IGN - What We Want From Fallout 4

[Couchpotato]

IGN has a new article that lists what the website wants from the next Fallout game.

Now, we have been cursing at every E3 in the past 4 years for not announcing Fallout 4, but now that the game is almost confirmed, what exactly do we want from the series? I am sure Bethesda has plenty of features we haven’t even thought about that will blow us away, but based on our experiences with Fallout 3 and New Vegas, these are the 6 features we hope to see in the new Fallout game.

More information.

 

[rjshae]

Spending lots of time customizing a face you're almost never going to see doesn't seem particularly beneficial. I'm not clear why that should be a priority.

What I wouldn't mind seeing is a home residence with a bit more personality than just a hovering robot butler. It could be a place to shelter a companion, or the home of a friendly, talkative brain inside a machine.

 

[TomRon]

A better list than i expected from IGN. I don't really care for the customization (you'll wear a helmet most of the time anyway) but I won't be bothered by it.

I'd just like to add: No scaling. I know it won't happen but one can dream...

 

[Ripper]

Lots of good points, but for me it's got to be a new engine and better modding tools. I think one of the reasons we haven't seen more actual quest mods for Skyrim is that it's a bugged restrictive mess, built on an outdated engine. Everything is hacked together and held in place with duct tape.

Time for a next gen replacement, not another coat of paint. And with greater focus on the creation kit, not just an afterthought.

 

[Zephyr]

What I hated about FO:NV was the (to me) confusing mish-mash of a layout of the Strip areas. I never bothered to finish the game whereas I've played FO3 numerous times.
Endlessly fiddling with the appearance of your character is idiotic. Buy a Barbie or Ken doll and have at it. Expand the game world and provide some vehicles, but don't make it a street racing game.
Combat and especially enemy AI and tactics need some work. I don't necessarily agree with more people in the world; it's a wasteland after all. Just pockets of civilization. But yes, more active and varied people in settlements.
What I'd also like to see is the ability to climb in the landscape and also buildings. Not just stairs, but ladders and ropes, etc. Being able to reach up to a ledge or roof overhang would be nice.

 

[Deleted User]

Why do games have to have that ridiculous amount of character face and body customization? What a waste of resources...

In my dream RPG (that you are all going to help me fund! Check out http://www.patreon.com/fluent for more info ), you would select from some premade faces, body types, hairstyles, etc.

My motto will be: "No wasted resources on anything that does not greatly add to the RPG experience (with a heavy emphasis on the word 'RPG'!!"

That motto is a mouthful, I know. I'll try to think of something more clever.

Just one more reason to pledge to me.

 

[Couchpotato]

Well I will respond to each option below as its easier than writing a full paragraph.

Now as for the Changes listed.

1. A Personal Story

I agree with the site but I had no problem with the Fallout 3 story.

2. Better Writing

This one hundred times as Bethesda has never been known for good writing.

3. Livelier world

I agree again but thanks to mods my world was populated.

4. Improved Combat

It was functional in both Fallout 3/NV, but could be better so I agree.

5. More customization

I use mods and it's not that important, but NPC variety is more important.

6. Drivable Vehicles

Once again yes and a few mods did add them. Hint: Fallout 1&2 had cars.

Time for a next gen replacement, not another coat of paint. And with greater focus on the creation kit, not just an afterthought.

Good point Ripper but it's a pipe dream as Bethesda created the Creation Engine, and wont be dropping it. I don't mind as long as they don't use the id Tech 5 engine.

Why do games have to have that ridiculous amount of character face and body customization? What a waste of resources…

Because modern gamers don't like games with a preset character anymore. I see the same replies on other websites every time a new open world RPG is announced.

 

[Ripper]

Endlessly fiddling with the appearance of your character is idiotic. Buy a Barbie or Ken doll and have at it. Expand the game world and provide some vehicles, but don't make it a street racing game.

