Edit: I was not aware of this thread and i also thought this should have gone under fallout 3 suggestions. Anyway there is a locked topic in the FO3 suggestions forum with the first post
http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=44571
I am hopeful that like the previous titles this game will be heavily moddable. This is my greatest hope and dread if you will.
The modding ideas goes from not too much changing the basic game to very much stomach implants. The difficulty of creating mods change.
Edit: The perks: It seems the first mod will be on managing the perk rate. At the moment it seems to be 1 perk every level. considering that this game will be roughly around the same level as the old ones at the end-game (i usualy hit the end-game for FO2 around level 21 or so. Without grinding that is.) i think it will be safe to consolidate watered-down perks and get them back to 1 per 3 levels (or maybe 1 per 2?).
Also there is "still" no mention of the learned abilities like "gecko skinning". It might be a good idea to put some perks like these as quest rewards.
End of first edit:
Edit Mk2:Tragic The Gathering!: It doesnt have to be graphic based, or it could even be a glorified 54card deck with fallouty icons, used to play plain poker instead of a full scale MtG like game.
Same thing for Sticks&Bones (A pair of dice and some "sticks" to keep the score). Heh, since this is a full 3D engine with tons of mods of this kind done for the previous version(s) i wouldnt be suprised if someone manages to integrate a way to play boardgames like chess or checkers or even a fallouty version of battleship....
1-The Backpack
As a writer/dreamer myself, i do make the same mistake from time to time. An idea might be clever but relying too much on it makes it go sour.
This is the case with the pipboy based inventory. I have no problem with using the pipboy to see the details of the item in question but it is inadequate to act as inventory display.
I am also a bit puzzled why Beth is not using quick slots. the way i see it; a trekker (hiker? a guy who has a backpack and walks for days) or a light infantry (seeing you will be acting as one some/most of the game) has 3 or 4 levels of inventory space:
Firstly, there is the thing (or nothing
) that you are holding in your hands, or maybe two one handed items (a rifle or a pistol and a knife or whatever)
Then there is your pockets and bandoleer, your quickslots if you will. A magazine in your bandoleer, a grenade in the side hanging pant pocket, a flask of water in your heart pocket. maybe a knife in your boot strap or pistol holster...
After that you might be wearing something like a fanny pack. Your important but not needed if you are ambushed items go there probably; a small medkit like bundle? compass and map? flint and steel? maybe a zippo instead? maybe your papers confirming that you have the right to be in XXX territory? who knows.
Lastly you have your trusty backpack. Your loot. Your food. Your bedroll. (in descending order of importance).
The interface for these is a bit tricky. i want to make the quickslot items from your bandoleer and the usable items from fanny pack shown (in fps mode) like the metal gear series did - the active item is shown in the lower left part of the screen by a small icon. this also brings a bit of tactical choice: how much of your qslots will you load with reloads? how much with stims or grenades? I hope grenade usage and reloading eats from your action point pool. if not i hope to make it something like:
reloading from qslot: 1ap, fanny pack: 2ap, backpack: 4ap;
grenade toss from qslot: 2ap, fanny pack: 3ap, backpack: 6ap! (try getting something from a big backpack while its on your back. i dont think you will be able to take it off and search it in firefight)
When you want to access your fanny pack your character looks down to the pack and you get a small inventory screen. When you want/try to access your backpack; your character takes off the backpack, gets it infront of him then kneels-puts it down to dive into the depths of it. (Or more realistically if the pack weight is below, say 20% of your carry weight you can do it standing -if i can even pull this at all that is-)
And please dont preach me about backpacking. I have yet to see a person who doesnt put his pak down if he has the chance.
Maybe the icon of the selection can be shaped as the characters hand... im not sure but it can look like this: the hands hold an item in it and like the original fallouts when you press arrow keys the focus shifts to another item (the hands grab the next item)... might work or might not... i like the way developers try to throw away the pop-up screens or make them a part of the game so if i can manage to implement the rest of the inventory system... maybe...
Backpacks and especially loaded ones should give you penalties. remember you are acting/fighting as a light infantry. Drop the pack, shoot the bad guys; or alternatively keep the pack and start running in the opposite direction
Backpack types (that i have thought of): A sack, a gunny bag (less volume than sack but much easier to carry on your back than the 2 sheets of bedclothes you throw all those loot in.), indian style wood framed leather backpack, a-an army surplus backpack (preserved in vacuum packing?), an army web gear harness? and so on and so on....
