Fallout X: Back after those messages

[Rynjin]

I can't think of any examples from Bethesda that aren't purely cosmetic...which doesn't mean they don't exist.

Other that...Capcom, valve, Nintendo, Sega, Square, Sony, cd project red, probably lots of others I can't think of off the top of my head.

...What microtransactions have CD Projekt released? I'm also unclear on the Sony thing, all of their exclusives are single player.

[Anteros]

...What microtransactions have CD Projekt released? I'm also unclear on the Sony thing, all of their exclusives are single player.

I was just listing AAA developers.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I can't think of any examples from Bethesda that aren't purely cosmetic...which doesn't mean they don't exist.

Other that...Capcom, valve, Nintendo, Sega, Square, Sony, cd project red, probably lots of others I can't think of off the top of my head.

Capcom is more interested in making pachinko games than video games lately, it seems.

Valve used to make games, now they just make money through Steam, getting a cut of the action.

Nintendo eShop has started implementing the framework for microtransactions, and permits them in games on their platform.

Sega hasn't been a major player since the 90's. Maybe early 2000's.

Squeenix... I take it you haven't seen the Moogle Store for FF XIV lately?

Sony... well, SoE turned Everquest into a microtransaction-laden decaying corpse of its former self. Does that count?

CDPR isn't exactly an AAA company. Trying to be, but not on the same level as the others. They've made a few decent games, and they're certainly trying to emulate the mistakes AAA companies are making, but I wouldn't call them AAA.

[GloatingSwine]

Capcom is more interested in making pachinko games than video games lately, it seems.

For a company you seem to have confused with Konami, Capcom are doing pretty well at making videogames. Two of the top five sellers for 2021 are Capcom games. (Resi Village and Monster Hunter Rise)

Sega hasn't been a major player since the 90's. Maybe early 2000's.

Sega publish a lot more than they make. Remember they own a lot of studios like Atlus and Creative Assembly.

[MCerberus]

Sega publish a lot more than they make. Remember they own a lot of studios like Atlus and Creative Assembly.

Specifically CA and particularly Total Warhammer has an insane DLC list. For example, you can't play entire armies in multiplayer without buying the attached DLC. Then there's campaign lords that have attached campaign mechanics and attached to these individual DLCs are units for campaign AND multiplayer. The Skaven get silly. About half the unit roster is locked behind legendary lord DLC.

Strictly not p2w because empire armies, etc can still win, but have you ever played a tabletop game or TGC where you get bodied by someone with a hand-curated list of expensive stuff?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

For a company you seem to have confused with Konami, Capcom are doing pretty well at making videogames. Two of the top five sellers for 2021 are Capcom games. (Resi Village and Monster Hunter Rise)

I'm assuming by 'resi village' you mean the latest Resident Evil that spawned a bazillion memes about the vampire chick?

They manage to resurrect a dying franchise by catering to the lowest common denominator. Good job, them.

But the rest of the top ten seems to be evenly distributed between EA, Nintendo, and a couple of Sony titles.

[Rynjin]

I'm assuming by 'resi village' you mean the latest Resident Evil that spawned a bazillion memes about the vampire chick?

They manage to resurrect a dying franchise by catering to the lowest common denominator. Good job, them.

They managed to resurrect a dying franchise by returning to the series' roots (survival horror as opposed to the pure action of 5 and 6) while still innovating on the formula and bringing with it more modern streamlining while keeping the same feel with Resident Evil 7, followed by the highly successful remake of Resident Evil 2 and less successful remake of 3, and then made a sequel that fans loved with 8.

I'm not sure why you're being such an elitist about it, especially since you're so far off the mark you're not even on the same firing range.

[GloatingSwine]

Specifically CA and particularly Total Warhammer has an insane DLC list. For example, you can't play entire armies in multiplayer without buying the attached DLC. Then there's campaign lords that have attached campaign mechanics and attached to these individual DLCs are units for campaign AND multiplayer. The Skaven get silly. About half the unit roster is locked behind legendary lord DLC.

Strictly not p2w because empire armies, etc can still win, but have you ever played a tabletop game or TGC where you get bodied by someone with a hand-curated list of expensive stuff?

It does.

Though I think it's worth drawing a distinction between DLC which offers a fixed good for a fixed price, and monetisation schemes which are intended to cause recurrent spending by offering either uncertain value (lootboxes) or disposable items (battle passes, progression boosters, etc).

