Fallout: New Vegas

[J.E. Sawyer]

I thought having to deal with food/drink/sleep etc was too old skool for today's gamers.

 

Did a paradigm shift happen when I wasn't looking?

Eating/sleeping are in STALKER: Call of Pripyat and honestly it never feels annoying. It's just something you have to strategically plan for by carrying a small amount of food and returning to base occasionally. CoP also uses ammo weight, so inventory management is more involved overall.

[WorstUsernameEver]

I thought having to deal with food/drink/sleep etc was too old skool for today's gamers.

 

Did a paradigm shift happen when I wasn't looking?

Eating/sleeping are in STALKER: Call of Pripyat and honestly it never feels annoying. It's just something you have to strategically plan for by carrying a small amount of food and returning to base occasionally. CoP also uses ammo weight, so inventory management is more involved overall.

 

Now that I think about it, since you've added Hardcore Mode, has your team distributed food in the game differently than in Fallout 3? Because there was plenty of food (pre-war even!) in almost every location in Fallout 3, so even mods that added the food/water didn't make the gameplay much hard, if they made it harder at all.

[entrerix]

good question!

 

also: are there less stimpacks now????

[Starwars]

Eating/sleeping are in STALKER: Call of Pripyat and honestly it never feels annoying. It's just something you have to strategically plan for by carrying a small amount of food and returning to base occasionally. CoP also uses ammo weight, so inventory management is more involved overall.

 

Is that the first STALKER game you play? How do you like it? I really liked it myself.

[HoonDing]

Will there be a need for potty breaks as well?

[Gfted1]

Yep, and you will have to carry a small amount of TP or you will become afflicted with Stankass, which gives a -5 result to any Survival check.

[Gorgon]

It actually added to the gameplay, in some sort of way.

 

I just dont get that immersed in a game I guess. To me, having a mechanic that offers no benefit (only penalties) and boils down to eat X every Y or you will die just becomes a busywork chore and detracts from the experience. I get that its more "realistic" but meh, I like my games to be fun, not work.

Says the 120 level necromancer.

[Gromnir]

I thought having to deal with food/drink/sleep etc was too old skool for today's gamers.

 

Did a paradigm shift happen when I wasn't looking?

Eating/sleeping are in STALKER: Call of Pripyat and honestly it never feels annoying (to me). It's just something you have to strategically plan for by carrying a small amount of food and returning to base occasionally (which doesn't genuinely make the game more enjoyable, but does become tedious after the first dozen or so food-runs). CoP also uses ammo weight, so inventory management is more involved overall, (but fo3 insta-travel effectively nerfs any strategic factors related to weighted inventory, thus making it a rather pointless theoretical addition to fo:nv).

 

fixed

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited May 21, 2010 by Gromnir

[Amentep]

I thought having to deal with food/drink/sleep etc was too old skool for today's gamers.

 

Did a paradigm shift happen when I wasn't looking?

 

I hated dealing with food/drink/sleep in old skool games, so I'd be loathe to advocate its return. The "feeding mechanic" in Mask of the Betrayer is one of the reasons I never finished that game.

 

If I want to die of starvation, I'll play Oregon Trail, thankyouverymuch.

Edited May 21, 2010 by Amentep

[Gfted1]

It actually added to the gameplay, in some sort of way.

 

I just dont get that immersed in a game I guess. To me, having a mechanic that offers no benefit (only penalties) and boils down to eat X every Y or you will die just becomes a busywork chore and detracts from the experience. I get that its more "realistic" but meh, I like my games to be fun, not work.

Says the 120 level necromancer.

 

You do have a point there.

 

I suppose my only defence is that grinding to become more powerful is different then a mechanic thats only purpose is to make you do something or die. To me, eating and drinking is even worse then the Spirit Eater Curse, at least that has a story purpose, where eating and drinking is just an artificial hurdle for the sake of "immersion".

 

No biggie to me though, Ill play on Normal difficulty and be happy.

[J.E. Sawyer]

fixed

 

HA! Good Fun!

Please critique those game play elements in your own words instead of modifying mine.

[Thorton_AP]

One thing I enjoyed about Fallout 3 was the idea of roaming around and a feeling of a bit of alienation that that next corner may contain some scavenger/raider that is dead set on ruining my day, so he can live for another day.

 

I think given the setting of Fallout 3, the idea of having to be a "survivor" could be interesting. I definitely will have to try out the Hardcore mode. If it's not for me, then I'll switch away

[Slowtrain]

I thought having to deal with food/drink/sleep etc was too old skool for today's gamers.

 

Did a paradigm shift happen when I wasn't looking?

Eating/sleeping are in STALKER: Call of Pripyat and honestly it never feels annoying. It's just something you have to strategically plan for by carrying a small amount of food and returning to base occasionally. CoP also uses ammo weight, so inventory management is more involved overall.

 

 

I very much enjoyed the STALKER games and didn't find the eating mechanics terribly burdensome either.

 

However, even being the cranky old skool grognard that I am, I understand why people dislike being forced to eat/drink and even sleep in a game. While it may add some small level of additional planning and decision-making, it mostly just comes off as busy-work. Something that is just done becasue it has to be done, without really adding much to the gameplay.

