Forum:This may seem dumb, but...

You guys is funny. It keeps me enertained when people have such serious ambitions about the point they want to make about video game. Yes the stylistic interiors of the buildings leave somewhat to the imagination but what do you expect when you drop a nuclear bomb on something and its left for 200 years to rot? Unless there is a vault somewhere in the game where the inhabitants are all interior decorators i dont civilizations first priority is to repaint the walls of every wrecked building in the world. Play the game on one save file for over 550 hours and see if you still care about the walls.

Wastelandwarrior1280

After a few hundred hours of playtime, it finally set in how bland and similar interiors are in the game. Gamer reviewers and players all know the cityscapes are dull, or gritty, and "Oh, but it's post-apocalyptic, there's not supposed to be a ton of color" but are we intended to believe that all interiors are gray concrete? Springvale School, the Dunwich Building, Galaxy News Radio, and the National Guard Depot are all completely different locales. Inside, they all look the same, just add the necessary posters and wall mounted pictures and *boom* it's something different? No. In theory, Fallout is architecturally based on 50's and 60's art; there should be gaudy wood paneling, pink and turquois, checkerboard floors, red leather chairs, faux tropicales, with a few cracks, smashed walls, and post-nuclear tinge. Screw these posts about FO4 wishlists for cars and new guns, I just want some damn variety, and maybe some stylistic effort, in the next game. I know I'm a little late to the party, but anyone?? . Butcher Pete 03:01, September 28, 2009 (UTC)


 * its not stupid. variety does keep the player intrested. But from the creators perspective not many people pay attention to their surroundings so it is the least of their problems.--Comrad Stalin 03:12, September 28, 2009 (UTC)


 * Amen, Butcher. Amen.


 * Who knows, maybe Obsidian will hear your pleas and give us the 50's Vegas we've all dreamed of. Nitty 03:13, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

Well, its true that there miss a little variety, the walls always look alike, but you can't expect to have a game with 40 mile square (i think) to have a lot of difference in textures and such. Alot of the waste land is only rocks and sand and ruin buildings you can't even enter(still they got of building you can enter). They got budget limits and such and they can't make the game 20gb, so the got to cut short on stuff. But one thing i think they should improve is the 3rd person view, and what i mean is that when the PC walks, it looks like crap. --Steproy2000 03:19, September 28, 2009 (UTC)
 * I think they should get rid of third person entirely. You're only using it to look at yourself with stuff. Maybe hold down the button for vanity mode, but no stupid walk animations. Nitty 03:27, September 28, 2009 (UTC)
 * Good idea. --Steproy2000 03:31, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

I find the 3rd-person more enjoyable, as it adds a level of peripheral vision that FPSs lack. --DrZoloft It looks as if that image only covers about 1/8 of the are the Wasteland actually represents. --ArmeniusLOD 04:14, September 28, 2009 (UTC) Note the scale in the bottom of the image. --ArmeniusLOD 04:47, September 28, 2009 (UTC)
 * Well technically the Wasteland is approximately a 160 km square scaled down, which is about 97 miles. I never did like that comparison pic posted on this site because it's so far off... --ArmeniusLOD 03:40, September 28, 2009 (UTC)
 * Which picture? Nitty 03:41, September 28, 2009 (UTC)
 * map1.jpg
 * What, no Raven Rock? Nitty 04:16, September 28, 2009 (UTC)
 * This is a quick an dirty job I did that makes more sense. It seems like their sample was an oval and they stretched it out to a square, explaining the weird shape of the Potomac.

I'm glad I'm not crazy. It's not world-destroying or anything, it's just that a prison shouldn't look stylistically similar to a school. The biggest thing I want out of New Vegas is not even detail so much as the type of Vegas that they will present. I want the classy, Sinatra mobster Vegas, not the retarded orgy of Vegas today. I also want some Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas references, or maybe Mike Tyson's Yao Gui in the bathroom of my hotel suite. Butcher Pete 19:21, September 28, 2009 (UTC)

A less constricted space will be a good start, the FO3 world is crowded a lot, you can't give two steps until you bump into something. What a hell of "Wasteland" is this?

And I hope the game had inteligence onto him, because FO3 is dumb as Paris Hilton. Brfritos 01:36, September 29, 2009 (UTC)

What the hell are you talking about? We're talking about WASHINGTON DC, not a rural area out in the sticks. There aren't enough building,s really (or enough that you can actually enter, anyway).

