Fallout 4 - no spoilers, Are the rumors true? Options

[SubRosa]

I don't have any trouble downloading from the Nexus.

I have read that Bethesda will be hosting its own mod site, and won't be using Steam Workshop. One of the deal breakers for me buying the game is if mods have to be downloaded from Bethesda.Net to work in the game. If so, I won't be buying it.

On one hand I am hoping that their paid mod fiasco with Skyrim taught them a lesson about trying to control modding. But on the other I have read that they intend to make mods available to the consoles as well as PCs. I suspect that is where Bethesda.Net enters the picture, as it might host mods for all three platforms, not just the PC. If so, I am sure it won't be free.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Nov 11 2015, 01:04 AM

[mALX]

I don't have any trouble downloading from the Nexus.

I have read that Bethesda will be hosting its own mod site, and won't be using Steam Workshop. One of the deal breakers for me buying the game is if mods have to be downloaded from Bethesda.Net to work in the game. If so, I won't be buying it.

On one hand I am hoping that their paid mod fiasco with Skyrim taught them a lesson about trying to control modding. But on the other I have read that they intend to make mods available to the consoles as well as PCs. I suspect that is where Bethesda.Net enters the picture, as it might host mods for all three platforms, not just the PC. If so, I am sure it won't be free.

At E3 Todd Howard said the mods would be free, I hope they stand by their word. But yes, I agree with you on this: If Nexus is cut out of the loop, I won't get Fallout 4. I personally have never used Steam's workshop anyway, but Nexus has been there through all my games, and I intend to continue using them.


I did see one save game in there that I would like; the person took some real care with both the man and the woman; and since your child is a combo of the two characters in looks = I'd choose that one if I couldn't do better myself. Some of the others left the man in his vanilla state or just used the vanilla female with a different hair color - no.

I also didn't see any way to make them younger in that vid, and that middle aged look doesn't fly with me. If you are cryogenically preserved, you shouldn't age in there.

*

Another thing I noticed in that vid was that main questline quests are automatically added into your journal. As soon as they escaped the vault it showed the new quest "Go Home" pop up. Leading by the nose, but they did a bit of that in FO3 too, so I'm waiting to see how much is just leading and how much is forceful steering; since I know Todd Howard had his hands in this pie.

I know in FO3 they tried to rush you through the main questline with dire sounding "Hurry! We must do this now!" type lines from everyone you dealt with in the Citadel and the BoS; Daddy James and Dr. Li; etc. But I held off when I wanted to and took my time coming back till I was ready, and the quest didn't come hunt me down, so it was fine. I really don't like being chased by a quest/questline; or not having autonomy in a game.

[mALX]

Oh, one thing I saw in that vid that was a thumbs down = interacting with items produced repeating comments by the player character on items rather than being able to loot them. Bleah; I'd prefer to loot than hear the voice, especially if it is repeating the same line within minutes.

[Winter Wolf]

The female character will certainly require more work than the male. Many of the presets look fantastic for the male, whether standard white male with stubble and growth or African American, they all look awesome. Rarely, if ever, have a gaming company managed to nail the look on both backgrounds. Thumbs up there.

However, the woman look average when compared to the men. Changing the face is not so hard, fix the hair etc but the worst part was the chest dimensions. It looks huge in cleavage. Great for Tomb Raider, a la 1996, but not in today's gaming. When I tried to change it the waist and arms decreased in size but not the upper torso....grrrr.

**

Having played a few more hours I really do like the game. I have changed my game style and basically given VATS away. The system does not lend itself to enemies that are charging at you like the old one did. The combat is so smooth down ironsights that it is silly to use VATS, except to small creatures like Bloatflys.

And the combat is fun. Burst open the door of a shack, watch the ghouls rise to the feet and open up with some high powered weaponry. All the while Dogmeat latches onto one of them and pulls them to the ground.

Graphically it is very good. The atmospheric music score and rain is fantastic. During a shower the ground surface has a wet sheen look and makes the ground feel quite muddy.

I will get around to settlement building. Too much fun just exploring.

The male voice actor sounds good when he tries to open a lock he cannot access and makes a little comment about it. That part of the game is actually very nice. The main dialogue animation, not so much.

This post has been edited by Winter Wolf: Nov 11 2015, 02:38 AM

[mALX]

The female character will certainly require more work than the male. Many of the presets look fantastic for the male, whether standard white male with stubble and growth or African American, they all look awesome. Rarely, if ever, have a gaming company managed to nail the look on both backgrounds. Thumbs up there.

