GamesRadar interview on Fallout 3 quests, perks
GamesRadar interview on Fallout 3 quests, perks
Interview - posted by DarkUnderlord on Tue 22 July 2008, 11:11:29
Tags: Fallout 3A Fallout 3 interview over on GamesRadar:
PCG: So you tried to make it so that even if you take a few people out of the equation, the quest is still solvable?
Todd: As much as possible. It’s not always the case. You might kill someone and it will tell you “You can’t finish this quest anymore, this person has died.” Pretty much 99.9 percent of people in the game can be killed.
Emil: Yeah, even the quest-givers. They give you a quest, you blow their head off, that’s your decision. It’s simply more fun for the player where you might close off branches of the quest, but other branches are still open.
Todd: And the other answer to that question is that we don’t want players to have the expectation that they’ll be able to do every quest any style. Pretty much, Super-Duper Mart, there’s no way to talk your way through that. We get the question a lot, “Is there a non-violent path through the whole game?” No. I mean, you might be able to, I guess, but it’s not a goal.
Emil: I guess technically, because there’s a Stealth Boy, and because there’s a Protectron [security robot] in the back room of that Super-Duper Mart, if you could sneak in there and hack that computer, you could activate that Protectron, he’ll go and he’ll kick the s*** out of all of those raiders.
Todd: There are probably too many for him to kill every single one of them.
Emil: But enough to whittle them down so that science-boy could definitely get through there.That's the good, here's the bad:
PCG: Why the decision to give a perk every level instead of every couple of levels like in FO1 and 2?
Todd: Well, here’s another thing: there’s that progression, you step out of the Vault and you hit level two and people would level up and do their skill points, and they get to pick a perk. And then they’d hit level three, and they’d get their skill points, and… where’s the perk? They don’t even understand. It’s like “I thought you get a perk when you level up?” “Yeah, every other one.” And then we decided that the most fun in leveling up, the absolute most fun, is picking a perk. It’s so fun. So we decided to balance them so you get to do it every level. It makes leveling up. That’s what leveling is about.
Emil: Definitely not something we planned, but as we played it, it was like that carrot on a stick thing. “Man, level three and five suck, I want a perk!”To recap: Perks are the most fun thing about leveling up and people don't understand a fairly simple "you get a perk every 3 levels" concept. Bethesda should stop using the local kindergarten as their play-testers. Doesn't a "mature" rated game also assume some kind of, oh I don't know, actual maturity? Houses were also added because "everybody wants it" and "The butler used to be something you had to buy, but he’s so cool we said OK, because when you went in and there’s nothing there, it’s like “Who cares?”". Who cares indeed.
Spotted @ GameBanshee
PCG: So you tried to make it so that even if you take a few people out of the equation, the quest is still solvable?
Todd: As much as possible. It’s not always the case. You might kill someone and it will tell you “You can’t finish this quest anymore, this person has died.” Pretty much 99.9 percent of people in the game can be killed.
Emil: Yeah, even the quest-givers. They give you a quest, you blow their head off, that’s your decision. It’s simply more fun for the player where you might close off branches of the quest, but other branches are still open.
Todd: And the other answer to that question is that we don’t want players to have the expectation that they’ll be able to do every quest any style. Pretty much, Super-Duper Mart, there’s no way to talk your way through that. We get the question a lot, “Is there a non-violent path through the whole game?” No. I mean, you might be able to, I guess, but it’s not a goal.
Emil: I guess technically, because there’s a Stealth Boy, and because there’s a Protectron [security robot] in the back room of that Super-Duper Mart, if you could sneak in there and hack that computer, you could activate that Protectron, he’ll go and he’ll kick the s*** out of all of those raiders.
Todd: There are probably too many for him to kill every single one of them.
Emil: But enough to whittle them down so that science-boy could definitely get through there.
PCG: Why the decision to give a perk every level instead of every couple of levels like in FO1 and 2?
Todd: Well, here’s another thing: there’s that progression, you step out of the Vault and you hit level two and people would level up and do their skill points, and they get to pick a perk. And then they’d hit level three, and they’d get their skill points, and… where’s the perk? They don’t even understand. It’s like “I thought you get a perk when you level up?” “Yeah, every other one.” And then we decided that the most fun in leveling up, the absolute most fun, is picking a perk. It’s so fun. So we decided to balance them so you get to do it every level. It makes leveling up. That’s what leveling is about.
Emil: Definitely not something we planned, but as we played it, it was like that carrot on a stick thing. “Man, level three and five suck, I want a perk!”
Spotted @ GameBanshee
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