Lead designer of Fallout 3 makes some mild comments

[Brother None]

How's that for honesty in the subject line?

Fallout 3's apparent lead designer, Emil Pagliarulo has been answering questions on the Blood and Shadows (Oblivion fansite) forum. Some interesting picks on Fallout 3:<blockquote>first off, something about Bethesda: when will you guys make something new? (...)

Lohan: Well, it's a pretty loaded question, Mr. Nobuddy. We do TES because Bethesda is the house that TES built; we'll always do TES. We're doing Fallout because, come on, it's Fallout! (...)

Second: what does your position mean, how much freedom do you have, on what can you make decisions?

Lohan: For the purposes of Fallout 3, Todd and I have worked really closely on design. To be honest, Todd and I work really well together creatively; we share most of the same philosophies, and want the player to have the same kinds of experiences. So the overall design (setting, combat, story, quests, etc.) is mine, with a healthy dose of input from Todd (most of which I agree with anyway). Ultimately, Todd could have vetoed my entire design -- but very little of my original idea has changed. And the other designers work with the stuff Todd and I have established, and run with it -- often putting their own touches on things, as is expected.

Third: when will you be able to answer fallout questions? (...)

Lohan: Not anytime soon, sorry.


Forth, and you SHOULD answer this: are there leveled hostiles & item lists in Fallout? (...)

Lohan: See question 3 (though I will say we are certainly aware of the concerns people have, and the places in Oblivion where the leveled stuff goes out of whack).</blockquote>Link: Thread on Blood and Shadows forum

Thanks Briosafreak

 

[mortiz]

I'm not a 100% sure how to respond to this news post as there's actually nothing about it to discuss.

But I managed to eek this one out

 

[Brother None]

Nothing to discuss? Wait until Rosh gets his hand on this and the comments about working with tod. Yeeegh.

Also, on a personal note, I hope his last comment ("aware of concerns") isn't just pr-speaks, but translates into "We're sorry, we realise this was a dumbass thing to implement now, we're removing it. Again, sorry. Our bad."

 

[mortiz]

I suppose there is that, but come on, you didn't expect him to b-rate his boss in an interview did you? It'd be kind of worrying if he does actually respect Todd's opinions.

 

[Endless Void]

Third: when will you be able to answer fallout questions? (...)

Lohan: Not anytime soon, sorry.

Isn't it a fucking irony that each news post about FO3 carries something along these lines?

 

[Brother None]

Isn't it a fucking irony that each news post about FO3 carries something along these lines?

He, imagine if an actual newspaper actually pulled that one. "Headline: BUSH STILL NOT TALKING ABOUT GUANTANAMO"

Would be teh funnt

 

[Endless Void]

Nothing to discuss? Wait until Rosh gets his hand on this and the comments about working with tod. Yeeegh.

Hope an another Bethsoft asslicker pops up
*grabs the popcorn and waits for the deathclaw*

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

What does the question "Forth, and you SHOULD answer this: are there leveled hostiles & item lists in Fallout? (...) " mean? Was it a testing him question or is that an actual feature?

 

[Brother None]

What does the question "Forth, and you SHOULD answer this: are there leveled hostiles & item lists in Fallout? (...) " mean? Was it a testing him question or is that an actual feature?

It's from Oblivion. Oblivion had critters that would level up as the PC levelled up, wolfs turning into bears turning into lions and that kind of shit. Once you reach the upper levels, all the bandits are wearing super armours.

The forum dude is asking "will this be applied to Fallout 3 as well", i.e. rats turning into manti turning into wolves turning into aliens turning into deathclaws.

 

[quietfanatic]

And although it might just be more diplomatic phrasing, I unfortunately get the impression that they think that these terrible features are salvageable.

 

[Schuljunge]

It's from Oblivion. Oblivion had critters that would level up as the PC levelled up, wolfs turning into bears turning into lions and that kind of shit. Once you reach the upper levels, all the bandits are wearing super armours.

The forum dude is asking "will this be applied to Fallout 3 as well", i.e. rats turning into manti turning into wolves turning into aliens turning into deathclaws.

Thats one of the dumbest Features, i´ve ever heard.

Reminds me a bit on older games, where higher or stronger enemys just had a different color.

edit: ... and its still in use!

 

[Duckman]

Mna, I'd love to be one of those guys, with the ability to make or break a massively popular series...

