Fallout 3 reviews round-up #64

[Per]

You can target doors in Fo2, not in Fo1. In the Fo1 demo you can hit scenery if you miss your target, though you can't target it.

you're just fooling yourselves.

Are you slyly alluding to our evil secret agenda here?

 

[Roflcore]

But if you shoot at somebody, however bad the odds are: they will turn hostile. So thats really different to Fo3. Also running away for 3 days or putting your weapon away won't help much.

@ausdoerrt
afaik no. but you do realize you run faster with your weapon in your holster?

 

[Ausdoerrt]

^ Yeah, though not that much faster. I do not put it away unless I need to make a long run from one place to another, in case I feel like shooting some innocent bystander up.

 

[aenemic]

ok, so you can't fire a weapon without targeting. but that doesn't prove me wrong. set off some dynamite without wounding anyone and nothing will happen.

isn't that only worse btw, that you can't fire a weapon without targeting someone?

Are you slyly alluding to our evil secret agenda here?

I'm mostly just bored to be honest same as most of you, it seems

 

[Crni Vuk]

ok, so you can't fire a weapon without targeting. but that doesn't prove me wrong. set off some dynamite without wounding anyone and nothing will happen.

isn't that only worse btw, that you can't fire a weapon without targeting someone?
...

You missed the point. Without any offense really.

But the video if even accidently (I dont think Gizmo provoked it, but I am not sure) shows the AI behaviour of people that is more or less copied almost streight out of Oblivion. Just that they this time removed a lot of it so people and guards would not suddenly start to attack each other ... some of the worst things I have seen in video games with broken AI. Frankly, yes in Fallout 1/2 the NPC AI was simple, but at least when you killed someone people turned hostile toward you and remained hostile. To say this, that you can shot what ever you want in Fallout 3 was never the point really ... I cound not care less about it if you can or can not shot without a target ... seriously. It was more about to show the behaviour of the AI that somewhat reacted in a very absurd maner to the player which in my eyes at least should just not happen in a game with todays technology, where they even use the game engine now for the SECOND time. Leaving alone talking about a AAA title ...

 

[Ausdoerrt]

isn't that only worse btw, that you can't fire a weapon without targeting someone?

Assuming you could, what would be the point? There's no nuclear cars to blow up

Once again, FO1/2 wasn't centered on combat, so it's only natural that you wouldn't go around shooting randomly. Also, engine limitations, I assume.

I'm unsure about the dynamite, I recall people getting hostile after blowing up dynamite, but I do no remember if I damaged anyone. IIRC, I only damaged myself and the NPC attacked me >___< That was FO2 I think. Also, there is one place in FO2 where a guard goes to check what happened if he hears an explosion

 

[UncannyGarlic]

what does that prove really? not to defend that stupid behaviour, but still... you can shoot your guns like crazy in Fallout 1+2 and as long as you don't hit anyone, no one will care.

Regardless of whether or not you're right, it simply comes down to the question of should NPCs care if you shoot around them, particularly at nothing hostile or at them? Even if Fallout 1&2 didn't do it they're still 10 and 11 year old games respectively which had much smaller budgets, so one would expect them to be technically inferior in every way to Fallout 3 which just didn't happen.

 

[Public]

If you would start shooting walls in, for example, a bar, people would respond to it. Not attacking you, but actually more like "WTF? Is this guy doing?". And not everyone the same way, someone (like Jericho for example in FO3) would come over you and tell you to stop:
"Stop that, coz you might shoot someone like myself, and I don't like to get shot!"

If you ignore him, then he should become hostile.

I think it is possible these days to make such AI.

 

[Ausdoerrt]

^ Well, maybe.

At least they could do something like STALKER, change dialogues if you don't have the weapon holstered, and have some people shoot you on sight if you use a weapon inside a town.