Fallout 3 interview and new screens

[Vault Dweller]

http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index ... pic=856489

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/images/art/ ... tonbar.jpg

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/images/art/ ... xplode.jpg

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/images/art/ ... skills.jpg

You can see the love and attention Speech skill is getting.

3) Could you outline your thoughts on the matter of ensuring that choices and consequences provided by the various quests within your game are crafted so as to be more nonlinear than simply the superficial choice between "good, bad and neutral"/"affirmative, negative and nothing?" Also, will there be other aspects to choices in Fallout 3? Political? Philosophical? Exactly how far will you go with the player's moral freedom, the "gray" solutions?

That really depends on the quest, so it's hard to say. There are certainly some that are clearly good/bad, like blowing up Megaton. It's clearly bad to nuke an entire town. It's clearly bad to kill innocent people throughout the game, and your karma is affected. It's also clearly good to help people in need, giving to charity, passing out clean water, and more. Those are specific examples in the game. I think many people want to play "good" and want to play "evil". Both are fun in different ways. The gray area comes into several quests, where the situation is just "bad". Some feel like no-win situations and they come across as "make a hard choice." I think that's where it feels best honestly, but we do need to mix it up between that and simpler good/bad.

Killing is bad, helping is good. Got it!

 

[Ausir]

Also, perks and traits were merged because Todd doesn't see the difference:

Ok, time for some, perhaps, bad news. Traits have been rolled into Perks. That was a hard decision for us, and one that took, literally, years. We kept coming back to it, and re-discussing it, and once we were playing the game, found that the difference between the two systems was so similar that even half the entries in the community "design a perk" contest were actually traits. Take "Bloody Mess" for example, probably the most famous trait. Is the game really more fun if that can only be taken at the very start? Why can't you pick it at level 6? What's so important about having it only at the start? The perk choice is probably one of the most fun parts of the game, and to relegate certain ones to only be chosen when you first start, before you've even played the game and know how any of it feels, just didn't prove as fun to us. How do you know you want Bloody Mess if you haven't seen how bloody the current mess is? (did I just type that?) Anyway, trust me when I say this one was a debate, a long one, and a decision we're not naive enough to think will be understood or applauded by everyone.

 

[Fat Dragon]

passing out clean water

Beggar: I'm only asking for a single bottle of water.
PC: Have a bottle of water, beggar. I'm a good person.
Beggar: Thank you, kind sir.
PC: Now tell me about Jerry's daily schedule that you somehow know all about. I need to know this so I can kill him because I'm so bad.
Beggar: (speaking with a completely different voice) Of course. He can be found shooting some pool with his buds over at the bar between 5-7 pm on Monday through Friday. On the weekend he heads out to hunt rad scorpions between 7-11 am; he's by himself during that time, probably the best time to kill him. Afterwards he goes to the local brothel to fuck a few hookers.

 

[fastpunk]

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/images/art/fallout3screens/fanscreens/pipboyskills.jpg

Speech skill is set kind of low. A preview of how useful it's gonna be?

The more I read, the more it hurts. The answer to question 6 was a killer.

 

[Raapys]

Also, perks and traits were merged because Todd doesn't see the difference:

Seriously, this game keeps sounding worse and worse. It's Oblivion all over again; the more information they released the worse the game sounded. As they released it it turned out it was exactly as bad as expected.

 

[gc051360]

Why are homeless people always good?

They always have the "I'm just a struggling person....please help me" type homeless people.


And, is that Todd Howard answering the questions? He doesn't sound like a genius to me.....

 

[gamefan]

Meh.

 

[racofer]

Kreia would slit their throats for such limited understanding of evil and good.......

 

[MetalCraze]

This is so... Bioware.

 

[Unradscorpion]

At least one screen had a ghoul that wasn't a rabid zombie.

 

[pkt-zer0]

We kept coming back to it, and re-discussing it, and once we were playing the game, found that the difference between the two systems was so similar that even half the entries in the community "design a perk" contest were actually traits.

once we were playing the game, found that the difference between the two systems was so similar

the difference between the two systems was so similar

ENGLISH, MOTHERFUCKER! DO YOU SPEAK IT!?

 

[BearBomber]

English is not next gen.

 

[Frankie]

Sounds like another "Dumbed Down" RPG because Bethesda is unwilling to look past the $$$$ that they can get from selling the game to everyone they can, regardless of the crys for an RPG.

 

[Unradscorpion]

Sounds like someone is playing captain obvious.

This is my favorite part.

6) Would you take us through a hypothetical dialog tree that demonstrates the typical choices made available to the player?

I don't have enough space to really do that. They are big.

This is also gold.

But probably my favorite opening is the first time you talk to a Ghoul, one of the choices is "Gah! What the f*#$ are you?"

