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[Badger]

I'd like to see the best gear kept out of the hands of everyone, and instead an exciting exception while the rest of us are cleaning rat crap out of our rusty 10mm SMGs.

Stuff like Gatling Lasers and .223 pistols and the like are only craftable if your resident tech wizard is exceptionally skilled and has learned the necessary blueprints.

Said blueprints are found in all manner of exciting pre-war locations, and are a 'consumable' - while I know it's cheap to have blueprints disappear, it's worth it to keep the rare stuff actually rare. And obviously, if it is rare it's a lot easier to justify it being powerful. PvP is kept more interesting because not everyone's gear is the same, and everyone's crafters aren't churning out the same equipment. Some gangs will be the best armed, but badly protected. Others difficult to kill, but with mediocre weaponry.

Getting technology becomes more dynamic and interesting, rather than one long straight line of mining your way to Brotherhood Armor. And this way, we can reduce the staggeringly large material requirements for the high end items.

My alternative is making something like .223 pistols require a rare item that only spawns in certain places, and spawns randomly. Some kind of firing mechanism that you can only find in Sierra, for example. Crafting it obviously consumes the item, so high end tech is as special and valuable as it should be.

And, if I'm truly honest, I just wanna see more of this inventory icon:

[naskiel32]

yea that would be nice 

[Szef]

Ok, Gattling laser. Ok, plasma rifle. But.. 223 pistol is just a cut-off rifle.. O.o

[Quentin Lang]

First of all, i didnt knew you can craft gatling lasers currently in the game, but alright, lets leave it.
Secondly, with this suggestion you are potentially killing plenty characters. I can very easly imagine big gangs with miniguns camping at thoes ''rare material'' spawn points while normal, average and mortal characters have completly no chance in getting them, meaning no fine guns. This would only unbalance the game and force 90% of players walk around with mausers while other 10% has shitloads of powerguns. I say's no.

[avv]

The reason why high tier equipment needed so much stuff was probably because the character "refined" those materials to fewer high quality parts.

However having rare/unique blueprints for top notch tech would be cool. It could have to do with factions. If you're enclave you get something good, but not something that brotherhood has to offer. Tradeoffs create balance.

[Surf]

Another good suggestion, Badger!

Speaking of the fallout world I always found it odd that very few people running around in high tech gear wit insane amounts of ammo etc. Do you know Mad Max? There you are rich when having 10 pieces of shotgun shells and a decent leather jacket.
It would be much "cooler" to see people fighting for a few shots... Also unarmed characters would be more popular..

[Badger]

Speaking of the fallout world I always found it odd that very few people running around in high tech gear wit insane amounts of ammo etc. Do you know Mad Max? There you are rich when having 10 pieces of shotgun shells and a decent leather jacket.
It would be much "cooler" to see people fighting for a few shots... Also unarmed characters would be more popular..

Yeah, I feel the same way. I'd rather most of us were gunning each other down with old sawnoffs and hunting rifles rather than M60s and sniper rifles. But that brings with it a lot of problems. You can't take a level 21 200HP guy down with a basic shotgun in Fallout, nor do the higher levels want to be able to be taken down by some level 4 punk with a hunting rifle.

I wish that melee and unarmed were a lot more powerful for everyone, so they'd always be a strong backup. If you ran out of ammo, you'd pull a knife rather than run off. Even if you weren't a master knife fighter. I think Fallout 2 tried to encourage you to do that - the first two towns both offered you free unarmed/melee training.

Van Buren would've apparently been closer to the scarcity of Mad Max - Big/Small/Energy weapons was merged into one skill called firearms. Because all guns came under one umbrella, it would've been easier to justify having less of them - as any gun you found you would've been able to use. And the heavier stuff would've been unusable to your average strength guy anyway. So guns and ammo become a luxury, rather than basic gear.

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. - J.E Sawyer

Some other stuff is interesting too, like the combination of first aid/doctor into one skill. Traps and lockpick being combined into 'Security'. But people want to play Fallout 1/2 online, not some crazy Van Buren hybrid, sadly. I figure some of these changes would've made FOnline pretty interesting.

[avv]

I'm all for making guns rarer and encouraging players to use even the basic equipment. However making guns rarer in such way that players have to spend lots of time to get them is not the solution.

To encourage people use sidearms more, why not make reloading cost lots of points? I mean removing old mag, picking up new one from your pocket, stuffing it in the gun and pulling that switch to load one in the chamber is 3ap. While it takes 4-6 ap to pull the trigger.

