Description:

The mod changes the Deathclaw you encounter in Concord during the quest When Freedom Calls at the beginning of the game. I always thought it was weird to face an enemy type that should appear in the mid to late game, so I replaced it with a Supermutant (Supermutant? Super Mutant? Super-Mutant?... link). I feel this provides a much smoother enemy type progression as you fight your first fights: roaches in Vault 111 and Sanctuary -> molerats in Red Rocket -> low level raiders in Concord -> Supermutant in Concord -> and back to more bugs, animals and raiders after. I would recommend you read 'Why I made this mod' below to understand why this bothered me so much.

So now there's a Supermutant Boss living in Concord sewers, I named him 'DezClaw' because why not.

Here's a breakdown of what the mod does in Concord:

• Deathclaw has been replaced with a leveled Supermutant Boss (aka 'DezClaw'), he is not very smart but he keeps to himself and tries to survive in the Wasteland.
  

• DezClaw leaves in Concord sewers where he made his home underground, he has a bed and a big cauldron where he cooks whatever he can catch (brahmin, mirelurks, humans... a former deathclaw maybe?).
  

• I've added some decorations to his lair home so that it looks like a Supermutant has been living there for some time, and that he uses the sewer systems to sneak out (he really just spawns when it's time to fight so if you go into the sewers before talking to Preston he won't be there, just assume he is out hunting and hasn't come back yet).
  Spoiler:  

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  In the vanilla game if you have companions and go down into the sewers before talking to Preston, you'll actually hear a sound of the Deathclaw sleeping and your companions will make comments about it (the Deathclaw isn't spawned even in the vanilla game either, but they'll act as if it was). Since replacing it with a Supermutant would have left those NPC's comments about a sleeping Deathclaw feeling a bit out of place, I've replaced their reactions with different ones about Supermutants that I found in the game, they are generic enough for the most part so they will have to do.
  
  

• You may not know this but there's a fence in the sewers that blocks access to the room from the sewers side if you enter the sewers before killing the Deathclaw (after killing it the fence is removed by a script in the main quest). That fence has been manually disabled to allow access, it also helps justify DezClaw being able to sneak in and out without anyone noticing.
  

• He is a 'leveled' boss which means he'll spawn with appropriate gear for your level, he shouldn't be too easy nor too hard for someone who just came out of the vault, particularly if you have a minigun. Being leveled also means he'll have loot according to your level as well, and his clothes/armor can look a bit different every time he spawns so you'll get a slightly differently boss everytime you play (check the screenshots to see some example).
  

• He is fully functional (vanilla voices, weapons, AI, etc), once you kill enough raiders or you get too close to the street access (or enough time passes) he'll spawn just like the Deathclaw would and he'll either come out from the tunnel to check what's going on or he'll hang out down there for a bit until you engage with him. Don't expect him to come charging at you in the same manner the Deathclaw did, he IS supposed to be just another enemy after all.
  

• During combat he'll try to use the street access as cover or other parts of the environment. He'll be aggresive towards you or the raiders (or both), he'll take cover, use grenades or molotovs if he has any, and he'll shoot or melee you if you get too close. Honestly he'll behave just like a vanilla Supermutant would, I didn't change his AI so expect the usual behavior.
  

Precombines and Compatibility:

As the scripted animation for the vanilla Deathclaw doesn't happen, the steel plates that unlock the street access to the sewers tunnel would remain closed. I've tried to find a way to trick the animation into happening ahead of time but couldn't figure it out. As a result I've had to edit that part of the street mesh to keep the steel plates permanently open. However, that street mesh seems to be used only in that place and only for that purpose (RoadAIntYDeathclawAmbush01.nif) so it shouldn't conflict with other parts of the world. I've checked with some people (who undertand precombines better than I do) and I also tested it myself, and this shouldn't break precombines as 'static meshes with animations' aren't part of the precombine system.

Compatibility - please read: this mod doesn't touch quests or scripts to keep it as compatible as possible. This is my first attempt at doing something like this so let me know in the comments section if it's working as intended. Once you kill DezClaw and all the raiders attacking the Museum the objective of "Clear Concord of Hostiles" should complete as normal and the next objective should appear: "Report back to Preston" (the objectives and quest should really just behave as normal, as I said, I haven't touched any of that).


How I recommend you use this mod:

I recommend using these mods together to smooth the early game gear and encounter progression:

• Deathclaw: use my mod to replace it. :)
  

• Power Armor: you have a few options if you don't want to remove the Power Armor entirely, I dislike the idea of removing the Power Armor or the minigun completely as it would make Sturges voiced dialogue inaccurate (he does mention "a full suit of cherry T-45 Power Armor" and says that the vertibird has "a minigun, and it seems to be intact"), so I prefer to use mods that limit their functionality rather than remove them entirely. You can still have your cool moment dropping from the roof wearing an early Power Armor and minigun without having to ruin your early game power level experience after that encounter.
  

- Broken T-45 on Concord Museum Rooftop: this mod replaces the T-45 Power Armor with a broken version that is beyond repair (cannot be repaired, cannot be upgraded, cannot be painted), once it's fully damaged you get to keep its Frame, but the other armor pieces you'll have to scrap (drop them on the ground and scrap them in workshop mode).

