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Kamrat
Nov 27, 2012

Thanks for playing Alone in the dark 2.

Now please fuck off

Fair Bear Maiden posted:

I didn't post this after Quarex's story because frankly it felt.. awkward? Like being at a dinner and hearing someone talk openly about their life and replying with a bad joke. But.. the new Kickstarter update mentions that inXile is starting to work on a new title and has still a small group of people working on Wasteland 2 patches. The balance problems will apparently be addressed too, though it will take a while.

In the link they mention that it's an "RPG that has been passionately demanded" for a while, anybody got any ideas of what game this might be?

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sauer kraut
Oct 2, 2004

Kamrat posted:

In the link they mention that it's an "RPG that has been passionately demanded" for a while, anybody got any ideas of what game this might be?

Take your pick of Bard's Tale, Dragon Wars or a Neuromancer RPG.

sauer kraut fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Dec 4, 2014

Fair Bear Maiden
Jun 17, 2013
My guess would be a The Bard's Tale title with a more hardcore focus than the 2004 action-RPG.

Gibbo
Sep 13, 2008

"yes James. Remove that from my presence. It... Offends me" *sips overpriced wine*

Fair Bear Maiden posted:

My guess would be a The Bard's Tale title with a more hardcore focus than the 2004 action-RPG.

Only if they bring back Cary Elwes to do the voicing.

SelenicMartian
Sep 14, 2013

Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Dragon Wars would be better. There's only one main plot trigger - kill the Big Bad. Everything else is sidequests and ruin exploration for better gear and spells. Oh, and you start inside a prison colony but you can get our by 1) killing the guards at the entrance, 2) jumping into the sea through a hole in the wall, 3) entering an underworld tunnel, 4) getting a pass from the colony's leader, 5) selling yourself into slavery.

Martello
Apr 29, 2012

by XyloJW
Just remembered this game exists and bought it in the Steam Sale. Couple questions:

1. Does religion play any part in the game? I'm gonna be pissed if my badass runaway Mormon thirdwife's religion never matters.

2. Can you swap portraits somehow after starting a game?

3. Are any of the toaster rewards actually worth spending the points in toaster repair?

Pretty happy with the game so far. It scratches the same gameplay itch as Shadowrun Returns, and snipers are actually good in this game.

sauer kraut
Oct 2, 2004
no

you can edit the savegame xml for almost anything (search for portrait), but you'd need to know the names of the portraits you wanna switch to.
make a new crew to learn what they are

you get decent xp, skillbooks and one very good unique energy weapon. if you skip trash like Barter and focus on one weapon per ranger, you have enough points for toasters easy
plus it's one of the more fun things to do in this otherwise unremarkable game

Martello
Apr 29, 2012

by XyloJW
Thanks, got the portraits switched.

In Highpool, if I help the townsfolk (house fire, dog) before I do the valve mission, does it gently caress me for swaying the town to Kate Preston's side? Or is there antother help quest I'm missing?

Dr. Quarex
Apr 18, 2003

I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Fair Bear Maiden posted:

I didn't post this after Quarex's story because frankly it felt.. awkward? Like being at a dinner and hearing someone talk openly about their life and replying with a bad joke. But.. the new Kickstarter update mentions that inXile is starting to work on a new title and has still a small group of people working on Wasteland 2 patches. The balance problems will apparently be addressed too, though it will take a while.
It would certainly only make sense if the game were an Interplay classic that people have been clamoring for ... which really would have to mean a Real Bard's Tale Rebirth/Reboot/Sequel/Whatever (though of course that means it should be called Tales of the Unknown: Volume II :smug:). For as much as it was hilarious the other day when I arbitrarily decided that InXile's next project should be a Temple of Apshai reboot, that being now legitimately the best multi-game series I can think of that has had no clamor about a remake that I have heard. And no Interplay had nothing to do with it, making it even more nonsensical, I realize.

I understand how Dragon Wars could hypothetically be the project, but I imagine if anything they would just take design cues from Dragon Wars while making a new Bard's Tale, since the latter has virtually all the nostalgia name recognition.

