[Lets play?]

Part A: ToEE, because it's the only Troika game i've never played

Part B: might and magic 1, because it's the oldest.

[Fallout: New Vegas]

So, were combat taunts subtitled in Fallout 3? If they were, what was the trick to enable them? I swear i played it with subtitles on, and don't recall one single subtitle while in combat.

 

Because in these New Vegas videos we most certainly are reading combat taunts, and it is very good.

 

They were.

There were to type of subtitles you could enable in Fallout 3, and one of them was the random chatter/banter/combat taunts.

So yeah, nothing new.

Guess i should have taken more time fiddling with the menus then *shrugs*

[Fallout: New Vegas]

So, were combat taunts subtitled in Fallout 3? If they were, what was the trick to enable them? I swear i played it with subtitles on, and don't recall one single subtitle while in combat.

 

Because in these New Vegas videos we most certainly are reading combat taunts, and it is very good.

[Fallout: New Vegas]

I'm just going to mod them in after release.

that's the spirit. <3

 

Actually i'm glad Obsidian focused on fixing problems that can't be modded, and from what i can tell by the previews and gameplay videos they've done a pretty good job at it, at this point what's exciting is that this game will be one actually worth modding in whatever one feels shouldn't have been left out, like item descriptions.

[Fallout: New Vegas]

Also, and with Crimson Caravan confirmed to be in the game, this looks like a strong hint that there will be caravan drive sidequests/jobs.

Amirite?

[Fallout: New Vegas]

Truth be told, I'm actually a little unclear on this whole concept, in light of the merging of Big Guns/Small Guns.

 

The argument could certainly be made that such was a problem in FO3: a small gun specialized charaacter had no way of doing AoE attacks and that their options of dealing with multiple targets at close range were limited. COnversely, in FO3, a Big Guns specialized character had few options when dealing with single targets at medium or long ranges or with multiple ttargets at medium range. (Of course with the vast number of skill points available it ewas easy to be good in everything, but ignore that for the moment).

 

However, you've effectively eliminated this problem by combining small guns and big guns, since now a charcter can switch from the sniper rifle to the rocket launcher to the minigun to the magnum without penalty, all on one skill. There would in fact seem to be less need for a variety of weapons in NV since one skill now covers more bases.

Small Guns and Big Guns were not combined; Big Guns was eliminated and the weapons formerly under that skill were distributed to other skills. The rocket launcher and grenade machine gun are under the Explosives skill. The Gatling laser is under Energy Weapons, etc.

 

Even within each weapon skill and each "tier" within each weapon, there are pretty significant tactical differences between weapons. The player has the following to consider:

 

* DAM vs. DT - A big deal. Do not shoot a heavily armored target with standard 9mm bullets.

* DPS vs. Health - Some targets have a boatload of health and low DT. DPS is more important against these guys.

* RoF vs. Spread - Though not always the case (the minigun is a notable exception if you have a high enough ST), higher RoF weapons tend to have worse spread.

 

I have a few "proving ground" areas in the game where I will drop in and use the weapons from a given skill/tier in different circumstances and adjust them based on viability in a given niche. If I ever find myself saying, "When would I ever use this?" I go back to the drawing board.

awsm.

 

wouldn't range, degradation rate and ammo scarcity be factors as well?

[Fallout: New Vegas]

There is a basic value also in Fallout 3, based on which the actual prices are calculated, depending on your skill.

It makes sense this one might be the base value, but IIRC in Fallout 3 what you saw on the PIPBoy was the value after the skill modification and it was the same price all merchants gave you.

[Fallout: New Vegas]

in the gameplay video, you can see a "VAL" tag in the weapon description page. Does that mean bartering values are fixed for all merchants? I thought reputation would have an effect with prices. Also, there are supposedly more than 3 currencies, what currency is that in?

[Fallout: New Vegas]

A lot of new stuff in this interview.

We created a new crafting interface for the game that is quite extensive. Initially it was only going to apply to the Survival skill, but we expanded it to use a variety of skills at different locations. Crafting ranges from cooking raw meat into steak at a campfire to hand loading custom ammunition from spent shell casings at a reloading bench. I think people will really enjoy it.

We've tried to avoid wacky contraptions for the most part. In the Fallout universe, the western portion of the United States is a lot more industrialized and generally "with it" than the east. As a result, most of the mods are of the traditional variety.

