Top 5 Missed opportunities of the Commonwealth

[ddavies10693]

Yeah that is a good point. I miss the previous fallout games where there were different kinds of "raiders" like the Khans, the Fiends etc. Even Skyrim wasn't as bad.

 

It would have made more sense for another group to fill the shoes of the "creature" meatbag, bullet sponge faceless enemy to shoot. Gunners just make. no. sense.

Gunners need an overhaul where they only attack if you're within 5 meters or something.

 

Exactly, they don't need to be an entire faction and stuff, but at least some sort of intelligence would've been appreciated for both Gunners and raiders

[Ethreon]

 

Yeah that is a good point. I miss the previous fallout games where there were different kinds of "raiders" like the Khans, the Fiends etc. Even Skyrim wasn't as bad.

 

It would have made more sense for another group to fill the shoes of the "creature" meatbag, bullet sponge faceless enemy to shoot. Gunners just make. no. sense.

Gunners need an overhaul where they only attack if you're within 5 meters or something.

 

Exactly, they don't need to be an entire faction and stuff, but at least some sort of intelligence would've been appreciated for both Gunners and raiders

 

Gunners are not raiders. They're a fairly organized mercenary group, they're expected to be militaristic, but not shoot everyone on sight type. Same as the Talon, they're transformed into cannon fodder without any sensible reasoning. I'd love to be able to take missions from them, or against them, or be just .. neutral with them. You know, like the Boomers of NV.

[Fatalmasterpiece]

Yeah it's crazy but like, what if there were more people in the Commonwealth who didn't want to shoot at you and weren't part of your personal army (BoS, MM, I)... Right now it's rare when you find someone neutral in the CW and I just look at them like, who the f are you? :huh:

 

So I'm writing up a story line for an expansion on Jared's chem-sight raiders which may turn into a quest mod. The problem I keep running into is that the PC just outright kills everyone involved in the plot without so much as talking to them. So it's going to require adding in raiders who don't attack you on sight and hoping the PC doesn't just try to kill them (I hate essential npcs, it's so lazy) or adding more terminal entries.

[ddavies10693]

 

 

Yeah that is a good point. I miss the previous fallout games where there were different kinds of "raiders" like the Khans, the Fiends etc. Even Skyrim wasn't as bad.

 

It would have made more sense for another group to fill the shoes of the "creature" meatbag, bullet sponge faceless enemy to shoot. Gunners just make. no. sense.

Gunners need an overhaul where they only attack if you're within 5 meters or something.

Exactly, they don't need to be an entire faction and stuff, but at least some sort of intelligence would've been appreciated for both Gunners and raiders

Gunners are not raiders. They're a fairly organized mercenary group, they're expected to be militaristic, but not shoot everyone on sight type. Same as the Talon, they're transformed into cannon fodder without any sensible reasoning. I'd love to be able to take missions from them, or against them, or be just .. neutral with them. You know, like the Boomers of NV.

While according to in game lore, they are different from Raiders, their AI is basically just raider AI. "shoot at everything immediately with no regard to your own life" which is annoying. Why even include them if you're gonna do that?

[Fatalmasterpiece]

Supposedly there was a lot of cut content from the game such as the fact that The Combat zone was supposed to be a location the player could visit and participate in fights. This leads me to believe Bethesda originally intended to do a bit more with the raider faction and possibly the Gunner faction but due to time constraints they were cut down to simple bullet sponges.

[Ignis010]

I'd like to put my two cents to this very interesting discussion.

 

1. Living in the vault.

Ever since first Fallout game was released, the series focus on portraying the post-nuclear war period of the setting. And rightly so - after all Fallout games are made as post-apocalyptic RPGs. Pre-war times are rather uninteresting for me, so I'm glad we only experience those through intros or opening sequence like Fallout 4 did it.

 

But what Fallout series (especially the modern games, which have the required technology) neglected is the period between entering the vault and getting out to explore the wasteland. It is a most interesting period for me, prolonged isolation and psychosis, being aware of the nuclear holocaust on the surface, dealing with whatever sinister experiment Vault-Tec prepared for the vault dwellers. This makes a perfect setting for at least a part of game for me!

 

Fallout 1 and 4 managed to get close to this idea. In Fallout 1 you always had this one special place to return to, a safe, reliable and clean place where you could rest. Even if it was only for the sake of roleplaying, there were no survival and settlement managing regarding Vault 13 in Fallout 1. You had to find the chip for the Vault to survive and that was it. Fallout 4 on the other hand managed to grasp something else - Vault 81 (spoilers ahead), after completing the quest you are given the chance to stay in the vault and live inside your own quarter. Which is cool. But still - no workshop, no more quests, no managing. You've only got a bed where you can sleep and place to store stuff.

