Now that Fallout 4 is being teased, what would you like to see in the next installment?

[Pandabearparade]

Is that all, your majesty?

No, not really, but it's a start.

The point of the thread is to give a wishlist for the next Fallout game, no reason not to be thorough.

For all its criticisms, Fallout 3 trumps Fallout: New Vegas in one specific area - it's set in Washington DC. I think the impact of seeing so many familiar landmarks, and such a pristine, powerful city reduced to rubble makes FO3 a far more compelling setting than the comparatively un-iconic (and down market) Las Vegas.

I agree completely on that.

Just to be even-handed, Obsidian dropped the ball hard on the strip. It should have been twice the size, had twice the quests it did, and been less.. well, less fail. Luckily there are mods that fix that for the PC.

 

[byte4554_v1legacy]

Is that all, your majesty?

No, not really, but it's a start.

The point of the thread is to give a wishlist for the next Fallout game, no reason not to be thorough.

Fair enough. I do suppose some of those were great ideas, for example, the blank slate idea of characterization.

 

[SajuukKhar]

If Bethesda keeps any form of faction reputaion system, I pray to god they intigrate with the "last witness killed, bounty removed" system from Skyrim.

I cant tell you how many times I killed like 3-4 Legion guys in the middle of the desert, with no one else around, and then wondered why the fuck my rep with the Legion went down, when there was no one alive to report that I did anything.

 

[Pandabearparade]

If Bethesda keeps any form of faction reputaion system, I pray to god they intigrate with the "killed last witness bounty removed" system from Skyrim.

I cant tell you how many times I killed like 3-4 Legion guys in the middle of the desert, with no one else around, and then wondered why the fuck my rep with the Legion went down, when there was no one alive to report that I did anything.

I second this completely. It makes no sense for factions to be telepathic super-detectives who know just what courier asshole killed off their men in the middle of the desert. It's not like the courier autographs his bullets.

Well, mine did, but most don't.

 

[SajuukKhar]

I also hope that if they keep a disguise system, that make it actually work.

Please tell me how this makes any fucking sense.

-Wearing full suit of power armor, face completely covered, the only faction that uses full power armor is the BoS, the BoS and NCR are at war, yet I can walk up to any NCR officer, have them automatically know who I am, at any distance, and no one ever questions or asks if I am part of the BoS.

-YET, that same guy, who has idolized rep with the NCR, and is a legend amongst NCR soliders, puts on Caesar's armor, that I got from his dead corpse, that DOESN'T cover my face, yet if any NCR soldiers even get a fucking whiff of my character, they go full on psycho, and try to kill me.

So, they know who I am when wearing a full face covering mask, yet they don't know who I am when I am not?

WHAT
THE
FUCK
GUYS

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

London!! I want it set in London. Mostly due to the landmarks and gangs related to London....like punks etc Ok, i am biased as thats where i live but it could give Bethesda more freedom to be inventive. After all its a whole new thing to the fallout cannon. Also being close to Europe you can have more european based gangs such as a Nazi gang.

But even if the next one is in America, im fine with that also. Loved the other two games.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Maybe that tease has nothing to do with Fallout 4. We know now that Bethesda is planning some kind of TV show based on Fallout. Maybe that's where we'll see or hear Three Dog.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Besides, if we go down south enough: MUTANT ALLIGATORS

Travel even more south.....Mutant Mexicans. ;-)

 

[SajuukKhar]

Maybe that tease has nothing to do with Fallout 4. We know now that Bethesda is planning some kind of TV show based on Fallout. Maybe that's where we'll see or hear Three Dog.

Bethesda is NOT planning a TV show based on Fallout

That trademark was made back in 2009, and they have renewed it 5 times already. Bethesda simply refiled for the trademark because they already used all 5 extensions on the 2009 one and had to do so in order to keep it.

All game companies trademark TV, and movie, versions of their games for legal reasons so that no one can take the rights. Its standard practice, and means nothing.

 

[Pandabearparade]

Maybe that tease has nothing to do with Fallout 4. We know now that Bethesda is planning some kind of TV show based on Fallout. Maybe that's where we'll see or hear Three Dog.

If true, that would make me a very, very sad panda.

I hope it's not true. Fallout would make a fine show, I'm sure, but I want Fallout 4! ;_;

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I hope it's not true. Fallout would make a fine show, I'm sure, but I want Fallout 4! ;_;

You will get your Fallout 4. Don't worry about that. You don't need Three Dog's voice actor to tell you that. Fallout 3 was a huge commercial success.

 

[bojackx]

You're applying way too much realism to that; there are holes like that in pretty much every game. If the entire game had to work based on rules like that, everywhere would have to be very similar and there'd be no variety.

