For anyone having trouble with the quest not starting, here is a checklist of things to look at.
Mods that change the Trouble on the Homefront quest can interfere with this mod. Check that you haven't installed anything that does.
Be sure that you've met ALL quest requirements, such as completing Trouble on the Homefront peacefully (not sabotaging the vault or killing Amata).
If you're in Megaton, be sure that you're waiting outside, such as by the bomb (not in a building).
Also, if you're in Megaton it must be the original Megaton (some overhaul mods replace Megaton with a revamped copy, meaning that you could be in the copy while the messenger is waiting for you in the original).
If you satisfied all the requirements and the quest still isn't starting, as a last resort you can try to start the quest manually by opening the console (press the tilde ~ key) and entering:
SetStage xx00154D 5
(xx is the mod load index, such as 01 if it loads right after Fallout3.esm.
So I got past the Amata saving mission (SOMEHOW) and... Eh, how do I put this...
1. I'd put up with bad VA work, if it was just VA, instead of most of the mod being done with text-to-speech. I mean, you couldn't even jury-rig some Amata voicelines from game files? 2. The first mission in somewhat easy enough, but the difficulty spike is RIDICULOUS during prison break-out mission. Especially for players who don't invest in energy weapon skill, not only is ammo scarce and insufficient for how tough enemies are, the weapons given by the mod after escaping the cell feel weak. Nevermind the amount of times I had to look up walkthrough, 'cause there's tons of little things I don't notice, as they tend to blend with the background. I'm on level 31, BTW, with Almost Perfect perk at my disposal and I still ate s#*!, 'cause enemies are way more efficient with energy guns than I am. 3. This is one of the mods that causes much more frequent random crashes, in my case.
I appreciate the idea, but it's just not something I'd recommend. Sorry, man.
"I mean, you couldn't even jury-rig some Amata voicelines from game files?"
No. The characters have unique and meaningful dialog related to quests and lore, so it's not like cobbling together a few standard phrases for a simple companion. As the mod page says, if you don't care for some (or all) or the voices, just delete the folders for those files and have silent speech like many other mods do. You have a choice.
"The first mission in somewhat easy enough, but the difficulty spike is RIDICULOUS during prison break-out mission. Especially for players who don't invest in energy weapon skill, not only is ammo scarce and insufficient for how tough enemies are, the weapons given by the mod after escaping the cell feel weak."
I can only say that the volunteer testers completed all the quests at different difficult levels, including Very Hard, with various skill sets. My own test character didn't use energy weapons, so had little or no skill with them. That's not needed to finish the missions. Perhaps you have some difficulty mods installed that would affect your experience.
"Nevermind the amount of times I had to look up walkthrough..."
It's great that the walkthrough was helpful to you! That's why it's there.
"This is one of the mods that causes much more frequent random crashes, in my case."
It's not a problem that was noted during play testing, but settings, mods, and history (chance for save files to get corrupted over time) vary from player to player. I'm sorry that you had trouble.
"I appreciate the idea, but it's just not something I'd recommend."
The mod's not for everyone, but thanks for taking the time to leave your thoughts, and for doing so constructively and politely. Happy adventuring!
Any idea if this works with TTW? really wanna check this out but I have TTW and when I install it the main menu screen doesnt seem to want to pop up I turn it off and my game works i dont see anyone here talk about TTW soo im not sure what to do about it :(
im in the enclaive truth serum base and while escaping I found a stash key. it says to destroy anything that looks out of place. I have looked everywhere for said thing. Does anyone know where the thing is I need to destroy for the stash items??
That doesn't sound like this mod. It does not have any truth serum or any "stash key". You are not told to "destroy anything that looks out of place". This mod does add an Enclave base, which has a "Bunk Room Key", but its use is obvious.
Finished my second playthrough this mod (the first one was around 2010), and man, I did like that time but now I see the mod aged a LOT. It has good ideas but it deserved more polishment in my opinion.
