Improving Fo1-Fo2-FoT

[naossano]

After we derailed a thread of New Vegas, and discussed about how Fallout 2 would have been better it had more quest involving more than one city, it was considered creating a thread about it.
Since Lujo was the most supportive of that thread i will let him do it if he want.

But more generally, even if the old Fallout games were, for most of us, some highlights in videos games, there weren't perfect. Nothing is perfect.

So, for you, if you had wonderfull modding abilities, or a hundred of Black Isles employees to follow your orders, what would you do to improve these three games ?

Of there are many things that were already improved by Fo1 FIXT and Fo2 Restoration Project, but there are surely other flaws around that would never be touched by any modders. What would they be ?

IMO

Fo1:
The ability to join the Master should have been extended with actual quests to conquer the wasteland as a super-mutants, and have Jacoren & Rhombus as main bosses.
Also, there is an invasion of super-mutant in many cities if you wait too long. It would have been cool to be there when the invasion happens to prevent it.
Sure, there is also Junktown original endings.

Fo1-Fo2:
An average of quality & interaction with follower improved, like FoNV with each one having at least one personal quest with multiple outcomes. Also, far more dialogs after the recruitment.

FoT:
The correction of inconsistencies, obviously.
Longer story arc for the Beastlords and reavers. They were original concept, but felt too short.
More emphasis on the three way war between BOS, the calculators army, and the super-mutants/Reavers alliances, with mission involving more than two sides.
More investigations mission, in which fight don't happen at the start of the mission. There are some ingame, but they are rare.

 

[RetroAmerica]

Though fighting through the nostalgia, if the games were to get a face-lift I would have done the following differently:

Fallout 1:
I think with Killap's Patch(I believe this to be the restoration patch), a lot was done to restore much of the missing content however it would have been interesting to have seen what the game would have been like, if the player did have the option to continue on as a Supermutant once he gets dipped. Also, it would be interesting to see some of the cut content such as the Master's Steamtrucks and the Brotherhood Ruins.

Fallout 2:
Again much of the restored content from Killap's Patch tended to fix a lot of what was missing, however it would have been interesting to see what had happened to Tycho and Katja as well as better demonstrating the results of your interactions with each city/group during gameplay, so as to keep the player wanting to go back to former visited sites even after they've completed the quests associated with it.

Fallout Tactics:
Though not really the point of an X-Com style game, but it would have been interesting to have the player having the option to engage in more dialogue, and perhaps more adventure.

 

[BigBoss]

I will keep things simple for now until I feel like going back and editing my post (or creating a new one) to go into detail.

Fallout 1: MAke it bigger, expand the map with more places and areas. Put more information for the player to find in the game (maybe in the Glow) on the Great War and the events leading up to it, and maybe some of the things the US and China were doing (espionage, stuff like that. You could just have the character download all that info to his Pip-Boy from the ZAX in the Glow, just so it could be there for the player to read if he wants to). I know we have the Fallout Bible, but in-game information would have been nice. Add more of the 50's sci-fi esque feeling that Fallout 2 had.

Fallout 2: Make it more serious. More evident that a disastrous nuclear war had happened. Make it darker like Fallout 1. Give the player the feeling that many people are struggling to survive. I mean Fallout-1 like struggling. Like New-Vegas, this felt more like the "Post-Post Nuclear Apocalypse", like the majority of the Great Wars aftermath struggles were ending and things were starting to get better for everyone.

Fallout Tactics: Mark any existing files from its creation Top Secret Eyes only and throw every copy in a furnace. Create "SS-esque" Squads that go out specifically looking for this game.

 

[naossano]

I wouldn't want Fo2 more serious.
Many plots take that tone into consideration.
Without the Fo2 tone, they wouldn't make as much sense.

On my digging operation, i found those threads, that may help us to find flaws and think of solutions :
http://www.nma-fallout.com/showthread.php?199116-Bad-things-of-fo1-2
http://www.nma-fallout.com/showthread.php?192513-Most-annoying-Fallout-1-2-plot-holes
http://www.nma-fallout.com/showthread.php?176085-The-flaws-of-Fallout
http://www.nma-fallout.com/showthread.php?158491-What-did-you-NOT-like-about-FO-1-amp-2

 

[SnapSlav]

So, for you, if you had wonderfull modding abilities, or a hundred of Black Isles employees to follow your orders, what would you do to improve these three games ?

As far as FO2 goes, there's really nothing TO do to it that hasn't been done already by killap and his collaborators. The only issues I've taken with the F2RP is that the added maps are always quite cramped, doubtless a result of them being reintroductions of content that never made it to certain editing stages by the original developers. The things I'd do to improve FO2 are quite simple. Visual overhaul, which is a very laborious task, but if you have the drive, giving a wonderful game a nice facelift is endlessly rewarding, and tweaking those maps reimplemented through the RP to be more spacious and less cramped. And that concludes ALL I think the game really needs. No need for voicing every character; FO3 and FONV did that, and unless you get a unique voice actor for every other role, it gets REALLY irritating to hear the same person, fast. No need to make them FPS games, that would just undermine the heart of the gameplay. No need for much of anything outside of small visual tweaks.