Bethesda’s Pete Hines Fallout 4 interview

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Gnarles Bronson said:
The further removed from genuine fallouts the better imo.
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Why exactly?

*I have nothing against Bethesda's games ~except the name; they exploit the undeserved reputation of one of the greatest RPG series ever devised. It's rather like selling Nutella in a jar labeled Vegemite ~with an equally abysmal reception, I'd expect... but those same people would probably like Nutella if it was honestly labeled for the stuff in the jar. It lets them know what to expect ~and not to expect. It's a bit like going to a school play, you can enjoy the performance ~and not expect par for Broadway; but if it was billed as a Broadway play, it'd be laughable.... And FO3 is billed as Fallout 3; they paid to use the name, but they don't live up to it. :seriouslyno:
 
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The Dutch Ghost said:
Dr Fallout said:
The Dutch Ghost said:
I don't mind androids as they fit the retro 50s mindset, but I think they should all be Pre War, mostly broken down, and even the functional ones as a dumb as a brick because the limits in scaled down computer technology.
They should make Protectrons look like robotic geniuses.
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I don't agree with Androids. Look at the super computers! They have an AI but they're massive! And here comes Bethesda, claiming that Androids with a small cranium can house an AI so advanced. It's continuity error.
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Please read again what I wrote, I don't mind androids but I think they should be STUPID because the processing power necessary to make them act human like doesn't fit inside them.
As you said, AIs exist but their hardware is incredibly big, it would require a quantum leap in computer research to size them down to fit inside a human sized android head. Something that is not going to happen in the Fallout post nuclear world, especially not by some scientists in a few surviving labs with no industry to back them up.

So basically androids should have been something of a useless curiosity in the Fallout wasteland, in general too limited for any kind of task.
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To play devil's advocate, what if it turns out that the androids are not independent computer AIs but facets of an overmind AI that is the source of all of them, connected by radio transmissions or whatever, therefore the massive size of the computer a la ZAX is not retconned. It could even be that the overmind computer and the individual androids experiencing one slice of reality from that unique perspective could be an allegory for a unified godhead, going so far as -

Oh wait it's Bethesda.
 
He means that Bthesda should steer clear from the regions of the proper fallout games, lest they fuck up even those.
 
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Crni Vuk said:
1UP: Somewhat related to that: Why are companions not an option for inputting the Project Purity code? You already have the option to have Sentinel Lyons input the code in your place. There are three viable options for an alternate to input the code: Fawkes, Sergeant RL-3N, and Charon. The player has already experienced a situation where Fawkes can enter an irradiated room and perform a task, RL-3N should follow his programming to obey you, and Charon would not only become healthier due to the radiation, but he's established as essentially a slave who will do whatever his contract-holder orders him to do. To the player, the inability for either to input the code seems really contradictory.

EP: That's a great question, and one that's obviously come up quite a bit in different forums. Let me try to shed some light on why the game is like that -- it's a pretty interesting look inside the development process.
All of the followers were implemented into the game fairly late in development, after the main story had already been nailed down. So, you know, we had the scene at the end of the game, with deadly radiation, and never really compensated for the fact that you could have a Supermutant, or Ghoul, or robot, who could possibly turn the purifier on for you. We'd only ever planned for you sending Sarah Lyons into the purifier, because we knew, from a story standpoint, that she'd definitely be in there with you.
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How hard would it have been to just have some event where your companions were removed from your party before that scene? Maybe they had a wedding to attend or a doctor's appointment.
 
Vault17 said:
The Dutch Ghost said:
Dr Fallout said:
The Dutch Ghost said:
I don't mind androids as they fit the retro 50s mindset, but I think they should all be Pre War, mostly broken down, and even the functional ones as a dumb as a brick because the limits in scaled down computer technology.
They should make Protectrons look like robotic geniuses.
Click to expand...

I don't agree with Androids. Look at the super computers! They have an AI but they're massive! And here comes Bethesda, claiming that Androids with a small cranium can house an AI so advanced. It's continuity error.
Click to expand...

Please read again what I wrote, I don't mind androids but I think they should be STUPID because the processing power necessary to make them act human like doesn't fit inside them.
As you said, AIs exist but their hardware is incredibly big, it would require a quantum leap in computer research to size them down to fit inside a human sized android head. Something that is not going to happen in the Fallout post nuclear world, especially not by some scientists in a few surviving labs with no industry to back them up.

So basically androids should have been something of a useless curiosity in the Fallout wasteland, in general too limited for any kind of task.
Click to expand...