 

We have a large number of traditional firearms in the game and there are a lot of mods for those weapons: extended magazines for pistols, larger ammunition drums for submachine guns, custom high-speed actions for lever action rifles, silencers, suppressors, and so on. We also have mods for energy weapons and explosives, like focus optics for the laser rifle (increases damage),

 

That's very cool, i never found much sense in being able to build flaming swords and teddy bear guns, but not more reasonable custom weapons like a slingshot, or a molotov coctail, or even a gun with a scope.

 

and the "Little Boy" kit for the Fat Man, which drastically reduces its weight.

I hoped they would dispose of this. Instead they added a kit so you can carry MOAR NUKZ!. And they used the same cheesy reference to name it. This is the first New Vegas news that actually dissapoints me.

[First impressions...]

It's still visually trapped in the previous generation though... I've taken the time to take a closer look at the texture work, high frequency and noisey textures always compress badly, and the texture in AP compress badly for those reasons. Also lots and lots of low resolution textures, I'd hazard to say that there are some 64x64 and 128x128's and some of the larger props, but there is noise everywhere, throughout the game, and the result is so spangley that I wouldn't be surprised if it was the bad art, not playing well with the DXT compression which has resulted in the single and two tone art direction in a hope that nobody would notice.

An honest question: What would be your defining line between "previous generation" and "next generation" games? Is it some innovations in newer game engines? A set of new technical capabilities that if a game doesn't support, it is filed under "Previous Gen"?

 

I'm not trying to counter your arguments, i haven't even played Alpha Protocol yet, it's just that i'm tired of this "Next Gen" vs. "Last Gen" handwaving. For example, people were all "OMG Next Gen" about Fallout 3, and it didn't look that impressive (apart from the long drawing distances maybe) compared to 3 or 4 years older games, at least not enough to warrant a "generation" shift.

[Fallout: New Vegas]

"If you tagged Big Guns or Energy Weapons early on, you would not be able to gain much, if any, benefit from it for a long time. Even back then, I thought this was problematic. Before playing the game, players could not know how content would limit the applicability of weapons."

 

am not seeing how the merge of big guns into other categories addresses the problem josh identifies in the aforementioned quote. a non sequitur? is flame throwers available early and constitute a bread and butter weapon?

 

HA! Good Fun!

Energy Weapons is easier to "fill out" than Big Guns. Flamers don't constitute early, bread and butter weapons, but it's not hard to think of and implement other low- and mid-power Energy Weapons.

[Fallout: New Vegas]

well maybe i didn't phrase my question correctly: Isn't High Tec supposed to be something really special in fallout? With whole factions devoted to scavenging it? Does it make much sense for a 1 level dweller to have a laser pistol, when it was something special even for the Brotherhood of Steel?

 

Then again, Vegas is supposedly almost unharmed, so it would make more sense to have High Tec readily available than what it did in Fallout 3.

 

Not only we have Vegas almost unharmed, but we have factions like the NCR and the Gun Runners that are actually making new guns and have probably got their hands on some way to build some low-end energy weapons.

And Fallout 3 was full of laser pistols, the first I remember finding was in the Super Duper Mart, so quite early in the game, and there were TWO to boot. Granted, the ammo was scarce, especially if you compare it with the availability of normal 10mm ammo and the likes of it, but still you could find energy weapons quite early.

I stand corrected. I only played it for like 10 hours anyway, so i guess i've missed out on a lot of content. :shrugs again:

[Fallout: New Vegas]

There are already low end energy weapons in Fallout 3, like the laser pistol,

I quit in level 6, and never came across one :shrugs:

so my guess is that we'll be seeing similar weapons, maybe 'civilian' models, you can use for run & gun tactics and similar.

well maybe i didn't phrase my question correctly: Isn't High Tec supposed to be something really special in fallout? With whole factions devoted to scavenging it? Does it make much sense for a 1 level dweller to have a laser pistol, when it was something special even for the Brotherhood of Steel?

 

Then again, Vegas is supposedly almost unharmed, so it would make more sense to have High Tec readily available than what it did in Fallout 3.

 

By the way, I hope item descriptions will make a comeback.

+1000

 

Are agility and perception really requirements for a gun though? I figure they'd just be factors in accenting your skill. I can understand strength. If you have the steadiest hand in the world (maybe this is agility?), but the gun is physically exhausting just to hold, you're going to struggle with the gun.

