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Fallout 2 News: Well, it's Labor Day (I hear) and there are about 17 of us here working on Fallout 2 right now. I wanted to get through with the whining right up front. :) Things keep on moving forward and we have almost half of the game debugged from a plot standpoint. That means that half of the quests/sub-quests are working bug free and are giving the Karma, Experience, and Town Reputation. Now that doesn't mean everything is working in those areas, but it means that the player can do all the puzzles/quests. The areas still need balancing and some more bug testing/bug fixing, but it makes us all feel better to know at least the quests are working. There is a scripter working on each of the areas that still remain to be fixed up, so that should start going pretty well. I am not totally sure but I think by the 14th we will have all of the plots working and the game finishable. That is one of our big problems right now, you can't finish the game. All the maps are there, almost all of the scripts, and almost all of the art, but it hasn't all been put together to make it all work. I am hoping to crack the whip a little bit and get the guys to put that in by Tuesday or Wednesday. We'll have to see on that one. The art interns have BURNED through the remaining inventory art and we are down to about 10 items at the most - which have probably already been done, but just not put in the game's database yet. They are starting on the remaining scenery art (map art) and we should start seeing the areas get more and more polished. Most of the Real (real means paid in this instance) artists should be done with their movies this week, which means that they will be going onto doing the remaining scenery art as well. We have started lip synching the heads now, and there are about three being done right now. A bunch of people "volunteered" to help us out on this. :) There are another 10 or so to do, but we are waiting on our audio department to get us the cut up audio. We only have one more actor to record, and our audio department has been doing a great job getting the dialog digitized and cutup quickly for us. The partymember advancement system is in and working, I QA'd it a bunch on Saturday and our Lead Programmer fixed all the problems in about 30 minutes. It probably still needs more banging on, but most of the major problems are cut out of it. Oh and we decided to add one of everybody's dearest friends from the first game back in. I'm not going to tell you guys who it is, because I want it to be a surprise for the people who find him. All and all things are going well, and we're working hard to get the game done, and done right. Any questions, just ask - except about the release date - which is Fall and I really can't be anymore specific. Sorry.
Feargus (furquhart@interplay.com) Fallout 2 News: Well, you all get a real long one this time, since it has been a while since I have written. And to answer you all, it is because we've been REALLY busy, not because nothing has happened. :) Anyway, it looks like we have gotten almost all of the design into the game and all of the areas will be done from a scripting perspective this week. This is a little later than I hoped, but this was because we re-wrote a couple of areas to have them make more sense. So, some people would call this implementation and others would call it tweaking. You decide. The movies are due from all the artists next Monday and things are looking pretty good for that to happen. One of the movies might be a little late, but it shouldn't hurt us too bad. Art continues to go into the game and the artists working on Critters really have kicked some ass. We've been able to populate a lot of the areas with a lot more new people, and one of the party members even got his own special character. Now having said all of that, we still have a lot to do. We need to balance the game and come up with some new systems to get everything we promised in the game. One of the latest things we were working on was the ability for your Party Members to develop over the course of the game. We came up with a pretty good system over the past few days (Yes a bunch of us are doing the 7 day work week right now) that was implemented yesterday. We just have to put a bunch of data in for it over the next couple of days and we should know if it is working out. Programming wise I had our Lead Programmer put a little tweak in that has critters run in combat if they use more than 50% of their AP's for movement during a turn. It turned out to both speed up combat (not it's main purpose) but also to make things a lot more active. So I know you are all going to ask me what areas had to be redesigned and if we are just going to cheese them. :) Well the two main areas that had to be redesigned were the Den and Navarro. I won't go into details about Navarro because that would give a lot of the game away, but the Den just didn't really move the player towards where he needed to go next and