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No Mod Tools for Fallout 3 Launch
Rock, Paper, Shotgun interviewed Bethesda's Pete Hines about the upcoming release of Fallout 3. He talks about dealing with misunderstandings about the game prior to launch, violence in modern games, and the fact that the game won't launch with mod tools. "Folk probably took for granted that every time we make a game, there's a mod tool. We explained to folk that it takes a lot of time and effort to get that tool ready for release, and it's not on our schedule right now. We need to get the game done and out. ... Right now, we can't say definitively 'there will be mod tools, and here is when they'll be out.' We discussed some Fallout 3 gameplay videos a few weeks ago. That work remains to be done." In related news, Interplay has picked up Chris Taylor, designer of the original Fallout, to help develop their Fallout MMOG.
Fallout WITHOUT mod tools. How will i get my unofficial addon that makes it a Mad Max. I needs me some thunderdome. [and a clonedome You know, 1 will enter 2 will leave]
No modtools? That's a shame. Modtools really extend the life of a game- in fact, I'd say they probably extend the life of a game more than anything else (apart from being an MMO). How long did Half-Life 1 hang around because of Counterstrike?
Check out my sci-fi book "Lacuna" at http://goo.gl/MVxX8
Unless modding tools were promised, and that promise was writ mile-high in the stone of the Rockies, I don't get what the fuss is about. Your assumption is not the developer's obligation.
You had to download them, so odds are they will release a set of mod tools down the road. Like they said they got to get the game working and completed before they release the tool.
So... removing features here at the last minute so they can still get it out the door before the deadline. It looks like the picked a too aggressive deadline and they're trying to cover for it now instead of spec things out correctly at the start.
I'll bet the game ships with bugs.
//TODO: signature
guess he's been watching a bit of Firefly. not that it's a bad thing.
I'll bet the game ships with bugs.
Even Centipede shipped with bugs, as did Mario Paint and even Crazy Castle.
Interplay destroyed Black Isle, ruined Jefferson and Van Buren, refused to pay employees, didn't pay their debts, was delisted, and without an office. How are they still around seriously making a Fallout MMO, and why in the world would Chris Taylor want to go back there?
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
So how do you explain all the shovelware being published for the Wii?
I think Bethesda would be doing themselves a great favor by once again being forthcoming about what, if any, DRM they plan to use in Fallout 3. Before Oblivion released, some rumor about them using StarForce was going around, and they explicitly said that not only were they not going to use StarForce, but all they were putting in was a CD check when you start the game. People went out and bought the game with confidence that it wasn't going to fux0r their b0xen and that they'd still be able to play even if someone dropped a nuke on the Greater DC Metro Area the next day.
Considering how much grief EA has had over Spore, etc., they might want to preannounce their DRM plans again, as a selling point.
Morrowind's NPCs and towns were horribly boring without mods.
The dancing girls were a lot more interesting after applying the "Better Bodies" mod. It really improved the, uh, realism of the, uh, storytelling and, uh, stuff.
Is that the same Chris Taylor that was heading up Gas Powered Games (Dungeon Siege, Supreme Commander), and previous created Total Annihilation?
I suppose Chris Taylor is probably a common enough name that it's likely two separate people, but thought I'd ask, in case anyone can confirm or deny?
Fallout 3 is based on the same engine as Oblivion. They even use some of the same assets, you can see the same characters and models used in Oblivion in the recent demo videos. There is already a extensive set of tools available for Oblivion, so I assume they would just have to be modified for Fallout 3.
I have this nasty feeling that the devs realize this and they just want to push the tool development effort back onto the gamer community.
More importantly will they get the game released before interplay goes under.
(N/T)
The community for Bethesda games has a knack for accomplishing things Bethesda never intended.
For example, the oblivion modding tools were locked down in terms of modeling and skeletons, and other misc functions.. but the community hacked together a set of tools that met and/or exceeded the tool-set of the beth developers themselves in terms of functionality.
Maybe I'm the only one but it just feels too much like Oblivion.
I hate the quest dialogue which has crossed over from oblivion. Why can't they make it more like mass effect where your character interacts with characters rather then just sitting back in FPS mode looking at the characters.
I don't like how emotionless the characters look as they speak out their lines (another oblivion trait).
They even have some form of mud crab in there.
It feels like Bethesda did the quick job on this one trying to figure out how they could mod Oblivion into a Fallout conversion.
I'm not saying that fallout 3 is going to suck, but I don't think that it will be as good as it could be but I'll reserve judgement for when it's released.
Shortly after Elder Scrolls: Oblivion was released, a modder released a "topless" mod for the female characters. The ESRB, fearful of another "Hot Coffee" incident, re-evaluated the game and changed the rating from "T" to "M", forcing 2K Games to republish the game with updated box art. I remember thinking to myself, "well, there goes the mod tools".
Sure enough, the next game that Bethesda released doesn't include a mod tool. The Oblivion rating fiasco may not be the only reason but I'll wager it was a factor. And if game creators are being held responsible for the actions of modders, can you blame them?
This is a very bad sign, that goes far beyond the absence of actual mod tools.
Some people don't know why Half-Life was such a great game and why Oblivion was so disappointing. The answer is just one word: play-testing. Okay, maybe that's two words.
Half-Life spent half its development life (ha-ha) in testing (and refining). And Half-Life 2 levels started being playtested before the textures were even ready (remember those "orange map" screenshots in the teasers?).
Oblivion's quests feels buggy and disjointed mainly because it was not playtested by anyone outside Bethesda, and some last-minute adjustments to the game probably weren't tested at all.
Now, what does all this have to do with the announcement that mod tools won't be available? Simple: mod tools and documentation are tipically readied for end users while the game is in the final testing stage which, even on a relatively linear game like Half-Life, should take several months or years, if the game is to be any good. During this stage only minor things are being tweaked, like map design, damage of each weapon, location and frequency of rewards, etc.. Basically stuff that doesn't keep the programmers too busy, so they can focus on polishing the mod tools (in fact, better mod tools will also make that final tweaking much easier).
So, when the official word is that "[mod tools are] not on our schedule right now. We need to get the game done and out", what that means is the game isn't even ready yet, but the release date is already set, so there will be little if any playtesting (probably, as with Oblivion, only internal playtesting, which is close to useless in terms of gameplay tuning, it'll just catch the most obvious bugs). And, of course, without mod tools we can't even expect a fan-made "Fallout Overhaul" any time soon.
I can't say this is unexpected, but it is disappointing. Considering the FPS-like gameplay shown in the demo videos and now this, I'm pretty sure I won't be buying Fallout 3 in the first few months after release, if ever.
Can someone please put the 1992 Origin team back together? I miss a good RPG.
I miss Wasteland
though Origin did make Moebius
.
Monkey Island II I choose to forget.
There is something decidedly mean-spirited about the changes in Guybrush - and the game's "it was all a dream" ending.
I thoroughly enjoyed The Curse of Monkey Island and return to it every now and again.