I was thinking Agility for melee weapons, and Perception for light ranged ones. By your logic, if you're totally clumsy with a blade you will damage it more than your enemy, and if you're greatly myopic you won't be able to aim with a gun.

 

Taser maybe.

Cattle prod.

 

Fits the setting to a T.

Not just fits, it was present in FO2.

Regardless, it could be categorized as a melee weapon, that's why I didn't mention it.

And also one of the most powerful ones. I was thinking more like a penknife edition of Ripper or something.

[Fallout: New Vegas]

Since our skill point economy is more frugal (I'll delve into this another time) and since we do have Strength requirements on weapons (resulting in increased sway for firearms and a decreased rate of fire for melee/unarmed), where you invest your skill points and SPECIAL points is still pretty important.

 

This is what's really important: Gun specialization is actually more involved now despite the Big Guns skill being eliminated. Which is awesome, thanks Josh.

 

I still wish there's more than Strength requirements, like Agility or Perception for example.

 

I have a question though: By the same logic, the player should have low end energy and explosive weapons available early on, so that his/hers investment in Energy Weapons / Explosions isn't useless for the first part of the game. With explosives, i can guess it could be dynamites, molotov coctails and the like. But energy weapons were typically powerful weapons. Can you give an example of low end energy weapons a 1st level character will have access to? Are they new weapons or underpowered versions of normal energy weapons?

[Fallout: New Vegas]

I liked the metro tunnels. They were the only place in the entire game that challenged your sense of orientation. I like that. The only place in the game where you didn't have little arrows pointing you the right way.

 

I find it funny that you guys whine about them so much.

I find this an interesting point of view. I never saw them as a challenge, more like a chore. Then again, my sense of orientation sucks so much i hadn't thought it's worth challenging, that's why i prefer 3rd person/isometric over 1st person games: In 1st person, i always lose my direction and waste time wandering pointlessly trying to get back on track.

 

So, do you guys thnk this happens in general? Do people avoid challenging skills they totally suck at?

[Fallout: New Vegas]

I think it has been mentioned in a preview that some weapons have bigger impact than others, notably the shotguns.

[Fallout: New Vegas]

Mr. House? As in, The House Always Wins?

 

Guffaw!

The drinks are on the House!

[Fallout: New Vegas]

But still, no NCR T-shirt? Quite a disappointment.

 

well...people don't exactly come in one size. this would never happen.

True, true. Still, XXL (they fit all don't they?) promotional T-shirts are a common thing for e.g. the music industry, but that's a totally different deal.

your greatest hope is that the Bethbeast opens up a Bethstore where you can buy all sorts of nifty Bethproduct.

 

*gag*

 

NEVER.

[Fallout: New Vegas]

dude, it's like 10 bucks more than just the game itself. :/

 

I'd pay 10 (or 13 or 15 or whatever the equivalent for 10 bucks is in euros) for a Fallout graphic novel by Chris Avellone.

But still, no NCR T-shirt? Quite a disappointment.

 

Edit: i need to share this mental image i got when i read about this mr. House character.

 

 

[Fallout: New Vegas]

Mostly very good info. Boxing gloves seems like it could mean we get another boxing arena type of deal.

 

If you can't have called shots or special moves in unarmed fighting, boxing matches a la Fallout 2 will be boring as hell.

 

Otherwise, love all the new info.

 

Also someone "over there" in Bethesda forums posted that there are more than 3 currencies, including casino chips. Has that been confirmed?

[Fallout: New Vegas]

A quite interesting interview on Joystiq.

 

It's nice to see they're making improvements to the 3rd person camera too.

 

 

We're still kind of tweaking the third-person camera, but we have looked at it and made a few adjustments. And again, it's mostly like a feel thing. There are a few things about the third-person camera that can make things tricky. One of them we found is the sort of offset of the camera from the character itself, because, basically, the bullet is always originating from the weapon, and because it's like a pretty wide field of view -- it's like a 70-degree field of view -- it can produce a disconnect.

 

So, where you are aiming in terms of the screen versus where your character is aiming, there is a pretty big disconnect there. So we've tried to address some of that just by kind of pushing and pulling those angles and distances around a little bit. Because we have found that people here do like playing in third-person. And those changes seem to have made a pretty big improvement in the feel of third-person shooting especially. I'm sure there was another component to your question.

