The Beginning of Fallout 3

[Guest]

This is my suggestion for the beginning of Fallout 3:

OPENING

The Door of Vault (insert number). A door that was sealed before the first bomb fell from the sky and turned the lush earth into a scorched desert. Those who dwell inside the vault have no knowledge outside world. All they know is what their Overseer has told them "Only death lies beyond The Door...". And so the door has remained closed... decades after the ten years for which it was originally designed. The halls are lit only by red glow of the emergency lights... all that can be allowed. For the power fails... as does the food supply and even the water purification system (an homage to Fallout 1). Every time the lights flicker the vault dwellers wonder "Will this be it?. The time when the lights go out and don't come back on?" But even now, The Door will not be opened. Because every body knows that "nothing lives outside of the Vault..."

WHAT NOW?

You start the game inside of the Vault which takes the look of an evil dungeon because of the darkness and the red glow of the emergency backup lights. You will spend a decent amount of time inside the Vault, slowing the initial pace of the game and giving your character more time to be a survivalist (because supplies are dwindling and weapons are rare and regulated by the Overseer). Here you will have many courses of action from which to choose (in addition to whatever mini-quests you want to throw in):

Be Diplomatic and...
A) Convince the Overseer and his Officers to open The Door.

Be Violent and...
B) Lead the vault dwellers in a riot against the Overseer.

Be Sneaky and...
C) Get close to the Overseer and Steal the Key to The Door.

Be Violent and Sneaky and...
D) Assasinate the Overseer.

Be Cunning and...
E) Discover another way out and sneak out of the Vault.

Be Smart and...
F) Hack into the Computer System and Open the Door.


AND ONCE YOU'RE OUTSIDE?

Hey, I'm not gonna' write the whole thing! I'm just pitching an idea! But if you'd like to expand, well... that's what this forum is for!

 

[Locke Taelos]

Fallout meets Breath of Fire 2.

Thats an odd way to name a reply, but thats the vision I got from reading your proposal. I'm not saying its bad, but the fact that the vault dweller ends or could end up leading a bunch of people out into the "land of milk and honey" seems to be a bit dangerous for a roleplaying game.

Now that might be part of how nonlinear your game might be. Sure, you can choose between staying with the vault and helping them settle in and become a booming city. Perhaps you can manipulate them all into being a supremely evil culture bent on raiding and pillaging their neighbors. Perhaps you don't even want to be with those people and opt to travel on your own.

Thats all nice, but it reminds me of something along the lines of Sid Meiers: Fallout Civilization. We don't want the responsibility of having tens or hundreds of people following us around in a roleplaying game. One of the greatest things that Fallout has is its appeal to those that hate this horrific system that mankind has set for itself. Its great for loners. Its great for survivalists. Its great for the idealists that want a solution to waiting hours in traffic.

I think a beginning to Fallout: 3 should avoid the Vaults its been way to long for anyone who could possibly still be in a vault, to still be a live. Lets not forget that Fallout 2 was like some sixty years later I believe. Vault Dweller was already dead. I don't think many vaults would still be around. Course this opinion may just be of California. Perhaps other states were better off after the war. Albeit Illinois (Chicago) wasn't.

Fallout 1 did the Vault thing. Fallout 2 did the Tribal thing. I suggest that Fallout 3 starts out with a person in the city. Or perhaps multiple starting points.

Lets assume for example that Fallout 3 would be the largest Fallout game yet. I mean, how many cities were in Daggerfall or Morrowwind? Wasn't there like over 100? Lets not have THAT many cities, but lets let the amount grow a little bit. Give Black Isle some time to really develop Fallout 3. So we have more cities and a lot of them would specialize in certain things.

For example, maybe the ol' Ranger Center (from Wasteland days) is back. You might say, "The Desert Rangers can't be used cause they don't have the rights to Wasteland. AND it wouldn't fit in the Fallout universe." Well, that may be true, but don't forget that there are the NCR (New Californian Rangers). Those guys are the Desert Rangers reincarnated! So maybe they found some bunker and started running their operations against slavery that way.

