Duck and Cover

Hey fellas (and ladies, for that matter). I've just been reading up on some of this stuff about FOOL and such. Sad fact is that a MMORPG based on Fallout would be extremely difficult to produce.

One thing, though, that I dont think many people have considered, is a time frame for the online Fallout. It doesnt seem like anyone considered the possibility of a post FO2 setting. For instance - BOS is the new government, expansion is the new goal, new areas to explore.

That is, though, probably the only real do-able. Granted, I dont know much about SPECIAL or its integrate-ability to a MMORPG setting, but I do know a lot of the quirks people look for in that nature of game.

One - Housing. This was brough up, but I have to lean toward the "not in the FO universe" side. A wasteland full of houses isnt a wasteland...its Arizona. Now, something to consider would be certain areas where houses could be, like player villages, but that too, would get entirely old.

Two - Skills that matter. Barter, Speech, and things like Outdoorsman would do you very little good in a real-time environment in user-to-user interaction. It doesnt really make a big difference how well you speak unless its going to effect a quest some how. And trust me on this one, multi-faceted quests with non-static outcomes are VERY hard to create and come by.

Three - Playabilty and Loyalty to origination. Fallout players would want FOOL to be in the playable nature of FO1 & 2, by all means, not FOT (I think I'm the only soul who liked FOT). Were this the case, you'd be looking at an Ultima Online-stye GUI, with no one able to run in straight lines, difficult visibilities, and mind-bending corpse problems. This would get annoying in a hurry. So then your looking at a different GUI altogether; bad idea. Fallout players (I think) loved the interface and controls. Change them and you change the essence of the game.

Four - Travel and Time. It sucks, period. No one likes running like mad between two places only to find 'running like mad' still takes obscene amounts of time. Granted, vehicles could be implemented as well as mounts or whatnot, but then you move away from the FO feel with mass transit. Its contradictory. And there you have another problem. Expansion to the known FO world adds more travel time. Its a viscious cycle.

Five - (In respect to Online Games) Player v Player or Player/Player Group v NPC interaction. In nearly every game in the online empire you have guilds, squads, raiding teams, and what have you. Yes, these could be done in FOOL, could they be done well? No. Red-Server EQ players adore organized PvP, ljust like DAoC players. BUT - Whats to stop the major grief killers from totally taking the feel away from the game? No matter what "affiliation" they are (tribal, BOS, Raider..etc) they would sap the game of an RP feel. AND if you have everyone getting along all the time i.e. - EQ Blue servers, then the feel is also taken away. Its a near impossible balance.

Ok, I'm almost done. I think honestly that if there was ever a FOOL to be considered, it would have to be a huge mix of EQ-style gameplay, ShadowBane style options, and PVP....eh, maybe DAoC. All in all, it would be obscenely hard to implement everything in order to be successful. Its sad but true. FOOL should either be a very, very well developed (which would take forever (i.e. Blizzard)) game, or not done at all. I would HATE to see a FO style game flop totally. Just some thoughts to think about for whoever cares to. Feel free to point, laugh, or flame. Thanks all.

You are right about the whole interface change. I would HATE IT if they changed that. Yeah it would defintly have to be like a blizzard game unfortunatly nothing else would work.

I wouldn't mind a post-apocalyptic MMORPG, but not Fallout. It'd be hard, no, impossible to fit it with the setting and the story. It would be something like 'FOT: The Sims'. But to be honest, MMORPGs should stick to the fantasy, let's not ruin our sacred post-apocalyptic world with P-killers and guildhouses.

Wow...someone who liked FOT, is new here, and has at least a basic clue about MMORPG mechanics and design.

I'm almost ready to call 911 from the shock.

Aye, I'd agree. There's be many things that would have to be changed in order for it to become a MMORPG, and namely that TB combat would be gone. So would a lot more, and that the old character archetypes would be lost in favor to those of UO and pretty much any MMORPG. Which, minus magic, would leave it to a combat or thief character. This time, in reverse, with long-range being the strength and veterans wasting new players or melee characters with ease. No person would be stupid enough to put stats into "social skills" or merchant skills if they could unless it was enforced (again, changing the system and forcing into different character types) or they were just an idiot. If you could talk fair and talk fair, you're dead to the guy who can fight good. If they can fight good, then they likely already want you dead to take what they are not bothering to put skill points into Barter for.

I agree with Rosh. A two archetype system would find itself dead within a short amount of time. Thats something I hadnt thought of, but you are outstandingly correct, now that I think about it. And in relation to the "social skills", they would only be useful as mule-chars for guilds and stuff to make money or goods. But any average joe who doesnt want to join a guild or likes the idea of player merchants (myself) would learn a hard lesson the first time you sold someone a gun. The lesson being - they pay you, smile, load the gun, blow you away, and take their money back. Weeee, UO all over again (think selling bows)...
~Rebo

Outstanding, it's really refreshing to see another experienced vet who knows the workings.

One of the luring factors of a MMORPG is to have a variety of things to do. If just fighting all the time becomes old hat, there should be something else to explore whilst they take a break from combat. Later on, they will go back to the combat if they desire, or onto another occupation. Another lure is multiple archetypes, and without magic or magic-like skills while being in a pretty normal world (aside from strange events), that really reduces what could be done in Fallout. There would need to be something more to build upon or it would seem a little one-dimensional after some time.

Fallout, in its current state, is damn good for a single-player and good CRPG. It doesn't lend well to a MMORPG in just as many ways, but in namely the setting. A MMORPG in a post-apocalyptic universe would be pretty fun, especially something a little more desolate than Neocron's setting (though with a lot of players, that would be self-defeated), but Fallout wouldn't be a good setting to use.

A correction on my prior post, I had meant to say "If you could talk fair and fight fair, you're dead to the guy who can fight good. If they can fight good, then they likely already want you dead to take what they are not bothering to put skill points into Barter for."

You know, now that I had the weekend to think about it, something struck me. I think the closest thing to an actual FOOL would be something NWN-ish. Granted, I hated NWN, but thats my opinion, I'm not saying it sucks. Anyway, a good DM with a creative map/world map could easily hold together 20/30 players in a semi-constant world. Granted, they'd have to abide by the fallout rules and concepts out there at the moment, but if we were to ever see FO3, that kind of option would be a probable success. Only, though, if the DM had total customization control. That is, control over the worldscape and NPCs. With the ability to create unique quests, hell...even I'd DM.
~Rebo

I have nothing to say.. So i wont waste your, or my time posting. Just thought i'll tell you this, and get on my way.
Oh, and Hi Rebo.