Interview Fallout: New Vegas Dev Quote Round-Up

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Fallout: New Vegas; Obsidian Entertainment

<p>The Vault continues to <a href="http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Ausir/Another_dev_post_roundup" target="_blank">gather quotes</a> by <strong>Fallout: New Vegas</strong> developers. Here are some examples that don't concern F:NV specifically but RPGs in general.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/1761316064" target="_blank">Josh Sawyer on powergaming:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Do you agree with the sentiment that giving players the ability to create incredibly powerful, nigh unstoppable characters (MoTB) is less important than staying true to rulesets and rulebooks? (DnD)</strong><br /><br />I don't think either is especially virtuous. Rules exist to give the player a framework for playing the game. The goal is for the game to be fun. For most people, being unstoppable gets boring pretty quickly. RPGs often allow people to eventually reach that point, especially if min-maxing, but if it's near the end of the game, that isn't necessarily a bad thing.<br /><br />If a min-maxed character is capable of taking out end game opponents and challenges with ease, it's probably still a challenge for the non-min-maxer. As long as people are enjoying the game and feel rewarded for the character choices, I think it's fine.<br />Also, a lot of licensed rulesets are flawed or even outright terrible in their original forms. Staying slavishly devoted to an already bad ruleset when it gets translated into a completely different medium is a bad idea. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Back when I still read the NWN2 forums there were a lot of people complaining about the difficulty being too high (in MOTB).</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.formspring.me/JESawyer/q/1761339221" target="_blank">On min-maxing:</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>What are your thoughts on players "min-maxing" and using all kinds of tricks and maybe even exploits to create more or less game-breaking characters in RPG's?</strong></p>
<p><strong><br /></strong></p>
<p>That's part of the game. It's the system designers' job to make that rewarding without resulting in severe imbalances between the min-maxers and more casual players. Completely removing the ability to min-max (or the power of min-maxing, which amounts to the same thing) can lead to the player's choices feeling unimportant, which I think is bad in games in general and especially in RPGs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I wonder if those questions were asked by fucking larpers? Thoughts, mondblut?</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Additionally, Ausir wants you to know that you can find Fallout: New Vegas info tidbits <a href="http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Ausir/Fallout_tidbits_18-2010" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:Ausir/Fallout_tidbits_19-2010" target="_blank">here</a>. He's obviously trying to leech even more traffic from the Codex in an attempt to boost his potato collection.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

 

[SimpleComplexity]

Confirmed Bachelor is a euphemism for a gay man. The icon art shows Vault Boy giving a massage to a naked Vault Boy with a heart floating over his head. I'm amazed that people look at that and sincerely come away thinking, "Hey, looks like a couple of bros just having a good time and giving a friendly massage."

Arenovalis' retextures are awesome but the way some of you dudes are talking it's like F:NV's default weapons were modeled and textured by insane morons.

Also, "chance" for a stand-alone randomized check effectively leads to save-scumming and isn't a viable solution in my opinion.

 

[Havoc]

Confirmed Bachelor is a euphemism for a gay man. The icon art shows Vault Boy giving a massage to a naked Vault Boy with a heart floating over his head. I'm amazed that people look at that and sincerely come away thinking, "Hey, looks like a couple of bros just having a good time and giving a friendly massage."

I seriously thought that on my first playthrough, only later realising... "Hey... I think that Bachelor perk is a gay perk". Fucking blew my mind.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

he icon art shows Vault Boy giving a massage to a naked Vault Boy

I never noticed his other hand until now. I find it hilarious that people focus on the hand that's massaging instead of the one holding the knife.

whos the homo that insisted on being so heavy handed with the gay dialogue and references in the game?

Sawyer: Alarm at the presence of homosexual dialogue topics is pretty interesting considering the majority of them only appear if you voluntarily take a perk that identifies your character as homosexual.

