Yeah, right, Vaz. We all know you'll have some kind of hyper-strategic farm to grow useful crops for potions recipes. If Todd Howard hears my prayers, we'll actually get a proper system for crafting meals and beverages, akin to something like a cross between alchemy and cooking in Skyrim ... Comprehensive recipes, perks/traits to make them better, and incentives to grow crops and harvest ingredients. Tell me you wouldn't be all over that, Vaz!
A lot of people confirm to me that you can name the dog but I personally haven't seen it in writing or said by Bethesda. It's like a 95% chance though I'd say. The evidence being that it was just dog in the earlier trailers then now it's dogmeat in all of the later trailers. I don't know how substantial that is though.
Ok, I'm not questioning the aesthetics in regard to how they reflect the setting, just in regards to how you must accept them. For instance, the builder can do all this and create all that but he can't wash his dirty mattress and sheets? He can't clean the rust of his corrugated iron roof? He lived in a pre-wasteland utopian suburb yet has no idea or inclination to recreate that life, albeit in a small way. We are forced to go native.
I could be wrong and would love it I could recreate one of those white-picket fence houses of the 1950's.
I think the likes of Battlehorn Castle and Frostcrag Spire worked well because they really fit the game and had a backstory while at the same time offering the benefits you mention above. Hearthfire fell short of that mark in my mind by allowing customistationbut in so doing makes you realise the limits of what you can and can't do. Want a Library and an Armoury? Bad luck mate!
It's weird how that works but the more options you get only make you realise what you're missing out on. I loved the mini quest in Battle horn Castle which had you hunting down creatures to get alchemical ingredients to give to your taxidermist to create statues. It worked because as far as customisation went that was the only option.
I can imagine using the settlement system to store shit and gain access to caravan's but unless there is a deeper reason to use them - like Mass Effect 3's Citadel Apartment in which you can establish relationships and all that roleplay stuff I am unlikely to spend too much time at it. Hearthfire came close with it's family system of having a wife and kid, but even that was superficial and a pain in the ass in all honesty.
Great videos by the way Gym! Welcome to the site and thanks for sharing
I'll try and explain. Do you remember in TES IV Oblivion how you could only level up by sleeping in beds? Did you ever feel when playing that sleeping in the wilderness would have been so awesome for either a ranger character or just for the ease it would have for levelling? Imagine how cool it would have been or even would be to have a bedroll in that game or even in Skyrim. Suddenly you want a bedroll in Skyrim.
Now imagine you get that bedroll in a patch or dlc. Unfortunately the dlc doesn't come with a camp fire, or if it does you can't use it for cooking. Suddenly this really helpful and cool roleplay addition suddenly seems incomplete, the possibilities it promised are now limited by it's very nature. Not giving us a bedroll to begin with turns out to be better than having it.
So In F4 we have the ability to create structures and hideouts and so many other combinations you think of... except the one you want and can imagine in your head.
Are you with me? In Mass Effect I cannot customise or trick out the Normandy. Does that effect my game? No. However, if I could customise the Normandy but can't do so to the extent I wish then it may actually piss me off, just like Hearthfire did.
I understand your mindset, but I can't say I've ever felt that way. Much the opposite in fact. When they attempt to give me customization, I know they're trying, and I look forward to the possibilities in the future. This is actually a good example of that. First we had player homes. In FO3, you could pick a theme for your home. Then in Skyrim, you could build the home, and choose its parts and decorations(in a DLC). Now you can build it from the ground up how you want. Some ability to do what I want is better than no ability to do what I want, as far as I'm concerned.
I could be wrong and would love it I could recreate one of those white-picket fence houses of the 1950's.
That would certainly present some pretty cool roleplaying opportunities. A piece of beauty, organization, peace and happiness amidst destruction... But only if you're able to capture people and be a cannibal.