Denver design document / 5 This is part 5 of the Denver design document for " Van Buren " , the canceled " Fallout 3 " by Black Isle Studios . Scripting . Scripting covers a number of elements : Note that there may be some scripting - specific information for NPCs , audio , art requirements and so on that may be listed there . General . There are some general scripting issues . . . Wacky Scripting : If you get the klaxon / dogs quest finished , all the dogs leave town , but the random encounters with dogs outside of town in the nearby areas goes up . If you reactivate the Box ' s robot factor , robots start appearing ( see spawn , below ) , eventually driving out all human inhabitants ( dogs and lizards remain because they don ' t attack the robots and aren ' t seen as a threat ) . Cut Scenes : There will be a cut scene at the Box if Bombay Jack and / or the traitor salvagers aren ' t dealt with before you go to the Box . The cut scene involves you , the traitor salvagers , and Bombay Jack . Note : Be sure to include animations and IDs to the art for scriptors contained within the cut - scene description . If Jack blows up his lair , we ' ll need a FMV of the building blowing up , and a script change to make the map a field of rubble with your characters scattered through it , severely injured . Respawning : Dogs and lizards spawn and respawn . Dogs continue to respawn until you kill them all . Lizards respawn everywhere ; except if you finish the " kill the lizards " quest they no longer respawn at the New Camp . Once you breach the Box and the robot factory reactivates , robots start to spawn and take up spots on every single map , including random maps . They move to react to threats , so once a group ( like the salvagers ) attacks them , the robots will overwhelm and imprison them , with some guys escaping to the hills to never be seen again . Difficulty Level / PC level / Multiplayer : At higher difficulties , PC levels , and in multiplayer games , the number of dogs in random encounters are greater and the dogs are tougher . Likewise , the power level of the NCR soldiers , Rival Salvagers , and Caesar ' s Legion goes up in these cases . Event Stuff : Once the Legion guys are discovered in Denver , every month that passes has a 25 % chance that they ' ve left to go back to Caesar , including taking all their slaves with them . This means the PC might not be able to grab Daniel . Eventually the traitor salvagers are going to make their own strike at the Box . The PC will be able to hear these interactions over the radio . Unless the PC can get there quickly , it ' ll be over by the time the PC gets there , and the traitor salvagers will have been sniped or bombed by Jack and he ' ll be in the process of stripping their corpses ( or done doing so ) . If the PC uses Dogbody ' s BITE - ME bomb within the New Camp , within an hour the place is overrun with dogs and the salvagers are forced to flee Denver forever . Their camp remains overrun with dogs for several weeks . Eventually Dogbody attacks the PC , regardless of how friendly or helpful the PC used to be . ARGOS comes by on his rounds , looking for the PC . If Daniel or the other prisoner is there , he grabs them , too . Cool Shit . The Cool Shit section is just that - - what ' s cool about this area ? For starters , you should be able to say in one or two sentences why a player would remember this location . If you were a player , what would make you want to " play " this location ? What would make you " glad " you played this location ? What keeps the PC coming back ? More stuff to loot , more trading with the salvagers . The Box . Dealing with Bombay Jack . The NCR guys . Working on fixing the train . Starting trade agreements with the salvagers & NCR . Convincing them to go to New Canaan to work . Handouts : Riot & plague documents , background on the DCPD K - 9 program , correspondence from before the war ( the woman writing to her soldier husband , for example ) . Vehicles : If we go with the police car option , this is the place to get it , since we have a police station motor pool with several vehicles that can be salvaged for parts . Train : If you get the train running , you can take it anywhere from Fort Abandon to Boulder immediately , but any other place ( Hoover Dam , Reservation , New Canaan ) requires working to repair the tracks that are out along the way . Task List . The Tasks section is a list of all the work that needs to be done for the area . It is a good summary for the producer , other designers , artists , and programmers as to what has been done in the area , who to check with if you have questions about certain tasks , and so on . This section is only useful if it is used . If we ' re several months into the project and no one has been using it , then it will no longer be used or updated . There ' s no sense in wasting time doing additional bookkeeping if it ' s serving no purpose . Location Checklist . Each area document will also have a Location Checklist . In Fallout 3 , we need to make sure that each character type has an equally enjoyable role - playing experience in each location ( evil characters and stupid characters are usually given the short end of the stick ; the rewards for these types of characters are usually unbalanced when compared to the goody - two - shoes characters ) . No more ! In addition , there were a few skills and statistics in Fallout 1 and 2 that didn ' t see enough use by the designers . As an example , Charisma wasn ' t nearly as useful as most of the other statistics in Fallout 1 , and the Doctor Skill was as useless as a third thumb in both Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 . If we take care to see that each stat and skill can be used effectively design - wise in each location in the game , then I think these stats can gain back some of the ground they ' ve lost over the past few games . That ' s what the location checklist is for . The location checklist is a glorified grocery list , covering a number of the role - playing possibilities for each " kind " of character the player may have chosen ( Stealth Boy , Science Boy , Combat Boy , Charisma Boy ) . This checklist is intended to insure each kind of character has something cool to do in each location , and that the rewards and role - playing experiences for each location are balanced whether the player is good or evil , stupid or smart , a combat monster or a science guy . Designers don ' t have to make sure that each entry is checked off for each location – " as long as they make up for it in another of their locations in the game . " The exception to this rule is for early areas of the game , since those are the first areas the players will encounter , and I want their character to have a rich role - playing experience all - around right from the start . ( If the player went through three early areas , and his Doctor skill isn ' t used once , then he ' s going to be sorry he took it . ) My prototype checklist consists of the following entries : Room for Improvement . Also be sure to include hooks for " room for improvement . " This section may change depending on how Ferret thinks it should be organized . Room for Improvement : You can repair stuff at the train station , getting the tracks fixed and the train , after which it ' s a working train station and can have guests . If you get the connection fixed all the way to NCR and establish trade with them , they ' ll actually post a small military squad here . End Movies . Each area document will also have a list of possible End Movies depending on what the character did in the location . This section should contain : Note : Over the course of the project , you may wish to collect art that may be appropriate for an end movie slideshow and just keep it stored in a folder on the server or locally . A quick example is provided below : WHERE TO GO CONDITIONS 1 . NUKE DESTROYS DENVER ! ( WTG ) 2 . DOG CITY ( WTG ) 3 . DOG CITY mk 2 ( WTG ) 4 . FORT DENVER ESTABLISHED ! ( WTG ) 5 . DOG CITY mk 3 ! ( WTG ) 6 . FORT DENVER ESTABLISHED ! Mk 2 ( WTG ) 7 . FORT DENVER ESTABLISHED ! Mk 3 ( WTG ) 8 . GHOUL CITY ( WTG ) Random Notes . This section is just for random notes you ' ve made on the location - brainstorming ideas or whatever . It ' s like a word junkyard for stuff you might use or might not , but you haven ' t ruled them out yet . Appendix . Include a summary of changes you ' ve done in a document at the end , and dump it into the Source Safe comments , if you can . Chances are , you ' ll have to email this information to certain people on the team , so it ' s worthwhile to record here . 8 / 11 / 01 – finished quests , last ragtag bits 8 / 6 / 01 – rearranged NPCs so most of them were generic 8 / 1 / 01 – added maps 7 / 1 / 01 – added quest ideas 06 - 25 - 01 – Fallout Location Template document created .