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Mod Name: Minutemen Take Over Nuka World Bugfix
Version: 0.85 Replacer/Bugfix
Author: Myrystyr
Original Author: hxhunter15
Date: 18/04/2022
Categories: Quests, Bugfixes
Requirements: Fallout 4 base game and the Nuka World DLC
Recommended: Raider Bogeyman Perk, Fizztop Grille Linked Containers, SKK Dynamic Damage Manager, SKK Companion Weapon Upgrade, We Are The Minutemen, Minutemen Variations, Legendary Chance Reduced, Nuka World Open Season Extend II

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Hey Overboss, glad you could make it. Wanna have some F-U-N fun?

Open Season is one of my favourite quests. Minutemen Take Over Nuka World is one of my favourite mods. Completing the quest Open Season with Minutemen Take Over Nuka World installed is one of my most satisfying gaming experiences in the thousands of hours I have spent playing Oblivion, Skyrim and Fallout 4. Unfortunately, the mod has some bugs.

This mod makes a number of changes and improvements to hxhunter15's original work. This includes packing the scripts into an archive, removing dirty edits, and making several other adjustments. For a comprehensive list of the changes made, see the CONTENTS section below. In short: the mod no longer affects Far Harbor, Liberty Prime or the Cambridge Police Station, frees up the Wasteland Travellers to sandbox around Nuka Town, and in general runs more smoothly.

It also, and this should be music to many an Overboss' ears, plays nice with the Power Play quest. In the Nuka World DLC, the Power Play and Open Season quests do not normally interact. In the original verison of this mod, trying to complete Power Play would automatically start Open Season. This bug is now resolved.

There are still a few issues with this mod, but not all of them can be addressed at this stage. Two in particular are of note. Firstly, a frontal assault on the main gate of Nuka Town is resource-intensive even on really good computers, and may cause the game to lag, freeze or crash for reasons that have little to do with this mod. Secondly, the way quests and scripts work in Fallout 4 is beyond the current skill level of this mod author. Simply put, if this was an Oblvion mod called Fighters Guild Take Over Shivering Isles it would be a lot easier to work with.

If you join the attack at the front gates of Nuka Town, the following actors are present:

You the Player Character
Your Companion (if any)
Up to 25 Minutemen or Brotherhood of Steel
The first 15 Raiders to arrive on the scene
Any other NPCs in the area, including Shank, NIRA and trader slaves
Plus any robots hijacked using the Robotics Expert perk and brought from the Galactic Zone to Nuka Town
Let's not forget any NPCs brought in from anywhere else using a mod like SKK Unlimited Combat Followers

And the computer has to handle all this in addition to the architecture, objects with physics and/or animations, precombines and landscape within all the cells loaded according to UGridsToLoad in the ini file. For a real framerate nightmare, try doing this during high winds and heavy rain. For a more manageable battle consider other strategies; ordering your troops to standby until you kill one of the gang bosses is risky but effective, for example. Or you can order an immediate attack from the safety of Fizztop Grille Patio, and watch the battle unfold before you.

Fallout 4 rates weapon mods on a simple scale: exceptional, superior, better, improved, standard, worse, reduced, inferior and poor. Hxhunter15's mod definitely Improved upon the original Open Season quest. Now we can say that we truly do have a Better Open Season - and, in conjunction with other mods, a superior Nuka World experience.

For images, videos, bug reports and further information, please see the original mod here:

Minutemen Takeover Nuka World - https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/30509

As always, if you are already satisfied with the original mod this one is based on you don't have to download this mod. Or, feel free to try one of the other mods out there that do similar things to this one.

This mod is released as is. While feedback may be helpful, be aware that not every suggestion or request may be taken into account. Furthermore, if you would be more satisfied with the mod going in a different direction than the one I have chosen, please note that permission is given for further modification (see below for full details).

Please read the ReadMe in full before downloading and installing this mod. For optimum results manual installation is recommended. If a mod user downloads and installs this mod without reading the ReadMe, then support will be limited. Also, take the time to view the images on this mod's webpage; they serve as a visual diary of debugging this mod.

CONTENTS
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This mod contains the following files:

BetterOpenSeason.esp Replacer
BetterOpenSeason - Main.ba2 Archive

This mod makes a number of changes to the original mod as follows:

The AI package DefaultPatrolLinkedRef is removed due to unnecessary and deleterious effects on unrelated NPCs.

Quest Alias entries that generate warnings and an error are removed from zjs_OS_Main "The Battle for Nuka World" quest.

The radius of the zjs_OS_SandboxSmall package (referenced by zjs_OS_Main) is increased to 512.

The radius of the Sandbox package (referenced by zjs_OS_Main and zjs_OS_SettlingNukaWorld) is increased to 4096.

An Idle normally used by Dogmeat removed from zjs_OS_WastelandTravelers Formlist and two appropriate NPCs are added.

The AI package zjs_OS_NukaTownStroll is changed from Patrol to Sandbox with radius 4096 Near Self.

The Keyword type for zjs_OS_RelaxKeyword is changed from Recipe Filter to Quest Target - in conjunction with the AI package change above, Wasteland Travellers can now finally sandbox about Nuka Town.

Raider settlement objects unlocked by the Wasteland Warlord perks are now available, in any exterior settlement, for an Overboss who has completed both Power Play and Open Season; these are new crafting recipes.

When the Traders of Nuka Town remove their slave collars they will also change out of their Tattered Rags and into a selection of clothes, using a new levelled list; note that if you kill Harvey his corpse will become naked.

