[GRIMDARK] Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons Discussion

Downloaded Skill wrote:Hey everyone, long time lurker here. I had a chat with Lateral, Admiral, Ryx, and Cobalt in the steam group chat and decided to make an account after Lateral threatened me with doomsday weapons made a very convincing argument. I'll be sticking around and posting so I hope all of you will share the magic of friendship with me.

Welcome down, I do hope you enjoy your stay and remember watch out for falling boats.

Downloaded Skill wrote:Hey everyone, long time lurker here. I had a chat with Lateral, Admiral, Ryx, and Cobalt in the steam group chat and decided to make an account after Lateral threatened me with doomsday weapons made a very convincing argument. I'll be sticking around and posting so I hope all of you will share the magic of friendship with me.

I remember you! Uh... sorry I wasn't very good at keeping you alive. Not a terribly good medic.

Valikdu wrote:...so, I just tried to play New Vegas, with the same system as I did two months ago (when it worked fine). Now, it doesn't even show the intro before crashing.

Tried various stuff from the internet (like replacement graphic dll's) and did 2 reinstalls, doesn't work. What do?

System specs:

I've no idea how to help you, I'm afraid.

I'm surprised with all the cyberponification, BJ didn't have at least one weapon integrated into her body, even if it was just a little taser spark thing which could make for some adorable situations.

Now, if it was an integrated shotgun that integrated with her healing/repair capabilities.... well, she'd probably just masturbate all day and never get anything done.

Valikdu wrote:...so, I just tried to play New Vegas, with the same system as I did two months ago (when it worked fine). Now, it doesn't even show the intro before crashing.

Tried various stuff from the internet (like replacement graphic dll's) and did 2 reinstalls, doesn't work. What do?

System specs:

I would suggest updating your drivers, especially for your graphics card. Do it from the manufacturer's website; Windows actually doesn't know if it's up-to-date or not. I had this exact same problem with Civ V last week; multiple reinstalls (including Steam), reinstalling DirectX, et cetera, and nothing did the trick until I ignored my system telling me my drivers were current and Nvidia saying to do what your OEM says.

Swicked: Maybe, but she does have a powerful integrated pistol on her forehead (and it even works for concealed carry!).

A little bit of Necro:

swicked wrote:

Caoimhe wrote:I'm surprised with all the cyberponification, BJ didn't have at least one weapon integrated into her body, even if it was just a little taser spark thing which could make for some adorable situations.

Now, if it was an integrated shotgun that integrated with her healing/repair capabilities.... well, she'd probably just masturbate all day and never get anything done.

I'm not sure BJ ever even thought of it. She really doesn't get all this cyber pony junk. Plus she's freaked out enough being mostly robot. Being semi-perminantly part weapon wouldn't be doing her any favors.
I'm also not sure BJ can neccessarily grasp masterbation. In 99 it seems like, if you got an itch, you grabbed the nearest mare or buck. Mares that held back like Midnight were weird.
Rather unfortunate, really.

*insert joke about how she still occasionally misses her old favorite release-buck, M-16*

I gotta agree. BJ ultimately cares about her mental state than pragmatism. If there were shotguns and the like built into her cybernetics there would be another layer of angst of "Am I a pony still, or a living weapon?"

On the second part, I really don't think she would. Given the nature of 99, I wouldn't exactly call it free love since there was some amount of chasing required unless Midnight was just playing hard to get, doing the deed yourself would probably reflect either A) an all consuming sex drive that would rival a teenage boy or B) an inability to get someone else to do it for you. I have a feeling most of the ponies would assume B which would come off almost as a mark of shame given how much sex is ingrained into the culture of the stable.

She still got the urge early in the first book where she discovered the audio log with her and P-21. It was prefaced with her moping about having not been laid in a week if I recall so it really shows that mental state.

Makes sense about the integrated weapons, too. That'd be way to Deus like and probably make her more depressed since Deus is already in her anyway.

