Fallout 3D bits and pieces

Franz Schubert · Post by **Franz Schubert** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 6:05 am

He can't, it's automatic. Just like yours says "Regular".

jota23 · Post by **jota23** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 5:08 am

We are proud to announce (finally) that http://fallout3d.com is back online. You can sign up to be a Beta Tester, Read the latest news, and get your questions answered on the forum. Come on over and become part of the team!

jota23

Saint_Proverbius · Post by **Saint_Proverbius** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:33 am

MeatPoPsicKle wrote:AI's not part of Fallout Canon? *BOGGLE* So I guess this portion of the Fallout Bible written by Chris Avellone is just pure shit right?

Ever noticed how often he's had to correct the Fallout Bible because people like those here have corrected him on the subject?

Skynet and the AI's were a HUGE part of FALLOUT and FALLOUT2,

Skynet was a lame Terminator reference tossed in to Fallout 2 to allow players to have a robot buddy. Things like Skynet really shouldn't have been in the game in the first place. Other stupid things include buddy supermutants, buddy deathclaws, and so on.

That was the problem with Fallout 2, you had a bunch of guys who were first time designers throwing everything in they thought people would think was cool, rather than what actually fits.

AIs should be something rare. I'm not opposed to them being the main bad guys, but it's a tread lightly situation. After all, FOT did that and it was.. rather.. crappy.

It'd probably be best if the robots you have were variants of the Fallout robots, specifically from Fallout and not Fallout 2. Floating Eyes, Brainbots, and Mr. Handy robots. I wouldn't even go the full robotized factory route. If there is a factory for making new ones, brainbots and Mr. Handy robots should be there as workers. However, even having a factory that's up and running might be a little odd and tricky to pull off considering the run down nature of Fallout(something the FO2 team seemed to forget in their push towards HIGH TECH COOLNESS).

Of course you run into various levels of Road Warrior/Mad Max types, really all depends on how much time you spend around the roads they control or in their town.

As pointed out a few times, cars are REALLY REALLY rare. In fact, they probably shouldn't even be in the game at all. I tend to go with the Fallout Used Car Encounter over the Fallout 2 bit when it comes to cars. In fact, just look at all the junked cars in Fallout or Fallout 2. The text describtion will say something like, Even the best mechanic in the world couldn't get this thing running again and stuff like that. Cars really weren't supposed to be working in Fallout, they're supposed to be derelict junk from a bygone era.

The AI's in this game are DEFENDING themselves, they are not aggressors, some of them see humans as the enemy, but mostly they just want to be left alone.

You've been watching too much anime. Try watching some 1950s movies instead.

There won't be a whole lot of people who survived the effects of Nuclear Winter that covered the planet for the first 25 years.

There was no Nuclear Winter. Fallout is based on what they thought the world would be like if there were wide spread nukings back in the 1950s. That's why everything looks charred in Fallout, they thought the Earth would look like a cinder.

Harold's vault openned shortly after the bombings, 10-15 years afterwards. No nuclear winter.

Even Chris Avellone dropped big enough hints to let you know what they planned on telling you, but never (and now likely NEVER) got around to telling you about. Like Skynet's real name,

Skynet's really name is REALLY BAD IDEA #637.

and why Harold is special,

Because he's a ghoul created quickly by FEV exposure as opposed to the Necropolis ghouls that were created by prolonged exposure to radiation.

and why the entire Fallout Universe exists and is so different from ours.

Because it was based on the 1950s pulp sci-fi where the nuclear bomb hysteria was the central figure in nearly everything.

Now, here's another reason that MCA doesn't completely accept, but was in the original Fallout design docs. The space race didn't happen until late, late, late in the game - just before the Great War. Instead, the countries of the world focused on fusion power, and it was developed in the 1970s. That's why you don't have miniture electronics but do have miniture fusion. There's no microchips, only microfusion cells.

