Fallout 3

embraceuk1

embraceuk1

Original Member Since 2001
30 December 2001
Indiana USA (Scottish)
Nottingham Forest
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

the original on my apple IIc was awesome! But it was more like WOW then this, this looks like oblivion
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

Vault Boy says Fallout 3 stuff on Xbox Live Marketplace

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You heard right. Just in time to celebrate Independence Day in the good ol' US of A, we can now download the gorgeous Fallout 3 trailer on the Xbox Live Marketplace -- in 720p glory mind you -- and admire what a post-nuclear apocalypse Washington, D.C. might look like. A little too unpatriotic for the 4th of July? Then why not just download a pack of Fallout 3 gamer pics going for 100 Microsoft Points (about $1.25) featuring Vault Boy (of course) and a Brotherhood of Steel image. Want something a little bigger? Try a Fallout 3 theme for 150 points (about $1.87) featuring the gorgeous concept art we've been seeing for months. Or don't. Exercise your freedom to choose.
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

E3 Fallout Impressions.

In a dark yet comfortable mini-theatre, Bethesda executive producer Todd Howard guided us through the first 45 minutes or so of Fallout 3, played on an Xbox 360. Though a lot of what was shown and discussed was already revealed at their pre-E3 presentation late last month, but we did manage to learn many details on the game and its direction.

The atmosphere of the game (and its soundtrack) is very akin to the 1950s look of the first two Fallout titles, yet as Ron Perlman explains, the nuclear destruction happens in 2077. According to Howard, we're dealing with the future as envisioned from the past ... and the future had nuclear-powered cars and apparently never changed their taste in music. (Not that we mind at all.)

Comparisons to Oblivion are inevitable, so let's get those out of the way. As previously known, it does use an improved version of the Elder Scrolls game's engine, and you can really tell (for better and worse) with the animation "You can think of Oblivion as our freshman effort on next-gen platforms," said Howard. The movement was much more fluid, thanks likely to their new in-house motion capture capabilities coupled with the Havok physics engine. As many

In this build, the facial animations (and, as later pointed out by Pete Hines, the gestures) are not at this point realistic, though the lip syncing is accurate. According to Hines, much of the development time between now and its Fall 2008 release date will be spent tweaking such things, and hopefully we'll get some moving eyebrows. Say no to avatar botox!

The draw distance was fantastic, as the entire demo had us moving away from one town that we could still see once we reached our destination (and, spoiler alert, watched it explode).

Playable NPCs are much fewer, but many of the same voice actors we heard from Oblivion are also in here, and we noticed at least one time where the same voice actors was obviously used twice. However, the character's voicing also seems more expressive, which helps differentiate them in a way Oblivion never did. Liam Neeson's voicing for your character's father were already in place, and worked out well. Since your dad does portray many of your chosen characteristics, however, we're not sure how his voice might work should someone try to create a radically un-Neeson protagonist.

The game's introductory hour are designed to give you the feeling that have lived for a long while in the vault. It also serves as a way to assign your stats. At age one, you are given a book by your dad that tells you how special you are, whereby you then choose your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. (strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, luck) attributes. Later you decide what skills you are proficient at.

The game world will be approximately the same size as Oblivion, with 25% of that world being the Washington, D.C. area.

There will be fewer "quests," but unlike Oblivion each one has their own set of good / evil morals. Quests will not pop up on the screen this time, but Hines said that they will be logged somewhere for later viewing.

The violence and humor are still very much a part of the Fallout universe. The game's atmosphere is best described as gritty, and we admit that it was surprising at first to hear a character curse and later see a sign outside of the vault that read "Let us in motherf**kers" (asterisks added by us). The headshots and limb shots are very gruesome, and with a laser gun you actually cut their head off instead of causing it to explode. Though the Fallout universe may precede it by a while, we can't help but be reminded by Gears of War.
Highlight of the event: a friendly Vault robot, who turns bitter and obnoxious once you turn your back on it.

Water reflection and refraction were subtle but welcomed additions, as was the much-discussed decay of the environment. Howard talked up all the dead bodies often, but the number of skeletons that remained that was saw were minimal. We guess they must've already turned to dust.

