Lost Hills

**Lost Hills**, otherwise known as the **Lost Hills Brotherhood**, is a major power and serves as the primary Brotherhood of Steel chapter in *Old World Blues*. Situated in Southern California, it starts with extremely little land, industry, and military, surrounded on all sides by the New California Republic and her allies. However, they have the potential to grow into not only a major player in California, but the rest of America, allowing them to regroup with their various chapters and complete their mission without outside interference, though one must be cautious, otherwise they will fall to the Bear and be nothing but a forgotten memory.

## Historical background

Their resounding victory over the Enclave at Navarro gave the Brotherhood much to celebrate, but the following years were punishing. Jeremy Maxson died suddenly, and his successor Jonathan Maxson was killed in action. The next Maxson had been sent east to D.C., and so the Elders were forced to choose one of their own. Mari Törni, a Navarro veteran, was chosen to lead.

Brotherhood operations remain the same: discover tech, steal tech, kill those who disagree. They're expanding their sphere of influence to include the Shi, the Mojave Chapter, and Arroyo. The NCR watches with caution.
- Scenarios country selection screen quote
## Starting Position

### Geography

Lost Hills starts with only 4 tiles in Western California. Three of these tiles are covered entirely of plains, with very little variation in the surrounding area. It's Capital, Lost Hills Bunker, is found in an urban area.

Lost Hills is surrounded entirely by the New California Republic on all sides. The surrounding area located in NCR territory is made up of plains and urban areas, with mountains more to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south.

### Faction and Allies

Lost Hills is the founder and only member of the Western Brotherhood of Steel Faction. They are unable to gain more members at game start, though throughout the course of the game, can invite other Brotherhood Chapters into the faction via focuses. They start with neutral relations with almost all of the wasteland. They start with negative relations with Broken Coast, Heaven's Gate, Mirelurk Tribe, and The Apostles. The only nation they start with positive relations with is the New California Republic, with whom they share a Non-Aggression Pact with at the start of the game.

### Military Industry

Lost Hills starts with 6 Military Factories, allocated with 1 each to Infantry Equipment (Laser Pistol), Power Armor (Stripped-PA), Anti-Tank Equipment (Anti-Tank Rifles), Fireteam Equipment (Makeshift Squad Automatic Weapon), Demolitions Equipment (Dynamite), and Support Equipment.

### Divisions and Division Templates

Lost Hills starts with these division templates:

* Brotherhood Patrol (4 Enforcer battalions)
* Lost Hills Combat Armour Detachment (5 Infantry battalions)
* Lost Hills Power Armour Detachment (6 Power Armor battalions)

Lost Hills starts with 6 divisions:

* 1 Lost Hills Power Armour Detachment, 200% equipped and Veterans experience.
* 1 Lost Hills Power Armour Detachment, 100% equipped and Veterans experience.
* 3 Lost Hills Combat Armour Detachment, 200% equipped and Veterans experience.
* 1 Lost Hills Combat Armor Detachment, 100% equipped and Veterans experience.

## Politics

### Staff and Designers

**Research Advisors**

 **Knight Adam Syx**

* Army Experience Gain: **+0.05** daily
 **Scribe Hamilton**

* Army Experience Gain: **+0.05** daily
 **Scribe Hutchinson**

* Research Speed: **+2.00%**

## Economy

Starting Industry

Starting Resources

Despite having decent starting resources, especially for a nation of its size, Lost Hill's industry pales in comparison to other major powers such as the New California Republic and Caesar's Legion. It only starts with 4 military factories and 4 civilian factories, with only 3 being able to be used for building or trade. Along with a poor economy, the national spirits *Knightly Confusion* and *Lost Hills-NCR Tension* reduce both factory output and construction speed. If Lost Hills is to stand a chance, it will need to bide time in order to remove these debuffs and slowly build its economy, though one should not expect to reach the same level as the NCR without going to war and taking land.

### Bottle Cap Economy

As with much of the wasteland, Lost Hills utilizes the Bottle Caps as its primary currency. It gives the player a +5 passive caps bonus, though as it is the most commonly used income in the wasteland, the benefits stop there.

**Bottle caps**

* Passive Caps : **+5**

**Starting Monetary Economy**

* Gross Income: **+14.00k** Bottle Caps
* Quarterly Expenses: **-0.87k** Bottle Caps
* Quarterly Profit: **14.26k** Bottle Caps

**Starting Trading Nodes**

Lost Hills does not start with any trading nodes. The closest trading nodes are found in The Hub and The Boneyard to the East in the New California Republic, and San Francisco to the West in The Shi

## Focus Tree

With over 400+ focuses, Lost Hills has the largest unique focus tree in-game as of update 4.0. It is split into 1 starting branch, 13 main branches, and 11 sub-branches. All 11 sub-branches deal with Lost Hill's interactions with the various Brotherhood Chapters scattered throughout the world. Because the sub-branches all play the same, and are linked to a unique Lost Hill system, they will be covered more in-depth in the Unique Systems/Events section below, as not to make the focus tree section even longer.