Also I'm pretty giddy about my city having Fallout potential but since I've lived here for 30 years I feel there will be a bit of cognitive dissonance at some things not being correct. I hope they use the Fed building well since it's a giant scary monolith already. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FederalReserveBankBuildingBoston.jpg

If they do anything like they did with the monuments in DC with Fallout 3, I'm sure they'll make them look abandoned, torched, and with the occasional conspiracy. Oh, and a few related quests and lotsa loot.
With Skyrim's engine, they'd probably make it fantastic looking too.

tylertoon2 wrote:Would someone send me an invite to the PH Crew Steam group?

sure just provide your steam ID/username, though if you are "=]DI[= CalamityWhen" in which case welcome!

If they do use Boston, that fed reserve building would probably make a great faction base.

Valikdu wrote:...so, I just tried to play New Vegas, with the same system as I did two months ago (when it worked fine). Now, it doesn't even show the intro before crashing.

Tried various stuff from the internet (like replacement graphic dll's) and did 2 reinstalls, doesn't work. What do?

System specs:

Not sure if you have the Steam version or not, but if you do, try verifying the file cache.

Seems ol' Mele convinced me to stay, so i still got my eye on ya with a fresh new account... NAW JK RAPE AND PILLAGE enjoy ya day sillies <3

?I this even what is don't

@Cao: (Braid blade) Gotta say I think if anyone got them, it'd be Rampage, she kinda got razor wire there anyhow. So braid blades would just improve upon that :P

@Rafa: (me) You know, I write A LOT of stuff, it's hard to be precise when you say "agreeing with you" xD

@Swicked: (P-21) Yes, I said "bar from P-21", he seemed to be that rare exception apparently. And as said, he fought back. Plus, I should really have done that scene in my fic... I mean, it's the most "iconic", and I didn't do it due to... I have no idea actually.

@Mele: I know Psycho though BJ was crazy, but she honestly have little reason to either believe or disbelieve what BJ says. Neither of her friends really know what she is doing on a full scale, they mostly just avoid questioning it.

And ah, so she was called Fluttershy for... whatever reason. Didn't Sanguine to a part say she actually was Fluttershy? In either case, yeah, I know (fully now) Psycho was a "stage/reaper name".

And to address them in order: She could take her (supposed) mothers name, which she likely doesn't think she is worthy to wear, a name that was given to her to the one she trusted the most, which turned out to betray her trust fully, yet she can't let him go. It would overall not be a good name for her to keep.
She could keep her stage name, something that just pointed out something she was good at, like a wrestlers name, it'd be degrading to her.
She could take a name given to her by someone she is terrified off and hates with malice. Supposedly she was told by this freak of nature that it was a name given to her by someone she knows jack about. If she knew jack about him, she would likely not even consider the name, especially with what he did to her supposed mother. (that, and Golden was the one that took her away... if I recall right, or did Sanguine do that?) The name would like Fluttershy, remind her of bad things. That, and the name doesn't really reflect her at all. It makes her sound more of a whimp if you ask me. And something Psycho seemed rather self-concious about, was to not look weak, she wants to seem strong, since there are no room for weaklings in the wasteland, they are crushed. She has demonstrated this several times.
And lastly, the fourth option, which you didn't even mention: She can give herself her own name, she's starting anew, she can be whomever she wants. Heck, she could be Slagathor if she'd want to. She could name herself what she wants herself, be her own mare. You pretty much just listed a list of bad choices, and then presented it as she HAD to pick one. She never had to pick one, there's always the choice to not choose.

@Iron: (Called shot) Then I've managed to do my job ^^

@Swicked: (Psy+Sty) Yes, "off-screen", off all these days, they were either travelling in group, or tried to not die in hightower. There wasn't really much time for them to sit down and have a long, good chat. Especially with Styg being unable to speak.

