What do you think of the Fallout 2 restoration mod?

[villain of the story]

Ask here: http://www.imperial-library.info/forum

 

[Redeye]

*(a porn movie studio in a burned out town; that has apparently enough of a plebian audience to show sessions and put on new posters; a audience composed of jet addicts and prostitutes and made men)

New Reno is a vacation destination for the Wasteland.

People go there for the entertainment.


Still, it is a bit lame.

 

[tindrli]

i like it... dont mind of porn.. yes the dialogues are shit but who cares.. its great

Vile creatures, I avoid them whenever I can

I agree

 

[theHiddenHand]

Haven't tried it yet (download over a year ago) and judging by some of the reactions I don't think that I will bother.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Fallout 2 + bugfixes is fine as it is, the quality of this mod's extra content (writing, actual gameplay...) sucked balls. I'd recommend skipping it entirely.

"Kaga find you! Kaga kill you!"

Seriously, fuck that guy.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

What of the MIB88 Megamod? Is it bad or good?

 

[CSM]

It sucks, the worst part is the EPA area. Which starts off by putting you up against a million shooting plants. Ugh, it was terrible, I just ignored all the extra stuff after that.

 

[.Pixote.]

It sucks, the worst part is the EPA area. Which starts off by putting you up against a million shooting plants. Ugh, it was terrible, I just ignored all the extra stuff after that.

In regards to the EPA the Fallout Bible mentioned a courtyard full of experimental plants, plus...

The Environmental Protection Agency is a bonus location for Fallout 2. It’s full of an odd assortment of
puzzles, fighting, and various weird adventure “seeds” (literally), including, but not limited to:
 
1A. A parking lot jungle replete with several varieties of spore plants.
 
2A. A bizarre petting zoo. Filled with humans. Hungry humans.
 
3A. Sub-levels filled with exciting varieties of poisonous gases and virus-laden mutant
fruit flies.
 
4A. A small government museum complete with dioramas! The exhibits on postholocaust
America are especially amusing.
 
5A. A storage room full of new seeds for Arroyo. Some seeds grow into bad things.
 
6A. An entourage of custodial peevish holograms that provide tours and bursts of
incidental binary strangeness.
 
7A. Various NPCs on “ice” (in hibernation).
 
8A. Computers filled with information on crop rotation and the F.E.V. virus.
 
9A. A clinically depressed Mr. Handee and a hyperactive drug-making appliance for
Science characters.
 
The EPA was supposed to use the Vault City/Vault 13 tile set for interiors (bright white, like original
vault). Special scenery objects include an EPA parking lot sign, and color-coded symbols on the walls,
running the whole range of the rainbow.
 
SPECIAL ITEMS

Can of Dog Food (a la Mad Max)
Insecticide
Shampoo
Pesticide
Marijuana
Pop-Rocks (if you drink water with them, you will explode in a horrible death animation)
EPA Government Power Cell
Bug Spray Canister (kills all insects instantly)
Plant Spray Canister (kills all spore plants instantly)
Gas Mask
Solar Scorcher (this was its original location)
Test Tube
 
ART

The EPA is 4 maps large. These maps are small, and these “levels” often share the same map.

Parking Lot
Entrance Level (Office Building)
Level Red (Security, Public Relations, Museum)
Level Orange (Blood-Curdling Cafeterias and Sinister Conference Rooms)
Level Yellow (Power Core)
Level Green (Animal and Biological Testing; Arboretums and Cages of Creatures)
Level Blue (Hibernation)
Level Indigo (Top Secret Research into Gender Modification)
Level Violet (Memory Core)

I think Chris Avellone mentioned that the EPA was killed because of time restraints, unlike Kaga or other things (that were generally unfavorable). So I ask - How can the Restoration Project be made better?

 

[CSM]

By not including locations that the creators decreed too shitty to put in the game?

 

[.Pixote.]

Yeah those things are already in, and wont be removed, but that doesn't mean they can't be made to work better. I personally don't like fetch quests, Fallout 2 has too many of those as is, and the RP probably shouldn't be adding any more.

As a compromise maybe the installer should separate the new location from the rest of the game, I'm not sure how Killap would feel about that. These new locations, why don't they work, is it - ugly maps - poor characters - weak design - shitty writing...

 

[eric__s]

One big problem is that they're pretty stupid. Kaga's dumb. That monastery of monks who copy books is dumb. I don't remember what else I saw, but it was probably dumb. They weren't put in the game because they were pretty dumb and pretty distinct from the rest of the game, not only in content but in quality. Most of the quests in Fallout 2 were "go here, do this, come back", but there was a sense of illusion about it that made them interesting. It was fun to repair the reactor in Gecko because it was a weird experience, you felt like you were doing something good for the world and you were getting something very meaningful out of it - citizenship to Vault City. The quests in the restoration mod had no illusion or variation to them - they were fetch quests. The monastery guy wants you to find something, so you find it. It's a meaningless experience with no character and no challenge and nothing interesting that happens along the way. It doesn't make the world more interesting and most importantly, it doesn't relate to anything in the real world. That's what made Fallout, Fallout 2 and Arcanum such poignant games, the fact that everything in them reflects back on our society.

The style and quality of writing was also pretty different from the base game. I played this a while ago and don't remember enough to pinpoint any lines in particular, but a lot of the new dialogue made me cringe. I wish I could be more specific, but I don't remember enough!

It's a huge endeavor and I seriously wish the best for you guys, but a lot of this content was cut for a reason. Not everything that was originally going to be in a game needs to be in it.

 

[.Pixote.]

Hopefully RP 2.2 will rectify some of the problems. Killap mentioned he wasn't very happy with the Primitive Tribe quests, so maybe he has rewritten them, or just removed the weaker ones. I understand the best quests in Fallout 2 were generally the ones that had the greatest effect on their surroundings, such as repairing the Gecko power plant - but I always questioned why BlackIsle put a giant rat in the tunnels under the town (who wants to rule the world). Fallout 2 suffers because of these cheap gags.

Anyway some of the future fixes will amend certain basic errors left by BlackIsle, such as missing character animations, wrong artwork, etc. The reason I brought this up is because the people who generally post here know more about good RPG's than any other site on the web, and the feedback is invaluable if the RP to reach a level of excellence we all desire.