I am having a hard time waiting for Fallout 4. I have a feeling it will be so long until it comes out that it may even be a next gen console game. It would be pretty cool if they went all out and set the bar for the next gen consoles with Fallout, but that's a lot of waiting!

I have one issue with pretty much all of Bethesda's games. They all have the same approach to difficuly. 5 settings, and even on "very hard," I very rarely (if at all) run into any situations I have difficulty completing. I think with 5 difficulty settings you should be able to have one that most people shouldn't even approach. That way you can find a level of play that pushes your abilities to the limit and really makes you have to think and strategize to be successful. There are enough items and things to do that the games could be MUCH more difficult. When I fire up one of Bethesda's games I know right from the start to go ahead and put it on super hard, something I don't want to do with games from some other developers. I thought the addition of "hardcoe mode" was a nice idea, but it didn't really make the game any harder, you just had to drink water when ever you saw it. There are lots of elements within the recent Fallout games that are simply ignored because there is simply no need for them. things like stats boosters, and the like.

I may be ready to see the V.A.T.S. system eliminated. yeah it's fun, and extremely effective, but I think it takes a lot out of the game at times. get close, pull up V.A.T.S., headshot, headshot, headshot, move on to the next. I think the Wasteland would be a much more dangerous place if you actually had to fight to survive, not just tell your character to eliminate the enemies one by one. and when nearly every single round strikes your enemy exactly where you want it to, ammo becomes more of a non-issue. I believe that ammo in a wasteland setting should be much harder to stockpile. one may need to make use of all of those interesting melee weapons that are available, at least early on. Maybe V.A.T.S. would be missing in hardcoe mode, or you had to earn V.A.T.S. points or something that would make it a much more rare and valuable resource instead of the almost unlimited enemy eliminator.

these are just some thoughts bouncing around my head lately, what do you guys think?

Welcome to the forums

Ideas for future Fallout games go here. http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1355806-fallout-4-speculation-suggestions-ideas-thread-55/

I like vats, and it's optional.

Plus, iron sights are also in new Vegas and are equally effective.

Vats should stay.

At this point, VATS is really only in the game as an ode to the originals sadly. Plus it's optional. I really don't see a reason to remove it as it's a signature of the series.

I agree. VATS is optional, if you dont like it then don't use it.....

I want VATS to stay. because I prefer to have combat be more strategic and based on my character's abilities like in the old games, not on my FPS skills.

And yeah difficulty is an issue, I hope they give that some serious thought. Thankfully they got rid of that scaling system they had in 3, that was terrible.

Yeah VAtS has saved my ass and companions ass many times!

Slow motion, click on the head of a deathclaw who is about to [censored] slap your companion but has low health, blam blam blam!!!

Saved your companion in a split second that would otherwise be impossible with only iron sights.

I want VATS to be improved upon, to be made MORE tactical and MORE dependant on all the diffrent variables and numbers in the game (stats, skills, perks, traits, AP, AC, DR, DT, weapon damage, DPS, AoE, distance, ammo type etc.) Oh yeah! So it won't be a, you know, "pause the time to gain a breather and then your character picks the enemies off far too easy"-mode like it was especially in Fallout 3 (and especially with that perk that gives you full AP from each killed enemy? Pffh! Cheating I say)

So basically, it'd be more turn-based but in 3D and 3rd person, the kind of cinematic effect we have now (but much improved so it won't be as slow when following a decapitated head rolling down a hill or camera getting stuck inside a wall while your character shoots right into it). Animations in these cinematics should be worked on a lot, I love animations and many different animations in games. In my opinion, good animations are far more important than good graphics. Fallout 1 and 2 have awesome death animations for example (and in my opinion, pretty darn ok graphics). So there would be loads of different animations for all the different things that can happen in VATS, loads of different killing moves and if someone has bad luck and fumbles with a grenade or drop a mag, and if a grenade goes off, character's could use their unspent AP (that is, AC) to jump away from the explosion (if your character doesn't have any unspent AP, that means he has no time left to react and has to take the grenade in the face like a boss... and slide across the floor.)

If you find VATs to easy for you mate, you can always just ignore it

I think it's fine the way it is.

This. I don't like shooters, for the most part, and I primarily fight in Fallout 3 and NV using VATS. However, I also use mods to make VATS combat more punishing (such as removing VATS damage reduction).

I do think Bethesda should provide more challenging combat. They could achieve this by drastically reducing the amount of chems (including stims) and ammo the player encounters. Chems and ammo should also have weight, limiting the amount you can carry regardless of their rarity. And most importantly, stimpacks should not instantly heal the PC while in menu-mode, but have a heal over time effect that works in game-mode (after you close the pip-boy).

One of the reasons FO3 was so easy was that stimpacks were everywhere, and whenever your health began to drop, you could open the pip-boy, freeze time, and spam stimpacks until you were back at full health.

I do find V.A.T.S. fun, i just think it makes the game way too easy. getting rid of it could have some benefits. it would probably create a better rpg experience. more "immersion". it is an interesting and somewhat unique game element, though. I guess i have mixed feelings. i wouldn't cry if it was eliminated, though. maybe it could just be more limited. as it stands there is nearly an unlimited supply. it encourages you to run in circles for a second or two until you can make another enemy's head explode, instead of fighting them like a normal person. it is very useful when throwing a grenede into a group of unsuspecting dudes, and could be made into a better strategic resource by making it recharge super slow, perhaps. and i mean SUPER slow.

also, am i the only one who found the companions in New Vegas WAY too effective. they could kill enemies faster than you! give Boone a sniper rifle, and you didn't have to shoot anything out in the wasteland yourself anymore. that's no fun

And having countless mindless zombies instead is (Skyrim...)?

Besides, take away that high damage omg op weapon and tada! He doesn't have a weapon that can kill everything easily!

I dont see why you complain about companions being so effective, yet have them loaded with rather effective weapons.

Next thing you know, Bethesda makes companions svck ass, even with the bet weapons in the game. Stop complaining and solve your own problems mate

Again I think shots outside of vats should use ap(say half the ap it would cost in vats) and goining into inventory mid battle

Why the heck would action points be used up just to shoot a gun outside of vats?

That would severely limit you doing a rather easy task of pulling the trigger.

Take a look at the gameplay from the original. ;p it's do-able. Bethesda would probably never do it. Unless they up the max AP you can have and/or start making food and drinks that recover AP. granted, we already have some, but I doubt the fanbase would be happy with this system and the current # of AP restorables. In the end Bethesda will see it as a waste of time, among a lot of things they've [censored] up in the series.

True

Would all boil down to what makes them the most money. Satisfying the Dinosaurs and long time fan of the series? Or catering to the new breed. New breed will win everytime because as long as they can pull in new consumers; [censored] all to the ones that have been with it to the beginning.

You know the Project New Vegas mod? It let's you sprint using AP and switch out VATS for Bullet Time (also using AP). I think AP should be used like Stamina in the Skyrim, sprinting uses is along with VATS (which I guess would be the equivalent of power attacks).

I feel like regular shooting overall should be improved though too, like how combat was greatly improved in Skyrim over Oblivion. Just make less need of VATS in general with better movement and shooting mechanics. (Mainly I dislike how light everyone feels in FO3 and NV. The people should have more weight to them imo. Maybe put a cooldown on VATS too.

I'm not prepared for the future.

It might be too much for me.

I may breath my...last...breath...

FALLOUT: MODERN APOCALYPTIC FARE 4

Less of , more of