Companions:

Have charisma determine how many companions we can get.

Have companions have interactive dialogue between each other and have some dialogue locked out until we advance in certain quests or go to certain areas or speak to certain people. (In order to have them always have "something" to say, I hated how I could deplete companion dialogue so easily in FNV)

Have at least a dozen (preferabely more) companions and have some that doesn't like each other. (Not every companion has to be a book of text but none of them should be just a line of text either, simply needs more companions for conflicting interests and morals to work.)

Have companions have their own morals, have each of them have ultimatums during certain quests, like if you want to help J instead of M your companion will tell you that he/she/it cannot believe you want to side with J and says that they'll leave if you side with them. (Companions have their own morals, they should stand by everything we do.)

Have certain companions be very strict with what they will equip. (Like Boone, he should've been more attached to his Hunting Rifle and refused to change to something else because of this sole connection he has to his past.)

Don't follow the same formula of 1 SM, 1 ghoul, 1 animal and 1 robot, switch it up a little, maybe 2 ghouls, 1 super mutants, 2 animals and no robot companions.
Just no more of that same formula, it's getting predictable and boring. It can very well still be a Fallout game without a robot or animal or super mutant companion.

Have certain companions have defects and specialized skills, like Cassidy, if you gave him Psycho or Jet he would suffer a heartattack and die.
It makes for more realism to not have everyone be in top shape.

And certain companions should have other skills to help you out, Arcade for example should have been able to hack computers for you, he should also have been able to perform First Aid and Doctor once a day if you've run out of stimpacks, hydra and doctors bags. I know there are companions perks, but those are always passive, I want active companion skills too.

Change in SPECIAL:

Strength:

• Each point in strength raises carry weight.
  
• It increases Blade, Blunt and HtH damage too. Say a weapon has 5 in STR requirement, that means that it's damage presented will be the norm, now, if you have 6 in STR you get a 0.10x bonus in damage, meaning a weapon that requires 3 in STR req gets a whopping bonus of 0.70x in damage.
  It also works the other way, so if a weapon has 5 in STR req and you have 4 then you get -0.15x in damage.
  
• Strength also affects the chance at which you can be knocked down, and also decides how much recoil a weapon will have if you meet the soft requirement for the weapon or above.

Perception:

• Perception affects your accurcy, the less you have the worse you'll shoot, the more you have the more of a bonus you'll get towards accurcy.
  
• Perception also allows you to see traps better, meaning that if you don't meet the PER requirement to see the trap or don't have a sufficient Traps skill then the trap will be invisible to you until something trips it. (same with mines.)
  
• At gas areas where the gas can be ignited will only show it's blurryness if you have 4> in PER.
  
• PER allows you to notice of a food or drink item has been tampered with. (Survival also affects that.) ((This is mostly for certain quests.))
  
• It decides at what distance enemies will show up.
  
• If you have 2 or less in PER then everything from 70 meters away will be somewhat blurry. (If you have 1 or 2 in PER then glasses give x2 PER.)

Endurance:

• How much your health will be through the entire game. (Base health is 50, each END give +15 HP) ((You no longer get any more HP from leveling up, the END you have will this time around actually be important.))
  
• How fast action points generate
  
• How much stamina you have for sprinting.
  
• Poison and radiation resistance.
  
• Chem addiction resistance.

Charisma:

• Charisma affects Nerve stat for companions which determines how much they will follow orders and how strong they are.
  
• It also affects the number of companions you can hire.
  
• NPC's in the game follow a "personal rep" meter this time around, meaning that if you for example help that rancher guy in Novac to find out what is killing his brahmins and solve the quest then you get +20 personal rep with him and +10 with everyone else in the town.
  The personal rep will decide the NPC's attitude towards you, how big the reward will be, how much of a discount you'll get and of course; When a NPC will give you a quest. (Boone for example would not give you his personal quest until your rep is at 50 with him, meaning you have to solve other quests in the town before his open up.)
  But here is where charisma comes in. CHA decides the base personal rep with NPC's, 5 is neutral, 6 means +5 and 10 means +20 in initial person rep with all NPC's in the game, while 4 means -10 and 1 means -40.
  Personal rep is also affected by other things like what faction you've helped or messed with, how much you buy items from stores (not sell, but buy), if you're female or male, if you have six appeal, black widow, lady killer, confirmed bachelor and cherchez le femme. (Might also count towards other perks, like Tribal Wisdom will inherently give +5 personal rep with any and all tribals in the game upon selecting it.)
  Personal rep is a very cranky thing, you can be loved by the entire town but because you accidentally made a joke about the bartenders late wife he'll still hate you.
  So NPC's will remember things, not everything is in the collective factions anymore but their personal opinions about you. (Though Faction reputation will still exist and still have a large importance.)
  So Charisma helps out with giving you a nice boost to this.
  And with a mid-high level CHA perk you only get half as much negative personal rep from people when you do them ill.

Intelligence:

• Intelligence affects how many skill points you receive from skill books.
  
• It affects how much of a bonus you will receive from skill magazines and how long it will be.
  
• It affects a lot more dialogue options.
  
• It determines how many skill points you'll receive.
  
• It also have effect on how whether other highly intelligent characters in the game will think of you. (Personal rep) If you have a low INT they will consider you a savage and won't bother discussing things with you.

Agility:

Affects:

• jumping height
  
• jumping length
  
• fall damage
  
• reload speed
  
• close combat attack speed
  
• Total amount of action points.

Luck

• Determines how often/seldom you will receive critical failures: getting knocked down, getting twice as long poison length, accidentally dropping a weapon, getting blocked despite high Blunt and STR, receiving critical hits et cetera.
  
• Determines your luck on the gambling table.
  
• Determines how successful you'll be when you try to smuggle something in without a high Deception skill.
  
• Determines how lucky/unlucky you'll be at the operating table. (quest wise when NPC's can be healed Luck will affect your performance despite your skill, so with Luck 1 you might accidentally kill Caesar even with 100 Medicine. (Luck overpowers any skill your character may have, cause no matter how skilled she/he is Luck is cosmic, it doesn't care how skilled you are, you have bad luck then bad things will happen to you.)
  
• 1 Luck means you have a 0.1% chance to choke on an edible item and die.
  
• Luck affects how successful your sneak attempt will be. (With a bad luck the logical conclusion is that a top ninja could still mess up despite his training.)
  
• Just a veeeery little thing but: it affects how often NPC's will accidentally give you a bit more in quest reward due to them counting wrong. (High luck) Might just be 6 stimpacks when you were suppose to only get 5, or it might be 50 caps extra because the quest giver overlooked how much money he actually had at hand.

Overall it means that with a bad luck the game will curbstomp you, and with good luck it will pleasure you. (Does not mean it's insta-win by any means, just means you'll be more lucky here and there.)

This is the skill list I would like to see for Fallout 4.

01. Blade
02. Blunt
03. Hand to Hand

04. Guns
05. Chemical Weapons

06. Explosives
07. Energy Weapons

08. Persuasion
09. Deception
10. Barter

11. Gambling (Only if gambling minigames are removed)
12. Chemistry (Primarily crafting but has other uses too.)
13. Mechanics (cosmetic change from Repair (Includes some aspect of Science as well))

14. Pilot (Only if Vehicles are present.)
15. Electronics
16. Medicine

17. Survival
18. Outdoorsman (Only if a map node system is in place with world travel)
19. Hacking
20. Lockpicking

21. Steal
22. Sneak
23. Traps (Only if there is a good amount of traps and we can craft and use our own.)
24. Armorer

Now let me explain them.

1. While swords (fencing) and knifes are different combat styles I'd rather not make a long list too long, but bladed weapons and blunt weapons function differently.
Blunt weapons use brute force to crush the enemy, while bladed weapons, which are mostly knifes, aren't really a strong suit for someone to charge a deathclaw with.
So Blade is mostly the stealth skill, an assassin skill, but there "are" weapons that are of more impact that you can use like swords, machetes and fire axes but they are harder to find. Spears go in this skill too, they function completely different but again, the skill list is already long, better to just throw them in here. Thrown spears on the other hand are governed by the Throwing skill.

Bladed weapons have faster attack rate, has more frequent criticals, do more sneak critical damage and can cause bleed effects which drain the life of the enemy.

Bladed weapons are powered by Agility, along with Sneak, the higher the Agility is the better you sneak, the better you sneak the more common the sneak attacks will be.
It also affects attack speed directly, so if push comes to shove having high agility can make up for the lack of damage if you have to fight an enemy toe to toe.
Again, blades are primarily meant to be used as stealthy weapons, it "can" be used as brute force too (fireaxe for example.) but they are meant to be exploited for their criticals.

2. Blunt, the omega to it's alpha, the straight forward brute skill, heavier, louder, stronger, while Blade weapons have a greater critical chance, critical damage and a bleed effect the Blunt skill's weapons are high DAM but slower and not very suitable for sneaky kills.

