Informal Fallout 3 FAQ

This page is under construction, for now check the Official Fallout 3 FAQ, TheVault Fallout 3 FAQ and NMA’s Fallout 3 FAQ.

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What platforms will it be released for?

Playstation 3, PC (XP and Vista), XBox360, which is the preferred platform for development.

What is the engine behind Fallout 3?

Gamebryo, an evolution of what was used in TeS: Oblivion.

What is the release date?

Fall 2008

ESRB/Maturity Level?

Too soon to tell, probably Mature.

Will the game be ported from consoles to PC or vice versa?

The development will take place in all three systems at once, with the XBox360 being the preferred platform for development (again).

Will modding tools be available?

A final decision about that still hasn’t been taken, we’ll have to wait.

Will there be any downloadable content?

Nothing about that is decided or was announced yet.

Will there be a Mac or Linux version?

Bethesda is open to talk to third parties in order to see the game ported to alternative operating systems, but there’s nothing going on right now that hints of a Mac or Linux version. Bethesda won’t port the game by themselves to other OSs.

Who is developing Fallout 3?

Bethesda Softworks, creators of the Elder Scrolls series.

Is the SPECIAL system used in the game?

Yes, but with changes to skills, traits and perks. On attributes you’ll get 35 points to create your character, and they seem to be the same as the previous games:

Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck.

What are the skills in Fallout 3?

We have to wait on that.

What about perks and traits?

We have to wait on that.

Is there a level cap?

Yes, twenty is the level cap.

Any known actors/actresses to provide voice overs?

Ron Perlman is returning as the voice in the intro (at least that’s what is known by now) and Liam Neeson will make the voice of the Father, an important NPC.

Is the combat turn-based or real-time?

Real time, you can pause in some situations to make called shots using the V.A.T.S. mechanic.

What is V.A.T.S.?

Oh boy, this sounds really complicated, so I’ll let Todd Howard, the Executive Producer of the game, do most of the talking:

“[...] Press a button and it stops time, you queue up shots on body parts using AP, and then press the “go” button and it executes the moves. The playback is done cinematically, sometimes it’s fast, sometimes it’s slower – depending on if something cool happens.”

“VATS is meant to be used with real-time, it’s not one or the other – they should feel like they go together. I don’t want the fans confused that this is turn-based, because it’s not. It’s a glorified aimed-shot mode, and a pretty glorious one at that. You’ll be able to use it a lot, but not constantly, because it is the most effective way to kill things. And that’s how we define it usually, it’s the most effective and entertaining way of killing something[...]“

It has two moments:

Effect or Gameplay moment:

“One, you can enter VATS, whenever you want, you just may not have enough AP do take any shots yet, or enough AP to do as many shots as you’d like. The AP needed to do a shot is based on the weapon’s rate of fire; pistols can get more shots off in VATS than a hunting rifle. The camera zooms in on the target from your eyes, as VATS does a scan of the target, and you get a percentage chance to hit each body part.

This accomplishes two things: 1) it just looks really cool, we even use the “combat-turn” sound from Fallout 1 here, and 2) the scan actually is detecting how much of the body part you can see to get us a good hit percentage. That hit-chance is based on how much of the body part you can see, the distance, your skill, the weapon itself, and a base body part chance we set per body part. That last thing, the base chance, is needed for us to jack up or down the hit-chance for game balance, so even if the head is X size compared to the chest, we can adjust it.”

Entertainment or Playback moment:

“Based on what is going to happen with what you chose, we select a number of camera angles and various playback shots to show you, the playback is only a few seconds. They are always pretty quick, the longer playbacks are rare, and we’re the first ones to get annoyed if something repeats itself too much as we’re playing the game.

We have a VATS camera section of the editor where we make cameras and can setup almost anything we want, such as a special camera that tracks a bullet in slow motion that shoots a gun out of someone’s hand, but only if they are using a specific pistol and only on a certain enemy. Pretty much anything we want to do; we can setup quick, so expect lots of various camera shots. One of things to know about the playback is it’s not a “replay”, it’s the actual game time moving forward, so what you see is really what is happening right now.

The selected cameras control how fast various things move, so most of the time, you, the player, are animating in real-time, the enemy you are shooting at is moving at one-tenth speed, and the rest of the world is paused, or updating slowly. We found just playing everything at the same speed doesn’t feel or look good at all, we had to separate the three out; you, the enemy, and the rest of the world.”

Also take notice of:

“[...]While you are watching an enemy react to getting shot in this great camera angle, your character can be getting mauled by another enemy. Really frustrating early on as we played it, so we do two things now: 1) depending on the camera chosen we essentially pause the rest of the world, and 2) we have a setting that dramatically reduces the damage the player takes during such an occurrence.”

Are the attacks in real time combat affected by your skills?

Todd Howard again:

“[...]in real-time the bullets just go-where-they-go, based on your skill, the gun, and some randomness. We don’t calculate a hit-chance and roll dice against it. In VATS, we calculate a hit-chance and roll dice.”

What weapons will we see?

We’ll have a Laser Rifle, a MiniGun, a Plasma Pistol, a Chinese Assault Rifle (resembling the AK-47, but a bit different), grenades, weapons that you can patch up with salvaged parts (a toaster that fires explosives, etc.), a rare nuke launcher that causes atomic mushroom blasts, called the Fatman, and many more.

How about melee and hand-to-hand combat?

You can use both, and even use V.A.T.S. with melee combat, but not much is known how they function in the game. It’s something still in development.

How long is the main quest? How much gameplay time before the game ends?

The main quest will take more or less twenty hours to complete. With side quests and exploration the game can take another twenty hours on top of that.

How does the game starts?What is the main quest?

Will there be any returning characters from previous games?

Where is the game set?

Are Fallout Tactics and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel treated as canon for this game?

No.

Why are there Super Mutants on the East Coast?

Is the Brotherhood of Steel going to be in Fallout 3?

What is the Behemoth?

Will the Enclave appear in Fallout 3?

What’s the humor like in Fallout 3?

Can you ride in a car or other vehicles in Fallout 3?

No, cars are spread in the scenery but you can’t use them to travel, they don’t work. They can explode though, resulting in a nuclear mushroom and some rad contamination.

Will there be fast travel? And random encounters?

In the classic Fallout games you would get hints of places that would show up on the world map. In Fallout 3 that won’t happen, so you’ll have to explore on foot until you find a new zone, that will show up on the map.

With this in mind there will be fast travel, and they have one designer working exclusively on random encounters. How all of this will operate is still being worked.

Is there a Karma / Reputation system?

Will the game be good?