WARNING ! ! ! Don't finish the main quest BEFORE completing the side quests. Once the main quest is completed ALL the doors in the town are locked, all day and all night. You will not be able to enter to talk to anyone in conversation/ask questions, or even to turn in the side quest. Just finished the main quest, it was very well done, went off without any problems or frustration. Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish the side quest because of the lockdown on all the doors afterwards.
Also, as has been previously stated the location chosen for this town was/is VERY unkind to the town guards, there are giant albino radscorpion spawn points all around this area, had to resurrect them more than once. Even the BOS/Enclave checkpoints down the road, they all needed resurrecting, even the brahmins !! Mary Jones the Diner owner had another problem, after the initial convo with her to get her Gnome quest, when we went back later to trade, there is a Sentry Bot that roams in the street in front of her diner that has to be eliminated first. We found poor Mary, both legs and an arm blown off, all of her Gnomes in her Diner were knocked over and scattered all around, blown outside and in the Diner from the missile explosions. (after resurrecting her, her ai seemed "off" a bit after though)
Even after reading previous reviews, I had still anticipated more content than was actually offered, one quest, one side quest. Don't know for sure if there might've been more quests had all the doors not gone on lockdown, but this was my experience with this mod, your milage may vary. Sorry, imho there's absolutely no "role-play" value to even keep it in your LO when anyone to converse with is locked inside, and everyone outside including the one merchant has to be resurrected EVERY time you want to trade. I can definitely recommend sml3816's other mod "Ghoul King" it's so much better, runs smooth with no bugs, no flickering, no busted scenery, no frustrations.
2023 review: So, I should start this time my thoughts with telling you right away that other sml3816 quest mod called "Ghoul King" is way better than Finchley Heights, sadly. And if you need proper new dungeon type quest or something similar to creator's mentioned mod, you'll be disappointed. By this I don't mean that it's absolutely worthless job, no way. Finchley Heights as a new "town/building" mod is bearable. Many dialogues with its residents, actually decently crafted interiors of every house, few vendors and place just feels like some variation of Grayditch before ants invasion (from vanilla game). But new town actually lacks more gameplay content. You can talk with people (another plus for optional dialogue lines for every karma character, it's really necessary and my gratitude for that), do one little unmarked quest (after which you'll recieve option to do repeatable fetch quest) and main quest in, again, fetch style with two different endings. And fetch quests can also be pretty good, if creator would provide new gear, enemies or various new locations to "clean up" for player. And not this time, because two quests from this mod can be completed in 10-15 minutes, without any new cells. When exploring Finchley Heights, this project really reminded me about other new quest/town mod which I translated some time ago. Of course, I'm talking about Mounton and that new town actually has one main questline (way longer than Finchley Heights) and 4 side quests with at least two endings for all of them. I don't want to put anyone down or advertise Mounton, sml3816's project isn't that bad. It has "solid ground" (or foundation, if you want to call it more metaphorically), but now it needs love, passion and additional content to make this place more actually "playable" from gameplay perspective. And, by looking through permission rules that author chose in the description page, it's really sad that no one can create proper enhancement addons for this mod, without somehow reaching original author. I would really like to revive this project on my own, but as for right now and in this state - Finchley Heights is well-crafted, good looking, but half-empty demo version of (potentially) great new town mod. And in no way, as stated by some users in this section, it's underrated. No, it's abandoned creative piece of land with big potential for new stories and adventures, but not underrated hidden gem. As for bugs: everything worked as intended, no confilcts with popular quests/locations mods (except, already mentioned by author in the description, Evening with Mr. Manchester). Although, yes, I can agree with RexBellator about bad enemy spawn right near the entrance of town which author didn't move away for some reason. At the time when I reached Finchley Heights, 3 inhabitants were already killed by vanilla Big Radscorpions. But "resurrect" command helped, as always. Anyway, should you try this mod in 2023? With great sadness, but honest opinion - if you need proper new town with various main and side quests (and different endings), but with the same quality of interiors as in Finchley Heights, it would be better to play Mounton mod. Also I really suggest to play Ghoul King by sml3816, because this mod is good and actually brings interesting side quest with new dungeon. But Finchley Heights will remain another "good idea/potential, poor/weak execution" type of mod in Fallout 3 modding scene until someone will get permissions to revive this little place of opportunities in the Wasteland. Still endorsement from me for good idea.