Blunt weapons are slower but does more damage, they don't have a lot of criticals or especially high critical damage but they make up for it by being able to knock back enemies, knock them unconscious, break through defensive stance (well, not if you have a tire iron but a super sledge is gonna break through just about anything.) and cause much higher limb damage. Blunt weapons also cause severe damage towards equipment, each hit causes 30% of your dealt damage towards the equipment attacked. (This means that if the enemy's armor has 200 item hp, and your weapon does 20 damage, then 6damage is caused to the item hp. If you used a weapond that dealt 60 damage then 18 item hp would be gone. Remember that most armors and weapons are pretty deteriorated so hitting the enemy three times with a 60 damage weapon means 54 item hp will be gone.)
((This is meant so that the Blunt class don't became too OP, cause while it can cause knockdowns, knockbacks, cripples and break through enemy defense and has great damage, it also trashes just about anything you attack, so if you accidentally hit the enemy's Trail Carbine then it's gonna be pretty broken.)

Blunt weapons are powered purely by Strength, the more strength you have the greater the damage is and the more likely the benefits are to happen.

3. Basically Unarmed with a name change, think it freshens it up a little. It's core design is the same but it would be nice with more combat moves and to be able to kick like in the old games. (And kick down doors as well. )

4. Like in New Vegas.

5. Chemical Weapons, this weapon skill includes all fire based weapons chemical weapons, fire included, Flame Gun, Flame Rifle, Flamer, Incinerator, Incendiary Grenade et cetera.
It should be it's own skill because fire based weapons does not fit in any other skill (Except incendiary grenade).
If you build in this skill you will have it easier and have it harder, the damage of the weapons is quite large but the problem is their ammo consumption.
They're also "rare'ish". You can get the Flame Gun easily of course but the rest is a lot harder to come by.

6. Like in New Vegas?

7. Like in New Vegas.

8/9. Why the split of Speech? Because they're both different. Persuasion means you know how to persuade people it has a lot more dialogue options than deception does, but deception governs the success rate of disguising yourself, the game should of course need more infiltration missions in order for disguises to be more of use.
Anyway, just cause you're a smooth talker don't mean you have a poker face, they're both different, and should be split so.
Deception also means you know where to hide stuff on yourself and not making them "stand out" and can smuggle items.

10. Should be expanded upon, allow us to barter more deals through dialogue, some speech options in New Vegas could honestly have been used as Barter options.

11. I think that Gambling should be reinstated and that the minigames should be removed, I hate the minigames, if I want to play black jack I'll go online and find a game to play. Gambling should be based on character skill, not player skill, so yes, back with Gambling.

12. Chemistry is a crafting skill primarily, with this one you know how to craft various drugs, poisons, acids and other items.
Chemistry should also have it's quest and event sequences, maybe there's some mold on a beam supporting a house and your character figures out that he can use chemical component #42 and apply it to the mold which creates acid and therefor eats away at the beam, collapsing the house. (Dunno how this would work or if it even could work but yknow, have certain moments where a high Chemistry skill can come in handy.)

13. Mechanics is a renamed Repair, functions basically the same way, it has a bit of Science in it as well, but mostly it's a cosmetic change.
Well, that is IF we have vehicles. If we do have vehicles in FO4 then this skill will come in handy for repairing vehicles and sabotaging others.

14. Pilot, well... Vehicles, if they're in the game then the Pilot skill determines how good your character is at steering the vehicle and how far he can jump with it and other things. (I'm not very interested in cars so I don't know what a good driver can do with a car really.)

15. Electronics can be used for crafting various electronic items like shock batons, cattle prods, electronic lockpicks and mashing down certain items into scrap electronics. It can also be used to recharge drained cells. You can cut the power of places with this and turn off any lights, terminals, alarms, forcefields and turrets that were connected to it (Not every place will become blacked out, some places have back up generators for alarms and turrets.) And of course a lot of quests can be solved by using it, like sabotaging any electricity powered things.
You can also, depending on how high your skill is, turn off any robots and turrets and then with Hacking convert them to fight for you. Though converted robots don't get any +damage or +health from the conversion. They can be repaired with Mechanics and scrap metal/electronics.

16. Medicine... I'd rather have First Aid and Doctor back but there are already so many skills on here.

17/18. If we have a map node system with random encounters then this skill will function just like in the old games, I don't know if these two should be merged or not though, merging them could make Survival too useful but leaving them as separate could make Outdoorsman feel hollow.

19. Hacking, what it sounds like, you can hack any computer interface with a deep coded lock.

20. Lockpicking needs a new minigame system and an option to make it dicerolled, otherwise it's basically the same as before.

21. Steal, I think that Steal should be brought back, but if brought back then there should be a lot more moments where can steal something of value.
Not necessarily of $ value but rather quest value, say someone has a key on himself, you could either disguise yourself with Deception and say you're a new high ranking officer, you could use Electronics to turn off the lights by cutting some wires and have him lured to the wires trying to fix it and shocking himself unconseaus(???) you could smooth talk him with Persuasion or you could use the Steal skill to take it from him.
If you are sent to jail for a little while at some place you could steal the guards key when he's making his rounds, or you could steal back any confiscated stolen items by stealing the key from another guard and steal back the confiscated goods.
You could pay a hefty sum of money to get in at some place and then steal back the money, or you could steal the ammo from the guard and engage a fight with him causing him to either retreat or fight with his bare hands.
It could be a very very valuable skill.

22. Sneak only means you're great at keeping yourself undetected, it does NOT mean you're a great thief and it does NOT you know how to conceal items better.
Just means your footsteps are that of a mouse and you blend in with the darkness, mainly for getting around undetected and to silently kill things.
This means you can still be successful with the Steal skill even if you are detected by someone, as long as you're not completely detected by the one you're stealing from.

23. And finally, Traps, first off, traps should be more deadly, secondly, there should be more of them, ranging from a huge log chained to the ceiling to an alarmed door.
So for the skill to be worth it let there be more traps, hell, let there be moments (not a lot) were you can't even continue further in a building until you've disarmed the trap.
You can also create traps of your own, and yes, they are very deadly.

24. Armorer, used for crafting new armors and for reinforcing old ones and generally maintaining armors, this means that Mechanics/Repair does NOT repair armors, it's all decided on this skill. So if you have a low Armorer but high Mechanics/Repair then you'll be crap at repairing armors but great at repairing weapons.
The better armor you have the easier to repair armors it is, and you can also choose to further upgrade your own gear a lot of times and even craft new combat armor from cheap materials to sell for a high price.


Skill cap should be 200. (I'd rather have it at 300 though.)


Note:
Take a locked door, you want to open it:
With Strength you can bash it down, though the sound of the door breaking will make any NPC in the nearest 30 meters come looking for what it was. (Can only be done to wooden doors)
With Lockpick you can pick the door or container with no NPC awareness penalty.
With Explosives you can blow up the door though any container you blow the lock off has the chance of the item becoming destroyed. This will alert any NPC's in 70 meters. (You can only use C4 and Time-Bombs to blow open a lock, C4 is expensive and Time-Bombs are timerequireing to craft.)
With Chemistry you can craft different acids, all with different strengths, some able to chewing through Very Hard and some only being able to handle measly Very Easy locks, this will cause a smell that make any NPC's in 20 meters come looking for the source of the smell. (There is a delay to it.) ((Acids have to be crafted and the better ones are harder to get the materials for.))

Lockpick remains the best solution, Explosives is expensive and can damage the items inside container and draw everyone's attention, Strength cannot be relied on for every kind of door, only wooden ones and Acid is very hard to craft the better acids with, so a lot of time has to be spent hunting for materials.
So while other things can be used to pick locks it still remains as the alpha solution.

Options!

Extra note:
By removing Gambling Pilot, Outdoorsman and Traps it would end up being:

01. Blade
02. Blunt
03. Hand to Hand

04. Guns
05. Chemical Weapons
06. Explosives
07. Energy Weapons

08. Persuasion
09. Deception
10. Barter

11. Chemistry (Primarily crafting but has other uses too.)
12. Mechanics (cosmetic change from Repair (Includes some aspect of Science as well))
13. Electronics
14. Armorer

15. Medicine
16. Survival
17. Hacking

18. Lockpicking
19. Steal
20. Sneak

Pilot, Gambling, Outdoorsman and Traps only works if the game is designed a specific way, so they are less likely to happen.

Let us choose what race to be in Fallout 4.

Start out with:
* Wastelander > Prime Normal (race trait)
* Super Mutant > Nightkin (race trait)
* Android
* Ghoul
* Trog

Android (UnDeCafIndeed + Gabriel)
Pro's
- Base HP (before endurance effect) x1.5
- Double effects from endurance
- +1 to Str, End and Per (changed my mind with the perception)
- +5 initial DT
- Does not require SLP/FOD/H2O
- +2 to detecting enemies on radar (10 real PER = 12 PER for the detecting enemies)
- Unique perks exclusive to Androids
- Immune to radiation and poison

Con's
- Base skillpoint gain halved (if the formula is 10+(intx0.5), it would be 5+(intx0.5) for androids)
- Perks one level later than others (if normal rate is 1:2, for android it'd be 1:3)
- -2 to max int and cha
- When lit on fire, it lasts twice aslong as with others, though fire does not do more damage than normally
- Does require ENRG and SYN
- Pulse or Tesla or Shock weapons inflict twice as much damage on Androids.
- Harder to heal oneself due to very expensive mechanics NPC's and expensive healing items.
- Harder to find healing supplies, those one does find (scrap metal/electronics) does very little to heal oneself
- Very reliant on Electronics and Mechanics which means Android players might have a slightly/heavily limited amount of skills.


