Joshua Sawyer Formspring posts/2011

A collection of Formspring statements by Joshua Sawyer.
Posts
JESawyer 1 Jan 11
The Realpolitik analyses of the NCR and the Legion were outlined quite well by Marcus in New Vegas. But what are your ultimate thoughts on House?
He's a laissez-faire dictator. "Do whatever you want as long as you don't cross me." Mr. House doesn't care about other people and what they do as long as Vegas remains prosperous and he remains in control.
JESawyer 1 Jan 11
What was the design goal behind armor classes in FNV? In all honesty, heavy armor seems to be by a large margin the best choice to me, the movement penalty being more an annoyance than anything else compared to the advantages.
The DT system in place in F:NV means that in certain circumstances, armor with a lower DT may actually be just as effective at reducing damage as armor with higher DT -- and light/medium armor typically weighs less than comparable heavy armor.
For example, take T-45d and combat armor. DT 22 vs. DT 16. Against many pistols, SMGs, most lasers, shotguns wielded by most enemies (meaning at well below optimal condition and nowhere near 100% skill), the DAM they do is dwarfed by the DT of both armors. I.e. the benefit maxes out at 80% reduction, so it doesn't matter whether the shot is hitting T-45d or combat armor once it gets to that point. T-45d weighs more but grants +2 ST and a radiation resist bonus at the cost of -2 AG.
Against enemies that do large amounts of damage per shot (with rifles, higher end revolvers, or plasma weapons for example), heavy armor becomes increasingly important. However, those are also the enemies where being able to move quickly (to cover, or simply backwards) becomes more important since the consequences of being hit at all can be terrible.
Personally, I usually play in light/medium armor (preferably with Travel Light) with pistols or rifles because I would much rather move quickly. My 360 playthrough was completed in combat armor, reinforced mk. ii. On another playthrough I was running around in Vault 34 security armor with Travel Light and I didn't usually feel under-protected.
JESawyer 1 Jan 11
Was it a deliberate decision to make 10mm weapons very common in vaults and 9mm weapons common outside of them? It felt like 10mm weapons were more military or vault-tec issue while 9mm were civilian.
Yes. 10mm weapons seemed more "vaulty"/futuristic in my mind.
JESawyer 1 Jan 11
Merry Christmas! .....you won't answer this with a long explanation on why you don't celebrate Christmas, right?
I'm not Christian.
JESawyer 1 Jan 11
Some people (myself included) bemoan how vague the ME-style summarized conversation wheel approach some developers use for dialogue in RPGs as opposed to having the options given to you word for word. Having used both approaches, which do you prefer?
Since both need to be localized and displayed, I'd prefer a toggled option for "Brief/Verbose". I also like the presentation style used by the upcoming Deus Ex: Human Revolution. When you highlight the "keyword" it shows the full text of the line below.
JESawyer 1 Jan 11
christmas is the idea of giving and reuniting with family, you jackass. you don't have to be christian to celebrate the idea.
i never thought of that thanks spirit of christmas
JESawyer 1 Jan 11
Where are the citizens of the Mojave and the Sierra Madre finding all those bear traps?
Acme Bear Trap truck.
JESawyer 2 Jan 11
Are the Followers of the Apocalypse a Christian group? If not, what's with the cross?
You'd have to ask the original Fallout developers why the Followers use/are associated with the fleury cross. We just continued the association. As to their beliefs, I think the actions and dialogues of their members should be the authority on that topic.
JESawyer 2 Jan 11
Was the specific location of the Sierra Madre left vague intentionally? If so, why? It's certainly a break from attributing settings close to the real world. (Excluding Mothership Zeta, of course.)
Other than topics relating to weapons and a few of the perks, I am not the guy to ask Dead Money questions. Sorry.
JESawyer 2 Jan 11
Would you describe yourself as the brilliant and eloquent voice of a generation?
what no
JESawyer responded to hockeysteve54 2 Jan 11
I'm assuming Joana was modeled after Christina Hendricks?
I have no idea, honestly.
JESawyer responded to Letanas 3 Jan 11
Who thought up and/or designed the Laser RCW? That was a great way of including the Thompson without having .45 ACP in the game.
I did. I thought there should be an automatic laser weapon available earlier than the Gatling laser and figured a Thompson-based SMG using ECPs could be cool. I was worried people would be mad about it since they didn't get a "real" Thompson, but it seems most people like it.
It probably helps that it's a pretty good weapon.
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
Was it a conscious decision to make automatic weapons so much rarer in this game?
Not specifically, but I tried to avoid equipping "outdoors" characters with inaccurate ranged weapons since, other than the minigun, .22 SMG, and laser RCW, the automatic weapons are all pretty horrible past moderate distances.
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
Obsidian should get on making a shadowrun game, preferably using the 2nd edition setting, just saying is all.
k
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
I know that you wrote a couple of the quests, including Return To Sender, but did you help write any parts of the main storyline of New Vegas? If so, what parts?
For the most part, I only wrote high-level documents. I didn't write any of the plot-critical characters and I didn't do detailed area development or implementation.
I wrote our RDC (Region Design Constraints) documents, which had a basic overview of the concepts/conflicts for all of the primary locations (e.g. Goodsprings, Mojave Outpost, the vaults, The Strip, Nellis AFB, etc.) and I did the initial write-ups for the companions (just a page each covering their basic concept, background, personality, voice, and intended plot arc).
Let me just do a mini-writing credits dump to answer a lot of common questions here. Most of the major plot characters (Benny, Victor, Caesar, Mr. House) and the main story itself were written by the game's creative lead, John Gonzalez. Eric Fenstermaker wrote Veronica and Boone. Chris Avellone wrote Cass, Lanius, and Oliver. Travis Stout wrote Lily and Raul. Most of the other characters, major and minor, were split between the writers above and other area designers. Of course the actual full design treatments, quests, and implementation of areas were done by the area designers.
The only "big" characters I wrote were Chief Hanlon, Arcade Gannon, and President Kimball's speech. Also I just wrote/structured the dialogue in GECK. The design, implementation, and scripting for the associated quests of those dialogues (Return to Sender, For Auld Lang Syne, You'll Know It When You See It/Arizona Killer) were handled by Matt McLean, Travis Stout, Jeff Husges, and Charlie "Master of Hoover" Staples.
Most of the content design and generation I did was for game systems (SPECIAL + gambling/Caravan + equipment).
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
was u involved on fallout 1 and 2 ?
No. I only worked on Van Buren at Black Isle and Fallout: New Vegas.
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
If you could make any book into a video game, what book or book series would you use?
La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel by François Rabelais.
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
haha ur pants are full of gruel
omg
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
Perhaps Mr. House is 'dictatorial' to the extent that he won't permit anyone to breach his quasi-governmental monopoly on force, but otherwise I'm not sure what you mean by 'laissez-faire dictator,' which seems like one heck of an oxymoron.
He doesn't place many restrictions on people -- or on businesses -- but he always gets his cut, and when he does make a decree, it's absolute. New Vegas is a place where people have to feel like they can do whatever they want. Mr. House doesn't restrict sexual behavior, drug use, or most other types of personal behavior. The only people who really feel his direct presence are representatives of other governments, those who explicitly cross him, and the heads of the families who have to give him a share of his profits.
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
oh so that's why you made a bad game. cuz u only worked on one that was canceled trolololol.
Q_____________________________Q
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
Your writing in New Vegas along with what I've seen of Van Buren have fascinated me for quite a while. So, if you don't consider yourself a brilliant voice of a generation as asked below, what do you think of yourself? If I may ask.
A very fortunate person.
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
Jesse Heinig said that phased obsolescence of weapon skills was not a design goal in Fallout 1 at all. Any comment on that?
He would know better than I. It was presumptuous of me to say that those were goals, but that is the conclusion I reached from observing the distribution, stats, and tactical applications of weapons in F1. My apologies to Mr. Heinig.
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
lol that anon likes to suck up. your writing is bland and forgettable.
@_@
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
What do you think of the attitude of some (luckily, actually a minority) modders that outright insult the developers of the game they're working on and claiming that they're doing "better"?
Insulting people is generally a bad idea unless you're looking to make enemies. If they enjoy the changes they make, then obviously it's better for them. That's the most important thing.
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
I think that I am in love with you.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm I doubt that.
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
I loved the audio design in the dead money DLC - I wonder who was responsible for that? Pretty good job done there.
The audio was done by Obsidian's internal audio team with Scott Lawlor at the helm.
JESawyer 3 Jan 11
I really appreciate you doing this. It's rare to have the opportunity to ask a developer direct questions. I don't have a question, I just wanted to say thanks.
np
JESawyer 4 Jan 11
Why is it so hard to get a haircut in this game?
Hair never changes.
JESawyer 5 Jan 11
I just read that Charisma affects companion stats in FO:NV. Really? Nowhere in the manual or the game does it say or imply this. Does this mean that Charisma isn't a laughable dump stat after all?
The Vit-O-Matic tells you it affects Nerve. Nerve gives combat bonuses to your companions.
JESawyer 5 Jan 11
You've been deeply involved in several canned projects in your career. How do you creatively and mentally move on from such a massive unfulfilled investment? Do you bring elements with you, or bury them and start over? [ps.Loved the original G:SS world.]
First, I don't believe any project will be signed until the ink is drying. A publisher's word is effectively worthless until a contract is finalized. Second, I don't believe any project will be completed until it's actually shipped.
I don't invest as much into projects as I used to because I eventually realized a simple fact: these projects are not ours. They belong to the publishers. If they want to change mechanics, cut the budget, chop half of the areas, demand a story re-write, push it out a quarter too early, or simply cancel the game -- they can.
What the publisher cares about is often not what the developer cares about, what what the publisher wants or needs is the bottom line. We are professional contractors doing work for hire, and forgetting that can lead to terrible burn out and disappointment.
JESawyer 6 Jan 11
poop head how many questions have u got unanswered
Over 1000.
JESawyer 6 Jan 11
Gamepro this month has an article on the lack of new consoles and they say it's frustrating for developers because they don't know when or if there will be new hardware, and they don't know how to distinguish their games on current hardware. Agree?
Personally, I'm fine working on the current hardware, but some companies are very technology-driven.
JESawyer 6 Jan 11
What skills do you tag when playing Fallout-- the originals or the newer ones?
In earlier Fallouts, Small Guns/Sneak/Speech was my "default". My first F:NV run was (I think) Guns/Repair/Speech. I also really enjoyed an Unarmed/Explosives/Survival run.
JESawyer 6 Jan 11
What role had the additional Bethesda writers in F:NV? With all due respect, but I doubt producers/QA testers would write characters..nonetheless, I'm curious.
They wrote some of the barkstring voice sets for generic NPCs.
JESawyer 6 Jan 11
I love playing as a sort-of secret agent for Mr. House and working for the NCR and Legion to put them against each other... it works so well I was wondering if that was considered during design?
Yes, very much so. We were trying to avoid two problems 1) making a faction choice early on in the game that gives you little exposure to the other factions 2) making a faction choice at the end of the game that made your prior decisions feel irrelevant.
I think John and the other designers did a great job of making the player feel like they were on a slow path to forming an allegiance. Ultimately, you do have to pick a path, but the process is malleable and takes place over a lot of time.
JESawyer 6 Jan 11
Hey Josh just want to say I've liked and appreciated every game you've worked on that I know of. I'm curious about Dungeon Siege 3. Are you working on that at all? Any idea how long the story will be (compared to old ones). Sorry if this is a repeat Q
Thanks. I have not been involved in DS3 but I think the team is making a fun game. It's using our Onyx engine and I'm glad it's helping us build and showcase our internal technology.
JESawyer 6 Jan 11
Does patrolling the Mojave almost make you wish for a nuclear winter?
I like the sight of my own blood!
JESawyer 6 Jan 11
What is the coolest thing you know how to do?
When sabre fencing, I could do a variation on an aggressive, lunging parry prime into belly cut that in addition to being generally risky also left you in a terrible recovery position. But on the 10% of occasions I could pull it off it was awesome. That almost made blowing it/losing all of those other times worth it.
JESawyer 8 Jan 11
Is there a particular/primary reason as for why Obsidian has always lagged behind the rest of the industry from the technological point of view? Only now with Dungeon Siege III you finally seem to be recuperating.
The company has only been around for five and a half years and virtually all of our contracted projects have been sequels/add-ons to existing IPs. Publishers want to mitigate risks. New technology is usually a big risk.
Aliens was the first project to use Onyx and it was a bumpy road, but DS3 has been able to build on those two years of development. Rich Taylor, Vas Mavros, Chris Jones, and Javier Olivares, and all of the other DS3/Onyx programmers and developers have helped build a solid game and technology that can be used in the future.
JESawyer 8 Jan 11
It seems like ammo is a lot more plentiful out in the world in New Vegas compared to Fallout 3 (and perhaps the original 2 games). I know in Fallout 3 I had to constantly go back to Rivet City for more rifle ammo, but not in NV. Design decision?
Yes. The Mojave Wasteland is more populated and more technologically stable than the Capital Wasteland or the regions of F1/F2. There's also an active large-scale (well... relatively speaking) war going on with the Gun Runners providing a lot of the ordnance for the region.
Players can also reload/recycle. If you have Hand Loader (which necessitates a high Repair) or even Vigilant Recycler with Veronica, you can stretch your ammunition use out a bit more.
JESawyer 8 Jan 11
What would be your specialty of choice if you became a crew member of a submarine?
I would be shot out of a torpedo tube with explosives attached to the top of my head.
JESawyer 8 Jan 11
I just moved up to Alaska from Texas and am working on acclimating to the winter up here. In Wisconsin did you ever get a block heater installed on your car? If so, was it worth it? Love New Vegas btw, the franchise needed a shot in the arm after FO3.
Thanks. I never owned a car in Wisconsin but block heaters can be pretty helpful. If your part of Alaska does get very low temperatures, I'd recommend it. If you have a diesel engine, just get one; cold diesels can have a lot of trouble starting.
JESawyer 9 Jan 11
I'm doing a melee/unarmed playthrough and it's much easier than my first two games (guns and energy weapons). It seems like I can kill everything in a few hits and never get hurt thanks to +DT perks. Have you done an unarmed playthough and do you agree?
I have but I don't fully agree. Unarmed and Melee are "feast or famine" builds. When you rock, you rock. When you suck, you suck. The circumstances make a big difference in Unarmed/Melee. Specifically, if the targets are a) spread out and using high DAM weapons or b) high DAM, high health Unarmed/Melee opponents, you can have difficulty.
Many people use Unarmed/Melee as a second, third, or fourth run-through build. Having a general idea of where enemies are (and what they are) is very important for Unarmed/Melee -- more than with Guns or EW. If you get the drop on enemies, you can end fights before they begin, even outside of sneaking. I've played through most areas of the game so many times that It doesn't usually matter what type of weapons I'm using as long as they're somewhat appropriate for the enemies' HP/DT.
That said, I'm fine with people generally feeling Unarmed/Melee are more powerful than other weapon types. If you look at it from a pure DAM/DPS perspective, there are certainly weapons that outshine the top tier Unarmed/Melee weapons and don't require you to be within 5' of the target. But when Unarmed/Melee shines, it feels tremendously powerful, and I think that's good for people who want to specialize in it.
JESawyer 9 Jan 11
Not asking about Fallout DLC or any DLC in particular, but in general do you like DLC or do you miss larger expansion packs? Which would you prefer to do for future games? Bonus: What was your favorite expac ever?
I think small DLC packs can be fine as long as I get something worth paying for. I don't really miss "full" expansions.
My favorite expansion is Age of Empires II: The Conquerors. A lot of new content and some welcome fixes to gameplay issues with core AoE2.
JESawyer responded to adurdin 11 Jan 11
In Fallout 3, the Karma rating affected how people saw you, a little bit. In FNV, it seems to be largely irrelevant. Certainly it takes a back seat to your faction standing. What effect does Karma have in FNV, and why did you keep it in the design?
It has very little effect. It's mostly just there for player feedback, a stat like "Number of Corpses Eaten". Other than Cass, I can't think of anyone who responds to it in game. It is reflected in the end slides, but doesn't have a huge impact.
JESawyer 11 Jan 11
How much of a vacation do you get between projects?
It depends on the project. When New Vegas wrapped up, I took four days and a weekend off to go hiking in Zion National Park, Utah.
JESawyer 11 Jan 11
When Valve says that if Steam ever shuts down they will patch it out of all Steamworks games, does that count for only Valve games or all Steamworks games (like New Vegas)? I would think it would need to be in the contract, so I thought you might know.
I have no idea, sorry.
JESawyer responded to Spockrock 11 Jan 11
heeey, what happened to my question? It says you answered it, but I can't find the answer. or does it mean you deleted it? the question was about game design personalities
Yeah I wanted to re-phrase something but it never re-appeared in my queue. Sorry about that. My answer was:
Keita Takahashi. He focuses on player-oriented goals and ignores advice from people who would make it difficult to reach those goals.
JESawyer 11 Jan 11
The cannibal dude in the White Glove Society responds to your karma, asking you for help only if you are evil. Just an FYI.
oic
JESawyer 12 Jan 11
Dude I'm sorry but I know you won't reply to this but you will read it. You guys at Obsidian really failed at Fallout New Vegas. Bethesda did such a terrific job with Fallout 3, making a wasteland that felt lived in and realistic. But the Mojave was bland
ok
JESawyer 12 Jan 11
Zion National Park is beautiful did you do any rock climbing or just hiking/camping.
Hiking and camping from Kolob Canyons/Lee Pass entrance to the West Rim (La Verkin, Hop Valley, Connector, and Wildcat trails).
JESawyer 12 Jan 11
Was Ayn Rand by any chance part of the inspiration for Mr. House? He seems very much like her type of heroic businessman and laissez-faire capitalist.
He was most heavily inspired by Howard Hughes. John Gonzalez created and wrote all of Mr. House's dialogue, so he might be able to offer more detailed insight.
JESawyer 12 Jan 11
RIDE THE SNAKE
@__@
JESawyer 12 Jan 11
Who designed the Vit-O-Matic tester? More specifically, who wrote the descriptions for the different levels of the stats?
Eric Fenstermaker.
JESawyer 12 Jan 11
So i herd u like mudkipz?
:3
JESawyer 12 Jan 11
Does it annoy you to see something like Icewind Dale 2 on gog.com and know you don't get any money from that? You undoubtedly had a big hand in making that game something people would still want to play 10 years later, but devs get no royalties.
I've only been paid royalties once in my career and that was for (the first) Icewind Dale. With very few exceptions, publishers have the upper hand when it comes to these sorts of deals. I'm used to it.
JESawyer 12 Jan 11
You seem to come from a singleplayer CRPG background so I was wondering if you ever really enjoyed an MMO? If so which one(s)?
I enjoyed WoW for a while (about 5 months when it first came out) but MMOs aren't really my style. Even in single player CRPGs I don't play for leveling or loot.
JESawyer 12 Jan 11
Is there a particular theme you had in mind for Arcade and his endings? ...Also, why is he slightly taller than most other human NPCs?
*~ Arcade Spoilers Within ~*
Arcade's conflict is about his identity. He is torn between a sense of loyalty and tradition to his father and adoptive family and a desire to be independent, self-made. He feels caught between generations and cultures and isn't sure who he should be or how, if at all, to use the "legacy" (material and otherwise) left to him by his father.
Arcade's endings are intended to reflect that no one is damaged more by reality than the idealist. He does his best to be practical and rational, but there is a strong idealist streak in him/the Followers in general. In some of Arcade's "best" endings (meaning, the circumstances he thought he wanted), he is still somewhat disappointed by how things turned out. In his "worst" endings, he can wind up bitterly disillusioned, brutally murdered, crucified, casually executed and discarded in a ditch, or even defiantly suicidal.
Arguably the worst ending is the one in which Arcade is given to Caesar as an enslaved doctor. The existence is so unbearable to him that he does what the historical Cato the Younger did at Utica: rather than give Caesar satisfaction, he disembowels himself. Like Cato, Arcade cannot live in a world where everything he tried to resist has come to pass.
JESawyer 13 Jan 11
Any kind of opinion/comment on the Bethesda vs. Interplay lawsuit?
Nope.
JESawyer 14 Jan 11
any kind of opinion/comment on that really gay and stupid game that came out recently called fallout new vegas aka a knock off of fallout 3?
LMAO!!!!
JESawyer 15 Jan 11
i saw a cazador the other day frightful creatures
goodbye.
JESawyer 15 Jan 11
so like what are you working on now?
yeah
JESawyer 15 Jan 11
I'm planning to purchase a revolver for use at the range (not home defense). In my experience, .22 is too small to be satisfying and .500 has too much kickback to be fun. Any recommendations of particular models within that range?
That's a pretty big range. Double-action .357 Magnum revolvers have a lot of versatility. Most ranges allow you to rent range guns and .357 Magnum revolvers are pretty common (e.g. Ruger GP 100). I'd suggest renting one with range reload bags of .38 Special and .357 Magnum to see what feels comfortable. If for some reason you feel you need something more powerful (though it would be pretty weird for indoor range shooting), a .44 Magnum offers some similar versatility since it can also fire .44 Special. Ranges typically don't have .44 Special ammunition available, but many gun stores do.
As for specific models, your comfort level is more important than what I think. I assumed I would really like shooting the Ruger Super Blackhawk, but I didn't like how it rested in my hands. I switched over to a S&W 629 and it felt much better. Both were firing .44 Magnum, so it was purely an ergonomics issue.
JESawyer 16 Jan 11
Why doesn´t it rain in the Mojave? And why did u make the color palette so mixed? As Fallout 3 had only green/brown, but ur game is like a bag of candies, so It´s a bit confusing and makes the game lack a bit of its own style. I still love the game thou
It doesn't rain in the Mojave Wasteland because the real Mojave Desert exists in a rain shadow. Rain is extremely infrequent.
It would be very difficult to portray any active version of Las Vegas without using a wide variety of color. Las Vegas is like an adult circus and the attractions and signs employ a huge variety of color.
JESawyer 16 Jan 11
Any technical reasons for the lack of rain?
Not as far as I know.
JESawyer 16 Jan 11
While it's nice that FNV has so many different guns and ammo types and mods to use, did you ever worry you might be going overboard with them? I recall you and a few others criticizing Fallout 2 for doing the same thing back on the old Black Isle forums.
There are a lot of ammo types in F:NV, but there are a few things I did to prevent the player from being overwhelmed. First, subtypes don't drop in the world. There are a very small number of places where the player will ever find subtypes outside of stores. Second, I tried to ensure that every ammo type was used by at least two weapons (.50 MG, 25mm Grenades, Missiles, and Mini-Nukes are the exceptions) so there weren't weird "rogue" ammo types. Third, because of how weapons tier, the player will eventually stop seeing certain ammo types unless they go "slumming" against low power critters. 5.56mm is the only ammo type that is used consistently in weapons at all power levels throughout the game. 9mm, .357 Magnum, .22LR, and even 10mm all eventually fall by the wayside for most players.
For players who like to keep their ammo types simple (and don't want to use Melee/Unarmed), Energy Weapons is the way to go. Excluding MF Breeder, there are only four main ammo types: Energy Cells, Micro Fusion Cells, Electron Charge Packs, and Flamer Fuel. There's also the Alien Power Cell and ARCHIMEDES II charge, but those are specialty items. With a good Science skill -- and especially with Vigilant Recycler -- players can manage ammo very easily.
JESawyer 17 Jan 11
One ammo type I liked in particular is the coin shot for the 12 gauge shotgun. Although I never really use/used it, it's a special kind of creativity the way your team implemented a way to reuse the open wastefulness of metal used in making Legion Denarii
It's really just a rip-off of old western legends about putting shells full of dimes in shotguns. When I was writing Chief Hanlon, I went back and watched some early Kris Kristofferson films since he was going to be playing the role. One of the first I watched was a Peckinpah film called Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
There's a scene in it where an overzealous guard threatens Billy (played by Kristofferson) with a double-barreled shotgun filled with dime shot. Naturally, Billy eventually blows the guard away with the weapon. There's a slow-motion shot of all the dimes flying out of the barrels; mass destruction ensues.
I read the comprehensive report on (poor) dime penetration at theboxoftruth.com but decided to create coin shot anyway. It's mostly included for novelty/flavor value. Fun trivia: historical denarii were about the right size to fit into a 12 ga. bore, though they probably wouldn't fit inside of a shell.
JESawyer 17 Jan 11
Was there a reason behind the many similarities between Robert House and the Master? Was House intended to be the Master of the Mojave? Since both of them had/have their armies of super mutants and securitrons, I couldn't help but make a connection.
Personally, I don't think they are all that similar. They're both physically isolated weirdos with armies of brutes, but I think their motives and personalities are quite different.
JESawyer 17 Jan 11
Do you have a personal philosophy which you try to at least partically represent in your games, either through the storyline or through specific characters?
Humanity makes the world a terrible place because we're generally terrible to each other and everything around us.
JESawyer 19 Jan 11
How do you reconcile your emo cynicism with fact that the whole world is high-five awesomesauce and almost everybody in it is a pretty cool guy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbwSwvUaRqc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WV6Bq8xeQrU
http://dreadnaught.wordpress.com/20...rica-video-of-accused-witches-being-murdered/
http://charlestaylortrial.wordpress...regnant-women-kill-babies-and-amputate-limbs/
JESawyer 20 Jan 11
Anecdotal evidence used to make blanket generalizations is bad form. What do you do when someone presents a story of a guy who lives in comfort and safety and makes games for a living instead of fighting for survival every day against all the evil people?
I say what I have always said: I am extremely fortunate. So are millions of other people who live unsustainable high-consumption lives here and in other well-off countries.
You asked a question about how I reconcile things. If you aren't personally convinced by the sort of things that convince me, that's fine.
JESawyer 21 Jan 11
What was it like being lead singer for as broadly an influential band as Toad the Wet Sprocket? Do you ever regret leaving the limelight to pursue a career in electronic gaming?
idgi is this some other white guy with short dark hair i look like (all of them)???
JESawyer 21 Jan 11
Does Arcade talk the way he does because he really wants to reveal his past, or because he thinks everyone's stupid and won't catch on? For someone who doesn't want to talk about his past he's sure bad at shutting up about it.
He talks that way because you're playing a game and if he never let anything slip about his past it would never be revealed or would have to be revealed through a third party. All things considered, there are not many instances in the wasteland where he talks about anything Enclave-related prior to beginning For Auld Lang Syne. If you're looking at a strat guide or wiki and hopping from trigger location to trigger location, obviously he says a lot in sequence. Most people aren't going to randomly hop from Silver Rush to the Crashed Vertibird to REPCONN HQ.
JESawyer 21 Jan 11
I know you're a guy but I'll ask anyway: is it hard for women to get work as a designer in the game industry? You rarely hear about any, and on the chance you do they often end up being made fun of and having their credibility questioned.
I can't speak with global authority on this, but women, like any of the other groups of people who make up a minority of the game dev workforce, seem to get hired in numbers proportional to their application. I.e. not many women are hired but not many women apply in the first place.
In my experience, female artists are more common than female designers, who in turn are more common than female programmers. I'm pretty sure I've only worked with one female programmer in my 11 year career. I've also only worked with one female audio engineer, but audio teams are generally much smaller than other disciplines.
Fallout: New Vegas has more women on the team than any I've worked with before, mostly artists, designers, and world builders.
I've heard some bad stories about discrimination at some companies; it's absurd that this sort of thing is still happening in the 21st century.
JESawyer 21 Jan 11
What would you say is the most amusing glitch you've seen in New Vegas?
There was a bug where if you completed For Auld Lang Syne by killing Moreno, his corpse still flop out of the vertibird at Hoover Dam with the other Remnants. I like to imagine that Cannibal Johnson was dragging him along out of spite.
JESawyer 21 Jan 11
I for one was psyched when the Gun Runners were announced to be in game, but I found myself a bit disappointed with their role. Were they planned to have a bigger role (quests, NPCs) or was their existence in the game planned how it is from the beginning?
Because the Gun Runners are such a huge source of gear for players, I wanted to avoid having them be heavily involved in many quests. They were never intended to be a high profile group.
JESawyer 21 Jan 11
LOL
Q__Q
JESawyer 21 Jan 11
What emotion does this "Q_Q" express?
a crying face!!
JESawyer 21 Jan 11
oh no there's an inch and a half of powdered sugar-like snow outside what do I doooooo help me mighty Wisconsinite
just put on some more layers jeez louise.
JESawyer 21 Jan 11
LOL @ Q_Q! I'm skipping my Russian class to mess around on your formspring. Isn't like grand?
??? ? ?????.
JESawyer 21 Jan 11
hey je thats some nice google translating
cool but it wasn't google translated thx tho
JESawyer responded to Spockrock 21 Jan 11
ha! Josh can ??-?????? ) I wonder what the chances of you actually knowing how to say "got to school" in russian are. You did mention you'd been to Moscow on one occasion, though. could it be that you have such a good memory?
No. I can read Cyrillic but I don't know Russian. I just looked up the imperative mood for second person singular "go" with the prepositional case for "to school".
JESawyer 22 Jan 11
How come the Fallout setting has all kinds of big casinos and weapons manufacturers, but no company that produces food? You'd think producing edible food would be a top priority but everyone just eats old, scavenged, rotten junk food from before the war.
That's not true. In the Mojave Wasteland, there are a lot of personal farms in communities and larger farms near New Vegas proper. OSI runs sharecropper farms northeast of Camp McCarran and the Westside Co-op is a shared community farm.
Also, guys like Heck Gunderson and Walter Phebus are NCR "Brahmin barons" and supply a large amount of the area's meat.
JESawyer responded to Oloremo 22 Jan 11
Hey, hello from Russia! F:NV - was awesome. After F3 I not wait anything good from it but I was suprised. Thanks for your work.
Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
JESawyer 22 Jan 11
Know you're a big cheese fan, just wanted to ask if you ever have a good beer with any of the cheeses. As a big fan of micro-brews - all I hear is how well some of them (mainly porters/stouts) go with certain cheeses, but haven't tried a sampling yet.
I generally don't drink any alcohol. Sometimes I will try a type of food with a cheese (e.g. dates or olives) if it's a recommended pairing, but usually I like to eat cheese on bread or crackers -- or just by itself. Good cheddars can be eaten on their own.
JESawyer 25 Jan 11
Was Freeside inspired by New Reno from Fallout 2? Certainly felt that way to me, one of the coolest areas of the game.
Yes, definitely in overall feel.
JESawyer 25 Jan 11
shut the phuck up
thanks for softening the blow with the ph.
JESawyer 25 Jan 11
Did you get to sit in on the voiceover recording sessions at all for New Vegas? It seems like sometimes the developers have a lot of input on that but in other cases it's all handled by the publisher.
I was at Arcade's and Chief Hanlon's sessions and many of the other designers/writers were present for their characters. A lot of the background/secondary characters were recorded concurrently, so there wasn't always a designer/writer present.
JESawyer 27 Jan 11
So how cool was Zach Levi?
Very cool. He was extremely friendly, laid back, and gave a great performance. Arcade has some long and complex lines and Zach usually knocked them out in one take with little to no outside direction.
JESawyer 29 Jan 11
how come you keep sending me screenshots of fallout NV mods that are apparently all designed by pedophiles
PC gaming.
JESawyer 29 Jan 11
WHY CANT I EAT CHEESE IN NEW VEGAS???? ARAYFSYAFJH
That's how you know it's the apocalypse.
JESawyer 29 Jan 11
Who is Zach levi?
Listen to your friend Zach Levi. He's a cool dude
JESawyer 29 Jan 11
Have you ever trolled?
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,26242/
JESawyer 29 Jan 11
It seems like energy weapons got a lot of love in New Vegas, especially after the patch changing how their ammo worked. Was that a deliberate decision, or just kind of flowed from changes you were making to the weapons in general?
Energy Weapons, especially in the low- and mid-range, were lacking prior to the last patch. The ammo and weapon modifications were to address general dissatisfaction with the EWs as a whole.
JESawyer 30 Jan 11
did you work on knights of the old republic 2 at all?
No.
JESawyer 2 Feb 11
Not sure if this has been asked before, but do fans or other people sometimes send you their game concepts and ideas? Do you enjoy reading them?
They sometimes do, but they shouldn't. Anything submitted to us (or pretty much any company) effectively becomes ours. If you have a cool idea for a game, keep it to yourself or make it on your own. Game developers have no shortage of ideas for games coming from publishers and (less commonly) from within the company.
JESawyer 2 Feb 11
What was the most difficult part of developing FO:NV?
Projecting the scope of the world eighteen months ahead of release. It's difficult to get a sense of how large the world is when you can only look at a few pieces at a time, especially since the technology base was entirely new to us. But once we had established a world scale that seemed reasonable, we really had to stick to it. The scope determined the pace that we had to work at, which became marathon-like after a few milestones.
JESawyer 3 Feb 11
Can I be your 500th response?
sure
JESawyer 3 Feb 11
what will fallout 5 be about
you
JESawyer 3 Feb 11
I just would like to say I really enjoyed playing Fallou New Vegas. You did a very good job!!
thx
JESawyer 3 Feb 11
I'd just like to congratulate you and the team at Obsidian for the RPG of the year awards and other awards you guys won for New vegas.
thx
JESawyer 4 Feb 11
what? new vegas won something? i bet bethesda paid for those awards because new vegas BLOWED! (compared to other games and fo3)
hmm i c
JESawyer responded to hockeysteve54 4 Feb 11
Which Civil War General do you think is the dreamiest?
Sherman unless you count Chamberlain as a general.
JESawyer 8 Feb 11
What's the premise for Caesar's Legion being so sexist, esp. in a world where Ranger Stella can mangle bodies daily in the Arena? Is it just breeding issues? Cause even the abominably sexist Romans were not *that* sexist, and Caesar is a smart man.
Breeding issues are pretty huge in cultures that took a big step back from infant mortality progress made in the last 100-200 years. Prior to the last few centuries, infant mortality was often around 50%-ish. Child mortality (prior to age 12) was about 60%. Those are pretty awful odds of reaching adulthood.
Remember that Caesar's Legion is basically a roving army that continually breaks down and absorbs tribes that it conquers. That can only go on for so long, and Legionaries who are indoctrinated from birth are even more loyal than adolescents who are integrated. Breeding new generations of Legionaries is vital for the Legion's continued existence.
Even though breeding is incredibly important in the Legion, there isn't any concept of family outside of the Legion's structure. All of the places where the player encounters the Legion are forward camps where direct military service is given the most weight and is of the most immediate importance. Because only males are involved in that service, they look down upon females even though it's incredibly short-sighted.
JESawyer 10 Feb 11
What's up with these bitchin' classical tracks in the new vegas music folders? Was there going to be an agatha style/ultra luxe radio station?
They play in the Ultra-Luxe.
JESawyer 10 Feb 11
do you smoke pot?
No.
JESawyer 10 Feb 11
The SW wiki site says that Mandalore the Ultimate was killed by Revan during the Mandalorian Wars and was then succeeded by Mandalore the Lesser who was also later killed. But Bioware's timeline trailers say that Lesser was killed by Ultimate! What happen
No idea.
JESawyer 10 Feb 11
Does the Mojave chapter of the BoS have any redeeming qualities?
Elder McNamara has cool hair.
JESawyer 10 Feb 11
I have read that you were in a production of Assassins. Is this true? If so, which assassin did you play?
I directed it.
JESawyer 10 Feb 11
Okay, whose idea was the Wrecked Highwayman? F-in awesome nostalgic moment, even made me start replaying Fallout 2 again.
Mine. I wanted to have a Highwayman trunk full of MFCs and the Tanker FOB in Van Buren.
JESawyer 10 Feb 11
will KOTOR 2 ever be available on steam
No idea.
JESawyer 10 Feb 11
did you seriously just pick sherman over lee?
The last time Lee was dreamy was probably 20 years prior to Appomattox. Sherman looked like he always had bedroom hair and had that rugged/beaten about the face Daniel Craig thing going on.
JESawyer 12 Feb 11
What was the reason behind rechambering the Varmint Rifle from 22s to 556s before the release?
Given its slow rate of fire, the low DAM of the weapon was irritating to people despite the weapon's high accuracy. I didn't want to have one .22LR weapon doing three times as much damage as another, so I figured it was best to switch it over to 5.56mm. It also gives the player the option of using .223 and (even better) 5.56mm AP or Surplus, which can be great against early enemies in Metal Armor.
JESawyer 14 Feb 11
yo bro i saw alpha protocol for $10 new is it worth it?
Ya.
JESawyer 15 Feb 11
How do you feel about how Boone turned out? At face value, a reticent, repentant sniper with a death-wish seems like a pretty troperiffic character, but he never strikes me as completely cliched. Do you feel you still could have expanded his character?
I think Eric Fenstermaker did a great job making Boone's arc feel complete. If anything, like Arcade, Boone suffers a bit from "too reticent" syndrome; i.e., without a guide, it's very hard to figure out how to get Boone to talk about his problems (note that in both cases, I wanted the characters to be more withdrawn than others, so the blame ultimately lies with me, not Eric). It does fit his character well, though.
JESawyer responded to julienBrun 15 Feb 11
Is creating and freely distribute a Fallout Tabletop RPG legal ?
You should ask Bethesda about that.
JESawyer 15 Feb 11
So, here's my first question : I think it's important for a Game Designer to think of the game's feeling, before doing anything else. In your opinion, what are the "feelings" a player should have when playing a Fallout game ?
Especially in a tabletop game, I think the feelings depend greatly on the type of players and GM. In a CRPG, designers ultimately are crafting experiences for a large audiences. I've seen so many tabletop games -- even within the same system/setting -- go in wildly different directions based on the players, that it's hard for me to feel comfortable defining how someone "should" feel when playing a Fallout game.
This may seem obvious/dumb to say, but I've always asked designers to keep the basic theme of Fallout (the unchanging nature/inevitability of human conflict) in mind at all times. Whether it acts as a major or minor theme in any given storyline, I believe it's central making the world feel as it does.
JESawyer responded to julienBrun 15 Feb 11
In the Fallout serie, what happened in Canada, before and after the Great War (besides the troubles with US and the Annexion) ? Was there any vault to protect the country from the bombing ?
I'd rather not comment on areas/groups that fall outside of what's already in the existing games. I think it's a bit presumptuous of me and unfair to other designers who may be working on the world in the future.
JESawyer 17 Feb 11
Is there a Fallout area / timeframe that you'd like to work in? You grew up in the midwest, would you have any inkling to do anything with that area?
Yes, I would enjoy developing a Fallout game in the Midwest. Specifically, I think the Milwaukee/Chicago/Gary area around southwestern Lake Michigan could be really cool.
JESawyer 17 Feb 11
Hey josh I was wondering how you guys decided on cutting back on the amount of unique guns.
I don't think we ever actually cut back on the number of unique guns. I only allocated a specific number of unique guns to be made for logistics reasons. I thought it was important for every unique weapon to have at least a unique texture, which meant that not every base weapon could have a unique variant.
JESawyer 21 Feb 11
Ran out of room with the recoil question. But I was also curious why the Weaver stance was chosen for each handgun? Or was it just re-used from Fallout 3?
Fallout 3 used what is colloquially called a "teacup" grip with an arm position that is similar to Weaver Stance and the support hand below the magwell. F:NV's 1H pistol grips were changed to a more traditional Weaver grip where the support hand wraps around the dominant hand.
Among other things, this allowed us to build extended magazines into weapons like the 9mm Pistol without having the mag penetrate the support hand.
JESawyer 21 Feb 11
Was realistic recoil implemented into some firearms? It seems like some firearms in game have adequate recoil for their real world counterparts. The BHP seems adequate enough. However, others definitely have less like the Anti-Materiel.
First, F3 and F:NV do not model recoil. Weapons have fixed spread values that can increase based on things like limb condition, running, etc. The speed with which you fire a weapon in F3 and F:NV has no effect on its spread.
The 9mm Pistol is a single-action short-recoil semi-auto pistol, so the operator has more than enough time to pull the trigger while recoil from the previous round is still significantly affecting the gun. So the 9mm Pistol has a high RoF but it also has some spread.
In contrast, the AMR is a bolt-action rifle with the equivalent of a .50 BMG round being fired out of it. The recoil effectively makes the rate of fire colossally slow, but when you fire it, it's very accurate.
JESawyer 21 Feb 11
How'd you feel about the hacking mini-game Bethesda designed? Was it because it wasn't received as well as the lock-picking mini-game that you guys decided to massively dial back its prominence and importance?
There was no intentional downscaling of the importance of hacking, but we did intentionally avoid doubling up locks with an optional hacking unlock. That was much more common in F3.
That said, in my experience talking to both players and developers, I'd estimate that roughly 80-90% of the people who played F3 or F:NV do not fully understand how the hacking minigame works. I observed the following things regularly:
* People did not understand that the number of correct letters meant letters IN THE CORRECT POSITION OF THE WORD.
* People did not understand that higher Science = fewer words to choose from given a terminal of "Hard" or easier difficulty. I.e., it is valuable to raise your Science before hacking even if you already meet the minimum requirement.
* People had no idea that you could do special character searches in the "garbage" characters to remove duds/replenish guesses.
When people knew these things, they seemed to enjoy the hacking minigame much more, for obvious reasons.
JESawyer responded to Skellapeal 21 Feb 11
What class do you play as in DnD? Also, Do you prefer 4th edition or 3.5?
I'm playing a tiefling (cunning) bard in a Dark Sun campaign right now, but my main character is a human warden in the Scales of War campaign.
The more I play 4th Edition, the more I like it, but I've only ever played in heroic tier. I really enjoyed the "mid-level" play (6th to 15th) in 3.5. So far I like the low-level game in 4E more, but I need to see how paragon and beyond pans out.
JESawyer 21 Feb 11
Hey Josh, should I get the VW Golf R when it is released here in the States? Will it raise my Coolness Quotient significantly enough with the ladies?
My R32 is a really good car, but it's still a Mk. IV Golf with all of the problems that brings (e.g. electrical problems, chassis flexibility). Everything I've read about the Golf R has been good. It still uses a Haldex AWD setup, but oh well. It's factory turbocharged, which makes modding for power easy (if you like that sort of thing) and the U.S. is getting manual only, no-DSG (definitely plus for me, and I think the Mk. V R32 being DSG only in the U.S. was a big mistake)
The STi is the most obvious competition to it. Performance-wise, it's a significant step up from the Golf R. I've always driven German cars, so I'm used to the layout and feel of VWs, Audis and BMWs and can't quite get used to the Japanese alternatives. But the STi is a really great hatchback.
JESawyer 22 Feb 11
Why do I feel like New Vegas has so much wasted space? One of the examples I can think of is traveling north to the 188 Trading post. The whole left side of the road is just sand and ants.
You probably feel that way because the Mojave Wasteland is much flatter than the Capital Wasteland. Ringing El Dorado dry lake are HELIOS One, Vault 11, and El Dorado Gas and Service. The density of locations is pretty similar to F3.
JESawyer 23 Feb 11
Arcade might be the most fascinating CRPG character ever. Great job.
Thanks.
JESawyer 23 Feb 11
Is there a reason you wrote so many lines for Kris Kristofferson? One of the best parts in NV is shooting the shit with him (and Caesar, who is played like a very literate college football coach)
I just thought it made sense for the character. He's old by NCR military standards and he's been relegated to the back lines (relatively-speaking), so he's more than happy to talk to someone outside of the military about his past and his opinions on what's currently happening.
JESawyer responded to Felrender 24 Feb 11
Who did the dialogue/interactions in Dead Money? Christine in particular stands out as an excellently-written and developed character.
Chris Avellone.
JESawyer 26 Feb 11
who would win in an arm-wrestling contest: you or chris avellone?
Chris Avellone, easily. I have weak arms.
JESawyer 26 Feb 11
I heard you went to Zion National Park? Did you find any Honest Hearts there?
Honest hearts produce honest actions.
JESawyer 26 Feb 11
Is Advanced Power Armor air-conditioned?
Remnants Armor has a built in ventilation/cooling system.
JESawyer 27 Feb 11
??????
!!!!!!!!!
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Did you enjoy Arcade's performance at the Academy Awards?
Yeah he owns.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Why do so many role playing video games insist on using tedious, bloated HP systems?
Because the vast majority of players have no problem with basic HP mechanics.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Does the Sierra Madre have any real-world equivalent or source of inspiration?
That's a question for Chris Avellone.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Did you consider adding vehicles? It really wouldn't matter that it was unrealistic (just give them some sci-fi power source), because it would make the game so much more fun. You need more radio stations too.
I never seriously considered adding vehicles. To do it "right" would have been a huge undertaking.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Why was the stealth effect removed from the Chinese stealth suits? Was it just that it made sneaking too easy?
Pretty much.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
r u a fgreakig homo
ffffffffffffffffffffffffffarttt
JESawyer responded to SRSGiraffe 28 Feb 11
What do you think about Extra Credits? http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2681-Amnesia-and-Story-Structure
I like everything about it except for the "HA!" at the beginning and the use of the "lollipop guild" voice effect throughout. The actual content is good.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Was going into the video game industry always your goal, or did you start out wanting to do something else in college/high school?
Up until high school I wanted to be a fantasy illustrator and that's what I put most of my effort toward. In late middle school I started performing more in theatre and choir and that's eventually what I went to school for at the Lawrence Conservatory in Appleton, Wisconsin.
I was a bad student overall at Lawrence but I was worst as a music student. I switched over to the college with a history major, though I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do. I taught myself web design while I was in school, and that's what got me my job at Black Isle in 1999. Until that job, I had thought that it would be great to be a tabletop RPG designer, but I had no real plan for how to go about it.
I eventually got a chance to do development work on the original Icewind Dale and I ran with it from there. But the basic progression went fantasy illustrator > musical theatre performer > ??? > tabletop game designer > web designer > video game designer.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
why was Icewind Dale so different in comparison to pretty much everything else Black Isle and Obsidian have done? it seemed like it was pretty much just made to be a game for bros who just wanted to get drunk and kill some shit on a saturday night.
Dark Alliance 2 was much easier to get into/understand than Icewind Dale and IWD2. Even though the IWD games were heavily focused on combat, AD&D 2nd Ed. and 3E rules aren't that easy for "drunk bros" to pick up, especially when you're expected to manage an entire party.
They were developed primarily because they could be made on a compressed schedule and because they filled a different niche than the Baldur's Gate games.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
don't see The Rite it fucking sucks
I have to I love all movies about Satan.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
I loved Alpha Protocol despite its shortcomings. What was your input on it? Does Obsidian have any plans for a game with a similar degree of reactivity?
I offered high-level input on the game concept at the very beginning of development, but the only thing I contributed to the final product was the design of the CQC/hand-to-hand combat.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
What's your thoughts on Cannabis? I just guessed you're the sort of guy who grows his own and smokes it, never have been good at that though.
The only drug I use is caffeine, but I'd much rather be around people high on pot than people drunk on alcohol. I think it should be decriminalized in a sensible manner.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Can you explain the concept of the picture in that link under your name? Dogs look cute though.
Diogenes of Sinope lived in a tub and (among many other things) thought that dogs in many ways behaved better than humans. He was also known as Diogenes "the Cynic", with the word "cynic" being derived from ???????/kynikos, meaning "dog-like". A legend about Diogenes involved him running around the streets during the day with a lantern searching for an "honest man" (he never found one).
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
u suck
barf
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
do you still use formspring
no
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Given your feelings on human behavior do you think you could take the lead on a game that emphasizes optimism and the beauty of the human spirit? I've always wondered how and if creators could make a work that emphasizes ideals contrary to theirs.
I think individuals can be good and do good work in spite of the circumstances surrounding them, but I think the societies most of us live in are generally blundering, ignorant, and destructive.
Our population also continues to grow at an insane rate, which, if you think about our per capita consumption of resources, is probably more singularly devastating than any individual behavior in which we partake.
If you live in an industrialized, consumption-based society, I can't think of any socially-celebrated act that causes more environmental destruction than creating more human life.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Who's idea was that cool unmarked quest at Camp Guardian with the Lakelurks?
I think the basic idea was mine but Rob Lee designed and implemented the whole thing.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
I just played through Alpha Protocol, the writing is exceptional. NV's writing is strong comparatively to F3's, but AP's just blows that away. Any crossover there? NV's writing can be patronizingly videogame-like here and there, is it just the premise?
I think the differences can most likely be chalked up to F:NV's volume of characters and lines, dialogue structure, and the development timeline.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Why hasn't new vegas gotten any praise for its sound design? I can't count how many times I tripped out because a water tower groaned overhead or one of those little dinosaurs roared as I walked by. Also random wildlife/hawks/geckos/crows? Very cool.
People generally only notice/comment on audio when it's bad. But I think F:NV's audio team did a great job.
JESawyer responded to Snowzeratron 28 Feb 11
I realise that the NCR had a much more firm grasp on the Mojave Desert, but why did you drastically limit Legion quests and leave out Legion characters?I find then extremely interesting and would've loved more content. Cough*dead sea as a companion*cough*
Though New Vegas had much less scope reduction than many of the other projects I've worked on, it still had areas and characters (e.g. Ulysses) that didn't make it to the shipped product. I would have liked for the Legion to have more locations, characters, and quests of their own.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Will there be any changes to weapon damages, spread and so forth in the next update? What about more random encounters?
There's a lot of weapon tuning coming.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Do you have any interest to work on The Elder Scrolls V?
I don't think I have enough familiarity with TES lore to work on a TES game.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Saw someone ask you about TES. Which got me thinking, have you played them before?
Yeah. I played Arena and Oblivion extensively and a bit of Morrowind.
JESawyer 28 Feb 11
Given that populations are projected to decline in many developed nations - with many more only staying at replacement rate due to immigrants (which tend to reproduce at a higher rate than natives), your concerns about population growth seem ill-founded.
You cannot be serious.
JESawyer responded to ThomasTinkletit 28 Feb 11
Is the Automatic Rifle gonna be tuned up for the patch? I love the BAR and it's a great weapon, but it was pretty useless.
According to some people it is the most OP weapon that ever OPed!
JESawyer 1 Mar 11
That squeaky video got me thinking. He says New Vegas doesn't have an opening act, but isn't it the parts between getting shot and the strip? It gets you used to the setting's normal and The Courier's normal and the problem gets posed at the Strip.
Well, he's incorrect about the Courier; you absolutely do not have amnesia. There is no point at which you are unable to remember aspects of your past and, more importantly, outside of being a courier in the wrong place at the wrong time, your past is considered irrelevant to how you move forward in the story.
JESawyer 1 Mar 11
Re. "You can not be serious," these points are not contentious, but broadly accepted in the social sciences - to the point where Mikko Myrskylä's 2009 Nature paper about how developed nations can _overcome_ population decline was a breakthrough.
Whether it's due to immigration or native reproduction, the most consumptive developed nation, the United States, continues to show population growth. And what about developing nations that are continuing to rise in consumption as their populations increase? Short of accounting for a worldwide pandemic, I have never seen a projection of global human population growth that is anything but enormous over the next 40 years. The fear that a smaller, younger population will have to care for a marginally larger, older population seems so insanely trivial compared to the environmental impact of continuing to grow the general population. But as long as the children of the 22nd century enjoy living in a world that looks like the end of The Lorax, I'm sure it will be fine.
JESawyer 1 Mar 11
I guess what I'm asking is: was it intentional that the section of New Vegas between The Courier getting shot and The Courier meeting House/Crocker/Caesar/Yes-Man should be an opening act in a traditional three act structure?
The basis for F:NV's story structure can be found in Fallout and Fallout 2. All three plots follow this basic structure:
* Go find a thing (water chip, GECK, Benny).
* Upon finding the thing, learn about some crazy stuff that's happening! (Master's army rollin' out, Arroyo's population kidnapped, three way race for the Mojave)
* Go deal with that crazy stuff. (Master/Frank Horrigan/Hoover Dam).
The "catastrophic event" or circumstance (bad water chip, drought, shot in head) is already in place when the stories start.
JESawyer 1 Mar 11
You say that the Courier's past is irrelevant to the story, but yet there are hints that a future DLC will deal with the Courier's past with the other Courier. Do you think that would result in a disconnect with the player?
That's a question for Chris Avellone.
JESawyer 1 Mar 11
I believe you should add more Mods to weapons
Fair enough.
JESawyer 3 Mar 11
whose idea was it to include the plasma caster its awesome!
Mine, but it's just the P94 Plasma Rifle from the original Fallout, so I can't take any real credit for it. Paul Fish modeled and textured it.
JESawyer 5 Mar 11
So now that New Vegas has come and gone, so to speak, do you go back to being a nobody? Not trying to be mean
I never really was "anybody" so not much has changed.
JESawyer responded to Keihzaru 5 Mar 11
Did you considered during development, the posibility of nto only weapon mods, but also armor mods(thign like reinforcing the jumpsuit yourself with speial parts, etc? do you think such an idea could work or is just a Guajirian dream?
Frank and I talked about it early on but we knew there wouldn't be time to implement it.
JESawyer 5 Mar 11
Was the possibility of crating weapons or armors considered? You could do that in Fallout 3 (weapon schematics) but not in New Vegas, and quite a lot of mod add that.
I think it's more useful to allow the player to create consumables than standard weapons and armor. The Mojave Wasteland is also filled to the brim with effective weaponry. Recipes to create a new type of slugthrower don't seem as appropriate when there are more than a few guys walking around with Anti-Materiel Rifles and Light Machine Guns.
JESawyer 6 Mar 11
Who in particular comes up with the indivual stories for each vault? Chris Avellone? The whole team? Obviously some have movie inspirations. But others seem just.. Fucked up and bizarre :/
I wrote the basic concepts for F:NV's vaults but individual designers fully fleshed the concepts out and implemented them. Vault 3: Akil Hooper, Vault 11: Eric Fenstermaker, Vault 19: Sydney Wolfram. Vault 21: Jorge Salgado. Vault 22: Jesse Farrell, Vault 34: Sydney Wolfram.
JESawyer 7 Mar 11
What does someone in your position at a game company do during downtime between projects (assuming such a thing exists)?
There usually isn't downtime, though there might be a period of less work. Our development cycles are usually staggered, so often when devs roll off of one game they might roll on to another game that is in alpha. For someone in my position, specifically, I start working on new project pitches and going out with Feargus to talk to publishers.
JESawyer 7 Mar 11
was the grenade mashine gun modeled or inspired by a real life weapon?
Not really. Though there are grenade machine guns in real life, they are usually mounted on a vehicle or set up at a fixed position.
JESawyer 7 Mar 11
Do you feel "Vaults" are becoming too common in the Fallout universe? Are they necessary for the game or do they just replace the generic "dungeon" of other RPGs?
I don't know if they are "necessary", but I don't think it's bad to have them unless designers stop making them interesting. I think all of the vaults in F:NV had different ideas that went into them and very different ways for playing through them.
JESawyer 8 Mar 11
Why were some of the "cowboy guns" chambered in .357, when .357 wasn't developed until 1934. It just seems more appropriate to have "cowboy guns" chambered in something closer to the time of the frontier.
Because then they'd be as terrible as cowboy guns from that era. Lever-actions in .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .45-70 Gov't. are all common today. There are a bunch of .357 Mag./.38 Spc. lever-actions (and SA revolvers) out for use specifically with SASS. For revolvers, the Ruger Vaquero is an obvious example, but there are also all of the Ubertis, Colt's own SAA repro in .357 Mag., and a boatload of others. Henry and Marlin make .357 Mag. lever-actions and Rossi made replicas of Browning's Winchester 1892 design (chambered in, among other things, .357 Mag./.38 Spc.) for years.
When picking new base ammunition types for F:NV, I tried to avoid ammunition types that are oddballs. A lot of "non-gun" people have a general idea of what .357 Magnum is. It was a good rimmed cartridge to be a step down from .44 Magnum (which I decided should be the mid-range revolver/lever-action round). Given the common use of .357 Magnum in cowboy-style guns today, it seemed to be a good fit for the SA revolver and low-end lever-action.
JESawyer 8 Mar 11
So in North America, consumption of Beef has fallen by one third per capita in since 1975. However, production of beef has shifted significantly towards less sustainable production. If we take beef as a case study in meat, is the overall outlook good?
Unfortunately the United States' population has gone from ~216 million to ~311 million between 1975 to 2010, so even if per capita consumption has been reduced, we may still be consuming the same amount, if not more, beef. And although beef production is very conspicuous in its environmental impact, the move away from beef since 1975 may due to a shift to other meats like pork and chicken, the factory production of which still has a lot of problems.
As a society, we still consume a pretty huge amount of "meat" (including fish and poultry) considering what people lived on prior to the 20th century. A lot of Americans consume meat with two out of three meals, some with every meal. Even if you believe that humans need meat to have a balanced diet, we certainly don't need as much as we consume.
JESawyer 9 Mar 11
How do you feel about the results of the Irish general election?
I don't know anything about contemporary Irish politics, unfortunately.
JESawyer 18 Mar 11
I know this may be a stupid question, but are there any plans for a new fallout game, obliviously there is still 3+ DLC to be released for NV but I was just wondering Thanks man.
That's a question for Bethesda.
JESawyer 18 Mar 11
What are your personal feelings on the place of "wacky" content (i.e. Wild Wasteland) in the Fallout universe?
They belong in a place where people who really hate them don't have to see them, i.e. locked behind a perk or game toggle.
I critique games on being well-executed or poorly-executed and how well they meet the expectations of their intended audiences. After doing this for almost 12 years, my personal feelings barely come into the equation.
JESawyer 18 Mar 11
Would you still do the Pre-Fallout game about the Resource Wars?
Sure.
JESawyer 18 Mar 11
Who created and designed Legate Lanius, and why there are so many inconsistencies in his background(s) and his actual appearance? Like him being a legionnaire since 12 in one story, having his face destroyed (in-game he's OK) in another, and so on.
John Gonzalez and Chris Avellone.
JESawyer 18 Mar 11
Who writes the little helpy bits of info displayed on the loading screen?
I wrote almost all of them.
JESawyer 19 Mar 11
What's your view on the pip-boy quest marker, I found it was over used, I didn't mind when it directed me to a well known building but I didn't like it when it pointed me to the long lost items that the BOS had been looking for, made it a bit easy IMO
Quest markers have to be used consistently or a pretty large number of players will become confused and/or outright stumped when designers change the default behavior. For something like "find a thing" or "look around this area and talk to people", the quest marker would need to have an optional radius or trigger volume so players understand the boundaries of where they are supposed to look. Assassin's Creed 2 does this very well, alternating regularly between "go right here" and "go to this area".
F3/FNV's marker just points you to a specific spot in space, so it either has to be turned off (demonstrably confuses a large number of players) or it points to a specific spot when the designer's intent is actually to indicate an area around that spot (also demonstrably confuses a lot of player).
JESawyer 19 Mar 11
Like FO3, NV gives the player too many items, making the game too easy and ruining the survival feel, imo. In the original games, finding, say, a new gun was a big event. Did you guys ever consider this a problem and try to fix it? What's your view on it?
The original games threw a bunch of loot at you as well. You upgraded weapons less often, but I think that has more to do with the large steps between weapon tiers and the small number of distinct weapons and armor types. F1 and F2 did hold back more on specific types of loot: even though dudes are walking around the Hub in Combat Armor, you can't take that from their dead bodies. Armor/outfits in general do not drop as much, even if characters are wearing them. But at about the time you deal with the Khans for Aradesh, armed humans start dropping a fair amount of loot. Ghouls and some other creature types are heavily melee-oriented, so often they drop little to no loot.
Did F1/F2 drop less loot than F3/FNV? Sure, but the difference is not extreme, IMO. There were only a few points in either game where I felt that resource scarcity was an issue.
JESawyer 19 Mar 11
Isn't it a bit counterintuitive to set a game which has a whole difficulty mode focused on survival in one of the most advanced regions of the setting? You hardly eve feel like you're strugglin' to survive in NV.
You also hardly ever feel like you're struggling to survive in F1 and F2. The point of Hardcore Mode was to introduce a game mode that changed the combat and inventory mechanics in a way that added another layer of challenge to the base game.
Even with Hardcore Mode, the game isn't exactly Das Schwarze Auge-level difficulty, but it's a step up. We also left a lot of the mechanics exposed in the GECK for modders to further alter Hardcore Mode to their (and your) tastes on the PC.
JESawyer 19 Mar 11
How does House maintain the robots?
It is a mystery.
JESawyer 19 Mar 11
When you guys were making New Vegas, did you ever get in contact with the series creators to see what they thought of it and get advice from them?
I sent Tim Cain and Colin McComb a few messages asking to clarify something that either wasn't clear or to ask them what their intention was when doing certain things. There were also some times where I had to walk a whopping fifteen feet to ask ScottE something about how the maps were laid out or what certain prop details were in the original games.
JESawyer 20 Mar 11
So will there be another "anchorage" type of dlc cause it be cool to see more pre-war tech like the M1 garand so maybe a vegas detective file that has been put it a virtual world and u need the pimp-boy 3billion to start it and there's alot of 20-40s guns
I CAN TELL NO ONE ANYTHING ABOUT ANY POTENTIAL FUTURE DLCS OR FALLOUT GAMES.
I APOLOGIZE FOR THE MISERABLE STATE OF THIS CORRUPT WORLD AND BID YOU GOOD DAY.
JESawyer 21 Mar 11
You answer questions in German? Ok, here we go: Jemand fragte, welche Version eines VW Golf besser sei und gut bei den Ladies ankäme. Sind deutsche Autos in den USA cool? Hier hätten am liebsten alle Muscle Cars... ;-)
Amerikanische Fräulein mögen häufig den Jetta/Bora (z.B. die Mk. III/IV Entwicklung) oder das Golf Cabrio. Deutsches Autos in den USA sind toll, aber teuer.
JESawyer 21 Mar 11
Bring back the Vindicator
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JESawyer 22 Mar 11
Why do you think New Vegas sold so obscenely well?
Bethesda promoted it very well.
JESawyer 22 Mar 11
I find it interesting that your very livelihood is financed by this consumption based society. How can you look down your nose at it but still profit from it. It's like saying, "I hate that my wife's a prostitute, but I like the money."
The material impact of video games is fairly low, as are individual rates of consumption (for the majority of people, anyway). The more video games move toward full digital distribution, the smaller their environmental impact should become. Video games do require a lot of electricity to both make and play, which does have a negative impact and is perhaps the most difficult thing to reconcile. I try to make games that are enjoyable but not addictive. I want people to be able to pick them up, put them down when they have something more important to do (which should be almost anything), and eventually stop playing entirely.
I've attempted to find other occupations into which I could go, but most of them require going back to school for two or four years. I do not have any marketable talents or vocational training outside of what I have learned in the game industry -- very little of which is applicable outside. Whether I'm good or bad at it, video game development is the only place where I can make a wage that allows me to fulfill financial obligations to people who depend on me. A true believer in minimalist consumption would sacrifice everything for the principle of it, but I'm not That Guy.
JESawyer 23 Mar 11
If you sacrificed your comparatively trivial interpersonal relationships in pursuit of an abstract ideal such as stoic minimalism you would not be forced into a profession that conflicts with your beliefs. As is stands your lifestyle constrains you.
Yeah, that's what I just wrote.
JESawyer 23 Mar 11
LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT
*launches self into sun*
JESawyer 23 Mar 11
I'm not trying to be rude but reading a lot of your answers regarding game development, it seems like you're just going through the motions and are not very passionate about your work. Have I misinterpreted?
It's more than going through the motions, but it is relatively dispassionate. The things I make don't belong to me, they aren't made for me, they aren't made on my own timetable, and I don't have much, if any, control over when they are released. I make things to fit into boxes that are put in front of me. At any point in time that box can be changed, moved around, pulled away, or removed entirely -- sometimes because I screwed up, and sometimes for reasons that have nothing to do with me. It's hard to find good reasons to invest a lot of myself in something like that, especially when there are personal interests for me to pursue outside of my job.
JESawyer 23 Mar 11
Sounds like you're not happy with your job or maybe even your life. Have you considered making changes? And no, I'm trying to be mean. You just seem unhappy from the answers I just read.
I've looked at other professions, but I'm not really qualified to do anything else, and certainly nothing that would do a better job at fulfilling creative and financial goals. There are too many important things in life for me to be seriously upset about the amount of creative ownership I have in my paying job making video games.
You can do whatever you want in life as long as you don't expect anyone to thank, praise, or pay you for it. If you want thanks, praise, or money, you probably aren't going to get to do what you want -- or if you do get to do what you want, you probably aren't going to get to do it the way that you want or when you want to do it.
I've grown up around and lived with professional freelance artists my whole life. You know what consistently makes them unhappy? Not being able to pay rent. For most people, there are always trade-offs.
It may be that due to circumstance and/or exceptional talent that you get to do what you want, how you want, when you want, and you get praise, thanks, and money for it. That is great. I am not one of those people, but I am very happy that at least I get to do something I like and get paid for it.
Some people have to perform dangerous physical labor and get paid virtually nothing for it. Some people pour their hearts into creations that go unrewarded. Some people are willing to do almost anything and no one will hire them. And if you really have it bad, you work in terrible/dangerous conditions, live in fear and squalor, and eke out a meager existence under severe wage slavery.
I don't have to deal with any of that (other than my self-imposed financial obligations to others). To be upset that my life is not more dreamlike and pampered than it already is would be absurd.
JESawyer 23 Mar 11
Why did you say you want people to eventually stop playing your games entirely? And why are you making RPGs if that's the case, since they're usually lengthy games and made with replayability in mind?
Because there is a world outside that is awesome and terrible and people should engage it most of the time instead of continually retreating from it.
