FOnline: 2238 Developers Video #1

[Lazlo]

Plus, the gifted trait is gone

Why is that so ?

Charisma normally stands for the appealing of your character. Not his way of speaking, wich was determined by Speech and Intelligence.

Plus, too much technically way to make things RP will dispense player to do it.

And that sucks.

Well, gifted was removed because it was basically a mandatory choice if you wanted to survive in the wasteland against other players. Having seven extra character points outweighs losing five skill points per level. Undeniably. Even if you didn't take it, everyone else in FOnline did, and they were invariably more useful in combat. You may have had more skill points, but they had more hit points and action points, and by level 3 or so everyone is skilled enough to hit most of their attacks, gifted or not.

As for charisma, I'd argue that if charisma represents your charm and appeal, then being the least charismatic a human being can be should invoke negative consequences. I mean, what do people imagine when they imagine a guy with 1/2 charisma? 1 charisma to me is the John Merrick, the Elephant Man. Look him up. It doesn't matter what they say, or how they say it, or how well founded their arguments are, he is too hideous for most people to listen to. It doesn't matter how good your speech skill is if you're so hideous most people can't bear to look at you.

Charisma, to me, represents a character's most basic ability to interact with human beings - 'a combination of appearance and charm'. To me, if your charisma is absolutely terrible then the whole world of social interaction is something that confuses and frustrates you. You can't relate to people and you make them uncomfortable. You don't know how to interact with people. You can have high intelligence, but without charisma the whole world of other human beings is closed off to you. A character with high intelligence and awful charisma would be a very severe autistic, not just an ugly man who is still perfectly eloquent. The line where you're no longer unpleasant but actually totally alienated from social interaction is in the 1/2 charisma points area. Most humans, in my opinion, are somewhere between 4-8.

The charisma word-change hasn't been implemented, but I see it as a way of reminding people of the consequences of picking a character with huge weaknesses. And, to be frank, gameplay considerations come before RP considerations. If the points that are in charisma are essentially 'free character points', because charisma does nothing, then most people will choose more combat effective stats over the currently useless charisma. Meaning characters are less balanced, and punishing people who don't necessarily want to make a combat build.

 

[Eve`]

Charisma should be pretty useful.

If you want to play as a Trader/Scientist/Doctor then give yourself a good Charisma score, get magnetic personality, save up sufficient money and buy yourself up to 5 bodyguards of varying quality to protect you whilst you service your customers or patients.

Even combat capable characters should consider getting a few points of Charisma to be able to get some help carrying stuff around or even to use as some back-up for themselves.

 

[Lazlo]

I think the price of mercs could probably do with being tweaked. They're kind of expensive for 5k a pop, and even then they only come with a 10mm pistol and a bad attitude. I'd like them to be a viable option from the start. Even if it is someone with Myron-level combat abilities for just 250 caps. So long as you have the charisma, they should be a practical way of keeping yourself alive from the start.

Hmmm, maybe I should've even giving 6+ charisma characters a free follower in the starter town. An old childhood friend tags along when you leave town. When they die, you get a dialogue option to hold their still warm body to your chest, and regret you never told him you loved him. Then you head to Reno and become a bitter shell of the man you once were, snorting jet and throwing your money away betting on boxing fights.

 

[Eve`]

The mercenary system isn't ready at the moment, so I wouldn't worry about how good they are now.


As it is now you can get slaves near 1k cost that are decent enough in combat, up to 50k mercs. I'm sure a lot of things will get shifted around until some sort of balance is reached and we get to see the results in some future video


I would be very surprised if they don't become a popular choice though, I know I'll be saving up for some at least

 

[Lazlo]

I was just thinking about this, maybe absolutely every town could have a way of recruiting backup, but only the official 'Merc recruiters' in the bigger towns will provide decent combat-trained people. I like the idea of heading into a bar in Klamath or the Den and paying a couple hundred caps for 'supplies' to get another Davin or Miria.

 

[ralexand]

Well, regarding starter gear, before I left the dev team I submitted a 'starter town' area. The dialogue was mostly done, the map was actually poached from the now defunct FMF. The intention behind it was that you could get yourself a leather jacket, a 10mm pistol, a knife, brass knuckles, a couple rounds and a bit of experience. The items themselves could probably be 'rusty' versions of the originals, meaning they had the same stats but were financially worthless, so people couldn't farm them for easy cash.

I was hoping they could be instanced, in that this starter town only contained the player and some NPCs so that new players could familiarise themself with the game before they had to deal with other players. There was enough xp if you did all the quests to bring you to at least level 2, so you could feel a little more confident when you entered the real game. There were people that explained the basic tenets of the game - don't trust anyone, be prepared to run like hell, and so on. Once you left, you couldn't go back, meaning that there wouldn't be an issue of high level players coming back and griefing newbies.