Okay, maybe you have some really small trading outposts manned with maybe a tavern, general store (trader), and very little or lacking in accomodations. You know, just like in the settler days. Well you could dot those all over your Fallout globe and people like survialists or tribals, or anyone else who goes hunting, skinning, tanning will be able to trade.

And you'd have your capital cities like NCR or Vault City or wherever else. You'd have your Brotherhood of Steel. You'd have your middle class cities like Junktown and The Den. And maybe you'd have underground villages or tribes in the desert to visit.

In either case, what used to be a random encounter should just be dottered here and there. Maybe Black Isle can even develop an engine that just randomly tosses out trading outposts, tribal meeting grounds, and the like. That'd be nifty. Especially if you could keep visiting them. Maybe take an odd quest here and there if you're not doing anything productive.

Now thats a lot of ranting and I promise I'll get to the point.

THE POINT:

Remember what I was talking about earlier? How your origin/location/occupation should have a part in character creation? Well thats where you'll start. Perhaps if you claim Tribal in your character sheet you'll get to choose which tribe to start out in. And then they'll give you a specific story on their needs, what you can do to save them or help them, and blah blah blah. Now you won't have to save the world just yet. But then again, perhaps you won't have to.

Lets say that you'd pick a drifter. Does a wanderer ever start anywhere or have a specific goal? Perhaps to go to a specific destination, but a wanderer doesn't have to worry about finding any vault chips or finding that universal garden of eden creation kit to save his starving tribe either. If he's wandering alone chances are he wants to be alone.

Of course, as we watch in movies like Mad Max, if you're a Mr. Nice Drifter you'll end up meeting unfortunate people and you'll help them. But what does the drifter do afterwards? HE LEAVES! So perhaps that is going to be your goal. To survive, to find that one thing you're looking for. But your requirement for ending the game or even starting out in the game would be different than someone who wants to live in a tribe.

And then of course lets say that you're a soldier in one of the big cities. Well then you're story will probably be something like what Fallout Tactics would give you. A simple task at first which leads you to bigger and better things and ultimately to save the world.

So you see, why start out with a been there, done that (escape from meanie vault overseer) when you can have major replay value by playing a new character type every day. Or even play a custom character whom you can actually pick your own starting place.

And finally, I'd like to suggest a ranking system. I loved the idea of joining groups like the rangers/slavers/made men/skinners in Fallout 2. The only problem was that it wasn't very motivated. You might get experience points for doing something for Mordino or lots of money for bagging ten running tribals, but lets be serious. It got old eventually.

So I propose something to make it more interesting. Dah dat daaaah. The Fallout Career System. Yuck, the sound of that brings back not so fond memories of playing Final Fantasy Tactics, but its not like that at all.

Lets say you join a military organization. Well militaries have rank right? So, perhaps your commanding officer gives you series after series of quests which provide you with better weaponry, experience, and wealth. Yet, you'd also build up your reputation (oooh that's already in Fallout) with that group and they'd promote you to a higher status. Perhaps you'd go from Initiate to 2nd Lieutenant or something. And then up the ranking system. Just imagine how good you'll feel when your arsehole co from when you first enlisted ends up a peon under your command.

Maybe they'll even give you the ability to send other people on missions of your own. And if so, you could send your ex co to his death bed. YAY. Just a thought.

And of course, the mafia ones would have the same ranking system up to the point where you're in charge of the mafia. Or maybe not in charge, but powerful enough. Maybe a don, but not the godfather.

Perhaps you could even end the game when you achieved the highest possible ranking in that area and lead those people to whatever end they or you desired.

In fact, lets just give the player a choice to end the game after that or not. Maybe he just wanted to make something better for a few years and move on to something different. In either case though, the goals of any organization you join will probably influence a good majority of the towns in the game. Therefore, you'd have massive plotlines to choose from.

I always liked feeling as if I was in control of games. Thats what pleased me with the Dune and Command and Conquer games. They gave you an option on where to attack sometimes. And of course depending on the area you clicked on, you'd get a different mission. I think roleplaying games should sort of give you multiple fronts to attack. It might take more time, but at least you'd have a higher replayability.



"I don't know what World War 3 will be fought with, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein.

