Fallout 2 mod Fallout: Yesterday

[Sagez]

Hi hexer & team,

Congratulations! It's quite a historical moment, as for the first time in the Fallout franchise we can play as a ghoul and supermutant! Btw, working fine on Win10.

I will play the demo again with a different character, but here are my thoughts so far:

This looks promising.
It is Fallout, a new one! I felt this special kind of joy while playing.

What's great so far:
- Cazadores, other new enemies and more poisonous enemies in general
- there is a feeling of mystery
- being hunted by robots!
- ''The Prisoner'' reference
- looks like we will get a Van Buren finally!

I disliked Odysseus, imho those screens with some people are... too much? I mean let's take a look at the ZAX. ZAX in Fallout 1 is done superbly and the Glow itself is probably the best location. Sometimes ''less is more'', ZAX really surprised me back in the day. Looked so normal <- that's the point.

Some suggestions:
- Is there a way to make Supermutant ''run''? Are you planning to add more animations in the future?
- Maybe characters with strenght and endurance above 7 could use bench press and treadmill for XP?
- Slugs are quite tough, I feel like they shoud give more XP. Radscorpions are really weak in comparison to them.
- Does ''Weak will'' trait give you anything positive? It is awesome that there are new traits, but I feel like descriptions should be clear. Or maybe some traits will only ''work'' in dialogue, as extra options? For example, you could add a ''Criminal'' and ''Innocent'' traits too, as they would suit the story well.
- I don't know if this is possible, but changing race to Supermutant or Ghoul during character creation should immediately change your radiation resistance, damage res, carry weight etc. For example, supermutants should deal more melee damage and it would be great to see as we create our character.
- I hope that all skills will be useful and there will be checks above 150% in the game. We need stat checks too. Stat checks for Speech should be higher in general, because players tend to tag speech, speech is powerful and game gets too easy. I hope that First Aid, Gambling and Barter will get some love! Oh, charisma too.
- I understand that you dislike higher resolutions, but for some players it will be a problem. Players might be spoiled by all those new(er) mods
- Can't wait to meet an Endless Walker! I've always loved the concept of it. Imagine all those players tricked into thinking that it's just a ghoul...

You did a great job, now I'm considering supporting you on Patreon. Bravo!

Thank you! and... be seeing you!

 

[hexer]

Sadly it's only Tibbets and a few random encounters, but still a nice first impression.
Want more NAOW ^^

That's just one small part of Tibbets But I crammed LOTS of secrets into this release so you could fool around and try different things.
Also there are some unique encounters out there

Sagez, thanks so much for the review, I appreciate the feedback and suggestions!
I'll try to provide good answers to good questions.

I disliked Odysseus, imho those screens with some people are... too much?

Sorry to hear you didn't like ODYSSEUS, he partially explains why he's looping the President and Morpehus

Spoiler

and you get even more info if you successfully hack him which is a VERY hard task so it should be attempted only after leveling up and getting Science over 100.

Yes, I'm aware he's over the top but that was just the first encounter
BTW you should have seen Avellone's Van Buren. Now THAT was over the top xD

- Is there a way to make Supermutant ''run''? Are you planning to add more animations in the future?

I can't make good running animation from the scratch out of original sprites.
Here I sped up their walking animation to give them more speed and that's how I made their "running" animation.
If I go higher, they look comical but I'll give it another shot - maybe I come up with something.
Their hulking juggernaut walk from one leg to the other is great. I think that the person who did some of those Fallout 1 animations is a genius. How can you put so much character into 8 frames? I rarely see that in modern games which are boasting many more animation frames.
Seeing them running around would remind me of those "other" super mutants ::shudder::

- Maybe characters with strenght and endurance above 7 could use bench press and treadmill for XP?

Yes, this is planned for.

- Slugs are quite tough, I feel like they shoud give more XP. Radscorpions are really weak in comparison to them.

Their low XP is probably a bug.

- Does ''Weak will'' trait give you anything positive? It is awesome that there are new traits, but I feel like descriptions should be clear. Or maybe some traits will only ''work'' in dialogue, as extra options?

Description style follows the same style of Fallout 1/2. Numbers are rarely mentioned but I'll review if there's room for improvement. Also some of the new Traits influence things over the place including the dialog choices In fact

Spoiler

Weak Will can help you get a certain type of "game ending" in this release.

For example, you could add a ''Criminal'' and ''Innocent'' traits too, as they would suit the story well.

The team's idea way back in 2014. was for the ODYSSEUS trial to determine that depending on your choices.
I didn't have the time to implement Karma Title for it but will.

- I don't know if this is possible, but changing race to Supermutant or Ghoul during character creation should immediately change your radiation resistance, damage res, carry weight etc. For example, supermutants should deal more melee damage and it would be great to see as we create our character.

