You confuse simple variables with being hard and too difficult.

ok than lets just remove every rpg aspect of the game and make it "CoD: [censored] Really Hit The Fan At Some Point A Couple of Hundred Years Ago."

that sounds really fun. it would be a nice way to earn some caps and great for those times when you just want to murder a few things

but it would have to be done right. no constant waves of raiders. should be a group follows you and ambushes the caravan while they rest, or in valley. basically something interesting and tactical. It wouldnt be fun, and wouldnt make much sense, to have wave after wave of raiders attack for the whole trip (caravaners wouldnt even head that way if that was the state of the roads).

it's not a simple variable, if you have to do more planing then going on a real expedition (into the rainforest for example or on a archaelogical dig) when playing a computer game (that's supposed to be FUN, not work like tedium!)

and NO - I don't want COD (those games - while certainly entertaining (like a "Terminator" movie) - lack story, compelling characters etc.) again (that is not - no way!) what i am saying!

greetings LAX

ps: Tedium (what you call variables) does not make the game immersive - the story (which could be a lot deeper, like in the first two games or other RPGs (like - again - say Dragon Age (Origins of course, DA2 is not all that spectacular IMHO)), the characters and the gameplay (in combat for example, which kind of does feel a little clumsy in FO3 and FO:NV) do

pps: now there is another thing i really want:

Give me deeper characters (again refering to Dragon Age, as it has really well done companion characters IMHO), with their own motivation (yes: FO:NV had that, but broaden that plz) and do me a favour Bethesda - try your hand a romances

Oh and another one:

Give me places that are not broken down destroyed (IMHO the folks of FO lack in one respect: they don't try to clean up the places they are living at, they don't care about chipping paint, cracks in the walls etc. - even those that live in stable communities that are not threatened with being wiped out at any minute (like New Vegas or the Brotherhood of Steel in FO3, they didn't bother cleaning up the Citadel in 23 years (!) even though they could have helped people better by resettling them there etc. (and they might have found more technology, too - like the "secret" armory you get, if you wipe them out in Broken Steel!)...hell, in FO1 and 2 the cities founded by vault people looked cleaner then what we have seen in 3 and NV) and are muddy brown and look kind of hopeless (yes, in general that is fine, as the world got nuked, but having it everywhere is kind of depressing)

Weapon degredation, its a variable that the player needs to keep in mind. Dying (health bar) its a variable the player needs to keep in mind. (AP points) A bar for VATs that acts as a variable in combat. AI having weapons to fight you back, its just another variable. Now take that all away.. Whats left? No suspense? I can't even call it a book because the suspense is lifeless. You can't have a good story without it. You say you want a return to the originals which were littered with variables but in actuality you want some Bioshock Infinite with less variables than it already has. Tedium, your most overused word of this decade is so opinion based. Your basically saying you find everything that is anything in these games to be boring. You say you want the writing but without the variables you just couldn't have that good rich writing you dread for. Lets take some shots, but not at something so essential.

hm...i don't remember having had to repair degrading armor and weapons in FO1 and 2...but even if you had, it's still tedios (and not: it is not a variable to consider, at least not at normal difficulty, because you either carry at least one replacement weapon or find weapons on killed enemies (not in the best shape, but enough to get you back to the repair-shop or to use in jury-rigging)

also: it is "wrong" because, while weapons degrade in RL, they don't do it this fast (i have a friend whose father has a hunting license and he uses his rifles for years (!) without having to replace parts (and he just keeps them clean and sometimes oils them, which i would think any half-wit who has to rely in said weapons in a live or death situation would do, too)

Note: i never wanted to disarm the AI (they are "allowed" to shoot at me (i will just kill them for it of course ^^)) or have invulnerability etc. - i just want the tedium removed, the other elements are just FINE IMHO!

greetings LAX

Seriously? if the stuff you have been babbling about was put in a fo game it would just be a post-apocalyptic CoD- with even more cut scenes and a dressing room slapped on to it for the pretty screenies.

