Open Letter to Bethesda.

[South8028]

8 hours ago, fraquar said:

Every world has realism...

Where people derail the train is trying to impart our realism into FO4 realism.

I'm not talking Physics (it is what it is) - I'm talking social/cultural.

In a Single Player Game - everyone has that ability though.    It's THEIR game.

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In the end, Fallout universe is a canvas that anyone can turn into whatever they want.

Every Single Player game is.

Just don't try to fall on your sword convincing me your vision is THE vision - we already suffer from that mistake in real life.   You be you - don't try to make me accept you.

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Disclaimer:   God knows these are needed nowadays.   You/Your wasn't personal - it was general.

what I didn't like about fo4: *The game often comes across objects and cards that are not carefully made. The guys were in a hurry and did not have time to pay attention to the little things. In interiors there are many objects that partially fall into the plane, or even at an angle to the planes. *many logical holes in the main plot. * mirrors do not work correctly. There is no support for at least one video format. * Very poorly implemented SM.

What I liked about fo4. *World. This is the world of 60s comics. Cold War folklore, social caricature of carporatocracy, crazy characters. It turned out to be fun. *Personalization of the actor. *Construction! A huge backlog for modding, which has no analogues in other games. *Kellogg's brain.

[fraquar]

The issue with development can be further understood by watching in particular one Youtube video by Timothy Cain (original Fallout 1 developer).

Specifically:   Game Development Caution - Part 1

Rare to get the inner workings of what the game industry development landscape looks like - like this.     

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There are other videos, but this one pretty much hit the nail on the head.    

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[363rdChemicalCompany]

I want to reenagge some general points.

As fraquar said single player games are our own sandbox.

I do however try to keep my mods grounded and not go too crazy with over-the-top mods that will make it harder to suspend disbelief. This is important to me, to make suspenion of disbelief easier.

So Luxors texture improvements are a no brainer, I am fortunate enought to have what is likely top 10% hardware, so I have no issues with running 4k anything.

No TVs for helmets, No flamboyant over the top outfits for my character or NPCs. Who would have the resources to create those in this poverty stricken wasteland and except of being an official in  large settlement, a suit and tie would be completely out of place in the wasteland.

The Firearms in this universe are a bit odd. The Devs involved either did not understand Firearms, or did not like Firearms or likely both. Otherwise cannot explain the WW1 style waterjacket on an "Assault Rifle". So replacers for oddities like this,  are mods I am willing to spend a plug-in slot on.

DC Security outfits are also quite odd. So yes, "Loaded Bases" mod has attmepted  a, IMO good, explanation for those in a dialogue, , but these outfits pushing right at the line for me flirting with fantasy rather than SciFI Post-Apoc.

So I use  a fast equipment mod to requip the DC sec men with Army fatigues, complete sets of Light and/or medium ceramic Lvl IV plates (aka "Combat Armor" in this game), Sunglasses, and Neeher's "Select Assault Rifle".

This is a rifle mod I add to a lof of folks in the game, settlers too,. it looks like a Vietnam Era CAR15, "falloutisized" with thicker receiver, much more weight and a left side charging handle rather than a rear one. Quite plausible for this universe IMO. The DC security get a slightly leveled version to reflect greater resources that DC has. Most settlers just get the basic one which performs exactly as a Short Combat rifle in the game.

And of course settlements , I avoid the TFBs that create thse beautiful perfect cities and prefer a more gritty style (one can check my mods section for pics of my own TFBs) so it fits the Fallout universe but still sets my settlers up for success.

I am also not a huge fan of these oddball legendary effects on weapons, too much magic involved for my taste and there was none of that in Fallout 1 and 2 and I guess thats the style of universe I like to steer my Fallout 4 set-ups towards.

So to get combat power I use a mod that un-nerfs the minigun and use that (supplied by easy ammo crafting mods).

In a world without magic, (this is not Skyrim), heavy weapons is where firepower is at. I also added a mod that adds a version of the M2 Browning HMG to be carried/wielded by Power Armor.

Resources I just cheat console myself on  a large scale into Sanctuary .

Why, isnt that unimmersive? I believe not, since I just got out of  a giant uninhabited vault, who is to say I and my helpers can't do a multimonth scrapping effort on it?

That would keep me in scrap materials for generations to come and this effort could not be visble to me as the player simply due to game and time limitations.

(The only unrealistic thing I do, affects the bodies of women. Turning the gulag survivor bodies of the vanilla NPCs into beautiful hour glass figures via CBBE and clothing mods. Nothing over the top cartoonish mind you.

Those figures could be possessed by real women, albeit perhaps only the top 5% of bodies on a large college campus perhaps. Back when I was young and good looking, I would date women like that and I treasure the memory.)

 

So the bulk of my mods seem to go towards aligning the game with the spirit and universe Fallout 1 and 2: Monsters, yes, high end meds (stimpacks, radway) yes, magic armors and magic weapons no.

[showler]

The guns are easy to explain.

"Make retro atomic punk futuristic guns for the game"

"What the hell does that mean?"

"I don't know.  Just google some old guns and mix and match parts with sci-fi guns."

 

Personally, the only thing I wanted from the guns was separate ones for power armor and non-power armor with super mutants having to use the power armor ones due to size.

[363rdChemicalCompany]

5 minutes ago, showler said:

 

Personally, the only thing I wanted from the guns was separate ones for power armor and non-power armor with super mutants having to use the power armor ones due to size.

This is fair.

I also agree the big weapons should be PA only for normal humans but SMs can use them.

[fraquar]

This is where I think Fallout TV gets it right.

Even in Power Armor - you'd need to LEAVE your Power Armor to reload it (any conventional weapon)- unless you so happen to have a handy-dandy squire at your side.   Fine control sensory dexterity?   Faghettaboutit.   

Even reloading the largest conventional ammo there is (12 Gauge) would be an exercise in futility.   Hmm, can't get close enough to the loading gate with these huge mitts - and even if I could how to shove the round in with my thumb when I can't feel it?

Sure, you could probably reload a Rocket Launcher or a Fat Man - but that is about it.

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People can play with Power Armor, collect ever variant on the planet - knock yourself out - it's your game.

As for me - in my game I avoid Power Armor like the plague.    I'll grab a suit to transport it to say Red Rocket and mount it on the roof as an ornament. 

 

[showler]

That would be overcome fairly quickly with PA designed weaponry.  Can't load a shotgun shell, switch drums instead.

[fraquar]

Before we get into PA designed weaponry - what are we designing it for?

Standard traditional small arms ammo - or a pistol/rifle that fires 20 to 40mm rounds?

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There will never be conventional weapons that make any sense used in PA - if the player has to be the one reloading it - except if the weapons, ammo and magazines are so humongous they couldn't possibly be firing tiny ammo anyway.

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We are essentially talking 20-40mm pistols here.

And lets be honest, if they have the blink of an eye reload animations many people make for modded conventional weapons - they'd be so OP it wouldn't be funny.

 

Edited 16 hours ago by fraquar