Forum:Notable Loot - Fallout 4 Preparation

Hello, fellow Vault Dwellers, and welcome to this discussion. Today, I am here to discuss with all of you a proposal, in how we should deal with notable loot with the upcoming Fallout 4 game in November. In the past, our existing notable loot policies have played an important role on our wiki, as junk items such as tin cans and empty Nuka Cola bottles, are not that notable, and would clutter our pages if our editors added every single one of their locations within our article-space. That is not why I am here today - I still feel that these existing policies are important, and should not be drastically changed.

However, from everything we have seen in the trailers, demos, and in interviews with Todd Howard, it has been revealed to all of us that scavenging for components will be a huge deal in Fallout 4, as everything from the glass in lamps, to the screws in Giddyup Buttercups will be able to be utilized in the creations of weapons, modifications, and even in the construction of homes/towns. This means that just about everything in Fallout 4, theoretically will have some purpose, instead of the game having a bunch of useless junk items to be shot out of a Rock-It Launcher.

Because of this, even the most mundane of items, will be important to someone looking for an easy way to scavenge certain components. So this forum, today, will be a discussion as to whether or not new policies will be warranted, specifically for loot in Fallout 4 (separate from our other notable loot policies), and how to write said new policies out should it be decided that their addition is warranted on our wiki. I will conclude this opening forum proposition with my own idea(s), and afterwards I will open this forum for further discussion and alternatives.

Notable loot policy - Fallout 4


 * 1) Containers, within reason, should be noted upon every location article. For instance, at the Super Duper Mart, there might be a total of 8 crates found in a back-room. There will be an independent article for these crates, and the article will list a confirmed randomized loot table. That way, we can dedicate a section to our location articles, which will look a little like:

==Containers==


 * 8 small store crates can be discovered in a back-room at the Super Duper Mart


 * At the front of the store, at each of the 6 check-out lanes, the Sole Survivor can find a cash register.

Now, if there ends up being 50 different variations of containers in any given area, there will need to be limitations in-place to combat clutter. My suggestion, is to either limit containers lists at 5-8, with the most loot-worthy containers taking priority, or we go ahead and list them all, but have it where every time the article is loaded, a different 5-8 are shown - that way, all of the containers are still on the article, but on a cycled list.

The same goes for loot. There will, of course, be a section for notable loot with fixed locations, just as we do for the other Fallout games. But for Fallout 4 articles, I suggest having a common-loot table as well, with the same cycling list as I am proposing for any 'Container' section. If weapons/armour can be broken down for components, too, I am also suggesting that we note if an abundance of any weapon can be found at certain locations. Even if they are something as insignificant as a .32 pistol, if, say 18 of them can be found in a warehouse, that should be notable enough to write about.

Notable Loot Policy - See: here

Comments
Please let me know what you all think! I am certainly open to suggestions, and we will have plenty of time to figure this out before Fallout 4 comes around. Thanks for reading! GarouxBloodline 05:16, 26 July 2015 (UTC)

I think that our policies are fine, just our implementation is lacking. For example there is both a FO3 containers and storage and a FNV containers and storage. I think we need to compile a united Gamebryo (named like the FO3 & FNV miscellaneous world objects page, maybe) chart of containers. There is no real reason to keep them separate, in their merger we would gain valuable incite on how to move forward with the FO4 containers page.... and maybe the FO1 & 2 containers page.--Ant2242 (talk) 11:10, 26 July 2015 (UTC)


 * It is true, but it is not really a standard - so we might mention things like an Enclave storage crate, but we would not necessarily mention everything else. In Fallout 4, all containers are going to be pretty important, along with their randomized loot tables for reference.


 * The important one, is that with the component system, just about everything will be notable. But under our current policies, which I agree still need to exist separately for the games prior to Fallout 4, would disallow users from noting items such as tin cans or glasses. So I am thinking just a couple/few generic rules specific to Fallout 4 will help clear that up.