However, the woman look average when compared to the men. Changing the face is not so hard, fix the hair etc but the worst part was the chest dimensions. It looks huge in cleavage. Great for Tomb Raider, a la 1996, but not in today's gaming. When I tried to change it the waist and arms decreased in size but not the upper torso....grrrr.

**

Having played a few more hours I really do like the game. I have changed my game style and basically given VATS away. The system does not lend itself to enemies that are charging at you like the old one did. The combat is so smooth down ironsights that it is silly to use VATS, except to small creatures like Bloatflys.

And the combat is fun. Burst open the door of a shack, watch the ghouls rise to the feet and open up with some high powered weaponry. All the while Dogmeat latches onto one of them and pulls them to the ground.

Graphically it is very good. The atmospheric music score and rain is fantastic. During a shower the ground surface has a wet sheen look and makes the ground feel quite muddy.

I will get around to settlement building. Too much fun just exploring.

The male voice actor sounds good when he tries to open a lock he cannot access and makes a little comment about it. That part of the game is actually very nice. The main dialogue animation, not so much.

I was amazed at how great and realistic the male faces and bodies were, like you pointed out = every preset seemed better than the last; and alll were better than the default on males. The females = Yes, it will take some intricate work to make a decent female. Agreed.






This post has been edited by mALX: Nov 11 2015, 03:46 AM

[Winter Wolf]

The story pacing is strange in the game as well.



If you plan to play as a scoundrel or evil character it is better to grab Dogmeat and just head off in another direction.

Edit- And the best way to describe the atmosphere is to imagine Point Lookout on a big scale.

This post has been edited by Winter Wolf: Nov 11 2015, 03:36 AM

[mALX]

The story pacing is strange in the game as well.



If you plan to play as a scoundrel or evil character it is better to grab Dogmeat and just head off in another direction.

Edit- And the best way to describe the atmosphere is to imagine Point Lookout on a big scale.

I might not want to be evil, but just not be pushed into action before I am ready. I have always liked exploring first/questing later.

By the way, is there karma in FO4?

[SubRosa]

What is the Minuteman thing? Aside from obviously having performance issues in romantic endeavors of course...

[mALX]

What is the Minuteman thing? Aside from obviously having performance issues in romantic endeavors of course...

SPEW!!!!

Minutemen = I think it jumps you into the main questline; isn't it the Commonwealth guys trapped in that room led by that Black man that you saw Todd Howard showing at the E3 preview vids? Where you have to put on that power armor and jump down into the Boston Commons or something?





This post has been edited by mALX: Nov 11 2015, 04:04 AM

[Winter Wolf]

The first couple of hours are very bad if you are looking for slow pace or a main story that does not force things on you. It really needs an alternate start like what came out thanks to our modding community on all other Beth games that I have played. It is like Beth will never learn there.

The minuteman require your help for a reason. (I will not spoil it other than to say that) and the game gives you very little space to avoid the growing situation. The problem is that you enter an interior cell before you realize what has happened.

And yes, mALX, you are correct about the power armor thing. That also happens waaaay too quickly.

**

There is no evidence that I have seen on Karma or faction loyalty in the game. I think some quests are not available if you are working for the enemy, but not very many. It is nothing like NV that is for sure.

Most complaints I have read at Metacritic and Reddit are upset about the lack of role play. I agree that those things are missing here, but heck, they have been missing from Beth games for 10 years now.

Beth games are open world exploring games. Little of RP survives today.



This post has been edited by Winter Wolf: Nov 11 2015, 05:12 AM

[Grits]

So far I think it’s good. The world is very engaging. I want to get out there and explore. Combat is fast and fun, and because VATS slows time instead of freezing it it’s also fun to sneak around and wait for your shot. I’m in constant fear that the dog is going to die. There is a lot of stuff to pick up and fool around with. I’m sure some players are mad about the player voice. I am a third-person player so it’s not as big of an issue for me, but the die hard first-person players who want to feel that they are the character might not be able to get over it. For example instead of getting a message You cannot pick this lock, the character says out loud something like, “Huh, can’t pick this one.” If you have concerns I’d say watch a Let’s Play.

The main action starts right away, but I can already see ways to sidestep it. If you want to avoid the main quest forever and not touch it even in your first game, you’ll need to do some research to know what not to do.

I can also see how characters will feel different from each other in significant ways, and choices will shape them and actually matter. I love SPECIAL and choosing perks.

