» Wed Jun 16, 2010 5:19 pm First question, what would the setting be? There are too few places that would capture the imagination, and provoke emotions like DC. So, I've based my ideas off of one of the obvious choices, New York, and the surrounding coastal areas of NJ, and PA. Like DC, NY is a major Hub of Americana, and a symbol of humanities progress. The time period it's set would have to be recessed back to a time closer to the great war, since any further and it'd seem a bit off from what the game is about, post nuclear war survival, to about the mid 2130's.
The overall look of the NY would be completely reversed from Fallout 3.
Aesthetic:
New York, Manhattan in particular would be transformed into a primordial jungle-scape. Due to a FEV primed missile that landed squarely in Central park. This setting would be something completely new to the previous fallout games. The majority of downtown has been obliterated by nuclear blast leaving few standing buildings, the blast does leave a considerable amount untouched around uptown.
Using a post-apocalyptic styled jungle environment would create a unique gaming experience. If done right the Jungle could be a far more dangerous place then any desert wasteland. The environment would become in essence an essential aspect to the game. Providing both good and bad aspects.
Settlements:
Liberty Island and Ellis Island: Home, most of the land on liberty island has been converted into gardens. The living quarters are still mainly in the vault located on Ellis Island. The Statue of liberty is used as housing for the overseer and as a radio relay to communicate with away teams. The inhabitants have thrived using the vaults systems to provide essentials; though many systems are barley kept running today.
Time Square: Now converted into a large settlement, on the edge of the destroyed area of NY.
"The Mad Gardens" Madison square garden: The entertainment center now is an arena which hosts gruesome battles and other bloodsports.
Wall Street: The Den of the infamous Wall street raiders. And home to their leader, Lord NASDAQ a ruthless man with dreams of conquering all of NY.
Central Station: The transit systems, largest hub now is a thriving underground town.
Central Park : Ground Zero for the F.E.V. Explosion of the great war. Though the land is lush with plant and animal life, it is far more dangerous than any other place in NY .
Coney island: A settlement built from the once flourishing amusemant park. A major hub of trading.
Songs:
The music of Fallout 3 started my fascination with the music of the 50's So I've put together a small list of some songs that would fit a new Fallout game. Keeping true to the bitter ironic nature of the selections.
Sinatra: "That's Life" ; "New York, New York"; "My Way"
Roy Orbison: "Blue Bayou"
Elvis : "I'll be home Christmas day"; "Are You Lonesome Tonight?"; "Hound Dog "
Ferlin Husky;"Wings Of A Snow White Dove"
Johnny cash: "Ring of Fire"
Coasters: "Yakity Yak"
Bill Haley: "Shake Rattle and Roll"
Controls:
I've also given some thought on what changes could improve the over all gaming experience.
Fallout 4 would have several overhauls to it's operation. Food would be a larger part of the game. In game, the food would be used to restore action points, along with sleeping. No longer would just hiding in a corner bring them back. This element would bring more tactical thinking to the player. Stimpaks would not be a substitute for food like before, but it would become a necessity to survival.
Healing;
This system was too simplistic in FO3, and stimpaks were too readily available. Both of theses elements robbed the game of any challenge to the player after just a few level-ups. FO4's would tweak this. When the player limbs are crippled items such as splints and bandaging will be needed to patch themselves up. Along with this I'd like to see some diseases comeback. The way Oblivion handled this would be perfect in my opinion. Adding these element into the healing system would add more complexity to the harshness of the survival in this post-apocalyptic world.
SPECIAL, Skills, perks and traits;
In FO4 the leveling system would be relatively unchanged, skill and SPECIALs don't need to be changed. But the reintroduction of traits with changes to them will be present also. The Traits will give the player unique options with their. Traits will only be used in the beginning when designing a character. The Traits will give the player a unique adaptation to help the throughout the survival of the game. Here's a few ideas:
Traits:
Hunter: Your know-how let's you pick the prime cuts off of your kill. Boosting it's positive effects, and inhibiting the negative.
Gatherer: Food you gather give you extra hp and action points.
Bargainer; You can finagle with the best of them, you get a 25% discount with sellers, and open special dialogues.
Strong Arm: You gain the ability to intimidate people through unique dialogues.
Perks:
Flashy entrance: With your knowledge in explosives, you can use a bomb to open any locked door.
Req: explosive 75; PER 8.
Sly devil: Your devious ways are masked by you charms, unlocking new dialogue, and other possibilities.
Req: level 2; CHR 7; negative karma.
Vegetarian; When eating fruits, and vegetables, you gain more health then usual, but less from animal based foods.
Hero's last stand: When on your last 20 of points of health, all SPECIALs and combat skills are pushed to the max, as long as you are fighting for the good side.
Req: level 18, karma+.
Booster shot: You no longer are affected by diseases, though you still are able to contract them.
Req:Level 6, End 8, Med; 75 Sci: 50
Wall st insider: siding with the wallst raiders, you are no longer attacked by them.
Req: quest related
Pipboy-rf
The Pipboys from the past games seemed to be in stark contrast to the designs of the other in-game devices made by RobCo. The Pipboy3000 was a huge cluster of buttons and panels, with so many sharp edges. So unlike the rest of the items inside vault101. This is a quick pipboy design, one that I think would reflect what RobCo would make. I tried to make the overall design to be smooth and simplistic like the othe misc equipment in the vault being used a a reference. http://www.vulomedia.com/images/86701pipboyrf.jpg
IVATS http://www.vulomedia.com/viewer.php?id=20759pipadruin.jpg
Immersive Vault-tec Assisted Tactical System
The VATS system of FO3 was an interesting blend of turn-based combat and real time. IVATS would take this a step further, giving the player a full array of strategic actions that can be taken when activated.