 

I'm very happy that they're addressing my greatest issue with fallout 3. I only wish they were addressing it in a more ...substantial way, like e.g. raycasting the players' crosshairs a la Bloodlines' 3rd person camera (not sure if feasible tho)

[Fallout: New Vegas]

I might remember wrong, but i've read somewhere that initially it wasn't intended for fallout 1 to include the option for followers. Some dev hacked it in the engine in the last minute.

 

Fallout 2's followers were awesome, i often played with CH10 so i could recruit as many as possible. Most of then had unique character, given by their backstories and their in game behavior. And the fact that fallout 2 had implemented a system to control companions a decade before fallout 3, which didn't, is yet another laugh in the whole story.

[Fallout: New Vegas]

I just remembered you could find sporks in many places in fallout 3. That was hilarious.

[Fallout: New Vegas]

the red shield appears next to a target's health meter when you hit it for damage that is equal to or less than the target's damage threshold. A HUD-colored shield appears next to the player's health meter when the player is hit for damage equal to or less than the player's damage threshold.

...

Pip-Boy Weapons tab now cross-fades between DAM and DPS so the player can make more tactical choices about what weapon to use in any given circumstance.

ah, a small tweak for the GUI, a large step up in the gameplay. i think it's elagant and classy.

[AVault podcast with Chris Avellone]

The part about Fallout starts @ 35:10

 

Avault #1: -...even from the screenshots I saw [New Vegas] looks really awesome, looks like you guys are doing a lot of old skool Fallout ideas

MCA: -You know I never thought I'd get a chance to work with that franchise and the opportunity came up and I can't tell you how many people here are excited

Avault #1:-I know you worked on Fallout 2, what aspect of Fallout 2 did you work on?

MCA:-I did the city of New Reno, I worked on Vault City and all the special encounters and I did a few of the endings of the game

Avault #1:-Did you do more storytelling or is it art directing, creative directing or anything with creative in it

MCA:-I guess what the term now is, is area designer where you do the quests layout, reputation,... the actual conversation with various characters

Avault #1:-OK, that's cool. I actually spent a lot of time with the first Fallout and by the time Fallout 2 fell into my lap I just wasn't able to play it at the time because I had a terrible computer and

MCA:-Awww

Avault #1:-It wasn't a very demanding game just you know my parents old gaming rig didnt play it I dunno

MCA:-When I first played Fallout it totally just changed my idea of what rpgs could be, I was totally awed like... *weird sound*

Avault #1:-Storytelling, and the way you felt you can power yourself up and up yourself was great

MCA:-All the RPG mechanics, and like every choice you make in that game and just how you built your character, like you could see exactly how it played out in almost every area you went to

Avault #1:-Oh yeah

MCA:-Just the fact that your intelligence stat could affect your dialogue, I thought that was brilliant,

I loved that game.

Avault #1:-I'm glad that you got some passion working on fallout maan

 

...

 

Avault #1:-Bethesda is obviously publishing New Vegas, are there any guys from the Fallout 3 team, are they kinda working with you at all or has Bethesda just kind of passed it off to you, you know, you guys are just kinda doing your thing and you're just kinda checkin in every once and a while

MCA:-To be honest they review our continuity at various points, and sort of check our documentation, to be honest they've been pretty hands-off with a lot of stuff, and our producer who works with bethesda, he's a pretty sharp guy. So generally it has been pretty smooth

Avault #1: -That's cool man like you seem very passionate about fallout, that's great, and bethesda's kinda letting you take it into the direction where you really think that it should go maan that's great.

Avault #2: -I can't wait to play that game lol

Avault #1: -I don't wanna get into the specifics of the game, but basically, what I've read about it is, vegas is

up and running right? I mean vegas is there, right? it's not like, in fallout 3 you're walking around the wasteland and everything is just dessolated but somehow vegas

Avault #2:-That's what I saw, without chris having to answer, what I've read on game informer is yes, it's already published that yes, it's much brighter and much less run down and much less

Avault #1:-awesome

Avault #2:-...war torn looking than fallout 3

MCA:-There are many secrets in the world of New Vegas...

Avault #1:-I can't wait to help people in that game and then as they run away just shoot them in the back just over and over again lol

Avault #2:-porn extra limbs and other things, awesome lol

Avault #1:-lol I dunno chris you can't just run with that one

 

tl:dr;

there are many secrets in the world of New Vegas, lulz.