cronicler

Enough with the baits and counter baits already. Please. I wonder if the meele and the bow codes from Oblivion are still in the main-code. I would really like to see some of the "primitive" weapons like compound pulley bows in the game. (Well crossbows, harpoons and slingshots can be made from converted gun textures so they are not that hard I think.) Also on this subject, I wonder if the codes for Spear's are still there too. It could be nice to see spears and pole weapons in the game. Similarly (I know this is starting to sound too Medieval) there are modern day "shields" for uses in some situations. They might be nice for laughs here and there too Unarmed: This one either needs to be brought up to standards of Riddick games, or be left alone entirely. An extremely well done unarmed could be immensly enjoyable but as Gromnir is found of pointing out its a small bit that needs a lot of work (ie. not really justifying the man-hours that need to be spent on it.) Melee: Balancing melee when there are tons of insta-gib firearms is a bit too much work , too little gain proposition too. However I would love to see some silent takedowns and/or disabling maneuvers implemented into the game. Something like your usual Thief game play; come from behind and blakjack/backstab him down.

Hooked on crappy Sci-Fi again. Finished Relentless by Jack Campbell. So so space opera but was fun. Still waiting for more goodies from Mad Wizard Weber in Harrington (Honorverse) and Safehold sagas.

GDM: Thanks for reminding that one. The Pipboy or more precisely stuffing everything into the pipboy interface did become sub-optimal after a while. Personally I thought the info panel on the lower left corner was your wrist screen and the pipboy had another "main" scren like a laptop thet you could use to check up things in detail (aka those quest/note/skill screens with vacuum tubes and such on the borders). In the new pipboy interface everyting feels too crammed and cursory...

My main wish / hope is actually quite weird at this moment. I do hope Obsidian can rein in their enthusiasm to create a complex game at this moment. They only have 1 year development cycle for this game so I really hope they don't over achieve. I have seen that monster quest interrelation chart J.E.S. and his co-workers created for Torment. Every quest including doing laundry for an old witch were somehow linked to each other. While I don't doubt they can create something like this again, (Maybe they even have one on the ready, a what if project they did on their endless free time) but i do doubt they can implement it totally in 1 year A Main Map of New Vegas, a structurally sound main trunk of quests that span this main map and some trips on the world map to satellite locations. After they flesh out the main part they should be going for the extra side stories. I know most of you (like me) don't really care for the DLC and it's quality but for once I would like to see a solid game that can accept nice side stories (something like GTA4 and it's DLC Lost and Dammed) instead of a shaky story with patches of DLC. As Twink said earlier, A decent use of Special. Please check my post on page 54 for details. Some way to clean up the VATS, and also a way to implement "Squad" orders gimmick from Brothers in Arms and ME. Another Clean up, This time on the Perks and Traits part. I would like to see different backgrounds and personal traits you can choose at the beginning to shape your character instead of basic; Origin: Vault (+5 to science and repair, -5 to this etc) , Up to teenage year: Standard Modern Education (Bonuses to Science and Repair, Penalties to outdoorsman etc)

Tel Aviv: You might want to try the Unofficial patches. They tidy up a lot of weird logic moments in the story (due to restoring cut out content in some places) and also tidy up the engine performance in general.

I know this is a bit late but let me give you some names in my favorite genre to start easy Eric Flint & David Drake: Belisarius Saga Eric Flint: 1632 Another Eric Flint 1812 This one is a free e-book. Check Chapter 54 for explanations Alternate History books in general. Naomi Novik: Temeraire There is the Colonisation Saga by Harry Turtledove but I couldn't find a decent page to link t

BTW have you decided how or if you are going to use other supernaturals in the game? the lower orders like hunters and mortal are generally not problematic but trying to fit weres, magi, technos and vamps into same city becomes a real pain after a while I don't even want to think about the fallen and other high ups

Try the restoration project btw for FO2. I cant believe they had to cut out so many things on top of all the stuff already in game. As Gromnir mentioned in the previous page, if they had used the time lost to create unused content to polish the game... Oh well spilled milk and bygones be bygones. Still it is astonishing to see so much in a 700meg package

