Moonrabbit
First time out of the vault
I was thinking about this after reading http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=61512
The short of it is that Chris Avellone was talking about coming up with character stats, then inventing his own back story for the character to flesh out why he was the way he was.
There was nothing saying this character wasn't an android, explaining his lack of charisma and speech, etc.
It seems to be unquestionable that they have to write your character's history for you in just about every game these days. You might not be a specific character, you might get to create them right down to how large their forehead is and how tiny their nose is. But they give you a back story that maybe you don't want. FO3 being particularly guilty of this.
As I say in the comment on that post. In fallout 1 and 2 I can chalk that up to world building. By FO3 I was getting sick of all the vault dweller stuff.
NV was quite an improvement for sure. But on the vein of being able to play as different races, it might be nice if they gave you a choice of starting point as well.
You can start as a raider, merchant or vault dweller. A resident of a town like Vault City or a resident of a big city like New Reno or Shady Sands(FO2). A resident of a small settlement like Modoc or Shady Sands(FO1). A tribal, etc, etc.
Maybe there would be perks you could choose to take along with your starting 'class' which would simply give you starting bonuses in the skills related to the life your character would have had. EG: Merchant gets bonuses in barter/speech/carry-weight. More so than any barter/speech bonus perk you might be able to choose otherwise.
Other than that, they don't tell you who you were before hand.
Who you are from that point on is up to you. Events will happen around you and you will need to deal with them, which will lead you to the main story line of the game.
Obviously, it would be nice to be able to choose as much back history for your character as possible. Particularly if they give you a chance to play out a short chapter in whatever life you chose for your character before the main story line starts.
But if they can't do it well. Don't bother.
In that case, the 'class' would just determine what location you start from, or what your starting supplies are. You'd be allowed to imagine the character's history in your head.
This would be particularly useful for FO:Online. Though I'm not crazy about the MMO idea. So I'd just as soon see it in the next game. Have this expansive world with it's rich history be a little more open to you.
The short of it is that Chris Avellone was talking about coming up with character stats, then inventing his own back story for the character to flesh out why he was the way he was.
There was nothing saying this character wasn't an android, explaining his lack of charisma and speech, etc.
It seems to be unquestionable that they have to write your character's history for you in just about every game these days. You might not be a specific character, you might get to create them right down to how large their forehead is and how tiny their nose is. But they give you a back story that maybe you don't want. FO3 being particularly guilty of this.
As I say in the comment on that post. In fallout 1 and 2 I can chalk that up to world building. By FO3 I was getting sick of all the vault dweller stuff.
NV was quite an improvement for sure. But on the vein of being able to play as different races, it might be nice if they gave you a choice of starting point as well.
You can start as a raider, merchant or vault dweller. A resident of a town like Vault City or a resident of a big city like New Reno or Shady Sands(FO2). A resident of a small settlement like Modoc or Shady Sands(FO1). A tribal, etc, etc.
Maybe there would be perks you could choose to take along with your starting 'class' which would simply give you starting bonuses in the skills related to the life your character would have had. EG: Merchant gets bonuses in barter/speech/carry-weight. More so than any barter/speech bonus perk you might be able to choose otherwise.
Other than that, they don't tell you who you were before hand.
Who you are from that point on is up to you. Events will happen around you and you will need to deal with them, which will lead you to the main story line of the game.
Obviously, it would be nice to be able to choose as much back history for your character as possible. Particularly if they give you a chance to play out a short chapter in whatever life you chose for your character before the main story line starts.
But if they can't do it well. Don't bother.
In that case, the 'class' would just determine what location you start from, or what your starting supplies are. You'd be allowed to imagine the character's history in your head.
This would be particularly useful for FO:Online. Though I'm not crazy about the MMO idea. So I'd just as soon see it in the next game. Have this expansive world with it's rich history be a little more open to you.