Setting Overview #1

Dear Readers,

a new news entry about the world and some features/characteristics of the game can be found here.
I'd be glad if you'd read, comment, or even ask some things on there. ;-)

Regards,

Frank

What Remains goes Web 2.0!

I myself am not the biggest fan of quick info systems like Twitter, Facebook etc. - but I can't deny the usefulness of said pages. So here we go! If you take a look at the upper right part of the blog page, you see 4 pesky new buttons, just waiting for you to click on them! If you don't see them, you can admire them here in their full glory from the country of awesomeness!:






Not only we have now an official forum (which I am filling up with content right now), we have a mod DB page which even ranks What Remains on place 365 of 13,987, not a bad start, for just day 2 having the page up! If you like What Remains and what we are doing with Fallout, just follow our progress on there and track, or even rank the game! If you are having Facebook and want to look like an old videogame nerd, you may just follow the What Remains Group on Twitter or Facebook. What I'd like the most though, is YOU to become an active member on our forums. Just sign up! It's a matter of seconds. You meet other Fallout fans there, discussing or even suggesting things about What Remains.


Regards,


Frank

Design Tidbits #1

Thought I write about some small design updates what's being worked on at the moment.
Flipping through several mechanics right now, and I decided to change some stuff here and there..

• Small Guns/Big Guns/Energy Guns have been merged to the "Firearms" Skill.

Not only seeing as how well the Obsidian Guys managed to do this in Fallout: New Vegas , it makes more sense for What Remains aswell, seeing as highly advanced weaponry like military support weapons, miniguns, or even energy weaponry is scarce, if not nonexistant. It'd be bad design to give just 1-2 weapons for people who've chosen the respective skill (like Big Guns), a thing which always puzzled me a bit in the original Fallouts. So they are now merged and the weapon progress throughout the progression of the game is easier to do aswell. Every Weapon can be used (with SPECIAL requirements ofcourse), so take your pick!

• The Unarmed and Melee Skills are now merged into the "Close Quarter Combats" Skill.

Much like the paragraph above, it just makes more sense for me to have both of these skills merged together.

• Reduced number of Skillpoints through levelups.

As a result to the removal and merging of skills, ofcourse the maximum amount of skillpoints would be too high, only leading to Jack-of-all-Trades Characters. So the amount of skillpoints to raise your skill per level has been reduced. This will need some finetuning later to not make it too harsh, ofcourse.

• Eyeshots have been removed.

Playing the original Fallout titles, combat at the mid-to-endgame always was just about shooting the baddies eyes if possible. I kind of find this a bit bland, seeing as eyeshots were way too powerfull, rendered aiming at other bodyparts almost obsolete and ended the fight too quick (not even mentioning that it seems to be a bit over the top to aim at an opponents eyeball from 300 metres away with a pistol ;-) ) The chance to hit the head instead has been a bit lowered too, aswell as the AP needed to perform this action have been highered. Hopefully, this will make fights a bit longer and aiming at other bodyparts as more viable choices throughout the combat.

• All weapons will have the option to throw them.

Heard it right there, in desperate times, when there is no ammo left and the only viable choice would be to throw your rifle in the opponents face, you are now given the opportunity to do that. ;-) More of a gimmick or the last resort of hope in combat, then an actual powerful option.

Also, some more minor stuff, have made my homework on the Illinois and Michigan area, landmarks, cities and the like, so it's very likely you'll see (the remains) of some cities and places you probably know, or maybe even live in. Worldediting is almost done, so maybe I will post some examples of locations you'll be able to visit. That's about it for now, next time you'll get to know a few of the ingame factions, receive a bit more knowledge about what's going on in the world etc. 

Regards,

Frank

We aren't dead yet!

Yes, we are not. And yes, you've read it right, I now have even a bit help, someone not allowing not even a single minutes rest, giving the whole thing a little kick of motivation. Yes, the motivation, the thing which kept me not posting here since a while. During a computer crash, plenty of files were gone (now restored, thanks to some kind people doing that for me) and that nearly wiped out my whole will to make this game. Eventually, the sparkle lit again and I started to work. Now, I have all the files back and wrote most of the documents needed to develop the first few locations and move on to the next ones. Had much fun writing tons of dialogs lately, can't wait till you guys/gals listen to the people speaking and hear their stories around the campfire. ;-)

Also, I am working on setting a small forum up anytime soon, to have interested people talking about the game or even suggesting some smaller stuff. Ofcourse, basic info on what exactly happens ingame will be given then.
So - glad to tell we are alive and kicking well! To the end, some small ingame loading screen extravaganza - see the michigans wasteland ruins in their full glory. Eery, empty (?!) , only harboring death and the remains of former inhabitants. What Remains there?

Cheers, Frank.

