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Review Fallout Opening Analysis at No Mutants Allowed

Crooked Bee

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Tags: Eric Schwarz; Fallout; Interplay

No Mutants Allowed has posted an opinion piece on Fallout's opening, written by Gamebanshee's Eric Schwarz. As expected, the piece is mostly positive, even if the author does point out some well-known issues with Fallout's character system and names the timer and skill usage among the game's other, if minor, problems:

Despite all these great things Fallout does to ease players into its inhospitable world, there are some definite issues that many players and designers over the years have correctly and fairly pointed out. The first of these, the relatively complicated character system and the relative uselessness of certain skills compared to others, is by far the most damaging. Unfortunately, it is possible to make an outright bad character in Fallout, and while it's not quite as easy to mess up as some players occasionally suggest, there's no way of knowing what's on the outside world, and thus what will be most useful, until going out yourself. Woe to thee who tagged the Gambling skill.

There's also, unfortunately, the issue of the timer. Specifically, 150 days doesn't seem like a lot, and while it's more time than the ticking click might suggest, putting the player on a time limit from the very beginning can feel stifling. Worst case scenario, the player really does run out of time, earning a non-standard game over. Starting over a game was actually fairly common back in 1997 when Fallout came out, especially in RPGs, but by modern standards, being forced to replay the beginning of a game due to a few bad early choices seems patently ridiculous.

Last, the tutorial isn't explicit about a few things. Using skills in the environment may not be entirely clear, although with experimentation most players will eventually figure it out. The same goes for more advanced combat functions like aimed shots, and even some of the basic rules in combat like action points. These are all important, and unfortunately they're very hard to communicate in the passive way Fallout attempts. Fortunately, back then, games still came with instruction manuals!

Fifteen years later, the first Fallout still demonstrates effective teaching of both its narrative and gameplay through subtle gating, smart scenarios of vary scales which lead from one to another, and by giving the player increasingly challenging tests with a good feeling of progression and mastery. There might be a few rough edges, but for a game with so many moving parts, its opening accomplishes a lot without resorting to a single pop-up. Compared to contemporaries like Baldur's Gate, Fallout's opening still stands the test of time as a smart and effective piece of game design.​

The full article discusses interface and controls, combat, world map, and such locations as Shady Sands and Vault 15.
 

hiver

Guest
Bullshit. Or to put it in more polite manner which Sea certainly deserves, he missed it although not by much.


None of these is correct or actually true as they are proposed there. All of them arise from retards and assholes complaints that accumulated over time.
And suddenly we should accept that as a merit.

I fucking think not.

1. The issue of low or almost non existant usage of some skills is the problem of design of the gameplay.- NOT the skill system.
- in worst case the game should have been accustomed to that and all of those skills should have been simply "moved" into their own separate category of secondary skills.
But we all know why that was not possible.... dont we?








2. There is no fucking problem with the timer. It was generous enough and if you can re-load after you get killed then you can fucking reload after you failed to do what you needed to do.
Then you know where you should not waste your time. So you can check other places.
The only thing that pissed me off was removing the consequence of arranging water to be delivered by water traders caravans - which extended the timer countdown.
Or removing the ending for Junktown. (or that there wasnt a third option where you dont just have to kill any of the guys or where the killing was imposed more strongly.... btw... i have no idea what happens if you dont do anything)

3. Tutorial - fucking manual.


oh hey, they changed the site ... err... whats the freaking word in english... looks? colors? yeah... that!

lets see what else is in the full article.... :

FUCK "MANY" PEOPLE Sea! fuck them all!


- this is why an isometric, old-school RPG such as Icewind Dale is a bit more imposing than a modern action-RPG like Mass Effect
Are you shitting me? No seriously... wtf?

- with more party members to manage, more ways to interact with the world, more abilities to use, etc., the interface is going to necessarily become more complicated.
Well DUH! Full RPG or action "RPG"! DA DUUUUHHHHHH!