Some details for the true Fallout fanatics:

The two-headed Brahmins make a return, and Pete Hines told us after the demo that Rad Scorpions are also coming back.
The toughest weapon in the game will likely be the Fat Man, a portable launcher that lobs nuclear grenades.
We've seen Super Mutants; as to the existence of the more folky mutants from previous games, Hines would not comment.
Random encounters are making a return, but Bethesda isn't ready to say how.
Action points, used for the turn-based combat mode V.A.T.S., are being designed to regenerate fast enough so that gamers can use it almost exclusively for fighting.
Speech options and convincing utilizing the Speech are still there, noted by the [ Speech 29% ] tag besides a talking option.
Computer security will be done via a game best described as akin to Mastermind, where you have a list of words (embedded amongst gibberish "code") and you will be told how many letters you have right.

"We spent what I refer to as an obscene amount of time on [the PIP boy menu screen]." said Howard. More pixel shaders used on it than all of Oblivion, apparently.
You can zoom the third-person view out to give it the camera view akin to the previous Fallout title.
As a fan of the original franchise, we're impressed by Bethesda's ability to retain the core elements of the franchise and improve upon mechanics. They still have over a year to develop it, but the outlook is so far great. War never changes, but the way you play it can certainly be improved.
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

So it took a little longer than we expected, but Todd's gone ahead and answered the 20 submitted questions for the Community Q&A. Big thanks to Blinzler, the guys that helped him out, and of course everyone who submitted questions.

Also, when Blinzler submitted the questions, he also sent over 5 "bonus questions," which you'll see that Todd answered at the bottom.

So here's the questions...I'm going to close this thread, but feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

Community FAQ - 20 questions

COMBAT

1. Is unarmed combat in? If so, is it lethal or does it knockout your opponent? [Waterchip]

Yes, it’s in, and yes, it’s lethal. It’s a big part of the game, and as far as game balance, it’s our goal to make melee as viable as using guns in killing off enemies. It’s something we’re obviously still balancing, but I expect melee to be more “lethal”, as getting near an opponent can be more difficult, especially if they have a gun, but at the same time, you don’t have to worry about your ammo counts, so that’s an immediate benefit to melee.

2. Is combat playable in the zoomed out third person ("almost iso") perspective and how will VATS work from it, meaning - will it zoom into FP or something else? [kaos]

I’d have to say “no”. Combat’s not really playable when you zoom the camera all the way back and point it down. You can try, but it’s not meant to be played that way, because you still have to aim at the center of the screen, and at that point, the center is the ground. It’s playable from 1st and 3rd person, but closer-in over-the-shoulder 3rd person. Regarding VATS., it does zoom in on your target, from your eyes, so I guess you’d say it is a “1st person” view. So if you’re playing in 3rd person and enter VATS, you zoom in on the target, and when you’re done, it flips back to your 3rd person view. It happens pretty fast and it’s smooth. I kind of see VATS as its own view.

3. For what else can we use AP`s while in VATS and what is the "cost" of such things in real time? Some time consuming animation perhaps? Example: if taking stimpacks or using inventory in VATS will cost AP`s - then what will it cost in RT? Besides that what else besides shooting can you pull off in VATS, and how do you balance those things with their real time counterparts? [MrHappy1991]

The only thing you can do in VATS. is shoot, and it’s designed as just that. It’s kind of an “aimed shot” mode, so no taking stimpacks, etc. When dealing with the AP regeneration, that’s one of the big questions, even for us, as to what we set it to, and that’s going to get serious tweaking the more we play the game. It’s definitely tied to your agility, but we haven’t pinned down the range, so I don’t know if an agility of 10 gives you twice the regen rate over an agility of 1, or if it will be in the 5-10x multiple range. I’d wager closer to 2x on that one. When you’re not in VATS., attacks use up AP as well. At this stage, we’re playing the game so that the AP usage in real-time is less then the regen rate, so the end effect is that attacking in real-time slows down the regen. I imagine it will end up being close to that feel.

4. Because so many of us still don't understand, could you describe VATS in painstaking detail? No really, please! [Waterchip]

I’ll try, but I worry it will raise more questions then it answers. I assume you know the basics: press a button and it stops time, you queue up shots on body parts using AP, and then press the “go” button and it executes the moves. The playback is done cinematically, sometimes it’s fast, sometimes it’s slower – depending on if something cool happens.

