So basically is this another "what you'd like to see in Fallout 4" thread, but I think it might be a bit more organized if I just stick to one topic at a time (a lot of these more general threads tend to lose sight of the original talking points, I've found) as opposed to throwing a lot of ideas out at once all in one thread. So this is one's all about improving the mini-games in the presumed Fallout 4 - with an eye towards the lofty (and likely impossible) goal of trying to please as many players as possible.

Because realistically - love it or hate it, the mini-games in Bethesda's games are likely here to stay. Might as well try and come up with something that everyone can live with (and hey, maybe even enjoy.) So I'd like to not see this spiral into a debate about whether or not mini-games should be in an RPG in the first place - that's a completely subjective matter and it's not something that's going to be solved within the confines of this forum. So if you're just adamant about not wanting a mini-game of any sort in an RPG, or adamant about mini-games being the next best thing since sliced bread - feel free to say so (I'm not a mod, I can't control what people want to post here) but I do ask that we not argue those points.

From what I understand, most of the gripes about the mini-games in Fallout 3 come down to character skill vs. player skill. (ie, a player that's very skilled in the mini-game doesn't need a very high character skill to succeed in these tasks.) This is somewhat mitigated in F3 with the skill prerequisites for hacking computers and picking locks, but I don't feel that's a very good solution, either. For one, I personally find it very frustrating when I'm just a few points short of the prerequisite, and don't even have a chance of attempting the skill check.

This is about improving the mini-games overall, as well as coming up with something everyone can be happy with.

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So, what I'd like to see is something where you always have a chance of at least attempting to hack a computer/ pick a lock (to keep it in line with the way every other skill check in the game works,) but where your character's skill plays the primary role in determining your chance of success, regardless of your success in the proceeding mini-game. The problem then becomes: if character skill defines whether or not you succeed in the task, then what purpose is the mini-game (the role of player skill?)

Obviously, you could just do without the mini-games at that point, but then this thread becomes sort of pointless.

I think there might possibly be some solutions, however. With the possibility of mitigating the penalties of failure through the mini-game/ achieving a bit of a partial success through player skill.

For hacking a terminal, for example - it could be less about bypassing the security on the terminal and more about pulling readable information out a computer that's been neglected for 200 years, reconstructing corrupted files. When you go hack a terminal, your Science skill determines if you're able to bypass the security, it being a straight percentage chance based on your character's skill and the difficulty of the computer terminal. The results of your outcome could be apparent right there, and if you fail you go no further than that. The mini-game could come in when you're trying to read the data on the computer - with the difficulty of the mini-game being determined by how skilled your character is versus how difficult the computer is (adding in complications like time limits, failure limits, how many characters the proper word you're trying to find is, etc.)

Judging by how well you do there would determine how corrupted the resulting information would be (how much corruption the text undergoes - adding in random characters like ";kfjngsdf" in place of words, etc...) Alternatively, you could always get the mini-game (you won't know if you passed/failed the skill check until afterwards) and doing very well and passing the skill check by a large margin would give you the full variety of options; doing very poorly at the mini-game while passing the skill check by a large margin would give you corrupted data; doing very well at the mini-game while failing the skill roll by a large margin would severely limit the options available to you in the terminal, but still give you some readable information that might be useful, etc.

The idea would be that your character's skill is still primarily important, but that you could use the mini-game to mitigate the penalties for failure.

With lockpicking, sort of the same thing, I think. Character skill determines how difficult the lock is, and your chance of irrepairably damaging the lock. Player skill in the mini-game would help in breaking fewer bobby pins, etc. With that one, you could even set it up so that if the character totally missed the skill roll - the mini-game might actually be impossible to beat (it would be up to the player to realize that he's breaking too many bobby-pins and no matter what he does he's not going to be able to open the lock.)

These are just off the top of my head, and by no means meant to serve as the only way of doing this. Just something to try and start some intelligent conversation about this.

Again, what I'd like to see is something where character skill determines your actual chance of completing the task, with, where applicable, a bit of an emphasis where by what margin you pass/fail the "die roll" plays a role as well. (I just like systems that take that into account.) The mini-game would serve the purpose of mitigating/ reinforcing the results of your character's skill. (Sort of serving as the random chance in the mini-game.)

Anyway, I'd like to hear other ideas on this topic - a way to combine character skill and player skill in a compelling way and a system that would allow that in a mini-game. Also feel free to come up with ideas for your own mini-games and what roles they'll play in the game as well. The challenge of coming up with a mini-game system that pleases both sides of the fence might be an unattainable ideal, but it might be fun seeing how close we can get, if anyone's interested. (And if not, this thread will fall into oblivion, and that's fine too.)