So, that out of the way, here's exactly what an opening to a game like Fallout needs to teach the player:

• The key backstory (United States vs. China, world apocalypse, Vaults, etc.)
• The most important characters (the player character, the Overseer - others are only relevant later in the game)
• The player's goals and objectives (search the surface world for a Water Chip and bring it back to Vault 13 within 150 days, in order to save the Vault)
• Movement (point and click)
• Interacting with the game world (right-click context menu, hotkeys, skill use)
• Inventory use (managing and equipping items, looting containers)
• Combat (turn-based system, melee attacks, ranged attacks, aimed attacks, action points, hit points, reloading)
• Different weapons (guns, unarmed, melee, etc.)
• Using the world map
• Random encounters
• Following directions towards goals
• Interacting with other NPCs (speaking, bartering, "ask me about" feature)
• Importance of skill use in the game world
• Choice and consequence within the game world
• Distinction between combat and non-combat zones

• The player's relative position of strength in the game world
NO, no, no, no!
Good grief NO!
Thats what the whole game is supposed to tech the player, step by step. As appropriate. Not the opening, NOT the freaking tutorial.

Seems like a lot of things to teach, more than most other games, and you'd be right... but at the same time, Fallout is able to pull just about all of these off, and does so without ever using a single tutorial message or pop-up.
Bloody right it does.

snipped- Although this seems counter-intuitive and difficult to figure out, this is actually one of the most effective "invisible" tutorials I've ever seen. With a single sequence, the game has taught the player the fundamental differences between movement mode and interaction mode, how to change between the two modes, how to interact with the environment, how to manage inventory, and a whole other mode of interacting with the world, through items. It's not mandatory, but unless the designers wanted to break immersion with tutorial messages, this is about as quick and effective a way as you can teach the player these things.
Bloody right it does.

In a game where hand-holding is almost nonexistent, tutorial pop-ups everywhere would have killed the flow of the game and would have coddled the player, leaving him/her unprepared for later on... by making the player use his/her head, not only is there a genuine feeling of learning and progress, but the player now knows to expect little help when the game gets more difficult. By modern standards, this is sacrilege, -
Aha! ok... we seem to be getting somewhere towards right track here.

More importantly, though, this combat sequence and the level design of the area actually teach the player that much of the game's combat is avoidable.
Thats right, oh, right there... continue...

The world map also teaches -
Correct again.

Long story short, when the player is done with Shady Sands, he/she will feel truly ready to go ahead and tackle Vault 15.
- the player now has a clear distinction between and understanding of all the different modes of play the game has to offer - combat, exploration and conversation, and world map travel.
exactemundo.
Vault 15 is the game's first major goal and marks the transition point from introduction and tutorial into the meat of the game.
Raaaaarrghhhh!
whGL1.jpg


There is no tutorial!!!!!!

Battling through the monsters, the player will come across the first major roadblock - the elevator is broken, and there's no way down! In what is quite possibly one of the most infamous moments in RPG history,
Oh for fuck sake.... cry me a river wont you....

the player is unable to progress until he/she collects, of all things, a rope.
Imagine that! a rope! to climb down an elevator shaft!

Infuckingcredible!
And the game has the brass to tell the player he actually needs a ROPE!!!!

I can only fucking wish that they made a first fuckin day DLC containg only a fucking ROPE and charged 50 bucks for it!


I cannot count the number of stories I've heard of players throwing their hands up in disbelief at this realization.
Gee...all those tears formed into a real Mississippi! Oh the water is so nice... im swimming! Ouhhhh yeaahhhhh....

fuck em.... fuck them ALL!


Although this moment is often critiqued, I actually think it's a pivotal moment in Fallout - it forces the player to understand the importance of interacting with the environment, of using items to solve puzzles, and importantly, that not all problems can be solved with bullets.

Its an excellent moment. And apart from teaching all that it teaches the player they fucking need A ROPE to climb down broken ELEVATOR SHAFTSSSSSS in RUINSSSS!!!!!

I. fucking E. -Use your fucking head and this game actually makes FUCKING SENSE!

Unfortunately, it also presents a huge twist in Fallout's gameplay and completely changes the player's relationship to the game world. Simply put, there is no Water Chip in Vault 15. Just about every player who ever gets this far in Fallout will have the same reaction: "so... now what?"
You have a typo here. Im sure you actually meant - Fortunately.

the player is truly on his or her own to move forward in the game, and Fallout completely embraces this by providing only vague directions and forcing the player to explore and interact, rather than follow instructions.
And its a beautiful thing.

