requiem_for_a_starfury
So Old I'm Losing Radiation Signs
How does SPECIAL not work in Fallout? Every task that needed a skill check is covered, it allows you to create a character as you please. Just because some character builds would have less to do in the game doesn't make it unbalanced. Especially since there's no set path through the game.Sander said:And its environment is what it was built for.
As I've noted time and time again: any system can have an environment crafted for it in which it is balanced, but if the environment it was created for does
not work with the system in a balanced way I don't consider it to be balanced. As I've also noted time and again, you can either balance the system or the
environment. Both are equally valid. You have not given a single valid reason as to why this would not be the case.
Balancing the system to fit the environment does have drawbacks, it limits you to what can be done in the game or more importantly future games. This goes to the heart of game play vs setting, which means more to Fallout. If you keep balancing the system to fit the environment then eventually you get a game that's unrecognizable as a Fallout game. It's a fine line to tread, if a skill isn't used much in the first game and you balance the system by merging it or removing it for the next game why bother trying to think up things to do for the other skills. Why not just concentrate on combat and to a lesser extent speech with a few mini games for the rest?
I'm not entirely against some changes such as getting rid of energy weapons (adding science to the to hit calculation for weapons flagged energy) or merging unarmed and meleeSander said:Possibly, but I doubt it. I don't see how removing gambling, or merging first-aid and doctor precludes you role-playing, really.
(neither skill is meant to be a formal martial art and you are as likely to use you fists, feet, elbows and even headbutts as much as your weapon) changing non combat skills is another kettle of fish. Not every first aider is a doctor, having a single medical skill allows the character to perform complex surgeries wether it's in character or not. On the other hand having separate skills does allow for more role playing rather than roll playing. What would balance the skills though is allowing medium to high doctor to be able to also use first aid.
No it wasn't offered in Fallout but that doesn't mean that every Future Fallout game or mod has to offer the same games. It's your character playing after all, with just a front end offering you a choice to bet or not and if so how much, something that could be changed to reflect a poker or other game. But if you take out the skill then you limit the choice of games to those that rely on pure luck, you limit the role playing to playing just a lucky character or not.Sander said:There are also, of course, professional poker players but they work based on the weaknesses of their opponents, who are not the casino and can hence be beat.
And again: this form of gambling isn't offered in Fallout.
Why should there be a serious need for anything in the game? Unless the game is hideously overly scripted. That was the beauty of Fallout and SPECIAL for me, there wasn't a proscribed method to play.Sander said:You don't. You don't need to, either, unless there's a serious need for it in the game. With the limited use of traps in the games, that isn't really the
case, for instance.
Yes, I know, balancing the environment vs. balancing the system. See my note above.
Yes you did, though you've just modified it with the exclusion of combat skills from your rebalancing. How is 'equally useful' not efficient? How is 'equal opportunity for every skill' not an efficient use?Sander said:No, that's bullshit. I never said that, nor ever claimed that. I said that every skill should be equally useful, that means that there should be equal
opportunity for every skill (combat skills perhaps excluded, because those can be used near infinitely) to be used, not that every skill should be usable at
every opportunity.