RPGs are long and can have a lot of content, but they don't encourage you sit and play them incessantly. They don't demand that you play them multiple times. And if you do play them multiple times, there's nothing that says you have to do back to back playthroughs. Replayability is a side-effect of non-linear quest design and supporting role-playing in general, not a goal in itself.
Many MMOs are designed to be addictive and actively encourage players to play incessantly -- or close to it. A lot of social games encourage players to play the game at regular intervals. I don't like that. I don't want to make games that cause people to deprioritize other aspects of their lives.
JESawyer 23 Mar 11
Your last few answers make me think you need to go the Jeff Vogel route and make games you are passionate about that are entirely yours for niche audiences. Obviously he makes a living.
Even Jeff Vogel recognizes that being an independent developer can be extremely difficult. He also transitioned directly from grad school to making games, i.e. he made his first game while in grad school and dropped out when it started selling well. Game developers currently in the employ of a company don't own the rights to the things they make, so that sort of transition isn't possible unless you're willing to stop working in the professional game industry entirely before starting your own thing.
If I were to work alone, I would have to learn to program. That's outside of my skill set, and if it were in my skill set, I would have many more potential career opportunities than making games. If I were to work with others, I would either have to employ them, which means I would be running a company (an investment of time and capital that I don't have), or I would have to deal with them as de facto equals, which ruins the mythic dream of the one person super developer and in practice is terrible/unworkable.
I make a living as a game designer and project director because I have a moderate amount of critical thinking skill, can give people clear directions, and know hundreds of ways that people should *not do things* when developing games. That's a small amount of skill set and a much larger amount of practical vocational experience. It doesn't transfer well into other careers, not even into an independent one-man game development show.
JESawyer 23 Mar 11
What other professions have you looked at? Honestly, you seem intelligent enough to be able to pick up just about any profession and excel at it. I understand wanting security, but it can come with the regret of "what if?"
Jobs with the National Park Service, (management) jobs in non-game software development, jobs with various humanitarian organizations, motorcycle/car mechanic (n.b.: one of my co-workers was a mechanic prior to being a game developer and has described it as back-breaking monotony). Most of these jobs either pay next to nothing or require a specialized degree/significant relevant experience. Vocational experience is extremely important in almost any field, arguably more important than "natural talent" or intelligence.
I don't have any "what if" regrets because a) that's dumb as hell and b) I've already had more success and fun in 12 years of game development than most people will have in a lifetime of jobs.
I know I'm ruining some visions of game development as this Real Genius-esque environment where passionate imagineers in wacky goggles chuck dry ice around and re-assemble cars in offices as pranks, but there is a pretty big gulf between that and, say, mining coal for thirty years and dying of pneumoconiosis.
Artists who work in movies often have less creative freedom (and are generally paid more) than those who work in games. Creative occupations fall at various points on a sliding scale between full creative control and big bucks. I don't have complete creative control, nor much control over logistics, but I'm paid far beyond my practical value to society at large and I still have a healthy amount of freedom in what I do. I stop short of investing large amounts of myself in what I make because to do so would be to ignore that what I am making *does not belong to me*.
A group of guys made the original Fallout at Interplay, but it belonged to Interplay, not them. Then Black Isle made another Fallout game, and Interplay had MicroForte make yet another Fallout game. Then Interplay internal made a Fallout game and Black Isle's internal Fallout game was canceled. Bethesda bought the rights from Interplay and Bethesda internal developed Fallout 3. Then Bethesda contracted Obsidian to make Fallout: New Vegas. Concurrently, Interplay is working an a Fallout MMO. Where will the Fallout license go next? Beats me.
Intellectual properties are just that: properties. In the hearts and minds of gamers, they might "rightfully" belong with certain parties, but in a court of law, it's a much different story. Developers do work for hire and, short of independent operations like Jeff Vogel's, that's pretty much how it goes.
JESawyer 23 Mar 11
I think you missed the point of an earlier post. Why do you impose financial obligations to others upon yourself? Is that more important to you than pursuing your other beliefs? Isolating yourself would be a good first step towards your professed ideal.
Yes, paying the mortgage on the house my parents live in is more important to me than ending my career in an industry with relatively low environmental impact so I can live the life of an ascetic hermit doing something I have little to no skill at. Count me out of the fourth wave RAF.
JESawyer 23 Mar 11
How can you expect anyone else to make the necessary changes to save the world when everyone can come up with lame excuses why it would just be too hard to change? The bottom line is, change is great when it's someone else making the change.
Because I don't expect everyone else to change, and even the change I *hope* for is not a life of asceticism. People have asked me my opinions on various things and I have answered them. I am not out in the world on a daily basis railing against people for their personal life choices.
As living creatures, humans consume things. The things we consume, the rate at which we consume, and manner in which we create things for consumption are all things that we can self-regulate to different extents. Until we die, we cannot stop consuming. Recognizing this limitation, we can either kill ourselves or attempt to moderate our consumptive impact on the world. This is a sliding scale of impact multiplied across every living human.
I live my life to meet the standards that I set for myself. If you think my standards are bad standards or if you think I don't meet my standards, that's not important to me. I hope I will continue to attempt to improve myself according to my own standards for the rest of my life. If you think my outlook makes sense, great. If you don't, you're going to live life the way you see fit, just like most other people.
JESawyer 23 Mar 11
will the be an alien DLC
i am an alien and i am downloading your content over the internet
JESawyer 24 Mar 11
Reading all this stuff, I think you really need to go get laid. Jesus.
hmm i see thx dr. sbaitso
JESawyer 24 Mar 11
What's the purpose of using bottle caps versus something more viable. Was it just a silly playful thing, or something that had a lot of thought put into it?
The idea to use bottle caps originated with the first Fallout team; I don't have any special insight into it.
JESawyer 26 Mar 11
How much have the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games influenced your designs, and if they havn't, why havn't they? Shit's dope yo.
Call of Pripyat influenced the Hardcore Mode "needs" for F:NV because maintaining the needs seemed to be a regular concern without being annoying. I also really enjoyed both the sense of risk/reward from exploring and the great atmosphere in CoP, specifically.
JESawyer 26 Mar 11
i have spent over 614 hours of my life on new vegas because my life is a hollow empty shell and i have trouble socializing with others
kewl
JESawyer 26 Mar 11
do you get bonuses for games that sell well
The only game I've received bonuses for is the original Icewind Dale.
JESawyer 26 Mar 11
What's your favourite song from the New Vegas soundtrack? Maybe the ambience counts.
BIG IROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON BIG IROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON
JESawyer 26 Mar 11
tell mca to put a walther wa2000 w/wood furniture in the dlc kk?
there is already a sniper rifle in .308 or do you want it in TRUE PRO 7.5X55MM SCHMIDT RUBIN???
JESawyer 26 Mar 11
what does the e. stand for?
Eric.
JESawyer 26 Mar 11
how much do u get a year
1,000 Spanish doubloons dredged from an old wreck off the eastern coast of Sainte-Lucie.
JESawyer 26 Mar 11
have u got kids
No, just cats.
JESawyer 26 Mar 11
When will the next Fallout New Vegas DLC be released?
ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
JESawyer 26 Mar 11
Except "chasing ghosts," can you tell anything about what the NCR Rangers are actually doing in Baja?
It is a mystery.
JESawyer 26 Mar 11
Are you ready to move on from Fallout, or would you like to keep working on the series, presuming you had the opportunity?
Independent dev companies can't really afford to be that picky. There are only a few licenses I have no interest in working on, but Fallout isn't one of them.
JESawyer 26 Mar 11
How low do you keep your hair? What number of clipper do you ask for?
It depends on the season/weather. My hair almost never gets longer than an inch. It's thick and wavy when it gets longer, so I don't like dealing with it at all. I cut my own hair and typically use either the shortest or second shortest attachment.
JESawyer 27 Mar 11
Do you know what shaders have been used to render Fallout (critter) models into sprites? Or do you know someone who might remember it after all this years?
Tramell "T-Ray" Isaac may know, but I believe most of those renders were done on an SGI.
JESawyer 27 Mar 11
Why was the level cap increased to 35 in Dead Money? The player is already overpowered enough at lv 30, what's the point in making it even more broken?
I don't personally see much value in it, but a lot of players do. Many players buy DLC for the weapons/armor/perks they gain access to and for an increased level cap.
JESawyer 28 Mar 11
But for the players that HATE the level cap because of the overpowered-ness. Shouldn't the level cap be optional?
If we inserted option switches for every game element a subset of players wanted to toggle, it would become Option Switches: The Game. Looking at the load order discussions of the "average" F:NV PC mod user should indicate that's a battle that, practically speaking, can't be won.
JESawyer 29 Mar 11
Who wrote Bruce Isaac? Nice reference there to the Fallout 2 ending with the Bishop child.
I'm pretty sure that was Travis Stout.
JESawyer responded to effinandy 29 Mar 11
Do you think the PC
yes
JESawyer 29 Mar 11
Who had the silly idea to give high-tech energy weapons, the likes of which would draw BOS envy, to a bunch of strung out junkies like the Fiends? (Who cannot even figure out how to open doors.) Game balance shouldn't trump believability.
When push comes to shove, it should always trump believability. RPG economies are inherently unbelievable. I think designers should do the best they can to make things reasonable, but err on the side of game balance, not "realism".
Tier 2-3 EWs (the only Tier 3s they have are the Laser RCW and Flamer) wouldn't be the "envy" of BoS considering few BoS characters in F:NV are equipped with EWs below Tier 4.
Part of the truth in Veronica's disillusionment with the BoS is that their strategy of EW containment has completely failed, as evidenced by dealers like the Van Graffs and the armament of scrubs like the Fiends.
Of the folks the player typically comes across in the Mojave Wasteland, few "make sense" to have EWs. When looking at distribution for EWs near the low/mid game, the Fiends are at about the right level for the player to start picking up more Tier 2 EWs. Prior to that, their only opportunity is dead Bright Followers.
JESawyer 29 Mar 11
Why did you make weapon mods so rare? I've only seen them spawn randomly in two or three shops after several days, you never get one as a quest reward or find one locked in a safe or something.
Their frequency in stores (esp. Gun Runners) should be significantly improved when the next patch comes out.
JESawyer 29 Mar 11
Well you wont answer DLC questions so how about telling us when the next patch is out.
@_______________________________________________________________________________@
JESawyer 30 Mar 11
i think you should make a remake of fallout 1 i think it would be fun to play
No need.
JESawyer 30 Mar 11
You said way back that minigames allow the player to actively participate in the activity (hacking, unlocking, etc.), but isn't that only a good thing if the participation is fun? When I lockpick in New Vegas I am actively involved sure, but it's not fun.
That applies to every aspect of game play, including combat. A lot of gamers separate "mini-games" from other types of game play as though there is something inherently special or negative about it.
There are people who don't enjoy going through combat in games -- at all. Hell, there are game designers who don't enjoy combat. There are people who don't enjoy conversations. The solution should not be to remove those elements of game play because some people don't enjoy them. The goal of systems/mechanics designers is to make those aspects of the game enjoyable to those who are open to enjoying them. If you start designing games around things that subsets of players don't like, you won't have much left to play.
I've written this before, but if there's no active decision making in picking a lock or hacking a terminal, there's no "play" in it, no player skill or decision making at all. There may be risk/reward to this in an online environment (as there is in a live tabletop environment), but in a single-player game with save/load anywhere, it's pointless.
JESawyer 30 Mar 11
Do you think energy weapons will ever look like they did in Fallout and Fallout 2? I'm sure you remember some looked more like actual guns not just a box containing wires, mirrors and a power supply.
What EWs are you thinking of? Because the Laser Pistol and Gatling Laser were really the only two in F1 that don't look pretty "sci-fi" (even the Laser Rifle has a big cable off of the side of it). Even in F2 the Solar Scorcher and YK32 look pretty weird.
JESawyer 30 Mar 11
Actually yes, those were the two EW's I was talking about. That's why I said "some".
There is the Laser RCW which is very much in the same spirit as the Gatling Laser from F1/2. Personally, I don't see the appeal in making more EWs that look like traditional guns.
JESawyer 31 Mar 11
General Oliver doesn't seem to grasp basic military strategy. What real life persons were an inspiration for his character? Would you agree Oliver's the main cause the war is going badly for the NCR?
He's a mishmash of various aggressive, blockheaded military commanders. Generals LeMay and Patton are obvious examples, though completely without the forethought of those two men.
JESawyer 31 Mar 11
Hey josh whats your favorite color, I hope its blue for tears
Burnt yellow for the oppressive sun that will eventually consume our planet.
JESawyer 31 Mar 11
It feels like the traditional Action Boy/Stealth Boy/Charisma Boy/Science Boy options are unbalanced in FNV. Many quests are only available or doable under one or two of the approaches. A player should be able to pick one style and eschew the others.
There are a large number of quests that don't involve any sort of Speech- or Barter-based conflict (thus there is nothing to resolve and it would likely be absurd to force it), and Action/Stealth can be used almost everywhere where hostiles are present. I think people get too caught up in the idea that the "paths" are actually distinct pre-designed courses that the player follows instead of tools that can be used regularly throughout the world.
I think it's a stretch to say that Action/Stealth/Charisma/Science Boys are a "tradition" in the Fallout franchise. None of the Fallout games directly supported the active use of all of these paths in every quest.
JESawyer responded to MmmCashews 1 Apr 11
What bike/s do you own?
Bicycles: a Masi Soulville SS (selling), a Masi Speciale Commuter, and a Trek Equinox 7. Motorcycles: a 2006 Triumph Bonneville T100, a 1969 Honda CL350, and a 1966 Honda CL160. The last two are in Wisconsin and I'm slowly restoring them.
JESawyer 2 Apr 11
Nostalgia is pretty much the only reason I can go back and play games like Fallout and Icewind Dale. I can't imagine what it'd be like to try those games without that context. Do you think remaking older Infinity Engine games would be a good or bad idea?
I think a party-based dungeon crawler in 3D in the spirit of IWD could be fun, even if it's not an actual remake.
JESawyer 2 Apr 11
Do you respond to every question we make?
Not even close.
JESawyer 3 Apr 11
Why did you decide the split the strip into 3 parts? I felt it ruined the hype for the game; especially considering how it focuses around the city.
Because consoles would have run out of memory if the Strip had not been split up into separate load zones.
JESawyer 3 Apr 11
Is it very time consuming to make proper scabbards/sheaths for weapons in RPGs? Usually the weapons just stick to guy's back or float very closely to it, which causes a lot of annoying graphic issues like the blade going through his back while running.
I wouldn't necessarily say it's very time consuming, but it does take some time, and scabbards/sheaths/holsters would have the same potential clipping problems. It's all still just geometry.
JESawyer 4 Apr 11
You could learn a lot from GTAIV and RDR about how to give characters interesting personality, culture, mannerisms, gesticulations, opinions, motivations and humour. Your characters though decent are bland by comparison. Is it due to engines/budgets?
I think we do fine compared to GTAIV and RDR on every aspect you mentioned that doesn't directly relate to presentation -- and that's definitely budget-constrained.
JESawyer 7 Apr 11
Cazadores ruined my life. Was this your intention?
Yeah pretty much.
JESawyer 7 Apr 11
do you like golf bro
It is one of my least favorite sports.
JESawyer 7 Apr 11
in terms of dlc Bethesda is famous for treating Ps3 users poorly ie half the dlc for oblivion, 9 month delay in fallout 3 dlc, massive amounts of bugs, delays in new vegas dlc in favour of 360... is ths going to continue? and why do it in the first place?
That's a question for Bethesda.
JESawyer 7 Apr 11
What's your favorite Pokémon?
Psyduck.
JESawyer 7 Apr 11
I love F:NV but I think that the lever action weaponry felt the same after a few tiers, I know their isn't much you can do with that kinda weaponry, but could something more have been done?
I think there's a pretty big step between the vanilla Cowboy Repeater and Brush Gun. Modding the Cowboy Repeater can keep it sort of competitive with the Trail Carbine, but the Brush Gun is a true beast.
JESawyer 7 Apr 11
Boy I sure am enjoying myself today.
cool
JESawyer 7 Apr 11
Can we at LEAST have the release date of the trailer? C'mon, throw us a bone to chew at!
I sincerely and truly mean it when I write that I have no idea when Bethesda is going to announce or release anything ever.
JESawyer 7 Apr 11
Why do you always appear annoyed during your interviews? It generally seems as though you are about to decapitate the interviewer for some perceived ineptitude. Chill out dude.
You're imagining things.
JESawyer 9 Apr 11
What happened to all the snakes in the Mojave in F:NV?
They're extra-hidey.
JESawyer 9 Apr 11
least favorite huh? well what are your favorite sports...
To watch, basketball and soccer. To participate in, soccer and fencing (sabre).
JESawyer 9 Apr 11
Can you explain the reasoning behind the gun witch's character design in DS3? It's really disappointing to see such obvious and cliche cheesecake after the progressive and positive treatment of female characters in FONV.
I had virtually no involvement in Dungeon Siege 3, but I believe that's a question for Feargus.
JESawyer 9 Apr 11
Do you ever play the Fallout Tabletop Roleplaying Game that you made? Also, is it even done?
Yes, I ran about a dozen sessions of it back in 2004, I think. No, it's not done and I haven't worked on it since about 2005.
JESawyer 9 Apr 11
Chris Avellone mentioned somewhere that he was sorry Ulysses didn't make it into the game (though we might see him in a DLC it seems). Was there a particular piece of cut or planned content that you especially liked that didn't make it into the game?
I have more regrets about things that remained in than things that were left out.
JESawyer 9 Apr 11
"I have more regrets about things that remained in than things that were left out." What does that mean? Is there some content in F:NV you're really disappointed off ?
I don't think we produced bad content, but the game launched with a lot of bugs. I think less content, fewer bugs would have been better.
It doesn't matter how cool the idea behind a quest is if it breaks halfway through its resolution.
JESawyer 9 Apr 11
Does having less content in a game usually cut down on the number of bugs? Fallout 1 was really short and had a longer dev time than NV, but was still very buggy.
Yes, it absolutely does.
Fallout 1 had a relatively small development team and was made almost 15 years ago.
JESawyer 10 Apr 11
How selfish is game design? Are there times when you done something that you would like, but don't necessarily think a player would like?
Only if I think the impact on the player will be very minor. If it's something that actually makes a Big Difference(tm) in the game, it's my job to ensure that "the audience" enjoys the decision.
That said, there are certainly decisions I make with the full understanding that the initial reaction to the decision will be primarily negative. A person's intellectual reaction to an idea may be very different from how they feel after experiencing that idea in effect. A lot of RPG mechanics continue to be reproduced in games due to grumpy inertia. "This is how RPGs have done things, therefore RPGs should do things this way forever."
If a mechanic makes the game extremely irritating or generally un-fun, designers need to investigate ways in which it can be made better. N.B.: irritation and frustration are GOOD things in game design when they come in small doses. The irritation and frustration often accompany difficulty, and overcoming that difficulty produces satisfaction. If you never experience any irritation or frustration, the game is so simple or easy that it demands nothing of you.
JESawyer 10 Apr 11
Is the CZ57 Avenger supposed to be the Avenger minigun from Fallout 2? They look quite different.
Yes. They look different because the CZ57 Avenger in F:NV has to work with existing F3/F:NV grip, firing, and reload animations.
JESawyer 10 Apr 11
Are most of the comments you get about Cazadors complaints? Because they're by far the best enemies in NV. I always get pangs of terror when I see those little green bars on the HUD darting around before I've even seen the bugs themselves.
Most of what I've seen has been complaints. Cazadores are unusual enemies because they are so much faster than the player and their movement is erratic. Most enemies players face in F3 and F:NV can be handled on the players' terms. Cazadores have to be dealt with carefully and often the player is caught reacting instead of being on the offensive, which is why encounters with Cazadores often produce alarm/frustration.
JESawyer 11 Apr 11
What is it that you find fascinating about Mormons/Utah? Im assuming you find those things fascinating.
Not fascinating, but interesting. Southern Utah has really spectacular scenery and is the most beautiful part of the U.S. that I have seen. It's pretty telling that in my trips around that area, I encounter as many foreigners as Americans. Zion, Bryce, Grand Staircase, Monument Valley, and Valley of the Gods are all fantastic.
I think Mormons are interesting because they occupy such a unique position in American society. Since their early days, they've had a lot of conflicts with the people around them and rapidly pushed west, out of the Midwest, and eventually into what would become Utah. Events like Missouri Executive Order 44, Haun's Mill, and the Mountain Meadows Massacre show how violent that conflict could be at times. The society that they built in the Utah region was done with local tribes like the Paiute but apart from outside, mostly-European influences.
As a result of these conflicts and their eventual concentrated build-up of Utah, Mormons have been, and often still are, considered "other" by many Americans. Unsurprisingly, Mormon communities can be extremely organized and powerful. Unlike many other powerful religious groups, the geographic concentration of Mormons is quite dense, so I think it produces an interesting dynamic in American politics and culture. The military history of the Mormons (fighting against and for the federal government) and the central role of J.M. Browning in the development of many of the U.S. military's most notable weapons (the BAR, M1911 Pistol, and M2) throws another element into the mix.
Finally, the interplay between the beautiful natural setting of Utah and Mormon beliefs is fun to examine, especially when the Mormon names for these locations are taken into account.
JESawyer responded to SerMcWorst 11 Apr 11
What's the reasoning and what are the priorities your team works with when dealing with a patch (e.g. New Vegas)? The average consumer understandably probably expecst more work to be done on critical quest bugs rather than tweaking companion/weapons.
Bugs are prioritized by severity, meaning crash bugs first, then crit path quest bugs, then major quest bugs/gameplay bugs, then minor quest bugs and tuning. From the consumer's perspective, there's just a large mass of people working on bugs, but in reality, individual members either should not fix, or are not capable of fixing, any given bug that's in the list.
For example, a programming bug would not be assigned to a designer, and a design bug would not be assigned to an artist. Even within a discipline, certain people are suited to fixing certain bugs. I do all weapon tuning because I did almost all of the weapon implementation. Quest designers fix their own quest bugs because they have the most intimate familiarity with how the quest is structured.
Assigning a critical quest bug to any warm body who happens to be occupying a chair can result in a lot of inefficiency -- and often new bugs created by the attempt at a "fix". Similarly, there are idiosyncrasies to how some sections of game code work that really demand the attention of one or two programmers. Throwing new programmers at the problem would likely result in them spending twice as long orienting themselves and possibly making some poor engineering decisions.
JESawyer responded to JoshALK3 11 Apr 11
When will the good fans of Fallout be expecting a Honest Hearts Trailer?
ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
JESawyer 11 Apr 11
Could Single-Load weaponry in F:NV been a little less buggy? if you move whilst reloading a single-shot weapon there is a huge delay between the last shot being loaded and being able to fire
Looping reloads were a feature that seemed like it should have been easy to implement. Initial tests seemed relatively straightforward, but new bugs kept popping up with each iteration. Had I known then how difficult they would have been, I would have either eliminated the looping reload weapons or had them play a "normal" animation that reloaded a fixed number of rounds regardless of capacity/current ammo count.
JESawyer 12 Apr 11
Hi Josh, can you with an honest heart tell me where I can hear the old world blues playing along a lonesome road? Thanks.
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1179411-an-update-from-bethesda/
JESawyer 12 Apr 11
when does the add on for the content for honest hearts come out
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1179411-an-update-from-bethesda/
JESawyer 12 Apr 11
You always say to ask Bethesda about DLC, but how can we actually contact them, as they always seem to ignore queries.
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1179411-an-update-from-bethesda/
JESawyer responded to SerMcWorst 12 Apr 11
When will the next Fallout DLC be released? I can't wait to see what happens when I found the spy among the Followers!
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1179411-an-update-from-bethesda/
JESawyer 12 Apr 11
DLC DLC DLC DLC DLC DLC DLC! There, its out of my system. Good day sir.
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1179411-an-update-from-bethesda/
JESawyer 12 Apr 11
Do you enjoy torturing us with small hints of the next DLC?
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1179411-an-update-from-bethesda/
JESawyer 12 Apr 11
gimma mah mahhney causin!
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1179411-an-update-from-bethesda/
JESawyer 12 Apr 11
How exactly is the Recharger Pistol working, as an in-game item? In the GECK I found no script, no special object effect related to its regeneration. The MF Breeder isn't used in anything particular, and doesn't have scripts either ... Is it hardcoded ?
Look at the GECK form for the weapon. In the upper left corner you will see Ammunition (drop-down), Clip Rounds (field), and Regen Rate (field). Regen Rate is the number of seconds that pass per single unit of ammo recharged. You can actually set this to a float value, though it will not display properly when the form is reloaded.
JESawyer 13 Apr 11
Who wrote Mr. House?
John Gonzalez.
JESawyer 13 Apr 11
Whose idea was it to make most of the male characters sound like 13-year-olds?
Can you be more specific with your criticism?
JESawyer 13 Apr 11
What's the background on the marksman carbine? Given the retro feel of other weapons, seeing a gun tha tlooks like it's been stolen from Modern Warfare 2 is a little odd, especially the RIS...
Fallout has always had higher end/tech conventional firearms, including a portable minigun.
JESawyer 13 Apr 11
I personally love politics and felt that the NCR's political situation was lacking. All we heard was that taxes were (comparatively) high, the Senate is stalled and Kimball is an expanisonist. Why wasn't there more news about the internal politics?
NCR's internal politics are of secondary concern to the people living and fighting in the Mojave Wasteland. I also think going even deeper into the details of NCR's operations back home would have been more of a distraction to players.
JESawyer 13 Apr 11
Who came up with the Meat of Champions, Dine and Dash, and Ghastly Scavenger perks? I thought the cannibalism options complemented hardcore mode survivalism well. Being rewarded for consuming the leader of every significant faction was really satisfying.
Jason Bergman came up with Meat of Champions. I came up with Dine and Dash and Ghastly Scavenger.
JESawyer 13 Apr 11
Next couple of weeks? You guys enjoy throwing that around. Don't ya?
"You guys"?
JESawyer 13 Apr 11
Are weapon balance changes in patches as a response to community issues or gameplay balance? Do you feel you are further balancing the weapons, or do you feel the weapons were balanced and your just responding to the lack of understanding of that balance?
Community feedback helps determine balance issues, but the community at large does not dictate changes. Besides that, what we hear on forums are often split opinions and obviously only a fraction of total players.
Community feedback does draw my attention to things, but when I examine the problem, I may find that the issue is not what individuals think it is -- or I may decide to fix the problem in a way that is different from what people suggest.
JESawyer 13 Apr 11
Do you believe balance is an important issue in single player games? Don't you think perfect balance among character builds, weapons, etc may bring an unnatural and potentially boring symetry?
Yes. Also perfect balance isn't really achievable since balance is subjective and applicability varies based on character build, play style, and content.
JESawyer 14 Apr 11
r u john galt???
^_________________________________^
JESawyer 14 Apr 11
Oh, man. Am I the only one *not* looking forward for the patch? Let me guess... The BAR is way too overpowered to be left like that... *sigh* It will backfire or completely break when using JSP ammo, am I right?
I didn't re-tune the Automatic Rifle at all and I'm not sure why you'd assume that in spite of my previous comments about tuning most automatic weapons *up*.
Community opinions on the Automatic Rifle are a pretty good example for why "doing what the community thinks should be done" is often impossible. I have as many people telling me that the Automatic Rifle is the Most OP OP That Ever OPed as I have people telling me that it's terrible and there are no good weapons in Dead Money.
JESawyer 14 Apr 11
hello sir grandma
reporting for duty
JESawyer 14 Apr 11
I was wondering why you had high level energy weapons take multiple ammo per shot. Was it to keep energy weapon ammunition at a similar cost to high end gun ammunition, or was it to encourage people to use mid level weapons or something else? Just curious
Energy Weapons only have four (or five, if you include MF Breeder) ammo types, so cost doesn't scale in the same way as it does with Gun ammo. The original ammo consumption rates on some of the EWs were too high, but the idea was to keep raising the cost of ammo investment over the course of the game.
For the next patch, the most ammo-hungry weapon, the Tesla Cannon (and Tesla-Beaton Prototype), has had its consumption rate lowered significantly. It also behaves much differently and feels like a much better/more distinctive weapon.
JESawyer 14 Apr 11
What is a good game I should try out? Ive played all the Fallouts. Im bored and I want to pick up a good game. Preferably an RPG.
For PC, I'd check out The Witcher EE. For PS3, Demon's Souls. For Xbox 360, Assassin's Creed 2. AC2 isn't an RPG, but it's a great game.
JESawyer 25 Apr 11
O Sawyer why halt tho foresaken me?
Formspring was pretty messed up for a while and I couldn't see any of my questions.
SOZ
JESawyer 25 Apr 11
Who's your favorite merc in jagged alliance 2? Don't pretend you haven't played it.
GRUNTY
JESawyer responded to SerMcWorst 25 Apr 11
"Italia" is "Italy" "italiano" is "Italian". FYI. Feel free to add a trollish segue to this info, like "OH LOL IN YOUR PHOTO YOU LOOK DUMB". Actually; I seem to have done that myself. Oh, the irony!
Huh, that's weird. It actually truncated "italiano" to "italia". My Italian is pretty poor, but not that bad.
JESawyer 25 Apr 11
what is your favorite fallout 1/2 death animation?
Plasma melt w/ skull falling after body has oozed away. Close second: shotgun removing armpit/torso section with "AHHHHH!" yell from human enemies.
JESawyer 25 Apr 11
Why did you guys take the trailer for honest hearts down from youtube, feeling shy?
Any questions regarding DLC promotions/materials should be directed to Bethesda.
JESawyer 25 Apr 11
Why did you guys take the trailer for honest hearts down from youtube, feeling shy? Any questions regarding DLC promotions/materials should be directed to Bethesda. I think you should answer it, seeing as though your team created the game.
Obsidian doesn't handle promotion/release of materials for F:NV or the DLCs.
JESawyer 26 Apr 11
Why is balance such a big issue for you guys? NV is a single player game; I doubt most people get upset when they find an overpowered weapon.
The opposite is often the problem: people become upset because their skill/money investments give them sub-standard rewards. If you put points into Explosives and buy a ton of Dynamite, Frag Grenades, Missiles, etc. and it's extremely difficult to take out things that are easy for Guns-focused characters, it can be more than a little annoying.
Additionally, players typically respond well to difficulty that moves on a "rollercoaster" over the course of the game. If a single weapon or set of weapons allows the player to crest and effectively coast through rest of the game, it's often a less enjoyable experience.
There's also a fundamental question to ask: is balance important at all? If so, then it should be done as well as is reasonably possible. Most of the balance tweaks I made for the last patch were done on my own time after normal work hours or on weekends. I am not responsible for designing or maintaining areas or quests, so the changes I made did not "subtract", if you will, from time devoted to other issues.
JESawyer 27 Apr 11
Will the spread of the .357 Magnum ever be reduced? I've done multiple playthroughs predominately using handguns as I have found them to be more than adequate. But the .357 has a wonky and unpredictable spread at times. Mostly at close ranges.
The .357 Magnum Revolver already has a pretty low spread as far as pistol Guns go. Only the Hunting Revolver and Ranger Sequoia are lower (unless you include uniques like Maria). The 9mm, 10mm, .44 Magnum, and 12.7mm are all higher.
JESawyer 27 Apr 11
Ok, so after comparing the .357 with others one thing I've noticed is it's not the spread, it's the rate of fire. That Gun has the same spread but seems more precise. And Maria with even less spread shoots nicely.
That Gun and Maria are both unique weapons. The .357 Magnum Revolver is a weapon you can get in the first hour of a normal game.
JESawyer 27 Apr 11
Have you ever used fan-made tools such as FNVEdit to work on the official ESM files ? The GECK is nice and dandy but I simply can't work without some of the FNVEdit features (filters, side-by-side comparaison, etc)
No, though I sometimes used enduser tools when working on the Infinity Engine games.
JESawyer responded to hockeysteve54 27 Apr 11
What are your views on Objectivism?
Not favorable.
JESawyer 27 Apr 11
Fist of the North Star: Great Unarmed run, or Greatest Unarmed run?
It reigns supreme.
JESawyer 28 Apr 11
Why hasn't Bethesda given us a trailer for Honest Hearts yet? I don't care if you guys were working on a patch and i don't want to be directed to the beth blog update that answers nothing. Honest Hearts was said to be released a long time ago. trailer now
Why ask me?
JESawyer 29 Apr 11
Do you believe there exists an objective moral reality (i.e. that it is universally true that some things are morally permissible and others are not)?
No.
JESawyer 29 Apr 11
ask you? becuase you developed the game? trololol. and you should know these things obviously. dont be so foolish.
I don't know these things, which I've stated repeatedly here and elsewhere. Obsidian does not schedule or handle the release of the core product, DLCs, or promotional materials. We make products under contract to Bethesda and they handle the publishing, marketing, PR, and distribution of those products. It is up to them when they want to release products and materials because it's their property, and it's also up to them when they want to announce those products.
JESawyer 29 Apr 11
I just completed Return to Sender, and I'm disappointed that there wasn't an option to dress up as a Legionaire Super Mutant, or a trained Deathclaw, to help legitimize the false reports. 
Typical Obsidian railroading.
JESawyer 29 Apr 11
I like the changes you made to 5mm ammo. The -DT effects are great, they really come in handy later in the game for Guns based characters. And the price increases have made the game a little more challenging. Thanks, keep up the good work.
Thanks, I'm glad you like them.
JESawyer 29 Apr 11
How can rape not be objectively immoral?
"Rape", like "murder", is a subjective descriptor placed upon an action based on context. "Rape" is an interpretation of a sex act. "Murder" is an interpretation of an act of killing. Context is based on individual perception of events, individual definitions of descriptors, and a variety of other factors that cannot/do not exist apart from human understanding and language.
JESawyer 30 Apr 11
Who created Hanlon and the Return to Sender quest? It was one of my favorite sidequests, and Hanlon is an amazing character.
I wrote Chief Hanlon, but Jeff Husges and Matt MacLean implemented most of the quest content. Thanks.
JESawyer 30 Apr 11
Do you think that a commonly agreed upon subjective moral or ethical code can be, for all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from an objective one?
I do not believe such a thing can exist due to the fundamental nature of subjectivity.
JESawyer 30 Apr 11
do you ever play new vegas?lol
Almost every day.
JESawyer 30 Apr 11
With rape though there is an objective standard... forced sex on a woman is rape and forced is objective, at least when talking about physical force. I can see you saying date rape is not objectively immoral, but sure physically forced rape is.
No, there is absolutely not an objective standard. If there were an objective standard, there would be objective definitions and objective legal standards. These things do not exist because they cannot exist.
JESawyer 30 Apr 11
It's a good thing your not a judge then.
Judges exist to be arbiters and they use a defined (not objective) legal standard and established precedence as a general guide. Not only can the standards differ by legal region (state vs. state, nation vs. nation), but the precedence can change over time. And of course, laws change as well. Amid all of that, judges (and juries) are interpreting information given from a wide variety of sources. The reason juries and supreme courts have lots of folks in them is to attempt counteract the obvious problems with subjective interpretation and bias.
JESawyer 1 May 11
We're not talking "legal" though, we're talking "moral." Physically forced sex on a woman is surely objectively immoral. There are times when even killing civilians can be considered "right," like in certain war situations, but rape is never right. Ever
The distinction between legal and moral is irrelevant because you're still using vague terms like "physically forced" that ignore the expressed or understood desires of each partner. "Ravishment" roleplay involves physically forced sex that is *desired*. Is it rape if one party is so much physically weaker that the stronger party doesn't even realize that the act is being resisted? How do you know if the stronger party is telling the truth? What is the boundary between rough sex and physical resistance for occasional partners who regularly engage in the former? If the moral standard requires you to have direct and complete understanding of the desires and knowledge of all involved parties, it's useless.
I also think it's disappointing that your objective standard is "physically forced sex on a woman", because it not only ignores that men can be physically forced into sex, but also ignores a really disgusting American social trend that makes light of prison rape -- and often involves people actively wishing it on certain prisoners. Clearly a segment of the American population thinks it is just for some male prisoners to be subjected to rape as punishment for their crimes, but I guess technically that falls outside of your objective standard.
JESawyer 2 May 11
What are the advantages of the trail carbine? Its supposed to be a higher tier weapon, but it seems lame compared to the hunting rifle.
Much higher RoF and lower AP cost.
JESawyer 2 May 11
Have you considered renaming New Vegas to New Vaginas?
hmm
JESawyer 2 May 11
Hey Josh I've got a question 'bout an Older Game! Y'know, Fallout 2, the greatest game ever! (Though Buggy as hell, can't deny it) Question: So, the SHI built a powerful settlement thanks to the Rad eating flowers. What's their relationship with the NCR?
I didn't do any work on Fallout 2, sorry.
JESawyer 2 May 11
Do you believe in a god?
No.
JESawyer 2 May 11
Atheism is just theism without an object of worship. We can no more have certainty that there does exist a god than there does not. Agnosticism is the way to go bro.
I cannot be certain of anything, but I can take action or maintain inaction based on what I think is probable. If you live your life as though there is no god, there is no functional difference between non-belief and active belief of non-existence. Arguing about religious labels is a colossal waste of time.
JESawyer 2 May 11
would you say Bioshock and Fallout are almost the same game?
N... no? wat
JESawyer 2 May 11
Do you consider yourself an Atheist or would you call yourself something else? and Are you familiar with the "skeptic movement"?
I don't give myself any religious label because it leads to pointless arguing.
JESawyer 2 May 11
Practicality and pragmatism are not everything JESawyer. Surely there is something to be said for meaningful abstractions that have no functional impact on ones life. As you said, you cannot be certain, thus it is possible you have met God. Relevant now?
No.
JESawyer 2 May 11
Do you find the celebrations over Bin Laden's death disturbing at all? I mean seriously, block parties? I mean I know it's to be expected. We're all savages at the core. But it's just so, well, awful.
The behavior of human beings doesn't disturb me because I already believe a large number of us are horrible, cruel monsters and always have been.
JESawyer 3 May 11
do people alway go to you for their rape questions?
i guess
JESawyer 3 May 11
who old is your wikipedia pic
It's probably from about 2002. Yikes!
JESawyer 3 May 11
It is a mystery?
yes
JESawyer 3 May 11
Hello Josh. What's the process of making a patch of FNV? Does Obsidian QA team test a new patch first and then send it to Bethesda for further testing, or Bethesda does the most of testing?
Our internal testing team is very small and typically consists of 2 to 4 people. They do test specific things, but they are not responsible for the majority of testing. As with the core F:NV product, Bethesda handles most of the QA for updates and DLCs. Microsoft and Sony are responsible for certification.
JESawyer 3 May 11
I'm happy Osama Bin Laden is dead, what's your take.
I think the world is probably better with him not active in it, but I don't celebrate his death and I don't believe it changes much of substance.
JESawyer 3 May 11
I agree with you about us being horrible, cruel monsters. But it's like a puddle of urine in an alley. There's a difference between knowing it's there and having your nose rubbed in it in an overwhelming and public way, or are you that desensitized?
Classifying it as "desensitized" can add a negative connotation to it. I think the average person's state of awareness and lack of willingness to understand the horrors that we inflict on each other every day is deplorable. It's going on every day, everywhere, and if you are surprised or shocked, you're part of the problem.
JESawyer 3 May 11
Why dehumanize people who you disagree with? Isn't that what "horrible, cruel monsters" do? Besides, if humans were really fundamentally what you think, how could there be anyone who thinks they're so mean? It would be the baseline for all human belief.
If by "dehumanize" you mean "reduce below the absurd elevated pedestal we place ourselves on", I do it because their behavior and attitudes are harmful and destructive. We should recognize this behavior and condemn it. We do ourselves no favors by pretending it does not exist. When people say that the United States is a post-racial society, they are living in a state of delusion.
The second part of your question is sort of self-defeating. You could as easily reverse it and say, "If people are fundamentally good, why are there bad people?" We are intelligent animals. Our elaborate social rules and methods of communication are much more recent developments in our history. When push comes to shove, we fall back on animal behavior and instinct. And while we're not unique in this, we are a species that kills for pleasure. Humans in positions of power have a long and colorful history of using their intelligence for sadistic and/or murderous purposes.
JESawyer 4 May 11
Do you think the world would be better off if humanity were governed by an emotionless artificial intelligence (with a soothing female voice,) programmed to protect us from ourselves no matter the cost?
No, but it would probably be better if humanity devoted itself to addressing the root causes of many of our problems (e.g. poverty, ignorance) instead of getting wrapped up in matters of no consequence.
JESawyer 4 May 11
What level of involvement did you have with the design of the New Vegas DLC's?
I designed the weapons for Dead Money and was the project director for Honest Hearts.
JESawyer 4 May 11
I just noticed that Chris Avellone updated his Linkedin account with Old World Blues and Lonesome Road. Since he didn't work on Honest Hearts, were you the creative director on that DLC? You seem to like Utah a lot!
Yes. I like the wild parts of Utah. I haven't been to any of the cities.
JESawyer 4 May 11
In New Vegas, did you consider implementing the ability to apply any consumable item to companions (i.e. not just stimpaks)? If so, why did you not include it? I've been in occasions when I wanted to give them items like med-x, antivenom or stealth boys.
I wanted to keep the Companion Wheel simple, and stims are by far the most common items that players typically want to use on companions.
JESawyer 4 May 11
Dont you think that the ability to max out all skills over the course of the game makes the notion of skill point distribution somewhat redundant? I am of course asking this in the context of FO3 and, more specifically, the FNV DLC total level cap of 50.
50 levels takes a relatively long time, going through a large amount of content, to achieve. So while many characters may wind up with similar skill distributions at the end of the game, how they spend skill points along the way is still very important.
JESawyer 4 May 11
So in the screen shot for Honest Hearts on Bethblog....is that a M1911 I see. Or am I just going to have to wait until May 17th to find out?
All I'll say is that those aren't F:NV's 9mm Pistols.
JESawyer 4 May 11
So I say "Josh tell me bout your courier", and you tell me "Hes a superman whos good at everything". I respond with "Omigosh mine too!" Chris A walks in and says "ZOMG mine too!" Then we all reminisce about when we werent forcibly homogenized. Good thing?
Cruel fortunes conspire to make you advance a character to 50th level.
JESawyer 4 May 11
Is there any connection between the weapon balances you worked so hard on in the recent patch, and the balance and game design of Honest Hearts which you also worked on? Is that the reason why the patch had to come first?
The patch had to come first because stability was the highest priority. My balance fixes weren't a priority, but since I wasn't involved in any of the stability work, I was able to do them concurrently.
JESawyer 5 May 11
I was wondering if you had ever considered the notion of having the next fallout take place somewhere in the south. Maybe New orleans?
That's not up to me, but I think New Orleans would be a cool setting.
JESawyer 5 May 11
all these didactic-ish posts on your formspring lately sound like they could be missing dialogue for Arcade. did you intentionally make Arcade a mouthpiece for your own philosophical/political views, or am I reading too much into it?
Arcade is much more optimistic about people than I am and he's also more incredulous/shocked at the state of things. His style of speech is similar to my style of exposition. Much of that may be because I originally had to actually speak AS Arcade when I played him as a Van Buren tabletop character in Chris Avellone's campaign. As a result, I tend to construct Arcade's phrases in a way that is similar to my own exposition. Characters like Chief Hanlon and President Kimball are (hopefully) more distinct.
JESawyer 5 May 11
You are a fantastic game designer and your contributions to Fallout have been among some of my favorite. For all the criticisms that NV gets (both warranted and unwarranted), I just thought you should be offered some honest praise for the work you did!
Thanks.
JESawyer 5 May 11
on a related note, I'm not sure if this was ever implied in the game or not, but was Hanlon responsible for the miscommunication that led to the Bitter Springs massacre? and, as the dude who wrote him, would you have turned him in or given him a pass?
No, Hanlon wasn't involved in Bitter Springs.
I generally don't like to give personal answers to the choices I would make in these games or situations. It's for a few reasons. I make decisions in games based on the character that I'm playing, and I don't base characters on myself. I also think that people will tend to assign authorial weight or legitimacy to one choice or path when a designer says it's what he or she prefers. I'd rather not support that. The point of creating the spectrum of choices and allowing the world to react to the player's choices is to make the choices feel valid specifically because the player made them.
JESawyer 7 May 11
In Fallout N:V why where there less raiders than in other fallout games (was it just because of the more organised style of the Mojave?) and also, why was there only one major Raider gang?
Because NCR beat the crap out of almost all of the raiders.
JESawyer responded to theflyingbuddha 7 May 11
Thoughts on the economy in FO NV: I personally find it very easy to just rack up assets in the game. There's generally not a lot of incentive to buy anything for most of the game. Do you disagree?
I think the high payout ratio of slots is probably the most destructive element to the economy because it requires virtually no effort. Collecting things to sell is a hugely variable problem. People who scour the wasteland can collect a ton of gear. With high Barter, they can sell it for a reasonable price and have a lot of caps floating around.
There are a few item types that never drop in the world: ammo subtypes and mods. That's intentional. You can craft hand loads, but you can't craft most ammo subtypes, and you can only buy weapon mods in stores. The last money sink is implants from the New Vegas Medical Clinic.
Some players struggle to buy the high-end weapons and implants that they want, ending the game with only a few thousand caps. Others end the game with hundreds of thousands of caps. Without fixing the slots payout ratio (or max bets) or drastically altering the way in which players get caps from quests vs. found loot, that's a difficult gap to address.
JESawyer 7 May 11
Can you give some little thing about Joshua Graham about how he feels towards NCR or Legion? Please?
No.
JESawyer 7 May 11
What are the northern extents of Caesar's Legion? Ringo says that he is going up to New Cannan, which is near SLC, but Dead Sea claims to be from the Salt Lake area, and Legion control is implied, so wouldn't Crimson Caravan Company be unwelcome there?
It is a mystery.
JESawyer 7 May 11
When I first started playing Fallout, my characters were just numbers and I optimized builds to give myself the biggest advantage possible. Recently, I've assigned SPECIAL and Skill points based on how I view the character. Which do you prefer?
The latter. Min-maxing in most RPGs is pretty easy for me, so it's more interesting to come up with a character concept and build his or her stats around the concept.
JESawyer 7 May 11
So... democrat or republican?
Death to all partisans.
JESawyer 7 May 11
Are you rope kid on the something awful forums?
Yes.
JESawyer 7 May 11
Was their any Vault concepts that never made it into the game, if so what were they.
I don't believe so.
JESawyer responded to theflyingbuddha 7 May 11
As a follow up on economy: in retrospect is there any tweaking that might have been done differently? Like maybe food/medicine being less common outside of vendors? I personally wish there was a bit more ebb and flow between looting and buying, myself.
In P02 (not sure what that patch is called for endusers... the one before the most recent one), I actually did cut down the amount of found stims pretty heavily. Locked first aid kits still had some, but unlocked ones often have none, or have an empty syringe instead. A lot of dudes who carried stims by default had them removed. Stim pricing was also adjusted up quite a bit.
Despite this, stims are still used far more often than food despite food being more widespread. I've seen videos of people playing where, outside of combat, they will still use stims even though they're carrying food items that provide more efficient healing (and provide additional bonuses).
Because stims are, in many players' minds, "the" way to heal your character, it is difficult to get them out of that mindset or to change their expectation of where they can be found and how common they are. According to Steam stats, the Desert Survivalist achievement (heal 10,000 points of damage with food) has a 1.0% completion rate, only trailed by Artful Pocketer at 0.9%. For further reference, it's beaten out by Caravan Master (win 30 games of Caravan) at 1.6%. 9.9% have unlocked Stim-ply Amazing, the Medicine/stim equivalent.
JESawyer 8 May 11
Do you feel like you're an easily offended person, or easily angered?
No.
JESawyer 8 May 11
Quick question before I go off to dreamland. Since you are the project director for HH does that mean you will also write some of it's characters (even Graham perhaps?) if so that makes me really excited. Hanlon and Arcade are among my favorites in NV.
Yes, I also did some writing on Honest Hearts.
JESawyer 8 May 11
Who thought up the Boomers, Nellis and the "Volare!" mission? They're by far my favorite faction and missions of the games. Great job guys.
John Gonzalez came up with the Boomers. I came up with the basics of Volare! and Akil Hooper did the actual development of the quest.
JESawyer 8 May 11
Can we kick people off cliff faces in honest hearts
If you have Ranger Takedown, probably.
JESawyer 8 May 11
I want to argue with you in a medium that is inherently biased and sure to make me look foolish. I don't have anyone else on the entire internet to argue with.
Cool.
JESawyer 8 May 11
What time do you normally wake up?
If I'm cycling to work, 6:30. Otherwise, 8:45.
JESawyer 8 May 11
What real-life weapon is the Brush Gun based on?
Not one gun specifically, but guns like the Winchester 1886 and Marlin Guide Gun.
JESawyer 8 May 11
Who wrote Cliff Briscoe?
i *think* it was Eric Fenstermaker, but I may be remembering incorrectly.
JESawyer 8 May 11
Could you please suggest a RECENT musician or band that I should listen to? (I like most music genres) =) thanks =D
Fleet Foxes.
JESawyer 8 May 11
any thoughts on when honest hearts tailer is comin out..........i know u have nothin to do with the release either....uh...Thanks?lol
lol!!!!
JESawyer 8 May 11
Kannst du was zu den jüngsten Entlassungen bei Obsidian sagen? Ist ein Projekt eingestellt worden?
Nein, kann ich nicht. Entschuldigung.
JESawyer 8 May 11
Who came up with the Idea of the All-American Marksman Carbine?
I did.
JESawyer 8 May 11
If a future Fallout game set in the Mojave wasteland requires you to make one of the New Vegas endings canon, which ending would you favor from a storytelling perspective?
I'll decide that if it ever comes up.
JESawyer 8 May 11
What are your thoughts on gun ownership?
That's a pretty broad topic.
I think private citizens should be allowed to own firearms. I think legislation regulating firearm ownership should be primarily driven by people who understand how firearms work. It should also be undertaken with a genuine desire to improve safe private firearm ownership, not to slowly eradicate firearm ownership/irritate owners. Attempts to legislate firearm ownership as a way to reduce common gun crime should be abandoned since they have never demonstrated success in the past. Legislators would be better off focusing on the root causes of crime involving firearms.
JESawyer 8 May 11
How many backed up questions do you have waiting on here?
968
JESawyer 8 May 11
Granted, as a game dev you don't have to muck about with all that college MLA and APA citation crap. But for your games that involve a (mostly) real world setting like Alpha Protocol and New Vegas, does Obsidian have a research budget set aside?
Not usually. Research on easily accessible topics is up to individuals/part of the job. Occasionally, we do spend money for outside resources/consultants on things that are outside of our expertise.
JESawyer 8 May 11
You don't really believe gun control advocates are just doing it to troll gun owners, do you? Or did Jim Brady get crippled for life just to make guns look bad in some kind of elaborate progressive conspiracy?
It is hard to look at much of California's gun legislation and believe that the people sponsoring it are honestly interested in curtailing gun crime. Much of the language legislators use focus on the lack of "need" for a person to have a weapon with a specific feature when a) it's not really the point and b) restricting access to these things doesn't show a demonstrable drop in gun crime. The Federal Assault Weapons Ban (which California also picked up, independently) is particularly absurd. The D.C. handgun ban also accomplished little.
California's AB 962 was overturned in January because it was another piece of silly legislation that any person intent on committing a crime could circumvent. It was also either intentionally vague or unintentionally ignorant in its language due to the specification of "handgun" ammunition, which is an arbitrary designation, much like an "assault" weapon.
Unsurprisingly, much gun crime is committed by people who do not legally own firearms. Despite this, legislators often push to regulate things that only serve to irritate legal gun owners and are no obstacle to people carrying stolen or personally modified firearms. Supporters of this sort of legislation often do their causes no favors as too many proudly revel in being ignorant of how firearms work (or don't work).
JESawyer responded to Spockrock 8 May 11
"Legislators would be better off focusing on the root causes of crime involving firearms." could you elaborate on this?
Poverty. The drug war.
JESawyer 9 May 11
I was so bummed about you and what happened, especially the role I played BUT I just got the news! I'm so excited! And relieved! It seems like this year's Samhain is gonna be one to remember. I'llbring the candycorn if you bring the Opana. Allahu Akbar!
oic
JESawyer 9 May 11
Where do the brotherhood of steel get all their food from?
Veronica buys much of the HV BoS' food for them. That's essentially her job: acquiring things that the BoS cannot produce within Hidden Valley.
JESawyer 9 May 11
If the NCR collects taxes then why in F:NV are there no tax collectors?
If you play the game until April 15th, they show up.
(not really)
JESawyer responded to MartinPurvis 10 May 11
According to your wikipedia page, you started out at Black Isle Studios as a web designer and quickly climbed up the ladder, did you know how to code any computer games before this or even work on them?
No. I only had experience playing and designing tabletop RPGs for my friends. I had played a ton of CRPGs growing up, but had no CRPG development experience.
JESawyer 10 May 11
How do you get into the game industry with no professional experience or academic qualifications?
I had professional web development experience and I came in as a web developer. I worked on Black Isle websites with Black Isle developers and, over time, convinced them that I knew enough about AD&D/Forgotten Realms that I could work as a junior designer on Icewind Dale.
JESawyer 10 May 11
is there some kind of mandate to try and recycle old content for NV/NV's DLC??? are you afraid of running out of ideas???
No????
JESawyer 11 May 11
well its just that they're all made of cut content from the last four real games and you guys are using the OMG KIDNAPPED!!! LOL setup again seriously?????????
No they aren't, and no we aren't... ?
JESawyer 11 May 11
Honest Hearts looks fun! Am I reading the info correctly? Is there a new ammo caliber? Is that a whole new ammo type?
Yes, .45 Auto is a distinct new ammo type with subtypes.
JESawyer 11 May 11
YCS, BYOB, and LF are all dead now. Thoughts?????
JESawyer 11 May 11
How adding a new ammo caliber with the DLC has been handled balance-wise? Will we be able to find that ammo in the main Mojave area or only in Zion?
It will also start appearing at the Gun Runners a few days after you return.
JESawyer 11 May 11
I JUST HAD SEX
cool
JESawyer 11 May 11
WHAT? After all he has been through and all the bad things he has done and Joshua Graham still claims to be a christian?
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+15:11-32&version=NIV
JESawyer 11 May 11
Why hasn't the Honest Hearts DLC trailer come out yet, the frigging DLC is coming out next week? I really want to know
Hmm yes I see.
JESawyer 15 May 11
Most people didn't even complete FNV (12.80% have hardcore achievement), surely for them it's not worth buying dlc? I did 80% and even I don't see the need. Are the DLC higher quality focused experiences than the main game's side quests? Persuade us.
DLCs don't require that you complete the main quest. I have no interest in persuading you.
JESawyer 15 May 11
will we see more comedic items like the Pint-sized slasher mask from FO3 in future DLCs
Without getting into items, Old World Blues is the most LOL!!! of the DLCs.
JESawyer 15 May 11
Is Chief Hanlon a homo? I walked into his room while he was sleeping and he was sharing a bed with a Ranger.
That's just TES engine sandbox behavior.
JESawyer 15 May 11
Is The Burned Man named after you?
No.
JESawyer 15 May 11
I wish I could believe that the average caveman would realize that bringing power armor, buckets of ammo/stims, and the best unique weapons to Zion spoils their experience. I appreciate having options, but you give people too much credit. Gear-strip ftw.
The weight limit will force people to think about what they take. They can still bring in very powerful equipment, but they do have to make some strategic decisions. People who want a challenge will use the weight limit as an story-based excuse to bring in a minimalist set of gear. People who want to slaughter everything won't, but it's their choice to do so and I don't think the experience will be worse for them because of it.
JESawyer 15 May 11
According to Keiji Inafune, he got around the refusal of his superiors to greenlight prototypes for games like Lost Planet and Dead Rising by going ludicrously over-budget, forcing them to release the products in order to recoup losses. Is this unethical?
No, but I'd say his superiors are pretty inattentive if a prototype can go so far over budget that it's necessary to make and release a full game just to recoup losses on it.
JESawyer 17 May 11
Why did you nerf some of the special ammos? Specifically, .308 JSP and .223 rounds?
.223 was never meant to have that bonus. .308 JSP was pretty much pure power/no brainer choice for any .308 weapon.
JESawyer 17 May 11
So you used John 1:5 "The light shines in darkness, and the darkness did not overcome (or comprehend) it" for Graham's gun. Was there any special reason for that verse on his weapon?
Yes.
JESawyer 17 May 11
I don't mean to be a jerk but that guy was asking for an explanation for Graham's gun and you blew him off with a one-word answer. I appreciate your generosity for having a Formspring, but that means you have an opportunity to explain the game to fans.
My one-word answer is an invitation for players to examine the content and context on their own and draw their own conclusions. Whatever I intended ultimately doesn't matter.
JESawyer 18 May 11
Finished Honest Hearts and I'm curious, who was involved with The Survivalist's subplot? Also, is it wrong that when I read his lines I hear them said by Sylvester Stallone?
I designed the overall arc of the Survivalist, his background, and his relationship with the inhabitants of Zion, but John Gonzalez wrote all of the entries you find in the logs.
JESawyer 18 May 11
Will the bug with the Survivalist's Rifle be fixed? If you're not aware, it doesn't always appear in the duffel bag, instead it sometimes is picked up by White Legs or given as a reward from Daniel.
Daniel doesn't give it as a reward, but if you talk to Daniel and your current companion is switched out for someone else (e.g. Joshua Graham), the previous companion will give you all of the loose objects in his or her inventory. NPCs picking the weapon up is just a part of the engine's AI.
JESawyer 18 May 11
I find it extremely irritating that Tribals can be equipped with 12.7mm and Brush Guns. I also assume this is for balance. But couldn't you also get balance by making NPCs get more accurrate/strong/resilient as the player leveled and keep them low-tech?
What you're describing is essentially what the enemies did in in Point Lookout. There was a fair amount of negative feedback to both their high hit point totals and their damage buffs. Joshua Graham explains that the White Legs raided an armory at Spanish Fork and that is supposed to help explain their relatively high level of armament.
JESawyer 18 May 11
Why is the Compliance Regulator so bad? It has such a cool design. The paralysis effect seems pointless as the weapon does so little damage you have to switch to a more powerful one. Why didn't you just make it a moderately powerful, unique pistol?
The paralysis effect is the point of the weapon. From a hidden state, a critical hit is guaranteed. For high crit rate characters, it's common even in standard combat. Players can use it either to avoid conflict by paralyzing the target or they can use it to set up the situation you described. ~10 seconds of uncontested fire from the player with any decent weapon is almost always a death sentence.
JESawyer 18 May 11
Honest Hearts was a joke. $10 and that's the best you an give us? For shame Josh.
Specific points of complaint are more constructive than a general expression of displeasure.
JESawyer 18 May 11
I'm really enjoying Honest Hearts. Thank you for all the extra details in the setting which makes it feel like a real hiking adventure. I'm taking my time and not rushing through it. This is one of the best environments I've seen in Fallout ever. 
Thanks. The artists put a lot of time into the environment.
JESawyer 18 May 11
Are new recipes and weapons conceived when the DLC is, or are they conceived earlier but intended to be implemented in DLC? You're the only Obsidian guy I can find to pose the question to!
Weapons are always considered early on because they typically require a significant investment of artist time (outfits and characters require even more). We usually start with a list of recipes but it tends to grow over the course of the DLC. Recipes are very easy to make in GECK, so unless the final product of the recipe requires new art, they can happen relatively close to the end of development. The gecko-backed armors came in late on Honest Hearts but they were straightforward to implement.
JESawyer 18 May 11
The log entries for the Survivalist made him at times seem woefully uneducated. But in order to live under those conditions and seeing his ingenious methods, makes it seem he would be more the contrary.
John and I thought of the Survivalist as a clever ex-military man without a lot of formal education. The Survivalist is experienced at living and traveling in the wilderness, so he uses his general experience and quick wits to survive in Zion. Some close examination of his rifle also gives clues about his life before the war.
JESawyer 18 May 11
In Honest Hearts, Joshua Graham's approach to the White Legs problem is very violent, vengeful and almost vindictive, while Daniel's is much meeker. Was it intended to be a parallel to the Old and New Testaments and their separate portrayals of God?
Both men ostensibly want to protect the Sorrows and Zion. When they speak, they talk about salvation and preservation of that tribe and that place (physically and spiritually) being the goal. Speaking with them at length reveals aspects of their background that are, whether they admit it or not, driving their attitudes.
JESawyer 18 May 11
I had fun with honest hearts and there were some very memorable characters, thank you!
Thanks.
JESawyer 18 May 11
OK, so, first thing I do is whack the hell outta graham with my displacer glove for incurring the wrath of caesar, then i'm told to collect a map, and then I exit a tunnel and I'm getting an ending slide. can you comment on this design decision???????????
After you reach Zion, you're allowed to slaughter pretty much everyone even in circumstances where no one has asked you to do so and you are in no imminent danger. You chose that option and received most of the same items through Chaos in Zion that you would through the main quest line.
JESawyer 18 May 11
What would your response to these statements be: "the super racist native american who thinks "casinos" are just places where the "white man flips over little pieces of paper""
Follows-Chalk isn't a Native American, culturally or ethnically.
JESawyer 18 May 11
On the desert ranger combat armor R.B. Vickers is painted on the armor. Was this going to be Clark's name and was just changed at the last minute or is it his friend's armor, or just some dude's, that died and Clark was just using it to survive in Zion?
R.B. Vickers is the name of the armor's original owner.
JESawyer 18 May 11
What's the significance of the "FORGIVE ME MAMA" on the helmet? Also, when did Vickers rotate back to the States? April 2077?
The text on the Desert Ranger Helmet is part of a recurring theme within Honest Hearts.
JESawyer 18 May 11
Whats up with the rain? It looks normal looking forwards but when I look up it turns to snow!
Patrolling the Great Basin almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.
JESawyer 18 May 11
Care to provide story driven, consistent explanations as to: Why do the Gun Runners sell Fire Bombs, War Clubs, and Tomahawks? Why does a "magic" unique gear footlocker suddenly appear? Why the color difference between NCR Vet. and Desert ranger armor?
1) A northern route was opened to Zion. Regardless of how the Courier resolves the situation there, the weapons that are available there become available in the Mojave. The Gun Runners don't manufacture the items, but re-sell them.
2) It's not "magic", but gifts from Joshua and Daniel for helping them resolve a pretty important issue in Zion. If you do Chaos in Zion, there is no such box.
3) NCR Veteran Ranger Armor is Desert Ranger Armor adapted for their use.
The more important game design reasons are:
1) It's not beneficial to allow access to one category of new weapons and not others.
2) Forcing people to kill the owners of unique items that are part of the core story to get those unique items is not great. Similarly, not giving those characters unique items in the first place is bad. Over and over and over again, we have seen players bend over backwards to get those items. They want those items because they look cool and are valuable, stat-wise. We (the developers) put time into making the assets, so we should make them available to the player. This is why the safehouses were filled with low-CND faction-relevant items in a patch.
3) A re-textured outfit is more interesting and distinct to a player than one that simply has a few logos removed.
JESawyer 18 May 11
What comes first for you: good game design or believable level design?
Good > believable. If you can make something that is good and believable, that is great (assuming it's appropriate for the setting). Sometimes, the game mechanics are in conflict with realism or believability and I think it's better to make the game mechanics feel good.
As an example, .45 ACP/.45 Auto in Honest Hearts is *~ unrealistically ~* more powerful than 10mm ammo. I could have made the ammunition and the guns that fired it more realistic, but then you'd have a new DLC handgun that holds 5 fewer rounds and does less damage than what is already a "Tier 2" handgun. And to make matters worse, it would have been an iconic weapon that people wanted for look/feel that was fundamentally not as good as most other weapons in the game.
When it comes to level design, designers should try to be consistent and not pull the player out of the experience. They should also try to think about how the areas are used, because it helps build an environment that pulls the player instead of jarring them out. This isn't always possible, but when it is, it should be pursued.
JESawyer 18 May 11
Are there parts of the real Zion Park that have sharp, jagged cliffs and no grass? Or is it due to erosion after 200 years?
There are some pretty gnarly bare-rock cliffs in Zion.
JESawyer 18 May 11
Are you going to play The Witcher 2?
Yeah.
JESawyer 18 May 11
Your DLC sucks. Let the guy who wrote Vault 11 do a DLC because you're a depressing stoic gaylord who secretly loves attention but tries to act edgy and intelligent for kicks.
Lord of the Gays.
JESawyer 18 May 11
Who wrote Joshua Graham? DLC isn't out yet; just curious!
I did.
JESawyer 18 May 11
Have you ever updated your own wikipedia page... be honest!
Yeah, I went in to remove a credit listed for Planescape: Torment because I wasn't on the dev team.
JESawyer 18 May 11
will the bug with the survivalist rifles iron sights not being aligned be fixed and how could such happen?
It's not a bug. The Survivalist's Rifle was used by the Survivalist for decades and shows signs of improvised repair (the clamps on the foregrip wood, the mismatched wood furniture, etc.). The bent front sight is damage that the Survivalist couldn't or didn't repair and just adapted to using as-is.
If you aim at the right front post, that's where the bullets are going.
JESawyer 19 May 11
Why did you decide to change Graham's character so much from your initial version in Van Buren, where he was pretty much the most evil bastard around?
Because that's uninteresting.