Compared to contemporaries like Baldur's Gate, Fallout's opening still stands the test of time as a smart and effective piece of game design.
And a much bigger and fuller game in every respect.
Lets not mess and mix action RPGs and RPGs again,.... shall we?


Not a bad article, only it seems youve been playing too many modern vomits and take what worse of the players express as a measure of great games.

-Ten whip lashes and 10 replays of both Fallouts to atone for your sins.-



Btw, although i played Fallout 2 first (and BG2 and every other second game if there was one or read second books in any bigger series etc)
I did so without even reading the manual and i played the game for days and days, even some month or two (because i played at friends very early pc where three of us interchanged as others would fall asleep from playing too much),
without even knowing what AC means or whats all of the stuff in the UI or any shortcuts or that there are actually key bindings and what for.

We figured everything out just by playing and ... learning by example and experience.
 

Kz3r0

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Another one lost to the Popamole.
Today is a sad day for Codexia.
 

hiver

Guest
Oh god, why is this guy allowed to continue writing articles?

I try so hard not to be a negative nelly, but reading stuff like this always makes me facepalm.
Because he does it better than you. Or me, for that matter.

- if you observe the good parts... which you seem incapable of, you will see they contain the proper reflections.


Another one lost to the Popamole.
Today is a sad day for Codexia.
Quick! We have to dip him while he is still spasms!

OPEN THE VAT!
RELEASE THE GREEN GOO!


This way Schwartz...this way...yes thats it... keep going...

"You see! he is still moving!"


You can do it Schwartz, you can do it! Go towards the green light! Goooo!
 
Self-Ejected

Jack

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Sea said:
There's also, unfortunately, the issue of the timer. Specifically, 150 days doesn't seem like a lot, and while it's more time than the ticking click might suggest, putting the player on a time limit from the very beginning can feel stifling. Worst case scenario, the player really does run out of time, earning a non-standard game over. Starting over a game was actually fairly common back in 1997 when Fallout came out, especially in RPGs, but by modern standards, being forced to replay the beginning of a game due to a few bad early choices seems patently ridiculous.
*sigh* What the fuck, sea?
 

Stinger

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Fucking Codexers, aren't you all so fucking edgy?

If you actually read the article instead of quickly glancing at Hiver's rant and missing the point you'd realise it was a rebut to all the popamolers complaining that Fallout doesn't explain anything and is "unintuitive" and shit and "outdated". Sea was basically pointing out that if you had half a brain and didn't need some stupid prompts in your face every 10 seconds you'd find out that even without the manual the game explains everything really well.

And wow, not everyone agrees with the time limit. Tim Cain himself thought it gave a fall sense of urgency and in hindsight would've removed it. Personally I thought travelling around costs too much time which then in a way discourages exploration for what is supposed to be a wide open sandbox. Getting from Necropolis with the Water Chip to Vault 13 directly takes about 30 days so if you got to the Chip with 20 days to spare you'd be fucked and that kind of thing is just bullshit.

Save your edginess for actually bad articles that lack a proper argument or thesis and are clearly talking out of their asses like Rowan Kaiser's crap. That or actually read the article before you go off on a hissy fit like a little bitch.

(this particular hissy fit is directed at everyone except hiver who seems to have actually read the article and has some genuinely valid points)
 

sea

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2. There is no fucking problem with the timer. It was generous enough and if you can re-load after you get killed then you can fucking reload after you failed to do what you needed to do.
Then you know where you should not waste your time. So you can check other places.
The only thing that pissed me off was removing the consequence of arranging water to be delivered by water traders caravans - which extended the timer countdown.
Or removing the ending for Junktown. (or that there wasnt a third option where you dont just have to kill any of the guys or where the killing was imposed more strongly.... btw... i have no idea what happens if you dont do anything)
My issue with the timer isn't that it exists. My suggestion was that to introduce a finite amount of time during a game's learning phase is arguably a mistake. I don't think it's anything to get too worked up about (especially in a game like Fallout), but most players dislike timers in general and to put what feels like a strict limit on them (especially before they even understand how much time they need to complete their goal) is not the best way to ease someone into a game.

As for "you wasted 5 hours, reload", that's not exactly fun, even for someone who's an experienced RPG player. I don't think that's a reasonable solution to that problem (although again, whether it's a problem might be a bit subjective).

