Van Buren/SPECIAL

Black Isle's cancelled Fallout 3 project, codenamed Van Buren, was to feature a higly modified version of the SPECIAL character system, made by J.E. Sawyer. Some of the changes, especially to the skills system, were quite controversial among Fallout fans. It is unknown whether Bethesda will recycle any of Van Buren SPECIAL in Fallout 3, use the old version or make their own one from scratch, but it is known that they received all the Van Buren documentation.

Here are some known facts about the new SPECIAL (mostly quotes by J. E. Sawyer, to be reworked into more encyclopedic stuff):

Skills

 * Right now, I have a list of 14 skills:
 * 3 combat
 * 3 diplomacy
 * 4 science (including Outdoorsman)
 * 4 stealth.
 * They start at 0. tag! skills start at 20.
 * they do not have a % symbol behind them, as it makes no goddamned sense
 * the cost on a per-rank basis is 1 for ranks 1-50, 2 for 51-100, 3 for 101-150, and 4 for 151-200 (maxxxx). each rank bought for a tag! skill is doubled.
 * each skill has a bonus applied to all rolls that is equal to three ability score values (AG*3 or CH*2 + IN or ST + AG + PE, etc.)
 * perks that require skill values only look at the rank, not the rank + bonus. e.g.: you want to take Advanced Research; the prerequisites are IN 8, PE 6, science 175. If the character's science only has 168 ranks, but it's effectively 182 because of his high IN and PE, he won't qualify.

If you had a 55 Medic, it would cost you two points to increase it one rank -- but you would get an additional rank for free.

It's not half-cost; it's double ranks. I`m not opposed to skills with 100+ ranks. Penalties can always bring the ultra high skill characters back into the realm of reality. It does make the late game difficulties high enough that only people with high skills have a chance of making the checks, but i don't think that's so bad.

Tag bonus
It's possible that I may make the tag bonus be 24, since that makes the bonus equally divisible into 1, 2, 3, and 4. However, even now I think that +20 is a pretty hefty bonus on top of the accelerated points : ranks ratio. +12 would certainly tone things down (and be equally divisible by 1, 2, 3, and 4), but it still doesn't solve the bonus problem when the skill rank "crosses the barrier" during the increase. Unspent fractions would probably be lost.

Marksmanship
I'm now more in favour of [marksmanship] than having two firearm skills.

If Small Guns, Big Guns and Energy Weapons are combined into one, wont it make being a dedicated combat specialist too easy?

A dedicated combat specialist in Fallout 1 or 2 could put all his or her skill points into one or two combat skills, too (Small Guns/Energy Weapons, for instance). Of course, since (with the exception of the beginning of Fallout 2) ammo grew on trees and fell out of the sky, Unarmed and Melee were only useful as amusing alternatives. That's why I keep talking about having lower amounts of ammo and fewer firearm-using opponents.

Speech skills
As I wrote earlier this week, I'd like to throw up some ideas for broader applications of what are often called "Charisma Boy" or "Diplomacy Boy" skills. In Fallout and Fallout 2, such characters could focus on two skills with good, but fairly limited, applications: Barter and Speech. Barter affected buy and sell prices, Speech affected dialogue options (along with attributes).

Combat boys not only have skills but tools to help define their characters. Three characters who focus on Melee can all use different weapon sets for different purposes. This gives a level of depth to match or exceed that character type's skill breadth.

In my opinion (though some may [read: will] disagree), the Charisma Boy has neither depth or nor breadth in character development. He's got two skills, one with no depth, one with slight depth. Barter is pretty flat. It's just a score that goes up and changes store prices. A player can't do much with it to change his or her gameplay experience other than dump points into it and save money. Even the perks available for Barter don't really allow the player to do anything new with the skill.

Speech opens up a lot of dialogue options, but that's its whole point. It doesn't go beyond that. Attributes can be checked with Speech in dialogue, but ultimately those static checks are just pass/fail. Randomized checks in speech are easily overcome by the ol' "uncontested reload", so there's not much point to them -- they need to be static checks because of the environment in which they appear.

For these reasons, I would like to keep Barter, but divide Speech into two skills: Deception and Persuasion. However, this division is harmful unless the Deception and Persuasion skills have a broader application in the game outside of standard dialogue.

Barter
As in Fallout and Fallout 2, this skill does affect store prices. However, it also represents a certain level of knowledge about the caravan houses and trading in general, giving it a small role in dialogue. The intended depth to Barter development comes in the perks available at higher skill ranks.

Deception
This skill is used in dialogue, but it is also used as a limited building skill as means to an "alternate" stealth route. As with Speech in Fallout, Deception is checked in dialogue along with stats. But Deception's dialogue options all take the form of bluffing, misleading, or otherwise flat out lying to the other person in the conversation.

