Fallout 4 - facts and rumors

[Mathragh]

Purely reasoning from a sales point of view, I'd recon that this game will be released on both ps3/xbox360 and ps4 xbox1, alongside the PC. If this were to be true, it would most probably mean that the game will still be based on the skyrim engine, with all its limitations. it'll prolly take umtill the next elder scrolls game for them to bring out a new engine, as by then they wont "have" to support the old consoles anymore, and can go full out on a new engine.

However they might also just skip the ps3/xbox360 or atleast the ps3 since it was giving them problems with skyrim aswell. i hope for us PC gamers' sake that this is the case, as this would mean they can finally bring a bit more depth to the game world without being limited tiny memory pools and 8year old cpu performance.

Time will tell i suppose, and really looking forward to any new information!

 

[KainXS]

What I would want from a Fallout game is more New Vegas, but realistic. Realistic eating and drinking, realistic distances, a realistic amount of people (in some places it's good, but bigger settlements needs work), coupled with a good story and good writing. And you should not be able to max out everything, one or to skills tops.

agreed but weren't their mods for all of this anyway?

besides the story, think new vegas's story vs 3's was kinda a let down.

 

[BiggieShady]

There were skill trees.

I know what you mean. The whole skill system can be looked as a tree with each skill as single branch that doesn't branch anymore. The perk system is kind of a super branching inter-twined tree just not displayed that way. It can be looked at this way, but why?

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

I know what you mean. The whole skill system can be looked as a tree with each skill as single branch that doesn't branch anymore. The perk system is kind of a super branching inter-twined tree just not displayed that way. It can be looked at this way, but why?

My original comment was "ditch the crazy progression tree." I stand by that statement.

Why do I suddenly get the ability to kill robots better at a given level? I'd never killed a single robot, but upon level progression I could choose a perk that made me more efficient at killing robots. That's crazy to me.


I'd like to see what I do lead to what I can do. If I go out and kill a hundred Raiders I should be able to "learn their weaknesses," thereby dealing more damage to them. I should be crappy with a gun when I start (assuming there is no back story as to why I'm an elite sniper), and eventually have enough practice to use my guns with pinpoint accuracy. I should have to train in rewiring robots before I can magically make them bend to my will with a hack. That's the R in RPG, you play a role.

Fallout 3 had a smattering of perks that most people used. There were a few that were situationally useful, but not worth an upgrade to get. They almost universally unlocked without regards to situational context, and might make no sense when they popped up. That's a failure of context in a story. Skyrim did a much better job by having your actions relate to what perks you could buy, but having to get 100 in alchemy so I could unlock the last tier of armor smithing was bass-ackwards. Hopefully, the lesson was learned and the progression will follow how you play. I want my silent assassin to be a shadow after spending half the game practicing stealth kills, not getting a level up, and having my upgrade choice be bigger explosions on magic and summoning a glowing ice dragon.

 

[rtwjunkie]

So you install the game then launch it then upgrade?

yes, that's what I did. LOL...doesn't mean it will work for everybody. Such a lovable, buggy game!

 

[Frick]

agreed but weren't their mods for all of this anyway?

If someone made the world 10x bigger and put 10x more people with real personalities in the game and inserted a real hardcore mode, gimme a link.

My original comment was "ditch the crazy progression tree." I stand by that statement.

Why do I suddenly get the ability to kill robots better at a given level? I'd never killed a single robot, but upon level progression I could choose a perk that made me more efficient at killing robots. That's crazy to me.


I'd like to see what I do lead to what I can do. If I go out and kill a hundred Raiders I should be able to "learn their weaknesses," thereby dealing more damage to them. I should be crappy with a gun when I start (assuming there is no back story as to why I'm an elite sniper), and eventually have enough practice to use my guns with pinpoint accuracy. I should have to train in rewiring robots before I can magically make them bend to my will with a hack. That's the R in RPG, you play a role.