 

[Roguey]

He lost me with his thoughts on min/maxing, like he went full Vogel ("make your game easy, then make it easier"). What others call min/maxing, I call making a sensible build and that should be the bare minimum for a moderately challenging experience in a RPG. It's not necessary to build the challenge for lateral thinkers, but gimped/poorly built characters shouldn't be able to leave the starting area.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

He lost me with his thoughts on min/maxing, like he went full Vogel ("make your game easy, then make it easier"). What others call min/maxing, I call making a sensible build and that should be the bare minimum for a moderately challenging experience in a RPG. It's not necessary to build the challenge for lateral thinkers, but gimped/poorly built characters shouldn't be able to leave the starting area.

Fuck you, I want all-bard parties.

 

[Roguey]

An all-Bard party is fine, but you should expect to have a really difficult time. Tim Cain completed ToEE with an all-halfling female bard party he called the Spicey Girls, a clueless person shouldn't.

 

[Havoc]

he icon art shows Vault Boy giving a massage to a naked Vault Boy

I never noticed his other hand until now. I find it hilarious that people focus on the hand that's massaging instead of the one holding the knife.

With me... a noticed the knife, but not the heart and massage. I though "Oh... a dialog perk against other men. Nice."

 

[GarfunkeL]

An all-Bard party is fine, but you should expect to have a really difficult time. Tim Cain completed ToEE with an all-halfling female bard party he called the Spicey Girls, a clueless person shouldn't.

Really? Have to try that for sure :D

 

[Ausir]

You said that it would be hard to balance Explosives with Lockpick if you could blow up locks with Exlposives. Wouldn't explosives breaking stealth and having a high chance of destroying the contents of containers be enough for Lockpick to stay viable?

This assumes you care about being detected. If this is the case, you probably wouldn't have specialized in a weapon group that, by its very nature, is extremely noisy. Also, "chance" for a stand-alone randomized check effectively leads to save-scumming and isn't a viable solution in my opinion.

Not very convincing to me. Especially given that Explosives is not really that viable as a primary combat skill anyhow.

Do you think it's plausible that, even if his people are tribals, Caesar would have been able to keep them oblivious of the fact that he's just copying ancient Rome and not divinely inspired?

Plenty of leaders have convinced thousands, if not millions, of people over history that they are, if not living gods, divinely chosen or appointed. There's nothing special about the people of the future.

I was hoping that he'd answer that this bit (which is mentioned explicitly only in the design document bits quoted in the collector's edition of the official guide) is not canon in the finished game. Sadly, looks like he does still consider it canon. I'm not buying it myself, though.

 

[lehphyro]

Explosives is not really that viable as a primary combat skill

It's great when you drop a bunch of frag mines in front of you and shoot death claws using a rifle, those coming running at speed of light at you will be blown away before they can get to you. Especially because they can kill with two hits. Grenades are great indoor too.

I agree with Sawyer completely.

 

[oldmanpaco]

When the hell are they going to patch this? I've hearing about this upcoming update for a month now. I have the game but keep waiting for the patch to get pushed out before starting.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Explosives is not really that viable as a primary combat skill

It's great when you drop a bunch of frag mines in front of you and shoot death claws using a rifle, those coming running at speed of light at you will be blown away before they can get to you. Especially because they can kill with two hits. Grenades are great indoor too.

I agree with Sawyer completely.

The grenade machinegun is extremely good for wiping out human enemies as well (excluding BoS), and it degrades extremely slowly. It's a bit shitty against Deathclaws though, due to being inaccurate, requiring direct hits, and the flashes and explosions hiding the big bastard from you.

 

[Drakron]

When the hell are they going to patch this? I've hearing about this upcoming update for a month now. I have the game but keep waiting for the patch to get pushed out before starting.

Any day now ...

Unless you are playing the PS3 version (in case you are a complete idiot and unaware of Bethesda and Obsidian track record) were you got it today or yesterday.

Xbox 360 and FUCKING STEAM! versions are supposed to come up next (early) week but lets be honest here, they will not as we are close to Christmas and the people that are supposed to upload the patch are either fired (Microsoft since its that time of the year) or in a vacation (Valve since they dont give a fuck).

Besides he already flip-flop as saying the Xbox 360 will come around Monday-Wednesday that pretty much shows its not going to happen, just like Steam "as early as tomorrow" ended up as "Monday".