Deception can also be used to "sneak in plain sight" through the use of disguises. Disguises can be either found or created with a Disguise Kit. A disguise is a single item that a character wears, though it may occupy several equipped slots when necessary. Disguises may include things like: NCR Ranger Outfit, Hubologist Outfit, Viper Raider Outfit, etc. When a character uses a disguise, the character's effective reputation and identity become invisible. As far as AI is concerned, the character is part of that disguise's "team" as long as the NPC's PE doesn't see through the character's Deception skill (affected by range, lighting, etc.). Of course, for practical/gameplay purposes, a character's disguise does not hold up once he or she enters combat or attempts to initiate dialogue. And some disguises just don't work for some characters (no super mutants in BoS Scribe disguises, no humans in Night Kin disguises).

Characters can also manufacture disguises from individual disguise elements through the use of a disguise kit. Placing all the elements of the intended disguise into the kit creates the disguise if the character's Deception skill is high enough. E.g.: Joe wants an NCR Ranger Outfit. This requires an NCR Ranger uniform, NCR Ranger boots, and an NCR Ranger pin (I love that pin). He finds the uniform on a dead Ranger, buys the boots at a surplus store, and trades for the pin with a group of unpleasant but businesslike raiders. Dump them in the kit and -- voila -- NCR Ranger Outfit.

Persuasion
Persuasion: This skill is the other half of what Speech encompassed. It is used for friendly diplomacy, subtle manipulation, and outright intimidation. Also, as previously discussed, I believe it could be used to good effect for attempting to control CNPCs (companion NPCs) during combat. Though CNPCs would be computer-controlled by default, I believe that giving the high-Persuasion character a chance to control their followers is sensible and good for the purposes of expanding Persuasion's usefulness throughout the game.

Some CNPCs are really agreeable, and some are belligerent jackasses who don't listen to anything. Some also go crazy when they see certain types of creatures or otherwise are annoyed by local behavior. A wounded CNPC can also be extremely difficult to control, as their life tends to take precedence over your desire to be a big winner. Persuasion can be used to offset a CNPC's tendencies to do exactly what they want, when they want. The higher the Persuasion, the more likely it is that the CNPC will allow the player to control them, even under duress.

Perks
Hello. I've been thinking about perks lately. I've spent a lot of time going through the perk lists in Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout: Tactics. I noticed a few trends that I'd like to discuss.

A lot of "skill++" perks with different names (Ghost, Thief, Harmless, Master Thief, Medic!, Mr. Fixit). I'm not a big fan of skill++ perks because they don't really allow the character to do anything new. They just allow the character to do the same things better. That's neat and all, but really, that's what you spend skill points on. I wouldn't suggest eliminating the skill++ perks, but I think that they could just be sub-perks of one general skill++ perk. E.g.: the player hits level 6 and picks skill++ perk, then is given another list showing all the skills. He or she picks one. On the character record screen, it shows Skill++: Computer Ops.

A large number of perks that either directly relate to combat skills or are unrelated to any skills (Strong Back, Quick Pockets, etc.). Personally, I would like to see more perks that are directly connected to having high non-combat skills, like Healer.

I also think it would be interesting to have manufacturing perks that allow science boys to create equipment from otherwise useless junk that they find in their travels. The items could range from drugs to explosives to medical kits and so on.

Do Master Trader (25% reduction in cost, which is really what Barter does), Salesman (+20% Barter), and Negotiator (+20% to Barter) all need to exist? Could we replace two of those with something a little more involving?

Bulk Trader: The higher the volume of items you buy and sell, the better the deals (players start to orient their inventory management and purchasing around getting the highest count of a single item).

Junk Merchant: All items worth 1-3 "dollars" are worth twice as much when you sell them (players store assorted odds and ends in their locker/trunk waiting for a rainy day to cash them all in).

I'd like to see perks that allow the player to play differently, as cheap as that sounds. If a player can take a perk for their character and it makes them think differently about how they are playing, that seems more interesting to me than just jacking the skill value up.

I would actually like to start the point weighting earlier, at 50, with base skills starting at 0 (the primary attribute bonus being added as just that: a bonus that doesn't modify the base skill). 0-50:1, 51-100:2, 101-150:3, 151-200:4.

I think that perks don't actually all have to be the same value. However, the higher value perks should only be accessible by people with high (inefficient) skills. a skill generalist will get more bang for his or her buck by spreading points around. a skill specialist will make less overall progress, but will have access to more perks that make him or her even more badass with a skill than the rank alone would indicate.

New perks

 * Ayyyyyy!
 * Body Snatcher
 * Bulk Trader
 * Eye on the Prize
 * In Your Face!
 * Junk Merchant
 * Mental Catalogue
 * Suicide King
 * Triage

Action Points
The biggest stumbling block in Fallout TB -> RT is movement and AP. So far, the best movement translation seems to be this: high AP characters move faster since, for practical purposes, they do in both TB and RT. A 10 AP character will move 10 hexes in TB over one round while a 6 AP character will move 6 hexes in TB over one round. If that is converted into real-time, the 10 AP character will move 10 hexes in six seconds and the 6 AP character will move 6 hexes in six seconds. That's an analogue.

