cronicler

Virumor: I guess it might be defined as local knowledge but it was one of those "known secrets" that at least 50 area denial rounds and more than 250 nuclear grade arty rounds are located in Turkey to block the Red hordes from coming south via the NE / E mountains.

Gorgon: Any nation with 3 sats can detect a launch. The problem is stopping the thing before it gets to halfway point where the separation occurs and the warhead does a free fall to the target. Considering the (lack of) distance from the launch point and the target, it will be really dicey to even protect Japan. (I'm assuming NK does a 1-2 punch with arty, srm then mrm to hit any target it can reach to cripple allied positions)

The whole "north-west" side of the map (Khans, Fiends, Jacobstown and most of the minor locations) actually suffer from similar problems. Things happen too fast and suddenly and the existing quest chains just feel minor grade irritants instead of something you can bite into.

To put it in the simplest terms, the aim is to learn how gravity really works and what causes hiccups. Hiccups will lead to "what can be used to modify gravity in a controlled fashion". one of the baby steps on the way to artificial gravity generation, so to speak.

Krezack: (As an Aussie, you should have better info on the "wall" between PRC and NK.) A mass exodus from NK would devastate the North China's production capabilities. If such a thing occurs PRC will have only 2 options: block it or absorb and shoulder it. Absorbing it would cost a lot (both in raw cost and diverted economical output) and blocking it... you can probably imagine how botched that would become easily. I completely agree with you about the nature of this conflict. However neither EU nor USA have the capability to field the forces suitable for such a conflict. Everyone (and this even includes Russians to some extent) is geared for LIC (Low intensity conflicts, guerrilla warfare or police actions.) Offhand, I can list maybe 3 countries allied with SK who can field armies trained for WW2 style warfare and have the deployable numbers on hand. I agree that countries like Australia, India, NZ could and would deploy reinforcements but expecting the same level of commitment from EU or US would be too optimistic. EU forces are generally tied into pretzel thanks to politicians who twist the SOP into slave chains and then leak it on top of it all. US forces (light inf, air transport, carrier groups, active army group(s)) are all tasked up. Same goes for UK. Sure they would deploy "eventually". but that eventually would be a long time... Anyway, I guess what I try to mean is: If NK attacks, it will deal a lot of damage. it may or may not be able to best SK on warfare but no one has the forces to go in there and clean the bloody place.

WUE: You can however change the displayed name and the weapon associations. Tig: I know this will sound the usual pr. bs. but I want to make the skills be important and agonize you when you points to spend. I am hoping to achieve this by tweaking the weapons themselves instead of adding flat bonuses to skills. (Supposing you chose Army as your branch) You will start the game with "BCT" and "AIT" perks which will allow you to operate basic army and NG gear %100 with really low skills, something like 25 or 30 for weapons and 15 to 20 for support skills. The downside is the lack of bonus abilities. Basic gear is "basic", it is easy to operate, durable, mass produced and compared to civilian or specialist gear, offers little to nothing in terms of variety. No mods, no critical bonuses, no special abilities. In gameplay terms, civ-gear will require 5 points more for operation (weapon, explosive, medicine) and much higher secondary skills (repair, science) to use effectively but their bonuses for 2x primary skill will be much, much higher. (a service rifle will require 25 rifles and 15 repair to operate fully but if you have 50 rifles, you will have just a few minor benefits (and it can take a reflex sight at most). Compared to that, a hunting rifle will require 30 rifles and 30 repair to use fully but 60 rifles will give you extended range, additional -dt and can accept different scopes. *I know it sounds counter intuitive at first but as they don't have to be as durable and as cheap as the mil-gear, civilian gear (police, sport, hunting) usually outperforms the same class mil gear. (heavier or outright wildcat calibers, expensive specialist attachments, rarity.) Pistols, Rifles and Close Combat vs Guns, EW, CC is frankly a "6 of one, half a dozen of other" choice. Either energy weapons will get shafted or pistols will. I don't want to give energy weapons early / make them abundant and low powered but if I use the energy weapons skill, that will just lead to the FO 1/2 problem of penalizing the starting player / getting used to conventional guns and never switching to EWs. With this setup, I'm hoping to put EWs as the end game / ultimate weapons for their respective skills and mitigate the rifles owning pistols problem by boosting the pistols efficiency to cinematic level. Support weapons are going to be "the" secondary skill. I don't see a realistic way to base gameplay on this skill all the way. Instead, I hope to make this skill more of an emergency button: swarms of African bees coming!, pull out a HE grenade or Flamer. Oh my god, what the hell is that deathclaw doing here? I guess it's time to use this LAW. Explosives is going to step back (again) and sit next to science, repair, *lockpick and medicine; useful and potentially needed (quests, checks) but can be sidestepped. *I have some doubts about lockpick. I am debating scrapping it and rolling it's functions under sneak or repair as it doesn't really add much to the gameplay besides locked doors/containers. No way to add it into speech parts of the game or the combat, it just stands by itself as an extra loot generator... Edit: I know putting it under "sneak" is not that logical but rolling it under repair might bloat repair too much again. Edit 2: Maybe I can call it spying or 007 or something heh.

