Hello, Muties! I hope you're enjoying your summer break.
It's been some time since my last dev diary. The primary reason is a two-week summer break I took to recharge, especially as we approach 2024 when a significant release is slated. For those who need a refresher, our aim is to complete the main story by the end of 2023.
Initially, the main quest centers on hunting down escaped prisoners to ensure the big, bad ODYSSEUS leaves you in peace to enjoy your newfound freedom. On that note, I've been working on a feature that allows players to track all the escaped prisoners on the world map.
Given that they fled Tibbets around the same time as you, it's realistic that you'd encounter them as you traverse the wasteland. If you happen to meet them in their respective towns either before or after, they won't appear in the world map encounters anymore. Once I've wrapped up that segment, my next focus will be "unlocking" the remaining 50% of Tibbets for further exploration and storyline progression. I know some players commented how Tibbets was big, but you've only seen half of it!
Hey, mutants! I'm back with more Fallout Yesterday goodies.
Speaking of the latest additions to Hoover Dam, you can now converse with Dorris the Receptionist, find yourself incarcerated, make a daring escape, or simply spend a quiet night in jail. Moreover, you can now engage in dialogue with the Police Chief and Chief Engineer.
This update introduces a significant change regarding the Brotherhood's HQ. It is no longer directly accessible from the world map. Instead, you'll need to discover its location, either by doing a favor for the Chief Engineer or by hacking his computer. This is actually the original idea Black Isle Studios had, but I hadn't implemented it until now, as various ways to deduce its location weren't ready. Yes, the NCR is facing significant difficulties in this war. They're fighting an enemy whose location they don't know.
For now, the only way to secure a victory for the NCR is to annihilate the BOS in their base. However, more peaceful resolutions are on the way. I am also nearly finished with the implementation of major Hoover Dam players: the Governor, the Major, and the Caravan Leaders.
And finally, I've added more information about the Circle of Steel to the game. Keep an eye out for any computer logs and holodisks to learn more!
P.S. Don't forget to check out a special Fallout 1 treat in the root folder. You'll find a file named FALLOUT.SCR. Just double click it!
Heya mutants, how are you doing? The temperatures are quite high where I am but that's how we like it in the wasteland.
As I mentioned recently, after finishing off with the dialog improvements, it's time to start implementing extra Hoover Dam contents. So now, the school quests are getting my attention along with the custom elevator art that connects the Rim and the Downtown. As you can see from the screenshot, the Prisoner is holding a class. There will be a couple of variations on how that goes depending on the player's stats. Not to mention a funny dialog between a retard character and the teacher where he asks her about "the birds and the bees".
Besides that, I also fixed some smaller bugs I discovered along the way.
And I also spent some time figuring how to backup everything - not only the source, but hundreds of gigabytes of dev files that are used for making this game. I am using a Win 10 computer I bought 6 years ago for the development. And I fear it might break down without any warning so better be sure everything this game needs is safe and sound.
Talk to you soon with more news from the scorching wasteland, -PJ
I hope this update finds you well. As we move further into June, it's time to share the progress we've been making on our beloved project.
First off, we have some sweet news about grammar fixes throughout the game. It's important that the game not only plays smoothly, but reads smoothly as well. We have completed the review of almost all in-game dialogs and made edits where needed. Some will need further work, especially regarding the change in game's introductory location but more on that later.
Next up, a new/old special encounter from Fallout 2 - Federation Shuttle - makes its return. Yes, now you can finally get your hands on that phaser ;-)
At last, the starting location has been "altered". You will still begin your journey in Tibbets, however immersed in your favorite pastime - the SimTek 5000 simulation. For some of you, this will be a nostalgic return to the location that was exclusively featured in the legendary Fallout 1 Demo, while for others, it will be an entirely new post-apocalyptic experience. I've fixed numerous bugs from the original demo and made available some of the previously unseen content that Interplay had planned but never had the opportunity to showcase due to pesky bugs.
