Fallout Classic Ideas: massive interactive open world much of it a dynamic overworld in the classic JRPG sense comprising the vast majority of the game world all of the rest will be represented in a pre rendered background style similar to FF7/8/9 towns and cities vaults ect will be done in this fashion where individual rooms and houses within this pre-rendered world will be done as interactive dynamic images similar to point and click games like Myst ect. so the gamer will spend most of the time traversing the huge overworld going from the start town or area following the core quest arch there will be some areas of pre-rendered sections that are huge in scope and may take awhile to get through especially for core story quest archs but most will be relatively small 10-20 slides area with a consistent linear path that is pretty obvious but with lots of optional side areas or shortcuts and dead ends to explore if you feel like it. instead of having a single playable character this game will have 4 different playable characters each of which are fully customizable in the same manner but of course have affinities to specific attributes. a human character, a ghoul character, a super mutant, and a robot. all of these characters will have their own core epic quest line although quite brief only amounting 8-10 hours of gameplay (assuming you just skipped all the side quest) and share from the same pool of overall side quests which will amount to 100s of hours of gameplay, and of course each playable character will share the same companions and have similar chain of events in the core storyline as well but they will play in different ways but ultimately lead to a singular end game section. also you wont be able to interact with a character in another character's game world until you have completely finished the core story arch of that character and started a 2nd play through with a new playable character. once that occurs you can then interact with that character within all of the other characters worlds. they will become quest givers, and merchants allowing you to trade and purchase equipment from your previous game at a huge discount, and even make comments on how your decisions in this new playthrough differ from the decisions you made in the previous one. the combat will be done in a completely separate engine and the idea is to superimpose an interesting action rpg battle system overtop a real time dual stick shooter paradigm. to enter combat by running into creates in the overworld, and of course through dialog options. after the battle is finished the loot will be generated and you can decide if you want to keep or throw away. stealthboys can be used to pickpocket people or generally sneak past an enemy without having to start a fight. i havent really thought of the specifics of how the system and dual stick shooter will work together just yet maybe ill type up some more thoughts about that in another post. finding loot -you will be rewarded with loot when completing a battle -you can find loot within treasure chest like contraptions on the overworld -when in the pre-rendered areas loot will be found in treasure chest like contraptions as well -of course there will still be lockpicking and hacking but in addition entering a room within a pre-rendered area will load an interactive pre-rendered image that is more like a point and click adventure game experience similar to myst there might even be hidden puzzles within these point and click rooms to open hidden compartments the main reason to use interactive images is to add another perspective into the world that is first person. also it allows for more flexibility in the world design. these interactive images would be used to present a lot of the dialog from NPCs that have something interesting to say as opposed to those who dont it would just have a classic text blurb pop up. these images should be capable of facilitating small animated sequences to show action leading up to the battle engine which should also be used to tell story as well. these images will represent all of the shops, and adjacent rooms. on the over-world there will mostly be enemies with the occasional traveling merchant or citizen, actually there will not be a whole lot going on in the overwolrd initially other then enemies until you start interacting with NPCs and opening up side questions. the first pre-rendered areas will be completely neutral and be more of a town setting until later on or through exploration you find caves or abandoned vaults consisting of universal bad guys, and of course if you turn a town hostile this will generate random battles within that town and most of the NPCs in the area will run away, you will still find them in the adjacent rooms and buildings but even there they will most likely immediately attack you. once your stats of speech and barter get high enough you can have pre-battle options that will give you a timed option to choose from when an auto battle is starting like intimidate, negotiate, attack. if you intimidate they will just run away and you get instant xp and random loot that they drop, if you negotiate this will open up a dialog option to talk you way out of a fight or pay caps to prevent combat ect, and attack is simply ignore additional options fight now kinda thing
That sounds interesting. Very doubtful it would happen though. And, to be honest, it doesn't sound like a Fallout game at all. They're more likely to remake it in the style of Fallout 3 or New Vegas, it likely would not be available on smartphones, and it's doubtful they'd try to remake it in the first place. Too much legal BS involved.
