Discuss what you think about followers.


I haven't played many MMORPG's, so I could be missing the mark here. Will followers be an option in this game? At the very least as part of a class? Say if youre a tinkerer or something, you can get/build a robot follower? I am thinking along the lines of a Hunter in WOW being able to have an animal.
What say you? Like your heart when you realize you're dying... but you're trying.

I think that is a fair question: followers have been an important part of Fallout 1, 2 and Tactics. Too, as you point out followers/pets are a fairly standard part of most MMO's, and aren't difficult to integrate into gameplay.

I'll defer to those who may know more, but I'd be surprised if followers were omitted from pv13.

Well technically wouldn't we all be each other's followers? Isn't that what MMO's are about? grouping?

I wouldn't be surprised if that is the case in this situation, though having pets is fairly common, and if you look at Bioware's SWTOR game, they are implementing Companion Characters which are humanoid NPCs you can control. Very similar to the concept of Followers. I think it's possible, but I'm not sure it'd be a worth while feature in this game. I'd rather group with a few buddies as my companions than a random pet or NPC.
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For those who prefer to play without real people who could get called away in the middle of a quest to go eat dinner, though, followers would be great. I wouldn't mind having a party member who, when told to do something, said 'absolutely' instead of 'stfu'. An exaggerated example, sure, but yeah. Followers will make solo players very happy.

That's true, and that's kind of what Bioware is implementing. If it works, it could be a great system. Just not sure how I feel about it in Fallout.
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I am a very strident believer that these sorts of features are a Bad Thing. MMOs are social environments, and that's what makes them so great. You're forced to interact with other players, and in PvP you're forced to compete against them. As you progress you do group dungeons or instances, and from there you start forming connections with other players. Guilds form, and larger communities grow. End game offers the possibility for even larger raids, made up of potentially dozens of players. The level of social interaction and extent of relationships needed to make that happen is non-trivial.

And yes, sometimes it is truly terrible. I was recently in a PUG where one of the members spent the entire time spamming racist epithets. I've been griefed, been abused, been forced to deal with incomprehensible incompetence and stubborness, and even threatened with physical violence. None of that stops me from PUGing because I realise that these events are typically a small minority, and that the good experiences far outweigh them. At the end of the day, though, whether good or bad, these group experiences are critical to MMO development (and I mean development in the sense of growth and maturation, rather than in a design sense), because they lay the foundations for the formations of those larger communities, which make MMO worlds so rich and complex.

The notion of being able to log in to an MMO, grab some NPC companions, and go off to do group quests is a very dangerous precedent to set. It encourages a sort of mercenary mentality, where people expect to be able to just log in, do something for a while, and then stop without any sort of interaction or responsibility beyond that. If I want a game like that, then I'll play Just Cause 2, where I can boot it up, steal a jet, blow up an oil rig, crash a helicopter into the middle of a military base and then exit the game when I'm done. MMOs are made strong not by the sum of their individual players, but by the sum of the bonds between those players. The more bonds between players, the stronger an MMO community will be, and the better that game will be in the end. Maybe you'll sit and sigh, wishing that I were near
Then maybe you'll ask me to come back again
And maybe I'll say "Maybe"

I say yes to followers, every MMO has a pet class, for Fallout it would be a Charisma character. Maybe I choose to be a doctor, scientist, mechanic, or merchant. I'm not a bad-ass gun for hire spec, but I should have the charisma to convince a decent merc to come along with me. The more Charisma you have the better quality of followers you should have access too.

But I also think that followers should take take a share of XP and loot, I don't really expect them to do anything for free. Gotta balance Risk VS Reward, by using an NPC to help you; you are taking less risk, therefor there should be less reward.

I would welcome followers with open arms... because seriously, I don't always want to deal with other people.

Guild Wars is a perfect example of a mmo where having NPC's as party members works really well. Granted GW does many things in it's own way, but it really works. Not to mention that GW is probably one of the most succesful mmo's on the market.

I am by nature a solo kind of a player. I prefer to play my games alone, because that is how I get the most immersion out of a game. I often become so immersed in the games I play that everything around me sort of... I guess you could say, no longer exist. I don't remember how many times I have heard people shouting at me, "HEY! MICKE! Are you listening!?", because I was so immersed into the game that I did not hear them talking to me.

I am actually the same way when it comes to reading books, watching movies/series/etc, almost anything I do. Unfortunatly this means that if I have to focus on something else at the same time (like talking to a person, be it real life or ingame, as I am playing the game), my immersion in the game compleatly goes away, and sometimes it takes me a few minuts to get back into the... "the zone", if you will. It's like trying to read a book when someone keeps randomly turning off the lights. If I took a guess, I would say that my productiveness in a game goes down by atleast 75+% if I have a conversation with a person at the same time as I am playing the game.

During the 5-6 years I have played mmo's, I have NEVER played any of them for the "community", never played them so I can talk to other people, never played them to be social with people. I play mmo's for the same reason I play any other console/PC game. I play these games for the game it's self, to experience what the game has to offer, to see where the story goes, to build up my character, etc. I would never play an mmo, which I did not really care that much for, just because my best friends might play it and want me to play it as well.