JESawyer 19 May 11
How did the Sorrows manage to forget how to speak and read English and all the knowledge and stories gleaned from the Survivalist's gifts in less than two hundred years?
The Survivalist's notes may give an incorrect picture of how much English the Sorrows knew when he initially made contact. Even by that point, they were speaking a devolved pidgin language and many of them could not read.
JESawyer 19 May 11
Is It correct that the tribals are descended from vacationers at the time of the Great War? I swear I hear a little German in the Dead Horses and Spanish in the Sorrows, but I also hear another language(s) mixed in and spoken by either tribe as well.
Yes. Joshua Graham explains that they speak languages from a place he calls "Res" mixed with languages from people who were vacationing in Utah.
JESawyer responded to pepper2000 20 May 11
My friend is saying that your guys were insensitive in your jokes regarding Indians in the latest DLC. Thoughts?
I have no idea what jokes he's talking about, most notably since there aren't any Indians/Native Americans in Honest Hearts.
JESawyer 20 May 11
Who did the voice acting and writing for Follows-Chalk? I thought both were excellent.
I don't remember the name of the actor who performed Follows-Chalk, but Travis Stout wrote the character.
JESawyer 20 May 11
What is "Res" supposed to be? Are there clues that I'm missing that can help explain it, or is it meant to be a mystery?
Joshua Graham says that it was east of the Grand Canyon.
JESawyer responded to pepper2000 20 May 11
Well at least with the Dead Horses, there seems to be a lot of influence from Native Americans. And my friend was saying how she saw that "Two-Bears-High-Fiving" joke as being very insensitive. She took it as mocking the NAtive American naming culture.
Two Bears High-Fiving is a reference to a popular mod for the opening ink blot tests from Doc Mitchell. The tribes are influenced by a number of indigenous groups, not simply "Native Americans" (itself a very broad categorization of geographically and culturally diverse groups). The "ethnic" composition of all three of the tribes is intentionally mixed. There aren't Caucasian, African, Asian, etc. Dead Horses. There are just Dead Horses, with a thoroughly mixed background.
What English speakers understand of various Sioux, Cherokee, Sauk, etc. names is usually as literal a translation as they can manage because many indigenous American names are really, really long. Even so, there isn't a homogeneous indigenous American "naming culture".
Cultures based on European backgrounds may treat our names as sounds without meaning, but a lot of them are packed with the same sorts of sentiments -- animal names (e.g. Melissa, Bjorn), religious connections (e.g. Joshua, Johanna, Michael), etc. The names of individual tribals in Honest Hearts is intended to give them a sense of being "other" more than it is intended to evoke specific indigenous connections.
Joshua Graham elaborates on this a bit in his dialogue. The New Canaanites wear more clothing and understand more about technology than the Sorrows, but they're still a tribe.
JESawyer 20 May 11
So the USMC and LA Riot armor have similar appearances, just like how today's SWAT and military combat uniforms are similar? And I'm guessing the Ranger w/ the helmet statue @ Mojave Outpost represented the Nevada Rangers this whole time.
Yes, essentially.
JESawyer 20 May 11
Why is the writing on Grahams gun Greek and not Latin?
John was written in Greek.
JESawyer 21 May 11
My anglo name, if literally translated, would be Noble-Born Miller's Son from the land of Carnaghan. P cool eh?
ya
JESawyer 23 May 11
Hi, who was leading gamedesing of the upcoming DLCs?
Chris Avellone is the project director for Old World Blues and Lonesome Road.
JESawyer 23 May 11
When will be released the next.. nah i'm joking ^_^ About Honest Hearts: why the survivalist had all those computers to write his diary? Why not hand-written notes (just lore-wise)? Too much text to fit into notes? Ciao from Italy!
Terminals are a lot easier for the player to see, especially in a dark cave, than hand-written notes.
JESawyer responded to ProgRock 23 May 11
Also, I heard that you designed the Survivalist story, and I also want to congratulate you on that; it was an incredible side-story that was intriguing and just straight up bad-ass. It reminded me of the Mark Meltzer story from Bioshock 2.
Thanks, but John Gonzalez wrote all of the entries; I just came up with the idea and defined the character's story arc.
JESawyer 23 May 11
Why is that Joshua Graham does not wear Legion armors in the flashbacks ? Was it to make him easier to identify ? Why not give him a Legate armor in this case ?
Lanius' armor seemed inappropriate for Graham. Though it's unlikely that Joshua would have worn the same clothes then that he does when you meet him in Honest Hearts, there weren't a lot of other appropriate clothes for him and his outfit does make him stand out as particularly unusual -- which, even among the Legion, he was.
JESawyer 23 May 11
I just want to say thank you. Thank you for writing Joshua Graham's character, and for New Vegas in general. JG is without a doubt one of the most interesting characters I've ever met in a video game, and NV will ALWAYS be my all-time favorite game. :3
Thanks.
JESawyer 23 May 11
Are you aware of the fact that, after you revealed he was your tabletop character, Arcade has been criticized for being a Mary Sue on fansites? Do you think it's fair?
Jean-Baptiste Cutting was also my character in the same campaign. Is he a Mary Sue?
I think people know enough about my personality from interviews and the questions I've answered here to make that judgment on their own. The fact that I played the character in a tabletop campaign shouldn't have much bearing on it considering the variety of characters I played in that, and many other, campaigns.
That said, when I design characters that I am going to personally write or play in RPGs, I try to build up around subject matter I know. As with writing, role-playing about topics with which you are familiar is generally a good approach. There are parts of my cynicism and despair in Chief Hanlon, parts of my idealism in Arcade, and parts of my struggle to be honest with myself in Joshua Graham. Of those three, Arcade is the most like me, but he is not me and was not intended to stand in for me.
JESawyer 23 May 11
Honest Hearts was a very well-designed add on and the Survivalist was probably my favorite part of the experience, he reminded me of many hours spent in the Capital Wasteland. Where did you draw your inspiration to create such an interesting character?
I can't speak for John Gonzalez, who wrote the actual dialogue, but I believe I developed the idea while backpacking in Zion on my own and reading the Pearl of Great Price by Joseph Smith before bed every night. I thought of a "non-believer" surviving the Great War and living in isolation there, seeing other people come and go, and how his own beliefs and relationship to the world would change over time. I also thought the idea of this person becoming some sort of supernatural figure to locals that was later syncretized with the Christian god would be interesting.
JESawyer responded to stealthsniper 23 May 11
Ff the Desert Rangers formed after the war sometime in the 22nd century. Then how could R.B. Vickers be a ranger if he was alive before the war?
He wasn't.
JESawyer responded to recklessblues 23 May 11
Honest Hearts made me uncomfortable. What was the purpose of using every negative trope related to indigenous people in one game (cargo cults, mighty whitey, the ignorance and naivete of the NPCs and even naming a quest after the white man's burden)?
I don't think it would have been particularly interesting to suggest that, contrary to how the majority of various low-tech, low-contact cultures around the world have dealt with the arrival of cultures with significantly higher technology and scientific knowledge -- that the tribes of the Great Basin have some special psychological makeup that inures them to the same sorts of cultural processes.
JESawyer 23 May 11
Why does everyone wear masks during the final battle of Hoover Dam?
FaceGen/FaceFX data can be expensive, so most "generic" participants wear full-face outfits to cut down on the memory required.
JESawyer 23 May 11
How come Joshua Grayham pronounce Caesar in anglo version,instead of classical latin one (Like most Legion soldiers do)?
Because Joshua Graham learned the name "Caesar" long before the Legion came along. Also, Joshua Graham doesn't really care about Caesar's rules anymore
JESawyer 23 May 11
Just how much did Graham buy into the Roman schtick in his days as the Legate? It seemed that at the least he kept his own name rather than changing it into something Latin. Wouldn't Caesar/Edward have a problem with him not playing along?
You may notice a trend of Joshua Graham retaining much more independence, despite his slow descent into darkness, than Legate Lanius. When you consider that Joshua is one of the only other people in the Legion from a background of high technology and education, the differences between him and Lanius (or any other Legion officer) are obvious. He possesses most of Caesar's "special" knowledge of technology in addition to many subjects with which Caesar was never that familiar. In many ways, Joshua was something of a threat to Caesar even before Hoover Dam.
JESawyer 23 May 11
Why is it that no one considers the fact that even Europe itself was very tribal at a point where Africa and the middle east held the greatest kingdoms and civilizations and various advances before Western Eur.'s gem, Italy? The third world was civilized.
Beats me. Cultures without a ton of technology or contact with the outside world tend to have similar reactions to sudden contact with high technology and high tech cultures. There's nothing that surprising about it. If society lost 98% of its populace and the remaining people became isolated, the survivors wouldn't automagically retain knowledge about combustion engines and the human respiratory system. Tribals in F:NV are intended to be relatively isolated Post-War groups, with a very mixed makeup, internally, that lost a huge amount of Pre-War knowledge.
JESawyer 24 May 11
duh DOY sawyer! the answer is that a eurocentric view of history prompts people who subscribe to it (read p. much every westerner) to ignore the idea of "civilization" as anything other than a gift that we proud, special white people can give out.
*drops civilization care basket 2 u*
(surprise it's cluster bombs!)
JESawyer 24 May 11
Are you guys aiming for quality or quantity on your DLCs. So far the writings been average to pretty good but not standout worthy. Gameplay and environments are lackluster and retain static environments. Honest Hearts should of been hugely ambitious.
New Vegas wasn't even hugely ambitious and it was pretty darn buggy despite our best efforts, so I don't think going ALL OUT on DLCs with smaller dev/testing staff sizes is a sound idea.
JESawyer 24 May 11
Who do you think would win in a fight, Lanius or Graham?
you should ask the guy who does all of the vs. fights on youtube.
JESawyer 26 May 11
how come there are not any felines in the wasteland?
I may not be remembering this correctly, but I think somewhere in the history of the Fallout franchise or Fallout bible, cats are extinct-ed.
JESawyer 26 May 11
Long time ago Mr.Avellone promised extra points for guessing Josh Sawyer's "disads". He mentioned: Color blindness, obesity and odious personal habit. I believe that right answer was never given. Please help. 
All of the above.
JESawyer 26 May 11
what's with the magic bear?
datura's a helluva drug.
JESawyer 26 May 11
all of your funny answers are in all lower case. explain yourself, sawyer!
fyad
lf
ycs
JESawyer 27 May 11
If the US Army used the unnamed 10mm SMG as standard SMG, why would an armory have stocked the .45 SMG? By comparison isn't the design obsolite? Especially for a Retro-Futuristic America?
I don't know where it's stated that the U.S. Army uses any of the 10mm SMGs as a standard SMG, but an effectively one-handed compact SMG seems like an odd choice for "standard" armament.
And as far as what the army adopts and what it keeps on hand in armories, the U.S. military generally doesn't just chuck out small arms when they begin adopting new equipment. More importantly, I don't think they would go out of their way to excise/remove weapons from their huge number of armories around the country/world.
There are still plenty of armies today that use 9mm Browning Hi-Powers and rechambered (in .308 Win.) SMLE rifles. Though not many U.S. military branches still use the M1911, some do, and that's a 100 year-old design.
JESawyer 27 May 11
This is a two parter. 1. Why did you decide to make Joshua Graham a good character instead of an evil character like in Van Buren? 2. Where did the inspiration of the Joshua Graham character come from?
I think it's worth noting that in even Van Buren's documents, a lot of the references to the Hanged Man's "evil" refers to past acts. In VB, he was seemingly a man without purpose. While his characterization by others and his tendency to laugh off/ignore attempts by others to control him could have been interesting, it really ended at "nasty guy who says and does creepy stuff and is a badass". There were specific instances (such as at New Canaan) where he would specifically avoid conflict and showed some additional depth, but he effectively had no character arc within the story.
Personally, I think the "wow so crazy" type characters aren't particularly interesting or insightful because they only exist in pure fantasy and, as such, can't really be related to. I think it's important for characters who are influencing player opinions to be more-or-less human. If you can't put yourself in the character's shoes, it's hard to empathize with him or her.
Joshua was inspired by a lot of different characters and things. The apostle Paul, Rodrigo Mendoza (Robert DeNiro's character from Roland Joffé's "The Mission"), T.E. Lawrence aka Lawrence of Arabia, and others. His outfit was designed to feature body armor but look somewhat "old west"/preacher in style -- hence the low-collar white shirt, sleeve garter, and the cut of the ballistic vest. The rattlesnake skin on his belt, shoes, and gun are symbolic but also intended to reflect that "western" feeling. The stitched patterns in his shirt were supposed to be tribal markings from the Dead Horses and were inspired by a scene from The Mission where Mendoza receives patterned body paint from the Guarani. I remembered a white dress from PJ Harvey's White Chalk tour where she had lyrics stitched into the cloth in black thread and I just put the two ideas together.
JESawyer 27 May 11
Marksman clearly has a quite modern design. Is there any particular reason it should consider canon?
Miniguns also have a quite modern design, along with a dozen other conventional Fallout guns that have been in previous games. I don't think there's anything about the Marksman Carbine that makes it stand out compared to the others.
JESawyer 27 May 11
>> I don't know where it's stated that the U.S. Army uses any of the 10mm SMGs as a standard SMG, but an effectively one-handed compact SMG seems like an odd choice for "standard" armament. O:A.
Fair enough.
JESawyer 27 May 11
Why is Honest Hearts basically all more in depth fetch quests? I mean clever using taboos as a reason why you specifically have to if Daniel or Joshua don't but come on.
The main quests were primarily designed to be straightforward and hard to break. Several of F:NV's quests went against the basic structure of the engine and in almost all cases, it resulted in a high degree of fragility and/or confusion for players. DLCs do not have long development cycles, so I wanted to mitigate the potential for main quest bugs by keeping them simple. In fact, the one major main quest break that many players have noted (Follows-Chalk being easily winged or killed during his initial appearance) was something that went in late in the cycle (and shouldn't have).
JESawyer 27 May 11
is the magic bear real because i have its hand?
The bear is real, but everything you see about the bear may not be!
JESawyer 27 May 11
Beefjack, 7.3/10 The problem lies with the delivery. Few of the side quests are expressly dealt with, and after the main bulk of them are dealt with, the end rears up. With a little more time put into some more dialogue, this would have been a moot point
Again, this goes back to time and overall resources.
JESawyer 27 May 11
I'm seeing "time and resources" coming up as a reason for what some are calling a lack of ambition in the DLCs. Being a software engineer, I know too well about these limitations. As consumers though, is there any way we can influence more expansive DLCs?
What you buy and don't buy and how you articulate your opinions about DLC help inform developers and publishers about what you do and don't like/tolerate. That's really the bottom line. DLC, especially the "adventure pack" style, is still a relatively new phenomenon, so we're all testing the boundaries of what consumers expect.
When someone asks me about why something was done a certain way, I usually won't hesitate to explain why, even if the reasons seem dumb. From the consumer's perspective, our budgets/timelines really aren't important. What's important to them is that they feel that their money was well spent. How we generate those budgets and timelines is based off of what we see players responding to in terms of depth and breadth -- and other logistical concerns surrounding us.
JESawyer 27 May 11
When the moon hits your eye like a big-a pizza pie, that's amore. When the world seems to shine like you've had to much wine, that's amore.
hmm i see
JESawyer 27 May 11
Should the 10mm SMG be considered cannon that it was the standard of the US Armed froses, due to it being used extensively in Operation Anchorage? Both the DLC and the Anchorage War Memorial. Also why dose it have to be single handed?
In that's what O:A says, sure. The 10mm SMG could be used in a "proper" two-handed stance, but it never really is in any of the Fallout games. The closest you get is F3/F:NV using the teacup/Weaver grip, which isn't really appropriate.
Today, SMGs aren't typically standard-issue for military troops. Soldiers usually have a rifle, light MG, and/or sidearm. SMGs are often used by special forces and/or SWAT.
JESawyer 29 May 11
As the nightstalkers are the result of splicing DNA of two different creatures and their origin is still unknown (IIRC)... here's my question: Were the scientist at Big Empty capable of "producing" such a thing? 
it is
a mystery
JESawyer 29 May 11
What do you know about the amazing 2D RPG Obsidian is making?
it's kewl
JESawyer 29 May 11
Curiosity, why can't we bring the party members from dlc with us? I would love to run into Caesars Camp with Joshua just to see everyones reactions.
Script is used to manage companions joining/leaving the party. It is done in many places throughout the game and is often done by specific IDs. I.e., it is not a generic "add/remove companion" function. The designers handled this in F:NV because our roster of companions only changed once (Ulysses).
We can't directly patch DLC content, and can't reference (in script) anything in the update from the DLC or vice-versa. This means that any companions we might add in the DLC, if brought back into the Mojave, would not be covered by the scripts that are made for the core F:NV game.
JESawyer 29 May 11
Are you going to nerf Boone's beret? It seems really overpowered with it's 5+ critical chance. It makes the other hats/helmets useless.
The issue isn't really Boone's beret as much as the multiplicative stacking that the engine runs on it. By itself, +5 Crit Chance is really nice but not the end of the world.
JESawyer 29 May 11
I read here that you think all the weapons in Dead Money were horrible. But I found the Holorifle with all the upgrade mods pretty good as a short to mid range "energy weapon shotgun...". So why did you think all of it was(and still is) terrible?
I don't think the weapons from Dead Money were horrible. I think they are pretty good within certain parameters. When the Automatic Rifle and Holorifle are fully modded, they are among the "best" weapons overall, but they still don't dominate all-around due to a variety of drawbacks that may or may not be relevant based on circumstance. As you already mentioned, the Holorifle can suffer at long range, especially if the targets are aware and moving. The Automatic Rifle's main disadvantages are spread and limited magazine size, but against a lone target (or a few low-health targets) at short- to mid-range, it crushes.
The Police Pistol is not a particularly powerful weapon, but it's nice early on in Dead Money and is a good holdout weapon if you don't have a great Sneak skill. The various melee/unarmed/explosive weapons and variants are, IMO, nice mid-tier weapons.
JESawyer 29 May 11
what kind of gun would you recommend for a first time gun owner?
Conventional wisdom suggests that the best first firearm is one that a) feels comfortable for you to hold and fire b) uses a relatively low-power cartridge (such as .22 LR) to help develop good technique/avoid flinch and c) uses a cartridge that is inexpensive (such as .22 LR) so you are not discouraged from practicing regularly. If I go to the range to practice with my .45 ACP Colt Series 80, I may go through $50 of ammo in no time. I can practice with my Henry .22 for hours and use a little over $10 in ammo.
But this all assumes that your first firearm is purchased specifically for learning how to maintain and operate a firearm. If you are buying a firearm for a specific purpose (home defense, hunting, ranch pest control), that's an entirely different story and I'm not really qualified to answer. Just to make it clear, I'm not even qualified to answer the first question, but that's the advice I've seen posted and spoken time and again.
JESawyer 31 May 11
Why did you nerf the bladed gauntlet? I had never heard a singl complaint about it, and the Ballistic Fist/and or Pushy were better choices across the board.
Because the Bladed Gauntlet is a weapon you can get in the first few hours of a normal playthrough and the Ballistic Fist and Pushy are top-tier weapons that you find/buy in the late game.
JESawyer 31 May 11
who was the lead producer of dead money? I have a lot of questions about dead money
If you mean the project director, it was Chris Avellone.
JESawyer 31 May 11
You mention weapon "tiers" quite a bit. This seems like a dev distinction for the purposes of balance and distribution, but its not clear what weapons fall into what tier or what governs which tier they get placed in. Could you clarify this for us? List?
By skill requirement, a weapon's "tier" starts at 1 with a 0 requirement. 25 = Tier 2, 50 = Tier 3, 75 = Tier 4, 100 = Tier 5. The one notable mistake I made recently were the .45 Auto Pistols. They were meant to be Tier 3 (not Tier 2) with Joshua Graham's unique pistol being Tier 4.
What governs their placement is their general efficacy relative to weapons of a similar type and how they provide a distinct application relative to similarly-powered weapons of different types. For example, in most regards the .44 Magnum Revolver is more powerful than the .357 Magnum Revolver (Tier 1), Police Pistol (Tier 2) and less powerful than the Hunting Revolver (Tier 4).
Compared to other Guns with a 50 requirement, it is more accurate than a 10mm SMG, and has a higher DAM, but a much lower DPS. Compared to the Hunting Rifle, it has a higher DPS, but lower DAM and accuracy. That's generally how the balancing process goes, but with more in-game testing to ensure that the statistical design is producing actual results in game.
JESawyer 31 May 11
Is the Light in Darkness based on any real version of the M1911?
It's loosely based on various "Officer"-sized compact M1911s, though a compact M1911 like that should probably have a reversed recoil plug.
JESawyer responded to TraderRager 31 May 11
Why is the text on the Light Shining in Darkness Greek? How is Graham so well educated to the point of being fluent in 2 dead languages and having an extensive knowledge of firearms?
Joshua Graham is from a religious community that preserved a great deal of Pre-War knowledge and tradition. He was also a missionary, so it was important for him to learn a variety of languages even before he left New Canaan. In his dialogue, he also explains that his "people" are fond of the mechanical workings of firearms, and that the .45 Auto Pistol was invented by one of his "tribe".
JESawyer 31 May 11
Do you have any involvement in Old World Blues?
No.
JESawyer 1 Jun 11
Have you ever edit anything on Fallout wiki? 
No.
JESawyer 1 Jun 11
Do you have any involvement in Lonesome Road?
Other than playing it and providing feedback, no.
JESawyer 1 Jun 11
How much do you know so much about history? Major in college or just a hobby?
It was my major in college and it continues to be a subject of interest.
JESawyer 2 Jun 11
Did you know, according to fallout wikia, as of a few minutes ago, I am the first person to download Honest Hearts for PS3?
oic
JESawyer 2 Jun 11
Is "Way of the Canaanite" based off of modern CQB techniques and weapon handling or is it based off of something different entirely? How is Joshua able to waste anything with just a pistol?
because he owns
JESawyer 3 Jun 11
Hiya! Not a question, but just a thank you. I loved you guys when you were Black Isle, I was happy to see most of you become Obsidian. Can't wait for you folks to make more awesome games. Thank you a lot for tons of hours of entertainment.
thx
JESawyer 3 Jun 11
Were there any companions which did not make it into the final cut which you personally liked?
Ulysses was the only companion we cut.
JESawyer 3 Jun 11
Are the Followers of the Apocalypse at the Old Mormon Fort just a contingent of the original Followers or has the entire group actually migrated to the Mojave?
They're part of the larger Followers group.
JESawyer 3 Jun 11
Is New Canaan mentioned by Joshua Graham et al a reference to Heinlein's Tunnel in the Sky, which focuses on the colonisation of a planet also named New Canaan?
No.
JESawyer 3 Jun 11
how high on your to do list are new vegas bugs
I don't get many bugs assigned to me, but I generally fix them within a few days of receiving them.
JESawyer 3 Jun 11
It seems New Vegas is mainly about history repeating itself. From Caesar vs the Republic to the events of HH. Is the concept of history repeating, or parodying itself your side of the development process? Explain.
One of the themes that materialized over the course of New Vegas' development was "creating the new world in the image of the old world". Caesar interprets this the most literally, but a large number of individuals and groups are caught up in the same idea.
JESawyer 3 Jun 11
Who was R.B. Vickers and how did Randall Clark come across his armor?
mysteries
JESawyer 3 Jun 11
After Honest Hearts, why wasn't there any new speech option to talk to Caesar about finding Graham in Zion, like there was with Veronica about Elijah?
The reactivity for Veronica was planned for ahead of time (i.e., before New Vegas' development ended). Because Honest Hearts wasn't planned out until significantly after all of Caesar's dialogue was written and recorded, we didn't have the same opportunity.
JESawyer 3 Jun 11
People should be supporting Brian Fargo's inXile. You know, the man who worked on and sheltered Wasteland to Fallout and others while founding Interplay. Not Obsidian. Supporting you guys is like sup current shady Interplay just cuz they have Chris Taylor
o ok
JESawyer 4 Jun 11
Did you guys cut out a lot content from Fallout: New Vegas or is most of the created content in the game?
Not much was cut.
JESawyer 4 Jun 11
Will you have sex with me?
doubtful
JESawyer 4 Jun 11
What would Caesar have done if you told him about Graham?
his eyes would have popped out of his head, steam shot from his ears and an "ow-ooogah" sound would have played.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
what do you like on pizza? i like bacon and onions
Cheese and pineapple.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Why does Marcus speak in clipped sentences, e.g. "was a resort pre-war", "was part of the super mutant army"? Some other characters do this a little, however Marcus' speech uses this with far greater frequency.
Jeff Husges (who wrote Marcus for F:NV) based Marcus' speech patterns on the character's dialogue from F2. Marcus has a similar style there, e.g. "Helped build the place."
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
You're on a beach, alone. Night falls. Slow walk on the beach, or go surfing/swimming/skinny dipping?
I'll assume it's a beach near my apartment, which means it's an ocean beach. No way in hell am I going night surfing/swimming/skinny dipping on an ocean beach.
FEAR THE OCEAN AND ITS GRIM, LURKING DENIZENS.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Would you be for another weapon that used .50 BMG rounds, like a M2 Browning? It'd be nice to see some more variety in the heavier duty ammo, like we got with the Survivalist Rifle.
We've already established that .50 BMG is an extremely mighty round. Even the Automatic Rifle was hard to balance and that was "only" firing .308. I try to keep weapons firing the same conventional ammo within about 25% of the base DAM from weapon to weapon or it starts to seem weird.
Also... come on: http://www.gunsandammo.org/images/0/06/50-BMG.png
JESawyer responded to SerMcWorst 5 Jun 11
Is there any particular reason Honest Hearts didn't get the a drawn intro in the same style of Dead Money (and apparently Old World Blues)? In my opinion it worked wonders for Dead Money, while the screenshots just seem clumsy.
Time/resources.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
In early previews for FNV, it showed the exact same HUD design as F3. However, in the actual game, it has been modified to look more western. When was this change made, and who designed it / decided it needed changing?
I'm not sure when it was changed, but I worked with Jason Sereno, our UI artist, to make a few adjustments. I didn't want to go crazy with changes, but a small tweak to the aesthetic seemed like a good idea.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Were you involved in the development of Old World Blues? If so, I'm curious as I've recently watched the Qore coverage of it and there is a gun called the K9000 which has a brain in it, is there a purpose to this or is it just for show?
I helped tune some of the OWB weapons, but didn't come up with the list/concepts for them.
JESawyer responded to zach9054 5 Jun 11
Who came up with the idea for ED-E? i love that little dude.
Thanks. I generated the concepts and character arcs for all of the companions, but different designers wrote the actual dialogue and implemented the quests. In the case of ED-E, Akil Hooper generated the quests/content.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Do you ever read the title of a NV mod, something like "Better Arcade", then look at it and it just turns Arcade into barbie doll, do you ever see mods like that and get angry? Or are you numb to things so trivial?
I might find a mod funny or silly, but none of them make me mad. It's a single-player game that a person put effort into modding for their personal enjoyment (and maybe the enjoyment of others).
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
The futuristic electrical war axe thingy in old world blues looks so cool.
yah it's kewl
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
are you attending e3 this year?
No.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
I love you.
cool thx
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Is Hidden Valley Bunker Plato's Cave? I think Veronica explicitly calls it a "Cave" at one point, and she's alienated from her Brothers within through being out in the Wasteland.
No, but the general analogy is a good one. The HV chapter is insular and paranoid primarily because they are completely out of touch with what is going on in the outside world.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
I'm not exactly sure why the guns in NV don't have recoil, I assume it's because of an engine limitation, but if the guns could have recoil, would energy weapons be affected by it?
There's nothing built into the engine to support progressive recoil. Some people have approximated it with script, but that's about as far as it goes.
Certain EWs would "logically" be affected by recoil, like the Gauss Rifle, but obviously laser weapons should not. Plasma weapons are sort of in a weird place, faux-science-wise, but I already made them slow-firing as a rule.
JESawyer responded to Kalsue 5 Jun 11
I love the fallout game since the first one and i want to thank you and all your team for those great game.The only complain i have are the bugs in the latest one and the fact that hardcore on very hard was way too easy for me.Thanks
thx
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
You should make SOF operators armor in one of the next expansions, complete with thigh pistol holster, magazines, quick draw one point sling and NVG's. and give it 5% crit so that i can one shot deathclaws with my All-American. pretty pleese
hmm i c
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Is Hidden Valley bunker all what is left of what used to be mighty Brotherhood of Steel?
No, it's just one chapter.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Was the mapper used for Icewind Dale 2 similar to that of Fallout? Kinda always wondered and was a bit saddened that it was never released to the public. 
No. IWD2 used BioWare's map editor. Artists would generate large bitmap renders (often touched up by Brian Menze) and insert them in the engine as one big map. Fallout I/II's maps were built out of individual tiny parts/tiles.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Icewind Dale is better than Fallout and you should make Icewind Dale 3 thanks.
ok
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
As if you guys rep. Black Isle. Chris Avellone and the rest came in on Fallout 2, yourself for Van Buren and a little on P:T. Obsidian has a few ppl like map designers and Feargus to represent the FO1 team. And unlike Tim Cain or others they get credit.
No, I'm pretty sure Tim Cain gets a lot of credit for Fallout. If you only count people who were on the original Fallout team as being part of Black Isle (even though that game was published before Black Isle was the name of the division), then yes, only Feargus, ScottE, and maybe Brian Menze and Dan Spitzley can "rep" BIS at OEI. You're also excluding everyone who was there from 1998 to 2003, which is a little goofy.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
You mentioned before that there is no way to directly patch DLC, but does that mean that bugs which exist in the DLC will always be there forever? 
Unless the bugs are caused by something in the base FalloutNV.esm, yes.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
how come you know so much about things in general, are you like a boss in the upcoming trivia pursuit game?
I just read about anything/everything I can to a shallow depth.
JESawyer responded to Cgrenfell 5 Jun 11
Can't wait for Old World Blues I really want to talk the toaster and not feel isane about talking to a toaster
then this is the dlc for you my friend
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
I am literally withering away pining for a new NWN, an online game that tries to replicate the PnP, dungeon master experience. NWN 2 had amazing campaigns but it seemed to drop the ball on the online/PNP portion. Do you use NWN 2 online or stick to PNP?
Just tabletop.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
I played 2 mins of Honest Hearts (Talked with those guys in the beggining) and I dont understand 'Zion', 'New Caanan' and 'Utah'... Utah is the city? New Caanan are the people? Please can you explain
Zion National Park is a place in southern Utah, one of Pre-War America's states. New Canaan was a Post-War community built in the ruins of Odgen, Utah. New Canaanites are people from New Canaan.
It is important to note that the concept of "Zion" has a larger implication for Christians (especially of certain denominations) that goes beyond a physical place. When Joshua and Daniel talk about Zion, they may use the term interchangeably to refer to Zion National Park or their religious concept of Zion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zion
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Honest hearts was amazing! Especially when crushing the white legs the execution moves by sorrows/dead horses. So cool!
Thanks. Jessica Johnson set up the executions during Crush the White Legs.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
What is it that makes Joshua Graham so damn tough? Is it a mutation? When the player asks if he's in pain, he says that he learned long ago that he is immune to the effects of chems.
mysteries
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
do you think that dead money was inspired by system shock 2? you know because of the scavenging for ammo/consumables, vending machines, someone ordering you throu your pipboy/mfd, and the enemies in both games are people who have been changed.
You should ask Chris Avellone.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Do you play any table-top RPGs at the office? If yes, which ones?
There are regular board game groups and a few tabletop groups that meet during the week. Personally, I play in a Sunday 4th Edition D&D group. We are currently alternating between the Scales of War campaign and a Dark Sun adventure series.
JESawyer responded to TraderRager 5 Jun 11
I see you took a Que from you fan-base and effectively put a "loot box" at the end of Honest Hearts. Was this your choice, or was this done by one of the level designers?
My choice. I didn't want people resorting to weird tricks/murders just to get the "cool stuff" made for the unique NPCs.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Why doesn't the NCR properly supply squads? You will find a squad of, say, 7 soldiers, and they will ALL be using the Service Rifle. Did you ever consider having proper layouts, like 4 Service Rifles, 1 LMG, 1 Grenade Rifle, and 1 Hunting rifle?
From a story perspective, NCR doesn't properly supply squads due to bureaucratic inefficiency. From a balance perspective, we don't want players gaining easy access to high end weapons like LMGs in the early game, so most of the troopers the player encounters early on have pretty low-end weapons. The NCR and Legion troops with high end weapons don't even spawn in the world until a certain story state has been hit. That's when you'll start seeing Veteran Rangers with Brush Guns, NCR Heavy Troopers with LMGs, Legion Centurions with Chainsaws, and Legion Assassins with 12.7mm Pistols/SMGs.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Why doesn't the Varmint rifle use .22lr? It was apparently planned to early in production, and the VR's real world equivalent is also .22 caliber. What gives? I'm sick of some many guns using 5.56.
People didn't enjoy using it as a bolt-action .22LR weapon because it was so weak due to the low DAM and low RoF. If it were a semi-auto Ruger 10/22 type rifle, I think it would have been more enjoyable.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Is it difficult to write and create concepts for a universe knowing you may never be able to contribute to it again?
No. That could be any game I ever work on.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Cannibal Johnson lives in a cave. Cave Johnson is the CEO of Aperture Science from the Portal games. Is Cannibal Johnson's name a Portal reference?
No.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
Who was responsible for the discussion of Hegelian dialectics at The Fort? I know Fallout is a cut above, but I was really surprised to see something like that from a mainstream game. It's nice to see games that don't treat you've got a little baby brain.
Thanks. I asked John Gonzalez (who wrote Caesar) to include a discussion with Caesar in which Caesar used his interpretation of Hegelian dialectics to justify the existence of the Legion, his drive to conquer the NCR, and his vision of a brighter future for the Legion as a sort of reborn Roman Empire following the fall of the corrupt Roman Republic (NCR).
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
How old do you reckon the burned man is?
He and Caesar were both young men (Joshua Graham had just started missionary work) when they met, so that should give you a rough timeframe.
JESawyer 5 Jun 11
So essentially all the gear the White Legs got was army surplus?
Most of it, yes.
JESawyer 6 Jun 11
What did JG say to Salt-Upon-Wounds in Latin?
It wasn't in Latin. It was in the White Legs' tribal language, which includes elements of Spanish (hence the common Romance language roots with Latin).
Also, *~ mysteries ~*
JESawyer 6 Jun 11
Why does For Auld Lang Syne have no way to say "fight for me/Yes Man" or "fight for House"? There seems to only be the option of fighting for NCR or Legion. This is kind of ridiculous, seeing as Arcade's ideal path is Independent Vegas.
Supporting NCR produces the same functional result, since really there are only two or three points in Hoover Dam where you potentially do something substantively different (against NCR), and those events do not occur outside on the dam itself.
JESawyer 7 Jun 11
But what if you are vilified with the NCR prior to the Dam war? Also, why would a Yes Man/House player ever tell them to support the NCR, especially when one of them doesn't like the NCR and is clear about it? It doesn't make any sense.
Because Mr. House knows that he is not personally going to wage war against the Legion with his Securitrons. His plan is to let NCR bear the brunt of the fighting and then use his Securitrons to push NCR out when the dust settles. Yes Man's logic follows this as well.
Asking the Remnants to fight on behalf of "Mr. House" doesn't make sense because Mr. House effectively has no forces in the main battle at Hoover Dam and he wouldn't want the Remnants to actively oppose NCR *during* the fight (because it would make removing the Legion presence more difficult).
Asking them to fight for an independent Vegas would produce the same functional result: help kick the Legion out, after which point the Securitrons show up and push NCR out.
Since there's no functional difference between what the Remnants do if the player is supporting NCR, independent Vegas, or Mr. House -- and since Mr. House and Yes Man see no point in having the Remnants actively fight NCR at Hoover Dam -- there's no real need to complicate the quest by adding in duplicate options producing the same end result.
JESawyer 7 Jun 11
It must annoy you when your asked really dumb questions like "when's the next dlc coming out". How often are you asked such stupid questions?
Multiple times every day.
JESawyer 7 Jun 11
Hello Joshua, thanks for your work, it's amazing. I have one question: Old World Blues about to be the most humorous DLC. It was your idea? (I really apologize, my English is so bad). Thanks for your answer and have a nice day. -John
It was Chris Avellone's idea and he is the project director.
JESawyer 7 Jun 11
Your fond of repeating "budget" for DLCs nacks however the fact that money can be put aside for it rather than soley on new projects shows you do have resources at your disposal. DLC should expand gameplay, your $10 content used to be free on PC.
Money isn't "put aside" for DLCs; publishers pay us a contractually-defined amount to develop them. We're paid per-milestone delivery, just as we were on the core game. The publisher determines the price point and when to release it.
JESawyer 7 Jun 11
Chris Taylor and Tim Cain said that Fallout came out during hard for RPG times. Most of devs were too busy making easy jRPGs. Would you agree that Fallout somewhat saved RPG genre? Giving stimuli to other devs to try their hands at developing RPGs.
I think so, yes.
JESawyer 7 Jun 11
fallout is one of my favorite game series. i love all the different choices you can make.
It's one of my favorites as well!
JESawyer 7 Jun 11
When slug ammo is used for the shotguns in NV, do they calculate damage as one number or is it split up like the buckshot?
It's just one projectile. When you look at the damage done by shotguns, the display will either show something like 7.2x7 (7.2 damage per shot, 7 shots) or a single value (50) if slugs are equipped. Slugs are also more accurate, so if you're at mid-range with weapons like the Hunting Shotgun (especially with the choke installed), you can really blast through armor.
JESawyer 8 Jun 11
Favorite seasons of The Wire?
2-4, but 4 is probably my favorite. I like how 5 tied up a lot of the long-running elements of the series, but the press plot didn't interest me and seemed very "David Simon gonna pick some bones"-y. In my view, more than any other organization represented in The Wire, the people working at the Baltimore Sun fall into "good guy" and "bad guy" categories. People are either wholly good/competent or consistently dishonest, underhanded jackasses. It's easier for me to empathize with String than Templeton -- and that's pretty bad.
JESawyer 8 Jun 11
hey, thanks a lot at the end of Honest Hearts there was a footlocker with a lot of unique content..I LOVE UNIQUE STUFF! Really thanks
np
JESawyer 8 Jun 11
Are you going to be playing Skyrim when it comes out?
Yes. I played a lot of Oblivion as well.
JESawyer 8 Jun 11
Was Oblivion the first Elder Scrolls game you played?
Arena was the first Elder Scrolls game I played.
JESawyer 9 Jun 11
Is there any single person in the design process who creates the location's (eg Nipton) environment (placing fire/cucifixes, building houses, terrain shaping), populates it with items/NPCS (Vulpes, M. Steyn's comp, locker contents) and implements quests?
No. Environment building is typically handled by world builders and lit by artists. The rest of the "designy" aspects are handled by an area designer working from an RDC (Region Design Constraint doc) authored by me (or, in the case of some DLC content, Chris Avellone).
JESawyer 9 Jun 11
Cool I can ask you a fallout question now! Is It impossible side with Benny in F:NV? Also, whys your bicycle hung up? Dose that save like 3 square feet of space or do you just like hanging things on your wall?
You can side with Benny at various points, but he invariably tries to screw you over for your magnanimity.
I hang my bicycles up to save space. My apartment is not that large.
JESawyer 9 Jun 11
The Brotherhood of Steel faction is most appealing to right-wingers. Did you make the BoS companion, Veronica, a goofy and bisexual teenaged girl just to annoy them?
No.
Also, Veronica is a) not bisexual b) not a teenager.
JESawyer 9 Jun 11
What games have you seen at E3 that you're most excited for?
Dark Souls, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Dragon's Dogma, and Hitman: Absolution.
JESawyer 9 Jun 11
whos idea was it to take the advanced mk1 (in new vegas) and make it worse than the older t-51b? because if u use t-51b with toughness perk x 2 it beats the mk1, is it really that fragile that it can't withstand a few years without repairs ?
have you considered taking toughness twice with remnants armor?!
JESawyer 9 Jun 11
Why is the Gauss Rifle an energy weapon when it fires projectiles?
Because it uses MFCs to propel the projectiles.
JESawyer 10 Jun 11
you used to look like a nerd and now you look fly as hell. what'd you do?
I lost 75 lbs.
JESawyer responded to StarkeRealm 10 Jun 11
How does loading a choked shotgun with slugs sound like a good idea (in FNV)?
it's a good idea irl if the goal is to destroy your barrel.
JESawyer 10 Jun 11
first character in skyrim melee magic or archer?
Probably an archer since my alchemy/sneak/marksman assassin, Black Donald, was such a success in Oblivion.
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
Are cazadores based off of tarantula hawk wasps?
Yes.
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
Why does lead have weight? It use to not, now it does. Same with .22LR and 12.7, with pack rat it says 0.00 on it's unit weight. But when removed from the inventory it subtracts from weight.
Some ammo and item weights are so low that they are below 0.00.
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
Is the rifle This Machine based off of the M1 Garand or one of its variants?
Yes, but it is not an exact reproduction.
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
Is the .45 submachine gun from the Honest Hearts add-on based off of the Thompson submachine gun?
Yes, but it is not an exact reproduction.
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
Is the Automatic Rifle from the Dead Money add-on based off of the M1917 Browning machine gun?
No, it's based off of the M1918 but with modifications to the grip and other parts.
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
Is [Weapon X that looks like real life Weapon Y] from [some game] based of [Weapon Y]?
probably
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
I paid $10 for fetch quests? Refund I'm not anywhere near the end but the wiki says it's all fetch quests except for the end assault.
cool
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
By "below 0.00" I assume you mean "below 0.01" or "below 0.005", depending on the rounding of the displayed number. I know that was probably a typo, but I ask this so that no one will get confused.
Actually I'm not sure if it rounds at a certain point or just drops, so I don't know where the line is drawn. But yes, it only displays to the hundredths place. X.XX.
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
Why does the game assume the PC wants to leave Zion park? Compared to the Mojave it's almost like a heaven on Earth. Food and shelter along with rainwater. Vault 22's parasite and the White legs notwithstanding.
The player doesn't have to leave Zion.
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
What real-world locations served as the primary inspiration for the New Vegas casinos?
I can't remember, but most of the casino designs were developed by Joe Sanabria. There may be some videos online in which Joe talks about them. Sorry I can't be of more help.
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
Looking at the map, it seems to take hours to get into the wilderness from huntington beach. Isn't that annoying?
A little, but there are nice hiking trails around Laguna Beach.
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
Yay for more Based on Z questions: Was the 12.7mm SMG based on any existing weapon or is it purely fictional?
Pretty much pure fiction, though a couple of elements were loosely inspired by the P90 and Kriss Vector.
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
new vegas sucks my balls on xbox but is awesome on pc
i c
JESawyer 11 Jun 11
I'm asking this merely to prove a point to someone: Is the 9mm Pistol based on the Browning Hi-Power or the Colt M1911 more?
It's based on the BHP and the differences between it and the M1911 are pretty obvious if you look at the details.
JESawyer 12 Jun 11
I really love all your games in particular Fallout but i have a question why all Citations from Bible in Fallout 3 and Honest hearts are from King James Bible?
I can't speak for the F3 development team, but the KJV Bible is what the New Canaanites use.
JESawyer 14 Jun 11
Could u have an oval shaped mission marker to indicate "it's somewhere in this area"? cos if it says "search room for clue" I don't want the marker to lead me straight to the hiddn journal under the couch, cos we're not really searching the room that way.
The engine doesn't currently support that, but it's a good way to handle "find this" objectives. Assassin's Creed 2 used an objective pointer with either a) a radius or b) an irregular volume (e.g. the inside of a large, sprawling courtyard). I thought that did a good job of indicating the general area for the player while still making the player search for the target.
JESawyer 14 Jun 11
What does the name "Cazzador" mean and why did you use it?
"Cazador" is the Spanish word for "hunter". Since cazadores are based on tarantula hawk wasps and they are more common in Arizona and New Mexico (the Sonoran Desert, especially), I thought they may have originally been named "in the wild" by Spanish-speakers.
JESawyer 14 Jun 11
Sorry but could the people who did the Fallout 3 DLC's finish Old World Blues and Lonesome Road for you guys? I enjoyed Fallout 3's DLC's far more then F:NV.
ok ill go ask them brb
JESawyer responded to CurtisWilson 14 Jun 11
Why would you give dead bright followers around the Mojave good grade weapons, such as Plasma Rifles and Plasma Defenders when you don't want players to score good guns early on in the game, they fetch a high price to a lucky wastelander.
Because those are Tier 2 and Tier 3 EWs and it's around that time that the player is getting Tier 2 and Tier 3 Guns.
JESawyer 14 Jun 11
How was Vicker's armor ever really Desert Ranger armor if it was never used by an actual Desert Ranger? Unless Randall Clark was somehow one of them? How would he have acquired the armor?
I own a 1944 German-made Mauser K98k. It has Waffenamt and Wehrmacht stamps. Sometime after the fall of Berlin, it was captured by Soviet forces, stripped, and its parts dumped into bins. The receiver and bolt were re-marked with an electro-pencil using Soviet serial numbers and over time, various bits and pieces were swapped out and the wood furniture was stripped and re-finished. A few years ago, a guy in Michigan bought it, cleaned it, and I subsequently bought it from him.
If military gear holds up, it gets passed from owner to owner (willingly or not) and, despite some cosmetic changes, it typically bears some indelible marks of its origins and history.
JESawyer 14 Jun 11
old world blues better come out the 21st or u guys would have lied by saying it will be released mid june
cool
JESawyer 15 Jun 11
I think for your sake you should add a little reminder off to the side there about how Bethesda determines the release dates of DLC and not Obsidian.
It doesn't matter/make any difference; people will ask anyway.
JESawyer 15 Jun 11
If you take the time to actually play New Vegas, which of the casinos do you feel suits your personality and if you can answer, how does it reflect your personality?
The Silver Rush, because it's mostly a pile of rubble and I greatly dislike gambling.
JESawyer responded to RyanD69 15 Jun 11
Wasn't Old World Blues supposed to release today?
Beats me.
JESawyer responded to Audiosplicer 15 Jun 11
Why do all the NPCs in FO3 and NV have eyes that look like dead fish eyes?
radiation???
JESawyer 16 Jun 11
Do you have any feelings about all this hacking going on lately (LulzSec)?
it's bad
JESawyer responded to Kamokazi 16 Jun 11
I've 100% my trophies, but I know there are more quests.. but is there any way of getting around the fact that I have to destoy the BOS bunker in New Vegas? I felt really bad that I had to do it, even when I sided with the Legion...
You don't have to destroy the BoS if you follow the NCR or Independent paths. Forging an alliance between the BoS and NCR is tricky, but you can do it as long as you accept a small negative NCR rep hit from Colonel Moore.
JESawyer 16 Jun 11
If you dislike gambling, why weren't there options to steal from the casinos? And how can the NCR ranger armor be hand-made in the NCR if it's simultaneously both pre-war riot armor and pre-war combat armor?
NCR Ranger Patrol Armor is made in NCR. NCR Ranger Combat Armor is essentially adapted pre-war riot/combat gear.
JESawyer 16 Jun 11
I liked the original Fallout's approach to weapon distribution. Just because the implied progression from SmGuns -> BgGuns -> EW was unclear during character creation does not mean that it was bad design. Couldn't you have simply kept and clarified this?
I could have if I thought there were any value to doing so, but I didn't/don't. They're all arbitrary subdivisions.
JESawyer 16 Jun 11
Was there inspiration from Sin Citys Kevin for Grahams character? (sorry couldnt fit my whole question in there.)
No.
JESawyer 16 Jun 11
I notice a heavy influence of american army weapons and tech Desert ranger armor Mercy GMG china lake GL M1 garand M1a1 thompson M16 Gobi campaign scout rifle Why is there not much foreign tech?
Americans are pretty darn good at making guns and we make a lot of them, both in variety and quantity.
JESawyer 16 Jun 11
Sunset Sarsaparilla started production in 1918...years before the Fallout universe diverged from our own. Mistake on the part of the developers?
No. Fictional brands in the Fallout universe don't have to exist only in the branched timeline.
JESawyer 16 Jun 11
most guns are actully made in the uk by quite a bit. where the biggest gun manufacturer and exporter also designing many "American" guns.
I doubt the first claim, and clearly in the case of the second, it's irrelevant given that all of the firearms initially listed were of American origin. More importantly, the game is set in the heart of the United States. While Americans like fiddling around with Glocks and H&Ks and Mausers and Enfields, we have more guns in this country than living people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry#World.27s_largest_arms_exporters
JESawyer 16 Jun 11
Who wrote You'll Know It When It Happens/Arizona Killer? Running security and checking for clues was great, especially Boone's comments about possible sniper locations
Charlie Staples handled the majority of implementation for those two quests.
JESawyer 16 Jun 11
Is there any chance of the Devs posting their 'all holy opinion' in an NCR vs Legion thread so the people on the Beth forum shut the heck up? Please help end this, or do you guys just enjoy giggling in your offices at these threads? T_T
Our opinion shouldn't matter.
JESawyer 16 Jun 11
Was there any concern about offending Mormons with any part of their portrayal in Honest Hearts?
I wasn't concerned about reactions to religious content in Honest Hearts, but a lot of other people were. I do think that some people are effectively allergic to the subject of religion, but I wasn't concerned about their reaction.
JESawyer 17 Jun 11
Do you think that VIDYA GAME NURDS are more likely to have overly shallow readings of media? They seem to subscribe to the supremacy of authorial intent.
I think people in general care a lot more about authorial intent than they should. If something isn't clear in the product as you play it, we failed. Our intent only matters as a bit of trivia or as a lesson in how not to do things.
JESawyer 17 Jun 11
You said that you do some PNP RPing. Ever DM or just play?
I haven't DMed in about six years. I don't have the time to dedicate to it, and I think players deserve someone who can do the necessary prep.
JESawyer 17 Jun 11
Why is there a cross on the scripture in honest hearts even though Mormons don't use it?
Clearly the books that Daniel and Joshua use are pretty old, and they're not reading the Book of Mormon.
JESawyer 17 Jun 11
why is dungeon siege 3 so bad?
it isn't... ???
JESawyer 17 Jun 11
who created primm slim? I love that guy specially when he talks in NV radio.."Howdy citizens! How about a yee-haw! (...)"
Kristen Altamirano created Primm Slim's unique model variant and Akil Hooper wrote Slim's dialogue.
JESawyer 17 Jun 11
If you DMed any pointers for the others out there? How do you go about creating storylines?
Remember that you're there to help the players have a good time. This should inform how you balance the challenge of the game. Most players will not have a good time if they are being sucker punched and beaten to a pulp, nor will they have a good time if they roll over everything without effort. The way you "win" as a GM is if the players in your campaign enjoy the time they spend in it.
Not everyone is a good fit for a group of players or GM. If you recognize that everyone in a group is on board with the direction and style of the game, save one person, talk with that person about what's up. It may be better for him or her to play in a different group rather than being continually grumpy and unpleasant.
Regularly remind yourself that RPGs are about creating environments in which players can create their own characters and generate their own stories within the context of the world and the game's rules. The storylines you generate are there to present dilemmas for the player and opportunities for them to express themselves -- with appropriate consequences.
With that in mind, do not focus heavily on planning or defining what the players will do. Create the circumstances, hooks for character and player motivation, a loose forward progression, and a compelling cast of interesting NPCs to generate conflict and react to the players' actions. If you're mapping things out in detail more than one adventure in advance, you're probably not going to be ready for how the players derail things in the next session.
JESawyer 17 Jun 11
I see in HH there are rock paintings of the Slender man. Are you trying to say the slender man exists in the Fallout universe?
It's not the Slender Man.
JESawyer 17 Jun 11
I just recently started playing system based RPs. Some seem to be very crunchy heavy (Shadowrun, Conspiracy X). Others a bit easier D&D 3.5. Last 4th edition seems a bit strange with cards... Any thoughts on that and what's your most favorite system(s) ?
I don't have favorite systems, to be honest. I have systems that I don't like/won't play and the rest is "stuff I will play if the GM and players are good".
No, I won't state what systems I won't play.
JESawyer 18 Jun 11
hi u r really tasty guaranteed hotties is nnteen.info facebook
oh great thansk 2 u~*
JESawyer 18 Jun 11
Do you think you can beat Cliff Bleszinski in arm wrestling?
Doubtful. I have weak arms.
JESawyer responded to stealthsniper 18 Jun 11
What would happen if i killed all of the major fraction leaders ( ncr C.L mr.house) at the same time is that even possible?
I don't think it's possible without cheating/mods, but the main quest should always fall through to Yes Man/Independent.
JESawyer 18 Jun 11
So are you saying that the Mormons in HH are not really what we would call Mormons today? Just dedicated Christians that have roots back to Mormons?
You should ask some Mormons how they would classify Joshua Graham and Daniel.
JESawyer 18 Jun 11
Ok, it's not the slender man. But surely he was the inspiration for those pictures?
Not even remotely.
JESawyer responded to AndyConrad 18 Jun 11
Joshua Graham was supposed to be Mormon? I though he was Catholic. He is really nothing like a Mormon. To have been religious as he is, he definitely would've said something like "If I die, at least I will get my own planet", as is the belief in Mormonism
That's a shallow summation of what Mormons believe. I also don't know why you think Joshua Graham is Catholic. There's nothing uniquely Catholic in what he says or how he behaves. He also quotes exclusively from the KJV bible, which is atypical for Catholics but is the preferred translation for Mormons. More importantly, there are a number of soteriological concepts and passages he refers to that are only found in the Book of Mormon or Pearl of Great Price.
JESawyer responded to Spockrock 18 Jun 11
why do the NPCs in Dungeon Siege 3 speak with thick Eastern European accents and have Russian/Romanian names?
You should ask George Ziets.
JESawyer 18 Jun 11
Pearl of Great Price = Piece of Eden?
http://lds.org/scriptures/pgp?lang=eng
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_of_Great_Price_(Mormonism)
JESawyer 18 Jun 11
Trate de preguntar en español? OK. ¿Qué idioma es el idioma de los Dead Horses basada en? La idioma de los Sorrows se basada en español, por supuesto. Pero no puedo entender qué idioma de los Dead Horses se basada en.
El idioma de los Dead Horses se basada en alemán, inglés, y navajo, pero la morfología del navajo es irreconocible.
JESawyer 20 Jun 11
My FNV character sneaks a lot, but I don't know why some of my companions feel the need to comment on it each time. From Arcade's "Ohhh kay . . . ." to Graham's creepy "Yesssss!" every time he sees me stick out my a**. I feel harassed (no pun intended).
I think that one of the patches addressed that by having companions only say those sneak "barks" once every 24 hours.
JESawyer responded to Cgrenfell 20 Jun 11
Who came up with No-Bark's character from fallout, he is so funny with all the nonsense he say?
Eric Fenstermaker.
JESawyer 20 Jun 11
Is the grenade machinegun Mercy a reference to MRSI?
No.
JESawyer 20 Jun 11
Are you concerned about the future of gaming?
No.
JESawyer 20 Jun 11
I take it you didn't decode the hidden stuff in Assassins Creed.
I decoded a bunch of stuff in AC2, but it's been a while since I've played it.
JESawyer 20 Jun 11
Any other rebalances changes coming with the next FNV patch ? 
I do not believe I adjusted much, balance wise, for the upcoming patch. Of note, Plasma and Pulse Grenades have their AoE increased (they were still pretty small and frustrating to use outside of VATS).
JESawyer 21 Jun 11
do you have acknowledge about the bug of mantis foreleg, which gives infinite XP to the player? It's already in the game since the launch
Yes. I believe that has been fixed for the upcoming patch.
JESawyer 21 Jun 11
And also on the note of Honest Hearts, I'm lost on the religion of Josh Graham? Does he follow a strict Mormon/Catholic background, or has he molded his own religion with close ties to either? Or maybe I'm completely off-base.
I'm reticent to give a strict label to Joshua Graham's beliefs since There Is No True Christian/Mormon/Catholic/Lutheran and people would simply debate the label.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman
That said, I still don't understand what about Joshua Graham leads people to believe he is Catholic. He doesn't exhibit any behavior exclusively or even commonly associated with Catholics.
Ultimately, every individual's beliefs are personal. Joshua and Daniel are both New Canaanites and both cite scripture and express beliefs in soterological concepts that are also found in modern day Mormon teachings. Obviously they are not part of a larger organization similar to the current LDS and how they practice their faith might be wholly unrecognizable given their post-apocalyptic outlook.
However you want to label them, they both make it very clear that they believe that Jesus Christ = salvation for the world's people. Really, I think that what they believe is more important than how their beliefs are labeled.
JESawyer 21 Jun 11
Why are you on Fallout wiki ... :S
????????
JESawyer 21 Jun 11
Do you participate in any martial arts?
No. When I was in high school I took Tae Kwon Do and Kyuki Do but never got very far, mostly because I didn't put in the requisite time and effort.
The closest thing to a martial art I've done since then is sabre fencing, which I did in college and off and on during the early- and mid-2000s. Thumb damage and osteoarthritis in my knees has caused me to give that up as well.
JESawyer 21 Jun 11
Osteoarthritis?
???
JESawyer 22 Jun 11
Is Ranger Ghost an albino?
JR Vosovic created Ranger Ghost, and I believe that was his intention.
JESawyer responded to Kastera1000 22 Jun 11
Was the R91 assault rifle (Fallout 3) based off of any preexisting assault rifle, like the Heckler & Koch G3?
I wasn't involved in Fallout 3, so I don't know what the intention was for the F3 assault rifle.
JESawyer 22 Jun 11
How much time do you spend each day at formspring ?
Not too much, usually. I just skim it and answer short questions here and there. If there's something longer, I usually handle it before or after work.
JESawyer 22 Jun 11
why don't laser wepons in NV use iron sights?
There were a variety of animation and model issues with the laser weapons that delayed any attempts to add iron sights prior to implementing "true" iron sights. Once that system was in place, we realized that we would need to do a certain amount of work well into beta to make true iron sights work for laser weapons. Because the weapon artists were already heavily tasked and the QA staff had a huge amount of content to go through, I decided that it was too late to implement the required content. On their own, the weapons don't actually require that much work to modify for iron sights. The timing was just really bad.
JESawyer 22 Jun 11
When he asked "Osteoarthritis?" I think he meant, "Osteoarthritis? That's terrible. Was that a catalyst to lose weight and become healthier in general? Has it negatively affected your general outlook? I would imagine any constant pain must wear on you."
No, the catalyst for losing weight was realizing I was huge/looked terrible. Honestly, I didn't actively do a lot to lose weight. My lifestyle in college was very sedentary and I ate horribly: virtually unlimited access to a lot of junk food that I would eat late at night just before going to bed.
I didn't realize something was wrong with my knees until I started training for a sprint triathlon a few years ago. In the last week of training I felt intense pain below my knee. It was really unbearable to run on, so I went to the doctor. After some tests, the doctor informed me that there was very little cartilage remaining in my right knee and that I was suffering the effects of osteoarthritis. My left knee was also not in great shape.
Since then, I've effectively stopped running, though I will occasionally run on a rubber-backed track or similarly forgiving surface. I've tried to practice/demonstrate fencing footwork but the stances and the explosive nature of the movement rapidly generates a lot of pain in both knees. I still have my gear, but I'm skeptical I will ever regularly fence again.
At first I was upset at the realization that I would have trouble running. Part of the shock came from the sudden interruption of a focused training regimen and having difficulty accepting that I would not be able to participate in the triathlon. Beyond that, it also affected daily movement, sometimes generating intense pain that would force me to sit down. I am on my feet, moving around a great deal at work, so it was hard to accept that I couldn't do that as much.
Thankfully, that sad phase went away relatively quickly. There are several things I cannot do or cannot do regularly, but the world is full of so many people who have it so much worse. I can still walk, I can still (slowly) climb stairs, I can still swim (even though I dislike it) and ride bicycles. For the "bad activities", I either abstain from the activity or participate carefully without being competitive (with the aid of anti-inflammatories like Ibuprofen).
JESawyer responded to 224422000 22 Jun 11
Hi Joshua, a quick question: In FO:NV there is a painting of Mr House modeled on a Howard Hughes picture. In the picture, behind Mr House are the legs of a giant robot. Is that robot Liberty Prime? Thanks 
mysteries
JESawyer 22 Jun 11
Can osteoarthritis ever be cured??
No, nor can the damage be reversed. The best I can do is strengthen the muscles and support structure around my knees. If it gets bad enough, I will eventually have to undergo knee replacement surgery. Hopefully by then I can get ICARUS upgrades and leap across Neo-Detroit with ease.
JESawyer 22 Jun 11
is there going to be at least a trailer for old world blues by the end of the month?
http://bethblog.com/index.php/2011/06/22/old-world-blues-releasing-on-july-19th/
JESawyer 22 Jun 11
If I'm fighting an opponent with armor but no helmet, say like Paladin Ramos, and I'm aiming for the head, should I use AP ammo because of the armor, or HP ammo because the head is bare?
F:NV's DT system applies to the entire body. When Ramos is not wearing his helmet, his DT is lower overall because the helmet is not equipped, but his head is not especially vulnerable.
JESawyer 23 Jun 11
When you meet Joshua Graham, he mentions meeting the Dead Horses when he was the Malpais Legate. If the Dead Horses had contact with Caesar's Legion, why weren't they absorbed into the Legion since Edward (Caesar) did that to every other tribe they met?
Tribes aren't absorbed instantly. Joshua Graham made contact with the Dead Horses but never got around to incorporating them into the Legion.
JESawyer 24 Jun 11
so what do you think of glenn beck?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I0GfLh4SGU
JESawyer 25 Jun 11
What's up with G22? Is Albatross really a CIA analyst, why did he join them and how did he become their leader? Why is he travelling in a plane the last time you see him? How did he come into contact with Sis and why is she his bodyguard? So much to know!
I am not the guy to ask about the Alpha Protocol story and its intricacies. Sorry.
JESawyer 26 Jun 11
Do you ever submit secret questions to yourself?
No.
JESawyer 26 Jun 11
Would you tell people if you were submitting secret questions to yourself?
Yes, which is one of many reasons why I wouldn't.
JESawyer 26 Jun 11
Would you sometimes like people to ask about something you're rather proud of, showing their interest in your work ?
People asking about anything I've worked on, whether I'm proud of it or not, is already showing a decent level of interest. The nature of questions people ask indicates the things people are interested in in discovering. It also helps me understand if I failed to communicate something in the game as it stands.
JESawyer 27 Jun 11
what are your thoughts on deus ex: human revolution
looks rad imo
JESawyer 27 Jun 11
Tonight.....you.....
wat
JESawyer 27 Jun 11
What invention do you wish never existed?
Formspring question of the day
Formspring.
JESawyer 28 Jun 11
Tonight... You... refers to Handbanana, a rapist genetic monstrosity from Aqua Teen Hunger Force.
oic
JESawyer 28 Jun 11
Is the story of Honest Hearts (loosely) inspired by the Utah War? Feels similar to me, just that the Mormons are the Sorrows and US gov are the White Legs. The Mormons standing against the US gov + emergency plans for evacuation, and so on.
The Utah War/Mountain Meadows Massacre provide some inspiration, but not with analogue parties like you're suggesting.
JESawyer 28 Jun 11
All of the factions in New Vegas have positives and negatives attached to their presence in NV. All except the Followers. They appear to be incorruptible/have no morally questionable quests. How can a faction like that survive in New Vegas?
They usually can't, which is why in a lot of endings they get pushed around and/or generally screwed over. Also, I'd classify The White Wash as a pretty morally grey quest. Arcade's reactions to it are fairly complex, and the Followers as a group try to distance themselves from the people involved.
The independent/Followers-oriented endings can involve a fair amount of scrambling and hair pulling as the move to a more liberal democracy produces a lot of chaos and compromises that the Followers aren't equipped to handle.
JESawyer 28 Jun 11
Why can't they play find already modded weapons in the Mojave. I seriously doubt he is the only person who decided to mod their gun to make it more effective.
For economy reasons. Mods and ammo subtypes are placed almost exclusively in stores to give the player something they can buy there and can never find elsewhere.
JESawyer 28 Jun 11
Is the NCR a conservative nation at the time of New Vegas? It seems that way since Kimball the war hero is president, Moores more forceful military approach, the Brahmin barons with great influence, the corporist relationship with the army and caravans...
I think it depends on how you define conservatism, but most of what you see in the Mojave Wasteland is NCR as an occupying force and military presence. You can learn about other parts of NCR by talking to people like Hanlon and Heck Gunderson, but I wouldn't want to speculate beyond what's presented in the game.
JESawyer 28 Jun 11
Who wrote Cass's dialogue? I'm always surprised at the comments she makes.
Chris Avellone.
JESawyer 28 Jun 11
Why couldn't you simply rehire Ceaser's voice actor, record a few lines, and add them to the HH add-on so the player could comment on meeting Graham?
Because re-hiring a voice actor (especially a high profile actor like John Doman) isn't always simple, and touching Caesar's dialogue in the core game -- well, it's already really complicated, and introducing elements that could affect the critical path is pretty dangerous, especially if it's accomplished through the DLC files (because we couldn't patch it).
JESawyer 28 Jun 11
why is it that you don't answer any of my questions??? i asked about ulysses characterization, the courier's more definitive story arc, and any hints on ulysses..... am i doing something wrong?
Yes, you're asking about things in future DLCs that I can't talk about. Sorry.
JESawyer 28 Jun 11
Why'd you quit as lead designer for FO3?