With this change implemented, we're reinforcing the message that Tibbets is to the Prisoner what Vault 13 was to the Vault Dweller, and what Arroyo was to the Chosen One. It's home, but there's also a yearning within you to explore and see the world.
Heya mutant brothers and sisters, the middle of 2023 is here, and it's time to take a look back and see how we're progressing and where we're headed.
Currently, I am working on dialogue edits, expanding them where necessary, and implementing missing quests. For example, Gabrielle now sounds like a proper teenager. So for the next week or two, I will be fully occupied with these tasks. Once completed, I can shift my focus to adding as many new NPCs as possible to the game. My main goal is that by the end of the year, you will have the opportunity to progress the story (lots!), level up (lots!), be cool, and own the wasteland. I have high hopes for this year, and I want it to be a big one for all of us.
To make things easier for you, I will keep you updated on the availability of new quests, so you don't have to search for them on your own. Unless you want to, something like Captain Kirk in the vastness of uncharted space.
Moreover, three new exclusive songs have been added to the game, with more on their way!
A bug which prevented you from talking to some NPCs was fixed. Thanks to Johnny Joe for pointing out something fishy was going on!
Additionally, I've made big progress on the intro location. What intro location you might think? Tibbets? Well, the game was never actually supposed to start immediately inside Tibbets. As Black Isle Studios devs originally planned, the player was supposed to be a prisoner at a normal prison who suddenly wakes up in an entirely different prison (Tibbets) than the one he went to sleep in.
For some time, I was thinking of making a cinematic out of this but now I feel actual gameplay would be more fitting and fun. There's too much going on there to explain it all in a new cinematic and we already have a long atomic energy orientation video and Tibbets welcoming movie. Not to mention the upcoming narrator's intro video too. And there will be some nostalgia factor there, you will see ;-)
In related news, I wrapped up the work related to the intro and endgame slides, now all that is left is to narrate and animate!
Heya mutants, I am back with some sweet news! The game will have a stunning total of 135 unique endgame slides! Of course, not all of them will be shown at once but they are a testament to the incredible number of choices and consequences this game has. It will be fun, writing a walkthrough :)
And in other news, I am working on a workflow which could be used to animate ALL Talking Heads. In this example, you can see the reference photo which was used to create a static Talking Head. Then that was used to create an animated 3D model, which talks, blinks, has emotions, moves... It needs more polish, but it is not bad for a 15 minute job.
The workflow is missing things a few things that should be doable from what I've seen. Then with some scripting, we could have images exported, converted and implemented into the game engine in about 30 minutes. Can you believe it?!
some great news galore this time around! As some of you probably noticed, Fallout Yesterday uses Talking Heads from other mods or from other projects our resident THs artist Goat-Boy is working on. Those borrowed THs were always meant to be temporary placeholders because this game deserves to have its own unique art. But due to its size, realistically we would need an army of artists working around the clock to produce all the THs. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Enter the world of tomorrow, the world of AI...
As you have heard by now, software engineers have made great advancements with AI services, making them available to the public. I think people are only now realizing how much will this change the world of entertainment: games, movies, photography, art... It's not perfect of course and takes some time to get to where you want to be. But they say a picture is worth a thousand words so I'll just stop talking now and let you soak in all that beautiful art. To summarize what this means for Fallout Yesterday...
- ALL the unique NPCs will have TH, some will be animated, majority static - New Backgrounds for animated THs - New Loading Screens - All the End Game Slides are done - New Death Screen - All the Town Maps are done
P.S. I haven't yet added all of these to the source files and implemented them in the code but it should be done in the next week or two.
See you soon guys with more epic news from the wasteland, -PJ & Co
it's PJ with the latest update on our beloved game. I've spent the last few weeks going over dialogs, adding missing topics, coding a mega quest with at least 6 different ways to complete and testing all of it. Hoover Dam has 22 quests in total so there's still a good few to finish but I am happy with the progress. The more code and dialogs I write, the faster it goes.