Probably better if I give you a closer look at how we approach it and view VATS. First, I don’t see it as an either-or thing. VATS is meant to be used with real-time, it’s not one or the other – they should feel like they go together. I don’t want the fans confused that this is turn-based, because it’s not. It’s a glorified aimed-shot mode, and a pretty glorious one at that. You’ll be able to use it a lot, but not constantly, because it is the most effective way to kill things. And that’s how we define it usually, it’s the most effective and entertaining way of killing something, and we break up those two parts while developing it, “effect” versus “entertainment”, or the “gameplay” versus the “playback”.

Let’s start with the gameplay. One, you can enter VATS, whenever you want, you just may not have enough AP do take any shots yet, or enough AP to do as many shots as you’d like. The AP needed to do a shot is based on the weapon’s rate of fire; pistols can get more shots off in VATS than a hunting rifle. The camera zooms in on the target from your eyes, as VATS does a scan of the target, and you get a percentage chance to hit each body part. This accomplishes two things: 1) it just looks really cool, we even use the “combat-turn” sound from Fallout 1 here, and 2) the scan actually is detecting how much of the body part you can see to get us a good hit percentage. That hit-chance is based on how much of the body part you can see, the distance, your skill, the weapon itself, and a base body part chance we set per body part. That last thing, the base chance, is needed for us to jack up or down the hit-chance for game balance, so even if the head is X size compared to the chest, we can adjust it.

A good example would be the antennae on the ants, they are way too small to realistically ever want to use your AP on, but we up the hit-chance on them and it just plays better. So in real-time, you almost never hit their antennae, but you can do it more in VATS. And that’s the key “behind the scenes” difference between VATS and real-time, in real-time the bullets just go-where-they-go, based on your skill, the gun, and some randomness. We don’t calculate a hit-chance and roll dice against it. In VATS, we calculate a hit-chance and roll dice. If you succeed, we send the bullet right for what you were aiming at, and if you fail, we send it off slightly, meaning it should miss, but we still let it hit whatever it hits, so you can still miss a guy’s head and end up shooting his chest.

Ok, now the “playback,” or the entertainment part of it. Based on what is going to happen with what you chose, we select a number of camera angles and various playback shots to show you, the playback is only a few seconds. They are always pretty quick, the longer playbacks are rare, and we’re the first ones to get annoyed if something repeats itself too much as we’re playing the game. We have a VATS camera section of the editor where we make cameras and can setup almost anything we want, such as a special camera that tracks a bullet in slow motion that shoots a gun out of someone’s hand, but only if they are using a specific pistol and only on a certain enemy. Pretty much anything we want to do; we can setup quick, so expect lots of various camera shots. One of things to know about the playback is it’s not a “replay”, it’s the actual game time moving forward, so what you see is really what is happening right now. The selected cameras control how fast various things move, so most of the time, you, the player, are animating in real-time, the enemy you are shooting at is moving at one-tenth speed, and the rest of the world is paused, or updating slowly. We found just playing everything at the same speed doesn’t feel or look good at all, we had to separate the three out; you, the enemy, and the rest of the world. Another thing we stumbled into, because time is moving forward, is that while you are watching an enemy react to getting shot in this great camera angle, your character can be getting mauled by another enemy. Really frustrating early on as we played it, so we do two things now: 1) depending on the camera chosen we essentially pause the rest of the world, and 2) we have a setting that dramatically reduces the damage the player takes during such an occurrence. You probably wouldn’t notice any of these things, the playbacks just look “right”, but you’d be surprised how much tweaking goes into making a two second snippet work well.

Hope that addresses the question, hard to answer that one. At some point in the future we’ll probably release even more info on body part damage and how that affects the gameplay, as that’s the key decision you are making in VATS - what body parts to shoot.

NPCS

5. Will party members be deep and interesting characters, with their own unique personalities and desires? Maybe even secret agendas? Or will they just be henchmen who do your bidding? [Calgone]

There are a very limited number of followers you can get, I would never call them “party members” because I think that leads to a different expectation. Yes, they have pretty strong and defined personalities. I’m always leery of the follower thing, because if I’m not in direct control of someone who’s supposed to be helping me, they often seem to do something stupid. That being said, I’m pretty happy with how far we’ve come with them, and the amount of things you can tell them to do.