2-The Explanation Box
This is something that the nostalgic dinasaur in me really wants. In all the previous fallout games (2 main and 1 spinoff... wait that consol pice of... nevermind that idotic thing) there was a little box with computer text babling in it. That little idiot chatterbox provided you with insights from the wast database of your pipboy about the focus of of your attention. Like the fact that if you slept on that bed you wouldn't be sleeping alone or the fact that the man holding that woman had the look of someone on the edge of sanity due to stress and sleeplessness... Now to ressurrect that little idiot one would need:
a- a list of object id's and a file containing wall of text related to those ids.
b- a semi transparent window on the lower left corner of the screen. Displaying the text about the item under your cursor when you press... q?
Actually if i can / if the vault sequence of the game can be edited, im half convinced to put a quest / event into the vault, resulting your dad (the doctor remember? remember the implants in fallout world?) giving you an implant to save your hearing in your left ear. well i dont know how your dad had and how he modified a "fbi/cia security-bodyguard's" like implant to act as a hearing aid to you but as a result you can now access detailed info about your targets
3-The Job Outfits:
If i understood it correctly; there will be clothes in the game that give you bonuses to certain skills. Actually this is a very good idea. However how Beth will implement it is the question mark on (some) people's minds. The point i am trying to emphasize here: if you look like what you want the other guy to think of you then you can convince him more easyly on some issues.
If you enter the town wearing a recently battered combat (riot?) armor, a very good grade gun in display and a bulging sack (and similar other little telltale signs of a successful road warrior) it should be a bit easier to get the shopkeeper to open up his special store. (im sure he will try to sting you on the price of normal items thou
) and get the caravan job to pay a little bit more fur such an experienced guard.
The deadlier looking warrior=more deadly and has access to more cash warrior isn't too far off the mark.
The other part i like about the way you clothe yourself şs the disguises. The first fallout had it and since then i didn't see that option in
"ANY" game. By wearing the appropriate look of clan x raiders/slavers/lab assistants/cultists etc you should be able to move around in open without being bothered by those guys. (Beware of the Sergeants!)
I am still unsure (want to strangle some journalists that have played the game. they dont ever talk about the basic gameplay mechanics.) about the clothing -armor issue. Despite reading a lot of articles i couldnt even find out if armor was piece by piece or the original fallout style 1 covers all. (Or maybe Oblivion style; Helmet-Gauntlets-Armor-Greaves-Boots) So as a modder, i will tell you how i visualise it: Clothing+Helmet-Armor-Specialised Foot and Hand gear usable with some of the armors.
Clothing is basically your lovely, shoot me now and loot me sign, blue jumpsuit
Armors come in 2 distinct types: Up to and including "Combat armor" types, you basically tie the protective leather-studded-metal-balistic protective stuff pieces over your existing clothing. With these types of armor you can wear specialised hand and foot gear if you need instead of the normal armor parts. (like a cut fingered glove if you are going sniping or heavy work gloves for meele. Same for your footwear: special boots to walk in toxic sludge.
These armors can also use headgear; motorcycle helmets, steel helmets, kevlar helmets, hats, etc. The combat armors usually should have their own headgear thou.
The other kind of armors are the full body suit ones. These are Hazmat suits, Enviromental Armors and Powered Armors. Needless to say these suits can only use their own head-foot gear....
As you might have noticed i want to add 3 classes of gear and some new rules to the armor-worn equipment list:
Basic infantry rule: its easier to wear it then carry it in your backpack. Any armor worn should be considered 80% or 75% heavy for determining the impact on carry weight. In the case of powered armor it should only count 15% or 10%. the heavy exoskeleton is supporting itself without too much help from you tbh.
Bandoleers and Web gear should make the equipment on them treated as the armor they are attached to.
Backpacks with good frames enable you to carry more than an unergonomic sack on your back. So you can cheat a bit and carry 10% (?) more with a good backpack.
If you still have loot (and the str to carry it) i don't see how a full backpack volume should be able to stop you. Put the loot in a sack and carry the sack in your hands.
4-The +5% to science outfit
This was one of the most booed things in the game. Actually like most of the Beth ideas this one has its roots in the good soil. The execution seems a bit iffy thou. (I am not gonna c/p this to every of my criticims: What i am saying here in based on the bits Beth has showed to some guys and
the bits from those bits those guys/gals remembered to write about). To do some tasks you need to have the proper kits. yes i have opened screws using keys from my keychain and smilar weird things using bits of string and paperclips
. Anyway in my attempted mod i will try to assign difficulty grades to mechanisims and tasks. This means if you are using a good (6) grade gear ona average (5) task you will recive 10% (maybe 5%?) bonus to your skill. On the reverse issue of using grade 5 gear on grade 6 task you will recive 20% (maybe10?) penalty. Remember its always easier to fail.
