Ok so the elevator situation. You don't know how to do it. You take out a magazine and follow the directions to fix it. Are you telling me that you would remember all of those directions?

With a book it teaches you a small amount very extensively so that you will remember that small amount.

I don't think magazine will necessarily break the intent of the skillpoint reduction. If a lock is really hard to pick, a computer really hard to science on, a machine really hard to repair... then you'd have to amass a lot of magazines (if they even are stack-able) to do one of those things. Either way, it would be assumed you've traveled quite a lot to get all the magazines, so you would essentially already be well on the way to endgame conditions.

No, Thats from when your Dad opened the vault door.

Possibly, as I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure how I feel about them yet. Wait and see I guess. I'm certainly going to collect and use them, just strikes me as...an odd thing to do, mechanics-wise.

Because a drug that temporarily makes you better at lockpicking or bartering makes so much more sense.

So you're complaining that Obsidian decided to raise the bar on becoming powerful? This forum is never happy with anything I swear.

@Azula- You're implying NMA is actually appeasable.

I do question the logic of the idea that you would forget what you read in a magazine, that you can carry with you, but not a book, that one would leave at home.

However

I will have to play the game to see how all this works in the game. If I have to treat at the Magazines as Chems, then so be it. If my character can grow as needed with the game and use books and magazines as intended and I am having fun, then it will be great.

Otherwise, the Nexus will have a mod that makes things a bit different.

I feel the same way (for now... having not played it, and the fact that it never worked like this in any Fallout series game); but the reasoning is that magazine is like a mild refresher on the skill. It sharpens the edge (so to speak), and eventually fades.

*This is like say... a guy that used to do skateboard stunts every day for years, but quit a few years back... He still knows the tricks, but he's a bit "rusty", and the magazines get him back in the zone :shrug:
(Doesn't have to be totally accurate or realistic... Its a game mechanic, and a means to an end).

I think in alot of ways. This is more a gameplay mechanic for balance. I mean, in the old Fallout games, I believe the skill caps were like 130, but at around skill level 90, skill books didnt work on that particular skill anymore. But in Fallout 3, it's very easy to just level up your skills with books alone, this in itself I dont think is the issue, I think Obsidian just wanted to add more of a challenge to your skill levels.

I don't really see how this is raising the bar. And like I said, I'm perfectly fine with temporary skill boosts if they make sense but the magazine thing didn't really make sense that you would increase your skill (learn something) then after a few minutes your skill goes back down (you forgot what you read.)

Sojur's version is acceptable to me. It's not perfect but it works.

Ideally, I'd like to see the magazines replaced with something that makes more sense. I don't know what exactly. Maybe experimental knowledge bases that were in development pre war that you could use, something like a http://gadgets.boingboing.net/gimages/efwefwefwefe.jpg. They would basically download information straight into your brain through the optic nerves. By using one you would gain knowledge on a certain subject but they were not yet perfected so after a few minutes the newly acquired knowledge would fade.

Special vacuum tubes for your Pipboy that burn out real fast. Sort of like VATS for skills.

Fallout 1 and 2 skill caps were 300. Books stopped working after 100. The logic was after 100 you had learned everything you could from books and the only way to get better was hands-on field experience.

Or memory/program chips that have degraded and can only be read for a certain length of time by the PipBoy. Perhaps it can work with the PipBoy's scanner to interface with things to make them easier to work on/defeat/bend to your will.

Oooo. I like that. I would definitely download that mod.
Nice, I'm going to suggest that as soon as the Mod forum is up.

I like my version better.

Once the game comes out it will be amusing counting all of the other concessions made to the obsessive compulsive psychotics in the audience.

Would it make more sense if the thick books gave you the temp boost and the magazines gave the permanent boost? Ex:You'd just carry around the lockpicking/repair/guns encyclopedia to have the temp boost.

Ooo I definitely agree as well! Thats a very plausable way to add abilities to a player temporarily, or for a limited number of uses. :goodjob:

Cheers!!

I have an explanation for the magazines. You are a courier who got shot in the head and are suffering a little brain damage so you have trouble remembering things. So you forget what you learned in the magazine.

They have basically become potions, allowing a player to access other parts of the game that his build might not be fit for.

Isnt it obvious.. the magazine comes with HIGHLY unstable scratch and sniff chems that stimilate the dilithium hydroxinators of your prefrontal lobotany thereby spongyforming the corpus delcatessen into a hyperspork obflibernate.

DUH!

Looks like the Courier has a SHOTTY memory. YEEEAAAHHH :disguise:

@Wintermane- OH GOD. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RizVcwSSNmY

So it's like the pipboy medical enhance from fallout 2 but not permanent that's actually an interesting idea. The problem is these things would be extremely rare. I'll deal with the magazines though.

Why must everyone have everything be realistic? The setting in FO isn't realistic in the first place :laugh:

But I think that they are useful, lets say I don't want to put all my skill stats into Science. But I come upon a computer I really need to hack but I don't have the skill for it. All I need to do is read my science magazine and bam I'm able to hack the computer without a tons of Science skill.

Besides, I disagree with the fact that most people remember information a magazine as well as a book. I know that I remember lots of thing from books, but to tell you the truth I can't think of anything I have remembered or learned from a magazine. They are just small fast reads for entertainment. Where books are long detailed things on certain subjects that you should retain at least a bit of even if you didn't like it all that much.

Nice one for roleplaying purposes