My main grip's were: 1 - EXAGERATED difficult, i played around lvl 29 and man, that enclave base was a pain in the *** to beat, the enemies had a lot of health AND to top of that, you did make Amata being killable so she was dying in matter of seconds (why dont you did her being essential???)... the outside base were a drag to pass (my FO3 were vanilla, normal difficult). The Red Cave were lame with three overloaded bosses at SAME time, and my build were critical focus, it take 32 shots in the HEAD with a shotgun at 58 damage to kill ONE bear for f*** sake; 2 - The AI voices are kind of bad now, could be recorded again, since we have I a more sophisticated AI voices nowadays; 3 - The dialogue is weird, the NPC's doesnt talk as human beings; 4 - That power armor from Enclave is pretty bad, doesnt have mesh when dropped, in the bodies are bug or just vanish plus it has bad textures.... to be honest, it would be better the vanilla enclave armors;
It has cool ideas mod but playing now isnt so good sadly.
I'm glad to hear that you've enjoyed the mod in the past, and I thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts. I'm sorry that you're sad now.
1. From your remarks, it sounds like you had a good time on your first playthrough (great!). If it seemed overly difficult now, that might be due to having difficulty/balance mods installed this time for a combined effect that could be overwhelming.
The description does warn that this mod intentionally offers a challenging experience for well-developed characters, and that the presence of other mods that also increase difficulty by amplifying damage/cripple effects could have undesirable results. Keep in mind that, unless stated otherwise, mods are designed and tested against the base game (it was tested on various difficulty settings, including the hardest). The presence of multiple mods that increase difficulty can stack until gameplay is too tough to be enjoyable. If so, then as the mod description suggests, temporarily reducing the game difficulty setting can help offset the effect of those mods.
Amata is killable because this is a rescue & escort mission. If she were unkillable, failure would be impossible unless you die yourself, and the mod already gives you one unkillable companion for the quest -- players really shouldn't need two. The design rewards thoughtful play. As with any escort mission, your target must be protected, so have her wait in a safe place while you clear the threats. In this mod she's a vault administrator, not a fighter, and certainly not a veteran adventurer.
2. Yes, it's a mod built in 2010. Speech software has advanced greatly since then. However, some of the newer stuff is not free, and there are copyright/ethical concerns depending on how some AI voices are created. If someone would like to provide a speech pack, I'd be happy to post it here as an optional download and credit that person, as long as it's a simple sound replacement (no changes to wording).
3. "The dialogue is weird, the NPC's doesnt talk as human beings" Um, okay. This comment is surprising. In the mod's 14 years, I've not seen this thought expressed, except for the one from just a week ago. Any examples of (human) NPCs not "talking as human beings"? The mod's writing generally matches the style of the base game, so naturally it will differ from speech that might be encountered on social media or college campuses today.
4. The special armor for the elite Enclave forces is from another mod, used with permission, to give those guys a different look. While it's imperfect, it's only seen for part of one quest. By the time a player is ready to play this mod, the PC presumably will have better gear, so that armor's only value after the quest would possibly be as a trophy.
I think the right word isnt sad, its more "dissapointed" I guess? I REALLY liked when you released this mod, but now I think after I played so many mods along the years (New Vegas Bounties, Legacy Of Dragonborn, Enderal, Sim Settlements 2 and others) and with so high quality I find it strange play this today. Its absolutely another era of modding and this I know, but I think the idea deserved being updated (maybe if Fallout 3 Remaster is released, do you think you would update this mod?). And wasnt only with your mod, I did played last year the Heart of Darkness from Oblivion and though I had liked too when released back in 2009 now it has aged lot too.
Anyway, about the points your commented: 1 - My game is vanilla only and in normal difficult, so in my view your mod is very disbalanced from the rest of the game, I completed every quest before your mod and though the game has some enemies with large HP pools, its only 1 per fight instead of yours which has a lot together (the red cave being the worst offender in this matter).
The problem with Amata is she just run to the fights randomly independently if your tell her to wait , two examples: - First time when you rescue her, I tell her to wait in the cell, I go fight the two enclave plus the turret (which has a ridiculous amount of HP) and out nowhere she came running in the middle of fight and get killed.... - Second time when you go outside the base, I tell her to wait in the room before, when I go out she still follow me and I need to talk to her again, tell to follow and go back inside again.... i had to do this three times.
2 - Fair enough.