people weren't sure what actually was supposed to happen in the area. This was because about three designers had touched it, and it needed one solid redesign which was done by Dave Hendee - and we didn't have to beat him too much to get him to do it on time either. However, as of today, the "new" Den is already in and being tested. To sum up, a lot of things have been going on for the past couple of weeks and our Quality Assurance Department is feeling a lot better about the game. They tend to be a little more pessimistic about things then us - which we often need. But I have seen the occasional smile on their faces lately. And lastly, the date is still Fall. I get a lot of E-mail from everyone asking what the EXACT date is, and I wish I could give it to you guys. Two things stop me from doing it. (1) Since we just went public we have to be careful about the dates we release because of the investors (2) Pinning a final date on big projects like this is REALLY tough and I don't want to get everybody's expectations up about a certain date and then missing it. As always if you have any questions just ask,
Feargus (furquhart@interplay.com) Fallout 2 News: We are all back from Gencon and it seemed everybody loved the game. Some people were staying around the booth for hours to play Fallout 2, so the game must be pretty good. :) If you haven't checked out the clips off of the Black Isle Studios Web Site you should. I just got back to my office from looking at some of the movies that the guys are working on. A lot of the cuts are not in their final version but they are looking good. We should be giving ones that have been rendered out for timing to the Audio department by the end of the month. The interns have all decided to stay until the end of the project to help out which is awesome. They've done a great job with everything we have thrown at them. One of our other interns, Benc, just left to go back to Germany. He also did great work for us on scenery objects and some of the town maps. One of our programmers has knocked a bunch of things off of the little feature and bug list over the past week. Things are a little slower going right now because he has hit the harder things, but stuff is still getting taken off the list. Scripting is going well, and we are hooking up individual testers and designers with scripters to make small groups that can attack each of the areas in turn.
Feargus (furquhart@interplay.com) Fallout 2 News: Just to let you all know, I will be out at Gencon in Milwaukee all next week. So I will probably not be answering E-mail that quickly, if at all, until I get back. You can still send stuff, but I probably won't get back to you until around the middle of the following week. And I'll make sure to post another update as soon as I get back. :)
Feargus (furquhart@interplay.com) Fallout 2 News: Two in one week. Can you all believe it? :) Anyway the first thing I wanted to say was that we just got some of the BIG boxes in and Dave is going to be running a contest to give them out. The BIG boxes are 1.5 foot by 2.5 foot and are basically blow ups of the what the final game will come in. As to the game, things are going great on adding new critter types. A couple of the artists are burning through them and we might have a few more in the game than I was expecting. We also have four interns from Yucca Valley High School doing art, and they are doing a great job. They have been doing a lot of scenery art for the last area. Oh, and I just got an update from Fred Hatch that we might be going in the Studio as early as next Tuesday which would be awesome. It will really help us not have to rush getting the head dialog in the game. However, I still don't know what actors we might be casting yet. As soon as I know, and we are not bound to not publicize who they are, I'll let you all know some of their names.
That's it for now, Fallout 2 News: So I guess you all were expecting another one. :) Well we have completely redone the first part of the game, and it is looking really good. The art for the area will be done in the next few days. So we should be done (even with a lot of the bug fixing) on this area this week. Overall programming is going well and the AI continues to get worked on. I've left one of our other programmers on the project to clean up some things and implement smaller features like the "Take All" button on the loot screen and inventory management. The artists are continuing to work on the intro movie, but a lot of the scenes are getting close to being done. Design wise we should be done within the next week, and we added a few more perks last week. Oh, and we also plugged a GIANT hole in the plot last week that you all would have yelled at us about if we had missed it. Fred Hatch (the line producer on the project) is meeting with our Audio Director this week to get studio time arranged. We're not sure which actors we will be using this time, but it is the same Audio Director as last time, so I am sure some of the names will be recognizable.
