An improved SPECIAL for Fallout 3?

[Ezechial_Rage]

I admit that I like to play magic. I think that's why it was so funny.... at least for me.

[VasikkA]

Gambling was kinda flawed in Fallout and Fallout 2. You could easily win thousands of caps/money simply by pressing two buttons for several minutes at a casino. You got enough money anyway selling expensive equipment, so the 'extra' money was kinda useless. I always liked bartering more than buying. I think gambling would work better if it would have an own interface, just like speech or bartering(kinda like in Leisure suit Larry ). Perhaps you could play at a poker or roulette table against AI, with Luck and Gambling skill somewhat affecting the outcome. And why not learn new 'tricks' when you improve your gambling skill but also facing the consequences when you're caught cheating.

I think the Traps skill needs to be improved the most. It would be an obvious choice for sneaky, thief and solo characters. Imagine the suspense of emptying a hi-tech military base of foes by watching the guard routes, setting traps and waiting for the enemies to walk into their doom. It would enable a totally different kind of playing style, yet an interesting one.

One thing I'm not sure about is that if skills should be affected more by their 'base attribute'. For example what if you could improve your Melee skill faster with a high Strength. This would lower the importance of Intelligence a bit, and instead make the other attributes more important in character development. It shouldn't affect tag skills, though. I wouldn't want this to limit the freedom in character development, making the attributes to predetermine your playing style. That sounds a bit D&Dish, only it has different classes which limit the character development to some extent.

[Spazmo]

VasikkA, in that alst paragraph, do you mean increasing the base skill based on a stat with a second-degree function instead of a linear one (for example, melee would be strength² instead of strength x 2), or do you mean making a higher stat act something like tagging the skill (a strength of ten will give you a 1:2 ratio for skill points)?

[VasikkA]

or do you mean making a higher stat act something like tagging the skill (a strength of ten will give you a 1:2 ratio for skill points)?

I meant something like that. But it would make tag skills less useful, don't you think? So that was probably not a good idea.

[Megatron]

I think the Traps skill needs to be improved the most. It would be an obvious choice for sneaky, thief and solo characters. Imagine the suspense of emptying a hi-tech military base of foes by watching the guard routes, setting traps and waiting for the enemies to walk into their doom. It would enable a totally different kind of playing style, yet an interesting one.

The problem is that people don't have guard routes. They either stand still or walk around in the same area randomly.

Hopefully FO3 will have guard routes..or even routes for civilians.

[Ezechial_Rage]

Arcanum had guard routes..... I think they'd be easy enough to implement.

[Strap]

you should also be able to find sticks of dynamite, just the stick with the fuse, and if you were good enough at traps/repair/science, you could upgrade them with a timer, or a remote fuse or something. or for plastique explosives also (that with a fuse would be scarry!)

also, door traps shoud be refined to injure someone on both sides of the door when opened, and other triggers should be able to be trapped.
like put some plastique in a light bulb fixture and wait for your enemy to flip on the light. oh, on that thought, explosives should have fire/normal damage and a much greater radius

[Saint_Proverbius]

I think what Vasikka is trying to say is that after a while is becomes rather pointless to keep raising a skill. If there were new techniques as your skill raised, then raising a skill above the 150 or so mark might actually be useful.

Try making an eye shot at long range in the dark with a 150% Small Arms in Fallout or Fallout 2.

Doctor and first aid can be merged into one. If not make first aid apply to yourself and healing at least 10 hp+. But doctor can remove bad stats, like broken bones but not add any HP.

I think they should be made to work under different circumstances. Like I've said before, First Aid should be a temporary or quick fix to a gunshot wound. One that can be done quickly, like in combat.

Doctor is the long term, permanent healing. It allows you to actually fix the damage done by a gunshot wound, or a broken leg, or so on.

Basically, think of First Aid as what paramedics do versus Doctor which physicians do.

[Dan]

I think they should be made to work under different circumstances. Like I've said before, First Aid should be a temporary or quick fix to a gunshot wound. One that can be done quickly, like in combat.

