Todd answers 25 questions

[quietfanatic]

Inventory base was 4 AP's. With quick pockets it was reduced by 1 for each rank in Fallout whilst it was lowered from 4 to 2 for Fallout 2.

 

[SuAside]

I'm very disappointed about the VATS stuff, what's now bothering me is how stimpaks are used, as far as you don't spend APs for them.

Wait, I don't get this. Stimpacks didn't use action points in the other Fallout games either. Of course, it cost you action points to access the inventory, but then you could stuff as many stimpacks as you'd like in you.
In fact, no action done inside the inventory cost you action points, if I remember correctly.

indeed, but opening the inventory cost you action points which could be reduced by perks. it was an important facet of the gameplay.

if you really wanted to make VATS worthwhile, you'd need every action to be worth AP. not just aimed shooting (with damage reduction on your part) since that simply turns it into a stupid cheat.

 

[quietfanatic]

What evidence is there that accessing the inventory will not take AP's? Did I miss something?

When you’re not in VATS., attacks use up AP as well

Could be that he wasn't really thinking in great detail, but that actions other than 'attack' could consume AP's.

Still, if that only stops you from entering the gimmicky V.A.T.S. mode it isn't very encouraging.

 

[Ausir]

Wait, I don't get this. Stimpacks didn't use action points in the other Fallout games either. Of course, it cost you action points to access the inventory, but then you could stuff as many stimpacks as you'd like in you.
In fact, no action done inside the inventory cost you action points, if I remember correctly.

Actually, that was one of the things Tactics fixed - in FOT, accessing the inventory didn't cost you APs, but actions in the inventory did.

 

[bonanza]

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

Thats stupid. In Fallout 1 and 2, I could perfectly see that a "nasty bed" was a totaly devasted shithole. I didn't need any further descriptions, because the graphic designers and artists had done a good job with the 2d graphics.

Still, the text description were a very nice addition. Especially because they often contained some kind of humerous or witty element. (And ist TEH HUMOR what Beth is so eagerly trying to get into FO 3?!)

Only because the game is in 3d now, doesn't make any difference.

 

[Per]

Take Killap for example. He will no doubt immediately spend as much time as possible learning the new construction kit that's available for Fallout 3 (or unavailable, who knows); to try to hack the crap out of it.

Do you have any info on killap being a devout hacker and coder as well as a data modder? Don't you think his patch and add-on pack are significant projects by themselves?

Then there's also plenty of others that lurk around the Fallout modding forums and are working on their own projects. Sztrupy and mvBarricuda from the FIFE/IanOut projects, the people working on Afterfall, etc, etc.

Yeah, because working on two things at once wouldn't cause either of them to take a hit? Don't you think the reason that these projects move slowly enough as it is is that they don't have enough time to spend on them?

I've seen a lot of posts going "someone is bound to add/remove/fix something", but no "I'm going to" posts. It's entirely possible that we'll have a working Fo3 modding community, but I think it's more likely to be fuelled by new blood and efforts by people we never even knew about. Don't start handing out commissions to the people who have already done a lot. Hmm... except TeamX. Yeah, TeamX will make us a mapperscripter.

 

[Sorrow]

Thats stupid. In Fallout 1 and 2, I could perfectly see that a "nasty bed" was a totaly devasted shithole. I didn't need any further descriptions, because the graphic designers and artists had done a good job with the 2d graphics.

Exactly! Fallout's graphics are very clear and very good by themselves. They have enough detail to show such things.

Still, the text description were a very nice addition. Especially because they often contained some kind of humerous or witty element. (And ist TEH HUMOR what Beth is so eagerly trying to get into FO 3?!)

To me, the text was a great thing - it added a lot of PnP RPG mood and reading it is a pleasure in itself - later I found that I missed the text descriptions when playing other cRPGs.

We've still got a very reliable team of modders available to our disposal. Take Killap for example. He will no doubt immediately spend as much time as possible learning the new construction kit that's available for Fallout 3 (or unavailable, who knows); to try to hack the crap out of it. Then there's also plenty of others that lurk around the Fallout modding forums and are working on their own projects. Sztrupy and mvBarricuda from the FIFE/IanOut projects, the people working on Afterfall, etc, etc.

You mean, like killing off Fallout modding and fanprojects to mod Fallout 3?

 

[zioburosky13]

We've still got a very reliable team of modders available to our disposal...

Mod is not suppose to fix the gameplay element...mod is to add more fun element instead of fixing what the developer should had done...

 

[Morbus]

To me, the text was a great thing - it added a lot of PnP RPG mood and reading it is a pleasure in itself - later I found that I missed the text descriptions when playing other cRPGs.

