What do you guys think? Being in a vertibird seems pretty OP. Nobody can really kill you easily, and you get a Gatling gun. It would be cool if the storms we encounter in Fallout 4 have a high chance of downing a vertibird we're riding in to discourage scouring the wastes in it.

Do we even have proof that we'll have the ability to ride one in a non scripted event? I saw the E3 footage but can't recall if it has been confirmed that we'll have access to one outside of a quest. That aside I doubt it. They made the dog invincible so we don't have to reload and while a downed vertiberd is not by any means a dead dog it still seems like it would fall along that line. But hey Idk. Speculation woohoo!

Consider its most likely just a fallout take on the wagons from Skyrim, its not like you can ride around everywhere and solve ya problems with it.

I hope we can fly it freely and it can get damaged and be shot down. I would also love if we bad to repair it or could upgrade it (armor plating the guns, speed ect)

My instinct tell me though it will either be a quest or only in the game at certain times. I hope I'm wrong.

They showed footage of the PC sitting in it with a targeting reticule for the onboard minigun. We also had the option to make the vertibird land and take off again. My interpretation is that we don't actually control the vertibird in its entirety, but rather determine where it goes to. Depending on how Bethesda implements this, it could be powerful.

But as I said before, what I'm curious about are the lightning storms. We're in a flying hunk of metal and we have apocalyptic lightning/radiation storms. Will we be able to just power through them, or will we get struck by lightning and crash if we spend too much time in the air?

Consider it be kinda annoying and unfair to possibly lose game progress because ya died to the getting crashing, a thing kinda out of your control. So either we power through, or the NPC piloting the bird just autolands at the outskirts of a storm, I suspect the former.

I think that we will have as much control over the Vertibird as riding dragons in Skyrim.

Seems is the operative word. Consider how easy it was to take those out in fallout 3. Against raiders, sure.. against people with rpgs? Good luck.

Now the weather factor... I think would be really neat. Beth won't do it, but modders will. Think of a weather/rad storm, that forces your bird down mid-flight. Add in a timer for repairs, and a chance at random npcs being around where you crash land.... (Think anywhere from a simple trader to a pack of deathclaws)

Well remember that we can take a missile to the face. Crashing might just ruin our vertibird and not necessarily kill us outright.

IIRC, we see vertibirds flying around in a storm in the trailer, so I am guessing no.

I suspect you're half correct. From the looks of it, vertibirds are actually being used for travel (not just fast travel) in some capacity. Although I was wrong with how dragon riding worked (I thought you'd have *some* control over where the dragon went), it seems like the footage shows the player vertibird going in a vector rather than just haphazardly flying around like an oversized gnat.

Of course, I could be wrong, but I think we may have *some* ability to set destinations, although they're likely limited.

@Possum:

Really? Is it the trailer or the E3 demo?

Todd said on E3 we can call one, maybe is a new option of fast travel, but on some part of the trailer the player was using the minigun on the side. so i hope isnt just script.

But i hope the waether affect the player, something i really like about Mad Max game, was that when the Sand storm hit u it was dengerous to be outside.

Trailer, you see a vertibird flying next to the airship when its raining and lightning of going on.

You tell the pilot where to go and its straight forward from there.

But it's not a fade to black sequence.

If some random modder can add this to Fallout 3 I'm sure the devs can do better.

Awesome. Storms will be so cool. Can't wait for the mods focused around them.

Probably not your standard storms, unless you're allowed to pilot the vertibird, but maybe those "radiation storms" Todd Howard talked about could cause some interference.

my guess is that any shooting we do on the thing is a quest, and that signaling it is scripted transport only (maybe we get access it after said quest?

As for the storms, I should think storms would pop up on the Nav equipment (doppler radar) and therefore would be avoided. But who knows, maybe we find ourselves in a situation where we have to bug out, clear skies or no.

Yes it will

it would be very shocking if we're able to pilot vertibirds, bethesda game studio has little to no experience with making working vehicles in their games. I don't particularly count horses.

I thought radiation storms ARE the standard?

It's possible, but I kind of doubt it. For one thing, I think having radiation storms come up every time we see the weather take a turn for the worst not only diminishes them in terms of spectacle, but also makes them more of an annoyance than a cool gameplay feature.

Reread Todd Howard's comments on it, and it's a little vague if he means that the radiation storms are the standard. I hope not, if only to allow for more varied weather than Sunny, Cloudy, and Radiation Stormy.

"Not only are the storms standard, but it attracts a special kind of mutated bird called 'Ledgerunners'. I'm sure our fans will love this new gameplay mechanic!"
-Todd Howard