» Wed Dec 01, 2010 9:05 pm
Karma ideas (forgive me if I expand upon/reimagine others' ideas, or if I'm stating anything previously said):
-Enemies/Allies based on your karma/reputation. If good, raiders, slavers, the guy who just went nuts from the world being blown to hell and starting killing people, etc. will be among your enemies, while renegade good-doers and masked vigilantes side with you even if they're just generic NPC's encountered out of town. For evil, you'd kill the good counterpart's allies, while teaming up with their enemies. If there is going to be faction-based reputation and not just town-based (sorry, I'm unfamiliar with the specifics, if not everyone), then (example based on FO3's setting) maybe encountering a usually-benevolent BOS member, who in FO3 would be not only harmless but an ally if unprovoked, would attack you for the sole purpose of ridding the wastes of evil scum.
-Better sneaking mechanics. A crawling feature, maybe, and before anyone says something I know this isn't Call of Duty. Still, going prone is actually a reliable and almost instinct-like reflex when trying one who is trying to avoid becoming detected spots an enemy and should obviously contribute as a factor towards your visibility, behind the cover of an object or not. For pacifist characters, they'd no longer have to worry about not having too many places to take cover from. For snipers, this would greatly increase the accuracy of their shots, in addition to a much appreciated decrease to the shaking of the cursor when looking through a scope. Plus, this could be reversibly harmful to the PC themself as enemies would have excellent ways of concealing themselves for planned ambushes, or otherwise using the feature to provide more cover. In general, a crawling feature would allow stealthy/sniper/pacifist characters to excel a bit more, and open up even more fun/tactically advantageous opportunities for the PC when engaged in all-out gunfights. Of course, a melee weapon would be of no use when prone... Anyway, crawling could also contribute to the disarming of mines: if not directly on top of the mine, the PC could crawl over to it and disarm it without having that annoying anxiety that you might die because of one lousy mine when crossing a minefield-like area.
-Optional availability/consequence of becoming a ghoul. I'm sure this has come up somewhere, but I had to say it while I'm doing this post. You become one ugly son of a... Ahem, you are healed by radiation and are treated with a little more respect by (most) fellow ghouls and super muties. Drawbacks: Jet, if it's still in the future games, was mentioned in FO3 as being not potent enough for Ghouls. This effect should be the same for most of, if not all, medical supplements. Dialogue/quest changes here and there, some major others not (hey, who says everyone is a ghoul-hater?). Melee attacks become more powerful, more so for unarmed. Ghoulified PC's with low intelligence could sometimes be mistaken for ferals and shot at, maybe even by entire settlements (though not the major settlements).
-Less linear story. Alternate endings, of course. I know you make all of these choices and they have consequences (sometimes), but what if the PC in FO3 wanted to actually support the Enclave, not the BOS? I've seen original FO players raging over having to fight the Enclave on message boards. FO3 took the Enclave, made it the main enemy, took the BOS, turned them into wusses, and made them the primary allies. I'd like to see different "main" quests established based on choices of which faction the PC supports. There can still be the same ending video, but a true alternate ending would mean a different final quest(s) for every consecutive "ending". Does the PC rally Faction A and destroy Faction B, or vice versa, or is the PC even capable of uniting Factions A and B for another ending through sweet, sweet power. I mean money. Err, words.