Krezack: There are a couple of details you seem to be missing. -The US military is way overstretched at the moment. They just don't have the raw numbers required to control all the irons they have in the fire. To make the matters infinately worse, since cold war US armed forces have teched up to cut down numbers and are trained for LIC, The situation in Korea needs completely opposite approach and gear if it goes hot. -China needs NK intact for 2 reasons. First, it "secures" China's east border, relieving them from using "military" grade foot units to secure it. Second reason is much more bloody. NK is a huge keg of refugees and any refugee rush would overwhelm the border. There is (nearly) no doubt that Chinese units would be ordered to shoot the refugee waves and a general "civil war" would ensure, destroying a big part of NE China's productive capabilities.

I would suggest a balanced build (7 int, 6str, 6end, 6luck small frame and/or 4 eyes). The only truly critical skills in the game are your combat skill, speech and stealth (if you use it) For quests you need about 50 barter, explosives, lockpick, repair and science. A combat distribution (5,2,1,1..) will get your combat skill to 80 around level 10, (you shouldn't spend points on your skills past 84 as you will find 4 books for each of them). After that, just use a balanced distribution to pump your secondary skills. I know most people will call me munchkin but you don't actually need more than 1 combat skill. Just choose 1 and stick with it. (*I can give you a couple true munchkin recipes if you are intrested)

Monte Carlo: I would suggest checking Baen, especially their Webscription and Free Library sections for a very different view of publishing. ARCs (Advanced reader copies, the ones that are available months before paper releases) usually cost $10 to $15 and the E-books cost $6. (Monthly packages also cost $15 for 5 or 6 books, a mix of new and old titles) And despite these prices, they (Both the publisher and the writers) don't seem to be suffering the usual internet stole my profits problems. Internet has already completely changed the play field, The old ways are doomed to fail if publishers (Literature, Music, Movie or Game. Doesn't matter) still insist on using them. Granted, I am not in the business but from outside, as a semi-close follower of the medium, The industry seems to have bloated. I'm not talking about the actual people that "make" the games but the other departments. It seems most of the games get designed by committee, the pr costs as much as the game does, a lot of "executives" meddle in the production and to top it all, the total costs have gone sky high. (And the chosen method to cut costs? cut the testing and release beta...) $60+ for a 4 hour game? no thank you, I would rather go and read mil-sf.

