An Open Letter to Bethesda on How to Fix the Fallout Franchise

[Tagaziel]

You'd think that the first would be someone who seems to want to make this corner of fandom a more constructive and accesible to people with dissenting opinions. But no.
Remember me to cite you on that next time you are whining about this being an enclosed cesspool.

"Dissenting opinions". What next, you're going to go Gandhi and start a hunger strike over a game series?

The problem is that it's not a well-constructed essay, but a retread of points that have been repeated on these forums for ten years. They do not matter.

From my perspective I think that not only our community, but other fan bases would benefit greatly from a more coherent lore for the game. While I would prefer the IP holder complete this task (as they should) we could always get together as a group and identify what we feel would best fit for the current state of the lore.

While us as a group defining how the lore should line up is not ideal, and very presumptuous. At least then we would have a solid platform to at least bridge the gaps between ourselves and other communities. Bear in mind I'm talking about not changing the games as they are, but trying to find ways in the lore to make them viable and if need be removing/adding lore or all together to fit the current games. This would also show others we are indeed willing of compromise vs. old school gamer curmudgeons zealously holding firm in our ways.

You would have a point if NMA was in a position to actually effect change. It very much isn't. In essence, NMA is now commonly considered the crazy person with a sign on a street corner, rather than any reputable voice.

And no, if the past discussions are evidence, neither you, nor many of the other posters are willing to compromise.

At least then we have a logical position to bring to other communities and Bethesda in an attempt to affect change. Otherwise we will have to put up with people like @Tagaziel simply shouting down logical debate with head canons and false logic. Plus being unified as a group would have a much greater impact than some angst driven threads.

Yeah, about that. "False logic" and "head canon" is not an argument. Especially not when you're refusing to give Bethesda even the slightest benefit of the doubt while gushing over Obsidian. Either have equal standards or you will remain in obscurity.

I think it's time we do something about the state of the game, and I hope that if we can at least come together as a group we may actually be able to do so.

There's nothing you can do. There's nothing NMA can do beyond serving an incredibly narrow slice of the fanbase that will grow ever narrower over time. Ask yourself why I'm the only one of the old staff even bothering to talk to anyone here.

The perks that just pile on more damage to the point where you again do double damage and stuff are also just boring.

That's because they're skiiiill equivalent. Which actually highlights one of the major shortcomings of SPECIAL: Skills are boring. Hell, that's a constant in Per's walkthrough too.

 

[Einhanderc7]

"Dissenting opinions". What next, you're going to go Gandhi and start a hunger strike over a game series?

The problem is that it's not a well-constructed essay, but a retread of points that have been repeated on these forums for ten years. They do not matter.



You would have a point if NMA was in a position to actually effect change. It very much isn't. In essence, NMA is now commonly considered the crazy person with a sign on a street corner, rather than any reputable voice.

And no, if the past discussions are evidence, neither you, nor many of the other posters are willing to compromise.



Yeah, about that. "False logic" and "head canon" is not an argument. Especially not when you're refusing to give Bethesda even the slightest benefit of the doubt while gushing over Obsidian. Either have equal standards or you will remain in obscurity.



There's nothing you can do. There's nothing NMA can do beyond serving an incredibly narrow slice of the fanbase that will grow ever narrower over time. Ask yourself why I'm the only one of the old staff even bothering to talk to anyone here.



That's because they're skiiiill equivalent. Which actually highlights one of the major shortcomings of SPECIAL: Skills are boring. Hell, that's a constant in Per's walkthrough too.

I completely agree that from our position here at NMA that we have no chance to affect any change in the Franchise. However I still think it is wise to at least make the suggestion instead of doing nothing about something that is in obvious conflict.

When I bring up False Logic and head cannon, well I stand by that point. I honestly can't sympathize with your position nor can I find instances were most of it makes any coherent sense. I say this because the points that are constantly used as reference material and your sources have contradicted your position most of the time. It's like you didn't actually expect someone to actually take the time to read the material you cited.

Another point I wish to impress upon you is the fact that you are overtly ignoring the scope of the change in game play from the original titles. I understand that there are a great many individuals out there pleased with a mind numbing experience to casually play without actually having to use their creative thinking skills. But I think it is reasonable to assume that the other fans of the originals are much like myself in how they want to actually be able to think about their character, rather than play the linear path given to us by Bethesda.

In Fallout 3 the player character isn't actually the "main" character. The player character's father is because the entire plot structure revolves around their choices and not the players. In Fallout 4 there is no real RPG elements as Bethesda forced players to use a pre-made character stuck to a flat "perk" system that realistically prevents any actual specialization. Consider for a moment how flat the character skills are, they in no way directly impact game play, dialog, or the story. They act as nothing more than "buff" stats that improve the combat the player can experience. Now consider the previous titles as well NV, depending on how the player built their character their experience and impact of their choices had very interesting an unique outcomes. Dialog wasn't forced into an always "must have 4 dialog choices" and allowed a more organic flow. Also I would like to point out that the "sarcastic" option in the dialog in Fallout 4 is a option filler that defaults to yes.

I disagree that there isn't anything I can do, I can voice my position as well refuse to purchase future titles. While that impact is minimal to Bethesda, it is still a viable action. While NMA is indeed a small fan base, I can say with certainty that we are the most aware of the changes the IP has undergone as well still willing to voice our concerns of "betrayal" to the IP. I can understand that most individuals will simply accept defeat, but I don't personally feel Fallout deserves such a disservice. While the original games did have downsides and at times conflicting lore, they are as they have been great works in my opinion with a very dark and interesting story to tell. I would compare this kind of fandom to that of really enjoying a book, and suggesting others read it as well.

What I don't understand was that Fallout a fairly cerebral game with emphasis on player choice, creative thinking, and adult themes was completely altered into a admirable attempt at a first person shooter. The core game play mechanics were abandoned and the RPG elements streamlined out completely. I personally feel that I am justified to point out that the modern Fallout games completely lack Fallout game mechanics and themes. I also don't understand how recycling previous ideas such as bottle caps, super mutants, the Enclave, and Brotherhood of steel actually benefit the modern titles when they obviously detract from the story line. From what I can tell this was only done so to make the game "seem" fallout from a cosmetic position.

I'm also sure those of us at NMA feel a bit insulted by the simplification of the modern titles game play, stories, and themes for good reason. It's not to say that we are not accepting of change if done well, but we simply expect a better quality product vs. a game that overtly clones game mechanics from other popular titles. While I am unsure why that you @Tagaziel want to engage with us to "prove" that we are wrong, I can say that your position really holds no sway with us. Mostly because you refused to engage in actually productive discussion and often retort with "blanket statement you are wrong, here is a cited source that conflicts with my position, and whoo grow up man children Fallout 4 has graphics". Do you see why I don't take you seriously?

Please bear in mind my intention is not to insult nor devalue your opinion, and I welcome discussion. However you are obviously blinded by something that prevents a reasonable discussion from taking place. I understand completely that you greatly enjoy the new titles, and I personally think that is fantastic. But what we here at NMA have been discussing is how the games diverge in their writing, style, plots, characters, and lore. We wish to honor the effort of the original titles, we also are trying to find ways to honor the modern titles. But I must admit, to do so requires us to ignore a lot of information that I think I'm safe in saying that we all enjoyed from the originals.

This is why I wrote my open letter requesting Bethesda just Reboot the franchise completely. Because all of this bickering and debating is serving no purpose to anyone and is having damaging effects to the IP over all from a Fan position. When a money hungry developer makes a game, they do indeed look to the fan bases position on their efforts in an attempt to gauge how well the next title may sell. Anyone who thinks otherwise doesn't know much about the industry. Do people automatically assume game developers just make business decisions blind?

Also please take a moment to look at the dissenting opinions on a platform like Youtube, many of those well organized videos of criticism have a great many views. So before you @Tagaziel continue to debate and infer how "obviously" NMA has no influence or is "so completely wrong" I request you take a moment and actually consider your position. Because we here have taken the time to consider how the modern Fallout titles are of value, and found them lacking.

