Hey hey, the mod looks super interesting but 30mins in I had to stop, sadly. I'm getting immense stutter on my character, in particular when she's turning around. I cannot isolate it to one particular region, it's just everywhere in cats-wildlands1. It's like the animation refresh is capped or something, if that's even a thing. I dug into the CK and saw that there were no precombines... I tried the PRP compatible precombines offered and although the general performance seemed better, the stuttering remained. I have no idea what might be causing this.
For the record I don't have this issue with any other map mod except my own, which was solved with previs and precombines... which makes it even stranger that the precombines didn't seem to help improve for barrenwood. I will check and come back here if I do encounter it elsewhere.
Edit: ohhhh I just saw that the precombines update offered here in fact does NOT provide precombines, only updated precombines for the commonwealth cell that Barrenwood changes. That explains a lot. Precombines and Previs will vastly improve the performance of this mod and probably get rid of the stuttering. If I have time I might make some myself... if the CK doesn't crash too much, but I highly recommend you do it. Cheers!
Had high hopes for this mod considering it's one of the more popular New Lands mods for Fallout 4 but was sorely disappointed. There's very little content beyond the lackluster and uninteresting quests, there are a LOT of technical issues (floating terrain, missing textures, objects that talk like NPCs, etc), and while the voice acting is pretty great for a small-scale mod team to put together, the substance and characterization of most of the NPCs leaves a lot to be desired. The lack of any kind of quest reward for any of the quests makes it feel like you've completely wasted your time as well. Like there's literally ZERO payoff to the main questline - no quest reward, nothing interesting happens, zip. Zilch. You fight some feral ghouls and have a funky little interaction that basically already exists in the base game and that's it. This mod has a lot of potential but just doesn't deliver on any of it. I usually don't try to neg on what is essentially free content provided out of the hard work and dedication of a mod team, but the promise of this mod is what prompted me to write this here. I can tell a lot of effort was put into this mod and it's a shame that it wasn't developed further.
To balance this criticism a bit, I will add what I enjoyed about the mod. The two settlements have a pretty interesting area to work with. Additionally, while some have criticized the lack of visible borders, there are some cleverly placed objects that act as guidelines (such as the wooden posts in the southern swampy settlement), which I think is a much more immersive way of setting the boundaries for a settlement. Additionally, the voice acting was excellent for a mod created by such a small team. Finally, the atmosphere of several of the locations was rather excellent as well, which unfortunately contributed to the feelings of disappointment when they didn't pay off.
Spoiler:
Show
The Complex had a really awesome atmosphere, and turning the corner to find a horde of high-level ghouls made for quite the shock.
Overall, though, I definitely would not say this mod is worth playing through in its current state. Anyone interested in it would have their time better served just playing through the Far Harbor DLC again.
OFSRazgriz thanks for your review, i have been searching for mods i have not tried yet and i wanted something new, but i was trying to get a better idea what the mod was like, so far from what i have read in the comment section, it doesn't sound like something i would like to play, not having quest markers isn't what i'm looking for, like i get it for some things that's ok quest design, but if i feel i have no direction, then it will feel empty to me and i hate that feeling of emptiness in games i play, for me personally there must be direction.
anyway back to the search for good mods to try out.
I was able to do the School Teacher and but unable to to do "Gary the Hunter".
I could get into the basement, as I found the Password and such. I tried to find the "hunting cabin" and doing a Grid Search, I found 1 place that had a HUNTING RIFLE with SILENCER with a larger empty cabin across the gully.
There was NOTHING else there and I did a circular search around the place w/the hunting rifle and found NOTHING .. also the same w/the empty cabin across from it. NOTHING.
Just finished the mod map was very pretty to explore aside from buildings been empty there is few environmental stories that are very well made, the map is really well crafted feels natural nothing out of place but it really needed furnitures, more environmental stories i mean by that like in concord when u enter the warehouse and find 2 skeletons in the second floor choking each other in the office things like this would have added more life to the map and made exploring buildings fun
Quests without spoiler the main quest ending was really lacking, but the star of this mod is the side quests really fun and really well made loved following clues to follow the steps of people who been gone for more than 200 years it was really fun to complete them.
Overall i would recommend to play this mod for the map and the side quest but keep in mind i meant what i said about finding clues there won't be quest markers.
Wow you discovered a way to make fallout unnerving instead of fun. After 10 min of playing your mod I just want to hurry and finish it, I don't even feel like exploring the place. People if you like to play fallout 4, you will probably dislike this mod, it's almost the opposite of fallout. It makes you not wanting to play it
What is the purpose of your post? If you want to critique the mod, at least offer a hint as to why you didn't like it. Or point us to your own mod that's "fun and not unnerving" so we can at least get a sense of what you like. [crickets] ...[\crickets] I thought Barrenwood was a fun, well-made mod. I enjoyed the various twists and new places to explore.