Not a comedy anecdote tbh but another convention staple for me; This is my last ditch instant scenario that I needed to field on the fly as some 2 or 3 people always get left in the open and if I am not active in a game I usually get the request from the staff (which I am usually a part of ) to open a quick 1shot. Anyway last I heard it was dubbed "Welcome to Cthuluville High". The setting is your generally Buffy like spooky high school / college in a relatively minor town. You talk some light background with your players, letting them crate their own versions of students and decide on a tragedy / secret or something similar to tag to their character, like a girl with all relatives dead and lonely etc. Then you start the prologue by describing them their first week of the school making them feel gloomy by harassing them, getting them into trouble, having them robbed etc. Our game starts with the last lesson of the week, a filler low credit lesson, something in the lines of History of Central American Civilizations or Lost Continent Mu or whatever. Your aim here is to start their imagination on the overclock. Just give them an extremely obscure speech about blood, sacrifice, and other icky stuff. At this point, your job as a DM ends actually start throwing the poor lambs onto each other, girl a meets girl b in a bar, then girl b meets boy a on a back alley etc. The players will probably be seeing monsters everywhere so throw spooky things to them like falling asleep and getting locked in school at night etc. Breaking cellphones, dead batteries. In a couple of encounters the group will start writing their own horror monsters under the bed. Also at this stage whispering nonsense while players are talking to each other as their inner voice works wonders. (Girl a is talking to girl b in bar about weird happenings. Start whispering to one of the players; stuff like I didn't have any troubles before meeting her. It must be because of her. I did not have these. Did I?... ) Depending on the mood you can wrap up the game by accepting the fact that the group does find something mystical in their search for shadows and role playing a face off scene with each other as they confront their inner demons (tied to their tragedies) you voicing the inner voice of course. Or if the group is growing too munchkin you can drop them into a weird dungeon crawl or encounter too. One of my most memorable games (Girl A -lonely, no body- Girl B -Family/Father Abuse- Boy A -Cracked due to seeing all his friends and family die in a plane crash-) ended with a face off scene, girl a going she must be mine, she must belong to me over girl b, girl b accepting it and the boy becoming a psi... it was really surreal Another memorable game (again 2 girls this time with 2 boys) went on to become a real nerd fest at the end, our heroes got lost in the L dimension and they were kicked out of it by the Orangutan in the end. (Obscure Terry Prachet reference)

Van Buren Design Documents are mostly here. Look at them for a bit then compare them to POS or POS 2 then talk please.

As I tried to point out in some of my posts (where I remember to explain in detail) saying that it was consolidied is not exactly right. Somehow the console gamers are being fed more and more cool stuff and less and less detailed stuff. Everything nowadays have to be visual and in bloom and all that crap. Sure there are still games like Valkyra Cronicles but the average console gamer is seen as a kiddie, as in counter strike kiddies of pc.

/Sigh Nice try flamebait (NR). You might check the Vault to actually learn what we are talking about. And FYI J.E.S. was among the people that shaped those stories. You might also look for a place called Bear's Pit to learn about another 10+ year old game that still kicks ass and takes names from its competitors of our modern age. Some planned coherent story, some oiled game mechanics, some wasteland and some hope. Is wanting to feel these that much Anethama? We don't want a FO1, We want a game that surpasses it.

Actually it is predicted that any advanced society that takes a population loss around %20 at 1 hit is likely do dissolve into anarchy due to panic and irrationality rising exponantially. I would take this tidbit with some salt but with such panic, it wouldn't take that much to fire up all the suppressed hate and madness from the normal life to make normal stressed people go postal.

Rest In Peace funny man. May your rest be peaceful

Tsk tsk tsk. bad virimor. Baaad virimor. Go and study your economics 101! We will probably see TES 5 in 2010 q4 (very small chance) or 2011. 2010 q2 or q3 is the shipping date of FO:NY. It depends on if there is going to be any forced milking of this title ala horse armor and such. Then again I might be completely wrong and we might see both TES 5 and FO:NY around the same time undercutting each others sales...