The levelled lists used to clothe the Wasteland Travellers are expanded and corrected; in particular, no one will be wearing Deacon's non-playable clothes.

Selected Quest Aliases are removed from the edited version of DLC04RaiderKickout aka Open Season, as part of efforts to provide compatibility with the Power Play quest.

Conditions are imposed on all stages of zjs_OS_Main for compatibility with DLC04MQ05 aka Power Play, such that it is now possible for the Overboss to become the Wasteland Warlord and complete the Nuka World questline without triggering the Open Season quest; note that it is still possible to accidentally trigger Open Season through incautious play.

Dirty edits to otherwise unused references in cells and the worldspace are removed.

The previously unused Layer zjs_OS_Triggers is now implemented, with all cell and worldspace references touched by this mod moved to this layer unless they were already on a layer; note however that there is still some yellow conflict in Edit over the Location records touched by this mod, and the Creation Kit still generates a lengthy warning log.

The Nuka World Command Radio is now a holotape, which you will now hear being added to your inventory, and its interface is somewhat more user-friendly; if you don't receive a message immediately upon making a selection in the holotape menu, be patient and exit from your pip-boy or terminal.

The corrections made by The Unofficial Patch are now copied directly into the Open Season quest, and are not dependent upon that patch; the patch for the patch (made for earlier versions) is now no longer required.

Stage 20 of Brand New Refreshment is now marked as Complete Quest, so that quest will now complete.

Some of the messages received via the Nuka World Command Radio are edited slightly.

Lastly, the esp was given a Quick Auto Clean with Edit; the 16 Identical to Master records removed were worldspace cells and their group block and sub-block headers.

CONFLICTS AND ISSUES
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Disclaimer: I do not play on survival mode, as the imposed restrictions make it impossible to fix issues I repeatedly encounter in the base game. Therefore any issues encountered using this mod in that mode cannot be addressed.

Known Issues: If you look at some of the images I have provided, you will see that some of the Minutemen are wearing mod outfits with 4k textures. Also, Curie is wearing a custom outfit made from elements of clothing mods by Elianora and others, which has far more polygons than her standard outfit. This, along with the mod outfit and hair of the character I was playing at the time, likely aggravated the game lagging and almost crashing during the Battle for Nuka World.
In addition, there may be an increase in lag in the exterior cells of Nuka Town whilst waiting for the Minutemen or Brotherhood to arrive, particularly if console commands are used to acquire the Nuka World Command Radio or otherwise force the Battle For Nuka World quest to start. Attempting to load a savegame at the Fizztop Grille Patio caused the game to repeatedly freeze and crash for one character, while others experienced a drop in framerate walking about Nuka Town and near various NPCs; as a result, saving in interior cells is recommended as a precaution.

Skimpiness Factor: Some of the NPCs in Nuka Town are persistent references, and even with Corpse Removal toggled on they stay lying in the middle of the street for everyone to see on an effectively permanent basis. So if you take everything out of their inventory, strip them of their clothes . . .

Playtest Report: Having visited Nuka Town post-battle with four different characters, I can definitively say that the Wasteland Travellers do sandbox and the Traders do change their clothes.

Furthermore, provided Open Season is started correctly, the Battle for Nuka World quest does run. To be more precise, this mod needs to be installed before starting the quest, preferably before travelling to Nuka World. If the quest Open Season has already started, and any version of this mod is then installed, then the Nuka World Command Radio will not be received. As this will lock the character out of the full experience of this mod, the only safe alternatives are to revert to a previous savegame where Open Season had not yet started or to wait until a new character starts a new playthrough. While there are console commands that can be used, do so at your own peril.

Also, it is now possible to complete the Power Play quest without triggering Open Season and thus this mod's Battle for Nuka World. To be precise, Nisha took a bullet for her betrayal of the Overboss, the Disciples were disciplined, and the remaining gangs and their bosses did not attack their Overboss or each other.
It is also possible to start Open Season and the Battle for Nuka World normally any time after completing Power Play.

Compatibility: Due to the edits to cell, worldspace and location records in this mod there will be some conflict with other Nuka World mods that alter the same records. This is best checked on an individual basis, using Edit to see what records are in green, yellow or red. Some of these conflicts may be resolved by moving the BetterOpenSeason esp higher or lower in your load order. Others may require a decision on your part as to which mods to keep and which to remove.

This mod was used alongside over 150 other mods, all either downloaded from NexusMods or of my own private creation (including custom patches). My load order includes a fairly recent version of CBBE, and the Unofficial Patch, but not AWKCR or AE. No mod manager is installed or used, and in all cases manual installation is recommended and assumed. While I do have Edit installed it is primarily used to manage custom patches at the end of my load order. Although I play with over 150 mods installed, compatibility with any given mod or load order cannot be guaranteed or assumed.

Working on this bugfix has been a learning experience, to say the least. There's still a lot more that I want to do with this mod, like fully integrating the Institute and the Railroad into the Battle for Nuka World, but that will have to wait until I have a better understanding of how quests and scripts work in this game. In the meantime, anyone who has the skill and patience required to unpack and rewrite the scripts is welcome to do so. I hope to one day see a superior or even exceptional version of Open Season built upon the foundation of my and hxhunter15's work.

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to take a moment to have a Nuka Cola and admire the view.

These mods are my way of sharing some of the fun I have playing Fallout 4. If you like the mods I make, please consider endorsing them so that others can know they are appreciated; and, feel free to recommend them to others.

Thank you for reading, and enjoy your gaming.

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