Interview Chris Avellone on Fallout: New Vegas

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Chris Avellone; Fallout: New Vegas; Obsidian Entertainment

<p>DualShockers <a href="http://dualshockers.com/2010/09/28/interview-chris-avellone-on-fallout-new-vegas/" target="_blank">caught up</a> with Chris Avellone, the topic being the soon to be released Fallout: New Vegas.</p>
<blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Chad (DS):</strong> Will <em>New Vegas</em> include as many (or more?) branching dialog segments than<em> Fallout 3</em>?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Chris (Obsidian):</strong> Haven&rsquo;t counted, the metrics don&rsquo;t matter as much as the feel of the dialogues, and they definitely feel like they have choices &ndash; and many times, reactions to choices outside the dialogues.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">There&rsquo;s a lot of skill checks in conversations (some not for dialogue skills, just ones that showcase expertise, like explosives), checks for faction, and different reactions depending on rep. We definitely have more lines of dialogue and quests, as the areas are thicker on population and factions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Chad (DS):</strong> The shooting mechanics of <em>Fallout 3</em> received some criticism for feeling loose and lacking any weight &ndash; it was very &ldquo;digital&rdquo; feeling. Has this been addressed?</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Chris (Obsidian):</strong> Our project director Josh Sawyer loves guns. He loves making games where guns feel fun to shoot, so he has thoroughly caressed this system with his designer hands.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="text-align: justify;"><em>He loves guns. He loves making games where guns feel fun to shoot.</em> I anticipate a highly visceral feeling shooting guns in Fallout: New Vegas.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">&nbsp;</p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com/#15869">RPGWatch</a></p>

 

[Andhaira]

This game will S-U-C-K

 

[Suchy]

Will be better than DA2.

 

[Freelance Henchman]

?

 

[jiujitsu]

I just played Fallout and Fallout 2 again for the 200th time each and I realized: If all else fails, just play the originals again. They will always be fun. Play them once a year maybe. That's what I do.

 

[anus_pounder]

Still harbour some optimism for this game.

 

[Roguey]

Our project director Josh Sawyer loves guns. He loves making games where guns feel fun to shoot, so he has thoroughly caressed this system with his designer hands.

And yet they put him in charge of martial arts and not guns on Alpha Protocol and both were lousy.

 

[Suchy]

Will be better than DA2.

Because it's Obsidian vs Bioware?

No, because DA2 turns out to be utter shit. Japshit.

 

[CraigCWB]

...and many times, reactions to choices outside the dialogues.

How innovative.


So anyway, I still have some hopes for this game. It can't be worse than the amateurish "indie" games I've been wrestling with recently which have all turned out to be crude and unimaginative clones of much better games. I don't understand what's going on with European developers. Most of those "indie" studios consist of teams about the same size Bioware was when they did Baldur's Gate. Why the games so bad? Even if the dialog was comprehensible and they weren't using speech synthesis for the "voice acting", they'd be dull as dishwater. Well, enough about that. At least New Vegas will play like an interactive movie instead of an animated spreadsheet.

 

[markec]

I preordered the game month ago, I have good feeling about this one and cant wait to play it.

 

[HanoverF]

Our project director Josh Sawyer has thoroughly caressed me with his designer hands.

 

[Abelon Blanchetourbe]

...and many times, reactions to choices outside the dialogues.

How innovative.


So anyway, I still have some hopes for this game. It can't be worse than the amateurish "indie" games I've been wrestling with recently which have all turned out to be crude and unimaginative clones of much better games. I don't understand what's going on with European developers. Most of those "indie" studios consist of teams about the same size Bioware was when they did Baldur's Gate. Why the games so bad? Even if the dialog was comprehensible and they weren't using speech synthesis for the "voice acting", they'd be dull as dishwater. Well, enough about that. At least New Vegas will play like an interactive movie instead of an animated spreadsheet.

What the fuck are you talking about ?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Our project director Josh Sawyer loves guns. He loves making games where guns feel fun to shoot, so he has thoroughly caressed this system with his designer hands.

About this, from the SA thread:

Speaking of the iron sights, when you bring them up are you still going to aim with the reticle (like in the E3 presentations where the reticle is always there) or is it going to be more like Stalker/Every other shooter ironsight?

In the Gameplay section of the Options menu is a checkbox for "True Iron Sights". Enabling this will always pull the weapon (assuming it's not a minigun or other inappropriate weapon) to the center of the screen when zooming/aiming, looking down the sights and disabling the HUD reticle.

What about third person?

The third person view does not use iron sights, just zoom and the standard reticle.

BTW, mod-wise, it's really easy to make inclusive/exclusive lists for ammo. Weapons can point to a "FormList" of ammo in GECK, which is just a list of references to IDs in the editor. You could make multiple types of .38 Special and .357 Magnum ammo items, put them in separate lists (with the .357 Magnum list also being inclusive with the .38 Special ammo) and have a .38 Special revolver that only fires the .38 Special ammo types and a .357 Magnum revolver that fires all .38 Special and .357 Magnum ammo types.

BLEEP BLOOP nerd stuff but yeah you can do it.

So assuming there's the shotguns fallout 3 would that make a total of 6 different shotguns in New Vegas, plus weapon modifications? Can you give us a rough idea of how many new weapons there are, Rope Kid?

Twice as many as F3.

Short answers, no epic buzzwords. Lookin' good.