Hope that the guys writing that MOD give a shit enough to even do any research at all. If you think you are SO full of Fallout cleverness why not JOIN THE TEAM and have some input, unless of course you are too busy in between trolling Forums and whacking off to Paris Hilton to actually channel this energy of yours.

Yes, this is the best way to garner favor, TEAM CHUCK style.

Fact of the matter is, most people here know a hell of a lot more about Fallout than you'll know by reading the Fallout Bible, because we're the ones who corrected that thing - and there's still a hell of a lot of corrections that never made it in to it. MCA wasn't really happy with the time line, for example, because he wrote it quickly before he knew all the factoids.

Sol Invictus · Post by **Sol Invictus** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 9:02 am

Concerning the nuclear winter: It'd last a few months, tops. The whole 20+ year theory was some politically motivated nonsense propegated by Dyson and his buddies. Carl Sagan took it a step further by saying it'd last forever. Nothing lasts forever, dammit.

PiP · Post by **PiP** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 12:37 pm

I think mutant buddies are good for some reasons. Not cool, but good. Consider what effect it has on the player's assessment of his previous rush judgements, and people's judgements in general. And some things need to be different in the sequel to the game, for pity's sake; otherwise it'd suck.
Same with the attitude towards AI - they don't need to be 'bad': that one adopts some general 50ish stuff (A-bomb hysteria) and the way things looked back then, doesn't mean one needs to adopt 50ish system of values. It's like making a western movie now and saying "Indians gotta be BAD in this new movie, 'cos that's the way they used to make western movies in the ol' good days". Oh pleez.

Saint_Proverbius · Post by **Saint_Proverbius** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 5:34 pm

PiP wrote:I think mutant buddies are good for some reasons. Not cool, but good. Consider what effect it has on the player's assessment of his previous rush judgements, and people's judgements in general. And some things need to be different in the sequel to the game, for pity's sake; otherwise it'd suck.

Ghouls would be fine. It's Supermutants I question being all friendly and chummy, especially the way Marcus was handled. Look at the supermutants in Fallout, for example. They were sadistic, aggressive, and generally nasty to be around. The only evidence seen in the first one that they could be friendly towards a general, non-Children of the Cathedral human was the one that had the girlfriend. Even then, not much is known about that relationship. I never got the impression it was a normal, healthy relationship.. After all, the guy wanted to kill me on sight.

Same with the attitude towards AI - they don't need to be 'bad': that one adopts some general 50ish stuff (A-bomb hysteria) and the way things looked back then, doesn't mean one needs to adopt 50ish system of values.

I don't know, I'm a big fan of the KILL ALL HUMANS type AI from the 1950s movies, like Robot Monster. If you look at the main theme, and of course there were exceptions, most robots in 1950s pulp sci-fi that were developed for GOOD often end up doing very, very bad things. And really, what better scenario is there than the sympathetic bad guy who just doesn't understand what he's doing is wrong or misguided?

It's like making a western movie now and saying "Indians gotta be BAD in this new movie, 'cos that's the way they used to make western movies in the ol' good days". Oh pleez.

Ever heard of Tonto?

Role-Player · Post by **Role-Player** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 5:43 pm

Saint_Proverbius wrote:
MeatPoPsicKle wrote:and why Harold is special,
Because he's a ghoul created quickly by FEV exposure as opposed to the Necropolis ghouls that were created by prolonged exposure to radiation.

and why the entire Fallout Universe exists and is so different from ours.
Because it was based on the 1950s pulp sci-fi where the nuclear bomb hysteria was the central figure in nearly everything.

Damn, you've ruined the story for me! Now there's no point in playing FO3D!

atoga · Post by **atoga** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 6:34 am

Saint_P wrote:Quote:
It's like making a western movie now and saying "Indians gotta be BAD in this new movie, 'cos that's the way they used to make western movies in the ol' good days". Oh pleez.

Ever heard of Tonto?