Fallout 3 had a smattering of perks that most people used. There were a few that were situationally useful, but not worth an upgrade to get. They almost universally unlocked without regards to situational context, and might make no sense when they popped up. That's a failure of context in a story. Skyrim did a much better job by having your actions relate to what perks you could buy, but having to get 100 in alchemy so I could unlock the last tier of armor smithing was bass-ackwards. Hopefully, the lesson was learned and the progression will follow how you play. I want my silent assassin to be a shadow after spending half the game practicing stealth kills, not getting a level up, and having my upgrade choice be bigger explosions on magic and summoning a glowing ice dragon.

Fallout perks has always been quirky, it's their thang. Mostly they're good for roleplaying. And the games that have used the "level up" as you use things system have been sort of boring. Could be because I just love DnD-style systems.

In any case it's Bethsoft. I wouldn't trust them to make a good RPG even if someone gave me money. I wish they could stick to the world buildning and leave everything else to the pros (Obsidian).

 

[ne6togadno]

My original comment was "ditch the crazy progression tree." I stand by that statement.

Why do I suddenly get the ability to kill robots better at a given level? I'd never killed a single robot, but upon level progression I could choose a perk that made me more efficient at killing robots. That's crazy to me.


I'd like to see what I do lead to what I can do. If I go out and kill a hundred Raiders I should be able to "learn their weaknesses," thereby dealing more damage to them. I should be crappy with a gun when I start (assuming there is no back story as to why I'm an elite sniper), and eventually have enough practice to use my guns with pinpoint accuracy. I should have to train in rewiring robots before I can magically make them bend to my will with a hack. That's the R in RPG, you play a role.

Fallout 3 had a smattering of perks that most people used. There were a few that were situationally useful, but not worth an upgrade to get. They almost universally unlocked without regards to situational context, and might make no sense when they popped up. That's a failure of context in a story. Skyrim did a much better job by having your actions relate to what perks you could buy, but having to get 100 in alchemy so I could unlock the last tier of armor smithing was bass-ackwards. Hopefully, the lesson was learned and the progression will follow how you play. I want my silent assassin to be a shadow after spending half the game practicing stealth kills, not getting a level up, and having my upgrade choice be bigger explosions on magic and summoning a glowing ice dragon.

you are missing that tes and fallout franchise has different skill systems.
perk system in fo3 comes from original fo/fo2/fot. it is dnd with perks renamed so they fit game setting
skyrim follows tes system with some modification/simplification.
if they had used tes system in fo3 then it would be fo anymore. it would be just tes after nuclear war.

 

[brandonwh64]

yes, that's what I did. LOL...doesn't mean it will work for everybody. Such a lovable, buggy game!

it worked for me! I installed the game straight off the disc then loaded the game and got to were I was 16 and saved then applied the patch and removed the Live crap using the FOM manager and it works great with no crashes. Also another thing I had to do was set the game to only run 2 cores via the fallout.ini

 

[rtwjunkie]

it worked for me! I installed the game straight off the disc then loaded the game and got to were I was 16 and saved then applied the patch and removed the Live crap using the FOM manager and it works great with no crashes. Also another thing I had to do was set the game to only run 2 cores via the fallout.ini

That's good to know about the cores optimization! Thanks!

 

[BiggieShady]

Why do I suddenly get the ability to kill robots better at a given level? I'd never killed a single robot, but upon level progression I could choose a perk that made me more efficient at killing robots. That's crazy to me.

I agree that the whole perk system is crazy from a cause-and-effect standpoint. Given that, it's hard to tie in any roleplaying elements that explain the perk progression. So the roleplaying elements are all in storytelling and some in skill progression.

I'd like to see what I do lead to what I can do. If I go out and kill a hundred Raiders I should be able to "learn their weaknesses," thereby dealing more damage to them. I should be crappy with a gun when I start (assuming there is no back story as to why I'm an elite sniper), and eventually have enough practice to use my guns with pinpoint accuracy. I should have to train in rewiring robots before I can magically make them bend to my will with a hack. That's the R in RPG, you play a role.

