Yes... Yes... "One suggestion per thread" and bla bla... The the main suggestion in here is to simply make the game require less alts, and that is impossible without making strict rules that would piss off the entire playerbase or changing several things in-game, I understand if any of these suggestions get any kind of noticeable attention to devs it would take months or even years for these features to be properly added... But oh well, it's worth a shot regardless even if devs ignore this completely.
1 - Hireable NPCs to do certain jobs for the playerObjective: Reduce the necessity of alts that are only meant for tiny tasks, such as repair, science or lockpicking.
Description: These NPCs are hired as specialists, their base price is usually 2000-10000 caps each, they cost 50 PP each to the employer as well.
Basically if you need something lockpicked, for example, you can simply hire a lockpicker NPC to do it for you, when you press "2" and then click on a car/locker, the NPC would atempt to pick the lock instead of you, just like it happens in Fallout 2 with NPCs like Vic or Lenny.
Certain NPCs would require tools in case the ones in their inventories broke, for example, a lockpicker wouldn't work without a lockpicking kit, or a repair NPC wouldn't be able to repair anything without tools, so the necessity of keeping a healthy supply of tools for general tasks would remain a necessity.
And before any of you roleplayers get butthurt over being replaced by an NPC, I am quite sure that a legit player with a good build would do better in places like Ares or the tanker, so you wouldn't be completely useless, plus I imagine a weakling lockpicker NPC to be quite vulnerable while looking for chests in random encounters... If the traps don't get him first.
Adding such NPCs would remove the need of various single-task alts, replacing them with a mere char with high charisma and PP.
2 - Nerf NPCsObjective: Make a single proper PVE farmer be enough for farming different mobs, most people right now probably have around 3-5 PVE farmers for different kinds of mobs.
Description: This subject has been discussed over and over so I'll keep it short: reduce the HP of mobs like NCRA or VC to something resonable, the fact that players will never have as much HP as a guy with leather armor and a hunting rifle is quite discouraging.
Of course, this shouldn't mean that NPCs should be weak, they should hit just as hard as players, but they should also have the same chances of dying, basically small gunner NPCs should have 200-250 HP at maximum while big gunners such as the famous m60 NCRA guy should keep his HP at around 280-300, mutants can keep his natural HP.
Power-armored foes, however, should remain a challenge, a
possible challenge, 300 - 350 HP would be ideal for enclave and BOS, they have enough overpowered crit/dr resistances as it is anyway.
Another problem are the NPC's crit resistances, having a crit-based PVE farmer is completely out of question due to the minimal odds of coming out of an encounter alive, big gunners are the only proper PVE farmers right now, I believe we could make NPCs a bit weaker towards critical hits compared to players, when you think about it, a crit guy can only shoot twice per turn and he will always rely on luck to do any damage, they have it hard enough as it is if you ask me.
And please, don't use the "Players would have too much stuff if NPCs were nerfed!" excuse, this session has proven that players can get their hands on massive amounts of gear no matter what, might as well allow them to farm gear the "legit" way, farming right now feels too robotic, too artificial, it's almost like I'm exploiting the game even though that's how almost everyone else farms gear.
It's not like any of the available farming gear is unbalanced, I honestly don't understand why so much fuzz about weapons such as the gatling or the plasma rifle... They are good and shitty in their own ways just like any other gun.
3 - Bring back the 3 minute login cooldownObjective: remove the massive amount of PVP alts required to properly fight in Town Control, most people have at least 5-6 PVP alts.
Description: I understand that having to wait 3 minutes to repair a car or pick a lock in a quest is a pain, I felt that pain last wipe, however, I believe it's a just cause if it will keep people from sending waves after waves, I personally like long fights and I think FR makes things a lot easier in general, but it is also the reason we see so many newbies quitting the game and so many players farming gear for hours like lifeless zombies, the balance between grinding and fun is too much overweighted because of FR.
Last session, new players could simply make a single PVP char, farm some gear and join the fun in Town Control casually, while it's still possible to do this right now he will always have that feeling of "being left behind" after he dies and his buddies just keep spawning FR waves while he goes back to his tent wearing his blue pyjamas, it usually leads this player into either quitting the game or becoming another mindless zombie farming gear for hours.
Look at the bright side anyway... If my NPC idea gets implemented they would save you 6-12 minutes of logging on/off to do small tasks, especially at places like the tanker.
4 - Nuke NCR with more newbie-friendly featuresObjective: Make NCR some kind of "newbie zone" with possibilities of farming and levelling and reduce useless idling.
Description: I'll just split this into grinding and farming sections:
Farming: Move Khans to the surroundings of NCR, not only it's canon-logical but it gives newbies a fair and solid balance between farming for the sake of progress and
useless idling recreation in the bazaar.
Also more brahmin, while there are some brahmin around NCR it's simply not enough of them to make it a viable option, most newbies simply move to Modoc looking for brahmin, almost always dying on the way due to lack of experience.
Grinding: The answer here is simple, molerats, they are easy to kill but not fast enough for more advanced levels.
Adding these features to NCR would make it a proper place for newbies to get started in the game, right now NCR is an useless sack of shit with no hope, once a newbie gets sucked into this horrible place he almost never leaves, spending his first and last days in FOnline as a shitty bluesuit until his inevitable ragequit or "zombification" happens.
Right now, being in NCR is almost like being sucked into a Black Hole of pure despair and failure, simply because there is nothing interesting on it's surroundings and most players feel stranded if they leave NCR due to the lack of players outside NCR, even though NCR stranded from progressing in-game.
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This is probably my most sincere suggestion ever written in this section, so I hope you devs take a few minutes of your time to read this and truly consider why I made such "pleas".
And since the inevitable wave of fat basement-dwellers will eventually come in here with the old
"Wasteland is harsh!1!" or
"Learn to adapt worm! I'm far superior than you!" comments I may as well leave an early answer to such posts in order to avoid pointless discussions and rage later in this thread... Go fuck yourself.
