After what seems an infinitely long hiatus, I have returned. Patch 1.48 is up (as of around 3 p.m. on March 29th.). Update: Patch 1.51 is up (as of around 5 p.m. on June 30th, 2018)
In exploring the mod again, I was disappointed with the bugs and inconsistencies and felt that I let this incredible community down. This update makes over a hundred and fifty quality of life repairs and fixes, allowing characters more freedom to make choices and solve quests how they will. The three possible endings are now more accessible, instead of shoehorning players into a specific style of play. I have restored the content of 3 quests that were previously inaccessible. I have added challenges. I have pared down some meandering sections of overly-long dialogue.
There are undoubtedly still bugs that need fixing and questions that need answering. Please comment with them here or PM me about them. I will attempt to be more responsive and responsible.
Now, I’ve got several actual things I don’t like with the story, changes etc etc, but everyone’s already said em and there’s really no point in it since it’s been 5 years and all that
HOWEVER If you have an evil gay villain we should’ve been able to evil gay flirt with them (even if it was awkward and very unsuccessful given the whole joshua thing)
Just got through playing this amazing mod, and I am impressed. I've been playing Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas since they were first released because the mods made by individuals like Jamesafloat keep it worthwhile. Note I said Individuals. Mods like Fallout New California and The Frontier that have entire teams of modders working on them often get crushed by their own weight, while other DLC sized mods like Coito Ergo Sum, Washington's Malevolence, and Honest Hearts Reborn beat them in playability and content. There is a big difference between 1 individual with a dream and a whole group having a nightmare....
Overall, the mod did exactly what it said on the box: Took the boring storyline of Honest Hearts and made it into a real story. AND at the same time, gave me real quests that changed the outcome of the game instead of the cheesy fetch and carry quests of the original Honest Hearts DLC. I applaud the voice actors: They did a magnificent job. I especially like Zoe's comment about my penchant for following the river as she was complaining about getting her socks wet.
There are flaws, but not as many as the base game when it was first released. I only had 1 quest that I had to complete with a setstage console command after completing all objectives. There was also a little confusion with some of the map markers and quest objective pointers, but nothing that would make the mod SO frustrating as to delete it. I did read the comments about the effects on the Vanilla game, so I disabled the mod after finishing it.
Lawyer to Female Witness: Are you sexually active? Female Witness: No. I just lie there.
I walked away from the mod with mixed feelings. For one I really liked some of the charcters and it had interesting worlbuilding expanding on what the regular honest hearts had to offer, especially since the quests go beyond "collect a compas, blow up a cave and now it's final battle time" like the normal dlc did. On the other hand however there was just too much Joshua Graham apologizing for my taste...like at times it really seemed like the mod tried to convice me that actually he was the real victim all along which...just no, he is a violent and horrible war criminal, so the whole "Ceasar just used me! feel bad for me!" part felt like a rich person crying about a noneissue. But what really has me on the fence, and I don't want to say that it is intentional and the writer is a horrible person, not at all, but the entire reason why the bbeg of the mod is the villain is...because he's gay and I really think this mod could have handled it better than villanizing someone solely based on their sexuality, felt a bit tone-deaf. All in all things I likes, things I didn't, a bit of glitched terrain here and there, nothing gamebreaking but noticible enough and I really don't know how to feel about the immortal proto-FEV child in the lab, but that's just my inner lore-nut speaking, Ig all in all 5/10 for whatever the opinion of some rando online is worth to anyone here.
Ya know I've watched Mike and Zach play and DLC but the thing about Gay being Evil didn't click till just now and frankly... I mean is it tasteless yes but I don't think "gay is evil" in this mod. See here is the thing; So the Legate is gay yes and he is the bad guy but he isn't bad cause he's gay. See he's Ceasers legion and back during the roman era homosexuality was a MASSIVE occurnce ranging from romans choosing other men cause they saw women as inferior, some where actually gay, and some fell in love in batlle or in politics. I think the fact the Legate is gay is less to do with "Gay is Evil" but I belive it's more Ceasers legion is evil... oh and a few members happen to be gay.
They aren't evil cause they are gay. they are evil cause they are the Legion, however I do agree that the mod author RUINED JOSHUA like oh my god he sucks, it's some of the worst writing ever and the charecterization is dog sh*t. They took a badass charcter who yet isn't a good person but he isn't Legion Evil anymore (debatable depending how you played the OG DLC). All in all the mod is a 5/10. It's not the best mod but there are FAR worse mods like The Frontier (such a dissapointment) and War Trash (A b*itch to get working and breaks your game if you are trying to do a merc playthrough or bounty huntr playthrough.
the homophobia and acting like Joshua are the victim are intentional. the mod author is the same religion as the character, a belief system which at least by the letter and spirit of their book is racist and queermisic.
This is a super legitimate thing to engage with about this mod. I wrote this a long time ago (now 9 years ago) and I definitely agree that my portrayal of queer characters was weird. I never felt Livius was evil because he was gay and actually wanted it to be a source of compassion and understanding for him, rather than a dogmatic devotion to the Legion, but the evil gay trope is pretty tired in this, the twenty and first century.
