I get what the OP is saying. My question is, "compared to what?"

Hes just trying to make it real, compared to what...

20-30 NPCs? The most I've ever seen is probably 15, maybe.

I was actually more disappointed in HOW you get into the Strip. I was actually thinking the monorail would have some cool
animation showing you heading in through the winding track... very underwhelming.

Agree with that other guy, it's just the beginnings of a rebuilt strip by Mr.House so it made sense to me that it wasn't this huge expanse like the Vegas of today.

Don't particularly care for the strip either, prefer the desperate wilds of the waste and the slums around the strip.

It's mentioned at times in conversations and suggested by different characters/environments that the strip draws people in as an oasis, a heaven in the middle of the waste but the reality is it's nothing of it and just a superficial attraction. That was exactly the lack lustre feel I got from it when I arrived, I just wanted to get out of there !

I see what the OP is saying as well. Seriously, if you go into oblivion even, look at the imperial city, there's at least 15 different ENTERABLE buildings that you can interract with, most of which need to be entered for some kind of a quest or at least have some tenants in them. Now, that was back in 2006 when the consoles first came out so I really don't think it would have been that taxing for it.

The amount of people...meh, sure, I can understand that, but even if the buildings are "just there" it would make it look better. Look at all the boarded up houses in the wastes like in nipton that are boarded up for no reason... they are just there, so you can do the same thing with the strip, just add the buildings. If a place LOOKS like it's bigger, psychologically most people will FEEL it's bigger. I'd like more casinos, or maybe a DLC that goes beyond the ending and then there is a quest where you can get some rubble moved away and eventually a few more casinos will be built after recruiting maybe the Khans to go back into vegas and run a casino or something if you decided to spare them and have them break off with CL and sided with House.

I'm unimpressed with the strip as well, but I'd rather have some strip then none at all I suppose.

I get what you're saying though, softnerd, but I don't believe it would be too much to ask for to add a few more sections on with dividers, I really don't mind that at all, seeing as it takes basically a blink and a half to load those screens anyways.

Maybe have a theme like 1 section has 3 new casinos that have a theatre based theme, 3 more in another section that are dedicated to sin and vice and hokers, then have 3 more added in another section that have a strong attraction on their gambling games... idk....

I think the strip just needs a few more people....

.

As house says in the game this was just what his robots and 3 bands of tribals were able to put together in short notice. Its a tiny fraction of its former glory but its all he was able to save.

Besides it isnt the strip itself thats important its what has built up around it.

Did they really need the dividers? It feels like I've seen much larger and just as complex environments rendered on the consoles. Is the engine just terrible?

Of course I'm just some guy BSing on the forums with no technical knowledge

They even tweaked the engine to allow more NPCs visible in one spot, so I wouldn't put all the blame of "empty" strip on Obsidian. Compliments of Lamebryo, more like.

No. The strip isn't pathetic. They did what they intended to do, which was implement a thoroughly worn down version of Vegas.

I don't think the engine is as terrible as some people think, although it's certainly really finicky about its host environment on PCs. I think the engine is designed to be good at handling large, open, somewhat empty spaces and some trade-offs were made to accomplish that. If you look at engines that are better at handling more confined spaces with more detail (Unreal3, for example) they tend to not be as good at rendering large, open areas as well.

If the strip were huge and full of NPCs there would be a massive performance hit on consoles and lower-end PCs. It's always a struggle for games developers to make a place seem large and lively yet still have the game available to as wide an audience as possible - and that means limiting the number of animations, lighting, effects, AI and pathfinding etc in any area of a game.

I'd be alright, I spent a load of money on a high end gaming PC, and sometimes when developers have to cater for consoles and lower-end PCs yes it does hold back my own gaming experience because my rig is capable of so much more than an Xbox or a 5 year old OC - but it wouldn't be right (nor profitable) to make games that could only run on high-end PCs. Which is basically what you are asking for in your post.

... yeah... can you run from Vegas to Boulder City in 3 minutes?
I didn't think so...

We went over this in FO3. It is supposed to be a representation of a place as it was in the 50's, not a full rendition of the modern place.

This :goodjob:

Yeah the strip isn't so great but I'm ok with it. The whole Mojave wasteland around it more than makes up for it.

To be honest, they COULD build 20 casinos, but it'd be a REALLY dull strip. I want to see someone here add 16 more casinos with the same amount of affects each casino is running for each one you make, then try and tell me they could have done it.

My point is, The Strip is small as it is because it has so much stuff running under it that adding tons more stuff without professional time taken to build onto it would likely cause the strip to crash.

I hate going through multiple loading screens just to get to the NCR Embassy. It should have been a seperate location.

I dont understand....loading....whats so annoying.....loading.....about multiple loading screens......loading.....maybe its.....loading......just me though.

DC in Fallout 3 probably.

I was really hoping that Vegas as a whole, not just the strip, would be able to match up to DC. But it definitely didn't. Obsidian really could have done with expanding it outwards a bit. They could have made it more and more decripit the further out you got, until eventually it was on par with DC in terms of danger. Obviously not super mutants, but there's plenty of wildlife variety in this game. They could have had the outskirts overrun with packs of wasteland nasties, just to make reaching Freeside and the strip a bit more exciting.

That's just my take on it mind you. In all honestly Im happy with it as it is, but I think it could have been much better. Although saying that, this game beats the [censored] out of Fallout 3 when it comes to the rest of the game world. So in that regard I suppose the time that could have been spent on Vegas went into improving the rest of the wasteland, which is probably for the best.

I gotta admit, the strip did dissapoint me, fortunately I prefer to be out in the wasteland so don't consider it a big deal, it just was not as big as I expected, I guess they need to cut corners somewhere to fit these games on consoles.

I like the strip. I would like a couple of more places. A diner or laundry mat or bank or well, a used car lot. And I would like to be able to converse with everyone even if they only told me about some mudcrabs or some rumor floating about. I'm not fond of trying to talk to someone and the most they will do is grunt or say something brief then ignore me like I'm invisible.

As far as number of people on the strip, I would like a few more walking around talking to one another on the street. But over all I think they did a splendid job with the whole place.

One thing I wish they'd haul over from Oblivion are the lively conversations you saw on the streets of Tamriel, they really added a level of realism. Like they say, it's the little things. :laugh:

That was a good immersion tool. Oblivion didn't do great in that area but the random conversations you could listen in on definitely worked in that regard. Real time conversations between NPCs in Fallout are either non-existent or woefully bland. It would be sweet to sneak up on people and hear them comment about something they're trying to keep quiet too, like you do in that one quest in Camp McCarran.

As for the loading screens, one of the big differences between New Vegas and DC was the amount of activity. The areas could be larger in DC because the only activity was Super Mutant milling about. There weren't many occasions where there was alot going on at once in a small area like in New Vegas. So it was easier on the engine to include those larger areas like the National Mall with the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Capitol Building.

the strip could have been so much more is all i'm saying and in the 50s the strip was pretty similar in size to today and mr.house has amounts of money that are uncomprehendable says him so he decided to build 4 meh casinos with a quest or 2 each i wish in all honesty it was delayed 3 months and they just worked on the strip it should have woooowed you like leaving 101 in fo3 or the sewers in es4 or leaving goodsprings it should have been on par with them when you first enter the strip.