Fallout IX: Nuclear Cash Cows Go MMOoooooo!

[GloatingSwine]

Yeah, Gamebryo is still under there, a name-change isn't going to fix that.

What makes it all especially irritating is that their parent company, Zenimax Media, has owned Id Software since 2009, so there is really no reason they couldn't have been using IdTech engines for all their games. I wouldn't help some of their more regrettable art direction, but it could certainly improve the performance and bug problems.

The actual reason is that they don’t want to have to learn new creation tools. Because the underlying tech hasn’t changed since Morrowind a lot of their staff are super familiar with the creation kit.

But when they try to do something that isn’t basically Morrowind again like F76 it falls to ****.

[The_Jackal]

The actual reason is that they don’t want to have to learn new creation tools. Because the underlying tech hasn’t changed since Morrowind a lot of their staff are super familiar with the creation kit.

But when they try to do something that isn’t basically Morrowind again like F76 it falls to ****.

Yes, I totally get how there's an entrenched core of content creators who are committed to their janky home-grown stuff. I've worked with similar situations in my work. We used to have a terrible bug-tracking system, was written back in the early 1990s, and it was slow, rickety, buggy, and difficult to maintain. But there were still people who used the damned thing who insisted it was irreplaceable, that no other tool would let them be as productive.

However, eventually we prevailed, replaced it with something less klunky, and after a brief transition period, even the balkers were convinced, the new system was better, everyone was happier, more productive, and spent less of their time fighting with these janky old tools.

Now I'm sure that changing a 3d engine is more momentous than changing a up-gunned spreadsheet tracker, but the principle isn't any different.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

Yes, I totally get how there's an entrenched core of content creators who are committed to their janky home-grown stuff. I've worked with similar situations in my work. We used to have a terrible bug-tracking system, was written back in the early 1990s, and it was slow, rickety, buggy, and difficult to maintain. But there were still people who used the damned thing who insisted it was irreplaceable, that no other tool would let them be as productive.

However, eventually we prevailed, replaced it with something less klunky, and after a brief transition period, even the balkers were convinced, the new system was better, everyone was happier, more productive, and spent less of their time fighting with these janky old tools.

Now I'm sure that changing a 3d engine is more momentous than changing a up-gunned spreadsheet tracker, but the principle isn't any different.

The trick is getting the people to agree to the transition - and I gather the game design industry 1.) does not pay particularly well (relative to other software jobs) and 2.) does not have very good working hours (again, relative to other software jobs) which I suspect would lead a lot of people who would be willing to modernize their employer's development practices decide to jump ship for a different company rather than butt heads with the entrenched core. Because if you already know about those practices you probably already know better places to work.

[Caelestion]

Hey guys. So I managed to figure out plot assignment in Sim Settlement.

I started using the City Planner. It's pretty cool, love that a nice premade city just builds itself. However, I now have about 40 quest tags of "New construction" in my settlements. Anyone knows how I remove them?

One of the options in the City Planner should be able to disable the quest tags.

[Cikomyr]

One of the options in the City Planner should be able to disable the quest tags.

Awesome, let me dig that. Thanks!

Only regret I have with the city planner is that I am limited in how many leaders I have. Damn.

[The_Jackal]

The trick is getting the people to agree to the transition - and I gather the game design industry 1.) does not pay particularly well (relative to other software jobs) and 2.) does not have very good working hours (again, relative to other software jobs) which I suspect would lead a lot of people who would be willing to modernize their employer's development practices decide to jump ship for a different company rather than butt heads with the entrenched core. Because if you already know about those practices you probably already know better places to work.

The reason the game development jobs don't pay as well as a job with the same qualifications making, for example, fixed term life insurance forms, is that there's a revolving door of puppy-eyed teens ready to come in and do your job for a fraction of what you're earning, much like the situation with young starlets in Hollywood. That said, in every shop there's someone who has the real juice, and that person or cabal is the ultimate decision-maker in contentious matters like these. My guess is whoever that person is in Bethsoft is attached to the platform, or doesn't want to eat the hit to opex required for everyone to adapt to new processes and tools.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Is New Vegas Anti Crash a good mod? Some days I get a little tired of being kicked to desktop or stuck on a loading screen.