What is there to draw you in? To amaze you? Confuse you? Or frustrate you? Nothing. Just mindless, point n' shot fps crap like a million other games. Not all games need to be about the maximum amount of destroyed [censored] in the minimum amount of time for the least amount of difficulty on the players part.

After a certain point, convenience for the sake of convenience turns a game to mush (Just look at world of warcraft). The player should have to "deal" with inconvenience and tedium sometimes. Not only for the sake of realism, but for the sake of reward. Rewards are more rewarding when you have to work a bit.

In the end i wonder, "Why even play the game?" Just watch a walkthrough on youtube. They skip through all that tedious gameplay and get to the good stuff.

I'd like to see this restored as well; it was a prominent option in Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics; but Bethesda removed it.

Perhaps, but the point of map travel is to not have to do that stuff; to not be required to trudge the distance in real time.

This we need restored; there was plenty of that in Fallout 1 & 2.

Map travel is not teleporting; but it is broken in Bethesda games since Oblivion.
Broken or not, it still has the right idea. It doesn't matter that the player does not see the interim walk between point A to point B; they chose the map travel method so that they wouldn't have to.
What matters is that the PC made the trip (on foot), and that it took an appropriate amount of time to do it. The player resumes the game after the PC arrives.

In Fallout, point A & B could be a 10 'game day' walk; in FO3 they can't manage that (unfortunately), but at least they have the right concept implemented. If you use the 'map travel' to walk from Vault 101 to Rivet City, it takes the PC about three hours IRRC. The only serious flaw in FO3's travel system, is that drugs and other timers don't reflect the time spent on the trip [AFAIK], and that the PC has zero risk of ambush. These are what truly need fixed IMO.

Scrap not fix is your motto. You could add an option where you got to keep your weapon up by oiling it and cleaning which could be cheaper than repairing, though not keeping it up will make you run the risk of it losing in degredation. I just played new Vegas, again, and I repair Enclave armor plus the top weapons and I don't really even notice a loss of caps. Late game its common and easy to get. Though without, there would be too many caps if you removed repair almost to the point where you wouldn't need caps anymore. Since why would i buy a gun if I can find a better gun that never breaks? You know whats boring.. Skyrim.. Why, because I get like a 1 bagillion septims and have absolutely nothing to spend it on. In real life, you gain money to spend it on entertainment and the essentials of life. A positive and a negative. Without making the process of making money boring, which its not in Fallout and that isn't what you are complaining about, but its the positive and negatives which come with the earning of caps. Simple variables to keep in mind when approaching every situation. I guess you want to remove barter too because that impedes progress by making some things more expensive than needs be?

What about running the risk of receiving a perm injury that can only be healed by visiting a doctor? Crippled limbs and/or reduced max HP/AP for fast-traveling too great a distance for example.

I was thinking of a Fallout in New York City and I just realized that Penns Station would probably still be around.. Well the original.. It'd be neat to see it.

that could be avoided by adding another mechanic to remove money (or mechanics, i have a few in mind):

1. Bribery - Say if you are a do goody that needs to talk to a crimeboss, that would normally have you shot on sigh (because of your reputation for killing gangsters), then you would have the option of "buying" an audience (unless say your sneak is high enough to sneak into his office or do some work for him/her (meaning: bribing would not be exclusive (at the expense of other possible solutions))

2. Special Items, that can't be found (like say parts for that hypothetical car you might own or the robot you might want to have etc.)

3. Housing (like in TES - but with it being more usefull, too...i mean stuff like you chairing say a peace summit between factions at your place (as neutral ground) etc.)

greetings LAX

ps: i still don't see, how removing tedium makes this a COD-Clone? (it will never be - and no, having to work for it never draws the player in, that's like saying: farming in an MMO is fun, when - at least for me - it clearly is not, it is a necessity, nothing more or like saying that working, when you could be having fun (shooting stuff - or in RL be out with your friends, play a (PC-)game etc.), is better)

pps: NOTE: I consider my player character to do the oiling and cleaning of his guns (and fixing minor damage to his/her armor) in "off-screen-time" (meaning i don't need to see that or have to do it - i have enough imagination to do this and i would think, you did, too (after all: you would not play a post-nuclear-war-game without having imagination))

My two cents, probably already been discussed 1000 times, but still.