 

[Deleted member 93956]

And before he says "But he's clearly biased!" and without goodwill, here's another one

 

[Ben Soto]

Actually, Fallout 4 is remarkably stable now, at least for me.
Fallout 4 feels a bit "crispier" when it comes to movement and hit detection and so on, a bit more fluid (more like a proper shooter than the rather weird feeling of the previous titles), but the perks and legendary mods and legendary enemies completely fuck up everything. The removal of damage threshold and ammo types didn't help, either. The problem is that most of the weapons are more or less useless as soon as you find some more special weapons. Overseer's Guardian is completely overpowered and will rape everything in its path, and it makes every other weapon obsolete (unless you find it with the double damage enchantment). It even makes automatic weapons pointless because why waste ammo when you can one-shot-kill everything, anyway?
The perks that just pile on more damage to the point where you again do double damage and stuff are also just boring.
While Fallout 4 tries to bring in the ammo types by using magic receivers and mods, the whole system is just not really useful at all. It would have been great to have switchable ammo types and DT ratings and maybe even a button for single/auto fire (to go full STALKER combat, which was pretty damn good imo), but no, it's just bland.

Is it weird that the only alternate ammo types I ever really bothered with were ones like Over/Max Charge or the ones that had weird effects like explosive rounds, incendiary rounds or pulse rounds?

Anyways, I'm hoping that the next Fallout game will keep the actual improvements and the mods system, but ditch the bullet sponges, perks system and legendary enemies and bring back the leveling system, ammo types and DT system of New Vegas.

Oh, and I want another STALKER game. Call of Pripyat was so good.

 

[Deleted member 98605]

Hopefully once the modders do their magic

...legendary enemies...

Eh, those aren't *that* bad. NV had them, they felt like a challenge. At least allow us to trophy them or something, I guess. Everything else I agree with, though.

 

[Ben Soto]

Hopefully once the modders do their magic


Eh, those aren't *that* bad. NV had them, they felt like a challenge. At least allow us to trophy them or something, I guess. Everything else I agree with, though.

In NV, legendary enemies were total badasses. The absolutely toughest challenges the game had to offer. In 4, they're slightly tougher versions of existing enemies with no real reward for killing them except a dime a dozen legendary item.

 

[Kohno]

Far have we come from when Fallout still felt authentic and natural within it's own fiction. Deathclaws were deathclaws, hunting rifles were hunting rifles, raiders were raiders. Now we have bullshit prefixes before everything and it all sounds gamey and fabricated and stupid as fuck.

"Legendary" enemies and other weird prefixes, guns and armor with names and magic effects... Pfft. Who ever thought these were good ideas to do... Christ man...

 

[Hassknecht]

That's because they're skiiiill equivalent. Which actually highlights one of the major shortcomings of SPECIAL: Skills are boring. Hell, that's a constant in Per's walkthrough too.

hm. I don't find skills boring. And I don't actually mind the perks system in general, it can work well. It worked in Skyrim to some degree. But the way the perk tree is made up in Fallout 4 is just plain boring. I don't particularly like it when weapon damage is based on skill/perks, at least not when it's guns. It was somewhat ok-ish in Skyrim, because hitting someone with a sword tends to hurt more when you know what you're doing. A bullet doesn't care about your skill as long as it hits.
But the perks in Fallout 4 are all just linear and don't really do much. Would have been much better with some branching. I'm not married to skills and SPECIAL, but the way they did it was just boring and weird.
The skills/perks should affect aiming time/accuracy and reload time (yes, there's a perk for that one), not damage. But since they have level scaling which is mostly just making the enemy's health bar longer, more damage is what you need. Kinda sucks that they had to chuck all the end-game weapons and equipment in your face in the first hour, too.

 

[Tagaziel]

I completely agree that from our position here at NMA that we have no chance to affect any change in the Franchise. However I still think it is wise to at least make the suggestion instead of doing nothing about something that is in obvious conflict.

"Our position here at NMA", coming from a 2016 user. Yawn. It's funny how you instantly jump to othering me based on an opinion that dissents from what's accepted by the recent batch of users on NMA.

Bethesda won't listen to you because you don't offer a coherent argument and you made the point on the most irrelevant platform on the net.

hm. I don't find skills boring. And I don't actually mind the perks system in general, it can work well. It worked in Skyrim to some degree. But the way the perk tree is made up in Fallout 4 is just plain boring. I don't particularly like it when weapon damage is based on skill/perks, at least not when it's guns. It was somewhat ok-ish in Skyrim, because hitting someone with a sword tends to hurt more when you know what you're doing. A bullet doesn't care about your skill as long as it hits.
But the perks in Fallout 4 are all just linear and don't really do much. Would have been much better with some branching. I'm not married to skills and SPECIAL, but the way they did it was just boring and weird.
The skills/perks should affect aiming time/accuracy and reload time (yes, there's a perk for that one), not damage. But since they have level scaling which is mostly just making the enemy's health bar longer, more damage is what you need. Kinda sucks that they had to chuck all the end-game weapons and equipment in your face in the first hour, too.

I find the skills boring as they are not suited to the kind of gameplay Fallout was aiming for, courtesy of being based on GURPS. From what I reconstructed:

https://fallout.gamepedia.com/Vault_13:_A_GURPS_Post-Nuclear_Adventure#GURPS_implementation

Percentage-based skills were essentially a hack meant to replace the more granular, attribute-dependent skills and each point invested in them mattered. Instead, you just dump points in them to get to 100% and be done with it, especially with the lack of balance (tag Small Guns and you're a 100% pro after two levels, tag Speech and you're a 100% charismatic leader after another two, making you the generalist capable of taking anything the game throws at you).

That said, I don't mind the damage increase with skill or perks, since the effect of increasing the skill directly translated to dealing more damage (you miss less often, so your damage output increases). A bullet doesn't care, sure, but in this case you might as well excise the entire skill/perk system and call it a day, which is obviously not going to happen.

A branching system would be perfect (like the one in Witcher 2) and help guide development. The biggest flaw Fo4 has is that it lacks guidance and the perks are scattered all over the sheet instead of at least grouped together or provided with some sort of filter (eg. highlight weapon/crafting/power armor/misc. perks). I don't agree that they don't really do much, the unique abilities the weapon perks unlock are quite useful (eg. handgun disarming, which comes in quite handy).

(also, the game really shines on Survival, much like Fo4 shined only on Hardcore)

 

[Jogre]

Especially not when you're refusing to give Bethesda even the slightest benefit of the doubt while gushing over Obsidian. Either have equal standards or you will remain in obscurity.

Oh fuck off with this "Your holding Obsidian to a different standard" bullshit.

I've said this so many fucking times, but you are obviously too ignorant to listen.

WE ARE NOT HOLDING BETHESDA TO A DIFFERENT STANDARD TO OBSIDIAN.

You keep saying "Give Bethesda the benefit of the doubt", "Assume they had clever intentions", "How 'come your giving Obsidian the benefit of the doubt but not Bethesda", but here's a thought

WE DON'T NEED TO GIVE OBSIDIAN THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT. The writing is actually clever, the world actually feels like a living, breathing world, Caesar uses fucking Hegel as a justification for what he does, you can see constant speculation in the wasteland over Caesar's Legion and the NCR and there future. We don't need to give them the benefit of the doubt, because there is absolutely no doubt that they have thought this through.

Find me one example of when Fallout 4 took a real-world philosophical position/philosopher and put them in an unusual context, or the time they made a group of people who would otherwise be morally abhorrent the lesser of two evils, or an example of Bethesda making it so the various settlements/tribes/whatever of the wasteland have even the most basic level of interaction with each other. Hell, find me an example of writing in Fallout 4 which doesn't rely entirely on worn out cliches.

Your arguments for Fallout 4 essentially rely on us assuming Bethesda had clever motives. We can see that Obsidian have clever motives by there writing.

If we held Bethesda to equal standards as we held Obsidian, Bethesda wouldn't stand a fucking chance.

That's because they're skiiiill equivalent. Which actually highlights one of the major shortcomings of SPECIAL: Skills are boring. Hell, that's a constant in Per's walkthrough too.

If Perks are skill equivalent, please point out all the times in Fallout 4 when you could use perks in dialogue, or perks in non-combat situations, or perks to interact with the world.

OH WAIT YOU CAN'T.

