Ideas for Fallout 4

[Stoneface]

Ok, so I got bored of Skyrim and decided to re-play Fallout New Vegas (I prefer the lore and combat of Fallout)and a thought struck me that if Bethesda has a consistent launch schedule then the next Fallout game might be out by next year.

So...with that in mind what do people think is likely to be in the next game? And what would they like to see in it? Personally I both think and want Chicago to be the next setting for the game. Its been name dropped a couple of times now in both Fallout 3 and New Vegas, that's why I think it will be. But I'd actually like it to be the setting because large ruined urban areas compliment the atmosphere of Fallout so well. New Vegas was a great game, but the setting lacked the atmosphere of 3. I mean honestly whats the difference between a pre-apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic desert? Not much. Fallout 3 however had Washington, which allowed to player to see how the Americana soaked grandeur, greed and arrogance of the Old World had been brought low. Atmospherically it was great, an hopefully setting a squeal in a similarly large city might recreate that.

I'd also like to see more primitive societies than in New Vegas, small tribes and groups clinging to survival is another big part of Fallout, the further along the timeline we get, and more sophisticated cultures like the NCR get, the further away from this desperate, apoca-punk world we get too.

So those are my thoughts and ideas, but what about you guys? What would you like to see in Fallout 4? More Enclave? More powerful Brotherhood? Shoot away...

 

[Vanitas likes Bubbles]

They should add more survival elements and more varied environments.

Oh yeah and they should also add a crossbow.... nuff said.

Edit: I also forgot to add that I wanna see the Enclave again...... dat power suit.

 

[Kordie]

I would like to see either a step backwards in the timeline, or a more remote setting.

Dealing with raiders and bandits more, small societies in need of help. More of the quirky random factions than sticking to the two big teams. Loved the comet chasing ghouls in new vegas, but that game was too focused on NCR or Ceaser.

Two big influence aspect I would like to see are first, more local reputation affects. If I slaughter everyone in a town, the next town shouldn't know it was me. Similarly if a raider group ambushes me, I shouldn't become hostile to them all over the world.

And on that note, I would love if they could somehow give the factions areas of influence affected by my actions. Back in New Vegas, in primm you could make a new sheriff that affected... nothing. If the NCR are in charge, I should see them hanging around. If the Powder gangers take over, they should be gambling there. It's like in the original where you'd get a recap of how each town was affected by your actions at the end, but its already starting down that route in game.

A few vehicles would be nice, hell you got a car up and running in the second game (first? its been a while) Provided they arent rampent, and make fuel a concern.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Wait, did you just say New Vegas lacked "greed and arrogance"?

...okay, ignoring that and moving on.

Personally, I would prefer the timeline to continue moving forward.

More post-post-apocalyptic re-building of civilisation, less beggars crawling around in the mud wondering what "agriculture" is.

More focus on society, politics, factions and highly influential people.

Basically...I want Obsidian to make it.
[sub][sub][sub][sub]A guy can dream/[/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[Tadman]

Some kind of conquest mode or something similar. You could conquer a town and then rule it. Build new buildings, command the people to be your army and use them to conquer other settlements. It's kind of out of place for a Fallout game, but I'd love it either way.

 

[Kordie]

Some random thoughts on character origin... I think it would be interesting to see multiple origin stories. As part of the character creation, you can pick where you are from, and give the game multiple starting points. Doesn't need anything too complex...

Heres the situation, a vault group went out to study the local area. While working, a raider group ambushes them, and chases them to a nearby town. The town, while normally holding a semblence of peace with the raiders gets drawn into the conflict. Meanwhile an outsider from far north wanders into town.

With that situation your character can now start the game in the same area, but taking the role of a vault dweller, a raider, a local from town, or the wanderer. tutorial quests will be sorting out the situation described, and after that drop hints of a larger plot. I'd start with a focus more on survival at first before getting too heavy into things.

Man I love those games... I think I'll have to do some reinstalling this weekend.

 

[Don Savik]

As long as it stays in America. Now, I know what people are thinking "oh but wouldn't post apocalyptic ______ be cool?" YES but not in the Falloutverse. Fallout relies on its old 1950s nuclear age Americana style for its main aesthetics, and without that.....its just another post apocalyptic game. Personally I think Fallout, like Skyrim, could benefit from some long-term persistence. While clearing out caves for loot is fun, there really isnt a point to it. Money? For what? All the best weapons are found in secret locations and I buy like 4 upgrades for my house and I'm done. I want a long-term goal that keeps me going back to the game.

Also a better character creator so I don't have to spend hours and hours making a semi-decent looking character.

Also vehicles. It could benefit from some vehicles or larger scale equipment.

 

[Kordie]

What would I like to see? A Fallout game set in Louisiana. Fallout: New Orleans, or something like that. The setting has everything you would need to make a new Fallout game that has enough of the old games to be recognisable, but enough new stuff to actually feel original and fresh.

That is great for all the ideas you just said.

I'd love to see a change of scenery, but couldn't think of anything that fit that well... My ideas gravitated towards Fallout: Canada (no raiders, everyones polite, the vault has a broken beer chip)

 

[ChupathingyX]

SNIP

I'll second having the next Fallout game set in the Gulf Commonwealth (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida).

We don't know much about it, it's far from both California and Washington and it would provide new environments plus new factions.

 

[FilipJPhry]

This is done dozens of times on every other forum I went to. Here are common ideas:

Next location possibilities: New England Commonwealth, Southern California, England, China, Toronto(remember in The Pitt where they mention 'Ronto'?) and Detroit.