Great overall mod. Only problem I have with it is that there aren't enough guards and with any kind of spawn mod (MMM, Imperfection) the inhabitants end up getting murdered by local raiders. Otherwise good job. Endorsed.
Endorsed! This is a fun town to kick around in, the NPCs have personality, and there's lots of unique surprises. As always, new quests are appreciated.
Another mod conflict to mention: Johnny Appleseed v10 by WillieSea (id=14124) is located southwest of Finchley Heights, in the basin there. The addition of Finchley moved some of the hill over Appleseed's cabin (looks like a landslide), and somehow or other dried up the pond where the apple tree is (although the tree keeps giving apples).
Besides that the two mods coexist pretty well. Mr. Appleseed still barters, etc., wandering around wearing the custom Deathclaw Gauntlet, seemingly unaware half his shack is under dirt.
What a great place and neat ideas, you really have a hand with story and creating NPCs with a life of their own. The doctors wife was very cool and the exchange with that other women, who wanted to be connected to her family history ... that moment was marvelous. Can't wait to find out about the Gnome and if the Mayor will behave afterwards. Great mod!
Impressive job you've done with this midsized town dude!! ">
I like how you set the buildings themselves and the wasteland location -with map marker included- is great IMO, well for those who don't use that Mr Manchester mod anyway ... ">
also, I was gladly surprised by those teddy bears and mannekins with weapons and all sort of stuff in their hands or heads! haha "> funny and unseen dude.
I'm just done with the unmarked gnome's quest, which worked fine; but now I'm stucked trying to find the ***SPOILERS HERE!!!*** behaviour chip for the robot, no chip for me yet and I think I've walked almost the whole building killing every darn droid ... ">
so??? later I'll be back for endorsements ...
P.S. I did have to edit through GECK to reduce most of the dialog texts to made them more readable, yes, shortening them. And adding few animations to the dialogs will help in the quality of this mod too ">
Unfortunately, that's not easy and is not something I'm likely to attempt. You could try turning off the Mister Manchester mod while playing Finchley Heights but it won't be possible for the two to co-exist.
19 comments
WARNING ! ! !
Don't finish the main quest BEFORE completing the side quests.
Once the main quest is completed ALL the doors in the town are locked, all day and all night.
You will not be able to enter to talk to anyone in conversation/ask questions, or even to turn in the side quest.
Just finished the main quest, it was very well done, went off without any problems or frustration.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish the side quest because of the lockdown on all the doors afterwards.
Also, as has been previously stated the location chosen for this town was/is VERY unkind to the town guards, there are giant albino radscorpion spawn points all around this area, had to resurrect them more than once.
Even the BOS/Enclave checkpoints down the road, they all needed resurrecting, even the brahmins !!
Mary Jones the Diner owner had another problem, after the initial convo with her to get her Gnome quest, when we went back later to trade, there is a Sentry Bot that roams in the street in front of her diner that has to be eliminated first.
We found poor Mary, both legs and an arm blown off, all of her Gnomes in her Diner were knocked over and scattered all around, blown outside and in the Diner from the missile explosions. (after resurrecting her, her ai seemed "off" a bit after though)
Even after reading previous reviews, I had still anticipated more content than was actually offered, one quest, one side quest.
Don't know for sure if there might've been more quests had all the doors not gone on lockdown, but this was my experience with this mod, your milage may vary.
Sorry, imho there's absolutely no "role-play" value to even keep it in your LO when anyone to converse with is locked inside, and everyone outside including the one merchant has to be resurrected EVERY time you want to trade.
I can definitely recommend sml3816's other mod "Ghoul King" it's so much better, runs smooth with no bugs, no flickering, no busted scenery, no frustrations.
Live long and prosper.