10) How advanced will the AI of NPC's be this time around? Are they really going to have a life? Speaking to other NPC's in a logical manner, traveling and trading with/in faraway places, Submitting to the player rather than fighting if they know, or think, they're no match for him?

I wish I could answer with a number, like "it will be 17 advanced."
...
Lastly, as far as submitting to a more powerful foe, yes they do that, in that they run away. If they're overmatched, they holster their weapon, flee and try to hide. While this sounds cool on paper, it's often not fun at all, and we've ended up really dialing that back, because it gets really annoying really fast, to have people run away all the time. The main faction that still acts like this are the Raiders, the others don't do it so much.

Those raiders have no honour, running away when dieing...

13) What will the map travel look like? Is it a dotted line that slowly crawls towards the destination on the map, or Oblivion-type fast travel? And will there be random encounters during said map travel?

It works like Oblivion, it's a system we got great feedback on from that game
...
There are no random encounters while you fast travel, but there are random encounters while you walk around. We actually have a great system for random encounters in this game that we're really proud of.

Yeah, sure awesome feedback, if you want to get ambushed you'll have to walk I'm afraid.

20) What sort of weather effects will we be seeing and will it effect the game play in some manner (e.g. change the landscape, people get off the street to take cover etc.) or is it more or less just 'eye candy?

Other than different cloud types that come and go, there are no other weather effects. We toyed with rain and windstorms but decided not to do them.

It's okay that they don't have features that were implemented in other games made before I was born because it's all just eye candy, and this good sirs is a seriously hardcore RPG.

22) How much will the main storyline tie into the storylines of the previous games? And how have you worked towards making it both accessible to new players and recognizable for veteran players? And do you think it will feel more like a reboot of the series or a continuation from the previous games?
...
At the same time, I've never really viewed Fallout 2 as a direct continuation, since it's not a "here's what the hero did next" sequel

Did he even play Fallout 2?

 

[DiverNB]

6) Would you take us through a hypothetical dialog tree that demonstrates the typical choices made available to the player?

I don't have enough space to really do that. They are big. If you look at Fallout 1, it's deeper than that. To give you the scale, we have over 40,000 lines of dialogue, compared to a few thousand in Fallout 1.


I find this very, very hard to believe after oblivion.

 

[Pussycat669]

I'm quiet baffled that they did separate unarmed and melee weaponry as a skill. Now I'm scared that Fallout 3 might turn out too hardcore for me.

 

[racofer]

6) Would you take us through a hypothetical dialog tree that demonstrates the typical choices made available to the player?

I don't have enough space to really do that. They are big. If you look at Fallout 1, it's deeper than that. To give you the scale, we have over 40,000 lines of dialogue, compared to a few thousand in Fallout 1.


I find this very, very hard to believe after oblivion.

Maybe it's a single monologue for the whole game?

 

[Ausir]

I can confirm the number of dialogue lines.

 

[Raapys]

Well, both Morrowind and Oblivion had tons of text. In Morrowind it was obvious, but in Oblivion I'm not really sure where it all went.

Maybe those 40,000 lines of text are very short lines and just variations of the same basic sentence?

I saw a Radcrab today
Today I saw a Radcrab
A Radcrab I saw today

 

[MetalCraze]

Wait. That fucker actually said that Foblivion is somehow deeper than Fallout 1?

 

[Elhoim]

Well, both Morrowind and Oblivion had tons of text. In Morrowind it was obvious, but in Oblivion I'm not really sure where it all went.

Maybe those 40,000 lines of text are very short lines and just variations of the same basic sentence?

I saw a Radcrab today
Today I saw a Radcrab
A Radcrab I saw today

I believe that in Oblivion it was the total number of recorded files. That means, each dialogue said 8 times by different voices.

 

[treave]

It's limited to the faction you did the crime to, and we also put towns into their own faction. So a crime committed in one town will not affect another, but crimes committed to a group will be known to that group (say the Brotherhood of Steel) throughout the world.

If blowing up Megaton counts as a crime, we can rest easy knowing that this does not in any way effect other towns?

In terms of the NPCs traveling around, many travel around town, and some travel the wasteland. There are a few caravans in the game that go from town to town trading. Radiant AI handles something like that really well.

Yes, I'm sure the caravans going around don't spread the news about the latest nutcase to hit the wasteland who just killed dozens in the last town with VATS, leaving him free to wander from town to town commiting Crime.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Killing is bad, helping is good. Got it!

Considering into account all the idiocy from Beth and all i don't see what's wrong with this statement without eleboration. Unless it wasn't a sarcasm.
I think you should choose your punchlines more wisely.

 

[Lumpy]

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/images/art/ ... tonbar.jpg
Damn fine looking graphics, though. Can't say there's anything wrong with that picture. Except for being from Fallout 3, of course.

 

[racofer]

They are doing the same thing all over again. Spray enough perfume and horse shit smells like roses.