It's lame that when you dismantle a 100 bombs you don't get bonus points to explosives skill, that is so non-elder-scrolls for a fallout game and it's hard not to compare them
I like the "learn their weaknesses" principle with enemy type perks (for example, getting knowledge points about enemy type on vats criticals). Ultimatley, I also agree that perk system needs to be very dependent of skill system. Perks offered to sneaker should have been drastically different than those offered to melee fighter.

Fallout 3 had a smattering of perks that most people used. There were a few that were situationally useful, but not worth an upgrade to get. They almost universally unlocked without regards to situational context, and might make no sense when they popped up. That's a failure of context in a story. Skyrim did a much better job by having your actions relate to what perks you could buy, but having to get 100 in alchemy so I could unlock the last tier of armor smithing was bass-ackwards. Hopefully, the lesson was learned and the progression will follow how you play. I want my silent assassin to be a shadow after spending half the game practicing stealth kills, not getting a level up, and having my upgrade choice be bigger explosions on magic and summoning a glowing ice dragon.

Skyrim did it better indeed. That's why I suspect perk trees from skyrim will be in fallout 4 only not in star constellations.
I kinda liked Morrowind's class system - a template system built on top of a skill set. When you have no classes and player has the freedom to easily switch play-styles or to become jack of all trades, the problem is that you practically rely on player's self control to become specialist. Now, if there were an incentive to pursue the skill set for a specific class template - like powerful perks that make sense class wise, it would make players want to specialize.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

you are missing that tes and fallout franchise has different skill systems.
perk system in fo3 comes from original fo/fo2/fot. it is dnd with perks renamed so they fit game setting
skyrim follows tes system with some modification/simplification.
if they had used tes system in fo3 then it would be fo anymore. it would be just tes after nuclear war.

Let's play Devil's advocate here. Imagine for a second that you have a skill tree. At level 1 you get two perk choices, one along the lines of stealth, and the other along the lines of combat. At level 2 you get three new options, based upon what you chose at level 1, relating to what you chose at level 1. You could also choose to learn the other level 1 perk, and get access to every potential skill. Those three skill choices at level 2 could consist of only 4 different options, allowing for some overlapping and access to various character builds. Let's visualize:

Level 1:
Increased Melee Damage
Increased Hacking Success

Level 2:
Increased Pistol Damage (Melee dependent)
Increased Health (Both Options)
Increased Carrying Capacity (Both Options)
30% muffled sound when crouched (Hacking dependent)

Level 4:
Increased Rifle Damage ((Melee and Pistol Damage dependent)
Increased Melee Range (Melee Damage and Carrying Capacity Dependent)
Increased Ammo Capacity (no dependencies)
Decreased Radiation Absorbtion (Health increase dependent)
Increased Movement Speed While Crouching )Hacking and muffled sound dependent)

etc....


The end goal allowing for a bunch of crazy perks to be involved, but them being made available on what you've already chosen. The stealth character doesn't suddenly have the ability to make huge explosions. The character that wants to hack and be good with laser weapons doesn't waste a perk on grenade skills. Most importantly, players actions are rewarded, and you are led into playing a specific role.

Fallout perks aren't anything special. They have quirky names, interesting effects, but they aren't anything that other games don't replicate. You can call it "Lead Belly," and say it's a reduction in radiation absorbtion. You can call it "Survivalist," where food provides better health increases on consumption. No matter what the name, the perk is consumables are more effective at doing their job.

None of this is making Fallout an Elder Scrolls clone. None of these changes even requires shifting the name of the perks. The only thing that these changes require is the though to create character archetypes, and structure a skill tree to player styles. That is, in my opinion, how the role playing fits into an RPG. Bethesda should be more than capable of this low bar, and given that they've demonstrated the ability to get pretty much everything environmentally right I think these changes would make a perfect gaming experience. Fallout 3 is riddled with bugs, Fallouts 1 and 2 haven't exactly aged well, Skyrim was interesting but favored action above role playing. Fallout 4 will hopefully learn about player attributes from Skyrim, pull amazing lore from Fallout 1 and 2, and learn a lesson about required stability from Fallout 3. Bethesda isn't perfect, but they make a good game. Hopefully Obsidian puts the R back in RPG, but I guess we'll be learning about that next month.