Rampage could however be someone she had talked a lot with. She still has shown quiet a lot of impulsiveness, which she seemed to work over and toss away in just a day since she for whatever stupid reason instantly fell in deep, passionate love with Styg. (I just find love at first sight stupid, okay? Especially when it leaves someone to be willing to marry someone after barely 3 days.) Going with the reaction, she likely swelled like a sponge dropped in water. But anyhow, I can't accurately say how apparently awesome Rampage is as a shrink and whatnot, but apparently she works wonders.

The two "lovers" however you have to take into consideration, Styg writes on a chalkboard, to have long conversations, he'd need a lot of chalk, and it was kind of apparent he really hadn't told her shit. Going with all she seemed to defend him on was actions he made, and that his cock apparently needed praising in size. But like said, to me, it quite reeks of "bad movie", just apply any of the "they found love+each other in the heat of battle..." He wanted to fuck her, she was desperate for intimacy/comfort, lonely and also really wanted a fuck. I am just not seeing a good relationship develop from that. It really lacks depth in almost all ways. I can't recall, but I don't think Styg went in in Meatlocker yes? And for all we know, Psycho didn't leave it yes? And that was about the only part they could have got some more "private time", getting to know each other from what I recall. Styg was just thrown in as some random fuck to "fix" BJ, plot convenience way, not it feels like he and Psycho was just crammed into a scene so Somber could get rid of both to lower the party number. Yeah, apparently they are coming back (really Somber, learn to use spoilers, I do most of the time to save on you guys sanity), so it might be some interesting or more developed depth to be added, but going with that 9/10 things so far hasn't, and 6 of those has done the complete opposite, I don't have high hopes.

@Down: Welcome. Make sure to avoid mine and Kippers comments if you are weak of heart.

@Tyler:

Spoiler:

@Sindri:

Spoiler:

@Cao: (Shotguns) Don't forget BJ's "secret love", that one shotgun she is searching for that makes her marehood all plump and tingly xD

@Wave:

Spoiler:

@Cao: I've said it before:

Unrelated but: Ffff- For fucks sake! During the course of the day, I've had around 29 FUCKING things flip to the floor. Headphones around 5 times, food slipped at least 8 times, etc hit the floor as well, and now my fork decided to flip the table. Ugh... and today I was going to be productive... gj me. Want to smash my plate so bad right now ^^' That does it, gecko will get two sacrifices tonight! Erf, anyhow, off to kill, maim and burn in dragonage with my Str based mage, Cunning is my dump stat!

ketchup504 wrote:If they do anything like they did with the monuments in DC with Fallout 3, I'm sure they'll make them look abandoned, torched, and with the occasional conspiracy. Oh, and a few related quests and lotsa loot.
With Skyrim's engine, they'd probably make it fantastic looking too.

Oh how I hope they will do that. Fallout 3 was very atmospheric with the destroyed monuments and old buildings. It really gave off the vibe of "shattered old world glory" especially with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mch1W6yPAEk&feature=BFa&list=SP53008A8787CDDA51 in the background. New Vegas just seems too.... clean? Rebuilt? It just didn't feel right with ruins and the glowing, neon strip within spitting distance. I guess I'd rather just explore the old world, like the subway stations or grocery stores that have been abandoned for centuries, than poke around some guy's shack.

Downloaded Skill wrote:

ketchup504 wrote:If they do anything like they did with the monuments in DC with Fallout 3, I'm sure they'll make them look abandoned, torched, and with the occasional conspiracy. Oh, and a few related quests and lotsa loot.
With Skyrim's engine, they'd probably make it fantastic looking too.

Oh how I hope they will do that. Fallout 3 was very atmospheric with the destroyed monuments and old buildings. It really gave off the vibe of "shattered old world glory" especially with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mch1W6yPAEk&feature=BFa&list=SP53008A8787CDDA51 in the background. New Vegas just seems too.... clean? Rebuilt? It just didn't feel right with ruins and the glowing, neon strip within spitting distance. I guess I'd rather just explore the old world, like the subway stations or grocery stores that have been abandoned for centuries, than poke around some guy's shack.

