[Andy durkan]

New information (many spoilers!):

Spoiler

Spoiler
- Vault 21 is an underground vault and lies under New Vegas.
- The NCR has lost contact to the west and is underserved due to the fights with Caesar's Legion.
- Caesar's Legion dominates New Vegas.
- The NCR was fighting hard against the Brotherhood of Steel for Hoover Dam. The NCR has won this battle, barely.
- The NCR troops at McCarren Airport lost the contact to Hoover Dam as well.
- The main task of the courier has been to deliver a package to Primm. Then he got ambushed...
- The small and big weapons skills are merged into one weapon skill.
- Every weapon that made some asplozions before (like the rocket launcher or FatMan), are now in the skill category Explosives.
- Repcon, a former rocket factory, is supposedly inhabited by ghouls. As of late, explosions can be heard from there all the time.
- Craig Boon, one of the possible companions, will attack the player, if he sides with the Caesar's Legion.
- The orbital laser Archimedes 2 can only be used once a day.
- New monster: Cacadores, they look like bloatflies with shiny / colourful wings.
- Something like Bobbleheads will be in New Vegas as well and it will boost players stats. What it will be exactly isn't known yet.

and there are some new screen shots too

[Joey Bel]

I can't wait to see what kind of madness they put into V21. I do think some of the skill combinations are a tad bit funky, but who knows, I am willing to try.

[e.Double]

cool

[Roy Harris]

cool

Sounds like a pretty simple companion mod idea.

[no_excuse]

I can't wait to see what kind of madness they put into V21. I do think some of the skill combinations are a tad bit funky, but who knows, I am willing to try.

According to the gathered info, the Vault Experiment had it filled with obsessive gamblers. Would fit the location.

[Damned_Queen]

According to the gathered info, the Vault Experiment had it filled with obsessive gamblers. Would fit the location.

I'm beginning to form a hypothesis that Mr. House won the Vault (whom according to the Vault is the acting Overseer) from the Doc, which would explain why he gives you a Vault 21 jumpsuit and a pipboy~ A ploy to take back the Vault from House.

[James Shaw]

Let's not forget these from the previous thread:

Gun chat.

In 1997, I played the original Fallout. Like the games that followed it, Fallout had Small Guns, Big Guns, and Energy Weapons. In F1, the gun skills were designed for phased obsolescence. If you tagged Big Guns or Energy Weapons early on, you would not be able to gain much, if any, benefit from it for a long time. Even back then, I thought this was problematic. Before playing the game, players could not know how content would limit the applicability of weapons. Ultimately, it came down to three weapons: the minigun, rocket launcher, and flamer. Large, with heavy ammo, and either burst or AoE only. In Fallout 3, the list of Big Guns was expanded to include the fat man, rock-it launcher, and gatling laser. In most situations, these weapons were all still at least mid-power at their weakest. In talking to people in person and online, and in reading online commentary, I found that people were also still unclear on what marked the clear division between Small Guns and Big Guns (and even Energy Weapons, in the case of the Gatling Laser). Certainly the UI could be improved to help with this (something we have already done for F:NV), but it conceptually was a sticking point.

When I was looking at Big Guns for F:NV, I considered that the list of weapons was small compared to any other weapon category and several of the weapons arguably belonged (or at least could be easily categorized) elsewhere. Moving the Big Guns to different weapon skills and dissolving the Big Guns skill would allow weapons like the minigun to remain as a powerful top tier weapon without needing to invent low-tier "Big Guns" that might further confuse the dividing line. Coming up with a wide power spectrum of Guns, Energy Weapons, and Explosives would not be hard at all. Since our skill point economy is more frugal (I'll delve into this another time) and since we do have Strength requirements on weapons (resulting in increased sway for firearms and a decreased rate of fire for melee/unarmed), where you invest your skill points and SPECIAL points is still pretty important. A fully upgraded minigun wielded by a character with high Guns and high Strength cuts down rooms of people like a scythe, even at relatively long range. In the hands of an unskilled, low Strength character, it sprays a lot of bullets all over the place.

The exact categorization of weapons in F:NV isn't rooted in the logic of transferable skills from real life, but it's arguable they never were previously, either (missile launcher/flamer/minigun, for example). The categorizations have more to do with being clear and consistent with definitions. It follows this basic pattern:

* Does it explode? It's an Explosive.
* Does it use Small Energy Cells, Microfusion Cells, or other energy ammo? It's an Energy Weapon.
* Does it use conventional bullets of some flavor as ammo? It's a Gun.

