Updates About Updates · 1:32pm Oct 27th, 2017
Updates About Updates, a look at Fallout 4 & what FiM Season 7 means for Project Hive and Wasteland Bouquet
Settle in, folks, this might be a long one.
First off, I apologise for how few updates I've gotten out for Hive and WB lately. I haven't really wanted to admit it, but I kinda... lost my inspiration. This year's just been busy as anything, and I found my interest in almost everything waning as I had less time to really devote to what I usually enjoy doing.
When I realised how long it had been, though, I decided something had to be done about it. No excuses. I got myself hyped up, queued up Season 7 of Friendship is Magic to catch up and get into things again.... then caught the flu and all my enthusiasm vanished. Funny story, I lost my voice entirely for several days because of it, and had to communicate through gestures (often rude ones) and notes on my phone. 
After I recovered, and got more (less interesting) stuff out of the way, I decided that, this time, for sure, I'd do everything I could to get back into the swing of things.
So, for the past month or so, I've been catching up on FiM (just watched Marks and Recreation, so no spoilers please! Still haven't seen the movie, either!), working on my Fallout (with a bit of Fallout: Equestria) halloween costume and, (and this is the big one), playing through Fallout 4 for the very first time!
What Season 7 means for the future of Wasteland Bouquet and Project Hive
Honestly, not much. I'm enjoying this season, but there's just not much I can really work into things. Not as major parts, anyway. Probably spoilers ahead!
The Changelings are getting way more screentime, and it is so damn good!
I liked Thorax before he became King Moosebug the Technicolor, and I still kinda like him as a character, I just don't like him on a personal level. Kinda like how I feel about Celestia; I can appreciate them as a character, but they just bug me somehow. Pun intended.
If I use him, it would probably be as a background detail. Thorax, being a friendly (or more friendship inclined) changeling, would probably make for a good diplomat. Maybe trying to establish ties with the Crystal Empire, who knows?
The way everything played out (and is still playing out) with the rest of the Hive has a lot of interesting details I'd like to play with. Unfortunately, nothing I can really use in either of my fics. Sorry, but the new changelings probably won't be showing up in Hive or Bouquet. Pity. I actually really like them, almost as much as I liked the original love bugs.
Chrysalis is still Chrysalis. Where they go with her in the show now will be really fascinating, but it doesn't really change how I see her or how she fits into things in the fics.
Pharynx. Oh, wow. Now this is a redemption done well. I won't go into a ton of detail about just why I love him and how he was handled so much, but wow. He quickly became one of my favorite characters in the show.
He doesn't agree with the Hive's new ways, he doesn't seem to actually follow or even really listen to Thorax, and it would have been easy to portray him as a monster or a bad guy.
Instead, he comes across as just not wanting to change from the ways he's used to and grew up with.
The thing that I like most is his loyalty to the Hive and the other changelings. Very little of what he does is actually from hostility or even "badness", it's mostly to protect the other changelings... and wanting things to go back to what they were. The changeling he painted black genuinely made me laugh. The only time he seems to give up is when Trixie and Starlight discuss convcing Thorax to banish him.
He does make some good points in the episode about how the changelings are practically helpless, and even when he's leaving he still comes back to protect them and fight off the maulwurf.
His "redemption", though is the best part of the episode. He doesn't change because he's "sharing love", or because of any great magical event; he changes because he accepts and is accepted by the other changelings. He doesn't become a lovey-dovey new changeling, his personality doesn't seem to change, he just becomes a part of the Hive again. He's still a kinda jerky big brother, he's still protective of the other changelings, but now he's one of them again.
It's not Redemption, it's Acceptance, and that's what makes it so great. He's less of an eyesore than Thorax, too.
The only thing is, I can't really use Pharynx in Hive or Bouquet, just like Thorax. If I do use him, though, he's definitely got the temperment and personality of a Queen's Guard.
Fallout 4 - A Newcomer's POV
One step forward, two steps back. That about sums about Fallout 4.
