Larry Liberty on Fallout: New Vegas

Feature

We talked with Larry Liberty, the Lead Producer on Fallout: New Vegas. Larry details the continuity of Fallout 3 to New Vegas and all the new features in Fallout: New Vegas.

September 8th, 2010 by Ingvi Sn�dal

Hooked Gamers: One of the new additions to Fallout: New Vegas is the ability to modify weapons. Can you describe what sort of changes players can make to what weapons? Will players be able to make multiple modifications to the same weapon?

Larry Liberty: Many of the new weapons in the game (and more than a few weapons from Fallout 3) can be modified. For instance, you can get a stabilizer for the classic Mini-gun and add a high speed motor to top it off. You can upgrade the action and stock of most rifles. You can also add sights (regular and night vision) and extended magazines to name a few other mods.

Hooked Gamers: The �Reputation� mechanic sounds intriguing. We already know that it affects your relationship with factions in the game, causing some missions to become unavailable. Does it change the behaviour of individuals too? And is it possible to alter your reputation to make a mission available after all? How does it work in relation to the �Karma� mechanic?

Larry Liberty: People associated with a particular faction will react to your reputation with the larger group. (You start off with a blank slate with all factions and communities; doing something good or bad towards a group will trigger reputation tracking.) There will be opportunities to wipe the slate clean with the major factions absolving you of your sins against them.

Reputation is tracked separately from Karma, which is the universe's opinion of you and is all knowing. Reputation is based on the things you do that are witnessed by people of a particular group so they are quite different in that regard. You can be a hated tyrant in one place and a saint in another. Just because you are evil doesn't mean that you will be automatically hated by people that have never met you.

Hooked Gamers: The Companion system has been given a big overhaul. Can you explain the changes? Will it be possible to bring a sidekick along for the majority of the game, when you want it, for as long as you want it?

Larry Liberty: The biggest mechanical change is the addition of the Companion Wheel. This is a simple but elegant addition to the Pip-Boy that allows the player to quickly issue the most useful companion commands. All you need to do is press a button to bring up the wheel that allows you to immediately see your companion�s health, their AI state, and access their inventory. It also allows you talk to them and issue orders. Another change we've made is giving each companion a deep backstory and quest. You'll be able to bring two companions, one humanoid and one non-humanoid, along with you wherever you go.

Hooked Gamers: You've been incredibly tight-lipped about the Perks. Can you reveal even a tiny bit of information on what you are doing with them?

Larry Liberty: One thing that is safe to say is that there will be a lot of perks. We plan to give a perk every other level so Perk selection will be more meaningful than ever.

Hooked Gamers: It is our tradition to give the developers a chance to say something about the game that they desperately want to get out. Is there anything burning on your lips?

Larry Liberty: There are also a couple of weapons that I look forward to demoing in the near future. I do think people will have fun with companions and weapons.

Hooked Gamers: Thank you for your time!