SPECIAL

6. What skills will be in the game? And why the lower than usual stats in the Pip Boy screenshots? [Ausir]

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”.

7. Are all the old traits and perks returning? Are certain perks adapted for the new combat system and how so? [anonymous]

Sorry, another area we aren’t talking about yet, but I can say yes, many old ones are returning and some new ones that work with new game systems; combat and VATS being obvious ones. I’m happy with how many old favorites have been translated, and the new ones fit in seamlessly, that is, it’s hard for me to tell the old ones from the new ones in flavor.

8. The stealing (and getting caught) system? Does it differ from Oblivions system? [kaos]

It differs a lot, in that there is no “jail”, or specific crime system with money on your head. It’s actually a lot easier for us to handle in Fallout, where it’s ok to have violence break out when you do something people don’t like and then calm down later. Also, instead of a “global” thing like Oblivion, it’s on a faction level in Fallout, which also makes it work much better. And we use factions for any type of group, so the town of Megaton has its own faction.

INTERFACE

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.
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

FACTION

10. What sort of factions & faction action/interaction/conflict/reputation can we expect? [MrHappy1991]

Going off the crime question above, we use “faction” pretty heavily, and it’s at the heart of many of our systems now, from crime to combat. So each faction knows how they feel about you and the other factions. It guides them in how they handle group combat, how they react to crimes, and how they handle the player in general.

A.I. (Artificial Intelligence)

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.

MATURE CONTENT

12. Will we see anything similar to the sexual encounters possible in both of the earlier Fallout games? The first 2 games had all of that but they kept their ratings by fading out (as did Fable). There was one quest in F2 where you could lose a bet and end up as a supermutant's toy for the night (you got to keep the ball gag as a gift). Can we expect that kind of adult content? [anonymous]

Actual player goes off and has sex? Not right now, but if a situation called for it, I wouldn’t flinch at adding it with the fade-out. We did that in Daggerfall using the fade out. We actually did paintings for the scene and it never made it in Daggerfall, but I still have the paintings. In regards to adding a supermutant rendezvous with a ball gag, the marketing department has been asking for this to put on the box, but we just haven’t found the time.

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.

CHOICES & CONSEQUENCES

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.

In regards to using different skills, most definitely, yes. We’re really pushing on that, and I think that’s the crux of the game - what skills you use, so each quest or goal of the player’s can be accomplished in different ways using different skills. Even in dialogue we’re using a lot of different skills, depending on who you’re talking to So if you’re talking to a scientist, your Science skill may give you an extra dialogue option.

15. In Fallout 1 and 2, it was entirely possible to say the wrong thing or make a mistake and have no way of fixing it. Unless you used a walkthrough, every player experienced the game differently. Will Fallout 3 be like this? Or will it be more like Oblivion where you could do almost everything in the game with one character and one play through? [El_Smacko]

It’s pretty much like Fallout 1 and 2 there, and not like Oblivion; each person’s game should be different, and you can’t do it all. In terms of dialogue, we are careful to make sure you know the route you’re taking if it’s a big game thing, like blowing up the town of Megaton, and avoid the “make a mistake” part you mentioned.

QUESTS & STORY

16. Will the structure of the Main Quest be more like Oblivion, where you had to perform a series of tasks in the right order to progress, or more like the originals where most of the progress you'd do consisted in gathering information, which was not a pre-requisite in order to end the game? [Thomas Stehle]

Closer to Fallout, in that you can actually skip entire parts of the main quest in Fallout 3 if you stumble across important information on your own. We debated that, but in the end, I think that’s a positive, and has a better feel then an artificial barrier that feels too “gamey”, and it’s something I liked about Fallout 1.

17. It's been said that the game world in Fallout 3 is smaller than that of Oblivion's. How does it compare with the number of quests you can pursue, or the amount of things you can do? [anonymous]

On the quest side it’s a lot smaller than Oblivion, but keep in mind these quests have more in them. In regards to “things you can do”, all the freeform stuff, exploring, etc, it’s about the same. Since we have a lot of little freeform activities, like “help this NPC survive” that you run into that we don’t even define as a quest anymore, it’s just an event that takes place.

