JE Sawyer Q&A at NMA

Saint_Proverbius · Post by **Saint_Proverbius** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 4:41 am

[ -> Interview]

<A href="http://www.nma-fallout.com/forum/viewto ... terview</a> with JE Sawyer about Van Buren over at <A href="http://www.nma-fallout.com/">NMA</a> covering several things we already know, including this about JE Sawyer thinking playable races r kewl in <a href="http://www.interplay.com/fallout">Fallout</a>:
 
 <blockquote>Should you be able to choose different races as main characters, thus breaking away from tradition?
 
 I think so. I honestly don't think ghouls or super mutants are so fundamentally different from humans that they can't be made into balanced, fun characters.</blockquote>
 
 Unless most of the humans have changed their policy on mutants and ghouls, which would be rather silly ditching the mutant segregation aspect, it'd be rather hard to play Fallout 3 as a mutant or ghoul since you'd be denied access to many locations.

Ghetto Goose · Post by **Ghetto Goose** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 7:02 am

It'd be interesting to try to beat the game when no one wants to talk to you, or just shoots you on site.

...Then again, maybe not.

Hammer · Post by **Hammer** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 10:18 am

You should be used to that Goose, ya know.. with being black and all.

If they added different species to choose from would they not have to do a shit load of extra work for specific dialogue? They can say "It worked for FOT" but in FOT you didn't really talk to anybody.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 2:08 pm

Maybe the ghouls and mutants population grew up, more mutants city came out of the desert, so maybe your start location could depend on your race, spawning you in a friendly area.

Strap · Post by **Strap** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 3:28 pm

but still... how much can you do as a mutant? you cant be the median like in FO1-2. (you probubly can be human, but being mutant cant be that great)

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 3:30 pm

Saint_Proverbius wrote:Unless most of the humans have changed their policy on mutants and ghouls, which would be rather silly ditching the mutant segregation aspect, it'd be rather hard to play Fallout 3 as a mutant or ghoul since you'd be denied access to many locations.

Hard, but far from impossible, Saint. Sure, they'd be segregated, but who's to say there aren't ghoul or mutant-dominant areas that would segregate against humans? Whatever happened to the Necropolis? Each race could be evenly balanced to make it playable, fun, and bring something different to the table. I'm all for different modes and paths of play so long as they don't fuck anything else up, Saint.

Araanor · Post by **Araanor** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 4:55 pm

Right, but wouldn't it be painful to move about at ghoulish speed?

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 6:02 pm

Bah, ghouls can run outside of combat, I think, if badly.

Spazmo · Post by **Spazmo** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 6:54 pm

Hey, I love Harold, and Set oozes with style (among other things) but I do not want to play a fucking ghoul. And JE talks about rebalancing these races to make them work: well, no. Ghouls aren't meant to be balanced. They're meant to be half-rotten radiated zombies, pure and simple. FOT giving them high perception for good snipers seemed like a fairly arbitrary decision to me; just a bone they tossed to the ghouls to make them viable.

And I hope they don't make you play a Harry. I don't want to go up to the raider chief and say, "Hey, you not look like ghoul. How come?"

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 7:12 pm

You have some good points, Spazmo, but ghouls aren't irradiated, mindless zombies. Think of the ghoul scientists in broken hills? Ghouls have tons of crazy bonuses; refer to that "Ghouls in F3" thread.

Vergilius · Post by **Vergilius** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 9:24 pm

You are a ghoul, you survived insane exposure to radiation, you lived before the Original Vault Dwell smashed that Master, you were alive when the Chosen One saved you (and everyone else from the Enclave) Now it is your turn. So pack that minigun and start whopping!
As a ghoul you are:
immune to radiation but unfortunately it shows on your skin and you move like someone who didn't use sun block 400000. Of course, the radiation level gave you a bonus to science and repair...

Ok, I don't remember the bonuses people talked about (but somewhere in my mind there is something about a knack for fixing things) but forgive me if I say pfeh!

Calal · Post by **Calal** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 9:33 pm

They didn' t gain that sort of bonus from radiation, but to the fact that they still remember that knowledge since they were humans from before the Great War.

And when you' re about 300 years old you kinda notice some things easier, you develop heightened awareness and I think that could explain the Perception bonus.

Mr Carrot · Post by **Mr Carrot** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 9:35 pm

The thing is your fallout character has to be either young or have little experience of the outside world thus has a low starting skillset and can expand into new areas later on.

A ghoul would have to be a pre war human and would already have a complete skill set etc.

but you can play a ghoul in FOBOS SO ITS KEWL! !L!O!!L!O!L!!O!L!L!

someone shoot JE hes gone off the rails.

Jimmyjay86 · Post by **Jimmyjay86** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 9:53 pm

Mr Carrot wrote:The thing is your fallout character has to be either young or have little experience of the outside world thus has a low starting skillset and can expand into new areas later on.

