Fallout 3: Skills and Perks

[Outbreak]

What's always frustrating, NMA a pessimistic bunch or not, is that in a few short hours, many of us worked out many of the major issues with some of these perks and corrected them/made them more believable without obliterating them. (as the BASIC ideas are good) Again, I don't hate Beth, (they're not the only ones either that do this) but it's sad. It's like when you see a horribly irritating commercial played over and over and you know that they had a 'special panel' that picked that one specifically as wonderful while the real world scratches it's head. It's the same thing with game elements. I get that they want to appeal to a broader range of players this time 'round, but that doesn't mean they can't make things a little more logical.

 

[Xenophile]

That's the point, with the info given it seens that the communication or whatever comes AFTER you get the perk, it's not a quest giver, the guy only appears after you get the perk, it makes no sense and it's fine to bash even if the game is not out.
This line of defense that we cannot criticize anything because the game is not out yet is old already, i wonder what will people say once the game is out and all we bashed was exactly the same design with no twists or big ifs.

I don't see how this is any more silly/wierd than "Mysterious Stranger"

Edit: Oh look I got a strike.. Yay!

 

[Per]

With the Solar Powered perk, you gain an additional 2 points to Strength when in direct sunlight, and slowly regenerate lost Health.

Hello, Baldur's Gate 3.

Once you have the Lawbringer perk, any evil character you kill will have a finger on their corpse. This finger can then be sold to a certain person (whose identity is disclosed when you take the perk) for caps and positive Karma.

Hello, Baldur's Gate 3.

Child at Heart

This is completely broken. You cannot be killed!

Probably because again, someone who would take that perk would more than likely be playing a character that is "good", so why would they bring in the finger of some random citizen they killed?

The "certain person" knows nothing of "perks".

Finger printing was used in New York in 1906 as a way to i.d. criminals, and had been around for quite sometime before that. I can see that as a plausible way for them to be able to tell who was "evil", since I also figure that they could probably gather finger prints from bullet casings or whatever else.

And it came to pass that when the world was reduced to rubble, and resources were scarce, and everyone generally had a heck of a time, people started dusting bullet casings for fingerprints and waited for random people to bring them fingers so they could check if the prints matched any of the ones in their casings prints database.

If that doesn't work as a reason for you, then lets just go with DNA testing to find aggression.

"Yes! Yesss! More fingers I can test for eeevil! Yes! They belonged to AGGRESSORS! They might have KILLED someone but they are DEAD now - here's cash for you! Go now! Go out into the world and kill MORE AND MORE so we can PURGE the world of AGGRESSION and KILLING!! GO MY MINION OF JUSTICE HAHAHAHAA"

So some motherfucker out in the desert set up shop fingerprinting every bullet casing [..]

"KILL EVIL PEOPLE, I WILL IMMEDIATELY RECOGNIZE THEIR FINGERS FROM MY EXTENSIVE FORENSICS LABORATORY IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WASTES [..]

Uh, yeah, kinda like that.

Well, "Solar Powered" isn't really much different from "Night Person" (at least from Beth's perk version, with disadvantages removed).

Night Person with the disadvantages feels like an abstraction of a psychological (dis)inclination. (There are also real medical conditions like porphyry, but that might be reaching.) Solar Powered as presented is a random superpower.

Solar powered makes about as much sense as slayer and sniper.

I'd say Sniper and Slayer are abstractions of reaching mastery in the art of sniping/slaying. It's easier to not interpret them as superpowers than Solar Powered.

 

[JESUS]

That's the point, with the info given it seens that the communication or whatever comes AFTER you get the perk, it's not a quest giver, the guy only appears after you get the perk, it makes no sense and it's fine to bash even if the game is not out.
This line of defense that we cannot criticize anything because the game is not out yet is old already, i wonder what will people say once the game is out and all we bashed was exactly the same design with no twists or big ifs.

I don't see how this is any more silly/wierd than "Mysterious Stranger"

I think you got the wrong quote there right? because if you don't i have no idea what you meant by that.
And mysterious stranger was silly but not stupid, i can handle silly like the choo choo gun, not stupid like the Fatman or solar powered.

 

[Outbreak]

I always liked Mysterious Stranger, and I hope the new incarnation of it in F3 works well. I imagined some kind of 'Mad Max' like zealot learning of your exploits, thinking you were chosen or important, and then tracking you from a distance in order to keep you safe. In F1, you could also imagine it was like someone who had come from another vault and sympathized with you, while in F2, it might have been someone who left your village years ago. (a long lost brother perhaps?) Lots of potential there, IMO.

 

[Texas Renegade]

Didn't the article say some perks are gained or unlocked through quests or actions....Could be lawbringer is one of these. At least I hope it is.

Also would rather have solar powered be something you gain based on radiation exposure or some such ala a mutation.

However, I can ignore it, as I did many of the useless/stupid perks in the originals.

And by the by. Child at heart is a great perk. Kids notice a ton of things they aren't supposed to and being able to get info from a kid by being able to relate on their level and make them trust you as opposed to some other adult and get info from them this way, is a great idea.

 

[JESUS]

However, I can ignore it, as I did many of the useless/stupid perks in the originals.

Some perks were indeed broken in the originals (like night vision, but they were suppose to work, so they are not useless design wise), but i don't remember any stupid ones.

