Fallout: New Vegas

[TwinkieGorilla]

I enjoy it just to see what other gamers are saying about things.

 

No need. I can sum that up for you right here:

 

* Will there be vehicles?

* We can have a house?

* Will there be aliens?

* (enter in some random impossible to incorporate or develop in allotted time and/or canon-breaking element here)

* We can have a business?

* We can have a vehicles?

* We can have power armor?

[J.E. Sawyer]

That said, seeing J.E.Swayer hasn't seem to have played any of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Metro 2033 (Well, to be honest, I, myself, only played the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. since it's quite a time-consuming game.) makes me feel that he hasn't done enough home work (I've gotten an impression that he hasn't played PC games recently.)

I haven't played any games recently other than F:NV. Metro 2033 came out three weeks ago. I didn't play a huge amount of STALKER but I got a pretty good sense of its take on realism/survival.

[Gorgon]

Stalker mainly works because of good level design. The engine is ancient by now, but it doesn't matter that much. The gunplay is also good, the 'one mistake and you're gone' approach means that things generally don't get dull. In that way it's quite similar to the old ghost recon series.

[Slowtrain]

I enjoy it just to see what other gamers are saying about things.

 

No need. I can sum that up for you right here:

 

* Will there be vehicles?

* We can have a house?

* Will there be aliens?

* (enter in some random impossible to incorporate or develop in allotted time and/or canon-breaking element here)

* We can have a business?

* We can have a vehicles?

* We can have power armor?

 

 

lol.

 

A fine list of questions indeed.

 

 

 

CAN I HAVE A CAT AND A PONY AND A FLOWER GARDEN AND JON BON JOVI'S BABY?

 

 

 

umm. Will there be rideable horses?

 

[Slowtrain]

Stalker mainly works because of good level design. The engine is ancient by now, but it doesn't matter that much. The gunplay is also good, the 'one mistake and you're gone' approach means that things generally don't get dull. In that way it's quite similar to the old ghost recon series.

 

 

STALKER rules on atmosphere. The FPS combat is pretty good. Level design is solid. Some of the creatures are cool, but could have been more/better in that department. FInding artifacts is interesting.

 

But mostly it's the atmosphere. FO3 was pretty good in that regard as well. I expect the same from NV. Hopefully even better than FO3.

[Nemo0071]

Hmm I was playing FO3 and had an idea. Since I'm kind of a "loot freak" I almost always have a hard time managing my gear. So I thought;

 

How about an option to "lock" specific items in your inventory, or be able to reach them only through some sort of a sub-menu?

 

I'll try to explain: You have different types of weapons/apperal/whatnot that you carry around -some of them you use, some just random loot to sell/stash, the ones you use/keep being fully repaired, unique, hotkey assigned, whatever. You just wanna be able to do your bartering/stashing without fear of accidentally ditching your own gear, and thus, without delay. Same function could also prevent using unique gear to repair casual ones (as I noticed not all unique gear is "protected" in FO3's repair system)

[Amentep]

umm. Will there be rideable horses?

 

Or at least

rideable Giddyup Buttercup?

[TwinkieGorilla]

Hmm I was playing FO3 and had an idea.

 

Uninstall?

 

...Since I'm kind of a "loot freak" I almost always have a hard time managing my gear. So I thought;

 

How about an option to "lock" specific items in your inventory, or be able to reach them only through some sort of a sub-menu?

 

I'll try to explain: You have different types of weapons/apperal/whatnot that you carry around -some of them you use, some just random loot to sell/stash, the ones you use/keep being fully repaired, unique, hotkey assigned, whatever. You just wanna be able to do your bartering/stashing without fear of accidentally ditching your own gear, and thus, without delay. Same function could also prevent using unique gear to repair casual ones (as I noticed not all unique gear is "protected" in FO3's repair system)

 

Oh. Never-mind. Well, actually...let me address this issue. Can we just assume that we won't be able to carry every bit of every damn thing on the planet as if it is weightless and our rucksacks bottomless? I absolutely HATED the absence of inventory management in that game. In Fallout 1 & 2 I was constantly struggling to figure out just what it was that I really needed to carry on me at all times, what I could store and come back to, or what I could keep in the trunk (in Fallout 2). I hope, at least, that ammo having weight again is an indication that our inventories will be more realistic and challenging.