If you have any questions just ask, Fallout 2 News: Well, I guess I didn't live up to my promise. Sorry about not posting an update since last month. Things got crazier before they got saner. I went on vacation for two weeks on 6/24, and the week before the 24th I was on a press tour with the preview of the game. That's the version that all the web sites got. A bunch of the sites already have articles up, like Avault, Gamespot, etc... The editors have been pretty positive which is great to hear. Oh, and my vacation was for my honeymoon, since I got married on 6/27/98. Anyway, I'm back, and here is some info on what the hell has been going on since then. A lot of the artists are working on the Intro movie right now trying to get that done in the next month or so. The scripters plan to have all of the areas except for the last two (SF and the final area) by Wednesday (7/15). And all of the design should be finished up by then as well. We should also be going into the studio to start recording the head dialog within the next few weeks. Let's see we also have about 6 interns working on art for the game, this is on top of the 5 full-time artists who are also working on it. So we should be getting more and more art into the game up until the second it ships. We also contracted one of the artists who did a lot of the inventory items from the first game to do some of the inventory art this time around as well. All in all things are going well, and I'll have an even better update early next week after we see what everybody was able to get done for 7/15.
Feargus (furquhart@interplay.com) Fallout 2 News: Just got back from E3, and everybody seemed to love the game. I talked to Desslock, the guys from Avault, Vault Network, Cindy from Strat +, Mike Wolf from PCGamer, and a whole bunch of other people. And I, nor any of the Black Isle producers, threw up. A real achievement with the parties that were going on. The game has been going pretty well over the past month, since my last real update. The Lead Programmer has been working on Combat AI, and a lot of the new Party member AI is in the game already. A lot of the AI is now dependent on the NPC, Party member, or Monster's Perception and IQ - and we are probably going to be putting more of that in. One of the guys on the team got his character killed this morning because he thought the Combat AI was going to act like it did in the first game. The art continues, and work has started on the intro movie. The last couple of areas still need art done for them, and a couple of the artists are going to take about a month to go over each of the areas to make sure they all look original. There are only about three areas that are left to design, about six or seven to script. So QA is going to be moving over by the team on 6/15 and we start fixing bugs. Most of the designers have already been testing their areas. Updates will be coming more frequently now that the month of the CGDC and E3 is over.
Feargus EVEN MORE Fallout 2 News: Well we hit Alpha last Monday, and are planning to put the game into QA around the middle of next month. Things are looking pretty good and we are reasonably on schedule. We have about 6 designers and 4 scripters working on implementing the areas and they have gotten through about 25% of them so far. The Lead Programmer is going to start working on the new Combat AI pretty soon. We talked last week for a couple hours about different things that we could add to the AI to make things act more realistically. New thing we are adding is to have weapons that you can set to Full Auto. Feargus Black Isle Division Director More Fallout 2 News: Not all NPCs who join can join your part will be human. Super-mutants, robo-dogs and ghouls can join your adventure. You can also upgrade your companions' weapons and armour, or even teach them new skills. There will be improved combat AI for friends and foes. Now they shouldn't take those burst shots as often, instead waiting for an better opportunity. There will also be bigger, smarter and nastier enemies to contend with. Over 100 new perks as well as more balanced skills are also promised for the game. News about the upcoming Fallout 2: More NPCs that can join your party, and they have more abilities. The game will be longer, and individual plot seeds will be meatier and add more meaning to the world. More weapons, armours and drugs, of course. There will be a slight revision to the character system so that all the [characters] statistics matter equally. We're also trying to speed up map loading and make smaller save games. Most of the common complaints from players are being addressed. One of the coolest things about Fallout 2 is that if you've played Fallout 1, then some of the things you thought were true in Fallout will be cast in a whole new light. Fallout 2 is scheduled for a late 98 release. The lead producer for Interplay's Fallout, considered by many to be one of the best role-playing games released in the last few years, has confirmed