How can you have four different 'character experiences' for each protagonist with only 13,000 total lines of dialogue recorded? Does that mean you will only hear around four thousand lines on a given playthrough?

except no end to the main quest is already confirmed so it cant go away.

Sure it can. It won't, but it could if Bethesda wanted to remove it.

That same information can simply be told via natural gameplay.

If doing X results in Y and Z factions allying in the future, you can simply have an NPC say something along the lines of "because you did X, our factions are taking the first steps to be allies in the near future!" and get the exact same result.

It should also be noted that in Fallout 3, an NPC sometimes tells us what the long-term consequences of our actions will be. When a person at place like Arefu or at Big Town says, "We will be okay on our own now," then we know that our actions have allowed those settlements to live happily ever after.

Should we eliminate some group or individual, or if we witness a group's or an individual's demise, then we may infer that the Capital Wasteland is no longer menaced or benefitted by said group or individual. As as extension of this rule, events transpiring after we are told of an accomplishment may overrule what we are told. If the leader of Big Town tells us that they can handle things on their own now, and later we discover that Big Town has been exterminated, then we know that our earlier deeds at best only gave Big Town a shot at self-reliance. At worst, our earlier deeds went for naught.

In summary, if we are told that this-is-what-your-deeds-have-done-for-us, then unless we actually observe events to the contrary, the long-term consequence of our deed is what we are told it is. Should we actually witness a thing's destruction, then we know that thing is gone regardless of what we may have been led to expect. Should we neglect to give our aid to those who ask for it, or to those who would ask for it, then our aid is not received, and the implied onsequence of our inaction applies.

Hang on. You don't want there to be any end game play in case you miss out on any content?

What about the content you miss by not playing the main quest? I assume more work goes into that than anything built solely for playing on after its done.

Which they dont, or they wouldnt have announced it publically so all intent or pupose, they cant.

Yeah, how's that for a well done narrative conclusion/accomplishment? Some semi-random NPC mutterings: "Thing'll be rosy from now on".

It is not semi-random, but deliberate. It is something skillful storytellers do, and something skillful readers note.

They could have a fortune teller who you can visit at any time to find out how everyone does based on your current actions.

#Worst game feature ever.

It's something most RPG's have by default. The "thanks again hero, for helping us out" line. Not a grand achievement by any meter.

At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if there was something like that. A computer that calculates the probablities for the outcomes on certain actions so that the player needs not sweat about the choices.

Strong writing is often not grand, but is clear, concise, and to the point.

True to a point, but if smalltime NPC banter impresses you and is enough for a good narrative conclusion, have funt with it. I prefer something that digs deeper.

^ This right here.

Besides, I don't think I can trust anything that comes out of Todd Howard's mouth before the games are released. Actually, I don't think I trust anything that comes out of any gaming company at this point. It seems like it has become the norm for companies to outright lie or deny things to sell more copies of their games.

As for Fallout 4 and the number of endings: I don't think there will be very many at all.

If the line you replied to is considered strong writing then damn these people have some excellent narratives. I especially love it after the thousandth time hearing the same line from a hundred different people.

I guess the point is to let the player know that there's no point in wandering around talking to people in that area anymore and they can move on to the next thing.

Still, it's a bit lacklustre.

NPCs did that in FO 1 and 2 as well, and there were still ending sliders. They can co-exist. It is basically a staple of FO Universe to have narrator pre-game and after game, and after game give a narrative of our deeds and their long term effects(which in some cases a NPC may not know in game what those could be). If you throw it out you may as well include dragon shouts and throw in dragons, maybe have some argonians and talking cats and moon sugar, cuz it would start behaving less and less like FO.

Also, sliders exist for what you miss or didn't do, and not just what you did do. NPCs can't rightly remark on things you missed or didn't do, and know what the long term effect is going to be.

Say for example not rescuing Tandi in FO1, which would result in NCR never forming. No way anybody NPC would know about that. "Gee, thanks for saving Tandi, I think one day we will form a nation and she will become our president!! Hmm..new..new california dem..no, republic!!! that what it will be called".