 

If a game was aiming to be a super-realistic exploration sim and proper plannign was a big part of the gameplay, then I could see eating/drinking being more intergral to the gameplay.

 

Remember the old crpg days when you not only had to eat and drink, but your characters had to pack bedrolls and proper footwear and set guards each night!

 

Ahh, those days were something.

 

[J.E. Sawyer]

I understand that not everyone enjoys those aspects, which is why it's purely optional. In Call of Pripyat, I don't make food runs; I carry a small amount of food with me, regularly eat from inventory, and loot dead stalkers/bandits for food when I need to. When I allocate that weight in inventory, it's a trade off for more ammo, first aid kits, anti-radiation medicine, etc. I enjoy it, but I don't think people are bad/dumb for not enjoying it.

[vault_overseer]

Good job pissing off JES, Gromnir

[Gfted1]

"Hardcore mode" is not the same as the difficulty slider, right? Meaning, Hardcore is an on/off toggle but there is also a seperate difficulty slider?

[vault_overseer]

THat's correct

[J.E. Sawyer]

"Hardcore mode" is not the same as the difficulty slider, right? Meaning, Hardcore is an on/off toggle but there is also a seperate difficulty slider?

Correct.

[entrerix]

fallout 3 is the only game i've ever played where i thought to myself "this would be better if i had to actually eat these foods that I'm finding to survive"

 

the reason: the game in many ways is more of a wasteland survival simulator than a fallout sequel. hardcore mode just takes that survival simulation to the next level. i think its a great idea.

[Gromnir]

fixed

 

HA! Good Fun!

Please critique those game play elements in your own words instead of modifying mine.

 

'cause by doing so the critique is changed in some meaningful way?

 

*shrug*

 

regardless, if food and ammo runs may be avoided by means o' the hardcore toggle, then we ain't seeing a problem. "strategic" concerns that only impact the number o' tedious trips we needs make back to "base" (or wherever we has ammo/food stashed) doesn't boost fun-factor for Gromnir... though we does understand that some folks enjoy such stuff. go figure.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Walsingham]

Well, fwiiw I like the idea of having to eat and drink. I do it in FO3 just for the sake of roleplaying.

 

Having said that, there is so MUCH food in Fo3 that I have actually started using it to brighten up Megaton. I have a 'lawn' outside my house made of green Blamco mac and cheese cartons, while the pond the bomb sits in is full of Nuka Cola Quantums which gives the town centre a pleasant soothing glow. I should do a screen shot some time.

[TwinkieGorilla]

I understand that not everyone enjoys those aspects, which is why it's purely optional. In Call of Pripyat, I don't make food runs; I carry a small amount of food with me, regularly eat from inventory, and loot dead stalkers/bandits for food when I need to. When I allocate that weight in inventory, it's a trade off for more ammo, first aid kits, anti-radiation medicine, etc. I enjoy it, but I don't think people are bad/dumb for not enjoying it.

 

i'll actually go ahead and agree with this. i enjoyed CoP quite a lot (though Pripyat itself was a huge disappointment, imo) and never found eating/sleeping/taking cover/etc to be tedious. it helped animate even further for me the sense of survival in The Zone.

 

'cause by doing so the critique is changed in some meaningful way?

 

no, i think he was just asking for a less juvenile form of discourse (speaking of, do you larp as an ogre/troll in real life too? like...at work and socially?)

 

*shrugs*

[Irrelevant]

Screenshot please;

I also thought of more improvements

-Special attacks can be used outside of V.A.T.S.

-Merchants/caravans will tell you to bugger off if you spend too much time following them around, I remenber that you could simply follow all the merchants around until they died and then loot them.

-Have meaningful achievements/trophies for stuff like beating the game on very hard, having neutral karma throught the whole game, ect(I can't think of anymore.) If not having the the ability to turn these off would be nice since you can't disable the notification on the PS3.

 

Also, Mr. Sawyer, will you guys poke fun at Bethesda by mentioning that you can purify irradiated water by running it through dirt/sand?(I think)

Also, Have you ever played KIller 7? what do you think of this type of approach to storytelling in videogames?

-Walsingham have you read the psychology of security by Bruce Schneier?

Edited May 21, 2010 by Irrelevant

[Enoch]

fixed

 

HA! Good Fun!

Please critique those game play elements in your own words instead of modifying mine.

 

'cause by doing so the critique is changed in some meaningful way?

 

*shrug*

I suspect it has more to do with the fact that Josh's forum posts often find their content quoted and posted on blogs, other forums, fansites, wikis, and the like. While it would certainly be lazy and irresponsible (if not downright deceitful) for a web denizen to retell the contents of the Josh quote-box in your post as if it had been said by Sawyer himself, such behavior would hardly be unusual by internetz standards.

Edited May 21, 2010 by Enoch

[entrerix]

hardcore mode tweaks are as follows correct?:

 

ammo weight

sleep requirements

food requirements

stimpacks heal over time

 

Nothing else right? so it doesnt cause bullets to do more damage? are we still going to have to shoot 36 rounds from a minigun into a raiders head to kill him?

Edited May 21, 2010 by entrerix