At Interplay? Because the company was in bad financial shape and I didn't believe they could realistically fund the team needed to finish it.
JESawyer 28 Jun 11
What was your specific area of study of history in college?
Witch-hunting in early modern Europe.
JESawyer 28 Jun 11
i don't mean to pester you either
np
JESawyer 28 Jun 11
why does the gun just kind of teleport to the middle of your screen when you go to look down your iron sights? i would rather a smooth animation.
No, you wouldn't. Because then it would lag, and there would be complaining about lag.
JESawyer 29 Jun 11
In Fallout 2, you could bare knuckle fight your way through thanks to special unarmed attacks you learned as you leveled up. In New Vegas the emphasis seemed based more on increasingly ridiculous glove type weapons. Why was this direction chosen?
I think it's odd to consign glove weapons to the "ridiculous" end of the spectrum while bare knuckle fighting your way through dudes in power armor is (presumably) a-ok. The universe already has ridiculous glove weapons in the Power Fist. Once that's on the table, the various versions above it don't seem particularly odd.
Additionally, Fallout: New Vegas does have special unarmed attacks that you learn both through leveling up and from NPCs in the world. Uppercut and Cross are unlocked by raising your Unarmed skill. Ranger Takedown, Legion Assault, Khan Trick, and Scribe Counter are all learned from NPCs.
JESawyer 29 Jun 11
Are you embarrassed at all the glitches/freezing issues and do you realize that it's ruined an excellent game for thousands of people?
I was disappointed, but It's hard for me to really be *embarrassed* about it since I played through the entire game on the 360 and most of it on PC and PS3 without encountering a lot of these issues. One person can't be a QA team.
JESawyer 29 Jun 11
Shouldn't the NCR stationed in Nevada be called the New Nevada Troops?
No... ?
JESawyer 30 Jun 11
How do you feel about permament goo & ash piles littering the wastes?
It is the most pressing issue in my mind, day in, day out. It will go with me to my grave.
JESawyer 30 Jun 11
calling the goo and ash piles a feature isn't a good way to avoid the issue. People don't mind them, it's just that they never go away and take memory. And the game memory leaks bad as it is
Okay, but I don't remember calling them a feature.
JESawyer responded to Valoopy 30 Jun 11
Who wrote the plot for Vault 11? That was my favorite Vault, and the story was really awesome.
Eric Fenstermaker.
JESawyer 30 Jun 11
Is Fallout New Vegas going to be releasing a game of the year after all DLC is released?
That's a question for Bethesda.
JESawyer 30 Jun 11
In the credits with the Wild Wasteland perk, how were the nicknames and quotes chosen? I'm assuming the ones without nicknames just didn't want to take part in it?
Nicknames and quotes were submitted by individual team members. Some people on the team asked me to pick a nickname for them. Those are usually the ones that are complete nonsense. People without nicknames in the credits didn't submit anything and didn't ask me to put anything down for them.
JESawyer responded to Valoopy 30 Jun 11
Hey, me again. I noticed that the Legion is all white males. I understand why (because it models Rome), but I'm hopelessly confused as to how Ulysses, who is clearly not white, would be accepted by Ceasar. Could you clear things up a bit?
That's not true. Severus, Karl, and some other Legionaries are not white.
JESawyer 1 Jul 11
if somehow a dlc was released with a bug that mad it unplayable for some people and since you cant patch a dlc would you fix the bug then re release the dlc
I'm not sure, but I believe that is what happened with F3's DLC for The Pitt.
JESawyer 1 Jul 11
Are DLCs already on the disc and need to be unlocked by purchasing "the keys", or is it all new data being downloading on your console/PC?
For new releases, it's a download.
JESawyer 1 Jul 11
joshua graham and lanius should fight
ok
JESawyer 1 Jul 11
why didn't the ncr destroy the legion at the 1st battle for the dam? they killed countless centurions and had them on the run! its a major screw up even by ncr standards
NCR wouldn't have destroyed the entire Legion even if they wiped out the attacking force at Hoover Dam. NCR's strategy was focused on pushing Caesar's Legion out. Pursuing them and engaging in skirmishes along the eastern banks of the Colorado would have been haphazard and served no great benefit.
JESawyer 1 Jul 11
I just heard a couple of your songs for New Vegas. Sir, is there no end to your talent?
Yes, and you've found it. Congratulations.
JESawyer responded to hufdvh 1 Jul 11
Is there anything we can find out from you that we can't find out from the FONV forums regarding future DLC and patches?
Nope.
JESawyer 1 Jul 11
Not sure if you're allowed to answer this, but are you still working on New Vegas (tuning, DLC, etc.), or are you working on other things, or do you hang out around Obsidian, helping out on random projects (like the hth in Alpha Protocol)?
I'm doing a small amount of work on the DLCs, mostly helping with tuning, but otherwise I'm focused on developing new projects.
JESawyer 2 Jul 11
How much was cut from the legion quest paths? They seem remarkably spare compared to the quests of other factions in the game, and of course the NCR, which is their supposed counterpoint. Was Ulysses' content originally meant to supplement the legion?
Several Legion camps on the east side of the Colorado River were cut before they entered development. The order in which we built the Mojave Wasteland radiated out from the middle of the map, with areas near the edges being built much later. Unfortunately, the Colorado River (save the Fort and Lanius' camp, which are self-contained) became the logical division line for content when time was running out.
And yes, Ulysses-as-companion was designed to give more pro-Legion sentiment and content.
JESawyer 2 Jul 11
Will the new project be everything we expect it to be?
Doubtful.
JESawyer 2 Jul 11
What's it like to develop for different platforms? Is it harder to develop for one platform versus another?
Building for a single platform, often regardless of what that platform is, is easier than developing for multiple platforms. It's the differences that make things complicated.
If a publisher were to say, "Develop for the 360 only," "Develop for the PS3 only," or "Develop for the PC only," any of those would be easier than developing for any two concurrently.
JESawyer 2 Jul 11
Who is the overall story designer of the Fallout series? Who, if anyone, makes sure all games released under the name "Fallout" are canonical to the previous games and follows the general fallout style?
No single person. It's been different for each game.
JESawyer 2 Jul 11
If you guys ever make a DLC for Denver, add a dog enemy called the Conehead. Make it be a mutated English Bull Terrier.
ok
JESawyer responded to sirota554 2 Jul 11
So working on New Vegas, and Van Buren. What would you say are the benefits, and drawbacks of Sandbox vs Node based maps? Map nodes are still used successfully by people like Bioware so I dont think they are totally archaic and something of the past.
Streaming open terrain maps have to be designed for exploration in (almost) any direction. They give a lot of freedom to the player, but can make memory management/performance difficult to optimize. Node-based maps are essentially tailored around a limited set of player navigation options. They remove a lot of the freedom, but the experience and performance can be more easily controlled.
JESawyer 2 Jul 11
In F:NV almost half of the map is unused. A huge "border" on the left, and significant borders on the right and upper part. Next time i suggest to crop it, cause that's a torture for players who loves to explore. Guess you didn't have time to build there.
We built our map following natural features of the Mojave Desert extrapolated from USGS topographical data. The Mojave Wasteland is pretty close to the Capital Wasteland in overall tiles. When people compare the two and conclude that the Mojave Wasteland is tiny compared to the Capital Wasteland, it's sort of odd. It's the equivalent of comparing two non-scale-equivalent maps of California and Colorado and concluding that Colorado is larger than California because the map occupies more pixels in a square encapsulating it.
We tried to alleviate this disconnect in Honest Hearts by putting a dotted line around the outer wall of Zion Valley. Like the Mojave Wasteland, Zion Valley was also constructed by using USGS data as a starting point.
JESawyer 2 Jul 11
"The Mojave Wasteland is pretty close to the Capital Wasteland in overall tiles" Yes, but all the artificial walls in the middle make it feel smaller: you're funneled into corridors with which you become very familiar. Free roam would've solved this.
It would not have solved line of sight issues. The Mojave Wasteland has deeper valleys/higher mountains than the Capital Wasteland, so in some cases the highest points of ostensibly walkable terrain overlook areas that look bad from a high vantage point.
This was the first time any of us had used this technology, so many of the best practices for building only became apparent in retrospect, unfortunately. Were we to build the Mojave Wasteland again, we would make different choices in how to lay out the areas.
Some of this can be seen in Zion Valley. The only collision blockers we used on that map were to prevent people from getting stuck while dropping down from higher elevations. ScottE and the other world builders put a lot of effort into making sure that people could scale anything on the interior of the valley, and the outer cliff faces tower far above the rest of the terrain.
JESawyer 2 Jul 11
Hey Josh, quick question. I am color blind (the one I have only like 1% of population has it), Since there are quite a few varieties of color-blindness. Do you guys do any testing for textures and such when creating games?
I am severely deuteranomalous, so it's something I bring up with our artists regularly. The most important elements to check are in the UI. I prefer to use UI elements that differ in value and shape as well as color. There may be cases where a monochromat may still get confused, but we try to handle as much as we can.
JESawyer 3 Jul 11
Do you know anything about why Obsidian decided not to make Knights of the Old Republic III?
It's not our choice to make. The license belongs to LucasArts.
JESawyer 3 Jul 11
How would you think it would affect the ruleset and gameplay of a cRPG if almost every feature was toggleable and/or adjustable from options menu?
It would make balancing and bugfixing even more difficult than it usually is.
JESawyer 5 Jul 11
Do you download any mods for your PC version of the game? If so, which one do you like best?
I only download mods to look at how they work for a while. Whenever I play the game, I play only with the core .esm + patches + DLCs. That might change after all of our DLCs are released, but I still catch weird bugs from time to time and I want to make sure they're "ours".
JESawyer 5 Jul 11
Who wrote the story and scene for the Nipton quest? That was a really great introduction to the Legion. It really captured that intimidating wasteland vibe that Fallout 1 had going, reminded me of the Necropolis visit where you first meet super mutants.
John Gonzalez, though the area was designed and scripted by JR Vosovic and Jorge Salgado.
JESawyer 5 Jul 11
so with the latest patch coming soon, how would you activate the NCR/FoA alliance? Do you just ask Julie Farkas?
Yes, after becoming pals with the Followers, talking to Julie Farkas when the Hoover Dam battle is imminent will open an option to ally with the NCR.
For those who are curious, this option was previously disabled because there was no tangible benefit to or sign of the Followers and NCR allying. I think it's very important that when the player creates some sort of change that there is a substantive (even if minor) impact on the world as a result. Now that the Followers place medical/chem kits in Hoover Dam for the battle, you can actually see evidence of the alliance.
JESawyer 5 Jul 11
Have you all worked on a fix for that bug where while in FP view and using a long gun, sometimes it will glitch around the screen obscuring aim and sometimes even disappear? Very aggravating.
If you're referring to the "floaty arms" rifle bug, yes. After many, many, many attempts at a solution, this extremely difficult bug is now fixed.
JESawyer 5 Jul 11
Fallout Boy New Vegas
wow
JESawyer 6 Jul 11
why do people in the fallout universe keep looking back at the war that happened 200 years ago? you would think most would just move on, but a lot of them just cant seem to forget about it, sure traumatizing & all, but its old history already.
it prob. has something to do with most of the physical landscape being a shattered fire-hollowed husk and the thin remnants of human society perpetually vacillating on the edge of self-destruction idk
JESawyer 6 Jul 11
wtf y do repair kits no longer fix guns to 100%? great so now any time we want our guns fixed we now have to spend all out caps at a npc? thanks for fixing something that wasn't broken!
"That entry is a bit misleading. It will repair the weapon to 99.9% CND. The problem is that the engine treats 100% CND weapons in weird ways and it can cause bugs. Since weapons max out in effectiveness long before you reach 100%, the loss for the player is extremely small."
JESawyer responded to TraderRager 6 Jul 11
Will stealth characters be getting a decent weapon soon? The silenced .45 from Honest Hearts doesn't count.
Do the silenced 12.7mm guns and the Sniper Rifle + Silencer not count either?
JESawyer responded to TraderRager 6 Jul 11
Why are the White Leg "Storm-Drummers" called such if none of them have the ammo drum mod?
The name has to do with the sound of the weapon, not the drum magazine.
JESawyer responded to TraderRager 6 Jul 11
Why did you put so much effort into balancing the games economy only to break it with the whole "1100 chips every 72 hours" thing from Dead Money? My weapons will never be broken again, and i have enough stims to punch the Leg. deathclaw to death.
The only thing I did for Dead Money was implement the weapons.
JESawyer 7 Jul 11
why was the remnants power armor givin really low item hp isn't it supposed to be the best power armor?
If you ever look at a powerful item that has one stat lower than the items immediately "below" it, it's to give an incentive for using the "worse" item. Remnants Armor has the highest DT, but much lower health than T-51b. T-51b has better stats across the board than the T-45d, but the T-45d gives a higher STR bonus.
Not all items can be compared in this way, but when you see something like this, that's why.
JESawyer 7 Jul 11
Why are so many things in FNV recycled? Many weapons share the same animations, nothing really new is added to the DLC, other than different places, at least in Fallout 3 resources weren't constantly recycled.
The development timeline for F:NV was significantly shorter than it was for F3. It's odd that you should call out weapon animations since that was one of the places where we added a lot of new or modified assets. The majority of fire animations were revised and a lot of reloads were re-animated or made from scratch.
JESawyer 7 Jul 11
Are you a hipster? You seem like a hipster.
o ok
JESawyer 7 Jul 11
"We have a whole big cool world idea that we can hopefully talk about soon. That is a whole new world, a whole new thing. It's being put together by Josh Sawyer" sooooo, news?
No.
JESawyer 7 Jul 11
where did that quote come from?
kurt cobain.
JESawyer 7 Jul 11
The reload animations aren't unique. The .45 Auto Pistol, 9mm Pistol, Silenced .22 Pistol and 12.7mm Pistol all share the same reload/jam animation. The Plasma Pistol, Plasma Defender and Pulse Gun all share the same reload animation, and so on.
More weapons in F:NV share them than in F3 because there are many more weapons in F:NV. I'm not sure if you've handled an M1911 pattern pistol and a BHP, but there's not a ton of fundamental (or even subtle) difference between how the slides are racked, magazines are inserted, and slide releases are operated.
There's also a hard limit in code to how many reload animations can be on a particular stance. If you check the list of reloads in F:NV, there are a lot more than there were in F3, and we're close to maxing out the list on at least two stances.
I'm also not sure what your basis for comparison is; F3's DLCs didn't add a ton of new reload animations.
JESawyer 7 Jul 11
i have encountered by 3 new legion hit squads after the patch. why do these hit squads return so many times?
You can avoid/evade them, and their appearance rate was increased because they barely appeared at all previously.
JESawyer 8 Jul 11
Why does every single primitive weirdo in Honest Hearts have one of the most powerfull weapons in the game? Did I miss some in-game info or is it just your decision wich I didnt understand?
You probably missed where Joshua Graham tells you that the White Legs raided an armory at Spanish Fork.
The Dead Horses and Sorrows weaponry is typically not quite as powerful.
The gameplay reason is that the DLC has to cover characters from (realistically) level 10 to level 40, with all of the gear the player could potentially have. I saw a lot of complaints about damage boosting on the swamp folk in F3's Point Lookout, so I thought it made more sense to actually upgrade the White Legs' weapons.
JESawyer 8 Jul 11
You guys should really stop to mess around so much with the existing FormIDs at each patch. Now people are hearing the Beatrix Russsel's sex scene in a loop when using old, outdated mods (hilarious side effect btw).
We don't go in and intentionally adjust the FormIDs. As things are edited or deleted in Update.esm, the editor assigns new FormIDs to them.
JESawyer 8 Jul 11
Didn't you jack up the price for weapon mods in favor of more variation? I still see the same ones as before, just more expensive.
In the previous patch (not the one released over the past few days), mod prices were increased *and* the number of mods spawned in stores was doubled.
JESawyer 8 Jul 11
why was the service rifle beyonet cut from the game?
It didn't work and it would have taken a decent amount of programming to get it to work.
JESawyer 9 Jul 11
Dead Horses... Why such name?
Joshua explains they are from Dead Horse Point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Horse_Point_State_Park
JESawyer 9 Jul 11
dude! centurions? great job with the changes to the hit squads !
Jorge Salgado did all of the hit squad revisions.
JESawyer 9 Jul 11
your snarkiness is wasted, i found it anyway
cool did you use google
that's what i used
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
so whos lead on lonely road?
Chris Avellone is the project director for Lonesome Road.
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
who desigined the fight in olivers compound?
Jesse Farrell.
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
Who wrote The King? I thought he'd be a pretty one-dimensional caricature, but after going through his dialog he turned out to be a very noble character, both to his own men and to the memory of Elvis.
Jesse Farrell.
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
Do you often feel insecure when compared to Chris Avellone? It must be hard for you, since he's more talented and sexier. Do you even consider yourself half the man he is?
I consider myself to be 105% the man by gross volume.
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
i want my name to be spahgeti
ok
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
The Master and House play chess, who wins?
Why is ZAX not an option???
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
your gross volume is...gross
damn son
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
Thoughts on Brett Favre possibly returning?
lol just lol forever
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
r u married
No.
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
Why bother with other sniper rifles when the scoped hunting rifle is already such a beast?
The RoF/AP cost on the Sniper Rifles is superior, the basic Sniper Rifle can be suppressed, and the Gobi Campaign Scout Rifle still outclasses the Hunting Rifle for sheer damage on a Crit/Sneak Attack Crit.
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
Why didn't you guys make the strip a fast travel location? Because it's annoying to have to walk through the gates every time you want to visit the casinos .
It was poor planning on our part. A number of triggers were placed at locations that complicated fast-traveling into the Strip. Because we did not want to endanger the critical path close to shipping the product, I decided that we should not move the triggers/fast-travel point. Sorry.
JESawyer responded to AdamCherry4 10 Jul 11
Why is Freeside bigger than Vegas?
Do you mean bigger than the Strip or bigger than the exterior? It's bigger than the exterior because cutting a huge chunk out of the Mojave Wasteland just makes circumnavigating the Strip/Freeside more obnoxious. It's bigger than the Strip because in some ways the Strip's real estate is inside the casinos. I'm not sure how they directly compare in terms of square footage.
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
since the release of OWB was pushed back will LR also be pushed back?
I have no idea, sorry. Bethesda and the console manufacturers decide the release dates.
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
So how do the Gun Runners produce their weapons? Do they use pre-war schematics they found somewhere? Are there any original weapons that they designed themselves?
They use Pre-War schematics and schematics they make through careful disassembly and examination of existing weapons.
I believe the greatest designs of the Gun Runners have yet to be seen.
JESawyer 10 Jul 11
Has Obsidian thought about striking out on your own IPs instead of existing ones?
Yes, but convincing a publisher to back an original IP can be very difficult.
JESawyer 11 Jul 11
Why can't you attack while swimming, like you can in Oblivion?
I'm not sure. It wasn't in F3 and we didn't change it for F:NV, mostly because there wasn't enough water-based adventuring to justify it IMO.
JESawyer 12 Jul 11
There is a bit of a rumour going round on the fourms that there will be a new .50 cal weapon in Old world blues. Care to say something? 
http://chzgifs.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/icwhutudidtherep1.gif
JESawyer responded to kcocyah 12 Jul 11
Hey, what bike do you ride?
I have three bikes: a Masi Speciale Commuter with a three-speed internal hub Sturmey-Archer S3X that I use for commuting, a Milwaukee/Waterford road frame with a Campagnolo Athena 11 group, and a Trek Equinox 7 time trial bike.
JESawyer 12 Jul 11
JEYNE KASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSYNDEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
hmm i c
JESawyer 13 Jul 11
Is the Honest Hearts .45 Handgun an M1991 or a Desert Eagle?
It's certainly not a Desert Eagle.
JESawyer 13 Jul 11
The whole reason I avoided the Wild Wasteland trait was because I wanted to play a game that actually takes itself a bit seriously. And from all I've read of Old World Blues, it looks to approach Fallout 2's level of ridiculousness even without WW trait.
ok
JESawyer 13 Jul 11
Hey, you did a really good job with the weapons in FO:NV but just out of curiosity why does the Varmint Rifle (A civilian anti-rodent weapon) use 5.56mm rounds? and also why do single load weapons (E.G Hunting Shotgun) get glitched move and reload?
There are a lot of real-life varmint rifles chambered in .223 Rem, which is the "civilian" version of 5.56x45mm NATO. I didn't think it would be a great idea to restrict our Varmint Rifle to using a single ammo subtype of 5.56mm.
Looping reloads turned out to be surprisingly difficult to implement and bugfix. Had I known it would have been so problematic from the beginning, I never would have pursued it.
JESawyer 13 Jul 11
Why did you remove Tesla Cannon EoA damage?
Buggy, not particularly useful, blurred the roles between Explosives and Energy Weapons more than I thought was necessary.
JESawyer 13 Jul 11
Every Hunting Rifle looks the same - patchworked. How have the Gun Runners not found a way to polish one of those things yet?
These things take time.
JESawyer 14 Jul 11
Avez-vous plaisir à donner la substance de personnes pour discuter et spéculer environ ?
Pardon, je ne comprends pas.
JESawyer 14 Jul 11
So Joshua and Daniel are some form of post-War Christians with a Mormon influence. Is it safe to assume that Judaism, Islam, etc. also survived the war in different, syncretized forms? ("Judah Krieger" always struck me as a nice Jewish name...)
In general, players should not assume anything not stated or shown explicitly in the games.
JESawyer 14 Jul 11
Google Translate sez on the french ting: Do you enjoy giving the substance of people to discuss and speculate about?
yeah but not even a fluent french speaker could make sense of that sooooOoOoOooo
JESawyer 14 Jul 11
Is the 9mm Caliber in Fallout NV 9mm Luger (9x19mm) or a more exotic type of 9mm?
It's supposed to be 9x19mm Luger/Parabellum/NATO.
JESawyer 14 Jul 11
M1911s are incredibly varied, a wide variety of upgrades and mods are available so why is every single one in HH (except A Light Shining In Darkness) identical to the next?
A lot of firearms are incredibly varied. Why single out the .45 Auto Pistol when there are dozens of different guns in the game? Weapons have consistent appearances to not generate an enormous amount of assets. Additionally, if we wanted to point different assets to one type of weapon, we would either have to develop a system for doing that or generate multiple weapon forms with identical stats pointing to different assets. It would be a maintenance/logistics problem.
JESawyer 14 Jul 11
Why is the player just given everything at the end of Honest Hearts with no work required? If a player wanted Graham's gun/armor or Daniel's outfit or something, why not just require the player to steal them/earn through a quest?
The work required is completing the campaign.
JESawyer 15 Jul 11
did the m1911 originally have slightly inaccurate guttersnipe sights like the unique version? if so, was this (and the improved sights) mod cut in favor of YET ANOTHER SILENCER? how come?
No, it had conventional sights. The night sights were made part of the base version because the zoom modification that went along with the improved sights caused a bug. I figured it would be more useful to have the night sights be the default rather than cut them. Guttersnipe and trench sights are typically used to give weapons a lower profile for concealed carry.
JESawyer 15 Jul 11
Harry Potter opens today. If you were going to cast a magic spell, what spell would you cast?
Formspring question of the day
Perdo Nerdum.
JESawyer 15 Jul 11
Who was responsible for the most satisfying weapon I've ever used in a game, the Hunting Shotgun?
Mitch Ahlswede built it and I tuned it.
JESawyer 15 Jul 11
Fav Radiohead album?
OK Computer.
JESawyer 15 Jul 11
Why can you not dual wield weapons like in previous fallout games? (I'm not sure if it was one, two). It makes sense that say, somebody with 9 strength and 100 guns could dual wield 9mm pistols at least. Not realistic, but fun, like most of fallout.
You couldn't dual wield weapons in F1 or F2. There are non-trivial animation and interface problems that have to be solved to support dual wielding.
JESawyer 15 Jul 11
Was Chris Haversam originally intended to be a companion? His dialogue at the end of Come Fly With Me seems to suggest that.
No, sorry.
JESawyer 15 Jul 11
Aren't you suppose to be working? You have way to much time on your hands if during your work day you can devote so much time to formspring/twitter. You should have spent less time on twitter and more time on fixing all the bugs in FONV before release.
I answer Formspring questions and look at Twitter when I am waiting for a build or .esm to copy or during a check-in. I write longer Formspring questions after or before work.
JESawyer 16 Jul 11
Have you ever seen the film Six-String Samurai? Vegas at end sort of reminds me of Obsidian's interpretation of Vegas.
Of course. The icon for New Vegas Samurai is based on Buddy.
JESawyer 16 Jul 11
A trait is a terrible stopgap for lack of thinking ahead for levels. It's unfair that people who want to keep leveling also have to deal with their character being perfect at everything.
ok
JESawyer 16 Jul 11
Why bother answering a question if you are only going to reply with ok or oic? Does it fuel a sense of superiority.
It acknowledges that I read the person's comment and, whether or not I agree with it, I understand what they are saying. The level increments were not my decision, nor are any of the traits, perks, weapons, or other content outside of the core game and Honest Hearts.
JESawyer 16 Jul 11
I'm not trying to sound like I'm talking down to you. But I have to agree with others that when you say "ok" or "oic" it makes you come across as a bit of a jerk. People ask you these questions because you were the Project Director.
I'm not the project director for Dead Money, Old World Blues, Lonesome Road, or the DLCs as a whole. I also have no say over when patches are released, when DLCs are released, nor when information about DLCs will be released.
If I simply delete questions about things over which I have no control, they just get asked over and over and over again in increasingly hostile and accusatory tones. If I take the time to explain the actual nuances of who decides what and how, it also rarely makes any difference.
Based on the way things have gone in the past, the most efficient way for me to deal with questions like these is simply to acknowledge what the person has said as briefly as possible and move on. I have over 1,000 answers active in the queue right now and I get between 20 and 50 more every day. Practically speaking, there are only so many ways I can explain and describe any given process or decision I did or did not make before I'm spending the majority of question-answering time explaining things over which I have no control.
JESawyer 16 Jul 11
Personally, I remember your past answers. I understand you're not the project director for the majority of the add-ons. And whether or not you worked on them doesn't matter. People come to you because you're the most accessible of all the New Vegas devs.
That's great that you remember. Unfortunately, your comment, like 95% of the comments/questions I receive, are anonymous, so I have no way to sort one person from another.
It's unreasonable to expect me to answer questions about things over which I have no control. In the case of the specific comment we're talking about, it wasn't even a question, just a hostile comment.
I answer these questions to help people understand development processes in which I am a part, not to explain the decisions of other people. I have enough justifiable anger and criticism directed my way for the things over which I am or was responsible.
JESawyer 17 Jul 11
Were you the project director of Honest Hearts because of your love for national parks?
The idea for Honest Hearts was mine and Chris and I were already expecting to share some of the DLC responsibilities. I tailored much of the content of Honest Hearts to things with which I was familiar and/or things in which I had an interest.
JESawyer 17 Jul 11
Why was the voice of Robobrains changed from the woman to Wesley Crusher in NV? I thought the different voice added a nice bit of variety to the robots. Also, why are there so few Robobrains compared to other robots, eg at Repconn, NV Steel?
True Hollywood Stories.
Someone said, "We can get Wil Wheaton down here to do a voice." That someone texted him with something along the lines of, "Want to be a robot in Fallout: New Vegas?" 30 minutes later, he was in the studio.
That's a fact, Jack.
JESawyer 17 Jul 11
Is the Assault Carbine based on the CAR-15 or similar variant?
It's sort of a hodge podge, to be honest. I don't remember what parts came from where.
JESawyer 17 Jul 11
i like "oic" it's very fyad
that's so fyad
JESawyer 17 Jul 11
Can you explain the need for the [two] Companion Dismissal Terminals?
They are brute force methods to allow users with older save games to reset their companions. Some legacy bugs would otherwise permanently screw up the game state even if patches had subsequently fixed what caused the error.
JESawyer 17 Jul 11
Not to pick on you, but the pic of your holding an AT4 -in that pic you're holding it backwards.
Yes. It was handed to me as a prop at a party. I am not familiar with the weapon at all.
JESawyer responded to TraderRager 17 Jul 11
Could we get a Laser Pistol buff that brings it on par with the 9mm? As it is, it is literally the most useless weapon in the game bar the BB gun.
I disagree. It's expensive to operate, but it has a very low spread and a large magazine. It could use "combat sights" and some mods, though.
JESawyer responded to TraderRager 17 Jul 11
What was the decision behind making fire-based weapons Energy Weapons? Shouldn't they be filed under Explosives, since they don't run on batteries and deal damage using combustion instead of direct energy? "Pyromaniac" is an explosives perk, to boot.
They don't cleanly fall into either category, but they were placed in Energy Weapons because EWs had more gaps in the lineup than Explosives.
JESawyer 17 Jul 11
Given the choice, would you take out mod support for any future games?
I think mod support is great in pretty much all ways, so no.
JESawyer responded to cjs226 18 Jul 11
How is it that Joshua Graham doesn't know Lanius and has only heard rumors about him?
Lanius was Joshua Graham's replacement, so even if there was some overlap between their time in the Legion, they weren't in close contact.
JESawyer 18 Jul 11
When creating specific canon, like House being Robco CEO, do you have to go to Bethesda for approval first?
Not specifically, but they did review our design documents.
JESawyer responded to Harryvassharp 18 Jul 11
How come there are only two Sniper rifles in New Vegas (Without mods) considering that the AM Rifle is a High tier weapon it leaves players early on without any means of sniping
The Varmint Rifle and Ratslayer are both available relatively early in the game. A Laser Rifle with a scope can also be very effective.
JESawyer 18 Jul 11
why dont the bright followers get an ending? what happened to them?????
Their endings are sometimes incorporated into the Novac endings.
JESawyer responded to Harryvassharp 18 Jul 11
Why was the Chinese assault rifle Removed from FO:NV and why did the design of the Assault Rifle change from the G3-esque to a M16 ish weapon?
The Chinese Assault Rifle was removed because I didn't think there would be a heavy Chinese presence in the Vegas area. The Assault Rifle doesn't appear in New Vegas, only the Assault Carbine.
JESawyer 18 Jul 11
Do you find it hilarious that you were holding the AT4 backwards?
No, but this is truly hilarious: http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/Louis-C.K.-Hilarious/70129452
JESawyer 18 Jul 11
Why wouldn't there be a heavy Chinese presence in the Vegas area? Unless they really only did sent two scouts to Hoover Dam...
Because it's an inland area that the nuclear weapons failed to hit and of much lower strategic importance (than somewhere like D.C.) after the fact.
JESawyer 18 Jul 11
I have only just realized that stacked items have a combine weight which was shown at the bottom of the screen. I thought that you had changed one gold bars value to around 300,000 caps. Who thought to change it to this? It caused some confusion.
I did, because not showing the aggregate weight was causing a ton of confusion on its own. Many items have a very low weight individually but are carried in large quantities (e.g. ammo, lead).
JESawyer 18 Jul 11
How would you respond to assertions that, even in Hardcore and with the difficulty turned up, New Vegas is still too easy? Speech checks are consistently low; ammo, food, and water are plentiful; and few enemies have significant armor/lethality to the PC.
Speech checks are not consistently low, but yes, it's an easy game.
JESawyer 18 Jul 11
What is your favorite summer memory?
Formspring question of the day
http://tinyurl.com/8rjacs
JESawyer 18 Jul 11
Meltdown, work on it, so far it cancels it's how benefit and makes a character impossible to play properly.
That is demonstrably not true. Many players have made successful EW builds that incorporate Meltdown.
JESawyer 19 Jul 11
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ur blowin my mind brah
JESawyer responded to 302CID 19 Jul 11
Will we see fixes for missing entries in perks that require lists to properly function? eg; Cowboy(Police Pistol, too many knives to list) The Professional(Police Pistol, That Gun) This is a widespread issue and it gets worse with every DLC.
Only for weapons in the core game. DLC content cannot be patched, unfortunately.
JESawyer 19 Jul 11
If DLC can't be patched how do you deal with fatal bugs that don't allow the game to be played
Re-upload the entire DLC.
JESawyer 19 Jul 11
so uuuhhh....got any mugs?
http://diogenes-lamp.info/images/mugs_for_the_mug_god.jpg
JESawyer 20 Jul 11
wow owb is the best dlc ever
I'm glad you're enjoying it, but I didn't work on it.
JESawyer 20 Jul 11
From where can I get a poseidon energy mug? (How many people asked that by now?)
The mugs were something we had custom-made for the team. Each person got a Poseidon, REPCONN, or Petró-Chico mug with a name/title on the other side.
JESawyer 20 Jul 11
So you didn't work on ANYTHING in Old World Blues? Like, nothing at all? o_o
I helped with a very small amount of weapon tuning, but otherwise, no.
JESawyer 20 Jul 11
So...what's your obsession with Field Notes?
they own basically
JESawyer 20 Jul 11
So if they own...what do you use them for? Everything?
For all note-taking, yes. I have different books for different things. It's a lot faster for me to use a notebook and pen or pencil than try to type it out on my phone. They're also thinner and more flexible than Moleskines, so I can carry a pack of three or four of them at a time without it being inconvenient. As I finish using a notebook on a subject, I file it away and start a new one. These are the ones I use currently:
http://diogenes-lamp.info/images/field_notes_explosion.jpg
JESawyer 21 Jul 11
When you're not being a developer in your free time, what kind of things do you do on a typical day off/after work?
I don't do much outside of work. I usually ride my bikes, play games, or read.
JESawyer responded to EB683 21 Jul 11
Seeing as how you did weapon tuning for OWB. What is the deal with the LAERs small HP? Was it a over sight?
I didn't tune the LAER at all.
JESawyer 21 Jul 11
Is the Circle of Steel Christine is a part of in OWB the same Circle of Steel from VB? If so, how different are they in New Vegas compared to the notes from VB.
I don't know what Chris' intentions were, sorry.
JESawyer 21 Jul 11
Are you guys planning on fixing to infinite loop bug in the dialogue with the brain in OWB? It's extremely serious, and I don't care if DLCs "can't" be patched.
I do not know what you're talking about.
JESawyer 21 Jul 11
I was surprised to find that the 360 version of F3 had limited keyboard functionality. Meaning that, with a keyboard plugged in, you could auto/quicksave using F5 and F9. Does this work with NV as well? And do you know why this feature is even in F3/NV?
I do not know, sorry.
JESawyer 21 Jul 11
I have to agree, writing something down is a lot quicker than typing it on a phone or other personal device. How durable are Field Notes, and how many pages?
Pretty durable. Most covers are made of linen. They have 48 pages and you can get them in blank, ruled, or grid.
JESawyer 21 Jul 11
Is the Marksman Carbine loosely based on the POF Short Barreled Rifle?
No. It's loosely based on some paratrooper-oriented marksman rifles I saw online. It and the Assault Carbine are present in part due to New Vegas' proximity to Nellis AFB.
JESawyer 21 Jul 11
MCA said that Bethesda refused that a new Power Armor was added to OWB. Can you give us any hints or reasons for this decision?
I don't know anything about that, sorry.
JESawyer 21 Jul 11
Do you prefer blank, ruled, or grid?
The only thing I could prefer more than grid would be hex.
JESawyer 21 Jul 11
Please resolve a pressing issue I have with a product you had no input on.
certainly.
JESawyer 22 Jul 11
Did you come up with Joshua's comments on the Divide and the "courier that wouldn't have traveled with a caravan" completely on your own, or did you trade notes with Chris Avellone?
Chris asked me to make specific references.
JESawyer 22 Jul 11
is it unethical to put a snake head on a coyote body
In the 70s my dad put snake heads on baby dolls and set up an unauthorized booth at the Art Fair on the Square in Madison. It didn't last long.
JESawyer 22 Jul 11
Given the amount of choice/consequence in quests and how the ending sequence is dictated by your choices throughout the game, would you consider STALKER: Call of Pripyat an RPG, despite its lack of character stats or traditional leveling?
The choice and consequence feels a bit thin, but I also haven't completed CoP so maybe it gets more involved.
JESawyer 22 Jul 11
Avellone never named Bethesda telling not to put in PA. Just said not allowed. Did Beth say no or Feargus?
I have no idea.
JESawyer 22 Jul 11
rrerr
hmm
JESawyer 22 Jul 11
Who is your favourite member of the Wu Tang Clan?
Toss up between ODB and RZA.
JESawyer 22 Jul 11
Any reason heavy armour has basically been "left in the dust"? After the 3 current dlcs light armour is now superior to it in almost every way.
The Heavy armor still has better protection than any of the Medium or Light armor. T-51b has 3 more DT than Desert Ranger Armor and 5x the durability of Gannon Family Tesla Armor, and the Remnants Armor still has the absolute highest DT, 10 points higher than the best Light armor, Reinforced Sierra Madre Armor. Additionally, both the Remnants Armor and T-51b give +1 STR and +25% Rad Resist.
As for why no new Heavy armor has been introduced in the DLCs, I can only speak for Honest Hearts. Other than Gecko-Backed Reinforced Metal Armor, nothing else seemed like it would be a good fit for the DLC.
JESawyer 22 Jul 11
Why do you spend so much time tweaking weapon values this late after release? So what if I take out a deathclaw with a certain rifle at level 7? Who's going to care except me?
I haven't tweaked many of the core weapon values for several months. The only significant changes I made in the last patch were a few grenade explosion modifications. The majority of changes happened in the previous patch, which was quite a while ago.
JESawyer 23 Jul 11
If it were possible, do you think it would have been a good idea to make an optional quest path in Honest Hearts where the Courier uses the White Legs to help him crush Graham's forces, and return to Caeser to claim his place as the new Legate?
If there were time to build a full pro-White Legs quest (not so much a pro-Legion quest), I think that would have been nice to add. I still think it would be important to structure the quest in such a way that the themes of the DLC were not lost.
JESawyer 23 Jul 11
What's your favorite radio song in Fallout: New Vegas? Sorry if this has been asked before.
BIG IROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON.
JESawyer 23 Jul 11
So why did you guys make Fallout New Vegas so easy?
My goal was to increment the difficulty above Fallout 3 without taking such a large step that F3 fans would be unable or unwilling to adapt.
JESawyer 23 Jul 11
Did you contribute anything to Ulysses while he was still part of the core game, before he was cut?
Not really. Chris Avellone conceived and wrote the character. All I did was some minor editing and I talked to Chris about the character's patterns of speech and ways of speaking to the Courier.
JESawyer 23 Jul 11
Randall Clarks story was a powerful one to read. Thank you.
I'm glad you liked it, but John Gonzalez wrote all of the logs.
JESawyer 23 Jul 11
Have any favorite latin phrases? I just ran into one on Wikipedia's list of latin phrases "aliquid stat pro aliquo" which apparently means "something stands for something else" and also "nemo saltat sobrius" which they say means "nobody dances sober"
Qui mihi atque animo meo nullius umquam delicti gratiam fecissem, haud facile alterius lubidini male facta condonabam.
JESawyer 23 Jul 11
r u the most hipster game designer
cool
JESawyer 23 Jul 11
Does it ever get annoying/depressing that you seemingly always get praised for stuff you didn't do but rarely for stuff that you actually did
I get praised for the stuff I do as well, but it's a big game and there were a lot of people working on it.
JESawyer 24 Jul 11
Whats been the most difficult or frusterating bug to fix so far?
"Floaty arms" and general stability.
JESawyer 24 Jul 11
what's your favorite death animation from F1-2?
Plasma melt.
JESawyer 24 Jul 11
How do you get multiple developers working on the same .esm/.esp file at the same time?
The GECK has source control support, so users are only checking out individual forms when they make modifications. During check-ins, they integrate their changes (stored in their local .esp) into the master .esm. When people are doing check-ins, other users are locked out of doing check-ins, but can still work on/check-out forms.
JESawyer 24 Jul 11
Why couldn't you just postpone the game a month to fix all the bugs?
Release dates are determined by the publisher and console manufacturers.
JESawyer 24 Jul 11
what does "Qui mihi atque animo meo nullius umquam delicti gratiam fecissem, haud facile alterius lubidini male facta condonabam." mean? google translate couldnt figure it out 
It's from Sallust's Bellum Catilinae (The Catiline Conspiracy or, more literally, The War with Catiline). Catiline and his pals are caught attempting to overthrow the senate. The senate is divided on what to do with them. Some want to have them held or tried according to Roman law. Others (primarily, Cicero) want to have them killed immediately without a trial, in part because armies of the conspirators are still out and about. Julius Caesar (at this time "only" a member of the senate) speaks to the senate and urges clemency (something Caesar was later known for). He finds a great deal of support, but is followed by Marcus Porcius Cato / Cato the Younger.
Cato supports Cicero's position, arguing that whether or not their republic is good or bad is not the issue, that the republic itself is threatened by the Catiline conspirators staying alive. In the opening of his address he reminds the senate of his strict and stoic nature by saying (according to Sallust, anyway) the quote above:
"For as I had never, in my own conscience, excused myself for any wrongdoing, I found it hard to pardon the sins which other men's passions led them to commit."
JESawyer 24 Jul 11
Why'd you guys nerf cazadors? God forbid there be an enemy in the game that presents an actual threat.
I didn't nerf them. I asked the team and apparently no one recalls making that change.
True mysteries.
JESawyer 24 Jul 11
Where does Raul go to if you dismiss him? I just finished Dead Money and need him back in the party, but he's not at Black Mountain.
There is a place on the map near (I think) The 188 called Raul's Shack. If you don't have the Lucky 38 suite, he returns there.
JESawyer 24 Jul 11
How well do you know Latin? For example compared to the other languages you use?
Not that well. I really only know English and some poor conversational German. Everything else is just fragments.
JESawyer 25 Jul 11
so who's the mind behind Fisto? i understand that humor is a core piece of fallout, but... well whatever floats your boat :/
Robert Lee.
JESawyer 25 Jul 11
Have you actually played and completed Lonesome Road?
Yes.
JESawyer 25 Jul 11
Is the Riot shotgun based on the Chinese Type 97-1?
It isn't based on anything, really.
JESawyer 25 Jul 11
Why was there never a quest like "Chaos in Zion" for the core game?
The Yes Man / Wild Card path is the core game equivalent.
JESawyer 25 Jul 11
Why weren't the swords from FO3 carried over? I can understand your story reason for not including the C.Officer's sword, but you'd think someone would have a Katana in New Vegas.
a katana with mods, no less.
JESawyer 25 Jul 11
So far all NV dlcs give a very different experience than what's in the OC. Does Obsidian often use dlcs to experiment with new gameplay ideas, as a quick way to see what gamers would like and not like to see in your future games?
We do use them to experiment with themes and gameplay elements on a small scale, yes. For example, in Honest Hearts, I wanted to deal with post-apocalyptic religious characters. Religion isn't dealt with very much in video games, or it's only touched on superficially, or it is done through a proxy/fake religion as a joke.
In contrast to Dead Money, where Chris created a number of nasty, vice-driven folks, I wanted Honest Hearts to feature characters primarily motivated (at least ostensibly) by a desire to do good. That is, I wanted the player to be choosing between virtues instead of choosing between vices. This is also (to a lesser extent) different from the core game, where the major factions are all various shades of scumbag and players are often thinking about which group sucks least.
But fundamentally I really wanted to see if people were allergic to religious topics and characters. Even though it's obviously common in films and books, the topic of religion in games often draws a stink eye or immediate concern that someone, somewhere, will be offended. Honest Hearts had a lot of fair criticism for its relatively small scope, but I'm glad that most people either didn't care about the religious content or enjoyed it. I don't think religion needs to be an element of every story or setting, but I'm glad to know that it can be.
JESawyer 25 Jul 11
I understand you can't give us any spoilers for Lonesome Road, but...any spoilers for Lonesome Road?
@__@
JESawyer 25 Jul 11
If crossbows were in new vegas, which weapon skill would they come under?
Gunarmed.
JESawyer 26 Jul 11
You should have pushed back the release date. You shouldn't have signed off on a product that wasn't properly QA'd. You shouldn't be proud of the fact that you've spent nearly a year fixing your mistakes.
The developer does not determine the release date of a product, the publisher and console manufacturers do. I also don't know where you're getting a sense of pride from me; I'm not trying to project one.
JESawyer responded to WinstonChen855 26 Jul 11
the Mojave Desert actually like that, because I thought deserts are usually very flat?
The real Mojave Desert is actually like that, but at 25x the scale. We reduce the distances so you aren't literally walking for days just to get from town to town. Nevada's portion of the Mojave exists between a number of mountain ranges, open valleys that sit in a rain shadow east of the Sierra Nevadas. In the valleys, the terrain is mostly flat. But snow-covered alpine places like Jacobstown (near Mt. Charleston in real life) do actually exist.
JESawyer 26 Jul 11
Josh, have you tuned weapons for the Lonesome Road?
I have now!
JESawyer 26 Jul 11
Ever thought about bringing bozar back?
every second
every day
JESawyer 27 Jul 11
Did you have anything to do, anything at all, to do with the Ghost People's walking style in Dead Money? Because that is probably the creepiest thing I have ever seen in my life.
I talked to the animators a bit about their combat movement, but I don't think I gave them any direction on their normal movement. That probably came from Chris Avellone.
JESawyer 27 Jul 11
What were the weapons you tweaked in OWB?
The cool ones.
JESawyer responded to fschimski 27 Jul 11
A thing I'd bery interested on from a dev-perspective is the display of Skill[xx/yy] in Dialogs. IMO-it was one of the few poor decisions in NV, players would just not choose the check when they know that they would fail. Do you like that system as it is?
I'm sure there can be a better system, but I do believe it was an improvement from the randomized checks. Randomized checks in dialogue just leads to save-scumming.
One of the design tenets for the "failed" dialogue checks in F:NV is that they should not result in the player being any worse off for having selected them. So, for example, failing a check will not make a neutral character hostile toward you, but a character who is already hostile toward you obviously won't be swayed by a failed check.
The "fail" options are present to let the player know there is a check on that node and how far they are away from making that check. There's always alternate dialogue for the fail check as well, and ideally it's entertaining.
JESawyer 27 Jul 11
Do you think item description like in previous Fallout games is still practical in "modern" games? If given chance (or not limited to the current UI), would you use them in New Vegas?
I wrote almost all of the unique item descriptions for IWD and IWD2, so I'm all for it. Publishers usually just dislike the translation costs. Deus Ex: Human Revolution has item descriptions, so it's not like it's impossible for a publisher to accept.
JESawyer responded to fschimski 27 Jul 11
I have read your comment at the Bozar - regardless if it was just a joke or not - the antimaterial rifle always reminded me of the Bozar from the first Trailer I saw - was the design of it inspired by the Bozar?
The design of the AMR was inspired by the PGM Hécate II.
JESawyer 27 Jul 11
Are there some cool weapons in Lonesome Road?
yeah
JESawyer 27 Jul 11
Why are weapons(and items in general I guess) found in DLC's often more powerful than those found in the main game, despite being easier to get? Not saying this is the case with F:NV DLC, as I've yet to play any of them.
I don't want to assume too much, but generally I believe that developers want to ensure that players view the DLC as something they "must have", and a weapon, suit of armor, or perk that exceeds the capabilities of anything in the core game will do the trick.
I don't entirely disagree, but I think it's more important to find a unique niche for these things than to make them The Things From the Core Game++. I believe that tools should be designed for specific applications. That means that in certain applications, they will not be appropriate -- but another tool will be. That's one of the reasons I decided to arbitrarily place weapons in "tiers" for Fallout: New Vegas. I want players to look at a Hunting Rifle and a 10mm SMG and understand that they are in the same ballpark in terms of overall power, but that one is clearly intended for a specific type of combat that the other generally fails at.
With so many weapons and so many DLCs, it can be hard to find niches that aren't occupied, but personally, that's how I try to approach things.
JESawyer 27 Jul 11
You mention save-scumming as an issue for randomised events, yet the game is rife with it anyway - forcing locks, hacking, even combat and loot drops. The only real solution is to disallow "save anywhere" - would you have done this if it were your choice?
Forcing locks is also problematic, hacking less so (because of the time delay), and combat and loot drops are effectively *not* problematic because of how they work. Combat is a sea of randomization that quickly normalizes after a few moments, loot drops are typically handled on first load, making the delay before the player acquires the loot non-trivial. The player also often doesn't know what loot is randomized and what is static, which also discourages save-scumming.
In reality, you only see people save-scumming when doing stand-alone checks like randomized dialogue comparisons or forcing locks.
JESawyer 27 Jul 11
Did you choose the PGM Hécate II for it's aesthetic. It really does match other rifles in the game with it's partial wooden furniture.
Yes, for its appearance/construction and also because it is bolt action. I wanted the highest DAM Guns weapon to have the slowest rate of fire.
JESawyer 27 Jul 11
I think what fschimski meant was should the skill check have been displayed next to the dialogue option? If players can see that they can pass a skill check, they will almost always select that because they see they can "win" the conversation.
That's a good point, but I think that goes beyond whether or not the skill number is displayed or whether or not it is randomized. It's a criticism of Speech skills or dialogue perks as "the way to win dialogue". There is effectively no "play" to dialogue. That is, it is not an element with tactical decision making. Even if the dialogue checks were "hidden", you'd still be fundamentally just guessing at what answer will produce a favorable result and reloading would still allow you to simply try again, uncontested. As long as Speech and/or other purchased skills and perks are used as conditionals, there is an element of *strategic* gameplay (outside of the dialogue), but ultimately only some options are authored to produce ideal results.
I think that the mechanics of dialogue and dialogue conditionals could some improvement, and I think looking at how players make selections and decisions is a good place to start.
JESawyer 27 Jul 11
Was the Light Machine Gun from New Vegas based on any one weapon in particular?
It's a mishmash of M60 and M249 SAW parts.
JESawyer 27 Jul 11
@dialogue: But there is a big different between realizing you've just passed a skill check and not realizing this. If a dialogue option is marked as "fail" right from the beginning, why should I click it anyway, it most likely just ends in something bad.
Fail options in F:NV never result in the player being worse off than before he or she selected the option.
JESawyer 27 Jul 11
Do you like the new Deus Ex human revolutions dialogue system? It's kind like mass effects but if you bring your mouse/stick to 1 of like 3 options whatever Jensen will say appears in full
Yes, I think that is the best way to handle brief/verbose lines. Personally, I only ever want to see the full text. Since it has to be localized and displayed anyway, allowing players like me to preview it prior to making a selection is pretty trivial.
JESawyer 28 Jul 11
ey!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmVDr93UJQQ
JESawyer responded to ThomasTinkletit 28 Jul 11
If the LMG was an M60 and SAW, then why did it reload via clips? Was it because it's difficult to animate opening the weapon and placing a new snake of bullets in and closing it?
Yeah, and it would have been a one-off reload animation.
JESawyer 28 Jul 11
How about Planescape: Torment where 90% of the game was about navigating through and "winning" dialogues? There was at least one dialogue where chosing the wrong answers resulted in game over (the one with Ravel). Is this really such a bad thing?
I think that depends on whether or not you believe that dialogue should be primarily used to express character or if it should be primarily used to produce a change in the world. These things can often be in conflict, especially if the change the player is producing is difficult/impossible to predict.
JESawyer responded to Spockrock 28 Jul 11
speaking of which, maybe you know the answer? ._. why does Bozar look like a Barret .50 cal (even has a scope attached), but acts as a machine gun, and doesn't have targeted shots?
let's split the difference and make it a scoped light machine gun
JESawyer 28 Jul 11
who would win Liam Neeson vs Morgan Freeman
lorgan freeson
JESawyer 29 Jul 11
How many lines of dialogue did New Vegas have?
I think somewhere around 65,000, but I may not be remembering correctly.
JESawyer 29 Jul 11
The Tesla Cannon have effect that deals 25 damage over 2s, but after using it after the patch released, I noticed that it in fact did not work: it's not added to the explosion, not only that but the explosion itself was disabled for the projectile data?
There is a DoT effect on the weapon itself and yes, the explosion was disabled.
JESawyer 29 Jul 11
What time do you typically get off work?
Usually between 7:00 and 8:30.
JESawyer 29 Jul 11
hey, would you be willing to do an interview with a podcast on itunes called Galaxy News Radio? they really want to interview someone of your...?importance? thanks! and did you work on dead money? that was my favorite DLC of both fallout 3 and new vegas.
Sure, though all Fallout-related interviews have to go through Bethesda first.
JESawyer 29 Jul 11
Why does the Recharger Pistol do more damage than the rifle? That doesn't make sence to me.
For the same reason a real-life .44 Magnum revolver does more damage than a .22LR rifle: though they are using similar technology, the pistol is designed to handle much higher power. Consider the Recharger Rifle to be the first version of the technology, when they needed something large and bulky because they hadn't worked out all of the kinks. The Recharger Pistol is the evolution of that technology, the smart phone to the Recharger Rifle's 1990s Motorola Bag Phone.
JESawyer responded to Fffelix 30 Jul 11
Thank you and the whole developer team, Fallout is the best thing that has ever happened to my Xbox. 
Thanks.
JESawyer 30 Jul 11
no i said "r u" the most hipster game designer not "u r"
cool
JESawyer 30 Jul 11
Why were the Stun and Gas grenades cut? Did they not work properly or were they just too overpowered...?
Yeah, they had some problems.
JESawyer 30 Jul 11
HUMMUS!
this morning i saw a cat named hummus :3
JESawyer 31 Jul 11
I know that you are not main designer of HH. But do you know why in Sorrow´s camp are caves inhabited by White legs? Thx for really cool game!
Actually, I *am* the main designer for Honest Hearts. The White Legs that are in the caves should only be in the more remote parts of the Sorrows camp, and they are attempting to infiltrate it (IIRC).
JESawyer 1 Aug 11
What's the point of even playing New Vegas on Hard or Very Hard? There's no incentive to play it on either setting. No extra experience, no achievement, the loot drops aren't better. For me, the game is most satisfying by seeing my choices have an affect.
Levels of difficulty are present for players to broadly adjust the combat statistics to suit their tastes. If you don't feel the need to adjust that, don't change the level of difficulty.
JESawyer 1 Aug 11
I've been wondering this for a while. Why do you answer these questions for fans?
Primarily so people will have more insight into how or why we make decisions during game development.
JESawyer 1 Aug 11
Why does CA get to lead three whole dlcs?
That's just the way it worked out, schedule-wise. I handled Honest Hearts during the overlap between Dead Money and Old World Blues and have now (mostly) moved on to another project.
JESawyer 2 Aug 11
who's idea was the deathclaw promontory? it was very cool
I think it was Jorge Salgado's idea. He definitely implemented it.
JESawyer 2 Aug 11
Ur a selfish prick ii know for a fact you named the bruned man after yourself. Both of youa re named joshua.. coincidence? I think naught
and his surname is graham because of my love of mr. graham's delicious crackers
i am undone
JESawyer 2 Aug 11
Who designed the Arizona Killer quest? That one was pretty awesome and fun, there are a lot of methods for finishing that one.
Charlie Staples.
JESawyer 2 Aug 11
do the nets in at the end of the map in the Colorado river serve any purpose like catching fish or something like that besides keeping the player within the map.
you are the fish
JESawyer 2 Aug 11
Is Charlie Staples a real guy or is he some magical gnome made of staples who hangs around your office?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPONTneuaF4
JESawyer 3 Aug 11
Did you ever attend the voice recording sessions and give advice to the voice actors?
Yes. I went to the sessions for Arcade and Chief Hanlon. For Honest Hearts, I was part of a phone-patch to Joshua Graham's session. During our VO recording, we don't typically give direction to the actors directly. A director runs the session and we talk to the director. He or she knows the best way to phrase direction to get the desired effect.
JESawyer 3 Aug 11
was the desert rangers armor inspired by tycho's discription in fallout 1
Yes.
JESawyer 3 Aug 11
Can you guys add Raufoss Mk. 211 ammo for the Anti-Materiel Rifle?
sure why not
JESawyer 3 Aug 11
why dont u guys add single weapons or weapon packs for like 240ms points or $3 each. it would really add to the game especially if u dont have pc and cant download guns from nexus.
hmm what if it were more like 400ms points???
JESawyer 3 Aug 11
Actually if it were 400MS points that would be ok, as long as you get a good number of items. I suppose you could include guns with different ammo types and sub types as well. It would be nice for consoles.
hmm. you've got a point. lemme sleep on it.
JESawyer 4 Aug 11
Josh, thank you.
np
JESawyer 4 Aug 11
If you feel the need to respond to trolls at the expense of answering more legitimate questions, fine. There is, however, no need to be condescending to people who ask questions that you dislike/can't answer (e.g. 400MS point packs, Raufoss ammo, .etc).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INeULXlR9uo
JESawyer 4 Aug 11
Why does the quest design in Honest Hearts suck so bad? Everything is either a fetch quest or more boring combat. son i am disappoint.
Sorry you didn't like it. Core F:NV had some problems with quest designs and implementations that were extremely glitchy. Because Honest Hearts was developed on a relatively short schedule, I asked the quest designers to implement crit path quests that were very straightforward, with the idea that we would make the quests more elaborate if there were more time at the end. There really was never more time. Despite the long delay between DM and HH, the latter was out of testing over a month before the core game patch came out (which was necessary to release HH, OWB, and LR). Of the four DLCs, HH had the shortest development and testing cycle.
Obviously, that's not really an excuse. If you paid $10/800MS points/your currency of choice for it and didn't like it, you didn't like it.
JESawyer 4 Aug 11
Hi my name is Nicholas and my older brother Sam is writing this for me. He said I should tell you how I'm 10 years old and I want to be a game designer. He said that you're a good designer so I want to know how someone becomes really good like you.
Hi, Nicholas. There are probably better role models than me, but here are some basic things:
* There are a lot of jobs in game development. The most common are designers (who design the systems and create the gameplay for levels), artists and animators (who create all of the game art, including levels, weapons, characters/outfits, visual effects, and animations), programmers (who write the actual code of the game and tools), and audio engineers/sound designers/composers (who create or help direct all of the sounds, voice over/dialogue, and music). All of these departments work together to make the game, but each has a different skill set and responsibilities on the project.
* The most important skill for a designer is the ability to think critically and to think from the perspective of other gamers. Professional game designers often make games that we would like to play, but we are making them for a large audience -- sometimes millions of people. We have to think about how players will experience the games that we make because we want the people who buy our game to enjoy it. What they enjoy may not be the same as what you or I enjoy, so we have to be able to think about playing the game from their point of view.
* It is important for designers to play a wide variety of games and to think about how the game works. When you find yourself making a decision in a game -- from what direction to move on a map, to what conversation option to pick in a dialogue, to what weapon to use in a fight -- think about how you make your decision. The designer's job is often to present you with a problem to solve, a choice to make. If the problem is too easy, the player is not challenged. If the problem is too hard, the player may get angry and give up. Though we want to make decisions difficult, the player should be able to overcome any problem if they think about the situation and use the tools that we give them.
What I would suggest is to continue playing a variety of games and thinking about the things you like and dislike about them. Read and listen to other players and the things they like and dislike. You may not agree with them, but you will start to understand how other players think. Ask yourself not only how you would design a game to make yourself happy, but to make your brother happy, or your friend happy. You might not be able to make a game that makes everyone happy, but it's good to think about ways you could try.
The other thing I suggest is to try a lot of activities that don't have anything to do with video games: hiking, swimming, reading about different subjects, carpentry, foreign languages -- the video game industry is full of people that know a lot of things about video games. People who have the ability to draw on other experiences from their lives often find that they can create things that aren't normally seen in video games.
JESawyer 4 Aug 11
I've got a Fallout idea that is great. Don't offer $10, don't offer $20. You offer with $100, I won't even show ya! Offer with a couple of thousands and I promise you, you will walk away with millions to flip. So what do you say?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVE2aAHCd4c
JESawyer 4 Aug 11
Video games are supposedly the most post-modern medium because of their propensity for intertextuality, irony, deconstruction, and other devices associated with post-modernity. Do you think this is a fair assessment?
Honestly now, how many video games do you know of that intentionally rely on intertextuality (unless you count aping other media) and deconstructive techniques? I think literature and film still have a pretty big leg up on us there.
JESawyer 5 Aug 11
Who came up with the Terrifying Presence perk? It owns.
Thanks. I did, but I wish it had more uses or a more general use in combat. As-is, it's very special-case.
JESawyer 6 Aug 11
Someone on the Bethesda forums (I think it was Chris Avellone) said that Lonesome Road would be out this month (August). Can you confirm that the current release date is still scheduled for August?
I have no idea, sorry.
JESawyer 7 Aug 11
Since I have a feeling you were involved, I love that Police Pistol from Dead Money, it's sound, it's kick when it fires, and it's texture. So much beauty. Can you tell me the IRL model for it?
It was loosely based on the Colt Police Positive.
JESawyer 7 Aug 11
Hi Josh. Are the items in Doc Mitchell's house supposed to be taken freely by players as a basic loadout, or just their ownership not set properly?
No ownership is set on those items so the player can't force hostility prior to exiting character creation. If the player wants to grab everything in his house, it's not going to dramatically affect anything.
JESawyer 7 Aug 11
Question: Caesar has openly stated that he found that learning tribal dialects is a waste of time. So how was he able to contact and order the White Legs, who speak a very foreign language?
Caesar doesn't have to be the one doing the speaking. He has a lot of agents, and many of them know a variety of tribal languages.
JESawyer 7 Aug 11
The Police pistol was based on the Colt Police Positive, I presume. Is there any particular reason why it operates in single-action?
I thought it fit the weapon better, especially given its accuracy despite having a short barrel.
JESawyer 9 Aug 11
I'm sorry but I felt Nelson was simply to unrealstic. The other Ranger stations stop most of the Legion across the Colorado (2/3rds according to the comm officer at Forlorn). How in the hell would they get resupplied? A ranger was watching the town!
Milo is a single patrol ranger, and there was an entire additional pack of Legion in the Techatticup Mine. Between Techatticup and Cottonwood Cove, there's only Ranger Station Echo. Though Echo does run interference, that's not a lot of NCR forces to track and deal with guys who could be running up and down the coast from the Legion's main point of access to the west side of the Colorado.
JESawyer 9 Aug 11
So why would you make basically another assassin suit, name it the stealth suit, and make it a medium armor. with all the bonuses, it still does not match the assassin suit in terms of stealth. They both even have the same DT so why make it medium?
I didn't make it.
JESawyer 9 Aug 11
Why did the NCR go to Baja when Vegas and Hoover Dam are not that far off from Shady Sands?
NCR is expansionist, so they spread out in any/all directions.
JESawyer 9 Aug 11
Has BGS started preproduction on Fallout 4 yet?
I have no idea.
JESawyer 9 Aug 11
Is there going to be a possible patch for the Stealth Suit Mk II Firmware 1.4 that actually does increase your crouch speed? Also, why isn't it light armor? The fact that it's medium completely compromises the ability to sneak well.
Why does wearing Medium armor completely compromise a character's ability to sneak well?
JESawyer responded to ohyesitsthecopz 9 Aug 11
i love the lever-action. what gun is it based off of.
The Winchester 1887, though in 20 gauge and with other modifications.
JESawyer 9 Aug 11
I have to say that New Vegas is my favorite game. Despite the glitches this game has been the best virtual experience I've ever had. Please keep it up.
Thanks.
JESawyer 10 Aug 11
If you had the chance, would you add phosphorus rounds for shotgun weapons in FNV?
There are a lot of wacky shotgun ammo types out there, most of which are demonstrably pretty bad (flechettes, "dragon's breath", etc.) but they could still be cool for a video game IMO.
JESawyer 12 Aug 11
Were the zap and displacer gloves originally meant to use ammunition (SEC)? If so why was this cut?
A lot of the "fist" ammo types were intended to use ammunition, but the engine doesn't support it and there wasn't time to implement it.
JESawyer 14 Aug 11
Where there any plans for the player to be able to access the virtual reality pods in Nellis?
No. They're present to explain how the Boomers know how to operate planes.
JESawyer 14 Aug 11
This may seem like a silly question, as I have poor understanding of game development, but wouldn't all involved parties want the best game possible to be released. Time limits, bugs, deadlines, cut content, publisher demands - these all seem to detract.
No. Publishers want the best return on their investment, which often motivates them to do things that in opposition to final game quality. Publicly traded publishers are often the worst in this regard, because their investors are typically even more myopic about RoI and quarterly results.
JESawyer 14 Aug 11
On the topic of my phosphorus question; why wasn't any other type of incendiary round added in the main game besides the .50MG round? Was it due to engine limitations, or because you didn't have enough time to implement new rounds, or something else?
40mm Grenades also have an incendiary subtype.
For the most part, I tried to use ammo subtypes that are found with their real-world equivalents. So you'll find .308 AP and 5.56mm AP, but no 10mm AP or .357 Magnum AP. While this is somewhat "realistic" it was done mostly to make choosing between weapons in part based on the ammo subtypes available to them. This is also the reason why the same three mods aren't slapped on every type of lever-action rifle (for example).
JESawyer 14 Aug 11
If you get negative feedback, do you feel offended?
No.
JESawyer 14 Aug 11
What's with the childish "hahaha srsly" response towards Joshua Graham when he tells you about his religious beliefs? It's as if the dialogue was written by some pretentious atheist who can't bear the thought of someone following a religion.
The option was present for people who are role-playing pretentious atheists who can't bear the thought of someone following a religion. If you are not playing such a character, select the options that either generally agree with him or the options that more or less say, "Well, okay."
JESawyer 14 Aug 11
Given the chance, would you make Icewind Dale 3?
Sure.
