Fallout 4: How it should've been.

[pootthedestroyer]

This sounds like an incredibly ambitious project, and I wish you all the luck. You've got some good ideas for making Power Armor less of a no-brainer, whole-game, only-leave-it-to-barter cluster of balance problems, but I'd still tread carefully. Personally I think the perk/skill/SPECIAL system needs a LOT of attention to make non-Power-Armor builds viable once the player gains access to a suit. My druthers would be to have Power Armor have qualitative impacts on your game-world experience (i.e., the opposite of "Hey new guy wearing Power Armor, we're the Brotherhood, you should join us and eventually get some Power Armor.") But that's a tall order.

 

I'd also advise you to be careful about VATS as it relates to melee builds. Right now, the Blitz perk, arguably combined with Sneak 4 and Ninja 3, turns stealth-melee from total garbage into a hilarious one-shot parade (though granted, unless you tune things to Bullet Sponge Mode, that describes every build.) Gunplay in FO4 is fun enough that the stark difference between a starter underpowered build/kit and an overpowered one isn't too terrible. Melee, however, starts off impossibly weak and incredibly unwieldy, and only becomes both powerful and smooth due to the (ab)use of sneaking and VATS Blitz attacks.

 

The reason I bring it up is because you seem to have a plan for making VATS a much more situational/conditional system, and you may not have thought about how crucial it is for later melee play.

[LordTonyZ]

I'd like to add something.

In Fallout 1 and 2 special melee weapons required ammo.

Super sledge, power fist, shishkebab, etc should require ammo.

 

 

 

Speaking of ammo when you switch weapons the ammo count resets making reloading pointless, this should have been fixed way back at Fallout 3.

[JarinArenos]

As the google features doc is open for comments, I hope you don't mind that I went through with a few. Much easier than trying to reply to everything in-thread.

 

Overall, absolutely loving what I'm seeing here. Really hoping that mod development goes well, once the CK is released.

[Laz3456]

Hello,

 

I am not a fan of the weapon degradation either but I would like to see a random chance of weapons jamming based on their quality and require a manual reload to clear. This would make sustained automatic fire less attractive and encourage more limited bursts especially with pipe weapons as their quality is poor. There could also be a critical jam that ruins the receiver until replaced if you carry on firing for long periods after the first jam?

 

There should also be a critical failure chance for energy weapons where they have energy build ups and if you don't reload in time they explode! That would certain cut down on the laser rifle spamming.

 

Maybe I am just too much of crusty old survivalist git and this wouldn't work for most people but I thought I'd share it anyway.

 

What about a mini nuke jam (it is based on the notorious PIAT after all), that would be fun!! Oh 5hiiiiiiiiiiit! A few seconds to drop it and run.

 

Cheers,

[JohnGrimm]

I feel like the time on this might be better spent focusing on just one thing. Huge sweeping gameplay mods like this tend to either take a long long time to be completed or are comprised of a lot of mediocre implementations rather than one good one.

 

It's not like others aren't already working on the same ideas and changes and it seems redundant to have one person or a small team working on thirty different major gameplay changes for one mod. For instance a well made hunger/thirst/sleep/disease system is an entire mod in itself. You obviously know how to write a design doc and have spent a good of time working through these various systems but I'd recommend just focusing on one thing and doing it well.

[JarinArenos]

I feel like the time on this might be better spent focusing on just one thing. Huge sweeping gameplay mods like this tend to either take a long long time to be completed or are comprised of a lot of mediocre implementations rather than one good one.

 

It's not like others aren't already working on the same ideas and changes and it seems redundant to have one person or a small team working on thirty different major gameplay changes for one mod. For instance a well made hunger/thirst/sleep/disease system is an entire mod in itself. You obviously know how to write a design doc and have spent a good of time working through these various systems but I'd recommend just focusing on one thing and doing it well.

I'm actually the opposite here. I totally get that you and others like to build a piecemeal experience by picking and choosing your mods. However, I much prefer to have a combined system that's designed to work together and balanced against itself. Besides, it sounds like this will already be a group of individual optional mods, just designed to work together, with features that can be toggled on/off.

 

I would hope that long-term, you can get a fair number of modders cooperating on a single major project (see: Project Nevada) rather than all building their own conflicting mods. I think "do a lot of things poorly or do one thing well" is a false choice.

Edited December 19, 2015 by JarinArenos

[RogueMatriarch]

This sounds like an incredibly ambitious project, and I wish you all the luck. You've got some good ideas for making Power Armor less of a no-brainer, whole-game, only-leave-it-to-barter cluster of balance problems, but I'd still tread carefully. Personally I think the perk/skill/SPECIAL system needs a LOT of attention to make non-Power-Armor builds viable once the player gains access to a suit. My druthers would be to have Power Armor have qualitative impacts on your game-world experience (i.e., the opposite of "Hey new guy wearing Power Armor, we're the Brotherhood, you should join us and eventually get some Power Armor.") But that's a tall order.

