Chris: A few questions

[Guest]

Fist, what do you guys think about a degree from Digipen as opposed to a degree from a more orthodox school?

On to FOT:

1) I'm sure this has been addressed already, but just in case: What's up with weapon balance? It's really off the wall. The MP5 does *twice* the damage of the beretta, and they both fire the same ammunition.

2) How come weapons don't show STR requirements?

3) Why can't I fire at NPCs except by targeting behind them or such? In old Fallout games you had pretty much free reign in that regards.

4) Why is there such a large pause after giving someone moving directions? It's only a second or so, but it's pretty noticeable.
My machine is an Athlon 500, which is above the reccommended specs.

5) Why the crazy interface changes? The whole left click/ right click thing seemed alot better and more intuitive in fo2. Also, what's up with the little button for aimed shots?

6) Fallout 2 didn't have this either, but how about showing the damage difference for advanced melee attacks?

7) Sound is just placeholders, right?

Good job overall though, I've already pre-ordered.

 

[ctaylor]

>Fist, what do you guys think
>about a degree from Digipen
>as opposed to a degree
>from a more orthodox school?

About the same, I would think. The Digipen degree might be a little bit more "noticeable" on the resume, which is a good thing. But we care far more about a portfolio of work, demonstrable skills and how the interview goes than any degree from any school. The portfolio is a big thing (for programmers and artists alike).

>
>On to FOT:
>
>1) I'm sure this has been
>addressed already, but just in
>case: What's up with weapon
>balance? It's really off the
>wall. The MP5 does *twice*
>the damage of the beretta,
>and they both fire the
>same ammunition.

Some of the numbers have not been balanced. This is something we intend to tweak as we continue development. That's one of the major reasons we haven't wanted to release actual hard stats of weapons to this date: we plan on changing them.

>2) How come weapons don't show
>STR requirements?

Good point. I'll bring it up.

>3) Why can't I fire at
>NPCs except by targeting behind
>them or such? In old
>Fallout games you had pretty
>much free reign in that
>regards.

You should be able to fire at anyone using Force Fire (ctrl-right-click).

>4) Why is there such a
>large pause after giving someone
>moving directions? It's only a
>second or so, but it's
>pretty noticeable.
>My machine is an Athlon 500,
>which is above the reccommended
>specs.

The game is trying to figure out where to move to the character. This is known as pathfinding, and it's a pain in the arse. Basically, we're working on it, but the game has to do a lot (and I mean _a lot_) of math and data lookup (it has to scan the entire map, all the tiles, etc).

>5) Why the crazy interface changes?
>The whole left click/ right
>click thing seemed alot better
>and more intuitive in fo2.
>Also, what's up with the
>little button for aimed shots?

We're trying to improve the interface and make it more traditional for these types of games, but it is different and does take some time to get used to. After playing with it for a while, I like it better. With the exception of the targeted shot button - I hate that.

>6) Fallout 2 didn't have this
>either, but how about showing
>the damage difference for advanced
>melee attacks?

Hmm. Noted.

>7) Sound is just placeholders, right?

Yep.

>Good job overall though, I've already
>pre-ordered.

Thanks!

pax,
-Chris
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