that a sequel is under way in a message he posted to the Usenet. In his message, Tim Cain confirms some important details. "Fallout took just under 4 years to make," writes Cain. "Fallout 2 should take 11 months. Keep in mind that part of the team is working on the patch, part of the team is working on the foreign translations, and part of the team is working on Fallout 2...I find myself working on all three parts and I want a vacation!" Furthermore, Cain says it's unlikely that gamers will be able to import a Fallout character into Fallout 2. "We've discussed this a lot, but without seriously altering your character (stripping inventory, skills, or perks) it's not feasible. I cannot design a game that lets someone start with a 21st-level character and someone else start with a 1st-level character, and both of them have fun." But fans of Fallout can count on the story continuing, according to Cain. He also promises that many more elements will be added to the sequel. Cain went on to say that he and the Fallout team were "overwhelmed and gratified" at the response to Fallout. He also mentions that they worked hard to include multiple solutions and extras in the game, and are happy that gamers appreciate their efforts. |
We've got a new Ads page Go there and click on some banners; well, right now we've only got one, but soon you can click on loads of banners. :) However, you can click on as many (or as little) banners as you want. All of them will be one one page (no popups or intrusive banners) and their all optional All the money we get will go to buying more games and making Compendiums for them; because, as you must know, it's a little difficult to make a Compendium on a game you don't have. Plus, now we have some incentive to finish our pages more quickly. Here's a new page by the creators of these great Compendiums (ie. us), the Oracle of Nonsense. Check it out, and ask the Oracle some questions. READ THIS CAREFULLY: Okay, there's two completely different message boards linked from this site. The first is the Fallout 2 Compendium Message Board which is linked right here on the main page, and through ABOUT, FEEDBACK. The second one is Big Red Rock's Mystic Isle Message Board (linked both on the main page and in the last week's news post). They are completely different. The only connection whatsoever is that Fallout and Mystic Isle are both RPGs. Don't post Fallout related questions/comments on their Mystic Isle board and don't post Mystic Isle related questions/comments on our Fallout 2 board. Clear? I can draw a diagram if that helps. Until then remember, our message board is green, theirs is black. If you're ever unsure, just read the earlier posts. Well we haven't updated in a while (so sue us, its Christmas). But if you like Fallout, and liked helping Interplay with the development of Fallout 2 by posting on their message board, go to the Big Red Rock page. Its a developer of an upcoming RPG, Mystic Isle. So go on their Message Board and post all of your ideas. Read the earlier posts first, though. Ok, well, we've finally updated this page. Apologies to all. I realize that the F2C has to be updated and kept recent but we're human, no, we're lazy humans. A few new weapons have been added to the stats page. The visual walkthru is coming up. For now it'll be a 'good guy' walkthru. Fallout 2 is out! That means we'll start pumping information into the F2C pretty soon. You see, we have one problem. We, the editors of the Fallout Compendium live in Canada. Where Americans get to buy American Games the day they come out, we in Canada are not so fortunate. You see, we Canadians (all 12 of us) live here in the deep north. Therefore games, mail, and other cargo take a long time to get here by huskie. The messenger must brave polar bears, wolves, the -200'C temp, blizzards, etc. to get us our games. So the second we get the game, we'll drop everything we're doing, power up our computers, turn on the air conditioners (so the igloos don't melt) and not rest until we've completed Fallout 2 and the Fallout 2 Compendium.... or something to that effect. Fortunately, Canada is part of the Commenwealth. That means we get British (and any other Commenwealth country's) games the day they come there. We've had I-War (some of you might know it as Independance War) for over a year now. Anyway, as I was saying, we should have some new information by next week. We have the stats and pictures on five weapons from Fallout 2. This is before the game has come out so I think that's pretty impressive. Check them out in the STATS section. Fallout 2 Faq updated. Previews section added linking Online Magazines' Previews of Fallout 2. We've updated the Fallout 2 FAQ by adding twelve new questions. Check it out. Hey guess what? Yep. We jumped the gun and put up the good ol' Fallout Compendium v2.0 or Fallout 2 Compendium, whatever. I wish I could put up some more info, I also wish I had the game installed but unfortunately we all have to wait till October. |