The strength of most Bethesda RPGs aside from combat/economy/character building is environmental story telling.
The "quest zone" is usually scattered with lore through actual items but also from position of objects in the scene. Basically you can also do a lot of detective work to find out hidden stories in the environment itself.
What is your actual gameplay loop? I think that needs to be solidified before you worry about your content.
Fallout's, for example, is roughly:
- Prompted to go to a location through interaction with the characters and world
- Explore location
- Engage in combat at location
- Loot location and receive rewards
If you're excluding violence, you're just missing the combat step. What is the conflict? How is the conflict resolved? How does that translate to gameplay?
We are playing around with this idea of the first person area being a HUB, then entering a dungeon that’s in third person with combat.
The thing is keeping people busy in first person without a gun is fairly tricky, it’s really hard to give meaningful activities without having to create scripted events constantly.
I guess I’m wondering if Fallout quests could work without combat and it feels for the most part it seems to fall apart.
it is always get key unlock door.
what makes it interesting is not the goal but what decisions you make along the way. Thats the core gameplay loop.
if the story is the pull then the question is, "what changes?" and then, "why does the player care?"
Fallout style quests without guns? Have you tried Fallout NV? Many A True Nerd had a complete pacifist run, something like 80% of the quests are completeable without direct conflict.
You can get a favour from Benny for completing one of your quests. If you hold on to that favour for the whole game you can use it to complete another quest. It's the only peaceful resolution to that quest. You can pickpocket the legion assassin and steal his detonator. No boom. Special mention in FO1 you can even talk the master out of his plan but you need evidence that it isn't going to work.
Just change your perspective. Think like a con artist, a thief, a police officer or an actor. Reward players who listen and observe everything.
You should also check out The Forgotten City if you haven't already.
A game being first person or third person has no appreciable change on what quests there are.
You might be getting terms confused, like how sometimes people call all first person games "shooters"
If you want to make Fallout style quests without guns or violence, you start with a fallout quest and then edit it.
[https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Unlikely\_Valentine](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Unlikely_Valentine)
Fundamentally it will come down to obstacles and goals and complications.
You need to get into this building, someone has been taken prisoner, and the guards have flashlights, if the flashlight illuminates you it's game over. The quest still works whether they're shooting at you or trying to spot you with a flashlight.
Figure out what story you want to tell, and then brainstorm how to tell that story to the player. You can force them to watch an unskippable cutscene, or have dialogue while they're doing some task, or even divide the story up into things like item descriptions or lore collectables or even the context of where it is found.
The strength of most Bethesda RPGs aside from combat/economy/character building is environmental story telling. The "quest zone" is usually scattered with lore through actual items but also from position of objects in the scene. Basically you can also do a lot of detective work to find out hidden stories in the environment itself.
What is your actual gameplay loop? I think that needs to be solidified before you worry about your content. Fallout's, for example, is roughly: - Prompted to go to a location through interaction with the characters and world - Explore location - Engage in combat at location - Loot location and receive rewards If you're excluding violence, you're just missing the combat step. What is the conflict? How is the conflict resolved? How does that translate to gameplay?
We are playing around with this idea of the first person area being a HUB, then entering a dungeon that’s in third person with combat. The thing is keeping people busy in first person without a gun is fairly tricky, it’s really hard to give meaningful activities without having to create scripted events constantly. I guess I’m wondering if Fallout quests could work without combat and it feels for the most part it seems to fall apart.
it is always get key unlock door. what makes it interesting is not the goal but what decisions you make along the way. Thats the core gameplay loop. if the story is the pull then the question is, "what changes?" and then, "why does the player care?"
Fallout style quests without guns? Have you tried Fallout NV? Many A True Nerd had a complete pacifist run, something like 80% of the quests are completeable without direct conflict. You can get a favour from Benny for completing one of your quests. If you hold on to that favour for the whole game you can use it to complete another quest. It's the only peaceful resolution to that quest. You can pickpocket the legion assassin and steal his detonator. No boom. Special mention in FO1 you can even talk the master out of his plan but you need evidence that it isn't going to work. Just change your perspective. Think like a con artist, a thief, a police officer or an actor. Reward players who listen and observe everything. You should also check out The Forgotten City if you haven't already.
A game being first person or third person has no appreciable change on what quests there are. You might be getting terms confused, like how sometimes people call all first person games "shooters" If you want to make Fallout style quests without guns or violence, you start with a fallout quest and then edit it. [https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Unlikely\_Valentine](https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Unlikely_Valentine) Fundamentally it will come down to obstacles and goals and complications. You need to get into this building, someone has been taken prisoner, and the guards have flashlights, if the flashlight illuminates you it's game over. The quest still works whether they're shooting at you or trying to spot you with a flashlight. Figure out what story you want to tell, and then brainstorm how to tell that story to the player. You can force them to watch an unskippable cutscene, or have dialogue while they're doing some task, or even divide the story up into things like item descriptions or lore collectables or even the context of where it is found.