StrategyCore has posted an interview with Emil Pagliarulo with questions provided by NMA. Highlights: "What it comes down to is that we're all Fallout fans. We love the
original games. (But) not every Fallout fan wants a turn-based
isometric game." Emil Pagliarulo, Lead Designer, Fallout 3
(...)
SC: So what happens when your character levels? You choose the skills you want to boost?
EP: Yeah, when you level you get skill points, and the number of skill
points you get are based on your intelligence. So you can put those
toward your skills and the primary tag skills get more points added
when you level up.
(...)
Other interviewer: Do you run into instances where NPCs are fighting?
SC: Or random encounters?
EP: We love to do that and we have good tools to do it. We didn't do
this in Oblivion, but for the first time we actually have a designer
completely dedicated to free-form encounters out in the wasteland.
You'll definitely encounter people fighting rad scorpions and other
creatures out in the wasteland. It's definitely a single character
game, but there are companions that you take. Your companions are based
on your karma, so there's a sunset of companions that are good guys,
evil guys or neutral. But you need to find those guys, take them with
you, and watch the interaction between those characters.
(...)
SC: Are there going to be a lot of new weapons? The FatMan (essentially
a nuclear hand grenade launcher) in the presentation is new, but what
other new weapons will there be?
EP: There are a lot of weapons. I was surprised looking at our weapon
list and seeing how many we had. There are the Fallout weapon skills:
big guns, small guns, energy weapons, melee, unarmed which are all
fully exploited, so we have weapons for them all. We also have a series
of custom made weapons that you can construct if you find a schematic
and the right junk in the wasteland. So yes, there are quite a few
weapons.
(...)
SC: No shots to the eyes?
EP: No, and I'll tell you why. We talked about that, we prototyped it,
and when you play the game and see it in such high def, when you shoot
someone in the eyes you expect the head to blow up anyway. Shooting
someone in the head has the same effect. If you get a critical on them
they get dazed and stuff.
SC: It doesn't look like you could finish the game without killing a lot of people.
EP: Not entirely true. It depends on the quest. You saw all the speech
options and dialog in the demo. As far as dialog options go, that's
just the tip of the iceberg. The amount of interaction through dialog
is three times what we had in Oblivion. There's a really strong stealth
component. There are a lot of paths through the quests and some are
non-violent. That said, you can't wander off into the wasteland and
expect to live.
SC: Can a character dodge?
EP: That is part of the real time engine. You can definitely move to take cover behind stuff and duck down.
(...)
SC: Are there any new mutant animals?
EP: New mutant animals. Let's see. We're still going through our creature list. I don't want to say what they are, but yes.
Other interviewer: What kind of creatures are in the game?
EP: All of the Fallout classics are back. There's a full line of
robots: you saw the Protectron in the presentation (a
Robby-the-Robot-type robot that was in the Metro Subway), Mr. Handy,
Robobrain and Sentrybot. Right before E3 the rad scorpion just went in
fully animated. There's also the classic deathclaw. There are lots of
creatures are in the game.
SC: So is the DC Brotherhood of Steel the same Brotherhood of Steel that was on the West Coast? Is it nationwide?
EP: You’re the only person that asked me that question. I'm surprised
that no one else has. Let me just say that its come up a lot that "How
did the Super Mutants and the Brotherhood of Steel get on the East
Coast?". We answer those questions in the game and there's a reason why
they're there. They are somehow connected to the other Brotherhood of
Steel but we cover those bases within the game.
(...)
Other interviewer: Is there a centralized storyline or is it completely free branching?
EP: There is definitely a storyline. We use the character's dad as a
device: Dad leaves the Vault, you follow him. But why did he leave?
What was he up to? And all that ties into the players’ relationship
with the Capitol wasteland and are those people worth saving.
Read the whole thing here.
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