Fallout 3 dev diary: level design

Level design is absolutely one of this game's strongest points. But I guess that depends on what you look for in level design. It's much more logical and more importantly interesting. It's nothing like Oblivion's cave after cave oh a ruin! after cave.

And yes, Easter Eggs are certainly present, but like Fallout 1 you may not encounter many in one play through. I don't think judging this based on one sitting like some reviews have done is quite fair.
 
I like the concept art very much. I always thought what was the pre-War world like and honestly, it turned out pretty much the same as I imagined it would.

betamonkey said:
Level design is absolutely one of this game's strongest points. But I guess that depends on what you look for in level design. It's much more logical and more importantly interesting.
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I think that's more because the world is designed after real life Washington than anything else. That's the main reason it's more logical and interesting than some imagined place.
 
Bethesda was never good at level design. Anyone remembers Balmora? Vivec had an interesting idea, by was so so bad to travel in -_- You got used to it, but still.

But this is an area where they can always surprise. Unlike role-play and all that.
 
I thought Morrowind's level design was pretty good. The environments were pretty good and I liked how a lot of cities were laid out. Oblivion got too cliché and had all this Tolkien stuff and Hell. But FO3's level designing looks good. I like how it looks so far. Megaton looks pretty cool to me in terms of appearance.
 
Oblivion's environmental graphics were good and pretty, but that's not the same as level design: boring-ass dungeon upon dungeon, or the ridiculously small Cyrodil? That's pretty bad level design.
 
Brother None said:
Oblivion's environmental graphics were good and pretty, but that's not the same as level design: boring-ass dungeon upon dungeon, or the ridiculously small Cyrodil? That's pretty bad level design.
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Exactly and that's part of what concerns me about Beth whenever they talk about level design, they focus almost entirely on the aesthetics and talk very little about the layout.
 
Layout is not what they do best.

Whenever I hear BS, I think their primary concern is looks, then the "rest of the stuff".
 
how many developers do prefer to talk about level layout and logics instead of aesthetics though? and how many gamers actually want to hear about that? besides, they have mentioned a few things about layout - how you can enter an area from different directions for example. and everything regarding size of the world, travel system, dungeon design etc are all tied in with layout, right? now that I think about it, we've heard plenty. what more is there to tell exactly?
 
Re: yeah

GarfunkeL said:
There's nothing wrong with fast travel. Except if it is totally safe fast travel, ie no encounters.
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Personally, I think it would've worked just fine if they'd implemented a system much more like the overhead map of Fallout 1/2: A tiny (plus-shaped) representation of your character walking across the Wastes, with time passing.

I don't like fast travel on principle in a game world like the Fallout series because it detracts from the idea that things are spread out, even if they're only relatively spread out compared to how they were before the War.

So, if Bethsoft had/has implemented fast travel where time does go by when you travel (like when you join the caravans in FO1/2) AND if there were the chance of a random encounter- whether violent or not- I will be happy. But somehow I doubt either of these aspects are in.
 
So, if Bethsoft had/has implemented fast travel where time does go by when you travel (like when you join the caravans in FO1/2) AND if there were the chance of a random encounter- whether violent or not- I will be happy. But somehow I doubt either of these aspects are in.
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They're not.
 
aenemic said:
how many developers do prefer to talk about level layout and logics instead of aesthetics though? and how many gamers actually want to hear about that? besides, they have mentioned a few things about layout - how you can enter an area from different directions for example. and everything regarding size of the world, travel system, dungeon design etc are all tied in with layout, right? now that I think about it, we've heard plenty. what more is there to tell exactly?
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Oh they've mentioned a few things about layout but not much. Really it sounds like they spent all of their time making sure that areas didn't look repetitive even when they are and making tunnels for transitions between different areas of the game (the latter isn't true from what I've seen). They didn't talk about setting up areas to ambush the player , provide cover, or anything really interesting and extraordinary (like the mind fuck vault). It was mostly shit I'd expect to hear from the artists (which is good, not enough other stuff), not the people designing the layout of the game.
 
Re: yeah

Moving Target said:
So, if Bethsoft had/has implemented fast travel where time does go by when you travel (like when you join the caravans in FO1/2) AND if there were the chance of a random encounter- whether violent or not- I will be happy. But somehow I doubt either of these aspects are in.
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Time passes. Same as Oblivion. There is no dotted line. You instantly teleport to your destination, but their is a passage of time. I don't know how it's calculated though. And no, no random encounters using fast travel.
 
Moving Target said:
Ausir said:
They're not.
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Knew it. Feared it. Just one more notch, know what I mean....
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nice how you ignore one answer and pick the other one.

I'm willing to bet that time passes when you fast travel.
 
I ignored the other one because I don't trust betamonkey. Ausir has been a big part of the Fallout community for years, helped a LOT with the Fallout wiki, and has an NDA-ed insider at Bethsoft telling him what the game really is like. What's betamonkey got? Less, I'd assume. So, yes, I did ignore betamonkey. Is it really so unreasonable?
 
OK, maybe ime does pass in the in-game clock, but it's still effectively instant teleportation. And there are no caravan escort quests nor random encounters during fast travel.

and has an NDA-ed insider at Bethsoft telling him what the game really is like.
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Do I now? It's not really accurate. :)
 
Moving Target said:
I ignored the other one because I don't trust betamonkey. Ausir has been a big part of the Fallout community for years, helped a LOT with the Fallout wiki, and has an NDA-ed insider at Bethsoft telling him what the game really is like. What's betamonkey got? Less, I'd assume. So, yes, I did ignore betamonkey. Is it really so unreasonable?
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well, I'm pretty sure betamonkey has played the game. so there you have it.
 
Ausir said:
OK, maybe ime does pass in the in-game clock, but it's still effectively instant teleportation. And there are no caravan escort quests nor random encounters during fast travel.
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Ah. So it's actually one-half of what I was talking about that's in, and one half that's out. I think you misunderstood what I was saying. Still sucks that the random encounters are out. And it definitely would've been better to just keep the overhead map.

and has an NDA-ed insider at Bethsoft telling him what the game really is like.
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Do I now? It's not really accurate. :)
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Oh. I thought you had an employee feeding you info or hints or something. Or are you just yanking my chain here?
 
Oh. I thought you had an employee feeding you info or hints or something. Or are you just yanking my chain here?
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No, I'm the "employee" you're thinking about. I was on the Polish Fallout 3 translation team. Still, I'm not disclosing any information I got from translating the game until the release.
 
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