I strongly disagree with both points. Not every game brings attention to food/water and their scarcity - Fallout 3 does.
Not every town would have to be similar, that's silly. In fact, as it stands towns are too similar, my suggestion would actually make towns different by having them specialize.

This isn't a problem that would have been impossible to fix. I'm not asking for an economy with real world depth and complexity, I'm asking for some pretty basic things that could have been implemented with trivial ease. Here, in a few easy steps I'll fix a lot of the logic-fail issues in Fallout 3:

1. Add more travelling merchants and establish that they periodically travel outside of the DC wasteland to sell their weapons and scrap, which are plentiful in DC, for large amounts of food and water for their return trip. The food is worth more in DC and is traded for more scrap and weapons from the scavengers, and the cycle is repeated.
2. Revise or remove Little Lamplight. Perhaps instead of bratty, stupid kids kicking out adults - which is fucking retarded - have the population of the town have an illness that kills them off in their early twenties, but makes them more fertile. There, now Little Lamplight makes sense.
3. Add Tenpenny Tower to the trade route circuit and make the outside of the tower more friendly to incoming traders. It only makes sense for the 'wealthy' people to be inviting to those with things for them to spend their money on.

Note that I'm not suggesting things that would require enormous amounts of development resources to implement. All of the above would require tweaks to dialogue and a few extra NPCs. Easy peasy.

Okay, my point about variety probably was a bit silly, but I think the kind of the things you're suggesting (1 and 3, probably not 2) are things that we can assume or imagine.

Just assume the merchants have a reliable way of moving supplies. In Skyrim, you don't question the magically regenerating stock in the shops, but you can easily assume that whilst you were off adventuring that someone came and delivered them or random NPCs sold them to the shop.

Yes, Little Lamplight would be very unlikely in a real life situation, but so are Super Mutants and giant insects caused by nuclear radiation, it's meant to be a little wacky. At least it wasn't just another vanilla town. Inventing some mystery illness would mean even more questions would need answering; is it contagious? Why is it isolated to only those in Little Lamplight? etc.

And Tenpenny Tower is just a very pleasant (comparatively I mean, we're talking about a post-apocalyptic wasteland) and well-fortified place to stay, so would naturally be a place for many rich folk to stay at, and in turn, attract merchants to buy stuff from. It's not really that difficult to understand how it could function.

 

[Tom_green_day]

My wishlist:

-Far fewer super mutants. Big green uglies just aren't very compelling villains.

-A minor Brotherhood/Enclave presence, if any. It just wouldn't make much sense for the Enclave to be threatening after they've had their asses kicked so many times.

-Better characters and more of them, like in New Vegas. Fallout 3 just didn't have enough characters that felt like actual people. In fact, I think you could count them all on your hands. Try harder, Bethesda!

-More quests, with more choices and moral dilemmas. Especially in the main quest. It would also be nice if they had choices actually lead to significantly different quest experiences, instead of just having different people giving you the same quests a la New Vegas.

-Better writing overall, especially the dialogue. Don't ever make my character say "Please Mr. Three Dog! I need to find Daddy!" like a lost kid at the mall again, for fuck's sake.

-A much, much larger world. Though I do hope there are plenty of settlements full of interesting characters, the wasteland should feel vast and desolate between the oases of crude civilization.

-I heard a rumour that because of the complaints about the Brotherhood and Mutants in 3, they're going to leave them out.
-3 had some awesome characters, like Amata and Moira Brown, but I agree that New Vegas had some better ones like Fantastic and Noonan
-New Vegas did have four significantly different endings...
-The choice options are multi-choice but I agree some are just stupid.
-New Vegas was tiny. And the GODDAMN INVISIBLE WALLS! But yeah now they've got the engine I expect Skyrim size will be coming. Thinking about it, in 3 it was annoying that DC was split into subsections.

I loved Fallout 3 much more than Vegas, the atmosphere of a wasteland was much more prominent with all the buildings destroyed and crumbling, a bleak colour palette and few resources. New Vegas felt to... built up for me. I want another wasteland but maybe with a twist, maybe instead of a ruined city and desert they could have a state that's by the sea, or more forested. I wouldn't mind another wasteland though.
I would also love it if the main quest was more of a quest and less of a personal errand. Instead of finding your daddy or the big man that hurt you, the whole quest can be doing something impactful. Look at Book of Eli for inspiration here. Or something like the ending of the main questline for Fallout 3, but for the whole questline.

 

[SajuukKhar]

-I heard a rumour that because of the complaints about the Brotherhood and Mutants in 3, they're going to leave them out.

I heard that the guy who started that rumor admitted it was fake, and that he was just making stuff up.

 

[Pandabearparade]

Just assume the merchants have a reliable way of moving supplies. In Skyrim, you don't question the magically regenerating stock in the shops, but you can easily assume that whilst you were off adventuring that someone came and delivered them or random NPCs sold them to the shop.