Actually the reason that didn't get implemented is because I'm still looking for a good way to communicate those to the player in real time on the Character Creations screen due to technical limitations of Fallout 2. It's on the TODO list and will be sorted out in the next release.

- I hope that all skills will be useful and there will be checks above 150% in the game. We need stat checks too. Stat checks for Speech should be higher in general, because players tend to tag speech, speech is powerful and game gets too easy. I hope that First Aid, Gambling and Barter will get some love! Oh, charisma too.

Yes, all skills will get love. I come from a pen and paper background of 20 years now so I approach player freedom a bit wide!

- ''The Prisoner'' reference

Haha nice catch!

Thank you! and... be seeing you!

You're welcome and I'll be seeing you too!

 

[Weyland]

I've found one bug, when I used Auto-Wall Lift, killed Spore and came back to Service Level I cannot move the map as below

 

[hexer]

Thanks for reporting that! I was just about to put out a new installer with the intro video fix

 

[hexer]

Patched version that includes the intro video fix if you can't see one and/or you're getting startup crashes on Win 7. Also fixes the issue with being stuck after using Auto-Wall Lift

MEGA: https://mega.nz/file/dl0VUKyA#1b27XdqoDDSP4Ily1REsV-HUxh1F1rOTbckViY3zyCE

Google Drive:

 

[gustarballs1983]

I've managed to fix the intro.avi video myself, with 'any video converter' however the second video is not only not able to play but also not able to be converted to any working form ( frame rate is too small) requires at least 25 or 29.97 and it has 23. besides you used H.264 codec and only suitable cocdec is mpeg1video the so called uncompressed .avi and mpeg2 sound cocec. at least i used theese settings for the intro movie in mpeg1 format and it worked. i also uped the reesolution of the video to 704x576.

As for my previous issues it actually wasnt any mod conflict, i dumbly copy pasted all global scripts from resurrection forgetting it had some global scripts of it's own. simply by removing global.int from scripts folder caused the game to fix itself.

 

[Kaadovah]

I feel I'm missing something but I can't even find that auto-wall lift. I'm stuck.

 

[Weyland]

I feel I'm missing something but I can't even find that auto-wall lift. I'm stuck.

Spoiler: Spoiler

It's in east corner, behind boxes in the corner, you can see them on my screenshot

 

[hexer]

I feel I'm missing something but I can't even find that auto-wall lift. I'm stuck.

The easiest way to find it is to enter it through the spore plant entrance. If you haven't, I suggest you use the latest installer where I fixed the issue with being stuck after using it.

I've managed to fix the intro.avi video myself, with 'any video converter' however the second video is not only not able to play but also not able to be converted to any working form ( frame rate is too small) requires at least 25 or 29.97 and it has 23. besides you used H.264 codec and only suitable cocdec is mpeg1video the so called uncompressed .avi and mpeg2 sound cocec. at least i used theese settings for the intro movie in mpeg1 format and it worked. i also uped the reesolution of the video to 704x576.

As for my previous issues it actually wasnt any mod conflict, i dumbly copy pasted all global scripts from resurrection forgetting it had
some global scripts of it's own. simply by removing global.int from scripts folder caused the game to fix itself.

It's great to hear you fixed it! I think H.264 was the default setting in Shotcut so I assumed it would work for most.
In any case, I had to convert the videos into a lower quality MVEs to fix the issue yesterday but I'm not happy with the quality.
Will redo them as MVEs once again but this time using the Interplay method for that with Targas.

 

[Weyland]

Damn, I'm too old and get stuck, no idea how to escape :/

 

[Kaadovah]

I've found one bug, when I used Auto-Wall Lift, killed Spore and came back to Service Level I cannot move the map as below

I'm using the updated version and I get the exact same error.

 

[hexer]

Damn, I'm too old and get stuck, no idea how to escape :/

You're not too old. It's just that Tibbets was built so no one can get out

Spoiler

But focus your search around the locked corridor with tree-like machines near Metro bar.

I'm using the updated version and I get the exact same error.

That's weird. I tested that fix before shipping the update yesterday. However, maybe patches don't work on saved games. I'll have to investigate that further.

Did you start a new game or loaded an old save?

 

[Kaadovah]

That's weird. I tested that fix before shipping the update yesterday. However, maybe patches don't work on saved games. I'll have to investigate that further.

Did you start a new game or loaded an old save?

Saved game with expanded scrolling range (1440x1200 instead of 480x400).

EDIT: I'm getting another bug - world map is blinking with the last regular map I left, complete with my character on the exit grid.
EDIT2: Are there any established locations one the world map or only random ones (I've only got the radspider's cave so far)?

 

[hexer]

Saved game with expanded scrolling range (1440x1200 instead of 480x400).

EDIT: I'm getting another bug - world map is blinking with the last regular map I left, complete with my character on the exit grid.

Yep it seems save games will be invalidated for patched applied to previous files. New content should be fine though.