Oh and I kind of figured everyone would stare at what I posted and be like "...well. Ahem." and that is fine obviously. It was a pretty random thing to post even in-context. I am glad I waited until the initial fervor had slowed though, since I imagine if I had decided to post that and then had it be immediately ignored in a cavalcade of HOW DO YOU FIND SCOPES would have been worse.

Edit: Oh, and Martello, I think doing the side quests before the main one is the only way to go, really. At least one of the former is timed after all.

null_user01013
Nov 13, 2000

Drink up comrades
Quarex, you are cool dude and I hope your life is a constantly growing pile of happiness and CRPG titles. It was really great to have you spearhead such passion project. I hope your joy in life is never put out and you embrace everything with such love and enthusiasm.

Also I really wished you liked Rocket Jockey, cause drat it, I need somebody of your caliber to get that kickstarter to happen and take off.

Martello
Apr 29, 2012

by XyloJW

Quarex posted:

Edit: Oh, and Martello, I think doing the side quests before the main one is the only way to go, really. At least one of the former is timed after all.

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. What happened was, I did the house fire and dog-finding quests, then did the valves in the tunnels, and then came up to watch the vote. It was a stalemate and Kate Preston asked me to help some people around town to swing it in her favor. So I ran all over the place and finally found the hidden sewer thing with all the dead Red Skorpions, fixed the toaster down there, and then did the quest for the hippie dude to find his dog soulmate and brought back the rock. Even after all that nothing changed on the vote. Did I miss a town-helping quest somehow? And does that camp full of dead Skorpions mean anything? I'm not asking for a spoiler but I'm wondering why I couldn't tell anybody that they have a sewer full of slaughtered dudes under their town.


AxeManiac posted:

Also I really wished you liked Rocket Jockey, cause drat it, I need somebody of your caliber to get that kickstarter to happen and take off.

My heart skipped a beat at the thought of a modern Rocket Jockey remake. Holy poo poo I want that so bad.

Broose
Oct 28, 2007

Martello posted:

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. What happened was, I did the house fire and dog-finding quests, then did the valves in the tunnels, and then came up to watch the vote. It was a stalemate and Kate Preston asked me to help some people around town to swing it in her favor. So I ran all over the place and finally found the hidden sewer thing with all the dead Red Skorpions, fixed the toaster down there, and then did the quest for the hippie dude to find his dog soulmate and brought back the rock. Even after all that nothing changed on the vote. Did I miss a town-helping quest somehow? And does that camp full of dead Skorpions mean anything? I'm not asking for a spoiler but I'm wondering why I couldn't tell anybody that they have a sewer full of slaughtered dudes under their town.


My heart skipped a beat at the thought of a modern Rocket Jockey remake. Holy poo poo I want that so bad.

You've missed a few quests. Remember that hurt NPCs can be interacted with skills like surgeon. Also there is a dog near the crane that can be animal whispered (solution spoiler) or you can talk to his owner in town near the far end. Can't tell you about the Red Skorps stuff myself.

I saw that this game got patched a few times now, so I'm willing to try again to play it. Unfortunatly I am a terrible min-max kind of person and I'll be starting over till I'm sick of this game probably if I don't ask:

Does anyone have a good set-up for your PCs that will allow you to generally have a good time while having access to the most quests and most looting (Assuming I go AG center first)? If I don't dump charisma and luck I find myself severely lacking in combat and skills and it is driving me nuts.

Martello
Apr 29, 2012

by XyloJW

Broose posted:

You've missed a few quests. Remember that hurt NPCs can be interacted with skills like surgeon. Also there is a dog near the crane that can be animal whispered (solution spoiler) or you can talk to his owner in town near the far end. Can't tell you about the Red Skorps stuff myself.

Hmm, yeah I did both dog quests, the one in the cemetery and the one for the hippie dude. I ran around everywhere looking for people who needed healing and nobody did. I guess I can't stuff these ballet boxes. :smith:

Broose
Oct 28, 2007

Martello posted:

Hmm, yeah I did both dog quests, the one in the cemetery and the one for the hippie dude. I ran around everywhere looking for people who needed healing and nobody did. I guess I can't stuff these ballet boxes. :smith:

There is a building in the far back of the map. it doen't look enterable, but it is. It has a store in there and NPCs that need healing as well as another quest to build (or lose) reputation, I don't really recommend that one though unless you've got more than a few points in mechanical.