Wastelander
Pro's
* Bonus to initial reaction from humans.

Con's
* Initial reaction from mutants and ghouls halved.

Wastelanders have no greater pro's nor con's over the other races, they are the default race, basically, they are the SPECIAL 5.5.5.5.5.5.5.
The race with the most freedom but also with the least bonuses and penalties.

Prime Normal trait tweaks:
Pro's
* +1 INT
* +1 CHA
* Persuasion, Deception, Barter, Electronics, Mechanics and hacking gain x1.5 (This meanas that with this race trait and the normal trait Good Natured you can get a massive head start on support skills with the extreme drawback to combat skills.)

Con's
* Endurance effects with +% to rad and poison resistance is halved.
* All combat skills are decreased by x1.5


Super Mutant
Pro's
* Base health x2.5 (Base health is 100 in FO3 and NV so it's 250 for Super Mutants.)
* +5 to min STR (6 is the lowest, can't go lower than that. (How much sense would it make for a super mutant with 3 in strength?)
* x1.5 damage with all blunt weapons and Hand to Hand weapons.
* x1.5 reloading speed and equipment speed with big weapons (minigun, flamer, gatling laser)
* Immunity to Radiation and +30% poison resistance.
* +10% damage resistance against laser, explosives, bullets and fire.

Con's
* -6 to max INT (V87 super mutant = dumb dumb by even Tabithas dumb dumb's standards.)
* -4 to max CHA
* Due to super mutants hostility towards humans a lot of them will kill SM's on sight and the rest will be very suspicious of you.
* Cannot use smaller weapons. (SMG's, pistols, revolvers, sawn off shotguns et cetera.)
* Has veeeeeery few armors in the game.

Nightkin trait tweaks: (Sebor13 + Gabriel)
Pro's
* Stealthboys last twice as long and can be used two times before depletion. (Perk later on can allow to recharge depleted stealthboys.)
* Have a greater chance to find stealthboys in random container spawns.
* x2.0 sneak. (If base sneak with tagged is 30 then it becomes 60)
* +1 min AGI

Con's
* health is x1.5
* +3 to min STR
* -2 CHA for super mutant NPC's. (Due to the schizophrenia.)
* You occasionally hear whispers and enemy voices and can see random red dots pop up on the compass while there is nothing there. (Craziness.)
* Friendly NPC's can also show up as hostile dots on the radar.



Ghoul (UnDeCafIndeed + Gabriel)
Pro's
* Each tagged skill earns 2.5 more skill points than for other races. (Ghouls have after all lived for a very very long time.) (So if base is 15 then it means 37 per tagged skill)
* Machines that use "detect life" scanners cannot see them. (Thanks to Broken Steel that made ghouls have 0% body heat...)
* Gain exclusive perks surrounding radiation bonuses. (Healing crippled limbs, storing radiation, unleashing a radiation cloud like Glowing Ones can, stuff like that.) (Hell, every race except for Wastelanders and Prime Normals should get exclusive perks for their races.)
* 100% radiation resistance.
* Radiation heals over time (slowly). (Both health and crippled limbs.)
* Kinsman ability, feral ghouls and aggressive SM's are more likely to leave the player alone if not provoked (not being friendly, just having a possibility to be less agressive and ignore the player).
* Bonus to initial reaction for non-feral ghouls, neutral/friendly SM's and human ghoulsympathisers (excluding characters with set mindsets).

Con's
* Cannot wear heavy armor or power armor.
* -1 to Charisma (I saw that thing on Arcanum about "beauty" and I think that would suit ghouls better but since we only have Charisma I guess this'll have to do.)
* -1 to Agility. (They aren't exactly the best gymnastics, they'd probably lose a limb if entering the OS. )
* -2 to max Endurance.
* No natural DT or DR.
* +15% recieved damage.
* (those two due to skin and flesh conition)
* Initial reaction from humans halved (other than ghoulsympathisers).
* Slower movement than humans.


Troglodyte
Pro's
* +7 DT (due to their thick skin
* Sees better in dark areas
* x1.5 to Traps, Survival skills
* x1.5 to base health
* +2 to min END
* x3.0 to END effects. (Radiation and poison resistance.)
* Gain no penalties to any races initial reactions, Trogs are neutral with all other races. (Ferals and krazies can still attack them but are not "as" likely to do so.)

Con's
* Takes longer time to adjust to bright areas when leaving a dark area
* -2 to max ITN
* -2 to max CHA
* -2 to max AGI
* Gains no bonuses to initial reactions.

Unlootable armor/clothing:
* If you explode the enemies head then their headgear is destroyed.
* If you shoot off an arm, leg or explode the entire body then the armor is destroyed too.
* If an enemies armor reaches 0 CND then it becomes broken beyond repair, so even if you don't chop off a limb the armor might still be unlootable.

This means that it's best to go for headshots and try to get as little "splatter" as possible.

Here's a wild idea, how about having fixed player health?
No +hp per level.
The only way to get an increase in health is by taking Intense Training>Endurance, Lifegiver or getting an Endurance implant.
If they balance the enemies health, damage and armor around this fixed health then it could produce a more balanced combat.

So it's base health + ENDx#.
Say that base health is 50 and each END gives +5, this means that top health for a lvl 1 player is 100.
By getting Lifegiver we get +15 more health and by taking rank two we get +15 more.
The max amount of health is then 130 for the player character.

This means that armor is far more important than it was before and if balanced right then even regular small time raiders could become a challenge if the player isn't careful.
Right now I feel that END is pointless, it used to give more health per level the higher it was, now all it does is increase base health, so if it's gonna stay that way then remove the +hp per level and balance the game's combat around it.

(All weapon stats will of course have to be changed.)

Why I would like this is because I feel that humans should be humans, this doesn't necessarily mean realistic combat (headshot=instakill) but the player character should not be able to walk around like a god because he/she has 500% more health than the average human in the game.
So the player character can get better in his/her skills and get perks and traits (which a large amount of NPC's should have as well.) but we don't magically become a bullet sponge.

It's just that, how come we can walk around with a ridiculous amount of health while the NPC's don't get to?
I understand that with better Endurance we can withstand more damage, but how do we magically get this +health increase per level?
We should not be any better with health than other humans are.
Why should we? Cause we're the player character? Yeah, we've seen how balanced that turned out in FO3 and FONV.
It all depends on your and enemies END stat.
If an NPC has 8 END and a metal armor MK II it means that it's a tough son of a [censored].
If he wields a minigun then we should fear for out lives.

So say we find 5 raiders, three of them have END 6 while two have END 3.
Their health is: 80+80+80+65+65.
Your character has END 8, it's 90.
Total amount of health is 370 versus 90.
Depending on your equipment and theirs they can present a tremendous challenge.
The strength is in numbers, the more enemies you face the harder they will become.
Cause while facing one of them is reasonable since you both have the same amount of health facing 5 means their health tops yours.

Make combat more exciting by making all humans equal, all depending on what armor and END stat we/they have.

Only problem I see for this is those that "want" demi-god characters.
But yknow what?
If you want a demi-god then turn the difficulty down to Very Easy AKA Cakewalk.

Note: I know I can nerf myself, thing is, I shouldn't have to, the game should be balanced towards making a challenge to the player.
Extra Note: I know that this might seem unorthodox(Is this the right word?) for an RPG but what harm comes out of it? We can still improve our health if we wish to it's just that we don't get such an absurd health over other humans.
Third Note: Players are given health every tenth level. ENDx0.5hp. At level 40 the total amount of a 10 END character is +20hp. (if cap is at 50 then the total health a player can earn is 155. (Which is well over any human character. Still less than super mutants, trogs, deathclaws or giant radscorpions though.)

Add Disadvantages to the character creation.
Disadvantages are strictly negative features for those of us who want to roleplay or gimp our characters permanently.
So if we think that we are too powerful then at our next character we can pick the Bad Health disadvantage which lowers our base health by half.
Or we could pick the Barely Stabilized disadvantage which removes any health given by level ups.
Giving enough variations of Disadvantages we can optimize the game more for our preference and us who want it to be harder can make it so by permanent gimps.
Those who does not wish to use these don't have to.
You can pick as many Disadvantages as you want.
Examples:
* Enemies give twice as much damage.
* Poisons are twice as lethal. Rank 2: Trice as lethal. Rank 3: Four times as lethal.
* Limbs have 50% less maximum health.
* Permanently cripple [limb]. 6 ranks.
* Enemies reload 20% faster. Rank 2: 40%.
* Enemies run 10% faster. Rank 2: 20%. Rank 3: 30%.
* Enemies attack 10% faster. Rank 2: 20%. Rank 3: 30%. Rank 4: 40%. Rank 5: 50%.
* Stimpacks heal slower on hardcoe Mode.
* Food Items no longer give health.
* Water no longer give health.
* Radiation intake it doubled. Rank 2: Trippled. Rank 3: quadrupled. (Base rad 2rads/1sec, rank 1: 4rads/1sec, rank 2: 6rads/sec, rank 3: 8rads/sec.)
* Healing items are more expensive to buy.
* Radaways are rarer to buy.
* Critical failure is more likely to happen. Rank 2: likelier (This is a real word?).

