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Excitement level is over 9,000!

So there are actual wargamers at Bethesda. Cool.

Good to hear things are moving along.

It will be nice to get news in a variety of formats, but I might be one of the few who actually likes podcasts. I spend a lot of time commuting and doing mindless chores like weeding and hauling water to the animals, and podcasts are a good way to multi-task.

 Dakka Flakka Flame wrote:
It will be nice to get news in a variety of formats, but I might be one of the few who actually likes podcasts. I spend a lot of time commuting and doing mindless chores like weeding and hauling water to the animals, and podcasts are a good way to multi-task.

Oh I really enjoy podcasts, I just don't want them to be my primary source for news and new info. If they want to do a podcast where they go over new info in more detail, or discuss new model images with the sculptors or concept artists to get their insights, or get on Fallout videogame designers or writers to discuss the world or mechanics and how they're translating those to the tabletop etc, that's wonderful and I'd very probably listen to those.

However, I'm entirely disinterested in a 30+ minute "podcast" that amounts to people enthusiastically cooing over what would amount to a paragraph of text and couple of images if it were on a website, and which aren't on a website so you have to endure the marketing faux-enthusiasm in order to get new info.

Sadly when companies do podcasts related to their own product the latter is far more common than the former.

 Geifer wrote:
So there are actual wargamers at Bethesda. Cool.

Good to hear things are moving along.

I hear a lot of video game companies play war games.

ironically from what i recall Blizzard has a lot of warhammer and 40k nights

Sentry Bot.

Yeah, I need a couple of those...

But seriously, I do. One roving murderbot, one for the Brotherhood of Steel, one for mercs and a couple of spikes, skulls and dead bodies for a raidered up murderbot.

Oh boy...

 Desubot wrote:

 Geifer wrote:
So there are actual wargamers at Bethesda. Cool.

Good to hear things are moving along.

I hear a lot of video game companies play war games.

ironically from what i recall Blizzard has a lot of warhammer and 40k nights

They'll be delighted then that GW chose to adopt a more World of Warcraft aesthetic.

 Geifer wrote:
Yeah, I need a couple of those...

But seriously, I do. One roving murderbot, one for the Brotherhood of Steel, one for mercs and a couple of spikes, skulls and dead bodies for a raidered up murderbot.

Oh boy...

What about Captain Ironsides? Gotta have a Captain Ironsides.

I... don't care for pre-war fashion, actually. I don't like hats on robots. I wouldn't wear revolutionary costumes to save my life. There is nothing more pointless than a laser musket.

Oh, and I hate Preston Garvey.

But enough about me.

We will have to agree to disagree regarding hats on robots, but your other two points (laser muskets and Preston) are spot on!

Guys, another settlement needs our help.

When do we get to see Piper in her Grognak costume?

Hey, that's a good point. I wonder if anybody asked for character X in a Grognak costume in the survey. Could be Pretty good, too, along the lines of Vault Dwellers. All you need is a Grognak body (or two, male and female) and a head swap and you're set.

You know, for people who like comics and/or Piper...

If I remember correctly, it has been suggested that Garvey might be in the starter set. If that's true, I'll use him as decoration for Raider scenery. Maybe he'll even be alive Fury Road style. Hmm...

 Manchu wrote:
Guys, another settlement needs our help.

I think Preston has dethroned Ian as most-hated Fallout character.

 Nostromodamus wrote:
I think Preston has dethroned Ian as most-hated Fallout character.

I always made sure to stand BEHIND Ian.

 Nostromodamus wrote:
I think Preston has dethroned Ian as most-hated Fallout character.

I didn't have a problem with Ian. He friendly fired me, I friendly fired him back, only I did it right.

But there's no getting rid of Garvey!

I wasn't super into the Revolutionary War stuff, but I did love that Minuteman General's outfit.

One think that I thought was interesting was all the Halloween themed stuff in Fallout 4. It makes perfect sense, with The Great War happening in late October. That said, I hope the Halloween element isn't too strong in subsequent games. It would be cool if it was present, and can lead to some interesting items and post-war sub-cultures and whatnot, but I think there can also be too much of it.


That Sentry Bot looks beastly! I like it!

It got me thinking about Protectrons, and depending on how the models turn out they might be fun to do LED projects on.


ETA: I liked Fallout Tactics for what it was. When I first started playing it I didn't realize that it could be switched from real time to turn based, and pretty much everyone on my team was an Ian.

I liked the random Halloween stuff too, just an extra level of detail that fans can appreciate.

