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    Fallout | Fallout: New Calfornia -- A Dev's Post-Mortem

    January 30, 2021

    Fallout | Fallout: New Calfornia -- A Dev's Post-Mortem

    Fallout: New Calfornia -- A Dev's Post-Mortem

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 08:08 PM PST

    So, hey wastelanders.

    It's been a while.

    I hope you are all still doing well out there in the Fallout. Been a little extra radioactive of late, and we're all kinda dodging the flames of another project each of us had a lot of hope for.

    This isn't meant to be a distraction from the very unfortunate and disappointing situation with The Frontier. We all know what's going on, and it's heartbreaking, infuriating, and sad all around. There were some unconscionably poor leadership choices made that led to the loss of something I think all of us had the highest hopes for. My heart goes out to those coders, voice actors, artists, and friends affected for the loss of dignity and years of hard work, and the betrayal of ethics and trust we placed in those who ultimately turned out to be the antithesis of the standards we should all hold ourselves to, not just as modders or devs, but as people.

    Our projects may not have been connected, but I know people who loved us both and feel this tragedy deeply.

    To the users, who found themselves burned and bummed out, I can only offer refuge in knowing the community sees the mistakes, and I hope other devs take a long hard look in the mirror at how they treat others and their teams. Years from now, should anyone revisit this post, I hope it's in better days and we don't even remember what this disclaimer is about.

    That said, because my feed is blowing up with refugees from the great meme war coming through Vault 18, I'm getting some reminders that New California, released in 2018, has a mixed reputation here and among some Fallout modding communities.

    And you know, that hurts me a little. Not in an emotional way, but more just... I hate letting people down.

    Obviously a lot of the criticism we received was fair and rational, and I want to respond to that in a positive and constructive way. We have a lot of love and encouragement of course, but this is more a post about addressing some concerns, and hopefully that helps our supporters as much as our detractors too.

    I'm not one to just throw in my hat when I make a mistake or fall short of expectations. Usually that puts me into listening and responding mode where I want to figure out what went wrong and how I could fix it.

    So back in 2019, after it became abundantly clear FNC just wasn't going to receive the community support we needed to overhaul our oldest and clunkiest dialogue or add side content to build up the anemic wasteland, I sat down for a number of nights over a couple weeks and wrote this post-mortem:

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qZGbmXQ1aqZO4RholmyO9dgPxULLJdRYvsTgUPD2jp0/edit

    What you'll find in here is first and foremost a breakdown of our successes and failures.

    Be forewarned, it is many hundred pages long. That document only serves as a hub linking to this folder of documents: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11pKvUpZDEzaiBOsCigePZ-pGjty5LxHm

    I intended this to be essentially a re-write that would be feasible for any modder with the time and dedication to take what is already there in New California, remove the undesired content, and replace it with this content.

    We all have a AAA multi million dollar dream game in our heads. This is not that. This is a "what if, knowing what we know now, and having processed all this feedback good and bad, how would we proceed if we could in fixing its shortcomings?"

    The Big Points:

