User talk:Deep Hurting

(09/05/11)
I prefer to think of the setting of the Fallout universe to be closely associated with that of classic spaghetti Westerns, and there are many successful parallels that can be drawn between the two. Both are set in a lawless wasteland, deadly and largely uninhabitable, depopulated and - though superficially - of course, both are set in the desert. "Bah! What a dumb thing to say", you might be thinking, but for anyone who has spent time in the Western United States and experienced the vastness and the beauty of the landscape there, I think this is essential to Fallout's setting. As foreboding a place as the wasteland may be, it is also full of pre-war spoils and riches, artifacts of a world gone-mad, and substantial wealth for those brave enough to look for it. More possible parallels: the NCR and other factions like the Shi may be seen to represent structured civilization making foray into the anarchy of the Wasteland. Gold-prospecting, railroad-building, cattle-herding, and other industries drew substantial numbers of people representing corporations and governments West who would face similar harshness (well, minus super mutants of course) in the pursuit of striking it rich, or expanding some power-base.

I think that a movie (or a fan-made series for that matter *cough*) set in the universe of Fallout would work best if it adopted these kinds of "ye-olde-West" motifs, and indeed, Fallout: New Vegas is already tantamount to their successful implementation. We have bandits (Fiends), Indians (Tribals), lost treasure (Dead Money, Vault 34), and lots and lots of hats! The Courier's tale of revenge has already been harped upon countless times within the genre and a list of Westerns dealing with "the dish that is best served cold" would probably be too numerous to list here.

As an aside, there are a great number of fans who are drawn towards the lure of Fallout's post apocalyptic landscape. You don't have to be very culturally savvy to recognize that nowadays Hollywood is obsessed with end-of-the-world disaster films, and it seems that more and more games are falling under this "post-apocalyptic" category as well. I guess you could say that it's trendy. It would be wise to remember that it has been generations and hundreds of years since the Great War and that this absolutely should not be seen to define the Fallout universe. The fact that it was nuclear war is only a detail; as we are reminded again and again by Ron Perlman, war never changes - human conflict is unending and perpetual, and I suppose this is part of Fallout's message: we are an inherently violent and bloodthirsty species.

(09/09/11)
Fallout: New Vegas could have been.

I would like to draw attention to what I believe are some of its critical shortcomings - why, when I travel out into the Mojave (or when I used to) I am disappointed instead of being immersed in the game-world: poor, lazy, and amateurish level design and a blatant disregard for visuals. These are not superficial. It would be an understatement to say that the Gamebyro engine is showing its age, and the developers at Obsidian seem inexperienced and unfamiliar with FPS level design, much less Bethesda's game engine.Where was the quality control? There is no excuse for this, not even limited development time. What is the rational in creating something that looks like...*ahem* shit at the onset of the development process, expecting that you would have made it better with enough time later on? Pfft, I think not. There are obvious mistakes like the mismatched color of the distance fog and the night-skybox; The overly bright nights; Mis-aligned textures and jarring breaks between the landscape and static meshes (rocks); Vast, virtually empty areas, and the wonderful decision to restrict player movement in a sandbox-game through invisible blocking volumes. Color overlays do not look good in any circumstance. That low-resolution, tiling cloud texture you see overhead might have come from something released before the 21st century (seriously).

There is obvious repetition of assets like unnecessarily long chain link fences and walls, both outside and inside (I never thought I would feel agoraphobic inside of a building) which break the 3rd wall and remind the player that you're moving around in a virtual world that someone threw together in the GECK. I am being harsh, and for good reason. There are few commendable environments within New Vegas, but this hardly matters when the majority of your time is spent gazing upon...crap.

It's such a shame, too because the Mojave is truly a beautiful environment to explore in real life. I want to feel the heat and the dryness and the sun...New Vegas just fails to deliver this. I wouldn't be so critical if I didn't care so much.

(10/07/11)
The Fallout universe suffers from an extremely inconsistent chronology. It's simply completely unconvincing that so much time has passed since the war and yet the world - as Obsidian has envisioned it (not to mention Bethesda)- looks the way it does. Divergence aside, The Fallout world should look more ruined than destroyed. This is an important distinction! A stylistic approach common to virtually all the static-mesh resources for Gamebyro is to add "wear and tear" by taking out a few bricks, roughing up edges, bending or collapsing structures or putting holes in things - just to name a few examples of this. All this of course is consistent with the catastrophe of the great war and is necessary, but what is lacking in appearance of the game world is the deep sense of time - over 200 years worth - to allow the evidence of catastrophe to erode and settle. Examples of this might be allowing plant life to reclaim structures (much as it does after a very short amount of time); making sure that no metal actually shines but is in fact completely rusted away or full of holes and very, very corroded (the same goes for glass); reducing the number of standing buildings to where it's actually impressive to behold the last vestiges of the old world where they can be found. Some of Craig Mullins's concept art achieves this. I believe that Fallout 1 and 2 were more aware of this "time" issue than their later 3D counterparts as well (remember being able to explore abandoned cities in Fallout 1 that were literally just a few standing walls, the rest having been reclaimed by the wasteland?) It should really be the case that the term "prospecting" in NV be more akin to doing archaeology than opportunistically looting as if the war were yesterday.