18. A developer (possibly Howard, Pagliarulo or Carter) has stated that they are trying to ensure that each quest has at least two ways to complete it. Does this mean that there are two different outcomes to each quest, or simply that there are two different ways to complete the quest with the same outcome either way? [Lingwei]

These means there are multiple ways, whether that is to the same outcome, like “get X information” or multiple outcomes. Often we just do what feels natural, so if it makes sense that the outcome would be dramatically different, we do it, if not, we don’t force it.

DIALOGUE

19. Please outline in detail and give an example of an actual or hypothetical FO3 conversation: Dialogue options, what influences them, length of PC lines and NPC replies, what is the effect on the game. [GhanBuriGhan]

I’m not going to write out an entire dialogue here, but I’ll tell you what I can, and I realize for many, this is one of the key things that made Fallout, and I assure you it is for us too. If you look at Fallout 1, our dialogue trees are larger and more in-depth. I’m incredibly proud of the job our designers are doing with them, and they know they have a lot to live up to.
First, it’s all dialogue trees, like the previous Fallouts. You always see your own voice and it’s all tree based. It’s is not topic based like Oblivion.
Second, there are “speech challenges” – these are for using your Speech skill when talking to NPCs, and they are specific things you can say with a percentage chance they will succeed. This chance is based on your Speech skill, how much the NPC likes you, and the difficulty of what you’re asking for. Asking for something small is easier then asking for something big. If you fail, the person is going to like you less.
Third, your skills determine the “extra” dialogue options you get, so depending on the character you are talking to, and your own skills, you may get an extra choice based on any number of skills, karma, or perks. These choices are always successful, unlike the speech challenges.

The length of the lines is as long as we need them to be, again pretty much like Fallout 1.

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.

-Bonus Questions-

NPCS

1. Will there be NPCs that you can hire/recruit to join you in your quest? If so, how many NPCs will you be limited to at once and approx. how many joinable NPCs will be available in the game? Also, will there be more detailed behavioral settings as in Fallout 2? [Nukem354]

Yes, and like I mentioned above, they have personalities, and you can give them a host of directions for how they should help you. I’m really encouraged by how cool they are. Right now we limit you to two with you at a time, because there are also other quests where you get more people with you, and we obviously need to limit it. Total number in the whole game to hire? As of today there are only six, but we’re just focused on getting them working great and being deep characters. Wouldn’t surprise me to see that number go up.

QUESTS & STORY

2. Is there going to be any character type specific quests that other types of characters will not have at all, or will all the quests be open to any type of character? [kaos]

Depends on what you define as a quest, we mostly design situations that can be approached from a number of angles, so we have “quests” with very different paths in them depending on your character.

3. Who wrote the main story, or is it a group effort? Are you not afraid that introducing a father figure limits the freedom to imagine your avatar and imposes motivation on the player that may not be in keeping with the avatar he imagines? [GhanBuriGhan]

Emil Pagliarulo, the lead designer, does the bulk of the writing. I can’t say enough good things about his stuff, it’s fantastic. We both wanted to do a father/child thing very early on, with you growing up in the Vault. We also have three other designers working on large chunks of the main quest; Kurt Kuhlmann, Alan Nanes, and Brian Chapin. In regards to pushing a persona on the player, yes, that is a concern, and we’re pretty careful not to do that. You don’t have to be nice to your father. I think you run that risk with any character driven story, the risk that the player doesn’t actually care about the characters, or isn’t motivated to follow them. You’d be surprised how much that enters our conversations about any quest, “What’s my motivation? Why do I want to do this?” The answer sometimes is “because the game told you to”, but that’s never a good answer, so we keep pushing until it feels right.

[semi-Bioshock-spoiler]

I did love how Bioshock handled the “because the game told you to” dilemma. They twist that brilliantly halfway through the game. If you haven’t played it, do so.

MAP TRAVEL & SPECIAL ENCOUNTERS

4. What exactly will the map travel look like - will we see 'Indiana Jones' style dotted line travel across a stylized map or something like Oblivion fast travel and will there be a quest compass that we can turn off and how will the random/special encounters work? [Blinzler]

Sorry, but not ready to discuss that stuff yet. I will say the feedback from the Oblivion map system was really good, and I think it struck a good balance of finding locations while wandering and quickly get back to ones you’ve been to already. 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.