I am planning to have this story take place in 2079 or 2080 (2 or 3 years after the great war, the one that turned everything into rubble.) The Den is the self constructed hidey-hole of 2 guys for themselves and their families. There are 6 adults (3 families), 1 teenager, 4 or 5 kids and 2 dogs in this personal shelter (not a totally enclosed bunker). The place is "technichally" designed to survive for 5 years without needing outside supplies on it's own gardens and recycling. The soldier is a relative of one of the Adults (4 different families altogether.). Depending on your answer to the form, you were on your way from one posting to the other (on the other side of the country). On top of the travel time, you manage to "acquire" a couple of free days, which you decide to spend with your relative (and raid her/his kitchen and beer) . It is blind dumb luck that you were all at the "Den" (actually they were showing off their man toys to you but nevermind ) when the WAR took place. Edit: there isn't any real urgency to your departure. The Den was designed (not that it was calculated in detail or anything) to house 10 people for 5 years "if the sky fell down". Instead it housed 12+1 people, 2 dogs and I have no idea how many puppies. (You weren't even supposed to be in the country, let alone at the Den) The rad counters were nearly 0 and they didn't want to eat em-rats, mres or their seed seed, so the Den opened up, started replenishing it's stores. Everyone except you (fathers, mothers, kids) had stuff to do. Besides you were bored I think.. The starting scavenger quests are just there to get the ball rolling (and get you into the wasteland). The briefcase and it's content (changes based on your branch and answer to q13) is actually completely irrelevant to your romp. You can "solve" it by some detailed prospecting trips but it's sole reason is to stand in your quest log and drive you nuts (and keep you moving )

Int vs Skill Point per Level: The current formula is 10+(int/2) per level. (I think) Any less than that would make int a dump stat, especially since I'm planning to axe the abundance of terminals... Then again I was planning to have it effect the field manual and training requirements... One major thing you should keep in mind is the fact that the hardest to use equipment in the game (energy support weapon this or that) will require 50 weapon skill (and probably 50 repair) to use 100%. [You will need 100 weapon skill to use all of its nifty little perks. However, if you manage to obtain it's manuals, you will only need 40 repair to use it with maximum operational life. *Repair numbers are wag atm. My aim is to enable player do stuff with 40 or 50 skill. 100 should mean something instead of the skill to access base level damage... *A starting character will be able to start with 30 or 35 skill points in his chosen category if he choses to spend his history on it (Farm Kid -> ? -> Boy Scout -> Killed me a Boar -> ? -> Army -> Trooper (or SG or Ranger) -> etc). A standard military service rifle will probably need 25 or 30 rifles to use %100. Stuff like Army Training perk and others will allow your starting character to access a few military weapons and use them effectively. Later, when your stocks empty and you start to use non-familiar stuff, the skill requirements will increase but by this time your skills will have increased too. Edit: Unarmed and Melee: RL vs Game I guess. They are actually very different paths. However in the game, they do play exactly the same due to limitations. Left over legacy from PnP I guess. Edit 2: I wonder if putting some "ranged" weapons under survival would be logical... Bow and Arrows, maybe throwing knifes and tomahawks and stuff...