By giving us this new self imposed permanent gimp feature we can create our own balance in the game and tweak it the way we want to.
Sure, we're suppose to play the game according to the game's set rules, but if you as developers fail to create good rules to follow that are balanced then we who are on consoles are [censored] all out of luck, cause at least PC users can get mods to tweak their balance.
This new mechanic is needed for us who want to create our own balance on consoles and maybe even PC, for us who feels that the game isn't hard enough and want to make it harder.
Sure, I can choose to, in Vegas and FO3, to avoid buying the radaways, but it feels like I'm locking myself out of the games content.
I cannot play the game as I want to play it.
If I find radaways I want to be able to buy them without worrying about breaking the balance.
So how are these permanent gimps different?
Well, they're permanent, for us who are weak willed and are bad at imposing limitations on ourselves this is a great solution.
Cause once we create the character then the damage is done, no matter how much I want to find 200 radaways I simply won't be able to.
It's like a bandaid, imposing limitations on ourselves as it currently stand can be like pulling it off very slowly and then placing it back on the skin and slowly pulling it off again, it's annoying and slightly painful.
But these disadvantages are like pulling it clean off, once you've checked the ones you want and finish character creation then the changes has been made.
I for one am bad at imposing limitations on myself, when I find a new great weapon I want to be able to use it without having to worry about enemies becoming too easy to kill, so with Disadvantages I can check the box to make them have more health or DT or maybe lower my own damage by 10 to 50%.

I see no reason why this shouldn't be included.
Might take some coding and scripting to fix but once done it can really help people like me.
And if you don't like it, then you don't have to use it.
Win win in my eyes.

"But isn't like that now? If you don't want it to be unbalanced then don't use the good stuff?"
Yup, it is, but why shouldn't I be able to use the good stuff?
By including this new feature I can use the good stuff and still have it balanced.
I can choose to use any high level items, perks, armors, weapons, meds and chems I want to.
And if I checked a lot of Disadvantages at the start of the game then even though I use these high level stuff I can still have it balanced.

"But won't they have to balance the game towards these?"
No, they won't. The reason for these is to simply make it harder in a vast variety of ways for the player.
It's only there for us who think the base game is not balanced.
So they only have to focus on balancing the Vanilla in their own way and leave it up to us to balance it out in our way with Disadvantages later if we feel that it isn't balanced.

And I don't think that too much time and resources will be spent on this.
They're basically like perks, just the other way around.
Can't be too hard to design, code, script, blabla for professional developers right?

[edit]

You get to relocate your disadvantages at lvl 10, 20 and 30 (every 10 levels).
Cause in case one disadvantage didn't turn out the way you expected you can still relocate it later on.
Would be kinda bad if you gimp yourself on a couple of things then at lvl 13 figure out it did not turn out the way you intended it to and are now stuck with that character or have to restart your entire character.
So you will be able to respec Disadvantages but you won't be able to do it any time you want to, you get 4 chances, one at creation and 3 more at each 10 levels.

So I've said tons of stuff I "want".
Time for stuff I absolutely do NOT want:

No Enclave as major faction, minor or like in New Vegas with remnants is fine.
No cover behind chest high wall mechanic unless it's completely optional. (Meaning I don't get shot dead four times over for not spurting from cover to cover.)
No automatic regeneration of health at the get go. Only allow that through perks and implants. And even then somewhat limited.
No linear game design a la FO3 where we're forced to join a faction we don't want to join.
No Liberty Prime or Oblivion ending where I don't get to do crap.

Don't continue the game past the ending, that's an Elder Scrolls thing, not a Fallout thing. Fallout needs to have lots and lots of ending sliders that tell the tale of the wasteland after we're done affecting it. Allowing us to continue will just devalue those ending sliders or the ending sliders will follow ES design and "not" change the world, which Fallout is all about; Changing the world. Unless it's an easter egg continuation like in Fallout 2.

No perk every level. And no perk every other level if the cap is higher than 30. Make it every third and make them more powerful instead.
No slow-mo feature, this isn't Max Payne.
No Matrix jumping around crap, this isn't Wet.
Don't merge Guns and EW, this isn't Elder Scrolls.
Do NOT allow us to get pregnant or have a child, a baby takes 9 months, this isn't Fable.

Don't allow us romance options in the game if the writing for that romance isn't loooooooong and very greatly written. (Long enough that it doesn't just "stop" like companions do after we've exhausted their dialogue options and personal quests.)

Don't allow us to buy shops here and there, this isn't Fable. Allow us to buy "maybe" ONE shop, and have another one where a guy wants to go into a partnership with you where he does all the paperwork and you do the more practical things.

No realistic health and headshots as default, have that in a [Realism Mode] or exclude it completely.
No bullet sponges.
No more "[Intelligence 8] So you fight the good fight with your voice?" *shudders*
No more super mutants that can be killed with a freaking hunting rifle.
No more 1 damage from a super mutant fist to the face.
No more level scaling.
No more dungeons every 40 meters.
No more generic Raiders, all groups in the game has to have a name and some lore building to them through notes, dialogue, quests and audio logs.

Skills
Skills would be split into two categories, combat and non-combat. The non-combat skills would be the following which when maxed out split into two more advanced skills.
- Speech (Persuasion and Deception)
- Survival (Cooking and Crafting)
- Repair (Equipment and Machinery)
- Lock pick (Lock picking Doors and Lock picking Container)
- Science (Robotics and Hacking)
- Stealth (Theft and Sneak)
The combat skills would be as follows and would have a higher max level instead of splitting at it.
- Pistols
- Rifles and Shotguns
- Machine Guns
- Explosives
- Throwing
- Unarmed
- Melee
- Chemical weapons (this would require the addition of weapons other than the falmer that could be placed here.

Idle Animations (these would all be determined by skills or statistics about you character)
If you have a high medicine skill than sometimes when stood still for long enough you should begin to check your heart rate or examine stimpaks, flicking the needle and measuring the content.

High survival skill should make you take out a skinning knife to sharpen it or otherwise check the tools you use to skin animals pull teeth, cook.

High combat skills should make you take out and examine your current equipped weapon.

If you are a successful gambler you should take out some money to count or flip a cap through your fingers sometimes. Sleeping around a lot should lead to the character scratching them self awkwardly if left idle.

If you have radiation sickness than being idle could lead to the characters hands shaking or nose bleeding. (these are the real world effects of radiation poisoning, the visible ones at least)

High Strength could result in the character lifting weights, if you have them in your inventory. High perception would make the character start looking through binoculars into the distance. High intelligence would make them start reading books from your inventory.

If you haven’t slept for a while the character would start yawning, and blinking to keep their eyes open.

Low combat skills, and low health would result in the player becoming twitchy and looking over their shoulder.

If the player has cigarettes in their inventory than the character may begin to smoke. If they have an addiction than the character may twitch or shift around on the spot.
These would also all be available to NPC’s to increase the living aspect of the world, and make it easy to determine which characters could be helpful for certain things.

Obviuosly located in Philidelphia, now called Philly

A few reasons it should be considered
-5th most populated city in the U.S.
-Home to some historical sites
-Home to historical monuments
-Next to a river

Plot

How about this plot, this is just off the head no real thinking.

1. Capital Union (will now be refered as the CU) - With sights on expanding they need more large cities to house their large population, Philly is a good target. Being the smartest and best equip faction this is the easiest. Youa re tasked to got sabotage the supple warhouses of the Patriots. Then go kill Wahington and his succesors. They say Liberty Prime will have most of the area cleared out by then. After this is done, you come to the gate of Philly to find
a bloody mess of ghouls, and humans from each faction. Basically Liberty Prime malfunctioned and attacked the "communists" while CU soldiers were engaging. While they set-up another offensive, you have to destroy the UFP's armies by a nuclear bomb which is used as torture in their slave camp/military base. Once done, you find many paladins in the city and you have to go to the final place and kill the ghoul.

2. The Patriots - They want a strong capital for their people The (insert cool title here) ventures into Jersey to find out the Pats need your help. They have just recently found about the Cu and UFP, so they are not taken as a threat. After several easy sentry quests you report your findings, depending on how you complete them will make the end hard or extra hard. If you send good reports, Washington masses a huge army. If you send poor reports you are given minimal support, but first you have to destroy the battleship. When done you come back to get the next task of raiding Philly from the south. While the main force does this, you must kill the UFP and the CU's leaders. Once done you have to kill all ghouls remaining in the area, and the leader. Once done the slides will say how Philly prospers and the Pat's move north to capture that and stuff.

3. The United Federation of Pittsburgh (UFP) (Might get rid of them) - They want a large city to be able to make a much larger army to be feared. (very lame excuse) With their sights on Philly, their main opposition is the BoS, you are assigned take a team of 10 soldiers, custom picked and destroy their main base (very difficult). Once done you go to Philly to find The Patriots storming the City. You then go in and while they are fighting you have to kill the leader, then take out a few waves of Patriots who are storming the place.

4. The Redcoats (still would like a better name) - They want a place to call their own After discrimination for decades after they original left the vault they roamed the Philly wasteland looking for a place to call home. After this and that they settled in Philly, and Ghouls from around the area flocked to it to be safe, especially those from the Capital Wasteland. Now with 3 factions at their doorstep, they decide to ask you, The (insert cool name title here), for help. If you're a ghoul they accept you immediately, if not you have to talk your way in. They want you to sabotage The CU and UFP's supply lines. After this you are set to assassinate General Washington, and sabotage their two supply warehouses. After this, you must hurry back and protect Philly from all three factions at once. They only become hostile to each other when close to the city.

