... or a Civ4 mod ... now, if only I had even the tiniest iota of computer-art talent anywhere in my body ...

Here's some things I thought (and wished) last summer/fall. (Mind is faster than fingers so sorry for typos and other bloopers.)

More complex skill system. Lift the skillpoint cap to 200. Like for example give Small guns two subskills: Twohanded guns (rifles assault rifles)
and Onehhanded guns (pistols, smgs etc) - where the basic skill (small guns) governs the general usage of the small guns affecting in wearrate,
kickback and small bonus to accuracy (say 2 points for subs per 10 points to mainskill), while the subskills controll accuracy in VATS and waivering.
And similiar fashion should be used in Bigguns, Energy weapons and Melee, and why not all skills that can be effectively handeled in such way.
More over, as been said by many posters before, SPECIAL should have a bigger impact on gameplay. Give a levelcap of, well, 40 and make it so that
reaching it would be a real (advlts REAL) chore, and overall lower levellingspeed than in FO3.

If this sounds too complex it could always be toggleable in difficulty menu. Rulesystem: Normal - Advanced, where normal would have all the subskills
merged together with the mainskill. I have no Idea if this could be applied in as balanced, but anyways...

More different weapons with more customization options. Give individual weightrequirements for weapons that would not prevent the usage, but to make it really really hard to use... say, minigun with a strength of 5
(for example). The effect of not haveng required strength could be massive waivering and constant lowering of the barrel while not firing, and when firing
the kickback could - in case of minigun result in barrel lifting up or to one side until the weapon tips player over or turns him/her around. With rifles
it could just throw the reticle to somewhere away from the original position and with heavy pistols like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxEUlh6rytI for example, making one stagger
for a while.

Mapsystem like in Fallout 1&2. But instead of just finding settlements in the worldmap, there could be (like someone said somewhere) contentclusters,
that include a settlement or two and some wasteland to explore in 1st/3rd person. Add the outdoorsman skill. Zoned random/special encounters, where
each zone has its own unique enemies (while still having some basic enemies that can be found all over the map). And expand the playable area for about 1.5-2
times the area in FO3 (I wouldn't mind multiDVD content, should it be required).

More unique factions (unjoinable, imo, but helpable) with unique questlines and unique rewards. Factional reputationsystem that affects the factions stance
towards the player.

Themes that involve political powerplays, racism, religion and some such.

And of course: better UI for PC, better writing, better animation. Graphics do not need to improve, imo.

That's be interesting, a post-apocalyptic Civ (mind you, that sounds like a scenario with custom rules more than anything). As a Fallout spinoff, eh, not too keen on the spinoff idea. These days you could probably get the same with mods & TCs.

I think I've already had this conversation in a thread I created a while back talking about spin-off ideas, so I'll keep this short. I think something that's nothing more than Civ in Fallout clothing might be interesting, but that's also not the only way to go about it. Just like Call of Duty isn't just Halo with different textures by virtue of them both being FPSs, a Fallout spin-off based around town building could more than just a rip-off of another game. There are plenty of gameplay mechanics I can think of (saluaging, highly customizable and possibly procedurally-generated town assets and equipment, an emphasis on fortifications for defending raids that's similar to the old Castles games - only with more intelligent AI, etc) that would add relevant twists to the genre in the form of a Fallout spin-off. If it were a game built from the ground up with a certain gameplay type in mind as opposed to just borrowing concepts from another game and changing some textures around.

I mean, I play Civ 4 a lot, and I also really enjoy Galactic Civilizations. That's rather a poor example, I know (because GalCiv certainly shows it's Civ roots in a lot places) but the point is that two games in the same basic sort of genre wouldn't have to be nothing more than the same game with different aesthetics.

I would imagine a Fallout game of this type to be focused more on building up a single settlement than trying to conquer the whole of the Wasteland, for example. (Anyways, this is getting a bit off-topic, and I already have a thread dealing with this concept http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=965839.

