A suggestion that would be incredibly appreciated

Post » Thu Nov 26, 2015 3:39 pm

Hello Bethesda and Bethesda fans,
I understand this topic really hits a few people鈥檚 nerves when brought up, but please consider to listen before you call me out for something that is just personal taste and a suggestion.
I am a 20 year old guy and grew up playing fallout. I love all the fallouts but I loved the fact that fallout 1 and 2 had a unique option for players. This option was available in the settings of the game and it has started to find its way into other modern games. But sadly Fallout 3 and New Vegas were missing it.
The option I am talking about is the little toggle in the options to remove strong language and gore in the settings.
I am all for cussing and blood sprays being in a game. It is freedom of speech and video games are an art 鈥?but a simple option for those who would like it would do no harm to those who would like to keep it.
One popular mod for fallout 3 was the profanity filter, same with new Vegas. It wasn't fair though for those players who were console based since they couldn't modify game to remove the profanity and gore.
There are other games that have done this from the get go, Brutal Legend gives you the option to bleep profanity. The legendary Tim Shafer has stated before the filters were added to the game in consideration of older players that may not wish to see such aspects, or for parents who opt to play the game with younger children. All the Metal Gear Solids have the options to turn off blood, and same with Left for dead and The Last of Us. Even the incredibly violent Gears of War series have had the options to remove both. Brothers in arms had the profanity filter, and Sunset Overdrive. Even the visibly fallout inspired game Borderlands 2 has the gore removal and bleeped cursing (done for comedic emphasis). None of the filters ruined the games since they were optional and the only people it affected were those who were able to benefit from it.
There has never been a review of a game saying how an option ruined the game, rather if mentioned 鈥?they commend it.
I already know there will be a few people saying 鈥淚t鈥檚 a mature game, if you don鈥檛 like it don鈥檛 play it鈥? and that鈥檚 true. If I didn鈥檛 want to play it since it was mature, then I wouldn鈥檛. I am not asking for the game to remove the gore and profanity, I am asking for the ability to filter out what possibly would let me enjoy it more. Somewhat like how people have the options of subtitles and colorblind modes, they may not be deaf or colorblind but the option is still a nice consideration that is appreciated by a select few.
I know this may be asking a lot, but I know friends who have sensitivity issues with graphic gore, and others who have children and don't want F-bombs to be dropped every other minute with heads exploding.
Keeping it an option would allow players to play it as you guys wanted, and also giving them the option to censor some of the stronger elements of they wish.
Even if this would be a patch later in the game it would be much appreciated. I understand that the game is rated Mature, I am not asking for it to be removed from the game- I'm just asking for the option to change the settings of the game to get less profanity (even if it is a bleep or silence) and maybe lower the amount of blood and gore. Sadly bringing up an issue of a 100% completely optional content filter would be much loved, brings out the worst 15 year old trolls on the internet saying how an option on something they don鈥檛 agree with would ruin everything. Sorry for repeating myself, I just got done with work and maybe writing wasn鈥檛 a bright idea. Thanks so much for reading this and I want to also thank you for making great games.
-a fan
I have a ton of links to all of this but the forum wont let me post them yet. Message me if you would them :)
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P PoLlo
 
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Post » Thu Nov 26, 2015 7:45 pm

Well given how some of the visual effects are coded into the game it would probably be a little more than a small amount of work. especially for the dialogue, that would require a lot of overhauling and work just for a toggleable option.

Also, these forums don't allow people to post links until after they've posted enough times. its so that people don't spam the forums with links for the sole purpose of bait clicking and trying to advertise their website or content.

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jodie
 
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Post » Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:24 pm

It could happen. The Last of Us has a toggle on how much gore there is (at least I think it is TLoU).

For me, I don't mind gore as long as it is not too realistic...not saying if the graphics are good enough that I won't tolerate gore, I just don't want a ton of emphasis on it.

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DarkGypsy
 
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Post » Fri Nov 27, 2015 1:13 am

Hmmm, well with all the recorded dialogue I don't know, they could of course record it without the swearing, or just bleep it, I guess.

I like gore in video games, but I wouldn't be against it being possible to toggle it, if people don't like the dismemberment etc.

Either way, I don't really care, I probably wouldn't use the option if it was there, but you know if some people want it, and it's in the game, then good for them, I'm not gonna complain that some people got a feature that they wanted, when it doesn't affect my game at all.

I don't know how hard it would be to add these options, but you know, options are good.

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Kevin S
 
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Post » Fri Nov 27, 2015 3:39 am

Would just a silence or mute during the conversation work?

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GEo LIme
 
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Post » Thu Nov 26, 2015 1:37 pm

that's the thing though about posting a subject like this. People assume that im saying remove it entirely. I posted it to reddit and immediately was called a [censored]. all im talking about is the choice. I like the choice and having an option doesn't hurt anyone at all.