10/13/11)
Dead Money is an excellent DLC. If this is an example of what Obsidian can achieve with enough development time, then major kudos. The elements of FPS map design, gameplay, graphics and story which all detracted in some way from New Vegas are completely synergistic in Dead Money.


 * Environment: The Villa and the Casino are appropriately sized, even claustrophobic at times. The modular appearance of the villa is tedious, but it doesn't break the 3rd wall. We know the Villa was "constructed like cardboard" so it's repetitious design feeds into this idea. The progression of the story follows the player's movement from one location to the next. There are temporary hubs around which the story and the action centers (1st the fountain and then the Casino lobby). Always, the Sierra Madre hotel is visible in the distance, goading you on.


 * Graphics:There is lighting! Both inside and out! Finally! Best examples of this are the Tampico Theatre and the casino vault. Gamebyro may be aging, but it really shines when you provide contrast and color via lightsources and not just opt for a shitty, brown-looking color overlay over everything. The toxic cloud reminded me of the industrial smog from The Pitt. Very atmospheric.


 * Gameplay: If you're clever, there are more rewarding ways to increase the difficulty of the game by adding environmental hazards and having these interact with each other and with the player in challenging ways rather than just increasing enemies's hit points. Not only do you have to down ghost people, you have to make sure to dismember them (a la Dead Space). Hiding the location of radio transmitters which make your head explode makes for some challenging and fun situations: it may be that you have to move very quickly through an area in order to escape the proximity of such a radio; it may be that area is populated with ghost people or toxic gas. Maybe the radio itself is shielded, and the only way to disable it is across the room where holograms patrol. This all requires a new investment from the player to think critically about how to overcome the challenge, treating it as a series of obstacles. This is infinitely more rewarding than just shooting something until it's dead.

(10/18/11)
Not all of us are as well versed in science - its implementation, what it actually means to understand something scientifically - as others. Scientific literacy within the United States has fallen dramatically compared to other rising nations like China, India, Korea and others (mostly in Asia...weird). It would be wonderful to enter a debate where members could espouse their views of what science is and come to a general consensus as to how one should interpret it and how one should understand it (hopefully as close to the real thing as possible!)*

A simple breakdown:


 * The natural world;


 * Our understanding of the natural world through science; natural, immutable law;


 * Sub-disciplines of science, of our understanding:


 * Physics, Biology, Gastronomy, Cognitive Neuro-psychology, lepidopterology...the list goes on!

These distinctions that we create within any one of these sub-disciplines - (something)ology - are meaningful only in so far as much as it is helpful towards broadening and furthering our understanding of the natural world. Because let's face it. There's a lot to know, and no single person could ever hope to be exposed to, much less understand everything there is in a single lifetime. 10 lifetimes. 100. More?

To illustrate this idea, consider: There is no life and non-life in the natural world that we do not care to define ourselves. It is helpful to us that we create the distinction between living and non-living things in order to better focus, collect, and direct knowledge towards understanding this component of the natural world (of which we consider ourselves to be part and is very important to us indeed).

The laws that we define within science are approximations of the natural world arrived at through application of the scientific method. It is the method which gives credence to scientific truth and non-truth. There are no laws floating around waiting to be discovered by some nobel-laurete to be. (The controversy surrounding some of these outlandish ideas in modern physics stems from the absence of observation to confirm/deny them. String theory makes no predictions and is therefore beyond scientific understanding in a strict sense!!!)

Science is a wonderfully, self-correcting system. Our understanding is always changing because it is not the scientific truths or non-truths that matter but the method by which they are derived. Know this: nothing can be proven in a scientific sense, only supported by scientific evidence very robustly. If tomorrow our observation changes, than so must our understanding.

I want to thank you immensely if you're reading this, and please share your ideas or trash my own if you want to. I love this stuff.

* If there is anything so definitive without using the scientific method itself!

