Dev Diary 147: Do you feel lucky, punk?

Heya mutants, a bit earlier dev diary this week simply for the fact there will be another one on Saturday, and another one on Sunday. All of them will cover a similar topic, but I don’t want to spam you with everything at once.

Some of the upcoming v0.6 gameplay changes will be based on the fine work by modder dekrus who made a small “rework” mod for Fallout 2. We will implement the best, most fun tweaks from it into Fallout Yesterday.

Some will need modifications in order to better fit into Fallout’s UI: begone arcadey floating damage points! Of course, these gameplay changes aren’t set in stone, but they’re a good starting point for playtesting and further discussion.

The first one is the Alternate Fire mode which adds an alternative fire mode to Laser, Pulse, Plasma and Gauss weapons.

So, how do you use it? Simple, with an Aimed Shot to the torso.

Laser Weapons

• Laser weapons deal damage to all creatures in a line between the shooter and the target.
• The alternate firing mode consumes 2 + number of additional targets ammo units.
• Alternate mode increases armor penetration. Technically speaking, the targets’ laser defenses are halved.
• Hit chance and critical hit chance are calculated separately for each target.

Pulse Weapons

• Pulse and EMP ranged weapons deal weapon damage in a “chain” of 2 creatures closest to the main target, including the player and any party members.
• The alternate firing mode consumes 3 ammo units.
• Critical hit chance is calculated separately for each target.

Gauss Weapons

• Gauss weapons deal damage to all creatures in the line of fire.
• Hit chance and critical hit chance are calculated separately for each target.

Plasma Weapons

• Plasma weapons deal damage to all creatures in a radius around the main target.
• Damage depends on the distance to the center of the explosion. The greater the distance, the lower the damage.
• The mode consumes 3 ammo units.
• Critical hit chance is calculated separately for each target.

Shotguns

• Knock back or knock down enemies.
• Affects targets which are not too far away.
• Heavier creatures like super mutants/robots/deathclaws/giant scorpions are knocked back less and are less likely to be knocked down.

And then there are some changes related to melee weapons. These don’t require aimed shots like the Alternate Fire mode.

Knives

• Swing Attack: Increases the chance to hit based on the target's agility and the attacker's melee skill.
• Swing Attack: On lightly armored targets, a swing attack is more likely to deal maximum damage than minimum damage.
• Thrust Attack: Penetrates some of the target's Damage Resistance (DR) and Damage Threshold (DT) based on the attacker's melee damage stat and maximum knife damage.
• Thrust Attack: Increases the base chance of a critical hit by 1.5 times.

Sledgehammers, Clubs, Cattle Prods

• Swing Attack: Swings no longer have knockback but instead have a chance to knock down based on the damage dealt.
• Thrust Attack: Has increased attack range.
• Thrust Attack: Deals up to 40% more damage to targets that are pressed against another object (such as walls, creatures, or scenery) and cannot be knocked back further or if they hit an object while "sliding".

So here they are! Let’s hear your thoughts on these 😎

See you tomorrow with more goodies from the wasteland factory,

- PJ Hexer & Co