Interview Deiley on His Deathclaws

[Sinder Velvin]

Since it hasn't been addressed, I wanted to go over Deiley's mention of Josh Sawyer as well:

I ask where the tension between him and Avellone came from, and Deiley recounts a time when working with Josh Sawyer at Interplay. He had designed a final boss that fed on people’s nightmares, a lot like what we’d later see in the Vaermina quest in Skyrim, and Avellone allegedly demanded that it be removed.

“Sawyer stepped in and he said, ‘No, this is the perfect monster. I’m going to back him up 100 percent.’ From that day forward, Avellone was just, ‘I don’t like you. I work with you because I’m forced to work with you.’ He was pretty much the same with Josh,” Deiley says.

In reality, after Black Isle shut down, Feargus didn't want Josh at Obsidian because they had spent too much time arguing during Icewind Dale 2's development, and — according to Josh (starting from 29:13 in this audio interview) — it was Darren Monahan and Chris Avellone who kept trying to patch things up between Feargus and him.

Which, you know, wouldn't have happened if Chris didn't want to work with Josh.

 

[Harthwain]

I think the biggest issue with canonizing Fallout Tactics

That's kind of my point (or the opposite of it, actually) - I didn't mind it being non-canon; I embraced it. It manages to be a fun tactical game utilizing Fallout system and setting (so I was familiar enough with it to jump right in, but not knowledeable enough to be irritated by differences in lore). But you had to be prepared for it being closer to Jagged Alliance than to any full-fledged RPG. That's why "spin-off" is a perfect way to describe Fallout Tactics (and the title telling you exactly what they game is about).

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Which, you know, wouldn't have happened if Chris didn't want to work with Josh.

Unless Chris already knew he hated Feargus and wanted more Josh arguing with Feargus for his own personal amusement.

I didn't mind it being non-canon; I embraced it.

I think the problem is that Bethesda can't seem to make up it's mind as to Fallout Tactics being canon or not. Not like Bethesda is good with maintaining canon either way.

But you had to be prepared for it being closer to Jagged Alliance than to any full-fledged RPG.

I think the problem is that they were pitching it as "Jagged Alliance 2 meets Fallout", yet it had even less alternative means of accomplishing goals than Jagged Alliance 2. So, it wasn't really a a mash up of the two, since a mash up would have yielded more methods of skill usage in missions other than pew-pew.

Now, having said that, Micro Forte was given a fairly impossible task by Interplay at the time, and it went from being a project they were expecting to be easy, then Interplay would constantly drop little bombs on them. For example, it was assumed that during the contract negotiation that Interplay was going to hand over the Fallout art assets, then Micro Fortre was told that Interplay managed to lose all the art assets from Fallout and Fallout 2 and Micro Forte was expected after the agreements were made to remake them all from scratch, many things from concept art. They had to basically make everything from the ground up with a very tight time table.

 

[lukaszek]

I still have a refrigerator from the 1960s that still works. It's been running fine, with zero maintenance other than defrosting it every few months, for 8 decades now.

its probably one with old schoold freon, the one destroying ozon layer. It had different characteristic, allowing for more sturdy appliances. Same with AC

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

its probably one with old schoold freon, the one destroying ozon layer. It had different characteristic, allowing for more sturdy appliances. Same with AC

You mean the freon that was found to be a problem as DuPont's patent was running out, forcing the government to greatly tax or outright ban that older freon while forcing everyone to buy DuPont's newly formulated and freshly patented next refrigerant? If you're talking about that freon, it doesn't really narrow it down, since it happens every single time.

Speaking of the DuPonts:

https://www.housebeautiful.com/desi...reenville-wilmington-delaware-dupont-nemours/

 

[lukaszek]

patent was running out

the very same

 

[blessedCoffee]

Super Mutant Melchior in the military base, the optional "boss fight" in the second game. A fun fight, but still super stupid.

...

Ghost in The Den, one of the quest givers in the town. You can kill a person that is already dead: You can explode her with Plasma grenades, since she's not immune to plasma.

The ghost in the Den was definitely a problem but if you were desperate for an explanation without just removing it from canon you can make a stretch that there is some psychic psyker shit going on there, maybe the girl was a psyker before she died and it has some profoundly retarded supernatural effects because of it. I didn't know you can kill her ghost with plasma, that seems like it's just an oversight.

Melchior was dumb, the magician angle was just stupid, but again could probably be explained at a desperate stretch to have something to do with a psyker being exposed to FEV.

...

Of course, your mileage may vary with any of these "explanations", I don't want to make it seem like you can just say "FEV" or "psykers" to explain everything wrong with Fallout 2, that's what makes those things turn into the force from Star Wars. I still think most of the things you listed are retarded. Fallout 1 obviously never had this problem despite both of those things existing in it to make use of. I would also never give Fallout 3 the same amount of charitable generosity towards explaining its faults. You can probably just blame Urquhart instead.

Saying that Anna, Melchior or other characters were Psychics is an excuse (no offense intented), not a proper explanation. It's like that merchant in one of the side quests added into the Restoration Project, the partially blind merchant wants to give you the impression that Stimpacks are spellbinding objects, and claims they could heal you through their amazing magical healing powers. It doesn't explains why or how they work, at all. Tim Cain himself could tell me that, I'd still not buy it, it looks and smells like bullshit.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I noticed that psychics seem to be getting more common. FNV has that NPC under the bridge and Fo4 has Mama Murphy, not to mention all of the other supernatural shit, like the spooky book in 3.
And it's dumb.
It should have been only the Master's gimmick, an absolute one off that's a product of his unique mutations, with the psykers you encounter being the product of his experimentation. Remember that they weren't even functional; they were completely insane and often spoke gibberish.

Taking that one event and going "see, Fallout had paranormal shit, therefore it should be everywhere" is completely missing the point; the paranormal shit was an example of the Master's perversion of nature and the unnatural effects of the FEV, it's not supposed to be an everyday occurrence.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

It should have been only the Master's gimmick, an absolute one off that's a product of his unique mutations, with the psykers you encounter being the product of his experimentation. Remember that they weren't even functional; they were completely insane and often spoke gibberish.

It's very much a "Yes, but horribly broken" situation with the psychers. Yes, there were some successes, but they're busted. Can they do things? Sure, from a certain point of view. Would it make sense to have them in the story? If done right, which I doubt Bethesda could ever do since they really like that "Rule of Cool" shit. Honestly, finding a psycher in a Fallout game should be somewhat of a disappointment for the player rather than invoke an "OOOOH! AAAAAHHH!" reaction, which is all Bethesda shoots for.