So while it's accurate to say that Big Guns no longer exists as a category, it's not accurate to say that Big Guns and Small Guns were combined. The weapons in Big Guns were divided among the other weapon skills.

I know not everyone will be happy with this re-organization, but those are the reasons for the change. I hope the reasons are clear, even if you disagree with the decision. Thanks.

All weapons that use Flamer Fuel are currently under the Energy Weapons category.

[Princess Johnson]

Let's not forget these from the previous thread:

Awesome reclassification logic.

[Chloe Lou]

i like what they did with the weapon skills

[Bitter End]

The small and big weapons skills are merged into one weapon skill.

I dont like this! I feel that when they where 2 different skills it made your char. more defined.

[Jack Walker]

Fully supportive of the weapon skills changes.

[Yvonne Gruening]

Small guns and big guns aren't merged. Big guns was removed and its weapons moved to small guns, explosives and energy weapons. The only thing small guns received from big guns is the minigun. Gun gun gun.

[kiss my weasel]

Small guns and big guns aren't merged. Big guns was removed and its weapons moved to small guns, explosives and energy weapons. The only thing small guns received from big guns is the minigun. Gun gun gun.

It's gonna take me awhile to remember to drop the "small" at the front.

[Katie Pollard]

Small guns and big guns aren't merged. Big guns was removed and its weapons moved to small guns, explosives and energy weapons. The only thing small guns received from big guns is the minigun. Gun gun gun.

Yeah it's really not going to make that much of a difference. Plus with the strength requirements you can have your own 'Big Guns' character by giving him high strength so he can fire the minigun or gatling laser more accurately.

[Chloé]

I dont like this! I feel that when they where 2 different skills it made your char. more defined.

True, but you won't have to worry because of strength requirements.

[Spencey!]

I dont like this! I feel that when they where 2 different skills it made your char. more defined.

The problem was that the Big Guns category was holding weapons that were previously Energy and Small hostage. The Minigun and Gatling Laser were originally a Small Gun and an Energy Weapon, but somehow they got lumped in with the Big Guns. The devs even admit that there are a lot of problems with the weapon class. There were only a handful of Big Guns in the original games, and on top of that, "big guns" is pretty ill defined. Lumping them into "things that go boom" makes a lot more sense than including all "large weapons".

[Fam Mughal]

I hated the strength requirements for weapons in fo1-2.

I always thought some weapons should have agility reqs others perc reqs and others intel and yes some strength and even endurance. I always thought nades and bombs should have luck reqs;/

In fo1-2 exactly how many chars did you make with 2 strength? Or even 4 strength?

[Ruben Bernal]

Wait all that uses flamer fuel is an energy weapon? :facepalm:

[Jah Allen]

I definitely agree with the change. And its not as if we lost these weapons, they were simply moved. In addition, it will still take a requirement (strength) to wield such weapons, such that a charcacter focusing on pistols and agility won't be able to use them worth a crap, while others can still specifically gear their character towards using these weapons.

In addition, it give explosives more weapons, which is fine with me, because I always felt it was a difficult skill to stand on its own with due to its nature of one shot weapons (mines, grenades, etc) and their slow nature.

[Nina Mccormick]

Wait all that uses flamer fuel is an energy weapon? :facepalm:

Kind of odd isn't it... I guess it'll have to take a little getting used to.

[Jason White]

Improving Gameplay at the expensive of "realism"? Bravo, I say.

On another note its funny how when Betheseda does something like this its "dumbing down of mechanics" from NMA.

But when Obsidian does it the people from NMA cheer

[Brittany Abner]

Kind of odd isn't it... I guess it'll have to take a little getting used to.

Fire releases heat, heat is energy.

[Sherry Speakman]

Fire releases heat, heat is energy.

Yup it sure is.

But what I'm saying is these adjustments to the skill system may take a little bit of getting used to.

[sam smith]

Fire releases heat, heat is energy.

Gunpowder releases heat and force, force and heat are energy.

[CYCO JO-NATE]

Improving Gameplay at the expensive of "realism"? Bravo, I say.

On another note its funny how when Betheseda does something like this its "dumbing down of mechanics" from NMA.

But when Obsidian does it the people from NMA cheer

Actually, there was as much fuss/confusion there about all three being added to firearms in Van Buran