JESawyer 14 Aug 11
Why didn't you guys revamp the engine before making New Vegas? Clearly even critics like IGN had to do a double take and say the game is great but the bugs/graphics/animations kills a lot.
Because "revamping" the engine is an enormous time investment. We had very few programming resources on the project, and much of their time was devoted to upgrading from Havok 5.5 to Havok 7 (which was necessary to meet Sony TRCs for compiling with an SDK no older than six months -- Havok 5.5 would not compile with current SDKs).
JESawyer 14 Aug 11
You seem like a Libertarian, are you?
Not really. I think personal choice is an important thing for the government to avoid infringing, but people, myself included, are pretty stupid about understanding the consequences of their behavior. I think the US/UK housing market crashes are a good example of this: on the business side and the consumer side, you had people engaged in a state of prolonged mutually-supported delusion about the system being tenable. I mean, I could tell it was untenable in 2004 and I'm practically a moron when it comes to anything financial.
The same sort of thing happened with the world's first bank crash back in the 14th century with Venetian traders and Florentine banking houses. In both cases, "The Market" engaged willingly in all of the practices going on, and by doing so, all parties helped ensure systemic collapse. Also in both cases, it was not simply the direct participants who suffered, but everyone who was entangled in the larger financial system.
I don't think more regulation is a great solution to the problem of personal or systemic idiocy (in many cases I think mandated higher transparency and less regulation would likely accomplish more), but I do think that choice architecture and incentivization work well. I've been reading an interesting book on soft or "libertarian" paternalism, called "Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness" that has some good ideas about practical approaches to choice architecture.
JESawyer 14 Aug 11
But there isn't an option to agree with Graham on his beliefs or even show much knowledge about them. The only options the player gets is to either be a smartass, ignore him completely, or to come off as a clueless moron who has no idea what religion is.
No, there's definitely an option to agree with him and/or have a positive reaction. It's always the top response when replying to any of the occasions when he expresses his beliefs. The exact response is vague because the player could have a variety of nuanced opinions about what he's saying.
The Courier wouldn't have much knowledge about his beliefs; he represents a denomination of Christianity that is effectively held by one community. Even if your character were some type of Christian, the Courier isn't a New Canaanite, and there are specific things that New Canaanites believe that aren't common to other Christians.
JESawyer 14 Aug 11
Would you consider the 40mm buckshot or "Hornet's Nest" for the M79 ?
The problem with an ammo type like that is that the impact data for the weapon (in this case the Grenade Rifle or Grenade Launcher) is set up for explosives. That can't be changed on the projectile, so you'd have buckshot creating a bunch of huge impact particles and noises that don't make sense for the weapon. It may seem minor, but trust me, it's really obnoxious.
JESawyer 14 Aug 11
Why wouldn't the Courier know much about his beliefs? One of the things you can tell Jed Masterson is that it's been a while since he's been to Utah, implying he's been there before. He could've learned about it there, since that's where New Canaan is at.
You also tell him that in the context of asking things about what's going on there. Utah is a reasonably big place and its human population is dominantly tribes (many of whom don't speak consistent English) and raiders. Outsiders don't know much about the New Canaanites. That's one of the defining characteristics of them in the story.
JESawyer 14 Aug 11
And would you keep the Icewind Dale 3 as linear and action as its predecessors? Or you would rather make more experiments with themes, game mechanics and world structure as MCA did in Planscape Torment?
As a series, Icewind Dale has always been, and was known for being, a party-based dungeon crawler. You can have a party-based dungeon crawler be non-linear and you can have strong themes in a dungeon crawler's story, characters, and world design. I don't think these things are in conflict. Most of IWD and IWD2's constraints involved building the games on 14- and 10-month dev cycles, respectively.
JESawyer 16 Aug 11
When Chief Hanlon said the NCR sent the rangers to chase ghosts in Baja did he mean that it was a fruitless endeavor or that they were going after some kind of "Boogeyman" like remnants of the Enclave, the Master's Army, or some to be announced menace?
mysteries
JESawyer 16 Aug 11
Has anybody ever considered a radioactive snake-creature as an enemy? It seemed like it'd fit the Mojave Desert area. Or would the creature be difficult to implement due to it's shape?
Snake creatures are pretty difficult to implement for that reason, specifically. Even creatures like yuan-ti generally cause animator angst. One of the reasons the Nightstalkers exist in F:NV is because I wanted to have something snake-y without requiring animators to build a snake rig.
JESawyer 16 Aug 11
Is it impossible to patch DLC, or just not worth the effort? My friend says it is possible you guys just wont, can you tell me otherwise so I can prove him wrong?
Sometimes it is possible to fix an error introduced by a DLC by addressing it in the core game updates (e.g. the companion terminal introduced by the last patch fixes various companion issues found in DLCs), but actually loading in an additional .esp to address an issue in a DLC .esm typically isn't possible due to load order differences/inconsistencies between platforms.
Believe me, if it were easy to patch DLCs across the platforms, we'd definitely do it. In cases where the DLC has some catastrophically bad issue (e.g. like The Pitt's missing asset bugs), we may re-upload the entire DLC, but in that case users are getting an entirely new .esm, not a patch.
JESawyer 16 Aug 11
Will there be any info/video/notes from your upcoming GDC lecture readily available? It seems GDC has some form of pay-wall to view things online. Is it ever possible for that info to appear in another medium or will it only be via GDC?
I'm not sure, to be honest. I know that GDC will make elements of the talk available. My talk presentation PowerPoint/.PDF won't be incredibly useful, I'm afraid, since the slides aren't very text heavy. Hopefully they will put a video up, but it may be pay-to-view or subscription-based.
JESawyer 16 Aug 11
Dude Its cool that your from WI now I dont feel as lame when I say Im from here!
Wisconsin owns. Wisconsowns.
JESawyer 16 Aug 11
Is there a way to save Jed,Stella and the others in HH?
No. They are doomed!
JESawyer responded to PTG 16 Aug 11
So once the gun is set up as an "explosive" weapon, it can only ever be made to fire projectiles which are explosive? That sounds annoying.
Not so much that, but the impact data is on the weapon. Explosives weapons often have large visual effects/noises for where they hit. That can't be changed on the projectile.
JESawyer 16 Aug 11
You do know that mandating increased transparency, which must be done by governing body to make it enforceable and effective, is a form of regulation, right? Without laws and penalties to comply, corporations have no incentive to be transparent.
Yes, obviously. That's still decreased regulation compared to most approaches governments take toward industries.
JESawyer 17 Aug 11
What kind of car do you drive?
A 2004 Volkswagen R32, but I only drive it about once a week. Usually I ride my Triumph or bicycle.
JESawyer 17 Aug 11
Is there anything you can tell us regarding the Radioactive Roadblock at the NW end of Highway 95? Is seems fairly clear that it is (or was intended to be) a DLC entry point given the graffiti, location, and lone campfire.
It's just a map endpoint. In the real world, 95 shoots out of the Las Vegas Valley in the northwest, so we were just blocking that route out.
JESawyer 17 Aug 11
Do you think car companies should focus more on diesel and hybrids or just try and move on to a completely different source of fuel such as hydrogen?
They should be trying anything and everything that shows promise. I don't think the world can really afford to discard any given energy technology outright. I've seen a lot of people complain about biofuel research, for example. The fact of the matter is that we have several million internal combustion engines powering vehicles all over the planet. Even if we were to develop tech to replace the IC engine on a large scale tomorrow it would take decades for the world to adopt it.
JESawyer 17 Aug 11
Why go to such lengths to try to get the player to play nice with the Khans? They're irredeemably stupid in all of their actions. Everything bad that happens to them is a direct consequence of their own misdeeds, yet they think they're innocent victims.
Why do you think we're going to "such lengths"? Characters like Bitter-Root offer up an opinion pretty similar to yours, and the actions of many of the Khans are certainly questionable. If you don't like them, don't help them.
JESawyer 17 Aug 11
If Wisconsin owns, why don't you live there? Also why don't you have cheese on your head?
There are very few game dev studios in Wisconsin. I do own a house there.
JESawyer 17 Aug 11
Your forward thinking philosophy toward game design seems to be in direct opposition to the diehard fallout 1 and 2 fans who still think isometric is the way to go. Is there any merit to their vigil or are they just nostalgia zealots?
During my talk at GDC Europe, I said that I actually think that top down/iso turn-based or real-time with pause games are MORE viable now due to the rise of mobile and free-to-play games. Randomization as part of combat resolution from that perspective is often totally fine because there is SO MUCH randomization that any individual result is often loss in the overall pool of checks. However, after the talk I elaborated on what I meant with one of the people in the audience -- because there are some aspects to combat that still encourage the sort of save scumming you find with dialogue or lockpicking checks.
Take something like the classic spell Disintegrate from A/D&D. In older editions, this was a total win/loss spell. If the target failed the save, it died, flat out. People effectively used this as an effective degenerate tactic against many difficult enemies in Infinity Engine games. The first spell cast would be Disintegrate. If the target made its save, the player would just reload and try again.
With Disintegrate reworked as a spell that does a large amount of damage on a failed save and a decent amount of damage on a successful save, it's no longer an all-or-nothing spell that encourages save scumming. The effects are still variable, the results of the save still matter, but it's one check that's normalized with many others during combat. The more the randomized checks of combat are normalized, the more the player's specific character strategies and tactics matter.
As an aside, I've been playing the 1992 RPG Darklands for most of my trip. I still love the game, and while aspects of the combat are random, they are much LESS random than the extreme examples of old editions of AD&D. The worst aspects of the game are the ones where there are severe consequences (often through random encounters) that come down to purely random checks. It's a double whammy of (randomly) getting a horrible encounter, attempting to escape, and (randomly) failing due to one check.
JESawyer 17 Aug 11
You say IWD required creating entire parties but it didn't. There were preset parties/characters available. Why not present the presets as the "standard" way to play and keep character generation as a "hardcore" option instead of just cutting it entirely?
I said that we typically asked the player to make entire parties, which we did. They didn't have to, but they often did -- in part because the prospect of making you own party is a lot more appealing than using a pre-made set.
I don't think you have to cut the option of making parties at all! But if a game asks the player to make a party, the system design should not be such that new players have to be extremely prescient and forward-thinking to avoid making a terrible group of characters. For example, in 1st Edition AD&D, demihumans often had level limits. If you missed this fact, you could make a totally viable character -- right up until you hit the leveling wall. Once that happens, you're essentially stuck.
Very few non-MMO RPGs allow character respec, but I think character respec is another good way to address balance range issues in games with a huge amount of character variety. You thought it was a good idea to make a party of Genasi Bards called Earth, Wind, and Fire. It was not a good idea, so if you accept a small cost, you can rebuild some -- or all -- aspects of your characters.
JESawyer 18 Aug 11
But can't respecs be abused in the same 'degenerate' way as quicksaves? And do they run counter to the idea of choices & consequences?
No, because respecs involve strategic decisions with long-term consequences. And if there's a cost to respec, there's still a consequence to building poorly. I think the consequence of "you cannot continue to play this game" is absurd, but not entirely uncommon in RPGs.
JESawyer 18 Aug 11
Was Boulder City empty/abandoned when the NCR blew it up? It strikes me as kind of odd that there would be no refugees or disgruntled former residents around.
It was a war zone, so there probably weren't people just chillin' out watching the Legion roll on through. Also, since the whole thing was an NCR plan/trap, they would have evacuated anyone stubborn enough to try to stay.
JESawyer 18 Aug 11
Wisconsin is a beautiful state, but I suspect if you returned here after years elsewhere (as I did) that you'd be disappointed by, perhaps even ashamed of, the changes in culture and politics (as I was).
I am. Growing up, Wisconsin was always a very moderate state. We had a good mix of representatives and political discourse was level-headed (that I recall). The last time I went back, anyone who talked to me about politics sounded like an actual, for real, crazy person. And these are people with whom I generally agree on things. Everything that's happened in the last year has made me less enthusiastic about the idea of ever returning there.
JESawyer 18 Aug 11
And what your idea of a "long-term consequence" for respecing be?
How about the loss of a level or a percentage of XP, which could translate to the loss of several levels? If that's not enough, how about that plus a reduction in XP gained following the respec based on the level of the player? If a player is hell-bent on metagaming a respec system, that's a non-trivial price to pay. For a player who just planned poorly or didn't understand a certain aspects of the rules, it still allows them to correct their errors without having to start the game over.
Respecs also don't have to be "do it anywhere/anytime". They could only happen on level-up, or at specific locations/characters, or at specific locations with an additional currency cost (e.g. caps) based on level. These things can all discourage "frivolous" or metagamey respecs while still allowing adjustments.
JESawyer 18 Aug 11
Isn't the very fact that the player needs to respec a failure on the part of the developer to provide the needed information when building the character? It seems like respecing is a poor solution to the problem, because it doesn't fix the underlying issu
The underlying issue is the complexity of the system. If you want systemic complexity, you have to accept that as the complexity increases, it becomes more difficult for the average user -- who may know little to nothing about RPGs -- to fully comprehend and forecast how to build a character.
Very few games demand strategic understanding and planning in the way that RPGs do. Often many of the benefits or drawbacks are things that are based on combinations, not individual elements, and they play out over hours and hours of gameplay in diverse situations -- often in non-linear game environments.
We can do our best to explain and describe, but some people won't get it. Either they won't get it due to lack of experience, or they won't get it because they aren't good at games in general, or they won't get it because they aren't that intelligent. We could make the systems drastically less complex, or we could play a sick guitar lick and scream, "YOU FAILED" at the player, or we could say, "Hey how about you pay X price and you can rebuild your character?" Of those three options, I'd prefer to go with the last.
JESawyer responded to SerMcWorst 18 Aug 11
I understand your point on randomization, but you do realize that sometimes you sounded a bit myopic in your GDC speech? For many strategic successes are exhilarating and taking failures out means you're subsequently taking successes out too.
That's obviously not true. You can reduce the gulf of efficacy between the bottom and the top without making the range nonexistent. In 3E and 3.5 D&D, you can make characters and parties that are TERRIBLE and will fail at everything constantly. It is much, much more difficult to do that in 4th Ed. That doesn't mean you can't min-max 4th Ed. And it also doesn't mean that you can't have variety in 4th Ed. characters. My Earthstrength Warden looks very different from many other Earthstrength Wardens and is better/worse at a variety of things.
JESawyer 18 Aug 11
Giving the ability to respec just seems to me like a cheap solution to a greater problem of having builds that are far inferior or can't complete the game in the first place. Doesn't respec turn those long-term consequences into whenever-you-want-term?
If strategic planning is going to be important in some way, there is always going to be a gap between "best" and "worst". As designers, we should design these systems to make that range large enough to make good planning feel good, but small enough to prevent catastrophic failure. Even so, players WILL wind up building characters they find aren't what they expected, or with consequences they didn't understand.
In a situation when a player makes a tactical failure, once they understand the failure, they (hopefully) can change their tactics and overcome the present obstacle. If they've made a STRATEGIC error, the realization doesn't necessarily mean anything unless they can take an action to correct it. In the case of an RPG, the errors may have been made 10-15 hours ago, 30 hours in on a 60 hour game.
Making errors and learning from them is part of playing games. If we don't give the player an avenue to correct their errors (other than "lol make a new character nublet"), that stinks.
JESawyer 18 Aug 11
Your talk seemed centered around improving traditionally obscure RPG mechanics. But modern RPGs typically have simple combat systems, "bread-crumb trails", no character generation and no skill checks. How can such games benefit from your "5 hard lessons"?
I gave examples in my talk about how virtually every RPG that came out in the last five years still has some aspects of this stuff. Fallout 3 had randomized skill checks. F3 and F:NV both still had randomized Force Lock checks (DX:HR has randomized hacking threats that can also encourage save scumming). Alpha Protocol had hilariously large weapon spread. Almost every RPG has a bunch of skills/talents/perks that grant imperceptibly small benefits, or features boatloads of gear that differs in statistically insignificant ways. Most RPGs require a fair amount of strategic character building -- that the player can fail terribly -- and virtually none allow respecs. RPG devs still make decisions about player controls/input while wrestling with the idea that in RPGs the character's abilities should matter more than the players -- even though how the character is built and used is entirely based on the player's choices.
We're getting better, but we really do keep tripping over the same bad decisions.
JESawyer 18 Aug 11
Some players enjoy creating "flawed" characters that are difficult to play. Why not keep both parties happy by having standard and "hardcore" character generation? The standard could let you customize within limits but ensure the character is balanced.
I think the key to doing that is reducing the general power gulf between "worst" and "best" parties while allowing the ability to respec. If you're making your intentionally-limited party, don't respec.
JESawyer 18 Aug 11
Who wrote the dialogue for Christine Royce in Dead Money?
Chris Avellone.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Why did you guys nerf power armor so much? I understand balance but come on.
It still has the highest DT and some of the highest HP of any armor. T-45d has some drawbacks but T-51b is basically pure bonus and is extremely durable. The reasons to wear any given suit of light or medium armor are primarily weight, movement speed, and any particular bonuses you may like. But if you want high DT and durability, power armor is pretty much the way to go. Even the "flimsiest" power armor, Remnants Armor, still has 400 HP, which is pretty good.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
As far as I know, New Vegas doesn't allow respecialization after you leave Goodsprings, except for a single opportunity to respec traits in one of the DLCs. Why doesn't New Vegas allow more respecialization, if you're in favor of it?
It was actually very tricky to make that respec work, even at low level. There were a variety of scripting issues and logic problems that Jeff Husges had to work around to make that happen. Basically, if you want to support respec throughout a game, you have to plan for it from the beginning. Otherwise you (the designer/programmer) can engineer yourself into a corner.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Reducing the gulf between best and worst is extremely detrimental to the experience and the difficulty of the game. The greater the degree of potential failure the greater the feeling of satisfaction when making a strategic success. Homogenization sucks.
By your logic, the larger the gulf, the better the game. I disagree completely.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
I vote for the failure guitar riff. If you have done your job as a dev then the game will satisfying enough that players wont mind replaying 30 hours. If people suck for whatever reason, too bad. By learning from their failures they will improve and grow.
Yes, but learning from their failures doesn't mean that they have to be punished in one of the most severe ways possible.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Respec options are condescending to the player. I plan out every aspect of my character. The existence of the option for some shortsighted douche to bumble through a game and then respec their character to be like mine is insulting. (eg FO3's karma perks)
Your attitude is pointlessly hostile toward inexperienced players.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Awesome job at the GDC. Maybe we can create a 'free hug' DLC that gives words of encouragement to anyone who makes the slightest mistake in a game. Or hey maybe we could replace 'game over' with 'good effort'. 'Chin up, sport' sounds like a great perk too
I advocated an increase in complexity in many parts of F:NV over F3, including a significant reduction in level-scaling in the world. I think difficulty and complexity are good things to have in RPGs. In most cases, players have the ability to adapt to the immediate situation and overcome it. Character building typically does not allow that unless the player is willing to start the game over. I think that's unnecessarily punitive.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
I heard the BOS was made stronger in the recent patch? Is that true?
Hmm. That sounds familiar, but to be honest I can't remember what it could be. Sorry.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Why no DT penetration for standard .50 MG rounds?
Their huge damage is effectively their DT penetration. 5mm gets DT bypass inherently because they are low damage rounds and it's a way to give them a specific niche.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
NV is still selling strong and has outsold F3 (well deserved, imo). Why do you think this is? How much of it do you attribute to Bethesda's marketing and how much to Obsidian's work? And has this success earned Obsidian some more respect from publishers?
It's hard to say, but I attribute a lot of it to the success of F3 and Bethesda's marketing campaign. I do believe it has helped us with publishers, yes.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Why wasn't the Brotherhood made as a major faction
They were a major faction in F3 and I thought they should be less central in F:NV, especially since we had already considered the idea of the NCR-BoS war.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Hi Josh - My name is Will Ooi and I've been doing some interviews with Chris Avellone &just recently Jason Bergman, along with some Fallout fans. I'm also interested in seeing whether you'd like to take part, although with this Formspring ...cont...
Sure. Give me your e-mail address and I'll contact you.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Wouldn't you say one of the benefits of pregenerated characters is that they provide a useful loose guideline to determine which attributes are good for each class? One would have to be intentionally not paying attention to make a bad character.
Even good players often don't pay attention.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Do you share Feargus Urquheart's opinion that "No one would get through character creation nowadays"?
No. I do think we would have to approach character creation with a wider audience base in mind, though. To me, this means retaining a great deal of breadth in options but not designing options that go beyond sub-optimal and into the realm of terrible. For experienced players, they're the options that are ignored instantly based on a snap evaluation (unless the player is making a gimmick build). For inexperienced players, they look like viable choices that actually aren't. Either way, I don't think there's a strong case to include them.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
You and every other RPG developer talk about this mythical wider audience, but how legitimate is that? Do you really think there is some RPG formula out there that would pull in Call of Duty numbers on a repeating basis?
What is "mythical" about Fallout: New Vegas selling in 5 million units compared to the few hundred thousand that bought Icewind Dale? Even when I was making Icewind Dale and IWD2, I could see a lot of new players struggling to understand the rules -- both 2nd Ed. and 3E.
No, I don't expect to pull in CoD numbers because CoD's design is extraordinarily simple and there's nothing in CoD's design that would suggest they are attempting to challenge players. I think it should be obvious by the features that we put into F:NV that we were not attempting to further simplify the game or the genre.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
I guess I agree with a lot of what you are saying and think you make very good points. It is just that I cannot help but worry, that games -RPGs in particular- are steadily being dumbed down to appeal to a wider market of instant-gratification simplicity.
I don't really think instant gratification is a good goal of game design. It provides immediate satisfaction but can lead to long-term boredom. That's one of the reasons I insisted on doing things like placing a quarry full of deathclaws next to Goodsprings and turning everything north of Goodsprings into a monster badlands.
A lot of players ignored the warnings and attempted to bulldoze their way through. Most failed. The ones who succeeded were patient or extremely resourceful. The rest eventually overcame the challenges of the area by returning at higher levels. The game didn't prevent them from moving forward (especially since areas like Quarry Junction are optional), but asked them to step up to the challenge instead of handing things to them.
Allowing respecs doesn't really have anything to do with instant gratification, though. It's almost the opposite: the slowly dawning realization that you made some really bad choices. As long as there's a significant cost associated with doing the respec, the player can still feel a bit of a sting while still being allowed to work their way out.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Is the Grunt perk intended to make some tier 3 and 4 weapons more viable in the later game to expand the player's weapon choices?
A bit. I think I just realized that I had overlooked the desire to be a tough military type character and use those weapons exclusively. There are perks tailored to a variety of weapon styles, most notably Cowboy. Since HH introduced the .45 Auto weapons, I thought it was a good time to make a Cowboy-equivalent perk.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Why even bother answering all these questions when most of the people asking them seem like rude assholes who've already made up their mind and will just roll their eyes at any answer you give?
I think the way the questions are phrased reveals a lot.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
if you actually looked at the majority of users in the active fallout communities youd see that most people care little about the intricacies of the plot or characters -most people want to BOOM! headshot a deathclaw with a cool gun. why encourage this? $?
I don't understand your question.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
First of all, I wanted to ask who was in charge of balancing weapons? They deserve a medal. Second I wanted to say that Fallout New Vegas is an amazing game, thank you for it, and ask if it's likely that Obsidian will get to work on another FO game?
I did, though it took a few patches to get them mostly right. Thanks.
I have no idea if Obsidian will work on another Fallout game. Ultimately, that's up to Bethesda.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
How come you didn't write more characters for FNV? Arcade Gannon and Chief Hanlon were interesting and realistic, and worked really well with the setting. They were two of my fav chars from the game.
Thanks. I write character dialogue slowly, so large characters take a lot of my time. Since I'm a project director, that's not very efficient and not really where I should focus a lot of my time.
Also, "realistic" characters seem to be less popular for a lot of players, so I only do the writing on those sort of characters when they really seem to fit, or if I have a particular interest in them/their conflicts.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
You're spot on about NVs audience being larger than IWDs, but why do most RPG devs refer to a "modern" audience instead of wide vs. niche? For reference, no one in their right mind would call HAWX a more "modern" flight-sim than DCS-A10C.
I'm not sure. I don't *think* I refer to them as "modern". It seems like an odd term to use. I'd just use wider. We're making games on more platforms for more people. It's a bigger, more diverse audience. I'm fine with that, as long as I have the chance to draw people in for a challenge.
This may seem odd, but I view it as asking people to step up rather than reaching down. But this gesture has to be one that's inviting, not hostile, if that makes sense. I want people to have fun with the games that I make, but that includes working a bit to succeed. Making people "sweat" a little is good. Punching them in the face isn't. I don't want to design games to box people out because they aren't immediately awesome at them.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
To compare with a straight face, the quality of game design of FNV and IWD, based on sales is innately stupid and downright insane ! Do you seriously believe that the potential audience numbers for both were equal ? There is almost 10 years between them !
"Do you seriously believe that the potential audience numbers for both were equal ?"
No... and that's what I'm suggesting. F:NV is a much broader-appeal game with a lower barrier of entry and overall difficulty. Both it and F3 are broader-appeal games with lower barriers of entry than F1 or F2, as well.
I made no comparison of game quality between IWD and F:NV, only audience size, which is what the person asking the question was incredulous about.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Surely a well made game removes the need for a respec? You have to assume a certain level of intelligence amongst players and if players still screw up so badly that they need a respec then surely they are not deserving of one?
Candide: The Best of All Possible RPGs.
Some of the people asking these questions keep conflating intelligence with experience or with prescience. A person of reasonably high intelligence but no experience playing chess is probably going to lose -- badly -- to a significantly experienced player of less overall intelligence. Even if they understand the tactical elements clearly, the strategic dimensions take a long time to master.
In most games, the strategic elements play out over the course of a relatively short game. In chess, not very long at all. In an RPG, your strategic choices may be playing out over the course of 15, 30, 60, or even 100+ hours. That's a lot of forethought to demand of people who may be playing an RPG for the first, second, or third time.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Taking Baldur's Gate as an example, the early game is easiest for a fighter whereas the late game tends to be easier for a mage. Wouldn't a respec here just make the game too easy? Woudn't you lose much of the RP aspect of an RPG?
The situation you described is generally one of the things I described as being terrible in RPGs: a requirement for the player to be awesome at strategic gameplay right out of the gate -- even when there are facts they could not possibly know that could contribute to his/her strategy. It's a combination of two bad things:
1) 2nd Ed. AD&D has terrible class balance across various level ranges. Low-level wizards are hilariously fragile, especially in a game where protagonist down = game over. Didn't realize that? Welp, your character's dead lol!!!
2) Unknown to the player (how could they?), he or she will be gaining Xzar.almost immediately on his/her adventure, meaning that as far as a well-balanced party goes, the player does not need to be a wizard.
This setup is not a "challenge", it's a gut-punch for a) players who don't understand how weak low-level wizards are and b) everyone who doesn't already know that they will be getting access to Xzar.
If 2nd Ed. kept its limited character customization but had good class balance, respecs probably wouldn't be necessary. Still, it's extremely easy for players to miss that Int is connected to max spell level. By the time you realize that, you're probably 20+ hours in. Congrats!
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
I'm trying to convince my girlfriend we should go backpacking in Utah for our upcoming vacation but she's convinced the state is a boring and full of salty lakes and mormons. Do you have any pictures of your recent trip I could show her?
Just do a GIS for "zion virgin river".
Also don't have her watch 127 Hours.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
Do you think expansion packs/dlcs are better opportunities to give players a more hardcore and less forgiving challenge than doing so in core game? I've noticed FNV's dlcs, particularly Dead Money, are significantly more challenging than the core game.
Yes, though it's harder to balance because the level range can be very wide.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
How successful have you been at convincing your boss that people can get through character generation?
It hasn't come up recently (i.e., in years). I can't remember the last time a publisher talked to us about making a player party-based game.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
How can you say that "realistic chars are less popular"? Lots of people have indicated that realistic characters like Hanlon and Arcade, and Boone, Veronica, Joshua Graham, etc are their favorites because they act like real people in the Mojave.
I appreciate that, but I think they are in the minority. In particular, a large number of people were clearly disappointed by Joshua Graham's portrayal.
JESawyer 19 Aug 11
What's with your hostility toward sick guitar licks in games?!?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oskw8aGIFk0
JESawyer 21 Aug 11
Would you at least tell me if I'll get sued if I write a fan fic and sell it.
I have no idea. I wouldn't even attempt to give legal advice. Sorry.
JESawyer 21 Aug 11
So unless Lonesome Road provides an explanation. We've been told that'll be the last dlc and youve mentioned before that fallout 4 has not begun any sort of progress. I dont find any reason for you not to tell us whats going in Baja California.
With no exceptions I can think of, I don't think I should expand upon "lore" that isn't stated explicitly stated in game.
JESawyer 21 Aug 11
Are you a master of C++?
Not at all. I can't program and I'm not even good at scripting.
JESawyer 21 Aug 11
Mr. Sawyer, I understand you can't talk about it, but is there any POSSIBILITY that we will get the new Power Armor in Lonesome Road?
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JESawyer 21 Aug 11
Who is the man that appears on the $20 NCR bill?
Seth, from Shady Sands in Fallout. Under his portrait it reads, "First Ranger Seth".
JESawyer 21 Aug 11
I'm sorry if I sound like an idiot, but what is "respec" and why is it important?
Respec = re-specification. It means allowing the player to take the points he or she has allocated to his or her character and essentially rebuild their skills/abilities/perks.
F3 and F:NV already allow this to a very limited extent near the beginning of the game. I'm proposing that players be allowed to do it later in RPGs, but with a cost (e.g. one character level or a percentage of XP).
I think it's important to allow respecs because I have personally seen a lot of reasonably intelligent but inexperienced players make a lot of basic errors in building their characters. They wind up with characters that are, if not unplayable, not fun for them to play because they didn't understand some aspect of the rules.
JESawyer 21 Aug 11
If you had complete creative freedom to create an RPG with a moderate budget, what kind of game would it be? Let's assume it was destined a $20 downloadable title and projected to turn a satisfactory profit at 300K copies sold.
Darklands 2, basically. I know I should probably give an answer that's the RPG equivalent of Flower or something equally lofty, but no -- with that budget/target, I'd pretty much just want to make a low-magic mythic history RPG in late Medieval/early modern Europe. Top down/iso and either real-time with pause or turn-based.
Obsidian has two lead designers with history degrees focused on Medieval or early modern Europe (myself and Nathaniel Chapman) and Jorge "Oscuro" Salgado has an MA in history as well.
JESawyer 21 Aug 11
Why do you think that there's been so few western RPG's with tactical combat since the IE games? DA:O had very repetitive encounter design. SoZ didn't really have a good engine or UI for it.
This will probably sound really bad, but I don't think most RPG designers actually think about gameplay -- especially not core gameplay. I think this is due to a few problems: first, some gamers (and even some game devs) view gameplay as a chore. They are quite vocal about wanting to pursue the story and characters more as a choose-your-own adventure novel than as an integral part of a role-playing game. Because of this, designers often focus on the creative aspects of RPGs to a fault -- essentially letting the core gameplay elements fall by the wayside. The result is, unsurprisingly, worse gameplay that even more players are loathe to engage.
JESawyer 21 Aug 11
With F:NV, do you feel that all the work you do to make it a deep RPG goes to waste at times? I've seen a lot of non-hardcore F:NV players treat F:NV more like a shooter; ignoring things like plotlines and instead massacre towns and go for good weapons.
I say it's their game; they can choose to engage the things we put in it or not. I can only do my best to help make dialogue enjoyable, or to make characters and factions interesting. I tried my best to avoid ever forcing players to sit through things they don't want to experience. Ultimately I can't make the player *want* to like something.
JESawyer 21 Aug 11
Well, we've seen how the internet has reacted to your remarks. What about other devs? Are you getting pats on the back or is Josh suddenly sitting alone in the cafeteria?
It's hard to say because I'm still in Europe.
JESawyer 21 Aug 11
I noticed you wrote and performed a few songs for the soundtrack. What instrument do you play?
I actually don't play any instruments (unless you count the dulcitar I just started to learn). The guitar parts for the Lonesome Drifter's songs were performed by Nathaniel Chapman and James Melilli.
JESawyer responded to ohyesitsthecopz 22 Aug 11
is This Machine considered a unique Hunting rifle?
It's considered a unique Battle Rifle.
JESawyer 22 Aug 11
How did you some to end up singing for the Lonesome Drifter? Have you always been interested in singing or was it something that arose as you wrote the songs?
I've been singing since I was very young. My father is a guitarist and singer and has been doing it for as long as I can remember. As far as me singing the songs for the Lonesome Drifter, it mostly occurred because we didn't know what to have him do once he went to the Tops. Since few people ever complete Talent Pool, much less go back to actually listed to the Lonesome Drifter, it didn't seem too risky to lightly re-write some folk songs and record them in Scott Lawlor's (our audio director) studio at Obsidian.
JESawyer 22 Aug 11
Have you played Divinity II? The developers put a lot of emphasis on "respecing" as a way to fix mistakes you made early on with an ever increasing cost in XP. The system does work and is helpful even to veteran players without clairvoyance.
I have not played Divinity II, but thanks for letting me know that it has respec options
JESawyer 24 Aug 11
Why were there so many ammo types in FNV? .223 and .38 were only barely different, 9mm+P only starts appearing long after you've got better guns, etc. They're pointless. Also, why is bulk 5.56 better than normal? Military-grade? Artyom must be so jealous!
Considering that none of the alternate ammo types are just lying around in the environment (99% of them either must be crafted or bought in stores), it's hardly a burden to the player that they exist. They're present to give options for players who want to use them.
9mm+P starts appearing pretty early in the game and retains its usefulness if you use the 9mm SMG and/or the unique variant. .223 and .38 Special are cheaper than 5.56mm and cause less wear on the firearm. There is no "bulk" 5.56mm, but there is 5.56mm Surplus. MilSurp ammunition varies a great deal, but in my own personal experience it is often loaded fairly "hot" (for MG use, not rifle use) and burns dirty, thus the increased DAM and increased CND wear on the weapon.
JESawyer 24 Aug 11
Was the decision to use the PGM Hecate II as the basis for New Vegas' Anti-Materiel rifle influenced in any way by the VB character Hecate?
No, sorry.
JESawyer 24 Aug 11
Deus ex HR is brilliant fun and well written. New Vegas just doesn't compare.
cool
JESawyer responded to ohyesitsthecopz 24 Aug 11
what is the Cowboy repeaters real world inspiration.
The Winchester Model 1892, though only loosely.
JESawyer 24 Aug 11
Speaking of This Machine, why was the generic Battle Rifle never implemented into the game?
All copies were trapped in Mojave Outpost customs.
JESawyer 24 Aug 11
So, how do you like Europe ?
EU: I am with you on €1 coins. €2 and 2 cent coins: completely unnecessary.
JESawyer 24 Aug 11
This may seem foolish to ask, but don't most players complete all possible quests on a FNV playthrough (bearing in mind their faction allegiances)? Every time I play the game I explore every location and do every quest I can - It seems strange not to.
Based on observation, I would say that of the players who do finish F:NV, most do not come anywhere near completing every quest available to them.
JESawyer 24 Aug 11
You regularly cite the dice-aiming for FPS/RPG hybrids as a sticking point going as far back as Deus Ex. But games like Call of Duty and STALKER have the same modular spread cones for accuracy and nobody seems to mind. What's the difference?
STALKER's are large and feel pretty terrible until the weapons get upgraded. CoD's are small and use progressive recoil, which feels much different than generic "spread". That's the difference. In many "shooty" RPGs, you start the game with terrible weapons and you're terrible at using them. The designers give the player weapons that are inherently bad, then the bad condition stat of the weapon and the character's low skill make shot placement hilariously random.
JESawyer 24 Aug 11
As a STALKER veteran, I can honestly say that the weapons in STALKER aren't nearly as bad as you make them out to be. The problem is less with weapon accuracy (it's decent), it's more the fault of hilarious damage resistance of enemies.
The stock accuracy of most of the weapons is pretty bad. Seriously.
JESawyer 24 Aug 11
How, logically, does the Ranger Combat Armor provide more DT than, say, regular old Combat Armor. The RCA's got a thick-looking chestpiece, and plating on the wrists, but apart from that it's all coat and jeans. Is there plating under the clothes... ?????
CoolGuyTech.
JESawyer 24 Aug 11
I think you should seriously answer the Ranger Combat Armor question. I know alot of it is just game balance, but some of us players are intimately concerned with the believability of equipment properties/distribution. Without justification gear sucks....
I am not going to seriously answer the Ranger Combat Armor question because there is no serious answer to give.
JESawyer 24 Aug 11
Do you believe in karma?
Formspring question of the day
Only for killing Feral Ghouls and Fiends.
JESawyer 24 Aug 11
Josh, scope your AK in Stalker. Seriously.
"The *stock accuracy* of *most of the weapons* is pretty bad."
JESawyer 25 Aug 11
You know (some) german. Have you ever played Gothic/Risen/Nehrim/Something else in their native language?
It's surprisingly difficult to get some of these games in German. I tried to get Drakensang in German and eventually gave up.
JESawyer 25 Aug 11
So is Ranger Ghost an Albino or just really Pale?
I believe JR intended her to be an albino.
JESawyer 25 Aug 11
I never had problems with stock accuracy. Are you talking about SHOC or CS or COP?
I only played SHOC and COP (mostly COP). COP seemed particularly bad.
JESawyer 25 Aug 11
Then how did people play Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl before they introduced the upgrade system in Clear Sky? Turn your automatic fire off buddy. Use 1-shot or 3-shot bursts. If anything COD is the one making a mockery of FPS. At least Stalker tries.
I don't use weapons on automatic in STALKER games.
JESawyer 25 Aug 11
Hypothetical situation: game releases a number of DLC's, and the last DLC is released at the same time as an item pack containing items that could have easily been included in the DLC, but wasn't for the sake of profit. Ethical, in your view, or not?
If you're talking about the weapons in GRA, they would not have been included in LR. GRA contains over two dozen weapons, plus new ammo subtypes, plus new challenges and achievements. The content in GRA was always developed as part of a stand-alone DLC. They took separate development resources and separate testing resources.
JESawyer 25 Aug 11
Were you involved in the development of Gun Runners' Arsenal?
Yes, I was the project director.
JESawyer 25 Aug 11
Dude, the Bozar! I love you, bro!
--,--'-@
JESawyer 25 Aug 11
About the GRA: If new ammo subtypes are being added to existing ammo types - say, 40mm grenades and their incendiary variants - would that conflict with weapons added through mods which use the current 40mm grenade ammo list? What about the DLC weapons?
Okay, here's the deal: initially all of the new ammo subtypes were added to their respective lists via script. Unfortunately, we found a load order bug that would cause indefinite hangs if a weapon were hotkeyed with an ammo subtype from GRA -- basically it was a dumb side case but it was real and serious and bad, so we had to add the new ammo subtypes directly to the ammo lists in GRA. That is, the GRA ammo lists *overwrite* the stock ammo lists. Not ideal, but there you go.
JESawyer 25 Aug 11
Gun Runners' Arsenal sounds great, but please tell me you put some emphasis on Energy Weapons. They're in bad shape compared to guns.
There are some doozies in there.
JESawyer responded to TraderRager 25 Aug 11
Are the weapons in GRA "cheat" items that are instantly given to the courier, or are they just weapons that are added to the gun runners store?
They are added to vendor lists. You still have to purchase them. Some are cheap, others are among the most expensive items you can buy.
JESawyer 25 Aug 11
What is your secret weapon?
Formspring question of the day
It was the Bozar but now you spoiled it.
JESawyer 25 Aug 11
I know your not sinking to EA'snickel and diming for clothing and weapon packs that cost a few bucks each but still not a road I want Obsidian to go down. One day just like Mass Efect 2 you'll charge $3 for a few diff clothing options.
I specifically asked to make GRA because I wanted to show players, publishers, and developers that you could make a reasonably-priced weapon pack that added more than two retextures.
Well, that and because I wanted to add some more weapons and ammo types.
In any case, I feel that players will get a very good value for GRA. There's a lot of cool stuff in it.
JESawyer 25 Aug 11
courier's stash is dumb thx that is all
oh word?
JESawyer 26 Aug 11
So I'm guessing that one screenshot means some of the old ammo types might be more common after this? The alternative interpretation would be more ways to waste a limited ammo type.
???
JESawyer 26 Aug 11
Is Zion Canyon considered part of the Mojave Wasteland?
No. The Mojave Wasteland pretty much excludes all DLC areas.
JESawyer 26 Aug 11
I think it's worth noting that The Witcher 2's patch 2.0 offers an update that adds substantially more stuff than GRA for free. Worth reflecting on.
Great.
JESawyer 26 Aug 11
Deus Ex: HR is everything Deus Ex fans wanted. You could learn something from them
I think a lot of developers could learn something from them.
JESawyer 26 Aug 11
How did the decision to let the four DLCs have connection and a story told across them come about and would you do another series of connected DLC for New Vegas if given the chance? How does working on the smaller scale of DLC compare to a full game?
That's a better question for Avellone as he had the "master plan" for the over-arching story.
JESawyer responded to Keihzaru 28 Aug 11
GRA question, are there gonna be new Unarmed weapons? If so, could you name one?
Yes. There will be new weapons for every skill category. All of the new items are available at merchants *only*. The weapons are a mix of the following:
* Unique versions of core weapons (e.g. the Nuka-Breaker is essentially a unique Rebar Club and the Bozar is a unique Light Machine Gun).
* Brand new weapons that have no current base equivalent in the game. Many of these are created with recipes.
* "GRA" versions of core game weapons that previously had no mods. E.g. if in the core game a weapon (for example, fictional weapon Super Laser) had no mods, you may see that merchant has something like Super Laser (GRA). The (GRA) signifies that it can be altered by mods with the same weapon name and (GRA) suffix -- e.g. Super Laser Focus Optics (GRA). The (GRA) mods will not work with weapons of the same name from the core game. Sorry, just a limitation of how we had to structure the data due to potential .esm/.esp conflicts.
* Non-unique versions of unique core game weapons that had no base version.
JESawyer responded to tehgary 28 Aug 11
You mentioned before that anything you create is owned by other parties, so you know not to get attached to things you're writing. Did you have that attitude when you started out as a creative chap at Black Isle, or was it learned over time?
It was learned over time.
JESawyer 28 Aug 11
I think your detached aloofness regarding your work could potentially serve as an obstacle to good game design. I am inclined to believe that passionate creativity plays just as large a role in good design as calculated empirical observation/testing.
It is not an obstacle.
JESawyer 28 Aug 11
Jason Bergman confirmed that there were 27 new weapons in the GRA pack, does that include the already existing weapons that now just have GRA in the title to allow for modding? or are the 27 all completely new?
That figure is all-inclusive: some unique, some completely new, some mod-able GRA versions, and some non-unique versions of unique core game weapons.
JESawyer 28 Aug 11
Aren't equivalents of most items in GRA already available as mods?
I'm sure some are, but I doubt most are.
JESawyer 28 Aug 11
Why is the GRA pack being added and not put it in with the stock game? Time constraints or for profit?
Because it took more than a small bit of time to develop and test.
JESawyer 28 Aug 11
Can you explain what you mean by "Non-unique versions of unique core game weapons that had no base version." ? Like a generic "This Machine" ?
Like that, yes.
JESawyer responded to kyrt 28 Aug 11
I was wondering what type of challenges will be given in Gun Runners Arsenal for Fallout New Vegas. Can you shed any light on what type of challenges will be given? Are they going to be fetch challenges, kill challenges, find challenges, or what?
They are combat challenges. The one star (*) challenges are quite easy to pull off. The two star (**) challenges are moderately difficult but nothing too crazy. The three star (***) challenges are generally quite demanding.
JESawyer 28 Aug 11
Isn't the Bozar supposed to be a sniper rifle, not a LMG? It was only a machine gun in Fallout 2 due to a glitch.
People enjoyed the Bozar because what it actually was in game (a cool-looking, pretty accurate automatic weapon firing a boatload of .223) was great.
JESawyer 29 Aug 11
why did you scrapped the damage resistance system? bringing back the DT was a great idea but removing the DR at the same time wasn't
DR has limited scalability (100 points -- or in the case of F3, 85 points). It produces odd effects like shielding you from ten bullets' worth of damage from an explosion but from literally no damage from a low-damage bullet.
Were DR to be used with DT (which some modders have done), I think it should be used in low values (e.g. never higher than 25%, max) as a way to help reduce damage from explosions and other ultra-high DAM attacks while keeping DT the dominant value for reducing DAM on standard attacks.
I zeroed out DR values on armor because we were switching systems entirely and I wanted to limit the number of balancing factors in armor development. For modders, I would suggest establishing a rule for how DR scales with DT and follow that so you're still ultimately balancing one level of protective power. E.g. 1 point of DR for 1 point of DT, or 1.5 points of DR for each point of DT over 5.
JESawyer responded to ohyesitsthecopz 29 Aug 11
it is stated that there are 27 new weapons added with GRA. does that number include the GRA versions of guns already in the vanilla game?
Yes, it's all-inclusive.
JESawyer 29 Aug 11
Will the new ammo types from GRA be found in boxes or on corpses throughout the Mojave?
No, stores only (or crafted, in some cases).
JESawyer 29 Aug 11
Adam Jensen on GRA: I never asked for this
Unlike Adam Jensen, you have a choice!
JESawyer 30 Aug 11
Are any of the weaponm mods in GRA available for the vanilla weapons in the Mojave?
No, only the GRA versions introduced in GRA. This is because many vanilla weapons were modified in patches, and attempting to override them with mods in another data file would cause potential load order conflicts.
JESawyer 30 Aug 11
Do you think Skyrim or Deus Ex will be RPG of the year? Which one for GOTY?
I haven't played Skyrim, but DX:HR is pretty darn good!
JESawyer 30 Aug 11
How do you play DX:HR? No kills, or murder?
I choke everyone out.
JESawyer 30 Aug 11
Would it be difficult for a modder to add the GRA weapons to the inventories of vanilla NPCs? (eg. Could we equip Fiends with Bozars?)
It should not be difficult. We chose not to do it specifically to make testing/memory control easier.
JESawyer responded to SerMcWorst 30 Aug 11
Was the decision to not add the new ammo and weapons from GRA to the loot tables based on possible conflicts or just a way to avoid changing the enemy/loot balance?
It was less about balance and more about mitigating the potential for bugs.
JESawyer 30 Aug 11
Are you paranoid about bugs now?
Paranoia implies an unfounded concern.
JESawyer 30 Aug 11
joshua I need a REAL man to show me his game design. will u make me feel like a woman??
@__@
JESawyer responded to xDesertxRangerx 30 Aug 11
Dumb question: Have you pre-ordered Skyrim yet?
I don't pre-order games.
JESawyer 31 Aug 11
Don't you think that after all the bug problems in Fallout New Vegas in the beginning, and all the patches that were needed to solve those bugs, and then after the delay of Honest Hearts and now the delay of LR, that you owe it to us to make a DLC free?
No.
JESawyer 31 Aug 11
If you could release GRA for free, would you?
Are you asking if I would release GRA for free if somehow everyone who contributed time to developing, testing, and distributing it were compensated, or are you asking if I would release GRA for free and flush all the resources required to make it down the toilet? Please clarify.
JESawyer 31 Aug 11
Is it possible for a company like Bethesda Softworks to be working on multiple giant projects? Let's look at a hypothetical situation. Is it possible that they are optimizing Skyrim AND in design/preproduction on Fallout 4? Thanks for playing along...
Other than working on Skyrim, I have no idea what Bethesda's internal team is actively developing.
JESawyer 31 Aug 11
Why is it, do you think, that game development is looked at differently than movie production? With games it seems like there's an expectation of altruism that doesn't appear to exist in other mediums. We don't expect movie studios to give us free stuff.
I think it's possibly because some studios release free stuff, so gamers have an expectation that potentially anything could be free stuff.
JESawyer 31 Aug 11
Before the age of 21, how many is TOO many people to have slept with or had sexual contact with?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8SnLwU4ypY
JESawyer 31 Aug 11
You said you don't pre order games...Do you receive games for free, from other companys? Like a 'gift'? Or you buy your own games
I buy my own games.
JESawyer 31 Aug 11
Have you seen the Nuka Break series on Youtube? If not, I strongly suggest it!
yah
JESawyer 31 Aug 11
Man, playing DXHR sure does make you think about how XP rewards incentivize player choice. The rewards associated with HACK and CHOKE are many times better than those associated with any other path. How do you feel about this as a design decision?
I am ambivalent about it. I understand the idea of rewarding more XP for something that is more demanding, but it's also associated with an opt-in play style. I like it more for things that don't really have a strong effect on gameplay (e.g. achievements or player feedback) than for a game currency like XP.
In games like Hitman: Blood Money, your available money isn't really THAT high impact, so the rewards of getting Silent Assassin over any of the wholesale slaughter ratings or gimmick ones (e.g. Piano Man, The Russian Hare) aren't that big of a deal.
JESawyer 31 Aug 11
Lots of GRA questions flying around, sorry if this one's already been asked: How are the new weapons going to be acquired? Are they just going to show up in merchant's store lists? Will there be a quest that opens up a giant stockpile? Something else?
When you install GRA, a pop-up appears (just like the other DLCs) that tells you that the increasing conflict in the Mojave has caused weapon manufacturers to import increasing amounts of weapons (and that you should go check them out). If you qualify for any of the ammo or weapon recipes, you will be able to make them immediately. If you want to buy any of the new ammo, weapons, or mods, you have to go to weapon merchants who sell them -- most notably, the Gun Runners.
JESawyer 31 Aug 11
Oh god all my new vegas saves were wiped by a computer repair store and Lonesome road comes out in 20 days but GRA would be awesome to play through from the begining with. WHAT DO I DO?
Play DX:HR.
JESawyer 31 Aug 11
What's your favorite aspect of the new DX other than the recapturing of what made the originaklgreat that IW slipped up on despite many of the same elements.
Solid core gameplay, excellent level design.
JESawyer 1 Sep 11
Will the weapons in GRA make combat more fun, easier, harder, etc.? I'm really curious to know how much the weapons will change gameplay.
Some of the weapons and ammo types are "just" good items that offer an alternative to their base counterparts. With some of the ammo subtypes and new weapons I tried to offer items that would alter the way the player went about things. I think the MFC Clusters do this pretty well. They're essentially a clump of wired-up Microfusion Cells wrapped in rubber and rigged to explode like tiny plasma mines. But you throw the whole bunch overhand, like a bundle of grenades, and they bounce a LOT. They don't have the individual punch of a plasma mine, but they can cover a large area very quickly. You can also angle them off of walls or around corners really well due to how they bounce. They're a lot of fun to use.
JESawyer 1 Sep 11
Will the new weapons in GRA be modified by corresponding perks? E.g. as the Bozar is classified as a 5.56mm LMG, will it benefit from the Grunt perk?
Yes, when the data allows it. In that specific case, Grunt will not apply to the Bozar because Grunt is part of Honest Hearts. Our DLC .esms can't reference each other, unfortunately.
JESawyer 1 Sep 11
Can the Curios and Relics Achievement be unlocked with the uniques already in-game?
Yes, but only uniques you find in the core game (and GRA, of course). So, for example, Maria can contribute to Curios and Relics, but A Light Shining In Darkness cannot. The Gobi Campaign Scout Rifle can contribute to Curios and Relics, but Christine's COS Silencer Rifle cannot.
JESawyer 1 Sep 11
How do you get companions in FNV to equip a weapon you give them? I gave Boone a anti-material rifle to use, but he still uses the weaker hunting rifle.
If it is not a companion's default weapon, he or she needs to have ammo for that weapon or they will not equip it.
JESawyer 1 Sep 11
Do your friends every ask you about games you're developing?
Not really.
JESawyer 1 Sep 11
Why isn't rock one of the weapons? Rofl srsly rock fight. Add that to the Wasteland Arsenal dlc.
hmm yes i c
JESawyer 1 Sep 11
Have you got some images or renders of GRA weapons?
yeah
JESawyer 1 Sep 11
To add onto the question about Grunt affecting the Bozar, would Cowboy be able to properly affect GRA weaponry since Cowboy IS in the base game? And if you don't mind me asking, any chance we'll see a unique Brush Gun or new mods for the Brush gun?
To the first question, yes. To the second ques http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OntwwcBVe6o
JESawyer 1 Sep 11
Is the GRA a filler of Lonesome Road because it was delayed?
No. GRA was developed completely independently of the other DLCs and wasn't a response to anything in particular.
JESawyer 1 Sep 11
You can't hide from me, ropekid! I want to know why the Merc Outfits are terrible compared to the Wastelander Outfits. How can a hoodie, sweatpants, and galoshes provide more protection, weigh less, & give better bonuses than the Merc Adventurer outfit?
Mercenaries are cooler than Wastelanders sorry.
JESawyer 1 Sep 11
If devs like the Witcher team can give bonus free content why doesn't Obsidian. You guys don't seem to appreciate fans. Fixing bugs which shouldn't of been in there in the first place is the only "gift."
I have no idea how much money The Witcher 2's dev team and publisher put into creating the content they distributed (nor how much it cost to distribute). I do know how much (more or less) it cost us (and Bethesda) for GRA, and it doesn't make financial sense for us to release it for free.
JESawyer responded to hufdvh 1 Sep 11
Will there be unique energy weapons for the GRA? Perhaps a unique gatling laser? Or will the weapons sold be the Gunrunners usual stock of guns, germs and steel... I mean guns, unarmed, melee, and explosives?
Yes, there will be unique Energy Weapons. One has already been mentioned on BethBlog: The Smitty Special (unique Plasma Caster).
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
As a real life firearms enthusiast, do you sometimes find a tendency to design games to be too gun porn-y? I've seen some confusion on forums about the differences between bolt/lever guns and what guns use .44 Special and .223.
.44 Special and .223 are marginal ammo subtypes, so I'm not really too concerned about some folks not "getting" it. Personally, I don't think it's asking too much for players to distinguish between bolt- and lever-action rifles. Dungeons & Dragons throws an array of Olde Tyme weapon types at players that makes the Landeszeughaus armory in Graz pale in comparison.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
Is the .esm referencing each other problem a result of engine issues, or is it intentional because you can't count on a person with GRA having Honest Hearts or vice versa.
When we load .esms in GECK, we can only load FalloutNV.esm and one other .esm. So, functionally, we cannot load more than one DLC concurrently in the editor. If a DLC isn't loaded in the editor, none of its forms are visible. If we make an entry in a script referencing content in another .esm (that isn't loaded), the script won't compile.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
Your distribution cost argument for DLC is ridiculous. Passing over the whole point of digital. Hell free DLC usually makes a dev team look good. There's people who make 30-50 better designed/functioning weapons than you guys and have it on Nixus free.
Digital distribution costs much less than physical distribution, but it certainly isn't free (especially across three platforms). Distribution is also only part of the cost of creating and releasing the product on those platforms.
And yes, there are many very nice weapon packs on the Fallout: New Vegas Nexus website -- the Nexus being a site with hosting/bandwidth operating costs that are covered by advertisements and premium memberships.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
Have you been dropping hints to GRA before it was announced? It seems that way with some of the Q&A you've done on this site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BKV9qB0C3M
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
Wait wait wait wait wait wait waaaaaaaaaaaaaait. Loading multiple .esms is a simple change in the GECK ini. Are you seriously telling me Obsidian didn't know that? Surely there's more?
That's one element of it, but more importantly, I believe that setting is in place by default because load orders are different on the various platforms (PC vs. each console). We can always be sure that the main FalloutNV.esm will load first, but after that, how various .esps and other .esms load in varies (and may in fact vary from load to load). The engine can do some bad things on different platforms if it tries to reference things before they are loaded (including crashing or hanging in an infinite load). If an individual .esm only references things in itself and in the base FalloutNV.esm, there *~ shouldn't be ~* any potential for load order conflict.
So while changing the ability of the GECK to load in multiple .esms concurrently is possible, it poses problems for us that are not necessarily issues for a PC user working on one platform.
EDIT: As a side note, I'm sure there are endusers who know many of the GECKs features better than we do. This engine and editor go back quite a while. Excepting Jorge "Oscuro" Salgado, none of us had worked with this technology before F:NV.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
Why is it that when I try to make my character I pick "Caucasian" and half the time when I click "Randomize" it shows a black guy?
obama
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
Why do some fallout new vegas clothing items still give DR even though you said you removed DR from clothing?
They shouldn't anymore. I'm pretty sure most, if not all, of those were fixed with one of the patches. If you open the FalloutNV.esm by itself, you may still see DR entries, but the Update.esp/.esm should have fixes for most, if not all, of them.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
Is the bozar in GRA a unique variant of the LMG or can you obtain multiple copies of it?
It's unique.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
Why havent you patched the rebreather? it gives 3 DR instead of DT.
Beats me. I didn't make it and I never received a bug for it.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
Aren't 5.56mm and .223 two ways of saying the same type of bullet? Then why the .223 is weaker than the 5.56mm?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.56×45mm_NATO#5.56_mm_NATO_versus_.223_Remington
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
How will Courier's Stash be implemented? Will we be given all items once the game, like we get them now. Or will we be able to select which items we want from a box or selection screen? It just seems like it might be a lot of weight to start with.
THE BURDEN OF CHOICE.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
I noticed a 40mm and 25mm plasma grenade sub-type. Will there be a plasma grenade launcher?
The 40mm and 25mm Plasma Grenades can be fired from any weapon capable of firing "ordinary" 40mm or 25mm grenades, respectively. So if you want to load Mercy up with 40mm Plasma Grenades, you can.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
Is 12GA dragons breath effective? Just curious because, the .50MG incendiary rounds didn't seem to be necessary because the fire damage never killed enemies for me. I found the rounds themselves put down enemies.
Yeah, though only if you "let" them be. The Dragon's Breath rounds fire buckshot, like regular rounds, but the buckshot does less damage and has a maximum (not very long) range. If the target is caught in the spread by any of the shot, it catches fire, and that is when the fun begins. If you continually pump round after round into a target, you're not letting the fire do its DoT. Dragon's Breath rounds work best if you pop around a corner and take one or two shots, then let the DoT work through the target's hit points while you stay in cover or deal with another target.
Also they're just really fun to use.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
Will weapons with 12 GA dragon's breath ammo be affected by Pyromaniac?
No. Pyromaniac affects weapons only, unfortunately. We can't distinguish based on ammo.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
Why doesn't the .50 MG have standard DT penetration like the 5mm round. Isn't that why they call it an anti-materiel round?
Its DT penetration is the fact that it does over 100 points of damage.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
What's with the lack of bows or self placed traps and other assortments of weapons. The lack of the simplest yet deadly weaponry and tools in both the Mojave and BGS's 3 is astounding yet I can find a plasma wep in a matter of minutes. Really?
Do you see a lot of people using bows today if they have access to firearms? Unless they are specifically bowhunters, it's pretty rare. The Mojave Wasteland has recovered from many of the material effects of the Great War. Even by the time of the original Fallout, many, many people had good firearms.
None of the Fallout games have been at "Road Warrior" level weaponry. The closest you get is Arroyo, but once you get the pipe rifle, there's no looking back.
JESawyer 2 Sep 11
How many questions in your backlog now?
999
JESawyer 3 Sep 11
Regarding the bows, you said there was none because nobody would use them if they had access to firearms. But then why does the Legion still use makeshift machetes, spears and hand axes?
My comment was directed at his incredulity at their absence, not that no one would ever use low tech weapons.
JESawyer 3 Sep 11
Have you been to Graz yourself, Josh? I've missed the armoury there, unfortunately. How does it compare with other weapon/armour collections?
Unfortunately, I have not been to Austria. My adviser in college spent a few years in Styria researching the history of witch-hunting in that region and had a beautiful poster of plate armor from the Landeszeughaus.
JESawyer 3 Sep 11
I was just wondering, are there are any new ammo subtypes for Energy Weapons in the GRA DLC?
Yes. There are new ammo subtypes for Guns, Energy Weapons, and Explosives.
JESawyer responded to Lizardsoul 3 Sep 11
Hi Sir, I don't know if this is the best place where to ask for bug fix, but can you do something for the lack of 1st person textures of some weapons like the Tesla Beaton and the Q-35 Matter modulator?
I believe the Tesla-Beaton Prototype's 1st person texture was fixed in one of the patches...
I'm not sure about the Q-35.
JESawyer 3 Sep 11
Could you name some more unique GRA weapons such as the name for the unique Chainsaw.
That picture is not of a unique Chainsaw.
JESawyer 3 Sep 11
What did you dream about last night?
My house in Wisconsin collapsing in a storm and imploding.
JESawyer 3 Sep 11
Why did you guys change the Winchester Plasma Rifle to Plasma Caster? Was it because of F3's PR to not repeat the name or because you didn't agree with the 'rifle' classification? I understand why you removed the Winchester but not why the rifle part.
Fallout 3 already had a Plasma Rifle. Additionally, it doesn't really look like a rifle, but it was mostly because of the existing name.
JESawyer 3 Sep 11
I dont really think bows are reasonable in the fallout world, but the asker had a point. Caesar's Legion excited me at first (as did the White Legs) because I liked the idea of a powerful low-tech faction. Unfortunately these groups are mostly gun users.
Sure, but to single out bows as the "no duh" thing that would definitely be there -- I just don't think it's that weird, I guess. Especially in an area with a paucity of wood.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
It's not a chainsaw? So it's another revolver? Odd to have a screenshot with the pc using a vanilla weapon.
It's not a unique Chainsaw.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
Maybe not "bows" per se - It does seem plausible, though, that in a post-apoc. wasteland there would be a (relative) scarcity of ammunition leading to the use of more primitive projectiles. Dirty tribals could more readily improvise "arrows" than bullets.
They could more easily improvise spears than either! That's what they had in Fallout 2 and one of the reasons we brought them into F:NV. Also, they fit the style of Caesar's Legion's "recruits" better. Though the primes and veterans use much better equipment, the recruits are the equivalent of pre-Marian reform hastati: multitudes of scrubs with the most basic gear they can find.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
Is the Survivalist Rifle considered a unique Service Rifle? I ask this because the ammunition is completly different.
Yes, the Survivalist's Rifle is considered a unique Service Rifle, just as FIDO is considered to be a unique K9000.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
I get it, it is a modded chainsaw! Is it not?
It is.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
Sorry dude the only NV faction who had believably primitive weapons were the Ghost People - why Dead Money rocked hard. Apocalypse = resource scarcity = limited guns/ammo = improvisation. The player encounters more CL primes w/ guns than recruits w/spears
Fallout: New Vegas takes place over 200 years after the apocalypse. In many of the previews, I referred to New Vegas as "post-post apocalypse". Even in the original Fallout, there were tons of people with guns. By the time you get to the Khans camp, you've already seen more guns than in the entire Mad Max series.
Fallout has never been a "resource scarcity" setting when it comes to weapons.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
why is there so many freaking invisible barriers. in Fallout 3 there was hardly ever any besides trying to get out of the capitol wasteland without the DLC. Its kind of a burdan and extremely annoying the avid Fallout Player such as mysef 500+ hours.
In the core F:NV game, we had a lot of sight line problems with large elevation gains overlooking things like cities where it looked very bad. We chose to use invisible barriers on the interior to prevent those bad sightlines. In retrospect, we should have allowed the bad sightlines and removed the invisible barriers.
Around the exterior of the map, our problems were twofold. First, we started the player very close to the edge of the map (Goodsprings). Second, despite the fact that our map follows natural boundaries, we did not clearly mark the edge of the world space on the player's Pip-Boy map. Instead, we used a large square to mark an imaginary boundary around the entire oddly shaped area. This not only caused frustration and confusion among players who were trying to press west near the beginning of the game, but made players reach the (erroneous) conclusion that were "only using half the map".
While it was faulty reasoning, the causes were easy to understand. We tried to address this in Honest Hearts by clearly marking the edge of the playable area on the player's Pip-Boy map, by allowing the player to reach the peak of almost every summit on the interior of the map, and by only using collision blockers when testers reported getting stuck while hopping down cliff faces.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
Why in the world do Mojave residents come up with food recipes that require risking one's life to get the ingredients? Radscorpion casserole? Deathclaw(!!!) omelets?
Wasteland Omelets are carried over from Fallout 2 (Rose, Jas' aunt, makes them in Modoc). Ruby continues in this proud, absurd tradition with Radscorpion Casserole.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
Do you have a second language? Any advice on what would be a useful second language?
I know enough German to navigate through Germany and have basic (bad) conversations, but anything else I've studied is just fragments. Spanish is very useful and also not a particularly difficult language to learn.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
Didn't mean to start some war about bows. And that was just one part of my coment. Any "technical" reason bows weren't in? Because of TES? Is that why?
It didn't have anything to do with TES, specifically. We weren't sure what assets or functionality were present to support bows, and adding a new animation stance is a pretty time-consuming undertaking. There seemed to be enough R&D required up-front that I didn't think it was worth pursuing.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
Who said anything about Mad Max? In Fallout who has guns? Factions that believably would use guns. Shady Sands? Nope. Blades? Sorry. Khans? Barely. Necropolis? Only the elite. The problem is that you gave guns to NV factions that wouldn't have/use them.
The Mad Max universe is a post-apocalyptic setting with a low number of firearms. Fallout has never had a low amount of firearms.
I have to say I think it's weird that you're lecturing me on what NV factions would or wouldn't have guns when I either created those factions or defined their current state since Fallout 2.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
Can you explain why the heck Veronica is dressed like a jawa?