1 - I would like to see FO4 be more about scavenging and survival. To have live bullets few and far, but crafting to be able to make ammo. To be able to sprint and to have situations where you HAVE to run to survive.

2 - The option of hardcoe Mode like Vegas. My friend hated it, but I loved it. Needing to eat, sleep and drink to survive. To need doctors bags to fix broken limbs, not just cram a stim-pack in your face to heal your concussion.
And possibly a realistic inventory size?
It always bugged me that I was able to carry 4 mini-guns, 3 fatmans, 2 missile launchers, plus 1000 ammo for each of those guns, AND every other gun in the game and 1000 ammo for all of those too. Got some deep pockets alright...
I would love to actually SEE what I am carrying. To only be able to hold (depending on my strength and endurance) one or even two big guns, and a few other guns and knives and such. Or am I the only one like this?

found this, what do you think?

Bethesda still 'finding an appropriate time' to talk Fallout 4

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/450151/bethesda-still-finding-an-appropriate-time-to-talk-fallout-4/

A Fallout 4 announcement is still a while off, according to Bethesda game director Todd Howard.

Approached on the DICE Awards red carpet by Rock Paper Shotgun, Howard reaffirmed that the company will not discuss the anticipated installment for a while to come.

We don't," Howard said, when asked whether the studio had a timeframe for an annoucement. "But I think it's gonna be a while."

"We've gotten fairly used to all the questions and curiosity over the years," he continued.

"Everyone wants information. Right now, we're just trying to figure out which of our ideas are going to stick and finding an appropriate time to talk about it."

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/02/18/apparently-we-wont-hear-about-fallout-4-for-a-while/

So then, it’ll be “a while.” But what about all that voice casting stuff? Well, somewhat ironically, that’s where Howard clammed up. There is some good news, though. PC has reclaimed its spot at the forefront of gaming’s charge into the future, and Bethesda has absolutely taken notice.

“PC is resurgent,” enthused Howard. “Skyrim did better than we’ve ever done on PC by a large, large number. And that’s where the mods are. That feeds the game for a long time. And it’s exciting that the new consoles are very PC-like. That opens up avenues for us going forward to do things that we’ve wanted to do in the past. There are kind of random ideas we’re working on right now, and it’s like, ‘Wow, I think there’s potential here to do some really cool stuff.’”

So there you have it. I did my best to squeeze lemonade from Todd Howard’s tightly clamped mouth. For my next trick, I’ll leave before this metaphor gets any stranger

Already sounds infinitely more compelling than the main quests of FO2 and FO3 combined.

Also, this: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Ramallah/Todd_Howard_breaks_silence_on_new_Fallout_game._Says_We_Won%E2%80%99t_Hear_About_Fallout_4_For_%E2%80%98A_While%E2%80%99

The timing is suspicious lighthouse.

yeah, Todd

seems to have confirmed fallout 4, and he almost never talks about his games

so when is the next big game show? March?

No, if anything, this means we'll be waiting for FO4 much, much longer. Like, there shouldn't even be any logic in continuing to make these threads at this point in time until we get a little further down the road.

But yeah, it's apparently irregular for Todd Howard to speak with the media. We should consider ourselves privileged that he revealed we'll be craving our Fallout fix for even longer now.

Isn't it still a bit of a jump to a conclusion to assume he is speaking about Fallout 4. It's likely that that is what they are making, but he (nor Hines) never confirm nor deny this to be the case (they always talk about the "next game"); and weren't there some stuff suggesting that they might also be in for something else entirely (from TES and Fallout).