Halloween stuff was a nice touch most of the time, but it stood out in places and I would have preferred if there were a greater variety of decorations in the game. I do like that Diamond City gets redecorated on Halloween and guards get a line of text acknowledging what day it is. That was nice, especially since I didn't pay attention to the time myself and walked into Diamond City completely unaware that this was a thing.

While I'm bad with electricity myself, I could see Protectrons being suitably for LED conversion. The model got bulked up from Fallout 3 to Fallout 4, so compared to a normal human there might be enough room in there. You should consider a red LED for the Sentry Bot first, though. Come one. They have big red searchlights!

That Sentry bot is frigging brilliant, absolutely spot on.

Think I would probably paint up some BoS as Outcasts for my first faction (although sure I won't be the only one doing that!)

The other Sole Survivor who'll be coming in the 2-player starter:


Funny enough, that loadout of leather armour over a Vault Suit, long shotgun and 10mm matches up with one of my old characters quite nicely, I'll just need to slap a silencer on the pistol and it's a perfect match.

A few bits from the attached design notes:
- measuring sticks instead of tapes, X-wing style
- initially there will be 2 sets of rules for the Sole Survivor, one fresh from the Vault with basic gear (in the starter set) and a more experienced version (included in the Nate/Dogmeat/Codsworth box).
- Nate and Nora are interchangeable rules-wise, so you can use either with either set of stats
- First wave of minis are being printed and mastered, pending approval by Bethesda painted minis and battle reports will be coming shortly.

The description of how the measuring sticks work from the blog is the first bit of this game that I'm not so happy with. I'm not sure how laying down two different colored sticks end to end for long range shots is supposed to somehow be easier and more intuitive than pulling a tape measure out to an indicated number.

It seems to me like the color-coding and necessity of extra fiddly-bits is going to end up being more confusing than just listing a few extra numbers on the stat card that they claim they want to avoid. If there are already numbers (for the SPECIAL stats) then adding a completely separate color-code system for range ADDS complexity, not reduces it.

Adding a measuring stick is pretty common these days, quite a lot of games do it (not just X-wing, previous copies of Warhammer, Battlefleet, FoW and all sorts).

Just means that you can take a box round to a mates house, open it and start playing, and you don't have to go out and buy a tape measure.

Does it say whether there are range bands on the sticks (a la X-Wing) or is just cm/inches marked on the sticks?

+EDIT+ That Wasteland survivor looks fantastic by the way!

It's all 'short/medium/long' range rather than measurements, hence the X-wing comparison. Though what I don't get is why they're designed to be placed end to end to determine the range rather than just denoting which part of, say, the Medium stick also constitutes Short range. That seems a less clunky/accident-prone way of doing it.

 Paradigm wrote:
It's all 'short/medium/long' range rather than measurements, hence the X-wing comparison. Though what I don't get is why they're designed to be placed end to end to determine the range rather than just denoting which part of, say, the Medium stick also constitutes Short range. That seems a less clunky/accident-prone way of doing it.

I'm assuming so you can have different combinations, for example one gun might have red/yellow bands while another might have red/blue bands.

Yeah, I'm fine with how X-Wing does it, because that's just a custom ruler. Ditto SAGA measuring sticks, because that's just 3 custom rulers and you only ever use one at a time.

What the blog post describes, though, is just color-coding move/charge/weapon ranges. In the example they give, the shotgun has a red short range and a blue long range. For short range shots, you use the red stick. So far, so good. For long range shots, you lay the red and blue sticks end-to-end. That's...not simplified or convenient. That's more complicated than just giving two numerical ranges you can measure out to on a tape measure or ruler or single measuring stick.

 Nostromodamus wrote:
I'm assuming so you can have different combinations

I like this idea. Something like S+M for shotguns, S+L for pistols, and M+L for rifles.

Miniatures gaming/board gaming cross over products are ditching tape measures for custom components. Customers expect to be able to play out of the box. Custom components also support the perception of value/brand strength.

 Nostromodamus wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
It's all 'short/medium/long' range rather than measurements, hence the X-wing comparison. Though what I don't get is why they're designed to be placed end to end to determine the range rather than just denoting which part of, say, the Medium stick also constitutes Short range. That seems a less clunky/accident-prone way of doing it.

I'm assuming so you can have different combinations, for example one gun might have red/yellow bands while another might have red/blue bands.

That would make sense and mimic how some of the weapons behave in the game, especially with mods added that reduce range or impact speed etc.

The Nora model looks rad.

Is the pre-order still planned for later this month?