Next vault-leaving crisis: get exiled, water chip/GECK, monsters invade, Enclave remnants/NCR/Brotherhood kicking your crew out and now you have to fend for yourselves, and finally the Vault has reached it's destination time and it was time to let you guys out.

Enemies: More cazadores, dammit! Frank Horrigan makes a comeback, Floaters, and somehow the Master survived(Someone theorized that his consciousness went on to the computer he was attached to). Smart Deathclaws could return.

 

[Stoneface]

ChupathingyX, I wasn't saying New Vegas lacked greed and arrogance, your right its packed with it. I was saying that the Mojave as a setting wasn't the best setting to display the kind of Americana high culture of the Old World. Also personally I think Vegas is tacky as hell... which detracted from the awesomeness factor a little.

A southern Louisiana setting might be interesting, although for the same reasons that its refreshing it might not fit into the Fallout 'theme'. If they do do it I hope its not like Point Lookout, that DLC wasn't great...literally someone at Bethesda watched Deliverance and decided to make a 10 hour DLC out of it.

As for adding bigger and bigger social groups...from a purely technical point I donno...as you can see from Skyrim, where an entire kingdom can be populated by only a 1000 or so people, trying to involve too a big a group just cant/or hasn't been pulled off convincingly by Bethesda.

I too would like to see Obsidian make more...their writing is much MUCH better.

 

[ChupathingyX]

ChupathingyX, I wasn't saying New Vegas lacked greed and arrogance, your right its packed with it. I was saying that the Mojave as a setting wasn't the best setting to display the kind of Americana high culture of the Old World. Also personally I think Vegas is tacky as hell... which detracted from the awesomeness factor a little.

Vegas and Hoover Dam both presented power and resources, and with that came House, the NCR and Caesar - three factions which clinged to old world beliefs and values to obtain what they wanted.

I'd say it was a good choice to show the "old world" values, especially when you consider that resources was a big factor in the Great War.

A southern Louisiana setting might be interesting, although for the same reasons that its refreshing it might not fit into the Fallout 'theme'. If they do do it I hope its not like Point Lookout, that DLC wasn't great...literally someone at Bethesda watched Deliverance and decided to make a 10 hour DLC out of it.

For me, the theme of Fallout is civilisation and society, which is entirely possible in the Gulf Commonwealth. We don't know pretty much anything about that region so the developer could create any faction they want considering the NCR or Legion influence doesn't stretch and neither do any of the east coast factions.

As for adding bigger and bigger social groups...from a purely technical point I donno...as you can see from Skyrim, where an entire kingdom can be population by only a 1000 or so people, trying to involve too a big a group just cant/or hasn't been pulled off convincingly by Bethesda.

I didn't say "bigger", I just said more "focus".

I meant that I would like it if the story focused more on the effects that the war had on society, civilisation and how people are trying to rebuild. The war reset the clock back and now it's anyone's game to set it back to where it was by any means.

What interests me the most are those "means", and the effects which stem from them. You can still have an interesting faction without NCR size and numbers, especially considering that, like you said, from a technical standpoint Bethesda's engines aren't good at showing lots of people in big situations.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Really create a whole new engine from scratch...one that works.
Then hire some testers. Then hire some extra testers for the PS3 version.
Based on my experience, that's the only advise they really need.

But also when comparing the maps: Fallout 3 felt more organic and realistic while New Vegas felt a bit contrived and cluttered.

 

[endtherapture]

A weapon modding system lik enchantment in Skyrim - you find things like scopes and attachments etc. and can combine them together with duct tape to create cool new weapons.

 

[endtherapture]

As long as it stays in America. Now, I know what people are thinking "oh but wouldn't post apocalyptic ______ be cool?" YES but not in the Falloutverse. Fallout relies on its old 1950s nuclear age Americana style for its main aesthetics, and without that.....its just another post apocalyptic game.

The formula needs to be kept fresh.

50s British pop culture is equally as iconic and cool as American one - so I think something set in London would be great.

If Fallout keeps visiting American 50s culture it will just be stale and boring - it's already started to become stale and boring I think.

The next game could just feel like a reskin of 3 or New Vegas.

 

[Terminate421]

Here is a big bomb of an idea that would work.

Set. it. in. Atlanta.

A-town, the heart of the world, the big city, heart of the south. There are no rednecks here and there is plenty of space. Also, we may see the effects of Fallout 3's water purifier down here.

EDIT: Not to rain on people's parades but the spirit of Fallout has been set in America. It HAS to stay that way. From the lore, its pretty much stated that everywhere else is gone. If Bethesda wrote a london based game they'd have to say "They had their own version of Vault-tec" and then people would hate them for writing that and then we'd have another Fallout game.

 

[geK0]

-New engine.
-Larger, more dynamic settlements (somewhere between the size of Megaton and New Vegas).
-Split-screen multi-player co-op mode (I think it would be fun, please don't rage at me)
-More weapon customization
-Larger landscape, perhaps with multiple major cities like San Andreas had.
-Scale enemy levels by region rather than by the player's level! It annoys me how the entire world levels up with me, I mean, why ever level up if I never actually need to get stronger to beat something?
-Improved VATS system

and most importantly, do some actual play testing to iron out those bugs! Do not release the game until you have had testers play through the game ten times consecutively without encountering a major glitch!

As far as the setting goes, I'm pretty indifferent; maybe Toronto?