Fallout 4, what it should take from Skyrim and NV

Alright, with the recent news of Bethesda doing research in Boston(a.k.a. the Commonwealth) I think you should take a look at what Bethesda should integrate from Skyrim and New Vegas.

Now, personally I wasn't a fan of Obsidian's New Vegas, I felt it had a some valid points but fell flat on what caught me on to Fallout 3. I found my self being able to play through Fallout 3 3 and a half times, when with Fallout New Vegas I was only able to stomach through it twice(mostly because of that BA DLC<Honest Hearts not included[okay the items from it are]>). But before this turns into a hate rant, I did enjoy New Vegas but I feel it didn't have the oomph Fallout 3 had. But there is one thing especially that Bethesda should add into Fallout 3.

Now remember the companions from Fallout 3, nothing spectacular, but I did grow very fond of Dogmeat(as everyone has) and Charon(he's a bada** that's why). Now remember Fallout New Vegas' semi-lovable crew of companions, they were all pretty great(except Lily), and a good step up to Fallout 3's companions. Now remember the companions from Skyrim. Hold on, let me guess. You were thinking about Lydia weren't you. Who doesn't think of Lydia when they think of companions? The companions from Skyrim were for the most part one dimensional and rather boring. Hell, I pretty much avoid them on all of my characters except for my mage.

Now, in Fallout 4, the companions should be the same way they were in New Vegas. Each character should have their own back story and quest relevant to the plot/problems that take place during the game. Each companion having their own back story and personal quest would mean not to many companions, like six or eight, max. I would also like at least two side companions to stack with your current companions(like Rex and ED-E).

Now, what to take from Skyrim. First of all, the two obvious things, sprinting and dual-wielding. Sprinting was just an all around helpful thing in Skyrim, a good way to get around and to get out of sticky situations. As for dual-wielding, just think of the awesome combinations you could make with Fallout weapons. In Skyrim you could have an axe in one hand and a mace in the other, big woop, but with Fallout you could have a pistol in one hand and a machete in the other. You would be able to dual wield things like pistols and SMG's as well as one-handed melee/unarmed weapons, at the cost of giving up aiming/blocking.

Remember how Oblivion had unarmed? Yeah, neither do I, because no one used it. So in Skyrim in was scrapped completely, and they should think about doing the same in Fallout 4. I'm not saying abolish it, I just think that when you have melee AND unarmed, it's just splitting hairs at that point. In Fallout 4, unarmed weapons(brass knuckles, power gloves, etc.) should be moved to the melee section. I'm not saying no one uses unarmed in Fallout, I'm just saying no one uses melee and unarmed on the same character. Now, there still could be differences even if they were in the same skill, like how in one-handed maces, axes, and swords all have different effects. "Unarmed" or hand-based weapons would do more damage, but would lack range of melee weapons; and vice-versa.

Let's talk about the Karma system for a bit. Now, in Fallout 3 and New Vegas if you did a good thing, good Karma, bad thing, bad Karma. Now, people have been at odds on what they think should be done with the system. Some people say they remove the system completely, others say to make it more integrated into the game. I would like they to keep the Karma system, but make it more dynamic and have some effects on how the game plays out. Now, in the previous Fallout games, being could generally meant giving up your hard earned caps and supplies to help the poor and needy, while being evil meant killing random strangers, pushing Lopez of Rivet City, making kids run away from home, and just being a dick. In the Mass Effect games, being renegade(evil) for the most part meant you stuck to the mission at hand and didn't give much regard to the innocent by-standers, while being paragon(good) meant you always put peoples lives priority and always acted selfless. That's how the Karma system should be more like that in the next Fallout, making some tough calls that may result in good or bad Karma, so to be evil you don't just have to be a dick(not the being a dick shouldn't be an option).

Now, for factions being included in fallout 4, there needs to be some serious tweaking. I wouldn't mind having factions in the next Fallout, there's things about factions that annoyed the hell out of me in New Vegas that NEED to be fixed. First, in Skyrim, one of my favorite things they added was witnesses, so if you slaughtered an entire village and left no survivors, no one would know. So if I decide to kill some random <insert faction that's gonna be in Fallout 4 here> and leave no survivors, the rest of the faction shouldn't automatically hate me. Faction armor need tweaking as well. When you were faction armor, people should act as if you were that corresponding rank with the armor. And sometimes faction armor can be really good, but too bad for you, you're on the opposing side, so you can't were that in public without your own team blowing you to bits. You should be able to take faction armor somewhere and disown it, so it no longer coincides with that faction.

The favorites bar was one of the best additions to the elder scrolls series, especially with shouts added, it made selecting anything a lot easier. Now, would it work in Fallout, yes, should it be in there...does it need to be? The reason it works so well in Skyrim is because there's so many things you have to hassle with, magic, shouts, weapons, armor, etc.. In Fallout you just have the weapons, and I usually don't use much beyond the eight in the hotkey. So, I wouldn't be bothered with the addition of the favorite bar, but I would rather just stick with the instantaneous hotkey option.