[Fallout: New California] BETA 221 is Live! news

New California's initial BETA release was, well, a BETA.

There were thousands of people who couldn't get the mod installed due to the manual 4GB Patch being too involved for some users. Others had Mod Managers that couldn't install a 6.6GB file without crashing. And yet more users had severe mod conflicts that stacked on top of our yet undiscovered stability and performance issues on various PCs.

We've fixed almost all of those issues with the new installer and and overhaul of the mod's files (and the number of NPCs on screen at once,) making 221 the most stable and balanced version so far.

It's definitely the version I wish we'd released with.

These are the kinds of problems that you CAN'T detect until your mod reaches the public. That's why you have a mass public BETA in the first place -- to discover undiscovered situations. You just have to patch the issues as soon as possible -- and hope people understand that your BETA isn't the last word on the final quality of your project, and their feedback is part of the development process.

Besides technical difficulties, we also encountered a great deal of criticism from some users who felt the writing quality dips after leaving the Vault, and after the Companions stop having as much to say. A lack of side quests and explorable locations hit us too. Some users also hated the ending, while others loved it.

It's true that you can't please everyone, but, within reason, 221 is aiming to start pivoting New California to address those concerns by 1.0.

1. The Bridge to New Vegas is Now Active

If you've been waiting to re-play the mod when the bridge to New Vegas is active, you're in luck. That feature, which has been planned all along, is now working and stable for testing.

The way it works is pretty obvious. You finish one of our 13 endings, and after the cinematic is complete, you awaken in Doc Mitchell's office as The Courier.

Your companions from New California, aged 20 years with stats leveled up to reflect this, appear in the Mojave Wasteland with various quests to get them one at a time. They function just like regular companions in New Vegas. Limit 2 at a time.

Your stats are the same as when you left New California years before. Your equipment will be locked in a high level safe somewhere in the Mojave, its location depending on what choices you made at the end, available late in New Vegas.

Nothing about New Vegas changes. Your Courier still has 20 years of backstory you can fill in however you want. Nothing is retconed, nothing violates the lore, you're free to interpret those 20 years however you want. From having a kid in Montana (or not) to your travels through New Reno (or not.) Whatever you want, it's basically just vanilla New Vegas with some carry over content from your choices in FNC.

2. Bug Fixes and Performance Upgrades

Optimized Landscape normals from uncompressed to DXT1. (Better overall FPS)

Optimized some LOD textures and cut LOD atlas to half its previous size. (Better overall FPS)

Fixed Union City bar SCOL which was causing a crash.

Regenerated landscape and object LOD. (Visual update for distant objects)

Reduced spawns at I-15 and UC battles. (No infinite spawns! Far greater performance & balance.)

Reduced lighting and graphics load in The Father’s den. (Significant FPS increase.)

Reduced lighting load around Union City. (Significant FPS increase.)

Companion appearance overhaul. (This is part of the transition into the Companion expansion, where characters are being Re-Written from scratch and adding quests in the wasteland for them.)

Bridge to New Vegas for Player and companions is complete.

Added Odyssey town and side quests for it. (From new team members Fig and Master)

Added “Buried Treasure” quest. (From new team member Master of Unlocking)

Added “No System is Safe” quest. (From new team member 2x4)

Added “Batteries not included” quest. (From new team member Despingu)

Added Biscuit the Protectron companion and companion follower Quest. (From new team member Despingu)

Added Player home in Union City that you can purchase. (From Sid, DexMods, others...)

Added Voiceless Village. (From Fig)

New Artillery effects. (FPS increase, better more unique visual fx and Sound fx.)

Many buildings and homes now have interiors to explore. (Thanks to Fig, Master, Applepi, Despingu, others)

Many notes scattered in buildings. (Thanks to Fig, Buenoben, others...)

Many NCR have letters in their inventories. (Thanks to Buenoben, DenMan, AmericanWeirdo, Trent, others...)

Companions now all get built-in weapons at appropriate times.

ALPHA's laser rifle given massive visual upgrade.

Wilhaven Armors and Weapons added by Dragbody.

Fixed bug in Kira’s quest for NCR or WC where Revan was never active and Elsdragon is dead but you can’t release her.

Clean up of quest NCRMQ04 objectives when player is Mezzed by Eliza.

Dagger01 turrets - fix hostility to NCR when hacked.

Fixed issue with NCRMQ01 where you killed Nos in the mine, but he shows up at I-15 battle anyway.