I don't like walking around a place without knowing where to go, it's not immersive for me. And if I have to watch the full walkthrough in youtube to know where to go, after that I don't feel like playing it. To have an idea of what I like, I like Fallout 4. Is it so hard to make quests in the same style? Normally, mods that make it different than the base game, are worse than the base game. I've played some mods that I wouldn't know they weren't part of the game, if I didn't install them. And some fo those mods are so good, they are better than many quests in the base game. Those mods I like. On the other side, making weak quests, and removing the markers, just to make them seem good, is not the way
I can't comment on the storyline, but from a purely modders point of view this mod should be cleaned up before you put it in your Load order. It contains a large number of HITMEs (broken references), and really needs precombines built to clean that up. Some references are also in the wrong cells (can't image how they did that). I doubt it will make much difference to your gameplay - but for the perfectionist amongst you...
having restarted the quest, from a save b/4 I started .. I still have "bugs" ... certain quests cannot be found / started. The map is useless .. in that the clouds cover so you cannot actually see - search and plan accordingly.
I have to admit that the XO - Card - Quest and the AI ... was a ... well, when I finished it, I actually said outloud: "That's it?" o..0
So after restarting it to see if I could find the M.I.A. quest goals .... I am going back to the prior save and simply remove this mod.
It has a good idea here, but it seriously IMO ... didn't finish the job ... great ideas, but they were simply not built on and such.
Just finished the main quest, and really enjoyed it. The ending was actually a lot of fun, and had an interesting twist or two. I even liked just wandering around the island, poking my nose into everything. The lack of quest markers didn't bother me, and didn't really cause me any problems as most of the things you need to find are pretty much out in the open. And the landscaping is just wonderful. Looked great, green grass, pretty trees, very different from the Commonwealth. All in all, I'm pretty impressed, it was well done.
But if I may, I would like to offer some constructive criticism. An awful lot of the buildings were just that, buildings. With nothing in them. Like the chapel, it looks great on the outside, but... then... nothing inside. No pews, no furniture, just a small light from a clump of candles. The same with several of the places that you could go into, that would have been, say, a good place to put a bed or a sleeping bag or something for the player to use to sleep. There were some places that did have that, but others were just empty shells. It gives the mod the impression of being unfinished, and that is a shame.
And on to my biggest complaint, and from reading the comments from others, the lack of diversity in the enemies just made it feel like an unnecessary slog. After about the third ghoul pack I was bored with them. After the fifth or sixth, I was just either avoiding them or using a console command to wipe 'em out. You could have replaced, say the ones in the town center with some raiders, or even some non-feral ghouls. On that note, some Chinese ghouls, survivors of the ones mentioned in various places, would have made getting into/through the base a lot more interesting. Diversity in enemies is a good thing, keeps us players on our toes, and keeps us interested. A few gulpers or wolves or puppers isn't really enough. And other than a very few places, there seemed to be no reason for the Children of Atom to be there, and the places where it would have made sense for them to be at... they weren't there at all.
It was a good mod, the voice acting was well done, and to everyone who worked on it, thank you. But it honestly left me wanting more.
The easiest part about this mod was leading Feral Ghouls into CoA outposts, as the CoA usually only had radiation weapons they were slaughtered by the Ghouls. Also the Ghoul always went full melee on the CoA so I just tossed a few grenades into the pile of Ghouls attacking the CoA finishing off both of them.
I think it needs a patch to link Barrenwood to Radical - COA Addons and Fallout 3 - Chinese Commando Uniform. Add a wrecked ship with radioactive barrels and a terminal talking about Atom to give the CoA a reason to be on the island, replace the Children of Atom outside of very few instances with hostile non-feral ghouls wearing the Chinese Commando Uniforms and wielding a custom weapon LevelList, replace 80% of the Super Mutants with The Divided or where appropriate and finally add the CoA Strident Zealots in control of the final dungeon. BOOM Barrenwood is 110% better experience.
This was a whole lot of fun and quite a twist from the fallout game itself. The part that took me the longest was finding the synth cache. Everything for the bloodlines quest is completed , but it does not show complete yet. Never found the xo only his keycard. Is that why?
Ok, I got it completed now. Had to tell the guy at the start of mission the truth about his brothers and sister, not a lie. After I did that the quest was complete
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Hey hey, the mod looks super interesting but 30mins in I had to stop, sadly. I'm getting immense stutter on my character, in particular when she's turning around. I cannot isolate it to one particular region, it's just everywhere in cats-wildlands1. It's like the animation refresh is capped or something, if that's even a thing. I dug into the CK and saw that there were no precombines... I tried the PRP compatible precombines offered and although the general performance seemed better, the stuttering remained. I have no idea what might be causing this.
For the record I don't have this issue with any other map mod except my own, which was solved with previs and precombines... which makes it even stranger that the precombines didn't seem to help improve for barrenwood. I will check and come back here if I do encounter it elsewhere.
Edit: ohhhh I just saw that the precombines update offered here in fact does NOT provide precombines, only updated precombines for the commonwealth cell that Barrenwood changes. That explains a lot. Precombines and Previs will vastly improve the performance of this mod and probably get rid of the stuttering. If I have time I might make some myself... if the CK doesn't crash too much, but I highly recommend you do it. Cheers!
