Akello Fells
Game Designer
Wasteland Shopping District
This project aimed to create a new area on the map where the player can buy unique and balanced items.
Mod Trailer
The Store
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I created two new actors and used the faction system to make them both merchants. I then made two containers for their stock filling one with consumables and the other with weapons. Lastly, I gave them a counter and cash register to stand at.
Consumables
Super Stimpak
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For this item, I wanted to make a stronger way to heal the player. To make this happen I used the effect of the stimpack and extended its duration from 5 to 15 seconds.
After comparing the item to the stimpak I decided that the value should be worth two stimpak after taking into account that the item has a higher chance of being unnecessary.
Rad Eviction
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For this Item, I chose to make powerful chem used to conquer any radiated environment. To make this happen I took the effects from Radaway and Rad-x and doubled their usefulness.
The chem will fully heal existing rad and give resistance to it for 6 minutes. To Balance this I chose to make its value the value of both chems.
Cylinder
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For this item, I wanted to make a chem that increases gun lethality like the chem fury and melee weapons. To achieve my goal I created a chem that increases fire rate by 40% and increases reload speed by 20% for 5 Minutes.
I decided to use the same 70 value as Fury since the chem smaller duration but has no drawbacks.
Pack Mule
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For this item, I wanted to make an item that would allow me to make it to a shop with all of their items in a pinch without becoming encumbered. To achieve this goal I created an item that gives the player 50 more carry weight for 5 minutes.
Since this is an item that is more for the player's convenience, I decided to give the item an average value of 50.
Marsupial
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For this item, I wanted to create a wacky effect That allows the player to jump higher reminiscent of the mutation marsupial from Fallout 76.
To achieve this goal, I created a chem that gives the player 6 times the jump height and negates fall damage. To account for its effect and duration I gave the item an above average value of 80.
Weapons
When making weapons I first made rapid prototypes of each of the 8 weapons. I then took the time to balance each weapon. Weapons were made to fit a particular play style or an untouched niche.
Cowboy Revolver
The purpose of this weapon is to give the experience of a quick drawing cowboy. The gun will be more powerful than the 44 in terms of DPS but will have a less impressive ammo economy.
The gun will be designed for mid to late games with a high value. The gun should also have significant burst damage.
While using the 44. Revolver as a base I made these changes.
• Enabling automatic fire
• Increase fire rate by 250%.
• Getting rid of recoil.
• Increase accuracy by 100%.
• Decrease damage from 48 to 20.
• Increase reload speed by 50%
• Increase value from 85 to 130.
Method for balancing:
To ensure that the weapon is balanced I compared it to the 44. revolver. The fire rate of firing the entire cylinder of the cowboy revolver can be compared to firing a round of the 44. Revolver.
Since it should be valued higher and have less impressive ammo economy each shot will do 20 causing the player to do 120 damage for all 6 shots compared to the 48 damage for firing one bullet with the 44 while also accounting for reload speed.
Stun Gun
The goal of this weapon was to give the player the experience of using a stun gun. The weapon should allow the player to take the troubling enemy out of play for a few seconds. The weapon should not be effective without the use of another weapon.
The weapon also must make the player assume some sort of risk to get the desired outcome. Since paralysis is a powerful effect and since the weapon can be helpful to any build the value will be high.
While using the 10 mm pistol as a base I made these changes.
• Damage was decreased from 18 to 5.
• Clip size was decreased from 12 to 1.
• Reload speed was increased by 50%
• The number of projectiles increased from 1 to 2.
• The projectile was overridden by a custom projectile that uses the projectile model used for the alien blaster.
• Added an enhancement that gives the weapon a 15% chance to stun the enemy
• The gunfire sound effect has been changed to the fire sound of the syringer.
• The value was increased from 45 to 250.
• Created a custom ammo type
Method for balancing:
To balance this weapon I decided to make the weapon have a chance to paralyze as opposed to making 100 percent. This way the player will have to invest time and resources in firing multiple shots to get the desired outcome. After testing I decided an average of 3 shots was a fair amount of investment.
I chose to make the gun fire two projectiles to add an extra wrinkle to the gun. Now the player will have to hit both shots for the maximum chance to stun.
Tesla Cannon
The goal of this weapon was to give the player an energy weapon alternative for the rocket launcher reminiscent of but not the same as the Tesla cannon from previous Fallout games.
While using the Missile Launcher as a base I made these changes.