3 - I think the main problem is it "split's" from the rest of the game, the characters (specially Amata and Gomes) has a "way" of speaking in the vanilla game and in this mod they sounds weird or as another person to be honest (I think the best one was Susie in the vault entrance). The AI voice really doesnt help in this case, so I dont know if is text or the voice the main problem here.
4 - I understand your intention and makes sense, but the mod armor still low quality and bugged a LOT visually, like some enemies being completely invisible or when dying only the hands and head appearing in the corpse, its very immersion breaking this kind of thing. I had used other custom armors mods and wasnt so bad as this one.
Yours was the only quest mod in my playthrough so it was a strange break from the main game flow, maybe this affected my view too.
Besides all that, still nice to see the vault 101 again :)
Regarding the mod's difficulty ("My game is vanilla only and in normal difficult, so in my view your mod is very disbalanced from the rest of the game"), we agree here. As the description says, "the difficulty is intended to be above average, for well-developed characters seeking a challenge." I found the vanilla game to be disappointingly easy, so I set out to make the kind of mod that I would enjoy playing. I would encourage players who find that they're struggling to either reconsider their tactics or temporarily lower the game's difficulty setting if they prefer to just finish the quests quickly.
Your experience with Amata's follower AI is surprising and different from what we saw during play testing. As long as she was in another room, she would stay. It was very possible to rescue her without her taking any damage at all. I can't explain why your experience was so different, but I can see how it would be frustrating. Followers really shouldn't do that.
The artificial voices might explain why some NPC speech felt different. If players find it bothersome, one option is to delete the voice files provided by this mod for some or all NPCs and just have silent text, like quite a few other FO3 mods do. Gomez has taken on some new responsibilities, so it seems appropriate that his attitude would be a little more serious here.
Regarding the new Enclave armor, your experience was again different from mine, and I don't know why that would be. There haven't been many negative comments about that armor in the past, so it's strange that it looked so bad for you. I recall that the proportions were off, especially around the neck, but I didn't see disappearing parts. I can't explain the difference.
"Yours was the only quest mod in my playthrough...." I'm honored, thank you. I'm sorry that you had some weird behavior that was different from anything that I experienced at the time.
Hi, does this mod conflict with the Amata follower mod at all? I was thinking about using that mod, and it says you recruit Amata during Trouble on the Homefront. Sorry if this has been answered before
This mod avoids a direct conflict by using its own separate copy of Amata. So, you can safely use Amata as a follower if you don't mind the logical disconnect of having two Amatas in the same place on a few occasions or hearing about Amata's accomplishments in the vault when she was simultaneously adventuring with you.
Mod's puzzles are ridiculously hard and tedious. The npc voices are also really jarring with how synthetic they sound. Writing for dialogue is also very formal, doesn't sound human in sentence structure. If the puzzles weren't a thing and the dialogue writing and voices were fixed, mod would be great.
They should set up a clinic in Vault 101, so normally they would be there if you got them to the vault. If you lost them along the way, I suggest backtracking to where you saw them last. You should find them there or along the route you took. Get them to follow you again, and don't get too far ahead of them.
Great mod. The story is good, the characters are likeable and u get to return to vault 101 in a much more appropriate way than the stupid ''trouble on the homefront'' side quest. I also like the fact that I had to fight my way out of the enclave base (though it was a bit too hard at times).
Hint: make sure u rescued Amata before clearing your way up to the locked door because otherwise she will glitch and teleport upstairs, thus making impossible for you to actually rescue her... Instead, free her as soon as u kill the commandant and just tell her to wait
2071 comments
Mods that change the Trouble on the Homefront quest can interfere with this mod. Check that you haven't installed anything that does.
Be sure that you've met ALL quest requirements, such as completing Trouble on the Homefront peacefully (not sabotaging the vault or killing Amata).
If you're in Megaton, be sure that you're waiting outside, such as by the bomb (not in a building).
Also, if you're in Megaton it must be the original Megaton (some overhaul mods replace Megaton with a revamped copy, meaning that you could be in the copy while the messenger is waiting for you in the original).
If you satisfied all the requirements and the quest still isn't starting, as a last resort you can try to start the quest manually by opening the console (press the tilde ~ key) and entering:
SetStage xx00154D 5
(xx is the mod load index, such as 01 if it loads right after Fallout3.esm.