So, being able to have NPC party members in an mmo is in my opinion a really good idea. Because it means that you don't always have to deal with other people all the time, it means you don't always have to have other people with you, and it means you don't have to wait half an hour to find all the people you need to do a quest/mission where you need a full party.

I don't think that the npc's has to be as good as your character either. They could be 1-2 levels lower then your character, or generaly have lower stats then an actual player character. Which would make it a bit more difficult to do some missions, and make it almost impossible in otheres. They could even add that for each NPC you have in your party you earn x% less money and/or stuff/resorces, or a bonus x% money/stuff/resorces for each real player in your party, which ever. Or why not both of them at the same time. I would not mind all of those things at all, because I just want the ability/option to not having to deal with other people every single moment of the time in an mmo.

Edit: Actually, here is something interesting about when it comes to my years with Fallout (roughly 10 years or so), and the topic of followers. I have spent more time playing Fallout Tactics then all other Fallout games combined. For each time I have started a new game in FO1 or FO2 (or even FO3), I have started 5-6 new games in FOT. FOT is actually one out of less then a handful amount of games which I actually replay (from start to finish) atleast one time every 1-2 years. Games which I replay roughly 1 time every 5 years can probably be counted on no more then 2 hands.

There should be mercs that you can hire, but they should be expensive and should be best to use when defending outposts or something (they should just be plain stupid so people don't want to use them to pvp too much since they have a bit higher chance of dying, but they should do a really good work when defending bases)

What had started me thinking on this was raeding tehe weapons thread.
i was thinking a robot coupld be classed as a weaon, technically.

I am not sure how i feel about a full fledged NPC follower though. I am also thinking more along the lines of having a trade off somewhere, as in you have to be a certain class/build to even be able to do it, which will limit everyone from having essentially double firepower, which would make having followers a moot point, IMO. Like your heart when you realize you're dying... but you're trying.

Another issue with followers could be Team Damage. Oops! Your follower missed the Radscorpion and critically hit you in the groin for 103 hp. Might be time to hire mercs with better aim, or don't burst through you.

i like that randomness of that! Like your heart when you realize you're dying... but you're trying.

First thing i think of when i read the threadstarting post is, will there even be classes?

Somehow i dont see a class choice fitting in with the FO universe, more like a base set of skills that are free for you to upgrade throug either training or a fix amount of points gained by leveling (thinking something like the Anarchy Online system, wich i liked, where each point in a skill became increasingly more expensive the more you raised it)

Or maybe a combination of the 2, some things can only be perfected by practice and others can only be achieved by "leveling"

The idea with a robot companion is not bad thoo, but i see an endless line of nerf patches in it's future

I think fonline 2238 does this quite well actually. You first do your character (select stats etc) then ingame you can just go full pvp/pve or you can start to craft stuff, first off you can just craft basic things that are kiiinda useless but you can later on get professions, like small guns 1 -2 -3 and big guns etc etc, that lets you craft different weapons.
Now all these professions have demands, like for armorer 1 you need like 120 repair - lvl2 you need 150 and for lvl 3 you need 180 repair.
But this will also enhance alting but if the game uses characters as in EVE it should work really good.

Aaaahh, yes that sounds intresting, balance is up to the creators thoo, lets just hope that they keep it balanced so that one character wont fill your needs.
Sounds good, d/l fonline client now to check it out

if you havn't played fonline yet, read some tutorials :/ and get ready to get killed, alot xD

I highly doubt you'll get followers for V13, except in some single-player quests involving some hard NPCs.

If anything, Dogmeat is as much as you can get IMO.

most likely at the very least they would give up our own dogmeat to name since it's a mmo people will team up to take on the wastes

yeah great idea, hope Cris will read this topic full, and all gamesas team must to take it (but pleace no dogs, or we will see Dogmeat1, dogme@t and ect same pet names - schoolboys haos). And about the way - real dogmeat already dead. Mmmmm... maibe robodogs will looks good with upgrades, or full humanoid robots as in F2.
Also they can add some mercs in the cities, just saved ppls can join to char, or just other NPS. And i hope we will see the Caravans, as at Silkroad online, but in FO style.

I agree with the concept of a "pet" class/es definitely, but not with having companions. Guild Wars attempted to do this with "henchman" you basically had to take with you if you wanted to quest or explore and could find no one to group with, who took a "share" of the spoils in the form of decreased gold and item drops with each henchman you took, and I HATED that idea. I completely respect and understand playing an mmo solo, I personally do it a lot, and a player should not be required to find help, from AI or otherwise. It detracts from the personal feel and connection to a world that these games touch within us. On the other hand, a group effort should reward its players with increased rewards obviously, i.e. "dungeons" or "raids." Thats what an mmo is all about. But sometimes nothing beats straight up questing on your own. Players should be allowed to play their mmo they pay for in their own style.