If you're interested in some more discussion of this type, I had a really great chat on tumblr with the-luckiest-man, a gay FNV fan who had a lot of problems with my mod and some things he liked. We chatted at length about it and I shared some of my changed feelings about it over time!
For what it's worth, I am still connected to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and am part of a congregation in New York City but I fucking hate homophobia and don't consider any of that s#*! a part of my faith. Joshua's story does involve him returning to his faith, if the player chooses that, but I never intended this as a work to convert anybody -- more to explore the contours of a man's complicated journey.
Does this mod overwrite the vanilla Zion worldspace or is it a new one altogether? I ask because I was hoping to have this in my load order while still being able to visit vanilla Zion (I know this mod blocks the Northern Passage, but if they are indeed separate worldspaces it should be really easy to get around that particular issue)
I came into this really wanting to like it. Ultimately, the technical issues, hilariously bad level design and misuse of the Zion map left me genuinely tired. By the time I'd reached the part where my game was softlocked unless I picked a path I didn't want to, I realized playing honest hearts was an infinitely more fun experience than this.
I can't judge the story, I couldn't get through it due to the technical issues. But I know this; I did not enjoy myself with the gamepay.
I acknowledge this is fairly old and was made by one guy, and it's an amazing showcase of the community around the game, but it's very hit or miss.
Sidenote Legion doesn't use Snipers, the whole excuse at the start makes no sense when they very openly show that in the base game.
That sidenote is blatantly contradicted by Legion assassins. When saving President Kimball, one takes a spot on top of a nearby tower and will vaporize Aaron's head. I could have sworn I have seen Legion members with snipers and/or anti-materiel rifles during the Second Battle of Hoover Dam but I can't find a source to fact check myself on that. Some do appear with marksman carbines in the Legate's Camp though.
I'm fairly certain that it's frowned upon to use firearms in CAESAR'S LEGION, but almost all Legion soldiers you encounter use some form of firearm, ya know what with the whole "TECHNOLOGY BAD" thing they've got goin.
Also, yes for the Legion Assassin's, they do use the sniper rifle (that I've seen personally), but I've never seen one have an Anti-Material rifle (I think).
Legion hipocrisy. They lie, they cheat, they say one thing and do another.
Guns, Legion will pull out sniper rifles if they need to.
A man in Cottonwood Cove can be taught how to make bombs and rearm NCR mines.
If they were facing the Brotherhood, which if they took the Mojave, they will in force - Do you think they'd take a spear to a laser rifle fight? (Remember when they bought energy weapons from the Van Graaf's?)
Legion aint luddites, but they will brainwash you into thinking they are.
It's me, JamesAfloat. I'm alive, I exist, weirdly enough!
There have been lots of takes about this mod over the years (with more to come, I'm told) and one of the most accurate negative comments was that the mod is a buggy mess. This is true! I had very little idea what I was doing and have even less idea now.
If you, however, enjoyed Honest Hearts Reborn and are interested in more stuff I might be doing, here's an update: I wrote a tabletop roleplaying game that just funded on Kickstarter and runs through June 27th, 2023. It's called THE LAST CARAVAN: A CARS AND ALIENS ROLEPLAYING GAME and you can reach it at this link. The game takes inspiration from games like XCOM 2 and Fallout: New Vegas to tell a story of a midwinter road trip during an alien invasion apocalypse.
I think it might interest some of you, and I can promise you one thing: it's less buggy!
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After what seems an infinitely long hiatus, I have returned. Patch 1.48 is up (as of around 3 p.m. on March 29th.). Update: Patch 1.51 is up (as of around 5 p.m. on June 30th, 2018)
In exploring the mod again, I was disappointed with the bugs and inconsistencies and felt that I let this incredible community down. This update makes over a hundred and fifty quality of life repairs and fixes, allowing characters more freedom to make choices and solve quests how they will. The three possible endings are now more accessible, instead of shoehorning players into a specific style of play. I have restored the content of 3 quests that were previously inaccessible. I have added challenges. I have pared down some meandering sections of overly-long dialogue.
There are undoubtedly still bugs that need fixing and questions that need answering. Please comment with them here or PM me about them. I will attempt to be more responsive and responsible.
JamesAfloat
Yes, this is an actual line written by an award-winning playwright.
Now, I’ve got several actual things I don’t like with the story, changes etc etc, but everyone’s already said em and there’s really no point in it since it’s been 5 years and all that
HOWEVER
If you have an evil gay villain we should’ve been able to evil gay flirt with them (even if it was awkward and very unsuccessful given the whole joshua thing)
that is all
JK but this is a good take.
Overall, the mod did exactly what it said on the box: Took the boring storyline of Honest Hearts and made it into a real story. AND at the same time, gave me real quests that changed the outcome of the game instead of the cheesy fetch and carry quests of the original Honest Hearts DLC. I applaud the voice actors: They did a magnificent job. I especially like Zoe's comment about my penchant for following the river as she was complaining about getting her socks wet.
