Strategycore.co.uk was invited for a group interview with Fallout 3 lead designer Emil Pagiarulo at E3. They asked quite a few new questions:<blockquote>"What it comes down to is that we're all Fallout fans. We love the original games. (But) not every Fallout fan wants a turn-based isometric game." Emil Pagliarulo, Lead Designer, Fallout 3
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SC: So what happens when your character levels? You choose the skills you want to boost?
EP: Yeah, when you level you get skill points, and the number of skill points you get are based on your intelligence. So you can put those toward your skills and the primary tag skills get more points added when you level up.
(...)
Other interviewer: Do you run into instances where NPCs are fighting?
SC: Or random encounters?
EP: We love to do that and we have good tools to do it. We didn't do this in Oblivion, but for the first time we actually have a designer completely dedicated to free-form encounters out in the wasteland. You'll definitely encounter people fighting rad scorpions and other creatures out in the wasteland. It's definitely a single character game, but there are companions that you take. Your companions are based on your karma, so there's a sunset of companions that are good guys, evil guys or neutral. But you need to find those guys, take them with you, and watch the interaction between those characters.
(...)
SC: Are there going to be a lot of new weapons? The FatMan (essentially a nuclear hand grenade launcher) in the presentation is new, but what other new weapons will there be?
EP: There are a lot of weapons. I was surprised looking at our weapon list and seeing how many we had. There are the Fallout weapon skills: big guns, small guns, energy weapons, melee, unarmed which are all fully exploited, so we have weapons for them all. We also have a series of custom made weapons that you can construct if you find a schematic and the right junk in the wasteland. So yes, there are quite a few weapons.
(...)
SC: No shots to the eyes?
EP: No, and I'll tell you why. We talked about that, we prototyped it, and when you play the game and see it in such high def, when you shoot someone in the eyes you expect the head to blow up anyway. Shooting someone in the head has the same effect. If you get a critical on them they get dazed and stuff.
SC: It doesn't look like you could finish the game without killing a lot of people.
EP: Not entirely true. It depends on the quest. You saw all the speech options and dialog in the demo. As far as dialog options go, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The amount of interaction through dialog is three times what we had in Oblivion. There's a really strong stealth component. There are a lot of paths through the quests and some are non-violent. That said, you can't wander off into the wasteland and expect to live.
SC: Can a character dodge?
EP: That is part of the real time engine. You can definitely move to take cover behind stuff and duck down.
(...)
SC: Are there any new mutant animals?
EP: New mutant animals. Let's see. We're still going through our creature list. I don't want to say what they are, but yes.
Other interviewer: What kind of creatures are in the game?
EP: All of the Fallout classics are back. There's a full line of robots: you saw the Protectron in the presentation (a Robby-the-Robot-type robot that was in the Metro Subway), Mr. Handy, Robobrain and Sentrybot. Right before E3 the rad scorpion just went in fully animated. There's also the classic deathclaw. There are lots of creatures are in the game.
SC: So is the DC Brotherhood of Steel the same Brotherhood of Steel that was on the West Coast? Is it nationwide?
EP: You’re the only person that asked me that question. I'm surprised that no one else has. Let me just say that its come up a lot that "How did the Super Mutants and the Brotherhood of Steel get on the East Coast?". We answer those questions in the game and there's a reason why they're there. They are somehow connected to the other Brotherhood of Steel but we cover those bases within the game.
(...)
Other interviewer: Is there a centralized storyline or is it completely free branching?
EP: There is definitely a storyline. We use the character's dad as a device: Dad leaves the Vault, you follow him. But why did he leave? What was he up to? And all that ties into the players’ relationship with the Capitol wasteland and are those people worth saving.</blockquote>Link: Full StrategyCore interview and preview.
(...)
SC: So what happens when your character levels? You choose the skills you want to boost?
EP: Yeah, when you level you get skill points, and the number of skill points you get are based on your intelligence. So you can put those toward your skills and the primary tag skills get more points added when you level up.
(...)
Other interviewer: Do you run into instances where NPCs are fighting?
SC: Or random encounters?
EP: We love to do that and we have good tools to do it. We didn't do this in Oblivion, but for the first time we actually have a designer completely dedicated to free-form encounters out in the wasteland. You'll definitely encounter people fighting rad scorpions and other creatures out in the wasteland. It's definitely a single character game, but there are companions that you take. Your companions are based on your karma, so there's a sunset of companions that are good guys, evil guys or neutral. But you need to find those guys, take them with you, and watch the interaction between those characters.
(...)
SC: Are there going to be a lot of new weapons? The FatMan (essentially a nuclear hand grenade launcher) in the presentation is new, but what other new weapons will there be?
EP: There are a lot of weapons. I was surprised looking at our weapon list and seeing how many we had. There are the Fallout weapon skills: big guns, small guns, energy weapons, melee, unarmed which are all fully exploited, so we have weapons for them all. We also have a series of custom made weapons that you can construct if you find a schematic and the right junk in the wasteland. So yes, there are quite a few weapons.
(...)
SC: No shots to the eyes?
EP: No, and I'll tell you why. We talked about that, we prototyped it, and when you play the game and see it in such high def, when you shoot someone in the eyes you expect the head to blow up anyway. Shooting someone in the head has the same effect. If you get a critical on them they get dazed and stuff.
SC: It doesn't look like you could finish the game without killing a lot of people.
EP: Not entirely true. It depends on the quest. You saw all the speech options and dialog in the demo. As far as dialog options go, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The amount of interaction through dialog is three times what we had in Oblivion. There's a really strong stealth component. There are a lot of paths through the quests and some are non-violent. That said, you can't wander off into the wasteland and expect to live.
SC: Can a character dodge?
EP: That is part of the real time engine. You can definitely move to take cover behind stuff and duck down.
(...)
SC: Are there any new mutant animals?
EP: New mutant animals. Let's see. We're still going through our creature list. I don't want to say what they are, but yes.
Other interviewer: What kind of creatures are in the game?
EP: All of the Fallout classics are back. There's a full line of robots: you saw the Protectron in the presentation (a Robby-the-Robot-type robot that was in the Metro Subway), Mr. Handy, Robobrain and Sentrybot. Right before E3 the rad scorpion just went in fully animated. There's also the classic deathclaw. There are lots of creatures are in the game.
SC: So is the DC Brotherhood of Steel the same Brotherhood of Steel that was on the West Coast? Is it nationwide?
EP: You’re the only person that asked me that question. I'm surprised that no one else has. Let me just say that its come up a lot that "How did the Super Mutants and the Brotherhood of Steel get on the East Coast?". We answer those questions in the game and there's a reason why they're there. They are somehow connected to the other Brotherhood of Steel but we cover those bases within the game.
(...)
Other interviewer: Is there a centralized storyline or is it completely free branching?
EP: There is definitely a storyline. We use the character's dad as a device: Dad leaves the Vault, you follow him. But why did he leave? What was he up to? And all that ties into the players’ relationship with the Capitol wasteland and are those people worth saving.</blockquote>Link: Full StrategyCore interview and preview.