1. I'd put up with bad VA work, if it was just VA, instead of most of the mod being done with text-to-speech. I mean, you couldn't even jury-rig some Amata voicelines from game files?
2. The first mission in somewhat easy enough, but the difficulty spike is RIDICULOUS during prison break-out mission. Especially for players who don't invest in energy weapon skill, not only is ammo scarce and insufficient for how tough enemies are, the weapons given by the mod after escaping the cell feel weak. Nevermind the amount of times I had to look up walkthrough, 'cause there's tons of little things I don't notice, as they tend to blend with the background. I'm on level 31, BTW, with Almost Perfect perk at my disposal and I still ate s#*!, 'cause enemies are way more efficient with energy guns than I am.
3. This is one of the mods that causes much more frequent random crashes, in my case.
I appreciate the idea, but it's just not something I'd recommend. Sorry, man.
No. The characters have unique and meaningful dialog related to quests and lore, so it's not like cobbling together a few standard phrases for a simple companion. As the mod page says, if you don't care for some (or all) or the voices, just delete the folders for those files and have silent speech like many other mods do. You have a choice.
"The first mission in somewhat easy enough, but the difficulty spike is RIDICULOUS during prison break-out mission. Especially for players who don't invest in energy weapon skill, not only is ammo scarce and insufficient for how tough enemies are, the weapons given by the mod after escaping the cell feel weak."
I can only say that the volunteer testers completed all the quests at different difficult levels, including Very Hard, with various skill sets. My own test character didn't use energy weapons, so had little or no skill with them. That's not needed to finish the missions. Perhaps you have some difficulty mods installed that would affect your experience.
"Nevermind the amount of times I had to look up walkthrough..."
It's great that the walkthrough was helpful to you! That's why it's there.
"This is one of the mods that causes much more frequent random crashes, in my case."
It's not a problem that was noted during play testing, but settings, mods, and history (chance for save files to get corrupted over time) vary from player to player. I'm sorry that you had trouble.
"I appreciate the idea, but it's just not something I'd recommend."
The mod's not for everyone, but thanks for taking the time to leave your thoughts, and for doing so constructively and politely. Happy adventuring!
My main grip's were:
1 - EXAGERATED difficult, i played around lvl 29 and man, that enclave base was a pain in the *** to beat, the enemies had a lot of health AND to top of that, you did make Amata being killable so she was dying in matter of seconds (why dont you did her being essential???)... the outside base were a drag to pass (my FO3 were vanilla, normal difficult). The Red Cave were lame with three overloaded bosses at SAME time, and my build were critical focus, it take 32 shots in the HEAD with a shotgun at 58 damage to kill ONE bear for f*** sake;
2 - The AI voices are kind of bad now, could be recorded again, since we have I a more sophisticated AI voices nowadays;
3 - The dialogue is weird, the NPC's doesnt talk as human beings;
4 - That power armor from Enclave is pretty bad, doesnt have mesh when dropped, in the bodies are bug or just vanish plus it has bad textures.... to be honest, it would be better the vanilla enclave armors;
It has cool ideas mod but playing now isnt so good sadly.
1. From your remarks, it sounds like you had a good time on your first playthrough (great!). If it seemed overly difficult now, that might be due to having difficulty/balance mods installed this time for a combined effect that could be overwhelming.
The description does warn that this mod intentionally offers a challenging experience for well-developed characters, and that the presence of other mods that also increase difficulty by amplifying damage/cripple effects could have undesirable results. Keep in mind that, unless stated otherwise, mods are designed and tested against the base game (it was tested on various difficulty settings, including the hardest). The presence of multiple mods that increase difficulty can stack until gameplay is too tough to be enjoyable. If so, then as the mod description suggests, temporarily reducing the game difficulty setting can help offset the effect of those mods.
Amata is killable because this is a rescue & escort mission. If she were unkillable, failure would be impossible unless you die yourself, and the mod already gives you one unkillable companion for the quest -- players really shouldn't need two. The design rewards thoughtful play. As with any escort mission, your target must be protected, so have her wait in a safe place while you clear the threats. In this mod she's a vault administrator, not a fighter, and certainly not a veteran adventurer.