I also threw in a trainer who increased your melee/unarmed/throwing skills, much like the tribals in Fallout 2 who increased your melee and unarmed, to help give players a more reliable backup if they ran out of ammunition.

I really like this idea of a "starter town", something like a small tutorial. So that you don't have to start with no idea whats going on. It would be really good for beginners.

 

[Lazlo]

I really like this idea of a "starter town", something like a small tutorial. So that you don't have to start with no idea whats going on. It would be really good for beginners.

I think it'd be good for both beginners and veterans. I mean, I'm in the closed beta and when I make a new character I'm still at a loss for how I should get gear. The 'base/drop' system of old is gone, so no more farming those until the end of time. So I figure giving everyone some basic gear at least once would help. Even then, when you die and lose it you're still screwed.

I should probably have included a 'clear my basement of rats' quest just so people could get the hang of the new combat.

I actually don't mind the idea of respawning with a pipe rifle and five rounds, or -something- every time you die. Dying should be rough, but when you respawn with nothing and there's no way to change that, you get frustrated. But I guess that's what fetch and 'deliver this message' quests are for.

 

[swampcat]

I really like this idea of a "starter town", something like a small tutorial. So that you don't have to start with no idea whats going on. It would be really good for beginners.

it will be good also for old players who simply want to explain
things to noobies ... for example i'm trying to get some friends of mine to join the beta ...... and it could be useful to have a
" safe town " to start......

A character with high intelligence and awful charisma would be a very severe autistic

what ?!?! autistic ?! That's not about intelligence....
it is charisma and not intelligence....

 

[Eve`]

There are towns where you will have guards enforcing law and order. In any of those you will be (almost) completely safe.

Or, as said before, join a faction.

An already established one will provide you with an (almost) safe place to store any equipment, some jobs to do, more than likely some other players who have joined the same faction as you for some help.

Or join a player founded gang, now you have people who will be willing to help you, it is even in their interests to level you up and supply you and you can also take part in various other features that will give gangs a purpose.

If you then want to be a loner, that's your choice, but its automatically going to be harder than finding friends to co-operate with people. Although with a less harsh beginning compared to the last test, even this route should be easier

 

[Lazlo]

But even if you guys don't bother with a starter town (though I'm pretty adamant you should) you still need to provide people with that initial push to allow them to actual do things ingame. I mean, what self-respecting gang would want to let in hordes of jumpsuited level 1s, especially considering half of them will probably leave the gang after getting armed.

The same goes for guns. If people lose their initial starter gear, there needs to be a very easy way to get the most basic stuff back. The crafting system isn't suited, because you need tools to gather the raw materials, and where can you get the money to buy them? And even then, as a level 1 you probably don't have the necessary repair skill to build anything.

Is there any kind of requisition system for the big, already ingame factions like Vault City? Say, the decent players can offload their 10th sawn off shotgun in a kind of 'bank', but not a container, just to help out new members. So new members can get one free item per day, but not in a kind of 'communal gear locker' kind of way, which would just result in people grabbing it all and selling it, but rather a forced limit on what you could take. I'd happily donate my unwanted 10mm pistols and leather jackets when I hit the higher levels.

 

[SmartCheetah]

But even if you guys don't bother with a starter town (though I'm pretty adamant you should) you still need to provide people with that initial push to allow them to actual do things ingame. I mean, what self-respecting gang would want to let in hordes of jumpsuited level 1s, especially considering half of them will probably leave the gang after getting armed.

The same goes for guns. If people lose their initial starter gear, there needs to be a very easy way to get the most basic stuff back. The crafting system isn't suited, because you need tools to gather the raw materials, and where can you get the money to buy them? And even then, as a level 1 you probably don't have the necessary repair skill to build anything.

Is there any kind of requisition system for the big, already ingame factions like Vault City? Say, the decent players can offload their 10th sawn off shotgun in a kind of 'bank', but not a container, just to help out new members. So new members can get one free item per day, but not in a kind of 'communal gear locker' kind of way, which would just result in people grabbing it all and selling it, but rather a forced limit on what you could take. I'd happily donate my unwanted 10mm pistols and leather jackets when I hit the higher levels.

Hm. Most basic weapons should be crafted even with not tagged low repair skill I mean pipegun or something like that, spear et cetera.

 

[SharkClub]

IMHO a starter town is essential.

 

[Lexx]

IMO we have other stuff to do right now.

 

[swampcat]

Hm. Most basic weapons should be crafted even with not tagged low repair skill I mean pipegun or something like that, spear et cetera.

yes i agree... i mean the basic weapons so if i die i can do
a spear in a few seconds just to not let geckos or rats
kill me again and again ........ that could be very frustrating....

 

[Lazlo]

IMO we have other stuff to do right now.