I might add that little twists of weirdness like that are good - the supermutant with an inclination to do good, the good guy indian, the hooker with the heart of gold, or even that terrible example of a suicide bombing ghoul - but please don't overuse them. Nothing's hokier or smacks of being poorly thought out more than an army of super mutants who fight evil or a league of suicide bombing ghoul terrorists. Little twists on the conventional are fine, but please bear in mind that Fallout stems from an idealistic '50s retro future with bombs dropped all over it. Idealistic. Stereotypes need to remain stereotypes; what's established must remain the same, for the most part. You can't turn the whole thing on its head; not only is it generally regarded as a bad idea, but it ruins the ideal of the Fallout universe and it's quite disillusioning as well.

Keep it real.

MeatPoPsicKle · Post by **MeatPoPsicKle** » Sat Jan 24, 2004 10:18 am

Sorry been a little busy this week to come over. Let me assure you there are NO friendly mutants, super or otherwise in this game. All of the ones you run into are remnants of the Master's Army, and believe it or not, they aren't too happy with normies right now. It's only been 5 years since the end of the Master. Some of them are willing to ally themselves with humans if and only if it means they get to kill alot of other humans. Harold is the only ghoul you run into, unless you discover what Harold is searching for... A city of nothing but Ghouls. It's a rumour, and partly why he wandered this far east. Supposedly a number of ghouls wandered south to the Glow, others headed out east.

There won't be a huge amount of cars in the single player mode. These will be more available in the Multi-player mode. For the most part unless you are unbelievably tough, you will avoid the Raider areas. You can choose to play a raider type, basically walk into town and just start blazing, but it will be almost impossible to figure out what is going on in the game and then be in a position to do anything about it, without being able to talk to people (only raiders tolerate other raiders, and even then it's a 50/50 chance they just wont like you no matter what.).

I don't pretend to know more than you guys do about this game, I am designing this game to be along the lines I thought it should be, a mixture of a really good '50s sci fi movie, a sphaghetti western, and any of the better post apocalyptic movies. I wont spend alot of energy cluttering up the story with alot of pop culture references, I thought that was way over done in Fallout2. There will be some references, and nods to what I feel were the best bits of sci fi in the last 40 years, but they will be more allusions than direct quotes.

The nuclear winter scenario I like had nothing to do with snow. It was dark cold skies, raining down sooty fallout, covering everything in grime. Alot of weathering on all surfaces. When the skies cleared, nothing but searing sunlight. Months on end without a cloud in the sky, drought that makes the dustbowl look like a nice place to visit. Everywhere charred trees devoid of vegetation. In my desert scenario, cactus that is charred, and deformed and pockmarked. Dust storms that cover entire valleys. Basically a scorched earth.

As far as cities go, I love the piles of charred skulls in the future bits from the Terminator movies. Everywhere nothing but rusted, twisted metal, and bones. Buildings that are barely standing, dark blasted hulks with huge chunks blown out of them. The rubble is piled high against what remains of the sides of buildings, small footpaths meander through the piles of junk.

Anyway I hope that clarifies a few things.

Oh and the only robots in this are the eyebots, Mr. Handy's and the robomec Military bots with the brain in the jar on top. There is one type of robot that hasn't been seen yet as it was created by the AI, it is a long range reconnaisance model that is small and used to gather intelligence, but it too resembles something out of a '50s sci fi movie rather than the 'Red Planet' type of bot. But there are not alot of these things. No more than you experienced in Fallout.

None of the AI's hold any love of human beings. As far as they are concerned, humans are their only threat. The Area 51 AI when it realized what was happening right before the launches in the Great War it gassed the entire underground base, eliminating all humans in it's vicinity, right before being entombed by the impacts at Area 51.

Other AI's in the game had different reactions towards the war. Some were involved in the actual launches and what little of the war there was. most of the Vaults had a Semi-AI in addition to an Overseer who was nuerally linked to it.