Duck and Cover

MY VISION OF FALLOUT:

Creepy guy wearing a leatherjacket and wielding sawed-off shotgun kicks in the door of a ruined building. A guarding raider runs from the other room to check out the noise, but is stopped by the .12 gauge blast in the cest....

NO ROOM FOR ENERGY WEAPONS, IMHO, THEY SUCK.

And besides, caps lock is fun.

Dan wrote:I would like to see energy weaopns as long as they are like the plasma rifle or pulse pistol and not like the pulse rifle, for example.

What's the difference? Really?

Yeah? Well, your vision of Fallout is wrong.

That's an interesting vision of the game, but this isn't mad max.

Fallout has a special setting. It's a retro-futaristic post apocalyptic world.
Yeah, there is room for raiders and shotguns, but much of the fallout setting is based on 50's pulp sci fi comics.
This means there is room for things like funny looking ray guns or half man/half zombie cretures that feed on human flesh after being mutated by radiation (Ghouls).

About the difference between the energy weapons.
If the game wants to keep true to its setting, the weapons should fit the setting.
I used the plasma rifle as an example because of it's design. It looks like a funny ray gun, not an uber-l337-gatling-laser-that-cut-oppenents-in-half-with-cool-partical-effects.

Dan wrote:Fallout has a special setting. It's a retro-futaristic post apocalyptic world.

Try saying that three times fast : )

Dan wrote:Yeah, there is room for raiders and shotguns, but much of the fallout setting is based on 50's pulp sci fi comics.

There's definately room for raiders, but I've always been a bit dubious of the shotguns. Obviously modern realword shotguns like the CAWS and Pancor don't fit the setting, but would the traditional double-barrled or pump action shotguns still be around in such quantity when WWIII broke/breaks out? I'd like the majority of the shotguns replaced with homemade post-war affairs, sort of blunderbuss type weapons.

Dan wrote:This means there is room for things like funny looking ray guns or half man/half zombie cretures that feed on human flesh after being mutated by radiation (Ghouls).

And Giant Ants, they must bring back the giant ants. Ants the size of the Robot Behemoths in FOT : )

Dan wrote:I would like to see energy weaopns as long as they are like the plasma rifle or pulse pistol and not like the pulse rifle, for example.

I agree with you partly there, the pulse pistol is the most apt one for the setting, followed by the laser pistol, but the plasma pistol (while one of my favorite weapon designs) doesn't really fit the whole Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers kind of feel.

Dan wrote:About the difference between the energy weapons.
If the game wants to keep true to its setting, the weapons should fit the setting.
I used the plasma rifle as an example because of it's design. It looks like a funny ray gun, not an uber-l337-gatling-laser-that-cut-oppenents-in-half-with-cool-partical-effects.

Hmm I'd of thought that the Pulse Rifle was more in keeping with the 50's Sci-Fi theme than the Plasma Rifle. The Plasma Weaponry looks too technical, and most 50's stuff is very sleek with fins etc.

The plasma rifle had some sort of hook-spikes at the front that looked like fins.

I think that the Gauss Rifle really looks good for the setting, it's barrel in particular.

Spazmo wrote:The plasma rifle had some sort of hook-spikes at the front that looked like fins.

I think that the Gauss Rifle really looks good for the setting, it's barrel in particular.

The Gausss Rifle artwork would of made a great laser rifle, the barrel looks like it's has several lenses in a row, which is kind of how I always figured a laser rifle would be built. The Prongs on the Plasma Rifle are what put me off the most about the weapon visually. When I talk about fins, I mean the ones that they always had on their rocket ships, helmets etc in the old B&W serials, and old American Cars : )

But didn't the ray guns of the 50's have lots of knobs and etc on them? That would make the plasma rifle the better looking one.

Kash wrote:So? I don't think energy weapons belong to Fallout-universe in the first place. I've always hated them and there's no way I'm playing a game where I "can" have 'em from the start. No way.

I hate them aswell, I also hate the miniguns. But like them or not they are part of the fallout universe.

That's why I would pretty much prefer a new post apoc rpg, rather than FO3, on account of bothersome things like that. I think a retro 70 post apoc would be coo'

Mutants with afros?

Spazmo wrote:Mutants with afros?

Cantcha dig it?

I don't know for sure but I think Vigilante 8 had a post apoc-ish retro 70's feel. And i was digging that oh yeah... of course that was like the only part of the game I liked but yeah...

Energy weapons, vaults, fusion power, big 50's apparatuses and even FEV are definitely a part of the Fallout universe. Leather jacket+shotgun belongs to the people who don't have the knowledge or access to high-tech thingies, also an important part. The technology level was improved in the vaults before they opened. It's all explained in the FOB. I think the mix of these two is what makes the Fallout universe so interesting.

requiem_for_a_starfury wrote:I agree with you partly there, the pulse pistol is the most apt one for the setting, followed by the laser pistol, but the plasma pistol (while one of my favorite weapon designs) doesn't really fit the whole Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers kind of feel.