Firstly the Pipboy would have an option to alert the player to a eminent attack, in form of a pinging noise. This would give th player enough time to activate IVATS before the enemy gets the drop on the player. Once activated instead of simple point and click on enemy targets the player could do one of several options; evade, heal, attack, and select follower's action. This system would incorporate multi character commanding capabilities, when the player has companions with them. Preventing the companions from charging into certain death, as is far too often the case in FO3. Like VATS all commands will deplete the action points, and actions dictated to the companions will deplete their's.
Actions:
Evade, this allows the player to dodge the enemies attack while in IVATS.
Attack, obviously this would be basically the same as in FO3.
Heal, this allows the player to heal themselves or a companion in IVATS.
Creatures/enemies:
Radgeon: the results of F.E.V. , New York strain, and the radiation that set into the city early after the war. Now their evolution has gone several steps back to an archaeopteryx and other terror birds.
Crocs: Mostly unchanged, apart from an increase in size and over developed upper extremities
Wall street raider: spread throughout the city these raider operate as Highwaymen taking everything from travelers.
Ghouls: humans that have been exposed to massive amounts of radiation. Some few still retain cognitive abilities
Termites: The F.E.V. And radiation has altered them on a massive scale, nearly quadrupled in size and now are capable of eating more then wood including; metal, plastics, concrete and, flesh.
Rats: At nearly four foot long, and a hunger for human flesh. They are virtually unchanged from before the war.
Trogs; humans that took underground after the war. Living on F.E.V. Polluted water becoming savage animal like beasts.
Deathclaws: NY deathclaws are similar to their DC counterparts physically. Only notable change is the skin taking on a greenish tint to blend in with the environment. Although solitary creatures in the Capital Wastelands, living in the NY Jungle has altered their behavior to work in small family based groups.
Plants: Due to heavy doses of FEV over the years. Some plants have taken strange mutations, some including Venus fly-trap like species that attack human, and large animals. While some are a source for food, others are disease carrying hazards.
Customized weaponry was one of the funner things for me in FO3. I found rummaging through garbage to find the items needed to be a joy and once I put the collection of random junk together to form unique weapons I had a sense of pride almost. Those weapons were a great part of the experience of Fallout 3 and I've put a few ideas together here for more possible ones and some sketches of what they'd look like:
P-Bomb: pressurized explosive, with lasting results. Items: pressure cooker, abraxo cleaner, gasoline, fertilizer
Plasma Sword:... a sword of plasma what else ; fission battery(replacements necessary for use) vacuum hoses, magnet array, toggle switch
The Whacker: A tool once for gardening now a devastating meele weapon. weed whacker, 2 barbed wires, 2 balls, brace
Vapor-izer; acidic material sprayer; sprinkler, bike frame, gardening hose, crutch.
http://www.vulomedia.com/viewer.php?id=58408weaponssk.jpg
The Story:
As far as the story itself goes I don't have too much on it yet, just some loose ideas:
Fallout 4
Intro
Black screen fades into interior of a pristine car radio: paused for several seconds it flickers on, to Frank Sinatra's "That's Life", a slow and gradual pull away reveals the full interior of the car to be completely ravaged by time, and is little more then a rusted out heap with two skeletons clinging each other inside.
The song continues playing as he camera still slowly pull out from the car to reveal the dilapidated remains of the Brooklyn Bridge. Until the end of the song, giving a panoramic view of the New York ruins and finally the piece of the bridge with the car falls into the river.
Intro speech: War. War never changes. Humanity's progress has always been driven by war, and marked by the weapons of the time. From those of primitive stone and wood, to the precipice, nuclear weaponry. Once, used as a means to prevent wars between nations. The latter years of the 21st century saw the fall of the great civilizations of mankind because to these weapons. This brief period of time was known as The Great War. Lasting only two hours, in that time Earth was thrown into the fires of hell. Nearly being purged the of all life, destroying mankind's civilizations. And on that day, the true power of the atom had been realized. However, the end of civilization was not the end of humanity. And as long as humans live, war will prevail amongst them, and war. War never changes.
A select group of people survived the great war, by retreating to massive underground structures called "vaults". These vault dwellers were spared the horror of the great war. But the Vaults were never designed to save anyone.
Those in confined vault 27 were destined to fail, as part of vault-tec's research the on human psyche this vault was intentionally overcrowded. However, vault 27's inhabitants did something miraculous, they survived. The Overseer had prevented the inhabitants from destroying one another over the limited resources within the vault. But 17 years after the vault closed it was forced to reopened. Unable to supply the necessary resources to the inhabitants the overseer had no choice but, to open the door. The world the vault dwellers first saw was unrecognisable to them. The city of New York was nearly consumed completely in the nuclear fires. It was transformed into savage a place. Those who weren't privileged to enter the vault were reduced to scavenging off of the remains of the once great society.
Through the following years after opening the vault. The overseer lead the vault dwellers in forging their place in this new world, on the islands of New York. Utilizing the vault's remaining technologies, the islanders prospered and the island itself has flourished for nearly 40 years. In that time, the vault's remaining machines , and it's overseer have aged. With the technologies of the vault and their overseer nearing the end of their times. The lives of the islanders from vault 27 will soon be changed forever. As the child of the overseer, you will destined to lead them towards whatever the future holds.
http://www.vulomedia.com/viewer.php?id=76219islander.jpg
The overall game would revolve around, restoring the functions of the island. Through exploring, scavenging, trading, and whatever else necessary to save your home.
Well that was it so far. If I ever decide to expand on the story or any other ideas, I'll be sure to post them.