 

I'd also advise you to be careful about VATS as it relates to melee builds. Right now, the Blitz perk, arguably combined with Sneak 4 and Ninja 3, turns stealth-melee from total garbage into a hilarious one-shot parade (though granted, unless you tune things to Bullet Sponge Mode, that describes every build.) Gunplay in FO4 is fun enough that the stark difference between a starter underpowered build/kit and an overpowered one isn't too terrible. Melee, however, starts off impossibly weak and incredibly unwieldy, and only becomes both powerful and smooth due to the (ab)use of sneaking and VATS Blitz attacks.

 

The reason I bring it up is because you seem to have a plan for making VATS a much more situational/conditional system, and you may not have thought about how crucial it is for later melee play.

 

Going through the game without Power Armor is something I'd very much like to do as I hardly touched it in NV and Fo3 even if I got it due to my preferred method of sneaking around and headshotting people from afar. I was kinda miffed myself that it was pretty much required at some points, like taking down the Deathclaw in Lexington or storming the Super Mutant-infested Fort in the BoS questline, but it make sense at times. The SPECIAL system will be receiving a hefty amount of adjustments due to many things like Ammo Crafting depending on what perks you have but with Practice Makes Perfect, Weapon Skills are reintroduced which will benefit those who'd like their combat skills to improve as they're used more instead of the static abilities we have by default. (As in improve I mean you'll be able to reload faster, take down enemies using unique executions, etc).

 

Melee and Unarmed combat in Project Resurgence will be greatly expanded and improved upon, allowing usage of them throughout the entire game. You'll be able to do executions in VATS, cut off limbs, crush skulls, and do devastating moves like those available in New Vegas with the right perks/skills. As for VATS itself, only Immersive VATS will affect how it performs. Said performance may vary depending on how it alters gameplay during testing.

 

 

I'd like to add something.

In Fallout 1 and 2 special melee weapons required ammo.

 

Super sledge, power fist, shishkebab, etc should require ammo.

 

 

 

Speaking of ammo when you switch weapons the ammo count resets making reloading pointless, this should have been fixed way back at Fallout 3.

 

That is something I actually plan on implementing once the GECK comes out. In New Vegas, I was fascinated to learn that the developers wanted to make the Power Fist variants consume ammo but, unfortunately, could not due to time restraints. The Shishkabob will consume Flame Fuel, the Power Fist itself can be either Pneumatic or Nuclear-powred (A la Greased Lightning), and the PF variants will consume their respective sources as well; the Ballistic Fist uses 12ga/20ga shells while Zap Gloves are powered by Small Energy Cells (another returning ammo).

 

As the google features doc is open for comments, I hope you don't mind that I went through with a few. Much easier than trying to reply to everything in-thread.

 

Overall, absolutely loving what I'm seeing here. Really hoping that mod development goes well, once the CK is released.

 

No problem! Already implemented several of your suggestions. As for actual development, it should go by rather fast seeing how the GECK for FO4 is a combination of Skyrim's Creation Kit and the GECK from Fo3/NV. If they used NV's version, then expect a very speedy development and implementation of many features!

 

Hello,

 

I am not a fan of the weapon degradation either but I would like to see a random chance of weapons jamming based on their quality and require a manual reload to clear. This would make sustained automatic fire less attractive and encourage more limited bursts especially with pipe weapons as their quality is poor. There could also be a critical jam that ruins the receiver until replaced if you carry on firing for long periods after the first jam?

 

There should also be a critical failure chance for energy weapons where they have energy build ups and if you don't reload in time they explode! That would certain cut down on the laser rifle spamming.

 

Maybe I am just too much of crusty old survivalist git and this wouldn't work for most people but I thought I'd share it anyway.

 

What about a mini nuke jam (it is based on the notorious PIAT after all), that would be fun!! Oh 5hiiiiiiiiiiit! A few seconds to drop it and run.

 

Cheers,

 

 

Degradation and Jamming are planned to be individual subfeatures under the "Item Condition" category, which itself can be found under Immersion. Critical Jams sound nasty and a lovely thing to implement as well, with how often they occur depending on your Luck stat. As for EW failure, thats another interesting idea! Perhaps if you fire the weapon to much, it'll start to glow and explode a la Mininuke if you don't let it cool down. After all, I don't see any heatsinks on any of the weapons! Laser Weapons would have a lower chance of Crit Failures due to firing, well, lasers but anything that increases damage output (IE: Maximized or Overcharged Capacitors, Sniper Barrels) or firerate (Automatic barrels) increase that chance quite a bit due to drawing more energy from the Microfusion Cell.

 

Plasma Weapons, on the other hand, have a much higher Crit Failure chance due to how much heat plasma generates. If the internal magnetic stabilizers, which help direct the plasma down the barrel, were too be overloaded and/or damaged, then there's a very good chance that the weapon will explode and most likely gooify you and anything else within a small radius.

