Contraptions- how did Beth go so wrong

[zanity]

I love physics based puzzle games, and still fondly recall that 'armadillo' one that was a youtube sensation when games discovered 'exploits' that made for the most astonished user crafted levels.

 

But what the heck has that got to do with Fallout? The combat in FO4, for a game with little else, is- in a word- rubbish. The combat AI is completely atrocious- possibly the worst that's ever been seen in a game of this form. The faction storylines and quests (especially the bad-guy factions) are just terrible.

 

It is of no surprise that most gamers hoped Beth would attempt to inject some life back into the game via STORY DLC, as seen with FO3 and NV. But story DLC costs money to make. On the other hand, settlement DLC can be churned out at a HUNDREDTH of the dev cost.

 

FO4 already has 'contraption' mods- but you'd hardly know it given how little downloaded they are. This shows the true demand for this type of content in FO4.

 

And what FO4 needed most of all, via mods OR updates, was a massive improvement in NPC AI and animation/physics functionality that would add native functions available to users of the CK- so future mods could put back into the game what Beth so clearly left out. In its current (and FINAL) state, FO4 has so much broken functionality baked in at a native code level, almost all the anticipated AMBITIOUS mods people dreamt of when the game was released are IMPOSSIBLE.

 

The sad thing is this- even with Beth's dreadful attitude and technical incompetence, their games remain the open-world modders ONLY option. CDPR, to no informed person's surprise, dropped the EXPECTED bombshell that they LIED when they promised to release the editing tools for Witcher 3 (W3- for all its excellence- is so hard-coded, it could NEVER have been edited/modded to any real extent).

 

We so badly need another option for open-world modding - and this can only be the dream of an open-world game that is an open-source project itself. The interests of corporations always run against the interests of sophisticated modders.

[CiderMuffin]

Sorry but have you played contraptions or do you have a list of everything it adds? No? Oh wow funny how that works. All you're doing is looking at a trailer and going "That's it"

 

That's not how it works and Bethesda didn't go wrong, this is just another one of those stupid anti-Bethesda rant threads.

[CyrusAmell]

I quite agree with CiderMuffin. Let us wait for the DLC to come out before passing judgment.

 

(If you can call some of these rants we see judgments)

Edited June 15, 2016 by CyrusAmell

[NorthWolf]

I've gone from finding Zanity's posts baffling to kind of enjoying them at this point.

 

Just let it happen.

[iXenite]

 

 

I love physics based puzzle games, and still fondly recall that 'armadillo' one that was a youtube sensation when games discovered 'exploits' that made for the most astonished user crafted levels.

 

But what the heck has that got to do with Fallout? The combat in FO4, for a game with little else, is- in a word- rubbish. The combat AI is completely atrocious- possibly the worst that's ever been seen in a game of this form. The faction storylines and quests (especially the bad-guy factions) are just terrible.

 

It is of no surprise that most gamers hoped Beth would attempt to inject some life back into the game via STORY DLC, as seen with FO3 and NV. But story DLC costs money to make. On the other hand, settlement DLC can be churned out at a HUNDREDTH of the dev cost.

 

FO4 already has 'contraption' mods- but you'd hardly know it given how little downloaded they are. This shows the true demand for this type of content in FO4.

 

And what FO4 needed most of all, via mods OR updates, was a massive improvement in NPC AI and animation/physics functionality that would add native functions available to users of the CK- so future mods could put back into the game what Beth so clearly left out. In its current (and FINAL) state, FO4 has so much broken functionality baked in at a native code level, almost all the anticipated AMBITIOUS mods people dreamt of when the game was released are IMPOSSIBLE.

 

The sad thing is this- even with Beth's dreadful attitude and technical incompetence, their games remain the open-world modders ONLY option. CDPR, to no informed person's surprise, dropped the EXPECTED bombshell that they LIED when they promised to release the editing tools for Witcher 3 (W3- for all its excellence- is so hard-coded, it could NEVER have been edited/modded to any real extent).

 

We so badly need another option for open-world modding - and this can only be the dream of an open-world game that is an open-source project itself. The interests of corporations always run against the interests of sophisticated modders.