In other news, you might have noticed sfall was last time updated 7 months ago. Not sure when/if the new update is coming but in the meantime, I discovered sort of a spiritual successor of it, called Fallout 2 Community Edition. It aims to be a super modern Fallout 2 engine with complete sfall support.
Authors claim it runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, Android, and iOS. Imagine that!
The last time I checked it unfortunately couldn't run FY but I guess it's a matter of time they get to supporting it. Check it out here: https://github.com/alexbatalov/fallout2-ce
See you soon with even more finished mega quests under by belt,
I hope you are all well. For the last few weeks, I've been working on dialogs, quests, in-game cutscenes and scripting for Hoover Dam.
Lots of NPCs are there, both civilian and military, so I want to do my best to bring them to life. And during testing I've found and fixed a number of bugs which slipped through the cracks earlier.
There's an annoying one that happens with the turrets NCR is using to mow down the BOS troops. They refuse to fire and the debugger simply says: "Something went wrong with a ranged attack sequence"
You don't say, Captain Obvious! Well, I've fixed some nasty bugs before so I won't give up on this one too.
And I took a small break from coding by revamping the external area in the Crater. Previously it used the Oil Rig exterior which was only temporary.
I'll see you next time with more Hoover Dam news, I've got a few surprises coming up that will bring back a nostalgic tear or two to our eyes.
hope you are doing well. I was away for a week on a business trip but now I'm back continuing to work on Hoover Dam dialogs and quests. As you can see this dude likes his whiskey a lot but is friendly enough to share. Guess what? He is one of the people running the place. Yes, it will be interesting to see how the Prisoner will change the place. To be or not to be? To try fixing it or turning it into the booze capital of the wasteland? Yes, we will have fun either way! :D
And in other news, while I was away, our maestro was busy with two new songs - Boulder Dome and the Crater - which will be added to the game soon for your aural enjoyment. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for them!
I will chat to you soon with more news on the latest development. Take care dear muties and keep your roentgens low
Heya mutants, it's been a while since I've reached out with the latest wasteland news. First thing first, all the best in 2023! Let's hope this will be a big year for Fallout Yesterday!
I've been working on 24 Hoover Dam NPCs at the moment. Some are less, some are more important but they all have a voice of their own and a reason to be in the Dam. The 24 is not a total list, there will be even more of them there, but what I wanted to add first is a new companion so you can travel around with even more people. It's a WIP so now if you pick him up, you can't get rid of him unless he goes away forever :)
There's also lots of extra work with making sure the new locations have proper pathfinding so I've been working on that too. So far the Dam is the most challenging area to work on due to its scope, but it's worth it. It's simply epic!
I will try and get these 24 NPCs done soon, so you can meet them and make new friends or foes :)
Yours truly, from the depths of a working class' factory, -PJ
Heya mutants, it has been quiet here but for a good reason. I was writing for Hoover Dam as well as reading. Reading, you wonder? Well, I always felt writers subconsciously give most of their characters the same āvoiceā so I wanted to expand my vocabulary, styles, grammar and find some new voices for NPCs. Just like in the real world, no two persons talk the same.
Now that I am happy with the ew dialogs I moved onto coding Hoover Dam quests!
In the meantime I found an odd bug with music. Apparently, sfall allows us to use highly quality music in MP3 format but now I found that some of these refuse to play. Thereās only the silence. The sound of silence. As Iād rather be safe than sorry, Iāll pick legacy format compatibility.
Speaking of the music, our musician is working on original music pieces for the Crater and Boulder Dome.
Talk to you soon with update on the newest quests!
Heya mutants, so here we are with a milestone behind us. The map work for Hoover Dam has been finalized!! Itās a big, big location and I hope you will have great time exploring it. I had to make two extra quests locations but now itās time to start adding the NPCs. Their dialogs are mostly finished so now itās down to writing the code. I look forward to finally bringing the locations to life starting with the entrance gate and then making our way down the Dam. I think I will start with a companion Gannon. That name rings a bell?
