Fallout 2 mod Fallout 2 Restoration Project 2.3.3 (Unofficial Expansion)

There's only one problem with that: why buy the windows version of the game if I already own the Mac version? Also on a side note, wine (and similar software such as emulators) aren't very efficient in terms of gaming. You only use them as last resorts.
 
@burn who says I need to hire some one? sfall's source is available. I just need to compile it. The only problem is that I'm not experienced enough to do it so I may need some help or advice at least. Linux users do this all the time. Get source, run it through a compiler, build it, play it.
 
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@3371-Alpha I say.
No, you can't "just compile".

This, you would need to write some very essential new things for a native Mac/Linux release, especially but not limited to directx for once.
You would need to make completely new implementions on base of the Mac Versions for opengl or software layers. Have fun :twisted:
 
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Indeed you would. That's why I'm asking if you know of anyone who could assist with such a thing?
Also Direct-X is only used on Windows, us Mac/Linux users have OpenGL.
 
Some encountered bugs at the EPA:
At the EPA on the Chemmie level where the gooed up vents are: Whenever I Use (hand icon) the vents, while the goo is still on them, the game throws and application error and crashes.

////
So I just go to the EPA for the first time to get my first impressions on the area. The approximate time of entry was mid-late game. Location was revealed by some random traveller near Reno but I might as well have gone to San Fran to get the location anyway.

So first of all the whole parking lot looks like a clusterfuck full of generic fodder enemies. The area is so packed that the map causes frame drops (no other area in the game does that). The derelict looking aesthetic has been laid on thick with pretty much every scenery and tile you could find in the map editor all crammed into one place... a true sight to behold... or kill with fire.

After pointless wandering and killing hordes of pathetic, tedious and unchallenging plants (relative to the player's place in the game's timeline/difficulty curve) I came across some random warehouses with brand spanking new misc items that looked poorly sprited and out of place (paint cans full of dog food, pop rocks in random lockers, never before seen drugs, junk and rod). Hooray for forced relevance.

So after beating the urge to uninstall the RP I thought I'd explore some more of the place because up to that point, none of the new content had been disappointing at all (I hadn't been to the Abbey yet).

So after wandering and wandering I also wandered but more importantly I can wandered around and killed the devious mantis, the undefeated rats and the godlike other living trash that I obviously did not get enough of in Arroyo or the Umbra Tribe. I found seeds that weighed more than power armour. I scoured through dozens of pointless consoles and worthless lockers. I talked to some hologram that made me go kill all the plants and then some other hologram that told me to go test an outclassed energy weapon on the very plants that I had just killed (bitchwork). I got to experience a lot of pointless empty hallways, boring NPC's, insipid dialogue and no combat challenge whatsoever. That's EPA folks. I don't know how or why it went wrong but it did and there are no words to describe this absolute irredeemable abomination. I can see why it was cut from the game in the first place. It would need a lot of writing and tie-ins throughout the whole game to become pertinent. The area is massive with little to do and whatever there is to do is all back and forth scouring bitchwork (go here do that over and over) and gated quests (can't solve a problem without a specific trigger or item in a specific scripted order).
The EPA is an unfinished disappointment and should quite possibly be moved to post-game. I should not have to wander around looking for a reason to enjoy my time in a new area.
 
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Yes, EPA is kind of meh. I don't go there anymore. Umbra a mixed bag. Obviously, a lot of dialogue there was written by a modder. Abbey is more or less ok. It has more of Fallout 1 feeling.
 
EPA is one of my favorites locations. And there is a talking-toaster. Absolutly essential ! ^^ A reference to Wasteland, I guess.
 
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Obviously, a lot of dialogue there was written by a modder.

All of the new location dialogue was written by a modder (with the exception of Sulik's spoken dialogue when he's at his tribe). Or, more accurately, it was written by several modders. Most of the RP content dialogue was already written when I first answered killap's call for writers. He tasked me with coming up with an evil character that could be recruited at the EPA, so I wrote up Dex. He liked my writing, so he asked me if I'd go through and spruce up the rest of the RP's dialogue. That's how I became the lead writer (I don't remember how I ended becoming the voice of Cassidy).

A lot of the writing was really rough and obviously amateurish, but I felt bad replacing the work of others wholesale, so I mostly changed things just enough to try and bring it up to snuff with the rest of the game (keyword: try; I'm not saying what I did is actually on par with the original developers). But there were a couple characters I totally revamped and made my own, like Krom at the Umbra Tribe, and Jason at the Abbey.

Looking back at my dialogue revamps and additions now, I can see some problems with what I did. I was used to writing traditional prose fiction and had never written for a video game before. I went overboard on descriptive text and made some characters too long winded for a video game (I write a comic now and you've gotta be terse as fuck with a comic, as space is at a premium, so that's really trained me to be less wordy). I also think the overall quality of the RP could have been better had I not been so hesitant to change what the modders before me had written.