Agreed :tops:

My own additions [suggestions] would add....

• More scope to the AI; Such that NPC's could be flagged as static, or adventuring, The Statics being generally easy to find, and the adventurers more likely to statistically level up with time as well as have the chance to have explored an undiscovered area before the PC arrives (looting, trapping, ambushing ~and carrying looted items when faced in random encounters with the PC or others parties ~Or even found by the PC as a bunch of dead bodies in the waste left over from a recent conflict).
  
• A database of all PC dialog choices and circumstances that Factioned NPC's would have access to to temper their responses with what they know of the PC's history.
  
• Vehicles
  
• Improved Melee combat that matches (or exceeds) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41UyXgofO3o, or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n7PqqL2MhU&NR=1 (in the very least, and minus the silly yells). ~Of course my preference might lean a bit closer to a kind of refined version of the Turn Based fighter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U715rxXWW4w&feature=related
  
  
• .... And of course, a larger wasteland with luck based special and occasional random encounters.

I would like to see Fallout 4 take place in New York City. Think about it, NYC is huge. You have the five diff boroughs(spelling). You could have different factions or creatures battle for control over each. The playable character could be used by any and all of the factions.

FO4 wants:
-More factions
-Joinable factions
-More non-combat quests
-Double-length MQ with at least 4 distinct paths that diverge noticeably by the halfway point
-More dialogue
-New York

Everything else was perfect, IMO.

To be honest, I'd just as soon not see New York in a Fallout game. I just think the whole "Let's destroy New York City" thing has kind of been done to death by now. I mean, if you want to depict a generic post-apocalyptic setting, you show a bunch of burned-out buildings with broken pieces of the Statue of Liberty littered around the foreground. Admittedly, a Fallout in New York wouldn't be "post-apocalyptic New York #8,390," but "post-apocalyptic New York #8,390 - with a retro-futuristic twist!"

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I wouldn't buy the game. It wouldn't be something I'd criticise the game for setting it there. I just think there's a plethora of other locations with, just as rich a potential, that aren't as cliched.

Has an old Fallout fan ( fallout 1 and 2 ) i miss some things from them. and i even liked fallout 3, i only want the best for this series, so ill try to be brief.

- more towns. FO3 lacked them.
- more side missions. alot more ( more missions inside towns would be nice, not that fo3 didnt had them, but more inside towns so we dont need to travel alot to complete almost every mission.
- when you travel between towns, it would be nice a system like in the 1st 2 fallouts once we found them. oh, and get a veichle so i can travel faster (and if someone stole my car it would be nice too XD, like in fo2).
- One thing that lacked on FO3 alot. change of dialog when we do something, and more varied depending on our intelligence. i know you can do it. they did so many years ago, you said you wanted to get fo3 better.. you missed in that. a big part of fallout, at least to me.
- take out the added points in clothes for example, 5+ science, except the strengh on the BoS armors for example (for obvious reasons ), and make the resistance to stuff like on the 1st 2 fos
- if you want to make an end with your character dieing, dont make all ends like that, so i can continue travelling with that char, once im the saviour :

Yes, and more of the sort of options that don't even show up unless you have the right skill, at the right level. (For example, the Crop Rotation dialog option, in Shady Sands, FO1.)


Alternately, let the points from outfits exceed normal skill caps.


Eh, I say "don't make the character die, at all". Better for the protagonist to walk off into the sunset, never to be seen or heard from again ... than to die. At least in the former case, we the players can perhaps imagine that further adventure and exploits occurred. In the latter case - the protagonist is worm food, period.

I've said this in several topics. Not sure if I've said it in this one.

But anyways, Nuclear Winter setting. Where warmth would be something useful

For the next Bethesda game (Fallout or Oblivion-like), I would like to see even more immersion. I think the combat is Great, but the game ended too-fast. There are many reasons for this I'm sure, but Oblivion lasted almost a full year for me, and Fallout3 was about a month.