 

[Guest]

Y'know... if I was a betting man...

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, CAN'T REMEMBER

Sometimes it's "been there done that' like 'Friday the 13th' but other times it's 'getting back to it's roots' like 'Final Fantasy IX'. Since Fallout 2 kind of stretched the realm in odd direction (fire-breathing geckos, anyone?) I thought returning to the Vaults would be the first step back on the right track.

It bothered me that Fallout 2's hero was "descended from the original Vault Dweller". I thought THAT was 'been there done that'. So I wanted to create a new Vault Dweller. But there is great weight in your words and, I admit, this isn't one of my better ideas.


WALKING A STRAIGHT LINE

The thing that most greatly influenced me going linear was this post by Mirax, who (unless I'm badly mistaken) is pushing the actual project proposal for Fallout 3.

Taken from 'Fallout: Logistics and Acceptance' on this board:

“As you can probably apreciate. differant beginnings would be daunting task for our lead story writer. If the different beginnings were to merge into the main plot too early it would be pointless, and if they were to merge too far down the line it would be a logistical nightmare. Unfortunately due to these factors it is currently unlikely. I will not rule it out however as our team has been known to pull a rabit out of a hat on many ocassions.”

I was playing the odds by going linear.


ARE YOU A BETTING MAN?

I would much prefer a perfect non-linear game like the one that you suggest, but it all comes down to a matter of feasability.

Could the developers possibly write a completely non-linear game without reducing the story to empty quests and mindless level building?

I'm sure they could, but... how much time and money are we talking about here?

If they were to use the original Fallout game engine, then I suppose what you're suggesting is possible. However, it's all but adamant that they'll be creating a new 3D engine for the project. There goes a huge portion of that time and money...

Each beginning and ending would have to be painstakingly scripted for every possible path you might have taken, otherwise it would be shoddy and inconsistant. Either it would take too long or cost too much (or both).

I wouldn't want to gamble and end up with a half-assed Fallout 3.

I'd prefer a more linear game with a more linear story over a non-linear game with non-existant story.

Or maybe I just don't have as much faith in the developers...


MMPNRPG: A MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER POST NUCLEAR ROLE-PLAYING GAME

I love your ideas, but they would be best to impliment in a MMORPG (i.e. Fallout Online). There we run into a problem. It seem that this is a very unwelcome topic on this board (which is a shame, because I've come up with a way to integrate the current Fallout battle system almost intact into a multiplayer environment and I can't post it here!).


WHAT ARE THE STAKES?

If your ideas were to come to fruitation, I would happily eat crow the entire time I was playing my copy of Fallout 3

But it's hard to bet on 'pulling a rabbit out of a hat'...

 

[Locke Taelos]

My monitor died...

Depending on when I get a new monitor, I might not be posting as much or as long. I'm not quite sure how monitors work, but if there are specific bulbs or tubes that operate what colors appear, than the one operating anything "green" on my computer must be dead.

In other words, unless I select all the text in here, its just plain black. And everything white is a horrible shade of pink. Man oh man, I wish my monitor was back to normal. Especially since Freedom Force just came in the mail. Great googly moogly!

ANYWAYS...

I agree that it would take a lot of time, but didn't they make Fallout 2 in like 6 or 8 months or something? I mean, it sure came a heck of a lot faster than any sequel I ever saw. Now, I know they used the same engine, but they still developed a storyline mega fast. Therefore, I'm sure they could invent a non-linear storyline that was just full of a bunch of different things. Does it honestly have to all end up leading to the same place? Eh...I don't know. I keep asking myself, "Why do I want to save the world?" If the Chosen One didn't destroy the Enclave, would someone else have?

I'd like to think so, who knows. Maybe that Mysterious Stranger who has nothing better to do than to randomly show up will. Ya know? And the Brotherhood of Steel would have intervened at some point I bet. Point is, what if you just don't want to save the world? I wish games would stop assuming that we want to. I'd just as well see the world go up in a big mushroom cloud just to get an ending that said, "NICE ONE,ARSEFACE! YOU JUST LET THE WORLD BLOW UP. GAME OVER."

