Regarding Unarmed/HtH weapons

Since Bethesda decided to make Fallout 3, we figured we might as well have a forum about it.
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Franz Schubert
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Regarding Unarmed/HtH weapons

Post by Franz Schubert »

We all know that one of Fallout's biggest shortcomings was the way that if you kill somone in one corner of the town, everyone will subsequently fling themselves at you until every last one of them is dead. What they tried to do in Fallout is have it so if you're sneaking, you can kill someone without being detected... but that didn't work very well. So I thought of a way to make this system actually work...

This proposal ties in closely with my Non-Lethal Combat thread, but this time my idea is simple: Make it so unarmed and HtH weapons are "silent", that is, as long as the two people aren't using guns, nobody else will notice the fight. This is assuming they are out of sight and a reasonable distance from the nearest person. It would be very easy to calculate a LOS (Line of Sight) function in an Isometric or 3D environment... and for the sound, just assign each weapon a "radius", of say 20 feet. That way someone could be on the other side of a building and if nobody else witnessed the fight, they would never know it was YOU who killed the person.

This would also work with guns, except the sound radius would be much larger... but still, if you were in New Reno for instance, and killed someone, if the nearest person was within the sound radius but out of the LOS, they would come running to check it out (combat would not end). However, if you are able to leave the map, the game would let you come back later without being attacked by everyone.

In fact, they could make it so if you simply run out of the LOS of the NPCs, they would run towards the scene of the crime, look around, and then combat would end. You could then walk into view without being implicated.

Not only would this system result in fixing the problem of having whole towns out for your blood, it would also "balance" the melee/HtH weapons, making them a viable alternative to guns without having to raise the damage output on them to equal the guns. For instance, I've always thought they should have figured out a way to balance the Unarmed skill without having to create a "Mega Power Fist".

So, what do you guys think?
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Sovy Kurosei
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Post by Sovy Kurosei »

The hand-to-hand attacks should have more options. For example, including making hand-to-hand attacks silent, you could include a command to disarm an assailent of their weapon. Hand-to-hand can allow someone to dodge or even counter other melee/hand-to-hand attacks. Imagine laying the smackdown on a deathclaw, because you can parry, hop and dodge every attack.

Also, guns have to change. They all need a negative modifier for close combat conditions. Some guns more so than others, especially the sniper rifle. Yeah, I know in Fallout they kind of had this, but it was more of a bug than a feature, and only worked on a limited basis.

The plus side is that not only are you balancing, you are making the combat mechanics more realistic. Although realism shouldn't be an argument by itself, but more of a secondary goal the developer attempts to accomplish, with "fun" or "gameplay" being the primary one.

Hm, who would want a Combat Mechanics thread? Or should I look for a thread to try and ressurrect?
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jetbaby
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Post by jetbaby »

Hop and dodge all you want, but the fact is that a deathclaw is like THIS and you are like ., so if it does hit, parrying is a no. Whatever you parry with will shatter and smoosh like jello under a sledgehammer.
off topic? OMG YOU'VE BEEN CENSORED... yet you're still posting. MYSTARY!!!!

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S4ur0n27
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Post by S4ur0n27 »

Hairy pink death claws are fags, though. They have cutex.
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Post by fallout ranger »

the hairy dclaws were ghey...

Deathclaws would have to be taken from a distance, or U R DED FAGET
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Post by Sovy Kurosei »

Then I am guessing that the HtH dude will be going stealthboy whenever deathclaws come around? Or running away and becoming the first ever "AthleticsBoy". Or a generic pansy, whichever is better form fitting.

Nah, parrying is a bad idea, considering that it is like trying to stop a grizzly from bitchslapping you.

However, if anything, we need the mean, badass deathclaws like those found in Fallout 1. No sissy, sheepclaws that you can blink at and they would fall over in a heap.
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Post by fallout ranger »

thank you, deathclaws were pretty badass in FOT though...
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