This is a collection of rip-offs from a couple of games and discussions that I'm hoping to package into a little mod of my own. I guess a concept document of some sorts. This concept is more or less designed to suit my tastes so I would really like to see your suggestions and criticisms about it as second and third opinions. Story so far: The "Den" (As in "bear's den" as their faithful wives call it to poke fun at them) is the result of *David (Dave) Dvorak and *Robert (Rob) Wilson's little project that got a bit out of hand. It is a (not so little) bolthole in the mountain region, nested next to a national park, with it's fortified cave system, civilian built hydrophonics, stocks of supplies, the Den is almost completely self sufficent. Almost. But, at the end of the day, it is just a Civilian shelter with limited sustainability. And unforseen events can make it cause some need for scavenging and foraging. (Yes, the concept is direcly ripped from the start of David Weber's "Out of the Dark" standalone novel. Might change the names thou ) The player is a relative of one of the "Adults" of the shelter. S/He was a soldier who had stopped to visit them while on his/her way to a new posting when the things hit the fan. This was roughly about 2 years before the game's start. The game will start with a scavenger hunt quest for improving the "Den" (New seeds, rolls of cable, intact or repairable pre-war tech like foor purifiers, water pumps, mobile generators, weapon caches and such), a quest to recon the immidiate area and a quest about certain briefcase the Soldier was carrying to his/her bosses at new posting. The Mechanics: The first thing, I want to do is to seperate Stats from Skills. The stats will provide static bonuses or penalties to check tresholds but they won't be effecting your skill level in any way. The skill levels (0 to 100) will (still) be the main factor in determining success. *All stats will have a couple of speech options based on high stat Str: -Carry Weight -Base melee and unarmed damage -Steady effect per each point of str above reqirements Per: -Provides DT reduction for each attack -VATS range -Disarm checks' treshold -Cash, bullets and junk from certain containers End: -Resistances (Rad, Poison) -DT against certain damage types (fatigue, stun) -Base HP -HP gain per lvl -Increases effectiveness of chems and lessens their side effects Cha: -Social Interactions -Nerve -Increases rep gain and decreases infamy gain Int: -Skill Points Ag: -Movement Speed -Attack Speed -Reload speed -Bonus DT from light armors Lck: -Bonus to Base Skill lvl -Crit Chance -Adjust resources found The Skills: As I mentioned above, the stats themselves will not be determining the base skill levels. Instead I'm planning to use a JA2 like form to determine the characters history. This form will determine your history, your basic Skill set (roughly ranging from %10 to %30), your starting specilisations, your starting gear and your unique piece of equipment. I might give 1 lvl worth of free skill points for further personal choices but that's a grey area for now. -Name: -Surname: -Callsign: -Childhood?: City Slicker / Farm Kid / Mining Townie / Coast Comber / Military Brat -Basic Education?: Homeschooled / Nerd / Jock / Greaser / Rich Kid / Odd one Out -Kid Stuff?: Boy Scout / Little Leauger / Amateur Radioman / Bookworm / *special -Achievement?: Won spelling bee / Killed me a Boar / Was a motorcycle racer / ... -How did you become a soldier?: The Judge said / Drafted / Volunteer / College Tutiution / There was this girl and then there was her dad and a 12 gauge... -Which branch?: NG / Army / Airforce / Navy / Coast Guard -What role?: (Army) Trooper / Ranger / Radio Operator / Support Gunner / Mechanic/ Quartermaster / Medic -How did you get in trouble with MPs? -Where were you stationed -Did you see any action -How are you related to Veronica or Sharon? -How come you were at the "Den" when the end came? -What were you carrying? Based on my personal preferences and the general tidiying / expanding the survival/scavenger aspects, The skillset will also change a bit. -Barter: Barter rates -Pistols: One handed weapon accuracy, additional damage for convenional pistols -Rifles: Two Handed weapons, additional damage for convenional rifles -Support Weapons: Heavy Weapons, Grenade Launchers, Grenades -Close Combat: Melee and Unarmed rolled into one skill -Explosives: Mines, Explosives, Explosive Traps -Lockpick: -Medicine: F/A only without certain perks -Repair: Crafting and Maintenance (slower item decay) -Science: Deciphering Blueprints, Computers, Bonus to Energy Weapon Damage -Sneak: -Speech: -Survival: Effectiveness of food and water, crafting, mechanichal trap damage Weapon skills will work roughly in this formula: -If your skill < required weapon skill, you will have less accuracy and penetration. -If your skill = required weapons skill, you will have %100 efficiency with "base weapon" properties. -If weapon skill = 2x required weapon skill, you will have %100 efficiency and have all the weapon bonuses associated with the weapon. (some weapons will have a very long vats range, others increased crit chance and so on) Weapons will also have repair and science (if it is an energy weapon) requirements, which will determine how effective the weapon is (science) and how fast it wears out (repair) Repair, Explosives and Science will also determine the effects of homemade ammunition. At the beginning of the game, you will not have access to every function you can have from a skill. For example, if you didn't take Medic background (Perk: Field Medic Training), you will be limited to basic first aid actions with your Medicine skill. To access additional functions, you will need to find training, (army manual (requires relatively high skill level) or a real doctor (requires lower skill level)) Gear: The "magical" clothing aspect will also be handled differently than NV. Instead of switching into a lab coat here and utility jumpsuit there, to get bonuses, You will start with your "basic kit" consisting of odds and ends that allow you to access to basic actions (pick mechanical locks, make basic maintenance on weapons, decipher printed schematics). As you travel, you will come across stuff that you can add to your kit (an illegal electronic lockpick, hacking tools, a Personal Information Processor), which allow you to attempt more complex actions and lower the reqs. for more simple ones. Similarly there won't be skill books (temp. or perm.) in the game. Instead there will be schematics that you can decipher with science. These schematics will lower difficulty tresholds for their related items, allowing you to hack or repair with less skill. (when you find a basic schematic for a RoboCo terminal and decipher it, you will discover a neat little trick of flashing the bios manually to open basic interface, which is much more easier to hack then the additional 3rd party security programs the last users installed. -%10 to RoboCo Terminal hacking tresholds) As a replacement to perm. skill books, there will also be certain "experienced" npc's in the game that you can recieve training from. Crafting and Recycling: Similar to breaking down ammo, I'm intending to add a system to break down armors and weapons. This will yield spare weapon parts (normal, energy), spare armor parts (leather, metal, composite) and certain unique parts. Similar to jurry rigging perk, the generic parts will be used to repair and maintain player's weapons and armor. Unique parts like lightweight body, scope, lasersight will be usable to mod other weapons. The MAP: This story will a world map for travel and seperate local maps where the action will take place. By using seperate (relatively) small maps, I hope to give the illusion of size and have the ability to allow multiple people to create content without (too much) conflicts . The Pip-boy It needs to will have to be changed. This project needs an interface that uses keyboard shortcuts and doesn't require hours of scrolling.