This is sort of what I'm on about from a modding point of view. The engine and the CK were so poor and buggy that many of the great old school TES modders threw their hands up in despair with Skyrim. That's why there's so many useless cosmetic mods, and so little quest content. Even the modder Arthmoor, who created the Open Cities and other major mods, abandoned it for months because the engine was hopelessly bugged. It took a guy with professional skills to reverse engineer amd patch the executable to handle memory sanely before he could complete it.

 

[Aubrielle]

Why does everyone hate PC face customization? That's the one thing I'd want most...

If Fallout 4 ever happened. xD

 

[xSamhainx]

the more i can customize my character, the more attached i feel to it!

Every time my character's face comes up in a Dragon Age cutscene, it makes me happy

 

[joxer]

While I couldn't care less what IGN wants from games as it's actually as much filler/grind as possible, for some reason I clicked on this news tidbit comments and spotted Couch's post with the list what that is. So I'll add a comment then.

1. A Personal Story
2. Better Writing
3. Livelier world
4. Improved Combat
5. More customization
6. Drivable Vehicles

Seems to me they want FO4 to be FarCry 3 clone in postapoc world. Peh!
FC3 is a great game, but cmon. FO is RPG and for that reason should be different.

 

[Deleted User]

Why does everyone hate PC face customization?

Personally, it's just in the category of "waste of resources" for me. As I said, if I made my own RPG, face customization and all that 'stuff' wouldn't be at the bottom of my list, it wouldn't be on my list at all. But that's just me.

I'd rather spend the resources on balancing the game better, or, ya know, implementing solid RPG systems. Not giving players the options to customize their character's brow height.

If you enjoy that thing, more power to you! Lots of modern games seem to have this feature, so you should all be very happy. Since I play older games mostly, I'm an old-school child at heart, so that sort of modern customization stuff just escapes me.

However, I am definitely in favor of what I consider 'real customization'. Ya know - armor, weapon, clothing, skills, attributes - that sort of customization. That is what I would spend my time and focus on. The RPG customization, which is very important in RPGs.

It is sort of sad to see games and gamers tout 'customization!!!', and then point to something like the Skyrim face creator.

Let's put it this way. I would much rather have the customization option to equip pauldrons, chest armor and greaves separately, than the customization to shape the bridge of my character's nose. Again, just my own preference.

Then again, there's people who spent hours on the face customization options in Skyrim, so I'm probably just in the minority again and clinging to relics of the past. But dang it, those relics of the past should be brought into the future, and it's going to take someone like myself to do it!

Rambling aside, what I want from Fallout 4 are huge amounts of character customization in the way of perks, attributes, stats, skills, types of armor, and more! Give us freedom in how we design our character's stats, and make sure there is a huge amount of different traits so that no 2 character builds will ever be the same. Give us a playground to play in and design our characters, and I'll be happy.

Note - If you're like me and think more time and resources of developers should be spent on implementing awesome RPG systems, and less on customizing jaw width, then please, please join me on my Patreon page! Together we can create an RPG that focuses on the real RPG stuff! Link is in my sig. Thanks for your time.

 

[Carnifex]

Absolutely no need to have characters that can be altered, I couldn't care less. Don't spend a penny on sounds either, no money on multiplayer, and make it have no need whatsoever to register somewhere on the interwebs to play it. NOW you have something that people will pay for!

Focus on a good story and content, the rest will sort itself out.

 

[Deleted User]

Absolutely no need to have characters that can be altered, I couldn't care less. Don't spend a penny on sounds either, no money on multiplayer, and make it have no need whatsoever to register somewhere on the interwebs to play it. NOW you have something that people will pay for!

Focus on a good story and content, the rest will sort itself out.

Exactly right! (Except for the sounds part - I'm kind of a music/sounds guy, myself )

 

[Humanity has risen!]

I know it's going to be another generic game with tons of filler content, so I don't actually have any expectations.

