Cue N_L to explain how you’re wrong for being frustrated with the perfect game.
For that reason the Mutant Invasion was removed in the later patches. You must be playing 1.0?
“Any pistol” and “any rifle” refer to weapons requiring the “small guns” skill. Also, do not under any circumstances give your party members burst-fire weapons.
- Alan
Yes it was. Well, it could be, if you like formed a party and had the requisite CHA. Come on NL. You had a party. Ergo, it was a party-based game.
Then again, you’re right, for the wrong reasons. Obviously it was Black Isle’s intention to make NPCs with heavy emphasis on the N, but since there wasn’t much in the way of the C…well, who gives a shit? What, exactly, is the benefit to gameplay or story to have to fucking barter with your NPCs to simply have them hold something? I don’t even want to think about how many reloads I had to do because I either got shot by an NPC, or the dummy ran straight up to an enemy when we had range to soften them up with grenades (like that Deathclaw in the basement - turned an otherwise awesome encounter into a nightmare). You guys say “Fuck 'em” or “Don’t give them burst weapons, Dummy” and I say I’ve never played an RPG that encourages you to build a party and then lets them be stupidly wiped out because Woo, they’re NPCS - they’re not you, Bud and you have horrific control over them.
I mean, the KotOR and BG games had NPCs doing all kinds of interesting things and until they did something that rationally disallowed you from being able to control them anymore, you had full control over them. I had full control over my NPCs in the Gold Box SSI games, ffs (conversely, I dug Troika limiting NPCs in ToEE because we all know dodgy NPCs are the rule in PnP D&D).
Saying the FO games are “lone wolf” games is just bullshit. It has to be the gayest twist of apologismic logic I’ve seen for a game.
If you hit one in the eye, it could just be a glancing blow and not deal that much damage.
Since this is hardly the first nay the last unrealistic damaging model/outcome in the history of games, I’ve no problem with it, I guess. But you sound like a dummy with your rationale. Yes, trying to run after a rat and kill with a knife or shoot it while it is moving is pretty tough (although I’d wager it’s easier when they are not running away but actively attacking you), but shooting one in the eye for a glancing blow? Man, only Lord British could get away with that.
Equally gay: your contention that First Aid is anything above superfluous at best, useless at worst.
Everything in that post is true except for the part about Bill.
Ha ha, really? You fed me a pack of lies about FO3 (“I’ve been around. I hear things. Things you wouldn’t believe, Mister.”) and not only did I shoot them down with the goodly help of the Qt3 Forum Super Squad, my nizzle Kitsune done linked you to an interview you’d never even read. And then, blithering nonsense invective replete with a gradeschooler closing shot like an ant-ridden cherry on a soured banana split of awful, and what has to be the worst apology ever in a PM unless everyone’s idea of a good apology is to call the other person an ass and tell them to “deal with it.”
But hey, you maintain Fallout was a single-player game. Which means, simply put, you have no definitive, lucid grasp on reality.
There was multiplayer in Fallout? doh.
Single character - excuse me, Pedantry-Pants.
Also, if you look around, you should be able to find a Fallout 1/2 bundle for $9.99 in the budget games sections of places like Circuit City, CompUSA, Best Buy, Hastings, Walmart, etc. It’s one of those little cardboard multi-fold envelopes in the section with the 10,000 clipart, learn Spanish, and fishtank screensavers disks.
Wound up buying a british version with FO1, FO2 and Tactics on 1 DVD for under $20 shipped. I’m going on vacation soon so not worried about getting it fast, and having all on DVD is a nice bonus. Not sure if they come with printed manuals or PDFs but I’m guessing the latter.
Hmmmm, now I’m tempted to go find a C64 emulator and find a copy of Wasteland somewhere =)
Sam
Think I’m gonna go look for copies of Planescape Torment and Vampire Bloodlines too, never played either of them but hear they were good, especially with some community patches…
sam
I recall a Fallout dev saying the joinable NPCs in Fallout were a late drop-in feature i.e. not a intended feature day one like in Baldur’s Gate, or KotOR, or Torment. I mean it does feels like a single-character game with the joinable non-controllable NPCs tacked on…with wet scratch tape.
No remorse for Fallout 2 (18 month dev cycle go! go! go!)
The mutant invasion of Necropolis was left in post-patch.
You’ll have to be pretty hardcore gamer to stomach any game that requires paragraph booklets in this day and age.
I’m still upset I could not win the last battle without losing Dogmeat.:(
Heh me too.
You should have used a spolier tag. Ass.
Nah, just kidding. Anyway, I’ve cleared the Military Base, so only the Master is left. I assume he’s lurking in that part of the Cathedral I haven’t been able to access, and if he’s not, I’m sure someone up there will be able to tell me where’s he’s hiding. I actually sort of took out the Military Base “by accident:” I was just goofing around, but discovered that I could talk and sneak my way through to the control room, only having to kill one mutant along the way. But I think part of that was due to game bugs, so it took some of the fun out.
I am indeed playing version 1.0. It might explain why I’ve been encountering so many small problems, but I can’t upgrade now without losing my save games. It’s a shame that the mutant invasion isn’t a “toggle” option in later versions; I still haven’t decided if I like or dislike it.
I totally agree with what people have said about the NPCs. Their implementation is incredibly bad. I have great Charisma and Int at the expense of combat skills, so I get a lot of mileage from my trusty followers. It wasn’t a problem for most of the game, but it’s become a giant pain now. The NPCs are totally not balanced: Ian is incredibly badass when you find him at level 1, and so are all the other early NPCs. Then the late game NPCs…. Don’t exist. It’s a terrible design decision: You can get through two-thirds of the game leaning heavily on your buddies, but then you suddenly hit this brick wall. I’ve kept them alive through everything so far because I’m worried I won’t be able to beat the game without them. I need every drop of combat potential I can muster.
If the NPCs were intended to be disposable (and their lack of personality makes me think they were) there really should have been more of them. It’s the post-apocalyptic future. Why can’t I hire mercenaries? It would be a much more reasonable dynamic than having a very limited number of super-boring gunmen who are absolutely dedicated to you for no good reason, but have the tactical sense of a turnip.
I think Fallout 2 addressed those concerns by providing more high-level NPC’s for your party (the interface was ass and they stilll weren’t smart, but at least they could do damage and stay alive.) As for Fallout 1, I don’t remember the manual stressing charisma as a party-making thing as much as an attribute to ‘charm’ individuals into liking you, for information-collecting purposes and the like. You still needed a viable skill for getting past baddies, so if you were ignoring weaponry skills then you ought to have been boosting your sneak. Personally, my first run through Fallout I didn’t even know I could have party members other than dogmeat, who followed me around automatically. I had initially refused Ian and then forgot about him, and that was that.
Which is one of the primary reasons I’d rank any of the games you mention above the Fallout games in terms of greatness.
If anyone is planning on giving F2 another playthrough you should checkout Killap’s F2 Patch. The changelog is quite lengthy taking care of most of the issues that I could remember.
If you don’t have the US edition of F2 then you’ll need this version of his patch.
basing greatness on technical who-dunnit-when-sies is strange to me.
BG1’s NPCs didn’t truly feel realized much until BG2, and I still think Torment did a better job then both. And Fallout2, at least you could talk to your wife err i mean your NPCs.
spiffy- I assume he meant the way the NPCs in Fallout 1 seem tacked on rather than a part of the core game. Planescape without the party simply doesn’t work. The party members have inter-relationships as well as roles in the plot.
Fallout 1’s most memorable party member is a dog.