Actually, I never liked the plasma pistol either. I wrote rifle. :D

Hmm I'd of thought that the Pulse Rifle was more in keeping with the 50's Sci-Fi theme than the Plasma Rifle. The Plasma Weaponry looks too technical, and most 50's stuff is very sleek with fins etc.

I liked the plasma rifle for a few reasons.
First of all it's green, you just got to love green weapons.
I liked the plasma energy globe it hurls at your oppenent.
I don't know about the pulse rifle, something always distrubed me in that gun, maybe it's the damage field.

Bleh, I still don't like energy weapons :P

Dan wrote:Actually, I never liked the plasma pistol either. I wrote rifle. :D

: ) I know you did, in hind sight I should have made the one reply after your two quotes. : ) I actually like the plasma pistol, I just don't think it's very 50's sci-fi.

Dan wrote:I liked the plasma rifle for a few reasons.
First of all it's green, you just got to love green weapons.

Got to love green weapons? I'll have to take that under advisement : )

Dan wrote:I liked the plasma energy globe it hurls at your oppenent.
I don't know about the pulse rifle, something always distrubed me in that gun, maybe it's the damage field.

Hmm I've been talking about the inventory sprite for the weapons not their effect : ) But horses for courses as they say, or to each their own.

requiem_for_a_starfury wrote:Got to love green weapons? I'll have to take that under advisement : )

Not just green ones, colored weapons (be them yellow, blue or red) are funny and look like some plastic toy.

Hmm I've been talking about the inventory sprite for the weapons not their effect : ) But horses for courses as they say, or to each their own.

Well, I also liked the plasma rifle's inventory sprite :)

Beginning Energy Weapons:
* Pulse Tazer - A small handgun capable of regenerating electrical charges indefinatly, but requires a full turn to recharge. Does moderate damage (ie, like the Fo1 shotgun), but is short range.

* Holdout laser pistol - Compact size laser pistol. The laser pistol did sucky damage anyway, and this one would be even less powerful. Ammunition rare at beginning of the game (you get a single clip of 20 shots, that's it for a long time).

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I like energy weapons, I just dont want them to take complete precedence over other weapons.

A .50cal machinegun is far superior to a plasma rifle. Gauss Weapons kick ass.

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I just wish that they'd get the stats for armor right:

--Against Lasers--
Damage Resistance dependant on darkness of armor. Darker = less resistance. Shiny = lotsa resistance.

Damage Threshold dependant on thickness / toughness of armor (combat armor has better DT than metal armor, dispite composition).

--Against Normal--
Damage Resistance is dependant on how heavy/thick the armor is (power armor = better DR than combat armor, because of mass).

Damage Threshold dependant on hardness of armor (some combat armor might actually be better than power armor in this regard).

--Against Fire--
DR dependant on how fire resistant the material is (ie, leather = good, metal = bad).

DT dependant on how well the suit is sealed.

--Against Explosives--
DR dependant totally on mass of armor, very hard to circumvent explosive force this way (no armor sohuld have more than 50% DR against explosives)

DT dependant on hardness/stiffness of armor suit (flexible suits dont help you much).

--Against Plasma--
See explosives. Plasma is more vulnerable to harder armor though, and anything with a magnetic field (such as power armor or tesla armor) gets an additional bonus.

--Electrical--
DR dependant on how non-conductive the armor is (leather = good, ceramic = really good, metal = uber bad).

DT dependant on how thick the armor is + how much non-conductive stuff it has around the joints.

--EMP--
Biological creatures are immune unless wearing Powered armor, Tesla Armor, or Forcefields (shield armor). At which point they get an automatic DT of at least 50.

Sirgalahadwizard wrote:Beginning Energy Weapons:
* Pulse Tazer - A small handgun capable of regenerating electrical charges indefinatly, but requires a full turn to recharge. Does moderate damage (ie, like the Fo1 shotgun), but is short range.

For the beginning of the game, with a weapon that has indefinite charges, I would think that it would be much less powerful. Probably more along the lines of the 10mm pistol, a substitue in case you run out of ammo.

Sirgalahadwizard wrote:<snip>

sounds good yo

For the beginning of the game, with a weapon that has indefinite charges, I would think that it would be much less powerful. Probably more along the lines of the 10mm pistol, a substitue in case you run out of ammo.

Or if you're a cheap bastard like me, who doesn't like to waste the expensive ammo on pathetic little creatures :)

Or if your a cheap bastard like me who uses the sun scorcher and a 10mm submachinegun until the smg stops doing damage, so I don't have to use ammo, decent ammo.

I tend to agree with alot of what is said here, but I think the "mid-level" between leather armor and powered armor should be lengthened. In FO2 we only got to use combat and tesla armour for "scant seconds" before the powered armor and mkII was introduced in the general San Francisco area... come to think about it, the tesla armor was introduced after I found the powered armor... 8O