[Caelestion]

If it's anything like the Oblivion anti-crash mod, I would suggest not. The OB mod might have stopped a game crashing, but really, any game that is reliably CTDing has much greater issues than occasionally not crashing when it should have done.

[Triaxx]

It works beautifully. Snag that, New Vegas Stutter Remover, and Zan's Auto-Purge and your game should be massively more stable. (NVSR has a windows 10 specific version if I recall correctly.)

[DigoDragon]

It works beautifully. Snag that, New Vegas Stutter Remover, and Zan's Auto-Purge and your game should be massively more stable. (NVSR has a windows 10 specific version if I recall correctly.)

I'll second this. Not counting Lonesome Road, I averaged only one crash every 20 hours or so of gameplay.

Lonesome Road for me was an odd outlier experience in that it crashed a lot when I was at the outdoor areas. I think it had something to do with the effects employed for the sky. When I exited the mod back to the main Mojave, I didn't experience any crashes outside at all.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Is New Vegas Anti Crash a good mod? Some days I get a little tired of being kicked to desktop or stuck on a loading screen.

I consider New Vegas Anti-Crash to be a foundational mod and an absolute necessity to fix Bethesda's many screw-ups.

New Vegas Anti-Stutter is good as well. However, if you are on Win10, you do want to make sure you grab the version specifically for Win10 or it will crash you.

[halfeye]

There was a time when Fallout 3 didn't crash that much, but then it reached the point that it would crash most days.

New Vegas is much more stable for me than Fallout 3 was the last time I tried to play it.

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Whoops, I didn’t see that there was a specific version for Windows 10 until now. That may explain the issues I’ve been having.

Issues that include the entire world failing to load, if anyone’s curious.

[veti]

Issues that include the entire world failing to load, if anyone’s curious.

Well, I am now. What does the game look like when the entire world fails to load?

[Haruspex_Pariah]

Well, I am now. What does the game look like when the entire world fails to load?

I've since downloaded more things so it hasn't happened again, but basically what happened was this.

I was at the Dam after saving president Kimball. I initiated fast-travel to Novac. The loading screen took a while, and instead of popping out in Novac there was a black screen for a few seconds. After the black screen, my character was standing in a featureless brown plain. I can sort of recognize the general terrain, but everything else is missing. Buildings, people, trees, bridges, roads, etc. It's just the ground, the sky, and my character.

But my anti-crash adventures didn't stop there. After downloading the Windows 10 version of the stutter mod I started getting this yellow screen at random moments, like when trying to look at my Pip-Boy or entering a conversation with No-Bark. And then, for the first time ever, I started getting crashes followed by memory warnings.

Then I downloaded the 4GB patch thing. The last time I loaded things seemed closer to normal, but I can only hope it stays that way.

[Vinyadan]

I have started New Vegas. It's a nice, buggy little game, isn't it? I think it may win the prize of most bugged game worth playing over Clear Sky. I have picked some mods to correct the most obvious problems.

Overall, I can see why it's the most liked of the 3rd millennium games. The writing is immensely better, because it really lets you see how the many parts of the Mojave interact. You are thrust in a struggle, and what you do really has consequences. And the game is very focused. I think that FO4's main weakness was how dispersive it was.

Also, it contains a nice Tokyo Ghoul reference (the Gourmet Restaurant).

[Rynjin]

Also, it contains a nice Tokyo Ghoul reference (the Gourmet Restaurant).

New Vegas referenced a series that didn't debut until a year after NV's release? It really was ahead of its time.

[factotum]

I have started New Vegas. It's a nice, buggy little game, isn't it?

You should have tried playing it before they patched most of the issues.

