NEWS UPDATES 5/15-5/27/2000

ON SKILLS : Q. I was just wondering if more attention would be paid to balancing skills in Fallout Tactics than it was in Fallout 2? Don't get me wrong :) I loved Fallout 2, in fact I'm still playing it... again... and again... but there are just some skills that seem to have been rather pointless. For instance Doctor pretty much supersceded First Aid, and as far as I could tell, traps seemed about 90% irrelevant.
A. Doctor and First Aid could be used together. And First Aid started with more points, so it was a little easier to use at the beginning of the game.

That being said, yes, the skills are getting slightly reworked. First Aid may be usable during combat, while Doctor may not -- that type of thing.

Q. Also I was wondering if all gameplay will be taking place in a combat mode, or if there will a non combat mode too? I would assume the former since you seem to be leaning towards making a tactical game...
A. Non-combat mode as well.

On Missions and Training : 1. You divided the playing process into 20 missions, what for ? it 'd be continous like your previous titles
A. To distinguish us from the RPG and because it makes development substantially easier.

2. While i'm playing my 6-men-squad they grow, become more expirienced, etc. What about other 24 characters ?
A. Not all 30 characters are given to you at the beginning of the game. Thus, some of those characters can be (and are) more experienced than the characters acquired earlier in the game.

Q. Can i train them or make them do something like JA2, or they always stay green and inexpirienced ?
A. No out of mission training at this time.

Chris Taylor (Interplay) had this to say about the percentage of the game that is finished: 

The game is currently playable. Multiplayer is currently more advanced than single-player. While most of the art is not complete, most of the art production infrastructure is.

Sound effects are ripped from previous Fallout games currently. Same with music. But the sound code is in and working (but not completed).

Design continues. We have basic scenario design for all missions, plus we have been working on system design.

What is left to do?

Well, stuff. Mission implementation, engine work, lots of art and audio, final in-game movies - yadda, yadda. Stuff.

Chris also answered some other game questions.

Q. If you get badly wounded, does it affect your ability to move, like, instead of 12 Action points, you have 7, or anything like that?
A. You can target individual body locations in an attempt to force critical hits, which can cause non-HP damage (like reduced movement, inability to use 2-handed weapons, yadda).

Q. And can you drag a near dead ally out of the way of enemy fire?
A. Not planned.

Q. Can we hope to see silencers for our weapons?
A. Planned, but not finalized.

Chris Taylor, Karl Burdak and others.

The Game starts with the player as a member of the BoS, sent to track down the super mutant army that went to the east after the events of FO1. The player crashes near Chicago, and that's where the story begins.

Chris and Karl have been listening to the fan posting on the boards about their ideas for the game. One of the coolest suggestions taken by Karl was a request to be able to use mp3 audio files from your computer in the game as background music. Karl replied with "That's a great idea. How about this.. You specify a directory location, and it will play random .mp3's from there. Good enough?"

Hi there. My name is Karl Burdack, i'm lead programmer on the Fallout Tactics project. I work at Micro Forte. As you may already know, we are working together with Interplay, and their division 14 Degrees East, to produce this game.

Micro Forte is an Australian developer, established for more than a decade. Our BOS team works in the city of Canberra.

This is a very exciting time for me, as the development process is going very smoothly. But most importantly because the game is taking shape, and our first playable versions are actually fun.

Anyway, I will try to answer technical and engine related questions whenever I get the opportunity. Especially during the next few weeks.

I may also try to answer game design related ones, but only if they are easy. *grin*. (thats more Chris and Ed's department)

Karl

Interplay has launched the new Fallout Tactics forum. So far the first day has been top notch with Chris Taylor answering questions of the raving hordes of fans.

Interplay has announced the development of Fallout Tactics a new game set in the Fallout Universe. FT:BOS is a combined effort produced by Microforte and 14* East.