 * And as for a Gamebryo/Classics chart, and then adding in the Creation chart later for Fallout 4 containers, that is an excellent idea. Goes even further to help trim down clutter like I am hoping to do. GarouxBloodline 18:56, 26 July 2015 (UTC)
 * I wrote up a temporary chart on the FNV containers and storage page a while back. Also, excuse me if I'm wrong (as I cannot find the notable loot policy page), but isn't our current policy that common items are only notable if they are in sufficient quantity or abnormal sizes? If that's the case then I don't believe the FO4 notable loot would be too different, if at all.--Ant2242 (talk) 22:11, 26 July 2015 (UTC)


 * It is a help page, which is why it is a bit awkward to find. Anyways, no, it does not. There is a fragment section that was added that partially supports what I helped create over at Nukapedia in regards to an updated notability policy, but it was never discussed, and was left entirely unfinished and vague. GarouxBloodline 22:19, 26 July 2015 (UTC)
 * I officially put forth the motion to Immediately expand and elaborate this topic and once completed make this a policy!--Ant2242 (talk) 01:30, 27 July 2015 (UTC)


 * Tell you what: I typically know in advance when insomnia is going to hit me, and today I am definitely getting that feeling. I will go ahead and take my old NL policy notes and draft something up for consideration by tonight. I will not be able to get to it at this very moment, but I will make sure that there is something for everyone to critique come tomorrow morning. GarouxBloodline 01:37, 27 July 2015 (UTC)


 * My rough-draft has now been added to this discussion - feedback and/or critique is welcome, pending its eventual addition into our policies. GarouxBloodline 09:51, 27 July 2015 (UTC)
 * I love it.--Ant2242 (talk) 10:33, 27 July 2015 (UTC)


 * Any ideas for clean-up? I admit that I kind of threw together the Fallout 4 section (since we do not have much information to work off of), so I am sure that it can use some additional work even before the game is released. GarouxBloodline 10:37, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Only that we should have a section for Fallout 1, 2, and Tactics. The only thing that I can say for sure about what's currently on the page is that the Fallout 4 section is complete speculation at this point.--Ant2242 (talk) 10:55, 27 July 2015 (UTC)

Late to the party, but now I'm here. What if we have a Notable loot section that has a "Crafting components" subsection? That way we can list the unique weapon/rare collectible/exception amount of common item that everyone wants to know about, and have a separate list for people specifically looking for crafting components. Also, I oppose the rotating content tool for notable loot: rotating quotes that are mostly for article flavor is one thing, but hiding information about the game is a big no-no for me. Instead I propose we use something similar to what you can find on the Goodsprings article where we use Template:Expandable content. --Kastera (talk) 17:49, 10 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Ah! I was looking for that template, and I agree with its continued usage. Another section would work, but something that should be taken into consideration, is as to when enough becomes enough? I think we are still fine, for now, but in regards to notable loot, we already have sections for: notable loot, fixed loot, containers, and now the proposed addition of of crafting components.


 * So, we should consider: it is getting to the point, now, where loot has the potentiality to take up a majority of the sections on many of our articles. That is why I propose that we expand upon our containers section, to redirect our users to a directory that contains each container in Fallout 4, and the confirmed loot and spawn chances that each container offers.


 * When it comes to crafting components being out in the open, we can just continue to use fixed loot as a criteria. GarouxBloodline 18:00, 10 August 2015 (UTC)


 * If someone can find accurate information on container spawn rates, then that is a great idea. I'm all for that. But there are two problems I'm seeing at the moment: we have no idea 1) how much junk is lying around the Commonwealth, making it difficult to determine when enough is enough, and 2) if certain crafting components (like cloth, screws and wood) are more ubiquitous than others (like crystal, fiber optics, and nuclear material), which raises the question of which crafting components are notable enough to list.
 * For example: in Fallout 3, tin cans, turpentine, and Abraxo cleaner (notable for being components for Nuka grenades) are everywhere, but Nuka-Cola Quantum (also notable for being a component in Nuka grenades) is much more difficult to find. We don't normally list tin cans, turpentine or Abraxo cleaner in notable loot, so the same logic may apply to crafting components in Fallout 4. --Kastera (talk) 18:26, 10 August 2015 (UTC)


 * Quest-items, as well as crafting components for weapons/armour/food, I am under the impression we should treat the same as other games - there will be a distinguishable line as to which components are widely-available, and which are not.


 * But then we have the ability to build permanent landmarks onto the game. It does not matter how common or rare a component is, in regards to making a home or town: we will be needing a lot of each, guaranteed. So if a crafting component is confirmed to be used in this respect, then I believe it to be notable.


 * I am up for suggestions, though. We have a lot to take into careful consideration. GarouxBloodline 18:39, 10 August 2015 (UTC)