Aristes: My problems with 3rd game don't really comes from the game itself. It's about the progression of the series in general. Morrowind was a detailed, big sandbox game. I love sandbox games. Then comes Oblivion which was basically a pruned down Morrowind optimized, streamlined and dumbed down for consoles. Every bit that was not usual for console gamers like detailed books, weird and changing envirolments, lots of different races' NPCs were pruned. Then we came to the 3rd game. the same thing happened again. Take the meelee/unarmed for example. It would be (probably) extremely hard to balance these combat types with the firearms combat. So they were taken out of the game nearly totally. Sure the skills are there but everything in the game just points you, or more precisely pushes you to ranged combat. As another example, lets talk about the primitive weapons. like the bow and crossbow and the slingshot. The base engine already had the codes to include bows and coding in the other 2 would not be so hard or different from other fire arms. Yes I am biased but my guess is; they were not put into the game as they were not cool enough. (and before you ask, a modern pulley shortbow can 2 shot a man sized target into shock and a modern crossbow can 1 shot a man sized target into shock. Surgical rubber slings coupled with lead bullets/balls can give your target concussion easily.) I love the basic mechanics in the game. I love the basis of the game. It just drives me nuts to see such a potential not being worked. I tried to voice these in the official forums and I got booted several times. You are right that our basis for suggestions are from extremely opposite edge of the scales but at least we both want to make this game better. Ziggy: Actually Writing can be modded to be better. just like my last Oblivion game! I just used kwatch rebuild and Main Quest Stopper/Disabler to play the scenarios crafted by the modders. Also call me weird but I am actually fine with VATS as it is. Sure it needs a good maintenance and fine tuning but it is a very elegant way to put called/aimed shots into an fps game without to much mouse spamming. What this game needs (Imo) is another system to accompany VATS. Something in the lines of Brothers in Arms or Mass Effect; "Pause to get a detailed view of your immediate area and give orders to your squad/follower/followers" system.

Erm MC; Fallout 1 had compact and quality game. Fallout 2 suffered from the too much stuff too little planning part too. The reason we get those 15 hour games is the current marketing values. A game should be long enough to occupy you a week and a weekend. No more so other games can be sold to you. Bite sized if you want to call it that way. Tasty enough to make you forget you are paying inflated price for it. (Not my own thoughts btw. These were the guidelines given to a dev. group I translated for) This is one approach to games. Other approach which B. uses involves putting a certain percentage of your team into a constant brainstorming session, creating loads of stuff. I personally prefer this approach better. What B. did wrong (according to me that is) was putting everyone into the brainstorming group and leaving no group to make the created stuff fit with each other. When you are 100% inside the creation process it gets really hard to see the problems from inside. Also as a matter of taste I think they used too much "cool" and "trendy" and "big". The whole thing become a precious metal coated desert eagle show instead of a pistol showcase if you will. *And as a guy who works as a translator believe me, the quantity (and copy pasting) is also reaching extreme levels in some areas. Just look in a major library/bookseller about the current fad of Vampire in modern times romances. When people find a way to get a cool and unique idea into their work, they will do it in an eyeblink. Just look at the resurrected fad of orbital weapons in games and books. Aristes: If i had the power, I would scrap even some of the fallout 1 and 2 perks let alone 3. I like perks that add new gimmicks to your arsenal (Black Widow could have been one for example if the writing and uses were not so... weird...) or modifies your character's untouchable otherwise stats in some ways. the filler perks just make me yawn. Example: In FO1 the stats were important as they governed availability of some of the actions in the game and there were checks tied to them. So the question of taking a +1 sstat to open up a new perk or taking a direct combat perk was not clear cut. In FO3, I took +stat perks in some levels because I couldn't find anything to take. I really hope Obsidian can tweak the perk list to give the player interesting choices at perk times instead of filler a b c...

