This month, a mod was released for
Fallout 4 and became an instant hit.
It's an example of a mod where someone simply has a really good idea, and has the knowledge needed to turn it into a reality. It's a mod that fits the atmosphere of the game, and builds upon the gameplay already present to simply make it better and more engaging. A great example of what mods can do.
By default, Fallout 4 has the "Settlements" system, where the player can find tiny settlements and start building them up. Add beds, food, water, defense, build a radio beacon to get more settlers in it. The issue with this part of the game is that it was very shallow and offered very little reason for players to spend time in those settlements. For players who enjoyed making a visually interesting base, settlements could be enjoyable. But for players who wanted a "game" out of the settlements, there wasn't really any. Once you filled their basic needs (water, food, etc), the player had nothing more to really do.
So now, the mod. This mod was inspired by modern city-management games, such as SimCity and Cities: Skyline. In those games, you don't actually build a house or an industrial building. Instead, you build Residential, Commercial or Industrial plot, and then the game randomly generate a building for it. That's the first cool part of the mod: it does exactly that. This add a small random element to the settlements, it makes you feel like your settlers are ACTUALLY building their own homes (the player only puts the plot down), and for players who are bad at creating towns... This gives them a helping hand.
Then the second part of the mod is the "dynamic needs" section. As you play, the needs of the settlers will change. On top of the "default" needs (1 food, 1 water, 1 bed per settler), you might see those needs change over time, or as part of the buildings you have created (maybe creating a new commercial building affected what people want). The needs now also track whether or not a settler has a job, and whether or not their home has access to electricity.
Keeping all of those needs met will allow each building to "upgrade" itself to a higher level. Which is cool (and brings the player back to the settlement), which can sometime tell a short story (some homes have a story told through the objects in them) and which affects how much taxes are paid.
And taxes are the next and final part. To reward players for being a good mayor, settlers will pay a small amount of taxes every so often (3 in-game days by default, can be changed).
All in all, this is a well done mod. It's available on
PC and Xbox One.
Future versions will include additional rewards for being a good leader. Unique large buildings, unique item rewards (ex: salvage beacon that can be used in the wilderness to call a NPC to pick up your extra objects)
The mod author also created a page where he helps people create new buildings for his mod, which will add even more variety.
Mod on PC:
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/21872/?
UI mod used for the Dynamic Needs:
http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/20309/?