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. - J.E Sawyer

Some other stuff is interesting too, like the combination of first aid/doctor into one skill. Traps and lockpick being combined into 'Security'. But people want to play Fallout 1/2 online, not some crazy Van Buren hybrid, sadly. I figure some of these changes would've made FOnline pretty interesting.

I've been thinking the same. I did a little modding to fallout tactics and added all energy weapons to either big or small guns. That way smallgunners weren't that useless in late game. Having only "firearms" skill is even better. Because then your strength is the only thing that prevents you from using certain weapons. People will make their characters favour certain weapons anyway. Why have 3 separate skills? Same goes with skills like traps and lockpick.

[Gunduz]

I like the idea of buying schematics for crafting. I personally think the system could be redone to almost remove professions and replace it entirely with blueprints. First, you would have to reach a certain skill level. Let's say you were a big gunner. You would still have to reach a skill level, but then you'd go talk Jester in BH and he'd 'teach' you and give you a Guns and Bullets (or a new Big Gun magazine could be made to keep things straight). The magazine would be used and you would learn the first level of your profession. This profession level would cost much less than the ones in place now. After that, you would acquire blueprints and when used the recipe would be added. The blueprints would only be usable by a character who had the required skills to make the weapon (which would be higher than the initial profession requirements).

[Badger]

I like the idea of buying schematics for crafting. I personally think the system could be redone to almost remove professions and replace it entirely with blueprints. First, you would have to reach a certain skill level. Let's say you were a big gunner. You would still have to reach a skill level, but then you'd go talk Jester in BH and he'd 'teach' you and give you a Guns and Bullets (or a new Big Gun magazine could be made to keep things straight). The magazine would be used and you would learn the first level of your profession. This profession level would cost much less than the ones in place now. After that, you would acquire blueprints and when used the recipe would be added. The blueprints would only be usable by a character who had the required skills to make the weapon (which would be higher than the initial profession requirements).

Yeah, I like that the profession system forces you to specialise, but I think that could be just as easily accomplished with more demanding skill requirements - let's say you'd be forced to specialise by needing 250% repair for Combat Armor, for example. And that's after you find the blueprint. On the other hand, things like the stat requirements and the cash needed for professions stop every random crafter alt from being able to master armoursmith in a day, which is definitely a good thing.

I'm not sure. Maybe if there's just one level of each profession - but you can only take one profession per character. And professions are obviously required to use blueprints. Purchasing a profession would still unlock items in that field - but the best would still be found via blueprints and would require increased skill.

I just hate the whole crafter alts thing. The idea that everyone just has their 'main' and this crafter drone that's jumped through all these hoops to craft all their gear, but will never actually be used properly. It bugs me, and it's a product of the current system.

[Solar]

And what stops these hoops from being jumped through by those same crafter alts?

Alts will always be a problem for us, because we can't charge people money for each account they have, nor is there any other effective way of controlling the number of alts.

[Badger]

And what stops these hoops from being jumped through by those same crafter alts?

Alts will always be a problem for us, because we can't charge people money for each account they have, nor is there any other effective way of controlling the number of alts.

The way I look at it, if you decrease the number of random hoops to jump through, the less likely we'll see characters built specifically for hoop jumping. You instead find another way to limit what people can build, and I'd say a blueprint system is a better way to do it.

We'll still see crafter alts because FOnline players can't seem to resist powergaming. But my idea isn't built to combat alts, it's to have better control on the best gear.

[avv]

Even thought making rare stuff even rarer sounds cool, it will only cause people to zealously protect their treasures rather than use them. There has to become something else to long for before items are made even more precious. Items are supposed to be tools to reach something, not the only thing to reach for.

[Badger]

Even thought making rare stuff even rarer sounds cool, it will only cause people to zealously protect their treasures rather than use them. There has to become something else to long for before items are made even more precious. Items are supposed to be tools to reach something, not the only thing to reach for.

Hmm, but what if it was combined with making the actual items easier to craft? So, say, once you've got the plans for sniper rifles they're not especially difficult to produce.

But yeah, you're right about items. They should be the means to reach your objective, not your objective itself. I don't know what you do about that. Perhaps some kind of system where aligning yourself with a town has a lot more benefit than just starting up your own faction. Fighting/working for your town improves their prosperity and dominance.