Perks, if handled right could have been a good change, but nope, instead we got Static Combat Bonuses, and the few that aren't static combat bonuses are either standardised ways of dealing with creatures or crafting.

I don't agree that they don't really do much, the unique abilities the weapon perks unlock are quite useful (eg. handgun disarming, which comes in quite handy).

"Hey guiz, this perk lets me do kewl shit with my weapon"

Oh my god, you really are a moron aren't you. How has the great Tagaziel sunk so low that he's justifying perks being interesting because they give you special combat moves.

Versus skills which lets you repair a water pump to stop a city from dying of dehydration, or allows you to pass a quest easier because your knowledge of science helps you figure out an alternative way round, or correct a guy with incorrect information about guns and "deathjaws"

If we compare perks to skills in previous games, or even to perks in New Vegas(Reminder that Intimidating Presence, Lady Killer, Black Widow, Confirmed Bachelor, Cherchez La Femme, and even Sneering Imperialist individually have more out-of-combat use then every perk in Fallout 4 combined) , they are the most boring shit to ever be pushed out of Bethesda's rectum.

 

[Cobra Commander]

Yeah, I always found it strange that I never used my intimidation perk in dialogue. Not that I remember.

All, ALL the dialogues were only affected by charisma. I may be wrong though.

 

[CerberusGate]

All, ALL the dialogues were only affected by charisma. I may be wrong though.

IIRC all dialogue was handled by Charisma. Though Intimidation IIRC was used to pacify hostile targets in combat rather than be used in conversation in-game.

The best way to guarantee Speech successes in FO4 IIRC was to max out Charisma first and even then, you could save-scum to reproduce the same results since Speech in FO4 was percentage-based again (except unlike 3, you couldn't even see the percentages - the only clue you have was color).

Of course, focusing on Charisma like I did leads to problems in the immediate future like using up perk points that could be used for other things like lock-picking or some other perk (like water breathing). This wouldn't be an issue if not for the removal of the skill system that handled things like lock picking prior to FO4.

 

[Deleted member 93956]

Oh my god, you really are a moron aren't you. How has the great Tagaziel sunk so low that he's justifying perks being interesting because they give you special combat moves.

I think Far Cry wants its system back, thank you very much. Or Dishonored. Or games that use their leveling/upgrade system to effect beyond flat or percentage bonuses.

Oh, and Survival mode is shit. It's tagged on and breaks completely when you get access to a single settlement. The game isn't designed with it in mind, unlike NV's Hardcore mode.

 

[Hassknecht]

Perks for special combat moves are fine. It's kinda what perks should be. But attaching damage increments to them is... Meh.

That said, I don't mind the damage increase with skill or perks, since the effect of increasing the skill directly translated to dealing more damage (you miss less often, so your damage output increases). A bullet doesn't care, sure, but in this case you might as well excise the entire skill/perk system and call it a day, which is obviously not going to happen.

Well that's just bollocks. The damage per bullet increases, period. It's what the game does and shows explicitly. Why go all convoluted like that when your skill can actually translate directly to your chance of hitting your target? You have weapon sway, muzzle climb, aiming time, weapon spread, all stuff that DIRECTLY and actually affects your chance to hit and which makes sense to tie to your skill? No need for some sort of convoluted headcanon explanation that explicitly disagrees with what the game shows. The bullet doesn't care about your skill, but you need skill to point the gun in the correct direction and keep it there.
But that would require more balancing. It wouldn't allow for limitlessly scaling enemies and shoving every end-game weapon and armor in your inventory right at the start. Missing a lot in the beginning isn't fun for the shooter crowd, and it would require the game to maybe throw fewer enemies at you. What's next, having actual quest design where you don't have to mass-murder your way through thousands of enemies right from the start? Perish the thought.
A perk system instead of a skill system isn't bad per se. But it is badly implemented in Fallout 4, and it is, in my opinion, a sign of laziness. With a little more thought it could have worked quite well, but then again, that's basically true for every aspect of Fallout 4.

 

[Jogre]

Perks for special combat moves are fine. It's kinda what perks should be. But attaching damage increments to them is... Meh.

It's kinda what perks should be, in a system with both perks and skills.

Perks in Fallout 4 are supposed to account for both, meaning they are naturally disappointing on both ends.

If it's a choice for multiple dialogue/special ways to overcome quests/ect. or a special combat move, the former wins any day of the week.

 

[Hassknecht]

I think you can do it purely based on perks just as well, at least in an FPS-like environment.
Have a perk-tree with different branches, and have perks that increase different aspects of your accuracy as well as perks that give you special moves. That way you can even specialise your character for one-handed, two-handed, automatic, single-shot, whatever. A sniper doesn't much care about weapon sway on the move but requires a steady aim when firing from sights and wants to stabilise quickly after each shot, a minigunner doesn't care about pinpoint accuracy, but would probably like to be able to continuously fire without too much muzzle climb and preferably on the move.
A handgunner can get a special perk that allows you to easily shoot an enemy's gun from their hands, stuff like that. It can work, but I feel like Bethesda honestly doesn't really care enough to make it work, especially since their fans don't care too much, either.

 

[Kohno]

This is all a pointless hindsight, of course, but I had these kinds of ideas years ago in the bethboards. I tried to push them hard with longiwnded and detailed posts, but of course to no avail.

I think the best course of action - in case of the skillsystem being overhauled anyway - would've been to condense the skills from 1/100 to 1/10 (or 20), and keep perks and traits and stats as they originally were (aside from affecting skill levels). Every fourth skill level would be more expensive than before (e.g. 1-3 is 5sp, 4-6 is 10, 7-9 is 15 and 10 is 20, or something to that effect) and at halfpoint the skill would branch out into two or three subsets of the original skill (E.g. guns into rifle grip and pistol grip, or single shot and burst; medical into doctor and first aid; and so forth), and the gun skills specifically affecting accuracy, you get the idea. The gist was to make the whole gameplay more systemic and increase the efficiency of the skillsystem. There was an essays worth of details on the how's and why's of gameplay, combat and skill use. I kinda wish I still had that batch of text somewhere; if for nothing else than to laugh at the younger me for being the sort of optimist to go through all the trouble of writing it (as if it was ever going to do any good to anyone).

 

[Hassknecht]

I do also like the way TES leveling and skill improvement works. Increasing your skill by using those things feels quite natural to me. For all its simplicity and removing so much from the previous games, Skyrim's system of branching perks worked out quite well. Mods helped, though.

 

[Kohno]

Holy mother of cunts, I found it.

Needless to say all that's out of time and not really well thought out (I probably wouldn't suggest any of that as it is there anymore, but it is interesting to see what kind of train of thought there was back then for "fixing" the situation), but the late 20's me still had enough optimism and energy to try and figure shit out and put it in text, New Vegas had just arrived afterall, "maybe there's still hope in the horizon".

Spoiler: Welcome back to 2009-11, lots of stupid and useless

Some of these things should, imo, be considered and searched for possibilities from while making the game and designing the gameplay:


Short version (just bullet points) :

Spoiler

General gameplay:

- More direct skill and stat uses on items, environment and NPC's (healing, repairing, examining, entering worldmap, etc) -- with a supportive interface in the vein of old school RPG's and adventure games.

- No level scaling; or, at most, an adjusting scaling where easy fights do not disappear when the more challenging ones appear.

- More frugal skillpoint economy and higher gaps between levels to make it slower.

- Upwards scaling skillpoint costs for mid and high level increments.

- Wold map and nodes large enough to support exploration (+classic map travel).

- Grid inventory (with both weight and space limits).

- One page character sheet.

- PDA pipboy.

- No compass markers for quests, no compass markers for locations, no compass markers for enemies.

- More comprehensive quest descriptions and mapmarkers for general quest areas (toggleable if possible), let the player find things out him self but don't leave him in the dark without any hints.

- Minimap with perception based (including distance) detection of close by NPC's or critters (also, perception/perk/trait based color codes for disposition).

- Less aggressive wilderness AI. Combat is generally where you want it (not always, but often).

Timed dynamic quests:

- Quests that have timelimits; but instead of said timelimit causing pure failure, it would open up new possibilities (where appropriate, sometimes a pure failure is called for).

Lockpicking, repairing, hacking, manual healing:

- A skillcheck with a timebar (not a "timelimit" but how long the attempt takes for the character based on skill versus task difficulty).