On a more complex note (this is under the heading modding the whole game) i would like to make your basic kit accumulate over time; with every doctors bag or F/A kit found (those contain mostly meds and gauzes) there is a cumulative chance of upgrading the basic kit in doctor skill. (who knows where you might find an ancient but still usable bullet removal tool. On the lockpicking, hacking and repair aspects the grade increases could be obtained both by finding bette tools or doing a hard operation with inferior tools, creating your own tools in the process.
5-Modifying items
Item modifications are or should have been a big part of your gear. If what i have read are true, then most of the open ended item modding wont be in the game. (Like adding scopes, lazer sights to weapons or patching on some additional armor plates onto your chestplate) This feels very weird becouse Beth is already implementing a system to cannibalise weapons to repair other weapons.
I can understand that "You cannibalised weapon x and got 7 rifle spareparts and 19 weapon spareparts" and "you need 9 pistol 17 rifle and 25 general spare parts for this upgrade" is not a good way to go but you can use other means to create moddable weapons:
1-Normal Maintenance:
With using a maintenance kit you should be able to repair most of the wear and tear the weapon has sustained: you fight with a slaver patrol and later some feral animals, later in your hideout you clean and oil your gun. With a bit of time you repair 6 temp. durability damage to your gun. To repair the 17 accumulated permanent durbility damage you will have to find some parts from traders or cannibalise some other rifles.
2-Personalising your weapon:
Also known as "Zeroing In". Your average rifle is (if its factory made) designed for a male with Medium to Muscular build, 1.70-1.75m in height and around 80-85 kilos. If you fit in this demographic, good for you. For the rest of us thou, this means we can pick up the rifle and score the basic and standart shots,but we need to spend time with the gun to arrange the shoulder stock (so that it doesnt gouge our foreheads), push the trigger that way and pistol grip this way etc.
3-Barrel and Trigger (Also known as trigger assembly or chamber)
Many civilian weapons are classified as hunting pieces / they lack or have locked mechanisims for auto fire. Similarly there are diffrances in calibers: an .223 and a 5.56 are actually the same caliber shells, but 5.56 is a military caliber (meaning it has more power - does more damge and needs much more stronger chamber-barrel than your average civilian hunting rifle) Actually if it was hard to get decent weapons in the game i would be tempted to put such special weapons into the game. But if you can get a gatling when you are level 3... whats the point?
4-Attachments:
Most of the weapons on earth are made to be soldier-proof. Soldiers as a class of human beings; have jobs that gets them to break things and as a result they get used to breaking things. This is one of the main reasions of this little weird fact: Weapon attachments can put up with
A LOT of abuse.
While putting up a scope on a rifle you find wont work; with a little smooth tabletop, a lot of testing and basic tools you can install scopes to most of the traditional rifles.
I dont know if flashlights are in the game but if they are adding a light flashlight to your "assault" gun is not too hard
Similar to the Scopes, laser sights and Red Dot Sights (Reflex Sights) do their work just by being paralell to the barrel and compared to scopes they are a childs play to install.
There are the invisible laser sights. These use near ultraviolet lasers and can only be seen with night vision equipment. And i dont even know if they are going to be in the game...
Underslug Grenade Launchers: Yes i admit, hese look cool, badass, etc but these things are a pain in the prosterior to fire (the darn trigger cant be used with your primary hand, and no one that i know of can fire these without jerking and throwing off the aim) makes the rifle they are attached as nimble as a pregnant whale and just forget reloading these idiots in combat will you.
Supressors and Silencers: these work by a) slow bullet that flie in sub-sonic speeds not to create a sonic boom b) obscure the flash and muzzle boom of the bullet. To be honest you can just use a darn [Cencored] to [Cencored]. The only efficent silent weapons that i know (and can fire up to 100 rounds without too much degradation) are the ones that are manufactured as a whole (silencer/suppressor integral to the barrel, diffren chamber seals etc)
4-Cutting down on the weapons
I started gaming heavly with my purchase of 2 titles: a dog eared copy of a weird game called Fallout and a cd-box with a blonde headed female (neck long haired new starbuck styled) shooting an MP42ish gun. Jagged Alliance 2. And since that day im still waiting for a game with better firearms progression & feel.