My recommendations for better immersion:

1. Complete Zone Resets - Part of the problem with Fallout3 is that once you do a cell, its done and never resets - for the most part. Some cells do reset, but not completely - just monsters. To keep the game fresh and fun for players when going through cells a 2nd and 3rd time is having something to Do. If a cell completely resets for monsters, chests, and as many conditions as possible (with some changes to randomness), it keeps the game going and renews the adventure.

2. More Diversity in Random Spawns - It would be Awesome if there were a percent change to draw a special-spawn, such a Boss Sniper that is sent to track and kill You. Or a band of Slavers or Mutants guiding a group of slaves somewhere, or perhaps even a roaming band of Raiders sent to attack a certain building with Outcasts or Steel or even one of the cities. Mix it up, don't allow the game to be So predictable that when you go back to an area, you really don't know what you will find waiting for you This time. Imagine an attacks on a city while your inside (Say 20 mutants are attacking Rivet City when you exit, allowing you to help, etc)

3. A Persistent World for Objects - if you put things in lockers, containers, on the ground, etc - it should Stay there even if you leave the cell. This is a very important part of immersion, its too false when things you put down simply dissapear (even if its realistic that someone else might steal it). The dissapearing equipment for lockers, chests, etc is really what needs focus here.

4. Randomized Quest Generator - We built this for Sojourn/Toril and its a powerful tool of immersion, where the game has a database of perhaps 200 smallish random quests - things as simple as a scavenger hunt for a lost object in Megaton somewhere to Assassination contracts, etc, etc. These quests would not be statically placed, but randomly determined when a player enters a cell. It offers the game a way of mixing up the experiences, and adds to the feeling of constant renewal when you go somewhere you have already been to.

5. A New Reward System - Caps and equipment are Great, but the game needs something Other than cash to determine one's accomplishments. Karma scores really don't cut it as a measure of a person, but some kind of point system in which you would get Score Points (or some catchy name) for doing things in the game. Small rewards for picking locks, speech challenges and the like - and larger portions for finishing quests. Along with Experience (for levels) you would get these Score Points, which players could accumulate and compare with others. This is important becasue it is far too easy to get Rich, so Money is really no measure of success and the Levels will always be capped Somewhere. But a Score Point that exists for nothing other than prestige would give players another stat to fight for, and would cost very little to develop.

6. More Quests/Tasks - Quests for Fallout3 are the main way many players proceed through the game, from quest to quest following the path the game creators put together. The problem with Fallout3 (in my view) is not with the Quests themselves, but with the Flow - the general flow through the game be walking down a hallway where even the dust particles flow in the way you need to go, to arrows on the ground, to the design of the levels - the game does Very well at guiding the player on the right path (even in a partially open-world). The effect is that the players go extremely fast through the quest content, and its over too soon. This isn't a bug, but rather a call to arms for more quests to add to the immersion.

Lots more ideas, but those are the top 6 for me that would add more immersion to the game, which is (IMHO) its most charming feature as a game. I think many games will try to follow Bethesda's path in combining the open-world concept with the first-person-shooter concept, and the winners will be the companies that can accomplish immersion the best.

Food for thought,

Miax

I think VATS was a good idea, yet poorly implemented. I think it makes the game far too easy. You should take normal damage inside VATS, and it shouldn't be the only thing that uses AP. The most obvious example of things that should have used AP is of course the inventory. It should cost AP to open, and more AP for each chem you take or piece of equipment you change. Also, this might not work, but maybe it should cost AP just to fire your gun outside of VATS. A small amount, granted, but still something.

How about the Northeast, like New York City or Boston or maybe both...

Or maybe the Great Lakes like Chicago or others...

More guns!

