Woaaah you're the Modern Apocalypse guy? I like the mods! You should try remake your first mod, Gunner Weapons Pack, I bet your modern apocalypse Desert Eagle animations would fit The Firecracker, since both are Desert Eagles, you can decide on the rest! Love the mods, keep it up!
This mod perfectly addresses one of the issues I have with Fallout's melee weapons and armor: did blacksmithing just go extinct when the bombs dropped? Has no one tried actually forging weapons and armor like they did back in the ye olde times? Why does everyone insist on using sharpened bumpers and chunks of concrete with rebar sticking out of them when they could forge weapons like these?
did they do this at The Pitt? I guess they have some nice weapons at Saugus ironworks. I guess one can sharpen some quality alloy and add a handle or one can crudely forge some brittle crap because no ye olde tools and the majority of forging knowledge is random burned books... the rest is high tech stuff that requires deep industrial foundations.
Those are good questions, because those are things worth thinking about when this game almost BEGS us to think about how human society might function without any of our major industries intact.
did blacksmithing just go extinct when the bombs dropped? Has no one tried actually forging weapons and armor like they did back in the ye olde times?
Yes, and yes. When survival is so far from guaranteed that simply living until tomorrow is a genuine daily struggle (like in the post-apoc world of Fallout), people only do exactly what they need to do. In those situations, even just saving your energy in case you suddenly have to run for your life, by sitting around doing nothing and avoiding any kinds of risks at all, is a logical strategy that keeps people alive. If people can survive just fine without absolutely needing to melt metal and reshape it, then forging metal is a skill that nobody absolutely needs, and thus, something that nobody does.
In fact, even if people really needed to reshape metal, how badly would they need swords and armor, instead of things like gun parts, bullets, or even just screws and nails? Now, if people had no wrenches or screws or nails and people were using rocks and bones for tools, then yes, trying to create a desperate post-apoc version of one of those crazy high-heat blast furnaces, and opening up a smithing service, would be a really good idea. At that point, even if your metal is full of dirt and rust and impurities from melting down old tin cans, and the metal tools you create end up with pock-marks, cracks, and gutted by bubbles due to imperfect smithing techniques/materials/conditions... then they're still metal tools, and that's better than rocks and bones. However...
Why does everyone insist on using sharpened bumpers and chunks of concrete with rebar sticking out of them when they could forge weapons like these?
Because of the unique post-apocalyptic situation that the Fallout universe presents to us. We are shown that one of the main forms of decay that led to America's collapse was overabundance. Too much of everything. While factories across the country were spitting out millions of tools and car parts and guns and kitchen appliances and robot butlers every day, the price of these things was soaring through the roof due to how many more of every kind of person there was. There were more rich people than ever, so sales were skyrocketing, and manufacturers could inflate prices as big as they wanted, because the rich buy things at any price. Because of this, the rich lived like the goddamn Jetsons, but there were also more poor people than ever, and it seemed that no matter how many more factories opened up, it was never enough jobs for the amount of people that kept growing.
When it all finally got wiped clear by the nukes, what we, as players, are left with, is this ghost of an over-abundant America's worth of stuff, meant to accommodate BILLIONS of people (most of whom who couldn't even afford the items sold to them, so these items started piling up in factories and stores until they were everywhere), but now left for only a couple hundred thousand people remaining. This is why nobody is forging their own home-made post-apoc wrenches in their own home-made post-apoc forges - there are literally hundreds and hundreds of factory-produced pre-war wrenches laying all around every block of just the city of Boston alone, waiting to be grabbed for free (so long as raiders or mutants don't shoot you while trying it). This is why it seems like nobody in Fallout is a blacksmith, yet everyone and their dog seems to proudly carry the title of "scavenger".
Now, when it comes to raiders, that's why we see so many "junky" melee weapons. Civilized people living solely inside the safety of a city don't often need weapons, and if they do, they often have access to firearms. Things like swords and clubs and armor are more like the kinds of things you need if you're living like a wandering barbarian who attacks people in large packs, so that you can loot their stuff and split it among the group. The people who live like that in Fallout usually aren't very intelligent, or patient, or skilled, or anything other than violent and greedy, so they don't have forges either. The apex of their combined patience and creativity might result in each of them carrying a sharpened street sign because they figured it might be good to chop someone with that, and we can all get one pretty easy. A big chunk of concrete on rebar is also a good choice for a common raider, because if you ever even managed to make or find something resembling a "nice sword" and tried to keep it for yourself, your raider boss is immediately going to claim it as his own and take it from you by force, maybe even just killing you as an example, to warn other raiders about what happens when they try to keep something nice from him. Your raider boss doesn't care about your rock on a stick.
These are solid points, and I have immense respect for the in-depth response you have given to the questions I had posed. Color me convinced! I should have been asking, "why invest time forging a weapon when sharp pieces of metal are readily available?" I find myself thinking back to a video I watched of a man comparing a genuine katana to a slab of steel he sharpened in his workshop, and while the katana did prove decently superior, it likely required many times more effort to craft than the "orc sword," as he called it.