All the endings will be in Independence Hall, but each one has you traveling across the wastes to do different tasks on the opposing factions.

Factions

Lyons BoS - They will obviously play a major role. They have discovered T-51b power armor in facilities in Baltimore while they were traveling to Philly. Only some Paladins wear it though. After hearing how Philidelphia has large amounts of technology and a good amount of people they decide to investigate. They are met by three other factions trying to capture Philly for themselves. The PC can decide to side with them or get rid of their presence or destroy them.

Red coats - They do not take after the British redcoats, but their oppsing faction has used the name and it has influenced their armor.. They seek to control Philly just for the sole fact to not let their opposing faction have control of it. They use conventional weapons ranging from R91 assault rifles to swords. There main quests are to destroy the Revolutionairy's and to get rid of the presence of the Brotherhood of Steel and get rid of the presence of Pitt slavers. They only control Philidelphia

Revolutionairy's - A faction that takes after the American rebels in the 1770's. They wear crude armor and clothing and use weapons that can be easily scavenged. They want to control Philly for reasons to expand their army substantially. They basically created the redcoats and who they are today. They also want to destroy the redcoats. Their quests have you destroy the redcoats and get rid of the presence oof BoS and Pitt Raiders, in more barbaric way than the redcoats.

Pitt Raiders/Slavers - Sent out by Ashur from the Piit. In search of more resources and to gain more land to make the Pitt look more menacing. Though that is their mission they have set up an HQ that enslaves people, and they tend to wreak havoc on the surrounding land. The PC when sided with will have the moest challenging quests to destroy all three other opposing factions in complete barbaric means.

Talon Company - Their HQ is based NW of Philly. Not a major faction but has a lot of quests. As of 2298 their main purpose is being hired by the redcoats to sabotage and slaughter Pitt Raiders/Slavers. Most quests involve sabotaging the Pitt Raiders/Slavers. The rest of the wasteland views them as saviors, but the BoS and revolutionairy's want to have no part to do with them, resulting in if you side with BoS or Rev's they are hostile.

Red Foxes - (Raiders) After over 200 years of living in hostile tribes, one group lead by "The Fox" is determined to unite all the raider tribes into one large group. They are a less violent group of raiders that pillages shacks and towns for their own fate and survival. "The Fox" though still enjoys the thoughts of senseless killing, and doesn't want to leave it all behind, you can either help him, or remove him from power.
Fort Washington - Only large community of people that is not conquered by other large factions. They are a main target of the Revolutionary's. They continuously fail because they cannot get through the defenses. The locals have found a secret underground facility equip with prototype laser technology and prototype power armor which is larger than taditional and has less DR/DT.

Locations

Philly - the Main city that the main factions are fighting for Owned by the redcoats. It is equiped with amazing technology and structual buildings that can support a larger population, at least a fallout population.
Washington Castle - (not to be mistaken with Fort Washington) The ravolutionairy'e place of Operations located in present day New Jersey.
Talon Company HQ- HQ of the Talon Company
Large faction bases - spread out throughout the wasteland. Rev's East, BoS South, Pitt West.
Fort Washington - largest free city in the Wastes, it is based in the North. Present day Fort Washington
Vault 76 - West of Philly, unknown
Vault 83 - North of Philly, unknown
Vault 95 - Southeast - unknown, was going to be in FO 3
Vault 100 South - unknown, was going to be in FO 3
Military Industrial Supply - Red coats own this, it still has years worth of supplies stocked inside, enough to feed a whole city.
Fox River - A portion of the Delaware river that the red foxes call their own.
Stealers HQ - Pitt Raiders HQ and a nice play on words.

skills

1. Crafting - makes clothing/armor/other things from materials found in the waste ex. Leather armor is Brahmin skin and more, affects workbench instead of repair and science
2. Energy Weapons - again same, determines Energy Weapon effectiveness
3, Explosives - Doesn't include shooting weapons, grenades and mines mainly
4. Guns - guns with bullets
5. Lockpick - unlocks doors
6. Medicine - same how you can heal yourself
7. Melee Weapons - determines melee weapons
8. Repair - repairs armor and weapons now lets you repair more
9. Electronics - used to fix energy cells, and generators and such
10. Science - same, affects only minor things with workbenches
11. Sneak - sneaky sneaky
12. Speech - persaudes others + barter
13. Deception - allows the player to lie, and blend in with an enemy faction
14. Survival - same with more stuff
15. Unarmed - same

Multiplayer

Maybe only have some online scoreboards to compare stats and other stuff too.

That's about all I got for now, will probally add on later. I am also working on a map, the first will only have places of importance.

Character Creation - this is a new idea I'm working on so it will probally progress throughout several days. So first off I think I will start with so small ideas.

I would like it if you could change the height and weight of your character so he could be like one of those dwarves from the first 2 games, or be really tall like some people in New Vegas and Fallout 3.

Vault 83 - A very simple vault experiment. The "researchers" wanted to see how the community would react when they handed out a reverse Vault-Tec jumpsuit, main color being Yellow and smaller being Blue. The different suit was to be given randomly to a citizen every 50 years, it was handed out 3 times before Vault 83 opened. The vault opened in 2231 and a small town appeared next to the Vault after the reacotr leaked massive amounts of radiation.

Vault 76 - A control vault designed to open after only 20 years. After 20 years passed in 2097 the original overseer had died of a heart attack, and the new overseer was smarter than most. He sent out a party of 5 people to see how the world had changed. The detonated warheads left the surrounding area highly radioactive. 3 of the men died and the other two began to turn into ghouls. When the two returned with some of their skin falling off and their hair, the overseer was scared that "zombies" now ruled the Earth and then locked the Vault. The two then moved to Philly to see if the city had any survivors.

Vault 100 - A Vault-Tec experiment. Out of 1000 people 500 were hardcoe criminals, and the other 500 strict cops. All members had their memory wiped. There was also an extreme amount of money and a large amount of civilian weapons put into the vault. Only several years after the war, flaws of the memory wiped emerged and some of the people started to regain their memory. A group of criminals took other members not knowing whether they were fellow criminals or not. They ran away from the vault and settled their own town - guntown. When the player enters the Vault they find it destroyed with guns and corpes all over the place.

Vault 95 - To see how the easiest means of communication could be accomplished Vault-Tec made Vault 95. They had 250 people come from over the world and the U.S. who had no idea how to speak English, but the Overseer could speak English. There where no books or holotapes to teach English or the other languages. The Overseer was then given two list a short and east list full of simple minded tasks, and a very complicated one which had jobs that were necesarry to live. The Vault was raided by the Patriots and only remains of the different languages are there.

Abandoned Camp - A camp that was used for people trying to get into Vault 76, it is seemingly abondoned, but rumor is that the campers collectively dug a small underground shelter of their own in a matter of a few years.

Yellow City - The city built by the remnants of Vault 83. They worship the Yellow Vault jumpsuit and believe that a being will come to them and them as their leader and wear the jumpsuit and lead their people to salvation.

Guntown - A very strict to the code town where there is practically no crime whatsoever. There is an excess amount of civilian guns, such as pistols and hunting rifles. One man wants to raid the armory and capture the town for himself. The town itself is controlled by the Patriots. Each officer was then trained to be more strict than what they already were.

Big Hill (northwest corner) - Obviously on a big hill. Tribals wandered the wastes of Pennsylvannia for decades, until they discovered a shining beacon, being a large hill near Philly. They went to the area, and found many pre war houses around it, the scavenged what they could from the houses and started to build small houses on the hill in a spiral formation, with their town hall on the top. The population is small with small families. They mostly farm, and make unique remedies that is unknown to other parts of the wastes.

Sourland Caravans - Started by survivors of the great war who took refuge in the sourland mountain park. When they came out of the facilities they could still see mushroom clouds in the sky, so they waited even longer. When they re-emerged they decieded they would ship out supplies from around the park to other nearby towns. The radiation almost stopped this relief effort immediately, but they stayed strong and enough survivors remained to continue to ship supplies. This is when all the remaining cars stopped working and they discovered Brahmin, horrible creations of the war. Eventually with more and more people making their own settlements, the people from sourland, made the sour caravans charging the wastelanders and tribals pre-war money and convenient bottle caps.

Guns

Pistols

9mm pistol
10mm pistol
.22 pistol
.357 magnum
.44 magnum
12.7mm/14mm pistol
9mm Mauser
.45 auto pistol (maybe)
Hunting Revolver
New Pistols
Luger
7.62 mm pistol

Rifles

R91 assault rifle
Chinese Assault Rifle
AK-112
Hunting Rifle
Trail Carbine
Assault Carbine
BB gun
Sniper Rifle
FN FAL
Brush Gun
Anti-Materiel Rifle (now in the desing of a M82A1)
New Rifles
7.62mm Rifle - AK 47 / 74
Bolt Action Rifle - 1903 Springfield
Battle Rifle - M1 Carbine
Service Rifle - now an M14 design
Assault Rifle - M16 design
Automatic Rifle - now an actual rifle STG 44 (trying to keep away from WWII guns, but couldn't resist)
M199 Assault Rifle - In Fallout 3 mentions as being reliable last M series guns.

