Fallout 4 Discussion Thread

[l33tMan]

I think having a level cap-less setup terribly hurts gameplay in favor of "player freedom" just like locking skill progression to actually using that skill, regardless of the touch of realism and logic those bring.

 

I look at these two features, both of which I condemn in Skyrim, as utterly destructive to the game.

 

Regarding the level cap, it essentially enables a player to reach 100% in all skills and acquire all perks. The player character becomes a demigod, but the game has to counteract that with leveling enemies, thus littering the game world with other demigods, and when you think about how all the poorly-equipped blokes disappeared in favor of bandits in carved armor, it makes the game world seem as if it only started evolving when you came along... no dedicated high-level zone; the whole game world is equally challenging...

 

As for "training skills" instead of freely assigning skill points, it creates a truly perverse incentive to grind skills.

I admit, learning speech from killing mole rats is pretty absurd logic...

but beating the schitt out of Hadvar or Ralof and smithing a thousand daggers and selling them are absurd gameplay systems.

[Darkening Demise]

FO3 didn't end after the DLC came right? Wasn't it a certain DLC that allowed the story to continue and you could play still?

I know FONV ended no matter what once you get far enough into the war with the dam thing that was just lame.

So knowing FO4 is like TES I'm happy, hate games like this that end right after the main story is done with, heck half the time it's never worth playing anyways! So to be forced into it and having to start a new game to play around more is idiotic.

[banshe]

Here's a question pulling away from the current leveling subject: When you play a fallout game (or any game with similar emphasis in player freedom, character development and what not), do you roleplay? Like, at the start you go "Oh i want to play a clever, sneaky character who avoids confrontation" and try to stick to that format along the way, not only in how you play through the multiple challenges but also how you interact with the world and quests and ultimately how you influence the story. Personally, I do such a thing, for instance I had two major playthroughs on Skyrim, once as a warrior from the wilds and one as an evil necromancer (using the alternate start mod).

 

But here is the second part of my question/discussion: In Skyrim (and in New Vegas, to an extent) your character is largely undefined. You have no set past save for a few hints about it in New Vegas, which allows you to define what kind of character you're playing, However in Fallout 3 you're the son/daughter of Liam Neeson and while you can grow up to be anything, you still have that little background, and finally, in FO4, you're either "Howard" or "Nora", aka the Dad or Mom. You're a family person who (probably) lost their family, more importantly, lost their child, which is often a greater impact than losing a spouse (again, probably, hard to imagine them surviving, but who knows). That seriously locks my personal roleplay with regards to the character I play and I wonder how much of this impact can be softened by use of Alternative Start mods, if at all.

 

On a pervy note, I suppose this means anyone playing a female character is an auto-milf, which is bound to bring out a few smiles.

[Loogie]

However, Boston BoS has airships and the only expedition known of through the lore of the released games is the lost expedition, whose survivors who crashed near Chicago became the most tolerant yet most brutal splinter of the BoS. Their bloody campaign against the factions of Boston was righteous and they stopped what could become The Master² (or ³), but they are pretty much Caesar's Legion without the crucifying and the unnecessary decorations. By that I mean - if the hostile BoS members seen in Boston are part of the Chicago splinter faction, we're all f-ed... but they could be one of the other airships caught in the storm, so they could be their own faction.

 

The midwest Brotherhood absolutely did crucify people - they used X-shaped frames - and typically arrayed the bodies of the crucified along routes used by people who might become insurgents.

 

They also fought the Calculator, which is nothing like the Master.

[Joomla]

so as one of latest news i heard bethesda confirmed that you can keep playing after completing main storyline that i think almost everyone likes but then they also told there is no level cap in this game. what you guys think about that part.

[Beard of Socrates]

I wonder how scaling is going to work if you can just keep leveling up. Would friendly faction's level with you, alongside antagonist group, or would they remain at the same strength with only better gear.

[Handsome Squidward]

I just want to know how much mod progress can we port.  I hope Skyrim's body mods, animations, and skeletons can be ported seamlessly with added meatcaps;  ENB presets can be reused; racemenu presets to be somehow portable as well as racemenu itself; and for Millennia  to port over his weapon collection.  I want the port transition to be as seamless as possible.