Fixed Jameson and Vargas not hostile to The Father.

Fixed faction issue where the extra raiders in lift02 made the ALPHA or sneak kill/return to wagon unworkable.

Added Duville stash in Goodspring Cemetery for Mob player.

Added cleanup for unfinished side quests during MV transition.

When Eliza Mezes the player, companions are no longer moved to the mine with the player.

If followers are in Eliza’s house, they will now kill her when she tries to Zap the player.

Mezed Player weapons are taken and moved to a container nearby where Elsdragon force greets you.

Fixed issue for raider player that shoots up UC - Jerri shows up at DP dead instead of resurrected.

Fixed Generic NCR greetings for Non-NCR player

CARDS - fixed some references to stun grenades if Jackson was the capture agent

NCR Caravan - fixed bug where troops are stuck running in a circle after the raider attack at DP.

Made LOD for large pieces at Angel Breakers.

Fixed incorrect voice clip for Annai.

Removed vanilla object overrides of landscape textures.

Commented out NVSE ‘printc’ functions scattered about in some scripts.

Cleaned up many more vanilla overrides. (Better mod compatibility! Thanks to massive efforts by Smith and additional work by RickerHK.)

Resolved a couple of conflicts with YUP by forwarding some fixes from it.

Now Vargas and Jameson won’t follow player into Daggerpoint if player is Enclave.

Fixed bugs that occur with trigger happy player in Dagger08.

Fixed missing LIP files on Annai and a few others.

Added OOC greets for warlords for non-revan MQ03 end and MQ04 start.

Fixed Daggerpoint exit door transferring vikings/NCR even though they were to stay behind.

Fixed bug where ‘Detention’ quest doesn’t end if you never go to detention.

Fixed Missing ‘goodbye’ flags in Ooga’s MQ05 dialog.

Fixed NCR ARMA record that allowed equipping of multiple NCR armors.

Hide Alpha strike option for Bragg and The Father when Alpha is not present.

Fixed OOC greeting conditions of generic Enclave to be more location specific

Set power armor training book to non-quest item after reading it.

Fixed Lost Roads default objective if you leave conversation early.

Buffed MV Jenn’s lockpick skill so mods like JIP CCC can make use of it. (JIP CCC is not recommended until you transition over to New Vegas).

Fixed failure in MQ05 final battle related to a bug in GetLOS script function.

Fixed Quest advance failure in MQ05 final battle when player dumps one or both enemies into silo.

Added story dialog to Annai in the Father’s Den elevator force greet for the non-enclave player.

Fixed two script syntax errors in PBrazilRoboB6RKBrokenScript activation block.

Fixed delay in Rossman forcegreet after enclave hologram.

Fixed empty zoom bug in Maria after quest is finished.

Fixed a script halt in PBDialogVault18PQ that was preventing “Off to see the Wizard” from starting.

Fixed PBNPCSilvermanNCRMQ01TopACE to give you $20 like he says.

More interiors and survivor caches with small things to find throughout the wasteland

Upon new game for New Vegas start, and Bridge to Vegas - revert timescale to 30

Gamesetting Adjustment - iNumberActorsAllowedToFollowPlayer from 99 to 20

MQ03/MQ05 - Dagger Fissure Door - removed time advance to night time for hardcore player.

MQ05 - Kira's force greet after The Father's defeat is now skipped if player is Enclave.

Lost Roads - Now clears a dangling objective when confronted by Wilco.

Removed Fists and Server10 overrides. (Fists no longer have knockdown spell on critical, for better mod compatibility)

MQ03 - fixed bug in PBDagger04MQ03PlayerKillTrigScript where the kill section would run multiple times. (crash fix)

Removal of Hydra from NCR drops. (Lore fix)

Remove grenades from DP FEV drops. (No more grenade rushers.)

Adjust artillery proximity near Jameson. (Far lower screen shake)

V18 Upper Apartment cleanup/fixes. (Better performance)

Replaced every instance of NCR money in the ESM with a FNC unique equivalent and removed vanilla edits to the exchange rate.

Fixed bug in Wildcard Daggerpoint battle startup script.

Added collision markers around Fort Daggerpoint, Athens mine, Athens Gate, and Xiabula. (Preventing sequence breaks due to players kiting over terrain.)

Fixed - Glasses Object effect.

SVRSQ02 - Fixed bug at stage 90 where it would not advance even when Ooga's head was taken.

Collision barriers around Pinehaven to prevent climbers skipping triggers.

