Todd answers 25 questions

[Tagaziel]

Bethesda Softworks has recently released an official community FAQ, in which Todd Howard responds to selected twenty five questions from the community.<blockquote>9. Will you have the written descriptions of items or just the visual? Granted, the visuals work just fine for me, but I loved the descriptions from the earlier Fallouts about how nasty the bed looks or whatever. Will there be something like our beloved text box anywhere in the main HUD? [anonymous]

We just show the object name, like “nasty bed”, but in general, I think if we’re relying on text to describe how something looks, sounds, etc, then we screwed up not having that come across naturally with what the player is seeing. It annoys me whenever we have to resort to describing something like that, even in Oblivion, with, say a journal describing how I feel or what I am seeing…it should just happen naturally.</blockquote>Link: Official Fan Interview

Muchas Gracias, Ausir

 

[Tagaziel]

In regards to that quote in the newspost, here's my personal opinion. Any Bethesdians reading it, can you please forward it to Todd?

This is unbelieveably stupid. Unless you can find ways to convey the smell, texture of surface or state of the object in a graphical way, don't post such nonsense.

Text was, is and always will be the most effective way of conveying information. Especially since graphics can only present how the object looks, not how it feels or smells.

 

[Sander]

Apparently, the 3rd person camera is not a viable combat option, unarmed combat is in and potent and VATS can only be used to shoot/aim, nothing else.

Also, dialogue is supposedly nothing like Oblivion.

 

[Ausir]

Also, drugs and addictions are in.

 

[Celluloid]

Also, drugs and addictions are in.

Do you have a source ?
I thought I read addiction was considered "not cool" at Beth so drugs wouldn't have any negative effect...

 

[Ausir]

A source? Well, the interview:

13. Will Fallout 3 maintain the same amount of drug content as the earlier games or will we see more or less? [thenightgaunt]

It’s about the same as the previous games, there are various drugs, and each as its own positive effects and side-effects if you get addicted to them.

This is also interesting:

Sorry, we’re not talking about what all the skills are yet, that will be later. In regards to the SPECIAL stats, that just happened to be the player’s data we set for the demo, and until you asked, I didn’t even notice they didn’t add up to 35, which they should. When you create your character, you get a total of 35 points, we go with the assumption you can make every stat a 5 if you want, so 5 is the “average”.

This still means the stats are lower than in FO1 and 2, then. In the original SPECIAL, the starting stats add up to 40 (or 47 if you have Gifted).

 

[Starwars]

A mixed bag for me. Some good stuff, some bad stuff. I think Todd read one of the questions wrong though (or perhaps it was me). The part talking about "making mistakes and not being able to fix them". I read that as "you the character making a possibly dumb choice, and getting yourself into a hard situation and the game responding realistically to that". Todd seemed to read it more like the game providing bad information through the dialogue choices.
I remember there was a situation like that when I played a female character in Jade Empire, where I picked an option that led my character into being kissed by one of the male party members, when I myself really just though I was being friendly to the guy.

Didn't really sway my views on the game much, but at least Todd seemed to take his time with the answers, and didn't just write out one-sentence answers.

Thanks to Todd and the people involved in gathering questions.

EDIT: Quite possibly the biggest let-down is that there seems to be a return of the quest-compass.

 

[Celluloid]

Ok, my bad, let's have a look at it so

 

[FeelTheRads]

If you look at Fallout 1, our dialogue trees are larger and more in-depth.

Toddy, come on, stop lying.

 

[Briosafreak]

25 questions in the end, not 20.

 

[stingray420]

Well he did'nt really answer 3 or 4 of the questions so about 20 anyway

He confirmed your avatar does not get any lovin however. So Violence and drugs, but no sex in the wasteland.