The graphics are gorgeous, and the world is atmospheric as hell. The rad storms are especially awesome, because somehow I'd never even heard about them until I actually started playing and one happened. It was like playing STALKER all over again. Sound design is great, and the world is, so far, really interesting to explore. I've just killed Kellog and finished Nuka World and Automatron, and I'm about to start Far Harbor, so I've got a lot to look forwards to from the look of it.
Being able to customise weapons is great. Unfortunately, there's less variety in weapons now. Modified Pipe or Laser pistols make up about half the weapons in the game, with Plasma varients taking up another large chunk of the ranged weapons tree. Together, they make up most of the pistols, rifles and automatics in the game, and can be turned into any of the three types instead of having, say, a seperate Laser Rifle and a Laser Pistol.
Now, being able to turn one weapon into another "class" of weapon is, I will admit, useful and keeps even the crappy weapons viable for longer rather than just discarding them instantly. But, like I said, there's less variety and very few weapons feel special or interesting. Fallout New Vegas, for instance, had a 50. Cal Rifle. It looked and sounded as powerful as it should have. Now a 50. is just a stat change for another weapon, like the Hunting Rifle. More damage, yay, but it's not as enjoyable as toting around a massive F
ck-Off Cannon.
Combat Shotgun and Combat Rifle are basically the same damn thing, visually. The Combat Shotgun from Fallout 3 is, I'd say, an iconic weapon. You see it and you say "Yep, that's from Fallout." Fallout 4 doesn't really seem to have any iconic weapons. The 10mm Pistol, maybe, but that's a bit of a stretch considering you can mod it to look more like the Fallout 3/NV version, which is much more recogniseable.
There's even less variety for melee and unarmed weapons. Unarmed is, what, Knuckles, Power Fist, Boxing Glove? Okay, I forgot the Deathclaw Gauntlet, and that's easily the best one, but there's not much competition.
Melee fares slightly better, but is still kinda lacking in things that are interesting or satisfying to use compared to New Vegas.
There's unique weapons, but Kremvh's Tooth and Grognak's Axe are the only two I can think off of the top of my head that actually look unique, instead of just having a unique name and maybe a unique effect. A few uniques just have a guaranteed normal Legendary Effect on them.
The Legendary Effects are a mixed bag. I can't complain, it's kinda like playing Borderlands or Diablo 2. Most effects are worthless, but the good ones are so good they make up for it. My first legendary drop was a Wounding Pipe Pistol. Guaranteed 25 damage, on top of whatever damage the weapon itself does that isn't soaked by the target's DR. A few modifications later, I had a sniper accurate machine gun with a drum mag, firing the cheapest ammo in the game at a crazy fire rate. I still use it as an "Oh Shit!" weapon for when horrible things get too close. Kills everything dead in seconds... and makes everything but my Wounding 10mm Pistol almost useless.
So, good thing, bad thing, I'm not really sure. It dropped Kellog in about 10 seconds, so...
The Wasteland Bouquet crew's weapons.
Being able to kinda customise armor and put on particular armor pieces over your clothing is cool, but the limited number of outfits that actually let you wear armor over them takes some of the usefulness of it away. There doesn't seem to be as many interesting outfits, either. Particuarly in the duster department, which really bothered me since I'm using this, my first ever playthrough, to find outfits for a Wasteland Bouquet themed run later on. This is the best I've found so far for Lily, Rose and Ibis' outfits:
Power Armor, though, is one of the few things I feel they improved on in absolutely every way. It feels like playing W40K Space Marine, or getting your Titan in Titanfall 2. It feels like power armor should, instead of just a suit of clothes like it did in every other Fallout game. I am a lumbering titan of Death and Chaos! Also, jetpack. Can't go wrong with a jetpack.
Settlement building is, like most other aspects of the game, neat but flawed. Only being able to walk around while building really limits it and makes building some things, or in some areas, awkward. Parts from one set will snap to parts from some sets, but not others, with no real consistency. Floors are especially bad for that. Part snapping is actually really wonky, with some parts not snapping to others, even though the parts they won't snap to will snap to them, wierd detection of flat surfaces or angles for placing things, and a host of other issues.
