Throughout Fallout 3 and Fallout NV, one of my favorite things to do was open world looting. "Regular" looting where you open a container and the list of items pops up is fine, its a mainstay, it saves memory and rendering and its just efficient as far as system space goes. But a really fun aspect of Fallout 3 especially was where there was hidden loot in the actual world, where you would see a wooden box on a shelf and it was filled with empty nuka cola bottles, turpentine, wrenches, or some other ho hum to useless item, but if you grabbed the box and tipped it over, in the bottom would be chems or a pack of cigarettes or a stimpack, something extra that is more valuable that took a moment of extra time to find.

It was fun looking through hidden compartments, boxes, buckets, even a broken back of a toilet and finding loot you would have missed if you just ran on by looking only for containers, you felt gratified for looking a little harder and even beyond that its fun in a roleplay sense that you actually have to LOOK and SCAVENGE your items instead of just opening every drawer and magic Christmas metal box you find (seriously though, fallout 3 the company making those metal boxes must have been loaded).

I'm wondering with the graphics and memory upgrades of current gen consoles and PC's if maybe that will return or even become more of the norm. Obviously the rendering and bug testing for item stability would be insane, but I would love for the entire game, to enter a room and see a container and instead of clicking on it and it bringing up a menu, it actually opened and I had to sift through the crap inside to find my ammo, find my chems and stimpacks and extra bottle caps, you know, like Real scavengers would have to.

Anyway that's just my 2 cents, I enjoy this kind of looting, and actually having to use my interact button/key for something other than carrying stuff into another room to steal. Would love to hear other's opinions on the matter.

first off, Poll is biased, looting from a container is NOT "quick and easy", it is teh norm for MANY good reasons..

secondly, it will NEVER become the norm, for teh very reasons you state, no amount of memory and computer power could make it the norm.

How is it biased? if you play Fallout for more than an hour and get what the norm loot is, looting from containers takes ~3-5 seconds after the menu loads, caps, ammo, stims, chems, pre war money, cigs, done and on to the next. Faced against interacting with a box, pulling it down, maybe moving stuff off the top and looting, that's quick and easy to me.

As for it becoming the norm, that's probably absurdly ambitious and you're right, I'm more hoping it makes a bit more of an appearance.

It would be awesome if you really saw what you opened. I would be cool with a basic system similar to your idea. I don't think we will get something like that any time soon. A linear game may be able to pull it off soonish

....eeeeeeh, no thanks.

Particularly when I think about the containers I have in my houses in FO3 & Skyrim, which have dozens-to-hundreds of items in them. Your idea might be vaguely possible (if terribly annoying after the first couple times) for finding a couple items out in the world, but it'd be a disaster for storing stuff.

I find it fine as it is in the previous games - containers with a container dialogue, and plenty of loose physics objects lying around in ruins to sift through.

Someone earlier in the thread mentioned how they enjoyed hidden items in Fallout 3 that were "open world" and I agree this was pretty neat, however, could you imagine the amount of time you would spend sorting through the HUNDREDS of containers that are typically in Fallout games?

I'm not saying I'm against the idea of physically looking through containers, I'm saying it would be hard to implement. At least interesting to see how they might do something like that.

I think most of us can agree that the golden ticket solution is a mixed one. With mundane items being list style (ammo boxes, metal crates, trunks) and special items being left outside to discover (Uniques, hell even normal weapons, uncommons like nuka quantum).

Plus, now many/all of those "clutter" items have some use in crafting, so we're likely to care more about those things. So there'll be plenty of stuff to comb through buckets & under desks for, without making normal interaction with containers into a massive chore.

Why is there no option for both?

I like both and feel the game would lose some personality if either were gone. I could see them maybe having more of it now that consoles got a boost, but considering they still can't make it to a steady 60 FPS, they've still got a ways to go.

I voted open world, because it's much more immersive and less button-mashy.

Open World, however, I think might assault the psychology of a typical CoD console player, or someone more familiar with what quick, convenient or easy is.

Open World would be nice, but, I suspect we'll have a bulk of menu lists as before, with the occasional treat for those of us that spend that little extra time.

That's honestly how 3 and New Vegas already handle it, and it's a good system. I think we'd all get bored of constantly dumping containers out.

As was said upthread, a poll option for both would have been nice - didn't vote as I like them both. Hand placed loot is always a nice touch as you know a designer spent a good amount of time placing items in the editor 'just so' for a careful player to find if they hunt around and examine all the potential sneaky hiding spots. That said, having ALL loot hand placed would be both a massive time sink and not really needed. The varity of using both options is working just fine in the current spread of games, I see no reason to change the nice balance they have going at the moment.

I hated with a passion the looting system in Farcry 3&4, just simplistically awful! Ubisoft could take a few lessons from Bethesda on this subject.

Open world.

I absolutely LOVE looking for secrets.

Voted it would be nice to see what i am looting, sort of like the idea of looking into a lock-box and see a blaster and 2 clips in the lock-box, i know it is becoming more and more available with the newer game engines and such with set pieces they can place on objects and inject objects into the engine they create, but just think of the extra amount of room required on your HDD for that kind of stuff.

But i do not at all mind the current menu system the other one would be cool and a nice immersive factor, where you see your toon looting it directly from the box.

Both, like it has always been.

I'm fine with both...There's things you find in containers, things you find on the floor.

I think this is what the conclusion is from the majority, honestly.

The poll was a little unfair and committing to either one would never happen.

...yes. Having a container interface is a "casual" "streamlined" "brain-dead CoD moron" method of doing things. It's not, oh, the way nearly every RPG ("real" or not) has done inventory things for the past 3+ decades.

(Including every Bethesda game I've played from Morrowind up, while still having world objects you could loot/manipulate/etc)

I am a fan of loot containers as well as a la carte items hidden in the piles of junk and in out of the way places.



I like finding something I feel like I took some extra time to find, as well.
I would like to find some hidden entries and false walls types of things. Perhaps only noticeable with high enough perception.
But if there is too much, it kind of cheapens that, at least IMO. And there is definitely plenty of loot in both F3 and NV.


Cheers.

*edited for slow comprehension

Thank you for posting this.

I found the assertion that "menu style looting" is for "casual gamers and CoD fans" absolutely ridiculous.

IT is a COMPLETELY irrational, increidbly non-sensical, stupid thing to say, considering it is one of the HALLMARKs of an RPG

Sign me up for the quick loot option - no looking for myself (so damned tedious -.-)...I'd love to have Fallout 3's "looting" in RL (when looking inside a box or a cupboard etc.)...much more convenient (and it shows you directly what's in the box - you don't need to empty it in order to know if what you are looking for is actually in there!)

greetings LAX

Oh. I'm sorry. Please accept my apologies for offending any delicate sensitivities over a desire for a more immersive experience, especially now that technological architecture and computational horsepower might, maybe, possibly be able to handle such a thing in ways the past 3+ decades (awful strange how desperation to make a point stretches a reaching grandfather argument back before Win95, before Infocom text games, back to rather obscure and inaccessible main frame systems) were not capable of doing.

Please excuse me also for voicing an opinion that you disagree with. Oh my. What will become of the Universe?

Agreed. I'd like to see that guy play Baldurs Gate, Morrowind, Wizardry, Ultima, etc. Then watch him fail, then watch him try to call those games casual and for simpletons.

or any of the dragon age games, or Shadowrun returns, or really ANY non-bethesda RPG really.