Golbolco
Still Mildly Glowing
Since this concerns Fallout 3, 4, and a little bit of Tactics, I thought it would go best into General Fallout Discussion.
I've always said that there are no bad concepts, just bad execution. Fallout 3 and 4 have very good concepts, but very poor execution. I think that out of Fallout 3 and 4 you could probably pull enough content to make a pretty good story.
If I could get my way, the game would work as a hybrid between the early Fallout games and Fallout 3/4, where you have a first-person view in a large area, but the map would be more like Fallout 1 and 2 where you can see everything between the cities. Leaving the area of say, Boston or DC would put you back on the map where you can then travel around. I'd think the map would range from Richmond to Buffalo and only go as far west as the Pennsylvania-Ohio border.
The game themes would pull more from 1920s-30s Americana rather than primarily 1950s Americana. The reason for this shift is primarily cultural; the Mid-Atlantic area typically identifies more with the 1920s and 30s rather than the 50s. There'd be a lot of references to Lovecraft and his contemporaries, along with other pulp fiction like Burroughs and Buck Rogers. There's not going to be any silly 50s music, all of the music would be ambient with hints of iconic American music (Star-Spangled Banner and the like.)
I like the idea of Fallout 4's beginning, having you emerge from a vault that is empty after 200 years. I wouldn't want there to be much backstory other than you stepping out of the cryogenic pod and into the world. I like the Buck Rogers-esque setup it gives the player. I don't have too much of a story worked out just yet, but I'm thinking it would revolve around what happened to your fellow Vault Dwellers. Vault 111 would be in West Virginia, deep within the mountains.
The Wasteland would be severely depopulated and in a state of destruction because the east coast had been hit much harder than the west. A lot of people are stuck between dying in the increasingly-hostile east and dying at the Steel Sword to the west. Everything is a lot bleaker than Fallout 1 and 2. It'd also be going through a nuclear winter.
Repurposed factions:
The Brotherhood of Steel would be in the game, but they'd be completely different. They'd be stuck in the Pentagon with ever-shrinking forces. The chapter would be led by Elder Lyons who preaches that the Brotherhood of Steel has lost their way and needs to be a bunch of white knights, which the Brotherhood is awkwardly forced to go along with. However, Elder Lyons' rule would be hotly contested by Arthur Maxson, who leads a group of outcasts somewhere in central Virginia. He was outcast as an infant and is now a delusional 20-year old who believes that he is the messiah of the Brotherhood and will someday return to reclaim his position as ruler of the Brotherhood of Steel. Lyons's rule would be enforced by Star Paladin Cross, who is a horrifying parody of Frank Horrigan; extremely modified after years of service, she is now wed to her power armor and is heavily modified both physically and mentally. Lyons's daughter Sarah would be the sheepish third-in-command. The Brotherhood of Steel chapter in DC was originally a scout force that was sent to Chicago to attempt to reunite the Midwesterners under the rest of the Brotherhood, but they were massacred and chased east.
The Enclave would be completely separate from the Enclave in Fallout 3. John Henry Eden would be a ZAX who has grown insane after 30 years of no contact from the President. He has instead amassed his own forces who frequently scout out the area around Baltimore and DC. Eden wouldn't have any ideas of genocide, in his mind he truly wants to rebuild America. Eden's forces would frequently clash with the Brotherhood, who spread propaganda of the Enclave trying to do all the evil stuff they were attempting in Fallout 2. Eden has become vexed with the Brotherhood and has no interest in either sects.
The Minutemen would be more like the Desert Rangers of the East Coast. Preston Garvey would be a no-nonsense leader who doesn't mess around. The Minutemen's primary goal is to protect the New England region from eldritch horrors that come up from underground.
I'm actually pretty okay with the Institute in Fallout 4, so I'd leave them mostly untouched. The parts where I'd modify them are the Synths. The Synths are continuous experiments in AI, transhumanism, and cloning. The Father wouldn't be called the Father; let's just call him Professor Howard. I do like the idea that he was a baby from the vault you came from, but to give the player better roleplaying freedom he wouldn't be related. There would be three kinds of Synths; the purely robotic kind, who the Institute use as soldiers under Kellogg, the organic-mechanic hybrid like Nick Valentine who would be primarily an experiment/prototype, and the organic synths who are used as scientists and spies; most of the organic synths would actually be clones of original MIT scientists, some with their original consciousness downloaded into them. The Institute just wants to carry on with their experiments, but because of what has been happening in the Commonwealth they have become much more active.
