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 Sigvatr wrote:
Shelter being Apple exclusive is utter bullcrap. You willfully neglect the largest part of your target audience? Bunch of idiots.

"Trying to pick up ammo without accidentally drinking toilet water"

HAHAHAHAHAHHA.

Wait, is it a permanent Apple exclusive, or just a timed exclusive? The latter i can live with.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
Shelter being Apple exclusive is utter bullcrap. You willfully neglect the largest part of your target audience? Bunch of idiots.

"Trying to pick up ammo without accidentally drinking toilet water"

HAHAHAHAHAHHA.

Wait, is it a permanent Apple exclusive, or just a timed exclusive? The latter i can live with.

Timed exclusive, Android will be available "in a few months".

One thing I'd love to see in Fallout 4 is Companions' skills actually serving a useful purpose like in Knights of the Old Republic. If characters in your Party had useful skills, such as Security, Computer Use, Repair and Demolitions, you could direct them to perform a task that depended on those skills (unlocking a door, defusing a mine, hacking a terminal, repairing a droid).

Compare that to Skyrim or Fallout, where if you the Player Character don't personally possess the required skill, you don't get to do it period. Never mind that your Companion is a skilled mechanic (Raul and Veronica) or a Robot (EDE, Mister Handsy/Gutsy). Only YOU can hack terminals, pick locks etc.

I'm playing a cowgirl/desert ranger type character in Fallout New Vegas, focusing on stealth and long ranged weapons (scoped Hunting Rifle is awesome). But I always feel forced to invest in skills that don't fit the premise, like Repair and Science.

NCR Doctor: We're dealing with a lot of people around here with PTSD.

Courier:
A) I don't know jack about medicine, but here's some books on the subject.
B) Oh hey I know all about that gak!
C) Oi Arcade you're a Doctor right? Aye you go help this guy.

Which is actually a thing in one of the quests, along with the one at Forlorn Hope where you need to act as a Doctor too. Sure they're limited to specific quests, but having companions with you does have an impact at times where the player is lacking in certain skills. Rather than having companions do everything for you though a simple buff to one of your skills while they're with you would probably do.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
One thing I'd love to see in Fallout 4 is Companions' skills actually serving a useful purpose like in Knights of the Old Republic. If characters in your Party had useful skills, such as Security, Computer Use, Repair and Demolitions, you could direct them to perform a task that depended on those skills (unlocking a door, defusing a mine, hacking a terminal, repairing a droid).

Compare that to Skyrim or Fallout, where if you the Player Character don't personally possess the required skill, you don't get to do it period. Never mind that your Companion is a skilled mechanic (Raul and Veronica) or a Robot (EDE, Mister Handsy/Gutsy). Only YOU can hack terminals, pick locks etc.

I'm playing a cowgirl/desert ranger type character in Fallout New Vegas, focusing on stealth and long ranged weapons (scoped Hunting Rifle is awesome). But I always feel forced to invest in skills that don't fit the premise, like Repair and Science.

Skyrim kind of did that, at least with locks. You could tell a companion to activate something, if it was a chest, theyd unlock it. Doors were bugged though, iiirc....

Oh, did not know that.

Doesn't giving a companion a skill kind of diminish your use out of it. Like why invest in the lockpick skill when you can just get a lockpick buddy. I tended to like NV's take on it where the skills where complementarity rather then replicated. They gave you new things rather then overlapping your things.

nomotog wrote:
Doesn't giving a companion a skill kind of diminish your use out of it. Like why invest in the lockpick skill when you can just get a lockpick buddy. I tended to like NV's take on it where the skills where complementarity rather then replicated. They gave you new things rather then overlapping your things.

Possibly. But it also means your hulking death machine in power armour armed with the biggest hammer anyone has ever seen doesn't suddenly turn into to this nimble fingered locksmith who can open a safe with a single bobby pin every time they want to loot something

nomotog wrote:
Doesn't giving a companion a skill kind of diminish your use out of it. Like why invest in the lockpick skill when you can just get a lockpick buddy. I tended to like NV's take on it where the skills where complementarity rather then replicated. They gave you new things rather then overlapping your things.

This is why, in a tabletop RPG, the PC party is meant to be from different classes. Just because a Fighter can take the Heal skill, it's so much more efficient to have an actual Cleric.

In fact, that's the whole point of a "locksmith buddy", to fill in the spots where you don't have the skills. Of course, there are mods that allow you to use demolitions and such on doors and lockers and the like, allowing your hulking death-machine soldier to employ his/her combat skills over the rogue skills and still progress... but the game does not, by default, permit that.