 

[Aubrielle]

Fluent, the way I see it is this…

If I can't customize my character, then she (I'd hope you'd have more than just the generic dude character) is just…your character, am I right? (the designer's character) I dunno. I guess I invest emotionally, and in order to do that I feel like I have to relate with the character on some level. I'm seeing the world through her eyes, after all.

I'm starting to think I'm a serious minority on this one (except for Samhain).

But best of luck on your project!

 

[crpgnut]

Nope, I love messing with the characters too. I typically mess a ton with how Vilja, Lydia, and Mjoll look. I don't really mess with my dude, once I get done creating him. I mess with it a bit at that time though.

 

[Deleted User]

Aubrielle,

I believe highly in character customization. I just think adjusting the bridge depth of the nose is a bit...too much? I would prefer art assets to be customizable in the way of selecting heads, hairstyles, body styles, etc. I just think the current trend of being able to spend 45 minutes crafting the 'perfect' eyebrow ridge is just a tad overkill.

So, in short, I would be all for customizing the character, much in the way of a game like Morrowind, Baldur's Gate, or any game like that goes about doing it.

I don't necessarily want to create the next Gothic or Risen game, which follows the story of one 'dude', but I also wouldn't pour a lot of time into letting people adjust the size of the character's eyeballs, either.

I think I could find a happy medium between the 2, and save a few resources that I could spend in other areas of the game.

By the way, the RPG I would like to design would be an open-world game with a customizable character, either male or female. However, it would be a more cerebral experience. I wouldn't accomplish immersiveness with sheer force of graphics, cutscenes and the like, but with a more organic approach. I'd want the player to feel immersed in the details of the world and not feel like it is highly copy and pasted from area to area.

I'd also want them to be immersed in the stats and attributes of their character. I know, I know, it sounds incredibly nerdy, and it is, but I do think that the modern approach of 'remove most stats and boil things down to absolute basics' is not quite the approach I'm going for. I want a meaty experience. Think Baldur's Gate in an open world the size of Morrowind with the attention to detail of Gothic, and you might be on the right path.

I could write a book on my design but I'll just stop here. Maybe in a future post I will outline some more of my ideas and create a more cohesive picture of what I'm imagining.

Thanks for the words! Cheerio!

 

[Aubrielle]

Well if it was totally open and moddable, so that the player could (if they wanted to) spend hours creating "the perfect brow ridge" outside the game, I could totally support that.

Maybe some might scorn me for this, but…I've never been all that good with stats, because I suck at math? I ran two D&D campaigns back to back in college, and most of my players just trampled on me because they were number-crunching as they read the books, figuring out the best way to break the game and make an OP character, where I was writing fun storylines and thinking of what could enhance the role-playing. And I know this probably isn't exactly what you're saying, but I see so many players that are so much better than me at crunching the numbers and talking stats, and it just makes my eyes hurt.

 

[Deleted User]

Truthfully, I'm not a min/max, number-crunching type of guy to the extent of breaking the game or becoming overpowered, but I do like a numerical representation of the various attributes of a character.

I like my characters to have a Strength stat that actually accounts for something in the game world. I like knowing that x character is strong and can bash a door or chest if needed, while y character is weak but has other advantages, etc.

I'm also fond of the Dark Eye representation of fears and negative traits. Having a character who's strong, yet claustrophobic, creates a very dynamic, immersive experience for me, even though it's told mostly through stats and 'skill-check' interactions in the game world.

Any game I design is going to have stats at it's core, simply because that's what I love. Games without deep stats can be fun, too, like Skyrim and countless others, but my true, ideal, extremely nerdy RPG will have stats.

Needless to say, I think Wasteland 2 is a good example of what I'd like in a more modern setting. But I'm still a Baldur's Gate and Dungeons & Dragons nerd at heart.

But hey, fun story-lines that enhance the role-playing from a narrative aspect are great, too! I think lore and story are also very important elements to a good RPG. Lore especially. I love knowing there is some deep, dark, long history in the game I am playing.