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I love Elder Scrolls (back to Morrowind), and thought Fallout 3 was very good but not great, but I just cannot get into Fallout 4 at all.

Some of my reasons coincide with Yahtzee here, but a lot are different. It's clunky, the dog does a great job of heroically jumping in my line of fire to take bullets / melee blows for enemies that I am trying to fight, pathfinding is significantly worse than Skyrim (and it was rather poor there), the crafting seems WAY too obsessed with needing 1 or 2 "rare" bits like the screws mentioned in the video that should be in *everything*, etc. etc.

The city building as an upgrade to Hearthfires in Skyrim is pretty cool, but should be a back-burner *optional* thing that encourages you to check it out because it gives cool rewards rather than because the very first set of hobos that you run into want you to do everything for them.

...Take all of that with a grain or three of salt, because I only played for a few days before I got thoroughly annoyed with it and haven't been back since. Skyrim gets new mods that add fun content or make it look *way* better than Fallout 4 does all the time. And I like the setting and lore better, but that is a personal preference. But basically, even after playing through the main story and all of the factions many multiple times each, I still periodically find myself getting interested in another run through Skyrim with a new set of mods. Fallout 4 might get good once the community gets hold of the creation kit for it, but for now I have zero interest in even giving it a more thorough shot to catch my attention.

It had to be the one game I'm actually interested in hearing about.

Josh Sawyer, Chris Avellone and the rest of Obsidian's einherjar - the mighty saviours of the Fallout universe storming straight from the triumph of New Vegas to resurrect classic Baldur's Gate-style isometric rpgs? Who are these heroes? They couldn't really pull it off again, could they?

I turned my head away from the development of this game; there are too many ways for it to disappoint - some of the combat mechanics sound worryingly 4e D&D to me - but here I find that it's been released and is...good...pretty...has pathfinding issues?

It might help to start with what the Backplane Pathfinder actually is - it's a non-flight replica of the Webb telescope’s center backplane (that link has more info and pictures).

Chamber A allows simulating the cold environment the real telescope will face in space, and is the same vacuum chamber where Apollo spacecraft were tested.

Now, to answer your question: They are testing the test procedures for the real telescope! (source: NASA). I realise that doesn't exactly answer your question, but I haven't found details of the actual tests they plan to run... so as a distraction, here are some more images - http://jwst.nasa.gov/images_backplane.html

This is one of the 2003 Mars Exploration Rover (MER) missions, either MER-A Spirit or MER-B Opportunity.

The earlier Mars Pathfinder mission also used airbags to land the Sojourner rover in 1997.

I just wanted to point out that the whole sim city launch is not worse than for example the diablo launch, what made it look much worse was the way EA handled the situation.

Also, nobody forced you to buy the game. Problems like the restricted city size or the pathfinding were pointed out by many players who had access to the beta. And you can find these issues in almost every serious review to sim city, so it's not like you didn't have the chance to know that before you bought the game.

I don't care about the first impression, because I already have the game. What I want is for them to fix the traffic pathfinding problems and allow larger city sizes. And make disasters optional. And have offline saves. Fixing the game is what I'm interested in, not damage limitation from the disastrous launch. I don't give a toss about EA's PR department.

I agree. To me, the DRM really isn't the biggest gameplay problem. I'm tired of having problems crop up like "worker shortage, zone more residential to get more workers" when there's NO ROOM LEFT IN MY POSTAGE-STAMP SIZED CITY. Seriously, DRM and server issues aside, the biggest problem for me is the playable area in each city. Problems like these cannot be solved within your own city's limits, yet when I start a "dormitory town" to supply workers, they always complain about unemployment. I should be able to fix these problems in the same city they crop up in. The traffic pathfinding system is seriously broken too. Emergency vehicles don't even try to get past other traffic!

It's a just a bug (har har) in their pathfinding algorithm. I'm sure a patch will be out soon.

Exploiting a pathfinding weakness? I feel like I should be able to use that as some kind of moral currency for Videosift mischief...

In some cases it has to do with invisible geometry, or geometry that the AI thinks is there but is really not there. Even in the unreal engine path finding is a difficult thing. Node path finding is another story all together, if there isn't a node there than the AI wont go that way, however attacking pathing is different.