The BoS is either hated or feared in a lot of areas. Because she's on her own, she's not going to walk around in scribe robes or something else that announces her faction affiliation. She needs to interact with regular folks without drawing attention or being particularly memorable. Of course, from a game design perspective, I wanted to put her in an outfit that no one else has so the player would investigate her.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
In HH it mentions a few times a gang of raiders with motorcycles called the 80s, were they cut from the dlc? Or just something you guys came up with to add a bit of lore to Utah?
They were something I originally developed for a Fallout tabletop game I ran. I just inserted them for a bit of lore.
JESawyer 4 Sep 11
In FNV at some point almost every automatic gun had a huge spread. But when patch 1.3.0.452 released in april or something it corrected this for most guns except the automatic rifle which remained at 2.5, why was this never fixed? any chance it will be?
The Automatic Rifle is in DLC, and therefore, effectively cannot be patched.
JESawyer 5 Sep 11
Since NV is roughly 200 years after the apocalypse. How come the Gun Runners haven't designed any new guns based on the needs of wastlelanders? Considering pre-war guns were built for human conflict, not deathclaws and other monsters.
I thought about that, but I believe that guns like the Hunting Revolver/Ranger Sequoia, Brush Gun, and Anti-Materiel Rifle can already handle the biggest critters around. In the real world, modern loadings of .45-70 Gov't are only "required" for truly enormous bears and similarly grand creatures. .50 BMG (the round upon which our .50 MG is based) is for use against hardened targets, including vehicles. The transition from real-world targets like polar bears and armored cars to Super Mutants and BoS Paladins seems pretty natural to me.
JESawyer 5 Sep 11
I just wanted you to know, La Longue Carabine is the most beautiful gun I've ever seen in a video game.
Thanks, though all credit belongs to Paul Fish, who did the modeling and texturing. The offset scope was based on one we saw in a Clint Eastwood film (not the Sharps in Josey Wales -- another one I can't remember right now).
JESawyer 5 Sep 11
Did you ever think of keeping the Gun Nut perk so you could throw in a bit of gun enthusiast humor between players and Isaac? Perhaps, a dialogue option debating .45 ACP versus 10mm Auto? I don't know, I've always found enthusiast debates entertaining.
The Guns skill could be used to trigger something like that, or perks like Grunt, Cowboy, or even Hand Loader.
JESawyer responded to theflyingbuddha 5 Sep 11
Is the DLC model of continuing content better for studios in your opinion? I know some lament the bygone days of the expansion pack but I'd imagine that's a much more financially taxing model with longer dev times and whatnot. Is this accurate? (Thanks!)
I don't know if it's better for studios, but it's better for publishers. The RoI for a DLC of 3-6 hours of content at $10 a unit, retail, is pretty good -- especially since there's usually no cost of goods or transportation.
DLCs can also be developed, tested, and released more quickly than expansions. One of the main reasons to produce short duration, low price point DLCs is to keep "discs in trays" (i.e., not going back to Gamestop). The people who bought the game keep the game, the people who didn't pick up the game initially may consider buying it with the DLC.
If the length of time between release and the first DLC content is six months, that "buoyancy" goes down sharply.
JESawyer 5 Sep 11
Apologies - didnt intend to lecture. I believe that the item distribution in the gameworld should uncompromisingly follow the characterization of various factions to the exclusion of all other concerns. (Eg. Caesar explicitly states his disdain for tech.)
I understand your point, but factions are made of up human beings, and human beings make compromises -- or are inconsistent in their behavior. While Caesar lectures you on his disdain for tech, he's sitting ten feet away from a personal Auto-Doc. He segregates women from the Legion (resulting in a heavy prejudice from his soldiers), but he has little problem with using a female Courier as a valuable agent.
JESawyer 5 Sep 11
Do you think Deus Ex 3's cover system is awesome for gameplay or does it "break" the game by allowing you to see stuff you shouldn't be able to see?
Yeah, that's the game. Creeping up to corners and peeking around them in third person is what the core gameplay mechanic is. Without that ability, stealth gameplay and cover shooting would feel like garbage.
JESawyer 5 Sep 11
I've noticed that Ulysses often speaks in clipped sentences, similar to Marcus. Was that intended as a character trait?
You'd have to ask Chris Avellone.
JESawyer 5 Sep 11
Will our companions be able to use the GRA weapons and ammo with their effects?
Yep.
JESawyer 5 Sep 11
What are your thoughts on rubber bullets or projectiles for pacifist roleplayers?
They are good. That's why we put bean bag shotgun rounds in the game.
JESawyer 5 Sep 11
"Stealth gameplay and cover shooting would feel like garbage" But it's more realistic and tactical.
Actually, it's anti-tactical because you're removing a enormous amount of information from the players, forcing them to essentially guess when it's safe to poke their heads out. Sometimes they get shot in the face, sometimes their stealth is ruined. When it happens, it's pure luck. The player didn't make a mistake, just guessed wrong. Why is that something to strive for?
JESawyer 5 Sep 11
That kind of stealth gameplay certainly didn't detract from Thief's gameplay.
Yes, because the entire model of stealth in Thief is completely different. The person asking the question wasn't asking for Thief's stealth, just to remove DX:HR's 3rd person view. Since DX:HR's stealth is based on sound and (more importantly) line of sight, not light levels, this would be catastrophically bad.
In Thief, their equivalent to being able to peer around corners was being able to observe from darkness. Most corners and approaches were darkened to allow players to move to a position from which they could observe guard patterns with effectively no fear of detection. Much like Deus Ex and Splinter Cell and various other games with good stealth mechanics, the guards follow extremely regular patrol patterns so players can patiently memorize them and either evade or stalk their way forward.
"Realistically" I doubt the residents of the City all love living in buildings that are so dark that you can navigate most hallways without being able to see a human being crouching 2' from you, and in which there are amazingly consistent shadow paths through which a talented thief can pass undetected, but these are understandable conventions for the type of gameplay the designers were trying to produce.
JESawyer 5 Sep 11
Don't forget that Thief also had corner leaning which served the same purpose as the third person cover mechanic
The majority of observation was typically done from darkness outside of cover lean situations. Several stealth games use corner lean, but (IIRC) it's almost always risk-free, so you're still hidden. I think it's a weird standard if sticking your head around the corner while being effectively invisible is fine but making third person observations around the corner is bad. Both are "unrealistic" conventions that the designers use to facilitate the obvious core mechanic of stealth gameplay: low-risk observation of AI behavior from a fixed position.
EDIT: This is a pretty good example of common Thief gameplay from the first level, Lord Bafford's Manor. I remember this part very well. A very bright area bordering a very dark area. You can stand straight up in the dark area and not be observed even though you're directly in the guard's line of sight and you would obviously be completely silhouetted by the light in the background. But that's the game's convention and it works just fine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt2RJPiUGHo#t=45s
JESawyer 5 Sep 11
So adding more ways to get caught didn't seem like a smart direction to go in unless we could do a better job solving more ways to feed that back to the player and give the player even more tools for hiding. -End-
Yep. Feedback is very important in stealth games. It's one of the reasons I really did not like the shift in light detection mechanics from Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory to Splinter Cell: Double Agent (or, to be quite honest, any stealth game where visibility/awareness is communicated to the player through a binary switch).
Things like the light gem in Thief or the light/sound meters in Chaos Theory provide you with a more graduated level of feedback about where you stand. Think of it this way: you can have a conventional speedometer, or you can have a light that goes off after you've exceeded the speed limit *and* a cop just hit you with a radar gun. The former gives you a sense of position relative to the boundary as well as a sense of acceleration toward and away from that boundary. The latter just tells you that you've screwed up.
Not to mention that in SCA, they used a green/red toggle for detection, making it literally unplayable for me.
JESawyer 6 Sep 11
I'm also a Thief fan (and ghost), and for me "the equivalent to being able to peer around corners" is just listening to the guards' movements. It rewards player skill and helps with the immersion, and it's more realistic than a magic floating camera.
What about the guards who aren't moving (of which there are several even in Lord Bafford's Manor)? Even if you know they're there, you don't know their facing unless you have some way to observe them.
JESawyer 6 Sep 11
Visibility is a total bs core mechanic. It seems as though the enemies in every game using it will have eagle eyes if you are within their vision cone. Like on DX:HR, I've been spotted while hiding in between crates with a very marginal gap between them.
I have not experienced that.
JESawyer 6 Sep 11
I just picked up Alpha Protocol a few days ago and I have to say I am really enjoying it. I was sad to hear you guys weren't planning on a sequel. Is this due to Sega owning the rights or that Obsidian would just rather not make another AP game?
I don't know, to be honest.
JESawyer 6 Sep 11
Yo, Mista Sawyer: Why were Romances scrapped?
Not enough time to do them well.
JESawyer 6 Sep 11
You know in Deus Ex:HR you can also hug/hide behind cover in 1st person if you choose to right?
Sure, if you want to effectively not use their stealth mechanics.
JESawyer 6 Sep 11
I'm just reading through your formspring here, and your responses to many questions seem to indicate that you are ready and willing to sacrifice realism/believability for the sake of (sometimes) marginal increases in gameplay quality. Why is this?
Because until I see gamers sincerely demanding that if they get winged in the gut with a bullet that they spend the next three hours bleeding out on the ground before permanently dying, they probably are too.
JESawyer 6 Sep 11
Will GRA increase how many mods vendors tend to stock? As it is, I've never bothered upgrading the hunting rifle as by the time all the mods become available for purchase, I've got 100 lockpick to grab the Gobi instead. Especially the scope not randoming.
Patch03 (not sure what it was called for the public) doubled the amount of mods at most vendors. GRA does add in more mods, but not more instances of mods from the core game.
JESawyer 6 Sep 11
I don't you think you understand what level of realism players want. Look at games like Battlefield Bad Company 2. Bullets drop down range, and certain calibers act differently based on real world counter parts. And damages are implemented with thisinmind
No, I think I get it pretty clearly: players want realism when it's enjoyable, and they don't want it when it isn't enjoyable. It's not too hard to figure out.
The game you're using as a model of verisimilitude also has regenerating health.
JESawyer 6 Sep 11
It has regenerating health depending on which mode you play. I don't know anyone who really wants genuine realism. I suppose those who play Arma, but that's a very small audience. But implementing some realism like BF BC 2 did, is not a bad thing.
If it makes the game more enjoyable, sure. I tried to maintain a loose level of realism with the relative weight and damage of various ammo calibers in F:NV. Many people know that "fifty cal" weapons use heavy ammo that wreaks havoc on anything smaller than a tank. .22s are light, small, and low damage, but still have the potential to be deadly. Semi-autos are faster than lever-actions, which are in turn faster than bolt-actions (cartridge lengths being roughly similar).
But in practical terms, you probably wouldn't bring a lever-action rifle to a military engagement for quite a few reasons. We stretch realism to allow for a wider spectrum of character types. By design, the guy with a Light Machine Gun is roughly as viable as the guy with a Brush Gun given appropriate circumstances.
I do draw the line at certain points, both to maintain a sense of realism and game balance. Many people have requested a .50MG machine gun, M2 style. I found it difficult even to balance the Automatic Rifle firing .308 rounds (in hindsight, it should have had less spread by default, but it was tuned prior to the general tuning of the other automatic weapons). I couldn't think of a great way to make an M2-style weapon be enjoyable *and* realistic without making it the obvious "no duh" high-end Gun.
That said, I tuned the .45 Auto weapons *up* to make them do more damage than their 10mm counterparts. In the real world, 10mm is (generally) a more powerful round than .45 Auto. We already had a high-capacity 10mm Pistol, so where did that leave the .45 Auto Pistol? If I were being "realistic", it would just be a worse weapon, all-around. I tuned the DAM and accuracy up, to match the legend of the M1911. It's perpetuating a myth, but even with its limited ammo capacity, the .45 Auto Pistol became a viable step up from the 10mm.
JESawyer 7 Sep 11
You've mentioned before that the only game you ever received a royalty check for was Icewind Dale 2. Have you gotten any for New Vegas yet? I would hope so, since NV is by all reports very successful and the company publishing it is financially solvent.
The only game I've ever received a bonus/royalty for is the original Icewind Dale.
JESawyer 7 Sep 11
You mentioned you couldn't think of a way to make an enjoyable M2 style weapon. I'm sure you thought of this, so what do you see wrong in it? A weapon like the minigun, only with a lower rate of fire and more damaging bullets.
The only other .50MG weapon does 110 points of damage per round. I would either have to drop the damage tremendously or make the rate of fire absurdly low to prevent it from being insanely powerful. As the Automatic Rifle shows, using inaccuracy as a tuning element does not produce an enjoyable weapon.
JESawyer 7 Sep 11
Why are you trying to appease fps-tards instead of RPG gamers? I'm sure you haven't forgotten next to the ability of roleplay Statistics trump all elements of player interaction and realism.
Wow, what fun!
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
I agree with you that fun gameplay is most important, more so than realism or number crunching with RPG stats. The thing is, Obsidian has shown time and time again that you guys pretty much fail at making fun and stable gameplay. Walk the walk, Sawyer.
F:NV is fun and unstable. DS3 is both fun and stable.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Would it have been at all possible to give the Marksman Carbine selective fire? That'd be cool.
Not without some significant engine/data modifications. Sorry.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
You trying to say D&D and Tolkien isn't fun? Why be an RPG dev at all then. Those who actually are RPG gamers do find it fun. Or are you trying to say Wasteland or Fallout 1 isn't fun either.
What does Tolkien have to do with game mechanics? I am "actually" an RPG gamer and have been playing tabletop and CRPGs for over 25 years.
Fallout is one of my all-time favorite games. Even so, its combat and advancement mechanics have a lot of systemic flaws that I've consistently criticized since I first played it back in the late 90s.
D&D is still a game that uses dice-based randomization as its primary resolution mechanic, but they've accepted a lot of the fundamental shortcomings of their previous editions and (for the most part) improved a lot of their systems.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Yes fun. Like D&D. Which all RPGs from Fallout to Diablo III are based off of.
Really? All RPGs? Fallout was originally based on GURPs, which is effectively nothing like D&D. Is Darklands based on D&D? Is The Magic Candle based on D&D?
Also, I don't know how you play D&D, but how I play D&D, the way I build my character and the tactical choices I make have much more impact than the character's raw stats.
2nd Edition AD&D, in particular, is a system in which a skilled player can take a statistically inferior character and do far more than an inexperienced player. Player skill can have an enormous impact on character/party efficacy, even in a tabletop environment.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Obsidian was almost an indie Interplay it seemed. Based on your opinions all you guys are is another mainstream studio like Bethesda or Blizzard not catering to RPG fans. If it was you creating Fallout 1 it would never exist in its RPG glory.
I wouldn't presume to say that I could create a game as revolutionary as Fallout, but it has always been my personal goal to advance the RPG genre. Whether we're making top-down games, first-person games, real-time games, or (hopefully, someday) turn-based games, the idea that we should continue doing something primarily because that's the way it's been done before is backwards-looking.
If it's a good mechanic that makes sense, we should continue using it. If it doesn't, we shouldn't. A lot of RPG "sensibilities" are rooted in tabletop mechanics that don't even make any sense when put into a computer environment where the player can save and reload at will.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
The level of player agency, along with the more plausible world, in New Vegas made the whole thing feel far more like an ‘RPG’ then Fallout 3. Looking forward to the next project you are involved with.
Thanks. Personally, I feel player agency is the most "RPG" thing to make sure our games support. I don't play D&D because I love rolling dice. I play D&D because I get to make my own character and decide how he or she interacts with the world. If I just wanted to roll dice, I'd play Warhammer 40k.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
I've had stomach aches that were more interesting experiences than F:NV's or DS3's gameplay.
Great.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Share a whiskey with me sometime?
I don't drink, sorry. Thanks, though.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Actually when I said "Share a whiskey with me sometime?" it was a reference to what Great Khans say when you have positive reputation with them. I don't drink either, just thought it would be funny.
o
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JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Fallout 3 had dungeon design but was fun. New Vegas's areas were plausible but kind of boring. Which angle do you feel is better?
I think New Vegas suffered from a lack of dungeon-like environments to explore. I'm glad we put a lot of effort into having a more-or-less believable wasteland layout, but I wish we had been able to put more time into secondary locations/dungeons.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
How can you think Reinhart is the best Dungeon Siege 3 character when geometry of annihilation makes him the easiest to play and puts all other abilities to shame?
because he's fantasy kenny rogers
JESawyer responded to psoliver 8 Sep 11
Out of interest why was Ranger Chauncey (the mutant one) cut? Same goes for Angel the mutant in Gomorrah
I'm not quite sure why Chauncey was cut. I was wondering that myself, to be honest.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Dont know if this has been asked before, but why dont you curtail RPG save-scumming by getting rid of player controlled saving in favor of replacing it with a traditional checkpoit/savepoint system? Is this bad from a design standpoint or something?
It's not inherently bad, but it does make a lot of gamers go Super Saiyan. Depending on the type of game you're making, checkpoints or save points can be an important element of how the design works.
A decent hybrid system I've seen is save points + shutdown save. One of the most reasonable arguments in favor of "save anywhere" is that people have real lives (some do, anyway) and sometimes they need to stop playing and go live that life. A shutdown save is a single save in its own slot that overwrites itself every time the player saves and deletes itself on load. If you save to the slot, it exits the game. There are still opportunities to save-scum, but it does make the process very arduous.
Another way to handle it is the way Demons' Souls does: players don't *have* save games. They *only* have a single shutdown save per character. This is an extremely unforgiving system, and combined with DS' healing mechanic it makes the game brutally difficult.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Couldn't the shutdown save bring up even worse issues than save-scumming, i.e. the power goes out while playing the game and you lose everything if you didn't get to save.
I'm not sure how Demons' Souls handles that, but in games that have save points + shutdown save (like some of the Castlevania games, IIRC), even if you lose your shutdown save, you still have your save point saves.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Can you tell us more about chauncey? if he was supossed to be included in the game.
He was a Super Mutant Ranger posted at Foxtrot, primarily because of its proximity to Jacobstown (much like the Ghoul Rangers are posted at Echo due to its proximity to Searchlight). He was supposed to wear a standard "flat rim" Ranger hat of normal size -- i.e. comically small on him.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Why do you respond to hostile questions? It seems like they're just out to try and provoke you.
They are, but along with their hostility is often a lot of faulty reasoning. When I talk about vocal minorities being irrational and hostile, I'm not talking about some mythical individuals I've conjured up to illustrate a point. A lot of them are right here on my Formspring every day.
People can disagree with me politely or rudely. I may answer them either way. If they're rude, readers are going to conflate their hostility with their position. That typically only helps me and hurts them.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Why even bother trying to prevent save-scumming at all? Just let players play the way they want, even if they want to reload saves constantly like an autist. I enjoy the convenience of being able to save anywhere in games.
If I'm not designing some level of challenge into the experience, I'm not designing a game. If players aren't interested in some level of challenge, they aren't actually interested in playing a game. Taken to the absurd extreme, we could say, "Why even make the player earn levels? Why not just let them set their stats?"
Save-scumming is a response to a bad design mechanic. Players aren't "bad" for using it, but designers *are* bad for designing mechanics that encourage it.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
I don't think you can really change save scumming. I do it for many different reasons. But usually I reload when I don't get the dialogue I wanted. Or occasionally, if I'm hacking a terminal or (rarely) forcing a lock.
Designers can remove the motivation to save-scum by designing better systems. F3 and F:NV shouldn't have had the Force Lock option, IMO. I think it would have been better to either a) allow the player to play the mini-game or b) expend a certain number of lockpicks (based on relative skill) to open the lock.
I also don't think jamming the lock closed on a failed lockpick attempt is necessary. The player loses a lockpick in the process. If lockpicks were a consumed resource during "auto-picks", there would be some felt loss to busting one.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
why not have one-shot consumables for hacking and lockpicking? For example an auto-hack device and a breeching charge. Would help in character diversity as you could skip lockpick and science while allowing you to get through a few skillchecks using them
They have those in DX:HR and while I understand the drive, I do think it undermines the player's investment in the hacking tree. One of the biggest issues I see is a lack of scaling (what's good for a L1 hack is good for a L5 hack). If those consumables stripped away levels instead, I think there would be more motivation to invest in hacking (though it's arguable that the way XP works in the game already encourages players to go hack-crazy).
That's why I suggested lockpicks as a consumed resource. As individual units, they may not have tremendous value, but if you want to auto-pick a Hard Lock with 75 Lockpick and it costs 10 Lockpicks, but with a 100 Lockpick it only costs 5, it becomes more of a decision for the player. Auto-picking an Easy lock with 100 Lockpick could only cost 1, making the player who made that investment feel that even in those circumstances, he or she is getting something for the points he or she spent.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
The Automatic Unlocking Device is only available in Deus Ex if you preordered, which you said you don't do. 
I played dev builds prior to release.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkBe80SajCg
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Save-scumming is more fun than playing the hacking minigame in New Vegas for the 1000th time. Isn't shoe-horned, repetitive minigames the bigger issue? Surely it wasn't technical limitations that spared us playing 'Mastermind' to open locks in older RPGs?
There is no instance gameplay to opening locks with a randomized check. There's also no reason why hacking could not have an optional resource-consumption bypass in the same way that locks could (in DX:HR, they are effectively all hacking, so AUDs always apply).
Some people never get tired of certain mini-games. Some people tire of them on occasion. Some people hate them outright. If you're not in the mood, accept the resource cost. If it takes your RPG skill into consideration, you're still making tactical/strategic choices at more frequent intervals.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Any minigames in Obsidian games you never tire of? Seems their inclusion in RPGs is linked to the "letting the core gameplay elements fall by the wayside" tendency you've mentioned.
I don't get tired of lockpicking in F:NV (or F3). Even for Very Hard locks, it doesn't take very long.
How is the inclusion of mini-games linked to "letting core gameplay elements fall by the wayside"? I don't see the connection.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
Is the powerpoint of your GDC talk all we're going to get, or is video still in the pipeline?
The video is available on the GDC Vault, but it is premium content.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
For one thing you're replacing core gameplay elements with an unrelated tower of hanoi. It's the same problem as QTEs where you're essentially saying you have so little faith in your stealth/exploration/skillset gameplay that you put in a sudoku instead.
I don't think any core gameplay being *replaced*. Excluding the strategic decision to put points into a skill, there's no gameplay, core or otherwise, to a randomized check. There are a few other ways to handle it:
* It's a flat check. No mini-game, just based off of what you invested into the skill. Still no additional gameplay, but it avoids the save-scum-encouraging randomness of a stand-alone die roll.
* There's a mini-game that may be altered/influenced by levels of difficulty and the character's skill. Obviously this adds gameplay, but people may not like the mini-game, the mini-game may be aesthetically odd/incongruent (e.g. Bioshock's hacking minigame or Mass Effect's "Simon says" mini-game), or the mini-game may not scale well/gets old fast. These are all totally valid criticisms/complaints about individual mini-games, but what's true of one mini-game is not necessarily inherently true about ALL mini-games. E.g. F3's lockpicking is pushing a bobby pin around to find a sweet spot to pick the lock and is significantly different in most ways from Bioshock's hacking mini-game.
* There's a flat check for an automatic bypass but if you're close to the check, you can also expend a limited resource to lower the check. This is the "burn 10 lockpicks with a 20 skill, burn 2 with 100 skill" idea. Personally, I like this because there's still an ongoing level of resource management and consideration the player goes through.
* There's a mini-game that can be opted-out of (automatic bypass) through the consumption of a limited resource that scales based on skill/difficulty disparity.
In a game with save/load anywhere, I would prefer *any* of these solutions to a randomized check.
JESawyer 8 Sep 11
A minigame could theoretically scale well, never get old, and feel aesthetically accurate. On a related note, Schroedinger's cat may theoretically still be alive.
I think F3's lockpicking scaled well, it never got old for me, and I think it feels aesthetically appropriate. It's also short, which I think is very important.
That said, I'd be hard-pressed to think of a game mechanic in any game of any genre that really "never got old".
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
Have you played DE:HR? what do you think of it? pretty sweet game in my book.
Yes, but I haven't finished it yet. Overall, I think it is a very good game.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
Have you ever thought about making Icewind Dale 3?
Yes, but not much. I don't speculate much about designs for games that publishers aren't actively pursuing.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
Am I a bad man for modding out the mini-games in New Vegas? I kept the skill checks.
It's a single player game and you went through the effort required to make the change, so no.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
After reading the New Canaan design document for Van Buren, part of me wishes that it had been used for HH instead of Zion. Was there ever consideration of making the DLC based in New Canaan and not just a couple of New Canaanite refugees?
Not really. New Canaan is/was a relatively big community with a lot of unique characters. We didn't have the time or budget to build something like that.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
Why did you make Unarmed and Melee skills so insanely powerful? Half-way through the game I abandoned my sharpshooter's scoped hunting rifle in favor of a power fist. I slaughtered everything easily with it and had a very low skill level.
Because during periods when you are not actively punching, your DPS is effectively zero. You also have to run straight at enemies, maximizing your exposure to gunfire.
As someone who did a lot of sniping and a lot of melee/unarmed in F:NV, I have to say that as easy as a good Power Fist makes close-range fights, nothing is as easy as long-range sniping. Your exposure to enemy attacks is minimal and with even a modest amount of Frag Mines placed near you, there's not a lot anything can do to you. If you suppress the Sniper Rifle, most enemies won't ever detect you.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
ME1's decryption was a 'Simon says' but they also gave you the option to spend omni gel to unlock, which is a lot like you deem to be suggesting as ideal. But them again the completely scrapped the gel thing on ME2, so I'd guess it wasn't well received?
To be honest, some of the decisions made in the transition from ME to ME2 (and DA to DA2) are a mystery to me. In some cases, it seems like someone detected a negative aspect of a system and, instead of modifying that aspect, just removed or rewrote the system entirely.
Though ME's decryption was short, it was also completely unconnected from the game universe, which is why it felt so odd/jarring to me. ME2's mini-games seem more fitting (that I remember), but I don't think they needed to remove the "spend resource to bypass" aspect.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
I also liked the lockpicking minigame. The hacking minigame, though... not so much. Did you have any ideas for how the hacking could have been done better or do you think it was handled well?
Mastermind was the basis for F3/F:NV's hacking, and that's not something that scales well with regard to time. As the words got longer, it could take proportionally longer to solve the puzzle (though Science skill helped offset this somewhat by altering the game). This means that toward the end of the game, when you're probably starting to feel fatigue from *any* game system, the hacking becomes more time-consuming. Though lockpicking also became harder with rated difficulty, the increase in duration was not that significant.
Additionally, I have found from talking to a large number of people who played the game that the "hint" aspect of hacking (finding (){}[]<> to remove duds/replenish attempts) was not well-communicated, so hacking was much more time consuming and difficult for them.
In essence, Mastermind is a relatively slow puzzle to solve, so anything that could ensure a shorter maximum duration at high difficulty would probably be a good modification.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
You told us you couldnt patch dlcs but there was a patch that made it so that gecko-backed armors were no longer created at 100% but now there are given at the condination of the original non gecko backed amor. How would they do that?
The FalloutNV.exe was altered, meaning it was a global crafting change. You only see it in Honest Hearts content because (IIRC) that's the only place where the crafting system is used to make armor.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
Fallout 3's minigame was ridiculously easy, virtually risk-free, and was therefore just a pretense. The real benefits of the Lockpicking skill came only at 25,50,75, and 100 and that had nothing to do with the minigame, it was an underdeveloped flat check
Some people have genuine difficulty with the Fallout 3/NV lockpicking. During a Best Buy presentation, one of my co-workers kept breaking picks trying to get into a locked container and I eventually had to complete it for her. It turned out that she always had difficulty with lockpicking.
I've watched a ton of people play Fallout: New Vegas and I think you'd be surprised at the things that players -- from inexperienced nublets to seasoned gamers -- find difficult.
As a side note, we did make one modification to lockpicking in F:NV: lockpick "hit points" scale with skill. If you have 100 Lockpick and you're picking a 25 or 50 lock, you can really jam the pick around with much less concern about snapping it. Personally, I think it made those situations feel better because the skill/difficulty disparity was so large.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
Can you translate from Latin what The Burned Man said to Salt Upon Wounds before he dispatched him from this world.
Joshua Graham was speaking in an amalgamated tribal language, but no. Sorry.
JESawyer responded to xDesertxRangerx 10 Sep 11
Is it true that if you come up with a potentially money making idea for a game at your work and try to publish it, the company can claim rights to it?
Yes. Most video game developer terms stipulate that the work of employees is the intellectual property of the company.
JESawyer responded to TheHazer 10 Sep 11
is there gonna be a trailer for LR coming out anytime soon?
Thanks for asking me this question six times while I was at lunch. As with all other materials related to F:NV products, I do not know if or when any information is being released. You will hear/see it from Bethesda before me. Sorry.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
DX 1 had multi-tools and lockpicks you could use a certain number depending on lock or terminal. Mass Effect didn't invent that aspect. You could even shoot something to bypass it.
Yes.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
For GRA, will the new unique weapons be obtainable in the mojave wasteland or will they have to be purchased like the rest of the new items
All GRA items must be purchased from vendors or crafted.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
Do you know when we'll hear about Obsidian's next project?
No.
JESawyer 10 Sep 11
Since all the new stuff will have to be crafted or bought, will there be more merchants in the Mojave once I download GRA? Say, for example, that big empty space by the NCR camp at Primm?
No. New items will be found on existing merchants.
JESawyer 11 Sep 11
bloodman is coming for you!!!!
omg
JESawyer 11 Sep 11
What's your long-term game-plan?
I don't have one.
JESawyer 11 Sep 11
Has answering any of the questions here ever caused you problems at work or with other developers?
Not as far as I know.
JESawyer 11 Sep 11
I just would like to compliment you on the design of Westside. I think many players overlook it but its diversity and resourcefulness are especially striking when compared to a more emphasized area like Freeside. Whoever the world builder was did well too
Thanks. Most of the content of Westside was developed by Jeff Husges, though I wrote a few of the characters (Anderson, Meansonofabitch), John Gonzalez wrote some (maybe all?) of the characters in Casa Madrid, and Jorge Salgado developed the Thorn. Scott Everts did most of the world building.
Because Westside is "detached" from the Strip and doesn't have any protector groups like the Kings, we wanted to portray them as being very resourceful and community-oriented, sharing a lot of responsibilities, including defense.
JESawyer 11 Sep 11
If you could describe the Hive Missile in one word, what would that be?
fun
JESawyer 11 Sep 11
In the case of a locked door, people have considered the idea of either bashing down the door with brute force or using a weapon to destroy the door/hinges. Are there problems with such brute-force approaches? Seems viable at first glance.
Yeah, it makes Lockpick or equivalent skills worthless. Either that or you have to bend over backwards to implement some sort universally-appreciated cost to bashing/shooting/blowing up locks.
Some players absolutely do not care about making noise or alerting enemies, so they would happily blast away at every other door hinge/lock with a combat shotgun.
JESawyer 11 Sep 11
About intellectual property, if you start something after leaving a company, how much success could they expect in claiming that you came up with it under their pay?
I'm not sure. Generally I assume that if a larger company wants to pursue a smaller company, the larger company will win out in the end due to litigation costs.
JESawyer 12 Sep 11
"Some players absolutely do not care about making noise or alerting enemies, so they would happily blast away at every other door hinge/lock with a combat shotgun. "You're still using resources (ammo) and there are consequences so what's the problem?
Ammo is not as precious a resource as skill points, and if the player is going into a situation to shoot everyone in the face anyway, there's no "cost" to the consequences.
Essentially, if a system makes players never even consider taking a certain skill, there's either something wrong with the skill itself or something wrong with the system surrounding that skill.
JESawyer 12 Sep 11
Are developers like you not allowed to talk about dlc by law or do you just choose to keep it secret?
It's the publisher's product, so they handle all marketing and PR (and distribution) for it.
JESawyer 12 Sep 11
Why are your cat's names mentioned in the credits?
they own
JESawyer 12 Sep 11
Referring to lockpicking and ammo, you could just make ammo less plentiful...
Now you're constraining ammo availability based on a desire to use them as an element of opening locks. This seems like an awful lot of contortion when you could simply say that a Lockpick skill opens locks and that a resource dedicated to opening locks can be spent on a sliding scale to lower the requirements.
The more you connect and conflate resource values, the more difficulty you will have in balancing subsystems and the game's systems overall.
JESawyer responded to taylorlautner 12 Sep 11
Have you ever felt like you were living someone else's life?
Click here to watch the trailer for my new movie, Abduction!
I am a Na'vi thanks for asking, Taylor.
JESawyer 12 Sep 11
I'm playing a brute force character in DXHR right now, and I'm glad the game gives me the option to open doors in a way that's consistent with my character build instead of punishing me for not being a hacker.
Yet combat is almost universally more difficult for characters that neglect combat-oriented augs (excepting the most deadly weapon in DX:HR, the thrown dumpster). Should choice and consequence only apply to certain builds and not others?
JESawyer 13 Sep 11
Why does Dean Domino always have thick shades on? He even wears them in his promo posters.
ummmmmm because he's really cool????????
yah.
JESawyer 13 Sep 11
Do you think essential game items such as the AUD for DX:HR should be allowed to be preorder items? Having it as a retailer exclusive forces you to be a hacker for a majority of side quests and some MQs. It locks out a build.
Yeah, that does seem a little odd. I don't know if AUDs are *essential*, but they are very valuable and can allow players to instantly circumvent really difficult hacks.
JESawyer 13 Sep 11
What happened to all the shopkeeper's stuff after I killed him? I murdered Chet hoping to score some free weapon mods, but all he had on him was worthless junk. Where'd all the goodies go???
tranquility lane
JESawyer 13 Sep 11
Should men own cats?
ya
JESawyer 13 Sep 11
Regd. bruteforcing doors and locks. Reinforced (metal) doors can't be opened without special shotgun rounds or explosives, both limited resources. Low Explosives skill destroys items in locked containers. Do you still think this can't be made to work?
Again, why does it have to be special shotgun rounds or explosives when games like F3 and F:NV already have a dedicated item (and skill) for opening locks? There could just as easily still be a minimum skill for opening locks with a sliding lockpick item cost that goes down with the relative difference between the lock difficulty and the character's Lockpick skill.
I mean, let's not be disingenuous here: if "special shotgun rounds" or explosives were able to get into locked boxes, metagamers would buy a single shotgun round for every Very Hard box with anything valuable in it (e.g. the Gobi Campaign Scout Rifle's) and never put a point into Lockpick. Either that or they'd blast and reload, blast and reload until they got their "shell's" worth.
I don't see people advocating that the use of a bunch of lockpicks and the Lockpick skill should give an advantage in combat, or allow them to pass Speech checks more easily. But that's essentially what this boils down to: allowing characters specialized in a weapon skill set to use the weapons or ammo they carry around with them to break open what would normally only be available to characters who specialize in Lockpick. What does a character who specializes in the Lockpick skill get out of this? Why would a player be motivated to invest in Lockpick if they could cherry-pick the best locks for demolition with an Explosives build or some shotgun rounds?
And while a high weapons skill (e.g. Explosives) could be a prerequisite to certain locks, it's still no sacrifice on the part of an Explosives build. They're already putting tons of points into Explosives to blow up their enemies with the same weapons and ammo they're using to crack open the occasional safe or door.
JESawyer 15 Sep 11
Why shouldn't Lockpick give you combat/speech/other advantages? (Perhaps with a slight renaming so that it makes more sense, like Security or Stuff.) I'm not a game designer, but it seems to me more (hopefully interesting) options is a good thing?
It could be, but giving those secondary or tertiary bonuses is only necessary if the skill's overall utility is lacking compared to other skills with an (ostensibly) equal value.
People often approach "shoot/blow up locks/doors" from the perspective of being "realistic", not from the perspective of how skills should be balanced with each other in a system that weights them all roughly equally. I'm sure you can think of ways to stretch all sorts of skills into other fields. The fact that I don't see people advocating such measures leads me to believe that they aren't interested in balancing skills that are lacking (from the positions advocated, Guns or Explosives) and they aren't interested in achieving verisimilitude broadly (or it wouldn't be such a narrow focus). They're interested in grabbing loot out of locked containers without needing to put any points in Lockpick.
I understand the motive. I just think some people are being disingenuous about why they're advocating alternate ways past locks.
JESawyer 15 Sep 11
Any suggestions for running a Fallout Campaign (Tabletop of course)? Do you feel the setting makes for limited character concepts (I.E. recommended play with small amount of players due to such conceptual space).
A small conceptual space? I don't think that's true at all. Despite the heavy definition of small areas (D.C., California, Nevada, some parts of the Midwest), you have the entire rest of the U.S. and potentially the rest of the world to play with. I think there's an enormous amount of character variety potential in the Fallout franchise, especially if you use a classless system.
If I were to start a campaign today, I'd pick a region that borders one of the more well-established regions, bring over the factions/plot elements/characters I wanted, and then develop new ones that fit the area and the setting overall. That way you have continuity with the core material, but you and the players can expand and develop new ideas on your own.
JESawyer 15 Sep 11
i played vegas for 80 hours and haven't raise explosives at all. so some skills ARE useless.
By that logic, any skill that any player doesn't raise on any playthrough is useless. I have played Explosives-oriented characters and between the damage increases and access to perks, the skill is far from useless.
JESawyer responded to ArthurSpeakman 15 Sep 11
RE: Lockpick Weapon/Speech - Why not? I can wrap Dogtags around my knuckles as a weapon, why not have a Lockpick Weapon Mod that adds DMG based on my Lockpick skill IF I get the special perk (Thief's Revenge!)? It CAN be done, it just needs balance.
Saying "it just needs balance" doesn't mean that it's a good idea. Balancing skills, subsystems, systems as a whole takes a long time and a lot of effort.
Take Guns and Energy Weapons in F:NV. For this example, assume I am of average intelligence and average "talent" for someone who has been designing video games for twelve years. These two skills essentially do the same thing with two different types of weapons -- much in the same way that the same skills in Fallout 3, Fallout 2, and Fallout did. All that changed were some of the formulae (for both) and the weapon content each skill accesses.
Despite the narrow focus and similarity of these skills, just balancing the content of what's affected by these two skills took me 2 or 3 patches to get *mostly right*. Even now, there's still a fair amount of contention about that in the community.
Now compare Guns and EWs to Explosives. Now compare them to Explosives, Melee Weapons, and Unarmed. Now compare them to ALL the skills in Fallout -- what the skills affect directly, what they affect indirectly. The more things we allow skills to branch out and touch, the more difficult balancing those skills becomes.
I argue that coming up with ideas is relatively easy. Seeing an idea through to the point of being well-executed is much more difficult and time-consuming. The more edge cases and subsystems you design into a system, the more difficult that execution becomes.
JESawyer 15 Sep 11
"If I were to start a campaign today, I'd pick a region that borders (...)" ...wait, so you'd be basically doing New Vegas all over again? 
Why not? Overall, I think it worked well enough for us. We brought over familiar factions, framed their attitudes in the new region, and posed them in conflict with new factions.
JESawyer 16 Sep 11
I think the FNV DLCs seem more epic and compelling than the plot of the main game. Do you think this is due to their smaller size?
It could be because the player is more central to the DLCs than to the main plot. In each of the DLCs, the Courier is summoned to be a central figure in what's unfolding. In the main plot, the Courier is essentially used and left for dead at the opening of the game. It isn't until he or she deals with Bennie that other factions start to take a lot of interest in him or her.
JESawyer 16 Sep 11
Exactly when in development did the team decide to change the portrait for Mr. House, and why? Was the previous one just something of a placeholder?
It was relatively late in development. I felt the original portrait made Mr. House look too manic.
JESawyer 16 Sep 11
Why did Ambassador Crocker turn Afro-American?
There was a recording mix-up. His voice really didn't match his appearance, so we matched his appearance to match his voice.
JESawyer 16 Sep 11
But there were many voices that didn't match their bodies. The Brotherhood scouts and Klamath Bob are good examples.
Yes, yes. All part of a rich tapestry.
JESawyer 17 Sep 11
Have you ever thought that maybe Lockpick is just too narrow a skill? Like, you know, you could combine it + "repair" into a mechanical skill, in the same way that science covers both hacking and robot stuff?
In Van Buren, it was combined with Traps to form the Security skill.
The subdivision of utility skills should be based off of the density of applicable instances of that skill. If there's a ton of locks to pick with worthwhile stuff to get out of it, Lockpick can stand on its own.
JESawyer 17 Sep 11
'I have to say that as easy as a good Power Fist makes close-range fights, nothing is as easy as long-range sniping' then why do put melee and unarmed weapons into the game if they are going to have no advantage?
The advantage they have is at close range. Especially if you're indoors or in a camp, they're extremely powerful. You suffer damage in the process, but you dish out far more. Long-range sniping isolates the player from most danger, but long-range sniping isn't always possible.
JESawyer 17 Sep 11
What book are you reading right now?
Formspring question of the day
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship by Goethe.
JESawyer 18 Sep 11
are you gonna answer more questions after LR and GRA are out?
Sure, though not many LR questions since I didn't do much work on it (mostly balancing).
JESawyer 19 Sep 11
Have you ever tried to read/read a book in German? I suppose you're reading the translated version right now.
Yes, I'm reading an English translation of an early French edition.
I try to read things in German, but it is very slow going because my vocabulary is not that broad. I have a book called Fünf Deutsche Meister-Erzählungen/Five German Short Stories that is a dual-language book and that's a bit easier to follow.
If you have a Kindle, you can change the dictionary to a different language (if you download an alternate dictionary). That can make word look-ups a lot easier.
JESawyer 19 Sep 11
Why do you answer questions less frequently these days?
I'm busier.
JESawyer 19 Sep 11
What book are you planning on reading next?
I will probably finish Nudge by Sunstein and Thaler and then read either The Book of Khalid by Ameen Rihani or The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis.
JESawyer 19 Sep 11
How do you feel about Japanese games? Every once in a while I'll be able to get past all the anime melodrama and enjoy a Japanese game, but that rarely ever happens. I do sometimes enjoy Japanese games that are aimed the non-Japanese market though.
It depends on the game/series. I like the Devil May Cry series, Pikmin, Katamari Damacy, and Animal Crossing (for example), but some other series I just can't get into at all. That said, I think it has less to do with a game being Japanese/not Japanese and more to do with the specific content. There are plenty of "western" games that I can't get into, style-wise, either.
JESawyer 19 Sep 11
What's your desktop background?
A picture I took at La Verkin Creek at Zion National Park.
http://diogenes-lamp.info/images/zion/zion_laverkin_creek.jpg
JESawyer 19 Sep 11
You seem to have a somewhat low opinion of Warhammer 40k?
Not at all, but it isn't really an RPG. It's a tabletop war game.
JESawyer 19 Sep 11
RPG fans always talk about how much better it used to be and how devs are forced to make action RPGs etc etc. If given the chance, though, do you think you would even want to create an old-school turn-based, isometric RPG?
Yes. That would be awesome. I still play tabletop RPGs where one battle takes 2+ hours. I wouldn't even care about the scope/size of the team as long as it could have really solid tactical combat and strategic character/party building.
JESawyer 19 Sep 11
Was it an oversight that the 2,000 cap credit check doesn't take the caps from the character? It just seemed to remove the challenge of getting into Vegas a little as it's practically free...
No. It's not a fee, just a check to insure that you're actually bringing caps to spend. Mr. House and the families don't want freeloaders on the Strip.
JESawyer 20 Sep 11
Games like Fallout 1/2 aren't very tabletop like in the computer game form. Much faster paced. Same goes for jRPG turnbased games which still come out by the day
Check out Front Mission 4. Mid-game, the pre-combat loadouts take about 45 minutes-1 hour and the fights can take over an hour.
JESawyer 20 Sep 11
I must say that the SMMG has to be one of the greatest weapssons you have come up with. It has plenty of loud noisy dakka to mow down anything in the wastes that looks at you funny.
Thanks, though Seth McCaughey was the guy who came up with the weapon concept and animations. I just tuned it.
JESawyer 20 Sep 11
How is "ED-E" supposed to be pronounced? Like "Eddie" or "Eee-Dee" or just saying the letters or what?
Like "Eddie".
JESawyer 20 Sep 11
Can you give us some insight on Joshua Graham's 'Avenging Angel' status?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danite
JESawyer 21 Sep 11
How did you guys patch taking all the gold bars from the Sierra Madre if Dead Money is DLC? I mean about clipping the gold bars through the barrier Elijah puts up.
As far as I know, we didn't patch that.
JESawyer 21 Sep 11
Why was lonesome road so short? honest hearts had much more to do.
@__@
JESawyer 21 Sep 11
Congrats on DLC4, it's a success in my book. One thing that bothers me is that whilst the SMMG is well designed, it doesn't kick like the Colonial Marine style weapon it looks like (to me, anyway). Is there a reason it uses 10mm and give pretty low DAM?
10mm is not used heavily at high levels but can be acquired in large volume. The SMMG does much higher DAM than a minigun and much higher DAM than the other weapons that use 10mm ammo. With HP or JHP ammo, it will destroy lightly-armored targets.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
why is there so much friction between you and other devs (according to /v/)?
This is pretty vague, so I don't really know what you're referring to, sorry.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
Why was it decided to base the Courier's aligned faction on reputation for LR? It makes no sense and is counter-productive for roleplaying. You should have just left it as a dialogue option so people could choose for themselves.
I'm not the guy to ask; the only work I did on Lonesome Road was weapon tuning.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
Your foul tricks have failed Mr. Sawyer. The satchel charges may have messed me up, but they mess up the Deathclaws even worse. I have mastered the charge of the satchel, and I am now a god.
Good. If you have high Explosives, you can disarm them and use them yourself.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
Why do you spend time on tuning weapons when so many other things in the game are unbalanced/overpowered. Skill points/experience, some traits, armor/clothing bonuses, etc.
I tuned a lot of those things, some more than others. Players pay a higher level of attention to weapons, so I've spend a lot of time tuning them, in particular.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
What political issue is most important to you?
Formspring question of the day
Junk mail.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
Anthony Weiner. Hahahahah
LMAO!!!
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
Alpha Protocol is 2 bucks on Steam. 1: Do you get any money from this 2: Will it run on a 3.06 GHZ Pentium 4 (rest of system is more modern)
1) Me? No. 2) Beats me. Sorry.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
I found the All American and two Tesla-Beaton Prototypes on a Marked Man. Considering their predicament, that one's pretty well armed.
wat
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
Hey Joshua, the Red Glare+ (fully upgraded, full chems, etc) seems pretty weak. Is it meant to just be spammed at the incoming enemies? Anabelle (Missile L.) seems far superior.
It's an automatic explosive weapon with small radius, low DAM, so it's mostly for use against lightly armored groups. For that purpose, it's very good.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
Red Glare sucks so why is it in the game?
Because actually it owns and you are Bizarro Superman... ???
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
If it "owns", then why was it designed for use against light armored groups of enemies? Why not just use a couple 40mm grenades from the grenade rifle or Thump-Thump? Or even a SMG?
40mm Grenades may not have the range, even from Thump-Thump or Mercy. There's a scope on Red Glare for a reason: it's very accurate and its rockets fly very quickly. If you're in range to use an SMG and have high Guns, yeah, use an SMG. SMGs are made for close-quarters fights against lightly armored enemies.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
Does it offend you that I'm a homosexual and that I think you're very attractive?
No. Thanks. I don't know why anyone would be offended by someone being attracted to them, really. It seems like an odd response.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
Yes they are made for close range, but there's also the Light Machingun or the Minigun or even a Marksman Carbine. But most enemies don't group up until they get close anyway.
Yes, those are all Guns that you can use if you like using Guns and put points into Guns. If you like Explosives and put points into Explosives, you can use Red Glare.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
Or you can use a 40mm grenade MG or rifle, or a 25mm GMG. Or mines, frag grenades and plasma grenades. I've used that assortment plenty of times with my explosives character. I've never had a problem, the GMGs are very efficient even at close range.
A lot of people seem to be enjoying Red Glare. Sorry that you don't, but it's a very effective weapon in a lot of circumstances, with or without upgrades.
DLC weapons aren't supposed to make every other weapon that came before obsolete. Red Glare is unique among explosives weapons because it is automatic, accurate, scoped, and has a high RoF (and high projectile speed). I'm not sure what you were expecting to get out of it.
Even if you don't believe it's fantastically amazing, I think saying it "sucks" is hyperbole.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
I'm not the one who said it sucks. I don't think it sucks. I was trying to understand the reason for it's implementation. Because the enemies you fight in The Divide are tough and armored, making the Red Glare tough to work with in The Divide.
Marked Men are not particularly heavily armored (most have DTs under 10). They also often are seen in groups at long range. Red Glare is pretty effective at mopping those jokers up.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
Icewind Dale II is fun, but it needs more ice, wind, and dales. At least twice many. Can Icewind Dale III have three times as many? Please?
Six times as many or nothing.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
But once you encounter deathclaws it gets tough. There seem to be a large number too, particularly in Courier's Mile. And even along your travels through The Divide.
Yes. Don't use Red Glare against them. Weapons in F:NV are designed to be good in some circumstances and bad in others. Using Red Glare against heavily armored Deathclaws will result in tears.
JESawyer 22 Sep 11
What was the meaning behind the president names for projects at Black Isle? Was it just for names, or did each project have some odd tie to said president?
It was just their names, in order of inauguration. Obsidian's names are similar, U.S. states in order of their incorporation to the union.
We use this scheme because there is an order to it, but the names have no connection to the project itself. If someone sees "Project North Carolina" on a notebook or document, or overhears it in conversation, that has no real meaning.
JESawyer 23 Sep 11
so hey, why include the 12.7mm AND .50 BMG rounds? irl they're pretty much the same, the former being commie-er
12.7mm is the equivalent of .50 Action Express. .50 MG is the equivalent of .50 BMG.
JESawyer 23 Sep 11
I’ve already reached level 50. Now what - how can I get these new perks (Mad Bomber etc)?
Start a new character.
JESawyer 23 Sep 11
Not including the option to shoot/blow up a lock smacks of lazy design. You could have quests or areas where opening locks quietly or without damage has an advantage. Framing people, areas where straight combat is harder than stealth, etc.
No, it was an intentional choice to avoid the obvious side-effect of making Lockpicking obsolete for a bunch of character builds.
JESawyer 23 Sep 11
Is it safe to assume that the GRA achievement "Curios and Relics" (which requires you to get 10,000 damage with unique Mojave Wasteland weapons) will not be retroactive and will start counting only damage done after GRA has been installed?
Correct.
JESawyer 23 Sep 11
Is there going to be an in-game explanation for why the Gun Runners are suddenly going to start selling energy weapons?
For the most part, they don't, unless you kill the other EW dealers.
JESawyer 24 Sep 11
bozar?
yes
JESawyer 24 Sep 11
You said an automatic gun using .50MG is impossible to do realistically beacause the anti materiel does over 100 points of DMG it would have to dumbed down in a bad way. Why does the shoulder mounted SMG do much more DAM than 10mm SMG then?
It's a higher tier weapon (Tier 5 vs. the 10mm SMG's Tier 3). It also fires more slowly than the 10mm SMG, so its DPS is not dramatically higher.
JESawyer 24 Sep 11
You say that your making special GRA versions of weapons that use the weapon mods beacause the weapons were modded in patches. The plasma pistol was but the laser pistol wasn't.
I wanted to be consistent, so instead of having some work as-is and others require new forms, I just made new forms for everything.
JESawyer 24 Sep 11
Since when do NCR heavy troopers use plasma and laser weapons?
I didn't set up the weapons of any of the LR enemies.
JESawyer 24 Sep 11
Did you give 20 and 12 gauge rounds 1.2x damage as like a buff to shotgun damage? If so, why not just make the shotguns themselves do more damage? This is so confusing
I gave buckshot (standard rounds) the bonus. That way there is a bit more incentive to use buckshot against unarmored foes instead of using slugs against everything.
JESawyer 24 Sep 11
will there be ANY difference between the GRA and the normal laser and plasma pistol? (visual, stats etc.)
They are identical except for the ability to take GRA mods.
JESawyer 24 Sep 11
why have the energy weapons been nerfed since the Fallout 2? they are now weak and common and don't feel like hi-tech weapons among with the guns which have higher DMG
Because the weapon skill subdivisions used in Fallout has never matched the design of weapon categories used in the games. I.e., there's nothing in the description of the EWs skill in F1, F2, Tactics, F3, or F:NV that would indicate that EWs are superior to conventional firearms. Along the same lines, there's nothing to prevent players from tagging EWs (or Big Guns, for that matter) at the beginning of the game only to find that they actually don't get any real chance to use that skill for at least a third of the game.
If players are presented with a variety of skills in which they can invest at the beginning of the game, they should be able to use those skills from the beginning of the game. If you want to return to the olden days of EW supremacy, I'd suggest re-structuring the skills based on stance/type or some other categorization (e.g. Pistols/SMGs, Rifles, etc.). That way, you could have EWs be the top weapons of each category and effectively non-existent in the early game.
Even so, you would still (IMO) have to find a way to make Pistols as viable as RIfles, etc. if you want players to be able to get the most out of each skill.
JESawyer 24 Sep 11
What is your opinion on recent statements by some developers that certain genres of games are "not contemporary" and that fans of RTS and TBS games should play first-person shooters instead because "time has moved on"?
I think developers should recognize that some players like game types that are not as popular as others. Those players shouldn't be made to feel like they're doing something wrong (they aren't).
That said, if you like a niche game type, you also have to understand that it's hard for some developers to make games for those niches, even if they'd really like to.
JESawyer 25 Sep 11
There's a rebalance mod for FO3 that split the weapons into handguns, long guns, and heavy weapons, and rebalanced them all to have distinct roles designed to make them more "equal". In theory would this be better than splitting be flavor?
I don't think it's inherently better or worse, but if you want to make EWs the superior weapons in the game, I think splitting up weapons in that way is a way to do it and still keep the skills roughly equal in value.
JESawyer 25 Sep 11
Favorite gun you've ever fired at a range (or other places)?
My experience is not that broad, but I have to say the Smith & Wesson 629 with a 6" barrel. The action is great, it's quite accurate, and it handles the recoil of .44 Magnum easily.
JESawyer 25 Sep 11
Are you writing these GRA Bethesda Blog posts? They're pretty funny.
Yes. Thanks.
JESawyer responded to Pinheiro95 25 Sep 11
So far what's your favorite weapon that you've created in GRA?
Probably the MFC Clusters. Close seconds are the Bozar and an ammo subtype that hasn't been announced yet.
JESawyer 25 Sep 11
I love games like baldurs gate becourse i dont get forced to solve the main story right away so that i can go and wander the land and have a adventure! Baldurs Gate II wasent that... Fallout NV is that. I can exlore and have a adventure. thank you!
You're welcome! I'm glad you like it.
JESawyer 25 Sep 11
Hey, just wanted to say that not only are the GRA write-ups funny, but the weapons and ammo contained within looks like they own. Gonna buy it the second it's out on Steam.
Thanks. With this DLC, we're telling people pretty much everything that's available, so hopefully everyone goes into it with eyes wide-open.
JESawyer 25 Sep 11
Is the Bozar actually going to be burst-fire though?
It's fully automatic.
JESawyer 25 Sep 11
will there be another GRA post on beth blog before it comes out?
On the Beth Blog, gstaff indicated there will be one more on Monday and another on Tuesday.
JESawyer 25 Sep 11
Are the GRA weapons like the 12.7mm SMG (GRA) counted as part of the 27 new weapons in the dlc or are there 27 new weapons not including the (GRA) versions you had to add so they can accept mods?
Yes, the GRA versions are part of the 27. The 27 weapons includes uniques, GRA variants of vanilla weapons, and brand-new weapons. It's all-inclusive.
JESawyer responded to Mahare 25 Sep 11
So I hear you designed Arcade? THANK YOU. He's easily my favorite human companion, and also a good example of a gay character who isn't a stereotype/negative image. He's amazingly well done...thank you for designing him.
Thanks. I'm glad you liked him.
JESawyer 25 Sep 11
When I asked you to put .50 Raufoss ammo in the game, I was just dicking around, I didn't think you'd really do it. You are the most awesome game developer I've ever seen!
When you asked that question, the .50 MG Explosive round had already been in the game for a long time. GRA hadn't been announced, so I was just playing around. Hopefully you'll enjoy it.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
Are you worried about making the game too easy with all the new toys in GRA?
I think the availability of other DLC weapons is a greater concern than the availability of GRA weapons. At least GRA weapons require money or crafting to make.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
Games "often focus on statistics, but we often can't perceive the effects in games...[I've] implemented broken things in games but players don't notice it," because there's no external statistic reflection. Such as?
Splash Damage. It took quite a while for people to notice that it wasn't doing anything, and it was only confirmed by looking directly at the entry in GECK (it does work properly now).
For a much earlier example (I didn't work on this one), the Bastard Sword +1, +3 vs Shapeshifters in Baldur's Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast did nothing special against Shapeshifters. The engine didn't even support that kind of functionality until Icewind Dale.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
I'm sorry, but the Bozar should have been a unique AMR not a LMG. Recreating a glitch, simply for the purposes of fan-service and nostalgia is inexcusable. IF such action is taken it should be relegated to the realm of easter eggs (i.e. a WW trait filter)
I disagree.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
I saw that there is going to be a sword in GRA. I thank you for this, because when I started my character, I was hoping to use a sword. So I was disappointed when the only sword was the Bumper Sword. So thanks. oh and is the sword added in GRA any good?
The Katana in GRA is very good, especially with mods.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
It seems to me that a high % of game buyers don't really understand the story and mechanics of even a relatively simple RPG like FNV. Couldn't you get achieve the same sales by making a really dumb and simple RPG?
Possibly, but I do think there is a "sweet spot" of accessibility and complexity that is much higher than the lowest common denominator. Personally, I think it is best to implement simple, clear mechanics that have layers of complexity added over time. I also think using level of difficulty to add additional mechanics for more dedicated players can help expand a game's appeal.
I also think it's really important to distinguish between DUMB/OBSTINATE players and INEXPERIENCED/IGNORANT players. There are a lot of dumb and obstinate people in the world, it's true, but I think most of the people who struggle initially with RPGs are people who are inexperienced or ignorant. RPG developers and players are used to an enormous array of conventions that would bewilder almost any newcomer -- especially when presented without explanation.
I think that experience with RPG mechanics and being presented with clear tactical challenges produces tactical decision-making in players, even players who lack PhDs.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
You once mentioned that weapon mod design is meant to be orthogonal, but uh.. what's the point of having uniques that are all-around weaker than the modded version of the base weapon? (See OWB with K9000 and FIDO)
I didn't tune those two weapons, but I think the Mentat Chow RoF increase of K9000 is what takes it a bit too far.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
Will the gun runners arsenal weapons have new sound effects?
Some of them will. Some uniques have new sounds, and a few of the GRA variants (most notably, the Laser Pistol) have new firing sounds as well.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
If the AMR suppressor doesn't completely silence the gun (which makes sense), what does it do? Decreased chance of being noticed? Is it purely cosmetic?
It takes the noise radius down from "Loud" levels (big) to "Normal" levels (less big). If you shoot it in the next room, dudes are still going to hear it. For long-range sniping, it will effectively be silent as long as enemies aren't too close.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
In the design stages of New Vegas, did you ever think of letting enemies in the game have randomly modded weapons?
No. I wanted mods to be a money-sink for the player. The same with ammo sub-types. That's why mods and most ammo sub-types are only available from vendors.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
Do you believe that a modern game that is similar to IWD2 could be done with roughly the same budget and be profitable? Paradox Interactive is successful at making complex games with medium budgets, so why wouldn't it work for a tactical RPG?
I think it could, but I'm not an expert on game economics.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
On a scale of one to ten, how much would a Fallout game based in Hawaii own?
It's hard to say; I don't know much about Hawaii.
Someone on a message board suggested that it be all ghoul-ed out. I thought an interesting quest would be to solve a dilemma among the ghouls. Since ghoul-ification, they don't know who to call "haole" anymore -- a truly devastating problem.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
"The Katana in GRA is very good, especially with mods." Does it mean GRA will add mods for melee weapons (at least the ones it adds)?
^________________________________________________^
JESawyer responded to TraderRager 26 Sep 11
What is the 25mm APW mentioned in the GRA Part 3 post? Are we getting something to the tune of a XM25?
mysteries
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
"The Katana in GRA is very good, especially with mods." Suuuure, you tell the melee weapon users before the post comes out, but nothing on the brush gun still....
http://www.bethblog.com/index.php/2011/09/26/bring-the-boom-with-gun-runners-arsenal/
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
What does the 'APW' in 25mm Grenade APW stand for?
Anti-Personnel Weapon.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
CD Projekt's dev team RED has about the same employee base as you, isn't all that big, and only did minor publishing like Icewind Dale and Planescape: T for Europe. Yet they an give free DLC vs. 4 paid DLC packs from Obsidian already. For shame. $grubbers
I'm glad CD Projekt has the ability to do that.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
Why is Mad Bomber the only new perk in GRA? Explosives bias much?
Because apparently we are biased towards every category of weapon.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
How do you pronounce Paciencia? Pah-Key-en-sia?
I guess it depends on how you like your Spanish to be pronounced. IMO, it should be pronounced using Mexican Spanish (it has a Mexican flag wrapped around the stock), but there's always the Castilian way...
http://yfrog.com/2m34kz
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
No, seriously, why not have more perks in GRA to cover more bases?
Explosives did not have a Hand Loader / Vigilant Recycler-type perk. In general, Explosives has a relatively limited set of perks available. This was a chance to introduce another way for Explosives characters to specialize.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
Fallout: New Vegas is one of the best selling RPGs of ALL time. Bethesda Soft. aside I'm sure Avellone, Feargus, and the company got a nice chunk of money from it+ DLC money. And you want to imply Obsidian isn't in the position to not give back to fans?
DLC, even small DLC like GRA, still costs quite a bit of money to develop, test, and distribute on three platforms. Given those costs, it does not make financial sense for us to release that content without charge.
I don't know the particulars of CD Projekt's financial status, but if they are in a position to release DLC for free, that's great.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
Hit the deck or Heave Ho! Which of those two perks do you think is best for a explosive char if you could only pick one?
I think it depends on the build. If you want to throw a lot of grenades by hand -- especially if you already have a high ST -- Heave, Ho! If you're using more "fired" explosives weapons, Hit the Deck will save you a lot of grief.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
There isn't really much for Energy Weapon users in Honest Hearts.
That is true.
JESawyer 26 Sep 11
Oh alright, thanks. It means "patience" in Spanish? Why? BTW - Nice glasses NURD.
Because you have three shots, so you had better make them count.
JESawyer 27 Sep 11
Whose idea was it to do that Best Buy preview?
Beats me, but I assume Bethesda.
JESawyer 27 Sep 11
After all your work with balancing NV's weapons, it seems like just adding a bunch of really powerful end game weaponry to the gun runners is going to really ruin the balance of the game. Am I wrong in thinking this? Do the weapons not appear all at once?
They don't all appear at once, and players still have to buy the weapons. For someone doing a meta-gaming playthrough this may only be a small obstacle, but that's mostly true even of the core game.
JESawyer 27 Sep 11
It's not that CDP want to spend money for nothing, it's that they view free DLC as a sales booster for the main game. Valve operate on this principle as well and do VERY well. Do you not agree that free DLC can boost main game sales?
Yes. So can paid DLC. The question is can free DLC on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 (of which the latter two have additional distribution costs) generate more core game sales than paid DLC on PC, PS3, and Xbox -- and more money overall than would be generated by selling the DLC.
JESawyer 27 Sep 11
I wonder, was Mad bomber cut from the main game due to lack of time, or just something you made in response to complaints?
It wasn't really in response to complaints. I just saw a gap in the lineup.
JESawyer 27 Sep 11
So how come if there are 27 weapons in GRA I count like 29 so far? =O
new math
JESawyer 27 Sep 11
What fall TV show are you most excited about?
Formspring question of the day
I'm interested in building a time machine to go back to 1990 so I can live in a world WITH NEW LAW & ORDER EPISODES.
JESawyer 27 Sep 11
Are there any unique weapons in GRA that aren't bought? Say for example on a distant shore on the Colorado? Or is it just in the shop?
New weapons/mods/ammo are either bought in stores or crafted by the player.
JESawyer responded to darthbdaman 27 Sep 11
Why did you decide to give the gun runners unique versions of weapons to mod which are the same in every whey, when you could have just added the mods to normal weapons. It seems like a waste. Ow well off to the G.E.C.K then...
Many of those weapons were already modified in patches, meaning there would be load order conflicts if I attempted to modify them in the DLC as well.
JESawyer 27 Sep 11
Hey, are the GRA weapon mods in vendor lists randomized? Some aren't showing up anywhere...
Yes, many of them are randomized.
JESawyer 27 Sep 11
On the GRA Steam page, it says the Bozar is intended to be an "all-powerful LMG"; does that mean it was intended to benefit from the "Grunt" perk like the LMG? It doesn't seem to, not that it isn't a beast of a weapon as-is.
Unfortunately, because Grunt was introduced in Honest Hearts (DLC), GRA cannot reference it without introducing load order bugs. Sorry.
JESawyer responded to skullmandible 27 Sep 11
Huh! seems like load order causes you guys a lot of problems! Like, constantly
Any time we have two potentially conflicting pieces of data, pretty much.
JESawyer 28 Sep 11
But if some plucky modder puts it in the list for the Grunt perk that would work fine right??
For PC, that would probably be fine. As always, multiple mods may conflict, check your load order, etc.
