So, I'm quandering whether or not to have opening titles in my quest mod... They would be worked into the game, in some kind of a cutscene, and it would just say something like, "Gunmaster95 Presents, ModName." (Cause its a secret. >.>) I personally think if you do it well, it adds a really nice level of professionalism (Not sure if that's a word... ) to the mod. But for some others I then thought, it may kill immersion, or seem pushy, or overall bad. I had them in my previous Fallout 3 mod, Project Genesis, and for the most part people said that they were nicely done and had a positive effect.

So the question is; Do you guys think I should add them? They wouldn't be too pushy, it would be quick, and fit very nicely into what is going on. What are you thoughts? Does it add, seem cool, professional, destracting, does it subtract, kill immersion?

Thanks for your input!

Gunmaster95

EDIT: I'm talking very simple titles. They would add to a pre-existing cutscene that I made, and might make it 10 seconds longer. I'm talking a very simple thing, but some people may react strongly to it. I added a second poll option to help me figure this out.

Yes, opening quest titles, especially humurous/tasteful ones that refer to the quest itself (bonus points for sticking in a 50-60's era reference, as is with Fallout) is always great.

Besides, the game itself is coded to show quest titles after all, unless its an unmarked (and thus, easy to forget/mistake/screw up) quest.

I wouldn't like an opening title, no matter how non-intrusive. The only way I can agree with it is by using a movie projector or similar and projecting the quest name, and only the quest name, on a wall or TV.

I don't like when quest mods use intro credits or popups or anything else that breaks the fourth wall. I prefer them to be seamlessly integrated with the vanilla game, I don't want to be reminded that I am playing a specific mod.

That said, it's your mod, go for it if you think that credits are cool. I'll get over it

If you're doing it in a separate area, a-là DLC, I don't really see any problem with it.

The mod does occur 100% in my own cells and new interior and exterior locations. The only alteration to the normal game is the entrance to it all that I added to the wasteland.

The opening titles would be literally no more than my name, a word like 'presents' and then the mods title. I dont mean like full movie opening credits where i say who made it and list everyone and all that crap. I definitly want to keep that out of it, as thats over doing it.

would you be forced to watch that every single time the quest is triggered in each playthrough?
Because that would get annoying, heck it took me starting my 3rd game to frantically start searching for "Alternative Start" mods to avoid that entire Doc Mitchell scenario.

Let's put it this way, each time your Quest Log updated in the Vanilla FO3 and FONV with the Quest name, how Annoyed would you get
if (using FO3 as an example) Instead of just the quest title "Them!" appearing, every single quest you get is preceded by
"BETHESDA PRESENTS...." "Them!"

I guarantee, after about 3 quests you'd be looking to make a mod that removes the "BETHESDA PRESENTS" :thumbsup:

This is a very silly thing to say. Because, well... first, Bethesda Game Studios did not make the game, Bethesda Softworks simply published it. Obsidian Entertainment made it. And the reason it does not go 'Obsidian Presents' at the start of each quest is because they made the entire game. It says 'Obsidian Entertainment Presents"... Fallout: New Vegas! Every single time you open the game.

Also, wanting to skip the Doc Mitchell thing is understandable, that takes like 5-10 minutes and is annoying. My intro title would literally make a cutscene at some point (I would put it into a pre-determined cutscene so it isn't forced) like 10 seconds longer at most. It's not adding any lengthy gameplay or anything. Plus, I only say it once at the start, because then the people know I made the whole mod. You suggesting that they would have said 'Bethesda presents' before each quest would then be like me saying 'Gunmaster95 presents' before each dialog conversation...


So far your comments and the poll (Not including my vote so I dont have to click 'show results' every damn time) are literally split 50/50 for whether I should have one or not... :sigh:

I added another poll option just to help how I get feedback.

The Quest THEM! is in Fallout 3, by Bethesda Game Studios, Obsidian did FONV, you missed my point when I pointed out using "THEM!" as an example.
Them! (a quest being in FO3, would indeed have Bethesda Game Studios before the Quest title), that was my point, it would get old really fast,
that's all I'm saying. :shrug:

Having said that, it's your mod, so do what you want with it. :tongue:

Doh! Now I feel that I am the one being silly. (And yes I keep saying 'silly' so we keep this friendly and clean. ) It would be BGS for Fallout 3, durr. :homestar: Not sure why that didn't click.

But yes that would get old, however it is not necessary because again, every single time you open the game is says, "Bethesda Game Studios Presents, Fallout 3." That is more what I would do. Every time you start my mod (so yes, on each playthrough, whoever asked that) it does the brief title, but it's worked into the gameplay.

I'm thinking I will go ahead and do it. The beauty with that is since I think it will be a 5-10 second bink video, and playing those pauses the game and all concurrent scripts, if I don't like it, I can simply cut the 'playbink' command line out of the script and its gone and I on't have to change anything else.