**One Fateful Bullet Starting Branch**

**Gunrunner Blueprints Branch**

**New Expeditions Branch**

**Learning from the NCR-BoS War Branch**

**Elder Schemes Branch**

**New Reforms Branch**

**Our Right Branch**

**Brotherhood R&D Branch**

**Greater Reforms Branch**

**Advanced Scavenging Branch**

**Council Reforms Branch**

**Preparing for the Ceasefires End Branch**

**End the Ceasefire Branch**

**Future Attained Branch**

## Military

### Intelligence Agency

Lost Hills does not start with an Intelligence Agency, though they can form one at game start. They are able to get a maximum of two operatives, one once the Intelligence Agency is built, and a second when 4 upgrades to the Agency are purchased. This does mean that while the player can get access to intelligence through spying, the inability to gain a third operative means they will not be able to utilize many operations, and therefore cannot use the Agency to the best value.

## Unique Systems/Events

At game start, there are 4 unique systems and events that the player will want to pay attention to.

**Lost Hills Underground Management**

**Lost Hills Paladins**

**Lost Hills Politics**

**Lost Hills Diplomacy/Sub-Branches**

This section will be split up into two parts. The first section of Lost Hills Diplomacy revolves around the ceasefire with the New California Republic. Through decisions and focuses, Lost Hills can reduce or improve tension with the NCR. The decisions Rally Support and Seek Appeasement reduces stability or war support, respectfully, and boosts the other, as well as improving or reducing tension to a certain degree, the amount shown on the decision tab. It should be noted that tension in this instance is NOT the same as world tension; rather, it is a unique mechanic for Lost Hills in preparing for the NCR-BoS ceasefire to end. When Lost Hills reaches 100 tension, the focus **End the Ceasefire** can be taken, and Lost Hills will gain a war-goal on the NCR, as well as calling nearby chapters to help. The amount of tension Lost Hills has can be found by hovering over the *Lost Hills-NCR Tensions* spirit.

The second part of this section revolves around Brotherhood chapters, and this is where the Sub-Branches of the Lost Hills focus tree come into play. Lost Hills is able to work with Brotherhood chapters found throughout the wasteland. By completing either the **Long Range Communication or Long Range Research** focuses, they are able to unlock all 11 sub-branches, each branch for a different chapter. Each sub-branch gives Lost Hills manpower, resources, national spirits, and the ability to train more Paladins. Along with the sub-branches, Lost Hills is able to send volunteers to the different chapters to help them in their wars. The amount of volunteers that can be sent can be increased via the Underground Management. Lost Hills can finally invite and/or integrate the chapters into their faction near the end of their focus tree, giving them powerful allies. To keep track of what chapters are still alive, a Brotherhood of Steel Ledger can be found under the Miscellaneous Tabs on the main bar.

There are 3 things the players should be aware of with this system:

1. Some nations, such as the Washington Brotherhood and Mojave Chapter, have national spirits that prevent volunteers from being sent, usually taking until 2277 before they can be received. However, Lost Hills can still send Lend Leases to those nations even with the spirit active.
2. As of 4.0, some nations, such as the Midwest and Gulf Brotherhood, do not exist in game. Because of that, their sub-branches cannot be accessed past the first focus. These sub-branches will open up more as those chapters are added in future updates.
3. Several focuses and decisions for Lost Hills are dependent on if Chapters are still alive throughout the game. In addition, the focuses that increase Paladin limits can only be taken should those chapters survive past certain events or if certain areas are taken. Because of this, and given how many chapters have spirits preventing volunteer help, the player may not be able to get all available Paladin focuses due to the unpredictable nature of the game.

## Behind the scenes

* Lost Hills was created by Zusk and Garnithor, with the narrative and focus tree made by Zusk, and the systems Lost Hills utilizes made by Garnithor.
	+ The Lost Hills rework was concepted with the idea of reframing the gameplay as centering on a singular, but powerful, Brotherhood bunker that interacted with all of the other Brotherhood chapters in the mod. The rework was originally planned in October 2020, with the implementation being done throughout 2021-2022. The main idea was to bring the nation closer to canon, while still making them important, not only for California, but throughout all of the Fallout games.
	+ Garnithor assisted in developing the systems of the nation, such as the Paladins and the initial Underground Building systems.

## References

1. ↑ Zusk: *"No, Zusk & Garn
Garn did the system stuff, I did the tree & narrative"*
- Obtained from Discord, 6/10/2022
2. ↑ brotherhood\_nf.txt: *"#4.0 Tree by Zusk & Garnathor
#4.0:
#The Tree was changed greatly in patch 4.0 of Old World Blues. Which was the update that renamed the country to "Lost Hills".
#This was the update the reframed their gameplay to be centered on being a singular, but exceedingly powerful, bunker that interacted
#with all of the other chapters. This rework was accomplished by Zusk & Garnathor - originally planned out in October of 2020 and implemented across 2021 and 2022.
#As a designer, I mainly wanted to try out this design of the tree as a way to bring Lost Hills closer to canon as well as still give
#them a important purpose not just for california, but also for every other chapter on the map - to reflect the importance that all
#the chapters give the Lost Hills elders in most of the Fallout Games (Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 4, Fallout NV)
#Garnathor helped out a lot with extremely important systems work to help make the tree feel unique! He was the one that implemented the Paladins, and
#the one that initialaly designed the core of the Underground Building system!"*