Same here. I also missed text descriptions in Fallout 2. There were so many new items with no description, it really bothered me. A LOT!

 

[Sorrow]

I agree I missed them in Fallout 2 too - it was weird to see for an incense and then read "nothing out of ordinary", for example...
I see it as a big drop in quality of game.

 

[Continuum]

I agree I missed them in Fallout 2 too - it was weird to see for an incense and then read "nothing out of ordinary", for example...
I see it as a big drop in quality of game.

Probably they didn't have enough time to finish everything or maybe they were too lazy. Who knows...

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Mod is not suppose to fix the gameplay element...mod is to add more fun element instead of fixing what the developer should had done...

Apparently the new magic words these days is modification, games no longer need to be good because modders will fix it all.

Perhaps in time not even a game is really needed, just release a half finished code and toolset and modders will make the dream game of it that everyone expected it to be in the first place.

 

[sickfuck_diablo]

Why didn't anyone ask how much of the game is actually done?

Well this interview made me a little less pessimistic.

I'm annoyed as shit with all this VATS talk. Lame excuse for the abscence of TB combat. Srsly might as well just make it all RT, they know they want to. Ugh.

 

[TheWesDude]

seriously i wonder why people focus a lot on graphics... all they are doing in truth is comming up with more complex 3d engines to show you a 2d image. they need to just realize that after a certian point making better looking 2d images only gets you so far.

 

[aries369]

If you look at this preview from IGN

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/820/820296p1.html

the combat they describe sound a lot like the combat used in VATS, the only difference being that in VATS you have action points and the ability to aim at specific parts of the enimies' bodies tacked onto the combat.

I think Todd is a much better writer than he is a speaker. The way he answered the questions shows someone who actually have given all the questions serius thoughts and deliberations.

He says something about the endings in the game that made me wish that Bethesda only made like 4-6 good & different endings to the game, not the 9-12 slightly different endings they are planning to do at the moment. I would rather have 4 or 6 qualitylike endings tah do differ tremendously than 9-12 endings that's only slightly different.

I'm a little more optimistic about F3 that I have been for a long time. The settings seem to be in place, the dialogue options also seem to be well & good in the game, as well as different choices & consequences you can take.

I still stand by my initial reaction towards the main quest about finding your Father. (hey maybe you even will fight him like in a certain movie, I know ). The absent Father figure has been done to death (pun inteneded)too many times now.

There are some details I don't like such as the Megaton unexploded bomb, the BoS apparently being Knights of the Wasteland,
and the ability to drink water to be healed.
And, ah, yes, the ability to shoot at cars with fusion cells batteries? that then ho puouf (exploding) in the night, because of the atomic nature of its batteries. Someone really needs to educate Bethesda about nuclear power and such things.

Apparently, there are ghouls in the game, agreesive ghouls. And I thought that ghouls were mostly peaceful apparition like see through people that didn't get into the Vaults - at all. And was made ghouls by the radiation that fell on the Earth?

As for modding, I doubt that Bethesa will even release a Construction Kit for (or CS) for Fallout 3. Or they will make it downloadable content. And it will be very hard to use for non-modders or the people who are just beginning their modding career.

And yes, all actions, even the use of Stimpacks or moving in VATS, should use up action points.
The whole point of using only VATS just for aiming at say a supermutant's head is just, well, for lack of better words, a bit silly.

 

[Ausir]

Apparently, there are ghouls in the game, agreesive ghouls. And I thought that ghouls were mostly peaceful apparition like see through people that didn't get into the Vaults - at all. And was made ghouls by the radiation that fell on the Earth?

There were both peaceful and aggresive ghouls in Fallout, just like there will be in FO3.

 

[Blazerfrost]

I'm surprised no one asked about the level scaling. Is it still that screwed up "lock it to a certain level first time you enter an area dependent on your level at that stage" or have they changed it since I read that?

 

[Sorrow]

Apparently, there are ghouls in the game, agreesive ghouls. And I thought that ghouls were mostly peaceful apparition like see through people that didn't get into the Vaults - at all. And was made ghouls by the radiation that fell on the Earth?

Have you ever met Seth?

 

[Ausir]

You mean Set. Seth was a good guy from Shady Sands.

 

[generalissimofurioso]

The way he described the ghouls as "Feral" made me shudder.

Feral and hostile are two different things, hostile implies violent reactions, but feral?

I can see it know, Feral Ghouls = Zombies, they will travel in swarms and you'll have to fend them off with chainsaws and boomsticks.