I agree that the EPA has some issues. Especially with the weak enemies for that point in the game. The funny thing about the EPA is that's the only RP location that we actually had an original design document to reference. Perhaps we made a mistake in trying to stay too close to the design document. But it was such a cool resource to have that it was hard not to adhere to. But that said, I still enjoy how the EPA turned out. It was always meant to be an inconsequential "side-dungeon."
 
I gotta say that EPA is my absolute favourite new location in RP and I don't really like "dungeons" all that much. And I actually liked most of the dialogues/texts there (I also have to add that I can't play most of the fan mods for RPGs, because I can't stand poor writing).

btw. if you're doing everything in the game, most of the fights aren't really challenge at all. And there are aliens in EPA, which can be pretty tough for certain type of character builds, so there's that.

I was more disappointed with Vault village which feels kinda undercooked to me (even though the main quest there is fine).
 
Same here, EPA rocks! I'd like to know what @viggolo thinks of SAD, because that location feels really empty and bland to me in comparison with EPA - none quests, a couple of unique items/objects as howitzer or its shells, and that's it. Recruitable Skynet is nowhere close to EPA companions in terms of personality or fun, it's just another pop-culture reference.
 
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The SAD has many flaws. For example: there’s way too much loot and needing 127% science is not really justifiable for a mediocre companion. There are no other science checks above 81% in the base game and there are better companions that can be acquired earlier and cost less effort or skill point investment.

But… although the magic is fading somewhat after playing the game many times. The first time I played through the SAD it had this eerie atmosphere to it. Exploring this pre-war base, that no one had touched since ages, hacking security systems while big nasty robots loomed about, made me pay attention to small details and was a nice change of pace to the rest of the game.

In that regard, the EPA didn’t bring much news to the table. It also suffers from too much loot and has the same pre-war, high tech, top-secret thing going on. But unlike the SAD, where I felt constantly threatened, although there were no enemies, the EPA felt like an amusement park to me.

Yet, maybe there is nothing wrong with the EPA as it is. Maybe it’s just that 2 top-secret, high-tech facilities are too much for the game. And since I’ve played Fallout 2 for over 10 years without it and grew accustomed to the SAD, the EPA became the odd one out.
 
I ran through the EPA and overall the premise of it isn't bad, it's just that it's overly huge as in 50% of the space is not used effectively, ending up redundant and taking away from the overall impression of the place. However once you know where to go and who to talk to and take into consideration the rewards you get from the blue level, it all makes up for it. The quests themselves are just very streamlined and the solutions are uninspired. How so? Well, you are a scientist, mechanic, elaborate talker, problem solver and a killing machine but you can't figure out to fix the lights before talking to the quest givers. It's that some quests that should be more flexible are scripted to be more rigid with only one specific solution which is making the player jump through hoops in a specific order. It's understandable with quests that just wouldn't make any sense being completed in a non-linear fashion (you can't really deliver westin's holodisk without getting the quest nor finding the object; you wouldn't even know of the existence of such an items) but with broken machinery it doesn't make sense that a mechanic would be clueless as to how to fix.
the EPA is just too big for its own good really. With all the available loot and quests I can see it all being on one single floor with different coloured hallways. Some locations in the EPA are completely nonsensical: why is there a massive room with leaking vats and blood bugs, how did the vats get there? There are no freight lift in the vicinity, there is no way that a forklift would get in there and who put the bugs in that one room anyway...
The architecture is wonky in that regard.
The loot is super good in the EPA, the +agi syringe changes everything and the training from the NPC makes the trip worth it. It makes a whole new build strat viable (I might make a proper runthrough soon: premise is that you can squeeze out an extra attribute by switching out Small Frame for Fast Shot at level 27, losing a point of AGI in the process but then taking the syringe and effectively gaining a bonus rate of fire perk with extra carry capacity.)
Regarding Sierra Army Depot: that place seems haunted and ominous and gives you the impression that you are being watched as soon as you interact with a console and walk by rows and rows of idle robots. It's perfectly sterile, untouched and seemingly harmless at the first glance. The facility isn't too big and the exploration is worth it as you get plenty of loot out of it (books and combat armours for those dermal implants and a bunch of drugs to boot). The whole facility is somewhat of an encapsulation of the atrocities that were going on before the war and the wickedness of the scientists who were prepared to sacrifice whatever it takes to get the upper hand. The SAD is probably the most eerily serene location in the whole game. It's not really about the NPC nor the the loot that you get out of it but it in stead sets the tone for a bit of the game. You are no longer in a grimy dirty shithole crackpot-laden town with lots of various personalities to interact with. The SAD is one of a kind location in the game and as far as I know it works as intended and tells a story of what transpired between the walls.
Now, the EPA is a bunch of things thrown together trying to be your generic run of the mill science place which isn't really all that interesting. The depressed robot is quirky, okay then. There is a hologram that is a tough badass but who crams out of place german phrases into sentences for no good reason, thus breaking the character he is trying to portray. That authoritative down to earth power-armoured dude throwing that "Schweinhund" around like hot potatoes; it's just bewildering how inconsistent, yet at the same time generic the characters are. It's a clown fiesta, everybody is incompetent, broken or both. Isn't it kind of meh that there are 6 holograms that want you to do the same thing: repair that thing, essentially do the same quest three times.
There's that green level door password: I have 10 luck, shouldn't I be able to just luck through and guess ABRE?
Why can't the rope for the lift be on the same map?
Why can't I kill anything with the solar scorcher on the premises?
Why don't levels with the same floor number cross over with one another?
Why are there mantis in the basement and how do they survive?
The blue level is really good for the xp though. There aren't enough areas like Mariposa where you can just go buck wild on enemies as you explore and continue onwards; the blue level does deliver some of that goodness.
Overall, as I'm going to continue doing Hard/Rough tough as nails playthroughs (no san fran shortcutting) of Fallout2RP, I'm going to visit the EPA either way just because of the syringe, xp and skill boost from the NPCs.
 