Especially when you think about Total Warhammer's DLC, which is all structured such that a DLC purchase you made 5 years ago is not just still relevant and still being updated but is going to be relevant to a game that isn't even out yet.

[Winthur]

They manage to resurrect a dying franchise by catering to the lowest common denominator. Good job, them.

denigrating one of the best received entries in the franchise on a hill of poorly-founded puritanism to make yourself look more intellectual is not a good argument, especially if it's followed by not actually knowing what companies you are talking about

[Morty]

I stopped paying attention to the Fallout franchise around the time Fallout 4 was announced. A focus on crafting and settlement building made me give it a very wide berth. I feel like I've been vindicated in my view since then.

That said, I've got a major case of evaporating nostalgia for the older games too. Fallout 1 and 2, particularly. I'm realizing they weren't as good as I remembered. The mechanics were a pile of complexity for complexity's sake with obvious superior builds and the combat was a disaster. Fallout: Tactics deserves recognition for making that combat system actually somewhat functional.

Fallout 3 is what it is and while New Vegas is good, transposing the old mechanics into an FPS environment carries over their old problems and adds some. While I still might have finished it, I ran into a bug where the pause menu stopped working and there was nothing I could do to fix it short of loading a much older save. So it goes.

All Fallout games also have a problem where they start with a gritty post-apocalyptic atmosphere but eventually you get heavy plasma guns and power armor and just blow things to bits. Granted, power creep isn't exactly rare in RPGs. I dealt with it in NV by using mods to make my basic rifle and armor level with me, but that made them overpowered.

[factotum]

I stopped paying attention to the Fallout franchise around the time Fallout 4 was announced. A focus on crafting and settlement building made me give it a very wide berth. I feel like I've been vindicated in my view since then.

I don't think it's fair to say that FO4, for all its faults, *focuses* on crafting and settlement building--you can largely ignore both. The only time you ever need to actually build anything settlement-y during the main game is when you have to get into the Institute, and there are plenty of decent weapons and armour to be found without crafting. And if you just take it purely on its gameplay alone, it *is* a good game--just having those brackets to show you how close you are to being discovered while sneaking is a Godsend compared to New Vegas, where, as far as the UI was concerned, you were either hidden or you weren't. If it were just some random post-apocalyptic shooter RPG I think it would be pretty well regarded, it's the fact it's got the Fallout name and is thus expected to have some of the storyline and choice earlier games provided that cause the biggest complaints.

[Brookshw]

They manage to resurrect a dying franchise by catering to the lowest common denominator. Good job, them.

Haven't played it yet, but from everything I hear it's more aligned to 7 than prior games. Before 7 the series had gone down hill substantially and barely resembled a survival horror game, at least since 4. Heck, in 5 when you're facing motorcycle riding zombies I realized it was no longer the game and series I had enjoyed and was now something much....stupider.

[Triaxx]

Honestly the only thing that you MUST craft is a Power Armor Jetpack. I'm pretty sure you can find every other mod out in the wild. And I might be wrong about the Jetpack.

As for 1/2 sure there's probably a single GOD build. But then you realize you have enough Skill Points to 100+ every skill in the game and have levels to spare.

I love Tactics. Great games. Even harder on the Canon than F4.

So... here's the thing about Fallout 3 running on skills. It and F4 make the same mistake. F3 has speech skill. F4 doesn't. Doesn't actually matter. The checks are totally random. 0 speech skill? 1 Charisma? Can still pass. 100 speech 10 Charisma? Can still fail. (I am informed 15 CHA is guaranteed pass) But both run on obfuscated numbers. Compare NV's Speech system, where you know straight away what's a pass and what's a fail. And it's not just the skills that F4 doesn't have. NV also has several stat checks. They're also clearly displayed. So there's no reason to not let those numbers be visible.

[Rater202]

Haven't played it yet, but from everything I hear it's more aligned to 7 than prior games. Before 7 the series had gone down hill substantially and barely resembled a survival horror game, at least since 4. Heck, in 5 when you're facing motorcycle riding zombies I realized it was no longer the game and series I had enjoyed and was now something much....stupider.

To be fair, I don't think there are any actual zombies in 5, I think they're a variation of the parasite-based enemies in 4 intermixed with a new virus that Wesker made whole cloth.