Interface Aesthetics Tidbit #1

Another productive day comes to an end and I am glad everything turned out exactly how I wanted it to look like. Editing the general interface, no, not only that, editing the whole game at all has to be treated with huge respect because the originals had just it's own unique style and dedication I've yet to find in any other game.
So I rather spend days or weeks making something good and respecting the work of the original Fallout devs, instead of throw some half-assed stuff in. ;)

Anyway, Picture Numbero Uno, the Dialogbox, a thing you will see and have to take care for a lot during the game (obviously, when it comes to text-heavy games):

You can see the general text font used in there. I fiddled around with it a long time till I found a font which is actually readable and looks good. I really like it and it looks gorgeous ingame. Opposing to the "cold", "sterile" but yet fitting font of Fallout, this one is a bit more "mellow", looks like handwriting. Thus it represents the general aesthetics of my mod, everything is handmade, everyone is more caring for themselves and their own survival. The general look of the Interface has more warmer brown tones, as opposing to grey-metallish tones, as seen in the little comparison picture I made:

Well then, what's left? The worldmap! I worked a bit with it and already loving it, but it is still heavily Work In Progress. It's meant to be rather a handdrawn old "treasure" map then an accurate satellite map like in the original Fallouts. There are many "Landmarks" drawn onto it, I hope you people like the aesthetics.

I really really like it and it looks beautiful ingame.


Anyway, that should be it for today, see you next time around, I'll keep you in touch if some new things are coming.

Regards,

Frank

Media Roundup #1

So, let's not waste time, aye?

This media roundup shall feauture a few of the music tracks which will be ingame, along with some other ambient music you might like, composed and recorded by myself. Few of you might have already heard it, but it never hurts to introduce someone new to it.


So, here's the first little album  I recorded in the past and take some samples/loops for the game:

Ancient Horse, Full of Glue

1-  Birds Song
2 - In Vains
3 - Birth Of A Star
4 - 23 and 43
5 - Finally We Know How To Delay Our Struggle
6 - Let's Build An Ocean Full Of Flies
7 - Kansas City
8 - The Vats
9 - Barbarossa
10 - It Fades
11 - Great Queen Elizabeth the XIII
12 - White Mice
13 - Ludwig&Bartholomeus Part2

 Download

It feautures some very ambienty drones I recorded with experimental audio editing and shifting, using just a tape recorder, aswell as traditional Ambient thingies and some post-rocky tunes. You'll see which parts of the EP will be used in the game. ;)

___

And here's the next one, tada! :

Tunes of a Doomsday Tribe

1 - Hunters Territory
2 - Everythings Asleep
3 - Wood
4 - Forlorn Regions
5 - 310 Seconds Before The Fall
6 - Devastation
7 - A Sacred Place

Download

( incase file "Wood" is not working, grab it here )

This one is pretty much inspired by the music Mark Morgan has done for the two Fallout Games.
If you like the soothing tunes of the original Fallout games, you probably like one or two things in there too. I took some tracks out of this for my game too. Enjoy!

If you don't like to download the packs, let me tease you here a bit (all on Soundcloud):

Hunters Territory by fschimski

Wood by fschimski

Forlorn Regions by fschimski


That's it for now, regards,


Frank

Introducing!

So, as this is now the first post on this new and shiny Internet Blog thingy, I thought it'd be a clever idea to explain the reasons why I want to do such a game, right? Well then!
I like Fallout. You probably like Fallout too, since you visited this page. We all like Fallout, don't we?
We do. And I like Fallout 1 and its dark, unforgiving and yet melancholic atmosphere even more.
And what does one do if one likes some particular thing? Right, demand more! But as there is no Fallout1² the need of a mod arises. That's where my part comes in! Of course it is not my intention to just copy something, besides the fact that I can't even do this, it would be pretty boring and no one want to play a bad duplicate.

But I do not only like Fallout 1/2, I like cRPGS, preferrably from the late 90ies too! As one big influence I want to name Planescape:Torment here - a game which completely blew me away, especially when it came to its unique setting, excellent atmosphere (music/SFX/graphics) to just gorgeous and detailed writing. One could literally spend hours and hours just talking to NPC, hearing their stories and find more about their particular backgrounds. This - mixed with the grittiness of the fallout world and of course my own little ideas and styles - I thought will be the best of two worlds combined - I always wanted to play such a game, so I decided I just do such a game.

That's how I landed here. Created spreadsheets, design documents for NPC, locations and the world in general, learned how to script and handle the engine and made some music and sound effects. This all ended in some nice little build which is already playable and I am very proud of - maybe I can release this little gem of a demo in the next few months when I polished it a bit.
I have loads of fun to put my creativity in use and see how it slowly shapes itself and becomes "alive", enjoying the music, enjoying the atmosphere, the characters are haunting me. So I hope you'll enjoy it the same when it get's released, maybe you got the time to read the news here from time to time.

Until then, with best regards,

Frank