Duck and Cover

Now I know there were a few blatant changes to Fallout Tactics, of which fans were none too pleased. Such as the primary focus on that whole CTB garbage. As well the obvious shift towards combative gameplay... and little else.

What other changes does Fallout Tactics have to the gameplay itself that differs from Fallout? It appears to use the same system. I know a lot of people decry FOT as not being Fallout because of the lack of roleplay. Which I find somewhat negligible as the theme of this game was unequivocally tactical combat, which in my opinion was the chief reason I liked Fallout to begin with. You had control as to where and when you started and carried out combat. Instead of the limited "select an attack and watch your stats do the rest" style console RPG combat.

The game seems to me like the story was mostly an afterthought that was slapped on. Which personally is inconsequential enough that I can ignore. Then again I don't put a lot of emphasis on story in determining whether or not my gaming experience is going to be good. Playing Enter the Matrix drove this point home for me as the game had an exquisitely designed story and absolutely abominable gameplay. To me, a good story contributes to a good game. It doesn't -make- a good game. Gameplay does that.

Yes. Fallout Tactics story is something of a joke, of which it possesses some nasty aberrations to the original two (*cough* Boom Bugs? I mean really?). I cringe every time I hear that opening diatribe about the village elder talking about brahmin gods and etheral grazing grounds or whatever that ridiculous tripe was. However I still find at it's core. I can enjoy the combat as it seems fairly similar to the original if you set it to individual turn based mode. Am I wrong? Is it missing anything critical to the gameplay that Fallout had? I'm curious to know.

Burnov wrote:Now I know there were a few blatant changes to Fallout Tactics, of which fans were none too pleased. Such as the primary focus on that whole CTB garbage. As well the obvious shift towards combative game play... and little else.

The problem was that people didn’t read the box FOT is a Tactical combat simulation not an RPG. The bummer is that the Phoenix engine could have made a great platform for fallout III ...... 4 years ago. It still could today if they would give up the source code and the external documentation. Just let some of the good computer programmers play with it and see what happens. WTF they aren’t going to do anything else with it anyway.

I am not alone in saying that I enjoy the hell out of CTB mode it lends excitement to the game while in combat and allows the player to do things that he should be able to do in combat such as pick a lock, run to cover or perform other actions that are not allowed in fallouts purely turn based combat. The only difference in CTB is that movement points and action points are separate you can move and then fire and then move again. Hell I would have liked a shoot on the run capability and the sentry mode is also a good feature.

I suppose ill be damned to hell for saying this but in my humble opinion the combat in fallout 1 &2 was the weakest part of the game. Remember all those encounters where the enemy stands at ridged attention while they shoot at you and you shoot at them. You can't move much either if you want to return fire. FOT at least gives you the option of CTB or Turn based combat. I would like to see something like CTB as an option in FO3.

Burnov wrote:I cringe every time I hear that opening diatribe about the village elder talking about brahmin gods and etheral grazing grounds or whatever that ridiculous tripe was.

Yes that was some dumb ass shit. I can't click that asshole away fast enough, I just want the detonator he has as a gift for you. His moronic rant In mission 2 is just as irritating.

Boom bugs what a stupid concept!!!

Not being able to leave a FOT map until the mission is completed is now and always was a shitty thing to implement. What would be wrong with entering the map and being able to run away if you are getting your ass kicked. you could leave the map heal up get some more ammo or equipment and take another crack at it. It would have also been a nice touch to be able to enter the map at several different locations like Fallout 1 & 2.

Another dumb thing about FOT while in CTB is that for the player mele weapons are all but usless especially for NPC's. They will stand their at a range of 4 and get shot to pieces and never attack. A little AI boost would have forced them to close with the the nearest enemy that is firing at them to a range where they could 'swing away Merril"

As I said before, the FOT engine could have been the platform for a great RPG but Interplay missed the boat completely. FOT was nothing more than an attempt to exploit the fallout name it was half the game we expected and wanted. I takes a great deal more thought to make a good RPG that it does to make a strictly combat game. The trick would have been to stick to the bible and make a game that is a good RPG and one that has a better combat system.

I think the change in story doesn't stray TOO far from Fallout canon - seeing as though Fallout canon deals mainly with the southern part of the west coast - and I have to give it points for having a setting in the midwest and getting us away from the People's Republic of California.

You also cannot expect any roleplaying elements aside from the character system in Tactics because it is not a roleplaying game.

Turn-based combat was, and still remains, heavily fucked up in Tactics, and playing in that mod breaks mission triggers something awful. Like xbow, I would also like to see CTB make an appearance in Fallout 3, BUT ONLY IF THEY DEVELOP AND PERFECT TURN-BASED FIRST.

Retlaw83 speaks the truth!!

The first priority should be to perfect TURN BASED first and add doodads (CTB) later as an option.

I really liked FOT. But then I werent expecting to play and RPG.

Its a real shame that after this ammount of time they still wont release the code... especialy since Interplay is basicaly gone

wild_qwerty

I agree if some of the programmers and hackers got ahold of that code we might just have FOT the RPG on our hands. that would be something to be sure. Interplay was really gone two+ years ago when Herve head started selling of all the company assets to keep Titus afloat. The code is unmarketable and obsolete in todays market so why not release it.