Basically, after RE3 it became difficult to keep justifying traditional zombies since, you know, it's internationally known that they exist know and the truth eUS Government can and will nuke ti's own cities to contain an outbreak, so later games experiment with the formula an focus more on the mutants and other bioweapons that have been around since the beginning.

How well this turned out depends on the title.

7 and 8 do a good job, I think. They introduce something new but that has the same "vibe" as a zombie game, the core game has the survival horror aspects of the classic games, maybe even more so, but there are alternate game modes that you can unlock or get as DLC that change it up. You've got extra survival horror or you can go around the other way and switch it up to aCtion Horror or even pure power fantasy like the later games.

8 also adds some silent hill esque psychological horror, maybe even some touches of cosmic horror, and ties the "Mold" narrative back to the original Umbrella plot.

It's basically got something for everyone.

[GloatingSwine]

Compare NV's Speech system, where you know straight away what's a pass and what's a fail. And it's not just the skills that F4 doesn't have. NV also has several stat checks. They're also clearly displayed. So there's no reason to not let those numbers be visible.

Yeah, the important thing about New Vegas is that although there's a "speech" skill lots of other skills get used in dialogue. It means that "speech" isn't a one off win button for all dialogues, but falls in line with all of the other skills in terms of being a particular way to approach characters in the dialogues.

I don't think it's fair to say that FO4, for all its faults, *focuses* on crafting and settlement building--you can largely ignore both.

It's more than fair, once you consider just how much of not only the map locations but also the possible quest content got shackled to unlocking buildable settlements.

[Rodin]

It's more than fair, once you consider just how much of not only the map locations but also the possible quest content got shackled to unlocking buildable settlements.

Also, a lot of the loot comes in the form of crafting materials. When you go into a location you need to know what materials you need and what the various junk in the world breaks down into. It's always annoyed me that in any given dungeon I'm more likely to be interested in finding a desk fan or duct tape than the actual treasure chest that's at the bottom of the dungeon. The treasure chest is likely going to contain a weapon that doesn't suit my character, whereas I know that duct tape is crucial for upgrading the weapon I already have.

[Morty]

I also don't know why I'd play a game if I'm just going to ignore large swathes of content. Besides, making it optional would just make it feel like a colossal waste of time. Why bother if I can do fine without it?

[Triaxx]

Sounds like this series isn't for you then. Hope you find something else you do enjoy.

[Anteros]

Sounds like this series isn't for you then. Hope you find something else you do enjoy.

Or maybe just this one extremely bad entry in the series isn't?

[Triaxx]

I'm going off of the post previous to this as well.

Doesn't like 1/2 anymore, tolerates tactics, doesn't seem to care for F3, was reasonably turned off by NV's bugginess, and discounted F4 before even playing it. I'll stand by my statement.

Personally, I don't think F4's that bad of a game. Is it a poor representation of a Fallout game? Absolutely. Do each of the individual systems function? Yes. Do they function together? Yes. Game's pretty fine. I mean, I have 500 hours in the game. I know me, and I'm not spending 500 hours on something I don't find fun. Of course, that's not a great metric, since what I find fun, doesn't match with everyone else's.

[Rodin]

I'm going off of the post previous to this as well.

Doesn't like 1/2 anymore, tolerates tactics, doesn't seem to care for F3, was reasonably turned off by NV's bugginess, and discounted F4 before even playing it. I'll stand by my statement.

Personally, I don't think F4's that bad of a game. Is it a poor representation of a Fallout game? Absolutely. Do each of the individual systems function? Yes. Do they function together? Yes. Game's pretty fine. I mean, I have 500 hours in the game. I know me, and I'm not spending 500 hours on something I don't find fun. Of course, that's not a great metric, since what I find fun, doesn't match with everyone else's.

The expression "a great game, but a terrible Fallout" seems most fitting to me.

My issue with 4 was that it felt like there was a lot less content overall. I did one through playthrough which I greatly enjoyed, and I enjoyed the main story at lot more than I have done for any other Bethesda game (Obsidian did New Vegas).

After I'd done that though there just wasn't a reason to return. I hadn't touched the Minutemen plotline, but that plotline required settlement building. The opportunity to side with the Institute comes very late in the game. That just left the Brotherhood of Steel, and I got a little bit of the way through their storyline before I got bored (and frustrated with the junk system, as outlined above).