That is why a lot online games have multyplayer and PVP, because nothing is like playing a real human. That is what AI was meant to substitute.

>> ^jmzero:
A path finding is a good algorithm but you get the APE effect in the game where the ape goes over the bridge instead of the land to get to the PC.
If you have a large map, you might allow your heuristic to cheat (and thus have the potential for bad paths) - but I don't think that was the ape's problem (or the tiger's problem earlier). I think the segment they needed to cross for the direct path was simply impassible for them - meaning the roundabout path was the best route.
In fact, most of the problems in the video seemed to be bad maps/rules rather than bad algorithms. If the map says you can walk through that rock, it makes for a good path.

I had to take a class (required credit) on AI for Electronic Gaming. I have to say all of the choices for algorithms in the class were terrible. A* path finding is a good algorithm but you get the APE effect in the game where the ape goes over the bridge instead of the land to get to the PC. In world of warcraft some of the NPCs have a set path, some of their pathfinding is a trial and error Like a roomba. A* uses heuristic programming that allows for optimized guessing of how to get around a barrier.

I did a heuristic application of the knights tour in JAVA and I have to say it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. Both because Java is a hard game, and I had to give a value to every spot on he chess board (that meant something).

I got a bachelors in game design and I still hate most of the bassakwards stuff that makes it on the market.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinding

I thought you would appreciate this:

Reaction to Snakes
• Civilian: Runs away from the snake screaming.
• Paratrooper: Lands on and kills the snake.
• Armor: runs over snake, giggles, and looks for more snakes.
• Infantry: "Look, a pussy cat. Come 'ere kitty....Ouch! Hey, that's not a pussy cat."
• Army Aviation: Has GPS grid to snake. Can't find snake. Back to base for crew rest and the club and some sort of drink called "The Snake."
• Ranger: Plays with the snake, then eats it.
• 2nd Ranger: Assaults the snake's home and secures it for use by friendly snakes.
• MI: analyzes all available intelligence and national asset input on the reptilian situation; reports sighting of Godzilla to National Command Authority.
• JAG: Advises the snake on the rules of engagement and the law of war as it pertains to the snake and its defensive posture.
• Quartermaster: Captures snake and applies a NSN to it. Implements a FOI procedure and picks up snake on property book. Has company commander sign hand receipt for "Snake, Green, One Each," as non-expendable unit property.
• Chemical Corps: Starts to gas the little booger, but then realizes that there is an M-18, A-2 Respirator especially made for snakes, remembers the Chemical Corps Motto, "UTRWBAG" (Up Their Rear With Bugs and Gas), and conducts three experiments on it that have been strictly prohibited by the Clinton Treaty of 1999.
• Navy SEAL: Expends all ammunition, several grenades and calls for naval gunfire in a failed attempt to kill the snake. The snake bites the SEAL then retreats to safety.
• Artillery: Kills snake, but in the process kills several hundred civilians with a massive TOT with three FA BDEs in support. Mission is considered a success and all participants (cooks, mechanics, clerks) are awarded Silver Stars.
• Marine Recon: Follows the snake and gets lost.
• Pathfinder: Guides the snake elsewhere.
• AF Fighter Pilot: Mis-identifies the snake as a Russian HIND helicopter and engages it with missiles. Crew chief paints a snake on airplane.
• AF Pararescue: Wounds the snake in first encounter, then feverishly works to save the snake's life.
• Green Beret: Makes contact with the snake, builds rapport, wins its heart and mind, then trains it to kill other snakes.

On the plus side, the kooks briefly kept clueless harridan Sheila Jackson-Lee's trap shut.

Prior to the 110th Congress, Lee served on the House Science Committee and on the Subcommittee that oversees space policy and NASA. She once asked, during a visit to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whether the Mars Pathfinder had taken an image of the flag planted on Mars in 1969 by Neil Armstrong.

Woah ... grr i had to take a whole class on AI for gaming. And the stuff we went over was crap compared to what i just saw.

Pathfinding is a problem in gaming that is no more, and is the solutions get better and better all the time.