As I understand they tried a variety of things with VATS while they were playtesting the game, and were probably tweaking it's effects right up to the end. As I remember, they originally had you taking normal damage while in the "replay mode," but players found it annoying to come out of VATS and find they were dead, for example. Trying to view VATS in Fallout 3 as any sort of anologue to the combat decisions in Fallout 1 or 2, I think, is going to lead to dissapointment (especially as I don't really think that's what it's supposed to be.)

AP in Fallout 1 and 2 were a turn-based mechanic, the various things you used them for were your primary tactical considerations during your turn (ie, was it worth using your limited pool to heal yourself, move out of the line of fire of your enemies, or trying to attack - and if attacking, which combination of attacks, aimed or not, was going to result in the most efficient damage/AP cost ration.) AP / VATS in Fallout 3 is similiar, if anything, to a more advanced Bullet Time mode found in other real-time shooters. AP only represents your ability to make aimed shots, not your capacity for action, as it was in the previous games.

Hey, I'm a turn-based fan myself. Given my druthers, I'd have rather seen Fallout 3 be turn-based as well. That it's not (in my opinion, of course) doesn't mean that trying to correlate the original system to the new one through a more "traditional" method of AP usage is going to make for a better game. When I'm playing Fallout 3, I'm usually just waiting for my AP to recharge so I can get back into VATS mode (as I'm not very skilled at shooter games, and even with auto-aim on Easy Difficulty I have trouble actually hitting anything without it.) Anything that further limits my ability to use it is only going to make the real-time combat more frustrating for me, and limit the "fun factor."

Using items from inventory, or other actions, isn't going to decrease your capacity to make real-time shots, so it would seem to me to be asymmetric to have those things affect your ability to make attacks with VATS.

I certainly think there's plenty of room for refinement with the system, I'm just not sure that making it harder to use is necessarily going to help make the game any better.

I like this idea alot, but unfortunately it'll frustrate most of the, heh, audience I feel. Maybe not firing in RT, but they definitely should punish you for checking inventory in the midst of a fight

I think that rather than making accessing inventory cost AP's, make it not pause the game. And as for using stims, animate it so that it takes a certain amount of time to inject one instead of mashing the hotkey.

Yeah, I think that would be a pretty elegant solution.

Frank Horrigan.

I would like seeing the ability to climb on things, like how that NPC in OA started climbing the cliff side.

Here Are A Few Suggestions Of Mine:

Please note that I absolutely love to play Fallout 3, so please don't think that I'm trying to make the game seem like it was bad. I just think that Bethesda should really try and do this for the next Fallout game that they develop.

1. The Ability To Use Iron Sights:
Now, Fallout 3 is great and all, but a few things could be tweaked for the next game. It felt kind of weird when I pulled the left trigger (I play on the Xbox 360) and the screen just zoomed in. The character doesn't seem as though he/she likes to use his/her iron sights in 1st person. What's even worse is that the character DOES use his/her iron sights in the 3rd person mode, but DOES NOT in 1st person.

2. Please Fix The Way Bullets Fire...:
As soon as I got my 10mm and started killing those annoying vault security guards, I noticed that bullets don't look right. When they travel, it seems to me like they travel much, much slower than how they do in real life. I fired my sniper rifle at a raider from only about 150 yards away, and it took about 2 seconds to hit him. Not only that, but all the rounds fired look like comets to me because their tails are much too long and much too fat. In fact, I don't even think that they should even be visible after they're fired. If they are visible, it should only be slightly unless in VATS.