thoughts on how to superimpose a fallout like action rpg battle system over a top down dual stick shooter: have each battle be comprised of a boss and numerous sub enemies types to add a strategic element to the combat. gamer has to decide weather to focus on taking out the boss first causing the rest of the enemies to flee and/or be severely weakened or focus on defeating every enemy first then go for the boss. most bosses will simply be on stand by or just do weak long range attacks at you until 50-75% of the sub enemies are defeated in which point then the boss will come right at you and be a lot more aggressive. there might also be support types that simply heal and do buffs on enemies in addition to the boss, and sub enemies. fallout style VATS can be done by tapping on an icon and then selecting which opponent to fire at and which body part to go for works just like it does on the console games but for a top down dual stick shooter a la slows down time and makes it look a little more cinematic... have up to 2 weapons and up to 4 items hotkeyed can not open pip boy in combat only get to take in what you assign in your hot keys or be able to open pipboy in combat? in addition to VATS there can be a few sub skills that can be activated in combat. earning these skills may be a combination of earning stats that are high enough, or learning it from a quest or perhaps simply gained through a perk or two. the two sub skills right off the top of my head can be dodge and block. sub skills: -dodge: dodge will be associated with agility and speed the more agility the faster you can dodge and the less amount of AP it depletes. -guard: will be associated with strength and armor damage threshold it just allows you to temporarily increase DT significantly by using AP -however unlike the VATS icon that is always on the screen and available right from the start, sub skills will be context sensitive and only appear right before you are about to get hit with something and only if you have AP companions: -might want to experiment with companions a bit. if the enemies can have support buffs and healers so to should the gamer so some companions will be basically only support and do very little if any damage to enemies while others can only attack and of course your playable character can go in between and provide buffs and healing to your companions in some capacity and be able to deal damage at the same time. and thats all the thoughts/ideas i have for the time being
ahh yea might need to change up the name and branding a bit because its not a true remake of the classic fallout its simply a re imagining of the fallout world in a different way that's seems mobile optimized and very interesting to me. of course using the fallout ip would be a challenge in and of itself from a business perspective but worth the risk if it can be done. if not then go for another IP. association with an existing popularized IP is always a good idea. however if your up to the challenge of creating an original IP which is also difficult its own right then you really gotta just cross your fingers and hope it sticks especially if there's no buzz or recognition going for ya however if you get to work off an existing IP things tend to roll very quickly in that you dont have to have a conference meeting about coming up with item types for instance everything is already there you just have to work off of it and make it work in your game while at the same time adding your own unique touch to the overall experience.
additional thoughts initiating combat: -when traversing the overworld universal enemies will be wandering around the map and run after you if they see you. combat will initiate when the enemy runs into your character -alternatively you can also initiate combat through dialog options as well and initiate an assault on a NPC that isnt an enemy by default. -when you turn a faction hostile against you they will begin to chase and occasionally spawn on the overworld and attack you along side other universal baddies -also if you enter a town or city occupied by a faction that is hostile this will initiate random battle generation and most of the npcs will simply run away and be hard to interact with after turning hostile at the beginning of the game battles will just initiate automatically but as you level up you will gain several options like intimidate, negotiate, flee, attack and only have x amount of seconds to choose an option -intimidate: cause enemies to flee and gain instant xp and some random loot drops or cause enemies to be severely weakened. there is a chance that the intimidation will backfire causing the enemies to be slightly extra buffed when entering combat however there is no negative penalty to the gamers character/party -negotiate: can only initially be done on humanoid npcs and cant be done on wild animals feral ghouls or robot security unless you have an associated perk and high enough stats and an associated item to go with it. when you negotiate you open a dialog option sometimes you can actually turn a feral ghoul into a normal one with the right items and stats or deactivate a robot security system and even by offering food to say deathclaws distract it enough to prevent entering combat -flee: opens up an option with flee on foot, drop item flee or cancel flee. similar to negotiate but instead of handing over an item and leaving on good terms you just lose an item as a drop simply to increase the chance of a successful flee -when you flee you are put right back to the world with the enemy still chasing you with a sort of headstart. a successful negotiation will put you back on the world where the enemy simply runs off in a different direction for x amount of seconds then resumes normal ai wandering but turns into a non hostile npc after that point. battle GUI layout: -two virtual joysticks -playable character hp and ap gauge somewhere -hotkey to easily switch between 2 weapons -items hotkey to easily use one of the 4 items you brought into battle -VATS icon right above the right joystick -context sensitive icon for sub skills like dodge will appear right above the left joystick -no pip boy icon or menu access can be done when in combat most of the fallout weapons will work well for a DSS battle layout: -an isolated area designed to be a top down representation of the area the gamer is located in within the game world when the battle initiates -if it occurs on the overworld the perspective