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Jordan Moreno
 
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Post » Fri Nov 27, 2015 12:40 am

I agree that it doesn't hurt any one really, if it were very easy for the devs to provide that option. But it may simply be that the devs want some aspects to be gritty or to have foul language and don't want it to be experienced with out those aspects from an artistic form of expression... I guess, im just throwing out possible reasons. personally I don't consume games as a medium of art, but rather as a source of entertainment/escape

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Micah Judaeah
 
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Post » Thu Nov 26, 2015 5:02 pm

I view some games as art. For games like fallout though i use them to get away from my troubles. It sounds silly but people cussing takes me out of it for some reason. And the gore thing was for people like my friends that get sick from gore. Is there any way i can send a suggestion to the developers?

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Markie Mark
 
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Post » Thu Nov 26, 2015 6:03 pm

you can email them in the contact us link that is still at the bottom of the page i believe. but it would be completely futile at this point since they are for sure beyond the stage in which they could go back and mess with dialog and voice acting if they hadn't already provided an offer. not to mention they probably get complaints from parents about the language and gore all the time in their games. But im not going to tell you to not give it a shot.

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Tamara Primo
 
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Post » Thu Nov 26, 2015 8:28 pm

A gore setting may be feasible. For a language filter, the only economic way would probably to turn off voiced dialog when it is set.

This game is expected to receive a Mature Audiences rating, so...

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R.I.p MOmmy
 
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Post » Thu Nov 26, 2015 11:46 pm

I know there are other games that have had it, but i understand if it would be too much work. But I would love it if it was there since i hear enough profanity in work and life. Also when i have my lil cousins over they wont hear f bombs. Thanks for not calling me an idiot. i know a bunch of other people would love it too, just trying to get the idea heard by bethesda.

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Cash n Class
 
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Post » Fri Nov 27, 2015 12:00 am

To be honest, I don't know how much work it would be. I have never seen the code (I keep asking BGS to send me all their proprietary information and files, but so far they have displayed a lack of enthusiasm for sharing their secrets with outsiders).

For speech you can think of each line of dialog as being set up in a three column table. The first column is the trigger event that causes them to say the line, the second is what mood the are in and the third is the actual line they speak. The easiest way to handle that might be to set up a second filtered table and then use the language filter toggle to determine which to load into memory. This of course would not only double the text involved but would also affect voice acting. This is why I suggested just disabling voice acting when the language filter is on.

That is a guess on how language filters MIGHT be done. As I said, I don't know.

Gore filters may or may not be more difficult. I am betting it will depend on how tightly it is tied to the engine. If it is a function of the rag doll animations it might be easy (would require art to come up with a duplicate set of rag dolls, of course). Again, I don't know.

Whether it is easy or not, this would be something that would be considered early in development during the design phase. It is waaaay too late for Fallout 4, meaning if gore and language filters ARE in Fallout 4, it is only because they had already decided to do them a few years ago.

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Melis Hristina
 
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Post » Thu Nov 26, 2015 2:57 pm

I understand what you're saying, and I wouldn't mind this option. But why would anyone use it? One the best parts about Fallout is shooting someone in the face and their skull exploding everywhere.

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Kara Payne
 
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Post » Fri Nov 27, 2015 4:10 am

From playing around with older versions of the Creation Kit (from Fallout 3 and Oblivion and some in Skyrim), I don't know how easy it would be to censor dialog with an option. I didn't play around with dialog a ton, especially not voiced dialog as I have a crappy mic, but my basic understanding is it works by checking for various variables when you initiate dialog with an NPC (like what quests are active and what stage you are at in them, the factions you and the NPC are in, how much they like you, etc.), and presents conversation trees based on those results. The text is tied to specific parts of the tree, and the audio files are tied to those text entries.

I may be wrong, but without engine changes I think it would require a secondary audio file for every line that has an offensive word in it, which would bloat the install size by a little bit. Then it would also require a variable check for every offensive line of dialog, which could potentially double the number of dialog bugs. I have no problem with the addition of this, but if they are already showing in engine trailers, I don't think they would be able to add it at this point, at least not on launch. But possibly as optional free DLC down the road.

As for gore, I think there is already an option in engine to remove it, at least there was a way to turn it way up in FO3.

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DAVId MArtInez
 
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Post » Fri Nov 27, 2015 1:50 am

To the OP, I believe German laws require that there is no blood and gore in the game, so a different version of the game has to be made for sale in that country. If you speak German, getting the German version of the game should solve the gore issue. If you don't speak that language, well that's your troubles with swearing solved as well :tongue: .

Otherwise, if you're on PC, waiting for mods that remove those things is probably your best bet.

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Neil
 
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Post » Thu Nov 26, 2015 7:33 pm

Alrighty thanks guys :) I posted to the /r/FO4 subbreddit and they liked the idea. It's a shame I can't somehow get Bethesda to see this but it's nice knowing I'm not the only one.
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Nick Tyler
 
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Post » Fri Nov 27, 2015 12:47 am

an ability to customize the in game radio, an ability to add your own mp3's.

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Maya Maya
 
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