"Oh no, Tandi was never saved, so now I just had a dream that this nation that doesn't exist and I don't know about will now never be formed because she is dead and can never become president like I had this funny feeling she would".

Or killing off Rhombus in FO1, who is going to tell you this causes the BoS to basically wipe out the Wasteland? Nobody.

What a lead, quest character tells you in response to your actions in a quest is not in the category of banter.

This is the way I'm forseeing it...

Main Quest ends, we get the slides pertaining to the things we've done, as per usual.

The main endings will go like this...

Good Karma

Bad Karma

Neutral Karma

Join Elijah ending...NV reference there.

Come on, you know what I mean. An NPC giving you thanks and telling that now, after you killed the rats in his basemant, he can finally serve his best vintage and make proper profit is hardly the height of storytelling or "consequences of your actions".

I don't think there will be Karma based endings. Bethesda tries to go away from the good-evil storylines since the FO3 DLCs. In Skyrime the story wasn't good-evil either. I don't see them going back to good-evil.

Either way we won't know till we get there.

Throwing out ending slides is nothing like adding in dragon shouts, don't be absurd. And I have no problem with ending slides so long as the game continues after them, and shows the effects of the small things that would change immediately after the end. I was just pointing out you don't NEED them to give out the information. So long as your plot lines and consequences for your actions aren't hilariously over exaggerated, all the information could be presented in-game.

When it comes to Tandi, that could be explained via a minor change, with Aradesh or someone mentioning that Shady plans to branch out to its neighbors to start a new small group of allied cities, in order to make thier area od the wasteland safer, and that Tandi is the only one in Shady who has the education to make such a thing happen, or is the only one who shows a natural leadership ability to actually lead such a group. Said alliance doesn't have to be given a name or anything.

The whole Rhombus thing could be easily explained with

>Before death: Rhombus is the one keeping the elders/other paladins from becoming more violent by advocating peaceful co-existence.

>After death: With Rhombus dead, there's no one to hold back the Elders/other Paladins, I dread to see what the BoS will do now that its becoming more warlike. I feel dark times are upon the wasteland.

Or something like that. Also, the idea the BoS could devastate the wasteland is laughable, given that they were unable to handle the super mutant threat themselves. Future games should focus on less ridiculously exaggerated endings in the first place.

I'm guessing 4 different endings but considered 8 because of different Voice-overs.
Does that mean all quests resolved will be narrated by protag?
Hmm....

So NPC dialog in place of classic Fallout ending slideshow:

I think that's serving two different purposes. What I got from the ending of Fallout 1 was closure - it wasn't about just finding out what happens 10 years from the events of the game. Rescuing Tandi and then an NPC saying "thanks for saving Tandi, you know maybe she'll be President of something called a New California Republic someday. I know the NCR hasn't been created yet or thought of yet, but maybe some day this girl will do that and then she'll be president of it!" That would give the same information, but it wouldn't fill the same role as offering closure to the denouement of the primary narrative.

Given my druthers, I'd like to complete the Main Quest, get something at least similar to the Fallout 1 ending in terms of purpose (doesn't have to be a slideshow, you can do this in creative ways - Alpha Protocol accomplished this with a new report during the end credits for example,) and then you can keep playing your character afterwards.

Now, if they want to do something where I save Tandi, and then go back there later and some interesting things have changed, and then I go back even after that and some more things have changed - then yes, I'd be down for that. But I haven't seen anyone even attempt that in a videogame so I'm not holding my breath.

Not to mention not everyone is going to be able to predict far-reaching consequences 10 years down the road when you save their village, and part of the fun of the old ending was that sometimes the results would be surprising. So I saved one town and thought helping another would be a good thing, but then it turns out because of this other thing I did everyone gets over-run by raiders - that's kind of the sort of closure I like to see in these games when I complete the game. And that's not something an NPC is going to be able to tell right after you finish a mission.

Sure - if a bunch of far-reaching changes can show up as I'm playing the game in interesting and newly-inventive ways then I'd be all for that. But I don't think that's likely to come to fruition.

Such as?