--- name: parked-fallout4-support description: "PARKED (genuinely, not active queue) — add Fallout 4 as a third game. Owner: do NOT start until he explicitly says go. Holds the full-data-parity requirement, the no-data-warning template reuse, the post-ship parity retrofit, and the set of items deliberately deferred into this program." metadata: node_type: memory originSessionId: 0b7c5f41-bb34-4ab4-93be-fdb363f5eb40 --- PARKED 2026-06-28 by the owner: *"I want to add fallout 4 support eventually … if not pin to parked (not active queue parked, actually park it)."* Per [[parked-task-workflow]]: keep in memory, **DO NOT start until the owner EXPLICITLY says go.** **GOAL:** add Fallout 4 as a third selectable game alongside Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3. It is the LAST major program — deliberately standalone, because it is an order of magnitude bigger than anything around it (a whole new game) and deserves its own focused planning pass. *Trimmed 2026-07-20: roadmap round/version numbering and the restated per-game architecture were removed — `QUEUE.md` owns sequencing and `library/CODE_MAP.md` owns the architecture. The decisions and constraints below are unchanged.* ## WHY IT'S PARKED RATHER THAN FOLDED INTO THE AUDIT WORK The audit chain assesses the **existing** FNV/FO3 site. FO4 is a major **new-game build**, not an audit of current state. Mixing them would make both worse. ## THE HARD PART IS NOT THE PLUMBING The per-game gating architecture already makes a third game feasible — that groundwork was done. The real cost is: 1. **Sourcing and entering the large FO4 dataset** (fallout.wiki only — the owner's sourcing constraint), and 2. **Gracefully handling FO4's SKILL-LESS model across every skill-dependent panel, tracker and feature.** FO4 dropped the skill system in favour of SPECIAL + a perk chart, so the skills panel, skill books, skill magazines and skill-gated crafting **do not apply**. Also different: settlement/workshop mechanics, the perk grid, legendary item effects, different factions. ## ⭐ DATA COMPLETENESS REQUIREMENT (owner 2026-06-28) **FO4 must reach FULL DATA PARITY with FNV + FO3** — all the same databases and registry catalogs populated, at the same depth the other two games have. **PLUS game-specific panels and data.** Just as FNV has Traits and FO3 has the Lincoln tracker, **FO4's unique systems get their OWN panels/trackers/data** — bobbleheads and magazine perks, the perk chart (no skills), settlements/workshop with settlement tracking, legendary effects, companions and affinity, power-armor frames and mods. **The goal: an FO4 campaign feels as complete and game-tailored as an FNV or FO3 one — NOT a stripped port.** This is a large sourcing and UI effort; price it that way. ## NO-DATA WARNING — reuse the template (owner 2026-06-29) When FO4 is first added, before its data is populated, **REUSE the FO3 "no data yet" warning TEMPLATE** (preserved for exactly this — [[owner-templates]]), updated for FO4. **This is why that template is kept**: it gets repurposed for each new game's initial empty state, then retired once the data is complete. Owner 2026-07-01: the reuse ties into the new-game-readiness/scaffolding work — that pass is where the template gets wired up again. ## ★ PER-GAME PARITY RETROFIT (owner 2026-07-01 — folded in) **AFTER FO4 ships, do a pass that backports any "gold-standard" per-game identity ideas that crystallized while building FO4 back into FNV + FO3.** The reasoning: FNV/FO3 get a strong distinct identity FIRST so they don't feel behind when FO4 lands — but **the best per-game treatment often isn't discovered until you actually build the most game-specific one.** This retrofit closes the remaining gap afterward. Keep it to signature elements, not exhaustive parity. ## THEME IS JUST DATA — and that's the proof FO4's optics/identity is a per-game theme entry (brighter-green default phosphor, 3000 Mark IV Pip-Boy, "COMMONWEALTH ARCHIVE" save header) reusing the existing themes table. **FO4 shipping its theme as data with ZERO feature-code change is the proof the game-agnostic architecture actually works.** Treat it as the acceptance test for that architecture. ## DEFERRED INTO THIS PROGRAM (owner 2026-06-30, from the roadmap audit's "move to later" set) Pulled out of the earlier steps because they either don't pay off until FO4 or are too heavy/premature for the existing games: - **Streaming Two-Phase Narrator** — changes the AI contract; defer to where the AI layer gets revisited anyway. - **COMPANION MEMORY** — the heaviest AI feature; defer. - **Web Workers** — **no current workload justifies offloading.** Revisit only if FO4's larger datasets/engines create one. (Ruling still open — see [[parked-roadmap-rebaseline]].) - **DLC map zones** — post-base-game map content; belongs with FO4-scale map work, not the FNV/FO3 map overhaul. ## VERSION A whole new game is a major capability and likely warrants a major bump — **decide at the time it ships**, not now.