 

[Phancypants]

However, I can ignore it, as I did many of the useless/stupid perks in the originals.

Some perks were indeed broken in the originals (like night vision, but they were suppose to work, so they are not useless design wise), but i don't remember any stupid ones.

Wasn't there a perk where a tree grew out of your head or something?

 

[Ausir]

That was Bonsai, a ghoul-only perk in Fallout Tactics.

 

[mandrake776]

The solar power one- wait, in a post-apocalyptic world, wouldn't you be more prone to cancer from direct sunlight?

WTF?

You're kidding, right? In this post-apocalyptic world, where giant scorpions and ants abound as well as mutants and ghouls, sunlight should cause cancer? What kind of game mechanic is that, anyway?

You have traveled many days through the wastes. You have melanoma. Reload from last save?

 

[Slaughter Manslaught]

Bethesda doesn't seem to understand the point of disadvantages in general. Note that drugs don't have disadvantages now, aside from addiction. E.g. old Psycho: +3 Agility, -3 Intelligence, +50 Damage Resistance. New Psycho: Damage +25%.

That's one of the things I hate the most about Beth. I loved traits, their advantages and disadvantages. They made the game more fun and made your choices actually matter.

Remember Fast Shot? Sacrifice precise, surgical strike-like atacks for faster normal atacks, allowing you to shoot like a maniac. And it was pretty much a combat style where you used good ol' MORE DAKKA to win fights. RATÀTÀTÀTÀTÀ BANG BANG BANG DIE DIE DIE!!!! And it WORKED.

Remember Finesse, Fast Shot's evil twin? Sacrifice damage from normal atacks, but make more critical shots. It was the oposite of Fast Shot. Here, you are sacrificing damage from normal shots and getting the hability to kill your enemies with one or two precise shots, bang, you're dead.

See where I am going to? Traits define your character and make him/her real. The advantages complement the playstyle you choose, while the disadvantages force you to adapt.

EDIT:

About perks:

Solar Powered is retarded. What if you, say, the perk description said that your father gave to you some kind of recovery serum (he made it so patients could recover quickly from injury in the future) he made some time ago and the effects are manifesting now for some reason, giving you more vitality (+strength) and some regeneration?

Lawgiver is even worse. Some guy is able to look at someone finger, say "He's evil." and then give you money. WITH HIS MIND. What is this?

 

[Humpsalot]

fak, im afraid they will give me TOO many options and will become overwhelmed. I hope they release all perks soon so i can map them out before the game comes out.

Do you think it is possible to get 100% in one play thru? Probably not with the different good/bad/neutral quest lines. Unless you start good do all those, then kill the people who gave you those quests, then do the neutral quests kill those people then the bad quests. But even with different perks opening up different quests its going to be stressful to get it 100% done.

 

[PlanHex]

I really don't get the Concentrated Fire requirements

Concentrated Fire
Ranks Available: 1, Requirements: Level 18, Small Guns 60%, Energy Weapons 60%

This means you need both SG and EW at 60% right? Does that seem kinda weird to anyone else? Why do I need to know anything about energy weapons to increase my accuracy with a 10mm pistol?

And if you just need either SG or EW at 60%, why isn't Big Guns on there too, since you can use VATS with those as well?

 

[mandrake776]

fak, im afraid they will give me TOO many options and will become overwhelmed. I hope they release all perks soon so i can map them out before the game comes out.

Do you think it is possible to get 100% in one play thru? Probably not with the different good/bad/neutral quest lines. Unless you start good do all those, then kill the people who gave you those quests, then do the neutral quests kill those people then the bad quests. But even with different perks opening up different quests its going to be stressful to get it 100% done.

If I recall correctly, there will be something like 60 perks, which means at least three playthroughs to use all of them.

 

[Alphadrop]

Actually the latest weapon video showed him using VATs aiming with a flamer so you can aim with big guns.

 

[UncannyGarlic]

Lawbringer just doesnt make any sense as a perk it sounds more like a normal mmorpg type grind quest. As mentioned how would the trader know that the fingers belong to the evil people. I recall a documentary about CIA actions in Laos during Vietnam war and one ex agent told how they made bounties for ears of Vietnam soldiers, but it didnt last long because one day that agent went to a small village to congratulate the people for most cashed in bounties and saw that all the children in the village are missing their ears.

I would like to see this kind of quest put in F3 but with small alterations like asking for ghoul fingers instead human and that trader wont care if the ghoul was good or evil, because for him good ghoul is a dead ghoul.

Actually it was hands.

As for Mysterious Stranger, I agree that it does sound a bit wonky in Fallout 3 but that it was going to be a bit weird no matter how they implemented it. Still, that might have been a good reason not to implement it.

 

[Claw]

These silly perks just ain't worth six pages.


Making up hokey justifications for them is even dumber than the perks were in the first place. Well done.

 

[mulaalia]

no Kama Sutra Master perk...you dickless pricks as for Grim Reaper's Sprint no comment just plain stupid

 

[Texas Renegade]

Well the regulators make the whole lawbringer perk make more sense. That would make it seem like they are similar to the NCR rangers.

Also, considering you have to be level 20 to get solar powered. That makes it a little better.

 

[Public]

Yeah...Bethesda likes to copy and paste, but call it differently...