I'm sure you do, but don't underestimate the importance of making new players' first hour or so actually fun. With the removal of the base drops, players have lost a major source of income that hasn't really been replaced. While I like the idea of the wasteland being a place where money and resources are scarce, there's currently no way to 'get on the ladder' so to speak. Once you have money, you can trade brahmin, slaves, etc., for a profit and that's a good system. But all that is moot if you can never get enough cash together to buy that first brahmin. Everyone's just going to have a beefy unarmed build in order to farm gecko pelts otherwise.

And as for the starter town, you could even just assign a bunch of new NPCs in Klamath all that dialogue until you've fixed up the map and worked out an 'instancing' system. I can't remember how much is left to do on it, but there's still weapons training, free gear, and a few quests.

You've still got a whole month, but I really do think you should prioritise fixing up the start of the game come OB3. Everything else isn't worth bothering with if no one can afford the new features.

 

[Eve`]

But even if you guys don't bother with a starter town (though I'm pretty adamant you should) you still need to provide people with that initial push to allow them to actual do things ingame. I mean, what self-respecting gang would want to let in hordes of jumpsuited level 1s, especially considering half of them will probably leave the gang after getting armed.

The same goes for guns. If people lose their initial starter gear, there needs to be a very easy way to get the most basic stuff back. The crafting system isn't suited, because you need tools to gather the raw materials, and where can you get the money to buy them? And even then, as a level 1 you probably don't have the necessary repair skill to build anything.

Is there any kind of requisition system for the big, already ingame factions like Vault City? Say, the decent players can offload their 10th sawn off shotgun in a kind of 'bank', but not a container, just to help out new members. So new members can get one free item per day, but not in a kind of 'communal gear locker' kind of way, which would just result in people grabbing it all and selling it, but rather a forced limit on what you could take. I'd happily donate my unwanted 10mm pistols and leather jackets when I hit the higher levels.

Hm. Most basic weapons should be crafted even with not tagged low repair skill I mean pipegun or something like that, spear et cetera.

For a spear you are talking about 40% melee, or 50% for it to be sharpened and similar values to craft brass/spiked knuckles.

Its pretty easy to get to level 2 using those weapons that you can craft using very cheap components at which point you should be able to begin crafting the basic guns for small guns or energy weapons if you so desire.

Even taking that into consideration, its a decent idea to take either melee or unarmed up a bit to allow you to level up without having to spend too much on ammo.

I have no idea if starter towns will be there or not, but I don't think theres any need to worry about the issue.

 

[aXXo]

i'm really enjoying what i'm hearing about the game. I played in the last open beta and loved it. Sadly, i couldn't play through the whole thing.

Half-way through the beta my graphic card decided do die on me. I was even playing the game when that happened. Was talking to a guy in a robe when all of a sudden my computer screen changed half the colors to pink. I was really sad about not being able to finish playing. Almost as sad as i was when i went to buy a new graphics card.

I'm really anxious about the next beta. Hope i'm back from my vacations by the time it starts.

 

[SharkClub]

IMO we have other stuff to do right now.

I was just sharing what I thought of a starter town idea, don't need to get angry or something. Anyway.

Are you going to be able to find random encounters like King Arthur's Knights and The Holy Hand Grenade? And if so, will there be 1 supposedly "unique" item for each person in a group?

If so here's a tip to some people who find it, DO NOT TELL ANYONE OR THEY WILL KILL YOU FOR IT. Also, that weapon is meant to be a 1 of a kind in Fallout 2 so how would it look with 20 odd people throwing Holy Hand Grenades all over the place.
1 Group of Throwing tagged lvl 5s with holy hand grenades > A special guy who got APA and a Pulse Rifle.

Also, will deathclaws be a faction if you can work out how to customize proper running animations for them? They can't use weapons but will have a very high unarmed skill. And my favourite is unarmed.

 

[RenoNut]

IMO we have other stuff to do right now.

I was just sharing what I thought of a starter town idea, don't need to get angry or something. Anyway.

Are you going to be able to find random encounters like King Arthur's Knights and The Holy Hand Grenade? And if so, will there be 1 supposedly "unique" item for each person in a group?

If so here's a tip to some people who find it, DO NOT TELL ANYONE OR THEY WILL KILL YOU FOR IT. Also, that weapon is meant to be a 1 of a kind in Fallout 2 so how would it look with 20 odd people throwing Holy Hand Grenades all over the place.
1 Group of Throwing tagged lvl 5s with holy hand grenades > A special guy who got APA and a Pulse Rifle.

Also, will deathclaws be a faction if you can work out how to customize proper running animations for them? They can't use weapons but will have a very high unarmed skill. And my favourite is unarmed.

No!

 

[SmartCheetah]

Sorry Mr. Horrigan, but I agree with RenoNut. First of all we need to test the whole core and most important parts of the game. Then we can think 'bout fluff and rest of "little funny things" which can affect/improve gameplay of only few people.