 

What I'd love to see is a merge of those two ideas. You start the game and begin your life in the vault, pick a profession maybe, do some radiant quests for a few first days. But you can clearly see from the get-go that conditions are harsh, supplies are low, something is clearly wrong - maybe Vault-Tec left you with only 20-40 years worth of food and water? How the overseer will respond to this crysis? And then the game introduces you to the wasteland, but still - the vault is still there, people inside trying to survive and they *are* counting on you to help them. Maybe later you could help them to establish a settlement outside the vault? But what about the raiders? Maybe someone will try to hire Gunners to raid the vault for precious technology? Maybe BoS will see vault dwellers unworthy of using pre-war tech? Just let us experience the early struggles of the vault dweller! Opportunities are infinite here.

 

But instead we got a frozen graveyard under ground, to which you return to only to pick up the Cyrolator or gaze at your dead spouse.

 

Which gets me to another part of the topic.

 

2. Your spouse

I understand Fallout 4 creators wanted to give the players another source of motivation (apart from the Shaun thing) - vengeance. But heck, why would I want to take revenge for my dead in-game wife? I just met her! Who is she anyway? You know what would be hundred times more interesting in terms of gameplay and storytelling? Keeping her alive! Helping her deal with the mental breakdown she might experience after losing her son and going out into the wasteland for the first time. Actually taking care of her. This is what would bond me with her, this is what would make her essential for me. And just then, dear Fallout 4 creators, you should attempt to take her from me.

 

That's all, what do you guys think about this?

Edited April 22, 2016 by Ignis010

[virsia]

well for it size game this big is very lacking neutral parties, is surely need to take into consideration and you know I think now fallout more like minecraft since more buildings involved, maybe they tried to implement those self building faction with minuteman but missing amount of notable side quest is surprising, the big Boston reduce into diamond city and good neighbor there is only 2 decent habitable area here that wont shoot on sight but the quest related to this settlement also very limited in numbers you can count them by your fingers.

 

for the starting point they're made interesting intro but lacking the depths of what prewar looks like, at least try to show decency to make them go to park 1st and then go home then you can nuke the hell outa Boston, this will leave beginning marks as as emotional source to truly avenge someone you care, all they do is left sentimental wedding ring, with very little in-game memories what it's supposed to be, and worse after meeting your fist companion the longest time is one weeks before you go screw my dead spouse i'm dating now, this is messed up.... supposedly, very role breaking point in my opinion.

 

the damned wild goose chase about kellog can be made longer than just nick can pin point the perp in just 5 minutes of talk ahh come on what sort of detective works is that?????

so basically player can do this, leave vault>concord>diamond>nick>kill kellog> start into act II the whole cycle could be done in the less than 4 hours, what sort of role playing is that??? is fallout starting to be like call of duty? shoot first talk later......

 

faction is okay being all gray but put some baseline and details and more longer questline for every faction, RR being as secretive just let you waltz in with just helping retrieve 1 prototype, ahh come on is trust really that cheap? this is wasteland trust don't come cheap. i don't mind karma no longer exist, but put appropriate punishment and gain for all those good/evil things, not just caps and caps and not more minecraft materials, it's will be appropriate for player to adjust first, by making sanctuary project wider, longer and have more variant, i mean you're just out if raider invested city of concord and should be they your rival 1st before Preston invite you to his minuteman fold, i mean from fighting raider and then appointed to be general just too fast.

 

there is other disappointment that I rather not talking like no decent/definitive ending all that hundreds hours of game play and player only see 10 seconds of ending that's almost has notable difference between one and another, and just that war never change bullcrap closing, if Bethesda intent to make those lines catchy there need to add serious weight in it?

 

seems like Bethesda now just making half baked sandwich without any bacon, lettuce, tomato and not even a mayo and cheese in it? is that a proper sandwich? no it's just plain bread.... bland and leave bad aftertaste......

Edited May 8, 2016 by virsia

[ddavies10693]

I know a lot of people hated the beginning of Fallout 3 because it was pretty slow, but I actually found it interesting. It established an actual bond with the player's father, and you even played as a baby for few minutes, which was so unique and different than anything I've ever seen since.

 

I would've liked this same level of detail and care put into the beginning of this game as well, instead of about 5 minutes of nothing then BOOM apocalypse. Really it's just such a waste of potential. After leaving the vault, you don't even care you wife is dead (you may not even know her first name actually), and Shaun is more like an after thought. They took what everyone thought was just a test demo at E3, (when Todd Howard showed the first gameplay footage) and made it the actual prologue for the whole game. Literally nothing was added, they just cut parts out to avoid spoilers.

[Fatalmasterpiece]

Good point. More prewar gameplay and bonding time with your family would have been great. They would have had you learn to use weapons with a bb gun like FO3, take that trip to the park you talk about and much more. Even playable flash back memories would have been great. What's up with the Memory Den seeming really half assed and not being able to send you back to any cool prewar stuff?

[ddavies10693]

I didn't even consider the memory den actually, but that is a great point. It is pretty underutilized as well. Would've loved a Total Recall-esque mission involving that place. And I mean the original movie, not the new one.