- No pausing the world. Everything happens in realtime, so you can get interrupted.

- No minigames.

Gunplay and VATS:

- Skills for projectile weapons greatly (!!!) affect accuracy (spread, sway), recoil control (each bullet fired throwing the aim off the target, and increasing spread), and general handling (reloads, holstering, unholstering, etc).

- Static bullet damage ranges regardless of skill, and generally higher damage output across the board.

- Melee/HtH skills affect attackspeed and damage.

- Critical failures.

- Close proximity penalties for firearms in.

- Less loot and supplies.

- Action points into combat resource; every action aside from moving eats up AP (shooting, reloading, opening inventory, doing stuff in inventory, quick key use.....).

- Focus on less frequent and less "run'n gun", but more slow paced, tactical, challenging and character driven combat.

- Categorized craftable and modifiable weapons with tangible upsides and downsides.

Healing and drugs:

- Tolerance meter for drugs and medication with severe OD effects.

- Maual healing (made viable and needed through less available provisions) - a skillcheck with a possibility to fail and critically fail to cause more damage.

- Animated stimuse to prevent spamming -- or, heal overtime.

Skillsystems:

- Retaining the premise, greatly upping the effects (skills and stats being more of requirements than recommendations as they are now), but revising the workings to better suit the current style of gameplay.

Long version (with more details) :


General gameplay suggestions (again -- but updated):

Spoiler

Here's some of my ideas on along which lines I would like some aspects of Fallout 4 to be made (I posted this before Fallout: New Vegas was even annouced, and several times again since then, but made some changes so I'm not just reposting the same thing over and over again). Whether or not all the following would actually work in the game, is beyond me as I'm not a game designer, but at least to me it sounds decent on paper for altering the current form of FPS gameplay.
The WALL OF TEXT:

A minimenu:

There would be a minimenusystem that would trigger various functions needed during the gameplay. Pressing (for example) the mousewheel would open a dropdown menu (somewhat similiar to Fallout 1 and Fallout 2) beside the cursor that would present commands like Enter Worldmap, Heal, Heal Other, Repair, Rest/Wait etc. If well implemented, this could potentially offer a greater gameplay diversity through bigger possibilities for direct skilluses in several situations. Available commands would be highlighted and colorcoded for difficulty and non-available would be greyed out.

Example:

Point at a locked chest; click mousewheel; available commands drop down:

Examine (PER 5)
Pick Lock (54%)
Bash (27%)
Open (Locked)
Lock (--)
Repair (--)
-------------------
World Map
Heal
...


General gameplay:

The general gameplay would be quite similiar to F3 and F:NV. You roam around the wastes doing quests and exploring. But combat would be less frequent unless the player decides otherwise - in other words, you could pick some of your random fights. (Though I'd very, very much prefer it, I'm not suggesting ISO/TB gameplay, since I don't believe for a second that Beth would implement it no matter what. [:dry:] )

This could partly be handled through wildlife AI, which would be set less aggressive in general. An aggression stat would be implemented which would vary from species to species - from completely neutral (only defensive combat) to total aggression (hostility almost immediately). The animals would have their own immediate surroundings, or personal spaces, somewhat like in Risen and Gothic series, and partly in F:NV. Get too close and you get a warning sign from the critter giving you time to get out of their space, linger and be chased off (or be attacked, if you don't flee). The radius of the space and the time you are tolerated in it would depend on the critter.

The mainquest would be scaled to a certain degree through chaptering it (not visibly, as in presenting a loadscreen: Chapter 1: In which you slither out from the vaginal cavity and learn the first lessons of life, but through certain major events through the main quest). And after those, the game would replaces some of the lower level enemies with higher level ones in the MQ areas - defeating which (if not gettin past by other means) would require you to level up some more. Or through a nonlinear levelscalingsystem where, for example, when one starts the game at level one, the enemies in the levelscaled zones would range from 1 to 10, and after one hits somewhere between levels 12 to 15 (which ever works the best) some of the lower level creatures scale up to about level 18 to 25 (but not all, to not make the world appearing to spin around the player too much). This would offer both, challenge and sense of progression to the player, as one becomes better than the current enemies before they scale up again.

There wouldn't be any quest- or enemycompasses, but there would be (toggleable, perhaps) minimap in which you could see the living beings in immediate vicinity. Perception would determine the range in which you see things, and with a perk (with appropriate requirements - outdoorsman and perception, for example) you could tell the difference between friendly (green dot), neutral (yellow dot) and hostile (red dot) targets.

The questcompass would be replaced by mere markers on the map which would point towards a general area instead of the exact target. And with that, the quest descriptions would be more accurate.

The wrist pipboy would be scrapped and replaced by a more handheld PDI like contraption, which would offer a more userfriendly inventorysystem (something like mix of what Morrowind or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. had, for example) with less scrolling while still holding the tabs to sort items by their nature, a one page charactersheet much akin to the original games -- no more tabs behind tabs behind tabs. All actions during combat but shooting and moving would cost action points (opening inventory, using items inside it, using quick keys, etc) - more on this later.

Skillcap would remain at 100, but the cost to raise them would rise as follows: 1-50 1:1, 51-75 2:1, 76-100 3:1, the point being, the better you get the more difficult it is to get even better - this would make a maxed skill equal to skillcap of 175 - and I think it'd be easier to utilize the full scale of the skill, if it caps at 100 (instead of having skills cap at 200 or 300). Also, the gaps between levels would be raised:

How it is now (first number is the level, the second XP needed to reach the level from previous point, the third is total amount of XP needed to reach that level):

Spoiler

z=n+(y+150)
z=xp for next lvl
n=xp 'til prev lvl
y=previous xp raise

2 - 200 - 200
3 - 350 - 550
4 - 500 - 1,050
5 - 650 - 1,700
6 - 800 - 2,500
7 - 950 - 3,450
8 - 1100 - 4,550
9 - 1250 - 5,800
10 - 1400 - 7,200
11 - 1550 - 8,750
12 - 1700 - 10,450
13 - 1850 - 12,300
14 - 2000 - 14,300
15 - 2150 - 16,450
16 - 2300 - 18,750
17 - 2450 - 21,200
18 - 2600 - 23,800
19 - 2750 - 26,550
20 - 2900 - 29,450
21 - 3050 - 32,500
22 - 3200 - 35,700
23 - 3350 - 39,050
24 - 3500 - 42,550
25 - 3650 - 46,200
26 - 3800 - 50,000
27 - 3950 - 53,950
28 - 4100 - 58,050
29 - 4250 - 62,300
30 - 4400 - 66,700

How it should be (first number is the level, the second XP needed to reach the level from previous point, the third is total amount of XP needed to reach that level) for example:

Spoiler

z=n+(y+200)
z=xp for next lvl
n=xp 'til prev lvl
y=previous xp raise

2 - 200 - 200
3 - 400 - 600
4 - 600 - 1,200
5 - 800 - 2,000
6 - 1000 - 3,000
7 - 1200 - 4,200
8 - 1400 - 5,600
9 - 1600 - 7,200
10 - 1800 - 9,000
11 - 2000 - 11,000
12 - 2200 - 13,200
13 - 2400 - 15,600
14 - 2600 - 18,200
15 - 2800 - 21,000
16 - 3000 - 24,000
17 - 3200 - 27,200
18 - 3400 - 30,600
19 - 3600 - 34,200
20 - 3800 - 38,000
21 - 4000 - 42,000
22 - 4200 - 46,200
23 - 4400 - 50,600
24 - 4600 - 55,200
25 - 4800 - 60,000
26 - 5000 - 65,000
27 - 5200 - 70,200
28 - 5400 - 75,400
29 - 5600 - 81,000
30 - 5800 - 86,800
31 - 6000 - 92,800
...and so on up to, say 50The formula I made may not be correct, but the point remains.

Timed, dynamic quests:

Spoiler

For the larger events, and where appropriate otherwise, the game would take time into account. Not to push for failure (except for where it's appropriate), but for altering the conditions of the quest. Like postponing a quest (which is narrated as "urgent") enough, and the conditions to solving it get harder.