 

[brandonwh64]

That's good to know about the cores optimization! Thanks!

Place this in the fallout.ini under general to set 2 cores only

iNumHWThreads=2

 

[ne6togadno]

Let's play Devil's advocate here. Imagine for a second that you have a skill tree. At level 1 you get two perk choices, one along the lines of stealth, and the other along the lines of combat. At level 2 you get three new options, based upon what you chose at level 1, relating to what you chose at level 1. You could also choose to learn the other level 1 perk, and get access to every potential skill. Those three skill choices at level 2 could consist of only 4 different options, allowing for some overlapping and access to various character builds. Let's visualize:

Level 1:
Increased Melee Damage
Increased Hacking Success

Level 2:
Increased Pistol Damage (Melee dependent)
Increased Health (Both Options)
Increased Carrying Capacity (Both Options)
30% muffled sound when crouched (Hacking dependent)

Level 4:
Increased Rifle Damage ((Melee and Pistol Damage dependent)
Increased Melee Range (Melee Damage and Carrying Capacity Dependent)
Increased Ammo Capacity (no dependencies)
Decreased Radiation Absorbtion (Health increase dependent)
Increased Movement Speed While Crouching )Hacking and muffled sound dependent)

etc....


The end goal allowing for a bunch of crazy perks to be involved, but them being made available on what you've already chosen. The stealth character doesn't suddenly have the ability to make huge explosions. The character that wants to hack and be good with laser weapons doesn't waste a perk on grenade skills. Most importantly, players actions are rewarded, and you are led into playing a specific role.

Fallout perks aren't anything special. They have quirky names, interesting effects, but they aren't anything that other games don't replicate. You can call it "Lead Belly," and say it's a reduction in radiation absorbtion. You can call it "Survivalist," where food provides better health increases on consumption. No matter what the name, the perk is consumables are more effective at doing their job.

None of this is making Fallout an Elder Scrolls clone. None of these changes even requires shifting the name of the perks. The only thing that these changes require is the though to create character archetypes, and structure a skill tree to player styles. That is, in my opinion, how the role playing fits into an RPG. Bethesda should be more than capable of this low bar, and given that they've demonstrated the ability to get pretty much everything environmentally right I think these changes would make a perfect gaming experience. Fallout 3 is riddled with bugs, Fallouts 1 and 2 haven't exactly aged well, Skyrim was interesting but favored action above role playing. Fallout 4 will hopefully learn about player attributes from Skyrim, pull amazing lore from Fallout 1 and 2, and learn a lesson about required stability from Fallout 3. Bethesda isn't perfect, but they make a good game. Hopefully Obsidian puts the R back in RPG, but I guess we'll be learning about that next month.

predefined archetypes doesnt fit to fallout story line. "you are born and lived in vault, you dont have any knowledge about how to survive outside world. you are learning on the run" and skill system is just part of that story. what will be your toon is defined by the way you chose perks. at the beginning you have blank toon with some primary stats. it is up to you to shape it in the way you like/need.
what are you asking for is within the TES system. you get improvement in skills you use most.
those to are completely different systems and both has pros and cons. which one is better is question of personal preferences. you either have to live with the one you dislike or you have just to skip games that are using it.
in sp games i prefer to concentrate to game story and experience and dont care about combat/skill system as soon as it doesnt brake gameplay.

 

[lilhasselhoffer]

Let's agree to disagree. I can see where you wouldn't agree with me, and I'm sure that you think I'm stubborn for not conceding to your point. Arguing isn't getting any of us closer to answers about Fallout 4.

Hopefully whatever it becomes will please most people's expectations.

 

[acerace]

Wow, just wow.

 

[1Kurgan1]

Just going to throw this out there. (what the hell happened to auto scaling images? Had to throw this in a spoiler since it took up my entire screen, then it gave me the option to zoom into it full size...)

Spoiler

 

[hellrazor]

So it's a rotation of 13?

