T w e n t y S i d e d

I think I’ve figured it out. Here is how to make an expansion pack for a Fallout game:

1. Make one new area motif. Now use it. Everywhere.
2. Make one new weapon. Make sure it’s way overpowered.
3. Make one new enemy model. Now use it. Everywhere. Make sure it’s crazy powerful so it can stand up to the overpowered weapon you added.
4. Take away all player inventory.
5. Take away all player choice.
6. Take away the looting & bartering mechanics.
7. Add one binary choice at the end, because then you can claim the DLC has “player choice”.

They don’t all follow this list, of course. But if you look at Operation: Anchorage, The Pitt, Broken Steel, Point Lookout, and Mothership Zeta, the pattern is there. Dead Money looks to be following that template as well. I don’t know. Haven’t played it myself. I watched Josh play Dead Money for 40 minutes this weekend. It looks better than the Fallout 3 DLC, but that’s a very, very small accomplishment.

I guess I’ll see how it turns out along with the rest of you.

Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Spoiler Warning S5E23: Elijah’s Interocitor”

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

We talked about the vault-boy images in this episode. For reference, here is the image for the bloody mess perk:

And here is the one they removed from Fallout 3 for “baby killer”:

(Or maybe it was child killer?)

My question is: What was “baby killer” for? Where would it appear in the interface? Was it a perk you could obtain? That doesn’t make a lot of sense. What would it give you? Plus 5% damage to kids? In the original game a note was added to your karma window if you killed a kid. (Which is why I always re-loaded the game if I killed one by accident.) There isn’t a karma window in these newer games. Although, a karma / reputation display would be nice. I’d like to see a run-down of what my reputation is in each town.

End of episode observation: A brand-new incredibly heavy gun for which we have no ammunition or skill points, and which is about as likely to cripple or kill the user as the enemy! Yay. At the end of this series I’d love to see how many total hours were spent scrolling through inventory screen because we’re overweight. You know, just before I kill myself.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.

I didn’t think we would be able to fit the entire Boomer quest line into a single episode, but once again Josh proves he is the best at… whatever it is that he does.

The thing where I cut off my audio is really painful for me. Back in 1990-1992 when I worked fast food, I prided myself on NOT being That Guy. See, everyone else hit the button too late and let go too soon.

“-elcome to McDonad’s can I take your or-?”

“-ike fries with tha-?”

“-ank you. Please drive to the next win-“

ARG! I hated working drive-though with these people. (I think it would help if your own audio was fed back into your headset, so you could hear yourself doing this.) I liked that I didn’t do this, and I tried to teach others the same.

And now, I have become that guy, and I can’t STOP DOING IT. I sat down this week with the intent to hit the button early and release it late, just to make sure that I didn’t cut myself off. I reminded myself. I focused on it. And I managed to cut myself off, like, four times in this episode alone. I imagine the problem will get worse as the week goes on.

Yes, I could use hands-free talking, but that comes with its own set of problems. I really don’t want to spend the next four weeks wrangling audio thresholds trying to find the balance between “broadcast every slightest sound in this room” and “broadcast the middle of every sentence”. What I really need is:

1. Some way to set up my headset so that I only hear my own voice when broadcasting. (Impossible, as this loop takes place outside of Vent.)
2. A way to mod Vent so that it will continue to broadcast for a half second after releasing the push-to-talk key.
3. Legally change my name to Sha-

Stupid technology, always doing exactly what I tell it to do, instead of what I want.

Shamus Young is a programmer, an author, and nearly a composer. He works on this site full time. If you'd like to support him, you can do so via Patreon or PayPal.