Monthly Modder: Seddon4494

Talented writer and designer, Seddon4494, talks to us about implementing player choice and working with voice actors to make his characters come alive!

There’s a lot of variety in Seddon4494’s quests – from expanded content for existing factions, to pre-War mysteries to uncover – and each quest is all well-crafted and expertly integrated into the Commonwealth. There’s a lot of fun to be had playing through these quests – even multiple times – and we were excited to talk to him about it.

You’ve produced a wide range of adventure mods, what are some of your sources of inspiration for the quests and characters?

More often than not my ideas come from just playing the game. I might spot an area that I think could have a story developed for it, or feel that a concept in the game could be developed more. Even the atmosphere created by the environment and ambient soundtrack can be inspiration. My Far Harbor Story mod is a good example of all these points at work. The idea of a hidden object with a forgotten purpose being rediscovered and wreaking havoc (inspired by the nuclear key), combined with Far Harbor’s spooky atmosphere, and the deserted Huntress Island – which the player might not normally have cause to visit – made a great recipe for a story.

What’s it like working with voice actors?

Working with voice actors can be one of the most exciting parts of modding, but also the most difficult. Often, when I’m working on a character I have a specific sound in my head. Trying to both communicate that to potential actors, and then finding someone who fits the role can be quite challenging. When you find the right person, though, it’s great hearing them bring the character to life. Far and away the best part about working with voice actors is when they bring something to the character that you’d never imagined before, whether that’s an accent or an interpretation of the lines I’d not considered. It’s always exciting when that happens. There have times when I’ve been cutting up recordings and smiling all the way through because it’s so perfect!

Player choice is a signature element of your quests. How do you work this into your process?

A big part of my process is just thinking of what a player might do, and trying to anticipate that in my mod. What kind of outcomes would I expect if I was playing the mod? Or what kind of crazy thing might a player do to circumvent the narrative I’ve tried to create?

Fourville gave me a lot of good experience in managing player choice when I had to keep track of dozens of quests, each with several possible outcomes. From a technical point of view, I use global variables to assign each outcome a number, which allows me to easily condition for that outcome later. From a pragmatic standpoint, I make sure I keep detailed notes in the “designer notes” section of each quest stage to let me quickly check what happens in each outcome. Even doing that, players will still find a way to surprise me once the mod comes out.

What is your favorite part of modding?

For me, modding is all about telling a story so I think my favourite part of modding is developing the story. When I have a good, solid idea that I can really get excited about it helps me get into a flow. When I get into a situation like that it makes even the bits I don’t like (implementing the player’s dialogue) seem not as bad. I also enjoy challenging myself to implement new features, or more accurately to use game’s existing capabilities is new ways. I feel like my skills improve with each mod I make.

Any mods you'd like to recommend?

Despite primarily making story mods, when I download mods I tend to prefer mods in the “gameplay effects and changes” category, or ones which add new armour and weapons; ones that fall outside my skillset. I’m also quite picky with what I download, it has to feel like it belongs in the game world. Obviously I’d recommend any of my own mods, but outside of that I think the one mod that’s most transformed how I play Fallout has been Sim Settlements. I’m also partial to mods which recreate items from previous Fallout games.