Incline Chris Avellone Appreciation Station

[Trashos]

https://forums.obsidian.net/blog/1/entry-144-dead-money-design-breakdowns/

Cheers, but I have read that before, and it does not really answer my questions. Well, maybe it does sound like the collars/radios idea was Chris'. And that the overall concept of having a deep story coupled with brutal gameplay was also his. This coupling is extremely rare, so kudos, Chris. The brutality of the gameplay gave a whole new dimension to the experience, afaic.

OK, then, but who else? There is a lead designer named Charlie (who dis?) mentioned, but it is unclear to me what he did. And I did not see any other names. So either Chris did near everything himself (with some help from Charlie) or he is trying to protect his people, because, as I remember, a lot of players were rioting over DM being so hard.

 

[Roguey]

Cheers, but I have read that before, and it does not really answer my questions. Well, maybe it does sound like the collars/radios idea was Chris'. And that the overall concept of having a deep story coupled with brutal gameplay was also his. This coupling is extremely rare, so kudos, Chris. The brutality of the gameplay gave a whole new dimension to the experience, afaic.

OK, then, but who else? There is a lead designer named Charlie (who dis?) mentioned, but it is unclear to me what he did. And I did not see any other names. So either Chris did near everything himself (with some help from Charlie) or he is trying to protect his people, because, as I remember, a lot of players were rioting over DM being so hard.

Lead Level Designer Charles Staples
Lead Systems Designers Eric Beaumont, Joshua Eric Sawyer
Lead World Builder Scott Everts
World Builders Jessica Edge, Denise McMurry, Megan Parks, Sydney Wolfram
Area Designers Jesse Farrell, Jeff Husges, Jessica Johnson, Robert Lee, John Lewis, Denise McMurry, Olivier Pougnand, Jorge Salgado, Travis Stout, Sydney Wolfram, Ryan Zingler
Additional Area Design Akil Hooper, Casey Kwock, J. R. Vosovic
Narrative Designers Chris Avellone, John Gonzalez, Joshua Eric Sawyer, Travis Stout
Technical Writer Tanya Thamkruphat

He had additional things to say about difficulty in the comments section.

Thanks - Dead Money was actually initially a lot harder than its final release. A lot.

First off, all the hardcore mechanics in DLC1 were par-for-the-course in normal mode, it had a lot more traps, the toxic cloud was even more lethal (rather than reduce you to low hit points in normal mode, it would kill you and kill you faster than it did now). I did want the player to feel apprehensive while playing and create a sense of tension, but the end conclusion was that it was too punishing overall: not challenging, punishing. One joke was that Dead Money was going to become the Tomb of Horrors for the Fallout universe - all I wanted was people to pay attention to the environment and space more.

Feedback from Bethesda QA did provide a lot of good metrics for what felt right in terms of enemy strength, trap placement, and toxic cloud scaling, and we used a lot of those same feedback appraisals for future DLCs, so that's good.

I did want the player to scavenge and scrounge, however, and see each last resource as precious, as mentioned above - it was my way of trying to restore value to things Fallout players may now be taking for granted (and really, Stimpaks should be an amazing find for any player living in the Fallout universe).

 

[2house2fly]

I think it came out just a little too early. Within a year Dark Souls would make it okay for a popular game to be difficult

 

[fantadomat]

Crazy women mate,there is some gorgeous women that make your inner soul scream with all its might "Get away from her!". Fucking such woman can endup with your dick cut off in a few days.

But she's already married to someone else, shouldn't that be a buffer? Though I will admit that behavior like

Spoiler

comes across as a bit too intense.

People cheat all the time mate. Men at least have good reason,they want to get that juicy young plum. While women do cheat because...reasons,they are totally bunkus. They could do it because their man doesn't give them enough attention because he is working on two jobs to pay bills and taking care of them.

 

[StaticSpine]

Chris Avellone Hey Chris, I know you're probably sick of it, but first I want to thank you for PST - the formative game of my youth, and for Fallout 2, the formative game for entire generation of Russian gamers.

 

[AwesomeButton]

Roguey, have you been drunkposting?

 

[Master]

Dead Money, brutal? There's a mod to make it so but as vanilla its not at all.

 

[Trashos]

Dead Money, brutal? There's a mod to make it so but as vanilla its not at all.

How many times do you die on each DM playthrough? (Bonus points for hardcore mode) The first time I played it I must have died more than a dozen times.