 

 

Just uninstall the game if it bothers you so much. If you're looking for refined combat and quality AI, then I'll tell you right now you should never buy another Bethesda Games Studios title again because they'll likely never make you happy. It seems you can find no redeeming qualities for this game, so why do you bother with it anymore? You're just trolling at this point.

 

 

I've gone from finding Zanity's posts baffling to kind of enjoying them at this point.

 

Just let it happen.

 

They still manage to get to me. Maybe because they're so frequent.

Edited June 15, 2016 by DaddyDirection

[bobofudd]

I would imagine the "contraptions" dlc will be the players side of what we will see in Nuka World. If NW is going to be some sort of amusement park then expect to shoot at raiders riding roller coasters and other silly contraptions.

[Wunderbot]

Zanity is such a mystery. Sometimes I read his posts without seeing his username first and thinking "My, that's a really nuanced and reasonable opinion". And then other times I see a long rant based on nothing but assumptions and it becomes hard to believe it was written by the same person.

 

I agree that there's way too much focus on the settlement and workshop aspect of Fallout 4, but I get it. It's their newest biggest feature, so of course they're going to try parade it around. By Fallout 5, it'll surely be toned down again because they'll focus on other new things to introduce. It's surely -one- of the reasons, but I don't really believe that the main reason for these workshop DLCs is "easy money". Even New Vegas and Obsidian, praised by most people, had the same kind of tiny DLCs that were really shitty for anyone not interested in that particular aspect of Fallout. The Gun Runner's Arsenal and stuff like that just added weapons and some NPCs. That took considerably less effort than a contraptions or vault building system, and people still bought it, because no matter how much we complain, deep down we all still love the game and want to fill it with as much as possible.

[cossayos]

 

 

I agree that there's way too much focus on the settlement and workshop aspect of Fallout 4, but I get it. It's their newest biggest feature, so of course they're going to try parade it around. .

 

You know, I actually like that aspect of the game. If they expand on that in a way that makes sense and actually improves the feature, I'm all for it.

 

Actually, for me, that's about the only feature actually making it better than any previous Beth game. As has been said, reasonable AI or challenging combat, or storytelling, never were Beth's strong suits.

 

I certainly don't want to rant over Beth games, since I still buy them, love them and play them. But when I look for some gripping story and challenging gameplay, I look elsewhere.

[Wunderbot]

 

 

 

I agree that there's way too much focus on the settlement and workshop aspect of Fallout 4, but I get it. It's their newest biggest feature, so of course they're going to try parade it around. .

 

You know, I actually like that aspect of the game. If they expand on that in a way that makes sense and actually improves the feature, I'm all for it.

 

Actually, for me, that's about the only feature actually making it better than any previous Beth game. As has been said, reasonable AI or challenging combat, or storytelling, never were Beth's strong suits.

 

I certainly don't want to rant over Beth games, since I still buy them, love them and play them. But when I look for some gripping story and challenging gameplay, I look elsewhere.

 

 

I really enjoy the settlement and workshop stuff too. I've spent a lot of time on my main settlements already and still have plans for them. I just have two gripes with it:

1) They need to feel more useful and part of the game. Right now it feels like it exists in its own bubble. Have quests tie into your settlements. Make more use of interesting random events like a synth settler suddenly trying to kill you (Apparently there's a chance of finding your settlers accusing somebody of being a synth but in my 300+ hours of game, I haven't seen it happen once). Have it provide more in-game benefits to encourage you to spend time on it (without it being absolutely necessary to be able to make progress, for the people who really don't like the settlement building).

2) I get the feeling that they got a bit lazy and decided to do away with small communities and such that you can randomly come across and find some interesting NPCs in and just expect you as the player to build most small settlements yourself now. We got way too many settlement locations. Even I, who really enjoys building, haven't done anything with the vast majority of settlements. We could have done with like 5 really great locations and the 20 others being premade locations to explore.

[Boombro]

Agree with both you, i like the feature. I like being able to make a small house with one room then making it a big manor that houses all the stuff i have found with my followers and grow my own food by end game, it hardly bothers me, it very optional. I wish it to be in the next games with less focus, more polished and more complex however.

 

It just in itself a good feature, but beth did it badly. but i would not cry if if i saw it in the next game since it a good idea to have i a beth game.

 

zanity, it you want ai, story and gameplay. Remove fo4 and play pretty much anything else not from beth unless doom, wolf, dishonored.