Fallout 3 - Post-Play Interview @ GamesRadar

Dhruin

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Games Radar has a full interview between Emil Pagliarulo, Todd Howard and PC Gamer's Dan Stapleton. If you haven't read Dan's preview, it's arguably the best of them (and should be, since he was given 5 hours with the game - much more than most) - and the interview also gives some great insights. The Q&A starts with a conversation about the Family quest from the preview, so do it read to understand the context:
PCG: Are there any ways to get through that quest besides shooting or talking like I did?
Emil: When you go in talking, the main thing is how you get to [the son], and you did it with the Lady Killer perk, but there are a lot of ways to get through there.

PCG: Do you have a rule for a bare-minimum number of ways to solve a quest?
Todd: No, we just do whatever comes naturally. We made a list initially showing the paths, so that we weren’t doing an overabundance of stealth paths versus other skills so that there was a good matrix, but if something fit in one we did it, and if it didn’t fit…
Emil: But as the game grew, just like we ended up making the game bigger, putting more stuff in, I think the quests themselves started to expand. We realized during playthroughs, you know what, there’s no talking path through this quest, or there’s no stealth path, so we went back and added that in. There are fewer quests and fewer NPCs, but probably just as much dialogue as Oblivion, just in all the variations.
Todd: It’s like when you were doing the bomb quest, and you were asking “Can I do this this way?” And so through testing we asked the same things, like “What if I kill Lucas Sims?” And ok, you have to go to the son. That kind of stuff.
Emil: We wanted to cover as many of those bases as we could.
More information.
 
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Great interview! Really improved my view on Fallout 3, now I'm actually slightly optimistic. Might just buy this game after all.
 
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We're stoooopid gamers

And then they’d hit level three, and they’d get their skill points, and… where’s the perk? They don’t even understand. It’s like “I thought you get a perk when you level up?”.

And they say, they are not dumbing the game?!?!??
 
Sorry, Ergolius, but I don't quite understand your comment ... ?
 
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Pretty clear to me, he's simply stating that Todd's comment about people not understanding the leveling system illuminates the Beth policy of dumbing down game mechanics.
 
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Rocket Science

In NWN (2) you get skillpoints each level, 1 attribute point only every four levels, a feat every third level and fighters get extra feat every second level. And that's not really a rocket science for me. :p

Or perhaps, because I'm an european. :p
 
Pretty clear to me, he's simply stating that Todd's comment about people not understanding the leveling system illuminates the Beth policy of dumbing down game mechanics.
Maybe it reflects poorly on my intelligence, but I did indeed ask myself the Question why I didn't get a perk on my second levelup when I first played Fallout. I understood the mechanism soon enough (if I may say so in my defense),and it was a minor thing, but the question certainly remained why the hell they did it that way. So I am fine with that particular change by Bethesda. I agree that choosing perks is the most fun part of the levelup process in Fallout.

I agree that there was some good stuff in the preview and interviews. I think the chances aren't bad that I will enjoy this game for what it is. However (and maybe surprisingly for someone who loves first person RPG's, and exploration gameplay), for some reason the videos I have seen just didn't feel right. It is probably the run-encounter random opposition- fight style shown here that reminds a bit too much of Oblivion for some reason. For some reason it feels wrong for a fallout game. One should be able to get over that though, I guess.
 
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Okay, I understood it now.

In NWN (2) you get skillpoints each level, 1 attribute point only every four levels, a feat every third level and fighters get extra feat every second level. And that's not really a rocket science for me. :p

Or perhaps, because I'm an european. :p

Or maybe you're playing the "wrong" system ?

This ... hm, how could I call it ? This way of "upgrading" characters is very different in TDE, the only system I know a bit deeper.

There, you just don't get new skills or whatever every third level.

Now, with the 4th edition of TDE, things have become more complex. I have not much experience with the 4th and 4.1 editions, so I can't say too much on that topic.

However, different rule sets offer different ways of "growing a character up", so to say.

What you call "receiving a perk" is something I do not know from the TDE system, because in the 2nd and 3rd editions ... Well, I don't remember that this system allowed you to receive new skills and whatnot. The range of skills was quite big, but fixed nevertheless.

I could be wrong, though, because I haven't played the P&P version of it too many times ... My experience is limited.

And well, what i wanted to say is this : I'm not missing something with not receiving anything but experience points which I can distribute at the next level-up. (In TDE 4.0 and 4.1 things are a bit fdifferent, though ...)

So it all depends from which system from you look at it (system-POV).
 
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As long as there's a level 20 cap, I don't think it's a big issue - they're obviously going to keep us from becoming too powerful, something they did not do in Morrowind or Oblivion.
 
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That preview & interview made me very happy. I was planning on pre-ordering it anyway, but that made me alot more optomistic about the game.

I'd have to agree, as long as the level cap is 20 (so 19 perks per playthrough) and there are at least 40 or so useful perks I don't see the problem. I haven't noticed if there's a full perk list released yet (or even a total number).

And in this case I don't see it as "dumbing down". Simplifying and streamlining a system doesn't *always* mean dumbing down (see Deus Ex IW for real dumbing down). Sounds like an acceptable change to me. But then most of the die-hard fallout fans are like Abe Simpson..."I'm old and change frightens me!" so I understand the whining.
 
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I must say too, that those 2 5 hour hands on previews has been very positive for me.

Felt that the other previews focused on the wrong things and was either to pro Fallout 1 & 2 or to pro Oblivion, the latter most common and showed it alot in their previews.

Glad to hear about the quests and the many ways to solve those and haven't heard of any quest popups either, which makes me happy.
Also nice to see that completing a quest doesn't end there, but it can change your future experience. Like when he finds out Mr. Burke wants him dead.

So I think it looks promising.
 
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But then most of the die-hard fallout fans are like Abe Simpson..."I'm old and change frightens me!" so I understand the whining.
You call dumbing down change? Bethesda understands nothing about what the original Fallout good. Nothing.
 
You call dumbing down change? Bethesda understands nothing about what the original Fallout good. Nothing.

The original was good because of the quest options, atmosphere, and writing. I think they understand this. I don't know if they can match it, but after reading these two previews I am hopeful they can at least do it justice.
 
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Mr. Guest.

I never said dumbing down = change. I said the change being discussed here (1 perk for each level instead of every other level) didn't seem like dumbing down to me. I also never said the game won't be "dumbed down" in any way. That remains to be seen now doesn't it?

Learn to read.
 
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Firstly I gotta say that I really enjoyed reading Dan's preview. It was informative and critial, even so it managed to keep that neutral viewpoint to the subject. It was simply good journalism which a rare thing to see in e3 previews.

Secondly I don't care if traits are going to be merged with perks. If it makes sense gameplay wise, so be it. Many traits in f2 were quite unbalanced, some being totally useless while others stupidly overpovered.. What i didn't like hearing is that none of the perks would have any negative effects like traits did. Having negative effects would make choises harder and more intresting, but at the end i can get over it.

Regarding level cap thing, its a good thing that bent has given some thought to balancing issues compared to horrible leveling crap in oblvion. Furthermore I like that they have included different paths for solving quests. Hopefully those quests have same ammount of different outcomes and consequences as well!
 
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