ENDING

5. How will the endings work out? Will the 9-12 different endings be like Fallout's ending slides, or will it be a Daggerfall-esque, whoever gets the MacGuffin at the very end triggers what ending? (Frank Horrigan)

The ending is based not only on specific choices you made, some of those near the very end, but also how you acted as a whole throughout the game. So it’s permutations of a number of things, and that’s why the number of endings is still fuzzy, some of them are only slightly different than the others.
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

Twenty Five Things About Fallout 3

Bethesda Software's Fallout 3 community forums is currently hosting a list of twenty five questions culled from the community's members and then answered by executive producer Todd Howard. Questions are broken up into groups according to subject matter and cover a range of topics including combat, NPCs, AI. mature content , quests and dialog. It's a nice, hefty sized Q&A and sure to make great weekend reading for all of you out there anxious to get more info on Fallout 3. And don't worry, Howard is still pretty cagey on some subjects so you can still remain blissfully spoiler free (with the possible exception of the semi BioShock spoiler which is clearly marked towards the end of the bonus questions).

Community FAQ - 20 questions

COMBAT

1. Is unarmed combat in? If so, is it lethal or does it knockout your opponent? [Waterchip]

Yes, it’s in, and yes, it’s lethal. It’s a big part of the game, and as far as game balance, it’s our goal to make melee as viable as using guns in killing off enemies. It’s something we’re obviously still balancing, but I expect melee to be more “lethal”, as getting near an opponent can be more difficult, especially if they have a gun, but at the same time, you don’t have to worry about your ammo counts, so that’s an immediate benefit to melee.

2. Is combat playable in the zoomed out third person ("almost iso") perspective and how will VATS work from it, meaning - will it zoom into FP or something else? [kaos]

I’d have to say “no”. Combat’s not really playable when you zoom the camera all the way back and point it down. You can try, but it’s not meant to be played that way, because you still have to aim at the center of the screen, and at that point, the center is the ground. It’s playable from 1st and 3rd person, but closer-in over-the-shoulder 3rd person. Regarding VATS., it does zoom in on your target, from your eyes, so I guess you’d say it is a “1st person” view. So if you’re playing in 3rd person and enter VATS, you zoom in on the target, and when you’re done, it flips back to your 3rd person view. It happens pretty fast and it’s smooth. I kind of see VATS as its own view.

3. For what else can we use AP`s while in VATS and what is the "cost" of such things in real time? Some time consuming animation perhaps? Example: if taking stimpacks or using inventory in VATS will cost AP`s - then what will it cost in RT? Besides that what else besides shooting can you pull off in VATS, and how do you balance those things with their real time counterparts? [MrHappy1991]

The only thing you can do in VATS. is shoot, and it’s designed as just that. It’s kind of an “aimed shot” mode, so no taking stimpacks, etc. When dealing with the AP regeneration, that’s one of the big questions, even for us, as to what we set it to, and that’s going to get serious tweaking the more we play the game. It’s definitely tied to your agility, but we haven’t pinned down the range, so I don’t know if an agility of 10 gives you twice the regen rate over an agility of 1, or if it will be in the 5-10x multiple range. I’d wager closer to 2x on that one. When you’re not in VATS., attacks use up AP as well. At this stage, we’re playing the game so that the AP usage in real-time is less then the regen rate, so the end effect is that attacking in real-time slows down the regen. I imagine it will end up being close to that feel.

4. Because so many of us still don't understand, could you describe VATS in painstaking detail? No really, please! [Waterchip]

I’ll try, but I worry it will raise more questions then it answers. I assume you know the basics: press a button and it stops time, you queue up shots on body parts using AP, and then press the “go” button and it executes the moves. The playback is done cinematically, sometimes it’s fast, sometimes it’s slower – depending on if something cool happens.

Probably better if I give you a closer look at how we approach it and view VATS. First, I don’t see it as an either-or thing. VATS is meant to be used with real-time, it’s not one or the other – they should feel like they go together. I don’t want the fans confused that this is turn-based, because it’s not. It’s a glorified aimed-shot mode, and a pretty glorious one at that. You’ll be able to use it a lot, but not constantly, because it is the most effective way to kill things. And that’s how we define it usually, it’s the most effective and entertaining way of killing something, and we break up those two parts while developing it, “effect” versus “entertainment”, or the “gameplay” versus the “playback”.

