New Fallout 3 interview

[Tanuvein]

I'm not going to read all of the above, but I have two things to comment on:

 

1) Morrowind is good.

 

But only after you download 60 or more mods to make it so, including ones that drastically alter NPCs depth. I played a bit of Morrowind long ago without hte mods, and got bored after a while. With the mods it is quite great. However, Bethesda did not make any of those mods. Even most of Morrowind's faithful fands use extensive mods to increase the depth of NPCs as well as graphics (can't blame Bethesda for aged graphics though). Also to make the gameplay a little more robust and interesting, and to alter the rather lame leveling system. However, Arena and Redguard are great. I think, as long as the team tries to make a game more focused on story or NPCs, they can do it. I think.

 

2) I want Fallout to either be turn based or, if it must be real time, for it to have actual action to it, not just watching your characters kill everyone else, occasionally pausing and issuing commands. Turn based tends to allow more tactical combat with harder opponents and more modifiers to attacks.

 

However, if its turnbased, you should be able to control ALL of your NPC buddies, otherwise it just becomes boring. If you still can only control yourself, it might as well be real time for all the control you have over it.

[Judge Hades]

The game will be Fallout in name only just like FOT and FOPOS. It has no hope but be otherwise. If it actually feels and plays like Fallout 1 and 2 I will be very surprised. I will be expecting Morrowind with Guns.

[Meshugger]

While i haven't played any of the Fallouts, i don't see a problem with the idea of a turn-based combat system. FFX had it, and it was fun enough for me.

[Oerwinde]

It it wasn't Fallout 3 I wouldn't have a problem with making it real-time, but its a sequel. It should be updated, not changed. I agree the TB system Fallout used needs to be updated, but not abandoned. How many sequels that have drastically changed the game mechanics of their predecessor have been better? I personally can't think of any so I'd like to hear some.

 

As to the guy who asked why reflexes aren't as important as brainpower in an RPG: brainpower shouldn't be too important either. If your character has high intelligence, the game should give you hints. Your character shouldn't be limited by your own personal limitations.

[Darth Barth]

It would be a shame if they made something outdated just because a couple of people dont know when to let go.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Tell that to Gus Tarballs.

 

 

"What are you blabbering about, Woody?"

[Darque]

I read what the Bethesda guy said in a interview. They are currently working on Elderscrolls Oblivion. Using a new engine, and an engine they will use for Fallout 3.

 

Based on the screenshots I've seen of Oblivion it will look like Morrowwind. 1st person view. So if they are going to use the same engine for Fallout then it will probably be a 1st person view game.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Game Engine does not equal Camera angle.

 

They could have any angle they wanted, heck Morrowind had 2 different angles: First person and over the shoulder.

[Batrilor]

I read what the Bethesda guy said in a interview. They are currently working on Elderscrolls Oblivion. Using a new engine, and an engine they will use for Fallout 3.

 

Based on the screenshots I've seen of Oblivion it will look like Morrowwind. 1st person view. So if they are going to use the same engine for Fallout then it will probably be a 1st person view game.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Game Engine does not equal Camera angle.

 

They could have any angle they wanted, heck Morrowind had 2 different angles: First person and over the shoulder.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You are probably right. As I mentioned in my post I don't know much about the limitation a game engine have.

 

But they aren't familiar with the entire Isometric view, while they know alot about 1st person view.

 

Personally I just hope that they do stay true to the old Fallout as much as they can. In terms of settings, looks, humor and such. Nothing wrong with improving it, and I don't know how the game would play if it was 1st person view. There are advantages in playing fallout in 1st person view. When you sneak up on someone you know if they can see you as soon as you can see them.

 

We will maybe have some official word in the next couple of months.

[Child of Flame]

I read what the Bethesda guy said in a interview. They are currently working on Elderscrolls Oblivion. Using a new engine, and an engine they will use for Fallout 3.

 

Based on the screenshots I've seen of Oblivion it will look like Morrowwind. 1st person view. So if they are going to use the same engine for Fallout then it will probably be a 1st person view game.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Game Engine does not equal Camera angle.

 

They could have any angle they wanted, heck Morrowind had 2 different angles: First person and over the shoulder.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You are probably right. As I mentioned in my post I don't know much about the limitation a game engine have.

 

But they aren't familiar with the entire Isometric view, while they know alot about 1st person view.