I mean, I don't really care about thus sort of speculation - the announcement of "the next game" comes when it comes, but with all the intended secrecy abound, wouldn't it be stupid if it just got indirectly confirmed like that in the RPS interview.

What's too great a distance? Sure, Map travel is basically an unattended forced march, but it does not have to mean walking the PC into the ground... Just have the time indicated be appropriate. In Fallout if you walked from Vault 13 to the Brotherhood, or the military base, the PC spent about ten days doing that, and the game resumes when and where they arrive.
A walk to the Necropolis, or to the West-Tek facility is even farther and takes commensurately longer to reach.

**The real thing that they need to fix is to hold the world to the clock; in Bethesda games the clock is meaningless.

I'm sure the man who interviewed him wouldn't lie unless he wanted to get fired and/or get stoned to death by a rabidly passionate fanbase. The context of the snippet of the interview, how it starts specifically, sets in stone he's talking about FO4. There wasn't a fake trademark registered for anything other than FO4 that I'm aware of.

In other words, add back the ticking clock from FO1 and FO2 that does absolutely nothing but impede your ability to play/complete the game? Sounds pretty useless imo.

What ever. It just seemed to me that maybe the RPS guy had a tad of assuming in his conclusions, while Todd never specifically mentions Fallout. Either way, it doesn't really change anything.


Not useless; and it need not be (always) about "hurry up, or gameover/failure" if one wants to get creative about it. Plenty of ways create and increase various forms reactivity and tension through the use of time.

What I'd like to see (been able to think about it) would be a bigass map REAL wars and battles big factions (a robot ai faction and a psychic mutant swarm factio. Anyone?)

Buildable companions/ generic buyable gaurds- making that robot body a new friend could be interesting also buyable mercenary's (that respawn in a bar or whatever for when you kill em) maybe a lobotomite or zombie or mutant creature creator could also be cool if it could be built (modular/ customizable out the butt?)

Weapons/armor-power armor more then just platemail first off and customizable (middle pods, flamers, plasma shields, night vision, drug injector etc.) Underarmor to further customize your power armor (pipboy armor anyone?) Weapons...MOAR (moar what?) Everything guns melee MODS (lots of those more so then the armor) and ammo types (important)

Vehicles -cars tanks helicopters (custom and some faction specific?) (Raiders get buggy's enclave choppers brotherhood tanks/weird robo mecha things)

Subfactions- moar giving benefits for being with them (the farmers selling horses and houses to you or whatever)

No "be good lul" - self explanatory

Infi quests- faction/town jobs you can do forever "help the caravan get to town blah" or maybe a arena? Or resource gathering

Crafting- better sources for gunpowder brass scrap metal/electronics MOAR choice in what to build (see mad science mod and robco certified)

Cybernetics/mutations- moar options moar things to buy some faction specific and sometimes jury rigged cybernetics Also use that radiation (and gene sequencing power) to give players the choice of unique and powerful mutations when exposed to radiation or doing different factions jobs or even finding the right doctor ( mutations take action points, cybernetics power cells) (important for non passive effects (stealth fields?))

Psychic- random "power" allowing strange yet worth while allowing people to cast "spells" that don't out weigh using weapons (small useful things and basic weapons that don't use ammo but AP and hurt the head with crippling damage)

Ruins - moar variation in enemies moar faction held buildings MOAR LOOTS

THIS.

I have been watching a friend play my copy of Red Dead Redemption.

I really like how the quest markers don't put the arrow right on top of the target's head. Instead, a large circle on the map that lets you know the vicinity of the target would be much more fun in Fallout games.

Hold-ups and muggings would be fun in Fallout.

Fast Travel is perfectly fine but how about only being able to FT from major town to major town? This can be done via an essential NPC and his brahmin drawn carriage. Someone suggested hitching a ride with a passing caravan, as well.

We already have them, haven't you ever seen the BOS?

If a Legion hit squad wasn't bad enough...