Talk to you in a few days with the update on the progress.
here's a picture of some nice acid pools to show what I am working on right now. After I finish this Hoover Dam location, there is one more left. It will be good for a change to finally go back to coding NPCs and quests. You've been so patient with me but it's a huge, huge game. Not saying that as a bad thing, I think we all love the fact Van Buren is a beast that dwarfs Fallout 2 in size :D
as you can see from the screenshots, there has been huge progress on the external Hoover Dam locations. Beside some scenery and minor polishing to be done, I'm happy enough to move onto the remaining internal locations and wrap it up! Those are about 50% done. After that I will start bringing the city to life with its many NPCs and quests.
See you soon with screenshots of the Dam's internal locations.
Hello mutants, a quick update with progress on Hoover Dam's Downtown as well as the Government's HQ. It's a huge area which would take about 50 or so screenshots to cover it all so I bring you some interesting ones with details.
Besides continuing on implementing that, I will keep adding music in high quality during this week. See you soon with more Hoover Dam news.
while I am working on Hoover Dam, I am also in the process of updating the quality of game music. I think that the legacy ACM format is long overdue with its 16-bit, 22050 Hz format. So far I updated 22 songs with more on the way.
While I am at that, I will be adding new music too! That includes exclusive songs composed by our own team member "1982"
Music was always, very, very important to the unique atmosphere of the world so it is crucial this gets as much dev love as possible.
finally the Hoover Dam Rim milestone has been reached! The huge location-specific art which was broken into many smaller pieces due to the engine's limitations has been connected. This has been a real pain and struggle to get done but here we are :D In addition, the North Gate area is also finished!
So what's next you might wonder.. well, the Hoover Dam Downtown of course! Although even bigger than the Rim, I think it should be finished faster because the Rim was sort of a practice for the real deal and I came up with some good workflows to get it done faster.
See you soon with more news on Hoover Dam progress.
work is continuing around the north exit of the Dam. Can you recognize our favorite caravan company? There's lots more buildings around it in this part of town. I didn't want to leave out any extra details that were originally planned such as the surrounding citizen homes.
In addition, sfall was updated to version 4.3.7 which includes the following changes:
>Dropped support for older pre-SSE processors in favor of more optimized code. Now sfall requires a processor with SSE support
>Fixed a bug that could prevent loading files from the art\<language>\ directory
>Fixed REMOVEINVENOBJ hook to match the values of RMOBJ_* constants correctly
>Fixed NPC combat control mod not setting the lighting of controlled critters correctly in some cases
>Expanded set_pipboy_available script function to match PipBoyAvailableAtGameStart option
>Expanded message_str_game script function to support editor.msg file
>Increased the default number of sound buffers available for sound effects from 4 to 8
>Changed the way AllowDShowSound works. Now mode 2 is combined with mode 1
>Removed MoreTiles from ddraw.ini. Now the maximum number of tile FRMs is always 16383
I am back with a quick update on our favorite dam. Work is under way in the west side of the Dam. Police HQ, Caravan HQs, the Bar and a couple of other buildings of interest are there so it will be a fun, quest-heavy area to visit.
I like the area a lot as it houses the NCR power-players in the NCR-BOS war so it needs to reflect that visually and acoustically, not only through writing. I am actually drawing from my own experience of war I lived through in my childhood to make it the best it can be.
Heya mutants, as you recall I was trying out various ways to merge the isometric buildings and rounded shapes of the Dam and have found it! It works the best if I follow the concept art and make the Rim a bit more like Junktown, irregular and makeshift in its essence. Which makes sense since the NCR settled in and used what they found lying around to build a new town.
Thereās one downside to the cool houses spread along the Dam in that concept art - theyāre not quite defined in the design docs and arenāt meant to be visited by the Prisoner. Maybe we can work something out later, because there are no casinos in the design doc. None at all š« And we canāt have that! Wink Wink
The art alignment on the Dam is progressing fine and I think by the end of the next week the Rim will be finished so youāll be able to visit it! And I have a new companion ready for you so stay tuned!