Martello
Apr 29, 2012

by XyloJW

Broose posted:

There is a building in the far back of the map. it doen't look enterable, but it is. It has a store in there and NPCs that need healing as well as another quest to build (or lose) reputation, I don't really recommend that one though unless you've got more than a few points in mechanical.

I checked in there but maybe I missed something. I will give it another shot.

VStraken
Oct 27, 2013
In addition to all the other stuff mentioned, there's also the Wrecking Crew Camp and possibly some dialog with Sean Bergin regarding Vulture's Cry; be careful with this one, Sean might get mad if you don't answer right and pass some skill checks, but I'm not sure if it matters for the vote.

Dr. Quarex
Apr 18, 2003

I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

AxeManiac posted:

Quarex, you are cool dude and I hope your life is a constantly growing pile of happiness and CRPG titles. It was really great to have you spearhead such passion project. I hope your joy in life is never put out and you embrace everything with such love and enthusiasm.

Also I really wished you liked Rocket Jockey, cause drat it, I need somebody of your caliber to get that kickstarter to happen and take off.
Huggzzzzz :glomp: My life is like 95% happiness and CRPG titles, really. I pretty much have nothing to complain about. That is why I try to Share The Love(tm)

Speaking of, I am sure I could have been talked into liking Rocket Jockey ... for a price. Actually this is the first time I have ever seen that game mentioned, as far as I can recall. The game that immediately came to mind was Blast Corps? when I try to picture Rocket Jockey.

If I were ever going to cheerlead a Kickstarter again it would undoubtedly have to be another resurrection of something I loved that has been unfairly dashed into the un-nostalgia heap. Like uhhh Return of Heracles. Or the aforementioned Temple of Apshai [Trilogy]. Even though both of those games are so old that you would just basically be making a game of a certain style and calling it something related to the original more than you would be re-creating the way the originals felt. Though I do have to say Sword of Fargoal 2 is doing a decent job of recreating what the original (seemed) to feel like from what I can see from the alpha/beta releases.

Oh I would also have helped promote anything for Lord British, but he obviously did not need my help.

Maybe you could get me for a Covert Action reboot, or a Dark Heart of Uukrul sequel, or a Fountain of Dreams remake in the Unity engine ... haha. Oh, I would also totally want to see a modern Sword of Aragon or Space Rogue (though the latter would just seem sort of like a weird free-roaming Starship Troopers/Ender's Game title at this point I imagine).

Wait, poo poo, I would be 100% onboard a No One Lives Forever renaissance. Someone get Monolith to remember they used to make amazing games, please.


Broose posted:

Does anyone have a good set-up for your PCs that will allow you to generally have a good time while having access to the most quests and most looting (Assuming I go AG center first)? If I don't dump charisma and luck I find myself severely lacking in combat and skills and it is driving me nuts.
There has been some conversation about this lately, I put some of the discussion in the second post, including a link to the rebuttal of the "most useful skills" list. But everyone basically agrees Barter is useless (even I do, and I am usually the guy who actually takes the barter-equivalent skill in games despite being told that it sucks) and Mechanical Repair is incredibly specialized, but you can make a modest case at least for nearly everything else--though Animal Whisperer is more "fun" than "necessary." If everyone has a combat skill (and probably if you do not trust in shotguns or energy weapons to save the day) and you have at least two of the rear end Trio and otherwise raise things as they come up, you will likely do all right.

inscrutable horse
May 19, 2010

Parsing sage, rotating time



About remakes, I'm still hoping for a Darklands HD or something. Semi-historical RPGs need more love, man :(

CrookedB
Jun 27, 2011

Stupid newbee

Quarex posted:

a Dark Heart of Uukrul sequel, or a Fountain of Dreams remake

Man, I would be 200% down for either of that.

inscrutable horse posted:

About remakes, I'm still hoping for a Darklands HD or something. Semi-historical RPGs need more love, man :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLKMmW9V-Ds

Broose
Oct 28, 2007

Quarex posted:

There has been some conversation about this lately, I put some of the discussion in the second post, including a link to the rebuttal of the "most useful skills" list. But everyone basically agrees Barter is useless (even I do, and I am usually the guy who actually takes the barter-equivalent skill in games despite being told that it sucks) and Mechanical Repair is incredibly specialized, but you can make a modest case at least for nearly everything else--though Animal Whisperer is more "fun" than "necessary." If everyone has a combat skill (and probably if you do not trust in shotguns or energy weapons to save the day) and you have at least two of the rear end Trio and otherwise raise things as they come up, you will likely do all right.