As one Fallout "blacksmith" to another, I'm going to have to say - this is absolutely awesome! Especially the rapier! I love it! I always get so excited when someone makes a sword mod for a game, while A) actually knowing what a real sword looks like, and B) not trying to make it gigantic or anime-themed. I love that you made these look simple, proportionate, and even a little dirty and beaten-up, like they're actually being used once again in the post-apocalypse. I guess if all your other weapon mods are anything to go by, including all the ones I install and use regularly, I shouldn't be surprised!
Blacksmithing is not that hard. No rocket science involved. My father was a blacksmith in the army and forged and hardened and tempered (including swords) steel for the horse cavalry.The army had small portable forges that were packed by mules, and some times wagons. The normally burned coal in the forge. He forged the best hunting knife I have ever seen. He could butcher a whole cow, start to finish and never have to sharpen it. I suspect some of the prewar ghouls might even know how.
13 comments
This is such a great mod concept.
You ever going to do any more weapons?
Maybe sharpened screwdriver?
Tactical ballpeen hammer?
Irradiated pencil?
I guess one can sharpen some quality alloy and add a handle or one can crudely forge some brittle crap because no ye olde tools and the majority of forging knowledge is random burned books... the rest is high tech stuff that requires deep industrial foundations.
love the compatibility of the 2h wep with the different grip animations btw
Yes, and yes. When survival is so far from guaranteed that simply living until tomorrow is a genuine daily struggle (like in the post-apoc world of Fallout), people only do exactly what they need to do. In those situations, even just saving your energy in case you suddenly have to run for your life, by sitting around doing nothing and avoiding any kinds of risks at all, is a logical strategy that keeps people alive. If people can survive just fine without absolutely needing to melt metal and reshape it, then forging metal is a skill that nobody absolutely needs, and thus, something that nobody does.
In fact, even if people really needed to reshape metal, how badly would they need swords and armor, instead of things like gun parts, bullets, or even just screws and nails? Now, if people had no wrenches or screws or nails and people were using rocks and bones for tools, then yes, trying to create a desperate post-apoc version of one of those crazy high-heat blast furnaces, and opening up a smithing service, would be a really good idea. At that point, even if your metal is full of dirt and rust and impurities from melting down old tin cans, and the metal tools you create end up with pock-marks, cracks, and gutted by bubbles due to imperfect smithing techniques/materials/conditions... then they're still metal tools, and that's better than rocks and bones. However...
Because of the unique post-apocalyptic situation that the Fallout universe presents to us. We are shown that one of the main forms of decay that led to America's collapse was overabundance. Too much of everything. While factories across the country were spitting out millions of tools and car parts and guns and kitchen appliances and robot butlers every day, the price of these things was soaring through the roof due to how many more of every kind of person there was. There were more rich people than ever, so sales were skyrocketing, and manufacturers could inflate prices as big as they wanted, because the rich buy things at any price. Because of this, the rich lived like the goddamn Jetsons, but there were also more poor people than ever, and it seemed that no matter how many more factories opened up, it was never enough jobs for the amount of people that kept growing.
When it all finally got wiped clear by the nukes, what we, as players, are left with, is this ghost of an over-abundant America's worth of stuff, meant to accommodate BILLIONS of people (most of whom who couldn't even afford the items sold to them, so these items started piling up in factories and stores until they were everywhere), but now left for only a couple hundred thousand people remaining. This is why nobody is forging their own home-made post-apoc wrenches in their own home-made post-apoc forges - there are literally hundreds and hundreds of factory-produced pre-war wrenches laying all around every block of just the city of Boston alone, waiting to be grabbed for free (so long as raiders or mutants don't shoot you while trying it). This is why it seems like nobody in Fallout is a blacksmith, yet everyone and their dog seems to proudly carry the title of "scavenger".
Now, when it comes to raiders, that's why we see so many "junky" melee weapons. Civilized people living solely inside the safety of a city don't often need weapons, and if they do, they often have access to firearms. Things like swords and clubs and armor are more like the kinds of things you need if you're living like a wandering barbarian who attacks people in large packs, so that you can loot their stuff and split it among the group. The people who live like that in Fallout usually aren't very intelligent, or patient, or skilled, or anything other than violent and greedy, so they don't have forges either. The apex of their combined patience and creativity might result in each of them carrying a sharpened street sign because they figured it might be good to chop someone with that, and we can all get one pretty easy. A big chunk of concrete on rebar is also a good choice for a common raider, because if you ever even managed to make or find something resembling a "nice sword" and tried to keep it for yourself, your raider boss is immediately going to claim it as his own and take it from you by force, maybe even just killing you as an example, to warn other raiders about what happens when they try to keep something nice from him. Your raider boss doesn't care about your rock on a stick.
Especially the rapier! I love it!
I always get so excited when someone makes a sword mod for a game, while
A) actually knowing what a real sword looks like, and
B) not trying to make it gigantic or anime-themed.
I love that you made these look simple, proportionate, and even a little dirty and beaten-up, like they're actually being used once again in the post-apocalypse. I guess if all your other weapon mods are anything to go by, including all the ones I install and use regularly, I shouldn't be surprised!
He forged the best hunting knife I have ever seen. He could butcher a whole cow, start to finish and never have to sharpen it.
I suspect some of the prewar ghouls might even know how.