Age? Sweet sixteen...

F

FeelTheRads

Vault Senior Citizen
I hope this wasn't discussed before...
So, I was thinking about how will it be if the age of the PC had an effect in the game world. In FO1 and FO2 it didn't had any whatsoever.

I don't see why it wouldn't fit the Fallout's universe (but then again I won't claim I know everything about it either) and it could add more options and make the game more replayable (some quests you can't do if you're too young or too old, people would treat you differently based on your age etc.)
 
As long as it's not another anime style "juvenile saves the world and has wild romances with various juvenile girls" story as a result of it, I don't see any reason not to have age-based responses.
 
The age system in Darklands is interesting. By selecting additional professions at the creation screen, you make your character older. Advanced age inflicts penalties upon basic attributes. Also, since the time in the game is limited, the character reaches retirement age sooner and you must replace him (*sniff*). That system would never work in Fallout or Fallout 2, though.
 
I would imagine younger characters having a harder time being taken seriously by older characters and vice versa. That could become a bonus/detriment for a Charisma boy/girl.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller

P.S.

Great suggestion!
 
I think it'd be interesting if every few years of age would give the character some additional skill points at the cost of an attribute point, to reflect the idea that the character is more experienced while detoriating physically.
 
As long as it didn't become to much of a big thing, Age effects would be goood.
If it started dominating gameplay though it'd be a shame
 
Claw said:
I think it'd be interesting if every few years of age would give the character some additional skill points at the cost of an attribute point, to reflect the idea that the character is more experienced while detoriating physically.
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You'd have to balance it out... one of the guys I used to play D&D with discussed the extreme "brokenness" of the aging rules... basically you lose some Strength and Constitution and keep gaining Wisdom and Intelligence. Again, the SPECIAL system trades stat points on too high an exchange rate to do so (Unlike D&D, where stats go from 1-50+). Thus if we see age doing anything to the character sheet, it should be affecting skills only. A few points out of physical skills like Hand-to-hand combat and such, and a few into speech, science, and other "thinking man's" skills.

The Vault Dweller's idea is more viable in my never-to-be-humble opinion. Applying a negative or positive modifier based on who you're interacting with is a much better idea. Thus it is set up locally and doesn't affect your character. Some people are dicks who don't like old people/youth/middle age, whatever, and some are accepting of all. The same should be said for gender. A big butch bulldyker (forgive for stereotype please) wouldn't take as kindly to a man as another man might, but again this allows for more unique characters to pepper the gameworld.
 
Claw said:
I think it'd be interesting if every few years of age would give the character some additional skill points at the cost of an attribute point, to reflect the idea that the character is more experienced while detoriating physically.
Click to expand...

I agree there. For example one the character hits 50ish, his/her resistances would go down 15% or something like that. But the problem is that they'd have to make the game last over a long time period to make that work. It took me a little less than 2 years of in-game time to beat each of the first two games. Not much changes about an adult's body in two years. Sure, if you purposely pick a twelve year old you can go through puberty, but that would be totally rediculouse in so many ways that it's not worth the effort to make it an option.

My girlfriend loves the Sims, and ocasionally I've played it to see what the fuss is about. In that game, the character creation system allows you to choose if your 'sim' is a child, teen, adult, or elderly person. What if we applied this to the Fallout character creation? We could say that there'd be certain benifits and drawbacks to each "age class". Example: Teens have a bonus to resistances but a slight reduction in skills, while adults have the opposite. Also, just for fun, it would effect your character's appearance: having a different character model for male/female teens, adults, and old folks. You could also build into this differences in NCP relations and even having different quests availible to different age classes (example: most people would not hire a geriatric to be a prostotute, or a teenager to be a school teacher, etc).

If they wanted they could make age have a real serious roll. I kinda doubt they will, since more likely than not they'll either keep Fallout's existing character system or just tone it down (god forbid) rather than putting so much effort into changing the game system around. But hey, maybe someone is looking for a fun Mod idea?
 
Well, I wasn't talking about changing the character creation system, I was talking about age just affecting quests and the reaction of other people towards you.

Honestly, I don't like the idea of getting skill bonuses and such based on your age. Maybe in other games, not in Fallout.
 
I should have been a little more clear that I didn't imagine the character creation system being changed all that much, other than that whatever age you selected would automatically put you in a specific 'age class', thus there would automatically be slight differences in the numbers on the screen. Sure, maybe having skill bonuses and that sort of thing based on age might be taking it too far, but it's just an idea of how they could work age in as a vialid factor in gameplay.
 
Yay for being able to play The Vault Toddler.

I wonder how long it'll take IPLY to read this and negotiate a license deal with EA for The Sims: Fallout Edition.
 
Asbestos, I like your idea. Age should have minor effect to gameplay, so they should add some minor sidequests and some minor dialogue changes to the game, and different character models for different character age group.
Also aging should not be too fast, like one in Fable.
 
i don't necessarily think that age should play a large role in the ongoing sag that is fallout3. it would take over what the character needs to be doing and you would sit there at your pc thinking about what u need to do before u turn 30.......

it would be an awesome thing to have if implemented correctly. i do believe that it would too "the sims" like, or to a fable extent where u age 10 years in 10 mins (or there abouts)....

anyhoo, ages need to be somewhat in play but not a defining trait to get through the game
 
InTheOnlineAsbestosSuit said:
For example one the character hits 50ish, his/her resistances would go down 15% or something like that.
Click to expand...
Maybe, the DR penalty is a little too harsh, but a penalty to the regeneration rate would be more reasonable. And the ageing could be implemented in the traveling speed on the world map(cause you have to hunt, find a shelters...), the normal char should be able to complete the quests in 10 years, not longer , and to balance this the game would give the elderly(>50..70 years) bonuses to the outdoorsmanship and other skill bonuses, but they couldn't go to the far reach places like the glow(there wouldn't be anything critical down there)...
And of course it's a good idea to have more discrimination on the bases of age, or would Metzgar had sexs with 70 years old granny
But hey, maybe someone is looking for a fun Mod idea?
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Yeah.
 
The trick sould be to figure out a way to do it so that age has enough of an impact to be noticable during gameplay and not enough to be a major factor that gets too complicated. It's doable, but the fact that we've all got so many different ideas about it just goes to show that it'd be tough to work it out properly, and that must be why they never really adressed it in the first two games.

But I think the minor changes in quests and ncp interaction etc is the bare minimum. Plus, it always bugged me that when I would set my character's age at 16 he'd still look 6 feet tall...
 
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