Found a bug or a way to break my old system's computing power: sneak beside a door and wait for a hostile to come trough (Like rushing into the side chamber to deal with the mob of enemies in the last vault 11 room), equip a melee weapon and vats some attacks. My char gets teleported a bit (to his back, into the zone of fire of the turrets actually) and stands there doing nothing until getting lasered to death....

Cantousent: 10 int *Good Natured Educated (+2 skill points starting from lvl 5) Comprehension (extra 52(53*) skill points and +20 temp boost from magazines) *Tag (+15 skill points) If you are willing to use magazines for checks, you can get by with 64 in non-combat skills and explosives. This way you can create a jack of all trades. *If you are willing to use only 1 or 2 combat skills, then Good Natured allows a nice reallocation

Lexx: I have the armors but strangely, no one wearing PA have helmets (as their default loot.) Except the female paladin with grenade machine gun (had T-46 and it's helmet) None of the Brotherhood paladins seem to wear helmets. No wonder they couldn't hold their ground against NCR [/sarcasm]. ATM my private armory consists of; 1x T-45d (Brotherhood) 4x T-51b (Brotherhood) 1x T-51b (Pre-war) 1x Remnants PA (Shouldn't it be PA Mk2?) ....and only 2 helmets...

Go to Cottonwood Cove, cross the river to see whats on that side, meet some lurks, move a bit north and (if you are unlucky like me) get owned by the paratrooper deathclaw squad :D (oh I suppose i forgot my head somewhere else...) . I assaulted the place just because of that little incident

Just found and cleared the Deathclaw infested plateau east-east-southeast of the Techatticup Mine, across the river. But where on earth are the bloody helmets?

Humanoid: It is really coming you know....

Going by the gameplay lenght, I would suggest the adventure trinity first. TLJ is probably the most user friendly and rational one on your list. Sanitarium can leave you struck as the puzzles obey the rationality of a dream/nightmare and the whole thing changes each new level. Try to follow the story to solve it instead of puzzles. Grim Fandango is hardcore. It doesn't have many red herrings or weird puzzles but still is is hard. Psyconouts and BG&E are action and platform based games. They are probably the second shortest game category unless you plan to do %100 collectables. then all I can say is good luck. Ico is... well Ico. It is short and beautifully done. Just do the hunting side quests first so you can get maxium time and easy mode.

