Chapter 4: Game Elements Discovered, Streaming!
Damian had run away from the Scorpion Cave back to Shady sands within an hour. Being outmatched without stats left him mildly confused. Thus he decided to speak with people in Shady Sands, hoping to figure out how to 'create' his character.
As he did so, there were massive changes for him, as he met a native of the vault he originally left ,which was apparently Vault 13. Originally the person was sent to find a water chip, but since the the vault that had a working water chip, Vault 15, had been raided and presumably picked clean, this man gave up. The impression given though was that the water chip was still integral for the operation of the Vault and that it was still a quest needing to be completed.
Intrigued by this storyline somewhat and the way it was being introduced Damian then proceeded to talk to every NPC in the town. Speaking with Ian, a merchant guard, he quickly found the scope of the game to be massive. There were two new locations marked on his map. The map on the pip-man popped up as the grid-like map interface was highlighted in two new sections, The Hub and Junk Town.
Gaining some integral information about these areas, mainly the dangers present such as bandits and mutants, he started a conversation spree. Each NPC that gave more information slowly teaching him of different aspects of the game. Stims could be used to heal was one he learned quickly, the doctor showing him how to administer the Stim to himself. A guard captain showing him that guns have different damage and accuracy ratings... Then he finally met with the leader again, completing all of the dialogue this time.
{Head to Pip-man to create Character}
Following the prompt that flashed in front of his eyes, he looked at his Pip-man and saw a character status sheet.
{Name - BLANK}
{Unused Stat Points: 10}
Strength - 10
Perception - 10
Endurance - 10
Charisma - 10
Intelligence - 10
Agility - 10
Luck - 2
{Warning: Increasing one stat will effect another stat, potentially lowering it}
"Damn... This is what I've been missing. Makes sense really."
He mulled over his option for a while as he read what each stat effected.
Strength was important for Carry Weight, Hit Points and Melee Damage. Ultimately it was a stat meant for a physical damage build and would make him a damage sponge in the long run.
Perception had four categories it helped in: Dialogue options, Distance from enemies in random encounters, Ranged combat distance modifiers and Sequence. They all seemed integral to playing the game as ranged combat was certainly the way to go, so long as you had ammunition.
Endurance was: Healing Rate, Hit Points, Poison Resistance and Radiation Resistance. This would pair well with Strength as it gave more resistance to annoying problems out here in the wastes.
Charisma: NPC reactions and Prices. It was nice to have but didn't ensure survival in much of a way, unless you considered having a discount important... As far as Damian was concerned.
Intelligence: Dialogue options and skill points per level. Damian didn't even know there were skills yet. He was blown away once he flicked the page and saw a plethora of different skills. Everything from small and big guns to First aid and even passive skills that allowed for bartering and more convincing speech.
Agility aided with the amount of things one could do in a short period of time and the evasion score of your character.
Finally, Luck aided the chance of scoring critical hits and hitting with your weapons whilst aiming at certain parts of an enemy's body.
Immediately Damian chose to put 5 stats into perception, 2 stats into Intelligence, 2 stats for agility and singular point into Endurance.
{Name - Darknight}
{Unused Stat Points: 10}
Strength - 8
Perception - 15
Endurance - 9
Charisma - 10
Intelligence - 12
Agility - 12
Luck - 5
Looking over his stats he was super happy with his choices, despite the lowered health he now had due to the loss in strength and Endurance. His build for his character resembled him in a way, he was not strong or particularly tough, but he was stealthy, nimble and could evade strikes whilst hitting things with precision.
"Shit! I missed training, didn't I...?"
He left the game for a moment, checking his room for his father. No signs were seen and nothing was touched. Breathing a sigh of relief he clicked the play button again and slipped back into this new world he was just entering into.
...
Meanwhile, I was busily working away on the streaming function. Fallout had already sold ten more copies and I was relatively flushed with points at this specific point in time. With 75 points gained, the idea of making the game multiplayer slipped into my mind. Finishing the streaming function was the most important though.
Getting new players was key! With that in mind I made sure that each part of the streaming integration was smooth and would allow for quick setup times. Each streamer would have virtually no problems whilst they played, at least, that was my hope. The account linking between the streaming platforms and Fallout was easy enough to create. And by the time Damian had just created his proper character, it was all finished and my first update could be launched.
The streaming function would be placed on the top left of the pip-man and would have the image of an eye opening and closing. I ensured that it was all thematically appropriate. This had cost me a good 30 points, my total points now sitting at 50 in total.
With the update finished, I clicked on the update button on the system screen.
"Ohhhh...!" I yawned as exhaustion finally hit me.
I had just died today and here I was working and making a game... It was fucking insane. All of my wind was knocked out of me and all there was now was the wish to sleep on a bed. With my luck being what it was though, I only had a mat on the floor in my bedroom.
It was better than nothing though. I moved through the apartment until I collapsed onto my 'bed', my eyes sleepily closing as the sun slowly peaked its head above the distant horizon.
'Good night, mom, dad... Have a good life without me...'
...
In another bedroom somewhere in the world, a teenage boy with black hair and brown eyes was languidly laying back in his chair. He was currently playing a new game that he had found whilst browsing Steam an hour or two ago.
|Fallout 1|
He, like the eleven others in the game currently, was working his way through the game's awesome VR experience. Currently he was carving into rats with his knife in hand whilst attempting to pay attention to anything important around him. He had died once or twice now and he didn't wish to die once again. As a gamer, it would totally be embarrassing for him to lose so easily at the start like this.
"Die you rat!" He swung his hand out and slid the knife into the rat's body. Pixelated blood oozed down onto his hands, the sensation cold and a little off-putting as the corpse splattered onto the floor.
{DING! Update to game has started, you do not need to leave, the game will auto update}
"An update? Already?"
"Damn this Dev is really active!"
He shook his hand to relieve himself of the bloody sensation on his hand, all the while waiting for this update to finish, the progress bar showing on his pip-boy at the very bottom. Another squeak brought him from his waiting, but was soon superseded by the finishing of the update.
{Streaming update has completed. Please look to the top left of your pip-boy to stream; if you wish to do so. }
"Holy! Streaming? Already? That is a very new genre..."
Ned immediately clicked the feature as his account connected instantly to the Twitch account he already had. Within moments he was online streaming, his vision being what everyone else could see; with an option to have a 3D mode if the streamer wanted to speak to his or her audience personally.
"Oh, snap! This is freaking awesome! I'll have to show Peter this awesome game..."
...
Simultaneously through the streaming space a random game called Fallout was put onto the front page. This game with barely any streamers or viewers drawing intrigue to what it was.
Hundreds of curious people started by simply clicking into the section on Twitch. Then came more and more until the one or two streams that were up each had ten or twenty watchers each.
In Ned's chat there were many questions being asked...
Panic set into Ned for a little until he calmed himself and began answering to the best of his abilities.
"This game is called Fallout and from what I can tell it somehow allows you to enter into the game with your mind. You can feel, see, hear and smell the things in the game! Also, my name is SpiderSidekick!"
"I-it is on steam Crimson... Uuummmm, to answer your question Leo, I can leave whenever and when I die I simply revive... Although there is pain, it's like getting pinched."
Ned took out his pistol and shot at a mutated rat in the distance, the bullet bursting its head as blood plopped onto the surrounding stones.
Ned smiled as he watched many more people filter into the stream, asking questions as to what was going on. He did his best to explain and showcase things, whilst progressing. Others in the chat eventually started explaining also and Ned became freer and freer to just play the game.
And like this the first game ever made by Freya was launched to the stratosphere...
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