Ah, I missed the links, I must have glazed over them. I was just hoping someone, somewhere had sit down and done the math already for a party of 4, with skill allocation, planned advancement, the works. Gamefaqs only has one guide, a character guide, and it is full of outdated or wrong info I think. The inXile forums are pretty barren as well.

Has anyone nailed down exactly what luck does other than the crit chance and evade increase? Does it really effect jams? Loot? Something? Or is it still just speculation?

Mushball
May 23, 2012
I think its generally accepted that luck does play a part in jam percentages but its only a concern if your characters are going to use machineguns, shotguns or any of the early game revolvers because they cannot accept the sturdy mags weapon mod which practically eliminates any chance of jamming.

A character with at least a 3 in weaponsmithing will be swimming in sturdy mags if you break down guns in arizona so you can make sure anyone who doesn't use any of the guns mentioned will not experience a jam at the wrong time.

null_user01013
Nov 13, 2000

Drink up comrades

CrookedB posted:

Man, I would be 200% down for either of that.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLKMmW9V-Ds

If the world was just and fair, ropekid would be the Tzar of video games.

Basic Chunnel
Sep 21, 2010

Jesus! Jesus Christ! Say his name! Jesus! Jesus! Come down now!

Codex is claiming that InXile has filed trademark claims for "Meantime", which was an aborted Interplay time travel RPG from the late 80's.

They also filed a claim for "Van Buren". If Interplay's FO3 ended up in InXile's hands that would be a really depressing end to its long journey. Also really impressive since Fargo loves to obliquely talk poo poo about Bethesda after he made a really lovely game for them. Maybe he got a verbal agreement from Herve Caen and he's honestly considering weathering the inevitable development-squashing lawsuits?

CrookedB
Jun 27, 2011

Stupid newbee
Fargo is probably just hoarding whatever trademarks he can grab at this point.

I still wish for a proper new Bard's Tale, but Meantime could be fun, too. I just hope they are aware of Escape from Hell, because if Meantime won't let me recruit Stalin or Genghis Khan, it will be nothing but an opportunity wasted. :colbert:

Kurtofan
Feb 16, 2011

hon hon hon
Interplay is still kicking around? I thought they lost the Fallout license a while ago.

Genpei Turtle
Jul 20, 2007

Quarex posted:

If I were ever going to cheerlead a Kickstarter again it would undoubtedly have to be another resurrection of something I loved that has been unfairly dashed into the un-nostalgia heap. Like uhhh Return of Heracles. Or the aforementioned Temple of Apshai [Trilogy]. Even though both of those games are so old that you would just basically be making a game of a certain style and calling it something related to the original more than you would be re-creating the way the originals felt. Though I do have to say Sword of Fargoal 2 is doing a decent job of recreating what the original (seemed) to feel like from what I can see from the alpha/beta releases.

Return of Heracles and Temple of Apshai Trilogy! Two of my favorite childhood games. You have impeccable taste in old CRPGs, goonsir. :hfive:

Seriously though a Return of Heracles/Ali Baba and the 40 thieves resurrection would be amazing. Especially since those games scream for a built-in editor in the vein of Adventure Construction Set. (which was basically a stripped down RoH/AB editor anyway) Nowadays there would be an amazing amount of great community content that could be put out for it.

quote:

There has been some conversation about this lately, I put some of the discussion in the second post, including a link to the rebuttal of the "most useful skills" list. But everyone basically agrees Barter is useless (even I do, and I am usually the guy who actually takes the barter-equivalent skill in games despite being told that it sucks) and Mechanical Repair is incredibly specialized, but you can make a modest case at least for nearly everything else--though Animal Whisperer is more "fun" than "necessary." If everyone has a combat skill (and probably if you do not trust in shotguns or energy weapons to save the day) and you have at least two of the rear end Trio and otherwise raise things as they come up, you will likely do all right.

