Dust Devils: The Keep
If I cannot move heaven, I will raise hell.
This mod is a lot of things. I, at first, was just going to make the actual Dust Devils/ Iron Monks mod that I’ve been trying to figure out for a while now, but then realized it’s much cooler to just put the infrastructure out there and allow the player to put their own spin on things. This also saved me a pile of redundant work that would have just clogged up the landscape, since all of these plans simply involved making a faction base that the player could interact with. So, instead of adding an NPC faction, this mod changes the starting area (The Hub and Border Zone) in a lot of little ways that I feel greatly improves the post apocalyptic feel, adds some missing stuff from the simulation, and ramps up the difficulty level of the starting area. This is my, "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, I hit 1000 hours of play mod," designed for the elite player.
First and foremost, it adds The Keep to the Border Zone. An old, ravaged fortress that overlooks The Hub, it’s been held by multiple factions over the years, and affords a significant strategic advantage in the region to anyone that can hold on to it. Currently it’s in the hands of the Holy Nation Outlaws. There are now four additional buyable buildings in the region (to include a watchtower) that will have to be rebuilt.
Secondly it fixes a serious issue that I found in the region. That problem being Slavemongers. These guys prowl the borderlands, taking captives and walking off with tons of prisoners, however, if you don’t escape (which is admittedly too easy to do) they take you to Rebirth and… wait. The hand off doesn’t happen and has lead to some rather stupid results. Often with the Slavemongers joining you in the pits. To fix this I added a slave shop to The Hub. Now if you lose a fight they will lock you up much, much quicker.
This drastically alters some things in the town, but I feel it’s all for the better. The biggest change I’ve noticed is that the residents have stopped sitting around so much (one vagrant occasionally just stands around in the middle of town, but hey, he’s a vagrant, it’s literally what they should do), and the activity level has increased greatly. Apparently having slavers look for easy marks makes them nervous. As it should. Honestly, with the practice being so common in the world, the threat of being taken should be ever-present, and the risk should be real. That being said, adding this shop to the hub, I feel, adds a layer of risk that should be there and has changed my personal approach to early game in a lot of ways.
I also threw in some unique hires. People asked for them in Metalhead’s, and because I’m me, I added them here. I’ve scattered them around the world, and given them some useful skills (mostly stealth packages, plus a medic, and a P4 scientist as well, just to add some more variety and try not overbalance Skeletons.) I’ll add to this list more, but for now it’s a solid start with some skill packages that are either hard to find, or simply didn’t exist.
Finally, I tossed in 4 new mid level starts. Nothing beats the Wander Start, but these ones come close…
* Shinobi Elite – Ninja Warrior trained in stealth and assassination.
* Shek Warlord – Tough as nails.
* Skeleton Assassin – Screamer Mk I version of a ninja.
* Holy Avenger – A paladin.
All of these starts give +15 to their respective faction and start with a bit of cash, a Catan weapon and mid level stats. Honestly the strongest start packages I’ve made to date, and designed to work with the unique hires (which also integrate with my older packages).
There are bounties, and other surprises as well, with a few more planned, but not in place yet (I want to work some more dialogue and do some testing before I put them in). This mod is absolutely designed to work with my other mods, and The Keep’s location shouldn’t interfere too much with the work of other’s.
Hope you enjoy, and thanks for playing!