[Wombat]

About user opinions, this can be generally said about the net but, after the popularization of the net, especially on the game boards, it is getting difficult to find writings which are understandable for us, pre-twitter generations. Most of them are nothing more personal impressions than reviews, (attempted) analysis on some game mechanics and/or story/character developments. After all, like other activities on the net, these written words are more about their subjects rather than objects, means, more about their writers than games. I have nothing against the ways of the others spending their time but, for me, tastes just differ, which is the end of the story as long as nobody is trying to expand and try to explain possible reasoning behind his/her preferences in forms which can be shared by the others. So, I lost enough personal motivations to regularly visit game boards except looking for info.

 

As for communications between the players and the designers, in my case, I began to browse the boards of the game designers (and almost stopped doing so now) due to my unsatisfied experiences with IWD series. I couldn't understand the existence of some of the flaws and I'd like to hear the opinions of the "dungeon masters." Also, I'm interested in story-telling, which, different from other games, is very complicated in role-playing game and I wondered how they try to achieve this essence through computers. To my surprise, although I don't know about programming at all, I found the game designers seem to really think like game masters. The problems which I cannot understand mainly comes from my ignorance to how the industry works and the particular resource managements in them. And about the latter, J.E. Sawyer tends to be able to offer a good picture. Judging from what I read, it seems that his main role in game-designing is related with that. He seems to be playing as a hub which judges what the game needs and assigning each resource which/who he need to assign to achieve the expected results. So, despite of his quick temper, reading his comments was an efficient way to expect how the game will end up...well, theoretically, at least. The problem is that even if the development seems to be going well, some problems come from the former: how industry works or financial/political issues, which happened to the Black Hound, Van Buren and Aliens (I sensed Aliens promising simply Sawyer's attention seems to have been sifted to it from his personal Black Hound project). A sad thing is that I cannot see any problem in the designer side.

 

Bioware keeps communicating with the players and I can gather quite good pictures before their games are out especially because their games are polished. However, these things mainly come from good managements in the former, or, financial/political sector. Also, they don't seem to risk too much in game designing, either. Seasoned CRPG players would notice that they simplify some factors to make the testing process much easier, which, at the same time, prevents the players from feeling their story less personal. Also, somehow, I'm not interested in their story-telling probably because I'm not great fan of typical fantasy/Sci-Fi genres, which comes down to the matter of tastes, though. In any case, I end up with a company which communicates with the players very often but I'm not interested in their works while a company which doesn't/cannot communicate with the players while I'm interested in some of their works.

 

PS Matthew Rorie seems to be going to leave. Shame that he is one of the designers who try to communicate with the players. Since he seems to have good friends, I can only wish them good luck.

 

That said, seeing J.E.Swayer hasn't seem to have played any of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. or Metro 2033 (Well, to be honest, I, myself, only played the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. since it's quite a time-consuming game.) makes me feel that he hasn't done enough home work (I've gotten an impression that he hasn't played PC games recently.)

I haven't played any games recently other than F:NV. Metro 2033 came out three weeks ago. I didn't play a huge amount of STALKER but I got a pretty good sense of its take on realism/survival.

I see. At least it's nice to see you are still here.

 

Stalker mainly works because of good level design. The engine is ancient by now, but it doesn't matter that much. The gunplay is also good, the 'one mistake and you're gone' approach means that things generally don't get dull. In that way it's quite similar to the old ghost recon series.

STALKER rules on atmosphere. The FPS combat is pretty good. Level design is solid. Some of the creatures are cool, but could have been more/better in that department. FInding artifacts is interesting.