Not necessarily. A ghoul could have been a pre-war human with very specialized skills which do not help them much with survival in the wasteland. An accountant for example, I think it could easily be set up as another race. There could even be an option later in the game to find a "cure" and have the option of returning to a human much like it was possible to get Intelligence upgrades to turn your stupid PC into a somewhat smarter person.

Saint_Proverbius · Post by **Saint_Proverbius** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 9:54 pm

Mr Carrot wrote:The thing is your fallout character has to be either young or have little experience of the outside world thus has a low starting skillset and can expand into new areas later on.

A ghoul would have to be a pre war human and would already have a complete skill set etc.

but you can play a ghoul in FOBOS SO ITS KEWL! !L!O!!L!O!L!!O!L!L!

someone shoot JE hes gone off the rails.

This has to be the best point on the subject or either a ghoul OR a supermutant. If ghouls and supermutants are still around at the time of Fallout 3, depending on how far after Fallout the game is set, then you're talking about 100+ year old creatures. For them to start off as level 1 n00bz would be rather silly, especially when you factor in service in the Master's Army for the supermutants. There's really no way to justify a supermutant or a ghoul living all those years without any type of experience, especially considering low level quests like You oiled a gear - 100XP and things like that.

Vergilius · Post by **Vergilius** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 10:29 pm

Calal wrote:They didn' t gain that sort of bonus from radiation, but to the fact that they still remember that knowledge since they were humans from before the Great War.
.

I am a ghoul, I have an intelligence of the average tomato but I also have a great bonus to science and repair because I learned about it before I was radiatet and remember it today, how I managed to learn that with an intelligence of the average tomato is beyond me but I did!

Does it sound like a good explantion to a bonus that should apply to every ghoul?

Calal · Post by **Calal** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 10:41 pm

What I meant was that ghouls are remnants of humans from before the war, so they have a better understanding of how all those things work since they grew up with it all around them and sometimes had to learn how to handle them. No matter the intelligence of an average tomato.

Fact is that ghouls don' t exactlly recieve a bonus on either of these skills. They only have access to the Tech Wizard trait which gives the bonuses. So you don' t have to take the bonuses if you don' t want to.

Briosafreak · Post by **Briosafreak** » Thu Jul 03, 2003 12:14 am

Part2 of the interview is up on NMA, you can check it now.

Neon Dingo · Post by **Neon Dingo** » Thu Jul 03, 2003 3:28 am

Gah, this sounds like some kind of perverted way to make Fallout Politically Correct. I mean seriously. Ghouls and Mutants aren't as ominous and scary when you can start off as one and know everything about them. Fear in Fallout comes in many forms, one of them being the unknown. I liked being a sterlized vault dweller that has just come out of a hermetically sealed vault into a dirty and unforgiving climate. The classic fish-out-of-water sort of thing. I don't like the idea of playing something that has already existed in the wasteland and been around the block a few times, which is why Fallout 2 wasn't nearly as brilliant as Fallout 1. I mean come on, a tribal? Psssh. Lame.

Whatever happened to the Necropolis?

Mutants invaded and killed them off.

I think they're really pushing the Mutant stuff too far. I never really liked mutants all that much in FOT when they were all over the fucking place. Mutants aren't supposed to be in large numbers, dammit. It's just stupid. It's like that shit they tried to pull with the Deathclaws in Vault 13 where they could talk. I'm sincerely glad they were killed off. Mutants should be big dumb oafs with a few intelligent ones.

I don't really think Fallout 3 is going to be any good if they try and fuck up something that didn't need to be changed in the first place. Change the graphics, change the combat, change anything but the story.

Seriously, if you want to go as far as to add ghouls just make it where the main character can turn into a ghoul or something, maybe some more NPCs, something stupid like that to appease these morons that want to play as the enemy and mix the good and the bad into a big blurry soup of rainbow puke.

Strap · Post by **Strap** » Thu Jul 03, 2003 5:11 am

it just sounds like it would fuck it up.

if they wanted to do it ... right? there would have to be 2 story lines, one as human, and one as mutant (not really story lines, but ultimate goals)
and that would really mess up the non-linearity of the game. i hate games that are like: oh, your this kind of guy, you are too dumb to get on the boat so you have to swim there and kill lots of stuff.

i bet thats how it will be... being a mutant (super) would make your game more combat oriented (due to lack of social ecceptance and lower intelligence)

being ghoul would make you have to sneak around stuff (not literally, just having to avoid things) because of your lower social ecceptance and low ability to fight (i bet they will stereotype ghouls into being as weak as paper) so that will suck.

most of the stuff would apply to a fallout 1/2 social atmosphere... but who knows how muties will be looked upon in F3

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JE Sawyer Q&A at NMA

JE Sawyer Q&A at NMA

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