The entire map layout of Fallout 3 sucks. For one, the wasteland is, for the most part, seperated into two categories: uninhabited desert, and a crwoded city in China. Seriously, what the hell? The population of now, 2009, is SIX BILLION. What would it be like in 2077, right before the war? There should be houses, shops, buldings and apartments EVERYWHERE. No, don't give me that "it's an alternate reality" bullcrap, because the population of the world has increased for the whole history of man. Why is it a freaking desert for most of the map?

The urban part has problems, too. For one, I'm sick of the artificial division of parts of the map. I'm talking about the massive, random piles of rubble that conveniently block off all ways and streets in a direction, forcing you to take some blah metro station to get around it. An entire side or two of Grayditch is like this. It also manages to divide the urban part of the map into three main sections. Even more so, why are there a jillion buildings that you can't enter? Either they are nonsensically boarded up, or the entrances are convieniently covered in garbage. This is a crime in places like Fairfax, where every damn building in the whole town is inaccessable. I think the Chinese really dropped a bomb that boards up everyone's house instead.

Also, what is up with the huge map if you aren't going to have some form of transportation? I hate walking through ten miles of bullcrap blah dead trees to get to my destination. Fallout 2 had a car, why can't we have, say, a dirtbike or something? You could even put it in the Scrapyard, and have to find all of the parts to fix it.

Finally, why is everything shiny? I've had the Firelance event occur three times, and every time it happens it's a pain in the butt to find all of the power cells because every freaking rock on the ground is shiny like metal. A lot of games do this in a desperate effore to make everything look like it has good graphics (*cough*Bioshock*cough*), and it's really annoying.

LlamaDM

If you don't like it, you don't have to play it. That's the wonderful thing about capitalism, you're not forced to buy it, and if enough people don't buy it, it tells the producer "hey, maybe people don't like this".

Also, it's alot of desert because NUCLEAR BOMBS FELL ON THE CITY!! Look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki immediately after the bombs fell on them. And shiny things make it look like good graphics? (*cough*Bioshock*cough*)? Bioshock looked awesome, just because it's "shiny" doesn't make it look better. I didn't see anything shiny in Fallout, it's boring and bleak. Transportation? Heard of fast travel? Of course you can't fast travel to places you haven't been, then it would make the game easy. Are you going to find lots of working cars after a nuclear holocaust? If some cars did survive, wouldn't they break down and deteriorate after being left out in the radiation and exposed to the elements and animals and crap for years?

Anyway, it's just a game. If you don't like it, tell Bethesda, don't complain in some wiki forum. --XG33Kx 23:17, November 2, 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes, let's use reality as a justification. You know... because nothing can grow on the site of an atomic bomb, even after 200 years. I mean, just look at Hiroshima after 60 years. 76.94.225.90
 * That is a park, where humanity artificially plants trees and grass. Also, many people in Japan were not killed because of Hiroshima, so they could have planted all that, and also, one bomb does not even begin to compare to what they could have had in Fallout, seeing as how they focused their technology only on nuclear things. --Toast 13:59, November 10, 2009 (UTC)
 * Did you know that plantlife outgrows everything man has ever made in Tsjernobyl / Prypjat including whatever was left behind (helicopters, firetrucks etc.)? Because of radiation, people where instructed to open all windows and doors to ventilate all fallout. So in realism, Fallout 3 has a strange perspective on radiation effects and emergency protocols (instantly heal from radiation poisening, walking the waste without the need of water/food, limb's that can heal with an hour sleep and a person who comes out of a paranoia living space to an open world without psychological effects. But what ever, it's just a game, we do a better job in the REAL world, right?

This last post here was the least constructive and least intelligent of the lot. Ofcourse he wasn't talking about fast travelling to places you haven't discovered. I think the dirtbike idea is great. Also the ground IS shiny sometimes when it's rocky and the sun shines at it. Which makes it hard to spot other shiny objects. However that is realistic eg. would happen in real life. -- Cyborg

FO3 tried to do a lot of things, and it succeeded at a great many of them. However, because of the rush to the shelves and budget they were working with, the creative team simply didn't have the time or money to design every building to be unique or at least able to be entered. In addition, textures take memory, and as it was, Beth about filled up a Blu-ray disk with what they made. The additional gigs in textures or maps would have no doubt been memory-prohibitive. I don't like it, obviously a lot of people here don't like it, but it's what Beth made. And I'm sure they learned a lot, and will improve upon it next game. Nightweaver20xx 03:35, November 9, 2009 (UTC)

If you look at Daggerfall, you can really tell Bethesda has come a long way. People should just have faith in them, because every consecutive game has had less bugs and more features. Anyway, a Beth fan's two cents. --Toast 13:59, November 10, 2009 (UTC)