I didn't write my previous post as a generic review or my impression about S.T.A.L.K.E.R. but focusing on the theme of survival in wilderness. Some maps are designed well but how did they make the players feel trapped in a dangerous place even in open field? You can say it with one word: atmosphere but it must be connected with the game-play in a way or another. At least, behind some visual and sound effects, some elements like A-life, encumbrance, need for foods, degrading weapons/armor, and radiation related game-plays can be said to be piled up to create the unique "atmosphere" and the sense of survival outside of the main game-plays.

 

Probably the major issue with these game-plays is that they can get in the way of the main game-plays. In fact, some "genuine" FPS players seem to have felt frustrated with these factors since it prevent them from the main game mechanics. If they nailed their skilled headshots on their targets, they like them to be dead rather than finding their weapons jammed/too degraded, for example (Much less confident in precise shots, during my "adaptation process," I learned to click the mouse three times for each headshots, which is still much more economical than trying to defeat the same opponent by nailing the bullets through their body armor while keeping the auto mode off to suppress the recoiling). They don't like to come back to hubs only for resource management such as weight limit, buying weapon, ammo and/or armor.

 

However, after observing these in-game economy, I found it better to keep the routine of scavenging fallen characters and take the weapons of the best condition while throwing degraded ones, which works good enough for both ammo/weight limitations and degrading weapons. Some "gun-nuts" players complained of not being able to use their favorite weapons (also, finding a good weapon is not so important since once they are degraded or out of ammo, they are useless, which makes "phat-loot" rather trivial find...however, there is a hint to balance these in later games.*) but, for me, these resource management, where the players need to make the protagonist survive relying on everything available, establishes the sense of survival. For my convenience, I kept some "phat loots" in a stash available in the area and used it as a "base camp" till I finish the exploration there. I think the learning curve in finding out how to adapt to the environment works as well as how enemies behave made the part of unique experience of this game. I don't know what was planned for the camping system of the Black Hound but, I think, allowing the players to build camps or something which doesn't have all the luxury of services available towns and/or "Ebon Hawk"/"Hub" in some areas wouldn't damage the sense of survival too much.

 

Of course, some of these contradictory game-play mechanics are hits/misses depending on your viewpoints, and, indeed, I have read quite a lot of complaints, including some reviews which says something like "third time is the charm" about Call of Pripyat, where the graphic engine already shows its age... Also there are quite many modifications of the series, which may reflect the dissatisfaction of some game-play elements and their balancing issues. So, I guess it might be good at looking at this series since, I think, it is one of rare games which tried to build sense of survival in very unfriendly areas under FPS + light RPG format.

 

* In later games, I found weapons which can be customizable by modifying them with small and thus less bulky weapon mod parts. This makes the both systems, means, resource management and the availability of favorite weapons, work since adding these tiny parts makes an ordinary weapon scavenged into your order-made one on the fly. So, what you need to do is that to let the protagonist carry these parts to put them on "available resources." Armor don't have modifications but artifacts functions more or less like that.

[Gorgon]

I usually get a hold of 2 weapons which use the most common soviet round, you find those on just about every corpse, and leave everything else behind, unless it's something extraordinary. In addition to having lots of ammo to be found they are also cheap to repair, and not so different from the more expensive guns once upgraded. I much prefer being able to run for extended periods over heavy armour and weapons.

 

I just recently finished the prequel, Call of Pripyat. The weapons get insanely powerful and accurate once upgraded to tier 3. Unfortunately once it becomes available the game is pretty much over. I spent hours hamstering enough money to upgrade everything, go back to Pripyat and it's literally over in 15 mins. I don't think the developers really understood how people react and play the game when they finally get access to the final upgrades. Big disappointment.

Edited April 8, 2010 by Gorgon

[Wombat]

I usually get a hold of 2 weapons

If each for short range and long range, then, that's similar game-play style with myself. I found some people complained of the "lack of ammo" but they seem to stick to their favorite weapons which are not popular in the area they are exploring.

