More random musings.
I did a bit more thinking about this and came up with some clearer objectives.
A Cthulhu-mythos mod that attempts to recreate 'Lovecraft country' in the FO3 engine, including the most important locations in the stories. Players would essentially take on the role of investigators (detectives, reporters, scientists, etc.) trying to solve the mysteries of the Cthulhu-mythos in order to avert disaster.
Although the players would be quite over-matched by the creatures of the Cthulhu-mythos, there would be a couple of things working in their favor: they could use explosives and other sorts of scientific and occult means of defeating their opponents, and they could enlist the aid of followers to provide things like muscle, medical care, translation skills, investigative skills, etc. Some of these followers (like historians, medical doctors, etc.) would only serve as a support team, staying out of direct conflict in 'safe zones'. Others would follow the player into dangerous locations as well (like soldiers, police officers, etc.). Unlike the vanilla game, where followers tend to unbalance the game in the player's favor, the followers in this mod would help to balance the game to bring the player back into line with the creatures.
Most of the game mechanics could be used as is with primarily cosmetic changes to the interface: the hacking skill could be changed to a linguistic skill used to decipher cryptic messages in dead languages (just change the terminal interface to an old book interface and the jumbled letters with cryptic characters); the lockpicking mini-game would just need a new skin to make it look like a brass lock on a wood door or something similar; the main changes would have to be to the pip boy interface to make it look more like a classic inventory menu with maps, an old journal, etc. The VATS system would have to be disabled, the HUD retooled, and a sanity system created. These are the primary game-play changes that would have to be made, but I believe they are all possible with the engine.
The biggest barrier to achieving this would be the creation of custom content; pretty much all of it would have to be created from scratch. Hopefully, some talented modelers, texture artists, and musicians could be persuaded to assist. :hehe:
The goal of the mod would be to create a mature, faithful reproduction of the Cthulhu mythos that emphasizes atmosphere, horror, and good detective work over senseless combat. (Although the combat that is there should be realistic, gory, and intense.) At least, that's what I'd vote for.
I'd love to hear what other people have to think about the idea. There has to be
someone who'd be interested in a mod like this. Other than myself, of course.