I have always felt exactly the same.
Fallout 3's biggest charm was the environment still felt destroyed, it really did feel like a post apocalypse still.
Fallout: NV was too stable, everywhere was either rebuilt or not really standing at all, bar the OCCASIONAL piece of rubble building.
Even the DLC all felt the same - it was either here or there, never between the two.

New vegas had the better gun mechanics/system and definitely so with iron sights and the way you held guns, but the setting let it down massively.
I felt too pushed to play as an NCR supporter because of how built up it is, where-as if it was ruins like the east coast, I might've considered the hard but strong rule of Caesar

Downloaded Skill wrote:

ketchup504 wrote:If they do anything like they did with the monuments in DC with Fallout 3, I'm sure they'll make them look abandoned, torched, and with the occasional conspiracy. Oh, and a few related quests and lotsa loot.
With Skyrim's engine, they'd probably make it fantastic looking too.

Oh how I hope they will do that. Fallout 3 was very atmospheric with the destroyed monuments and old buildings. It really gave off the vibe of "shattered old world glory" especially with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mch1W6yPAEk&feature=BFa&list=SP53008A8787CDDA51 in the background. New Vegas just seems too.... clean? Rebuilt? It just didn't feel right with ruins and the glowing, neon strip within spitting distance. I guess I'd rather just explore the old world, like the subway stations or grocery stores that have been abandoned for centuries, than poke around some guy's shack.

Fallout 3 had a more apocalyptic atmosphere, yes. But as soon as you start thinking, it stops working. It's been two hundred years. Salvage is just not a viable basis for an economy over that long of a term. There are thousands of people using up food and ammunition and the old buildings are collapsing all the time, and nobody in the Capital Wasteland ever produced anything; literally all your resources would be gone in a few years and the population ought to have been declining rapidly and continuously. It's a setting that only works in the context of a game that resets everything the moment you stop looking at it, refilling containers and spawning new raiders.

In F1, things were ruined, but people were starting to rebuild. F2 was more about the factions and civilization which had grown since the apocalypse, as people continue to build a new world on the ruins of the old and are actually producing pretty much everything they need to survive. NV continues this trend. But for some reason they felt like they needed to make F3 even more hopeless and broken down than the first game, despite it taking place like four times as far from the end of the war chronologically.

Atmospheric? Yes. Logical? No. Lazy writing? All the way.

Sindri:
My headcanon is the 200 years were not a "big nothing", and that FO3 wasteland is much younger.
The civilization thrived. It began rebuilding. People were making ammo, they got food factories working, they repaired and reprogrammed the robots to protect their settlements. They repaired many buildings and thrived quite successfully.
Then, some 30 years before FO3, it all went to hell. Supermutants showed up, or IMP killed most or whatever... anyway, the new foundations collapsed and people went wild and savage.
The ruins are some 30 years old. The ammo was made by the wastelanders. Most stupid barriers on your way are fortifications of the wastelanders.
There was a second war...

RandomBlank wrote:Sindri:
My headcanon is the 200 years were not a "big nothing", and that FO3 wasteland is much younger.
The civilization thrived. It began rebuilding. People were making ammo, they got food factories working, they repaired and reprogrammed the robots to protect their settlements. They repaired many buildings and thrived quite successfully.
Then, some 30 years before FO3, it all went to hell. Supermutants showed up, or IMP killed most or whatever... anyway, the new foundations collapsed and people went wild and savage.
The ruins are some 30 years old. The ammo was made by the wastelanders. Most stupid barriers on your way are fortifications of the wastelanders.
There was a second war...