A Town Called Malus wrote:

nomotog wrote:
Doesn't giving a companion a skill kind of diminish your use out of it. Like why invest in the lockpick skill when you can just get a lockpick buddy. I tended to like NV's take on it where the skills where complementarity rather then replicated. They gave you new things rather then overlapping your things.

Possibly. But it also means your hulking death machine in power armour armed with the biggest hammer anyone has ever seen doesn't suddenly turn into to this nimble fingered locksmith who can open a safe with a single bobby pin every time they want to loot something

Psienesis wrote:

nomotog wrote:
Doesn't giving a companion a skill kind of diminish your use out of it. Like why invest in the lockpick skill when you can just get a lockpick buddy. I tended to like NV's take on it where the skills where complementarity rather then replicated. They gave you new things rather then overlapping your things.

This is why, in a tabletop RPG, the PC party is meant to be from different classes. Just because a Fighter can take the Heal skill, it's so much more efficient to have an actual Cleric.

In fact, that's the whole point of a "locksmith buddy", to fill in the spots where you don't have the skills. Of course, there are mods that allow you to use demolitions and such on doors and lockers and the like, allowing your hulking death-machine soldier to employ his/her combat skills over the rogue skills and still progress... but the game does not, by default, permit that.

The hulking death machine isn't meant to unlock a safe*. That is the thing with fallout. You get to pick a few and that is what you can do. Everything else, your meant to miss. It's not like skyrim, pillars of eternity, or D&D** where your meant to be able to do everything.


* (I did like the gernade locking mods though. I wonder of they will be a thing in fallout 4. Full on destruction maybe? Fingers crossed.)
**(Fallout the table top game. I keep meaning to play that. Well actually I keep meaning to play the MLP/Fallout table top game. Just never get around to it.)

Given that games far back as Morrowind had the lock bash functionality modded in, I wonder if Bethesda will include it this time? Though the issue that I had with the newer versions of it was that they have a chance of destroying the contents, including quest items. That and I remember in Fallout 3 setting off a mini-nuke next to a safe and the thing still wouldn't open (having the lock degrade with each hit would have been useful, though also the amount of explosives/strength applied would make damaging items more likely. So your tough character would need to maybe not hit the lunchbox with a super sledge and instead just kick it, or invest points in the agility stat to counter their high strength).

nomotog wrote:
The hulking death machine isn't meant to unlock a safe*. That is the thing with fallout. You get to pick a few and that is what you can do. Everything else, your meant to miss.

But that is stupid. It is the same mindset that ruined the ending of Fallout 3 before Broken Steel fixed it. If we have a friend with particular skills and no reason not to help us out, we should be able to take advantage of their help. There can certainly be limitations - a Brotherhood scribe will probably refuse to help you hack into a Brotherhood computer network - but there should be a sensible reason for it.

 Wyrmalla wrote:
Given that games far back as Morrowind had the lock bash functionality modded in, I wonder if Bethesda will include it this time? Though the issue that I had with the newer versions of it was that they have a chance of destroying the contents, including quest items. That and I remember in Fallout 3 setting off a mini-nuke next to a safe and the thing still wouldn't open (having the lock degrade with each hit would have been useful, though also the amount of explosives/strength applied would make damaging items more likely. So your tough character would need to maybe not hit the lunchbox with a super sledge and instead just kick it, or invest points in the agility stat to counter their high strength).

Bashing a lock to break it open at the risk of damaging the contents was a feature in KOTOR too.

And DayZ has it so that if you don't open a tin can with a can opener you automatically spill out a third of the contents. ...The can openers in my house are terrible. I need to take a knife to the things most of the time to open them. Like hell have I ever spilled a load of the stuff everywhere just because I wasn't using a tin opener (heh, and that's what ring pulls are for anyway).

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

 Wyrmalla wrote:
Given that games far back as Morrowind had the lock bash functionality modded in, I wonder if Bethesda will include it this time? Though the issue that I had with the newer versions of it was that they have a chance of destroying the contents, including quest items. That and I remember in Fallout 3 setting off a mini-nuke next to a safe and the thing still wouldn't open (having the lock degrade with each hit would have been useful, though also the amount of explosives/strength applied would make damaging items more likely. So your tough character would need to maybe not hit the lunchbox with a super sledge and instead just kick it, or invest points in the agility stat to counter their high strength).

