[Vince]

You can finish Fallout1 and Fallout 2 under 30 minutes (both of them) if you know what to do and were to go.
Could you also finish AOD that fast if you know what to do ?

No. The game requires in-game knowledge, not the player's knowledge.

Could you go straight to some place and acquire an item that will make the game MUCH easier (and not interesting) like you could in Fallout 2 with the Power armor ?

We don't have uber items. Our own version of Power Armor requires skills and power to run. If you find the armor before you have either adequate skills or enough power tubes to activate it fully, it would be nothing but a very heavy burden in your inventory.

Will the characters be able to run? Or will they just walk? (yeah, that's a very important point for me)

Yes. I'm sure that one of the videos shows running animations.

Will the characters be able to run? Or will they just walk? (yeah, that's a very important point for me)

Yes. I'm sure that one of the videos shows running animations.

Stupid question.

Level cap?

There are no levels.

There is a limited amount of quests and trainers in the game - which creates a kind of "skill point cap". Am I right?

I'd say you can earn anywhere between 500 and 800 skill points. Depends on what you do, how you do it, your Intelligence, etc. 600 is probably the average. Above 700 is for overachievers.

[luckyb0y]

I know that skill checks outside combat are static, but are there any checks that require 300 lore or some other skill? I can see a point in raising combat skills that high, as you'll benefit from them every time you fight someone, but how many times you'll actually find your uber skill useful. What is the real benefit of having 300 lore instead of 200. Will you get better results from checks requiring 200? Or is it simple pass/fail difference? Also why spread the scale to 300 and not just keep it 100 range? Will 1-2 points make much difference? If not why inflate the numbers so much?

[Vince]

Approximately 10% of all checks have 300 difficulty. So, there are some traps with 300 difficulty, some lore-related checks with 300 difficulty, and even disguise with 300 difficulty. Needless to say, they are not mandatory, so you don't have to raise your skills that high.

It's kind of like bumping up your skills to get Fallout 2 implants or that cybernetic brain for SkyNet. There is no other reason to increase your skills that high and both implants and the brain are optional content, but they are fun options nonetheless.

[luckyb0y]

What about passing a 200 check with 300 hundred skill? Any difference? 10% sounds good though, certainly more than I was expecting. I still don't like the inflated numbers - it leads to awkward situations like having 298 skill is no real benefit over 295 - you're still short of the 300 and will probably pass all other checks. I guess it's too late to change that now.

[Vince]

What about passing a 200 check with 300 hundred skill? Any difference?

No.

I still don't like the inflated numbers - it leads to awkward situations like having 298 skill is no real benefit over 295 - you're still short of the 300 and will probably pass all other checks.

That's how any/most systems with skill checks work, no? The only real solution would be to switch to a 1-10 system where each point actually does something, but then each point would cost you a lot of xp and in the end the xp cost would probably come to the same 200-300 points.

I guess it's too late to change that now.

We are tweaking the character system all the time, so no, it's not too late.

[luckyb0y]

While 10 point system is great for table-top games exactly because its so simple. In cRPG you can go for a more detailed system considering all the modifiers from different weapons, materials, techniques are all calculated by the machine, but a 300 point system is a little too much for my taste. Individual points are meaningless and you won't ever see anyone investing less than five points in a skill at a time (excepting any leftover points). It just makes the scale bloat confusing and redundant and doesn't add anything in terms of complexity or resolution. I think that just dividing every skill related value by three would make it much user friendly. Anyway it's a minor thing and I might be oversensitised to that thing for years using currency values in range of 10k-1m for groceries.

[MaximB]

I don't really remember but in fallout1 you had 100 skill points to each thread (maybe even 150) , but I maximized 2 skills very easily.
In Fallout2 they raised the bar and it was MUCH harder and sometimes pointless to maximize skills.
Some skills weren't needed to maximize above 50 like the steal skill which I didn't feel much difference at 50 or at 100.
 

[Vince]

@ lucky:

I'd say that high skill values are a logical result of level-less systems. In most games you earn experience points which eventually give you a handful of skill points. In AoD you earn skill points, which means that you'll get way more skill points than in Fallout, for example. An average enemy is 1 skill point. You kill 10 people, you gain 10 skill points. In Fallout you'd have to do a lot more to earn 10 skill points. See my point?

[MaximB]

@ lucky:

I'd say that high skill values are a logical result of level-less systems. In most games you earn experience points which eventually give you a handful of skill points. In AoD you earn skill points, which means that you'll get way more skill points than in Fallout, for example. An average enemy is 1 skill point. You kill 10 people, you gain 10 skill points. In Fallout you'd have to do a lot more to earn 10 skill points. See my point?

Actually if you are already comparing that aspect to Fallout then I remember that 1 Alien or Super Mutant gave you about 200 XP.
Off course at this point you needed much more XP to gain a level and actually get the spending points.
 

[Vince]

Yep. At that point you probably needed 7-10,000 points to level up.

[MaximB]

Yep. At that point you probably needed 7-10,000 points to level up.

So the real question should be is , will you make more points per quest (and if I understand it right it also depends on how you solve the quest) when you progress or will this rate will remain the same ?

[Vince]

No. Since we don't use levels we have no need to inflate xp costs.

[Morbus]

We gain skill points for killing enemies? Oh man

[Vince]

Well, you learn something, don't you? Besides, that's a good way to balance things out for dumb fighters who get less quests and handle them in the most simple ways.

[Morbus]

Well, that's true. And it's not like you are able to have skills for lots of quests AND able to kill lots of enemies so there's no power play there right?