Fallout Places, New Reno
Hey man, your doing a really good job with the entrance to Dor-ado? I think its called, sorry I've never played Fallout 1 and 2, but I had seen videos and know the plot somewhat. I have seen a lot of people attempt to make places from the original fallouts converted into newer fallouts such as 3 and New Vegas, but even just the entrance you made is very creative and 'ligit looking'. Hope your still working on it and post more pictures on your progress.

Thanks- HelmsCeeko


 * Hello my friend ;)


 * Your works with Fallout 2 stuff (New Reno sign, Desperado sign, Vault Dweller statue, Shady Sands) are just perfect and if a new Fallout games take place in the Core Region, I just want you for the 3D models! Itachou [~talk~] 14:26, September 6, 2011 (UTC)


 * A big thanks! :)

Your projects
Are you working on a FO2 TC? your art is looking great so far Dude101 12:03, September 9, 2011 (UTC)

Fallout 2 location images
The images you upload are of good quality, except they're a bit dark. I've lightened them for better visibility. Jspoel  18:08, September 9, 2011 (UTC)


 * I can only conclude that you have a horribly misplaced sense of aesthetics. I cannot understand your campaign to apply horrible contrast-stretches to existing Fallout 1 and 2 images any other way. Go and spread shit around the Wiki if you must.

Videos
Don't upload videos to this wiki. Instead use the youtube extension. Jspoel  03:09, September 10, 2011 (UTC)


 * Alright, thanks for letting me know.

Kiwi Bird
Hello, those photos you're uploading of fallout 2 in 3d are brilliant! Could you tell me more about your project? KiwiBird 16:09, September 11, 2011 (UTC)

Hey sorry I don't mod but I'm really interested in your project and I would love to be kept up to date with your new images. KiwiBird 16:44, September 13, 2011 (UTC)

Unsigned
Hey man, you're New Reno/FO2 stuff looks nice!

New Reno new image
Hi Deep Hurting ;)!

Cool stuff as always, I very like it! Some notifications if I can:
 * The sky is not really good, it sounds wrong on my opinion. I think the sky of FNV sounds perfect for the Core Region
 * The buildings have too shimmery colors, the buildings of New Reno are darker and sinister. Actually, it's the color of the city, the black, the color that transpires sin
 * The columns on the sides of the New Reno sign have a blue color

Anyway I think it's just a test for the arch so it is really good, and well sad in the same time, need to see the Core Region again ='(. Keep up the good works, can't wait for the next! Itachou [~talk~] 22:37, October 4, 2011 (UTC)


 * - I agree about the color schema. Part of what gives that "classic" feel of the place and many of the locations in FO2 is the darker color palette. New Vegas of course just looks brown. I haven't made any alterations to the sky or the atmosphere.


 * Another component of the environment that I think is crucial is the "boxed-in" feeling you get passing in between towering buildings and through alleyways. It should feel close and dangerous. It is taking a considerable amount of time but I think real progress is being made. Thanks for your comments!

Mirelurk kings
Mirelurk kings were stated to have evolved separately from mirelurks; they're evolved snapping turtles. Nitty Tok. 22:34, October 17, 2011 (UTC)


 * ...I guess I'll find the source myself. Thanks?

Chatban
I'm afraid that I have to ban you in retrospect through a consensus of admins for trolling, which you admitted to doing yourself:

19:59, October 18, 2011 (UTC)


 * Please do me the courtesy of showing where I was trolling so that I don't repeat myself.

Rule #7 is "don't be a dicK."

That is ironic, considering that at no point did I stoop to use language or call another chat member names, or insult someone's intelligence though I suffered through all of this myself.


 * I am sorry, I got the number wrong. It was in fact number six that regards 'trolling'. I must admit that it was in fact a general point of view that you had been trolling, apparently admitting so yourself at one point, and that you had done it to wind others up. I just gave out the template. A talk to Scar may be of more use to you. TheGuardianCalligraphy.pngGuardianoftheWastesTag.png


 * "...apparently admitting so yourself at one point"? How could I possibly defend myself against such an accusation "General point of view"? This is awfully one-sided. Thanks, I will take it up with Scar.
 * Why be polite on my page to me, then be derogatory on your own so that I stumble on it, rather than being up front. That seems a bit rude to me, and I'd have actually taken less offense if you had said that on my page... TheGuardianCalligraphy.pngGuardianoftheWastesTag.png 20:37, October 20, 2011 (UTC)


 * I've unbanned you. TheGuardianCalligraphy.pngGuardianoftheWastesTag.png 16:26, October 21, 2011 (UTC)