    1. There are few Side Quests after Vault 18 of note
    2. The Story after Vault 18 is a tail-spin of too much combat in an empty space
    3. Undesirable bottlenecks where we had to scope control branching paths
    4. Crashes from New Vegas Engine being overwhelmed with actors & effects
    5. Combat alternatives need to be presented as a main option, not a side option
    6. Performance woes
    7. Quest Breaks and Sequence Breaks (rare)
    8. Confusion in direction in large open spaces that feel too linear, branches aren't obviously branches (see Pinehaven and Wilco's Raiders, people don't thin to shoot on sight, and if they do shoot on sight, don't think to roll back and try talking instead)
    9. Balance in Combat and Loot is skewed to the generous early and crunch later
    10. Too Many NPCs overall, especially waves of enemies in spawners
    11. Bullet sponges even after massive nerfs still bother folks depending on settings (Very Hard is often on in a player's menu and they never look again, combat overhaul mods are inconsistent)
    12. Map is Too Big and Too Empty (\Moar Side Quests* *More Urban Ruins*)*
    13. No way to not be captured by Raiders? I hate that! (Alternate path to join willingly)
    14. Shi being Japanese NOT CHINESE (Nobody cares about the explanations why)
    15. Charisma checks "should" be speech checks (really we just needed more speeches up front to sell the reason why we used SPECIALS & Earned Perks, so people don't feel path locked.)
    16. Kieva joining the Legion (\maximum jimmy rustler*)*
    17. The Father believing the player is a clone of the Vault 13 Vault Dweller is poorly written and not refused in dialogue, only a terminal few read
    18. The Father had no lead up and is seen as a twist rather than any kind of culmination of clues
    19. The Father isn't seen as a threat and is just pushed aside at the end (would have been a cool 3rd faction if that was even remotely possible, which it wasn't unfortunately)
    20. The Star Player being the Courier is HATED, since we all like that blank slate staying blank, but they appreciate starting New Vegas afterwards
    21. General disappointment in the Companions falling off a cliff and being inconsistent in personality, and then just vanishing after a while (resource shortage, content cuts)
    22. Wasteland Outside Vault 18 is hideous (True)
    23. Jokes / rumors about incest are taken as if they are actual endorsement of incest
    24. Crude humor in any form, gets 2016+ people very twitchy. Should just expunge all humor around sex jokes or libidinous characters, as if it doesn't exist
    25. If 1 character has a bad audio take, 15,000 lines of good dialogue around it become irrelevant
    26. The Enclave are given real justice, but most fans wish they just stayed dead with Fallout 2 and never show up again, which is a massive shame as they have so much potential as an exploration of nationalism if given even 5 minutes of rational justification for their actions
    27. We didn't set out to invent a better plasma gun gut the new gear is cool, and people seem to want more of that kind of thing from an Enclave playthrough
    28. More opportunities for Enclave players to use power armor and weapons, less lonely play through (ignore that they are the last of their kind on the West Coast after F2, add a new companion for Enclave players)
    29. Nobody likes teen drama. Cut it and age companions by 10 years of maturity and competence, such as giving them vital jobs and real lives outside their bubble
    30. Update characters that are undercooked but have potential (Raider Warlords, Union City Civilians, Super Mutants, and the Trade & Personality ties between them)
    31. The Vault explodes, though it is a beloved landmark (no resources to keep it around in the story without it being a throw away due to lack of volunteers to justify all those voiced survivors)

    That's a lot to unpack.

    If New California were an Indie game of its own, we'd have a bright red Overwhelmingly Negative at the start, and Mixed after 2 years.

    Obviously, in my career going forward, I'd like to never repeat these mistakes that led there. And I'd like to see other projects learn from my mistakes as well.

    I was 22-24 when the overwhelming majority of dialogue was written in Vault 18 back in 2012-2013, and the second part was written almost entirely in 2015, with voice acting recorded in October-November 2015. VERY compressed and hurried, compared to that span of several years.

    2012-2018, only Rick and I were committed to the project. We couldn't capture and retain talent. We didn't have a robust community of modders we were a part of such as Nexus or Gun, and the other large mods were openly hostile and transactional with us, only interested in what benefited them directly, such as talent poaching, rather than cooperation. When we did have contributors it was brief and glorious, but limited to specific things, such as animating a vault door or throwing a vault ball.

    So large scale re-writes, even when we were acutely aware they were needed*,* were an impossibility without sacrificing forward momentum or causing fatal burnout. That led to a "race to the end" mentality with as few revisions and as little backtracking as possible, and flaws being baked in. Which succeeded in finishing and releasing instead of failing to deliver anything, but at a painful cost.

    The final writing for the mod was in 2018, when I wrote Hrafnkel, Atl Irepani, and Vayger. This content, and the voice acting for it, is a radial departure from the cringe early writing. Had the mod stood up to that level, it would have been a cleaner experience over all.

    A character like Dakota Ferron, who is a mature adult with her own complex motives and goals, and keeps up the drum beat of intimate dialogue with the player across the mod, would have been a huge success. As well as if the wasteland had been smaller, so criss crossing was limited.