will still be top down but it wont be a generic representation and should be designed to be a lot more detailed then the overwold -some areas will simply be flat empty areas with a lot of enemies -others may have hills buildings fences ect -some might even have elevated areas and platforms -there will be two escape portals allowing the gamer to flee if need be -to use the escape portals you have to access it and stand there for x amount of seconds -some battles enemies will guard escape portals other battles they wont care -might even be explosive barrels and environmental traps that you can shoot or activate with high enough stats to do extra damage to enemies overworld: -top down -should be designed to convey the feeling of a huge expansive open world -essentially a huge expansive game area connecting hundreds of pre-rendered worlds together without much limitation other then tough enemies. -however there will be several isolated areas of the overworld that can only be accessed by going through a pre-rendered world and exiting out the other side -navigating the overworld will typically be done on foot or by fast traveling -a notable difference between this overworld and the typical JRPG is that there wont any continents or navigation limitations that require a vehicle or transportation hub to access. pre-rendered: -these are done in a very similar fashion as FF7/8/9 -designed to be a highly detailed representation of a specific area within the game world that you enter such as a cave, building, vault, town, city ect -perspective may vary greatly -you can not fast travel within the pre-rendered worlds most of them will be small in scope and have an obvious path to the entry point and exit or dead end. however each area with have a ton of alternating paths and areas to explore some of them blocked off initially by lockpicking and hacking or blocked off by damage which forces the gamers to have to take an alternate complicated route around -autosave upon entering and exiting a pre-rendered world -you can manually save within pre rendered worlds if there are no enemies present on the slide -most pre-rendered areas will be small in scope only consisting of 10-20 slides i.e existing one screen and appearing on another -however a few will be enormous in scope taking awhile just to get through -within these pre-rendered areas will be tons of adjacent rooms, small houses and what not that upon entering wont load another isolated pre-rendered area but instead load an interactive image -the pre-rendered world is essentially a closed linear highly detailed pathway that connects the gamer to 100s of rooms and areas to explore interactive images: -entering a room or small area within the pre-rendered world this will load an interactive image instead of an isolated pre-rendered world representing the room -this interactive image will be more like a point and click style game experience similar to myst ect -they are basically highly detailed first person perspectives with the capacity to facilitate animated sequences -it will be used for all shops, adjacent rooms, and what not -you can in some instances navigate within the image itself to get a different perspective but mostly there will only be 1 perspective and you have to tap and investigate objects and NPCs the image shows thus launching dialog options or mini games -say for instance you enter a bar the image will be of that of just walking in the room staring at it from the door you can tap on a barstool and sit down and the image will slowly transition from one perspective to the other as if to mimic what it would look like to walk to the barstool and sit down and when you are seated you will have a totally different perspective on the room -in fact some npcs will require you to have a specific perspective to interact with them even though you see them from another perspective saying something like "why you yelling at me from over there come over here and take a seat if you have something to discuss" -this experience will be more reminiscent of point and click games and even though some rooms will have multiple perspectives and a point and click style puzzle to finding loot and hidden compartments or launching mini games like lockpicking, repairing, hacking ect the exit is always immediate and can be done instantly. i just dont want gamers to get lost trying to figure out how to reverse the perspective in order to exit the only reason i want there to be multiple perspectives is to increase the immersion of the exploring experience and only used to create an additional abstraction layer to finding loot so its more interactive and fun rather then simply finding treasure chests you have to actually interact with an image to find objects that are in desks or hidden under clipboards and what not and the puzzle aspect is only applied to finding loot not navigation which is why i want the exit to be always present and instant if the gamer wants to leave they dont have to rack their brains around retracing their steps and reversing the perspective to see the door they just tap an exit icon screen play story telling and showing action should be done to some degree at all levels of abstraction. it can be done on the overworld like watching a battle take place you will see and hear explosions gun fire and what not when viewing and getting near a portal to a pre-rendered world. in a pre-rendered world it can be done through sprite animation. and last but not least you can also do a lot of interesting storytelling or action sequences within the interactive images looking a lot like an anime or cartoon but with clever skip animation and not a fluid animation video. of course you can develop a couple videos one for the intro and several iterations of an ending video that will play out depending on your choice within the game. however i would limit these to clever use of 60s style commercial propaganda and/or television shows using slides and sprites rather then a full rich high quality computer graphics doesnt have to have a Fallout IP i only pitched this as a Fallout IP because i think a fallout association would be relatively easy to acquire make the most sense and have a significantly greater chance of success then an original IP
Fallout does not need to be reimagined, especially not how you outlined it. It's a classic for a reason. And with the success of Fallout3 and New Vegas, what makes you think it's ip would be easy to obtain?
