Great post Slowhand. You wrote extremely helpful ideas what can be improved in FOnline. If you don't mind, I'd like to comment several parts.
1. Hello 21st century.
Chat window
I remember something similar was introduced in FOnline Desert Europe. It was great feature:
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-e9qdMS07wQE/UVgmepfjvqI/AAAAAAAAAFM/77GAk49CgEI/w800-h800/gallery_1_3_221591.png)
Of course I'd like to see it but improved.
Enhance currently existing tools, for example bigger inventory, see weight change when trading or looting containers, etc.
Yes, it'll be UX friendly. In addition I'd like to add smart cursor: clicking (in addition to drag & drop) item get or put this item in inventory/locker/trader.
Target highlighting of colors to mark NPC's and even players being considered friendly, neutral or enemy. Name color could indicate that as well.
What exactly do you mean? Critter's contours? I think we have this done already.
Minimap. A real one.
Actually I don't think it is need however I don't know what exactly you want to have.
About the rest ideas in this section I can only say that they're fine.
2. Goodbye alts.
In short I love idea about re-roll character without deleting account and losing all professions, quests' progresses, implants and etc.
3. Goodbye Gankbox.
Everything what you have written about factions is interesting however I don't like idea about joining to NPC faction. In Ashes of Phoenix it is nice and fun but as you predict it can cause problems. Players would joing only strong factions and you see situation when Enclave has 150 players, BoS has 100 players, Gun Runners has 45 players and for example Master's army has only 5 players or so. Sure, not everyone must be equal but it leads to situation when we should use only 2 factions or make alliances.
4. Hello quests.
Also these quests should be balanced for different levels. From easy low level jobs to satisfactory quests with appropriate rewards both in items and experience.
5. Paper, Rock, Scissors, Spock, Lizard!
The only one moba game which I was playing for long time is League of Legends. I was really happy playing this game, especially as tank or offtank jungler. I don't know if classes in FOnline will work. I like having one character which can do everything (healing, crafting, lockpicking, traveling, bartering and so on), is tanky and do decent damage. What build or class should I take? Tank?
6. Mini-games.
This is fantastic idea. I'd like to see more mini-games like you suggest. In addition if I can play moba games with random players, it would benefit too.
Overall, this game is old. It needs to be renewed, modernised but the concept of Fallout-like quality kept, including immersion, lore, theme. I do believe the changes above are bare minimum if one would want to broaden the audience.
Yes, it is old as hell. It feels really old even compared to modern games which use old mechanics (for example Pillars of Eternity). I think the main problem with FOnline in general is closed engine, lack of documentation (in english), tutorials and of course solid programmers which can do tasks and develope engine in open source.
You mainly wrote about gameplay but I'd like to see more technical improvements in game. Core programmers with contributors who develop improved engine with all necessary improved tools (yup it has started but only it https://github.com/rotators/fosdk) included in sdk for everyone who wants to build own server like Reloaded, AoP, FO2, Requiem etc. At the moment if you want to create custom Fallout-based game you have to pick up one available sdk (Reloaded or TLA) then cut off every not needed content which leads to building your own tool.
When you have clean tool with only necessary core features you start creating the world, locations, quests... But what if I want to have custom critters or items? Of course I can add them but then I should delete the content which I don't need to have in my game because why I should keep it, for what? Now you are thinking why FOnline can't provide something like modules. Module for all Fallout's default items, module for Fallout's critters, module for my custom critters set or weapons.
I would love to have FOnline with more opportunities but at the moment it isn't promising. Would not it be better solution to use other modern engine or create improved FOnline Open Source engine and develop it all the time...
At the end I'd like to show several of the features that I like very much. Somehow improved UX, Mr Handy, fade view and transparent roofs/walls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrz_g8P_tVs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T68YaBDI9rI
It looks better than PvP player's ugly wall blockers (damn, I can't understant how people could play the game with these ugly blockers).
That's all what I wanted to say. Love your idea!
Hi, sorry for the long absence.
To answer some questions, I have not set up a repo yet and for now I believe the best way to progress with this, is not via a centralized repo. It would take much management from people, but rather keep the spirit and publish well separated modules that can be used by the FOnline community.
I'll make the groundwork for windows myself, it's still in a half finished state, not usable atm, other than hacking, and lacking a lot of functionality.
The other parts can be separated, anyone can make something they think it's usefull and free source it to the community, as we have seen, this have been very popular lately. Just find something you agree on and do it. Gather ideas on server forums, in-game if you are playing, on discord.
Until we have a 2238 based source on FOclassic, use your own repos, I'll use Reloaded v2 for convenience. However, the aim is to make use of FOclassic and it's features, so any work that even theoretically makes use of some features is good.
For example right now I am picking up the my work on the higher resolution dialog font, including changes to the client to support. It's some interface changes, with a 1.5x font, which since V4 of FOclassic can be set to use a specific font for dialog, see related threads here:
https://fodev.net/forum/index.php/topic,30027.0.html
So basically:
1. Find something usefull from the list or your own idea for improvement that you think the FOnline gaming community would benefit of.
2. Talk with people about it, and refine your idea.
3. Implement it
4. Publish it
5. Write a post explaining how to use, or add your module, change, w/e you made.
I know this sounds more like a Guerilla fight, but the aim here is not to create a new and better FOnline server, but to give tools, content, fixes or improvements to both already existing and new ones. More like steering stuff in the direction of modern games, with good old fallout spice, and the weapon of choise being 'publishing free content/enhancement that are good enough not to get ignored'.
This does not have to be related to scripts and interface only. Maps and stories (completed work) should be shared as well. Let's say you create a random encounter, or a complex quest line that can be easily added to an NPC in a public location. If you do that, independently, and add the information in whatever way you choose for people to add this to their servers, you are helping them a lot. I see no reason that a good questline should be used on one server but not on the others. There are enough differences - in combat, progression, story lines, loot system, map/world layout you name it - between the servers already, ideally one should should consider one server over the other, based on this, rather then questing content or how interfaces look.
This is a long shot. I know everyone has a different motivation level, I usually work like 1-2 months a year on FOnline, and when I have a longer module, I am not able to finish it, like last time, but for example consider the Black Jack module I wrote a while ago. It took a few weeks/months to do, half a year to a year to be added to any of the servers. But theoretically speaking, why should one server have this, and another not? Or better asked, why should a player who enjoys one server more, be able to steam off their gambling addictions in-game, while another not?
The biggest risk here, is that what you make, no server will addapt. That will happen eventually, but good work, that is well separated and not based on a specific server's system, well documented or rather easy to integrate, will probably get added sooner or later.
To the list I think I will have to add interfaces -> account management, where one would log in with same account, be able to select from multiple alts on that account, have an email registered to this account in case they forgot their passwords. This shit happened a lot, and I think there is no common system for it.