    The companion overhaul would help tremendously with the criticisms of the writing, but is complex surgery. And packing the empty space is a massive team effort, not belonging to 1 or 2 of us original devs, but the voices of other volunteers who understand the vision and don't just fill it with jokes and bullshit.

    Unfortunately, the reality is, the New Vegas modding community doesn't have a talent pool of skilled modders willing to take on this content. Not because we soured our good will or respect, but because of the stratification of mod teams that have no desire to work together, and over many years of deep investment in their own projects as a hobby, do not want to work on a new project.

    In the meantime I have a family to raise and a business to run, so I can't be of much help either except to provide financial and directorial support.

    So at the core of this is a feasibility study, and the results are just simple: there's no need to shutter the project, but let it stand. If someone is wiling to volunteer, we will help get the ball rolling and provide any support required.

    Until that hero arises however, we have a new IP that is funded and doing very well. We're happy with the way Project Morningstar is shaping up, it pays the bills, and things are looking up.

    So lets hope at the minimum you all enjoy the writing left in the 1.0 documents, and what we released back in April 2020, which is the last official update from the Project Brazil team for the foreseeable future.

    I know it's dark putting a project to bed guys. I know 2020 was a hell of year, and 2021 has been painful in new ways for us all.

    But there's hope.

    There are lessons to learn from.

    There are new opportunities to rise to new challenges.

    Your life doesn't end with failures. That's where you show who you really are. Do you fold? Or do you learn?

    Best of luck, to all of you. Whether you enjoyed FNC or not, your feedback as shaped me in a positive way and I hope to provide more content for you to enjoy in the future.

    --Thain

    submitted by /u/Thaiauxn
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    Fallout may have just saved my job

    Posted: 30 Jan 2021 02:37 AM PST

    So I'm a cleaner, my job is cleaning offices warehouses etc.

    I was asked by my manager to deep clean an area, so I did, they came to inspect and insist I clean a specific area where I couldn't reach with my normal equipment. But because fallout I casually collect Bobby pins and hang them from my lanyard (never know if or when they'll be useful) so I pulled one off my lanyard bent it straight and used it to scrape out the grime she was insisting I was being too lazy to clean. So instead of her writing me up because I was "being lazy" she commended me and sent the idea to the contract manager

    If I didn't play fallout I wouldn't have thought to pick up Bobby pins let's alone do this

    submitted by /u/AmberYooToob
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    The Frontier's Fallout

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 01:00 PM PST

    Rimmy Downunder has made a video, 'The Frontier's Fallout' going into what exactly was going on with The Frontier that created such a clusterfuck, including dev infighting and content changes, which is well worth a watch:

    https://youtu.be/F-3YjqXOzhA

    submitted by /u/RexDraconum
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    The frontier dialogue. Wtf?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 07:27 AM PST

    Sorry if this has been said before. But why is the dialogue so bad?

    Like it's so fucking juvenile, like some sort of bad rick and morty sketch type shit. It makes the courier look like some 13 year old discord mod. Talking to the crusaders "So I have to get out of your little king arthur circle jerk"

    Or the weird deathclaw scene. It's like your playing a psycho from borderlands. And most of these aren't a choice, these are the basic dialogues in the game. You're character sounds like a ripoff Rick Sanchez no matter what. It's so awful. I was expecting really mature writing like new vegas.

    Dont get me wrong fallout is quite comedic at times. But this is just garbage

    submitted by /u/TheGhostofCipher
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    I've replayed honest hearts over 3 times, I still don't know what its about.

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 07:47 PM PST

    Like the title said, ive already my ultimate playthrough of new vegas, but I can't figure what was the story behind the dlc?

    So does anyone know what is it about?.

    submitted by /u/jayenatior
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    Message to all Legion Apologetists

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 08:39 AM PST

    CAESAR. IS. MENTALLY. DERANGED.