To play devil's advocate, what if it turns out that the androids are not independent computer AIs but facets of an overmind AI that is the source of all of them, connected by radio transmissions or whatever, therefore the massive size of the computer a la ZAX is not retconned. It could even be that the overmind computer and the individual androids experiencing one slice of reality from that unique perspective could be an allegory for a unified godhead, going so far as -

Oh wait it's Bethesda.
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That's also how they were planned to work in Wasteland 2.

After the plot of the CoC is finished, they [the 2 "brothers"] planned to be everywhere and everyone at once by injecting themselves in the Androids.

Though the twist at the end later made it one super computer.
 
Vault17 said:
To play devil's advocate, what if it turns out that the androids are not independent computer AIs but facets of an overmind AI that is the source of all of them, connected by radio transmissions or whatever, therefore the massive size of the computer a la ZAX is not retconned. It could even be that the overmind computer and the individual androids experiencing one slice of reality from that unique perspective could be an allegory for a unified godhead, going so far as -

Oh wait it's Bethesda.
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Don't steal my ideas!
 
Kilus said:
Crni Vuk said:
1UP: Somewhat related to that: Why are companions not an option for inputting the Project Purity code? You already have the option to have Sentinel Lyons input the code in your place. There are three viable options for an alternate to input the code: Fawkes, Sergeant RL-3N, and Charon. The player has already experienced a situation where Fawkes can enter an irradiated room and perform a task, RL-3N should follow his programming to obey you, and Charon would not only become healthier due to the radiation, but he's established as essentially a slave who will do whatever his contract-holder orders him to do. To the player, the inability for either to input the code seems really contradictory.

EP: That's a great question, and one that's obviously come up quite a bit in different forums. Let me try to shed some light on why the game is like that -- it's a pretty interesting look inside the development process.
All of the followers were implemented into the game fairly late in development, after the main story had already been nailed down. So, you know, we had the scene at the end of the game, with deadly radiation, and never really compensated for the fact that you could have a Supermutant, or Ghoul, or robot, who could possibly turn the purifier on for you. We'd only ever planned for you sending Sarah Lyons into the purifier, because we knew, from a story standpoint, that she'd definitely be in there with you.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

How hard would it have been to just have some event where your companions were removed from your party before that scene? Maybe they had a wedding to attend or a doctor's appointment.
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No prob. Beth covered also that issue. There is more to the interview.

What we could do -- and what we did ultimately do -- is cover that stuff in dialogue. You can ask those followers to go into the purifier, and they'll tell you why they won't. We felt that fit with their personalities, but really, they didn't "sell" that to the player in a single line of dialogue. So, in the end, the player's left with a, "Huh, why the hell can't they do it?!" sort of feeling.

So the story does kind of break down. But you know what? We knew that, and were OK with it, because the trade-off is, well, you get these cool followers to join you.


But you know what? We knew that, and were OK with it,


We knew that, and were OK with it,


were OK with it


lookofdisapproval.jpg


Remember. He is the lead designer of Bethesda.

*Here is the whole thing, for those that want to read it.

http://www.1up.com/features/fallout-3-afterthoughts?pager.offset=1

Edit
So to say it that way, really, it is our fault. Not Bethesdas. We simply have to high standarts.
 
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They seem to have thought you said that Fallout was bad or something.

So the story does kind of break down. But you know what? We knew that, and were OK with it, because the trade-off is, well, you get these cool followers to join you.

Game of the Year, guys.
 
One of these days Bethesda is going to make a west coast fallout where they rehash the boneyard, the glow, new reno, or san fransisco, and that is really going to hurt.

Walpknut said:
So the story does kind of break down. But you know what? We knew that, and were OK with it, because the trade-off is, well, you get these cool followers to join you.

Game of the Year, guys.
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Not only that, but award winning writing too.

Someone asked earlier why Beth doesn't fire their writer with all the problems they have, why would they when the gaming press is singing their praises for that crap?
 
Funny when they get awards for best writing of the year, since the only way that should happen is if no games came out that year besides a Bethesda Fallout. Does anyone here expect their writing to be really good?
 
I don't expect the writing to be worse or only a little better than 3's or Skyrim's. If it's actually pretty good (which means reasonably complex, not only coherent), that's great. I want the game to be great and I'll get it, but I'm cautiously optimistic. Right now, the pros I see to Fallout 4 are that it will have a detailed and large world. That's great. For all of Fallout 3's problems, I actually really liked the environmental layout, not necessarily the state of the locations. Quest design and writing are a whole different department though, and what determine if the game respects the core of Fallout.
 
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