Lesson Learned: Being a Wastelander Sucks

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

I feel sorry for the many situations the 'Wastelanders' get into. The random NPCs who don't really have any defining characteristics, strong skills or powerful weapons, and really only show personality when they die.



I was wandering near Tenpenny Tower, when a Wastelander woman comes tearing past me as quickly as she can. Tried chasing her down, but that was a lost cause. I then turn around...and there's a pissed Deathclaw also on her tail.

No wonder.


So...after a barrage of explosives and a Combat Shotgun blast right to the head in V.A.T.S, I go back the way it came, and check out the ruins of a building. Of course, there are random Wastelander bits strewn about the place, the woman's friends apparently weren't very quick. One guy is armed with a Pool Cue. The other has a hunting rifle.



A party of Brahmin-skin-wearing Wastelanders, armed with Pool Cues and maybe one worn down rifle...landed smack dab in the nest of a Deathclaw.



These people have the worst luck.

 

[Twisted]

Yeah well, shit happens right?

The game is not meant to be dominated by NPC's. It's meant to be dominated by the player.

Besides i like the fact that everything/everyone is food for someone else.
Instead off the down sides on Oblivion. That everyone was after you. Now you can witness Raiders fighting off a Deathclaw. Or Talon Mercs doing a big offensive against Super Mutants.

 

[Phil the Nuka-Cola Dude]

Yeah well, shit happens right?

The game is not meant to be dominated by NPC's. It's meant to be dominated by the player.

Besides i like the fact that everything/everyone is food for someone else.
Instead off the down sides on Oblivion. That everyone was after you. Now you can witness Raiders fighting off a Deathclaw. Or Talon Mercs doing a big offensive against Super Mutants.

You won't be saying that when you level up and find out that every npc that isn't in an indoor cell has been slaughtered by giant radscorpions

 

[qi]

I've been noticing NPC-corpses a lot in my game lately. Will they respawn with cell reset?

 

[Erny]

I ran into a group of mercs geting lazered up by robots... so I helped them all, to die that is.
And then I found a contract on my head in merc's poket Unlucky bounty hunters


the poor wastelanders is a good detail of the world
kinda like hermits random encounters in Fo2

 

[Seelix]

I noticed additional stupidity in NPCs behaviour. Captives' for instance.

For example: I freed some Captive held by Mutants just near Rivet City. He was unarmed. This guy thanked me, gave some stuff and said 'They will never catch me again'. And then he simply ran towards those Mutants who patrol vicinity of Jefferson Memorial.
Long live R(andom)AI!

 

[Twisted]

Yeah well, shit happens right?

The game is not meant to be dominated by NPC's. It's meant to be dominated by the player.

Besides i like the fact that everything/everyone is food for someone else.
Instead off the down sides on Oblivion. That everyone was after you. Now you can witness Raiders fighting off a Deathclaw. Or Talon Mercs doing a big offensive against Super Mutants.

You won't be saying that when you level up and find out that every npc that isn't in an indoor cell has been slaughtered by giant radscorpions

Well i'm at level 16. So i figure it would have happen by now then . But i tend to kill everything that moves anyway, that might be a reason. All though i do find a lot of death wastelanders indoors.

 

[Genma:TheDestroyer]

I ran into a group of mercs geting lazered up by robots... so I helped them all, to die that is.
And then I found a contract on my head in merc's poket Unlucky bounty hunters


the poor wastelanders is a good detail of the world
kinda like hermits random encounters in Fo2

First time the Regulators spawned to come after me, it was smack dab in the middle of a Super Mutant controlled area. At first I didn't know who they were, I thought I'd stumbled onto some Scavengers getting ambushed (I was coming out of a Metro Tunnel, overstocked with stuff so I could barely crawl).

Regulators, Super Mutants, and the occasional Centaur looking like the odd man out, just kinda waddling around throwing goop.

 

[Phil the Nuka-Cola Dude]

Well i'm at level 16. So i figure it would have happen by now then . But i tend to kill everything that moves anyway, that might be a reason. All though i do find a lot of death wastelanders indoors.

I didn't start noticing it until 21, but it pretty much breaks your game.

 

[Sir Mildred Pierce]

Yeah well, shit happens right?

The game is not meant to be dominated by NPC's. It's meant to be dominated by the player.

Besides i like the fact that everything/everyone is food for someone else.
Instead off the down sides on Oblivion. That everyone was after you. Now you can witness Raiders fighting off a Deathclaw. Or Talon Mercs doing a big offensive against Super Mutants.

I stepped out of Megaton once, found a Yao Guai doing battle with Doc Hoff, his Caravan guard, and the tin can that guards Megaton. By the end of it the good Doctor was missing a few limbs. With the Yao Guai concerned with everyone else, it didn't notice me and I managed to snipe it dead pretty quick.

Here I am posin' like Palin.

So yeah, I dig the whole dog-eat-dog environment in the Wasteland where anything can happen, makes for some interesting encounters.

 

[TheRatKing]

Sort of reminds me of STALKERs ALife. Where various factions can fight and take over territory by themselves.

 

[TheLastOutlaw]

Today I was looting a gas station when suddenly a flaming wastelander ran right into me and dropped dead. A raider with a flamer showed up right behind her and seemed just as surprised to see me. The level of chaos in the wasteland feels realistic and is one of the things I think BethSoft managed to get right.

 

[big brother]

The level of chaos in the wasteland feels realistic and is one of the things I think BethSoft managed to get right.

If you ask me, this is THE single most important thing in a video game. I played a lot of games in my life (way too many) and there aren't many games that drew me in the way Fallout 3 did. I jumped multiple times because of some encounters with Mercs or Super Mutants, I laughed at some of the subtle humour and hidden stories that the game developpers put in the game without any reason than to make us laugh. I felt like I really was in that world. The only two games I can honestly say really drew me in like that were Silent Hill 1 and Resident Evil 4, but those were still totally linear games where they have you where they want.

Bethsada managed to make me feel part of a world where I could go where I want as I wanted. That's rare.

 

[Limbabnees]

Today I was looting a gas station when suddenly a flaming wastelander ran right into me and dropped dead. A raider with a flamer showed up right behind her and seemed just as surprised to see me. The level of chaos in the wasteland feels realistic and is one of the things I think BethSoft managed to get right.

Yes, this is one of the fun parts