Before start delving into the details, let me just say Fallout 3, even with its crashes and glitches, was kind of a life changing experience, avatar life that is?.
Beginning with the changes that could be done, I think the most important would be a completely destructible environment, I mean, if the idea is to create a convincing world experience, that should have been the first issue to have in mind right? Otherwise it all feels like phony...
What's the point of having a weapon that can take down an armored Vertibird in two shots if it can't even scratch a decrepit old rusty shack door no matter what you throw at it?
I know it would imply a major change to the game quests, story line and probably to the game engine, but it's not unfeasible?
And it would certainly add a great deal to the enjoyment, and certainly to the strategy. Exploring condemned buildings would represent a bigger treat than the ghouls that could possible inhabit it and you would definitely think twice before discharging a weapon inside the engine room in Mothership Zeta??
Other than that, the usual, a bigger world with more foes, tougher and in more varieties, a more interactive world, more weapons, and more options when solving quests.
It doesn't make much sense in an open ended game that the only option for solving the main quest in Point Lookout for instance it to collect the seeds, I should be given the option of wrecking the gate and storm the Ark & Dove Cathedral for instance! No matter how suicidal it could be..........
I particularly didn't enjoyed the options I was given in The Pitt!...
And since when the only choice to open a locked trunk is to pick the lock when you're holding a .44 magnum?.... Heck even a tire iron should do the trick!!!.... Yea I know, major changes to the quest's and story line are implied here, but it would be for the best right??!?..
Now for the suggestions. Fallout 3 great success is due in part to the blend of different genres in one format, RPG, FPS, TPS, TBT, AA etc?. My suggestion is to throw one more genre into that mix, the RTS.
Let me explain, as soon as we get to level 10 or 12, we have already amassed such a great number of weapons, armors and cash that we could practically start our own army so?. Why not do exactly that?!...... I mean we could start our own Brotherhood and fight alongside the Brotherhood of Steel and the Outcast, or we could just take out Commander Jabsco and run the Talon Company and fight the Brotherhood, or we could create our own Syndicate and fight everyone else for the control of the wastes.
We could for instance hire some workers to build a base somewhere in the wastes, or in Downtown D.C., or we could just send them to refurbish one of the rundown bases, like Raven Rock or Fort Bannister.
We could also hire some mercenary and create an army to send in patrols and battles.
Adding to this we could establish some operations, like a farming operation producing goods or an industrial one, in one of the abandoned factories, producing armors, weapons and ammo and establishing trade caravans to trade them and eventually taking control of all wasteland.
This probably sounds like a gamer wet dream and probably a game designer nightmare but is not that all impossible?