3. Tutorial - fucking manual.
The entire point of that article was to deconstruct how Fallout's interface and gameplay scenarios effectively teach the player the necessary core concepts and mechanics for enjoying the game. The game doesn't need a tutorial or manual because the early game stages are so effectively designed, without actually doing any hand-holding or requiring a lot of reading to understand.

Are you shitting me? No seriously... wtf?
Interface like what's seen in Fallout or the Infinity Engine games is more complicated than most modern titles' because there are more ways to interact with the world, more skills and abilities, more equipment, etc. You've got more buttons, more hotkeys, more icons, more pages to go through, and so on. What is suspect about that claim?

Thats what the whole game is supposed to tech the player, step by step. As appropriate. Not the opening, NOT the freaking tutorial.
Really? Because the opening does just about all of those things, and I'd say most of them are necessary to understanding how to fully play the game.

Imagine that! a rope! to climb down an elevator shaft!

Infuckingcredible!
And the game has the brass to tell the player he actually needs a ROPE!!!!

I can only fucking wish that they made a first fuckin day DLC containg only a fucking ROPE and charged 50 bucks for it!
Sarcasm aside, I have heard a lot of complaints about how players felt that sudden "you need X object to proceed" with no indication on where to get it, both at Vault 15 and later at The Glow, was frustrating and felt arbitrary. I never said I necessarily agreed with that - my point in bringing it up is that it's a necessary gate in teaching players how to interact with the game - by using items and not just by shooting things.

Not a bad article, only it seems youve been playing too many modern vomits and take what worse of the players express as a measure of great games
Thanks, but again - the point of the article wasn't to say FALLOUT IS THE GREATEST GAME OF ALL TIME etc., it's to examine how its introduction works to teach the player necessary game concepts without hand-holding. Fallout has a strong reputation for being impenetrable and difficult to get into (not necessarily deserved) and it was a fun (for me) intellectual exercise to examine how and why the opening works so well. I love Fallout and I think it's masterfully built - but I also think it's wrong to say it can't be improved upon in a few ways as well.

As to the others: mind qualifying your accusations of decline and retardation with examples and arguments? Preferably without quoting things out of context etc.
 
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Brayko

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I just spent around 2 hours creating the ultimate Icewind Dale party for a great playthrough, then the game crashed before I could save. Wasting time in games due to unfair ignorance sucks balls, regardless of its nature. That's what RL is for.
 

sgc_meltdown

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hiver's earnest isolated quote per quote wrestling announcer style addressing seems to have led my bros into thinking that sea said

"Fallout's design is hard to get"

which is p. correct, but then he goes on to say

"...if you're captain short bus and can't figure things out yourself, because that is the whole point of how games were designed back then."

not that I say hiver was flaming sea of course, he could very well be just conversing about these topics with a bit more enthusiasm that you expect, like a loud mediterranean culture person

can't ever agree about the time issue thing, even back then in high school on my first go I did not fail to find the water chip, just sort that quest out and you're free to screw around, is necropolis that hard for dudes to handle

my casual gamer apologies to Stinger for being hissy with tom cruise
 

Jaesun

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The entire point of that article was to deconstruct how Fallout's interface and gameplay scenarios effectively teach the player the necessary core concepts and mechanics for enjoying the game. The game doesn't need a tutorial or manual because the early game stages are so effectively designed, without actually doing any hand-holding or requiring a lot of reading to understand.

So basically you are saying EVERY SINGLE game mechanic should be shown and explained to the player, thus eliminating any chance of a player experimenting/thinking/logical thought and figuring out how things work on their own?

Sarcasm aside, I have heard a lot of complaints about how players felt that sudden "you need X object to proceed" with no indication on where to get it, both at Vault 15 and later at The Glow, was frustrating and felt arbitrary. I never said I necessarily agreed with that - my point in bringing it up is that it's a necessary gate in teaching players how to interact with the game - by using items and not just by shooting things.

There is a gigantic beam over a large open hole. It's not rocket science.
 

Stinger

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my casual gamer apologies to Stinger for being hissy with tom cruise

:lol: Thanks meltdown, that made my day.

Jaesun said:
So basically you are saying EVERY SINGLE game mechanic should be shown and explained to the player, thus eliminating any chance of a player experimenting/thinking/logical thought and figuring out how things work on their own?