2. Yes, it's a mod built in 2010. Speech software has advanced greatly since then. However, some of the newer stuff is not free, and there are copyright/ethical concerns depending on how some AI voices are created. If someone would like to provide a speech pack, I'd be happy to post it here as an optional download and credit that person, as long as it's a simple sound replacement (no changes to wording).
3. "The dialogue is weird, the NPC's doesnt talk as human beings" Um, okay. This comment is surprising. In the mod's 14 years, I've not seen this thought expressed, except for the one from just a week ago. Any examples of (human) NPCs not "talking as human beings"? The mod's writing generally matches the style of the base game, so naturally it will differ from speech that might be encountered on social media or college campuses today.
4. The special armor for the elite Enclave forces is from another mod, used with permission, to give those guys a different look. While it's imperfect, it's only seen for part of one quest. By the time a player is ready to play this mod, the PC presumably will have better gear, so that armor's only value after the quest would possibly be as a trophy.
I think the right word isnt sad, its more "dissapointed" I guess?
I REALLY liked when you released this mod, but now I think after I played so many mods along the years (New Vegas Bounties, Legacy Of Dragonborn, Enderal, Sim Settlements 2 and others) and with so high quality I find it strange play this today. Its absolutely another era of modding and this I know, but I think the idea deserved being updated (maybe if Fallout 3 Remaster is released, do you think you would update this mod?).
And wasnt only with your mod, I did played last year the Heart of Darkness from Oblivion and though I had liked too when released back in 2009 now it has aged lot too.
Anyway, about the points your commented:
1 - My game is vanilla only and in normal difficult, so in my view your mod is very disbalanced from the rest of the game, I completed every quest before your mod and though the game has some enemies with large HP pools, its only 1 per fight instead of yours which has a lot together (the red cave being the worst offender in this matter).
The problem with Amata is she just run to the fights randomly independently if your tell her to wait , two examples:
- First time when you rescue her, I tell her to wait in the cell, I go fight the two enclave plus the turret (which has a ridiculous amount of HP) and out nowhere she came running in the middle of fight and get killed....
- Second time when you go outside the base, I tell her to wait in the room before, when I go out she still follow me and I need to talk to her again, tell to follow and go back inside again.... i had to do this three times.
2 - Fair enough.
3 - I think the main problem is it "split's" from the rest of the game, the characters (specially Amata and Gomes) has a "way" of speaking in the vanilla game and in this mod they sounds weird or as another person to be honest (I think the best one was Susie in the vault entrance). The AI voice really doesnt help in this case, so I dont know if is text or the voice the main problem here.
4 - I understand your intention and makes sense, but the mod armor still low quality and bugged a LOT visually, like some enemies being completely invisible or when dying only the hands and head appearing in the corpse, its very immersion breaking this kind of thing. I had used other custom armors mods and wasnt so bad as this one.
Yours was the only quest mod in my playthrough so it was a strange break from the main game flow, maybe this affected my view too.
Besides all that, still nice to see the vault 101 again :)
Your experience with Amata's follower AI is surprising and different from what we saw during play testing. As long as she was in another room, she would stay. It was very possible to rescue her without her taking any damage at all. I can't explain why your experience was so different, but I can see how it would be frustrating. Followers really shouldn't do that.
The artificial voices might explain why some NPC speech felt different. If players find it bothersome, one option is to delete the voice files provided by this mod for some or all NPCs and just have silent text, like quite a few other FO3 mods do. Gomez has taken on some new responsibilities, so it seems appropriate that his attitude would be a little more serious here.
Regarding the new Enclave armor, your experience was again different from mine, and I don't know why that would be. There haven't been many negative comments about that armor in the past, so it's strange that it looked so bad for you. I recall that the proportions were off, especially around the neck, but I didn't see disappearing parts. I can't explain the difference.
"Yours was the only quest mod in my playthrough...." I'm honored, thank you. I'm sorry that you had some weird behavior that was different from anything that I experienced at the time.
Hint: make sure u rescued Amata before clearing your way up to the locked door because otherwise she will glitch and teleport upstairs, thus making impossible for you to actually rescue her... Instead, free her as soon as u kill the commandant and just tell her to wait