Speaking of most useful skills, I read in the OP that bladed weapons aren't so great. That leads me to the question--is there a Proton Ax in this game and if so, is it a bladed weapon? Because if so, come hell or high water I want to make at least one dude a Proton Ax wielder in the spirit of my Wasteland 1 dude I made a Super Jerk through robot ax-murdering. It would be nice to know if that would be viable. (For whatever reason I've been holding off on playing Wasteland 2 until my collector's edition from the Kickstarter gets here so I shamefully have not started playing yet.)

Dr. Quarex
Apr 18, 2003

I'M A BIG DORK WHO POSTS TOO MUCH ABOUT CONVENTIONS LOOK AT THIS

TOVA TOVA TOVA

Basic Chunnel posted:

Codex is claiming that InXile has filed trademark claims for "Meantime", which was an aborted Interplay time travel RPG from the late 80's.

They also filed a claim for "Van Buren". If Interplay's FO3 ended up in InXile's hands that would be a really depressing end to its long journey. Also really impressive since Fargo loves to obliquely talk poo poo about Bethesda after he made a really lovely game for them. Maybe he got a verbal agreement from Herve Caen and he's honestly considering weathering the inevitable development-squashing lawsuits?
I saw that. I tend to agree with CrookedB that Brian Fargo is probably just doing some worst-case-scenario planning (or best-case-scenario?) as much as actually deciding on things. I even posted on that thread on RPGCodex (my second post there ever!) mentioning that it would be weird for them to have just trademarked a few weeks ago a new title they were already working on, so surely that is no sooner in the pipeline than 3rd or 4th even if it is definite.

Now, as for Van Buren ... well, yeah, I am not sure how I feel about that. I guess if it were a joint InXile-Obsidian project it would be hard for anyone to much mind, though? But then again, why in the world would he want to bring a third post-apocalyptic series into being? It is not like he could make it a Fallout title, and apparently many of the ideas were already used in New Vegas, so I doubt it would even... AGH IT MAKES NO SENSE

As soon as he trademarks Fountain of Dreams and Keef the Thief and Tongue of the Fatman I am going to be convinced he is just raiding people's bizarre childhood PC gaming memories.

Genpei Turtle posted:

Return of Heracles and Temple of Apshai Trilogy! Two of my favorite childhood games. You have impeccable taste in old CRPGs, goonsir. :hfive:

Seriously though a Return of Heracles/Ali Baba and the 40 thieves resurrection would be amazing. Especially since those games scream for a built-in editor in the vein of Adventure Construction Set. (which was basically a stripped down RoH/AB editor anyway) Nowadays there would be an amazing amount of great community content that could be put out for it.
Yeah, actual good games with built-in modding tools are things we cannot possibly get enough of in This Crazy Internet Age. Just imagine how many Adventure Construction Set titles (or Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures modules, or Bard's Tale Construction Set pieces, or STUNT ISLAND FILMS) there would be if it were a modern thing you could buy for $1 on Steam with Steam Workshop support that included making entire modules, oh dude. So good.

But also :hfive: indeed. I pretty much knew from the first time I booted up Ultima III as a child (even though I am pretty sure I did not know how to save my game in an RPG for years after first playing one, I was too young to even get that concept apparently) that I was experiencing something magical and important. Sadly I probably also still feel that way when I load up something like Snuggle Truck or Goat Simulator but I clearly had better taste at age 4. But yeah, the few good RPGs on the Atari 8-Bit system definitely stuck with me. I do wish I had known about Eternal Dagger and Wizard's Crown, though; I bet I would still be an evangelist for those two, too, if I had realized I could play them. Oh, those crazy days when it was legitimately challenging to find out if a game was available for the system you owned.

Temple of Apshai Trilogy is totally underrated as an obvious inspiration for Diablo. Well OK there were plenty of other obvious inspirations for it but still, haha. And Return of Heracles had such a fun party mechanic; have there even been any other games where you could control that many characters, or where you could also just decide to roll with 1 character the whole time instead?