 

[Bradylama]

The thing about the item lists is that they were also level-scaled. All loot in the game was random and determined by your level. So it was impossible to go and steal a Daedric Bow at the beginning, for instance, but you were stuck with silver weapons fighting higher daedra, and you could kill badasses with the greatest of ease at lvl. 1.

 

[SuAside]

the 'cheat' approach was to build a characterclass with all skills you weren't going to use. (in TES4 you leveled when your main skills had advanced enough)

by doing this, you remained around level 3 max throughout the entire game. easy mobs, easy fights, no attentionwhore armor, no lagging behind on item quality.

 

[MurkyShadow]

So they did solve the problem from Morrowind, when you just were walking around, traveling the land, and with lvl.40 made the first quests and just bashed everyone out of the way. Great, great.

 

[mortiz]

What does the question "Forth, and you SHOULD answer this: are there leveled hostiles & item lists in Fallout? (...) " mean? Was it a testing him question or is that an actual feature?

It's from Oblivion. Oblivion had critters that would level up as the PC levelled up, wolfs turning into bears turning into lions and that kind of shit. Once you reach the upper levels, all the bandits are wearing super armours.

The forum dude is asking "will this be applied to Fallout 3 as well", i.e. rats turning into manti turning into wolves turning into aliens turning into deathclaws.

Beth can always say the F.E.V. did it!

 

[Morbus]

Forth, and you SHOULD answer this: are there leveled hostiles & item lists in Fallout? (...)

Lohan: See question 3 (though I will say we are certainly aware of the concerns people have, and the places in Oblivion where the leveled stuff goes out of whack).

Well, i personally don't agree there should be ANY leveling crap in a Role-Playing game. First off, the Fallout world is a world that lives from himself, a consistent wolrd that doesn't depend on the player or weather it is powerful or not. A fallout world NEVER acts that way, and NO RPG should act that way too. Only FPS's act that way, with easier enemies at first and harder at the end. That's play bull in an RPG. Beisdes, what Oblivion does is not making it hard as we evolve. It makes it impossible to play because the leveling mobs give NO sense of progression at all.

I'd like to believe that beth devs agree with me (at least most of them), but i'm not very positive on that...

 

[Sander]

Well, i personally don't agree there should be ANY leveling crap in a Role-Playing game. First off, the Fallout world is a world that lives from himself, a consistent wolrd that doesn't depend on the player or weather it is powerful or not. A fallout world NEVER acts that way, and NO RPG should act that way too. Only FPS's act that way, with easier enemies at first and harder at the end. That's play bull in an RPG. Beisdes, what Oblivion does is not making it hard as we evolve. It makes it impossible to play because the leveling mobs give NO sense of progression at all.

I'd like to believe that beth devs agree with me (at least most of them), but i'm not very positive on that...

Are you arguing that everything should be just as hard at any point? Because that's just as much bullshit.

There should be a natural progression in RPGs, because otherwise the improvement of your character becomes somewhat pointless. Fallout started out with rats and radscorpions and ended with Super Mutants and Deathclaws as the enemies, the latter obviously being much more powerful than the first. However, if you were to go back or accidentally come across less powerful creatures than yourself, those wouldn't suddenly have become more powerful. That would be bullshit, and makes the progression your character has made ridiculously useless.

 

[Morbus]

Are you arguing that everything should be just as hard at any point? Because that's just as much bullshit.

No, i'm arguing the precise oposite

(...) However, if you were to go back or accidentally come across less powerful creatures than yourself, those wouldn't suddenly have become more powerful. (...)

Yup, that's what I meant. And also, if you happenened to go to dangerous areas at lvl 1 you'd be pwnd hard...

There should be progression of course, but the world should be static or change only a little bit, and NEVER according to player's level but according to the storyline if need be.

 

[Silencer]

Once you reach the upper levels, all the bandits are wearing super armours.

The forum dude is asking "will this be applied to Fallout 3 as well", i.e. rats turning into manti turning into wolves turning into aliens turning into deathclaws.

Now, let us not forget, Fallout 2 did apply that philosophy in a few select places, i.e. cave robber and bounty hunter random encounters (I don't remember if there were other instances)

It does stand to reason that mercenaries in leather jackets wouldn't risk tracking a Gauss-wielding desperado. So in some applications, levelling enemies up to match your "power level" does indeed help balancing.

The key word here is "all". If I want to idle time away by killing low lifes (i.e. critters with few HPs ) I should be able to go to a certain sector on the map near the start or into some "early" city, but in some other cases, enemies would evolve (in the middle-area of the game.) That would make sense.