 * Daggerfall had less features than Oblivion or Morrowind? http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/thumb/4/4a/Naglowaa_se.gif/11px-Naglowaa_se.gif Tagaziel (call!) 16:10, November 10, 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, yeah. Daggerfall was bigger, but much less detailed, and it was literally impossible to play without several game-breaking bugs. The only thing I can think of that it had that Oblivion didn't was some attempted realism, like time limits on quests and such. However, all intended realism was crushed by not only all the glitches, but the ridiculous dungeon design and oversized towns, etc. You can basically do the same things in Oblivion as you could in Daggerfall, but now you can actually DO them, plus it's much simpler. But it doesn't matter which game has more features, it matters that Oblivion has may less glitches than Daggerfall. So, what I originally intended to say was "They are getting better, let's hope they make a game without many glitches." Sorry for the rant. --Toast 16:32, November 10, 2009 (UTC)

Bethesda just didnt have the time and money to make a different wall for every freakin room in the entire game. The gray interiors are supposed to loke post-apocalyptic while saving time, money, and space.



And LlamaDM, you really dont get it do you? Its a desert due to the two hours of continuous nuking that took place. Most buildings wouldnt survive that, except in the densest areas of the city, and thats exactly what its like. And the piles of rubble arent necessarily "convenient", they are what would inevitably hapen if a dense city was hit by multiple nukes. And them forcing you to use metro stations make the game seem even bigger than it already is. Oh, and the reason you cant enter every single building in the game is because THERE ARE ALOT OF ****ING BUILDINGS! Do you know how much time, money, and space (as i mentioned earlier) that would take up? And what game actually lets you enter every single building? Plus, why would you want to? They allow you to enter any building that has any significant value to it. Not to mention that alot of the doors are probably jammed by caved in rocks. I think the only point you made that even partially makes sense is the transportation. It would be nice to have i vehicle in the game, but you should be glad they even put in fast travelling. And either way, it wouldnt be convenient because of the massive amount of rocks, boulders, debris, etc that litter the map. You're car/bike would stop every 2 seconds after hitting an obstacle. And as for the shininess of which you speak, its probably just your TV because i dont see what you're talking about. Or maybe my TV is the reason i dont see it. If it really is there its probably because your character has spent his/her entire life in a vault with artificial lighting and the sunlight reflecting off of the object is irritating the characters sensitive eyes and they are causing the light to appear brighter or something along those lines. Or maybe its a mirrage caused by the tremendous heat being trapped by the radiation clouds overhead.
 * Arcanum got pretty close IMO...

I completely agree with XG33Kx. To me, he is one of the few people who are actually making sense on this page

Sorry for the counter-rant... Goyoshkatraz 01:18, June 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * Goyo, do you actually think these rants through before you post them? The problem is that there is a single scenery set used for every non-factory building in the game; a single factory set; a single sewer set and so on and so forth. Even military bases (such as National Guard Depot or Fort Constantine) use the "ruined office building" tile set. The problem is with the lack of variety. Did you play Morrowind? Such an old game had far more variety in scenery than the supposedly more modern, recent Fallout 3. Off the top of my head, it had Imperial cities and forts, old Dunmer fortresses, Telvanni tree houses, Hlaalu sandstone architecture, Redoran organic, subterranean dwellings, Dwemer fortresses, Ashlander villages, Vivec etc. Each had an unique style and appearance, without actually having too many unique elements - many were reused, but their reuse was not as apparent as in Fallout 3.
 * Really, if a military base looks the same inside as an office building somewhere else in DC, then there's something seriously wrong. Bethesda had a large variety of styles to choose from and went for the generic, endlessly repetitive scenery set. I expected, for instance, the VaultTec HQ to have at least something in common with the aesthetic of its exterior. But inside, it's just another Generic Office Building (tm). Underworld along with Megaton and Paradise Falls are about the only locations where the scenery sets are used in an interesting way and make it unique. Hell, even the Citadel didn't have unique interior art.
 * Next, do you have any idea about how nuclear weapons work at all? If the DC area was nuked continuously, there'd be a barren, flat landscape in place of Washington - nothing survives repeated nuking. Oh yeah, and there's no "two hours of cotinuous nuking". Yes, the war lasted two hours, but that's measured from the launch of the first bomb to the explosion of the last. No "continuous nuking" happened, as it's simply impossible.
 * And yes, entering every single building SHOULD be possible. This is 2009 and that's exactly what I expect from games in this day and age.http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/fallout/images/0/08/Personal_Sig_Image.gif Tagaziel (call!) 08:48, June 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * Well then your expectations are too high. I'd like to see you name a game that allows you to enter every building.
 * Well then your expectations are too high. I'd like to see you name a game that allows you to enter every building.
 * Well then your expectations are too high. I'd like to see you name a game that allows you to enter every building.