3. Some VATS Moments Seem Almost Perfect... Almost...:
I love VATS, especially because I love to see that one fatal blow; the one where time almost comes to a halt, and no yellow tail accompanies that one final round. All that is seen is the slow turn of a .32 caliber round, heading straight towards that unsuspecting raider's head. The camera angles around the bullet, and halfway to that poor raider's head... Time goes back to normal and the head comes clean off. When I first saw this, I though it was pretty damn cool until time went back to normal just after the bullet went a quarter of the way there. It took me out of the moment completely. "Just what was that?" I thought to myself. To really make that moment seem amazing in the next game, this is what needs to happen. That moment, when it occurs, needs to last 10 seconds and have the bullet reach the enemy's head (if it is aimed at the head). I know that when a hunting rifle is fired from 75 yards compared to 50 yards, the bullet fired from 50 yards is obviously going to get there first. To fix this, simply speed up/slow down time so that this event will last 10 seconds. Once it hits the head, it should not be blown clean off. That happens much too often. Instead, the enemy, similar in structure to a human, stops dead in his/her/its tracks. Then, the camera circles around so that the enemy's face can be seen. The enemy quivers, opens it mouth as if to scream, but only a small whimper pierces the silence. He/She/It then slowly lifts his/her/its free arm up, and slowly moves his/her/its hand to feel the point of penetration. Then, the body falls to its knees, and after a few seconds, the pupils disappear, and the body falls to the ground completely. JUST IMAGINE HOW INSANELY AWESOME THAT WOULD BE!!! That would be a true VATS moment. To prevent people from becoming annoyed by the length of this amazing VATS moment, this should not happen often. But if that were to be included in Fallout 4, that would be amazing!!!

4. More Customization & Organization Necessary:
What does Fallout 4 need? I'll tell you what it needs! In fact, I already did from the above statement. When I say customization, I don't mean more armor and weapons (although there should be a lot more of those) to prance around in and use. Weapons should have the ability to be customized which would add a whole new level to fallout games. For example, I was kind of annoyed by the fact that my magnum always had a scope because it would always block my view. Now, it doesn't have to. There could also be different levels of scopes for certain weapons, so aiming at an enemy from a distance wouldn't be as difficult, and when an enemy starts to get close, take off the scope and kill some ferals at medium range. Perhaps I always have to reload my assault rifle at the wrong time. There could be an attachment which is inserted in place of a magazine. The attachment had two slots on its underside. Each slot could hold one magazine. When one magazine was out of ammunition, the other magazine then feeds and locks in its own rounds. These customization options would most certainly be welcome in Fallout 4.

To finish it up, I just want to say that I hope a member of bethesda will come looking through these forums and find this so that my ideas and everyone else's can be incorporated in FO4. Sorry I wrote so much... yea... anyway, that's all I can think of for now.

I pretty much agree with all of those, especially the last two. It annoyed me how the only silenced weapon was the pistol, and not submachine gun or a sniper rifle. The VATS thing would be nifty.

Here are some of mine (pleae consider, Bethesda):

VEHICLES
-Depending on the terrain (open area) in FO4's wasteland, there should be vehicles. Hold on, now! I know that vehicles don't always work as well as they should in games, but hear me out. I'm think that, if they made the area more expansive, and if it there were highways to link larger urban areas (with smaller locations off the roads, obviously), that vehicles could function well, especially as a sort of mobile storage unit and place to leave your ally to guard if you don't want him along. Whatever you didn't need for that excursion/mission, you could stow away in the trunk. Driving it would be easy, but challenging in more advanced situations. Obviously, the [functioning] vehicles would be rare, hard to find/acquire, and take more bullets, so as to maintain balance. The highlight would be Mad Max style car chases with enemies like Raiders or mercenaries. If you had an ally, one of you could drive the vehicle while the other shoots at the enemies, hooting and cursing as the spray you with bullets. Even without an ally, you'd have to drive skillfully in order to survive and drive enemies off the road. Either way, there should be plenty of explosions and crashes, with entire trucks being flying across cliffs and merging with each. Get additional vehicles on your side against a convoy of raiders, and it would be ridiculously fun. Obviously, if said vehicles were uncommon, there would only be a couple of these chases in one playthrough (you don't want to lose your supplies and possibly you and your ally's lives, do you?), but they would be so epic and substantially designed that they are so worth it!