 

[SuAside]

VATS can only be used to shoot/aim, nothing else.

that's odd to say the least, since i saw Pete Hines queue 'reload' in VATS. does that mean it simply reloads without AP points & without extra benefits (speed perhaps?).

also, since the inventory pauses, does that mean you can take infinite stimpacks during combat? that's a stupid balance issue imo... they shouldve made using a stimpack an AP cost in combat.

as for VATS itself, i find it a joke... first he tells us that VATS is real time with special actions. then he tells us that you're real time, your enemies are slowmo and the world is paused?

make up your mind...

then he goes on to say damage on you is nerfed from enemies hitting you while in VATS play mode, and with the reason that it was annoying when watching the slowmo sequence? funny how 'looking really cool' takes precedence over actual GAMEPLAY. thanks Toddler.

 

[Tagaziel]

25 questions in the end, not 20.

Corrected, you portugese man, you.

 

[Briosafreak]

And the Spanish users will soon tell you it's "Muchas Gracias" too

 

[Slicerdicer]

CREATURES

20. How much do you plan to stick with the Universe of the original series from the point of view of living creatures? Will you have mutated ghouls and FEV-treated supermutants portrayed as living "persons" with needs, or will there simply be "ghoul-villain" and "Supermutant-enemy" who will only engage in combat? [anonymous]

We stick to it pretty close, so the Supermutants in this game definitely have an agenda. It really depends on the creature, and many come in different flavors. I guess I can say that, yes, we do have ghouls in the game, and most are used as NPCs you talk and interact with. We use them heavily. But there are also other ghouls, the Feral Ghouls, these are more “creature” like, and are aggressive.

Seems the muties and ghouls will be more than gun fodder in some instances.

 

[pnutz]

Regarding the quest compass, you always need an easy way to tell the player where you want them to go, so we’ll use something similar. I don’t think it’s a question of the system, it’s a question of how often/specific you want the player pointed. Sometimes we want the location to be a mystery, sometimes we don’t.

Rusty quest compass: in.

11. What is being done to improve the AI as seen in Oblivion - wall staring, oblivious to people being killed around them, guards knowing when a character does something unlawful half a map away etc.? anonymous

First we’ve rewritten all the pathfinding systems, which eliminates the majority of the “NPC acts stupid” problems. We’ve also centralized the “crime” stuff into the factions, so in general, they behave better, or at least in ways that make more sense – either joining in or running away. We’ve spent a lot of time on combat AI, which is almost all-new as well, in that we are going into a game with guns and groups of enemies trying to find cover, angles of fire, and such.

More tweaked Oblivion systems in lieu of something unique.

14. You have talked a lot about choices and consequences in the quest design. Are you aiming for immediate feedback, or long term (and possibly unforeseeable) consequences? In addition to moral choices, will different characters be able to tackle tasks using their different skill sets? [GhanBuriG]

It’s a bit of both, overall I think the player needs something immediate, or they don’t know if they actually accomplished anything, or felt what they just did had any meaning whatsoever. The longer term stuff is great to surprise the player with, whether it’s positive or negative, but if it’s a surprise, you need to be careful, because that can be frustrating, so you give the player another route, or simply treat the consequence as a flavor thing, and not a game-changing thing.

Players would be frustrated by anything other than completely obvious consequences, so that's what ours are.

 

[TheVaultKeeper]

I definitely want some kind of sexual content in there - even if it fades out.

I can not stress enough: Sexual content is a central feature of Fallout!

A ball gag, the possibility to be a porn star... or something new... it's a small, but really vital, part the Fallout world as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Ausir]

Actually, there wasn't much sexual content in the first Fallout. The porn star and ball gag examples are both from FO2.

 

[Autoduel76]

I don't really remember any sex in Fallout 1. I hear its there, but I've never come across it, or noticed it, in 10+ times of playing through it.

Fallout 2 is another story, of course.

 

[TheVaultKeeper]

Actually, there wasn't much sexual content in the first Fallout. The porn star and ball gag examples are both from FO2.

True, true.... FO2 added some things - some were good, others were not so good...

Car=good
UFOs=bad
Sexual content=good
Not a vault dweller=bad

At least that's what I think of those things. But now that I've seen Fallout with sexual content I can't imagine the world without it, it just fits... perfectly. And I would be very dissapointed if there wasn't at least one piece of something like that in FO3. But that's me, feel free to disagree if you like.