JESawyer 28 Sep 11
Did every single weapon added by Gun Runner Arsenal really need the "(GRA)" suffix in thier names? On stock weapons with new mods it's understandable, but all of them?
Yes. There are a lot of weapons in core F:NV and expansions. Challenges and achievements in GRA are associated with new GRA weapons, specifically. Rather than make players guess, I used the GRA tag.
JESawyer 28 Sep 11
Sorry gun expert, but rotating barrels machine gun isn´t modern weapon. Its actually one of first concepts for this type of weapon – Gatling machine gun 1860.
what are you referring to what
JESawyer 28 Sep 11
How come MF hyperbreeder Alpha can work for both Master of the Arsenal and Curios and Relics? Glitch or intentional?
Intentional. GRA uniques are still Mojave Wasteland uniques.
JESawyer 28 Sep 11
Any particular reason you didn't put Medicine Stick in with Cowboy? That shouldn't introduce load order bugs, should it?
Medicine Stick should be affected by Cowboy...
JESawyer 28 Sep 11
Man, let me tell you... The Medicine Stick and the Nuka-Breaker? What's the point of these? They seem overly expensive for how little damage they do/how slow they are. And I was really picturing a Mini-Nuke type boom from the new Ballistic Fist.
Price increase in GRA is not proportional to increased value. Tier 5 uniques are the best of the best. Even if that margin of quality is slight, you still pay for it.
Medicine Stick is extremely powerful, with or without Cowboy. Nuka Breaker has a higher Crit Chance/Crit DAM (plus electrical shock) than Oh, Baby! If you have a crit-oriented character, Nuka Breaker is a very good weapon to use. Two-Step Goodbye is also a weapon that benefits most from a high Crit Chance build.
JESawyer 28 Sep 11
Gatling 1860. Somebody asked you why you mess the game with modern weapons like M16/M4. And your answer was that rotating machine gun is also modern weapon and its a Fallout classic.
Miniguns are modern. They are as similar to the original Gatling gun as an M14 is to a Springfield Trapdoor.
JESawyer 28 Sep 11
If you could, would you add the Satchel Charge and the Bowie Knife to the list of weapons affected by Grunt?
No. Cowboy seems more appropriate for the Bowie Knife, IMO.
JESawyer 28 Sep 11
So how does it feel to forever be in the shadow of Chris, brosef?
We don't even focus on the same sort of design, so fine I guess... ??
JESawyer 28 Sep 11
Hay in Icewind dale there is a axe named Londsome road!
It's true!
JESawyer 29 Sep 11
Would you do an Arcanum sequel if offered?
Sure.
JESawyer 29 Sep 11
I love how the Bozar is broken almost as much as in FO2 <3
According to the posts I've seen, it's actually terrible!
JESawyer 29 Sep 11
I guess people were looking for raw power rather than high accuracy/high rate of fire. Like the Automatic Rifle with a scope, and a spread that allows you to hit something that isn't hugging you. I like it, though. It's a full auto All-American.
I'm not sure where people developed that expectation. The Bozar in F2 was a burst-only weapon that did the bulk of its damage through sheer volume of lead thrown downrange. It's less accurate than a semi-auto/bolt-action rifle, but it's more accurate than any other automatic Gun (IIRC) other than the CZ57 Avenger.
Its DAM is not high, but its DPS is no joke, and 5.56mm ammo + a fast reload speed gives players a lot of options for dealing with different types of enemies.
JESawyer responded to Spockrock 30 Sep 11
wasn't Bozar 7.62 in FO2? the new it is Bozar in name only! :shakes fist:
No, it was .223 FMJ.
JESawyer 30 Sep 11
I never liked the Bozar in Fallout 2, am I terrible person for this? :c
yes sorry
JESawyer 30 Sep 11
Why do Paciencia's sights look a bit... off?
It's the rear sights; they're sort of skewed oddly. The front bead is accurate.
JESawyer 30 Sep 11
WMX/E pulled off new mods a hell of a lot better than GRA did. Seriously, how hard is it to just make the old weapons moddable, rather than spamming a bunch of new ones that are EXACTLY THE SAME?
The engine used for Fallout: New Vegas handles load order for .esm/.esp files differently on each platform (PC, PS3, Xbox 360). For purposes of this discussion, let's talk about the three that are relevant: FalloutNV.esm (the master .esm for Fallout: New Vegas), Update.esm (the patch) and GunRunnersArsenal.esm.
When we modify a form that exists in the base FalloutNV.esm and save it off in a new .esm, the base ID remains the same between the two so the engine understands that they are fundamentally the same form. When the engine loads the game, it loads the forms in FalloutNV.esm FIRST. After FalloutNV.esm is done loading, it starts to load in the other .esms. In this case, it loads Update.esm and GunRunnersArsenal.esm. If one of these .esms contains a form with the same base ID as a form in FalloutNV.esm, that form is overridden.
However, the platforms load these data files in a different order, and not consistently. If both Update.esm and GunRunnersArsenal.esm contained a form with the same base ID (e.g. a weapon that was previously patched), the engine may load the one in Update.esm last or the one in GunRunnersArsenal.esm last. If it loaded the one in Update.esm, it wouldn't matter that there were mods associated with the form in GunRunnersArsenal.esm.
In the not-so-terrible case, you get weapons that seemingly haphazardly have old stats/old mods or new stats/new mods. In the worst case, data in one .esm that relies on data in another loads first, attempts to reference the other data, can't find anything (because it hasn't loaded) and hangs or crashes the game.
On PCs, this is not an issue because there's a single platform and users can manually adjust their load order. For Gun Runners' Arsenal, creating GRA versions of weapons was the safest way to add items without generating a huge list of load order issues on different platforms.
JESawyer 30 Sep 11
Why were energy weapons users not given a perk like Cowboy or Grunt? Do you think Plasma Spaz and Laser Commander equal out to them? Don't get me wrong Laser Commander is pretty good but Plasma Spaz leaves some to be desired, and both seem inferior.
I think Laser Commander and Plasma Spaz are pretty good, but not quite as good as Cowboy/Grunt. In retrospect I don't think the damage bonus from Cowboy and Grunt needed to be quite that high.
JESawyer 30 Sep 11
For some reason I can't use the GRA Ammo. Not in GRA weapons, nor in normal weapons. Is it an ESM problem? or a load order problem? Should I change the load order somehow?
If you're playing on PC and are using mods, try disabling your mods. All of the "I can't load GRA ammo in my weapons" bugs I've seen have been on PC when someone is running a mod that replaces or otherwise affects ammo lists.
JESawyer 30 Sep 11
Is it more efficient to use .50 MG AP against a deathclaw rather than .50 MG Match? Since the AMR hits for more than 100 it seems like you'd get more than 15 damage more using Match, so wouldn't it ultimately do more damage? DT is confusing.
Yes, .50 MG Match should do more damage from an Anti-Materiel Rifle (about 5 more) in that situation if the weapon's CND is above 75. You need Hand Loader to make Match rounds, and it's a little more expensive in terms of lead and powder, but ultimately it's better.
JESawyer 30 Sep 11
how come the "Thought you died" perk affects the Survivalist's rifle but "Grunt" doest affect the bozar. and by the way both those guns are awesome. great job!
Thought You Died is a global increase to damage. Grunt uses a list to determine what weapons are affected. Because that list is a piece of data in an .esm, it has to be modified by referencing that .esm.
JESawyer responded to Pinheiro95 1 Oct 11
What exactly is the advantage of the 20 Gauge, 3/0 Buck Mag from GRA, is it just that there are 4 projectiles? I'm not really sure what the advantage is of that because it has the same stats as normal magnum rounds.
The base damage is divided among fewer projectiles, so each projectile does more damage. This is useful against lightly armored enemies, especially if you don't have Shotgun Surgeon.
JESawyer 1 Oct 11
is tim cain still alive?
Yes... ?
JESawyer 1 Oct 11
Would you rather have DT in its current implementation or a more elaborate system where you really need AP ammo to get through heavier armor?
I don't know about a more elaborate system, but I found in my tabletop game that allowing armor to completely negate damage was actually fine as long as the target still took fatigue damage. Fatigue was something that built up over time from certain types of attacks (especially damage absorbed by armor). When it passed the character's current HP, the character would be temporarily knocked out. Once the character was knocked out, it was much easier for almost anyone to kill him/her/it.
Fatigue depleted at the character's healing rate every round, so it was something that characters could "shake off" relatively quickly, but it prevented people from doing things like charging at guys with shotguns just because they were wearing armor that could absorb most of the damage.
JESawyer 1 Oct 11
Can I ask why you don't use the original weapons' actual names? Like why do you call the M16 a "Service Rifle"? Is it due to liscencing issues?
It's partially for that and also because they aren't "really" those weapons. We take liberties for animation and aesthetic reasons. Rather than provoke players into debating how "legit" a weapon is, I'd rather just give weapons a functional name that gets the basic idea across and leave it at that.
JESawyer 1 Oct 11
Henry Leland's bio says he is 39 and was hired by Halbech in 1977. Was he a bag boy equivalent or something, because he would be 9 if AP takes place in 2009
Beats me. I wasn't involved in any of AP's story development, sorry.
JESawyer 2 Oct 11
the power armors have nerfed drasticly since the first Fallout games... why?
If you didn't wear PA/APA in F1/F2, you were playing at a significant handicap if you wanted to participate in combat. The DT/DR system combined with PA/APA stats meant that endgame content was entirely "balanced" around wearing PA/APA. Fights were nickel-and-dime slugfests punctuated by triple damage armor-bypassing crits that would annihilate almost anyone -- including the player. Fighting the Enclave at Navarro is one of the best examples of this, but you can find it elsewhere in the late game of both F1 and F2.
Practically speaking, this means that if a player wants to play a combat character in F1/F2, their optimal choice for armor is always PA/APA. I think that limits player choice too much because the alternative options are significantly worse in almost all ways.
I don't know the design process for developing PA for F3, but for F:NV, I wanted Light and Medium armor options to be viable for the player in addition to Heavy. F:NV's DT system with a minimum damage percentage (20% in the shipped version of the game) means that against certain attacks, there is a point at which higher DT doesn't provide additional benefits.
The other major consideration is mobility. F3 used a finely granular sliding scale for adjusting movement speed based on carried weight. F:NV uses the weight category (Light, Medium, Heavy) of body outfits to adjust speed in more distinct increments.
JESawyer 2 Oct 11
Is Lt. Gorobets Ukrainian?
By ancestry, that is the implication, yes.
JESawyer 2 Oct 11
Did Obsidian ever run into problems with the ESRB over the writing in New Vegas? The story of New Vegas is hardly as squeamish as the rest of the games industry concerning things like mutilation, war crimes, and rape.
Not as far as I know.
JESawyer 2 Oct 11
Josh, why there so few children in FNV? And will you try to make future Obsidian games as ambitious as FNV? (you should, you guys are amazing sometimes)
Since children can't be killed in F:NV, I asked designers to use them sparingly. I also asked them to make the children as inoffensive as possible. This was not always successful.
JESawyer 3 Oct 11
You excited for iPhone 4S/5/3000/Whatever and other pieces of technology in the mobile space to be shown or comming out i,e, future Nokia WP7 phones, future HTC Android phones, WebOS's questionable future, Playstation Vita, quad-core phones etc?
No. I think the iPhone 4 generation + iPad were a nice step forward, but I haven't seen anything on the horizon that's "wow"ing me.
JESawyer 4 Oct 11
What dose the Sprtel-Wood mean in Sprtel-Wood 9700? If its a referance whats it from?
http://www.mail-archive.com/bikies@danenet.org/msg04114.html
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2010/09/brian_wood_heroic_video_game_d.php
JESawyer 5 Oct 11
bozar...more like BORE-zar amirite
damn
JESawyer 5 Oct 11
do u liek penuses?
mine is pretty decent imo
JESawyer 6 Oct 11
I know you guys can't technically do it, but *if you could have* would you have added the Bozar to the Grunt list? (I like this weapon, btw, a lot)
Yes. It's a LMG and should be affected by Grunt.
JESawyer 6 Oct 11
Apologies if this has been asked before, but is there a specific reason why the Armoured Vault 21 Jumpsuit was cut (that you can remember)? Showing it in the manual and E3 trailer (as well as the Lonesome Road trailer) was such a tease.
It was an unintentional omission.
JESawyer 8 Oct 11
why do the Legionnaires address the pc with 'ave' ? debent hic solus Caesar aut Centuris loquere. To 'degenerates like myself' they should say Salve, wahr nicht? Was this purposefully done? just as the variations in Latin pronunciation among legionaires?
I don't see why they would use "salve" instead of "ave". "Ave" is a pretty neutral/flexible form of address.
Variations in pronunciation among legionaries were usually due to errors during recording.
JESawyer 8 Oct 11
Why did you give Vulpes a unique voice? It seems like there were so many other more significant characters.
He's the first named member of the Legion most characters are likely to encounter.
JESawyer 9 Oct 11
In NV when heads explode at short range (i.e. taking named Fiend heads for the bounty,) the DT shield appears, do exploding heads actually inflict damage?
Any moving physics object (including gibs) have the ability to inflict damage if the velocity is high enough. The engine tracks damage down to the tenths or hundredths place, so the amount from stuff bouncing around is usually negligible.
JESawyer 9 Oct 11
Were you the lead of only one DLC because you were the lead of the core game or did you not want to be a big part of any more than one DLC?
Partially because I was the lead on the core game and also because I had to start preparation for our next project. Chris Avellone was also very interested in heading up the development of DLC content, so it all worked out pretty well.
JESawyer 10 Oct 11
Why are there no 1 cards in New Vegas?
???
what weapon is the grenade launcher based off of?
The rifle is based off of the M79. The launcher is based off of the "China Lake" prototype.
JESawyer responded to ohyesitsthecopz 11 Oct 11
is the 25mm grenade APW a unique grenade rifle, grenade launcher, grenade machine gun, or a weapon in its own class.
It is its own weapon.
JESawyer 11 Oct 11
He doesn't know Aces are 1
Aces are 1 (or 11, in Blackjack).
JESawyer 11 Oct 11
When Steam sells games for like, 5 bucks, how much of that does obsidian see?
It depends entirely on the contract with the publisher.
JESawyer 11 Oct 11
Why'd you imply that Yes Man was going to take over in the Independent ending? After going to all the work to take Vegas over myself it was kind of a bummer to learn Dave Foley was going to take it all away.
That's not the implication.
JESawyer 11 Oct 11
Dark Souls rocks!!!!
yah
JESawyer 11 Oct 11
How many more games do you think Obsidian will make until the studio has to finally shut down?
mysteries
JESawyer 11 Oct 11
hi josh... i just wanted to know... do u think im cute? ^_^
yes
no
maybe
JESawyer responded to SerMcWorst 12 Oct 11
RDR now has a hardcore mode (http://support.rockstargames.com/en...on-about-hardcore-mode-in-red-dead-redemption) F:NV has retro-actively copied it. FOR SHAME OBSIDIAN.
that owns
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
So was the Nuka Breaker a reference to the Nuka Break series?
Yes.
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
How did *you* handle Ulysses? I ask this of you, assuming you will answer on your own behalf and not that of any other entity. :sigh: probably you won't answer because then all the a-holes of the world will assume it's canon just because "Sawyer said!"
Well, I didn't work on LR outside of tuning the weapons, so authorial intent isn't really an issue here. As soon as I entered Ulysses' Temple I dumped a full magazine of Red Glare into his back, then Brush Gunned him and everyone else.
I sacrificed ED-E.
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
Why do you have the nickname "Serpiente" in the wacky New Vegas credits? I know it means Serpent or Snake in spanish, but why that one?
It was my name in my high school Spanish class. When I went to the upper-level classes, my new teacher said I couldn't use Serpiente, but I defied her.
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
Why do members of the Legion using the hard C pronunciation of Caesar? Is it to distinguish each other from the profligates?
That is how they learned to pronounce Caesar's name.
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
Why is "Eureka!" the name of the NCR's Hoover Dam quest?
It's the state motto of California.
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
Regarding Yes Man: That was the implication I got, whether it was the one you intended or not.
I didn't write it; John Gonzalez did.
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
Then what is the implication? That seems to be what everyone reads into it-- Yes Man reprogramming himself to be more 'assertive' is kind of ominous!
That he will not just roll over for the next person to walk up to him in the Courier's absence. I.e. he will become a somewhat-independent steward instead of a powerful tool for any random person to use for nefarious purposes.
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
Did you make the Enclave in F2 and FNV?
Not in F2, but in F:NV, I wrote Arcade and designed the characters/plot for For Auld Lang Syne. Jeff Husges did all of the quest implementation and wrote all of the Remnants' dialogue.
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
How many questions are waiting to be answered?
988.
JESawyer responded to Pinheiro95 12 Oct 11
Was the Survivalist's Rifle based off anything in particular? Like the M4 .50 Beowulf?
Yes, it was loosely based off of the .50 Beowulf AR-15 platform conversion.
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
just beat nv for the eighth time. thanks for the pimpin' game bro.
thx yw
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
Now that New Vegas is done and dusted what, if anything, would you have liked to have in the game that didn't make it?
Legion settlements east of the Colorado and a Legion-oriented companion.
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
When does Dark Souls get hard? I just made it to Ash Lake, and only died once. Have gamers gone soft? Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is a more challenging game this this.
you are very good at video games congratulations.
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
I assume you dress properly when you go touring about on your dandy-horse.
wat
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
What is a dandy horse anyway?
??
JESawyer 12 Oct 11
What song do you sing in the shower?
See how others responded
Wand'rers Nachtlied II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-l7XMZ1fVc
JESawyer 13 Oct 11
I made a 1INT Courier and tried to make him look as much like a primitive neanderthal as possible. He looked just like the guy from Gears of War.
cool
JESawyer 13 Oct 11
Is war going to change or what?
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
no
JESawyer responded to Pinheiro95 13 Oct 11
Is the service rifle a mish-mash of an AR-15 and an original AR-10?
Yeah sorta.
JESawyer 13 Oct 11
Why is there a large chunk of emptiness on the entire left-hand side of the Mojave Wasteland map? The contours on the map look like there's supposed to be a large basin past the Canyon Wreckage, but it's never been opened, even with Lonesome Road.
Because that's where the Spring Mountains actually run in the real world. The Mojave Wasteland's map was made using actual USGS topographical data (scaled down, and with the Colorado River widened). The outer "border" of the map is a perfect square only because that's what F3 had. Unlike the Mojave Wasteland, the Capital Wasteland was constructed to be a perfect square, so the map border and the playable area match almost exactly.
For Honest Hearts, we had another asymmetrical/oddly shaped map (also constructed from scaled-down USGS data), but we pulled the borders in to closely match where the playable area actually ends.
[]
Here, the dotted line closely hugs the walls of the valley. There's no real expectation that the player can move past that line.
If you look at this Mojave Wasteland map, there is no "outer" border and no terrain outside of the playable space, just a plain black line at the edge.
http://www.supercheats.com/guides/files/guid/fallout-new-vegas/mojave-wasteland-map.gif
Compare that to the in-game map, where there is NO border to the playable space, only to the map itself:
[]
JESawyer 13 Oct 11
Why does the Arc Welder from Lonesome Road suck so much?
Unless you have a terrible Energy Weapons score or are using it against enemies it is not made for, it doesn't. Especially if you use it against robots, it will annihilate them in no time.
JESawyer 13 Oct 11
What is the purpose of the battle rifle? It has lower stats than This Machine in every way.
Many people would like their companions to use This Machine, but do not want to worry about their companions losing the weapon. Also, not everyone wants to do Contreras' quest
JESawyer 13 Oct 11
Was the platinum chip made in Sunnyvale California as an homage to Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I realize it's an actual place, but it inspired Sunnydale.
It was made in Sunnyvale as an homage to War Games.
JESawyer 16 Oct 11
Why is a game that makes back less than twice it's budget considered a flop? What's wrong with just breaking even? I know you're not the ideal person to ask this question to, but I'm sure you have some insight in this.
Because the majority of people who invest in public companies are petulant/short-sighted/don't care.
JESawyer 18 Oct 11
That's not fair. If you were in the shoes of a middle class or lower class individual betting their families well being on the income/turn out of the stock based on sales would you have that attitude like most gamers do?
A person who is responsible for a family should not be betting his or her family's well-being on volatile stocks. If a person's investment portfolio lives or dies on one stock, for which the sales of a single product have a major impact, that is a bad portfolio. I don't think you have to be Suze Orman to figure that out.
JESawyer 18 Oct 11
Who in Honest Hearts did you write? Joshua and Daniel were both really awesome.
Thanks. I wrote Joshua and Daniel.
JESawyer 18 Oct 11
Some companies (such as Paradox Interactive) claim that "middle class" games (100K-500K sales) are booming due to digital distribution but "AAA" developers are saying that such games are economically unfeasible. Are they lying?
AAA developers are really just speculating because they aren't the ones making "middle class" games. Making smaller scope games within a larger dev house can also present logistics issues due to how teams are typically structured.
JESawyer 19 Oct 11
Can you post a picture of yourself when you were more fatter?
The picture of me on Wikipedia is from when I was more overweight. I was 265 at my heaviest, but probably 235 in that picture. I'm a little over 180 now.
JESawyer 19 Oct 11
When designing quests for NV, did you have a "dumber" audience in mind compared to your previous games?
No.
JESawyer 19 Oct 11
Why didn't New Vegas delve deeper into the Mormon backgrounds of the followers of the apocalypse?
The FotA don't have a Mormon background, they just happen to occupy Old Mormon Fort.
JESawyer 19 Oct 11
why was the strip seperated into 3 loading screens in the final game?
Memory problems caused crashing in both The Strip and Freeside, so they had to be split up.
JESawyer 19 Oct 11
Do you sing as a hobby or in a band or anything? and if not, what was the reasoning behind getting you to sing for the Tops acts? (you did a really good job btw, I'm a fan!)
Thanks. I don't sing in a band. We needed some songs for The Lonesome Drifter and didn't really have time to find a pro to do it. They were all recorded one Saturday or Sunday afternoon, I think.
JESawyer 19 Oct 11
Do you lift/advocate staying in shape? I wish more people took care of their bodies while spoiling themselves with entertainment like video games in moderation instead of the "f that playing D&D while munching on a big mac & sippin mtdew! Yeaah!" attitude
I don't lift anymore but I do advocate staying in shape. I commute to work by bicycle twice a week and do a long ride on the weekend, averaging a total of about 110 miles a week.
JESawyer 19 Oct 11
your a goon
relax i'm a goon
JESawyer 19 Oct 11
How come very few people occupy the snowy part of the Mojave when it appears to be in much better shape than the rest of it? Are they really that terrified of the super mutants, or is it the Fiends making it too dangerous to travel that way?
Super Mutants and Cazadores are a big part of it.
JESawyer 19 Oct 11
Who is the shortest at Obsidian?
Travis Stout is 5'3" and after consulting him I believe he currently is The Shortest Obsidianite.
JESawyer 19 Oct 11
Do you think the success of games like Dark Souls and Demon Souls will encourage other devs to start making more challenging and strategic gameplay?
I hope so, though I think the tactical elements of Dark Souls' combat are more compelling than the strategic considerations.
JESawyer 20 Oct 11
What situations is the nail gun useful in? Other than being silent, it seems generally inferior to other SMGs.
It has a few things going for it:
* High ammo capacity
* Extremely easy ammo crafting requirements
* 5 points of DT bypass (nails)
* Silent
JESawyer responded to Mahare 20 Oct 11
Do you happen to use any PC mods when (if) you play New Vegas for personal use?
I use my own mod that I made after LR/GRA/CS came out. It's mostly a bunch of bug fixes and balance tweaks that never (for various reasons) made it into patches. The rest of the modifications just make the game harder overall (increased H20/FOD/SLP rates, lower base health, much lower carry weight, etc.).
JESawyer 20 Oct 11
Why couldn't you make your hardcore tweaks part of the game in a higher difficulty setting?
Making them my own default in a mod is different from making them part of an optional mode. Additionally, I only do superficial testing of my own mod because it's just for me. Finally, it would appeal to a decreasingly small number of players.
JESawyer 20 Oct 11
So it's not worth putting in meaningful difficulty tweaks instead of arbitrarily inflating enemy hitpoints? I think gamers looking for a challenge would prefer those tweaks compared to "Very Hard" in NV - which I doubt was playtested seperately.
"Very Hard" was already implemented in F3. Hardcore mode was new for F:NV and was a meaningful difficulty tweak.
JESawyer 20 Oct 11
Could you possibly upload your personal mod somewhere?
I still need to do some more work on it, but sure.
JESawyer 20 Oct 11
Why is Obsidian's view of 'hard' generally bullet sponging enemies? There ARE other ways to make enemies hard, you know...
It isn't our "view", and if you're talking about F:NV DLC creatures, those enemies have to scale across an enormous range of character levels. It would be a little silly to ignore that the player's damage output can increase dramatically as he/she gains access to additional perks and gear, but that range can be very wide. As a result, it's difficult to find creature HP values that feel right for a variety of points in those ranges.
JESawyer 21 Oct 11
What the hell is the 'fallout lounge couch'?
It's a couch in the Fallout lounge.
JESawyer 21 Oct 11
[SCIENCE 17/90] hey uhh chris, why don't we just have our programmers make us an engine?
wat
JESawyer 21 Oct 11
describe your tats bro
they're sick bro
JESawyer 22 Oct 11
how many calories do you consume per day
Today, I had 1775.
JESawyer 22 Oct 11
The FO wiki page on the Sprtel-Wood 9700 says "The Sprtel-Wood 9700 is a homage to Scott Sprtel, a medical student who was run over while on his bike, and Brian Wood, a game designer at Relic Entertainment who was killed in a traffic collision."This true?
Yes.
JESawyer responded to Pavlov8 22 Oct 11
Have you seen the vulpes inculta shimeji? http://minicow.deviantart.com/art/vulpes-inculta-shimeji-185391342
lol
JESawyer 22 Oct 11
What is your favored D&D class?
In 2nd Ed., Specialty Priests, in 3E/3.5E, Fighters/Rogues. In 4th Ed., I've only played a Bard and a Warden, but I've liked my Warden the best.
JESawyer 22 Oct 11
What is your BMI
I need to do one of those dunkin' things, but it's probably in the low 20s.
JESawyer 22 Oct 11
What are "dummy" effects used for and how?
Dummy effects are used to display text descriptions of weapon effects that normally don't show up in the GUI (e.g. Bonus Crit Damage, Bonus Crit Chance, etc.). Some of these stats are pretty significant elements that a player might want to know, but the engine doesn't have a mechanism to display them.
JESawyer responded to Jayalay 23 Oct 11
Who came up with the quest titles? They're awesome and introduced me to a lot of great music, so if you did any of them, thanks!
We all did, drawing from a pretty broad pool of (mostly) 1950s music.
play shoadow run?
Not in many years.
JESawyer 23 Oct 11
Which is more OP, Crissaegrim or Shield Rod?
Crissaegrim.
JESawyer responded to Kastera10000 23 Oct 11
Were the unique spiked knuckles, Love and Hate a reference to anything, like the movie "Do The Right Thing"?
Night of the Hunter and Do The Right Thing.
JESawyer 23 Oct 11
Why make the NV casinos unrobbable? Doesn't that kind of defy all logic in a post-apocalyptic world?
Is not being able to rob casinos really where the logic brakes get put on in Fallout?
JESawyer 23 Oct 11
Are you satisfied with the player's first meeting with Graham? The activity you find him in the middle of fits with the preconceived notions that the player no doubt has of him. But the player's introduction to him doesn't seem grand enough.
Ecce homo.
JESawyer 23 Oct 11
Why was Marilyn cut? Since she is featured on the cards and Veronica alludes to her, I'm guessing she was cut rather late in the development process?
Apparently, there were some errors with her VO that weren't able to be fixed, so she was cut.
JESawyer 23 Oct 11
Who did the Boomer mural? It's great.
Brian Menze.
JESawyer responded to RileyAchen 23 Oct 11
Ok, really, what's the deal with some people pronouncing Ceasar's legion "Kaesar" and other people pronouncing it "Seesar" why does this happen, and what's the proper pronounciation?
Most Legion folk pronounce it using classical Latin pronunciation (kai-zar) because that is how they learned the name from Caesar. Most non-Legion people (and a few ex-Legion people, like Joshua Graham) use the ecclesiastical/Catholic pronunciation.
JESawyer 23 Oct 11
How is it that most of the people of the shown Fallout world can pronounce/speak/read English?
Most of them were raised in communities of English speakers. In the case of vaults, residents certainly had access to education.
JESawyer 23 Oct 11
Who wrote the Vikki and Vance story and Primm Slim? Funny stuff.
Akil Hooper.
JESawyer responded to SerMcWorst 24 Oct 11
http://forums.bethsoft.com/index.php?/topic/1245470-ashur-and-caesar/ Ashur was a minor character in a DLC. Caesar is one of the major antagonists in Fallout: New Vegas and has tons of opportunities to explains his views. Reflect, Josh, reflect.
Ashur is an interesting character. The point of Ashur is also much different than the point of Caesar. I don't want to speak on behalf of John Gonzalez (who wrote Caesar), but while you are not necessarily supposed to DISlike Caesar, it was not our intention to make Caesar someone who is easy to like, nor his autocratic rule something that you react to by saying, "Oh, well it's totally justified."
If a person says, "I don't like Caesar," I wonder if that person doesn't like Caesar as a character or doesn't like Caesar as person. If you don't like Caesar as a person, that's not surprising. He's pretty unlikable for a variety of reasons. He is a domineering tyrant who runs things in a way where he is effectively unchallenged, and it produces a narrow vision in him. No one in the Legion *debates* Caesar, and he has ruled through brutality for so long that it's now just the way things work in Legion territory. Ultimately, Caesar is an educated tyrant living in an echo chamber of his own creation. Despite having a long-term vision for the future, he is quite short-sighted. If you were expecting Caesar to be grey and found him to be black, I'd argue that he's still grey, but he's intentionally a very dark grey. Tamerlane and Charles Taylor also had reasons for doing the things they did, but it doesn't make the things they did any less terrible.
On a related note, I've written before that I believe the gender roles in the Legion were not effectively communicated in the game. Through Legionaries, it is portrayed as misogyny, which was never the rationale I had in mind for Caesar's motivations. Caesar wanted women to stay out of battle because he wanted to produce as many Legionaries as possible as quickly as possible. It wasn't about the fighting (or other) capabilities of women, but the simple fact that women are the only ones who can bear children, so he wanted them doing that as much as possible. Unfortunately, I don't believe Caesar ever says anything about this directly, so the player is left with the very misogynistic statements of various Legionaries. It's still reprehensible, but for a different reason.
JESawyer 24 Oct 11
Is there a reason that all mirrors in the world of Fallout are broken? I know Obisidian didn't make the worldspace object, Bethesda did, but do you know why? ive always been curious
Because the engine doesn't do real-time reflections in that way.
JESawyer 25 Oct 11
Can you explain the Kaiz-arr vs Seezer bit to me? Okay, so say Julius Caesar, is it Kaisar still or is Kaisar reflectant of Caesar as a title and not a name? I've been curious if the name was differently said than the title.
Using classical Latin pronunciation, the name Gaius Julius Caesar would be pronounced ga-yoos yoo-lee-oos kai-zar.
It would have been spelled GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR (sometimes with the Æ ligature) as there were no Js or Us in the classical Latin alphabet.
JESawyer responded to TraderRager 25 Oct 11
On Caesar- If he is only interested in protecting women from war, why are they not given the same personal freedom as soldiers? It's one thing to not allow them to serve out of preservation, but EVERYTHING points to all Femalegionares being slaves.(cont.)
Soldiers in Caesar's Legion don't have personal freedom. They "get" to fight and die for Caesar. It's not a volunteer military, though many legionaries are born or raised into it, so they are effectively brainwashed.
JESawyer responded to TraderRager 25 Oct 11
(cont.) Even in ancient Rome, women were treated with some respect and had lives of their own. Why are they forced into slave labor in the Legion? Wouldn't it be better for both moral and publicity if they worked out of their own drive?
Everyone is forced into service under the Legion. Morale among legionaries is good (because most are raised into it) and he doesn't really give a shit about publicity.
JESawyer 25 Oct 11
Not the same anon, but re: morale: wouldn't ancient Romans have been "born into it" too? The idea that everyone in the Legion is okay with how things are just because it's all they've ever known doesn't jive with how people function as human beings.
Ancient Romans were born into a patrician and plebeian society that was far more than a military organization. First, there was a Rome. Second, there were patrician families from which military commanders (not common Roman Legion scrubs) were groomed. But from bottom to top, Roman society revered Rome and Roman virtues.
I completely disagree with your statement about how people function. Going along with the way things are is *exactly* how most people function as human beings. And the younger people are indoctrinated, the more zealous they will be. You don't need to go that far back to see the power of this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_SS_Panzer_Division_Hitlerjugend
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Guards_(China)
JESawyer 25 Oct 11
The history of the red guards directly refutes your point since in the later years they were increasingly autonomous and contradictory towards the CCP and each other.
Clearly revolution would never happen if *no one* ever changed (and in the case of the Red Guard, it was a movement of one large group against another), but to suggest that people *don't* naturally go along with the way things are as a rule -- that flies in the face of pretty much everything we know about social and personal behavior.
This goes right down to the basic fundamental reaction (or lack of reaction) you find in individuals when they are paired with another person. Alone, they react to stimulus very quickly and often "do the right thing". Paired with another person, people tend to look to each other and do nothing unless they are urged to do so. And if an authority figure tells them to do something, absolving them of responsibility with the order, they will often follow directions to absurd lengths.
My Lai went down with very little resistance. Hugh Thompson, Jr. is a hero because HE took it upon himself to intervene against his own side when no one else -- on the ground or otherwise -- would. Most people only get up and do things when they see other people get up and do things. Those people are exceptional. Sometimes they're exceptionally bad, sometimes they're exceptionally good. Most people just go with the flow -- or wait for someone else to lead the charge.
JESawyer 25 Oct 11
Just how expendable are troops to the Legion? Roman tactics involved 2 lines of fresh meat, then a third line (Triarii) that would devastate the opponents that have tired themselfs killing the first 2. Does NV's Legion do similar?
That's exactly what the Recruits, Primes, and Veterans are.
JESawyer 26 Oct 11
Reducing women to breeding material is, uh, still misogyny? Not really "another" reason, that. "Women can't go to war; they need to make babies" is something women hear today, and it's plain old sexism. No need for new words. Caesar's still gross/inept 
All members of Caesar's society are forced into specific roles. It's kind of bizarre to say that reducing women to breeders (which select legionaries are also forced to participate in, by arrangement) is misogynistic but forcing all able-bodied men to fight or die is... apparently not misandric? It's not like Caesar is giving men (who, again, with the exception of the Blackfoots, were either directly enslaved as children or born to enslaved women, never knowing their fathers) the option to fight or raise ponies.
JESawyer 26 Oct 11
A My Lai scenario should've been in NV to counterbalance against the NCR bias. The Ashur decision is a hard one compare to the NCR/Legion. Legion was too abundantly obvious while with NCR you had to really read between the lines.
Bitter Springs is NCR's massacre, though no one portrays it as being as depraved as My Lai.
JESawyer 26 Oct 11
Would you ever consider wearing a tonsure?
http://diogenes-lamp.info/images/halloweencostume2004.JPG
JESawyer 26 Oct 11
...Except there's nothing in the setting that suggests women are *valued* as mothers in the way the militaristic culture rewards fighting men. They're slaves/property. A few more lines from Caesar doesn't "separate but equal" make.
How are the fighting men rewarded (other than with more fighting responsibilities)? Don't conflate historical Rome with Caesar's Legion. There are no "Roman triumphs" for legionaries in the latter. I never suggested that they were separate but equal, only that it's a bizarre double-standard to insist on misogyny alone (which is quite different from "simple" sexism against females since it demands a level of hatred) considering that men are being forced (and, in fact, raised solely) to kill and die. If Lucius were to "retire", it would be through his own death.
Caesar doesn't hate women. He doesn't think they are incapable of doing things other than breeding. He has no problem with employing a female Courier to be his agent in the Mojave. But he does want his female slaves to breed more legionaries (as they are the only ones who CAN do it) and he wants his male slaves to fight. The females who can't breed are manual labor slaves (or killed), just as the males who can't fight are manual labor slaves (or killed).
JESawyer 26 Oct 11
Could Caesar really win a war of attrition with the NCR, or is he just deluded by an environment of yes-men into believing they have the numbers for ancient tactics to still work when the enemy is just cutting down your front lines with gunfire?
Primes, Veterans, and even some Recruits use powerful firearms. Most of the legionaries who use melee weapons are early/weak scrubs. It's true that some Centurions and most Praetorian Guards also use melee/unarmed weapons, but as people who assault those characters in close quarters (where they are often encountered) can probably attest, it's not much of an impediment for them.
As to whether or not Caesar has the numbers to ultimately win (and hold power) in the long run, that's unknown.
JESawyer responded to SerMcWorst 26 Oct 11
Is there any particular reason people seem to be convinced that NCR is just about to implode in New Vegas? There's no evidence of that and honestly, NCR mostly resembles a pre-Wild West years USA and.. it's still not exploded to this day.
Chief Hanlon strongly suggests that, in addition to the general corruption and incompetence that the player sees himself/herself all over the game, that NCR's government and electorate are terrible. There's also the abandonment of NCR's inflated (fiat) currency in favor of Hub merchant-backed caps in many areas. It's unlikely that a government/society as large as NCR's would quickly "implode", but it could easily be pushed into a inexorable downward spiral (e.g., through hyperinflation of currency).
JESawyer 26 Oct 11
no ghouls or supermutants in ceasars legion....explain
It's hard to brainwash people who have been alive for a hundred+ years. More importantly, non-feral ghouls and SMs are also a tiny fragment of the population. Caesar doesn't really consider them to be that relevant in the overall struggle for the Mojave.
JESawyer 26 Oct 11
How many women work as game developers where you work?
About 10 or so (out of Obsidian's 100+ devs). It's actually a lot higher now than it was when I started in the late 90s (i.e., zero).
JESawyer 26 Oct 11
For a tribal, is it better to be apart of Caesar's Legion or to stay in the tribe?
It depends on the tribe. Clearly the White Legs think being part of the Legion would be awesome compared to slowly falling apart in Utah.
JESawyer 26 Oct 11
why arent there more racism roleplaying options in NV.
It don't think it would really add much to the game.
JESawyer 26 Oct 11
Doesn't the whole NCR is incompetent and corrupt aspect get undermined by the epilogues where NCR has the best possible endings (moreso than House and Wild Card) even though the Courier is one person and can only do so much?
I don't think NCR's endings being "best" is a given. Depending on how you work things out, NCR's can be very good, but so can the Wild Card endings. Some of the best NCR endings involving the player circumventing the plans NCR has for certain factions (e.g. the Kings, Great Khans, BoS, FotA). If you don't set up those endings yourself, the NCR will effectively steamroll all of those groups following (or before) an NCR victory.
JESawyer 27 Oct 11
Why do the holograms of dead money use the dragon ball solar flare?
they're super saiyan
JESawyer 27 Oct 11
How can you say there is no sexism when Siri herself says that the men can take advantage of any woman? Even Lanius is implied to be a violent rapist. Seriously.
"How can you say there is no sexism" I didn't. Sexism is different than misogyny and misandry, and Caesar is (quite clearly) different from ordinary legionaries.
JESawyer 28 Oct 11
Looking at Wikipedia, very few games have sold 5 million copies - yet we often hear that the sequel to game X will be more "accessible" because the original only sold 3.5 million etc. Is it really realistic to sell 5 million copies of every single game?
No, it's an absurd expectation.
JESawyer 28 Oct 11
But Caesar specifically constructed the Legion society, so it's hard to believe a guy who recognizes women can be as capable, or moreso, than men would ensure that no capable women could be of any use to his Legion beyond acting as semen recepticles.
You know what men are not as capable of doing as women? Giving birth to children. I think it is really bizarre that so many people think that creating new legionaries is a lowly thing and fighting/dying is noble and awesome. Women aren't celebrated for creating more legionaries as women were celebrated in Nazi Germany...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_Honor_of_the_German_Mother
... but there's also very little to suggest that Caesar celebrates individual legionaries beyond promoting them to higher ranks. Caesar's Legion is not the Roman Republic (nor the Roman Empire); it's a roving army comprised primarily of reconditioned slaves or children born to slaves. Non-Legion people live in areas controlled by the Legion, but those folks aren't *part* of the Legion (e.g. Dale Barton).
JESawyer 28 Oct 11
...So is life in Legion-controlled lands any better for women? You seem to keep moving the goalposts.
I'm not moving the "goalposts" at all. It is interesting to watch people try to squirm intention out of Caesar that he certainly never explicitly states, nor even suggests.
How is life for non-slave women in Legion-controlled territories? It's never shown in the game. It's one of the things I would have liked to explore more in Legion areas outside of the Fort. Certainly characters like Dale Barton indicate that there is life outside of the Legion itself even in territories they control.
JESawyer 28 Oct 11
One token Nazi medal for pure aryan mothers hardly balances the the vast, VAST majority of male-dominated civilizations throughout history that have treated women as sub-human or property. Men in the Legion have power, women don't have any.
Why are people so obsessed with the "balance" between the different gendered roles under the Legion? I've never said it's balanced. But there is very clearly a trend among people questioning the Legion to project the concept of military service as a noble endeavor (for which one is rewarded, no less) onto legionnaires when it's never presented in that way. They are slave soldiers. Service is not voluntary, they can't retire, there are no parades and pats on the back for them. They aren't Roman patrician officers who are going to retire to a Tuscan estate when they turn 50.
The only power that male legionaries have is to serve Caesar well enough to be promoted to a position of more responsibility. Nothing really comes with that additional responsibility other than increased scrutiny and better equipment (to match the increased danger).
Most of my commentary on this topic has been to highlight the following:
* Caesar's Legion is subdivided (by Caesar) based on gendered/sexed roles. These subdivisions are sexist (inherently), but they are neither misogynistic nor misandric.
* Legionaries under Caesar are not like Roman patrician officers. They are not part of a larger society that celebrates and rewards military service with things like conference of honorific titles, triumphs, etc. All legionaries are slave soldiers, period.
* The opinions of individual legionaries are not the opinions of Caesar. These individuals may make misogynistic comments, but those comments did not originate with Caesar, nor is there any reason to believe that he shares them, given his willingness to employ a female courier.
If you want to weigh the individual horror of rape and forced child-bearing against forced military service for life, knock yourself out. It's two terrible ways to go through life.
JESawyer 28 Oct 11
Was it planned to have more Legion territory in the game, but it had to be cut, or was it never intended to show much of the Legion? It seems like the area East of the Colorado river is really underused, and the Legion really only has 2 or 3 major areas.
Yes. There were three additional Legion locations planned on the east side of the Colorado River.
JESawyer 28 Oct 11
Sawyer, it's not that childbirth is lowly, it's that being *raped* against your will and forced to carry children is hardly good times. + a pacifist stance doesn't translate well into a setting for a FPS where every level brings shiny new killing methods.
I never said it's "good times". What I object to is elevating slave legionaries to the level of (patrician) Roman legionaries in an effort to emphasize how women alone have it bad and men are living the high life. They both have crappy lives, neither have a choice in the matter, and I'm not particularly interested in weighing the depths of misery by sex.
JESawyer 29 Oct 11
Why use Caesar's Legion to represent the worst of of Roman society? It all feels like a loose facade for an asshole to be an asshole.
You may be on to something.
JESawyer 29 Oct 11
Would you make a Caesar's Legion DLC if given a chance, now that it's clear you didn't manage to show it properly in the main game?
It would be tricky to do it as DLC, since it would potentially be asking people to pay for content that they're not interested in exploring other than as a battleground.
I do wish we had time for the three additional Legion locations, though.
JESawyer 29 Oct 11
For the planned Legion territories, why were they cut from the main game?
Time. Re-scoping the size of worldspaces can be very problematic, so we developed areas essentially in a loose radial pattern, working out from Novac (the first area we developed). Because the Legion camps were on the other side of the Colorado River, they were scheduled for late development because the natural barrier presented by the river meant that cutting off access would be relatively easy. Unfortunately, that's what we wound up doing.
JESawyer 29 Oct 11
Given what you've shared on CL doesn't that imply that the Legion may very well implode on itself if the troops have nothing to look forward to other then ultimately death for Caesar?
Many players have suggested that Caesar's Legion does not have long-term prospects based on a variety of factors.
JESawyer 31 Oct 11
Is it typical/advantageous to begin world-building from a different location then where the player begins the game? I guess I presumed you would have started from Goodsprings and built along the critical path first.
Yes, because you are most likely to make errors in the first area you build. Also, it's likely that your game mechanics are still in a bit of flux. You don't want to build tutorials that you are going to have to scrap.
I always try to push to build a mid-game area first, saving the opening area for the middle of development.
JESawyer 31 Oct 11
What's your first Skyrim character going to be?
Probably some creepy Breton with archery, alchemy, and sneak. That's what I played in Oblivion and it worked out well.
JESawyer 31 Oct 11
You really don't understand why people think women get the worst lot in the Legion? At least the men have some degree of dignity and power, the women are nothing more than mobile orifices whose minds are of no value.
No, I didn't say that. In fact, I denied stating that gender roles are balanced only about 9 questions ago.
JESawyer 31 Oct 11
So your going to be a cracker in Skyrim?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdSYhwLENvM
JESawyer responded to AlmightyHiggey 31 Oct 11
Ever raged at a game?
I used to get ultra-ragey, but not so much anymore. Even Dark Souls doesn't get me that mad. The game that made me angrier than any other game was Tribes 2. It made me so mad once that I thought I was going to black out.
JESawyer 1 Nov 11
Why is Three Marys so full of garbage? The White Legs didn't haul all kinds of pre-war junk they're clueless about (electronic doodads, coffee makers, microscopes,) from SLC, did they?
They both haul around junk and litter with the stuff they go through.
JESawyer 1 Nov 11
I haven't played Lonesome Road but is there an explanation behind all those "JOIN THE JUSTICE BLOC!" and Humanity Bloc posters scattered around in the loading screens?
Vault 11.
JESawyer 2 Nov 11
why there is no difference at most of the dlc weapons between the modded and unmodded versions? holo-rifle, LAER, k-9000, etc
There is a pretty significant difference between the plain and modded/unique versions of all of those weapons. Specifically, the Holorifle and K9000 become extremely powerful with one upgrade, each.
JESawyer 2 Nov 11
How much research on LDS traditions/teachings/ect did you do for HH?
I did less research on the LDS and more research on texts like the Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price, since individual books were more likely to endure than the larger LDS culture. I also spoke with a few Mormons (currently practicing and ex-) I know about the characters and general content involved to get their feedback.
JESawyer 2 Nov 11
Hey Josh, why does Graham have a band on his arm? Is it a religious signifigance or is it something for his gun arm? Or is it purely decor?
It's a sleeve garter. They were pretty common in 19th century America. We see them today mostly in Western movies on characters like barkeeps, dealers, or surgeons. They're used to hold the sleeves up while doing work.
On Joshua Graham, he has his on his strong/firing hand to ensure the sleeve doesn't distract him.
JESawyer responded to DAMacMahon 2 Nov 11
If you could reboot any RPG series you did NOT work on, which would it be?
d
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k
l
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--,---'--@
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/darklands?pp=cb4e5208b4cd87268b208e49452ed6e89a68e0b8
JESawyer 3 Nov 11
Darklands is fun and all, but you need to make a Shadowrun game.
Computers have not yet been invented that can simulate that many d6s.
JESawyer 4 Nov 11
According to Feargus Urquheart, your RPGs are to the gaming industry what "Transformers" is to the film industry. I guess we can forget any kind of depth or complexity from your future games huh?
Tune in next week for another episode of Feargus Said A Thing.
JESawyer 6 Nov 11
Do you like Thief the game?
Yes it is a good game.
JESawyer responded to DAMacMahon 6 Nov 11
Why do developers use the same FOV for console and PC versions when they have to know a larger FOV is best for the PC? I can't imagine it is a time/budget issue, since usually a mod or tweak can change it in 5 seconds.
A 70 degree FoV is pretty wide. If you shoot the FoV up to 80 or 90 in F:NV it's even more fish-eyed.
JESawyer 6 Nov 11
asdf
agreed
JESawyer 6 Nov 11
Feargus said tim cain died
feargus lied tim cain died
JESawyer 6 Nov 11
why is benny's suite so damn grody
he's a grosso
JESawyer 6 Nov 11
Why does .45-70 SWC cause such a severe degradation penalty?
It's a very hot hand load. Normal .45-70 Gov't loads are pretty mild, but the case can hold a lot of powder.
JESawyer 7 Nov 11
You gonna try out that new free to play Tribes thing?
Probably.
JESawyer 7 Nov 11
Why do some people who ride bikes always have one pant leg rolled up when riding, like some sort of minority gang member from the mid-late '90s?
Because if you don't have a chain guard, your drive-side pant leg can get caught in the chain.
JESawyer responded to J05HDA 8 Nov 11
Is this the first time you've attempted to do this 'write a novel in a month' thing?
No. I never get very far, mostly because I'm only really interested in writing historical fiction. That's a bad genre to "just write".
JESawyer 8 Nov 11
Why wouldn't you have a chain guard?
They're ugly as heck and make chain/rear wheel maintenance a little more difficult.
JESawyer responded to DAMacMahon 8 Nov 11
You really think an FOV of 70 is okay for a PC monitor you sit a couple feet from? I'm not going to go rabid PC angry man on you, but I do disagree completely. Why were old PC exclusives usually made with higher FOV then?
Probably because a lot of those older games were competitive FPSs where you never saw your character and (typically) were fighting at short distances, making lateral awareness very important. Widening the FoV also extends apparent distance, making it more difficult to clearly see things on the horizon.
JESawyer 8 Nov 11
get a tape
what
JESawyer 8 Nov 11
Hello J.E. Both Icewind Dale and F:NV have brought me grate joy... but right now i feel depressed, could you give any tips to get out of love related depressions?
I've never been good at it, myself.
JESawyer 8 Nov 11
you should shave
no u
JESawyer 8 Nov 11
It seems from leftover content that the Varmint rifle was originally intended to use .22 ammo (which makes more sense), but then switched over to 5.56. Do you know/remember why?
The .22LR variant did such pathetic damage that no one wanted to use it.
.223 Rem. is a popular varmint caliber. Making the Varmint Rifle use 5.56mm/.223 was mostly for convenience.
JESawyer 8 Nov 11
so bro what do you thin of mw3
http://i.imgur.com/0hxG7.gif
JESawyer 9 Nov 11
Was that .gif image your cats?
it's me
JESawyer 9 Nov 11
What video is that cat .gif from?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bETCusT5kNM
JESawyer 9 Nov 11
Concerning things like Grunt weapons in GRA, is there a reason why you couldn't patch new lists and stuff into the base game, so that both DLCs could access it?
Load order conflicts between the various .esms. Even in my personal mod, I have to use a third-party manager to prevent run-time hangs.
JESawyer 9 Nov 11
In one of the Gamestop preview vids, I saw what looked to be an anti-material rifle with a computer screen on top. What the hell was that?
It was probably the Grenade Machine Gun.
JESawyer 9 Nov 11
So Josh, about that mod you promised you'd release.. We're still waiting for it. 
cool
JESawyer 9 Nov 11
Is Obsidian going to talk about anything besides Tim Cain's contractorship and St. Vincent soon?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADBKdSCbmiM&ob=av2n
JESawyer 10 Nov 11
Do you have anything to do with the production of skyrim?
Nope.
JESawyer 10 Nov 11
If I was an eccentric hedge fund manager would i be able to commission Obsidian for a Zybourne Clock game.
imagine five european economies at the edge of a cliff
JESawyer 11 Nov 11
Does it bother you that a large portion of the ignorant herds only recognize you as one of the dudes responsible for Fallout stuff (FNV, VB) and either don't care about/don't recognize your accomplishments on other projects?
No.
JESawyer 12 Nov 11
hey josh, do you already walked on the streets and someone recognizes you about your job?
Never.
JESawyer 12 Nov 11
Do you work at Saturday or sunday?
Not lately, but sometimes.
JESawyer 12 Nov 11
Ever considered supporting your local debate team? If you have time you should give judging a try.
I was a high school forensics judge in college.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensics_(public_speaking)#High_School
JESawyer 13 Nov 11
Really? Wow what events did you do? I tend to stick with LD and USX myself.
When I was in high school, I did "Solo Serious" (what is now called Dramatic Interpretation/DI). As a judge, I judged DI, Humorous Interpretation, Prose Reading, and Poetry Reading.
JESawyer 15 Nov 11
What do you think of Skyrim so far? Also, Black Donald looks a lot uglier than I thought he'd be.
It's been fun so far. Black Donald is intentionally made to be very creepugly.
JESawyer responded to DAMacMahon 16 Nov 11
Not a question: Okay, so because of your FOV answers I started playing Skyrim on the default setting. It felt really cramped for a long time but eventually I got used to it. Then I changed it to 90 and found it really fish-eyed and distant. So you win.
^________________^
JESawyer 16 Nov 11
What do you think of dopplegangers? Would you ever consider them valid in a Fallout game, or in media in general?
They're cool.
JESawyer responded to Formspring 16 Nov 11
How many hours do you sleep each night?
5 to 6.
JESawyer 17 Nov 11
So what would you do if your favorite fictional character were drawn having sex with another character of the same sex despite them being heterosexual?
Par for the course.
JESawyer responded to Evanwastaken 17 Nov 11
were native americans annihilated in FO's divergent timeline?
Not explicitly, no. There are a lot of NA tribes scattered all over the country -- and plenty individuals who are ethnically NA but do not live in NA communities -- so a fair number (percentage-wise) probably lived through the war in various ways.
JESawyer 17 Nov 11
were you in color guard in highschool?
No.
JESawyer 19 Nov 11
How much do people at your company pirate?
As far as I can tell, very little.
JESawyer 19 Nov 11
Why do developers explain simplified mechanics with "evolving tastes" instead of "mass appeal"?
why do people keep asking me to theorize about the motivations behind things that i don't do
JESawyer 19 Nov 11
Do you believe it's true that in the past 5 years gamer's tastes have evolved so that they only like grimdark action games?
No.
JESawyer 19 Nov 11
Were the engine capable of supporting it, would have implemented things like shotgun-rifles (over/under) or attachable grenade launchers? Or would that make the game lean too much on the FPS scale and less on the RPG side?
I wouldn't have been opposed to it, no. I also don't think I would have pursued it that aggressively.
JESawyer responded to Formspring 19 Nov 11
What celebrity do you look like?
Every while male with short, dark hair. We are all actually the same person.
JESawyer 19 Nov 11
why do you sleep only 5 or 6 hours? Because of your work? or you can't sleep more than that?
That's just when I wake up. Even when I "sleep" more than six hours, I'm awake and just lounging around in bed.
JESawyer 19 Nov 11
Do you think Daggerfall fans like me would enjoy Skyrim? Seems most people pay attention to Morrowind fans even though that marked the mainstream catapault of the series.
I always thought it was Oblivion that really sold huge for Bethesda (not that Morrowind didn't sell well, but I didn't think it was a "blockbuster"). I also enjoyed Daggerfall, but that was a very long time ago. I think that Skyrim has a lot of improvements over Oblivion, if that helps.
JESawyer 19 Nov 11
Do you have a preference among the consoles for development? I mean I know we're supposed to be PC elitists, but did you favor one over the other?
It really depends on the engine technology and the goals of the project. PC is, by far, the easiest to develop on from a purely technical/pipeline standpoint.
JESawyer 19 Nov 11
Where did Black Donald come from?
A dark place.
JESawyer responded to SerMcWorst 20 Nov 11
You are the first one I hear saying that PC is the easiest, most developers seem to consider it a headache.
To develop ON, it's very easy. Releasing games on PC produces headaches in the form of hardware problems/conflicts.
JESawyer 20 Nov 11
We hear about publishers not wanting to spend on risky projects, but I see lots of niche games with good production values coming out (mostly from Europe). How do these developers get funding?
I am guessing that a good portion of those developers are either funded by European publishers or by European branches of American or Japanese publishers. It's a generalization, but American publishers tend to be the most risk-averse. That also applies to American branches of European and Japanese publishers.
On another note, at a mid-sized developer (like Obsidian), it can be difficult to work out the logistics of having a small (8-20 developer) team working among multiple teams of 45-70.
JESawyer 20 Nov 11
What doesn't your company make a smaller, niche-type RPG with a lower budget?
That's more of a question for Feargus, but we do talk to publishers about doing smaller scale games.
JESawyer 20 Nov 11
Is it harder to design interesting quests when the player has access to convenience features like quest compass and step-by-step quest objectives?
For certain types of quests, yes. Those quest types would typically be "Where is thing x?" That said, I think it's really only compelling if the point is that the player has to figure something out. In a lot of those quests, "Go talk to Bob in the market," is not a puzzle; it's just a step in a sequence.
Personally, I do enjoy how Assassin's Creed 2 handles those sorts of objectives. The game points the player toward either a radius or a shaped volume. The player knows when he or she is inside the volume, but he or she still has to search for the objective within that volume.
JESawyer 20 Nov 11
Have you talked to a doctor about the sleep thing?
No, because it's never been a problem.
JESawyer 22 Nov 11
Josh, what do you think about the idea of introducing another inventory\containers dimension in RPG games - physical space? Applied to player as well, of course. So PC can take more ammo, but not many guns and unable to put 20 armor suits in a small box.
That's essentially what grid space systems like Resident Evil use. It can lead to "inventory tetris", but that could be avoided by simply using a "size" stat in addition to weight.
I don't know if it's necessarily better or worse. In a more simulation-oriented game, physical space and weight could be interesting to track.
JESawyer 22 Nov 11
Question from one of lesser knowledge... Is there a save game size that you would call "normal" for F:NV? Mine is 14mb, and i'm having intense lag in multiple sections of the Mojave/ all DLC lands. Just curious if that is/could be an issue!
That can easily be a big problem, especially if you're on the PS3. The longer you play a character, the more bit differences on objects (characters, pencils on tables, containers, etc.) get saved off and carried around in memory. I think we've seen save games that are pushing 19 megs, which can be really crippling in some areas.
JESawyer 22 Nov 11
If it's an issue why hasn't it been resolved.The pace at whivh game sellers basically dish an alpha or beta game to the marketplace is sickening. New V stopped being "beta" in mid-2011. I know as a dev my workplace wasn't AAA dishing but we had integrity.
Since you're a developer, you should understand the implication of what I wrote. It's an engine-level issue with how the save game data is stored off as bit flag differences compared to the placed instances in the main .esm + DLC .esms. As the game modifies any placed instance of an object, those changes are stored off into what is essentially another .esm. When you load the save game, you're loading all of those differences into resident memory.
It's not like someone wrote a function and put a decimal point in the wrong place or declared something as a float when it should have been an int. We're talking about how the engine fundamentally saves off and references data at run time. Restructuring how that works would require a large time commitment. Obsidian also only had that engine for a total of 18 months prior to F:NV being released, which is a relatively short time to understand all of the details of how the technology works.
JESawyer 22 Nov 11
Hey Josh, different user, but same kind of 'lesser knowledge' bloke. What's a bit difference and how does it determine a save file?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_field
It's a compact way to store data. The bit differences in this case are just flags set up to mark what data has changed (i.e., are different) from what's in the core .esm.
Let's say that I, as a designer, set up a creature in an area. I set all of the character's statistics and gear and save it in the master FalloutNV.esm file that gets loaded into the game. You, the player, run through the area and shoot that dude. You loot him of his gear and put a shovel in his inventory because you are wacky.
The game needs a way to mark that his a) position b) health c) inventory d) some other stuff has changed on him. It does that by marking what fields have changed (by setting individual bits) and then indexing the individual (changed) values for reference later.
When you load the save game, it loads up all of the bit fields marking changes in your save game. When the individual objects load, it applies the indexed changes to those objects. That way, when you come back to the area you left two nights ago, the character is still sprawled out where you left him, naked, with a shovel in his inventory.
Individual bits of data are tiny, but there are thousands upon thousands of objects in F:NV, each one containing numerous data fields that could potentially be changed in your save game. Over time, it adds up.
JESawyer 22 Nov 11
Is the inflating save file just an issue for the PS3 (I've seen lots of lag/crash complaints from PS3 users) or does it happen on all platforms? I'm just wondering if other platforms handle it better than the PS3.
As with Fallout 3 and Skyrim, the problems are most pronounced on the PS3 because the PS3 has a divided memory pool.
JESawyer 22 Nov 11
(Same fellow you just answered) So....basically, every time I manipulate an object, it fluctuates the save file up or down? I've noticed files can get rather huge, is there no way this could have been greatly diminished in a game as big as New Vegas?
It almost always goes up. Some areas will reset contents after three (game) days, but a lot of stuff lingers. Additionally, we also have to deal with "persistent references". These are objects that are immediately loaded with the game because we need to be able to reference them anywhere/everywhere in the world -- even if the player is nowhere near the object. Characters are the most common example. All of the companions need to be able to move around the world even when they are not in your current area, so they are all persistent references.
All object data (excluding art assets like .nifs and audio assets [VO]) for persistent references is loaded at all times, so that's more-or-less a permanent chunk of resident memory. The number of persistent references invariably goes up with each DLC, so as the number of DLCs increases, the system has less and less memory available. Of course, the player's save game file only gets bigger and bigger, since he or she is going through more or more areas manipulating an increasingly large number of objects.
This is why some of our later patches actually removed content from the core game (e.g. Primm). Even though we had balanced the memory footprint for the core game, DLC content was pushing down the available resources.
JESawyer 22 Nov 11
"divided memory pool"?
The Xbox 360 has a unified memory pool: 512 megs of RAM usable as system memory or graphics memory. The PS3 has a divided memory pool: 256 megs for system, 256 for graphics. It's the same total amount of memory, but not as flexible for a developer to make use of.
JESawyer 22 Nov 11
What should I know about fallout 1 before I play it. Like what's the most fun way to approach it in your opinion
Don't tag Big Guns or Energy Weapons at the beginning of the game. Otherwise, go buck wild. It's one of my all-time favorites.
JESawyer 23 Nov 11
But why did the patch remove content from the PC? Most PCs nowadays have 2-4GB of RAM, plus 500MB-1GB of GPU memory. So I doubt the DLCs negatively impacted most PCs to justify content removal...
If we had generated .esms per-platform, that would have been a crazy nightmare for a lot of reasons. A slightly less risky approach could have been to script the removal of assets using the IsPC/IsXbox/IsPS3 functions, but that also introduces its own host of potential problems, especially if objects are attempting to reference something as the script removes it.
We ran into a small but non-trivial number of crashes in F:NV involving persistent references attempting to interact with an object as the player transitions out of his or her current area. E.g. Chief Hanlon attempts to sit in a chair. The player leaves the area, the chair Hanlon wants to sit in is unloaded, and the game crashes.
JESawyer 24 Nov 11
Hypothetically, if I were to play through FNV without opening any non-necessary containers (e.g. never opening an ammo case) or touching any non-necessary objects (e.g. never moving a pencil) would the game be more stable?
By some margin, yes, but randomized loot I believe is generated on the area's first load, which also applies to the equipment in many characters' (e.g. Fiends') inventories.
JESawyer 24 Nov 11
I didn't know content was removed. Exactly what was removed with the patch in Primm?
Some convicts from the exterior and various props, I think.
JESawyer 24 Nov 11
Who wrote the dialogue for the Courier?
Courier dialogue is written by whatever designer writes a specific NPC. We have style guides to try to maintain a consistent tone for Courier/PC responses.
JESawyer 24 Nov 11
Thanks for all the technical explanation, I've always been curious about that particular engine quirk. No question, just thanks.
np
JESawyer 24 Nov 11
do you drink coffee?
No. I really dislike the taste of coffee.
JESawyer 24 Nov 11
Do you bike to work?
Yes, usually 2 or 3 times a week.
JESawyer 24 Nov 11
Do you ever worry that the higher-ups at your work might read your Forumspring and take issue with your views on the way the gaming biz works?
No.
JESawyer 24 Nov 11
Wasn't there some other way to deal with potential GRA issues without slamming the <GRA> tag on everything? I think that this was a very poor design decision as it breaks the 4th wall in an unpleasant way - detracting from my "role-playing" experience.
If there were, I would have done it.
JESawyer 24 Nov 11
how much time do you spend in a travel bike from your home to obsidian? don't you have car?
It takes me about 45 minutes to ride to work. I have three bicycles, a motorcycle, and a car.
JESawyer 25 Nov 11
How is Green Bay staying afloat with such a bad defense and rushing game?
I don't know man, but they need to clean that up.
JESawyer 25 Nov 11
What kind of bike of do you use for commuting?
A 2008 Masi Speciale Commuter. It started as a single-speed but I've put a three-speed Sturmey-Archer hub on it.
http://velospace.org/node/38178
JESawyer 25 Nov 11
What kind of motorcycle and what kind of car? I'm imagining you and Avellone in aviator glasses and leather jackets, riding side by side on your Harley-Davidson's.
I ride a heavily-modified 2006 Triumph Bonneville T-100.
http://diogenes-lamp.info/images/utah_trip/utah_trip073.jpg
I drive a 2004 Volkswagen R32. It's mostly stock, except for the suspension (Koni coilovers and Neuspeed sway bars).
http://diogenes-lamp.info/images/r32/r32_yay.jpg
JESawyer 25 Nov 11
Could we please see this Courier style guide? If it's not possible, could you give us an example of a style rule, at least?