Let's look at some parts of Sea's actual article:

This is accomplished through the corpse near the player - after all, just about everyone's going to want to inspect it. To do so, Fallout requires the player right-click to change the cursor to "interact mode" and then left-click on the corpse once more. This opens up the looting panel, which clearly displays both the player's inventory and the container's own items (in this case, a machete). When the player's done, however, another problem appears - the player can't move anymore! Well, right-clicking worked once, so what about again? Sure as can be, a second right-click returns the cursor to movement mode and lets the player continue exploring.

So basically Fallout gives the player the idea to interact with the corpse but in order to do so they have to experiment with the interface to get into the right mode to interact.

But what about the machete on the corpse? Provided the player can read, he/she will no doubt notice the "INV" icon prominently displayed on the user interface. Clicking it opens up the inventory, where the player will notice a few things: first, that he/she hasn't been sent out without supplies; second, that the machete appeared at the top of the player's list; third, that any items can be equipped in the "Item 1" and "Item 2" slots, not just weapons. Thus, the player has learned not just how to use the interface for moving, interacting, looting, and equipping items, but also that items can be used in the weapon slots - suggesting not only that, say, Stimpaks can be used to heal one's self, but that they can be used to heal others as well.

Now if the player wants to access their inventory they need to actually look at the interface and find the inventory button which is obviously labelled INV.

He's not saying every single game mechanic should be handed out to the player. He's saying that Fallout explains the mechanics to the player by subtly setting up things that will interest them and then allow them to actually find out about those things by actually experimenting and figuring it out for themselves. As opposed to being as unhelpful as possible or going all "MEGAMAN MEGAMAN THAT SPIKE WILL KILL YOU!"

Jaesun said:
There is a gigantic beam over a large open hole. It's not rocket science.

It's more about travelling all the way to the Glow and then being told you have to find a rope, without any kind of warning in advance- it's a waste of the player's time. The BoS could've at least warned the player about getting a rope amidst laughing about how that's the least of your problems, the condescending pricks that they are. Vault 15 could have had a similar warning if you asked around in Shady Sands. Going to a location, being told to go all the way back to get a macguffin and then heading back to the location again is pointless padding. It's especially annoying when you have a time limit counting you down as well.
 

sea

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So basically you are saying EVERY SINGLE game mechanic should be shown and explained to the player, thus eliminating any chance of a player experimenting/thinking/logical thought and figuring out how things work on their own?
I never said it needs to be explicitly stated. In fact that is exactly the point of the article: that Fallout sets up situations that are good at teaching the player how the game works, as well as in slowly rolling out those mechanics in logical order while at the same time not forcing the player to do anything, not locking the player out of content, not giving tutorial pop-ups etc.

Ever played Super Mario Bros.? Exact same thing - the game might be a lot simpler, but even so it uses its level design to teach the player about things (left to right movement, jump height, running speed) and sets up a series of challenges to test the player and make sure he/she learns how to play before giving the player tougher things to deal with.
 

DragoFireheart

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Hold on bros, what's wrong with tutorials (the concept)? I mean, there are shitty ones (Fallout 3, Oblivion), but it seems like there is some serious hostility to tutorials in this topic. Is there something wrong with showing the player basic control schemes?
 

Metro

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He's gone Hollywood on us -- you aren't going to get a high paying job at a prestigious e-magazine slumming at Gamebanshee all your life catering to the niche!
 

SCO

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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
yes, it presupposes players haven't the brian to see the big red button named "skills" in the interface.

I suppose that's why fallout 1 and 2 had no real "tutorial" with obnoxious popups telling you to read things you should have read in the first 5 seconds. Much too much faith in the player.
 

Metro

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How are they going to even access a tutorial if they can't figure out how to turn their computer on?
:rage:
 

joeydohn

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Hold on bros, what's wrong with tutorials (the concept)? I mean, there are shitty ones (Fallout 3, Oblivion), but it seems like there is some serious hostility to tutorials in this topic. Is there something wrong with showing the player basic control schemes?

Their precious super secret club for g̶a̶m̶e̶r̶s nerds is being polluted by the average intelligence "normals".
 

sgc_meltdown

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it's like we're the harry potters of puter gamins

slytherine codex
 

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