(Not my own game unfortunately) Gurps WW2 game at convention. Omaha beach as usual. Good DM, extremely detailed preparations. 6 man party, My pal is playing scout and there is another gurps veteran is playing commando. The party lands and starts moving or more precisely crawling very slowly. The players are generally dnd guys and they are arguing a lot. Well except the 2 bloody maniacs that are running all around tossing pipe bombs and other stuff including rocks to fake as grenades at every seen target. The moments I saw and destroyed me were: Machine Gunner: What is the range of this weapon? (He is carrying a BAR) DM: Umm what? MG: How far can I shoot with this weapon DM: .....?! Commando: About 2 and a half kilometers. MG: ??? Erm what (looks at DM) DM: You have never fired a gun have you? The gun nuts who were around the table are trying not to laugh out loud at this time. Situation: Pinned down by crossfire. sniper nest and an MG nest. The party is stuck and the commando is not around at the time. DM: What are you doing guys? come on! *The group is arguing again, calling fire support and such. Scout: I am throwing red smoke to the left DM: Red Smoke? Left? WTF for? S: I am doing it. trust me. DM: Erm ok... S: Then I sprint right zigzagging; turns to the others and shouts "Cover Fire dammit! Now! The group looks at him uncomprehending... DM: Ok I take my shots at you now S: Oh **** oh **** oh ****... He managed to run past the fire unscratched. Unfortunately he couldn't manage to stop and slammed into a bunker wall knocking himself out

But it isn't the same, In Ubi game the guy accesses his gene memory, in this pile of... ideas its the old mage sending his memories in time.... Then again considering how much a renegade drifter Garret really is, I can't imagine him as a mage/magus/whatever and be willing to take over another one's body. Even if it is partially...

The original system used in Fallout was as basic as you could get tbh. Sure d100 and multi-layered bonuses/penalties suck on tabletop but as you mentioned computers could do it relatively quick (in theory some complex shots could take up to a minute on P133 but that was also about the messy game code too ). Anyway I still don't see the need for so many filler perks but Obsidian will chose what it wants to use in the end. Tig: I really can't comprehend your post, Is it sarcastic or giving me a thumbs up or what. Dammit need sleep and can't

GDM: It wouldn't be so bad if B was actually adding to their store of tricks. They created and crafted Morrowind with tons of details and game play gimmicks and so on. Then they ported it to the new engine, cut out a lot of things from it (steamline, dumb it down whatever) and optimized it for consoles. It still had the basis of a truly complex game so a lot of modders went on to create mods for it. Sure you can argue that 40+% of the mods are just skins and textures but in the end the mod crowd really created a game that is different than the original game. Then B. took the game's last version, cut out some more parts, painted it with cool and post apocalypse. (Vats is suspiciously like the combat overhaul mod from oblivion, the story is just a mismatch from the first 2 games scripts, hell even the DLCs contain weapons from old games and POS / POS2 scripts. ) As I see it Someones create things then the current B. dumbs it down and paint is yellow to sell as a new game. This time Obsidian is tasked to create more content. Want to bet if we will see Obsidian created content and code in the next B. title? And FGS stop blaming B. with every evil deed. Interplay and its all Ips were destroyed thanks to the lack of vision of the man called Caen and his inept leadership. You don't need or you can't justify blaming anyone else. (There are even unconfirmed rumors that the Fallout Ip was offered a lot more cash than B. bought for and that... that.... that MR Caen held onto it. like a................. Sigh I really need to stop now or I am going to b banned for cursing that person a lot.....

Actually there is a way to rein in the Uber perks a bit. If the game's progression brings you to the uberperks in say, last and probably in a hostile territory encounter, then giving the player these perks, weapons, abilities there to let it rip can be enjoyable without making it a yawn fest for the rest of the game. Heh if you look at what perks are closely, I would argue that player should only be able to choose trivial to medicore perks on his own. finding some bat crazy survivalist guy to teach you the real tricks of sniper rifles or other similar methods of obtaining these perks (and telling the player that he has a limited number of specialisations that he can take) might have been better. Then again its mostly a matter of taste. There are always guys who just cant play a game without a trainer. I guess somehow those guys are increasing in numbers considering what the main stream gaming is becoming.

