Canterbury Commons Embiggened!
Alpha version 0.1.3

WARNING: If you have patched your game to v1.5, this mod WILL cause crashing and or missing data.

THERE IS A workaround, but I can't promise it'll work as intended (it stands up to initial testing, though). See the installation instructions ON THIS PAGE (it is not in the readme) to find this workaround. This may also work for other mods afflicted with a 1.5 incompatibility.

Here's a thread on the official forums that explain the problems introduced by FO3 v1.5's interaction with mods :
http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=986847

Please note that this is not a final release, it is only a fraction of what I'd like to do with this project. This means there is still much work to be done here... you will find some unaccesable areas (including one of vanilla's buildings), not nearly as much dialogue as I'd like, and very few quests.
Make sure to make a backup save before loading this mod. Just in case.

Canterbury Commons Embiggened, obviously, is an expansion of Canterbury Commons.


I am releasing it for these reasons, in case you're turned off by those disclaimers:

- I think it's a decent expansion in it's own right. While there are alot of loose ends, it feels much more believable as a trade hub than it did previously.

- Maybe it'll inspire some mod-artists to donate a little time to the project ;)

- It'll help me focus the next stages of development.

Please, let me know what you think. Any and all bug reports,suggestions, complaints, etc are welcome... I hope you like it :)

For more details, check out this mod's FOOKUNITY forum:
http://www.fookunity.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=88
or the ALPHA Release thread on the official FO3 forum:
http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=975975

The Van Buren Boys are the premiere drug cookers in their immediate vicinity. The Droogs (name subject to change) hold a near-monopoly in the sex-for-hire industry. Both have their fingers in many viceful pies, but they each have their specialties. There is a history of low-level hostility between these two groups, primarily as a result of A ) competition for resources, and B ) boredom.

Both gangs arrived in Canterbury Commons at the same time, and under similiar circumstances. Drawn to the town by dreams of looting the merchants
who set up shop there, both gangs had the idea to raid the caravans as they sat in Canterbury. Through a cosmic twist of fate, both gangs approached the caravans at exactly hight noon-thirty with weapons drawn. This is when they see their counterparts, and both sides come to the same conclusion: "We can't let THEM get the loot". The raiding parties thus became watchmen, guarding the precious loot from one another, until they could muster the force to overcome the caravan's new-found protection. For months, this cold war continued: each gang slowly increased their presence in town (as a response to their competitors' recent increase in presence... you know the pattern).

The gangs gradually moved beds and supplies into the abandoned houses around town, to ensure 24-7 patrols, in the hopes of catching the other gang off-guard.As more and more gang members were moving to Cantebury Commons, more and more of their respective headquarters were carried to the town, piece by piece. The van buren boys brought their chems and gambling set-up to pass the time, and the droogs brought their beds and liqour.

As any good capitalist will tell you, the combination of sex, drugs, gambling and shopping is guarenteed to bring in customers... As profits for both factions grew, the original objective became less and less predominate. While both sides still vehemently claim to be "just waiting for the right time to strike", the comforts of small-town life, combined with a ever-growning customer base and traders with which they can do business, has led to a some-what stable situation.


General Feel: Imagine the tiny-infant-lovechild of New Reno and the Hub, Not in size (hence the "tiny-infant" bit), but in ambience.
gritty but generally safe. There will be drinking, gambling, perhaps some fistfights... more hospitable than 90% of the wasteland, of course.


There will be patrols for each gang, along with Uncle Roe and his cronies, who will serve as a third faction which is a bit 'sheriffy', but not especially zealous: he just wants to keep the original population, and the traders whom he has befriended, safe.

Contents:

Van buren boys:
Casino
"Spin N' Win" and "bangbox" gambling system (I have zero mesh/texture making experience, the current roulette table is a pool table )
Some dialogue

The Droogs:
Brothel (The "cuppa Joe" and adjacent buildings)
strippers, bar, rentable rooms (by the hour). Some dialogue.

Canterbury Commons Logistics and Comfort.
[in the 'barber shop' building]
Layout and navmesh finished... I'm holding off on posting screenshots until I have it populated and tweaked a bit.
- Reception Area on ground floor
- Spacious hotel rooms on second floor
- "employees" work stations and cheap-rent sleeping quarters in basement.

Exterior:

Bazaar Traders: A collection of small-time merchants who hope to get in on the action.

A "tourist" system I'm trying to iron out... It's basically a series of sandbox and patrol AI packages that I manipulate through spacial activators... It's pretty basic now (just to keep the streets active with relatively few "Unnamed Tourist"NPC's) but I hope to make it more interesting and dynamic in the future. I'm making progess here, but it's slow going.
Guards and Guard outposts at most entrance points... I'm trying to limit the use of walls, but still have the city be well-defended (both in appearance and in the case of MMM-induced attacks)




///**** Credits:


Thanks to ZeroCool for his texture work on chips,droogies,Spin N' Win and the van buren jacket.
Thanks to Khanemis for making the new sign decals
Thanks to Umpa for his awesome animations
The Bethesda Forum goers for their awesome ideas, many of which I have ripped off, and many more to be stolen as this mod progresses.
And bethesda for the GECK and for reviving the fallout series.

///************ Compatibility

MAJOR incompatibility: this mod is NOT compatible with The Refuge, as they both alter/use the same buildings/exteriors. It seems to cause CTD's when used together, and I haven't found a workaround/fix yet (sorry)

MINOR incompatibility: I've heard a report that GTS acts weird with this mod, though the problem seems minor: if you can't find your vehicle, check the roofs (just imagine that it's where the cool people park). I don't use GTS, so I don't know how often this happens.




///************Installation

To install:
Use archive invalidated or an alternative.
Extract the archive to your fallout3/data folder.
active the esp in FOMM.
enjoy.

For v1.5: As of this moment, CCE is NOT compatible with the v1.5 patch. You can remedy this on your end by using FO3Edit's newest version to add an "ESM" flag to the header of the .esp. All future versions will (probably) be released as a master file, so this step will be unnecessary.

to uninstall:

Make sure you have exchanged all droogies, chips, etc for caps.
Make sure you have left nothing in the new cells.
To be safe, go to megaton/tenpenny/anywhere but CC before saving.
remove the files from data/textures/clutter/CCTexes
remove the esp.
Stop enjoying.


///**** Changelog
v0.1.3: Adds a shanty-town in a bombed out building in the east-end of
main street.
New street signs, thanks to Khanemis
Overhauls the nighttime lighting system (now with neon!)
Retex to Spin 'N Win (thanks zerocool), as well as bang-box
Casino interior reworked a bit.
overhauled the "tourist" system... shouldn't LOOK too different, but these changes will come in handy for upcoming updates.
More attempts to optimize exterior performance.
A few ownership/vendor stock fixes.
More changes I can't remember right now.



v0.1.2: altered tourists a bit (most notably attire and attack tendencies, though they're still pretty scrappy)
added lights for main street at night (very basic for now)
Added option to hire the Droog prostitutes. (start saving up your droogies!)
Some tweaks, added 'options', etc. to "Hit the Streets!" (VB initiation quest)
Re-arranged main street, partly in order to address slow-downs in gameplay due to too much data to process... This should help.

v0.1.1: Fixed "A-1" Message, missing mesh error.
v0.1: initial release