, you encounter Goris who needs your help? He explains that the only way to save his species of Intelligent Deathclaws is for him to breed with a non-intelligent dominant female. The problem is, Goris isn't exactly alpha male material (I keep thinking of Anthony Head in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a decent characterisation of what Goris would be like), so he needs your help defeating the Alpha Male and other males of the pack. After that, it's safe for him to breed with the Mother Deathclaw.

It'd be a cool, unique and Deathclaw-specific quest, plus there's potential for cool action and comedy in the writing (Goris being awkward around females for example).

EDIT: Plus of course you'd have the choice of deciding whether it'd be a good idea to start a new breed of intelligent deathclaws or not. Goris would argue it'd be good as he'd be able to domesticate the otherwise dangerous beasts, but you could also reason that a race of intelligent deathclaws might be even more dangerous than the regular, non-intelligent breed.

Sorry, gone off on my own tangent there.

@"Visible Earth" I absolutely LOVE that idea. It's fantastic, and would add a comedic depth to the character that would feel very in line with the Fallout 2 feel I'd be going for. Helping a Deathclaw with his girl problems sounds like it's straight out of Fallout 2. I love that idea so much.

@"njmanga097" I actually think that'd be a really good counterbalance. I mean it's no use really having a companion that kills everything with 2-3 strokes without a good weakness, and making every faction hostile is a pretty decent tradeoff. Maybe there could be an exception if you are Idolized with a particular faction? Idk.

HAHAHAHA! We need to make this happen. This is gold!

@nocthesis I'm thinking of making the reputation only for the major factions to drop as they would be the ones that will see you more as a threat to their rule and then all idolized towns and smaller factions would stay idolized because they'll be really amazed at you for befriending a Deathclaw and doing the impossible.

UPDATE: So I was messing around in the GECK (which I'm having to use through my laptop - not exactly ideal, but meh, it'll have to do). I managed to make a Deathclaw companion with all the basic functions (but I broke him afterwards lol). More a test rather then anything. I think I'll actually start with the worldspace first, then add the NPC's and quests and finally the companion feature. If anyone has any experience with worldspacing and doesn't mind helping a rookie, I'd be very appreciative

Spoiler:

Some more ideas for quests:
- unique weapons/rewards for either outcome of the main quest. Perhaps a sniper rifle that does additional damage against abominations for wiping the Deathclaws out/unique Guantlet for attacking NCR?
- in order to make the deal between NCR and the Deathclaws you'd have to have a relatively high rep with the NCR and pass a moderate speech check.
- I'm thinking about if the player does side with the Deathclaws (there'd be a group of jingoistic Deathclaws, not unlike the hardliners in the Mojave BOS) it could lead to an attack on one of the minor NCR bases. Maybe then secure an alliance with Legion? I don't know, I don't want to get ahead of myself.

As has been mentioned prior, it would probably make sense - seeing as though most of these deathclaws would be descendants of Gorris, that at least some of them would be albino coloured, so I'm guessing that's going to require some additional work.

Sadly I haven't done anything beyond weapon and actor changes, also placing objects on maps. Though I have done mapping for source before: http://prntscr.com/eueqw8

I'd gladly do beta testing or some tasks you need done. Hopefully other people can contribute as well. Really want to see this happen haha!

nocthesis wrote:

UPDATE: So I was messing around in the GECK (which I'm having to use through my laptop - not exactly ideal, but meh, it'll have to do). I managed to make a Deathclaw companion with all the basic functions (but I broke him afterwards lol). More a test rather then anything. I think I'll actually start with the worldspace first, then add the NPC's and quests and finally the companion feature. If anyone has any experience with worldspacing and doesn't mind helping a rookie, I'd be very appreciative :)

Spoiler:

Some more ideas for quests:
- unique weapons/rewards for either outcome of the main quest. Perhaps a sniper rifle that does additional damage against abominations for wiping the Deathclaws out/unique Guantlet for attacking NCR?
- in order to make the deal between NCR and the Deathclaws you'd have to have a relatively high rep with the NCR and pass a moderate speech check.
- I'm thinking about if the player does side with the Deathclaws (there'd be a group of jingoistic Deathclaws, not unlike the hardliners in the Mojave BOS) it could lead to an attack on one of the minor NCR bases. Maybe then secure an alliance with Legion? I don't know, I don't want to get ahead of myself.

As has been mentioned prior, it would probably make sense - seeing as though most of these deathclaws would be descendants of Gorris, that at least some of them would be albino coloured, so I'm guessing that's going to require some additional work.

Why be "descendants" of Goris? Why not just be Goris?

@"cyber_funk" I'm easy either way. I was originally planning on having a quest based around Gorris' disappearance, linking it in to the unexplained Enclave armour. I wouldn't mind doing him instead, but I'd have to figure out a way to script his iconic cloak in :/

really AWOP had a taking death claw? i really got to play that more then, thats just awsome

I hope something can come out of this, it's a really neat idea, maybe when you're idolized by them, you can choose whether they fight with you or stay behind during the battle of Hoover Dam, would be neat to get some custom voice acting and work in an ending slide for 'em too.

I'll help in any way I can, the best I can do is create retextures, perks, simple companion scripts and working custom lip sync for NPCs.