Interview FO3: John Deiley talks to GameBanshee

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Black Isle Studios; Fallout 3 (Van Buren); John Deiley

<a href=http://www.gamebanshee.com>GameBanshee</a> posted this <a href=http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/johndeiley1.php>interview</a> with <b>John Deiley</b> of <b>Black Isle Studios</b>
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<blockquote>GB: Although the title may or may not ever exist, can you tell us what the concept and background was behind Fallout 3? What did BIS have in store for Fallout fans in this next chapter?
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John: The game would begin with the player in a prison cell. Because of this the player was given a choice. He could be an innocent that was imprisoned because of some misunderstanding, or he could choose to be a criminal and take bonus traits that would bolster some of his skills.
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The player would awaken in a prison cell, but not the one he remembered falling asleep in. Suddenly the floor rocks violently from an explosion and the player is knocked unconscious. When he awakens he finds his cell door open and a hole in the wall leading outside. Leaving the prison, he is under attack by some unknown assailant. Deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, the player flees into the night to explore his new world.
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Unfortunately, his new found freedom may be short lived. The player is relentlessly pursued by robots who want to return him to the prison. As he explores the world and tries to outwit his pursuers, he begins to uncover an underlying plot. Why was he in a different prison than the one he fell asleep in? Why can't he remember being transferred? What was the attack on the prison about in the first place?
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The game offered a myriad of new places to discover and explore. It spanned a good portion of Utah, Colorado, and the surrounding areas. The player could repair railways and locomotives for fast travel to distant locales with train stations. Or, he could find and repair several vehicles that allowed access to areas outside the railways. Or... the player could hoof it.
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There were old friends and new enemies in the game. The Brotherhood of Steel was back but fading from glory. The player could rebuild them or destroy them. There was a group of fanatics who worshiped a mad goddess and her life/death religion. Mad the goddess may be, but the genetic knowledge she turned into a religion was helping the wasteland. The player could take her down and free the people from her tyranny (and possibly weaken them in the long run) or let her religion prosper (and build a heartier stock of people that could better survive the rigors of the wasteland). These were just two of many factions in the game.
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There were recognizable places to visit like Denver, Boulder, Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, and many others. There were new places to discover like the Twin Mothers, the Nursery, New Canaan, and many more.
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In size the game was somewhere between Fallout 1 and 2. We decided to go for quality of content over size of the overall game. There is so much more I could say about the game, but I'll save that for another time. </blockquote>
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There you go, folks, everything you ever wanted to know about FO3. Discuss!
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPG Dot</A>

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Sounds like the beginning to PS:T to me.

 

[triCritical]

Sounds a bit like Baldur's Gate. Need to learn more about your past sort of thing, while things are trying to kill you. Still the game sounded pretty damn neat. I actually hope he doesn't say anymore, its pretty damn depressing.

 

[Excalibur]

Fallout 3

:evil: OMG the more i hear the more i want the game, Interplay are not definatly gamers, as their trademark quotes. Im afraind this is what happens when companies go to big and have to rely on a wuick buck to sustain their huge assets accoiued from a few hit games. Im seeing this trend with bioware, my fav develper, but now i see them building some console only titles, if we dont keep the strong roots of pc game develpers, im afraid all is lost, i have yet to experinace a game imerse me as fallout and baldurs gate did, Dues ex is another example, it was dumbed down for the bloody console and it ruined the game, not that the sales were effected,.

You see, PC gamers are of a diffrent breed, console are just sapping are quaility games away, and this trend has to stop. The people that follow the game for months building up a fanbase are dissipoted, but the asses that see the game and have never heard of it buy it just on the sole purpose of its name like the LOTR, it goes on and on, look how many promising projects were canceld, Fallout 3 uo2 the rest i dont know about but i know there are plety more.

Also there is the term called whooring, like what interplay did with the Fallot franchise, same with the baldurs gate francise, X-com, that branched to 3d flight sim, army combat and whatever else, just to make a buck on the common name.

Now my freiends, in Fallout style humor im going to drain my sorrows away my lighting up a joint tootles.