Shotguns

Combat Shotgun - FO 3 design
Hunting Shotgun
Lever-Action Shotgun
Sawed-Off shotgun
Hunting Shotgun
Riot Shotgun
New Shotguns
Double Barrel Shotgun - unless you count Point Lookout
Trench Gun - Model 1987
Blunderbuss
Semi-Auto Shotgun - Browning 5 auto

Submachine Guns

9mm submachine gun
10mm submachine gun
.45 mm submachine gun
.22 sub machine gun
12.7mm submachine gun
Pending...

Heavy Guns

Light Machine Gun
Minigun
Bozar
New Heavy Guns
Rail Gun - a gauus minigun

Explosives

Projectile

Missle Launcher
Fat Man
Grenade Rifle
Grenade Launcher
Grenade Machine Gun
New Projectiles
Crossbow - similar to Call of Duty explosive only
RPG-7 - comes with its own rare ammo

Thrown/Mines

Frag Grenade
Plasma Grenade
Pulse Grenade
Incendiary Grenade
Dynamite
C4
Frag Mine
Plasma Mine
Pulse Mine
New Thrown/Mines
Explosive Grenade - powerful grenade
M80 - basically a toy in FO combat people get scared then mad at you when thrown
Land Mine - bigger and stronger than Frag

Energy Weapons

Pistols

Plasma Pistol
Plasma Defender
Laser Pistol
Wattz 1000 Laser Pistol
Pulse Gun
Recharger Pistol
Gauss Pistol
New Pistols
Tesla Pistol - Shoots a lightning bolt type shot

Rifles/Not Heavy

Laser Rifle
Wattz 2000 Laser Sniper - had to change it
Plasma Rifle
Multiplas Rifle
Recharger Rifle
Tri-Beam Laser Rifle
Gauss Rifle
Laser RCW
Pulse Rifle
New Rifles/Not Heavy
Laser Assault Rifle - hold 30 rounds more accurate than RCW with Iron sights
Tesla Rifle - Again shoots lightning basically
Some kind of Plasma Gun

Heavy Weapons

Gatling Laser
Plasma Caster
Tesla Cannon
Flamer
(heavy) Incinerator
New Heavy Weapons
Plasma Launcher - basically will shoot a plasma Grenade

Unarmed

Unarmed

Brass Knuckles
Spiked Knuckles
Power Fist
Zap Glove
Displacer Glove
Ballistic Fist
Boxing Glove
New Unarmed
Tape and Glass - tape with glass on it
Iron Fist - a glove with Iron on the outside

Melee

Bladed

Machete
Ripper
Chainsaw
Combat Knife
Knife
Fire Axe
Hatchet
Straight Razor
Switch Blade
Thermic Lance
Chinese Officer sword
New Bladed
Pocket Knife - a 7 inch kind of blade
Sword - one hand sword one that collectors would get
Katana/ whatever it could be called - again something a collector would have had

Blunt

Baseball Bat
9-Iron
Cane
Lead Pipe
Tire Iron
Nail Board
Sledge Hammer
Super Sledge
Rebar Club
Shovel
Police Baton
Crowbar
New Blunt
Frying Pan
Nightstick
Fire Place Stick - seems like a creative idea
Shock Stick - like Jingwei's sword but a police Baton, would have been to calm riots
Staff - basically a long stick

Thrown

Throwing Knife
Throwinf Hatchet/Tomahawk
Throwing Spear
New Thrown
Ninja Star/Shuriken
Ninja Throwing Knife

Patriots of America (formerly revolutionairies if you read my ideas post)

General Washington

A boy, named Thomas and his parents who were poor and starving wondered the ruins of D.C. in the years around 2252 endlessly each and every day. When the three of them were in the area of the national mall they were attacked by a group of super mutants who had plans to capture them. The mutants unable to capture them quickly made the decision to kill them. Thomas ran to the Washington Monument and climbed all the stairs to the very top. There he made a small camp and would scavenge for food and water each day during the safety of the night, slowly gaining skills that would inevitablly help him in the future. Eventually Thomas' scavenging trips became longer and longer until one trip he got caught at the Arlington Library. Interested that day he looked up the history of America. His favorite subject was the Revolution which inspired his name Washington. His dream then became to re-establish the 13 original colonies to their former glory. At the beginning of 2272 (wiki's date) he set forth to the North. When he arrived at his home he saw men in huge suits of armor setting up a huge barrier around the monument. There he met a crazy man who told him about the good fight. Thomas took this personally as restoring America, to do this he would destroy everything "evil" that in his eyes was anti-american. Knowing how D.C. was in ruins he set his sights on Baltimore one of the nations old capitals. In 2273 when he arrived in Baltimore he found it in ruins also, he also found hundreds of people suffering from radiation poisoning and the countless raiders around. For five years he taught them what he learned how to scavenge and hide. During these years he also learned much more skills in combat and trained the wastelanders as much as he knew. In 2278 he left Baltimore on his own. Within days the wastelanders he had trained followed began to follow him as their leader, thus he named his tribe/group the Patriots of America. After discovering that Philadelphia was overrun with ghouls he decided he needed to wipe them out as they were "evil" and keeping America from being a great country again. He lead the group to New Jersey to an Air Force base. He had the group spend hours building thorough defenses. At the same time he set up a government/leadership in the visions of the Constitution. The people unanimously voted him into office as the president where he would enact a Marshall Law and control everything as a dictator. In 2296 he finally sets his sights on the his capital of America, Philadelphia.

The Patriots of America

Scavengers and Wastelanders from Baltimore were in terrible shape. They were starving and thirsty and each day was a struggle for life. In 2273 when Thomas Washington came they were suprised that anyone would come out of their way to their slice of hell. For the five years they were taught to survive by Tom they came to look at him as a leader. Finally when he left the people came together and followed him out of the city to wherever he may have gone. In 2279 when they arrived at the military base the began to scavenge immediately. They found large amounts of munitions in the base, but they could only see with binoculars. Eventually they made a team which prepared to go into the bunker. They found hundreds of skeletons crowded around one small door. Inside the first room was the luggage and and food of the hundreds of dead civilians trying to gain safety inside the bunker, unfortunately it was all highly irradiated. On the other hand their luck was still in their favor as the bunkers door has fallen apart from years of neglect. They found even more skeletons and some feral ghouls. After a couple days of fighting they found the dark recesses of the bunker which was full of food untouched by the war and guns to supply a small army. With their new weapons they set their goal to expand to take Philadelphia. They spent a decade destroying towns forcing raiders and other wastelanders to join there nation. With a growing population they had to set up a real government modeling old America as in new Constitution. They smartest men and women of the settlements came togethers and created their own Constitution. With Marshall Law enacted almost immeadiately, Washington promised his people that they could be free and finally enjoy life once they were able to set up America's new capital in Philly. To do this they needed to destroy the vast amount of ghouls in the ruins of Philly which remained largely entact. With their main goal to conquer Philly they needed to expand their armies with a proper training and soldiers.

What's New?

Washington Castle - Current day McGuire Air Force Base. I have said mostly everything in the above posts. It is used as the main base for the Patriots, and it surrounded by three walls, first concrete, second concrete, third forcefield like Fallout 3 found on the base. There is one main entrance, and an emergency exit that leads out from a sewer. There is plenty of weapons and armor. Population: 359

Adamsville - Named after Samuel Adams, other argue John Adams, only thee educated. It is the Patriots second largest city/town. This area is the main town for civilians of the faction. It is mainly a farming village to feed all the people, but there is still an armor and gun dealer in town. There are almost no military personel in the town, but it is of no interest of any place.

Fort Greene - Named after the General Nathaniel Greene, it is the second base for the military close to the front lines. It houses more men than Washington Castle, but they are mostly infantry and no specialists (not rank). It is a very simple square building surrounded by a concrete wall. It sits a couple miles away from the Delaware River and is an important role to take Philly.


The Pitt

During the conflict with the slaves, Ashur guranteed them good things to come, as his wife had discovered how to make vaccinations. The slaves listened and settled down, but not before they hunted down Wehrner. Years later after all the slaves were free of radiation, and all the trogs were wiped out. The Pitt began toexpand into the city.They discovered even more scrap metal and weapons and more ammo types. Ashure then decided to trade the ammo much more widely, excluding the Capital Wasteland. Around 2285, Ashur started to grant slaves more freedom, and hired them as workers. This decreased the soldiers pay, so the rebeled, but the loyalists were better equipped and stopped it rather quick. Ashure realized how powerful his army was and decided to expand further on around Pittsburgh. Some of the wastelanders refused to join, but most accepted this and made many farming towns to support the Pitt's growing numbers.