 * I've never played Morrowind, but i have played Oblivion. And Oblivion had WAY more issues than Fallout 3. Oblivion had pretty much the same five voice actors for all characters in the game, and sometimes the characters would swtch voices in mid-dialogue. For example, you could be talking to a poor old woman and half way through the conversation she would no longer sound old but she would sound like a younger charater with a completely different voice. And there was not one child character in the whole game. Not to mention that the graphics were horrible.


 * The reason the scenery is so dull is to set the tone. They didnt want to make the interiors all colorful and cheerful because thats not what the game's about. I really dont think scenery is that big of an issue to make Fallout 3 a bad game.


 * And about the continuous nuking, allow me to quote the Great War article on this site.

"The Great War started (and ended) on October 23, 2077 when nuclear weapons were launched by all the nuclear-capable nations of the world (mainly the United States, China and the USSR ). The exchange lasted for approximately two hours, according to most survivors' accounts. Once the last atomic bomb and nuclear warhead had fallen, the world fell into the deep darkness of a nuclear holocaust.

"Some major global cities were not completely destroyed by the explosions because of their relatively low explosive yields, and cities such as Washington, DC even managed to maintain intact buildings despite relatively close detonations. However, most city streets across the post-nuclear United States were and continue to be blocked with rubble from collapsing edifices. In the ruins of Washington, DC much of the city's Metro system of subways remained intact. Though many Metro tunnels were blocked by collapsed masonry caused by the shock of the atomic explosions, the Metro's tunnel network remains the easiest way to move around the D.C. ruins.

"Around a week after the initial nuclear explosions, rain started to fall, however none of it was drinkable. The rain was black; tainted with soot, ash, radioactive elements produced by the nuclear explosions and various other contaminants produced by nuclear weapons. This rain marked the start of the terrible fallout that marked the true, permanent destruction caused by the Great War. The rain lasted four long days, killing thousands of species that had survived the initial destruction of the bombs, be they animal, plant or micro-organisms. Those few living things, human, animal or plant, that survived after the rain ended were left to live in the now barren Wastelands that had spread across the Earth, where nearly all pre-War plant life had died from the intense radiation produced by the fallout."

So there definitely were ALOT of nukes and the reason Washington wasn't completely destroyed was because they didnt hit it directly, but they were close enough to damage it severely. The contaminated rain probably also had a part in the erosion of the city. Goyoshkatraz 17:30, June 17, 2010 (UTC)

You have to take it all with a grain of salt. Since it is a game. D.C. is such a major target in real life. Probably have at least 50 nukes pointed at it right now, i really don't think there would be much of anything left if a real nuclear war rang out. Same with New York, Los Angeles, etc. The devistation would be pretty complete. There certianly wouldnt be anything left of the actual White house or capitol building. As to all the talk about interiors, and little to no ability to enter buildings, It is what it is. Tey only have so much room to put things in, they do the best they can with what they have. Its not like a game designer doesnt want everything he can possibly fit into a game in it. He is restricted to time, space, money. His bosses are telling him to get that out by such and such day. "Well heck, what can i cut out". Its the same in movies. how many times have you watched a deleted scene and wonder why they took that out? Time contraints force cuts. The Lone Kobold 18:16, June 17, 2010 (UTC)

As far as textures, you can download a lot of different photo-quality textures for major areas of FO3, including the outside/wasteland area. You can download them at varying resolutions. Get them here. Of course, if you've got a console, too bad for you. Unless you're into that whole Xbox modding deal. Nuka Kulcha 14:34, June 18, 2010 (UTC)

@The Lone Kobold, well, the White house is just a big, irradieted hole, around 6-7 rads per sec. There are about 2 glowing ones in that hole either, and a Fat Man. About the interiors, you're right, the only reson there is no colourfull interiors is because of money and time to do then and because well, I don't think my wallpaper will survive more then 100 years, iven more 200 nuked irradieted years, if you get what I mean.... And my friend. L.A. is destroyed... There are no building in there, every single building ruined in walls and, metal structures all over the hot desert sand. All of the West Coast is like that, a big desert, with buildings ruined like that, if you played FO1 and FO2 you would know. I'm actually surprised that they made the D.C. area so full of intact buildings. Oddii02 06:28, July 10, 2010 (UTC)