Our writing style guides are pretty long (and to be honest, we can't enforce them 100% of the time), but here are a few:
* Put more detail and specificity into skill-, stat-, and perk-unlocked dialogue options than general dialogue options.
* Always place "goodbye" reply options at the bottom of the list.
* Once a vendor's store is "unlocked", always place the store option near the top of the initial return greeting.
* Don't give the player "fake" reply options that lead to the same outcome as others.
* If an NPC continues his or her nodes in a long sequence, the player should be given the option to back out after three nodes.
There are many more, but those are some of the ones I remember. We've been following variants of these rules since the late 90s, so a lot of them are just habit now.
JESawyer 25 Nov 11
Oh, so this is more of a general dialogue style guide. I was expecting stuff like "do not reference Courier's past life" or "do not use jargon unless it's specifically called for" or "do not have more than one pop culture reference per dialogue tree".
There are things like that too. Like I wrote, it's a fairly lengthy document.
Pop culture references were essentially forbidden unless they were part of Wild Wasteland content.
JESawyer 25 Nov 11
Um, do you have the fenders installed on your Masi (like in the photo you linked)? :-/
Yes.
JESawyer 26 Nov 11
So when the courier implies that he had a kid in Montana during dialogue with the lonesome drifter - did someone violate the style guide?
No. The player doesn't have to select that dialogue option, and even if he or she did, that sort of response may or not be a sincere question coming from the Courier.
JESawyer 26 Nov 11
What did Ulysses mean by mentioning that the package that the Courier delivered to the Divide might have reminded him of something?
You'd have to ask Chris Avellone.
JESawyer 27 Nov 11
You said you had a style guide for the Courier/PC tone responses. Does this mean you basically had a vague "personality" written down for the Courier to govern his typical responses? If so, what was the personality you guys aimed for?
It was actually the opposite. Unless a response was intended to have a very specific "'tude" (e.g. provoking a fight), writers were supposed to divorce personality from the general query. My reasoning was that if you just want to ask a straightforward question, having the designer load the line with some sass can irritate the player.
In the DLCs, the writers (including I) put more personality/flavor in even the "normal" player responses because some players reacted negatively to how neutral the core game responses were.
JESawyer 27 Nov 11
Do you ever take a look at Fallout Forums
Yes, but not so much anymore.
JESawyer 27 Nov 11
What about implications of certain dialogue options? For instance, when you talk to Joshua, you can ask him about the tribals: (I'll paraphrase) "Why don't they speak... like us?) Implying the Courier doesn't even know what to call English.
That line was worded in that way to avoid a moment where a FIGS (French/Italian/German/Spanish) player could be confronted with a line that didn't make any sense or was jarring.
E.g. "Warum sprechen sie Englisch nicht?" is odd because the line isn't in English and draws attention to the fact that it's a translation. "Warum sprechen sie Deutsch nicht?" is even more odd because a) it draws attention to characters in post-apocalyptic America speaking German and b) the Dead Horses actually DO speak some German.
JESawyer 27 Nov 11
Whoa your new avatar looks a lot worse than before.
B)
JESawyer 27 Nov 11
There's something that's been nagging me about Honest Hearts; how much does Daniel actually know about the Sorrows' belief system? He's surprised to hear how the Sorrows have interpreted his teachings, and he considers Zion to be just a piece of land.
He thinks he knows a great deal, but as is common in cross-cultural interactions, he knows less than he thinks he does.
I was inspired by the early, rapid spread of Catholicism through Europe. The conversion of communities was far from complete. People maintained or re-purposed folk beliefs alongside their understanding of what Catholicism was.
Even when you understand the words someone is saying, it's often hard to correctly interpret what he or she is trying to communicate.
JESawyer 27 Nov 11
Hey, Josh! a) <3 b) Verneinung im Deutschen normalerweise *vor* dem, was verneint wird: nicht Deutsch, nicht Englisch, nichts essen, kein Audi...
Ja, stimmt. Ich vergaß. Tut mir leid.
JESawyer 27 Nov 11
To what extent should a game's thematics factor into things like control scheme/mechanics/etc, compared to factors like fun and accessibility? I know that they're not necessarily antagonistic.
I think it's important to always keep the themes of the game in mind. Wherever you can reinforce themes, it helps make the game feel more cohesive. Then again, I don't think the themes should be forced in at all costs.
JESawyer 28 Nov 11
What's more important in video game narratives: Closure so that players can walk away satisfied or context so that the players can puzzle it out themselves?
I think the player should feel satisfaction, but I don't think they should be completely satisfied. There should still be something to wrestle with even after the credits roll.
Some people have asked why it's so difficult to get entirely satisfactory ending slides in F:NV. That's why.
JESawyer 28 Nov 11
You should shave.
cool
JESawyer 28 Nov 11
Are you tired of most of the questions being about Fallout? Be honest! 
No, that's fine.
JESawyer 28 Nov 11
I don't get why Fallout games need a set antagonist at all. In 3 it was the Enclave. In NV it was Benny, Why not let the player make their own emenies?
An antagonist is not necessarily the *enemy* of the protagonist. In the case of F:NV, the player need not deal with Benny as an enemy, though he is the initial force working against the Courier and continues to treat the Courier as an enemy. Players can pursue Benny and leave him with Caesar if they want to.
Players making their own enemies is effectively what they do post-Benny.
JESawyer 28 Nov 11
Did you try Star Wars: TOR, and what's you general opinion on ye olden KotOR games?
Most MMOs don't interest me and I'm not really into the Star Wars universe.
JESawyer 28 Nov 11
What systems (current and legacy) do you own?
I sold my original Xbox, PS2, and PS, so now I just have a PC, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and DS.
JESawyer responded to FronzKofko 29 Nov 11
What work did you do on Alpha Protocol?
I designed the hand-to-hand combat mechanics.
JESawyer 29 Nov 11
I've noticed while "tcl'ing" around in exterior worldspaces in Oblivion, Fallout 3 and NV that there is another layer of landscape under the one you walk on. Do you know why?
That is the LoD (level of detail) terrain. For a given worldspace, all LoD terrain is always loaded. It has a lower mesh density and texture resolution than the terrain that is loaded in your current cells.
JESawyer 30 Nov 11
I stole your zion park desktop. Thanks
np
JESawyer 30 Nov 11
What do you do nowadays? Job-wise, of course. 
I'm still a project director at Obsidian.
JESawyer 30 Nov 11
Eric Fenstermaker rules, you drool.
o
i
c
JESawyer responded to whitneymatheson 30 Nov 11
Which celebrity do you most resemble?
Check out USA TODAY's Pop Candy blog
All white males with short, dark hair. I am simultaneously Adam Sandler, Jason Biggs, Matthew Fox, Commander Shepard from Mass Effect -- you name it.
JESawyer 30 Nov 11
It looks like Bethesda caught up with you guys in writing with Skyrim
cool
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
So why go back on your decision to not include Tommy Guns? Is it just because it's ~dlc~? IIRC You didn't want them in the core game because they were kinda campy and obvious
Having the Vegas families with Thompsons was the overly obvious thing. It also didn't fit into the progression I planned for the core game. The DLC weapons were mostly niche weapons that complemented what was in the core game. The .45 pistol and SMG were able to slot in reasonably well.
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
You talk about weapon tiers and variety in NV a lot, but I have to wonder if all that effort that went into balancing didn't go to waste. Imo, 4 or 5 huge leaps in gear is much more satisfying than a steady progression through more tiers. Thoughts?
There are only five weapon tiers soooOoOOoooOo
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
Yeah but the tiers aren't really that differentiated. Sure, I probably couldn't beat the endgame easily with a .357 or a 9mm, But I could with a .44 or a 5.56.
A lot of players are... not very good. "Bad" you might say. They need the statistical bump of higher tier weapons. For good players, it eventually becomes overkill.
JESawyer responded to Formspring 1 Dec 11
Would you rather see a beautiful sunrise or sunset?
http://youtu.be/nLLEBAQLZ3Q
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
south park? god damn it josh
hey
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
Do you have any involvement in Obsidian's upcoming South Park RPG? Are you a fan of the show?
sup
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
Why a South Park game, and not My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic? WHY?!
oh
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
Patrolling Gameinformer almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.
hey
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
Are you involved in the South Park RPG that was announced today? I'm actually really excited about it.
cool
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
So, are you working on this South Park project? Or do you have something else hidden away from the public?
hmm
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
South Park RPG.... Really?
oic
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
South Park? Can you confirm that Obsidian is working on South Park? As in the same studio that has produced some of the most well written and executed RPGs I have ever played? ...I think I am going to be sick.
hrm
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
Who is head of South Park RPG?
ff
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
From making Fallout, to making a South Park game. What in the world happened, Obsidian?
yase
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
A South Park game? What the hell are you guys doing? I'm not going to see any of that 'good dialogue and writing' that made you guys famous, am I?
indeed
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
SOUTH PARK Is The Word
k
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
How many South Park related questions have you been asked thus far?
hmm
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
...South Park RPG? 
yes yes
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
Are you involved in the South Park game?
uh
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
This week on Fearghus said a thing: Is South Park the license that Fearghus said no developer could turn down?
ferg
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
Are you doing any work on the South Park RPG?
@_@
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
Are you involved in the South Park RPG? Say yes cause that would own
hey
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
So doing anything involved with South-Park? Like an RPG?
urgh
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
What is your role in the development of the "South Park" RPG?
q_Q
JESawyer responded to ohyesitsthecopz 1 Dec 11
are you working on or going to be working on the new South Park game?
hmm
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
Do you have anything to do with the South Park RPG?
oh
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
RUN WHILE YOU STILL CAN, BRO.
-__-
JESawyer 1 Dec 11
What's more annoying, NDAs or incessant questions you can't answer?
I know this probably won't make any difference, but I'm not working on the SP project
JESawyer 2 Dec 11
I use to be a designer like you, until I took an arrow to the knee.
lol
JESawyer 2 Dec 11
do you have sex with girls?
Just one...
... that I know of! Hehe am I right
*straightens imaginary tie*
*spills imaginary whiskey*
JESawyer 2 Dec 11
i love you fhqwhgadshgnsdhjsdbkhsdabkfabkveybvf
oh thx
JESawyer 2 Dec 11
Who are you and why are you being posted about on reddit? seriously, I don't know...
water u tolkien about
JESawyer 2 Dec 11
How come you sit
it's sittin' tyme
JESawyer 2 Dec 11
Are you working on the new SP RPG?
no
JESawyer 2 Dec 11
Why do you have bland answers? like oh,lol,hey and ETC.
fart
JESawyer 2 Dec 11
what does ask when go you south park new game.
vidya gamz
JESawyer 2 Dec 11
So what are you working on then the Cheers RPG?
roll 2d12 to see how many people know your name
JESawyer 2 Dec 11
Should I buy Dungeon Siege III for $20 on Steam? Your answer depends on it!
yeah
JESawyer 2 Dec 11
What did you do before you were a game designer? Did you still work for a software company?
Before I started in the game industry I was in college.
JESawyer 3 Dec 11
people ask about south park, but they be idiots i noes north park. i be chillin there man, with me and me. also, how do game work with ?
http://youtu.be/Hi0erY0WG6A
JESawyer 3 Dec 11
McNulty is overpowered. His only drawback is alcohol addiction. Thoughts?
He also has Irrational Hatred: Superiors and Addiction: Sex.
JESawyer 3 Dec 11
First thing that pops into your head when I say "Coffee?"
gross
JESawyer 3 Dec 11
Which is your personal favourite Obsidian game?
Fallout: New Vegas
JESawyer 3 Dec 11
If modders attempted to remake Fallout New Vegas and its dlcs on the FOnline engine would they get a C&D?
Beats me.
JESawyer 3 Dec 11
New Vegas has been patching itself on Steam the past couple of days but I can't find a changelog. What's being changed?
Beats me.
JESawyer 4 Dec 11
Why was Poseidon chosen for the name "Poseidon Energy"? Considering he was the god of the sea, and PE has their hands in a myriad of energy and defense projects. That choice just seems kinda odd.
mysteries
JESawyer 4 Dec 11
Do you have to call anybody "sir" at your job?
No.
JESawyer 4 Dec 11
Since you've worked with Bethesda in the past, what do you think of their move to integrate modding with Steam Workshop?
cool
JESawyer 4 Dec 11
Do you prefer a certain type of European/Middle-Eastern sword or katana/nodachi? Since you fence I presume you use a sabre or training long sword.
I don't fence anymore, but when I did, I used a standard USFA/FIE sabre.
JESawyer 4 Dec 11
When you give one word answers, I can't tell if you're being serious or not. Steam Workshop is cool?
I sincerely think it is cool. PC gamers clearly love mods. Since Skyrim is a Steam game on PC, integrating a mod repository/system should be great.
JESawyer 5 Dec 11
Not a question; just wanted to say thanks for plugging Darklands. I'm not sure if my party is spending as much time gaining fame as it is recovering from the trouble I get them in, but the game is incredible. Best open sandbox RPG I've played.
I'm glad you like it. It seems crazy that game was made in 1992.
JESawyer 5 Dec 11
Will there ever be a Fallout: New Vegas complete or GOTY edition?
http://www.bethblog.com/2011/11/03/fallout-new-vegas-ultimate-edition-arrives-in-february/
JESawyer 5 Dec 11
Why do you think the games industry is so mum? It's hard to find any recently written books about working in the game industry in a mid-tier or upper-tier job.
I'm not sure if that's the sort of thing that would really sell well. It could make an interesting blog, maybe.
Then again, some of the decision-making processes that happen at that level would likely embarrass/infuriate a lot of people because they involve a variety of folks working in different companies. Even something approached as a matter-of-fact rundown on how things work might come off as a tell-all.
JESawyer 5 Dec 11
Since Skyrim is unavailable for Steam for pretty much half the Europe or more (including the country I live in), how will we be able to get/make mods?
I don't work for Bethesda, but I don't believe this prevents independent mods/mod sites from operating.
JESawyer 5 Dec 11
I've heard it suggested that Steam Workshop integration is motivated, at least in part, at shutting out "adult" mods or challenging the monopoly of the Nexus, whose sketchier content is semi-associated with Bethesda's Brands. Do you think that's true?
I have no idea and would rather not speculate on it.
JESawyer 5 Dec 11
While Obsidian has a big cult following, your commercial and critical success has been pretty inconsistent, to say the least. What is it that has helped you stay afloat? What's the difference between Obsidian and, say, Troika?
That's a question for Feargus.
JESawyer 5 Dec 11
Why do you choose to answer troll questions but not real good or intellectual/debatable questions.
I answer both types of questions, and the troll questions take effectively no time to answer. I delete about 20x more questions than I answer.
JESawyer 6 Dec 11
Hey Josh, do you agree with Chris Avellone's 'Nuke the world' attitude of 'Fallout getting to civilized'? It's expected humanity would rebuild, why would it need to be destroyed so soon?
I don't want to speak for Chris, but I think he's referring to the world being too civilized as a post-apocalyptic setting. During the development of F:NV, I referred to the Mojave Wasteland as post-post-apocalyptic. A setting that developed significantly beyond what you see in the Mojave Wasteland would feel even more removed from the original games.
JESawyer 6 Dec 11
whos idea was the name 'obsidian'?
That decision was made before I arrived, but maybe Feargus is the guy to ask.
JESawyer 6 Dec 11
Where do I go to ask Feargus questions?
fergtowne
JESawyer 7 Dec 11
Are there any good RPGs for IOS?
I guess it depends on how you define RPG. I've enjoyed playing Battleheart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5_Uq81_vqE
I've also heard really good things about King of Dragon Pass.
http://youtu.be/pB5MSHMRGa0
JESawyer 7 Dec 11
Yes, King of Dragon Pass is the best. Seriously, get it now. -Patrick
cool
JESawyer 7 Dec 11
being a video game designer is pretty hard {plays on the xbox for a million hours}
tighten up the graphics on level 3
JESawyer responded to larzma 7 Dec 11
Have you ever met Todd Howard? If so, how was he as a person?
Yeah, I've met Todd Howard two or three times at E3 and Bethesda. He's a great guy.
JESawyer 7 Dec 11
Who came up with the ammunition crafting in New Vegas? I thought that was a ridiculously cool gameplay mechanic for a game of that form.
I did. Thanks. Most people (apparently) didn't like how detailed it was.
JESawyer 8 Dec 11
Personally, I really liked the detailed crafting system in NV. I'd say the main problem people had was that you don't have a pipboy list that had your known recipes in it, making it a pain when looking for parts/ingredients for crafting.
I agree.
JESawyer responded to Formspring 9 Dec 11
Can you whistle?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncyo8EUUCVE
JESawyer 9 Dec 11
Do you consciously try to follow an official-or-not Game Design Philosophy when developing a game or do you just work off of your experience and intuition?
I don't follow a codified "philosophy", but I've established several principles for dealing with various design issues, usually based off of my experience. The bottom line usually comes down to what the player experiences. There are a lot of different player types, but it's harder to go wrong if you think about aspects of the game from different player perspectives.
With RPGs, this can be particularly difficult because I there are two major levels of player perspective: conceptual and experiential. It's very common for RPG players to judge systemic elements out of context. In part, this comes from the strategic necessity of character building in both tabletop and CRPGs. Players are used to making quick assessments of value without experiencing what they are assessing.
Ideally, players should be able to make reasonable judgments about game elements without experiencing them, but even rational assessments can be faulty. E.g.: a 5% increase in damage is not statistically relevant unless it means that targets go down in fewer applications of damage (which is ultimately the goal of doing damage). Given other options that manifest significant bonuses with greater regularity (e.g. an increased movement rate), such a bonus, on its own, may have diminished value.
JESawyer 10 Dec 11
Was Black Isle Studios named after the Black Isle in Scotland?
I believe so.
JESawyer responded to Pavlov8 10 Dec 11
How do you feel about GSC closing down? http://www.vg247.com/2011/12/09/report-gsc-is-shutting-down-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-canned/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiMOKmp0uZc
JESawyer 10 Dec 11
So you watch the VGA's?
I watched ~15 seconds of it.
JESawyer 11 Dec 11
what's your favourite vidya soundtrack?
It's a little dated, but I think it's still MechWarrior 2.
Classic.
http://youtu.be/rJ0LAs9KiXc
JESawyer 12 Dec 11
Do you have a business card?
Yes... ?
JESawyer 12 Dec 11
This has bugged me ever ince i noticed it. NCR ranger armor has this white strip of cloth it looks like going along the shoulders of the armor and then drapes down? or what is that?
It's a piece of cloth for patrol rangers to soak in water and place on their necks.
JESawyer 12 Dec 11
Is there any combat or survival gear for hot temperatures in the real world that use that sort of design? I've never seen it and it's interesting.
It's pretty common for hikers to soak bandanas in water and put them on their head/neck.
JESawyer 12 Dec 11
Did you work on KotOR 2 at all?
No.
JESawyer 12 Dec 11
So South Park isn't anything that would interest RPG fans and we're all basement-dwelling subhumans. Thank your colleague for an insightful interview, silly me expecting Obsidian to at least show some respect to their longtime fans.
the guy who gave that interview is an extreme warhammer 40k player/miniature painter and pro beard grower but ok thx
JESawyer 12 Dec 11
So why did he feel the need to be a jackass? Projection?
i am the magnificent joshtradamus, capable of seeing the future and unraveling the mysterious thought processes of any gave developer i have ever met
JESawyer 12 Dec 11
does that make you an amateur beard grower?
clearly.
JESawyer 12 Dec 11
Isn't it strange that you have to do interviews where they sit you in front of a camera for extended periods of time? Your career is leaving the house to write tabletop campaigns, it's not like you are Michael Fassbender.
I never thought it was that strange. I don't think it's that much different from sitting down and writing answers to an interviewer's (or fan's) questions; it's just a different medium.
JESawyer 12 Dec 11
Your offices are like crypts, with visages of long dead characters lining your halls.
1 year = long dead???
JESawyer 13 Dec 11
The soundtrack to "Drive" is almost TOO good >.>
My favorite song in it is actually from another soundtrack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg0jOpr1Uhk
JESawyer responded to EpiclyRalphy 13 Dec 11
Why was the ability to make Hollow point and armour piercing rounds never added in New Vegas?
I wanted the player to have to buy some ammo types and craft others.
JESawyer 13 Dec 11
Has anyone told you that beards remind them of Santa?
http://youtu.be/lzzc__CLtM8
JESawyer 13 Dec 11
Did you see that Feargus interview. Turns out he said a thing.
hmmm
JESawyer 13 Dec 11
How would you tackle a modern remake of Darklands? In today's gaming market would it even be possible as a big budget title, or would it have to be an indie game to remain quintessentially 'Darklands'?
Personally, I wouldn't approach it as a big budget title. Outside of low-level mechanical changes, a nicer UI, and better graphics (by that I mean stylistically the same but rendered to a window bigger than 320x240!), I think it could be a great low-budget, low-price Steam, browser, or iOS game.
JESawyer 13 Dec 11
I asked the q about game design earlier. So is your work-around for this issue to make gameplay mechanics more intuitive (conceptually), or to make players experiences of the different mechanics have less drawbacks/fail states?
I think the biggest stumbling block happens in content creation for the elements of a system. Whether it's a skill, a spell, a perk, or a weapon, the designers need to not only conceive a clear (and worthwhile) role for that element, but figure out how to clearly communicate its value to the player.
For example, something I failed at during the development of F:NV was establishing a clear benefit for the Charisma stat. Charisma does contribute to Nerve for companions, but that is only communicated during character creation (briefly) and in a loading screen. It's very difficult to compare (or even see) companion stats, and companions were, in general, very powerful. This caused many players to treat Charisma as a dump stat.
If you (as a designer) ever run into a situation where players commonly refer to one stat as a dump stat, you probably screwed up something along the way. I believe there should always be circumstances where neglecting a skill or stat should cause a sting. Not a horrible failure, but a sting -- where you recognize the value of the thing you have neglected. And if you DO focus on that thing, you should regularly feel rewarded for having made that investment.
Another example of this is the Silenced .22 Pistol. Before it was patched, it was just a terrible weapon. Post-patching, it's a good weapon for a very specific character build, but its value (very high crit damage) is not effectively communicated to the player. It also doesn't have a broad enough appeal for players to use it if they aren't using an ultra-stealth-crit build.
Making something intuitive can help with communicating the value of a thing (e.g. sniper rifles are accurate, so I will assume this weapon is accurate before I even fire it), but ultimately you need to communicate value in some way. Intuition is just a tool you can use to that end. You also can't rely on intuition, because some players don't intuit the same things as others -- whether that's due to upbringing, background, or something else.
Going back to GUNS, GUNS, GUNS, one of the things I tried to do when revising the ammo types for F:NV was to use "commonly" known/understood types. I removed .32 because it's a family of moon rounds used in the early 20th century. Nothing inherently wrong with .32 cal rifle and pistol rounds, but the designation doesn't carry the same pop-culture weight as .22 LR, .357 Magnum, and .50 (B)MG.
People "know" that .22s are weak, .357 Magnum is reasonably strong, and .50 (B)MG is crazy strong. That said, sticking to ballistics strictly could have run me into a difficult position. .45 ACP, sadly, is not as powerful as 10mm Auto -- but in F:NV, it's more powerful. Because it helped make the .45 Auto weapons slot into the weapon progression more easily, I went with the "common" perception of .45 ACP -- that it sends people flying through the air, cracks engine blocks, and otherwise creates pumpkin-sized holes in foes of all sizes. In short, F:NV's .45 Auto weapons live up to the myth of .45 ACP by going beyond the reality of their power and ballistic performance.
JESawyer 14 Dec 11
Do you remember the unique non-scoped .44 magnum from FO3, Paulson's Revolver? That basically fired like a shotgun? Can you tell me if that is even remotely realistic. What the hell was up with that? Can you do that with a .44?
There are revolvers that fire .410 shot, and you can load "rat shot" in just about any straight case.
http://www.castbullet.com/reload/44shot.htm
Seems like a lot of effort to kill bumblebees, but okay.
JESawyer 14 Dec 11
i lick your beard
gross
JESawyer 14 Dec 11
all i want for christmas is you
i am skeptical of this claim.
JESawyer 14 Dec 11
So why haven't you guys got the rights to Darklands? Or better yet Myth?
Atari has the rights to Darklands.
JESawyer responded to FronzKofko 15 Dec 11
The energy weapons in Fallout 1 seem to be leagues better than any other weapon; why did they get toned town to being just about the same level [if not a little worse] than other guns in New Vegas?
Because the Energy Weapons skill doesn't cost twice as much as the Guns skill.
JESawyer 15 Dec 11
What are your beliefs on gun rights?
Firearm legislation should be consistent, practical, and well-informed. I do not believe legislation or arguments about legislation should revolve around necessity; necessity is extremely difficult to agree on and it's almost never the basis for other types of legislation. If we legislated restricted ownership of other goods based on necessity, the entire country could be living like Spartans. This in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, but unless that's what you really want, necessity is a bad focal point.
Examples of firearm legislation that I think are bad: the Assault Weapons Ban, the DC Handgun Ban. The former is inconsistent, impractical, and doesn't target the weapons that are typically involved in gun crimes (small caliber handguns). The latter was consistent, targeted guns involved in gun crimes, but completely ignored the practical reality of how the majority of firearms used in crimes (especially in DC) were acquired. More importantly, they didn't really make any difference.
JESawyer 15 Dec 11
Have you ever used a gun (target shootin', no killy willy)?
Yes. I also own firearms.
JESawyer 15 Dec 11
Are you growing your beard to let baby birds live in it? 
i am the baby bird.
JESawyer 15 Dec 11
Can I lock you into a dungeon? I'd be feeding you crackers. 
no thx
JESawyer 15 Dec 11
How can I play darklands? I've tried several times and I'm always defeated. Help a nub out
Here are a few important things to know:
* Strength and Endurance are very important for everyone. A sub-33ish score in either is asking for death. Generally you want a bit more Strength than Endurance to avoid killing blows. Endurance generally goes down faster than Strength in fights, but big hitters can wipe out both in one hit. This means (permanent) death instead of unconsciousness.
* 30-45 are the "good" age ranges, IMO. There are exceptions, but comedy parties with 20 year-old knights and 65 year-old alchemists usually don't work out well.
* Always start fights by shooting or throwing cheap ranged weapons -- javelins, crossbows, bows, handguns, etc. -- then switch to melee.
* The easiest place to "farm", should you choose to do so, is in any city with a craft district ("the gabled roofs..."). If you travel through these areas at night, you will usually encounter packs of four thieves with scrub gear. Kill them, take anything of value, and repeat. Your weapon skills will advance quickly, as will your reputation. When your reputation gets high enough in a town, merchants (e.g. the Medici or Fugger reps) will actually prompt you with quest opportunities as you leave their shops.
* When you have upgraded your gear a few times (scale armor, proper swords and ranged weapons, some Essence o' Grace potions), you will probably want to seek out a raubritter after receiving a quest to defeat one. Be careful, as these guys will beat the shit out of you if you do not have 50+ weapon skills and decent gear. If you defeat them, you will start rolling in florins and higher quality gear.
Once you have defeated some -- let's say three -- raubrittern, the world is much more approachable overall. Before this point, it's very common for random encounters to wipe the whole party, often killing several characters in the process.
Good luck.
JESawyer 16 Dec 11
Some might say that the energy skill does cost more than small guns. It costs the same amount of skill points, but the relative paucity of weapons and ammo, even toward the endgame, acts as a balancing factor doesn't it?
I understand arguments that early-game Energy Weapons aren't well balanced (especially the Laser Pistol without GRA mods) and that ammo is hard to come by until you get access to a few areas, but I don't think ammo access is a serious problem after the early game.
Weapons can be harder to come by, but it's also tricky to establish a) vendors that make sense and b) enemies that should have/drop them.
I didn't do a full EW playthrough, but I got pretty far. Once I started getting weapons like the Plasma Defender, Gauss Rifle, and Tri-Beam Laser, I was rolling pretty much everything. Ammo access wasn't really a problem (though ammo weight was more problematic).
JESawyer 16 Dec 11
Do those pointers you gave about Darklands illustrate poor design i.e. not knowing the importance of these factors from the evidence available?
Sure, but keep in mind that the game was developed in the early 90s. That sort of system design was sort of par for the course.
JESawyer 16 Dec 11
sorry man, i appreciate all that advice but i meant HOW TO PLAY it. i cant get it to run on my computer at all and the internet seems to have failed me.
HMMMMMMMMM I just use DosBox and I've never had a problem. @_@
JESawyer 16 Dec 11
Thoughts on SOPA?
Not good.
JESawyer 17 Dec 11
Have you tried lockpicking in real life?
No.
JESawyer 17 Dec 11
Explain why you tuned the NWN2 campaign to a sleep-inducingly low level to compensate for the disparity between optimal and non-optimal characters instead of addressing the core problem - the unnecessarily complex and unintuitive character creator/system.
Some of those complexities are part of 3E/3.5, and some are due to our UI. In the last six months of NWN2's development, the game had enough problems that redesigning the character creation/advancement UI wasn't a high priority.
JESawyer 17 Dec 11
Are any of the characters in FO:NV designed to look like you?
Not as far as I know.
JESawyer 17 Dec 11
I don't know if you read each and every ill-thought-out message sent to you through Formspring, but I want to tell you: Fallout New Vegas is my favourite game, and I greatly enjoy reading the process taken in developing it. Thank you.
Thanks.
JESawyer 17 Dec 11
Wishing for a nuclear winter makes you want to take an arrow in the knee. Oh look, curved swords! I never asked for this!!!
yase teh z0r
JESawyer 17 Dec 11
what world do you live in that specific types of ammo have any sort of pop culture weight
The world with Dirty Harry, Navy Seals, and a bunch of police dramas that constantly talk about weapon calibers.
It's the same world where there are multiple gun-oriented TV shows that have solid viewership (e.g. Top Shot, Future Weapons, Sons of Guns).
(The United States)
JESawyer 18 Dec 11
*drinks 50 sunset sarsaparillas in rapid succession* "gulp gulp gulp gulp gulp gulp ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah"
this is me irl
JESawyer 18 Dec 11
I think most people associate power with the guns themselves. The average person knows nothing of guns other than what they see in movies and TV. Few non-gun people even though the AR/M16 platform rifles are chambered for 5.56 NATO/.223 Rem.
Yes, but if you're going to have a variety of ammo types in a game, I think it's best to use calibers that are *most* likely to be recognized.
If we only put things in games that the average person knows about, there would be very few things in games.
JESawyer 18 Dec 11
AUTISM
ok
JESawyer 18 Dec 11
Whatever happened to releasing your personal FNV mod? Are you still planning to upload it somewhere?
I stopped working on it for a while because I was busy, but I started again recently. I made some significant changes to core mechanics, so I want to make sure it's actually fun/stable for me throughout the game. It will be a while.
JESawyer 18 Dec 11
Do you agree that NWN2 would be much better if the first act was completely removed? For the same reason do you agree that Dungeon Siege 3 would be better off if the entire game was designed like Stonebridge was? Because everything else was really boring.
Completely removed? No. I do think that the first act is very long compared to acts two and three, though.
JESawyer 18 Dec 11
What do you think of the Republican candidates so far?
I don't really care about them that much, to be honest. I think our government is pretty terrible in spite of a decent number of good folks working in it. Outside influence (i.e., money) is too insidious for it to function well. The debates are, and will continue to be, really dumb.
JESawyer 18 Dec 11
What did you name your courier?
Sassy.
It's my default name for test characters.
JESawyer 18 Dec 11
So why did you chose to include the full 3.5E character creator if the target audience was someone new to RPGs? You should have used a simplified character creator that always produced well-balanced characters as default and an optional "hardcore" mode.
I was only on NWN2 for a relatively short period of time, and only the lead designer for the last six months. I did not establish the scope, story, or overall design of the game.
JESawyer 18 Dec 11
Fallout New Vegas is the best RPG I have played on this current generation of consoles, but Fallout is not an Obsidian IP... So, when is Obsidian going to release more of their own IP games?
When publishers want to publish games using IPs we develop.
JESawyer 18 Dec 11
roflmao green bay got pounded right up the kisser. /wisconsin suck peeeenus
http://www.arethepackersundefeated.com/
JESawyer 19 Dec 11
What's your advice on somebody who's in a bit of a creative slump, but wants to make really original content like Fallout?
Leave all of your familiar places and activities to do something that is not creative.
JESawyer 19 Dec 11
Who created the character Silus? He seemed to really stick out from other Legion members as being more selfish and aware, even going so far as calling Caesar a "megalomaniacal, self-appointed dictator".
Eric Fenstermaker.
JESawyer 19 Dec 11
Why would I want to do something not creative?
You don't. You want to do something creative, but you can't. If you were in a creative state, you wouldn't be asking me for advice.
Fresh ideas are synthesized out of disparate experiences. The reason why so much "creative" content isn't creative is because it's made by people who ingest from, and then regurgitate back into, the same stale stream of ideas.
If your goal is to "be original", you're really going to have a lot of trouble. Go out into the world and do things. Among the things you do, you will hopefully find things that you love. Those things that you love will interact in your mind and produce ideas. Eventually, the volume of ideas in your mind will exceed your will and ability to contain them. That's when you will create -- because you need to, not because you want to.
JESawyer 19 Dec 11
Comic Sans or Times New Roman?
Venetian 301 or get out.
JESawyer 19 Dec 11
Is Sassy a boy or a girl Josh??
Usually a girl but sometimes a guy.
JESawyer 20 Dec 11
You know what really levels me up? Making games.
w@w
JESawyer 20 Dec 11
Who did the writing for House?
John Gonzalez.
JESawyer 20 Dec 11
The Artist is a good movie, you will like it. Like it to the max.
cool thx
JESawyer 21 Dec 11
who wrote Benny? Both the character and the lines
John Gonzalez.
JESawyer 21 Dec 11
Is there any character John Gonzalez didn't write?
There are lots of characters he didn't write, but he did write most of the critical path story characters.
JESawyer 21 Dec 11
Fenstermaker was the coolest F:NV dev. Sorry Josh.
cool
JESawyer 21 Dec 11
who wrote House (the TV show)?
Sara Hess (among others) https://twitter.com/#!/sarahess
JESawyer 21 Dec 11
Browser of choice?
Chrome.
JESawyer 21 Dec 11
Who wrote Davison? Even though it was a bit part, I liked that character a lot since it was the kind of thing you'd see in the first two Fallout games (ie talking heads with brief but memorable dialogue).
Strangely enough, that was one of the few minor characters John Gonzalez wrote. Jesse Farrell wrote most of the other characters in REPCONN Test Site.
JESawyer 21 Dec 11
I know you were the project director of F:NV, but what contributions did you make?
For F:NV, I designed (but did not write the dialogue for) all of the companions and companion arcs. I did all of the system design and balancing. I wrote all of the high level RDCs (Region Design Constraints) that area designers used to write their ADDs (Area Design Docs). I wrote the dialogues for Arcade Gannon, Chief Hanlon, and President Kimball.
For Honest Hearts, I was also the project director. I wrote the story, designed and tuned most of the gear, designed all of the main characters (the Happy Trails caravan, Ricky, Joshua Graham, Daniel, Follows-Chalk, Waking Cloud, and the Survivalist) and wrote Joshua Graham and Daniel (Ricky, Stella, and the Survivalist were written by John Gonzalez; Jed Masterson, Follows-Chalk, and Waking Cloud were written by Travis Stout).
For Gun Runners' Arsenal, I did all of the design except for scripting, which was done by Jorge Salgado and Jeff Husges.
On the other DLCs, all I did was weapon tuning.
JESawyer 21 Dec 11
Navmeshing takes 4eva
yah
JESawyer 21 Dec 11
Why is it that when you move/pickup an object in gamebryo it disturbs other nearby objects? For example: A Nuka-Cola is chillin on a table next to a coffee cup. I collect or z-move the Nuka and the cup magically floats an inch off of the table's surface.
That's just the Havok physics system beginning simulation because two collision volumes were intersecting and one of them was influenced (moved or removed).
JESawyer 21 Dec 11
If you were offered the opportunity to work on the Assassin's Creed franchise, maybe not a main installment but a spin-off of some sort, would you take it? You have mentioned a fondness of historical fiction, and I'm wondering if you thought about this?
Yes. I love historical fiction and the Assassin's Creed IP.
JESawyer 23 Dec 11
Would you accept a "merry christmas and happy new year" from me?
ok thx
JESawyer 23 Dec 11
If you could make a fantasy IP based on any historical period, what time period would you pick?
The Early Modern Holy Roman Empire. It's full of crazy political drama and social/religious/academic upheaval.
JESawyer 23 Dec 11
I'm you from the future. To be specific I'm you from a future that doesn't exist anymore. To be even more specific I'm you from a future that has NEVER existed. No, I guess this isn't the right way to express it..... Because that future is actually the
oic
JESawyer 25 Dec 11
Keep the CHRIST in CHRISTmas!!
i'm not christian but ok
JESawyer 25 Dec 11
If so then do you find it odd that a once Puritan nation that disregarded Christmas due to it being Pagan beliefs wrapped into a Christian holiday now embraces it and for some families it's the only time they follow the Bible's teachings/embrace family?
no
JESawyer 25 Dec 11
What kind of animal are those legion hats made of?
Coyote.
JESawyer responded to NormanJayden1 25 Dec 11
Whats your mods name and will it be uploaded to the Fallout new vegas Nexus?
My mod's name is jsawyer and I will host it on my personal domain.
JESawyer 25 Dec 11
what is your mod going to be about?
Just a variety of balance tweaks, some larger mechanics changes to make the game more difficult overall, and bug fixes I encounter along the way.
JESawyer 26 Dec 11
What does the E. stand for?
e.arf as in "welcome ta earf."
JESawyer 27 Dec 11
How do you cure tummyaches?
jellybeans
JESawyer responded to Asraselk 27 Dec 11
What was your inspiration for Veronica?
First, I want to say that while I did design Veronica and her companion arc, the character was fully developed and written by Eric Fenstermaker. I think execution is more important than the idea.
Early on F:NV, I was thinking about what kind of character would make an interesting Brotherhood companion. A scribe sounded interesting, and I liked the idea that scribes were trained in unarmed techniques (or power-assisted Unarmed combat) for close-quarters combat in the bunkers.
Companions in crisis allow for a lot of criticism, self-reflection, and opportunities for the player to weigh in. Because the Mojave Chapter was going to be a bunch of depressing grognards overall, I liked the idea that Veronica was the young, sardonic, always-questioning member whom the others pushed out. Once Veronica was regularly interacting with the outside world, her perspective shifted even further from her brothers and sisters in the bunker.
Veronica means "true image", and that is what her character was meant to represent: a balanced and realistic way for the Brotherhood to move forward with the world instead of becoming part of its history.
JESawyer 27 Dec 11
Why is it a loss of Karma to steal from bad karma groups like the Powder Gangers?
Because their factions weren't marked as "Evil". I addressed that in my mod (many others have long ago, as well) and you can steal from the PGs all the live-long day without karma loss.
JESawyer 27 Dec 11
Yah and she was also a TOTAL LESBO lol
hmm i see
JESawyer 27 Dec 11
NV was given one year of development time, right? Was meeting the deadline hard? Also, how much was taken/slightly modded from Van Buren to use in NV? Do you think you could've met the deadline w/o the help of VB ideas to base off of?
No, it was about 18 months. All we really took from Van Buren were some faction ideas (Caesar's Legion), characters, and a variety of plot hooks/setting changes. We used no material resources from VB, no VB documentation, nothing that would actually give us any significant time savings, honestly.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Do you find it strange that karma is gained from killing enemies from a faction that is scripted to attack the player on sight regardless of karma or reputation? (eg. Fiends.) Seems pretty annoying for a player who is trying to maintain evil karma.
The larger issues are the karma values in the editor and the lack of Good/Very Good NPCs to kill. For some really weird reason, fKarmaModKillingEvilActor is set to 100 and fKarmaModKillingVeryEvilActor is set to 2 -- so you get about 50x more good karma for killing an Evil actor (e.g. a Fiend) than for killing a Very Evil actor. No one on the team remembers changing those values, but they were clearly screwed up.
There are also a lot of actors set to default alignments in the editor. Jean-Baptiste Cutting is Neutral (should probably be Very Evil). Doctor Usanagi is Neutral (should probably be Very Good). Some Centurions (the ones on the Dam) are set to Evil (should be Neutral).
For purposes of the player getting bad karma, there are also a lot of generic folks who should be set to Good alignment (e.g. Prostitutes, Junkies, Westside Citizens/Militia). Even if the NPCs aren't "good", there's little justification for players to be murdering them unless they are playing bloodthirsty characters/want bad karma. Similarly, Feral Ghouls aren't actually evil (they are insane), and it's hard to avoid killing droves of them, which makes it difficult to maintain bad karma in vanilla F:NV.
Fiends are kind of huge jackasses and unless you decide to dive into Vault 3, it actually is pretty easy to avoid them on the crit path. If the fKarmaModKillingEvilActor value were set down to something like 5, it wouldn't be a big deal.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Can I have the link to download your mod?
It's not done yet, but when I'm done, anyone can download it. It's mostly general balance adjustments I couldn't do for various technical/time reasons, plus some general "make the Hardcore game harder" adjustments. I've made a couple hundred adjustments, but the most significant are probably:
* Max level with all DLCs installed is 35.
* XP rate is halved.
* Base player health is quartered and level-gained health is reduced by 25%.
* Base Carry Weight from 150 to 50 (related perks/things have also been adjusted).
* Energy Weapon ammo weighs less than its nearest equivalent Guns ammo.
* Energy Weapon durability is in the same ballpark as Guns durability.
* Medium Armor has a small amount of DR proportional to its DT.
* Heavy Armor has even more DR proportional to its DT.
* Power Armor does not require a perk, but if you have the perk, the weight of the armor is essentially negated.
* Karma/Alignment values adjusted all over.
* H2O/FOD/SLP rates doubled, but the first threshold is moved from 200 to 400 (statuses roll over ever 150 after).
* Water and Food drop rates on NPCs is dramatically lower. It is difficult to stay out of Dehydration/Starvation by looting enemies.
* Water/Nuka-Cola/Sunset Sarsaparilla heal much less, but now all restore H2O (alcohols will as well, but at lowered values).
* Default Stimpaks are uncommon. A new variant, Stimpak, Expired is the default. It is not that great.
* The player's Workbench recipe now makes Stimpak, Homemade. It is better than Expired, worse than default Stimpaks, and has the PE penalty from Healing Powder.
* All Stimpaks have weight.
* Pre-Order items have been adjusted to be more well-balanced and not worth that much if you rush to Chet's to trade them in.
* A bunch of fixes I couldn't make during development because of load order conflicts, time, etc. E.g.: Automatic Rifle spread re-adjustment, putting the Police Pistol on the Cowboy List, Bozar on Grunt, Junk Rounds are now actual ammo variants you can make, etc.
* Some other stuff.
It requires a load order manager (must load after all retail .esms) and every single DLC, including GRA and the pre-order packs.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Hi Josh, i'm about to jump into Dark souls without any knowledge of the series and how it plays. Seeing as none of my friends are into it I was wondering if your could give me some tips on combat as i'm a total n00b atm.
Go slowly, never relax or assume that you are safe. Keep your burden below 50% max, and use dodge often (just be careful around ledges).
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
What say you on the issue of sexism in video games?
it's bad.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Would you agree that "sexism in video games" is an issue in your titles too? E.g. Dungeon Siege III? If not, why?
I didn't work on DS3. On F:NV, we worked pretty hard to make the sexism be in-character/in-world.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Those are some good adjustments with the mod, but why not do a larger one changing factions etc.
Because I don't want to.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Do I need the Courier's Stash to use your upcoming mod? It's the only DLC I haven't bought because it's honestly a waste of money, but at 99 cents now, I'll bite if it's required...
It requires absolutely all of the DLCs, including GRA and the pre-order packs. Sorry
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
How cold I get all the preorder packs though if I haven't preordered? Or can Courier's Stash serve as an ersatz for them?
Courier's Stash gives all of the pre-order .esms.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
In New Vegas, do you think Energy Weapons could use a perk like Grunt?
That's sort of what Laser Commander and Plasma Spaz are for. I think the damage bonuses that Cowboy and Grunt give are a bit high and could be bumped down to 20%.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
out of curiosity, how did you adjust the karma and alignment rates in your mod?
So far:
* fKarmaModKillingEvilActor from 100 to 5
* fKarmaModKillingVeryEvilActor from 2 to 30
* All (known) Feral Ghouls set to Neutral alignment
* Colonel Moore Alignment changed from Neutral to Evil
* Colonel Hsu Alignment changed from Neutral to Good
* Dam Centurion Alignments changed from Evil to Neutral
* Doctor Usanagi Alignment changed to Very Good
* Dixon Alignment changed from Neutral to Very Evil
* Jean-Baptiste Cutting Alignment changed from Neutral to Very Evil
* Gloria Van Graff Alignment changed from Neutral to Very Evil
* Alice McLafferty Alignment changed from Neutral to Evil
* Alice McBride Alignment changed from Neutral to Good
* Squatter Alignments changed from Neutral to Good
* The King's Alignment changed from Neutral to Good
* Contreras' Alignment changed from Neutral to Evil
* Westside Citizens and Militia Alignments changed from Neutral to Good
* Gomorrah Prostitutes Alignments changed from Neutral to Good
* 1E Junkies' Alignments changed from Neutral to Good
* Michelle and Samuel's Alignments changed from Neutral to Good
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Colonel Moore evil? Why? Also wouldn't killing Feral Ghouls be like a mercy killing?
Colonel Moore is kind of an awful human being.
There are too many Feral Ghouls all over the wasteland to give them an alignment. Otherwise they would have too much of an influence on overall karma (as they currently do). There are plenty of other scumbags to knock off (e.g. the Fiends) if you want to farm good karma.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
I think you gave the legion too many guns or at least more guns than their characterization would have us believe. Equipment wise, the only notable difference between a legionary and a trooper is that the legionary uses melee AND guns instead of just guns
And most legionaries above the rank of recruit once had to survive and succeed with little more than machetes and throwing spears. The use of "good" equipment is something that is earned in the Legion. Most recruits have to succeed through speed and tenacity because their gear isn't going to do the work for them.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Who came up with the basic premise of the story in F:NV?
One of the Obsidian owners came up with the idea that you start the game by being shot in the head and dropped into a desert grave. It was my idea to end the game by resolving a conflict between NCR/Caesar's Legion at Hoover Dam. Everything else was developed by John Gonzalez.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Is Colonel Moore really awful, though? I'd describe her as Lawful Neutral at worst.
She goes out of her way to brutalize or screw over groups and people she doesn't like when it's obviously unnecessary, including the Courier. If the player does exactly what Colonel Moore asks, the Kings are butchered (unnecessary and easily avoidable), the Brotherhood of Steel is destroyed (avoidable), and the Great Khans are destroyed (also unnecessary/avoidable).
I don't know if you've done the "provoke the Kings" route that Moore suggests, but the NCR Troopers that go in with you essentially become a sweeping death squad, gunning down every person in the building.
If the player tries to work around Colonel Moore, she has Ambassador Crocker removed from his post and eventually she trashes the Courier's reputation with NCR. Both of these things are petty and vindictive.
I'm not big on arguing moral/ethical abstractions like alignments, but this amounts to "worse than neutral" to me.
JESawyer responded to RadekSmektala 28 Dec 11
Why is karma even necessary, though? It seems to me like a way to make very shallow moral judgement on the player with no consideration for motive and context. Mind you, I'm not saying the designers failed here - it's just impossible to create a binary sy
Feel free to ignore it with all of the other arbitrary stats that are tracked and tacked onto your character.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Why can't you just add your changes to the game in an official patch?
The short technical reason is ".esm inter-dependencies" and "load order errors". Sorry.
In addition to technical reasons, some of the mechanics changes make the game significantly more difficult (base health / stim changes) or at least more of a hassle (carry weight, stims having weight, H2O/SLP/FOD rate increase). I'd rather have people opt-in to those changes than make them the default in a patch.
Finally, the game's over. The ship has sailed. No one is working on it anymore. No testers, nothing. This mod is just me working in my free time. If I horribly botch something, you can just un-check the mod and go on your way.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Do you plan to reintroduce the armored vault 21 jumpsuit in your mod? If so, would it be by crafting or found?
Yes. It is for sale in Sarah's store at Vault 21. Both it and the Armored Vault 13 Jumpsuit now use the RepairVaultSuit list and have 200 CND. The Armored Vault 21 Jumpsuit grants 12 DT, +1 LK, and costs 2000 caps.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Will your mod add any removed/unfinished quests?
No.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
But it seems as though Caesar, ideologically speaking, does not want legionary gear to do the work for them regardless of rank. Shouldn't the veterans upgrade to better melee and throwing weapons? Instead of point-and-click technological problem solvers?
Yes because Caesar subordinates a hard-line ideology for practical concerns in certain circumstances, especially if a strategy proves to be flawed. E.g. having his officers shot to pieces by NCR snipers in an open environment, say the span of a long dam.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
When you modify the GRA Baseball Bat with nails, you cover all sides of the bat with nails. Then you throw it on your back. Wouldn't that be...uncomfortable?
man up
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
You say Moore is worse than neutral and yet House will do the same thing to the Kings, BoS, and send "protection" to Primm. All of those actions arguably avoidable.
No, he certainly doesn't do that to the Kings unless the Kings actively ally with his enemies (NCR -- which is something only the Courier can do). If you drive a wedge between the Kings and NCR and support a Mr. House victory, he leaves them alone.
The same applies to Primm. Mr. House only sends his Securitrons and taxes the citizens if the Courier turned Primm into an NCR town.
It shouldn't be too surprising that when the Courier gets groups to ally with an enemy of the faction they help win at Hoover Dam, bad things happen to those groups during the aftermath. You're right that these things (other than BoS) are avoidable, but they only happen in the first place because the player sets them up for disaster.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Does your mod have to be loaded last after all other DLC?
Yep.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
The BoS and Kings are all enemies of the NCR how is she being "evil" for ridding the Mojave of their presence?
Pacer is pretty much the only King who is actively working against the NCR. Sending in a squad of soldiers to provoke an extermination of the entire group borders on mustache-twirling nastiness.
Her response to overtures of peace (and an actual brokered peace) with BoS show that her motives aren't really NCR's interests but her own vendettas.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
But there are plenty of ways for Legionaries to sneak up on and ambush NCR troops in the expanse up to and inside the Dam... In fact, the Legion groups inside the Dam itself use guns. I think it's time to admit technological restrictions made it lame.
I don't think it made it lame at all. If my two other options were a) to have the Legion use melee weapons at all times in all circumstances even though it means that in open environments the player (and NPCs) could kill them off with ease or b) to have the Legion just use guns all the time like everyone else, I think both of those options are worse and duller than having them use a mix of close-range Unarmed/Melee weapons and Guns.
If the Praetorian Guards just had some 12.7mm SMGs, I think that would be boring as hell. If Legion Assassins only carried machetes and chainsaws in the open desert, it would be pointless.
JESawyer 28 Dec 11
Do I need all DLC in order for your mod to work properly? I have all DLC except Dead money and Honest Hearts
Yes.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Karma doesn't seem to have any actual use in New Vegas if I'm not mistaken other than a personal indicator vs Fallout 3 where it fully cemented how people looked to you, contrary to what BGS said it would all work pre-launch.
In F:NV, Cass and Mortimer react to it. Otherwise the only big place it's referenced is at the end of the game in the slides.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
How in the world would the Fiends overrun McCarran with that huge wall?
they're high on life okay
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Do you have any idea of when the mod will be available?
Happy Kwanzaa!
http://diogenes-lamp.info/jsawyer_fnv_mod.zip
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Have you ever tried playing your mod in combination with other third-party ones, e.g. Project Nevada Rebalance?
Nope!
JESawyer responded to ProgRock 29 Dec 11
So I recently visited Zion with my family, and I have to say that it was the most beautiful place I have ever been. I totally understand why it's named as such, and I plan to go back again during the summer.
It's an amazing place. Our national parks are under-appreciated in general.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Do we have permission to release patches for your mod?
If you want to make an .esp that overrides or reverts some aspect of mine, of course. Please just don't modify my .esp directly or host it anywhere.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Does your mod include any of the fan-bugfixes for the DLCs (since they couldn't be patched) like the looping dialogue bug with your brain in OWB? I'm checking to see which mods to keep and which to ditch on my replay if I want to use your mod.
I personally made all of the changes in my mod, and they are all listed in the jsawyer_READ_ME.txt file in the .zip. That's the easiest way to see what I did or didn't address. I didn't fix that bug.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Will you ever update/expand your mod again or is it completely finished ?
I'm done with it for the next month or so, I'd say. If some other major things come to light, I may address them, but I'd like to see how this release works for a while.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
You said that Moore will get Crocker fired and try to smear the Courier if the player doesn't act as her attack dog. I have generally avoided killing the Khans/Kings/BoS and I don't think I ever got told that. Is it an NCR epilogue thing?
It's not in the epilogue. Crocker is removed from his post if you help negotiate peace with the Kings. If you return to Moore after negotiating peace with the BoS, she gets mad at you and you gain Negative NCR reputation. Since you've been doing missions for NCR for a long time, it's unlikely to significantly affect your overall rep, but it's indicative of Moore's character and attitude.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Some of the BoS characters are considered "good" rather than neutral - what gives?
Jesse Farrell (who made most of the BoS characters) probably considers some of them to be good.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Has anyone at Obsidian referred to Planescape: Torment as Planet Escape: Tournament yet?
Plain Scrape's Tourniquet.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
You don't want your esp to be edited or hosted anywhere else, which I understand. But would you be okay if some of your changes were added in a mod, like keeping only the rebalances and fixes and not the hardcore tweaks?
Certainly.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Wait is that really the finished mod or you're just trolling??
Yep, it's done. Take a look. Changes are in the jsawyer_READ_ME.txt file in the .zip.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Are you in the liberty to say what happened to the Shi from FO2?
My personal policy is to not comment or speculate on things that lie outside of what's presented in the games. I think it unfairly restricts other developers, modders, and gamers in general.
JESawyer responded to DrHL 29 Dec 11
I see, Moore was wounded in the BoS-NCR war which is why she's in that "desk job". She has a grudge against the BoS and lets this interfere with her work, which at her level is dangerous. This and all those other things you said makes her evil, right?
If it were just her attitude toward the BoS, that could be chalked up to her personal experiences alone. But when it comes to the Great Khans and (especially) the Kings, it's a lot harder to justify.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Thanks for giving me an excuse to reinstall NV. Going through the changes list, when armour changes are mentioned, it's in the form of "$ARMOUR given X DT". Stupid question, but does this mean the DT is changed to X, or that X is added to the old DT?
In almost all cases, it says that armor was given DR (Damage Resistance). DR is a percentile reduction of incoming damage that stacks with DT (Damage Threshold). I gave Medium and Heavy armors DR to make them more appealing. Using the JSawyer mod, a player with Power Armor Training wearing any form of PA essentially has weightless armor with some of the highest DT and DR. The only real penalty is (now) a 10% reduction in movement speed.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Thoughts on south-eastern Wisconsin?
it
owns
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Missouri is better :p
a shameful post
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
I dont know if i'm doing something wrong, but I dont see a lot of changes in your mod (mostly the 12.15.2011 edits about weapons, the 9mm is still vanilla, the Laser Pistol too, etc.)
I loaded the .esp just now and saw the changes listed in jsawyer_READ_ME.txt. Possible problems:
* Are you using a load order manager like FOMM? You need to.
* Is jsawyer.esp loading after the FalloutNV.esm and all of the DLC .esms? It needs to.
* If you are running other mods with jsawyer.esp, they may be overriding my changes.
Hope that helps.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
do i really have to have courier's stash for your mod to work?
I do not know what will happen if you attempt to load the .esp without the four pre-order .esms in Courier's Stash.
It is currently one American dollar on Steam, if that matters.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Sorry if I came wrong - I meant to ask if you uploaded the right esp file. I know it happened to me once to upload an outdated esp. I cracked open your esp with FNVEdit and I see no 9mm/Laser Pistol changes, so I can provide a screenshot
Hmm. It's possible. Try re-downloading it and tell me if it's different.
http://diogenes-lamp.info/jsawyer_fnv_mod.zip
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
Why would the mod need all DLCs to work. Personally I don't want your weapon pack.
Because data that is referenced in the .esp is absent when the .esp is loaded and it might -- or might not -- cause errors.
JESawyer 29 Dec 11
MCA said Obsidian does get some money on NWN2 sales. What about DS3?
No idea, sorry.
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
will your mod change what kind of perks/stats i should give my character?
I'm not sure. I think Energy Weapons in Hardcore feel like a more viable choice than they were previously. Cowboy and Grunt are slightly reduced in efficacy but still very good. Carry Weight is very restricted, so high ST and perks like Strong Back and Pack Rat or the Hoarder trait may be more appealing.
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Thank for the mod 
Thanks. I hope you like it.
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Is this for the Xbox 360, or just the PC version? I am; Ravendarklock
My mod? It's just for PC, sorry.
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
I'm not the person bellow, but he was right, the changes weren't in effect. I checked the new file on the GECK though and now it seems everything checks (the new file is almost 2x the old one too). Thanks a lot for the mod BTW!
kewl thx
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Did you have any outside help with the mod or is it just something you did at home to make your own game more fun?
I just did it on own at home.
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Do you know how compatible your mod is with other mods? Reading over what it does, seems like I'll have to remove Project Nevada. Hopefully worth it, though!
I have no idea. Unfortunately, I suspect it may conflict with Project Nevada.
JESawyer responded to SusanneSaville 30 Dec 11
Who wrote Vulpes Inculta? (I apologize if this has been answered before - I scrolled back through a bunch of pages to check first but didn't see it.)
John Gonzalez.
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Is the Forecaster a Psyker, and is his Nullifier one of the ones from under the Cathedral? How'd he get it?
mysteries
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
So, wait. Caesar, sanctioning rape and in some cases cannibalism, slaughtering whole cultures that don't conform, gets to stay at neutral karma, but Moore, strictly for being "petty," is evil? Not trolling, I'm genuinely just blown away by that assertion.
No, it's her pettiness in the context of slaughtering whole cultures. If she were petty and intentionally spilled beer on a Great Khan's shoes, that would probably not earn her as much karmic debt as trying to have the Great Khans' whole tribe annihilated.
A case can be made that Caesar should have an evil (or very evil) alignment, but he also exists in a bubble that insulates him from what he's doing. Caesar does what he does because he feels that it is contributing to a better society. With Moore, she is clearly motivated by hatred and spite.
Motivation matters a lot to (many) people. It's why, right or wrong, we have self-defense laws, hate crime laws, crime of passion laws, and criminal defenses that are based on the defendant being mentally ill.
It's also why some people are willing to "forgive" military commanders like William T. Sherman or Curtis LeMay.
http://youtu.be/hOCYcgOnWUM
Short version: moral relativism lol alignments lol
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Are you saddened at all by the fact that something you worked very hard on for months is now on sale for $5 on steam?
No.
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
So by the logic of Caesar in a bubble Hitler wasn't really evil?
Caesar has more in common with a character like Mr. Kurtz in Heart of Darkness than he has in common with Adolf Hitler. Hitler's relative isolation and ascent to power don't even compare to Caesar's.
But hey, why waste an opportunity to bring up Hitler?
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Can you explain the similarities between Mr. Kurtz, and Caesar?
Both are men of intelligence and education who traveled from a life of relative comfort, technological wizardry, and "civilization" into a wilderness full of warring people with relatively low education and a relatively "primitive" lifestyle. Both rose to power and were essentially deified for their intelligence, knowledge and leadership capabilities. Both cut off communication with the outside world and lived in their (until now) remote, savage kingdoms, using the most brutal means possible to deal with rare instances of dissent. Both have an "unusual" way of looking at the world due to their cultural isolation.
Unlike Mr. Kurtz, Caesar's reign continues for a long, long time.
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Joshua Graham. Epic voice actor. Fail use as a character in a botched DLC. And I waited a decade for you to bring him into light. Sigh
c00l
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Wait, the readme for your mod calls 40mm grenades a pre-order consumable. Am I supposed to eat the grenades?
They are a consumable in the sense that one instance = one use and then it's gone.
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Have you ever met a cat that was as friendly as a dog?
A lot of dogs are unfriendly (e.g. many Jack Russell Terriers are "one-person" dogs), so yes. We had a Maine Coon when I was growing up who was friendly to everyone (except one barn swallow and one persistent cat -- once).
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Speaking of Kurtz, was that character in any way a direct influence for Graham in Honest Hearts?
Only slightly. Graham and Caesar were in it together, in different ways. While Caesar never had a radical shift in his approach and ideology, Joshua Graham had a slow slide followed by a dramatic fall and "rebirth". Joshua Graham was inspired by characters like Rodrigo Mendoza from The Mission and T.E. Lawrence.
That said, Honest Hearts has a lot to do with personal motivations and why being honest to yourself about them is important. In many ways, Caesar is dispassionate -- or at least less passionate than someone like Joshua Graham, or even Lanius. Caesar is an odd sort of philosopher; Joshua Graham is a zealot. Caesar is also hypocritical or at least "bends" his own rules when it suits him. Joshua has to lie to himself to rationalize what he does. He can't live with an internal contradiction.
They are also very different types of leaders. Caesar leads by telling people what to do and wowing (or terrorizing) them with the results. Joshua Graham leads by personally doing things that (typically) terrify both his allies and his enemies. As Joshua says himself, he's effectively a war chief of the Dead Horses. He's not the sort of guy you ask for opinions on how to repair a road or develop infrastructure.
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Is there a way to know if the mod is working properly in-game?
If you open the console and type "coc wolfhornpoint", you should see five hostile ghouls in robes called "Deranged Bright Follower". If they are there, it's working. If not, something wacky is going on.
My first upload of the mod was an old .esp, so unless you downloaded it today, I suggest downloading it again.
JESawyer 30 Dec 11
Where can we download your mod? Since your domain is just an image. Unless it's some cryptic puzzle???
http://diogenes-lamp.info/jsawyer_fnv_mod.zip
JESawyer responded to enneract 31 Dec 11
Would you be interested to know that your mod works great on 360, if one has a devkit or other console able to run unsigned code?
sweet
JESawyer responded to taeglar 31 Dec 11
It seems like your definition of evil Moore tracks with how evil work in bad rpgs. You're judging Moore evil not based on her philosophy or mission or impact, but rather by how much of a pointlessly mean jerk she is to people, like a typical evil crpg PC.
No, I am judging her based on her philosophy, mission, and impact because she's wrapping vendetta in the NCR flag. Her being a "pointlessly mean jerk" means that she has someone exterminate three groups of people because *she hates those groups* -- even when those groups are not actively working against the NCR and when the Courier and/or other groups have ways to work with/around them.
It has to be said that if the player negotiates peace with the Kings, negotiates peace with the Khans, and negotiates peace with the BoS, the only material losses to NCR are that NCR hands over its salvaged PA and doesn't take control of Freeside -- in itself hard to argue as necessary or "good" for NCR or Freeside.
Consider her attitude toward being in the Rangers. She misses it because she had the freedom to do "whatever [she] want[ed]". Compare that to the attitudes of pretty much every other Ranger and it should show you that she views authority as something that allows you to get your way, not as a way to serve a higher cause.
JESawyer 31 Dec 11
Your mod makes the game exceedingly difficult due to the increased weight of objects that were once weightless.
The only thing that really applies to are stims/super stims and (I think) doctor bags, but yes that was my intent.
JESawyer 31 Dec 11
Why in the world does a pack of bubble gum weigh 1 pund in NV???
it's extremely dense
JESawyer 31 Dec 11
Your mod doesn't seem to work. I set the the fallout mod manager to load it first but it still loads right after the item packs and my character health isn't quartered. How can I use the mod properly?
HMM I will investigate this sometime in the next month.
JESawyer 31 Dec 11
Why does the Courier reload revolvers improperly? Wouldn't the gun's condition degrade slower if the Courier didn't flick the cylinder back into place?
For the same reason the Courier finishes reloading pump-action shotguns with one hand (in 3rd person, anyway): because it is more distinctive and looks cooler.
JESawyer 31 Dec 11
Why do you only get a perk every two levels in NV?
To make those perk slots more valuable and to make character builds more distinctive.
JESawyer 31 Dec 11
The mod manager is supposed to load it last, not first. to the person below me.
Yes, I misread his or her question. It does need to load last, though it seems that regardless of order, the health modification is not working for many people.
JESawyer 31 Dec 11
Was Dead Money influenced by the 1948 movie The Treasure of the Sierra Madre? and if so in what way?
Yes, but I think Chris Avellone can give more detailed insight than I can. My only real contribution was the addition of the Police Pistol, which is similar to the Colt Official Police used by several characters in the film.
JESawyer 31 Dec 11
I know it would be like picking your favorite child, but which main ending in New Vegas is canon?
Unless it needs to occur in the context of a future game, I will never define a canonical ending to Fallout: New Vegas. The reason we gave you all of those endings and ways to do things was to tell you that whatever ending YOU make is the right ending. It is the heart of what I believe RPGs are about.
JESawyer 31 Dec 11
Characters aren't quite so distinctive when you up the cap to 50 and don't restructure the to 30 system to accommodate it.
That's one of the reasons why earned XP is halved and the level cap is 35 in my mod,
Category:Out-of-game source texts