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Question Spectacle Island Overhaul Proposal (seeking feedback)

Moonracer

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16
I've had this idea tumbling in my brain which is getting big enough I'm ready to start acting on it. I'd like to drastically overhaul the map area of Spectacle Island.

This would involve shrinking the settlement size to about 1-2 cells and using Base game and Far Harbor assets to convert the worldspace into more of a small town feel. With at least one section about as dense and interesting as northern Cambridge (ideally similar to just north of the Cambridge Police Station). Possibly add a (military?) naval dock somewhere along the shore. I would populate the area with higher level Raiders inside and keep Mirelurk spawns along the shore. The settlement space would become much more constricted and surrounded by cover for attackers to use. Hopefully making it more challenging and interesting to defend/attack.

My current pros and cons so far. I'd love to hear people's thoughts on what they would like to see if this did happen or any possible issues to watch out for when trying to make this. I realize that this would have a very niche demand and people love their giant settlements. I, however, lose interest or totally forget about that space most play throughs.

Pros:
  • The area would be interesting to explore even for non-settlement players.
  • It's a fairly large worldspace to work with.
  • The settlement, being much smaller, would have potentially fewer issues and better performance.
  • The settlement would be more gameplay focused and less for showcase builds.
  • Potential for more interior spaces or interesting locations to explore.
Cons:
  • Spectacle Island settlement would no longer be compatible with existing settlement blueprints.
  • I'd need to be extremely careful not to break the settlement (I would try to keep the existing quest and related assets as intact as possible).
  • Likely incompatible with other mods (especially ones that add trees and such).
  • Island layout would no longer match up with the pip boy map (buildings, roads, etc.)
  • Making the space more urban will likely affect performance.
  • It would be a huge undertaking.

To be honest, I don't have the experience to do this so it would be a long long time before this ever saw public eyes if it ever gets done. But the last few years have proven to myself I can stick to ambitious projects.
 
I would think a different area would be better for this Idea (which sounds good).
Making it a New World Space would be the ideal I guess.
More work, but more compatible.
 
I kind of agree. I'd love to be able to build a new world space, but I realize how much work that is. I'm slowly learning map editing stuff, so perhaps some day.
 
The easiest/quickest way would be an interior space to set the town in a cave/large abandoned building... Edit: or Subway tunnel would be an excellent one (that I'm using myself, WIP)
A new world space is usually not 'new' by the way. It's usually a cell(s) copied from somewhere else and then edited. A lot of the vanilla game cells are like that as you have probably noticed. Makes it WAY less work and, as long as enough is changed, it's still feels like a 'new' cell.
Best of luck.
 
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