Fallout 4 Speculation, Suggestions and Ideas thread #98 : Fallout Series Discussion

» Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:20 pm

This topic is for ideas and suggestions for Fallout 4 so that we can keep all the discussion in one thread. At moderator discretion, threads about specific and distinct topics as they relate to FO4 and the rest of the Fallout series may be acceptable in the Fallout Series forum. General idea/suggestion topics for a future Fallout game will either be closed, or moved to this one.

This thread should be used to discuss items you'd like to see in a future game, gameplay tweaks, quest ideas, things you hope are not in the next game and so on. If you want to discuss major issues, use a separate topic - such as the discussion about adding multi-player or co-op play, which already has a thread. Please search first to see if there is an active/recent thread on a particular topic.

http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1426829-fallout-speculation-suggestions-and-ideas-thread-97/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1425377-fallout-speculation-suggestions-and-ideas-thread-96/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1424057-fallout-speculation-and-suggestions-thread-95/
http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1420774-fallout-speculation-and-suggestions-thread-94/

» Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:52 am

What do you mean by design? The artistic work for bethesda is gorgeous. How many times have you looked at a post nuclear world and said Dam* because it looked nice. But your right the writing department realy does lack. So in all bethesda games since fallout 3 i told my own stories about my character. When i switched to computer gaming then i really started telling unique stories about my characters. So now all i want is is an amazing world, top of the line AI, and easy hassel free modding tools. That way i can tell my own stories. I understand this isn't what all gamers want but it's enough for me. In my humble opinion.

Quest design, gameplay design, narrative design, etc. Looking nice is the easy part, that Beth can do. However, making it all work adequately, in depth enough, and responsively is another.

» Wed Dec 05, 2012 9:49 pm

Quest design, gameplay design, narrative design, etc. Looking nice is the easy part, that Beth can do. However, making it all work adequately, in depth enough, and responsively is another.

I think that after 3 months of being on the market their games work "adequately" (yes their is alot wrong with that statement).

Sorry they have very little if any depth.

Responsively as in..... The games themselves get alot of response from the media. The games themselves don't respond well to themselves. I swear my computer (old computer) contemplates suicide whenever i put in fallout NV

» Wed Dec 05, 2012 5:31 pm

I think that after 3 months of being on the market their games work "adequately" (yes their is alot wrong with that statement).

Sorry they have very little if any depth.

Responsively as in..... The games themselves get alot of response from the media. The games themselves don't respond well to themselves. I swear my computer (old computer) contemplates suicide whenever i put in fallout NV

I'm talking about how the game plays. Not bugs, not media coverage, but how the game presents itself to the player. Narrative structuring, indepth writing, meaningful skill and stat systems, choices and consequences, cause and effect, multipath/multisolution quests, how all these aspects work together to form a whole. That sort of thing.

» Wed Dec 05, 2012 10:46 am

I don't mind fallouts skill and leveling system. I think it could be improved upon but overall i've seen worse. But now that you've really broken down what you meant i can agree with you that the worlds bethesda create are hollow and have little or no connection to themselves. Bethesda knows how to create a great game; their storytelling skills are a different story.

» Wed Dec 05, 2012 12:48 pm

I've been thinking of a few suggestions while playing NV again, just little things.

- Gas masks
- More (facial) hairstyles
- Fewer companions, more detailed stories
- Mercs you can hire, little to no backstory
- Back-packs
- Don't have us be in the spotlight, ala FO3. Why do we always have to save the world, why can't we have something more like FO1?

» Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:58 am

I think skills should go from 1-10 instead of 1-100.
I also think that skills should not start out at above 1, all should start at 0.
Each point in the skills will show a dramatic increase in proficiency, whereas right now, some skills does [censored] all.
I mean, what's the point with having 63 in Speech? How much of a difference does 73 in Lockpicking and 71 in Lockpicking do?
WIth a 1-10 system each point would increase your proficiency in a meaningful way.

You still get skill points when you level up but they aren't 1:1 as it is now with distribution.

Instead for tagged skills, it goes like this:

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 8
9. 9
10. 10

That means you need a total of 55 skill points to max out a tagged skill.

For untagged skills on the other hand, it goes like this:

1. 2
2. 4
3. 6
4. 8
5. 10
6. 12
7. 14
8. 16
9. 18
10. 20

That means you need a total of 100 skill points to max out an untagged skill.

» Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:40 pm

I think skills should go from 1-10 instead of 1-100.
I also think that skills should not start out at above 1, all should start at 0.
Each point in the skills will show a dramatic increase in proficiency, whereas right now, some skills does [censored] all.
I mean, what's the point with having 63 in Speech? How much of a difference does 73 in Lockpicking and 71 in Lockpicking do?
WIth a 1-10 system each point would increase your proficiency in a meaningful way.

You still get skill points when you level up but they aren't 1:1 as it is now with distribution.

Instead for tagged skills, it goes like this:

1. 1
2. 2
3. 3
4. 4
5. 5
6. 6
7. 7
8. 8
9. 9
10. 10

That means you need a total of 55 skill points to max out a tagged skill.

For untagged skills on the other hand, it goes like this:

1. 2
2. 4
3. 6
4. 8
5. 10
6. 12
7. 14
8. 16
9. 18
10. 20

That means you need a total of 100 skill points to max out an untagged skill.

I see we have pretty similiar ideas about this (there are few key differences, but the general idea seems to be the same).
From my "big post":

Spoiler

Ok, so going by the current gameplaystyle where dicerolls no longer apply (which is a shame)... redesign the characterprogression system to better suit it (to be more responsive and give more immediate feedback to the player as s/he progresses).

Perks would be more like additional abilities that the skills do not govern straightforward (like pistolwhipping, enhancing stimpaks, increasing inventory space and/or such) but still offer the requirements for. They'd also have tiers (up to 3) to enhance said abilities when appropriate.

Skills would now have a 1-10 and some others 1-5 point scale - depending on the intended usability. With each point cumulatively increasing the price of buying it. Each of these points would also hold more to it than mere nominal increases with little to no visible effect (like how it is now with the 1-100 scale). The skills would work more like thresholds of sorts opening new related abilities than random numerical values. At characterbuilding phase each skill would default to 0, but the player would have 4 free points to put in which ever skills s/he wishes with the maximum initial increase being 2.

A couple of "along the lines of" -examples of the skills and their effects:

Spoiler

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: 0 p oints - You are so terrible with guns you suffer 50% damageloss and 75% of accuracy loss with any conventional firearm, plus your unholstering, holstering and reloading take much more time. 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
Cost: 5, 5, 10, 10, 15, 15, 20, 20, 25, 25
Effect: 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
Cost : 5, 5, 10, 10, 15, 15, 20, 20, 25, 25
Effect: 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.

Explosives:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: With explosive based weapons, refer to the guns section. 0 points, you can throw grenades and dynamite very inaccurately, that's it; 1 point - opens up the ability to create and tinker with satchelcharges and firebombs and removes penalties from grenades and regular dynamite; 2 points - landmines and their modified and custom variants enter the picture; 3 points - creation and operating with C4, semtex, and other plastic explosives and remote detonatables; 4 points - Energybased explosives (electricity, EMP, plasma, etc) explosives; 5 points - Mix and match your own cocktails with all available ingredients.

Sneak:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: With 0 points you do not sneak, you're so clumsy that going crouched wouldn't make any difference. 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.

Speech:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: Wit h 0 points, regular default dialog (plus other skill/perk related options); with points 1-5, thesholds for related speech-check lines.

Lockpick:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: Wit h 0 points you do not pick locks, you simply have no idea how to. 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.

Barter:
ooooo
Cost: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25
Effect: 0 points - 20% selling value, 200% buying value; 1 point - 40% selling value, 175% buying value; 2 points - 60% selling value, 150% buying value; 3 points - 80% selling value, 125% buying value; 4 points - 100% selling value, 100% buying value; 5 points - 120% selling value, 75% buying value.

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: 0 points - you do not repair anything by yourself, 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: 0 points - you can use stimpaks but they only heal 50% of their potential, and after 5 in a row, you suffer double the overdoespenalty. 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.

» Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:37 am

any news on when FO4 comes out?

» Wed Dec 05, 2012 7:32 am

No. There's no news about if it is even being made.

» Wed Dec 05, 2012 8:26 am

dang. ok thnx. but they should do FO4 in alaska or hawaii and weather should have effects on your character