Thats because the overall Meta-Story and the Mission story do NOT mesh. The game ( the missions ) are about collecting ancient protoss artifacts (that are bloody friggin obvious to psi detection it seems) that were somehow not found / detected / remembered / used during the first war... and it gets really threadbare as the thing acts as the Xel Naga temple from toss campaign, cleansing the whole world. And you need to rescue them from a "Renegade" (???! another whiskey tango foxtrot moment) Protoss clan. Did I forget the part about the overall story being the new Zerg offensive, which you don't do anything (substantial) about Now I am supposedly playing as Rainors Idiots... sorry Raiders and I was expecting to battle other Terrans (Dominion) and Zerg. Instead most of the game is (or more correctly, feels to be) about beating up Protoss.

Don't worry (too much ) T. As you get into deeper trouble, the missions start to take longer. However, If you have a good upgrade / research combo to bolster your turtling (and no one can turtle like terran) the pure terran missions will not be too hard. Except some rush / time race ones.

It took me around 20 hours I guess. 26 missions shouldn't feel short but it somehow does. As I tried to explain, the little story arcs ended too abruptly and you didn't have any fallout from them, that was the base of the feeling not the actual lenght.

Just finished the campaign and I would like to share my gripes. First, let me get this out of the way: The game is insanely polished, it's attention to detail is extreme, gameplay is incredible, the missions are extremely varied and enjoyable. The problems I had with the SP were a bit weird. The storyline gets hamhanded now and then and creats a lot of "Oh come on!" moments. I know this is probably the result of compressing 3 overall and 4 or 5 minor story threads into 25+1 secret missions but this does lead to some jarring moments Spoiler: Zeratul and his storyline and missions also felt forced. A lot. The missions were fine but the plot explosion+ plot explosion+ plot explosion+... railroad of cutscenes were not. The starmap was another problem for me. To be precise, the lack of one. I know it is not a big problem but I would have liked to see a sector map with the trouble spots similar to Mass Effect rather than 3 planet icons that is in the game. *Where the frack did that scientist character come from btw? annoying brat. Other people also remarked this, Mengsk is supposed to be a Propagande genius. The TV (UNN) was fun at first but grow stale due to overuse as Jimmy plowed ahead through the story. Similarly the "Ship" idea was fun but under utilised. It was just like switching through sub menus. The ship needed something other than cutscenes to spice up the between mission moments. Also I would have liked to see the Mercs I hired in the ship Speaking of mercs, I wonder whose idea it was to put a bloody 5 minute cooldown timer on the first batch. I usually needed them at the very beginning of the mission as ace cards, not later as extra dps. Lastly the game felt too short. I know this probably sounds stupid at first glance but the lack of "random" missions (that are completely unrelated to the main story, like having to stop for a bit in a remote system due to mechanichal problems or detecting something weird) and the small number of missions for each story arc gave me this feeling. Then again one can also argue that the feeling of "I want more" shows this is a very good game. Don't misunderstand me, It is a very good game and a truly epic story. Just suffering from story telling problems.

WorstUE: I haven't played the newest (or maybe middle age) mods but I recall that modders weren't able to completely "turn off" the slow-mo and Dr due to some hardcode issues. The best that you could do was to ducktape a damage multiplier (and speed multiplier) onto vanilla Vats which did make it a bit more unstable but closer to normal. Maybe this "did" got changed with a dlc.

TBh a couple of options for Vats would be welcome. Little things like enabling/disabling kill cam, slow-mo and blur effects (cinematic camera etc) would be nice. On a similar note, an option to enable/disable extra Dr would be nice. This is supposed to be a RPG after all . Choices are important