Interview NMA Fallout developer profiles: Puuk

[Spazmo]

Tags: Black Isle Studios; Damien Foletto; Fallout 3 (Van Buren)

Our bom buddy <b>Briosafreak</b> of <a href="http://www.nma-fallout.com">No Mutants Allowed</a> fame sends word via our forums of a second Fallout developer profile up at No Mutants Allowed. This one gets up close and personal with <a href=http://www.nma-fallout.com/article.php?id=7198>Puuk AKA Damien Foletto</a>.
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<blockquote>Were there things that you wished you had added to either Fallouts?
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Take the interface and its options from Fallout 2 and make it work in Fallout 1. I would have liked the main story timer taken out in Fallout 1 as well. I wanted more time to explore (of course there were plenty of things to do to extend the time, but I just do not like to have a timer on a main story arch. Sub-quest timers are fine.)</blockquote>
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I (naturally) disagree. The timer in Fallout 1 gave the player a sense of urgency, like "find the chip or we're <i>fucked</i>." Of course, that raises the question of how you justify, as a designer, having the player stop in every town and do tons of sidequests when they have a really important quest to do. "I only have two weeks to travel 10,000 miles to get to Centropolis and stop my sister from being executed--but of course I'll get your cat out of the tree."

 

[Volourn]

of course, the way is ee it, what happens if you don't care if Vault 13 is fucked? What happens if you *want* the bastards to run out of water. Hmm.. Why should the game end on a "bad note' and why can't you just move on. Hmm.

 

[Spazmo]

Well... you kind of can just end the game that way, can't you? Fallout is essentially the story of whether or not Vault 13 survives a given threat, be it a shortage of water or a super mutant army. Once V13's fate has been decided either way, the game's over. So whatever happens when the 150 days run out (it's never happened to me) effectively is an ending.

But yes, that would have been cool, in much the same way that it would have been neat to be able to keep playing after you get dipped.

 

[plin]

Was there another timer after you get the chip to the vault? Like for the mutants finding the vault or something?

I remember I rushed through the game because I was worried I wouldn't make it in time...

 

[Spazmo]

There is a timer with the mutant armies where if you take too long, they invade, but it's much more forgiving than the 150 days provided by the water chip quest. Pre-patch, they would progressively destroy towns starting with Necropolis until they finally attacked Vault 13. Post-patch, I think you eventually just lose. Takes a while, though. Fallout 2, of course, has the built-in 13 year timer.

 

[plin]

There is a timer with the mutant armies where if you take too long, they invade, but it's much more forgiving than the 150 days provided by the water chip quest. Pre-patch, they would progressively destroy towns starting with Necropolis until they finally attacked Vault 13. Post-patch, I think you eventually just lose. Takes a while, though. Fallout 2, of course, has the built-in 13 year timer.

Hmm, alright. I think I'll play it again and take more time then.

edit: Do you know why they took that out with a patch?

 

[Volourn]

Whining.

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

of course, the way is ee it, what happens if you don't care if Vault 13 is fucked? What happens if you *want* the bastards to run out of water. Hmm.. Why should the game end on a "bad note' and why can't you just move on. Hmm.

Because the game kinda needs an ending, you cant just go "Oh FUCK<MY NAME IS VOLOURN< LET JUST TRAVEL TO ARIZONA" because the developers arent just going to design some huge world with millions of choices and try to keep a good story.

 

[Walks with the Snails]

I liked the timer, too. My first time through, I was so scared of not getting finished on time, I just frantically searched around as much as I could, like you as the Vault Dweller probably would. I had to put off some things, like going to the glow or getting the 7.62 pistol, because they'd waste too much precious time. All of the short-term quests were really quite doable and went along with the urgency. Taking 20 minutes to kill Gizmo isn't going to mean the difference between success and failure, in fact, the extra equipment is a big help for your mission. Rescuing Tandi also felt like a slight sacrifice of time, but I decided to since it was the right thing to do, and it added another dimension to the quest.

I never really understood the argument you're just supposed to be able to leisurely amble around everywhere. I don't know if a whole game should be on a time limit, but I think Fallout did it just about right, where you had an urgent quest at the start and then more time to explore once that was out of the way.

 

[Anonymous]

I felt the timer was fine because it gave you a nudge to keep moving along, to find the next town, see if the chip is there, do whatever quests you find because they might give a clue.

So yeah, it worked. If the timer wasnt there, you could just waltz around and the towns would feel less special, since you're in no hurry, you can just play around and do some quests for XP, etc. etc. In otherwords, it would of been more like NWN.

Then after it's all done, you see what changed happened, during your time looking for the chip.

So Fallout was pretty neat in terms of story, not only pushing you on and giving you a different experience instead of some old man reading you a book, but also allowing you to create your own story.