 

Guns will also have jamming but that depends on their RoF and the type of ammunition being used. Some types increase chances of causing a jam due to their shoddy nature while others lessen it with their quality (Match Rounds for example).

I feel like the time on this might be better spent focusing on just one thing. Huge sweeping gameplay mods like this tend to either take a long long time to be completed or are comprised of a lot of mediocre implementations rather than one good one.

 

It's not like others aren't already working on the same ideas and changes and it seems redundant to have one person or a small team working on thirty different major gameplay changes for one mod. For instance a well made hunger/thirst/sleep/disease system is an entire mod in itself. You obviously know how to write a design doc and have spent a good of time working through these various systems but I'd recommend just focusing on one thing and doing it well.

 

I feel like the time on this might be better spent focusing on just one thing. Huge sweeping gameplay mods like this tend to either take a long long time to be completed or are comprised of a lot of mediocre implementations rather than one good one.

 

It's not like others aren't already working on the same ideas and changes and it seems redundant to have one person or a small team working on thirty different major gameplay changes for one mod. For instance a well made hunger/thirst/sleep/disease system is an entire mod in itself. You obviously know how to write a design doc and have spent a good of time working through these various systems but I'd recommend just focusing on one thing and doing it well.

I'm actually the opposite here. I totally get that you and others like to build a piecemeal experience by picking and choosing your mods. However, I much prefer to have a combined system that's designed to work together and balanced against itself. Besides, it sounds like this will already be a group of individual optional mods, just designed to work together, with features that can be toggled on/off.

 

I would hope that long-term, you can get a fair number of modders cooperating on a single major project (see: Project Nevada) rather than all building their own conflicting mods. I think "do a lot of things poorly or do one thing well" is a false choice.

 

Project Resurgence has certain themes when it comes to creating and/or developing features, two of which are detail and realism. The former is the most important in this case as there are those like JohnGrimm who feel like Project Resurgence will be a mess of half-baked mods, which is completely understandable. There's a lot on PR's plate but nothing is planned to be half-eaten, with each and every feature getting the same in-depth exploration even if it's a minor one. It's probably going to take a few solid months of work, hell maybe a year plus, but Project Resurgence is going to chance how we play Fallout 4 just like Wanderer's Edition for Fallout 3 and New Vegas' Project Nevada.

 

As for JarinArenos, I'm glad you have hope for PR and I plan for it to deliver everything it has to offer without fail. A majority of the features will be optional but there are some that intertwine with others so much that they may be mandatory. However, said features will be those that affect gameplay in a positive way and not hamper it such as ammo crafting and a Crafting Workbench a la NV/Fo3.

Edited December 20, 2015 by Mavrickhunter2

[MioneRCP]

If a lot of feature will be optional why not focus on the main features (ones on all the time) get that shipped out as an alpha (for wide testing) and added each optional feature in bit at a time.

 

My Main problem with these mods comes down to if they will work for my machine, take project Nevada for example or Wanderers edition, I'd love to play them but I could never get them to run on my machine.

 

That might be because the Author recommend FOmod or Mod Organizer while I use the NMM, but if you ship out an early alpha you can test for the problems early when you have much less to debug; you'll free up further development time.

Edited December 20, 2015 by Mione RCP

[zezia333]

I do hope this mod becomes a reality. Though I have to ask how would cybernetic limbs work. I mean is it possible to change the model of your character's right arm while having different armors on?

[RogueMatriarch]

If a lot of feature will be optional why not focus on the main features (ones on all the time) get that shipped out as an alpha (for wide testing) and added each optional feature in bit at a time.

 

My Main problem with these mods comes down to if they will work for my machine, take project Nevada for example or Wanderers edition, I'd love to play them but I could never get them to run on my machine.

 

That might be because the Author recommend FOmod or Mod Organizer while I use the NMM, but if you ship out an early alpha you can test for the problems early when you have much less to debug; you'll free up further development time.

 

The main features are pretty simple ones to be honest, like ammo crafting, expanded mod slots for weapons and armor (including PA), and the reintroduction of the Crafting Workbench from previous games. They won't take too long to implement at all since they're mostly planned out already. An alpha will be released as soon as the aforementioned, and hopefully a few others as well, are completed.

 

As for your machine handling Project Resurgence, it will probably depend on how/what features you have enabled along with your graphics card and how much RAM you have dedicated to the game.

 

I do hope this mod becomes a reality. Though I have to ask how would cybernetic limbs work. I mean is it possible to change the model of your character's right arm while having different armors on?

 

I haven't thought about the details much, tbh, but I imagine that the cybernetic limbs would act in a similar way to apparel; "covering" the player's actual limb and having the model replaced with a robotic counterpart. Armor and clothes would simply go over it like any other part of the player model.