As a gamer the parts i liked in fallout combats were all about those small fights, hoarding my precious few bullets and trying to do most damage with them without having my head blown off. Well this feeling went south in both games afer certain points, i agree but still i feel it should be an achivement to get those better weapons, rather than "OMG BMFG Fattboymanzor!"
One way to do this is by introducing new enemy types slowly; At first i should be battling with my crude weapons. The other guys should be the bottom of the pile too: zip guns, home made pipe rifles, how the hell did you fill the air bottle of that compressed air harpoon ffs?, and the usual assortment of clubs, spiky metal or wood pointed things, OMG is that a bow? a friggin bow? etc... after this tribal rounds of fights, maybe i should be able to buy a decent civilian gun by selling my soul and my 7 next generations. or maybe point-nudge-push me to a quest where i ambush a bunch of lavers holed in a building. To the victor! The spoils! Nice to meet you you sexy little ithaca hunting shotgun.
ANYWAY: i know you are bored to death by the wall of text, weapon categories: crude (homemade etc) - pre war civilian - modified civilian / surplus prewar army - prewar army - prewar prototypes / Enclave and BoS goodies.
4-The Chem Dogs and the others
Or you can say Clan Viper. As far as i have been able to see the game story lacks in the department of "factions with questionable parnthood" these little factions/towns are not actually evil. well they are not good either but for one reasion or another you can couse change in these little settlements. Chem Dogs, loosely based on clan viper from fallout cannon is going to be my attempt to crate a new fraction (and a quest hub
)
5-Hardening the game
This is not easy to describe actually. At the moment the game feels
like a guy with too much fat and not enough muscle to me. The seriousness of the wastes with black humor has the potential (Dont start promethium fires here. shoo) but it needs a workout:
*Cheater Guard Captains: Yes there are NPC's that should not be killed for a smooth play but instead of toggling god mode for them use the plot armor: Your blow calculations show that you one shot him? Hey kid while you were playing with your bb gun, he was tumbling away from the bullets fired from behind to his head. Dont make him: "This NPC is critical to story continuation" crap, make him the deadliest bastard alive in the wastes, Make the inside of that pentagon citadel "no weapons zone" or just leave the details of quest link with the unstealable dropped only when dead diary.
*Dont make a "street walker" out of the explosions: drain the charges of cars on the street, let us shoot the preassure cansiter on the mutie flamethrower armed grunts back. use them in a few and realistic locations with maximum carnage.
*The new plazma warheads for bazooka is really nice.
*The plot device called fatman is not so bad, its sad that it has only "1" charge and its a quest item
*Mushroom clouds are deadly and are powers to be worshipped. 2+ Mushroom Cloud per game=Someone is watching the wrong era of time.
6-Cutting down on the Brotherhood dosage:
WARNING THIS IS PURELY SEMI PERSONAL RANT.
Remember the origins of BoS: they were the guard(ian)s of a research center. they were ordered to move out with the scientists so when the bombs hit they were not crisped to death instantly. After some time they found another abandoned/cleaned by antipersonel effects military outpost. They built their society there dedicated to keeping technology alive.
Now think about another military unit. This time on the east coast. These military man were back home for refit early via a northen port. they were in the middle of nowhere when the bombs hit. Unlike the western soldiers these man found and collected dependants from civilians. Lacking a true base of operations and infastructure they become some kind of raider like organisation. A Raider like organisation wich managed to protect its Army structere and discipline.
Think that these guys were the ones pushing west in fallout tactics instead of the "OMG ZEPPELİN trooper thingies" Armed with lesser, cruder,scavanged weapons but also armed with a fire in their hearts to find the lost base. They found enemies. More enemies. And they were never able to find the lost base. But they found something else. Farscouts from some military organisaion called BoS.... Most of them migrated to west and settled there but they still keep the path of bloody bunkers open, and they have made the bos come east.
What i envision for the power-armoured knights in this game is this. A major force of army soldiers and a small cadre of BoS soldiers.
Bwahahaha and also a great Wail on top: It seems the BoS will be smilar to what i was thinking about: there will be some "gone native" gun happy knights in shining armour BoS soilders and a small cadre of Traditional BoS paladins. Now i am not a good writer, and i suck at guessing detective stories. This feels bad
---End For Now---
For me it's just another generic, action orientated RPG. And I don't care if it has Fallout in the title.