- No Free Power Armor in Concord: this mod will make the free Power Armor you get at the rooftop of the Museum a single-use by making it explode after the Concord encounter is over due to some technical defect (unstable fusion core maybe). After the fight is over you will be given a countdown notification and you will be forced out of the Power Armor in order to run away. Once the timer reaches zero a mini nuke will detonate, destroying both the Power Armor suit and its frame.

- Concord Power Armor Replacer: this mod will replace the Power Armor with a different model, I would suggest going with just the 'Naked Frame' version as the other models make Sturges' dialogue feel inaccurate. If you really want a different model and you don't care about what Sturges says (perhaps he got the model number wrong) then I would highly suggest you go with the Raider Power Armor version, this model is actually the worst one in the game, and it will make any other Power Armor model you find a better choice, so as a starter version it's a good option (it would also explain why the raiders are attacking the people at the Museum, perhaps they want to get to that Power Armor at the top).

• Minigun: use my other mod Concord - Broken Minigun on Rooftop.
  

• Early 10mm Pistol: use Vault 111 10mm Pistol Lockep Up mod to force yourself to use Pipe pistols and rifles at the beginning of the game instead of the 10mm pistol. Reason? Check out this video.
  

• XP (optional): use XP-GEM to reduce the amount of XP you gain and level up slower, there's plenty of XP in the game to go around.
  

• Economy (optional): use Harder Barter - Expensive Prices to increase vendors prices and reduce the amount of caps they pay you for your stuff.
  

Why I made this mod:

Ever since Fallout 4 came out I've had this annoying issue with the way the game progresses throughout the first quests: Out of Time -> When Freedom Calls.

It has always bothered me that you get early access to a fully functional Power Armor, a minigun, and of all things they put a Deathclaw for you to face, but they had to nerf it in order for the damn thing not to kill you because if they put a real one you would be dead in 2 seconds. While I'm sure a lot of people enjoyed the quick adrenaline rush of having that type of fight and gear early on, in my case it really felt like the game was giving me too much and not letting me earn it by exploring the world.

In previous Fallout games Deathclaws and Power Armors (and to some extend Miniguns as well) usually were mid to late game gear/encounters, and miniguns didn't suck as they do in FO4 (I feel they basically had to nerf all miniguns in order for them to give you one so early into the game). What's more, Power Armor used to require 'Power Armor Training', you didn't just automatically knew how to equip or use one, but that's a topic for a different discussion.

Another reason the whole Concord encounter felt weird to me is because you just came out of Vault 111, you were fighting roaches there and in Sanctuary, then you go to Red Rocket and you fight some molerats and a couple of bloodbugs on the way to Concord, where you face some low level raiders terrorizing some poor people bunkered inside an old museum. All of a sudden you are given Power Armor, a minigun and you kill a Deathclaw... and then you go back to killing roaches and dogs and low level raiders all over again. The huge spike in gear and enemy type feels out of place and odd to me, little did I know other people felt the exact same way and some even made entire videos about it like the one I posted at the top of the description.

There are some mods that attempt to change these issues by removing the Deathclaw (although they seem a bit intrusive with their approach as they touch quests and scripts), or removing the power armor and minigun, but I didn't like them because:
- on the one hand, I don't like just not facing any enemy at all
- on the other hand, Sturges says there's a T-45 on the roof, as well as a minigun

So I decided to give it a shot and see if I could replace the Deathclaw without having to change the main quest or deal with scripts (I'll admit it's been years since I've done either in a Bethesda game so these days I prefer to do simpler mods for myself and share them every now and then).


Installation:

- Install using your mod manager of choice.
- ESP flagged as ESL.
- Load order shouldn't really matter, but since the content of the mod only really matters at the beginning of the game I would say put it early in your load order.


Known Issues:

• Combat behavior: sometimes I've noticed DezClaw likes to hang out a bit too much inside his tunnel, or that it takes him a bit to come out, I like to think he's not super smart but he isn't stupid either, he hears there's a whole battle going on in the street above him so he's waiting a bit as he doesn't want to get his brain blown up. If he refuses to come out you can just go down into the tunnel and face him there, or just save before picking up the minigun and reload a previous save so that he spawns again.
  

• Short Stories: there's a side quest called Short Stories in which there's a kid that can ask you if you have ever fought a deathclaw. I didn't want to have to go beyond the scope of my mod so I didn't change that specific dialogue (it's voice acted so even if I did it would end up not having proper audio). You can think of DezClaw as the 'deathclaw' you refer to when replying to the kid, or perhaps you don't want to kill the kid's excitement so you tell him what he wants to hear even though what you are saying is only partially true. Regardless, I left this quest and dialogue untouched.
  

Credits:

- ItsJabo: he made the video at the beginning of the description not me, so go follow him for Fallout content.


Check out my other mods:

- Blue Duct Tape
- Bottle Labels Overhaul - Dirty Water Mesh Replacer
- Carry More with Power Armor REDUX
- Concord - Broken Minigun on Rooftop
- Concord - Supermutant Boss Instead of Deathclaw
- Crippled Limbs - Delayed Regeneration
- Dogmeat's Backpacks of the Commonwealth
- Guard More Posts
- Harder Barter - Expensive Prices
- Power Armor HUD - Left and Right Indicators
- Unique - Quest Items Are Not Junk
- VAFS Redux - Awareness perk fixes
- Wedding Rings XP
- XP - GEM (Global Experience Multiplier)