Anyway, the point is that a main difficulty factor (exploding collars) is unaffected by the difficulty setting. So there is no way to casually stroll through DM, which got some people angry.

 

[Master]

Each DM playthrough? I played it only once, but I'm preparing for another go... just to make sure it's shit! But idk, maybe you went in too early? I didnt have problems with collars, if I remember correctly if you take the mute girl you have more time around them.

 

[Lyric Suite]

That bit about how if you give something hit points players will try to fight it makes me remember the early fight in torment tides of numenera which you're not meant to be able to win, but someone did and the developers weren't prepared for that

Never forget:

 

[aweigh]

Dead Money was the artistic highight of the FNV "package". Truly a good example of how you can straddle different genres and probably the best example of such.

Also DM is a fantastic example of how to properly marry game play and writing design into a cohesive whole that feeds itself from itself. It also features the best traditional level design in FNV (or from almost any other "modern" game).

I think it is easily the best thing Obsidian has done after MotB.

 

[frajaq]

Dead Money was the artistic highight of the FNV "package". Truly a good example of how you can straddle different genres and probably the best example of such.

Also DM is a fantastic example of how to properly marry game play and writing design into a cohesive whole that feeds itself from itself. It also features the best traditional level design in FNV (or from almost any other "modern" game).

I think it is easily the best thing Obsidian has done after MotB.

Thank you! At last someone else says it.

I swear I see so many people online absolutely hating Dead Money, calling it the worst DLC of the bunch, even though Lonesome Road exists

 

[aweigh]

frajaq

its well regarded here in the codex. remember that the better something is the less appeal it will have for the general consumer; and the inverse holds as well.

in fact i tend to judge my good taste by how few other people like something or better still by how few people even know it exists!

:hipster:

It is fairly obvious why Dead Money is so good and why retards and normies would dislike it too! I think disliking dead Money is a fantastic Moron Indicator

Always remember that you are smarter than everyone else!

 

[Sentinel]

I think it is easily the best thing Obsidian has done after MotB.

This isn't even a contest. I'd even put Dead Money up there with PST.

 

[Master]

Its a dlc with 4 NPCs. Not exactly the height of ambition.

 

[Infinitron]

I swear I see so many people online absolutely hating Dead Money, calling it the worst DLC of the bunch, even though Lonesome Road exists

IMO Lonesome Road is best understood as an extended endgame level for the other DLCs. It's like the FO:NV DLCs' Maw of Chaos. A tense and atmospheric linear journey into to the depths of hell. Viewed in that lense, I think it's pretty awesome.

 

[Lhynn]

Lonesome road is about the player abusing the sniper and nothing else. If it didnt have that itd be complete shit.

 

[Okagron]

Praise for Dead Money? Fuck yeah, i'll join in. It's easily my favorite DLC of New Vegas.

 

[2house2fly]

Its a dlc with 4 NPCs. Not exactly the height of ambition.

Please, it doesn't waste an inch. It's packed with story, items, little atmospheric things like graffiti, perks you can unlock through dialogue, skill checks, even an extended low-int dialogue. It could almost have been a full-price spinoff release, which is a hell of a result for a $10 DLC released two months after the main game. Of course I enjoyed all the New Vegas DLC so I'm biased.

 

[Sentinel]

Its a dlc with 4 NPCs. Not exactly the height of ambition.

Quality over quantity.

 

[Master]

Well its not shit. But, I wrote about this before and its a problem with the whole game and the other dlcs, it felt too Bioshock inspired. Like those graffiti; will devs stop doing that shit? Environmental storytelling? Environmental videogamey bullshit.
Also the Big Bad Elijah talks to you constantly. A vilain that talks to you constantly - never saw that before! As much as I love SS2 - DM was inspired by it, see also Peragus Mining Facility from Kotor 2, another Chris's omage(a better one!) - I blame it for the Great Decline of Videogame Villains. Really this should be a rule:
1. No graffiti
2. No vilain/player communication

 

[Sentinel]

see also Peragus Mining Facility from Kotor 2

first time I see someone directing some praise at Peragus Mining Facility.

 

[Infinitron]

Dead Money isn't just Bioshock-inspired, it's an outright Bioshock homage.

"Andrew (Ryan, Ken) Levine"

 

[Master]

of Chris Avellone

 

[Nano]

Peragus was the best level in KOTOR 2. It was all downhill after that.