Riften, Windhelm, Dawnstar, and Solitude all have docks, and Whiterun is established in dialogue to be a trade hub due to its location. They pay more attention to the world and economy making sense in Skyrim, which I think is nice, but it's less necessary in a world where player attention is never pulled to food/water scarcity.

Yes, Little Lamplight would be very unlikely in a real life situation, but so are Super Mutants and giant insects caused by nuclear radiation, it's meant to be a little wacky. At least it wasn't just another vanilla town. Inventing some mystery illness would mean even more questions would need answering; is it contagious? Why is it isolated to only those in Little Lamplight? etc.

The difference between giant green mutants and Little Lamplight is one is covered by suspension of disbelief and I don't feel the other one is. Super mutants are an original construct of the Fallout mythos, so they can behave however Bethesda wants them to. Bethesda did not invent children, so them making children behave in a way that no actual group of human children would is not the same. Humans behaving in extremely unrealistic ways is not something (in my opinion) suspension of disbelief covers.

And Tenpenny Tower is just a very pleasant (comparatively I mean, we're talking about a post-apocalyptic wasteland) and well-fortified place to stay, so would naturally be a place for many rich folk to stay at, and in turn, attract merchants to buy stuff from. It's not really that difficult to understand how it could function.

I agree, all it needed was a few tweaks and it would have worked - even by my excessively nitpicky standards. Throw in a few poorly paid, overworked servants and merchants passing by and the town goes from mildly illogical to perfectly plausible.

 

[SajuukKhar]

Riften, Windhelm, Dawnstar, and Solitude all have docks, and Whiterun is established in dialogue to be a trade hub due to its location. They pay more attention to the world and economy making sense in Skyrim, which I think is nice, but it's less necessary in a world where player attention is never pulled to food/water scarcity.

I personally found many of the details in Skyrim to have come seemingly out of complaints about Fallout's LACK of explanation.

Such as, Elder Scrolls game have always had farms, but I notices FAR more farms in Skyrim then in Oblivion, and to a lesser extent, then Morrowind.

The lack of farms being a major gripe in Fallout 3.

I except that Bethesda learned "we need farms" and will put some in Fallout 4.

 

[Lord RPGs]

The number one thing I want? I just want damage that makes sense. Don't give me a BB gun (which is shooting not particularly threatening pellets) that does 5 damage, and then tell me later than an actual pistol (which shoots real bullets that should be fairly lethal to someone receiving it in the face) deals 6 points of damage. I want damage to make sense. When I have to pour bullets into someone in order to even make them limp, well, now that's just silly. Oh, and whilst they're at it, take a look at some of the finest mods out there. Incorporate their ideas. Modders have improved on the games so very much.


Seriously though, don't make me have to go through and manually adjust every damage stat of every weapon to a sensible level again. It took me like two hours, but the game felt so much more... right.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

These threads seem to come up with alarming frequency on gaming boards, especially when it comes to Elder Scrolls/Fallout. Probably because of the open ended nature of the games there's a lot of room to put any number of things in.

Whenever I actually read people's wishlists though it just depresses me. I truly hope the developers don't take stock in anything written in these, or even read them. Roughly half the stuff any one person lists I will disagree with. I'm not unique in this, the same probably goes for them when they read my wishlist.

I don't know if it's optimists or 16 year olds, but a popular one is some manifestation of 'more of everything'. Of course they're going to try to do more of everything, it's a sequel, it has to at least try to be more grandiose. But when it's something like "Would you prefer Fallout 4 be in Massachusetts, Idaho, or the entire United States of America" and everyone votes for the latter, I get worried. Think back to Skyrim, what was the MOST number of people on-screen in a scripted event? I think it's the execution at Solitude. And there are what, 10, 12 people there? We are clearly not at the stage that the entire United States can be convincingly rendered. I'd rather the developers didn't go over the top with pie-in-the-sky ideas and just focused on improving an already solid framework. Let fewer glitches through so people stop complaining about inverted scorpions. Give spouses more ai options than sitting at home and cooking a meal a day.

I'm inherently cynical about sequels nowadays, and I'd rather my more favored series not get fluxed up by big ideas.

 

[Pandabearparade]

but a popular one is some manifestation of 'more of everything'. Of course they're going to try to do more of everything, it's a sequel, it has to at least try to be more grandiose. But when it's something like "Would you prefer Fallout 4 be in Massachusetts, Idaho, or the entire United States of America" and everyone votes for the latter,

I tried to keep my list of things restrained to things that are actually possible given our current technology. I'm not asking for the entire northeastern US built to scale.

Besides, there is nothing wrong with having high hopes. We don't know how limited next-gen tech is going to be, yet. Skyrim was pretty big, hopefully the next gen tech will allow for even more.