Hi
I know, this has been discussed a lot, but as I see it, not yet with a satisfying result. This is a suggestion first, I also have some concepts in backhand how I could create his mod on my own, but I have a lot of other projects as well. But lets see the feedback for this idea first.
I thought about the key issues with the F3-FNV link, and I figured two things, that needs a good explanation. I only was thinking about a Vault 101 Start, because a FNV Start is far more complicated to explain. I think starting in Mojave should not be an option.
- First, the character has important things to do in the capital wasteland. Finding his father and stuff, so why the hell would he jump in a train and run a few thousand kilometer west?
- Second, Lonesome Road mentioned the actions of the character in his past. As we know, he just left the vault, so how could that be?
So, the first thing is pretty easy to explain. Don't let the player go there freely. At some point at the Beginning of Fallout 3, there is a forced event, where the player is captured by some slavers. These slavers sell the character to some guy (trader, adventurer) who needs some slaves as packing rats or similar, because he plans a trip to the west.
This capture event should appear maybe around level 4-5, and definitely before the player finds his father, because before finding the father, the capital wasteland is not really dynamic and you could imagine, that not a lot changes here over the years. Still, 9 years are far too long to be reasonable. I would stick with the 3-5 years at max.
So, the charcater travels west with his master. What happens during this journey is pretty open to imagination, but at some point the character is able to escape or maybe was released for good duty (saving the traders life etc.). But now he already reached California. During his travel, there have been many victims, so he knows, that its pretty much impossible to return east all alone on feet. But of course he still has this strong desire to return and continue his search for his father. So he starts a new life, to find caps and a good opportunity to return east.
So, we still have the Lonesome Road Problem here. It doesn't make much sense if the player really was there, not in this short time period. So I thought about some alternative.
At some point on his travel through the wasteland (may it be as trader, slaver or whatever), something happened to the character, that gives his life a major turn. He finds courier 6 dying in the desert. With his last words, the courier says, that he was on a important quest to bring some packet to mr.house in New Vegas and that he would get a large amount of caps, if he would succeed. He ask the character to complete his quest.
The character sees his opportunity to reach the east again, with the help of caps or maybe even Mr.House. So he takes the quest. At this point we back on track. Ulysses mistakes the character with courier 6. Now, the character only needs to find a way to return to the wasteland. This could be with the metro or something else. For me I really prefer a vertibird, because there is no logic behind it, how a metro could make it from East to West in a post nuclear world and in a reasonable time....
Only a few years could have passed, maybe even only 1-2 and there is no need to explain why nothing changed back in DC. Also, the character gets involved in both the stories of DC and NV, that both run along now and he has a reason to helping out in both scenarios.