Simple example (somewhat paraphrasing the Goodsprings versus Powder Gangers situation):

You get a mission from a village mayor to scout some raiders and find out why they've been appearing so active lately. You obtain info about an upcoming raid on the village you got the mission from "in two or so weeks". You neglect it and go about your business for a while. Then you decide to finish the quest and deliver the info, but upon arrival, you notice that the raiders have seized the village, killed most of the denizens and captured the rest. Two options from there on to solve the quest (1) Take on the raiders and free the captives, or (2) Strike a deal with the raiders and recieve an additional questphase.

Had you delivered the intel in time, the village would've prepared and fought the raiders off with (or without) your further help. Or they could've tasked you to take care of them; eg. you find out that they dwell in an abandoned mineshaft. You could go in gunz blaizin', or you could - with sufficient skill and tools - blow up the entrance and seal the raiders in.

These events would be there to point out that the world doesn't revolve around the player and that neglecting given responsibilities has consequences.

Map and Travelling:

Spoiler

A return to the classic worldmap system (with some tweaks to make it look more... erm, "modern"). The actual FPP/TPP playground area would be roughly about 2x or 3x the size of Fallout New Vegas; and the area is divided into 5-7 (or so) hubs scattered in the worldmap which vary in size and content. General gameplay in those would be about the same as in F3 and F:NV, run around and do local quests and explore.

When you enter the node you could spawn at any "formidable" (as in settlementlike in size) location you've already found. The first time entering a node you would spawn at the side of the map on special spawnpoint for that purpose (which could be used later on too, of course).

Outdoorsmanskill is reintroduced (or merged within the Survival skill) and works similiarly to Fallout 1&2 with the difference that nonhostile encounters are always avoidable should the player so decide (to decrease the amount of loadscreens).

The worldmap itself is zoned in couple of ways:
- The farther away from the starting position, the harder the enemies and vice versa; but there is still a (small) chance to encounter harder enemies on starting grounds and vice versa, based on outdoorsmanskill, luck and placement of the zone (but still keeping the MQ areas within reasonable range of enemies).
- The map is zoned into territories, which each have their set of unique enemies as well as a few commonones that can be found on every zone.

Each zone has about 5-7 small maps for random/special encounters, which are either hostile or nonhostile, and are based on the topography of the location in the worldmap and the contents of the encouters would be based on the zone in which it occurs.

The visitable locations on map would be as follows: A settlement - with explorable wasteland around it to provide smaller sidequest and exploring. Or just a visitable location like a majorsized building, militarybase, factory etc. They could even include two settlements, but in general all towns would be much bigger than those in Fallout 3 or New Vegas.

Each settlement has its own set of architecture (not too different from other settlements, but so that one can tell the difference), general theme and mindsets. These are small things, but they would add a lot of variety to the game.

Entering worldmap from a node would happen through the edges of the map. In Fallout 3, when you bumb to an edge of the map, you get a popup message that says: "you cannot go further that way" - now it would be like this: "e) enter worldmap".

To not have to always run to the edge of a map, you could use the minimenu command "Enter Worldmap", which could not be used indoors, during combat or if there are enemies nearby. However, escaping combat through the edge of the map would be possible.

Fasttravel through world map would offer options for pacing (could be enabled by a perk, or be an ability from the get go). Such as "Cautious", "Casual", and "Rushing". Where "Casual" would be the normal travelspeed with no bonuses or hits, "Cautious" a much slower, but with giving a bonus to outdoorsman in determining avoidance of an encounter, and "Rushing" much faster, but with giving a hit to outdoorsman. There would also be related quests, solving which could be easier by utilizing this system (to make it have a bigger point).

Repairing:

Spoiler

Repairing happens either with repairkits, by gunsmiths in towns/caravans, or by a duplicate.

The kits would repair a fixed and relatively large amount of CND and have limited amount of succesful uses (and would offer a small bonus to the skill and crit. failure) each, but they would be expensive to buy, weight a somewhat hefty amount and would also be weakened and eventually broken by a certain amount of critical failures and general wear. Gunsmiths and repairmen would be very expensive but would get the job done no matter what. A duplicate would repair a small amount of CND (with no bonuses or hits to skill or crit. chance) so that you'd have to weigh the benefit of losing the weapons monetary value against the increase in CND (at least at early stages of the game).

Success in repairing is dependant on repairskill (a diceroll happens, dreadful I know). And the repairing takes a certain amount of time (few seconds) depending on the chance of success.

One would now be able to repair guns and armor beyond his/her skill but the further above the skill they go the harder they would get to repair. The math is irrelevant (as long as it complements the premise), but here's a quick idea on how it could go:

After the guns/armors condition is above the skill, the amount going above is turned into percentages that is taken away from the skill. IE: skill = 30 and rifles condition = 80. Condition - skill = 50. 50% of skill (30) is 15. So trying to repair a weapon in condition of 80 with a repairskill of 30 would give a chance of success of 15%. This is not necesserely realistic, but it is assuming that the more shiny the condition gets, the more difficult (but not impossible) it would be to repair it further.

Guns and armor would also have a chance for a critical failure if an attempt to repair fails. Critical failure, instead of repairing the gun, has a reverse effect. The chance would be from 1% to 10% (depending on the weapon) if a trait or a perk doesn't raise/lower it.

The increased hardship of repairing would be compensated via much slower degredation rate (based on the weapon, of course), though the effects of CND (jamming during firing, reloading disorders, rate of fire, damage, buying/selling values) would also be much bigger and more frequent.

There would also be a possibility to repair broken robots or computers or what ever there is to repair, by pointing the target opening minimenu and selecting repair.

Also, while repairing would work much like explained above (the 1-100 CND scale would remain in the background to provide for it but all effects would be tied to the 20% thresholds - when attempting to repair, you'd see the successrate according to how the 1-100 scale behind the screen), the visible item health would be changed to 1-5 scale, to offer more robust effects.

The weapon health would be changed from being a 1-100 scale to 1-5 scale and give each rank more profound effects on the weapon, additionally I'd hide the item health-o-meter and add a title in front of the item name so that one never knows exactly where their weapon health goes.

Example:

- Well Maintained Assault rifle or Fine Assault Rilfe (CND 5; well maintained bonus: accuracy +5%, no disorders, -5% from critical failure chance))
-> Assault rifle (CND 4; assault rifle at its default condition, no extra bonuses, but 5% chance of jam)
-> Dirty assault rifle (CND 3; -5% to accuracy, -10% to rate of fire, 15% chance of jam, 10% higher chance of "critical failure")
-> Worn Assault rifle (CND 2; -10% to accuracy, -10% to rate of fire, 20% chance of jam, 15% critical failure chance)
-> Crummy Assault rifle (CND 1; -20% to accuracy, -15% to rate of fire, 25% chance of jamming, 20% chance of critical failure)
-> Broken Assault rifle (CND 0; no shooting with this piece of [censored] anymore, no repairing it either, skilled weaponsmith NPC's could repair it at a cost up to CND 2 for the same price they usually take from full repair from 1 to 5, or offer a few caps from the spare parts)

With each rank, while going downwards, requiring varying degrees of usage. And Repairing (success and amount of repair (from half a rank to 1 rank) would happen through skillchance affected by certain factors (Gun cnd, duplicate cnd, repairkit, skill level, etc). CND 5 would be a high skill privilege reachable by no lower than 80 in repair.

I would boost all the negative effects and make them count much higher in combat.

Additionally I would add cleaning kits to add a slight timed bonuses to the weapons (-> Clean worn assault rifle: cleaned bonus +5% accuracy, +5% rate of fire, -10% jamming, for example).

With Melee and armed HtH the effects would consist of damage reduction, and higher critical failure rate (which would break the weapon).
With Armors the effects would consist of lowered DT and DR and lowered "social status" (when going on in really crummy gear, people initially think your a vagran or a bum just loitering around).

Healing & drugs:

Spoiler

Stimpak usage would be animated, so no more smashing a quick key for dozens of stims in few seconds (I like this method more than the concept of heal overtime from HC-mode of F:NV). The speed of the animation would be dependant of the related skill (doctor). More over stims now would always heal the same amount (no skill effect in there), and they would come in two variations: stimpaks and superstimpaks. Both of which would be rare and expensive (so that you cannot live off of them, but also have to rely on other methods of healing) and superstims much more so than ordinary stims.