Well, I really don't wanna see life get obliterated, but I do want the ability to chose the life course of my character. Take the whole marriage thing for example. There are a lot of roleplaying games on consoles that let your character fall in love. I think that they should use this. Instead of screwing an imbred farm girl who had NO personality whatsoever and added NOTHING to the storyline, why don't they add more female NPCs and let you have a possible romance with them. That'd be kinda neat.

If you play Baldur's Gate 2 or even the first one, the NPCs you have on your party have a lot to do with the storyline. They actually say things. Wow. The Fallout series did little to actually have storylines based on NPCs. Okay sure, you helped the chick from Shady Sands. Sure, you helped that fat guy who was imprisoned by the slavers (I'm bad with names). Yippy! =/

After the guy joins your party, thats it. The only interesting things he says then are if you get him laid at the Cat's Paw, if you shoot him and tick him off, or if you open his dialogue box. And ALL NPCs are like that. Fallout really needs to make their characters grow.

Who's the most infamous character of Fallout? Everyone'll tell you that one. DOGMEAT! Isn't that rather ironic though? A mangy mutt that can't talk, has no storyline other than the fact that its master disappeared and it follows you if you feed it or are wearing a leather jacket. I mean, if a dog is more compelling than a world peopled with colorful, wartorn people, thats pathetic. Why do we even like Fallout again?

So I think I'm just going to map out things, in no particular order, that Fallout needs to improve.

1.) Compelling NPCs that have their own quests, personality, and can be tweaked after they level up (in like every other RPG other than Stingy Fallout).

2.) A class system for joining various groups in the game.

3.) A better character creation system: One that includes nationality (and/or race), location (where character starts), occupation (for any special perks like skinning/gunsmithy or any trades that character might know to make some extra money).

4.) Non-linear storyline. Come on, we don't want to end the game by dying or saving the world! We wanna pursue our own needs!

5.) Do what Troika did with Arcanum. Give us players a way to add something to the game. For example: let us be able to write books, data tapes, come up with NPCs, things like that. Or how about even sport some storylines given to you by players. That'd be nifty.

I'd love to see a sandy haired, snobby Locke Taelos thumb his nose as the scummy dross living on the streets and offering mucho money to willing to take part in his quest.

6.) Weather! Give us snow and rain! Or maybe even acid rain! Think about it. Maybe the rain is dangerous and everyone stays away from it.

"PROTECT THE WATER VATS! PROTECT THE WATER VATS!"

7.) MAP EDITOR! But for crying outloud, give us something easy. I don't know crap about programming. Why can't someone make like a Microsoft Front Page version of a map editor. Why is it that everytime you want to do something on a map you have to script it. I'm a very creative person. I could come up with awesome stories, but I've never cranked out any mods whatsoever. Why? CAUSE I CAN'T SCRIPT! I DON'T EVEN WANT TO TRY. =/ I just want to tell a story, ya know?

"So in so walks into room and has a conversation with George, kills him, then leaves."

Isn't there anyway that someone could just come up with a button or some easy option that just does the coding for you? Come on now! =/ I dunno, maybe they can't make it easy for us. But good lord, you're missing out on some great Wasteland tales then. =/

8.) Give us a free Fallout-Boy Bobble head! Well uh...you all know you want one.


"I don't know what World War 3 will be fought with, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein.

 

[Guest]

RE: My monitor died...

Well fortunately no one stupid enough to suggest something like:
"Fall Canum! When a nuclear strike happened in the land of magic!!"
(But this one seems nice! Just Kidding He he)

 

[welsh]

I like this idea. For one, it allows us to do things in the vault from the get go, unlike in Fallout 1 where you had to go back to the vault and the interior fallout quests were not that interesting. Second, its consistent with the Fallout universe and kind of brings us back to the spirit of Fallout 1.
This could happen either before, during or after the events of the earlier Fallouts and could take place elsewhere than Western US.

 

[Guest]

But somehow it must have any connection with the previous Fallout..... Yeah just don't make it like FOT. The story didn't got any connection with FO and FO2. Just another side story without connection....
But i like the idea anyway. Nice! Just make something to connect it to Fallout.

 

[Guest]

Agreed.


In God we Trust