Fallout 4: Capital Wasteland - Fallout 4 Overhaul Mod
What is Fallout 4: Capital Wasteland?
Long ago in an ancient and chaotic time period known as the 00’s, Bethesda and Zenimax attained the rights to a game called Fallout: A Post-Apocalyptic Role-Playing Game from Interplay and Black Isle Studios. In 2008, they released their first installation into the franchise: Fallout 3.
Now, nearly 10 years later, we want to keep the first 3D entry alive and kicking by updating and bringing it into the current generation of gaming and graphics by rebuilding the entire Capital Wasteland – complete with quests, dialogue, and all locations- into Fallout 4’s Creation Engine.
What Did I Work On For Fallout 4: Capital Wasteland?
I contribute consistently to the exterior and interior level design efforts of the Capital Wasteland team, recreating and sometimes improving the exterior and interior environments of Fallout 3’s Capital Wasteland. I was put in charge of the recreation of multiple areas around the open-world of the capital wasteland including Little Lamplight, Temple of the Union, and Oasis.
Level Designer
My main focus while working on the project was level design. I was hired primarily for Exterior Level Design, but also did Interior work as well. I worked on the swathing desolate environments that call the capital wasteland home. I worked in the terrain system as well as working with models and kitbashing to bring the various environments I worked in up to the level of quality expected.
What Did I Learn from Fallout 4: Capital Wasteland?
- CREATION KIT / ENGINE VERSIONS – Though there are many differences between different engines, I have not experienced massive differences between individual engines. During the course of F4CW’s development I spent a lot of time working in both Fallout 4’s Creation Kit as well as Fallout 3’s G.E.C.K. they are both versions of the same engine, but both massively different. There was a wide variety of work done to translate the content from the GECK to the F4 Creation Kit, especially when it comes to quests. This I think has helped me learn some things when it comes to working in proprietary engines. It also helped me learn a lot about the Creation Kit itself which has helped me with future Bethesda mod projects.
- TECHNICAL ROAD BLOCKS – During the development of Fallout 4: Capital Wasteland, the Fallout 4 Next-Gen Update was released. This caused a wide variety of technical issues and obstacles that needed to be overcome, so development could continue while the issues were fixed. This allowed me the unique opportunity to work on an in-development engine basically, as I had to work around the technical limitations that were set until that was fixed. These kind of technical road blocks are a lot more common when building a game rather than modding it, so I found the experience quite informative as a designer.
Exteriors - Level Design
I used the Creation Kit engine to recreate the exteriors and some interiors from these locations. Each location was built out by hand using assets recreated by the talented artists on the F4CW team. Each location required additional work on the terrain and nav-mesh which needed severe updates from previous iterations.
Tools Used / Learned
- Creation Kit
- CK Terrain Editor
Skills Used / Learned
- Level Design
- Nav-Meshing