 

[Excalibur]

oh yeah and about the spelling uh...... i was talking like a mutant.. yeah! that and im to lzy to edit

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I still think it's odd people think this would have been a good game. So far, the more I hear, the less interested I am in it. Really, I wasn't that interested in it when they started talking about it being Fallout 3 and I'm a huge fan of the original Fallout. What John Deiley is saying there really just doesn't sound like anything decent. Sounds recycled, and recycled from the wrong games.

I just think there would be better ways of starting the game than using a generic device like a prisoner with amnesia waking up on a large prison train with robots chasing him because someone thinks he's going to later twart their evil plans. Like many of MCA's ideas, that's just too.. Judge Dreddish, with overtones of previous games made or published by Black Isle.

For example, a much better way would be to start in a location that all Fallout fans would be familiar with - a vault. However, something new has to be tossed in so it's not directly kin to Fallout, so let's just say we have this vault that's been going for nearly two centuries so nearly everything doesn't work anymore. It's just like a cliff dwelling with better walls and few things that work right. Basically, imagine what Vault 13 would have been like if the Overseer had never sent out the Vault Dweller to get the chip, but instead rigged another method of getting water. Then more systems failed. There was no GECK or it was rigged to go something else. You just have a hollow mountain with people living as best they could in this environment.

Starting off like that is much better and certainly less industrialized and high tech. Things should be winding down, things break and not much new should be in the process of being made. Set aside the notions of NEW HIGH TECH PH4T L3WT & K3WL V#HICKLEZ and concentrate more on the 1950s style post apocalyptic flavor that made Fallout great. Fuck trains, fuck robots, and definitely fuck the space station shit.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Dude, what the fuck. That's Lionheart's storyline!

edit: It sounds like both PS:Torment's and Lionheart's. Here's a comparison:

Torment - you awake in the mortuary, you do not know why you are in here. You have to escape, and you do. As you escape through a tomb, you are beset by shadows that want to kill you. You do not know who they are, except that they are out to get you. As you progress through the game you meet a variety of factions to which you can choose to support, or oppose.

Lionheart - you awake in a prison cell, you stand accused of witchcraft. You are sent back to your cell and as you await your execution, the prison comes under attack by mysterious forces. You manage to free yourself and as you do, you find yourself hunted by an unknown assailant. As you progress through the game you meet a variety of factions to which you can choose to support, or oppose.

Baldur's Gate II - you awake in a prison cell, with no knowledge of why you are there. You have been kidnapped. There are many explosions in this prison and this allows for an old friend to release you from your cage. You eventually free yourself from this prison, but there are many who intend to kill you. As you progress through the game you have a choice of supporting one out of the two factions in Amn which are warring against each other.

Fallout 3 - you awake in a prison cell though not the one you slept in last night. You do not know why you have been imprisoned and want to escape. There is a sudden explosion and you are free. As you escape, you are being pursued by an unknown assailant. You do not know who that person is, except that his agenda is to kill you. As you progress through the game you meet a variety of factions to which you can choose to support, or oppose.


Where's the originality?

 

[Excalibur]

You right Saint, listen, i would think the game would be astoundly better. if you could expirance what happends when your confined to the vault for hundereds of years... and they only ventured out, to see what had change from the long term isolation, some came back while others did not. that sort of thing, although saint im most impressed with the fallouty look even though it still needed that girtty look that u could only get with old 640 480 graphics

 

[chrisbeddoes]

The best start could be THIS.

The one that Tim Cain has written for Fallout 3.

Unfortunately he is not telling anybody.


But some day we might see it in another post apoc game.


Chris.

 

[triCritical]

Starting off like that is much better and certainly less industrialized and high tech. Things should be winding down, things break and not much new should be in the process of being made. Set aside the notions of NEW HIGH TECH PH4T L3WT & K3WL V#HICKLEZ and concentrate more on the 1950s style post apocalyptic flavor that made Fallout great. Fuck trains, fuck robots, and definitely fuck the space station shit.

Something that I always thought would be neat for a series of Fallout games was if each one started out by some initial person leaving a vault at different times or the same time I don't care and each could be in different parts of the country where Vault-tec had built their vaults. Each story would be completely independent and some stories might overlap. But what all stories had in common was that someone left the vault and had an adventure. Of course this dream was ruined with FO2 and the eventual rise of BoS to l33tness.