The Railroad would be based in Gettysburg and would go beyond just "Institute's bad, mmkay?" They'd be an organization based about getting people off of the east. Helping synths would still be a big part of it, but it would also be about helping ghouls, other kinds of mutants, and humans go where they want to go.
There would be very few super mutants beyond Virgil and Fawkes, who are super mutants that have fled the west and found their home among a new kind of mutant, the Ape-men, based off of a combination of the Ape-Man theme in Conan and Tarzan, and the tales of North American primates. The Ape-men would be vaguely intelligent and travel in troops around Pennsylvania. Ape-men are not inherently hostile, but Fawkes's tribe is. Fawkes would be the leader of one such band and have ulterior motives to unite the Ape-men under him and create a force to be reckoned with. He has positioned himself as a prisoner of the Ape-men and can be recruited as a companion.
The Talon Company and the Gunners would be rolled into one force. They would be hunters from the far north, from the lands of radstag herders. They hunt humans for sport; in fact, their leader would be based off of the villain in The Most Dangerous Game, General Zaroff. The Talon Company philosophy is that those who cannot survive in the wasteland should be eradicated. They're sort of an inverse-Enclave in some respects.
The Pitt is the center of a nation beginning to form, built on slavery and conquest. The slave ring includes the Pitt, Paradise Falls, Little Lamplight, and Monroeville. The Railroad is directly opposed to the Pitt.
Locations:
The first location you find is a set of ruins in West Virginia. Here you meet Codsworth and can grab him as a companion; he used to be the Mr. Handy of one of your fellow vault dwellers and former neighbors, and with the vault dwellers gone you're the only person he knows.
You arrive in Megaton, which is a town built on top of an old nuclear silo that's mostly empty, save one last nuke. Because of the degradation of the nuclear silo, Megaton's main conflict is the radiation from the missile ghoulifying or killing their residents, or driving traders away. The problem is is that the security for the nuclear silo is still online, and so it's crawling with sentry bots. You can either mow your way through them, deactivate them with a high enough science skill, or sneak past them. The next part of the quest is getting rid of the radioactive material, but I haven't completely worked that out yet.
DC would have been relatively shielded from the nuclear missiles, but most of the missiles would have hit around the greater DC area. Places like Fairfax and Springfield would be intact, but further out from there and everything would be completely destroyed. Its citizens are just trying to keep surviving. The only major faction in DC are Lyons's Brotherhood, along with a few Enclave scouts. The Jefferson Memorial does not hold Project Purity, but Project Purity does still exist in this version. Despite the Brotherhood "helping" civilians (which really involves intimidation tactics and redistribution of rations), they allow nobody inside of the Pentagon (calling it the Citadel is silly.)
Rivet City would be a mostly-functioning ship that moves north and south. The ship is populated by mainly researchers and merchants, though there is a growing community of ne'er-do-wells who would like to call for a mutiny and become pirates. Rivet City docks in Boston, DC, Great Lanta, and Baltimore, and once discovered you can see where it has docked on the map.
Little Lamplight and Big Town are rolled into one town called Little Lamplight, located in a cave east of Pittsburgh. Little Lamplight is not populated or run by children; instead, they are actually a functional town. Much of the town used to be aboveground, but slavers from Paradise Falls and the Pitt had begun to raid the town, forcing what was left into the cave. This is where the player will first be introduced to the slave ring of the East Coast.
Paradise Falls is left relatively unchanged, just moved northeast of the Pitt.
Newton is a completely new town I've made up just now that would border Lake Erie in the northern part of Pennsylvania. The town was founded by Amish migrants after the Great War. Though the Amish lifestyle remained, technology became gradually accepted in small steps as it became necessary for survival. Newton is sort of the Hub of the East Coast, getting trade from the Pitt, Boston, Philadelphia, and Ronto. I'd like to think that Newton would be the primary setting in this game, where many quests stem from or take place in. The Newton Guard ride on mutated, partially ghoulified horses called Nightmares and defend the city from Ape-men.
Philadelphia would still be populated by some; the city's politics would mostly involve either getting more involved in the slave ring or shutting down the Pitt's slave ring; there'd also be concern for fighting off trogs on the outskirts. The faction in town supporting the end of the slave ring would be sided with the Railroad, while the side involved in getting involved in the slave ring is on the Pitt's side.