Still, I managed to make a decent version of the Wasteland Bouquet. Still in progress, mind you. Had to get Piper and Curie to stand in for Lily and Rose.
Characters look great, generally, and the character creation and later customisation are brilliant. Probably the best I've seen in a long time, if not ever. Nobody has Generic Face and almost everyone looks unique, which is a huge step up from pretty much every other open-world RPG Bethesda game. Skin textures look realistic, factial features are believeable... sane ghouls just look like burn victims, but the ferals are deranged and hideous looking enough to make up for that.
But am I the only one who notices the problem with speaking character's mouths? It's like they're trying to talk without showing their teeth.
Companions are much, much better than Fallout 3, and possibly even New Vegas. They're well-written and well acted. Gage in Nuka World was brilliant. I genuinely didn't want to betray him, and he came across as someone who could be convinced that wiping out the raiders was a good thing. But, sadly, the writers didn't give me that option, and it was with a heavy heart that I had to deal with him after starting my raider slaughter. Seriously, that's probably the best written bond between two characters I've seen in a video game in years.
I found Curie to be a bit of a letdown, surprisingly. The apparent love interest thing didn't so much develop as just happen. I can't recall actually bonding with her or forming a real connection between her and my character. I guess it comes with the whole "New to actual emotions" thing. Somehow, though, Ada came across as more human.
Unlike Piper, who I actually did see a bond develop with my character as we adventured.
Dogmeat. Freaking Dogmeat. Whoever worked on him has my congratulations for putting so much personality into a non-speaking character. Easily my favorite companion, mostly because he doesn't get lost or stuck constantly. Oh, and he doesn't repeat the same four lines of dialogue over and over again. And watching him get stuck into raiders like they're made of kibble and bits is always funny.
Having every single line your character says actually be voiced is impressive. Unfortunately, that's all I can really say that's positive about it. The voice acting is good, but my character sounds like a total prick in half his lines. Even the non-sarcastic ones. I think he's adjusted a little bit too well to the Wasteland... and was probably just a little bit mentally unstable before being frozen.
I want to hit whoever came up with the dialogue system. Hit them in the face. With a "How to Conversation" book. Repeatedly. It's the second worst dialogue system I've ever seen, beaten only by Dragon Age 2's abomination of a system.
It's vague, you never really know what you'll say from each choice (will Sarcasm make me accept a quest or refuse it? Because it does both! Accepts one quest, refuses another!), it's really limited at parts (Nuka-World, Head-in-Jar Guy, no option except to be a greedy twat), and you're gonna miss about 3/4 of the dialogue in the game.
Ignoring the Ikea settlements, the actual towns I've seen so far are pretty good. Yep. All two of them. Diamond City and Good Neighbour. Wait, I forgot the Vault nearby... 118, was it? That was... okay. Generally, the world is really well designed and believable. Except for the world holes where you can see through the level geometry, but I've seen worse and it's surprisingly uncommon, with only a few places where it's really noticeable. I haven't gone into a dungeon and had half the area not spawn, so that's a big improvement from certain earlier games. *cough*Skyrim*cough*
Surprising number of invisible walls on/in structures, though. And the collision detection on most scenery can make pulling off sneaky stealth shots frustrating, even more than the shoddy hit-detection on guns already did.
The music is alright. It's Fallout, what do you expect? Ambient music is pretty good, and the radio music would be great if it didn't get tiresome the fiftieth time you hear Crawl Out To The Fallout. So, yeah. It's alright.
Bugs. Bugs out the wazoo. This long after release, there's no excuse for how broken Fallout 4 is, or how easy it is to break.
Automatron robots losing all their parts or randomly dying, settlements being attacked by enemies that don't actually spawn, that wierd thing where my character drew his gun but wasn't holding anything, settlements not showing up in the Supply Line menu, text being cut off in menus, the ten minutes where the game forgot I was in a conversation after the NPC finished their dialogue and both they and my character stood there and stared at each other in Conversation Cam until I reset the game, the time Preston tilted 45 degrees and ran around, snuck, and fought like that for until I fast-traveled, and my particular favorite buggy moment:
Just an aside, not really impacting my enjoyment of the game, since I actually know how to pick locks now the lockpicking game is almost funny to see in how innacurate it is. At least they answered the age-old question of "Why can't I just chop this rotted wooden door with an axe?" It's because there's no axes in the world of Fallout 4!