The player would have a tolerance meter which would measure how much the player can medicate himself before overdosing. Overdosing would cause an instant loss of health according to how much the limit is surpassed and would also cause some visual distortions and statloss. The effect would last for a while and the time would be depending on endurance and doctor skill (and perks/traits that would modify it). The tolerance meter slowly lowers itself after the medication is done, and the magnitude it is filled is dependant on the drug used (powerful drugs - like Jet and superstims for example - obviously fill it more quickly), related skill and perks/traits modifying it. Using food as a healer would not affect the tolerance meter, but food would have a heal-over-time effect.

Doctorskill would be reintroduced and so would manual healing. Manual healing would be similiar to Fallout 1 & 2 (only a few uses/24hours - they would take few in-game hours to be completed - success is determined by skill), and couldn't be used in combat or when enemies are nearby. Healing cripples wouldn't be possible with stims or sleeping, but would require manual healing and the ability to heal cripples would be dependant of the doctorskill and the skillrequirements of the crippled bodypart (head and torso would be harder to treat than legs and hands), otherwise a doctor is a must see.

Manual healing would be entered by the minimenu, which would also have the "heal other" option to heal a companion or other alive being in need of assistance.

Healing through sleeping would work similiarly to Fallout 1 & 2.

Addiction would need a doctor or a certain amount (pretty long) of time to heal. Radiation poisoning needs a doctor or radaway (which would be rare and expensive).

Gunplay & VATS (should it be implemented):

Spoiler

Gunskills would now have much heavier effect on waivering and general accuracy than what it is in F3 or New Vegas, utilizing the skill and STR requirement system from New Vegas (but more heavyhandedly). In addition, the players stance, movement, weapons type and recoil also would affect it.

The normal (according to skill) situation would be standing still and aiming through iron sights (firing from hip would give a large hit on accuracy). Crouching would give a small bonus to accuracy and going prone would give a slightly bigger bonus (with the bonus from aiming coming on top of that). The tradeoff with going prone and being accurate would be extremely slow moving and turning, and it would take its time for the player to get up and ready the weapon again. Firing from the hip would cause bigger spread. Movement would also give a hit to accuracy -- the faster you move, the bigger the waivering with ironsights and spread with hipfiring. Recoil would work dynamically based on the gun used, and would throw the aim off a bit with each shot (while bursting, the amount of recoil per shot would stack up eventually leading to firing straight up -- with hipfire, the "offaim" would be a bit smaller, but the spread would increase).

Guns would do generally more damage and the damagestats would be ranges. IE: Huntingrifle - dmg 11-20, like in Fallout 1&2, but with growth of related skill raising the minimum amount closer to the maximum (though not as far as up to having a static damage, there would always be some range left).

The combat overall would go through a total overhaul. No more run 'n gun FPS bullsh*t but more slowpaced, focused and tactical. A RTwP/TB (optable) setup with full control over the player character and partymembers would be nice. But of course that ain't gonna happen since nothing but horrid FPS twitching is viable way of gaming anymore.

So instead, actionpoints would count in combat.

A simple example:

Lesser cost rate:
Shooting (very low cost) - shooting with not enough AP's left would give a hefty penalty to accuracy and recoil control
Reload (low cost) - reloading with not enough AP's left would triple the time it takes to reload and increase the chances for reload failure

Moderate cost rate:
Using quick keys (cost rate depending on what's being done, changing a weapon (moderate cost), using stims (higher moderate cost), changing ammunition (high moderate cost due to including reloading)) - with not enough AP's, quick keys won't work, no stimspamming or changing weapons, tough luck.

High cost:
Inventory access - with not enough AP's, inventory access is denied, run for cover and wait for the AP's to refill.
Using items inside inventory - if AP's run out during doing something in the inventory, you can still browse and assign quick keys, but after that only action allowed is to exit inventory.

Additionally, no AP's left would increase running speed for... say.... oh well, for examples sake, 20% to provide chances to get to cover while AP's recharge.

And AP's would recharge much slower while moving and at normal rate while being still.

All that only during combat (and during shooting/whacking thin air when not in combat for the lesser cost actions).

Consider AP's in the lesser cost section as representing exhaustion.
And in the moderate and high cost sections as representing mental strength, situtional loss of focus, a panic of sorts leading to indesicion and inability to operate properly.

NPC's would also have their own AP's which would dictate their performance (a bit differently than the PC, since NPC's don't use quick keys or the sort).

In vats you would now have an option to choose a firing mode. Rapid fire - a hastily aimed rapid shooting towards the target; or aimed shots, which would be the opposite of rapid fire.

Rapid fire would lower the accuracy a bit and you could only target a foe as a whole; but it would spend less actionpoints, while aimed shots would cost more and calculate the accuracy without minuses, and you would be able to target specific body parts. The bonuses and hits of chosen stance would be similiar to those in realtime firing.

Being prone in vats would force you to choose a firing sector (so that the player doesn't spin like a dreidel in all directions while being the most accurate he can). Prone position would also be the most expensive stance to fire from, while standing would be the cheapest, and being crouched in the middle. The player would be able to change his preferred stance in VATS, but at a cost.

About craftable weapons... I once toyed around with an idea where there was to be 3 categories of weapons based on their craftmanship. I can't quite recall all the specifics, but the general idea was to have:

Category 1: Post war selfmade weaponry (craftable, high damage output, cheap and easy to repair, high availability, high modability, fairly cheap -- but, non reliable (prone to jam and reload disorders regardless of CND), low accuracy, fast deterioration rate (constant need of repairing)).
Category 2: Pre war Home defense weaponry (more reliable, more accurate, lesser deterioration rate -- but, less damage output, more expensive, less available, moderately harder to repair, non-craftable and less modable).
Category 3: Pre war military grade weaponry (Very high damage output, very high accuracy, very high reliability -- but, extremely expensive and rare, barely modable, non-craftable, very hard to repair).

Something along those lines, and with each category having 1-3 (max) base weapons for each type of weapon (pistols, SMG's, rifles, assault rifles, machineguns, shotguns etc). You'd that way have an entire category of highly modable weapons to craft from scratch and alternatives which have their ups and downs over that category. Weaponcrafting could be handled through related skillthresholds (what ever the skillsetup for that sort of crafting would be).

Close combat penalties for firearms (especially heavy and long arms).

- In face to face combat where the other side is toting a firearm, a chance (manual triggering for the player, but chance based success) for the NPC to perform defensive move and shove the players gun and facing off and slightly stagger the player (and possibly then deliver a more damaging blow/s). This to remove the horrendous way it is now where... you know how it is, and possibly slightly improve closecombat.

Also, damage bonus for melee/HtH enemies (animals included) that come in numbers (overwhelm the player). One guy with a knife or one gecko might seem harmless to your assault rifle toting combatarmor wearing character, but if there are three or more, you better dispatch them before they reach you or you are in serious trouble no matter what armor you wear (if the DT eats all the damage, turn it into fatigue damage that'll eventually collapse the PC after which the foes start to pummel the "weak spots" in the armor and health starts to drop).

Generally, turn up the damage done by weapons -- the previous situation might seem that it puts a melee oriented PC in a rougher than needed position, but if you are skilled enough, and if the damage values are higher, you may be able to drop one or two before they get to overwhelm you (if you see a group or powerarmored melee units, though, you might want to reconsider attacking them with melee yourself unless you are absolutely skilled and geared enough).
In addition, projectile weapon skills affecting accuracy, not damage (except for - possibly - higher critical dmg multipliers). And locational armor DT values (head, torso, feet, hands).
Enemies and the PC are generally more easily taken down by weapons (no more people eating 30 bullets or 50 stabs and still coming on strong), but only if you know how to use them.

Alernatively - for VATS - it could remain functionally almost as it is, but it would be made a separate phase based combat mode altogether (at players choice) where you would queu up actions and execute them as you do now, but instead of the game hopping back in realtime, it remains in phasebased mode and the enemies would get their actions through the execution phase based on their own set of action points - kinda like how combat in Wizardry 8 and, to a lesser extent, Wasteland works. This would allow for more precise and accurate control of the possible companions too than what we see in the games now.

