Duck and Cover

Mini-games are great; they add hella depth and fun. On top of combat, I think there should be more detailed dialogue, as well as more in-depth stealing, lockpicking, inventory management, bartering, gambling, and item creation mini-games, among other things. Each mini-game has its own detailed mechanics and things which make it unique. For example, stealing in the original Fallouts was quite boring: click on Steal, choose target to steal from, choose items you want to try and steal. Reload, repeat. Gets boring quickly – compare this to combat, which is a lot more exciting: choose who you want to attack, what weapon to use, how to use the weapon, whether to use cover and the like, what kind of ammo you’re using, and tons of different weapon types. Not only should all skills be balanced, but they should also all be interesting to use and require thought on the player’s part – no plain pointing and clicking while the computer rolls a single die to determine the outcome. If more skills were like this, then there would be less of an appeal to shoot your way through the game.

But what exactly should there be in the way of mini-games? What types of mini-games will there be, and how will they work? I haven’t given this a hell of a lot of thought, so I’d be interested in what DAC has to say about it. Your opinions please.

Minigames could work, I guess. If you were VERY careful about it. All I can think about when minigames are mentioned is Final Fantasy, though. So maybe it's not such a good idea? It could probably be pulled off if the developers were worth shit (some kind of feat these days).

Mini-games aren't something I generally associate with Fallout. Frankly, I'd rather not have them.

Doesn't seem to badder idea to me, but only used on the lesser skills like anything below science except dialouge? A proper gambling game might be more easier instead of just randomly putting money down and hoping for the best. Mabye you could actually see the cards and there's different decks. Your gambling skill makes the dealers voice sound more over-acting (instead of being subtle?) and you can place higher bets?

Seems a bit consoley though and might be better for a joypad. Though some games could work I suppose?

Speaking of gambling minigames, I remember there was a perk you could take that color coded dialogue options, maybe with higher gambling skills something like that could be incorporated so you have a better idea what to do and win more.

Minigame's like the one's in KOTOR. A card game minigame, a car racing minigame and maybe even a computer hacking minigame.

There can be a bomb making minigame

Bomb making ought to be fun. learning how to build bigger and better IED with the least amount of explosive material, and positioning the package to obtain maximum effects (psychological and physical)

:badgrin:

Syko wrote:a car racing minigame

OH NO YOU DI'NT!

Lunchmeat wrote:

Syko wrote:a car racing minigame

OH NO YOU DI'NT!

I disagree, it's a great idea. Racing your tricked out Honda S2023234 (with NITRO!) while avoiding wasteland pirates who try to steal your magic +1 mace would be the defining moment of Fallout 3.

Slave_Master...That was possibly the greatest thing I've read on DAC in the past week. I salute you.

What about my baby torturing.......

Well, the most obvious mini-game would be one of those missile defence games.

You know, when you have a bunch of buildings, and there are missiles coming from the sky, and you need to intercept them with rockets or the buildings explode.

Seeing as it's fallout, there wouldn't be a lot of buildings worth saving, if ya know what i mean.

Minigames imply twitch/speed skills, fallout is more a game of dice rolls.

ExtremeDrinker wrote:Slave_Master...That was possibly the greatest thing I've read on DAC in the past week. I salute you.

I do my best.

Syko wrote:What about my baby torturing.......

That question doesn't even need to be answered.

Minigames imply twitch/speed skills, fallout is more a game of dice rolls.

Die rolls in the sense that it's an RPG, and thus everything is based on the character' skills, not the player's skills, yes. That's what I have against mini-games. More involved stealing and gambling and whatnot is good, but not if it's based on the mad skillz of the player. I think maybe have more and better reasons for gambling, like getting the boat in Arcanum, etc.

The mini games in SS2 for lockpicking and hacking were okay but I don't think they would work well in something like Fallout, save them for the FPS games, where there's not much else to do other than blow things up. Besides if you think about it Fallout games already have their own take on mini games with the boxing/martial arts tournaments. I wouldn't mind seeing them expanded.

If you really had to have a mini game in FO3 make it something than you'd only get by searching the Vault computer 217 times. Or have a game cartridge easter egg that if found you can download into your pipboy (like the holodisks) so that you can play tic tac toe (or something) while resting your party.

I like the pipboy games idea, mabye PIPBOY SE with no backlight and stuff. You could play wasteland or something. Rampage with super-mutants? Pac-man with a junkie? Who knows eh, who knows.

I liked the ss2 games, very dope. very OVERLORD

As long as it's not Vault Dash.

The only other thing would be a gambling interface, where you could play a mini game like blackjack, or if the player wasn't in a casino (or didn't carry a pack of cards) paper, scissors, stone. Because to be honest the betting in FO 1&2, especially 2, didn't make much sense to me and I would end up just randomly choosing a bet until I had won enough money (or lost it all).

requiem_for_a_starfury wrote:Because to be honest the betting in FO 1&2, especially 2, didn't make much sense to me and I would end up just randomly choosing a bet until I had won enough money (or lost it all).

The betting at Becky's in Fallout 2 didn't make a lot of sense to me, but I would prefer the purely skill-based betting that was found in the first game and in other areas in FO2. In fact, I think of Becky's Casino as an example of what happens when they try to add a 'mini-game' element to gambling while retaining the skill-based nature. Maybe it's just because I don't know the rules of the game they were playing, but I found it somewhat confusing. Since gambling in and of itself never struck me as a reason to play the game, I really don't mind if there's nothing to it.

Megatron wrote:I like the pipboy games idea, mabye PIPBOY SE with no backlight and stuff. You could play wasteland or something. Rampage with super-mutants? Pac-man with a junkie? Who knows eh, who knows.

Reminds me of Day of the Tentacle, there was that computer in what's his face's room that you could play Maniac Mansion on, that was pretty cool. I would like to see something like that in the game.