 

[Greenskin13]

The timer didn't cut it for me because it felt too long to feel like a real crunch. But instead of lowering it, I would prefer to see a much larger game world where it wasn't expected that a player would reach even the majority of towns. It certainly would add to the replayability.

 

[StraitLacedDeviant]

I just bought both the fallouts for the third time for my new pc. Its just about been long enough since I last finished them so i'll get the full enjoyment out of them again. w00t for me.

I'm going to try unarmed this time just for the heck of it....

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Gareth made a really good post once about how the lack of the timer fucked up the skills in Fallout 2. When you think about it, there are a lot of skills that actually rely on the timer, things like First Aid, Doctor, and Outdoorsman. All of those things will allow you to speed up certain things. First Aid and Doctor, if you used both, could cut down the healing time considerable versus straight resting. Outdoorsman allowed you to move faster on the world map and affected random encounters.

In Fallout 2, there's no time limit, so you could always rest to heal up. You never had to make a choice about using those skills versus stimpacking versus just resting until healed. The only point in taking doctor were scripted quest things, like healing Betsy's leg and dealing with the Vault City sterility issue.

Likewise, you could ALWAYS do random encounters because short of dying, you never lost anything but your own personal time. Got damaged? Just rest and heal.

 

[Sol Invictus]

Resting and healing in Fallout 2 is what destroyed any sense of urgency that the original game ever brought to the table. Resting and healing is really no different than using the portal stone in NWN to get refreshments from Aribeth - except it's more convenient.

 

[Psilon]

A timer sure beats mandatory tutorial dungeons. I actually think BG1 was on the right track there, what with your level 1 ass being ambushed right outside Candlekeep and then high-tailing it to the Friendly Arm Inn. (Of course, sleeping for 8 hours immediately after said ambush so you can start Chapter One in daylight seems a little off, but at least they tried.) I would actually have liked to see more evidence of your pursuit. Rumors about mysterious people asking after you, a few assassins that weren't pre-placed and completely omniscient regarding clothing/NPC changes, that kind of thing.

BG2 and Fallout 2 both had mandatory tutorial dungeons. The Temple of Trials didn't take too long in game time, since there was no PipBoy to let you rest, but we all know about Irenicus's dungeon. Daggerfall also dumped you in a dungeon at start, but it could be blitzed pretty easily on one's second time through.

If anyone knows how to revert a pre-patched Fallout 1 to the unpatched version, I'd love to watch the mutants invade. Any other screenshots available besides the one of Harry in Junktown?

 

[MrBrown]

I'd like to see resting, at least as a means to heal the characters, taken out of games. And it replaced with somewhat rapid healing (Sacred seemed to do this well, at least on low levels), and healing skills/spells/items left for either quick combat patch up or treating long-time wounds that lower your abilities somehow.

 

[Whipporowill]

I never had any problem with the time-limit, as it was part of the frigging story. I can't understand how people can complain about it - it's there for a reason; having the fate of the vault squarely on your shoulders. IMMERSION people... sheesh.

 

[Briosafreak]

Well i think there are other aspects of the profile that deserve discussion, not just that. Anyway there are two more coming up, with ShOCKING REVELATIONS!!!!11!!!!!

 

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Just read the Tim Cain profile. Nice read, indeedy.

 

[Voss]

Of course, one of the best things with the timer was that you could extend it by sending water shipments, but that had its own consequences. (or at least, it got referenced if you did it)

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I remember when I first played the first FO, I was so nervous from the thought of running out of time because the world was completely unexplored when you first start off. I ended up giving myself more time with the water merchants twice. Once cause I needed it, and the second time just for safe keeping. What an amazing experience!

 

[suibhne]

I remember when I first played the first FO, I was so nervous from the thought of running out of time because the world was completely unexplored when you first start off. I ended up giving myself more time with the water merchants twice. Once cause I needed it, and the second time just for safe keeping. What an amazing experience!

I had the same experience. And, in an odd sorta way, the water-chip timer (not the mutant army timer, which I never encountered) added to replay value. I'm not usually one of those stat-whores who collects all the enemy dog tags and spends days breeding Golden Chocobos, but it was interesting to see how quickly I could finish the water chip objective on future run-throughs.

 

[Whipporowill]

Is it just me or does NMA now require me to close my frigging firewall to be able to view it. What kind of crap is that? Cookie-related since it keeps crashing on load while it's up is my guess...

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Fallout 2 does have a time limit if you fail to find the GECK before the village dies. Finding the GECK at Vault 13 triggers the kidnap plot device and THEN you have forever. Otherwise, there is a time limit for finding the GECK.

 

[Spazmo]

Actually, no. I've had Arroyo just up and disappear on me long before I found the GECK. Once I got it and went back to Arroyo, Hakunin was still there waiting for me.