[mirocu]

Not sure I like the voice while in first person. I had no trouble with it whatsoever in Deus Ex but J.C Denton only talked when the game went into dialogue cinematics and you saw him from the side like it was a movie. I was also ok with it in CoC: Dark Corners (only watched it on youtube though). Don´t like my character to randomly comment my actions.

On the other side of the spectra; the marine in Doom 3 never talked. Not even when asked a direct question in the dialogue cinematic. He just stood there with a blank stare like he was mute or something

The main action starts right away, but I can already see ways to sidestep it. If you want to avoid the main quest forever and not touch it even in your first game, you’ll need to do some research to know what not to do.

It´s such a project to avoid the MQ these days!!

This post has been edited by mirocu: Nov 11 2015, 09:41 AM

[Winter Wolf]

Okay, it looks like the settlement building goes like this-

There are 30 workshops in the game. The area around the workshop could be anything from a small gas station or a 6 house mini suburb. Each one has a different radius that you can build within. So in the case of the gas station you would be able to knock some walls down and build a small place within that area.

In the case of the mini suburb you could rebuild each of those individual houses and have half a dozen homes that you slowly restore, or if you want just build a massive place with multiple stories. Not sure if you have to keep the size equal to the concrete slab of the original dwelling and just build up.

It would make sense to have some limit, otherwise it would sprawl over the street. Perhaps you can link them with walkways in the air? Ha! that would be cool.

One of the houses costs 2000 caps before you can do it up. Most of the other ones just require you to clear the area of enemies. A third type may require a quest to be completed first.

The system works quite well on console. If you have residents there you can assign guard duties and tending of crops. It can get awkward to assign those duties. Otherwise it is good. All the items can come from the surrounding area. You just scrap all the items from the destroyed houses and knock over trees and poles for wood.

So the total number of houses in the game is variable. Anywhere from 30 to around 70 or 80 would be my guess.

Insane!

This post has been edited by Winter Wolf: Nov 11 2015, 09:48 AM

[mALX]

Okay, it looks like the settlement building goes like this-

There are 30 workshops in the game. The area around the workshop could be anything from a small gas station or a 6 house mini suburb. Each one has a different radius that you can build within. So in the case of the gas station you would be able to knock some walls down and build a small place within that area.

In the case of the mini suburb you could rebuild each of those individual houses and have half a dozen homes that you slowly restore, or if you want just build a massive place with multiple stories. Not sure if you have to keep the size equal to the concrete slab of the original dwelling and just build up.

It would make sense to have some limit, otherwise it would sprawl over the street. Perhaps you can link them with walkways in the air? Ha! that would be cool.

One of the houses costs 2000 caps before you can do it up. Most of the other ones just require you to clear the area of enemies. A third type may require a quest to be completed first.

The system works quite well on console. If you have residents there you can assign guard duties and tending of crops. It can get awkward to assign those duties. Otherwise it is good. All the items can come from the surrounding area. You just scrap all the items from the destroyed houses and knock over trees and poles for wood.

So the total number of houses in the game is variable. Anywhere from 30 to around 70 or 80 would be my guess.

Insane!

But I mean a Player house, with safe storage for the Player and no one else (NPC) comes inside but you and your followers if you let them in.

I hope it isn't going to be a DLC you have to buy if you want a Player house.


By the way, I got another email from GameStop today, they are STILL trying to run that order against my credit card, so really glad I called up PayPal to cancel it; they obviously don't know what "Cancel the Order" means at GameStop,




This post has been edited by mALX: Nov 11 2015, 10:18 AM

[Destri Melarg]

Only got to spend about 90 minutes with the game today, and all of that was spent in the character creator.

Impressions:

Wolfie hit the nail right on the head when it comes to the male vs female presets. Unfortunately when playing around with the faces you quickly discover that, robust as the character creator may be, you still wind up with characters whose faces look somewhat similar… especially when it comes to the (apparent lack of) cheekbones.

The male voice absolutely sucks if you're planning on playing anything but a caucasion male. Not surprising or game breaking, but it is an irritant that I have sadly grown accustomed to. Is it really that cost prohibitive to hire more that one actor/actress for the voice role? The female voice actually plays much better, at least to my ears.

The character models are a bit stiff and wooden in their animations. Why can't Bethesda ever get this right? On the positive side, you can actually create a fat character for a change!