Cheers
By this I don't mean that it's absolutely worthless job, no way. Finchley Heights as a new "town/building" mod is bearable. Many dialogues with its residents, actually decently crafted interiors of every house, few vendors and place just feels like some variation of Grayditch before ants invasion (from vanilla game).
But new town actually lacks more gameplay content. You can talk with people (another plus for optional dialogue lines for every karma character, it's really necessary and my gratitude for that), do one little unmarked quest (after which you'll recieve option to do repeatable fetch quest) and main quest in, again, fetch style with two different endings. And fetch quests can also be pretty good, if creator would provide new gear, enemies or various new locations to "clean up" for player. And not this time, because two quests from this mod can be completed in 10-15 minutes, without any new cells.
When exploring Finchley Heights, this project really reminded me about other new quest/town mod which I translated some time ago. Of course, I'm talking about Mounton and that new town actually has one main questline (way longer than Finchley Heights) and 4 side quests with at least two endings for all of them. I don't want to put anyone down or advertise Mounton, sml3816's project isn't that bad. It has "solid ground" (or foundation, if you want to call it more metaphorically), but now it needs love, passion and additional content to make this place more actually "playable" from gameplay perspective. And, by looking through permission rules that author chose in the description page, it's really sad that no one can create proper enhancement addons for this mod, without somehow reaching original author.
I would really like to revive this project on my own, but as for right now and in this state - Finchley Heights is well-crafted, good looking, but half-empty demo version of (potentially) great new town mod. And in no way, as stated by some users in this section, it's underrated. No, it's abandoned creative piece of land with big potential for new stories and adventures, but not underrated hidden gem.
As for bugs: everything worked as intended, no confilcts with popular quests/locations mods (except, already mentioned by author in the description, Evening with Mr. Manchester). Although, yes, I can agree with RexBellator about bad enemy spawn right near the entrance of town which author didn't move away for some reason. At the time when I reached Finchley Heights, 3 inhabitants were already killed by vanilla Big Radscorpions. But "resurrect" command helped, as always.
Anyway, should you try this mod in 2023? With great sadness, but honest opinion - if you need proper new town with various main and side quests (and different endings), but with the same quality of interiors as in Finchley Heights, it would be better to play Mounton mod. Also I really suggest to play Ghoul King by sml3816, because this mod is good and actually brings interesting side quest with new dungeon. But Finchley Heights will remain another "good idea/potential, poor/weak execution" type of mod in Fallout 3 modding scene until someone will get permissions to revive this little place of opportunities in the Wasteland.
Still endorsement from me for good idea.
[Removing "Identical to Master" records done] Processed Records: 6800, Removed Records: 128, Elapsed Time: 00:00
Clearly, with only 10 endorsements it is underrated
Another mod conflict to mention:
Johnny Appleseed v10 by WillieSea (id=14124) is located southwest of Finchley Heights, in the basin there. The addition of Finchley moved some of the hill over Appleseed's cabin (looks like a landslide), and somehow or other dried up the pond where the apple tree is (although the tree keeps giving apples).
Besides that the two mods coexist pretty well. Mr. Appleseed still barters, etc., wandering around wearing the custom Deathclaw Gauntlet, seemingly unaware half his shack is under dirt.
What a great place and neat ideas, you really have a hand with story and creating NPCs with a life of their own. The doctors wife was very cool and the exchange with that other women, who wanted to be connected to her family history ... that moment was marvelous. Can't wait to find out about the Gnome and if the Mayor will behave afterwards. Great mod!
I like how you set the buildings themselves and the wasteland location -with map marker included- is great IMO, well for those who don't use that Mr Manchester mod anyway ...
also, I was gladly surprised by those teddy bears and mannekins with weapons and all sort of stuff in their hands or heads! haha
I'm just done with the unmarked gnome's quest, which worked fine; but now I'm stucked trying to find the ***SPOILERS HERE!!!*** behaviour chip for the robot, no chip for me yet and I think I've walked almost the whole building killing every darn droid ...
so??? later I'll be back for endorsements ...
P.S. I did have to edit through GECK to reduce most of the dialog texts to made them more readable, yes, shortening them. And adding few animations to the dialogs will help in the quality of this mod too
Hope 4 the next version latr in the future