• The projectile was replaced by a blue laser that spawned a plasma explosion.
• Decreased the damage of the explosion from 135 to 110.
• Increase explosion inner radius from 150 to 170.
• Increase explosion outer radius from 500 to 600.
• Added damage-type energy weapon.
• The value was increased from 300 to 400.
Method for balancing:
Since this weapon was supposed to be a near equal to the Missile Launcher the key to balance was to account for the change in projectile. The weapon is easier to hit a decrease in damage was appropriate.
To lean into the increased accuracy the weapon was given a bigger explosion and more range. The weapon’s value was increased to account for the weapon being rarer.
Stim Pistol
The goal of this weapon is to provide a weapon for the players who would like to play the game with a more passive approach. The weapon should provide support to the player's allies.
While using the Flare Gun as a base I made these changes.
• Added an effect that will give the target health when shot.
• Changed weapons projectile to the projectile of the syringer
• Created its custom ammo valued at 10.
• Reduced damage from 10 to 1
• Increased value from 50 to 100
Method for balancing:
To balance this weapon I compared its healing potential to that of the Stimpak. I decided that the weapon should not be able to heal as much as the stimpak however it should heal faster to take advantage of the more action-packed use of the item.
Since the weapon cannot heal the player's character, I decided that the value of the ammo should be significantly less than the stimpak.
Vampire Claw
The goal of this weapon is to provide a melee weapon that can keep the player in the fight encouraging a more aggressive berserker playstyle. This weapon should also be the most powerful unarmed weapon.
While using the Death Claw gauntlet as a base I made these changes.
• Increased damage from 25 to 35
• Increased value from 75 to 200
• Added an effect that heals the player 12 health for 2 seconds for each melee attack
Method for balancing:
To balance this weapon, I put the player in different situations to find out who the player can defeat without the use of any healing items.
The weapon was balanced when the player could survive a fight with an evenly-matched opponent without
Grenade Launcher
The goal of this weapon is to create an explosive weapon for players who do not want to specialize in heavy weapons. The weapon should not have more damage per second than the missile launcher to account for the extra mobility that comes with not using a heavy weapon.
While using the Combat Rifle as a base I made these changes.
• Reduced Damage from 33 to 5
• Reduced Magazine size from 20 to 3
• Increased reload speed by 50%
• Enabled bolt action.
• Reduced fire rate by 20%
• Created a new custom projectile that fires an arrow-type explosive using the grenade model and explosion.
• The explosion damage was set to 50.
• Created its custom ammo.
Method for balancing:
To balance the weapon the grenade rifle was compared to grenades and the missile launcher.
I decided that making three shots from this weapon slightly stronger than a missile launcher was the perfect amount of damage. This method gave the weapon fewer dps but gave the weapon more chances to kill weaker targets.
Turret Launcher
The goal of this weapon was to give the player the ability to create a fleet of turrets in rare more tricky situations. The turrets should be good at helping to distract enemies and dealing with large groups. The Turrets should not be as powerful as the regular tripod turret.
While using the Junk Jet as a base I made these changes.
• Created a custom projectile using the model and explosion from the pulse grenade.
• Changed the explosion size.
• Allowed the explosion to spawn a custom turret.
• Reduced health value
• Reduced turrets range from 1500 to 1200.
• Allowed for the turret stats to scale with the player stats to allow the player to use it at any level.
• Created a custom ammo type valued at 40.
Method for balancing:
This weapon is balanced by the scarcity and value of the unique ammo the weapon uses. I used a weapon that is balanced in a comparable way to the Fat Man.
By comparing the 100 value of the mini-nuke I decided to make the turrets worth 40.
Assassin Dagger
The goal of this weapon is to provide a weapon for a stealth melee character. The weapon should help the player finish weak to average enemies in one swing. The weapon should punish having to swing the weapon more than once. It should be an average weapon.
While using the Assassin Dagger as a base I made these changes.
• Increased damage from 8 to 30
• Decreased weapon speed from fast to very slow
• Added an effect that will poison the target for 15 damage for 5 seconds.
Method for balancing:
Balancing this weapon involved a lot of playtests to see what targets would be easy to take via stealth kill and a fight. I used Diamond City Guards as a good average target for the weapon.
I then tested multiple amounts of melee damage and poison to see what would yield an even fight with a diamond city guard while also letting the player kill the guard easily with a stealth kill.