The world map blinking bug sounds like something caused by you modifying ddraw.ini
Are you using any mods?

 

[Kaadovah]

Yep it seems save games will be invalidated for patched applied to previous files. New content should be fine though.

The world map blinking bug sounds like something caused by you modifying ddraw.ini
Are you using any mods?

I wanted to use the inventory sorter but it doesn't work. Also, another bug: I didn't notice before but I was dumped right in the middle of the world map. When I tried to get back to the Tibbets, it was lebeled error and I spawned in the black void. Reloading last save (from some random encounter map) crashed the game. After reopening the game, save worked but the error remained.

I found the tribal temple, talked to the guy there. He said he gives me tools but I have none in the inventory, also the message on the car says I can't fix it. Is this just an easter egg or can I obtain the vehicle (or is it something waiting for the full version)?

Are you going to release the game in chunks like this or is it just a demo/proof of the concept and the whole thing will just show up someday?

 

[gustarballs1983]

The easiest way to find it is to enter it through the spore plant entrance. If you haven't, I suggest you use the latest installer where I fixed the issue with being stuck after using it.



It's great to hear you fixed it! I think H.264 was the default setting in Shotcut so I assumed it would work for most.
In any case, I had to convert the videos into a lower quality MVEs to fix the issue yesterday but I'm not happy with the quality.
Will redo them as MVEs once again but this time using the Interplay method for that with Targas.

Are You saying I've missed some elevator in the storage room with armored destroyer robot? or are you simply talking about that map transition to the spore plant?.

Also. no need to convert to .MVE as I've said I've succesfuly managed to re-convert intro.avi by using mpeg-1 codec for video and mpeg-layer-2 for the audio. It worked just fine. i kept the original video 29.xxx FPS and original bitrate. the resolution however could be upped to 704x576 while maintaining the same aspect ratio. The software I used fucked up a little the video because some frames are behaving strangely, however i got intro.avi working in the game. If You want me to i can upload the fixed video somwhere. Unfortuneatly I couldn't manage to convert the second video succesfully, as it was always displayed in turbo motion in low quality with given codecs. maybe due to FPS issues. As originally MVE does not support FPS below 25 AFAIR, so it's probably the same for .avi . Remember that .avi has several specifications and the game supports only avi 1.0 specification. That is uncompressed mpeg1 video. the only thing you need to do is to change the extension from .mpg to .avi (by renaming the file) and make sure file name matches your setting in ddraw.ini

 

[StopSigntheVendingMachine]

Just escaped Tibbets. The frames throughout this demo where choppy even with the high-resolution patch, which really was the only upsetting thing that threw me out it. We really are in the future! Can't wait to meet all the colorful Companions!

 

[gustarballs1983]

@hexer

Based on my succes with forcing fallout engine to play your intro.avi (managed with any video converter), I ve tried to do the same with portable version of shotcut, as it allows for more settings. however there are shitton of settings there that i don't know how to set, besides the program gives error in the logs that it can't write header to the disk and just fails recompression. any idea how to force shotcut to actually do some work?

I hope I don't break any intellectual property rights with providing a link to this reconverted video but here it goes:

https://mega.nz/file/ioxE2YIZ#GpVA8gcrhUZCF_uyh69BTUuI3Sk92wnQr0Rj_ANxXMY

this file contains intro.avi for Fallout yesterday that works in fallout engine *and* has resolution of 704x576 pixels

if this link does somehow break intllectual property rights, let admins delete it asap, as I have no idea how to check it.

 

[Paladin Hank]

@hexer

Spoiler

I escaped Tibbets prison but am having trouble finding The Howling City. Am I missing something?

By the way, congratulations on this first demo. So far this mod shows a lot of promise. I particularly like the soundtrack (the music in the Tibbets Prison fits perfectly with Fallout) and the new critters

Spoiler

the giant robot in the storage room looks spectacular

I feel like there could've been more characters in the Prison for the PC to interact with (the Prison feels a bit empty at times) but other than that the main story is intriguing and I look forward to seeing what you have in store for us next.

 

[gustarballs1983]

ok

@hexer
got your original .avi videos converted to a format playable by Fallout 2 engine. also have both files in 2 versions one in 640x480 and one upscaled to 1440x1080. both versions of both files do work under Fallout:Yesterday, though the quality gain from the upscaled version is marginal compared to 480p. however it's still shit tons better than your .MVE videos which you haven't transformed with -hq parameter in order for them to be 480p. instead both your .MVEs are 240p as in 320x240 ( that's what happens if you don't use -hq parameter). Anyways .avi playback in game has a side effects. if you don't use <filename>.cfg and <filename>.pal thoghether with the movie both side belts during playback have strange colors for example white or blue. however if you do use theese files together with .avi files video has artifacts during playback. nothing major, but still annoying.

if you want i can share the files, although the 1080 versions are quite big. intro.avi in 1080 is over 1,2GB big. 14mins video though.