Lockpicking:

Spoiler

Success is determined by skill so that you can try to pick any lock from very easy to very hard; and NO minigame involved. It would work somewhat like repairing; lock level - skill (if the skill is under the lock level) = percentual number that is taken from the skill. If the skill surpasses lock level, the chances are purely skillbased with maximum chance of success being 95% (this, the max chance, would go for every chance based system). And the percentual chance would be presented when moving the reticle over the locked object: E) Pick lock [Very hard: 13%], for example.

Lockpicking would be animated so that you either see your characters hands doing the job (FP view) or seeing your character from behind (TP view). You would have the ability to turn your head (or the camera) some ways left and right to see if someone is coming - so the game doesn't pause during the picking. But looking away from what you're doing, would have an effect (see below).

Picking locks would take a certain amount of time depending on your skill and level of the lock (aka the chance of success). When attempting, there would be a timebar similiar to what Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines had. Skill would give bonuses to the time it takes to pick a lock in such manner that you don't get bonuses to picking hard locks before your skill surpasses maximum level of normal locks. More over, the bonuses would stop stacking up after your skill surpasses the next level of difficulty (no bonuses to picking normal locks after skill level of 75, for example, depicting that there is no way to open that kind of lock any better - other than with a fluke).

Each lock would have a certain amount of tries before (if you keep failing) the lock jams for a certain amount of time (preferably at least a couple of weeks, so that your attempts at just waiting at the lock for it to unjam would be a tedious job and prevent exploitation of the system). Moreover locks would have a chance for a critical failure that would immediately jam the lock despite if it was you first attempt, and critical success, which could occur at any point during the time it takes to pick the lock -- both of these chances would be very small.

This system would also be fit for hacking.

Difficulty settings:

Spoiler

The difficulty setting would affect the following:

Startingpoints of th skills (this would work so that easy players would be able to max out almost everything and the harder you go, the less can max out and the more you need to rely on specializing). The toggle would work dynamically so that if you start with easy and change it to hard half away through, your skill would take an appropriate hit.
The gaps between levels -- the harder the setting, the more XP you need for a levelup.
Base carry weight (before STR modifier).
Base HP (before END modifier).
Number of encountered enemies
Slight (!) changes in NPC/critter HP and damage modifiers

HC mode (one time toggle on/off, no flipflopping) would affect the following:

Number of enemies encountered
Severity of negative effects (stat/skill losses and their effects, crippled limbs, diseases, poison effects, etc)
Add a Nutrition gauge (thirst and hunger combined) -- could do without this though.
Damaging effect of radiation.
Add weight for absolutely everything (meds, ammo, random clutter like pencils, everything).
Slower base speed for stimpakking (before skill modifiers).
Harsher addiction and withdrawal effects.
I'll come up more when I have time...

Thoughts on a skillsystem more (IMO) in line with the current gameplaystyle (This will contradict with some of the ideas in the longer suggestion above as I haven't had time to merge them properly, but that doesn't matter as I endorse both systems.) - now with an incomplete (har har) SPECIAL outline:

Spoiler

Ok, so going by the current gameplaystyle where dicerolls no longer apply (which is a shame)... redesign the characterprogression system to better suit it (to be more responsive and give more immediate feedback to the player as s/he progresses).

At character developement every SPECIAL defaults as 5 as it is now, but there are no bonuses to add, just a possibility to rearrange the points. Increasing SPECIAL during the game, would be a special occurance like finding an implant and then someone who can install it. Traits increasing stats would offer an equal drawback in some other stat (or a general drawback). There'd be an individual perk for every stat offering a one time bonus of plus one -- as it was in the original Fallouts. And rare cases where an equippable item gives a bonus for during the time it is equipped (like how PA gives a bonus to strength). Nothing more. The point is to make the character one builds to hold throughout most of the game. And to help that there'd be hard SPECIAL requirements for certain items and activities.

Perks would be more like additional abilities that the skills do not govern straightforward (like pistolwhipping, enhancing stimpaks, increasing inventory space and/or such) but still offer the requirements for. They'd also have tiers (up to 3) to enhance said abilities when appropriate.

Skills would now have a 1-10 and some others 1-5 point scale. With each point cumulatively increasing the price of buying it. Each of these points would also hold more to it than mere nominal increases with little to no visible effect (like how it is now with the 1-100 scale). The skills would work more like thresholds opening new related abilities than random numerical values. At characterbuilding phase each skill would default to 0, but the player would have 4 free points to put in which ever skills s/he wishes with the maximum initial increase being 2.

A couple of "along the lines of" -examples of the skills and their effects:

Spoiler

Guns:
oooooooooo
Cost : The first two - 5sp, 3rd and 4th - 10sp, 5ft and 6th - 15sp, 7th and 8th - 20, 9th and 10th - 25sp. This would equal a skillcap of 150 with the current method.
Effect: 0 p oints - You are so terrible with guns you suffer 50% damageloss and 75% of accuracy loss with any conventional firearm, plus your unholstering, holstering and reloading take much more time. Points 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 would open "proper" usage of guns in their respective tiers of 1-5. Having lacking skill of one tier would result in 50% penalty to accuracy and 25% penalty to damage, lacking 2 or more tiers would offer similiar penalties of 75% and 50% plus decresed reloadspeed and increased probability of jamming during reload and firing regardless of weapon condition.
Points 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 would offer a 25% bonus to accuracy for the previous tier of weapons (except for 1, which would offer it to the next tier and 10 which would offer an accuracy bonus to all tiers), and similiarly with damage but with an increase of 15%.
This would make increasing the skill a paramount act, if one wishes to master it (unlike with the current system where a skill 50 - for example - is quite adequate to handle all given situations the game offers).

Energy weapons:
oooooooooo
Cost: 5, 5, 10, 10, 15, 15, 20, 20, 25, 25
Effect: Similiar to guns otherwise, but in place of damage increases/decreases would be heating/cooldown effects which would be harsh enough to greatly limit firing large amounts of highly powerful energy ammunition. In effect, energy weapons would be much more powerful than guns, but also much more limited in rate of fire and most of them would also, due to their light effects, hinder stealth.

Melee:
oooooooooo
Cost : 5, 5, 10, 10, 15, 15, 20, 20, 25, 25
Effect: Same as guns and ew with tiers, but in place of accuracy increases/decreses would be attackspeed. Lacking a tier would offer a 50% penalty for overall damage and 25% for attackspeed, lacking 2 tiers similiarly 75% and 50%. Points 3, 6 and 9 would also offer a "special move" which would be slower than normal attack, but more powerful.

Explosives:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: With explosive based weapons, refer to the guns section. 0 points, you can throw grenades and dynamite very inaccurately, that's it; 1 point - opens up the ability to create and tinker with satchelcharges and firebombs and removes penalties from grenades and regular dynamite; 2 points - landmines and their modified and custom variants enter the picture; 3 points - creation and operating with C4, semtex, and other plastic explosives and remote detonatables; 4 points - Energybased explosives (electricity, EMP, plasma, etc) explosives; 5 points - Mix and match your own cocktails with all available ingredients.

Sneak:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: With 0 points you do not sneak, you're so clumsy that going crouched wouldn't make any difference. Each point decreases the chance of detection according to circumstances (LOS distance, lighting, sound) by 15%. Also, point 1 - ability to use light armor without penalties, point 3 - ability to use medium armor with decreased penalties, point 5 - ability to use heavy armor with decreased penalties.

Speech:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: Wit h 0 points, regular default dialog (plus other skill/perk related options); with points 1-5, thesholds for related speech-check lines.

Lockpick:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: Wit h 0 points you do not pick locks, you simply have no idea how to. Each point opens up ability to open locks at respective levels. The skill also modifies the amount of time an attempt takes. Also, if a minigame is involved, which I wouldn't put there, each tier increases the durability of the lockpick when attempting current or previous tiers.

Barter:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: 0 points - 20% selling value, 200% buying value; 1 point - 40% selling value, 175% buying value; 2 points - 60% selling value, 150% buying value; 3 points - 80% selling value, 125% buying value; 4 points - 100% selling value, 100% buying value; 5 points - 120% selling value, 75% buying value.