Bashing a lock to break it open at the risk of damaging the contents was a feature in KOTOR too.

Only in the second one. In the first it was Security skill (or Computer Use for some things) or not allowed in.

Bashing use to be a common thing. I don't know why it went away. Maybe because losing loot feels bad. Like if I lost loot for opening a box with a grenade, I might just not want to open it under the idea that I'll just do it latter. You never do do it latter of coarse. You could just have grenades open things without damaging things and have the noise and general value of bombs to balance it out.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AlexHolker wrote:

nomotog wrote:
The hulking death machine isn't meant to unlock a safe*. That is the thing with fallout. You get to pick a few and that is what you can do. Everything else, your meant to miss.

But that is stupid. It is the same mindset that ruined the ending of Fallout 3 before Broken Steel fixed it. If we have a friend with particular skills and no reason not to help us out, we should be able to take advantage of their help. There can certainly be limitations - a Brotherhood scribe will probably refuse to help you hack into a Brotherhood computer network - but there should be a sensible reason for it.

I like using companion's skills, but I would rather the skills they have be complementarity to the players skills rather then replacements. Kind of like how NV did it. Something like a scrib being able to hack robots not terminals. It's a new ability rather then a replacement because you can't normally hack robots just terminals.

nomotog wrote:
Bashing use to be a common thing. I don't know why it went away. Maybe because losing loot feels bad. Like if I lost loot for opening a box with a grenade, I might just not want to open it under the idea that I'll just do it latter. You never do do it latter of coarse. You could just have grenades open things without damaging things and have the noise and general value of bombs to balance it out.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 AlexHolker wrote:

nomotog wrote:
The hulking death machine isn't meant to unlock a safe*. That is the thing with fallout. You get to pick a few and that is what you can do. Everything else, your meant to miss.

But that is stupid. It is the same mindset that ruined the ending of Fallout 3 before Broken Steel fixed it. If we have a friend with particular skills and no reason not to help us out, we should be able to take advantage of their help. There can certainly be limitations - a Brotherhood scribe will probably refuse to help you hack into a Brotherhood computer network - but there should be a sensible reason for it.

I like using companion's skills, but I would rather the skills they have be complementarity to the players skills rather then replacements. Kind of like how NV did it. Something like a scrib being able to hack robots not terminals. It's a new ability rather then a replacement because you can't normally hack robots just terminals.

I tend to never revisit previously explored locations. Exploration for me is like ticking off a check list.

It'd nice if certain previously explored locations became re-infested/repopulated after you've cleared them, to give you a reason to revisit.

Cleared a Vault? A gang of Raiders have moved in and began using it for a base to raid trading caravens. Exterminate them, and claim the bounty on their leader's head.

Cleared a ruined village/neighborhood of critters and ghouls? Families of wasteland settlers have moved in and made it their home. Revisit the place to trade with them, or kill them all and loot their gak.

Skyrim did this, though it was really just a case of resetting the location and triggering the respawn of the original npc types. No back story to why the place is being repopulated.

 Wyrmalla wrote:
NCR Doctor: We're dealing with a lot of people around here with PTSD.

Courier:
A) I don't know jack about medicine, but here's some books on the subject.
B) Oh hey I know all about that gak!
C) Oi Arcade you're a Doctor right? Aye you go help this guy.

Which is actually a thing in one of the quests, along with the one at Forlorn Hope where you need to act as a Doctor too. Sure they're limited to specific quests, but having companions with you does have an impact at times where the player is lacking in certain skills. Rather than having companions do everything for you though a simple buff to one of your skills while they're with you would probably do.

I feel then followers should have a bit more permanency, i.e. you can't just drop them off at some area, grab another companion, and come back. Or another companion slot tweak, (combat, pet, non-combat). All still fight, obviously, but a non combat isn't as good as a combat in combat, and a combat doesn't have very many utility skills.

Skyrim has cells repopulate with different enemies every now and them. For instance Helgen had bandits appear after a couple of days. If you clear out fortresses then every now and then they will have Imperials/ Stormcloaks show up and garrison them. Given that Skyrim had this to an extent I imagine that Fallout 4 will do the same occasionally.