Genpei Turtle posted:

Speaking of most useful skills, I read in the OP that bladed weapons aren't so great. That leads me to the question--is there a Proton Ax in this game and if so, is it a bladed weapon? Because if so, come hell or high water I want to make at least one dude a Proton Ax wielder in the spirit of my Wasteland 1 dude I made a Super Jerk through robot ax-murdering. It would be nice to know if that would be viable. (For whatever reason I've been holding off on playing Wasteland 2 until my collector's edition from the Kickstarter gets here so I shamefully have not started playing yet.)
Oh whew, back to actually talking about Wasteland 2! I mean, there HAS to be a proton ax. I have not read any spoilers about its existence, but it would just make no sense if there were not.

Martello
Apr 29, 2012

by XyloJW
Somebody also needs to make Arcanum 2.

Mr.Pibbleton
Feb 3, 2006

Aleuts rock, chummer.

Mushball posted:

I think its generally accepted that luck does play a part in jam percentages but its only a concern if your characters are going to use machineguns, shotguns or any of the early game revolvers because they cannot accept the sturdy mags weapon mod which practically eliminates any chance of jamming.

A character with at least a 3 in weaponsmithing will be swimming in sturdy mags if you break down guns in arizona so you can make sure anyone who doesn't use any of the guns mentioned will not experience a jam at the wrong time.

A 10 luck character seems to jam as often with heavy weapons as a 2 luck character. God heavy weapons suck until the second half of the game.

Taear
Nov 26, 2004

Ask me about the shitty opinions I have about Paradox games!

Martello posted:

Somebody also needs to make Arcanum 2.

This is what the thread on Rock Paper Shotgun asked for after the announcement. I'd love that but after Wasteland 2 I don't think I have any faith in inXile to make it, unfortunately.

Dyna Soar
Nov 30, 2006
Van Buren = Wasteland 3? I read the design documents from the Fallout bible, it could easily be converted onto a game totally unrelated to Fallout.

null_user01013
Nov 13, 2000

Drink up comrades

Dyna Soar posted:

Van Buren = Wasteland 3? I read the design documents from the Fallout bible, it could easily be converted onto a game totally unrelated to Fallout.

Yeah, it had some REALLY interesting concepts for turn based hex based combat from what I remember. Also while flawed, I loved Arcanum. The combat was stinkville, but I cheated and enjoyed the great world and setting a lot without having to worry about grinding away at impossible mountain rock men.

Basic Chunnel
Sep 21, 2010

Jesus! Jesus Christ! Say his name! Jesus! Jesus! Come down now!

Rope Kid worked on Van Buren's system but never completed it. Even knowing that WL2's systems were an intentionally laissez-faire botch job I don't remotely have the confidence in InXile to pull off anything like what was proposed. A lot of forum spergs didn't like it at the time (thrown weapons being placed under melee caused a lot of rage, iirc), I don't imagine it would pass much muster now.

Dyna Soar posted:

Van Buren = Wasteland 3? I read the design documents from the Fallout bible, it could easily be converted onto a game totally unrelated to Fallout.
Van Buren was further from Wasteland in tone and outlook than practically any other Fallout game. It was practically humor-free and very, very bleak. I'd hate to see the Wasteland shtick slathered onto it

Basic Chunnel fucked around with this message at 08:44 on Dec 8, 2014

Fair Bear Maiden
Jun 17, 2013

Basic Chunnel posted:

It was practically humor-free and very, very bleak.

Ehr, based on what? A few design documents that gave the broad strokes on what the game would be about? That's hardly a good way to judge a game's overall tone.

EDITED to fix my wonky English.

Fair Bear Maiden fucked around with this message at 08:47 on Dec 8, 2014

Roobanguy
May 30, 2011

Mr.Pibbleton posted:

God heavy weapons suck

ftfy

heavy weapons are garbage for the whole game, because assault rifles do everything they can do but better and without using nearly as much ammo.

apparently a mod out there made them useful.

null_user01013
Nov 13, 2000

Drink up comrades

Fair Bear Maiden posted:

Ehr, based on what? A few design documents that gave the broad strokes on what the game would be about? That's hardly a good way to judge a game's overall tone.