Science:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: Hacking abilities similiar to lockpicking. Also handling the modding requirements for energy weapons. Thresholds for various skilluses outside of inventoryitems.

Repair:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: 0 points - you do not repair anything by yourself, Point 1 - Repair light armor to top condition, medium armor to 50% CND, and heavy armor to 25%, Point 3 - Repair medium armor to top condition, medium armor to 75% and heavy armor to 50%, Point 5 - Repair all armors to top condition. Handles various crafting requirements and modding reqs for Guns category of weapons. Thresholds for various skilluses outside of inventoryitems.

Medical:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: 0 points - you can use stimpaks but they only heal 50% of their potential, and after 5 in a row, you suffer double the overdoespenalty. Point 1 - Ability to heal 30 HP manually when no hostiles are around, and with a cooldown time for use. Intoxication meter allows for 5 stimpaks in a row without overdosing. Point 2 - Manual healing cooldown time decreased for 25%. 7 stimpaks without penalties. Point 3 - Can use 1 superstim without a penalty. 30% chance of healing a crippled limb. Point 4 - 10 stims or 2 superstims without penalty. Cooldown time decreased additional 25%. 50% chance of healing a crippled limb. Point 5 - 75% chance at healing a crippled limb. 5 superstims or 15 stims without penalty.

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SPECIAL (outline, and not including governed skills and related bonuses):
oooooooooo
S - Carryweight, melee/HtH damage and attackspeed modifiers, lifting and moving heavy objects, weapon STR requirement modifiers, (+ other situational misc tasks)
P - Accuracy, vision distance, identifying consumables and their effects (in conjuction with survival skill), detecting traps, (+ other situational misc tasks)
E - Base HP, HP/level, poison-, radiation-, damage (other) resistances, sprint time, (+ other situational misc tasks)
C - Initial reaction modifiers, companion nerve, soothe (a chance of rendering humanoid enemies nonhostile for a moment -- situational) (+ other situational misc tasks)
I - Skillpoints/level, identifying objects not in the range of perception, (+ other situational misc tasks)
A - Movespeed, actionpoints, weapon handling speed, jump height and distance, (+ other situational misc tasks)
L- Luck is blind []

Another alternative method for skills could be to structure them into skilltrees of sorts, to present general knowledge and specialization:

Spoiler

This can work with both of the afore mentioned progressionstyles, generally.

For the 1-100 system, the skillpoint costrates would work the same as explained in General Gameplay up above - 1-50 1:1, 51-75 2:1, 76-100 3:1. But after the point where the skill reaches 50, it would split (with skill appropriate for such splitting) into 2 or 3 specialization paths. This would be to present the general knowledge (1-50) of a given category and the requirement to specialize in order to excell (51-100) in various ways within the said category, a need for higher focus to master something at the cost of other things. This could also, potentially, address the plea for more skills as well as the demand for higher gameplay variety.

Some of the skills and specializations could - for example, it's not a fleshed out list - be like:

Guns (general knowledge about and handling of conventional firearms from pistols to LMG's, etc) - skillpoints 1 to 50 - cost 1:1;

* Pistol grip (specialization path for conventional firearms held with one hand -- like pistols, and lighter SMG's) - skillpoints 51 to 75 at the cost of 2:1 and from 76 to 100 at the cost of 3:1

* Rifle grip (specialization path for conventional firearms held with two hands -- like larger SMG's, rifles, and assault rifles, and gauss/antitank rifles) - skillpoints handled as above

Alternatively, the Guns specializations could be:

* Precise weapons (specialization for single/semiauto firing regardless of weapon used) - illustrates focused fire and accuracy - skillpoints handled as above

* Imprecise weapons (specialization for burst/full auto firing regardless of weapon used) - illustrates recoilcontrol - skillpoints handled as above.

Energy weapons (general knowledge about handling weapons that use energy as their means to cause harm)

* Plasma (specialisation path for plasmaweapons)

* Laser (specialisation path for laserweapons)

Explosives (all manners of things that go boom)

* Traps (spotting, disarming and arming of higher grade traps, whether explosive or not)

* AOE (area of effect) weapons (rocketlauncers, greneadelaunchers, flamethrowers, grenades, etc)

Close Combat

* Melee (extensions of your fists)

* Hand to hand (your fists and feet)

Speech (general logic and reasoning)

* Persuasion (make people act according to your whims)

* Deception (the art of lying)

Medic (first aid bandaging)

* Doctor (manual healing of greater proportions)

* Pharmacist (the medicineman skill to create uppers, downers, laughers, criers, and healers)

Barter (knowing the value of an item and the ability to make others know it your way -- this skill does not need to split)

Repair (basic tinkering with stuff)

* Craftsman (create high class protective wear and Guns)

* Maintenance (repair and maintain higher class [/i]Guns[/i], armor and other appropriate utilities in the game)

Science (basic scientific knowledge)

* Computers (hacking and reprogramming)

* Electronics (repairing energyweapons and other higher grade electrical devices)

Outdoorsman (basic knowledge of the nature)

* Cooking (cooking for the royal)

* Biology (identifying different plants and animals to make the difference between healthy and unhealthy)

Stealth (the ability to do things without other people noticing)

* Sneak

* Steal

Security (opening stuff without a key)

* Conventional locks (opening stuff with lockpicks)

* Electronic locks (opening stuff with electronic lockpicks)

There's only 12 primary skills ( for now, could be added more if appropriate and not overlapping others), but the specialization paths cover - imo - a lot of that.

The 1-10 skillprogression system - explained earlier in this post - could utilize this for those skills that reach for 10 points, while those that do not, remain as they are.

TL;DR?:

Spoiler

Make the game lean less towards the TES style of gameplay - find a better middleground in between - to create a greater diversity between the two franchises.

Even still TL;DR?:

Spoiler

Learn to read pal....

Things I'd appreciate if omitted or otherwise excluded (read: not implemented to begin with):

- Sandbox map -- the game can still be an open world (like how the first games) and support random exploration with large enough "nodes".
- Main focus on exploration -- this shouldn't be the selling point of the game, it's fine for TES, but Fallout should be set apart from that series in all ways possible.
- Too heavy focus on combat more than other styles of gameplay -- there should be more balance on how to fare with the gameworld, well made and settlement centric nodes would support this in that there'd be less empty space that needs to be filled with random combat.
- Straightforward FPS run'n gun combat - there's nothing more boring in these games than RPG combat hampered by FPS mechanics (and while this works both ways, I do not care about improving the FPS elements at the cost the RPG side).
- And stop wasting time in handplacing every sandbead in the desert. There's absolutely no need what so ever to not use procedurally generated landscapes in a wasteland that is mostly sand, rocks and rubble. Use that time to create as unique and differing focus spots as possible.
- And most importantly... less content from the Big Bag of Cool-on-paper +1 -- think before implementing, does it fit the setting, does it make sense, does it have a real purpose.
- Extraterrestials
- All that The Settlers/Sim(s) stuff like: building a house and playing home, building a city and "defending" it, forming a faction, setting up and managing a shop, farming, playerdriven marriage and romances, and all that useless and distracting fluff which is better suited for other games that use them as a the core point of gameplay.
- No multiplayer of any kind - there is a [censored] ton mp games out there for pepole who want that, there's absolutely no reason what-so-ever to have it in here.
- Excessive strive towards "realism" over statistics based gameplaymechanics and RPG feel.
- Combat music -- seriously, it just gets in the fucking way.

I do also like the way TES leveling and skill improvement works. Increasing your skill by using those things feels quite natural to me.

I tend to agree when it comes to Beth style games. Though I would go for a hybrid where you do both, assign skillpoints (not just perks) at levelups and slowly gain skill through use. See Wizardry games for an example, or Wasteland 1.

Primary way being skillpoint assignment, and learn through use would be complementing it (not viable on its own).

 

[Risewild]

Yeah, I always found it strange that I never used my intimidation perk in dialogue. Not that I remember.

Not to mention that the worst of the intimidation perk is that only works if you have a ranged weapon. You can be a bag of muscles that punches deathclaws until they die, but you can't intimidate anyone unless you grab a gun and point it at someone? Not to mention most enemies have so much HP that pointing a gun at them and they "surrender" right away, while you know you would need to spend 200 bullets to drop that enemy just feels wrong.