 

[Frick]

Just going to throw this out there. (what the hell happened to auto scaling images? Had to throw this in a spoiler since it took up my entire screen, then it gave me the option to zoom into it full size...)

Spoiler

It does resize the pictures, but to fit the screen basically.

 

[Black Panther]

Even more hearsay. Who knows they might be correct? What's for sure till now is that when contacted Bethesda refused to comment on The Survivor 2299 site. They didn't confirm it as being true, but neither did they declare it a scam. My guess is that they've got their finger in it...

Hello Vault Dwellers. We have some updates for you on the messages posted on The Survivor 2299. This time they are a bit trickier, but there's nothing that could prevent real Fallout fans from getting new information on so hoped-for sequel. Even if there is a strong chance those rumors are just a hoax.

Yesterday, The Survivor's main page featured a new cipher message:

“
VGNR [CAP] – ***? – LET- GRZ XJG XRS FWZZR GOS UIEG SII GZVZI || GRZ SAW XRS SAZZ XJG DZVB GRZ XUJIZ

”
This code was not as easy as the previous one. But at the same time it contained a hint. "VGNR" means that the cipher used is Vigenère cipher - ach letter in the message is replaced by a letter some fixed number of positions down the alphabet, with a different shift number for each letter based on a predetermined key. Using the key "seven", the message above is translated to:

“
one two two seven two zero one three || one one two five two zero one three

”
which gives us two dates: 12/27/2013 and 11/25/2013 (Monday and Friday). Not much for an update, but it becomes more interesting when you look at today's message:

“
VGNR [CAP] - ***? - LET- GRZ XJG XRS FWZZR GOS UIEG SII GZVZI || GRZ SAW XRS SAZZ XJG DZVB GRZ XUJIZ

”
Using "monday friday as a key" and then reading the resulting message backwards you get

“
The Quabbin Reservoir seven zero four two two nine nine

”
According to Wikipedia, Quabbin Reservoir is the largest inland body of water in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and was built between 1930 and 1939. Another mention of the Commonwealth together with a hint to a new interesting location.

You can check all the deciphering using any codebreaker website that supports Vigenère cipher, e.g. MyGeocachingProfile.com. Heads up to Fallout sub-Reddit for original deciphering.

Read more here and here.

 

[remixedcat]

I hope the funny physics is still in it! I love seeing the "get downs" !!!!

 

[Black Panther]

This was too good not to share:

 

[RCoon]

This was too good not to share:

It's all an erraborate ruse BP!

 

[techtard]

Bethesda did say they were going to re-use the modified Gamebryo engine for at least one more game after Skyrim. That's too bad, it would be nice if they used something new that took advantage of the power of modern PCs.
But re-using the frankenstein Gamebryo engine, they will be able to release on PC, last-gen consoles, and next-gen consoles which makes the most sense for them.
It's doubtful that the in game settlements will be any larger or have many more PCs, especially if it is going to be coming out for last-gen too. But it would be nice to have a larger, more 'alive' game-world.

I would like to see more in-depth crafting for one thing, and maybe a better AI and reputation system where people actually recognize you for your personality and accomplishments.
And more item variety, maybe with an item dye system and an item mod system.
Including more RPG elements would be nice, especially more than 1 companion and one 'pet'.

Started playing FO3 again recently on Win7, had crashes galore until I used the 4gb exe patcher app.

 

[Frick]

Item dye would not belong in Fallout imo. Crafting can be a fine thing, but they have to make the game hard enough to make it worth it. In NV it wasn't. It's the same in Skyrim, all that food and stuff doesn't do anything. And they have to improve the UI, a lot. But they probably won't becuase immurshun and consoles.

 

[Black Panther]

There are reports that the http://thesurvivor2299.com site is down, and that it's all over.

However apparently within an hour or so the timer was supposed to run down and change. The message had been changed a couple of days to this one... (not my screenshot)

So perhaps the site is down due to traffic.

Or perhaps putting the site offline was part of the plan.

We can only speculate.

Does http://thesurvivor2299.com work for you?