[Balmas]

About a third of the way through an unplanned-but-not-unwelcome Spring Clean fresh reinstall of New Vegas. I get to check for updates and see what, if anything, I want to change after a year or so of recording the Gabriel let's play. Hopefully I'll be able to finish the reinstallation and start pumping through the Strip and Honest Hearts in under two weeks. So far, I've rebuilt the Mod Organizer installation itself, plus utilities, stability mods, and the user interface files. Now to just muster the energy to install the three dozen or so graphical mods...

[Vinyadan]

New Vegas referenced a series that didn't debut until a year after NV's release? It really was ahead of its time.

Uh-oh, looks like I mixed up the dates with Death Note.

I wonder if Tokyo Ghoul took inspiration from NW, but I think the comic references a short story by a Japanese author, and the masks were already present before the arc.

[SZbNAhL]

I have started New Vegas. It's a nice, buggy little game, isn't it? I think it may win the prize of most bugged game worth playing over Clear Sky.

I don't think it's quite as buggy as Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Then again, your definition of "worth playing" may be stupid and wrong different to mine.

[LibraryOgre]

My brother got me a GOTY of Fallout 4, but I'm in the midst of Andromeda, so I'll finish that before I head to the Commonwealth.

[Vinyadan]

I don't think it's quite as buggy as Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Then again, your definition of "worth playing" may be stupid and wrong different to mine.

Back when I played it, I didn't really find many bugs. Actually, I don't remember noticing any. The only problem I had with it was when I tried playing a Nosferatu and I found that it was too hard to move around through the sewers.

I agree that it was very good. It's been a veeeery long time, but there are many scenes that I remember. I also think it was the first time I ran into the "bull manure" expression, at the start of the game. Which can tell you how little I was understanding.

[Rynjin]

Uh-oh, looks like I mixed up the dates with Death Note.

I wonder if Tokyo Ghoul took inspiration from NW, but I think the comic references a short story by a Japanese author, and the masks were already present before the arc.

Yeah, I think it's just a matter of parallel inspiration; the idea isn't SO outlandish that multiple people couldn't think of it independently at around the same time.

[Rodin]

Yeah, I think it's just a matter of parallel inspiration; the idea isn't SO outlandish that multiple people couldn't think of it independently at around the same time.

I mean, the original idea dates back at least as far as Victorian England. Sweeney Todd selling his victims to a neighboring pie shop is the earliest reference to a cannibal restaurant that I found, but it wouldn't surprise me if there's an even earlier reference to cannibals secretly living in civilized society and running a restaurant.

[halfeye]

I mean, the original idea dates back at least as far as Victorian England. Sweeney Todd selling his victims to a neighboring pie shop is the earliest reference to a cannibal restaurant that I found, but it wouldn't surprise me if there's an even earlier reference to cannibals secretly living in civilized society and running a restaurant.

There is an ancient greek myth/legend/tradgedy/horror story about someone being served up his children as food by an enemy.

[Winthur]

This isn't worth bragging about but I completed the first Fallout without dying, without picking Gifted, without using drugs and without deliberate grinding for XP and money in random encounters and while completing brute force invasions of the two end-game areas including killing their final bosses.

I might try to do that in the 2nd game, although it's much longer and I have the attention span of a goldfish.

[LibraryOgre]

I mean, the original idea dates back at least as far as Victorian England. Sweeney Todd selling his victims to a neighboring pie shop is the earliest reference to a cannibal restaurant that I found, but it wouldn't surprise me if there's an even earlier reference to cannibals secretly living in civilized society and running a restaurant.

And, IIRC, there was the Doctor in Junktown in Fallout 1 who was selling meat to the vendor in the Hub.

[Brookshw]

And, IIRC, there was the Doctor in Junktown in Fallout 1 who was selling meat to the vendor in the Hub.

Yup. Once you found out you could then blackmail the Iguana on a Stick vendor in the hub re: where his meat really came from. I want to say the vendor's name was Bob.

[Caelestion]

There is an ancient greek myth/legend/tradgedy/horror story about someone being served up his children as food by an enemy.

Both Lykaon and Tantalus were said to have killed and cooked their sons for the gods to eat. Pelops (son of Tantalus) was at least brought back to life, but with a silver shoulder.