 

I much prefer being able to run for extended periods over heavy armour and weapons.

True. Making the protagonist loaded with "phat loots" is not a good idea if you'd like to let him survive in that unfriendly place...or for immersion.

[J.E. Sawyer]

I see. At least it's nice to see you are still here.

Even if I'm not responding, I'm always reading these threads and the Bethesda threads.

[TwinkieGorilla]

Even if I'm not responding, I'm always reading these threads and the Bethesda threads.

 

if that's the case does this mean we're going to see elements of Rapelay in FO:NV?

[Lexx]

You have too much time! :>

[Nemo0071]

...Since I'm kind of a "loot freak" I almost always have a hard time managing my gear. So I thought;

 

How about an option to "lock" specific items in your inventory, or be able to reach them only through some sort of a sub-menu?

 

I'll try to explain: You have different types of weapons/apperal/whatnot that you carry around -some of them you use, some just random loot to sell/stash, the ones you use/keep being fully repaired, unique, hotkey assigned, whatever. You just wanna be able to do your bartering/stashing without fear of accidentally ditching your own gear, and thus, without delay. Same function could also prevent using unique gear to repair casual ones (as I noticed not all unique gear is "protected" in FO3's repair system)

 

Oh. Never-mind. Well, actually...let me address this issue. Can we just assume that we won't be able to carry every bit of every damn thing on the planet as if it is weightless and our rucksacks bottomless? I absolutely HATED the absence of inventory management in that game. In Fallout 1 & 2 I was constantly struggling to figure out just what it was that I really needed to carry on me at all times, what I could store and come back to, or what I could keep in the trunk (in Fallout 2). I hope, at least, that ammo having weight again is an indication that our inventories will be more realistic and challenging.

Well, that's the reason why I'm so interested in this "hardcore mode". I have similar tastes in that department, you see. But the thing is, as a gamer, I tend to play every game by its own rules, as in, if I'm allowed to carry stuff around in my seemingly bottomless pockets (rocket launchers come to mind), then I will. And I guess the same goes for everyone whose priority is gaming rather than RP ing.

 

Inventory management in FO 1&2 worked in their own way, and so does FO3's. I expect FO:NV to have a similar system, and it can be improved, is all I'm saying...

 

 

Oh, just one more thing: Even if ammo & stuff has weight (as they should) I don't think that'll stop me from carrying as much junk around as possible

[Slowtrain]

Can we just assume that we won't be able to carry every bit of every damn thing on the planet as if it is weightless and our rucksacks bottomless? I absolutely HATED the absence of inventory management in that game.

 

 

Wait, you don't like carrying around countless teddy bears, spoons, plates, and whatnot for the junk gun?

 

The junk gun is the bestest thing in FO3!!111!!

 

 

 

No wait. It's the dumbest. Sorry.

 

ANyway, FO1 and 2 inventory system/management wasn't anything to write home about.

 

 

 

 

I just recently finished the prequel, Call of Pripyat. The weapons get insanely powerful and accurate once upgraded to tier 3. Unfortunately once it becomes available the game is pretty much over. I spent hours hamstering enough money to upgrade everything, go back to Pripyat and it's literally over in 15 mins. I don't think the developers really understood how people react and play the game when they finally get access to the final upgrades. Big disappointment.

 

 

All three of the STALKER games seem to fail at the end. Or at least the last bits are always the weakest parts of the game.

Edited April 8, 2010 by Slowtrain

[Amentep]

Can we just assume that we won't be able to carry every bit of every damn thing on the planet as if it is weightless and our rucksacks bottomless? I absolutely HATED the absence of inventory management in that game.

 

 

Wait, you don't like carrying around countless teddy bears, spoons, plates, and whatnot for the junk gun?

 

 

In playing FO3 again, I'm collecting Teddy Bears for my house in Megaton.

 

And intact Garden Gnomes. Too bad its not easier to place these things.