Doctor is the long term, permanent healing. It allows you to actually fix the damage done by a gunshot wound, or a broken leg, or so on.

Basically, think of First Aid as what paramedics do versus Doctor which physicians do.

I agree, I wrote something about that in page 1 but I don't think anyone saw that...

I don't think doctor and first aid should be combined, but rather made somehow cumaltive.

Being skilled in first-aid makes you able to heal yourself and others, and possibly save their lifes.

Being a doctor is having real knowledge.
The jet thing is a good example of this. Someone skilled in first aid shouldn't be able to understand how to create an antidote. A doctor with knowledge in Biology and Chimestry is a whole different thing.

The main problem with this idea is that a player would have trouble distrbuting the skill points between the two skills.
Therfor, there should be some connection with them, like every 5 points in doctor gives you one in first aid.

[VasikkA]

Well, in order to make First aid more useful, stimpacks should be extremely rare or perhaps cause nasty side effects(addiction, poisoning, temporar decrease of skills, for example).

[Som Guy]

or perhaps cause nasty side effects(addiction, poisoning, temporar decrease of skills, for example).

Or maybe those side effects only happen when you use them incorrectly. The chance of doing this would be reduced by having first aid skill.

[Kashluk]

That's a good idea! Like the instruments in First Aid Pack, also a stimpack would require medical knowledge!

[Spazmo]

I'm not sure about that. It is a good idea in game mechanics terms, but I figure that stimpaks were designed as instant battlefield first-aid stuff designed to be easily used by even the most basic grunt. I suppose the roll would have to be very easy.

[Som Guy]

Exactly I never saw a need for first aid. If I need to heal after battle I'd sleep. If I neede to heal during battle I'd some stims. Broken limb I'd use doctor. Never found a good use for first aid.

[Doyle]

Who's to say that grunts weren't given the training necessary to use them?

[Spazmo]

Yeah, that's why I figure the roll should be pretty easy. This idea would be absolutely perfect for super stimpaks and other chems (RadAway, mentats, etc.), though. I don't think there was any way to overdose on something in Fallout 1 & 2, was there?

[Som Guy]

Another suggestion. Maybe something like "bleeding" could be used in Fallout 3 like it was in JA? this si a really bad idea though.
*Som Guy proceeds to insert large objects into his brain"

[VasikkA]

Healing your wounds through sleeping is probably one of the biggest clichés in CRPGs. Sleeping a week in a cave after a tough battle to heal your wounds doesn't sound very realistic, does it? It also lowers the importance of other healing methods, especially first aid. Of course, you can just use a couple of stims in Fallout to restore max hit points, but that's not very fun either...

First Aid should emphasize on treatment after a battle. Perhaps your character would have to treat combat wounds with First Aid skill or by visiting a doc in a nearby town, to avoid infection. This would make the First Aid skill or having a NPC with First Aid skill in your party very useful. Bleeding could be a good idea too, as Som Guy suggested. Sleeping should still heal wounds, but it should be made less effective, especially if there isn't going to be a timelimit.

[Meths]

Bleeding could be a good idea too, as Som Guy suggested

Sure, first aid should be mostly used to prevent bleeding as fast as it's possible since bleeding would be nothing more than permament losing of hps (read: blood). The less hps you have the less efective your char should be (loses on all the stats exept luck) I don't think it should add any hps. Stimpacks would add hps, i'd explain them as a kind of serum that substitutes the blood. Doctor skill would be used to fully heal the person, but it could be used only with first aid used first, and it would take some time. Resting with your wounds not bandaged would most likely result in your death.

[Tetsuya]

Maybe First Aid & Doctor could be made two different aspects of one new skill - e.g., if you use the new skill with a first aid kit you perform a quick heal, but if you use your heavy doctors bag you can fix that broken leg.

The skill could also affect the effectiveness of stimpaks - maybe you could gain more HPs back per use,or suffer less side effects from super stims, or something like that.

Tet'first post,yay'suya