Onwards, to the finish line and one step closer to the completion of the Dam, yours truly,
It's been a quiet few weeks as I continued working on Hoover Dam's dullest part - aligning hundreds of pieces that are used to display it in all its glory. It's all technical, time-consuming work. I change the art piece's XY offsets and then check inside Mapper if it's pixel-precise or needs more editing. Rinse and repeat.
Another thing that has been giving me slight headache is the creative/technical challenge on how to properly display isometric buildings along the Rim's rounded, curved shape. It needs to look as good, usable and realistic as it can. Also, the Prisoner's potential house is located there. I made sure the Dam follows real-life dimensions so we don't have much space to work with but I will do my best.
In other news, a total of five new Talking Heads were finished! Four for NPCs and one for our party companion, Alkaya. It's crazy to see that the game so far has 82 Talking Heads :D
Additionally, new original music is in the works for the Crater.
And finally, sfall has been updated to version 4.3.6.
I will try to go back and post more often if you guys don't find purely technical updates too dull. Let me know what you think.
Where I am right now itās very, very hot. And I wish for a nuclear winter. Oh wait, wrong game!
Anyways, what I have been working on lately is something I refer to as tackling the Big One aka Hoover Dam. It has the biggest art pieces, loads and loads of NPCs, quests and locations. The dialogs are done, the art is done, the locations are (almost) done. Not to mention some sweet new Talking Heads were made! Now I am writing the code and putting the art pieces down, gluing it all together.
So thatās what I want done next. I think you guys need a big town location to have fun with. You know you want to get down and dirty with the NCR. Or maybe the BOS. Pick your target!
Thatās all from my bunker for today. Iāll see you then this Sunday with some screenshots to share!
As some of you already know, I relocated to my home country and have settled in. I am much happier now being close to my family. And so are they š
As promised, I added more content to the game. Three areas got expanded: City Ruins surrounding the Boulder Dome, Jerichoās southern entrance and Grand Canyon with an old miner town settlement.
There are no more areas to be added at the moment so I can go back to adding new NPCs and quests. My focus will be Hoover Dam which not only is huge and fun but also has a ton of quests, NPCs and combat opportunities. Not to mention it will unlock some of the high-end Brotherhood quests which will determine the fate of the NCR-BoS War!
long time no see! We are still focused on implementing the missing Traits and Perks, mainly from Van Buren, Fallout Tactics and Arcanum Backgrounds. Most of these are not supported by the engine out of the box so we need to find clever ways to make them work.
And I think some arenāt suitable for implementation, such as those intended only for Deathclaws in Fallout Tactics. But maybe we could implement them and explain them as mutations.
As some of you have probably noticed, there was no update last week. We are at the moment working on implementing lots of new and complex Perks.
So last week all of our dev time was spent researching how to best fit those into Fallout 2 engine. And now we are transforming all that into programming code. The new Perks come from Van Buren Design Docs and the Pen and Paper version as well as Fallout Tactics. Quite a number of those break the mould of what Fallout 2 engine supports out of the box. Implementing some of these will take longer than usual but it will be well worth it. The more interesting they are, the more fun the final game will be!
And of course they come with new Vault Boys of which some concepts you can see in this post! Enjoy these until the next time!
We are back to coding and have made updates related to the main story and some of its influence on the gameplay. So a new background mechanic is now part of the game which tracks down the playerās behaviour.
This info is then used to make some decisions regarding NPCs in the world but those will become more evident the longer you play.
For now, I donāt want to spoil too much but I expect to hear about it from people more and more as time goes on. All I can say is that I love this game so much for how clever it is thanks to Black Isle Studios.
Additionally, we have updated sfall to the latest 4.3.4. version.
Next up on our todo list is adding dialog for all the critical main story NPCs into the game, starting with the infamous 13 unaccounted for prisoners and some new companions š