The music playing on the radio during my face sculpting session was straight out of Fallout 3 and it was like a welcome visit from an old friend. The ones I knew offhand were both from Billie Holliday: Easy Living and Crazy He Calls Me. I haven't heard the Ink Spots yet, but I'm sure I will when I get more in depth time with the game this weekend.

Oh, and Gritsy:

[mALX]

Only got to spend about 90 minutes with the game today, and all of that was spent in the character creator.

Impressions:

Wolfie hit the nail right on the head when it comes to the male vs female presets. Unfortunately when playing around with the faces you quickly discover that, robust as the character creator may be, you still wind up with characters whose faces look somewhat similar… especially when it comes to the (apparent lack of) cheekbones.

The male voice absolutely sucks if you're planning on playing anything but a caucasion male. Not surprising or game breaking, but it is an irritant that I have sadly grown accustomed to. Is it really that cost prohibitive to hire more that one actor/actress for the voice role? The female voice actually plays much better, at least to my ears.

The character models are a bit stiff and wooden in their animations. Why can't Bethesda ever get this right? On the positive side, you can actually create a fat character for a change!

The music playing on the radio during my face sculpting session was straight out of Fallout 3 and it was like a welcome visit from an old friend. The ones I knew offhand were both from Billie Holliday: Easy Living and Crazy He Calls Me. I haven't heard the Ink Spots yet, but I'm sure I will when I get more in depth time with the game this weekend.

Oh, and Gritsy:

Since they only had one voice for males and one for females, I kind of saw this one coming too. And a lot of the voice usage was extraneous and unnecessary anyway; like the lockpick one. If you are sneaking to pick a lock, are you really going to say aloud "I can't pick this YET" (and how does she know she will be able to later?)

All the panting and blowing when she first escaped the cryo pod - I at first though it was Kira (the girl I was watching play in the gameplay vid) over-dramatizing, then saw "Pant Pant" printed on the screen. It was kind of sappy, and put all the burdon of roleplay onto Bethsoft instead of me - aka Todd Howard controlling how our characters should feel for us. I really would have preferred more choices in voice actors and less heavy handed use of the voices.





This post has been edited by mALX: Nov 11 2015, 10:28 AM

[mirocu]

It really seems like Bethesda isn´t what it used to be; about us and our characters to be whatever we wanted them to be. They definitely seem to go the modern FPS game route now...

[Winter Wolf]

But I mean a Player house, with safe storage for the Player and no one else (NPC) comes inside but you and your followers if you let them in.

I hope it isn't going to be a DLC you have to buy if you want a Player house.

mALX- there is no house buying like before. Those days are over (unless you mod it, of course).

Every location in the game that has a work station is a house building area. You no longer buy houses in the game, with the one exception of the one 2000 cap house. But even that one has to be built up using the workstation. Most of the locations are small and isolated so they are perfect for only 1 person and a companion.

This is the next evolution after Hearthfire. You do not buy houses in Fallout 4, you build them.

It really seems like Bethesda isn´t what it used to be; about us and our characters to be whatever we wanted them to be. They definitely seem to go the modern FPS game route now...

I believe that Beth has been this way for 10 years now. All the role playing you have done was not supplied by Bethesda, it was simply what you were able to achieve with a little creativity.

Even in Oblivion I became the Arch Mage and was still treated by a lackey by everyone else.

Cause and effect and being able to play different roles have not existed for 10 years now.

True, this game does feel weaker than past efforts, but this is because of the forced story lines and horrible pacing this time.

This post has been edited by Winter Wolf: Nov 11 2015, 10:50 AM

[mirocu]

I agree, but at least Oblivion and Fallout 3 allows me to be whoever I want (provided I skip the MQ). Fallout 4 seems to eliminate that altogether. I don´t know, haven´t played it, but that´s what it seems like to me.

I never cared about questlines to provide the identity of my character, much the same my work (if I had one ) does not give me my identity.


Anyway, hope you guys are having fun with the new game

[Winter Wolf]

I believe role play has always been very poor.

Could I join the raiders?

Or the Talon Mercs?

Or enslave Daddy and join the Enclave?

Or join the Imperial Guard in the Imperial City?

Or be a priest in the chapels?

Or play a young or old person with cause and effect?

Beth games have very little role play in them for oh so long now. The role play is using the small number of tools that they provide and being creative ourselves. We were the ones who placed apples before our horses, we used the sneak button to simulate praying at a chapel, we placed our clothes on rocks to let them dry after washing them.

Nothing has changed. The fans cried out for a survival mode similar to NV. And what did Beth do?