Still what interested me was not the plot design's but the impact it seemed your character could have on the world. If you know me, I could really give a rat's ass about the story. Instead tell me how the bloody game plays. I never more then LH's demo, but yes the story is very contrived. Already people have matched it up against four different games.

 

[Jinxed]

For example, a much better way would be to start in a location that all Fallout fans would be familiar with - a vault. However, something new has to be tossed in so it's not directly kin to Fallout, so let's just say we have this vault that's been going for nearly two centuries so nearly everything doesn't work anymore. It's just like a cliff dwelling with better walls and few things that work right. Basically, imagine what Vault 13 would have been like if the Overseer had never sent out the Vault Dweller to get the chip, but instead rigged another method of getting water. Then more systems failed. There was no GECK or it was rigged to go something else. You just have a hollow mountain with people living as best they could in this environment.

So you mean you want to start off like any PnP adventure?
I think the problem with this is that each big tittied RPG made the main character special to play, with the exception of FO where you were just a regular person chosen without any specific reasons at all. Although the introduction already starts to make you feel special, with wording like "you are our last hope" IIRC.
People these days need to have role play laid of for them, sad but true.
I'm sure you can come up with an armada of suggestions or ways to make the main character role fun to play, sadly, it looks like BIS settled for the already proven to be ok but heavily redundant scenario.

Starting off like that is much better and certainly less industrialized and high tech. Things should be winding down, things break and not much new should be in the process of being made. Set aside the notions of NEW HIGH TECH PH4T L3WT & K3WL V#HICKLEZ and concentrate more on the 1950s style post apocalyptic flavor that made Fallout great. Fuck trains, fuck robots, and definitely fuck the space station shit.

I don't think BIS would be capable of that. If you want 1950's, this wasn't the team who would do it. It only happened once, originally. And it's been going down hill ever since because they just can't handle it.
It took a creative genius for FO to be made. Does BIS have that?

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

Is it true that Tim Cain wanted the humankind travel to the stars for new planets or something? Sounded kinda wierd

 

[Jinxed]

Not exactly, he wanted the Enclave to do that. IIRC, it went a little like this:
The vaults were nothing but test facilities designed by the Enclave to test human beings in various hardships and isolation. Collecting info over time, they would either give their space project a shot or can it.

 

[Excalibur]

I have said it once and ill say it again, i think someone should buy the fallout tactics engine and build fallouty 3 newgame, i want a story not ripragging grahpics, personally isometric is the only way to go for rpgs.
It was the only game that felt real, "like for example, what would you do if you were in that situation".

Most games now that i play they are to short to get involevd. and im like duh, click this click that..... it doest froce you to think, just press 1.2.3, which doesnt make a difrence if you do, only under a certian few instances like with kotor

Now that being said, i think thats why people want fallout 3, im not saying i want fallout 3, im just saying that a game that does that, with the same style, would be intresting, and what i have been hoping for, since 1998

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

So you mean you want to start off like any PnP adventure?
I think the problem with this is that each big tittied RPG made the main character special to play, with the exception of FO where you were just a regular person chosen without any specific reasons at all. Although the introduction already starts to make you feel special, with wording like "you are our last hope" IIRC.

Well, naturally, there needs to be a reason for the player to leave the place where you start, but you don't have to say, HEY! YOU DAH MAN! YOU GO SAVE VILLAGE NOW! because there may not be a good reason for said player to actually do that depending on the choice of the character. That's why BIS seems to overuse the whole, KILLER FORCES COME FOR YOU stuff.

That's one nice thing about ToEE, is that it allows a player to pick and alignment and start a beginning for that alignment. However, just think about this.. Imagine if that choice of alignment, instead of clicking on little buttons that state, I'M GOODY TWO SHOES or I'M ROTTEN TO TEH CORE or even I'M APATHY GUY, they gave a few scenarios and dialogue choices set up within that town that did that. Depending on your initial actions within the town itself, the game's story goes towards a reason for you leaving your starting location.. Pretty simple concept, isn't it?

People these days need to have role play laid of for them, sad but true.

Maybe that's because most of them are just too ignorant to know there's better ways.

I'm sure you can come up with an armada of suggestions or ways to make the main character role fun to play, sadly, it looks like BIS settled for the already proven to be ok but heavily redundant scenario.

