Emil tells of the genesis of V.A.T.S. over on the BGSF. A bit:<blockquote>With V.A.T.S., whether you love it or hate it, the fact remains that the system in the shipping game is one we played, and played, and played, and tweaked and tweaked and tweaked, until we found what we felt was the right balance between tactical combat and exciting gameplay. And that includes additional ideas and work by many, many people that go far beyond the original paper design. A big part of this, of course, is combat balance. I've seen some comments where people think Fallout 3 is too easy because of V.A.T.S -- I honestly don't think they'll get that impression after they've played the game, for a few reasons:
1.) We designed the combat balance with V.A.T.S. use in mind. Trust me, those who say they won't use it will. If there's one thing we learned throughout development it's that people use V.A.T.S. It just feels natural, and the camera playbacks are a kind of visual crack. So V.A.T.S. is one part tactical, one part pure visceral entertainment. Chances are at least one of those elements will appeal to you, and you'll end up using V.A.T.S.
2.) Don't forget, at any time, you can change the difficulty of the game. So Fallout 3 being too hard or two easy is really a non-issue. So if you DON'T want to use V.A.T.S. at all, there's a difficulty setting you'll be comfortable with.
3.) If you're not careful, you'd be surprised how completely torn apart you can get in those moments when your AP bar is recharging. When you're almost dead, and you're out of AP, you've got to play really smart or you WILL die. So believe me, V.A.T.S. is not some kind of endless "get out of jail free" card.
And there you have it. At the end of the day... screw the math, screw the numbers, screw what looked brilliant in a Word doc -- games are about sitting down with your hands on a controller or mouse, and playing. At the end of the day, that's how we designed V.A.T.S., and that's what we feel is the only way systems like that should be designed.</blockquote>
1.) We designed the combat balance with V.A.T.S. use in mind. Trust me, those who say they won't use it will. If there's one thing we learned throughout development it's that people use V.A.T.S. It just feels natural, and the camera playbacks are a kind of visual crack. So V.A.T.S. is one part tactical, one part pure visceral entertainment. Chances are at least one of those elements will appeal to you, and you'll end up using V.A.T.S.
2.) Don't forget, at any time, you can change the difficulty of the game. So Fallout 3 being too hard or two easy is really a non-issue. So if you DON'T want to use V.A.T.S. at all, there's a difficulty setting you'll be comfortable with.
3.) If you're not careful, you'd be surprised how completely torn apart you can get in those moments when your AP bar is recharging. When you're almost dead, and you're out of AP, you've got to play really smart or you WILL die. So believe me, V.A.T.S. is not some kind of endless "get out of jail free" card.
And there you have it. At the end of the day... screw the math, screw the numbers, screw what looked brilliant in a Word doc -- games are about sitting down with your hands on a controller or mouse, and playing. At the end of the day, that's how we designed V.A.T.S., and that's what we feel is the only way systems like that should be designed.</blockquote>
