Emil Pagiarulo on quest structures & NPCs in Fallout 3

[Brother None]

There's been little news on Fallout 3 lately, and this isn't really news either, but nonetheless, Emil Pagiarulo posted on the official Bethesda forums to comment on quest structures & NPCs:<blockquote>The fact that you know who the traitor is and can't do anything about it, well -- I think that's a totally valid criticism of the Dark Brotherhood. The factions in Oblivion are linear by nature; that was changed up a bit in Shivering Isles, but in the main game, not so much. It's really just the way the game is structured. There's so much content in Oblivion, and that content takes so long to create, we really didn't have the resources to do divergent plotlines or branching factions.

Fallout uses is a different quest structure entirely. Most quests have multiple paths, and are much less straightforward. Depending on the quest, you may be able to do one thing instead of the other, play two NPCs against each other, betray your questgiver. Etc. etc.

In Fallout 3, we're also making a much greater effort to handle the player killing NPCs, and there are very few unkillable characters. In keeping with the tone of "you do something, you have to live with the consequences," if you decide to pull a gun on a questgiver and blow his head off, well... that was clearly your decision. So we'll let you do it. And if a quest fails because of that, so be. So long as we give you feedback that you've screwed yourself, we're fine with that.</blockquote>Link: thread on BGSF.

Thanks 13pm.

 

[Morbus]

Most quests have multiple paths?! Wow! That's so good to hear. Most of them will have multiple paths! I just pray that some will have multiple consequences too

Ass...

 

[radnan]

i fancy the ideea of situations rather then quests

like the junktown situation
the master situation
the vault-city / gecko situation

they may not be the best examples but thing is quests arise from the two sides interacting with each other ... the player isnt neccesarily the solution giver but rather the one to tip the balance ... ok so they werent perfect in fallout but they were above the rest

he's right oblivions quests were totally linear and one sided and didnt interact with each other ... every faction lived in a bubble with its own private "problems"

 

[ivpiter]

The factions in Oblivion are linear by nature; that was changed up a bit in Shivering Isles, but in the main game, not so much.

"A bit" being the opritive phrase.

I wonder many many quest paths will be axed because it's being fully Voiced.

Illiterate and shallow.

 

[Morbus]

i fancy the ideea of situations rather then quests

Yeah, me too. But we're talking about Bethesda, remember. That's not something they would fix from the original fallouts... Because that was a bad thing about fallout (Fallout has quests, not situations) and they wouldn't dare change a bad thing would they?

 

[Nim82]

Nice to see him absorbing flak on Oblivion, their usual tactic is to deflect it. I like Emil, he seems to be the most credible of the bunch.

I can vouch for Shivering Isles being an improvement over Oblivion, in respect to factions/quests. But it's still quite a bit short of what Morrowind accomplished (which in itself isn't saying that much).

Not sure on his argument as to why Obliv had no factional interactions. MW had a lot more unique content, had a smaller dev team, was on a (then) new engine, yet they managed to pull it off...

 

[Salkinius]

And I believe Emil was a huge influential part of the creation of Shivering Isles. Shivering Isles is very different from the main game. The difference is that it's better. The characters are more versatile and has better voice actors, the quest are better and more interesting. But the choices to be made in Shivering Isles are still pretty basic. join what or what faction, kill that or that lord and so on. Still when comparing the non existent choices to be made in the main game it's a huge difference.

And if Emil can do even better now, Fallout may as well turn out pretty good when it comes this area. But it still might not.

 

[Crowfoot]

It seems that Emil is probably the best of a bad bunch, but when the Bethsoft people talk about branching dialogue, multiple quest solutions and moral ambiguity, things that are essential to the original Fallout experience, they use phrases like "We'll let you" and "We've decided to". It sounds like they are granting a generous concession to the fans who, apparently, should be grateful. Irritating.

 

[The Duke]

(sigh), You guys are not really buying this shit right? Remember that the same thing was said countless of times about oblivion before release ( "dozens of ways to finish a quest, with different results and yada yada" I do believe there wasn't a single fucking quest in oblivion that wasn't linear). These people are liars.

It's also kind of sad to know that they are only learning how to sell and hype this game for the fanbase now. It's kind of a big notice about Bethesda modus operandi .

I expect the worse until I play the game and (hopefully, but unlikely) be pleasantly surprised. Pleasantly "shocked" would be the right term actually ...

 

[Black]

Non-linear? Freedom? Is that what bethesda dpes well?

 

[Mungrul]

Re: Emil Pagiarulo on quest structures & NPCs in Fallout

And if a quest fails because of that, so be. So long as we give you feedback that you've screwed yourself, we're fine with that.

This bit really worries me.
It stinks of Morrowind, where sure, you could kill important NPCs, but if you did so, you couldn't complete the game.
I still think that they're not really getting it.

 

[SGTcane]

Re: Emil Pagiarulo on quest structures & NPCs in Fallout

there are very few unkillable characters.

Are there any? And if so why the hell? And how will it be treated? Question questions questions...

 

[FeelTheRads]

It stinks of Morrowind, where sure, you could kill important NPCs, but if you did so, you couldn't complete the game.

I think he was talking about side-quests, not the main quest, because otherwise I really don't see the point of unkillable characters.
So what you'll probably have is messages poping up everytime you kill even the least important quest-giver, because obviously the player is too stupid to realize for himself that if you hill him the quest then fails.

I still think that they're not really getting it.

They never will. And thus, in Fallout 3 you'll always know what you did wrong, everything will be laid out to you and you'll be hand-walked, because otherwise you'd be distracted from the real fun, that of blowing-up mutants.

Good times await Fallout. Good times.

 

[Paladin Solo]

because otherwise you'd be distracted from the real fun, that of blowing-up mutants.

I thought the real fun would be drinking unevaporated, dirty toilet water and irradiating everything around you by nukapulting your environment with new-age, revolutionary, done-the-way-the-original-designers-would've-wanted-it technology?

 

[Jidai Geki]

In Fallout 3, we're also making a much greater effort to handle the player killing NPCs, and there are very few unkillable characters.

Meh. Why are there any unkillable characters?

 

[Karel]

So, to accomplish "Bring me ten rat, ehm, mutated rat tails" quest, you can kill the rats or buy the tails conveniently at a local shop?

 

[Brother None]

Re: Emil Pagiarulo on quest structures & NPCs in Fallout

And if a quest fails because of that, so be. So long as we give you feedback that you've screwed yourself, we're fine with that.

This bit really worries me.

Yip, that's one of the most worrying parts. I want to be able to screw myself if I make a bad call because hey, that's life. I don't need Emil and Todd holding my hand through the game.

 

[Bernard Bumner]

Re: Emil Pagiarulo on quest structures & NPCs in Fallout

Yip, that's one of the most worrying parts. I want to be able to screw myself if I make a bad call because hey, that's life. I don't need Emil and Todd holding my hand through the game.

Perhaps, and hopefully, he just means that there will be consequences, rather than just a broken quest?

 

[Meh]

"You've made non-preferred action, do you want to load previous save?"

Spoken of course, because text (and judging things by yourself) isn't next gen enough.

 

[generalissimofurioso]

"You've made non-preferred action, do you want to load previous save?"

Spoken of course, because text (and judging things by yourself) isn't next gen enough.

But you can be sure that the person saying those things will be rendered in 1080i high definition graphics with so much bloom you'd think that the sun was located in your nose!