 

Bethesda's last showcase should be a mod showcase.  They need a week long mod jam showing off the new Creation Kit, their version of MCM, and mods released alongside of the game.  That would be a day one patch I would like to download.  But the Fallout 4 gift list goes on.

[Kernel39]

Do you think Fallout 4 will have prone position for long-distance sniping or bipod machine-gunning?

 

The FO3 and NV only had crouching, but hopefully we'll see prone sniping/shooting and laying-crawling in FO4.

[IJF1492]

Do you think Fallout 4 will have prone position for long-distance sniping or bipod machine-gunning?

 

The FO3 and NV only had crouching, but hopefully we'll see prone sniping/shooting and laying-crawling in FO4.

 

The only Fallout game I remember where you could go prone was Fallout Tactics. It wasn't just for sniping, either. It helped you avoid line of sight when sneaking behind low cover. Personally, I hope they let you go prone for both/either reason.

 

But I also hope they make the sneak skill do something besides make the playthrough take twice as long. Hated that in FO3 when I replayed it as a straight up combat character, I could finish nearly every quest and every dungeon the same way but in half the time as my sneak character. But I can't lie, stuffing a bottle cap mine in Eulogy Jones' underwear was worth it.

 

[Guest endgameaddiction]

After long thought of Fallout 4 I'm starting to have my doubts of liking the voiced protagonist. It's really not the voiced protagonist that bothers me. What really bothers me is the limitation of voiced we could of got. I would think 7 years of development would be more than enough time to include some other voice actors to give us more choices. Which leads to my next argument.

 

I really love Bethesda's open world they give us. It's unlike any other games made by other developers. What would of been more interesting is making it more diverse. And by this I mean it would be nice if they stop doing this one side storyline. If we would of gotten more voice actors for the main character, Instead of giving us the option to choose a voice for the main character, give us an equivalent of Alternate Start. it really would open the doors for roleplaying in a huge world environment. And this is where I think I will end up not liking the game in the long run. While it's okay to play as a vault dweller it's not okay when we have a very huge open world. The reason why I say this is because it leaves a lot of room to roleplay. And with their GECK they've always provided for heavy modding one does not want to spend their whole time experiencing the game as just one character with motives. Yes, this was done in the past as I've done this with Fallout 3 and New Vegas, but we didn't have a voiced protagonist.

 

I usually play the raider type character and it's really going to feel awkward having the female protagonist voice that doesn't match my characters attitude. If she's a giggly, frighten, shy person and I roleplay as a wicked, sex driven cocky cunt this really kills the mood. And this is why they should of gone with a more diverse approach with Fallout 4 instead of just the role of one character with 1 voice type for each sex.

 

Even with an Alternate start mod like Skyrim's Alternate Start - Live Another Life, it's not going to change anything because you are forced to hear your character during interactions with NPCs. What Bethesda doesn't understand is people tend to roleplay as different characters than the vault dweller. And they really need to take this into consideration when it comes to making a game with a massive world and many things to do. Let us be able to choose different characters from different factions to roleplay and see the ending from different views instead of behind the vault dwellers eyes all the time.

[GimmeBACON]

Another problem with a voiced protagonist is dialogue quests. It's one thing to have a voiced npc, but to do the voice of the character(male and female) in the cinematic way they are doing, as well as any npcs? I think the quantity of voiced companion and quest mods may suffer from this. If this was brought up previously, my bad, I didn't want to read the whole thread.

[panthercom]

 I suspect I'll just turn the PC's voice if that's an option. I have this wonderful thing

called an imagination that makes a voiced player character unnecessary and

irrelevant. I'm not going to buy the game until modding tools become available, mainly

because I want to explore the new world on my own terms as much as possible.

I might still do a vanilla playthrough if the storyline looks like it will be reasonably

compelling, otherwise it's going to be strictly for role-playing. I just want to be free!     

[Kendo 2]

 

After long thought of Fallout 4 I'm starting to have my doubts of liking the voiced protagonist. It's really not the voiced protagonist that bothers me. What really bothers me is the limitation of voiced we could of got. I would think 7 years of development would be more than enough time to include some other voice actors to give us more choices. Which leads to my next argument.