-------------

And this is an unrelated, but interesting post on the same page

Reactivity to the choices the player makes is one of the most important things we focus on at our studio. A choice without consequence is an insult to the player and a waste of their time. Frankly, changing the entire world to reflect the choices of the player after the conclusion of the game requires a huge amount of work. Obsidian has a reputation for producing games that are not polished and that is something we most certainly have heard loud and clear. We got to the point where we realized that trying to update the entire world state to reflect how you conclude the game would either be an incomplete mess or incredibly buggy. Given the option to instead have a strong, solid game with a thorough ending -- well, it was still a difficult decision to make, but I think it was the right one.

I've written/said this before, but we make it very clear when the end is nigh and give the player plenty of opportunity to head off and do other things if they don't want to wrap things up.

 

[Vault Dweller]

...and many times, reactions to choices outside the dialogues.

How innovative.

Yeah, with so many games reacting to your choices, I too find this feature boring and no longer exciting.

So anyway, I still have some hopes for this game. It can't be worse than the amateurish "indie" games I've been wrestling with recently which have all turned out to be crude and unimaginative clones of much better games.

Another tard or another alt? A bit of both maybe?

I don't understand what's going on with European developers. Most of those "indie" studios consist of teams about the same size Bioware was when they did Baldur's Gate. Why the games so bad?

http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/b ... te/credits
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3 ... _of_a_.php

According to Bioware more than 60 people worked on the game, generating 90 man-years of work, not to mention that Interplay had generously sponsored the development, but why let facts get in the way of your trolling?

 

[CraigCWB]

According to Bioware more than 60 people worked on the game, generating 90 man-years of work...

They are lying. I was around on usenet before Baldur's gate was released and while Ray and others at Bioware were marketing it and I heard most the backstory for how they put the team together and what a small operation it was. You wanna bet most those "60 people" were employees of the publisher who just went onto the credits for fluff?

but why let facts get in the way of your trolling?

It's always amusing when somebody addresses a complete stranger with unprovoked abuse("tard"? Seriously?) accuses somebody else of being a troll. Welcome to ignore!

Anyway, I just re-installed Fallout 3 to play it again to get in the mood for new Vegas... updated it... and found that the latest patch renders the game unplayable. That's "tard" level stuff, right there.

Anyone working on New Vegas: don't do that

 

[Clockwork Knight]

The very latest patch (1.7, is it?) just adds achievements for Mothership Zeta. Try the stutter remover mod, apparently it fixes the problem (Dunno if it's true because I never had problems myself)

 

[CraigCWB]

What the fuck are you talking about ?

I thought maybe I had a lot of typos in there and was babbling nonsense like a European game developer but I checked and it looks to me like I was pretty clear. You have reading comprehension problems?

 

[FeelTheRads]

According to Bioware more than 60 people worked on the game, generating 90 man-years of work

Man, that sounds like some nice marketing...
Hey, Halo may have just as well had 100 people working on it, that means 150 man-years of work! Imagine that!

 

[Vault Dweller]

According to Bioware more than 60 people worked on the game, generating 90 man-years of work

Man, that sounds like some nice marketing...
Hey, Halo may have just as well had 100 people working on it, that means 150 man-years of work! Imagine that!

Your point being?

The original argument was that "most of those "indie" studios consist of teams about the same size Bioware was when they did Baldur's Gate."

 

[FeelTheRads]

No point, man, no point. Merely working on my mathematics.

 

[Brother None]

According to Bioware more than 60 people worked on the game, generating 90 man-years of work, not to mention that Interplay had generously sponsored the development, but why let facts get in the way of your trolling?

I'm unsure what European studios exactly he's referring to tho'? CDP:Red is a lot bigger than BioWare was. Radon Labs had 90 or so full-time employees.

Games also became more difficult to make in many ways but hey don't let that stop you either

 

[FeelTheRads]

Not indie-level games. Those become easier and easier to make.

But yeah, don't know what he's talking about... Eschalon is made in Europe? That one is made mostly by one man.

 

[Vault Dweller]

According to Bioware more than 60 people worked on the game, generating 90 man-years of work...

They are lying. I was around on usenet before Baldur's gate was released and while Ray and others at Bioware were marketing it and I heard most the backstory for how they put the team together and what a small operation it was.

Right. You were on usenet and you heard that it was a small team. Sounds credible.

You wanna bet most those "60 people" were employees of the publisher who just went onto the credits for fluff?

According to the official credits, without counting the good doctors and administrative/internal qa positions, the game had 7 designers, 10 programmers, and 25+ artists/animators.

Which indie game can come close to matching this manpower?

but why let facts get in the way of your trolling?

It's always amusing when somebody addresses a complete stranger with unprovoked abuse("tard"? Seriously?) accuses somebody else of being a troll.

Your post was retarded. The obvious conclusion is that you're either a tard or a troll or both.

You claimed that the "indie" games are "crude and unimaginative clones of much better games" despite the "fact" that most of those "indie" studios consist of teams about the same size Bioware was when they did Baldur's Gate, without bothering to explain or back your statements with arguments.

What did you expect?

Anyway, I just re-installed Fallout 3 to play it again to get in the mood for new Vegas... updated it... and found that the latest patch renders the game unplayable. That's "tard" level stuff, right there.

Let me guess. You're a brilliant programmer and if you were in charge this would have never happened.

 

[SharkClub]

The shooting mechanics of Fallout 3 received some criticism for feeling loose and lacking any weight

Really? I don't remember this. Every review site said it was "the perfect mix of FPS and RPG with nothing wrong with it".

 

[Mangoose]

Yeah, Sawyer spams my facebook news feed with all his gun porn. Gawd.