the outdoor areas seem well made, though a lot of fans are concerned if Fallout 4 will have lots of city buildings to explore, with great interiors, and metropolis sized city ruins to explore (that aren't just rubble).

Perhaps one of the surprises is that Fallout 4 will feature every city building is explorable? that would be very immersive, especially multi floor buildings. Also the communities have brought up thoughts on waht the town designs will be like. and if they will really feel like towns.

Well that's just one example of some thoughts out there, but overall yea, level design is very challenging to get right and provide a variety of great different locations for all tastes. It remains to be seen how likable Fallout 4's open world is, and how it all comes together. though Fallout 4 has advantage over Skyrim that there could be more space used for more meaningful things besides terrain. though level design really is important to really make the content, travels and exploration matter more.

Perhaps Fallout 4 might even innovate somethings about level design. Like perhaps, a building for example, there's the normal entrance to get in, or there could be a window the player could slip in to enter the basemant. things like that.

well what do you expect out of the level designs and types of locations? I like more of the city metropolis type stuff, with streets and accessible buildings, and maybe um does Boston have a subway? well they ahven't shown much of the city, because I think one of the major things about Boston is how it's one of the largest cities in the country or region.

Doubt every building will be enterable, to much work for to little payoff. As for the size of urban environmentS, we shall see, but I have a feeling diamond city is the biggest city we get, remember this is the wasteland, a town full of people is a city in there eyes.

I think you're expecting way to much Saner TBH...Remember we're set in a place that was bombed with a nuke (although some think more then one ) BGS will be working with the usual formula I think with regards to map design. Probably be playing it safe and not to far out of the box. I think settlements are crazy enough lol...Rubble will be everywhere

I think your definition of towns is a little off in what the world is now, there won't be towns like we know of anymore, besides Boston being the focal point and biggest area. Plus we gotta remember they can't scale a full size town in this world.

I don't get the point of the "Honorable mentions" point of the post. Not to sound like a d@*! but why? Why would there even be a need for it?

Again just think you're reaching way to far with what is realistic and practical.

It's not SimCity.

I have a good vibe for it, and we'll know for sure in 4 weeks won't we...

There was a mod for Fallout 3 that I downloaded but never got around to exploring in-game called Arefu Expanded which basically took the "town" of Arefu and, well, expanded it. Added more NPC, with quests, and more buildings, etc.

There is a scene near the end of one video where the Sole Survivor is standing on top of a building (it looks like) with Dogmeat at his side as he looks over the city (Boston, one assumes) and it is HUGE, with skyscraqers and so on. Now, that doesn't mean we'll be able to ~enter~ any of them --- they could all be "set design" pieces of background art.

One of the few places that felt like a real thriving town was The Citadel.... multiple "wings" with multiple bedrooms, mess hall, conference room, gigantic open-air training area, tons of NPCs walking around, training, standing guard duty, sleeping, etc etc... just felt really alive.

Andale felt like a town, although a town with a very small (and odd) population. But they had a proper street with a cul-de-sac, a playground, I think, multiple buildings... and come to think of it, there was an area near the National Guard Armory that was not actually populated with ANYONE but it looked like a proper "neighborhood". Heck, even that "town" with all the mines and the crazy sniper (Arkansas) was big enough to be a town.... just didn't have anybody ~in~ it.

While I can appreciate that civilization is still recovering, it would be nice to see larger numbers of NPCs in some (well-protected) areas. Rivet City was nice enough, although it pretty much felt like a shopping mall with one common room and maybe four or five individual 'suites' for specific NPCs. Fit the nature of the place, I suppose.

It certainly looks to me like Boston and the surrounding areas will be interesting to explore.

Copied my response from last week's edition of this thread:

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And as I mentioned in another thread - yeah, it's kind of cool to have lots of enterable buildings (via mods like the DC Interiors Project), but.... it gets kind of daunting to wander into a new neighborhood and see 20-30+ doorways on the local map. And then it becomes a chore, as you work your way through a dozen row houses. And that mod still leaves a billion blank buildings that you can't enter! I can't imagine what it would be like if most buildings had interiors.

(I do still love that mod, but it sometimes gets to the point where I just have to say "Ok, I need to skip the rest of these, or I'll be in Georgetown for the next week. ")

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All I care about building wise is hoping Afterschool Special is either re-made for FO4 or the next version if it's different but the same premise..

Haha, I can see how that would be frustrating for someone that likes to do everything in a game. I enjoy knowing that I have not finished entire areas because it gives me things to do/see in future playthroughs.

On the other hand, if there is a quest "find my keys please!" and it requires that I search through all those buildings, then yeah, I'd probably just skip that one.

Anyway, I'm for quality over quantity, no problem with closed off buildings

Yeah, I never usually do every little thing in an area and love getting surprised if I run back through and see something new.

I don't think people realize what they're asking for when they want every building enter-able. Consider it takes years for a team at Beth just to get us what was in FO3. Now multiply that by hundreds, if not thousands. That would be for bare minimum copycat interiors? And what would it gain us? Fits of rage that the world is mostly barren and plain with little to interest us inside.

It would be like adding 5 gallons of water to a glass of wine. The really great content diluted so you can barely find it.

I wouldnt be suprised if a large majority are enterable. This is a company that animated every single little light in the game, remember

Have you played the DC Interiors mod for Fallout 3? I think it highlights a lot of what you're saying here.

Go on a short trek from Rivet City to Underworld and no joke you'll pass by 60 fully fleshed out interiors on whatever route you take. It just overwhelms you with content, and as absolutely amazing as that mod is I can see why people who plan to be finished with the game at some point instead of playing forever by any means possible would be unhappy with tripping over so much content. And like you said, content that would end up feeling like filler to the vast majority of gamers.

It certainly sounds like a lot of content, content that had to come from a modder because Bethesda lacked the means to do it.

Its what modders are best at. With no time or money restrictions, you are able to add insane amounts of a specific type of content to the game on whatever schedule you want. For Bethesda adding that amount of exteriors would draw attention away from other things in development, but with modding there's no such constraints to ddeal with.

Because of the amount of time it would take to make every building explorable (time that imo would be better spent refining other facets of the game), I would prefer that they leave the bulk of this task to modders. Especially if it amounts to filling out dozens of interiors that aren't quest-related.

Imagine the Fairfax ruins x1000. There are a few things to loot. But most of the enter-able buildings are barren.

I would like if there are enough enter-able buildings that I can basically skirt around clusters of enemies, but there is a point you can reach where you have too many enter-able buildings.

One of the mods I've always enjoyed for skyrim is the NPC fillers. For example in skyrim it added Laborours, Hunters, Mercenaries, Bodyguards, Shop Assisstants, patrons, guild members, thieves, ladies of the night, etc... Plenty of NPC's, very few named, and it made the cities (Whiterun Especially) seem far more alive than previously. From the description there is a line that goes

"They aren't hostile, they just don't want to talk, and have nothing to say".... or something.

In all fairness the FO3 and FNV have done this quite well with the MP's on the strip, Megaton Settlers, etc

Atmosphere yes, Level Design is up in the air.