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Why can't the rope for the lift be on the same map?
The same reason as in The Glow, I suppose - it would be too convenient. Besides, who travels the wastes without a hunch of trusty rope in his backpack?!

Why can't I kill anything with the solar scorcher on the premises?
Because you haven't tried it, perhaps? Just hit some rat with it, there's a couple of them close to elevator shaft or in locked building, and report back to the scientist hologram - quest solved. Killing the spore plant with it is a pain in the arse anyway since they have decent heat resistance, why would you do that? :smile:

Why don't levels with the same floor number cross over with one another?
Some of them do, some don't.

Why are there mantis in the basement and how do they survive?
I'm guessing that they fell into huge gaping elevator shaft whilst searching for some source of heat or light in the middle of the night and couldn't get back? Now they are feasting on smaller insects as common flies, because yes, there are flies in Fallout 2 even if you can't see them. Just ask that sweaty ghoul in Broken Hills, he'll tell ya. :mrgreen:
 
Why can't the rope for the lift be on the same map?
The same reason as in The Glow, I suppose - it would be too convenient. Besides, who travels the wastes without a hunch of trusty rope in his backpack?!
The Glow analogy is invalid. The Glow is a massive gaping hole in the floor that doesn't have any lockers, warehouses or facilities which happen to contain quest-relevant objects such as metal poles and junk on the premises. It is very obvious from the first glance that it is a hole that would require you to find a means to descend and since there is only desert in every direction, the rope would have to be brought there. The EPA is not a massive irradiated hole in the ground. The EPA is a (top-secret?) research facility that has a warehouse with useful tools in it. A rope would be more that reasonable to expect to find in such a location. There is no foreshadowing nor precedent to expect a rope to be useful in a highly tech. advanced facility beforehand. A rope weighs 10 pounds and is a nuisance to lug around, even with mules, especially with a character with a small frame.

Why can't I kill anything with the solar scorcher on the premises?
Because you haven't tried it, perhaps? Just hit some rat with it, there's a couple of them close to elevator shaft or in locked building, and report back to the scientist hologram - quest solved. Killing the spore plant with it is a pain in the arse anyway since they have decent heat resistance, why would you do that? :smile:



The rats appear before the quest giver(?) so it's more than likely that they have been exterminated before reaching the quest giver. How would anyone know to expect that an epa's spore plant's heat resistance would be high and why would it be designed so if the quest giver implies that I should go and find enemies to test it on and the most obvious and abundant enemy outside are spore plants?

Why don't levels with the same floor number cross over with one another?
Some of them do, some don't.

Yes

Why are there mantis in the basement and how do they survive?
I'm guessing that they fell into huge gaping elevator shaft whilst searching for some source of heat or light in the middle of the night and couldn't get back? Now they are feasting on smaller insects as common flies, because yes, there are flies in Fallout 2 even if you can't see them. Just ask that sweaty ghoul in Broken Hills, he'll tell ya. :mrgreen:

I'm going to guess something else in stead. I'm going to guess that the mantis in the basement are nonsensical generic enemy for you to encounter as a means to not make the whole area seem like a contentless time sink.
 
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I really wish the raccoon mutants were developed enough to warrant an entry into the RP. That always gave me a Gammaworld vibe which would have added some much needed variety to Fallout's wildlife. Of course a lot of people aren't fond of the concept...

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Burrows
 
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