If you're talking about enemies just respawning though in most of the games they'll do this within 48 hours (as that's when the cell buffers are cleared for performance). Skyrim did have it so that if you kill every enemy in a location this time is extended though. There's also mods that allow you to set it so if you clear a location enemies never respawn, just in case you then want to say make that place your home at some point. Logically yes people would eventually come along and resettle someplace. ...If the player keeps coming along and murdering everyone I'd expect that they'd get the message eventually, think the place was cursed and never come back. =P

I like using companion's skills, but I would rather the skills they have be complementarity to the players skills rather then replacements. Kind of like how NV did it. Something like a scrib being able to hack robots not terminals. It's a new ability rather then a replacement because you can't normally hack robots just terminals.

There's a perk for that.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:
I tend to never revisit previously explored locations. Exploration for me is like ticking off a check list.

It'd nice if certain previously explored locations became re-infested/repopulated after you've cleared them, to give you a reason to revisit.

Cleared a Vault? A gang of Raiders have moved in and began using it for a base to raid trading caravens. Exterminate them, and claim the bounty on their leader's head.

Cleared a ruined village/neighborhood of critters and ghouls? Families of wasteland settlers have moved in and made it their home. Revisit the place to trade with them, or kill them all and loot their gak.

That's a good idea. You wouldn't want to do it all the time, but having more cases where there are two or more mutually exclusive encounter tables for the same location and a trigger that can cause the location to change hands would add a bit of variety. Even if it's just two different bands of raiders with some sort of distinctive trait - one that uses attack dogs and one that uses flamethrowers, or whatever - watching the push-and-pull of the two bands gaining and losing territory could be interesting.

Radiant content like that came about in Skyrim.

I wonder if the aliens make a comeback in F4, i'll have to import the english one , Japanese version has no english, my Japanese is good enough for non RPG games, but not story heavy exposition games :(

To get pumped up for the upcoming game I pre-ordered this from the Bethesda site:



http://store.bethsoft.com/collectibles/figures.html?brand=167

Also, my brother pre-ordered the Pip-Boy edition and will after many years of ridicule, finally get a smartphone, just because he needs one to get the most out of that thing!

 Jehan-reznor wrote:
I wonder if the aliens make a comeback in F4, i'll have to import the english one , Japanese version has no english, my Japanese is good enough for non RPG games, but not story heavy exposition games :(

There's a lot of concept art for aliens. There's an astronaut suit in the concept art too, with an in game model shown as well, and what looks to be spaceships feature in the concept art. So yeah, there might be just a random encounter, but they're in there somewhere.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Fallout-4-bethesda-will-dial-back-graphics-in-favour-of-complex-systems

Or in other words: the graphics need to be dialed back because consoles can't handle them.

 Silent Puffin? wrote:
Fallout-4-bethesda-will-dial-back-graphics-in-favour-of-complex-systems

Or in other words: the graphics need to be dialed back because consoles can't handle them.

Considering what consoles can handle and what Fallout 4 looks like, I'm gonna take Pete's word for it. But my computer is old, so that creates some bias.

Still, I wonder why they're not optimizing as much as other studios. Back when Oblivion was announced it was made into one of the best looking games of it's time.

 Silent Puffin? wrote:
Fallout-4-bethesda-will-dial-back-graphics-in-favour-of-complex-systems

Or in other words: the graphics need to be dialed back because consoles can't handle them.

Good. The graphics we have seen are more than good enough for my purposes. At this point I'd much rather have double the draw distance than double the resolution on the textures.

 AlexHolker wrote:

 Silent Puffin? wrote:
Fallout-4-bethesda-will-dial-back-graphics-in-favour-of-complex-systems

Or in other words: the graphics need to be dialed back because consoles can't handle them.

Good. The graphics we have seen are more than good enough for my purposes. At this point I'd much rather have double the draw distance than double the resolution on the textures.

Exactly.


Been playing Fallout Shelter on my wife's school ipad. Decent game but we've made 3 vaults between us and all have failed due to raiders and radroaches. Enemies get rediculously overpowered when your vault gets large and unless you've spent real cash on lunchboxes to acquire enough equipment for everyone, you'll take so many casualties that it's impossible to recover.

So yeah, you don't NEED to spend real money on it, but it heavily encourages it as your vault expands. It's not the "yeah just play for fun don't worry about microtransactions" that Todd insinuated at the conference...

 AlexHolker wrote:

 Silent Puffin? wrote:
Fallout-4-bethesda-will-dial-back-graphics-in-favour-of-complex-systems

Or in other words: the graphics need to be dialed back because consoles can't handle them.

Good. The graphics we have seen are more than good enough for my purposes. At this point I'd much rather have double the draw distance than double the resolution on the textures.

This would be a good argument if PC's had any trouble handling both at the same time.