To balance this criticism a bit, I will add what I enjoyed about the mod. The two settlements have a pretty interesting area to work with. Additionally, while some have criticized the lack of visible borders, there are some cleverly placed objects that act as guidelines (such as the wooden posts in the southern swampy settlement), which I think is a much more immersive way of setting the boundaries for a settlement. Additionally, the voice acting was excellent for a mod created by such a small team. Finally, the atmosphere of several of the locations was rather excellent as well, which unfortunately contributed to the feelings of disappointment when they didn't pay off.
Overall, though, I definitely would not say this mod is worth playing through in its current state. Anyone interested in it would have their time better served just playing through the Far Harbor DLC again.
thanks for your review, i have been searching for mods i have not tried yet and i wanted something new, but i was trying to get a better idea what the mod was like, so far from what i have read in the comment section, it doesn't sound like something i would like to play, not having quest markers isn't what i'm looking for, like i get it for some things that's ok quest design, but if i feel i have no direction, then it will feel empty to me and i hate that feeling of emptiness in games i play, for me personally there must be direction.
anyway back to the search for good mods to try out.
I could get into the basement, as I found the Password and such. I tried to find the "hunting cabin" and doing a Grid Search, I found 1 place that had a HUNTING RIFLE with SILENCER with a larger empty cabin across the gully.
There was NOTHING else there and I did a circular search around the place w/the hunting rifle and found NOTHING .. also the same w/the empty cabin across from it. NOTHING.
So where is this "Hunting Cabin"?
EDIT - actually i found the basement thanks to this walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bltdQhs0C0s
Watch with the sound down though, the guy is really annoying! :D
Quests without spoiler the main quest ending was really lacking, but the star of this mod is the side quests really fun and really well made loved following clues to follow the steps of people who been gone for more than 200 years it was really fun to complete them.
Overall i would recommend to play this mod for the map and the side quest but keep in mind i meant what i said about finding clues there won't be quest markers.
Extra Note: INACCESSIBLE
It contains a large number of HITMEs (broken references), and really needs precombines built to clean that up.
Some references are also in the wrong cells (can't image how they did that).
I doubt it will make much difference to your gameplay - but for the perfectionist amongst you...
The map is useless .. in that the clouds cover so you cannot actually see - search and plan accordingly.
I have to admit that the XO - Card - Quest and the AI ... was a ... well, when I finished it, I actually said outloud:
"That's it?" o..0
So after restarting it to see if I could find the M.I.A. quest goals .... I am going back to the prior save and simply remove this mod.
It has a good idea here, but it seriously IMO ... didn't finish the job ... great ideas, but they were simply not built on and such.
No map markers. Now I am fine with them not showing up until you discover them. I actually kind of like that, a little bit.
But after I discovered them, I like to have them to trace and plan where I've been and not been.
There is only 1 marker that shows on the map: Boat Landing when you first get to Barrenwood ...
I have several New Land Quest Mods and this is the only mod where this happens.
But if I may, I would like to offer some constructive criticism. An awful lot of the buildings were just that, buildings. With nothing in them. Like the chapel, it looks great on the outside, but... then... nothing inside. No pews, no furniture, just a small light from a clump of candles. The same with several of the places that you could go into, that would have been, say, a good place to put a bed or a sleeping bag or something for the player to use to sleep. There were some places that did have that, but others were just empty shells. It gives the mod the impression of being unfinished, and that is a shame.
And on to my biggest complaint, and from reading the comments from others, the lack of diversity in the enemies just made it feel like an unnecessary slog. After about the third ghoul pack I was bored with them. After the fifth or sixth, I was just either avoiding them or using a console command to wipe 'em out. You could have replaced, say the ones in the town center with some raiders, or even some non-feral ghouls. On that note, some Chinese ghouls, survivors of the ones mentioned in various places, would have made getting into/through the base a lot more interesting. Diversity in enemies is a good thing, keeps us players on our toes, and keeps us interested. A few gulpers or wolves or puppers isn't really enough. And other than a very few places, there seemed to be no reason for the Children of Atom to be there, and the places where it would have made sense for them to be at... they weren't there at all.
It was a good mod, the voice acting was well done, and to everyone who worked on it, thank you. But it honestly left me wanting more.
I think it needs a patch to link Barrenwood to Radical - COA Addons and Fallout 3 - Chinese Commando Uniform. Add a wrecked ship with radioactive barrels and a terminal talking about Atom to give the CoA a reason to be on the island, replace the Children of Atom outside of very few instances with hostile non-feral ghouls wearing the Chinese Commando Uniforms and wielding a custom weapon LevelList, replace 80% of the Super Mutants with The Divided or where appropriate and finally add the CoA Strident Zealots in control of the final dungeon. BOOM Barrenwood is 110% better experience.
Finally run this mod with FGEP - Feral Ghouls Expansion Pack - The Definitive Edition active, even without the other mods patched in FGEP makes Barrenwood a ton more enjoyable.
Ok, I got it completed now. Had to tell the guy at the start of mission the truth about his brothers and sister, not a lie. After I did that the quest was complete