Eurogamer interviews Todd Howard

Eurogamer: You've been working on something secret now for two years... Is it fair to say then that it's based on existing technology?

Todd Howard: The technology is ours and it is inspired by the technology we have. We have a lot of it. But that's our starting point - the Fallout 3 tech.
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god damnit guys.
 
It's weird though because from the look of the Inside the Vault interviews, they recruited a lot of people since Oblivion. Both dev teams were rather different so they didn't keep the engine just because the team was used to it.

So...do they really love working with an outdated engine ?

It's not as if they were broke either. They could afford to pay for licences for a new engine...

And it's not as if they didn't have Id Tech 5 either...

I'm not even a graphics whore, but when your engine brings limitations to how your design translates ingame, then there is a problem. It's either that or they have terrible artists.
 
Blackened said:
Hehe - he's flirting with us. Intentional or not.

About the Fallout game set outside USA - wasn't everything except USA dead and "under the boiling ocean of radiation", or something?
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No.
 
Quote from Fallout 2 intro:
"Continents were swallowed in flames and fell beneath the boiling oceans." (3:20)

It says "continents", not "all continents", or "all other continents" - then I guess I'm wrong. Hmm, I always thought it's only America that was left.
 
Fallout 3 has people from Europe, and there have been quotes by Fallout 1/2 devs too stating that the rest of the world is likely in a similar shape to the US.
 
Yes, that would be great if they came up with a story that starts out in Europe and you go to the US, or vice versa. Like, REAL exploration, as opposed to a couple square miles of identical terrain. I can deal with the current engine, they can make upgrades to it, but I hope they get a new, better one.
 
What *I* really don't understand is why every developer has to learn first-hand that people don't like level caps. We learned it in the MUD days, and then we learned it in MMOs, and we've learned it in countless RPG type games. So now the nth developer has to learn it... again.

I understand that they're not the end of the world--I've only hit a level cap once, but there's something psychologically wrong with having an arbitrary limit... better to have exponentially growing XP requirements where it's practically impossible to reach a certain level, but not *technically*. It's all in the head.

But I guess my point is... don't these developers play games? Oh, right, I guess some of them don't.
 
Brother None said:
Which still hurts my brain.
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The Fallout universe is due for a new age of discovery. Sailing the radioactive waves, hunting giant radioactive seamonsters, contracting all form of exotic venereal disease from radioactive prostitutes in the caribbean. Maybe let the African continent have a crack at global hegemony. Could certainly make for entertaining exploration of themes...

Alabama Free State? They're already halfway there.
 
See it from the good side: Bethesda doesn't go back in time, only forwards. This means, the next Fallout game will be even further forward in time.


Oh wait, that's not a good side... :>
 
It's a good thing Bioware did all the difficult design work on futuristic RPG worlds for them. Bethy might have been utterly directionless on Fallout 5 without the Mass Effect games.
 
LionXavier said:
Summing up, Bethesda's games target to an even wider audience than GTA does, so when Bethesda talks about the will to make games for the "core gamers", I would take your quote: "Thus officially confirming that Bethesda targets the lowest common denominator" and modify it into: "Thus officially confirming that Bethesda doesn't lack hypocrisy."
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I'd say that Bethesda targets their core audience/gamers with their games (the ones they make, not publish) but for the companies that they buy... I'm reading the quote (in it's entirety) again and upon rereading it I again feel that he's talking about what genres the average (core in a manner of speaking) gamer prefers.

Eurogamer: You mentioned earlier that for a game to come to Bethesda it needs to be a certain fit. What would you say the philosophy of a Bethesda game is?

Todd Howard: Phew! That's a good question. We know it when we see it. I know for the internal studio, but in general if it's going to be on the label it is going to hit the action-adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, it's got something cool about it.

Doing a game for the core gamer, it's going to be in those kind of genres.
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Core in this use doesn't say hardcore to me, it says center or average. Either that or he's talking about what Bethesda's core gamer wants (which would be hardcore), which I'd say is dead on (not sure about the cool part with TES). You still think he means hardcore BN?

On a side note, why does hardcore need to be shortened?

TheSHEEEP said:
Without a level cap, everything will be fine and the player won't have any unfair difficulties as long as he keeps levelling up and if he levels more than the assumed average player, he will have an easier time. Which is exactly what he wanted, or else he wouldn't have leveled up so much in the first place.
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Bullshit, you assume that the only way that a player can level up more than the average player is by intent and one has to make assumptions about the number of side quests done by the average player. I don't like the end of a game to be a cakewalk when I do 100% completion runs (the advantage of post game content that is clearly intended as such).

MrBumble said:
It's weird though because from the look of the Inside the Vault interviews, they recruited a lot of people since Oblivion. Both dev teams were rather different so they didn't keep the engine just because the team was used to it.

So...do they really love working with an outdated engine ?
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Todd seems to be in love with it so it's possible that it's an executive decision with the rationale of something along the lines of, "It worked well for us in the past." It's also possible that they get a good price on the license. It certainly requires less work with setting up the engine to do another TES or Fallout 3 like game but with the adaptations from TES to Fallout 3, I'm not sure that they saved much, if any, work over using a new engine.

MrBumble said:
I'm not even a graphics whore, but when your engine brings limitations to how your design translates ingame, then there is a problem. It's either that or they have terrible artists.
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I'd say that they probably don't have the best artists (certainly not the best animators) and whoever optimizes their code for graphics isn't very good at it.

tekhedd said:
What *I* really don't understand is why every developer has to learn first-hand that people don't like level caps. We learned it in the MUD days, and then we learned it in MMOs, and we've learned it in countless RPG type games. So now the nth developer has to learn it... again.
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I'm with Lexx, it's all about balance and I'm all for it when it improves that. Let's face it, most RPG systems aren't designed for unlimited levels, they generally break at one point or another, sometimes catastrophically. By putting in a level cap (at the appropriate level) you can ensure that the player won't break the game or ruin his or her experience. I really don't undestand the complaint. Single player games usually have an end so why is it a big deal that they have another cap (which is usually beyond what you reach in normal gameplay)? You can design systems so that they don't have a level cap and/or have a cap which is practically unreachable (PnP ex: Alternity, MMO ex: EVE Online) but they play very differently.
 
Todd Howard said:
How other characters behave and look on the screen is the next thing people need to do better.
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False. What people NEED to do better is go back to their basic roots and re-learn old lessons they forgot about how important character development, pacing, and general design from a concept phase are to a game.

You know why there is the phrase 'the book was better'? Because people have more vivid imaginations than movies can show, plus it allows the player to be an active participant in the 'immersion' factor of the game. When things are left to the imagination, you are forced to think about it, and it allows people to create the own experiences and ideas.

I'm sure if each of us came out and drew a picture of what WE think Ian looked like up close, or sounded like, we'd all have different ideas.
 
Lexx said:
See it from the good side: Bethesda doesn't go back in time, only forwards. This means, the next Fallout game will be even further forward in time.


Oh wait, that's not a good side... :>
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So by Fallout 10 we'll be able to conquer new planets. And the wasteland will be rebuilt into a civilization. So all Fallouty that's left will be the gameplay... Oh, wait.
 
Blackened said:
So by Fallout 10 we'll be able to conquer new planets. And the wasteland will be rebuilt into a civilization. So all Fallouty that's left will be the gameplay... Oh, wait.
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Dont worry, around FO6 the nukes will drop again and there will be a new wasteland, more awesome than eva! cause war, war never changes...
 
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