EDITED to fix my wonky English.

I'm pretty sure ropekid was saying it would be more serious and less monty phyton quotes.

Basic Chunnel
Sep 21, 2010

Jesus! Jesus Christ! Say his name! Jesus! Jesus! Come down now!

Admittedly there are apparently a couple of different Van Burens, started and scrapped over the course of the concept's life, and the design docs we have cover at least two (New Canaan / Jericho cover two at once). Still. The first rough concept, by Tim Cain and co., is probably closest to a Wasteland sort of thing - Presper (or whatever his name is) is a pre-war scientist woken from cryosleep who decides to wipe the planet clean. That's the sort of high concept sci-fi that can be worked into a WL framework.

But yes, the general sense that you get, reading the documents, is that while Fallouts 1/2 generally picked from classic Roger Corman "ray guns and giant ants" sci-fi for its creative anachronism, Avellone and Sawyer's VB emit more of a 60's / 70's cold war vibe, particularly in the Denver, Reservation, Nursery, and Boulder concepts (the Limit 115 virus in particular is heavily reminiscent of The Andromeda Strain / The Omega Man or even The Stand, though as I understand it that wasn't necessarily something that was definitely making it into the game). The setting also shifts from the post-post-apocalypse of Fallout 2, in which nascent societies like NCR and Vault City are rising and starting to resemble pre-war communities, to... well, a post-post-post apocalypse in which all of those societies collapsed and communities are on the brink (or about to dirty bomb everyone else and take over, in the Reservation's case). As of the end of the game the most powerful faction in the wastes is most likely Caesar's Legion, only occasionally encountered in forward camps and the margins of the map. That's not a promising future.

I spent a good year or two trying to pull as much of what was out there about VB together as I could for a pen and paper campaign back in the mid-'00s. Even managed to pick Sawyer and Avellone's brains about it, the former quite extensively, before Obsidian got the chance to work on the license again and both became relatively unreachable. Avellone in particular didn't remember a ton about it (though he does have design docs that aren't public, as evidenced by some talks he's given). But the sense that I got was that, if nothing else, they were distancing themselves from the way that Fallout 2 played out its humor. Everything I read was subdued. But that isn't to say that there wouldn't have been comical companions or dialogue. It's just that none of that came out of the stories in the docs.

*e - for shits and giggles, you can read a partially completed PBP game of the campaign I scraped together here and in other threads there. Note that the areas covered are areas referenced in design but not written out as their own docs, so I had to write them up myself. Naturally I can make no claim to their quality. Also Imageshack exploded at some point and a lot of the images are gone. Womp womp!

Basic Chunnel fucked around with this message at 09:13 on Dec 8, 2014

Basic Chunnel
Sep 21, 2010

Jesus! Jesus Christ! Say his name! Jesus! Jesus! Come down now!

All that said, FNV's Old World Blues is probably the best WL game of the last 20 years and it's obviously got no shortage of Van Buren DNA. There are a ton of elements that could be made to work. But the gestalt game, the spirit of it? I don't think it's compatible.

One thing that is apparent, though - there's no way that Avellone wouldn't champ at the bit to work on it again, in whatever capacity.

Dyna Soar
Nov 30, 2006
one thing that I don't get is that they filed a trademark for Van Buren, which was just the internal code name for Fallout 3? That means they're more or less planning on using it as the actual name for a game, right?

i mean it's a good pair of words, van buren, but to a regular gamer an odd choice if it's not actually used in the game in a meaningful way.

Dyna Soar fucked around with this message at 10:29 on Dec 8, 2014

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toasterwarrior
Nov 11, 2011

Roobanguy posted:

ftfy

heavy weapons are garbage for the whole game, because assault rifles do everything they can do but better and without using nearly as much ammo.

apparently a mod out there made them useful.

Yeah, I'm using the mod. They use a lot of bullets and are iffy in early-game, but from the BAR onwards they're fantastic at focus-fire. Even without weapon mods, they'll chew through badasses like honey badgers or what have you.

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