 

Personally I just hope that they do stay true to the old Fallout as much as they can. In terms of settings, looks, humor and such. Nothing wrong with improving it, and I don't know how the game would play if it was 1st person view. There are advantages in playing fallout in 1st person view. When you sneak up on someone you know if they can see you as soon as you can see them.

 

We will maybe have some official word in the next couple of months.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Third Person Over the Shoulder (Bloodlines, Splinter Cell, Beyond Good & Evil) is better for sneaking IMO. Problem with sneaking in first person, is you end up suffering from the 'tunnel vision' in all FP games. In real life you have other senses that tell you if someone is near, but not so in a game world.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Third Person Over the Shoulder (Bloodlines, Splinter Cell, Beyond Good & Evil) is better for sneaking IMO.  Problem with sneaking in first person, is you end up suffering from the 'tunnel vision' in all FP games.  In real life you have other senses that tell you if someone is near, but not so in a game world.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

But the problem with third person is that you get an unfair advantage. Instead of relying on your perception, you can just activate third person and do some mouse movement to rotate the camera and see what's ahead, as opposed to sticking to a wall and leaning over the sides to see who's coming in first person. You have other senses in real life, but none that equals a chase cam with an ample view of your surroundings.

[Drakron]

And guards have a unfair advantage of never being tired or careless in their job, never needing to go to the bathroom or get bored and go do something else besides patroling the same corridor for the next 5 hours.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

And that doesn't tell me anything at all. If we're to be given game mechanics that just undermine player effort because enemies have their own rules, then all games would be yawn fests.

[Drakron]

That is not the point.

 

The AI of enemies will put then at the same time at advantage and disavantage over the player, their senses are better that the player senses but they lack the ability to make decisions, they act as they are scripted to act.

 

The player having third person view is no diferent that enemies he faces since they effectively have third person view, they might have restricted FOV but they have exceptional hearing giving then the ability to "home in" on the player if he makes detectable sound.

 

Besides you also want to remove things such "detect-o-meter" and other gimicks that tell the player how well he is hidden or remove then and force the player to figure out on its own if he is able to be detected or not?

 

Since that is far more of a "cheat" that 3rd person view, if they place a enemy of a dark room there is no way the player can see it without raising the monitor gamma to a point were he effectively have "night vision".

 

Also if you want to talk about cheating lets talk about how many times they use scripts events to undermine player efforts, I remenber playing Splinter Cell Train demo level were even if you knock a guard down or managed to pass my him he going to after you regarless the moment it steps in a certain area.

 

Or how in Far Cry that the trangens mokeys are scripted to zoom in the player no matter what he does (I know because I disabled the AI and they were zomming in and following me but not attacking me) and how they had that "2 hits=dead" no matter how much health the player had.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

No, that is precisely the point. But bringing up exceptions in AI is what's beside the point.

 

You're basically defending that giving to players a cheap method of awareness that involves zero in terms of their own player skill is acceptable, and perhaps encouraged, because you believe enemy AI is 'cheating' and has more of an advantage than the player. Guess what? AI is almost always meant to have more of an advantage than the player, that's what makes games challenging. It's learning the game's rules and your limitations, and work and prevail against them that makes the whole fun of the game. It all comes down to being able to deal with enemy AI on your own, instead of relying on camera angles that give insight to their positions and movements effortlessly. Either players can deal with it or they can't. A third person camera angle that allows players to see their surroundings effortlessly is almost in the same league as auto-aiming.

 

If you want to tackle the AI "problem" of using rules and means which aren't open to the player, then work on the AI instead of giving players the ability to know almost everything by having them do basically nothing in a situation like that.

[Child of Flame]

I can't remember any games offhand besides the Thief Series that did sneaking in FP well. I can remember several games/series offhand that did it well in third person though. Most notable to me being the Hitman, and Splinter Cell franchises, Beyond Good & Evil, as well as Bloodlines. Sneaking was done well, and was quite fun for me in all these games...most games that try to implement sneaking in FP fail horribly because of the lack of senses other than sight. The excellent sound in the Thief series is quite possibly the only thing that made it work. It's really neither here nor there though so long as we're talking about Fallout, as an RPG doesn't work like other games because of skillchecks, traits, etc.

[ShadowPaladin V1.0]

MGS III. The fight against "The End" was the best sneaking in any game.

 

Actually it would be relatively easy to intergrate MGS III's camo system into an RPG especially one like FO.