In conclusion, Fallout 4 is good. Very good, even. Just not amazing.
For every part of it that is polished and shows signs that someone who genuinely cared about working on the game, there's at least one part, usually more, that just don't stack up.
I was hoping for a new Fallout New Vegas, it turned out to be a new Fallout 3. Not bad by any means, just a little underwhelming.
A Very Fallout Halloween
Most of this month, and a good part of last month, was spent working on something special. My very own Pipbuck!
No screen in it because I use my phone for that, and I had to use my phone to take the photo. But I run the Pipboy app from Fallout 4 when it's actually in, and it looks and acts like a Pipbuck should.
Anyway, here's a shot of the full outfit.
And here's the Fallout: Equestria part: I fight for the Changeling Empire!
That green bar is an EL panel. It lights up and throws a nice Changeling Green backlight, giving me a sinister silhoutte!
So, if anyone happens to see me out-and-about trick-or-treating, say hi!
Sadly, I didn't have time to work on the final touches for my Pipbuck. I was gonna make a glove-mounted flashlight, like Lily's one from Wasteland Bouquet, but just didn't have the time or parts I needed. Ah, well. Next year, maybe.
When will Project Hive and Wasteland Bouquet be updated?
Not until after Halloween. I've got a few more episodes of FiM to watch, then the movie, and I'm enjoying my time with Fallout 4 enough that it's getting the creative juices flowing... which is a rather unpleasant phrase now that I look at it. Ick.
And that's all for now, folks! Enjoy this little gem I found the other day!
I picked up Fallout 4 myself at the most recent sale, and for the most part I'd agree with what you said.
While I like additional weapon customization, it shouldn't come at the cost of having only a dozen actual weapons. Also, while pipe weapons are an interesting idea for post-apocalyptic weaponry, they shouldn't be showing up in a sealed National Guard armory. You don't go through all the pain of getting past turrets and robots to break into a never-accessed weapons locker, only to find some pipe pistol with a fancy mod.
Totally agree on dialogue, which is why I tossed on a mod that shows me exactly what I am going to say, rather than trying to guess what HATE NEWSPAPERS is going to do.
What I also haven't liked is how you really get railroaded into a specific path. New Vegas had a nice faction system, and while karma didn't do much, you had a lot of dialogue options that would let you act out a variety of attitudes. You could be the goody two shoes, an indifferent observer, a psychopath, a greedy mercenary, etc. In F4, you're stuck being the good guy who has praise foisted upon them by everyone. Your dialogue boils down to: Yes, Sarcastic Yes, Angry/mean Yes, No (Yes), and sometimes Tell Me More. In NV, you could be an evil person and people would recognize that.
You're also totally right about the adjustment to the wasteland. You wake up and the world is destroyed. Everyone you knew is dead. Half an hour later you're being volentold by some guy you just met to provide his group with shelter, provisions, and security, and that you have to go out and do that for other strangers.
Overall, the gameplay has been pretty fun, but on the roleplaying aspect it utterly falls flat. That's very bad for a Fallout game, which is a Role-Playing Game. Once I go through the vanilla story once, I'll probably use mods like FROST to make the game into a nuclear wasteland survival simulator.
Oh, I'm sorry about your inspiration! And time shortages. And getting the flu.
Nice costume. :)
Thanks for the update! Glad things seem to be improving on your end.
Remember, in the wasteland. Friendship doesn't exist.
I'm glad you're better after being ill, and equally glad that you've reignited the fire of passion for Wasteland Bouquet. I wish you the best of luck in Fallout 4, and if you're on PC I might be of assistance with modding, if you want. I agree with your points about what makes and breaks the game, but I'm far too tired to list specifics and I do apologize for that. It is always, always good to hear from you Cascade, and I'll be keeping an eye out from the shadows for more from you. Take care, dear!