Let’s start with the gameplay. One, you can enter VATS, whenever you want, you just may not have enough AP do take any shots yet, or enough AP to do as many shots as you’d like. The AP needed to do a shot is based on the weapon’s rate of fire; pistols can get more shots off in VATS than a hunting rifle. The camera zooms in on the target from your eyes, as VATS does a scan of the target, and you get a percentage chance to hit each body part. This accomplishes two things: 1) it just looks really cool, we even use the “combat-turn” sound from Fallout 1 here, and 2) the scan actually is detecting how much of the body part you can see to get us a good hit percentage. That hit-chance is based on how much of the body part you can see, the distance, your skill, the weapon itself, and a base body part chance we set per body part. That last thing, the base chance, is needed for us to jack up or down the hit-chance for game balance, so even if the head is X size compared to the chest, we can adjust it.

A good example would be the antennae on the ants, they are way too small to realistically ever want to use your AP on, but we up the hit-chance on them and it just plays better. So in real-time, you almost never hit their antennae, but you can do it more in VATS. And that’s the key “behind the scenes” difference between VATS and real-time, in real-time the bullets just go-where-they-go, based on your skill, the gun, and some randomness. We don’t calculate a hit-chance and roll dice against it. In VATS, we calculate a hit-chance and roll dice. If you succeed, we send the bullet right for what you were aiming at, and if you fail, we send it off slightly, meaning it should miss, but we still let it hit whatever it hits, so you can still miss a guy’s head and end up shooting his chest.

Ok, now the “playback,” or the entertainment part of it. Based on what is going to happen with what you chose, we select a number of camera angles and various playback shots to show you, the playback is only a few seconds. They are always pretty quick, the longer playbacks are rare, and we’re the first ones to get annoyed if something repeats itself too much as we’re playing the game. We have a VATS camera section of the editor where we make cameras and can setup almost anything we want, such as a special camera that tracks a bullet in slow motion that shoots a gun out of someone’s hand, but only if they are using a specific pistol and only on a certain enemy. Pretty much anything we want to do; we can setup quick, so expect lots of various camera shots. One of things to know about the playback is it’s not a “replay”, it’s the actual game time moving forward, so what you see is really what is happening right now. The selected cameras control how fast various things move, so most of the time, you, the player, are animating in real-time, the enemy you are shooting at is moving at one-tenth speed, and the rest of the world is paused, or updating slowly. We found just playing everything at the same speed doesn’t feel or look good at all, we had to separate the three out; you, the enemy, and the rest of the world. Another thing we stumbled into, because time is moving forward, is that while you are watching an enemy react to getting shot in this great camera angle, your character can be getting mauled by another enemy. Really frustrating early on as we played it, so we do two things now: 1) depending on the camera chosen we essentially pause the rest of the world, and 2) we have a setting that dramatically reduces the damage the player takes during such an occurrence. You probably wouldn’t notice any of these things, the playbacks just look “right”, but you’d be surprised how much tweaking goes into making a two second snippet work well.

Hope that addresses the question, hard to answer that one. At some point in the future we’ll probably release even more info on body part damage and how that affects the gameplay, as that’s the key decision you are making in VATS - what body parts to shoot.

NPCS

5. Will party members be deep and interesting characters, with their own unique personalities and desires? Maybe even secret agendas? Or will they just be henchmen who do your bidding? [Calgone]

There are a very limited number of followers you can get, I would never call them “party members” because I think that leads to a different expectation. Yes, they have pretty strong and defined personalities. I’m always leery of the follower thing, because if I’m not in direct control of someone who’s supposed to be helping me, they often seem to do something stupid. That being said, I’m pretty happy with how far we’ve come with them, and the amount of things you can tell them to do.

SPECIAL

6. What skills will be in the game? And why the lower than usual stats in the Pip Boy screenshots? [Ausir]

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”.

7. Are all the old traits and perks returning? Are certain perks adapted for the new combat system and how so? [anonymous]

Sorry, another area we aren’t talking about yet, but I can say yes, many old ones are returning and some new ones that work with new game systems; combat and VATS being obvious ones. I’m happy with how many old favorites have been translated, and the new ones fit in seamlessly, that is, it’s hard for me to tell the old ones from the new ones in flavor.