 

Frankly inventory management is one of those abstractions that I usually just like to roll with however the game presents it, so not a big issue to me. A totally weight based system like Fallout is just as non-realistic as playing inventory tetris with a space limit, IMO.

[Slowtrain]

Can we just assume that we won't be able to carry every bit of every damn thing on the planet as if it is weightless and our rucksacks bottomless? I absolutely HATED the absence of inventory management in that game.

 

 

Wait, you don't like carrying around countless teddy bears, spoons, plates, and whatnot for the junk gun?

 

 

In playing FO3 again, I'm collecting Teddy Bears for my house in Megaton.

 

And intact Garden Gnomes. Too bad its not easier to place these things.

 

Frankly inventory management is one of those abstractions that I usually just like to roll with however the game presents it, so not a big issue to me. A totally weight based system like Fallout is just as non-realistic as playing inventory tetris with a space limit, IMO.

 

 

Oh yeah, the garden gnomes. The first time I played FO3 I thought there would be seem odd yet interesting quest around those things.

 

Never found such a quest though. Was always disappointing.

[Nemo0071]

In playing FO3 again, I'm collecting Teddy Bears for my house in Megaton.

 

And intact Garden Gnomes. Too bad its not easier to place these things.

I wonder why that sounds so familiar.....

[TwinkieGorilla]

ANyway, FO1 and 2 inventory system/management wasn't anything to write home about.

 

My point wasn't that this was an outstanding example of gaming excellence but merely an alternative to being able to carry EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD or just what your character's carry weight allowed. The carry weight in FO3 is higher and the amount of weightless items (including ammo) is much, much higher.

 

Oh. Did I say "higher"? I meant dumber.

Edited April 8, 2010 by TwinkieGorilla

[Slowtrain]

Higher, dumber, same difference.

 

ANyway, mostly I agree, BUT, both the assinine repair system and the low damage weapons meant that you pretty much had to have a high carry weight PLUS weightless ammo just to get by.

 

As a Big Guns character, I always had a 10 str + strong back and I still had to leave a lot of crap behind because I had to carry multiple sets of combat armor + a bunch of miniguns and whatnot just to keep things repaired. In addition, the crappy damage meant that I could blow throuigh 5000 rounds of mingun ammo in just a few short battles if I wasn't careful with my ammo usage.

 

So while I agree, the way FO3 was balanced kinda forced both weightless ammo and a high carry weight.

 

I'm all for rebalancing NV so that is no longer neccessary.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Well, mods show that rebalancing Fallout 3 it's possible while not losing the RPG components (actually, some of the most famous mods like Fallout Wanderer's Edition ENHANCE the role-playing/choice aspects).

What I would like to see in Fallout New Vegas is a level design that minimize the NECESSITY of combat. In Fallout 3 pretty much every build should be a combat character, with or without twist. There's really no reason to not tag at least ONE combat skill.

[mkreku]

<complaints about inventory>

So you found yet another arbitrary little feature that was so much much better in the original Fallouts than it was in the evil horrible Fallout 3?

 

Big. ****ing. Surprise.

 

Oh, and who in their right mind wouldn't prefer playing inventory Tetris instead of the game? But it must have been better because it was in the originals, right?

Edited April 9, 2010 by Gorth
Misquoting people to insult them isn't nice

[Slowtrain]

The inventory system in Fallout 1 was horribly clunky. Fallout 2 made a few improvements that made manuipulating inventory a bit easier.

 

I can't really say that Fallout 3 had an interesting inventory system, but at least it was less painful than than Fallout 1/2.

 

I think it would have been nice if there had been more of a rpg-standard paper doll plus inventory slots where you could place your equipped gear and instantly get an oveview of your character setup just by looking at your paper doll.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Fallout 3's inventory was fine, except for the fact you could bring it up in combat and it would pause the game, meaning you could load up on health and change armor and the like.

 

Honestly, at this point it's just nitpicking.