However, the general tendency in RT combat systems is that movement can't "really" cost anything. When characters move hurky-jerky around the battlefield, stopping to pause for precious APs that they immediately burn, it becomes a little... bizarre. So, what then can be the cost? The best answer I can find is: AP regeneration. A moving character never regenerates AP. He or she can run and run and run all the live-long day at whatever rate is dictated by his or her base AP, but he or she won't gain a single AP back until he or she stops (or perhaps the regeneration rate still exists, but at a pitiful fraction of its total value).

Higher AP characters would still catch up to fleeing characters in less time and either attack or easily re-accumulate APs that will eventually result in an attack into the fleeing character's back. A character who gleefully shoots a submachinegun burst and then runs for the hills will have to stop and wait for a full six seconds to get his or her AP pool back. If two characters with expended AP pools run the same distance, the higher base AP character will arrive at the location first and regenerate the equivalent AP for time saved by the time the slower character arrives.

This is not a perfect analogue, but it's really not horrible, and again, it has no effect on the TB component of the game. People playing using the RT system will find that certain scenarios play out easier, and some scenarios play out with more difficulty. Ultimately, though, it still has more fidelity to TB SPECIAL than any RT D&D game has to TB D&D.

Unarmed
If the advantage of firearms is range and damage at the cost of ammo conservation, and the advantage of melee is in reliability and good potential damage from powered weapons at the cost of (usually) range and less overall damage than firearms, then (IMO), the advantage of unarmed should be in flexibility at the cost of range and damage.

The highly skilled unarmed character should always have at least two moves to perform for each AP level between 2 and 10. Because interface limitations can be overcome in a future Fallout title, the unarmed character should have access to half of these attacks with one click-hold-release. Each move should have its own benefits and drawbacks so that a healthy amount of the moves stay useful throughout the game. The moves could be split into these groups: hand attacks, hand combos, foot attacks, foot combos and hand-foot combos. For example, the character could have Jab, Cross, Uppercut, Elbow Smash, Backhand, Sucker Punch, Spearhand, and Ridgehand as standard hand attacks, each with their own AP cost, bonus or penalty to hit, DT modifier, and damage. However, the character could also gain "two-in-one" combos.

For instance, Jab-Elbow. The combo would do both moves, each at a different hex. The Jab would go into the targeted hex, and the Elbow Smash would go into the hex back and to the right. The combo would cost less AP than both moves individually, but it would be at a lower chance to hit with each attack, and would incur a fatigue cost. Another combo might be Cross-Backhand-Ridgehand, hitting the first hex targeted, the hex to the right, and the hex two more to the right.

Kicks could have the same general layout (with different moves, of course). The kicks don't even have to be crazy wire-fu'ed out. They can just be regular ol' kicks. Snap Kick, Axe Kick, Roundhouse, Back Kick, Side Kick, Hook Kick, etc. You could have the same sorts of combos. Roundhouse-Hook, Side-Back, Snap-Side-Axe.

The most complex combos would only be available when the character was fighting with no equipment in either hand, allowing hand-foot combos that could hit four, five, or even six hexes. Axe-Backhand-Round-Spear, Cross-Round-Back-Jab-Uppercut, Uppercut-Elbow-Side-Axe-Ridge-Spear. The high-skill complex combo unarmed character is like a mobile low-powered grenade, able to hit the hexes he or she wants when he or she wants from round to round. He or she never runs out of ammo, but has to accept that at high efficiency, he or she is accumulating fatigue and doing less damage than a comparable melee or firearms character. But with more than thirty moves to perform at high levels, never needing to equip or reload weapons, the unarmed character has ultimate flexibility for dealing with any close-range encounter with small to very large numbers of opponents.

Aimed shots
I believe that the different called shots should be made more useful overall. Eyes is clearly "the way to go" in the first two Fallout games. It shouldn't just be a "well, duh" choice. Limb crippling should be more common, IMO. Blinding should also have even more dramatic penalties, but the chance to hit the eyes should be reduced even more.

Critical hits
Well, overall I can say I'd like to see fewer damage multipliers, more crippled limbs, more severe penalties to hit the eyes, and crits that ignore a portion of the armor, but never bypass it completely.

Fatigue
Fatigue isn't something you accrue by doing mundane things. It increases as you do things like come down from chems (and super-stims), perform extremely strenuous actions (unarmed combos), and "bash" damage that's a portion of the damage absorbed by armor.

It goes up, hit points go down. Fatigue is lowered by your Healing Rate every round. If your Fatigue passes your current hit points, momma said knock you out. When your Fatigue drops below your current hit points, you wake up again.