8. The stealing (and getting caught) system? Does it differ from Oblivions system? [kaos]

It differs a lot, in that there is no “jail”, or specific crime system with money on your head. It’s actually a lot easier for us to handle in Fallout, where it’s ok to have violence break out when you do something people don’t like and then calm down later. Also, instead of a “global” thing like Oblivion, it’s on a faction level in Fallout, which also makes it work much better. And we use factions for any type of group, so the town of Megaton has its own faction.

INTERFACE

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.
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

Fallout 3 Gets 12 Endings
One ending? Boring. Two? Thanks, but it's just not gonna cut it. Not with Fallout 3 boasting of not just two endings, but two, two, two and then some. Bethesda's Pete Hines has told CVG that depending on what you do during the game and how you do it, you can expect between 9-12 different endings to the game. That's a lot. Hopefully this move has been made with more than just replayability in mind. Because playing an RPG 9-12 times? Not. Fun.

Full interview:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=175852
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

Fallout 3's world '50 to 80 percent' as large as Oblivion

It's said that bigger is not necessarily better, and it's a mantra that Oblivion dev Bethesda seems to have subscribed to for their next sprawling adventure, Fallout 3. In a massive interview with Gameplayer, Bethesda spokesperson Pete Hines said that, though no one had walked Fallout 3's post-apocolyptic D.C. from end to end, it's probably 50 to 80 percent as big as the world of Oblivion.

That said, it's not necessarily bad news. Fans of the series (or opponents of walking) might be relieved to hear that Bethesda is taking the quality over quantity route. Not to mention that 50 percent of Oblivion's land mass is still pretty darned big. Check out the rest of the interview for a vaultful of other non-geographic info.

http://www.gameplayer.com.au/Home/P...63af243-2989-4d69-ac3c-f929066978ba&v7Pager=1
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

Fallout 3 Has Over 200 Endings

It seems Bethesda's changed plans for Fallout 3 quite a bit since I first got a glimpse of the game in action back in June of last year. When they originally stated they were going for 9-12 endings, I was seriously impressed, imagining the sort of replay value that would generate. Now Bethesda's Todd Howard has appeared in the latest OXM podcast, saying that the game now has more than 200 different endings as of last week. 200 endings? That doesn't even seem like a real number, does it? Considering he's also saying the game is twice as long as they initially estimated (40 hours with side quests), I am pretty sure you could play the game forever. Todd says the game is finished and on track for Fall 2008, but needs a ton of testing and polishing. Hit up OXM below for the full story while I try to wrap my head around the whole 200 ending thing.
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

Nearly 150 Screenshots of Fallout 3 Leaked

Although I probably should leave anything in Japanese to Bash, pictures speak any language, and there are nearly 150 of them of Fallout 3 that have hit the Internet following the Zenimax Asia expo (Zenimax owns Fallout developer Bethesda.) Tipster Brother None, the forum admin over at No Mutants Allowed, writes: "Apparently the people viewing Fallout 3 in the ZeniMax Asia showing in Taiwan did not take their NDAs very seriously." Apparently so. We have a gallery of 28 screenies on the jump, with a link to the entire set.

http://www.cng4u.com/2008/08/16/fallout-3-scans/
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

Fallout 3 falls into retail October 28

"Prepare for the future" indeed! And by "future" we specifically mean October 28th (or October 31st for our European pals) because that's when Bethesda's "Best of E3"-award winning Fallout 3 – including the Collector's and Survival editions – falls into retailer's laps.

Vlatko Andonov, Bethesda Softworks prez, teases, "To meet the huge demand for this title by our fans worldwide, we are planning one of the biggest launches of any game released this year." We're not sure what Bethesda's got in store, but when discussing a game set in a post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland, we're excited to see how big of a splash it can make. Bunkers, everyone!
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

Bioshock was one of my favourite games of all-time and this looks very similar. Cannot wait.
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

Did either of you read the eurogamer preview? They were pretty harsh on it. It had quite a few basic flaws that would diminish the quality of the game.
 
Re: Fallout 3, Xbox 360, PS3

I've got the same impressions, the game seems very limited, and Mass Effect lasted days in my computer, I found it terribly boring, bland and while the storyline had a lot of branching, gameplay did not.

In the original Fallout games it was fun the way you could play as you wanted and with lots of gameplay modifiers and humour. It's all missing here as I see it.
 
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