I had a strange thought the other day. I was thinking about which equipment you would use in a game that takes place in modern times, would they manage to give the knife real importance like they did in splinter cell, would they go really corny on weapons like you start with a 38 but you cahn ugradezors to even a Dessert Vulture, i mean desert eagle. That thought went on to become how would the Thief's world become if/when Hammerites or someone else managed to create something like modern technology, based loosely on vacuum tubes, optics and such (like fallout's technology). Then my line of thoughts went on to ponder the little facts like by the end of the 3rd game the glyphs were all destroyed and there was a looming war between pagans and hammerites and keepers had taken very serious losses. Then I remembered that glyphs were created to control the high/wild magics by the ancient keepers. And for this new circle Garret is probably going to be one of those ancient keepers. I really don't want to see a dumb but magically gifted "New Age" thief steal some valuable old book, notice the glyphs in it, read the glyphs to activate a long lost worst case spell by Garret, transferring the old wolfs memories to the new punk. I really don't want to see such a corny story. Need more sleep, less coffee, cronicler out.

Okay... Nice... Anyway lets dissect the Special and Skills shall we? I will be using FO Crpg as the base (converting it to RT FPS mode like Per part) adding stuff from the other games (except POS i mean BOS) and some stuff from PnP. Strength : Carry Weight, Base Melee and Unarmed Damage, Hp bonuses Perception : Your Detection Range, Could have been used to determine how much you zoom in when using basic iron-sights, Could have been used as a basis for 6th sense that helps you to spot valuable stuff lying around / enemies flanking you etc. Endurance : Hp, Your Resistances, Your Recovery Rate, (Fatigue and similar factors that were not used in the Crpg game) Charisma : The combination of your Good Looks and basic Personality. Intelligence : This is one of the most misunderstood skills in the game. Despite the name this stat represented how fast you could think on your feet and generally how sharp/cunning your mental grasp was. Affected Skill Point Gain and Speech Options Agility : How fit and sportive you are. Your basic dodge chance, your tool usage was affected primarily by this Luck : The most useless and the most useful stat. On paper it did not affect anything other than critical chance. In reality and behind the scenes this effected or could effect every action you did in the game. * Personally I think Arcanum had the better approach to this by splitting your Beauty score and Charisma score. that way you could still be a hideous deformed dwarf and still have the possibility to awe and befriend other people if that made the mistake of listening to you Stats and Skills on the old Fallouts were there to remind you/show you how good your character was at related fields. None of the stats affected your game-play alone; You could be a strong man but only if you were also good at say unarmed or beyond certain experience, you could access some of the special actions associated with that (social or combat) This stopped the game and you from both being a Master of all trades and Insane Combat machine at the same time. Your basic choices did point you in a hgameplay direction but you could overcome the pre-set path in time with branching your skills and equipment. For the sake of simplicity, you can assume that most of the "First" game was balanced for a guy with 4 to 6 in all stats using only the basic options. If you had higher or lower stats/skills then you could access additional choices. The mistake (or what I think as a mistake) FO3 did was cutting off all the checks from Stats and assigning them solely to the skills. That coupled with the... (I would say "console"ided or "streamlined" but those are not right either. Dumbed down, not to be a problem to anyone or any build is what I want to say i think) bad way secondary stats like HP, resistances etc were handled just made all the stats useless. You did not have any need to put points in this or that because you were as good looking as you could use the face generator anyway. I really hope to get an overhaul on the stats in the NV. *Coming soon; stats and their wrong uses.

Not very optimistic about this one to be honest. Lara's engine is nice for wall climbs and it has some basic mechanics for using grappling hooks / rappeling but the whole thing was too console streamlined in a lot of areas for my taste in a lot of areas. Well at least we won't probably see any more city free roam levels i guess. A bad point from my perspective but a lot of people didn't enjoy the city parts in 3 so it's a bit in the middle...