I just never felt the same level of roleplaying potential I got out of Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, or Fallout New Vegas. You are a specific character in Fallout 4 and the dialogue options weren't up to allowing me to play different versions of that character.

If they do a Fallout 5 with a very defined story, I'll be there for that. Keep it single-player (or at least, not required multiplayer like 76) and build a really good story with the same mechanics, and allow me to completely disregard the settlement building and whatever other "hot game type" they try to copy next. I'll stick 30-40 hours into the main plot and some sidequests and then set it aside.

[GloatingSwine]

To be honest the best time I've had with Fallout 4 was ignoring the main plot aggressively and just being a murderhobo scavenger.

The Sim Settlements 2 mod improves the settlement building massively, but there really should only be about two or three player built settlements, and the rest of the settlement locations should be properly crafted populated locations with NPCs and quests and stuff to do, not "well, I guess you found another workbench to build the bare minimum at then ignore".

[Triaxx]

I disliked the Settlement building as a 'Because Preston said so' kind of thing. But as a 'Hey stuff's gonna attack you so build up to defend against them' it was a lot more fun. You might not find something I've built comfortable to live in but I can hold off the Brotherhood in it. Wish someone had made a Raider Attack Beacon to bring waves of enemies.

As for the minutemen ending it mostly doesn't require much actual building. You can get away with just setting up a radio beacon generator and then leaving them to starve. You'll lose the settlement but it seems to have no effect on quest progress.

Wish the nodding wasn't quite so obscure or I'd have added a Care Package mod with just enough stuff to build a basic base so you didn't have to cart around a bunch of random items to build the initial things.

[Vinyadan]

Haven't played it yet, but from everything I hear it's more aligned to 7 than prior games. Before 7 the series had gone down hill substantially and barely resembled a survival horror game, at least since 4. Heck, in 5 when you're facing motorcycle riding zombies I realized it was no longer the game and series I had enjoyed and was now something much....stupider.

Sounds like it's time to start playing Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse

[Starbuck_II]

Ugh, thought I'd do a Fallout 4 Nuka World game (do that earliest as possible).

First issue was Gunners and the Gunner Assaultron dominator to deal with.
Next flaw, there is an expert lock inside there meaning you must be lv 7 or you are stuck. Because once you take the tram, you can't leave and you can't go further because you must go trough locked door.

Had to restore old save.

So, now I need to wonder around till I am high enough lv.

[Triaxx]

What locked door? The only one I know of you can go around by dropping down and cutting through the Mirelurks.

[factotum]

Yeah, I don't remember any unpassable locked doors that stop you getting into Nuka-World either--but doing the Gauntlet at low levels is going to be *painful*.

[tonberrian]

Picked up New vegas Ultimate since it was on sale and I had steambucks. What mods should I use for a first time, trying to be stable and authentic over adding new things.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Picked up New vegas Ultimate since it was on sale and I had steambucks. What mods should I use for a first time, trying to be stable and authentic over adding new things.

Right. Let's start with the 'fix Bethesda's problems' mods for now.

* New Vegas Script Extender. This is not going to be on Nexus, a quick google search will bring it up. Needed for many other mods.
* New Vegas Anti-Crash. NVAC basically fix a lot of crash problems with New Vegas. Do this.
* New Vegas 4GB Patch. Makes the game Large Address Aware so it can use more RAM to make things function properly
* YUP. I can't ever spell or pronounce the dude's name, but it's the Unofficial Patch that patches literally hundreds of bugs in the system. It also patches certain exploits.
* New Vegas Tick Fix. This used to be New Vegas Stutter Remover (NVSR) but that had problems with Win10, this is the correct version of the mod that fixes stutter problems.

Start with those. It will give you an 'intended vanilla' experience. If you want a more authentic vanilla experience, skip YUP. But NVAC, NVTF, and 4GBPatch are going to be necessary for stability reasons.

[Starbuck_II]

What locked door? The only one I know of you can go around by dropping down and cutting through the Mirelurks.

In the room with the turrets?
Maybe it gets locked if you are too low level. So, I reloaded and game back level 12, after getting hack/lock pick talents (also aqua boy so rads no hit if touch water).

Hard time vs Carter. Finally won.
Now exploring.

Splattercannon is way too expensive so no buying that now.

Thinking I'll do Nuka place first then Gulch then Kiddie then Safari, but not 100% sure order yet.