Towards the end of the 2280's, the Pitt looked like a good place to live. The streets were cleaned up, the people much nicer, and their terriotry thouroughly protected. With all the good things, and more to come Ashur officially announced that the Pitt would break away from the U.S. and become The United Federation of Pittsburgh. It included several cities including its Capital the Pitt, Youngstown in Ohio, and as far as Harrisburg in Pennsylvannia. With the massive expanding Ashur saw its citizens being upset, so he decided his last conquest of his life would be Philadelphia, little did he know 3 other groups wanted it too. When they arrived in Pottstown they set up camp in an old warehouse. They headed to Philly, to see men in black armor running from the town, when they investigated they found 4 dead ghouls all dressed in red. They figured it was just ordinary wasteland violence, but the next few days they kept seeing the ghouls in red shooting at any wanderers outside their wall, with intense violence at a certain few. The scouts from the Pitt reported this, and Ashur told them to lay low until they destroyed each other. With 5 years of pointless waiting, Ashur decided to take some action, he enslaved some locals and forced them to work on farms and other jobs. When he arrived personally to the sight he ordered a small group of men to set up a camp to the west of Philly. Now in 2298, their numbers have dramatically increased and there armies are ready to march onto Philly, and claim it for themselves.

Locations:

Pitt-town - Previously Pottstown, the UFP took it over first thing and established an Philly HQ here, only the leaders of the army stay here and the player can only receive a few quests, the guards here have high tier weapons from the start.

Southern HQ - The front lines for the UFP. They have most of the soldiers stationed here. The armies are rather large and the weapons are top notch. There are only tents here along with one large building used as an HQ. The UFP moved their base of operations here.

Stealers Fist - (like the football team) This is the camp where all the enslavement takes place. Slaves come thorugh have their belongings taken then distributed to the Southern HQ or Pitt-town. It is also a farming town where slaves farm furing the day, then pack munitions for the army at night.

Red Ghouls

Ghouls of Philly - after decades of punishment some ghouls were tired of being pushed around by the "bigots" Several wandered the waster as a large group, such as the ones in Broken Steel who want a New Underworld.They knew the best way to keep the humans out was with radiation. After years of wandering they discovered Philly in what seemed a pristine condition. What they didn't know what that the downtown was completely destroyed, but the surrounding area seemlessly left unharmed. They came to the area of Penn's landing and wandered from there discovering the historical sights, mainly Indeoendence Hall. They read up on all the documents and decided to call this area their own.

Slowly but surely they gathered other ghouls around. Again, knowing the humans wouldn't come with radiation the ghouls powered up some nuclear reactors, and let the toxic waster lay around the perimeter. Slowly the expanded outward making a powerful city. They also found a Military Storage sight, full of food and water for centuries, and weapons for thousands. Humans barely ever came to the ghoul "safe haven" and when they did they were questioned, and if found mysterious shot.

After brutal skirmishes with the new enemy, The Patriots, they heard time after time the patriots calling them redcoats. This made the ghouls paint all of their armor and clothing red. There weapons grunt weapons, and their armor leather, combat, and metal.

Now with the areas.

Independence Hall - The town hall of the ghouls.They use the courthouse for putting humans and trial. There is also an upstair, where all the food was transfered to keep it clean, as the radiation surrounds the perimeter. Additional ammo and armor is also stored on the second floor. The leader of the ghouls, a man named Jacob Williams also runs things from the 2nd floor office. In the basemant (I'm pretty sure there is one) you can see labs and scientists working hard. On this level they are trying to find a quick way to take radiation out of water. If you talk to some gulible scientists and hack some terminels, you can find a hidden elevator on the back wall. In the bottom of the place, a much larger lab is set up. Two basic rooms. One smaller room with feral ghouls and scientists, and another with humans and scientist. The small room full of ferals is to see if the ghouls can make them senseable, and the larger room is to see if they can turn a human into a ghoul 100% of the time.

Battleship New Jersey - A museum before the great war. The ghouls found it in the Delawat and pulled it to Penn's landing. It is uses as a military base for the ghoul redcoats. There military leaders live there, and there scientists are working on making it operational.

This was made by Sebor13, and is an will be edited in the future by Sebor13 and myself

March 4th 2278 (random date that came to mind)- Lone Wanderer activates the Purifier.
May 11th 2278- The Enclave was beaten at AAFB.
June 24th 2278- Lyons Pride gets into Vault 87 after months of planning, they place explosives on key support beams and the entire Vault collapses, the children of Little Lamplight are gathered and brought to the Citidale against their will.
August 16th (today in real life) 2278- The BoS respond to increased raider attacks on Megaton by placing six soldiers there (four initiates and two paladins), they slowly start to make Megaton BoS territory.
December 17th 2278- Big Town is put under the protection of four BoS Initiates in responce to waves of supermutants attacking in that area.
January 3rd 2279- Arefu (which was under the protection of the Family) gets three BoS Initiates stationed there.
January 9th 2279- BoS attack and take over Evergreen Mills and the raider attacks stop, Megaton is then heavily influenced by the BoS.
January 23rd 2279- Vault 101 opens again, with Amata in charge. Megaton's front walls are taken down and are used to circle around Springvale and the now opened Vault 101.
February 5th 2279- Eight BoS soldiers are sent to Tenpenny Tower to place it under their protection, Tenpenny refuses to let them in and sends his guards to kill them. The Guards are slaughtered and Tenpenny is placed under arrest and the citizens of the tower go about as normal.
February 19th 2279- The day the BoS official become a country with the Citidale as it's capital and Owen Lyons as its first president.
March 4th 2279- Captial Union soldiers are stationed in Rivet City and it is annexed.
March 22nd 2279- The Capital Union demands the Outcasts either hand over all of their stolen tech and surrender, or die, only two surrender, the rest are slaughtered and their tech is taken.
April 11th 2279- Talon Company is pushed out of the Capital Union's territory as the take full control of Downtown D.C.
April 19th 2279- The Capital Union finds Canterbury Commons and takes it over, making the poorly defended caravan hub thrive.
April 23rd (My birthday) 2279- Megaton, Bigtown, Arefu and Tenpenny Tower are officially annexed by the Capital Union.
May 9th 2279- The Capital Union recruits the Regulators as its secret agents of sorts and two of them are sent to Paradise Falls disguised as slavers.
May 26th 2279- The Capital Union attacks Paradise Falls, killing everybody except Eugoly Jones who is arrested and the slaves who are freed.
June 3rd 2279- The Capital Union annexes the Temple of the Union who form a politcal party in their government.
June 14th 2279- The Capital Union finds Oasis and begins studying the vegetation.
June 27th 2279- The Capital Union finds the Republic of Dave, all of the advlts run out guns blazing and once they're killed all of the children are brought to the Citidale.
August 13th 2279- The Capital Union finds Andale and uses it as a carvan stop on the way from Rivet City to Tenpenny Tower.
August 18th 2279- The Capital Union finds Girdershade and uses it to help them expand further west.
September 11th 2279- The Capital Union runs low on Power Armor for new recruits and uses combat armor that is spray painted brown as for initiates, this soon becomes the more common uniform.
September 30th 2279- Eugoly Jones, Allstair Tenpenny, and the surviving Outcasts stand trial for crimes against humanity and the Capital Union, they're all exectued.
November 7th 2279- Owen Lyons dies of a heart attack and the Lone Wanderer becomes the new president.
November 24th 2279- the last of the supermutants in the CW (besides Fawkes and Uncle Leo who have fled north) is killed.
December 4th 2279- Underworld is discovered and the ghouls are forced to leave, they head north.
January 15th 2280- The Capital Union begins expanding outside of the CW, annexing towns and bringing fresh water and protection to all.
February 19th 2280- The Capital Union celebrates how much it has accomplished since its official beginning.
November 4th 2280- Richmond is discovered by a large amount of Capital Union soldiers (thirty) they're held hostage by a large faction called the Confederacy.
December 5th 2280- The Regulators manage to sneak in and cause a prison break, getting all of the Capital Union soldiers out alive and starting the invasion of Richmond.
January 8th 2280- The Capital Union takes over all of Richmond and the surrounding settlements, a stalemate between them and the Confederacy begins the same day.
March 13th 2281- the Capital Union finds a large miltary base with T51b Power Armor, a new squad called the Heavy Hitters (similar to how Lyons Pride is a squad) begins.
June 10th 2281- The Captial Union meets the United, a large group of raiders who control western Virginia.
March 3rd 2282- the Lone Wanderer is killed by a Confederate assassin, Harkness is elected as the new president and he begins a campaign against the Conefederacy.
March 5th 2282- Project Purity is renamed the Lone Wanderer Memorial.
April 2nd 2282- the Capital Union is haulted by a fifty foot tall concrete wall to the south, the Confederacy built it to keep them from taking more land.
December 10th 2282- the United is pushed out of what used to be Virginia and disolves into a bunch of raider gangs.
June 3rd 2283- Harkness retires and 16 year old Arthur Maxson is placed in charge of the Capital Union. He makes a policy saying they will not expand further until they have absolute control over their current land and all of their settlements thrive.
February 20th 2284-All hostile wild life in the Capital Union is killed.
October 5th 2284- People from the Confederacy are fleeing to the Capital Union for its free, clean water and its protection.
Jaunuray 23rd 2293- Arhtur Maxson repeals the order saying they will not expand and they begin taking land to the north and the west again, but at a snails pace.
March 4th 2297- the Capital Union discovers Philidpelphia and the factions looking to take it over.
May 2nd 2297- the Capital Union discovers the Pitt and bring Three Dog to Philidelphia to spread propoganda by radio and public appearance (I forgot to put this in before, he was used as a propoganda piece to take over the CW and beyond, he is now a preacher of the Capital Union (he dresses in businesswear (they actually found out how to make and clean cloths so its just businesswear) and looks like a politician)).