SET TRAPS
-Should definitely be a factor of gameplay next time around, as another way of putting your Repair skill to good use. You could re-arm beartraps and leave mines, but that seemed to be it. I want to set trip-wires, have grenades drop on people. Another great idea would be setting wires across roads so that if a vehicle came driving by, either the vehicle would be destroyed or (if raised higher, by a door, or whatnot) even slice the drivers in half while the vehicle kept continuing on. Other would include pressure plates, gas chambers, and camouflaged pits. Would another layer of tactics to gameplay.

MORE 3-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERS/BETTER STORY-LINE
-Moira, the tree guy, and...well, that's about it for really engrossing characters. Even then, they weren't particularly deep, and attempts to learn more about them were often fruitless. I don't want to sound overly critical of Bethesda, but they do need to work on characterization and overall storytelling. In fact, my favorite parts of the game, story-wise, were when narrative wasn't shoehorned in and rather, like it would be in a desolate, lonely wasteland, things slowly crept up on you as you progressed. Great examples were the haven of inbred cannibals, Andale, and the Dunwich Building. Both I just happened to stumble on, and with Andale, the dialogue was interesting enough to keep me interested, subtle enough to keep me guessing, and worded well-enough to give me a good idea of things. So when I picked the key off of Jack and snuck into the basemant, lo and behold, it was like something out of Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Great effect, there. Same goes for voice recordings throughout the game (good call, Bethesda!). Still, keep in mind that having a few lines for each character is not enough. You can save money by not hiring people like Neeson and Stewart, however good they are. Furthermore, one could do better than searching for your dad for half of the game as a main story.

Here are some of my suggestions:
- Better story - Bethesda really nailed it with all the side stories and most of the characters were interesting but the main story was bad
- Bigger towns - There needs to be bigger towns with more side quests in them and also make the towns seem as if they're alive
- Horror - For a post apocalyptic game it isn't scary. There should be scarier moments than just a ghoul popping out of the corridor
- Romance - A sub plot where the lone wanderer finds love would be nice...
- Improved VATS - vats shouldn't be god-like mode where once you activate it you take almost no damage, it becomes way to easy
- Gore - Make the gore more realistic, it kinda kills the immersion when you shoot a guy in the leg and his head falls off
- Karma - Make Karma do more than just get you hunted like there could be privileges like joining a cult if your evil. The cult could give you quests you otherwise wouldn't have, some unique items and different privileges. think of oblivion where the thieves guild relied on beggars for information, expand on this so maybe you could find out about rumours or secrets you otherwise wouldn't have known. Maybe the beggars could say of that a person in the town that had a bunker under his house that led to somewhere
- More to a Quest - For example you are fighting the enclave but there is a subverted quest you can choose to do where you sneak into an outpost and threaten an enclave officer to give wrong directions for reinforcements. It can make the quest play out differently
- Humor - Make the game more funny. Fallout is heaps bleak and depressing, you need some jokes to lighten the mood

I would like vehicles,like in how fallout 2 you can buy a car of that guy and stash your stuff in the back,I would also like the prices of things to be raised,because sometime FO3 seemed too easy that you could buy some armor for around 200 caps,when in FO2 a leather jacket cost around 400 bucks,and I know that FO4 will never be like FO2 nor FO1.But if you're gonna base a game on games before the current games time,atleast include a few things in that were in the past games.

I would also like

-A much better storyline..
-More gore
-Children Pickpocketing you..Come on be realistic,in a post apocalyptic world you think kids arnt gonna steal yur stuff?
-The ability to get hurt in VATS..once again much too easy.
-More Weapons
-The ability to MAKE your OWN weapons..I got really excited when I heard you could make your own weapons,but I found out that they're not really yours.

Well..Thats my opinion anyway.

How about, instead of focusing on graphix and violence, which were never the focus of Fallout, Bethesda listens to the original producer:

"My idea is explore more of the world and more of the ethics of a postnuclear world, not to make a better plasma gun. "
-- Tim Cain

So instead of violence, more actual role playing, more complex characters and a world that makes sense.