Which is really one reason they fell from grace. They got too cookie cutter there at the end, the only thing they could do was spin the wheel.

I don't think BIS would be capable of that. If you want 1950's, this wasn't the team who would do it. It only happened once, originally. And it's been going down hill ever since because they just can't handle it.
It took a creative genius for FO to be made. Does BIS have that?

Apparently not. Even the ones they thought were the BESTEST DESIGNERZ EVAR like J.E. Sawyer and Chris Avellone failed to come up with a concept that was newer than all the previous titles they've released. Exitium did a nice job of pointing out how cut and paste the BIS game plots looked.

 

[Excalibur]

Oh fuck, I just thought of a storyline.

What If the players get to play and participate in the world before the bombs drop. They do usual rpg shit with the vault whatever...etc.. and then when the bomb drops you get to experiance which vault lives and dies etc.

And after a stroytelling sequence, you could chose to be any vault survivor, or continue with the person before the bombs droped.

 

[ecliptic]

Sounds poor.

 

[Seven]

After reading the entire article I'm conflicted. I can see the design decisons behind the derivative start (but I can't help to think that it could and should have been handled better). The "other" stuff in the article seems promising, but then we have no way to varify it. I don't see that he has too many compelling reasons to lie, so I believe him, and because of this I can't help but feel more than a little disappointed given FO3's cancellation. It sounds as if the atmosphere and elements which made FO great were at the very least being respected and given consideration. Sad, very sad.

 

[Percolator Fish]

no

edit: Excalibur, no

 

[Excalibur]

i have to admit, i was under the influence when i wrote that, haha , its kinda like taping yourslef

 

[Jinxed]

That's one nice thing about ToEE, is that it allows a player to pick and alignment and start a beginning for that alignment. However, just think about this.. Imagine if that choice of alignment, instead of clicking on little buttons that state, I'M GOODY TWO SHOES or I'M ROTTEN TO TEH CORE or even I'M APATHY GUY, they gave a few scenarios and dialogue choices set up within that town that did that. Depending on your initial actions within the town itself, the game's story goes towards a reason for you leaving your starting location.. Pretty simple concept, isn't it?

Yeah, I would like to see this kind of thing used in big gameworld that gives the player a lot of possibilities and situations where the aligment would come into play. There's nothing dumber than the BIS way which had aligment really matter at the start of the game, when creating your character since some classes have restrictions.
Out of all BIS games PS:T did the best job in aligment.

Arcanum was great, IMO. Things you did reflected upon your aligment, and most important of all, your reputation which directly effected how the world reacted to you.
Ona a side note, I really liked the set of questions you got in JA2 when creating your own character. Since it wasn't a real RPG, it was for a different purpose. But it's more expressive and a deeper way to set aligment other than just picking one out of 9 options.

Maybe that's because most of them are just too ignorant to know there's better ways.

Note that some of them are just too young... Since most of the BIS games are made for the younger audience.

 

[HanoverF]

The logical progression is for Fallout 3 to start with the PC as the chosen member of GECKoVille, who has to brave the wastes to reclaim the mysterious and tantamount to magical "War Rant Tea" which will fix all the problems with the failing community, but first they have to enter the dreaded Tutorial Caves of Ultimate Contrivance, and face the lurking horrors within...

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, that story sounds like shit. Holds true to the 'three-quels suck wee-wee' statement, now that I think about it.

Fallout 3: Beyond Thunderdome

And I also dont like how it's so disjointed from the original Fallouts, it has shades of FOBOS with the 'it's just set in the Fallout Universe!' and the 'if you're not really meaning to make it a Fallout game, why not just name it something else?' lines.

 

[Anonymous]

Which is really one reason they fell from grace. They got too cookie cutter there at the end, the only thing they could do was spin the wheel.

Black Isle Mad Libs Game Plots.

 

[Sammael]

Quite frankly, Saint, I don't think your version of the beginning is any better (or more original) than the "escape from prison" one.

What do you people want? Yet another vault? Another Chosen One storyline? The same exact setting as Fallout 1?

Where's your fucking originality?

Oh, and ToEE's vignettes were overhyped shit. The opening vignettes I experienced gave me no more motivation to be in Hommlet than being placed in Hommlet with a message "you are now in Hommlet."