 

I really love Bethesda's open world they give us. It's unlike any other games made by other developers. What would of been more interesting is making it more diverse. And by this I mean it would be nice if they stop doing this one side storyline. If we would of gotten more voice actors for the main character, Instead of giving us the option to choose a voice for the main character, give us an equivalent of Alternate Start. it really would open the doors for roleplaying in a huge world environment. And this is where I think I will end up not liking the game in the long run. While it's okay to play as a vault dweller it's not okay when we have a very huge open world. The reason why I say this is because it leaves a lot of room to roleplay. And with their GECK they've always provided for heavy modding one does not want to spend their whole time experiencing the game as just one character with motives. Yes, this was done in the past as I've done this with Fallout 3 and New Vegas, but we didn't have a voiced protagonist.

 

I usually play the raider type character and it's really going to feel awkward having the female protagonist voice that doesn't match my characters attitude. If she's a giggly, frighten, shy person and I roleplay as a wicked, sex driven cocky cunt this really kills the mood. And this is why they should of gone with a more diverse approach with Fallout 4 instead of just the role of one character with 1 voice type for each sex.

 

Even with an Alternate start mod like Skyrim's Alternate Start - Live Another Life, it's not going to change anything because you are forced to hear your character during interactions with NPCs. What Bethesda doesn't understand is people tend to roleplay as different characters than the vault dweller. And they really need to take this into consideration when it comes to making a game with a massive world and many things to do. Let us be able to choose different characters from different factions to roleplay and see the ending from different views instead of behind the vault dwellers eyes all the time.

 

Yeah, I didn't consider the roleplay aspect.  For all of the lack-luster impact of starting as a prisoner in the TES games at least we can have the characters we want.  With FO3 that was still possible.  That freedom and the open world play make these Bethesda games what they are.

 

When I play ME3 I know I'm Shepard.  The pre-service history and psychological profile lets me add my own spin on a stock protagonist.  I doubt FO4 will have cool features like that.  We will probably go straight from pre-war home life to being sole survivor in a vault.  That's going to be pretty goddamned dull and a stretch (for me at least) to roleplay in an open world rpg.  From family man or house wife to killing raiders and deathclaws in the span of a one hour game session is going to be way off kilter.

 

If any one mod really needs to be made for FO4, it is an alternate start or one that allows us to flesh out an otherwise dull character.  Something as basic as being given three or four backgrounds to choose from along with a few psychological profiles could go a long way, even if they aren't supported by later game play.

 

For instance, your female raider type.  One of the backgrounds could be 'Broken Home' where your character had a shitty homelife and she learned to live by her wits and read people in order to get by.  Maybe she was a wild cat as a teenager and early 20's until she met 'Mr.Right' and settled down.  For a psychological profile maybe she's willful and hot-tempered.  With a personal history like that, your raider chick roleplay is feasible.  She would assess the situation (dead husband and child; thrust into a world she doesn't know) and go into survival mode.  She would have meaning and not be a Bethesda Anita Sarkeesian look-alike with a frying pan in one hand and a 9mm she automatically knows how to use in the other.  That won't address the player dialogue issue but at least she'd be something you could live with playing.

[Chrisscogg]

I'll reserve judgement until the games release. Jumping to conclusions quite often leads to being wrong. Especially regarding dynamic characters. Really, we don't know much about our protagonists. The things we know about them are as follows: They are a couple, they have a child, and the male protagonist was to speak at some veteran's function the day of the Great War. That's it. That's really not that much to go on. The characterizations of the protagonist, beyond the stated, remains a mystery. Granted, from these clues, we can infer that they were married at an unspecified point, were attracted to each other enough to have a kid, and the male protagonist is likely a veteran. These are all just assumptions, and you know what they say about assuming...

 

I've read that the game starts in 2075. Using all the information above and the 2075 date, my theory for the intro goes as follows: The 2075 date is not the start of the game, but rather the earliest chronological point in the game. It begins with the intro showcased at E3. The bathroom scene for character creation, five minutes of prewar life, then the bombs fall, and our protagonists escape to the vault. Following the arrival at the vault, the traumatic experience causes our protagonist to have a flashback to when he/she first met his/her significant other, in the war-torn battlefields of occupied China, 2075. As you may recall, despite protest from the international community, the U.S. launched an invasion of China in retaliation for the Alaska thing. Assuming the protagonist(s) veteran status is true, then the protagonists do a badass thing that wins the U.S. a battle, and fall in love in the process. Then they get shipped home, retire, and have a baby all in the span of two years. This would allow for a sort of introduction to the games mechanics, offer a look into the uglier side of prewar life, and allow for some storytelling to sell that the protagonist really has lost everything once he/she emerges from the vault in 2277.