Disabled triggers in Dream area. Place collision sphere around the canyon. Disabled the portal to internal cells. (You can't access the dream from the world anymore. It is legacy content and meant to be used as a modder's resource only.)

Fixed VATs note script crash.

PQ - For the Warrior path, ALPHA was never put back together by Markus Evans, so is unavailable as a follower.

SVRMQ02 - Fixed faction problem between Road Bandits and Survivalists

SVRSQ02 - Finished 'Carrion' Quest (Side quest for Raiders at the Sand Crawler.)

ZoomQuest - Limited scope to voice types added by FNC.

CARDS - Gives Escape Artist perk at end

NCRMQ04 - Wilco at the Wagon - flag if you talked to Wilco in the mine and escaped later.

NCRMQ05 - set timing for Vertibird pilot OOC

PQ - Fixed Earnest's default package was trying to find a chair out in the void, off the grid.

CH1 - Both robot quests will now fail if they're started but player left them behind in the vault.

CH1 - 'Little Yellow Bolts of Light' will complete after leaving the vault and you skipped the safe.

CH1 - Made Bragg's initial choice 'I have my own uniform/Science gear' more apparent that it is an escape from being inducted.

CH1 - Added CH1 Player 'friend' factions to Earnest's faction to prevent random aggression from him.

ANIP - Made it clear that the player is making a promise to Kira during recruiting.

SVRMQ01 - Elsdragon and Nos slip away if player becomes hostile.

SVRMQ01 - Fixed Behemoth packages for start and fight at stage 50.

NCRMQ01 - Fixed bug where artillery isn't shut off when you fire the patriot missile at the Raider bunker.

MQ03 - Fixed bug where Annai and Jerri disappear before you even enter the fissure.

MQ03 - Message box to prevent player confusion when Annai disappears in the fissure.

MQ03 - Fixed bug where you could tell Silverman you talked to the Gatekeeper, when you actually didn't.

NCRMQ04 - Fixed Jen commenting about being captured when she was not.

Ambient immersive sounds in Vault 18 Civil War.

Father's Den Terminal explaining the "vault dweller myth" better. This is something a lot of users who disliked what they called "the twist ending" missed, and that's the message that The Father was a delusional character -- Mark is a Nightkin, after all. The Player in the at moment is supposed to be skeptical, but they can also buy into it. I could have written that better, so I adjusted the player's topics to be more neutral in tone and not as gullible. And added a terminal that was buried elsewhere to the same terminal as the turret controls.

Player Face Presets Remastered (By DEX Mods and Thain) They're not ugly any more! Well, for new vegas...

Companion Appearance Shift (by Dex Mods, Applepi, Thain). This is part of a gradual shift from BETA 200's Companion Falloff to 1.0, where they'll be fleshed out more. I never thought I'd be writing for New California again, let alone this much, but here I am...

Kurtz now follows his own advice. (Companions at ANIP change outfits.)

3. The Road Map to 1.0

1.0 is going to be less about performance and stability and more about upgrading Companions, and adjusting gameplay balance to be more in line with Vanilla New Vegas. (And mods for New Vegas which make that suck less.)

The last 6 months were pretty busy for me as I worked to get my life back on track financially after taking so much time off to work on FNC last year during release lead up.

We have a Patreon set up for the New Game, 'Project Moringstar,' on Unreal Engine. That is super early in Pre-Development, waiting until i can form a team and enough of a prototype to attract attention. I also made a card game called STAVE, which is currently a 50$ reward item. You should check it out. Has nothing to do with the mod, but it's the other thing I'm doing.

Before we can start full time on Morningstar we have to finish New California and end this 7 year long journey.

The Companion Expansion is the last thing on the list. And that's a major last step.

221 will be online for the foreseeable future. If we run out of steam, or simply can't keep adding the companion's scripting because a critical volunteer quit, then I'll ensure all the dialogue and voices are in the final release and we'll put that online as 1.0. Someone else can join and finish it eventually. But the goal is to wrap all this up by the end of 2019 so 2020 can be a clean break, and 1.0 can come out at the same time as we transition to full time on Morningstar.

That's the plan at least.

If you want to read more about the Companion Expansion, you'll have to dig through the design documents available through our discord. I'd love feedback and suggestions on those.

Check us out on our: Discord.gg. You can also keep track of us on ModDB, Fallout Nexus, or Facebook. We've got an online community centered around each one.

Thain