Thanks to Sebor13 for the great idea.

The Sound

After the Great War and once Nuclear Winter was gone the polar icecaps melted due to the lack of an Ozone layer. The ocean began toget more and more water, causing the floods to Block Island, Fishers Island, and northern Long Island (you're probably going to have to look it up, thats around the northeastern edge of Long Island). Only southern Long Island and Fire Island remained. Years later a large sail boat that was used as a pirating boat by the ghoulified crew shipwrecked on the shores of Fire Island. Slaving was a commen business around there and they got really into, forming the Sound Slavers with Fire Island as their headquarters. However the entire Sound is not populated by slavers, about half of the island is made up of farmers who use tons of slaves and will turn in all escaped slaves they see. The current leader was the founder's first mate when they were pirates, Jeremiah Smith (named after the most successful Fire Island land pirate, land pirates make the cargo ships believe they're the town or base where they are supposed to make their delivery) who is less cruel then the one before him.

In the DLC you have to escape and make your way to Jeremiah Smith on Fire Island to either kill him, hold him hostage, or join him.

West-Tec Testing Facility

When west-tec had some new inventions to test, they were brought to the outskirts of Philadelphia to be proven. It is a two story building with two basemants. The building is also shared with Wattz Electronics.

Top Floor

Filled mostly with executive offices, and a conference room. The loot up here is minimal.

First Floor

Most of this room is filled with smaller offices, half west-tec and half wattz electronics.There are a few small rooms that test smaller things. There is minimal loot on this floor.

Basemant

The weapons testing rooms. There is a large starting room with a lot of security protocols, once you enter security is even tighter. The second room you walk into is an observatory room, with a shooting range right below. When you go to the shooting range you can open some weapon cabinets which have a couple Wattz 1000 Laser Pistols, and Wattz 2000 Laser Rifles. The security again is strong.

Basemant 2nd Floor

This is the secret Power Armor testing room. The security is even tighter in this room with sentry bots every where, and turrets, and all the terminals are very hard locked. When you first come in you see another observatory but much larger, below is a small obstacle course, and next to it an open room. When you go down to the course you see 5 small rooms, 4/5 labeled with a kind of Power Armor name and each with a terminal of data on the armor.. The first room is T-17c Powe Armor. The armor is missing and a terminal explains how it was sent to an unknown location to be scrapped. The second room is T-22b Power Armor. The power armor is there for the taking if you have the right skills. The fourth room is T-45d, the power armor is no where, and the terminal says that it was sent to the Pentagon for storage. The fifth room is T-51b. The terminal says it was shipped out to be used on the front lines. Finally the 5th room is a room with some medical gear and stuff to put power armor on. In here if you have high enough science you can have a machine teach you how to use power armor.

Once done getting some armor you can go into the training room. Here you are given tasks like the OWB stealth armor training, except combat tasks. When you have done 3 levels you get a special power armor perk. The room you are unable to go into is for firing on the suit. You can activate a terminal which lowers a dummy suit of T-45d which is ripped to shreds.

Most likely more to come.

From my thread that got closed:

Guns:
oooooooooo
Cost: The first two - 5sp, 3rd and 4th - 10sp, 5ft and 6th - 15sp, 7th and 8th - 20, 9th and 10th - 25sp. This would equal a skillcap of 150 with the current method.
Effect: Points 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 would open "proper" usage of guns in their respective tiers of 1-5. Having lacking skill of one tier would result in 50% penalty to accuracy and 25% penalty to damage, lacking 2 or more tiers would offer similiar penalties of 75% and 50% plus decresed reloadspeed and increased probability of jamming during reload and firing regardless of weapon condition.
Points 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 would offer a 25% bonus to accuracy for the previous tier of weapons (except for 1, which would offer it to the next tier and 10 which would offer an accuracy bonus to all tiers), and similiarly with damage but with an increase of 15%.
This would make increasing the skill a paramount act, if one wishes to master it (unlike with the current system where a skill 50 - for example - is quite adequate to handle all given situations the game offers).

Energy weapons:
oooooooooo
Similiar to guns otherwise, but in place of damage increases/decreases would be heating/cooldown effects which would be harsh enough to greatly limit firing large amounts of highly powerful energy ammunition. In effect, energy weapons would be much more powerful than guns, but also much more limited in rate of fire and most of them would also, due to their light effects, hinder stealth.

Melee:
oooooooooo
Same as guns and ew with tiers, but in place of accuracy increases/decreses would be attackspeed. Lacking a tier would offer a 50% penalty for overall damage and 25% for attackspeed, lacking 2 tiers similiarly 75% and 50%. Points 3, 6 and 9 would also offer a "special move" which would be slower than normal attack, but more powerful.

Sneak:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: Each point decreases the chance of detection according to circumstances (LOS distance, lighting, sound) by 15%. Also, point 1 - ability to use light armor without penalties, point 3 - ability to use medium armor with decreased penalties, point 5 - ability to use heavy armor with decreased penalties.

Lockpick:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: Each point opens up ability to open locks at respective levels. The skill also modifies the amount of time an attempt takes. Also, if a minigame is involved, which I wouldn't put there, each tier increases the durability of the lockpick when attempting current or previous tiers.

Science:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: Hacking abilities similiar to lockpicking. Also handling the modding requirements for energy weapons. Thresholds for various skilluses outside of inventoryitems.

Repair:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: Point 1 - Repair light armor to top condition, medium armor to 50% CND, and heavy armor to 25%, Point 3 - Repair medium armor to top condition, medium armor to 75% and heavy armor to 50%, Point 5 - Repair all armors to top condition. Handles various crafting requirements and modding reqs for Guns category of weapons. Thresholds for various skilluses outside of inventoryitems.

Medical:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: Point 1 - Ability to heal 30 HP manually when no hostiles are around, and with a cooldown time for use. Intoxication meter allows for 5 stimpaks in a row without overdosing. Point 2 - Manual healing cooldown time decreased for 25%. 7 stimpaks without penalties. Point 3 - Can use 1 superstim without a penalty. 30% chance of healing a crippled limb. Point 4 - 10 stims or 2 superstims without penalty. Cooldown time decreased additional 25%. 50% chance of healing a crippled limb. Point 5 - 75% chance at healing a crippled limb. 5 superstims or 15 stims without penalty.

Skills are split into two categories for what they are actually aimed at, non-combat skills and combat skills allowing for quick distinction between what you are selecting to level up with. Non-combat skills split into further skills once you reach the cap whereas combat skills simply have a higher cap.
Non-Combat
Speech: Persuasion and Deception (this also covers ideas like bartering)
Survival: Cooking and Crafting (crafting of different armours, or tanned hides that is)
Repair: Equipment and Machinery (machinery generally being items in the game world that can’t be carried)
Lock Pick: Tumbler and Combination (each different type of lock would have its own minigame)
Science: Robotics and Hacking (robotics having an effect on how much damage you deal to robotic enemies)
Stealth: Theft and Sneak (determines likelihood of being caught while pick pocketing or sneaking)
Medicine: Meds and Chems (determines effectiveness of each)

Combat
Pistols (covers all one handed guns)
Rifles and Shotguns (includes energy weapon equivalents)
Machine Guns
Throwing Weapons
Rocket and Grenade Launchers
Chemical weapons (flamers, acid sprays, dirty bombs, etc)
Unarmed
Melee

Starting health has a base of 50, for every 1 in Endurance you then gain another 10 points of health (minimum=60 maximum=150). From here on every 1 point in Endurance means a gain of 2 health points each level up to level 15/30 at which point you stop gaining health (minimum 88 maximum 290)

Traits would be selected at the beginning of the game alongside you tagged skills the following are what I believe should be the traits.

Claustrophobia: When outside you gain a bonus of 2 to your SPECIAL stats and a minus one when inside.
Agoraphobia: Opposite of the above.
Pacifist: Plus five to all non-combat skills minus five to all combat skills.
Bruiser: Plus ten to all melee combat skills, minus five to all ranged combat skills.
Skilled but slow: Plus five to all skills, minus ten percent to experience gain.
six Appeal: All characters with the appropriate sixuality find you attractive giving discounts and being more likely to reveal information to you.
Relies on Luck: Mini games for hacking and lock picking are replaced with a skill based dice roll.
Quick Traveller: Allows for fast travel.

Perks would be selected every other level upon levelling up, you would be able to select not picking a perk and save up you Perk Points for later perks to collect.

There would be no intense training perks to increase the relevance of the SPECIAL scores you choose at the beginning of the game.

Companion perks and challenge perks would instead of being giving directly to the player be added to the perk list for levelling up. Completing a challenge puts the perk on the list for you to use and more perks would be associated with challenges, Explore would be unlocked by completing a challenge similar to Master of Mojave.

Ghastly Scavenger and Cannibal would be combined into a multi level perk that would also allow for the consuming of things such as Trogs and Lobotomites.

Mysterious stranger would be multileveled to allow for the increasing of the strangers weapons strength and armour. His appearance will not change but he will be shown using different weapons. The mysterious stranger would be able to die during VATS but can also respawn, this death would come at the cost of the character losing some health.

Other perks would include the ability to turn ash and goo into energy ammo, the ability to pick one more trait and other such useful things.