    /What? you just expect this dude just one day, while happily nutting to his self righteous dreams, had his hand slip and (whoops), his entire society is now based on human slavery?. BUT he has his hegelian dialectics (cool fancy words that caesar didn't just get totally wrong just to sound intellectual) so he is big brain right? RIGHT?. noo, caesar is the Necessary Order in Chaos ™ , he brings prosperity and realizes his dreams, tHe EnD jUsTiFiEs ThE mEaNs. Yes, even brutalizing and degrading women as rape objects is totally related to his dreams and very based redpilled. In fact, he is so based that he can only rewards centurions with promise of rape instead of actual money (legion gold doesn't count, they're worthless), just like warlords of old (OMG cool roman reference??).

    And you would not believe this, but he puts his entire civilization as a roving army (no farmers for food, all enslaved) so that he will win every fight (totally not gonna lose first battle of hoover dam and cripple his forces, no doubt). I know right? what army could EVEN possibly MATCH these fearsome people in battle? don't forget how very grey area they are that Chris Avellone DID NOT said that they have no redeeming values whatsoever (https://twitter.com/ChrisAvellone/status/1091227972931969024).

    He rightfully policed Arizona so that any and all people who opposes him will be crucified and mutilated. Damn, If i were an aspiring trader in a war torn, post apocalyptic america that's be the perfect kind of business opportunity that i'd jump in. Daddy caesar helpfully protecting us from getting mugged by homeless raiders by threatening to enslave our entire family if we disagree with him, cool. Last but not least, let's not forgot how he indoctrinate young boys to be a loyal legion soldier. We are seeing some great example in the real world how indoctrinated populace meets totalitarian government benefits the populace. Yep, sounds like the dream utopia that caesar, you, and me dreamed alright./

    Grow up, Legion is not some misunderstood chaotic good faction. Caesar did all that willingly and knowingly for his naive dream. borrowing the legitimacy of dead empire that no one even remember is not a valid way to fullfill caesar's dreams of personal sex ring empire, no matter how many pseudo intellectual words he use. Being branded as "evil" is honestly an understatement of this whole Cult of Personality disguised as a working, hierarchial government.

    TL:DR Caesar bad. Me no like bad people. Me post on reddit to karma farm give (un)biased review of legion

    submitted by /u/Enseyar
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    "Patrolling the Frontier almost makes you wish for Miami"

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 03:29 PM PST

    Bruh I installed the game and the pedophilia is really nothing like a team of community New Vagas mod creators ruining an old game for me. So I came up with some stuff I had in mind when thinking about this mode 1.)Call of Fallout: Wolfenstein Space Ghosts of Duty. 2.) Fallout: The Frontier of Sexual Depravity and my last opinion on this game is Fallout: Frontier Hunt down the Freema-,I mean Refund, I mean Courier.

    submitted by /u/Captain_RexCT-7567
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    What is your favorite weapon from the fallout franchise?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 10:25 AM PST

    Please note it can be a quest item labeled as a weapon, unique, non-unique, craftable, quest reward, etc. To put simply, if its in the weapon slot and can be held in the players hand then its a weapon

    Edit: Thanks for the replies and upvotes! Made my day!

    submitted by /u/DeificAtom93993
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    what if you joined the party?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 11:53 PM PST

    say you were to be a compainion in either new vegas or 4. what would come from it? what would you bring to the table in terms of gear, perks, a quest, etc...

    submitted by /u/katomatic22
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    Fallout Mods - Suggestions 1st playthrough

    Posted: 30 Jan 2021 03:22 AM PST

    Just acquired Fallout 4 and want start playing. Could you help me with tips on QoL mods that improve the gaming experience?

    submitted by /u/Cayuman
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    The frontiers weird tumbr life is strange/ night in the woods reference?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 11:29 PM PST

    Theres a character called Mae caufield which seems to be a mash of Mae boroski and Max caufield from night and the woods and life is strange. Not to mention the fact she hangs out with people named chloe and gregg which are two characters who act as the best friend of the protagonist in both games. Also i have to mention the tumblr like dialogue of the character which is found a lot in life is strange.

    submitted by /u/GoldFeatureExp
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    I don't know if this is OK to post, but I wanted to share this moment I had with you guys :)

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 10:22 PM PST

    Who is your favorite companion, and why?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 04:48 PM PST

    Personally, my favorite is DogMeat. He's an adorable badass. And the fact that you can give him a dog collar or a bandanna to wear is a cool add-on. So, who's your favorite companion?

    submitted by /u/Missmeowstin
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    Can't talk to nora in spouse companion mod (fallout 4)

    Posted: 30 Jan 2021 03:03 AM PST

    I have just installed the nora spouse companion mod but when i go to abernathy farm to find her she is there but i cannot talk to her pressing 'e' on her does nothing. I've also tried to put the mod last on the mod list but vortes likes to overide what i want and put it wherever it wants.