I liked one of the above suggestions of a black and white film.
Have one of those vault projecters fire up (with the sound and the music doing 'that' sound, like it's starting up)
it'd be a neat and creative and non-intrusive way to sneak in the 'created by'. :disguise:

It doesn't seem tenable really. What if everyone started doing it? Might get a little annoying for people with 100 or more mods. Done once by someone it could be good, but as a standard or path for others to follow, maybe not.

Wouldn't that break immersion more? I personally would be like, "Wth, why is there a project here showing this title screen? Who put this here?!!?" Immersion broken. Whereas if the titles are a non-concrete thing that fades in during a cutscene, I would be more like, "ohh cool."


Well, I of course only think it should go at teh start of larger quest mods. Even if everyone did it, how many people would have 100 or more large quest mods? I of course dont think you should have it for other types of mods since those arent stories. Things like FOOK, FWE, ART, EVE, etc. I didn't even do titles in my other NV mod because the quest was too short and didn't really need it.

Immersion isn't broken if the Introduction to your official quest ends up being a small quest to begin with.

"What's this holotape" that says "Play Me!" ?

And why can I click on that projector in that old abandoned G.O.A.T. classroom?

Uh.......
Hmmm, you're probably right, here I am arguing against something that people might get tired of after 3 playthroughs,
and I'm suggesting stuff that people would get tired of after 1 playthrough.

"move along.....nothing to see here!........" :disguise:
LOL

That's why you make Mods, and I make stuff Glow

Haha. This quest mod will actually be pretty big. It should end up being like 1-3 hours long, which I don't consider too shabby. So they would only have to deal with the few moments of opening title-ness once each playthrough.

I think what I'm going to do is try the titles, and if my testers don't like them then I will cut them out and pretend it never happened.

Cube Experimental did it nicely in a sort of cutscene, but that thing already felt completely disconnected from the Fallout world anyway.

Exactly, and this is the kind of thing it would be. Some kind of cutscene, where the titles are placed into it smoothly. I of course am also aiming to make my slightly 'out there' so the people remember it as unique and not just more of the game.

You should use 50s song references like if its a stealthy quest, Strangers in the Night--Frank Sinatra haha

Unfortunately I'm not here do get a name, I have that decided. I just need to know whether or not to have titles, and it looks like I will try them and see what happens.

Instead of having something like "Gunmaster95 Presents" you could always do the Alfred Hitchcock (Later copied by Stephen King) thing.

Alfred Hitchcock appeared in all of his movies, even though he was the director.
In "The Birds" he was a guy walking two poodles and was on screen for about 5 seconds, but my example is what he did for the
movie "Lifeboat".

If you haven't guessed, the entire movie took place in a lifeboat, at first he wanted to be a dead body floating by,
but then he figured the censors wouldn't like that, so he snuck himself into the movie by being a 'before' picture for
a weight loss ad in a newspaper that one of the lifeboat survivors ends up reading. ^_^

So maybe instead of having your name then the title of the quest, just have the title of the quest, but maybe have a big poster in an area of
the quest that's like that Poster for the Toy Horse, except this is a kid holding up his new "Gunmaster 95" Alien Pistol or some other type
of toy gun.

As mentioned by someone else, Having "your name presents...." could jump to the insanity of an immersion breaking trend among modders
and all of a sudden we're being greeted by all kinds of screens with Titles, Names, shout-outs, thank yous etc :shrug:

The issue with that idea is that first, I would have to create a 50's style poster of some kind with my name cleverly hidden on it somewhere. And with my little to no artistic ability and very little know-how with programs like photoshop, that would be nearly impossible to do. Second, the entire mod takes place in a high clearence military bunker. So why would there be an advertisemant for a childrens toy? Why would there be any advertisemants?

Also, I'm a bit confused as to why you guys seem to think that if I do something, everyone else who mods will go, "Thats amazing, I must do it too!" and suddenly everyone is doing it... I'm fairly certain that if I do some brief opening titles, nobody else will really pick up on it. Definitly not outside of the quest mod area, since like I said, they certainly dont fit into mods that just add weapons, or balance things, etc.

I was explaining the toy poster because I have no idea where your mod takes place, if it took place in a vault etc a toy poster would work, now I find out it's in a military bunker.

It's possible that no other modder has thought of it, or they have thought of it, but decided against it, because they figured it would be immersion breaking
or just intrusive.

Either way, ultimately it's up to you what you decide to do, it's your mod.

This is true, you didn't know where it takes place.

According to the (not as many as I would like) votes so far, most of you either want them, or would rather not have them but wouldn't mind if they were there. So I'm going to try for them and if it's frowned upon I will just cut them out.

Thanks everyone for you input and votes and all that!

Gunmaster95