If they had done that, I wouldn't be complaining. But they clearly didn't. There are people who've been here for more than forty years, and none of them mention it even in passing. One of your quests is studying the history of Rivet City, the largest and most stable settlement in the Capital (with what, 40 people in it?), and nothing like that happened. The super mutants have been coming consistently for longer than anybody can remember.

And since you can come up with a reasonable explanation for an apocalyptic atmosphere in minutes, and the writers of the game apparently didn't bother to think about it, we're back to lazy.

Not saying that F3 was a bad game or anything; I've lost almost a hundred hours there and enjoyed almost all of it, but the writing was just not as good as the other three fallout games and as soon as you start to think about the setting everything falls apart.

Sindri wrote:

Downloaded Skill wrote:

ketchup504 wrote:If they do anything like they did with the monuments in DC with Fallout 3, I'm sure they'll make them look abandoned, torched, and with the occasional conspiracy. Oh, and a few related quests and lotsa loot.
With Skyrim's engine, they'd probably make it fantastic looking too.

Oh how I hope they will do that. Fallout 3 was very atmospheric with the destroyed monuments and old buildings. It really gave off the vibe of "shattered old world glory" especially with https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mch1W6yPAEk&feature=BFa&list=SP53008A8787CDDA51 in the background. New Vegas just seems too.... clean? Rebuilt? It just didn't feel right with ruins and the glowing, neon strip within spitting distance. I guess I'd rather just explore the old world, like the subway stations or grocery stores that have been abandoned for centuries, than poke around some guy's shack.

Fallout 3 had a more apocalyptic atmosphere, yes. But as soon as you start thinking, it stops working. It's been two hundred years. Salvage is just not a viable basis for an economy over that long of a term. There are thousands of people using up food and ammunition and the old buildings are collapsing all the time, and nobody in the Capital Wasteland ever produced anything; literally all your resources would be gone in a few years and the population ought to have been declining rapidly and continuously. It's a setting that only works in the context of a game that resets everything the moment you stop looking at it, refilling containers and spawning new raiders.

In F1, things were ruined, but people were starting to rebuild. F2 was more about the factions and civilization which had grown since the apocalypse, as people continue to build a new world on the ruins of the old and are actually producing pretty much everything they need to survive. NV continues this trend. But for some reason they felt like they needed to make F3 even more hopeless and broken down than the first game, despite it taking place like four times as far from the end of the war chronologically.

Atmospheric? Yes. Logical? No. Lazy writing? All the way.

Yeah once the fridge logic kicks in the whole setting falls apart. I believe the message the dev team was trying to convey in F1 was "scavenging isn't surviving, its a slow death. To survive you need to rebuild". There is no way a city like Megaton could survive in the long term by scavenging alone and the caravans wouldn't come around enough (and only one of them stocks food and medicine, but in small amounts). I guess I'm just willing to let some things slide for a good experience.

FO3 had a good atmosphere, but I will agree the writing could have been better. Its just that a post-apocalyptic game that doesn't have the atmosphere the match seems to miss the point. I guess with the focus on the setting being 200 years after the war, its kind of hard to avoid the fact that people would have rebuilt by then. I remember in Honest Hearts the Survivalist said the radiation cleared up to survivable levels within a couple months after the bombs dropped. So really the next game could be 20 years after the war. I would like to see the mechanics of New Vegas with the atmosphere of FO1 and 2 in the new game. Signs of the old world are everywhere, but the new world is still in its infancy kind of thing.

*Edit*

On the topic of producing things that was one of the primary reasons I always chose to support Ashur in the Pitt DLC. Wherner just seemed like someone looking to get revenge damn the consequences. Ashur was building something that can actually work, even if it was on the backs of slaves that he claimed he would release after the infrastructure was built up. Thing is Pittsburgh might be rebuilt, but what about the next city over? He could just keep moving the goal posts. Those things considered, while I wish I could have taken a third option, Ashur was really the lesser of two evils because he was building infrastructure and curing a new disease.

Downloaded Skill wrote:I guess I'm just willing to let some things slide for a good experience.