    (I was inable to give my mod list as the loadorder.txt hasn't updated since june 2020, idk why).

    submitted by /u/OwenPingu16
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    Is there a way to play fallout 1 on android?

    Posted: 30 Jan 2021 02:12 AM PST

    What is your favorite faction in the fallout universe

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 08:53 PM PST

    This can be raider factions, minor factions, major factions, etc

    submitted by /u/mregg1549
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    Was there any mention/info about Vault 76 in previous games before Fallout 76's announcement?

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 04:22 PM PST

    The Overseer from Fallout 3 and Vault 101

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 09:09 PM PST

    So I've decided to replay Fallout 3 since I'm on a Fallout kick recently.

    Is there any reason as to why the Overseer wanted to kill you so badly? Like why are all of the guards aggressive towards you?

    On top of that why do they just randomly gun down vault residents?

    submitted by /u/OogieBoogie096
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    Should there be a fallout 3 and new Vegas remake

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 05:16 PM PST

    Just want opinions on this as a whole

    submitted by /u/Drusso1818
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    Did everyone know that things you post here can end up on other sites? (not a problem for me, could be for others)

    Posted: 30 Jan 2021 12:35 AM PST

    Almost a month ago I posted this https://www.reddit.com/r/Fallout/comments/kptbmg/to_help_me_cope_with_2020_i_tried_writing_a_short/

    Basically I wrote a little pet project just to see if I could, I came back the next day to find the thread removed without notification and I assumed the mods had done so and was fine with it, apparently I'd hidden it from myself which I didn't even know was possible (insert low intelligence joke here)

    A month later I'm in the process of trying to upload it to royalroad.com (which is pretty great) and it gets rejected because I need to prove 'ownership' of it, so I get pointed to games to gather . org and see a copy of my post presented under a picture I didn't pick on a site I've never even heard of. I'm assuming it was some sort of rehosting bot, and I left a comment and it was fully taken down in a few minutes, but I didn't even know that this kind of thing happened

    I'm not a big internet guy, I like reddit because it's anonymous, centralised, and I can delete stuff, I'm not angry or upset, all's well that ends well, but the only reason I bring it up is because people post amazing content here and I was surprised to see a simple post like mine elsewhere

    So I thought I'd make a quick post, maybe it's a common thing I don't know

    If this breaks the rules and is removed can you let me know, because clearly I need help, or mentats

    submitted by /u/Ezekeil2Ofive17
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    New Vegas (Honest Hearts) Really regret the ending I chose and I’m contemplating going hours back to change it.

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 07:16 PM PST

    So I just finished Honest Hearts but I honestly regret siding with Daniel and wish I had gone with my gut and chosen Graham. I went with Daniel because I'm building my character to be more of a leader who tries to keep the peace (without doing anything drastic like murdering innocent people). I thought siding with Daniel would be right but now I feel that I messed up because the more I thought about it the more I realized that they should not have left and should have stayed and fight. I realized I liked this ending more but the only problem is that if I want to choose that ending I'll have to go back like 7 hours of progress and do everything because I was stupid and only quick saved which meant I can't go back now. I don't know what to do because I feel I just won't have fun going through everything all over again. Any advice of what I should do? Should I move on or go back?

    submitted by /u/BananaMan7585
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    We all should have known the frontier wasn't gonna be all it was cracked up to be

    Posted: 29 Jan 2021 06:30 AM PST

    When Mitten Squad didn't beat it, I knew something was up.

    submitted by /u/yourhighuncle
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