There are flaws, but not as many as the base game when it was first released. I only had 1 quest that I had to complete with a setstage console command after completing all objectives. There was also a little confusion with some of the map markers and quest objective pointers, but nothing that would make the mod SO frustrating as to delete it. I did read the comments about the effects on the Vanilla game, so I disabled the mod after finishing it.
Lawyer to Female Witness: Are you sexually active?
Female Witness: No. I just lie there.
I walked away from the mod with mixed feelings. For one I really liked some of the charcters and it had interesting worlbuilding expanding on what the regular honest hearts had to offer, especially since the quests go beyond "collect a compas, blow up a cave and now it's final battle time" like the normal dlc did. On the other hand however there was just too much Joshua Graham apologizing for my taste...like at times it really seemed like the mod tried to convice me that actually he was the real victim all along which...just no, he is a violent and horrible war criminal, so the whole "Ceasar just used me! feel bad for me!" part felt like a rich person crying about a noneissue. But what really has me on the fence, and I don't want to say that it is intentional and the writer is a horrible person, not at all, but the entire reason why the bbeg of the mod is the villain is...because he's gay and I really think this mod could have handled it better than villanizing someone solely based on their sexuality, felt a bit tone-deaf. All in all things I likes, things I didn't, a bit of glitched terrain here and there, nothing gamebreaking but noticible enough and I really don't know how to feel about the immortal proto-FEV child in the lab, but that's just my inner lore-nut speaking, Ig all in all 5/10 for whatever the opinion of some rando online is worth to anyone here.
They aren't evil cause they are gay. they are evil cause they are the Legion, however I do agree that the mod author RUINED JOSHUA like oh my god he sucks, it's some of the worst writing ever and the charecterization is dog sh*t. They took a badass charcter who yet isn't a good person but he isn't Legion Evil anymore (debatable depending how you played the OG DLC). All in all the mod is a 5/10. It's not the best mod but there are FAR worse mods like The Frontier (such a dissapointment) and War Trash (A b*itch to get working and breaks your game if you are trying to do a merc playthrough or bounty huntr playthrough.
This is a super legitimate thing to engage with about this mod. I wrote this a long time ago (now 9 years ago) and I definitely agree that my portrayal of queer characters was weird. I never felt Livius was evil because he was gay and actually wanted it to be a source of compassion and understanding for him, rather than a dogmatic devotion to the Legion, but the evil gay trope is pretty tired in this, the twenty and first century.
If you're interested in some more discussion of this type, I had a really great chat on tumblr with the-luckiest-man, a gay FNV fan who had a lot of problems with my mod and some things he liked. We chatted at length about it and I shared some of my changed feelings about it over time!
For what it's worth, I am still connected to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and am part of a congregation in New York City but I fucking hate homophobia and don't consider any of that s#*! a part of my faith. Joshua's story does involve him returning to his faith, if the player chooses that, but I never intended this as a work to convert anybody -- more to explore the contours of a man's complicated journey.
I can't judge the story, I couldn't get through it due to the technical issues. But I know this;
I did not enjoy myself with the gamepay.
I acknowledge this is fairly old and was made by one guy, and it's an amazing showcase of the community around the game, but it's very hit or miss.
Sidenote Legion doesn't use Snipers, the whole excuse at the start makes no sense when they very openly show that in the base game.
Also, yes for the Legion Assassin's, they do use the sniper rifle (that I've seen personally), but I've never seen one have an Anti-Material rifle (I think).
They lie, they cheat, they say one thing and do another.
Guns, Legion will pull out sniper rifles if they need to.
A man in Cottonwood Cove can be taught how to make bombs and rearm NCR mines.
If they were facing the Brotherhood, which if they took the Mojave, they will in force - Do you think they'd take a spear to a laser rifle fight? (Remember when they bought energy weapons from the Van Graaf's?)
Legion aint luddites, but they will brainwash you into thinking they are.
Eureka! Glory to The Great Bear.
It's me, JamesAfloat. I'm alive, I exist, weirdly enough!
There have been lots of takes about this mod over the years (with more to come, I'm told) and one of the most accurate negative comments was that the mod is a buggy mess. This is true! I had very little idea what I was doing and have even less idea now.
If you, however, enjoyed Honest Hearts Reborn and are interested in more stuff I might be doing, here's an update: I wrote a tabletop roleplaying game that just funded on Kickstarter and runs through June 27th, 2023. It's called THE LAST CARAVAN: A CARS AND ALIENS ROLEPLAYING GAME and you can reach it at this link. The game takes inspiration from games like XCOM 2 and Fallout: New Vegas to tell a story of a midwinter road trip during an alien invasion apocalypse.
I think it might interest some of you, and I can promise you one thing: it's less buggy!
Hope you all are doing great. Peace!
Ted