Surprising post made on Interplay site about Fallout 3 Online

http://interplay.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=10489

Not bad?

"Surprising post" made by you, eh? I can see why the Codexians were so happy about inflicting you on us.

Crispy, if you're paying attention, I blame you, pal.

After thoroughly considering all my options, I am confident that I can create a mod for users that will allow them to behold a semi-classic online gaming experience within the confinements of fallout 3.

You will need to be patient and also help me be patient as well so that I may put my best work into this project and give it a deserving effort.

Here are some things I know for a fact about the time-table of this mod:
1. I can guarantee that less than a year from now , if I keep a good pace, I will have programmed ENOUGH where anyone can play.

Here is an outline of what would be available.
1. Players fully represented in game in regard to movement, npc appearance, facing direction, standard stats such as health, player respawn, jumping, weapon holstering and players will have inventory support.
2. In-game chat interface for sending messages to everyone else connected to the server.
3. Some additional UI to help testers and myself
4. Ammunition
5. And more! perhaps much more..

The reality is that the milestones for me will be supremely hard to reach. At least for me it will feel that way.

I am confident I can work at this and have something that any of us can test and not have to worry about how reliable or stable the game is.

I am certain this will have to go through a very long evolution till we can reasonably say the mod is completely better than singleplayer.

I have coded hundreds of lines of code over the past two days and although I haven't even tested my code, it is good that i haven't, because the framework isn't quite finished.

I have done a multiplayer project before for this game, and didn't get too far. But back then i was using memory read/writes on script variables, which i actually had to write a scanner to find. The technology wasn't the point though, i only wanted to deliver on a proof of concept .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Evp69206CYQ

The video above is a recording by one of my first testers. The text blurred text is showing both of our positions and the colored box is actually the chat box. i wish i had a better demo video on hand, but for sure we could type and send message into the box and both of us could see it on our ends.

I know it is a very minor kind of proof, but since then i have made enough preparations to devote to using some one's public source (FOSE, Fallout Script Extender). FOSE is a huge huge step up compared to just using the memory scans I had before, but more importantly i was able to finally understand the source enough so that I could call any of the game's script functions.

did i say any? yes i did. any of the game's script functions. to be able to use those outside of the editor, really opens up a pathway for me to directly control many of the things already covered by those scripting commands.

Before I press submit, I want you all to know that I don't care what you think would "not work", because it likely is based on the fact that the game is singleplayer. it ticks me off more than people who demand a 1 to 1 ratio upfront because they only understand what they have seen already polished releases.

Ah. Prosper. The Ed Wood of videogame modding.

I'm still trying to work out why it was posted on the Interplay boards and not the Bethesda ones. How strange.

Hey guys. I guess I can give you some schedule updates.

By the end of the month a fairly decent testing will be taking place. This includes, GET READY FOR IT, MOVEMENT WITH REAL WALKING instead of warping to a destination.

That is a huge improvement and correct me if i am wrong, i have not seen such a thing in people who tried to mod Oblivion to be multiplayer.

So real movement of other players in your game world. only 8 players will be allowed per world, and likely will stay that way even after closed testing is passed. Although that player count may be lifted due the flexibility of the source code.

So that last paragraph also should tell you that there will be a potential for players to select game worlds other than just 1. More game worlds can also be added to the list by the server. once again, these may fill up quick, only 8 per.

I don't want to spill all the details because then there will be very little to surprise everyone with once i announce the date of the first test. so

- Chat messaging (talk with other players in the game world you are in)
- Menus like the pipboy won't freeze the game. (this was actually never a real problem. simple edit . does not work well with VATS howeveR)
- New menus designed for multiplayer friendly experience (design for functionality for the moment)
- BEST OF ALL, Players for the first test will all be essentially immortal. Weapons ranging from pistols to machine gun to energy weapons will be usable. Weapons like grenade for causing explosions will also be usable. Albeit the most fun will be with grenades and fatmans/rocket launchers when the players blow the hell out of each other. NO TARGETING, think of this as real time attacks that will graphically be in sync if you haven't tried to hack your client. AGAIN, you will be immortal and so you can blow the shit out each other and shoot each other but no real damage will be done, you will just go unconscious perhaps.