Welcome to the Nukapedia News Digest, brought to you by The Van Graff Company. Official Torch provider to the 2284 Olympic games.
In your digest this week
From the Administrative Enclave[]
Sadly some leavers this week, GuardianOfTheWastes will be taking a break from the wiki until Fallout 4. You can leave your farewells here. We hope to see you back real soon.
In better news, Tocinoman has become an administrator; and ButterflyKiss has listed herself as active. I hear there's a spare chair in the admin lounge if you're thinking about running... (We have to stand in the Newsroom).
Closing the Administrative section with our policy discussions... The Talk Page Policy vote is just about to close. Make sure you've had your say. We've also had a proposal to include a "Pure Human" category.
News from the wastes[]
New additions to the wasteland 2 team[]
It seems that the Wasteland team isn't just recruiting puppies... Patrick E McLean has joined the Wasteland 2 team. He's a novelist (so the team now has several real writers!) responsible for such titles as "How to Succeed in Evil" (which apparently is Parsec Award-Winning). He was also author and voice of the Seanachai Podcast.
And just because I couldn't let this line slip "Patrick is also a veteran of the creative side of the advertising business. He worked his words in the service of commerce for many years before he dared to write fiction." - I didn't realise there was a difference (Sorry Patrick if you're reading this).
Also Colin McComb has also joined the team; in addition to a (small) role in Fallout 2, Colin worked on Chris Avellone's other magnus opus Planescape Torment. DnD fans will be delighted to know that he worked in TSR in the glory days of DnD on the Birthright setting amongst others.
People who can write making video games... what a novel idea. (Sorry, couldn't resist).
Pinterest[]
For those of you who are wondering what the Wasteland Check out the Wasteland 2 Pinterest for a collection of images they're drawing upon.
And just in case you were wondering...[]
Perhaps Chris Avellone has a clue as to what happened to the Wasteland 2 budget....
Well, for all our sakes I hope you won big Chris...
Wasteland Weekend[]
Some news for those of you who will be in California in September. Check out the Wasteland Weekend.
I think its BYO Stimpacks.
JES's Formspring[]
Because you all seem to love Josh Sawyer so much...
How much do you weigh and how much bodyfat (%) do you have? I ask because on the one hand you seem to have a real healthy lifestyle, but on the other hand you seem super skinny.
- I weigh ~182 lbs. and am at about 17% body fat. I would like to get down to about 13% body fat but that's going to take more dedication than I currently put in.
Seriously, though, please don't have quest objectives in your next games spell out EXACTLY what the player needs to do next. I'm so sick of things like that in modern games.
- Are you asking me to have NPCs not tell the PC what to do, or are you asking me to not have the game remind you of what the NPC asked the PC to do? Both seem pointless unless the quest is intentionally a puzzle or a searching task.
What's your opinion on power creep in DLCs? I get that someone who's played most of the game already is going to want better gear than what he's got, but I think it diminishes the experience for players on a new run by creating a "best" equipment set.
- It's bad. I prefer to try to finace for new items to occupy at or near the top relative to core game items. When players find items in DLCs, they should feel useful in the DLC as well as back in the core game. What I try to avoid is a situation where the DLC item becomes the no-brainer item to use in all circumstances.
Have you ever thought of introducing the 7.62x51 mm NATO in FNV leaving the .308 Winchester as a "toned down civilian version" like you did with the 5.56-.223 Remington duo?
- I considered it, but .308 was already established as the rifle round and I thought it might be confusing to make it a sub-type of 7.62mm. There are also a lot of nominal 7.62mm rounds, so I thought .308 was clearer/more obvious. When gun people see ".308", I think most of them assume "Winchester".
Do you think Wasteland 2 should have a more realistic look to it, than what was shown in the released screenshots? Personally, I don't think it needs to look more realistic. I like the direction they're taking it.
Read that you wouldn't involve in-game romance in FNV unless it was done believably. Which romances in video game history actually have been? Aside from Viconia in BG2 and (maybe) Visas Marr in KOTOR2 I can't come up with any.
- My favorite is Ben and Mo from Full Throttle, which probably doesn't cut it for a lot of people because it never becomes physical.
For poetry fans, you can also read Josh sawyer's favourite poem.
Project Spotlight[]
Here's our new Admin Tocinoman with a project for you all to get involved in.
- "The Fallout: New Vegas locations project was inactive for several months, and the project page was incomplete. Now, a user has updated the project page with full guidelines and progress tables. The only thing the project needs is YOU! This is a great way for new users and veterans alike to rack up some edits. Sign up here!"
(Only a day in the job and already hard at work....).
Wrap[]
Relic of the war that wasn't[]
In the Cold war, anything at all could become the key battleground between the two superpowers, any chance to prove that their way was the better way was quickly snapped up by the two sides of the battle - even something as simple as a game of Chess.
At age 14 Bobby Fischer was taking the normally quiet chess world by storm, he'd won 8 US championships, and at 15 was recognised as a grandmaster. It seemed that this mere boy could allow the USA to one day beat the Russians in a field they'd been recognised as dominating.
After years of dominating Western Chess tournaments, in 1972 the scene was set for the USA to meet the Soviet union on the chequered battlefield in Reykjavík, Iceland. If Bobby won he'd be the first American since 1888 to be recognised as Grand Master, and it would be a huge blow to the Soviet Union, who had used their chess dominance to "prove" their intellectual superiority over the west.
If you think modern sports schedules are tough, they're next to nothing compared to this tournament - Bobby would face Boris Spassky in a best of 24 tournament. At first it didn't look good - Bobby lost the first game, and forfeited the second when he refused to play unless the TV cameras were removed (for subsequent games, it was agreed they would play in a small room with no spectators), Bobby then went on to dominate the tournament, conceding only one loss to Sasspy, winning 7 games, and tying in 11, giving him the series, and the US a big propaganda win.
Bobby's brilliance however would be tempered due to mental illness in later life; becoming more famous for his controversial statements (and outright racism) that seemed to stem from this. However in 1992 Spassy and Fischer arranged a rematch in Yugoslavia; although Bobby would win this series also (this time 10-5 with 15 draws), the cost on him would be enormous - by playing in Yugoslavia he was in breach of a UN resolution which placed an embargo on the country - and thus also in breach of US law. He was now on the run from his own country.
Bobby evaded capture until 2004; when he was stopped in Japan for trying to travel on what the US had told Japanese authorities was a cancelled passport (Bobby disputed this). In an attempt to avoid return to the USA, he wrote to the government of Iceland who agreed to offer him Asylum. He died in Reykjavik in 2008 of Renal failure after refusing medical care.
Your Next news digest[]
To allow me to get the latest from the west coast, you'll see your next news on Saturday. Catch you then. Agent c (talk) 00:00, August 12, 2012 (UTC)