I try to do that. And I mostly managed most of the time, and had fun with the game. But I have an unfortunate tendency to think about everything, and I enjoy things so much more when such thought is rewarded (like in Project Horizons) rather than something I need to constantly prevent myself from doing (like in F3).

To add my 2 cents on the whole Fallout 3 thing, I'll admit it didn't make complete sense considering ammo did appear from nowhere when it was apparently all supposed to be gained from people who had scavenged and found it, but then after 200 years, as has been said, you'd think everything that could be found would be gone by then.

Luckily, with The Pitt, they at least added in the aspect that they were making ammunition down there, so it did give an element of rebuilding and manufacturing as opposed to only scavenging.

New Vegas did better with this, in that the conflicts over power sources made it seem like at least some were trying to rebuild and continue life that way rather than relying on only scavenging. But I felt it lacked a good story as compared to FO3 (others may disagree, but I greatly enjoyed the storyline of FO3 compared with NV. It just seemed better put together and more emotional than NV did.).

Sindri wrote:

Downloaded Skill wrote:I guess I'm just willing to let some things slide for a good experience.

I try to do that. And I mostly managed most of the time, and had fun with the game. But I have an unfortunate tendency to think about everything, and I enjoy things so much more when such thought is rewarded (like in Project Horizons) rather than something I need to constantly prevent myself from doing (like in F3).

Project Horizons is a very mind-stirring story, which help make it an engaging and enjoyable read.
They should've gone for an earlier timeframe for FO3, they did a huge jump from the first 2..

CamoBadger wrote:

Point regarding story. The big difference there is that F3's main quest was a lot of the focus of the game, whereas NV was first and foremost a world for you to play in, with one set of quests being important enough to change the world in one direction or another.


@ketchup
Not that huge...
According to the wiki, the end of the world was in 2077, F1 was 2161 (84 years later), F2 was 2241 (80 after F1, 164 after the end), F3 was 2277 (36 after F2, 200 after the end), and NV was 2281 (four after F3, 40 after F2, 204 after the end). So F3 was closer to F2 than F2 was to F1, time-wise. But to get the setting they wanted without an additional cataclysm, they should have put it no more than a hundred years after the end, and maybe even before F1.

Over the weekend after struggling a bit with Fallout 2 I jumped into New Vegas for the first time. I found it interesting and challenging but since I've never played these games before so my only exposure with the themes is FoE and I've gotta say, I found it incredibly dismal. Not unenjoyable, just depressing. The atmosphere is incredible and moody but I wasn't used to how different FoE stories are. The core games just seem to have a more overarching sense of hopelessness and you actions don't hold much weight. Maybe this is a "mute protagonist" thing but eh. I'm enjoying myself and having a chuckle at the references I come across but I need to remind myself that these things are only related in the most basic sense.

I'm writing this in a bar after two glasses of malbec while trying to keep my brother from falling over on our Monday after work binge so bare with any weirdly worded sentences or bad grammar.

Stop playing new vegas and play fallout 3 instead. You'll find your actions hold more weight (I personally felt so, anyway) and it's a better environment.

Sindri wrote:
@ketchup
Not that huge...
According to the wiki, the end of the world was in 2077, F1 was 2161 (84 years later), F2 was 2241 (80 after F1, 164 after the end), F3 was 2277 (36 after F2, 200 after the end), and NV was 2281 (four after F3, 40 after F2, 204 after the end). So F3 was closer to F2 than F2 was to F1, time-wise. But to get the setting they wanted without an additional cataclysm, they should have put it no more than a hundred years after the end, and maybe even before F1.

I just took a nap and realized how stupid that was. And the nap didn't help. My head still hurts.

Kattlarv wrote:I can't recall, but I don't think Styg went in in Meatlocker yes? And for all we know, Psycho didn't leave it yes?

No, he was there. They danced together in the air in Afterlife, remember?