The Community Questions have been chosen, and posted on the Bethesda Games Fallout 3 Forum, here’s the message from Blintzler:
Well, got a thumbsup from GStaff and so I post the questions here for a first impression. Just stay civil when complaining, ok?
Community FAQ – (20 questions)
=COMBAT=
1. Is unarmed combat in? If so, is it lethal or does it knockout your opponent? [Waterchip]2. Is combat playable in the zoomed out third person (“almost iso”) perspective and how will VATS work from it, meaning – will it zoom into FP or something else? [kaos]
3. For what else can we use AP`s while in VATS and what is the “cost” of such things in RT? Some time consuming animation perhaps? Example: if taking stimpacks or using inventory in VATS will cost AP`s – then what will it cost in RT? Beside that what else besides shooting can you pull off in VATS and how do you balance those things with their real time counterparts? [MrHappy1991]
4. Because so many of us still don’t understand, could you describe V.A.T.S. in painstaking detail? No really, please! [Waterchip]
=NPCS=
5. And another question. Will party members be deep and interesting characters, with their own unique personalities and desires? Maybe even secret agendas? Or will they just be henchmen who do your bidding? [Calgone]=SPECIAL=
6. What skills will be in the game? And why the lower than usual stats in the Pip Boy screenshots? [Ausir]7. Are all the old traits and perks returning? Are certain perks adapted for the new combat system and how so? [anonymous]
8. The stealing (and getting caught) system? Does it differ from Oblivions system? [kaos]
=INTERFACE=
9. Will you have the written descriptions of items or just the visual? Granted, the visuals work just fine for me, but I loved the descriptions from the earlier fallouts about how nasty the bed looks or whatever. Will there be something like our beloved text box anywhere in the main HUD? [anonymous]=FACTION=
10. What sort of factions & faction action/interaction/conflict/reputation can we expect? [MrHappy1991]=A.I.=
11. What is being done to improve the AI as seen in Oblivion – wall staring, oblivious to people being killed around them, Guards knowing when a character does something unlawful half a map away etc.? [anonymous]=MATURE CONTENT=
12. Will we see anything similar to the sexual encounters possible in both of the earlier Fallout games? The first 2 games had all of that but they kept their ratings by fading out (as did Fable). There was one quest in F2 where you could loose a bet and end up as a Super mutant’s toy for the night (you got to keep the ball gag as a gift). Can we expect that kind of adult content? [anonymous]13. Will Fallout 3 maintain the same amount of drug content as the earlier games or will we see more or less? [thenightgaunt]
=CHOICES & CONSEQUENCES=
14. You have talked a lot about choices and consequences in the quest design. Are you aiming for immediate feedback, or long term (and possibly unforeseeable) consequences? In addition to moral choices, will different characters be able to tackle tasks using their different skill sets? [GhanBuriG]14. In Fallout 1 and 2, it was entirely possible to say the wrong thing or make a mistake and have no way of fixing it. Unless you used a walkthrough, every player experienced the game differently. Will Fallout 3 be like this? Or will it be more like Oblivion where you could do almost everything in the game with one character and one play through? [El_Smacko]
=QUESTS & STORY=
16. Will the structure of the Main Quest be more like Oblivion, where you had to perform a series of tasks in the right order to progress, or more like the originals where most of the progress you’d do consisted in gathering information, which was not a pre-requisite in order to end the game? (Thomas Stehle)17. It’s been said that the game world in Fallout 3 is smaller than that of Oblivion’s. How does it compare with the number of quests you can persue, or the amount of things you can do? [anonymous]
18. A developer (possibly Howard, Pagliarulo or Carter) has stated that they are trying to ensure that each quest has at least two ways to complete it. Does this mean that there are two different outcomes to each quest, or simply that there are two different ways to complete the quest with the same outcome either way? [Lingwei]
=DIALOGUE=
19. Please outline in detail and give an example of an actual or hypothetical FO3 conversation: Dialogue options, what influences them, length of PC lines and NPC replies, what is the effect on the game. [GhanBuriGhan]
=CREATURES=
20. How much do you plan to stick with the Universe of the original series from the point of view of living creatures? Will you have mutated ghouls and FEV-treated supermutants portrayed as living “persons” with needs, or will there simply be “ghoul-villain” and “Supermutant-enemy” who will only engage in combat? [anonymous]5 extra questions: (hoping somebody has a good day)
=NPCS=
1. Will there be NPCs that you can hire/recruit to join you in your quest? If so, how many NPCs will you be limited to at once and approx. how many joinable NPCs will be available in the game? Also, will there be more detailed behavioral settings as in Fallout 2? [Nukem354]=QUESTS & STORY=
2. Is there going to be any character type specific quests other types of characters will not have at all or will all the quests be open to any type of character? (kaos)3. Who has written the main story, or is it a group effort? Are you not afraid that introducing a father figure limits the freedom to imagine your avatar and imposes motivation on the player that may not be in keeping with the avatar he imagines? [GhanBuriGhan]
=MAP TRAVEL & SPECIAL ENCOUNTERS=
4. What exactly will the map travel look like – will we see ‘Indiana Jones’ style dotted line travel across a stylized map or something like Oblivion fast travel and will there be a quest compass that we can turn off and how will the random/special encounters work? [Blinzler]=ENDING=
5. How will the endings work out? Will the 9-12 different endings be like Fallout’s ending slides, or will it be a Daggerfall-esque, whoever gets the MacGuffin at the very end triggers what ending? (Frank Horrigan)
Thanks to Ausir for the tip, the answers will hopefully come in soon.
Fallout 3: A Post Nuclear Blog 
I am wondering one thing. If somebody spends his skill points into whatever is necessary for VATS to work, isn’t he losing in comparison to someone who isn’t? If somebody aims very well, does he need to use VATS, and thus spend his skill points there? If he doesn’t, then he can use those points elsewhere. Now, depending on how many firearms (maybe other combat skills as well) skills there are, he won’t have to invest points there. Given how usually in Fallout you’ll try to be a “master” of a few skills, this means that you’ll be able to master at least one (or more) skills. Wouldn’t that be bad balancing?
By the way, the Super mutant bet, is that the one in Broken Hills? Because I honestly don’t remember that incident, despite having played the game quite a few times.
I know now, that I won’t be too pleased on the answer to these questions.
I like the questions, droveri, but I think I understand what you mean. While I was reading the questions I was thinking something like this: “Bethesda is gonna be in a bad situation when this questions get answered.” I don’t know, though, it wouldn’t surprise me if they’d lie when answering, looking at what they did in the past… But those are some very good questions, I think…