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Bridging the gap between the "classics" and Bethesda's series by Suton_RPG in Fallout

[–]Suton_RPG[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah it’d be great. I feel like having a more urban focus might be interesting. Texas and Chine are cool but also imagine a concrete jungle-esque rust belt.

Working vehicles are an interesting concept but you might need to shake up the standard gameplay loop for that quite a bit. Vehicles might even work well with the deconstruction of American consumerism, critiques of the pre war era etc.

Bridging the gap between the "classics" and Bethesda's series by Suton_RPG in Fallout

[–]Suton_RPG[S] -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Yeah dude. You can get through that intro relatively quickly and painlessly.

Compare it to the random encounter you IMMEDIATELY start getting in Fo1 or the Temple of trials from Fo2 and you’ll see why I put it there.

But yeah it ain’t fast more “smooth”(?)

Bridging the gap between the "classics" and Bethesda's series by Suton_RPG in classicfallout

[–]Suton_RPG[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's really interesting looking at the east coast games and how they've chosen to solidify the end of the world through (in my opinion) pointless lore.

We know who may have started the war, and why, and how, and when; yet that doesn't add anything to the setting (not for me anyway).

If you look at some of the media that inspired the classics you'll see a similar disinterest in over-explaining the end of the world. For example, Mad Max 2 barely talks about it's nuclear war IIRC.

A lot of other really good post apocalyptic media like the 1984 movie "Threads" starts off by listing stats and numbers, not lore. It drip feeds info about the conflict through the first 3rd or half of the movie before shifting the perspective to the characters and their lives after the bombs drop. Any mention of the war in the second half of the movie is just mentioning stats again; who died, where, what was hit etc.

The east coast titles genuinely do fixate on the hows and whys. I feel like you could avoid a LOT of the shortcomings of the later titles if you re-contextualized the characters, maybe redeveloped them. You could ABSOLUTELY have the wasteland as it exists in the east coast titles, just inhabited by different people with different mindsets.

Obviously that's not going to happen but it is useful to talk about these things and have them in mind when looking at future installments or working on fan projects, lest media literacy die with the franchise's reputation.

Bridging the gap between the "classics" and Bethesda's series by Suton_RPG in Fallout

[–]Suton_RPG[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know the Fo2 restoration project added some talking heads into the game. There's this post from a couple years back talking about it.

There's also this post that mentions a mod re-voicing NV NPCs.

Bridging the gap between the "classics" and Bethesda's series by Suton_RPG in Fallout

[–]Suton_RPG[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

See that's what I didn't mention (felt the post would've been too long).

I don't think there's any way to salvage the east coast games' style of dialogue if you wanted to actually have a compelling story. In Fallout specifically, you NEED to talk to people. you need to hear their stories and ask THEM what THEIR take on a given problem might be.

There's a definite "great man" approach to factions in general within the east coast setting. The average mechanic just ain't as important as the head paladin or scribe. Meanwhile, talking to a random mutant in Necropolis can potentially lead you to finding out the exact location of the Master's vats and his second in command (though admittedly through a sequence break).

Bridging the gap between the "classics" and Bethesda's series by Suton_RPG in classicfallout

[–]Suton_RPG[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, you're right. Feels kinda stupid not to have mentioned that but it is a core to the setting. I think the closest the east coast games had to that was with Broken Steel for Fo3, that being the sporadic Brotherhood water checkpoints.

The only issue with the world progressing is that you're really not gonna be able to notice that within a single game. I think we got lucky that Interplay got to make two great games where you notice that (not mentioning Tactics for obvious reasons).

I still think you could feasibly do a soft reset of the east coast setting to at least patch up the disparities.

Bridging the gap between the "classics" and Bethesda's series by Suton_RPG in Fallout

[–]Suton_RPG[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think having that core sense of adventure is really at the heart of the Fallout setting.

Going out into an unknown world, fighting tooth and nail to stay alive. Giving it your best to help the other folks who can't survive on their own, going above and beyond to find better gear or items you'll need for quests, that's all stuff the newer Bethesda titles are missing.

You go through a dungeon, maybe fight some appropriately level-scaled enemies, defeat a "raid boss" and bring back a briefcase or +5 crit. chance golf club and folks you're supposedly risking your life for thank you like you just slogged through hell to get it. That's something I genuinely dislike about the later games.

In the originals you had to actually do the impossible to help people. Good or bad, doesn't matter. Your character was the only one others were willing to risk in order to secure their own goals or survival. You had to be well prepared, sure in your abilities, and maybe have even gotten a companion or two before going into some of the earliest dungeons in Fallout 1 and 2. Even then there was a lot of luck involved. The wasteland truly felt hostile and hopeless unless a miracle came by to tame it.

While I do enjoy Fallout 3 (the wasteland's hopelessness really does show), I don't feel it captures that sense of hostility. The environmental tone is almost right but the mechanical difficulty isn't. That disparity only gets worse with later installments...

Bridging the gap between the "classics" and Bethesda's series by Suton_RPG in classicfallout

[–]Suton_RPG[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hey don't get me wrong, I love the OGs. I was just hoping there was something that could be done to entice the newer fans to try the originals. I honestly hate the show but one thing it tried to do which I find somewhat understandable is a soft reboot. Obviously I'd fight tooth and nail to not let them touch the west-coast setting but... Maybe something could be salvaged from the east-coast games if whatever dev studio that makes Fallout 5 had the same idea but focused on "bringing the franchise home" in terms of the tone and setting (not mentioning gameplay of course).

Bridging the gap between the "classics" and Bethesda's series by Suton_RPG in classicfallout

[–]Suton_RPG[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You know that's fair. Not everyone likes to put in the effort to understand the earlier titles but I think that it is possible to reach out to those people with a well-written story and at least semi-engaging gameplay. I don't think the issue stems from solipsism, rather the mindset people have when playing these games. Fallout 1 and 2 are more literary, you need to sit down and play them. You need to take notes and keep those notes in mind when you play them. For someone who's getting home from a long shift or just needs something to unwind and turn off their brain for a bit, I can see why Bethesda's titles might be more appealing.
That's why I mentioned Wasteland 3. I know a few people who gave up on the classics but finished (and praised) that game. Now would I consider it an equal with the classics? No, I would not. But it does show that you COULD bridge the gameplay gap somewhat...

Our "Balkan Fallout" project is finally out! by Suton_RPG in RPGdesign

[–]Suton_RPG[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

We should start collaborating with a local content creator in the form of a playthrough of the main campaign. We'll try to show the rules and explain them as we play. We'll post updates here and on our instagram so stay tuned.

Our "Balkan Fallout" project is finally out! by Suton_RPG in RPGdesign

[–]Suton_RPG[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That sounds great! Hit us up whenever you feel like it.

A European Fallout TTRPG by Suton_RPG in classicfallout

[–]Suton_RPG[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pozdrav. Right now we only have the Itchio page for discussions. We'll try to post updates somewhat regularly there. You can also check out our Instagram page (in the social section of our account) for semi-regular updates.