 

That's probably all bullshit, though. Considering it's a theory based on entirely conjectured assumptions. Anyway, the truth is that there is no way to be certain our personal roleplay characterizations will be impacted that much by the characterization that Beth has given already until the game comes out. Remember that we still don't know much about either protagonist, there's still plenty of blank spaces to imagine a character.

 

Well, that's my spiel. That, and $2.50 can get me a coffee.

[ElectricSheep]

What I do like:
- New HUD. Very simple but fits the theme much better than the Comic Sans one.
- Power Armor.
- Improved combat is still improved.
- Improved animations are still improved.

 

What I may like:
- I'm not sure about the art direction, however I've got enough of brown games so the new color palette is at the very least refreshing.
- Dynamic lighting, if true. The lack of thereof was one of my biggest grievances in every Bethesda game since Morrowind.

 

Wishful thinking:
- Hopefully the artworks are accurate and there are some larger areas of barren land this time around instead of ruins every 100 meters FO3 style. I like to have a lone wanderer moment and just walk around wastes with nothing but radscorpions or geckos marching in the distance. It's one of the main reasons why I consider FONV map better than FO3.

 

What I don't like:
- The integration of skills with perks. Moreover the new perk menu looks like it's designed for a 5 year old.
- Makeshift guns. Why would anyone use an improvised weapon over a pre-war? It's the same kind of nonsense as people living in make-shift houses mere miles away from preserved pre-war architecture in FO3. New Vegas ended this bullshit but Todd is doing it again.
- The annoying hacking mini-game. Why not just a skill check instead? Oh wait, right...
- The family guy and housewife thing is fucking bullshit. Also, the vault dweller motive was fun 18 years ago, now it's just boring. Again, New Vegas finally gave as a character that was well grounded in the setting but Todd had to bring back the explored to death cliche once more.
- I hate that fucking pip-boy glove. It's clunky, looks ridiculous with some outfits, makes new outfits harder to design, but foremost the screen is simply too small and you have to scroll a lot to find the item you're looking for.

 

What I most likely not going to like:
- Given it's a Bethesda game, the writing is probably going to be atrocious. "I'm looking for my father. Middle-aged guy. Maybe you've seen him?".
- The lack of choices and consequences and the lack grey morality - same reason as above.

 

As for the heavily discussed voiced protagonist, I have mixed feelings. At one hand it may add some depth to the character, but on the other it seems like a waste of resources that would be better spent somewhere else. Moreover quest mods will not blend into the game so nicely anymore.

 

 

Overall FO4 is probably going to be a fun game to an extent but a horrible Fallout - just like Fallout 3.

[Miin]

Ok so hmmm what I want in Fallout 4.

 

1. I want redius in Fallout 4

2. auto aim death mod....hate the console auto aim mechanic making me miss headshots and hit the wall just underneath instead, due to autoaim targeting chest...

3. DarnUI.....seriously cant live without it.

4. MCM mod menu same as above cant live without it.

 

lets see what else??

 

5. Upgraded animations for walking, running, sprinting.

6. CASM I can almost bet they will screw up saving yet again....

7. Dynamicamera and further 3d camera, hate the to the side look.

8. Dark nights ala Fellout.

9. Consequences to my actions that really are consequences.

 

 

[BruceWayne]

Here is a Shoddycast interview with the voice actress of the female player character, Courtenay Taylor (you may know her as Jack from Mass Effect and many more) and voice director, Kal-El Bogdanove.

 

[Guest Comrade DR. MAHUJ DIK]

fallout 4 uses the same engine skyrim uses, so what you people think its better:

Creating a modified version of sexlab for FO3 (because its quicker)

or making it from scratch?

[cossayos]

What I don't like:

- The integration of skills with perks. Moreover the new perk menu looks like it's designed for a 5 year old.

- Makeshift guns. Why would anyone use an improvised weapon over a pre-war? It's the same kind of nonsense as people living in make-shift houses mere miles away from preserved pre-war architecture in FO3. New Vegas ended this bullshit but Todd is doing it again.

- The annoying hacking mini-game. Why not just a skill check instead? Oh wait, right...

- The family guy and housewife thing is fucking bullshit. Also, the vault dweller motive was fun 18 years ago, now it's just boring. Again, New Vegas finally gave as a character that was well grounded in the setting but Todd had to bring back the explored to death cliche once more.

- I hate that fucking pip-boy glove. It's clunky, looks ridiculous with some outfits, makes new outfits harder to design, but foremost the screen is simply too small and you have to scroll a lot to find the item you're looking for.

 

What I most likely not going to like:

- Given it's a Bethesda game, the writing is probably going to be atrocious. "I'm looking for my father. Middle-aged guy. Maybe you've seen him?".

- The lack of choices and consequences and the lack grey morality - same reason as above.

 

As for the heavily discussed voiced protagonist, I have mixed feelings. At one hand it may add some depth to the character, but on the other it seems like a waste of resources that would be better spent somewhere else. Moreover quest mods will not blend into the game so nicely anymore.

 

 

Overall FO4 is probably going to be a fun game to an extent but a horrible Fallout - just like Fallout 3.

 

All good reasons for not buying it right away. Although I guess the Pip Boy remover will be one of the first mods just as in every other Fallout game.

 

But Bethesda being Bethesda, the story is one of the main points of concern. In Fallout 3 you could virtually be done with the main plot within three hours. Same in Sykrim. Only FNV, created mainly by Obsidian, offered more in terms of story.

 

The voiced protagonist is something that gives my a bit of a stomach ache too. Obviously you can't do a mainstream game without that anymore although it eats up resources that could be better used to polish other aspects of the product.

 

So it's wait and see. Mainly if Bethesda gives the modding community the same opportunities it gave them in previous games. I'm no modder, but I really came to appreciate Bethesda games for the content modders provided. The vanilla experience usually isn't that good.

 

[NickNozownik]

It would be really nice if we could change the voice of the protagonist. Like choose his/her voice type during the character creation. In my opinion they could put this time and effort into other aspects of the game, but if they're doing it then hopefully they'll do it right.

I hope there won't be any essential NPCs or quest items that are stuck in your inventory until you complete the quest. It's enough to put them in a place where raiders won't blow them into pieces and mind what you are selling/throwing out of your inventory.

 

I'll buy it a year or two after the release so there will be tons of mods to fix everything that I don't like. Number one - alternate start mod.

[Kendo 2]

9 Changes to Combat Gameplay in Fallout 4

The video commentary points out a few things people might have missed.

[bury02128]

fallout 4 uses the same engine skyrim uses, so what you people think its better:

Creating a modified version of sexlab for FO3 (because its quicker)

or making it from scratch?

I am really happy with SexLab especially with addition of non sexlab animations and upcoming 1.60 version. Also beastiality and devious mods library  is pretty good. So adopting and improving on this good foundation would be great. It would also dramatically decrease time we would have to wait for entire new sex framework ecosystem.

[Miin]

Skyrim have one big setback, you cant add new animations to the game without mods like FNIS. Hopefully this will change in Fallout 4 but we dont know if it will...yet. Simply put we dont know what the engine is or how it is changed from the skyrim one. Hopefully for the better but I havent seen any information about it.

[banshe]

For all the concerns over a voiced protagonist, I don't think it will impede modding in any way. People make quests without voiced NPCs, and maybe that's just me? But I'm okay with that. At the same time extending that lack of voice towards the player doesn't bother me any. Just grab one of those 'silent NPC' mods that doesn't skip dialogue because of the lack of a voice file, put subtitles on, and bam, I'm happy.

[Leito86]

Skyrim have one big setback, you cant add new animations to the game without mods like FNIS. Hopefully this will change in Fallout 4 but we dont know if it will...yet. Simply put we dont know what the engine is or how it is changed from the skyrim one. Hopefully for the better but I havent seen any information about it.

 

If they plan on resurrecting paid mods, then addressing that issue would be a fairly high priority given the controversy around that fishing mod.