New York would be mostly a molten pile of metal and radiation. Some iconic figures would still be standing, but still be heavily damaged. I find it pretty unbelievable that New York is just turned into a crater while Las Vegas is protected from 77 nukes by a single entrepreneur; however, it's much more likely that New York would be targeted by a lot more nukes than Vegas and inevitable more would get through. The Statue of Liberty would be only a frame surrounded by copper slag. There would be a large synth contingent in New York, sent in to mine the metal. There would also be a redone Underworld in New York. Long Island (which is no longer an island) would be overgrown with mutated plants and animals from Central Park and the zoo collapsing.
The Glowing Sea would be an immensely huge irradiated area between Connecticut and Long Island. All of the water in it was evaporated by the force of the nuclear attack on New York.
I've always said that there are no bad concepts, just bad execution. Fallout 3 and 4 have very good concepts, but very poor execution. I think that out of Fallout 3 and 4 you could probably pull enough content to make a pretty good story.
If I could get my way, the game would work as a hybrid between the early Fallout games and Fallout 3/4, where you have a first-person view in a large area, but the map would be more like Fallout 1 and 2 where you can see everything between the cities. Leaving the area of say, Boston or DC would put you back on the map where you can then travel around. I'd think the map would range from Richmond to Buffalo and only go as far west as the Pennsylvania-Ohio border.
The game themes would pull more from 1920s-30s Americana rather than primarily 1950s Americana. The reason for this shift is primarily cultural; the Mid-Atlantic area typically identifies more with the 1920s and 30s rather than the 50s. There'd be a lot of references to Lovecraft and his contemporaries, along with other pulp fiction like Burroughs and Buck Rogers. There's not going to be any silly 50s music, all of the music would be ambient with hints of iconic American music (Star-Spangled Banner and the like.)
I like the idea of Fallout 4's beginning, having you emerge from a vault that is empty after 200 years. I wouldn't want there to be much backstory other than you stepping out of the cryogenic pod and into the world. I like the Buck Rogers-esque setup it gives the player. I don't have too much of a story worked out just yet, but I'm thinking it would revolve around what happened to your fellow Vault Dwellers. Vault 111 would be in West Virginia, deep within the mountains.
The Wasteland would be severely depopulated and in a state of destruction because the east coast had been hit much harder than the west. A lot of people are stuck between dying in the increasingly-hostile east and dying at the Steel Sword to the west. Everything is a lot bleaker than Fallout 1 and 2. It'd also be going through a nuclear winter.
Repurposed factions:
The Brotherhood of Steel would be in the game, but they'd be completely different. They'd be stuck in the Pentagon with ever-shrinking forces. The chapter would be led by Elder Lyons who preaches that the Brotherhood of Steel has lost their way and needs to be a bunch of white knights, which the Brotherhood is awkwardly forced to go along with. However, Elder Lyons' rule would be hotly contested by Arthur Maxson, who leads a group of outcasts somewhere in central Virginia. He was outcast as an infant and is now a delusional 20-year old who believes that he is the messiah of the Brotherhood and will someday return to reclaim his position as ruler of the Brotherhood of Steel. Lyons's rule would be enforced by Star Paladin Cross, who is a horrifying parody of Frank Horrigan; extremely modified after years of service, she is now wed to her power armor and is heavily modified both physically and mentally. Lyons's daughter Sarah would be the sheepish third-in-command. The Brotherhood of Steel chapter in DC was originally a scout force that was sent to Chicago to attempt to reunite the Midwesterners under the rest of the Brotherhood, but they were massacred and chased east.
The Enclave would be completely separate from the Enclave in Fallout 3. John Henry Eden would be a ZAX who has grown insane after 30 years of no contact from the President. He has instead amassed his own forces who frequently scout out the area around Baltimore and DC. Eden wouldn't have any ideas of genocide, in his mind he truly wants to rebuild America. Eden's forces would frequently clash with the Brotherhood, who spread propaganda of the Enclave trying to do all the evil stuff they were attempting in Fallout 2. Eden has become vexed with the Brotherhood and has no interest in either sects.
The Minutemen would be more like the Desert Rangers of the East Coast. Preston Garvey would be a no-nonsense leader who doesn't mess around. The Minutemen's primary goal is to protect the New England region from eldritch horrors that come up from underground.
I'm actually pretty okay with the Institute in Fallout 4, so I'd leave them mostly untouched. The parts where I'd modify them are the Synths. The Synths are continuous experiments in AI, transhumanism, and cloning. The Father wouldn't be called the Father; let's just call him Professor Howard. I do like the idea that he was a baby from the vault you came from, but to give the player better roleplaying freedom he wouldn't be related. There would be three kinds of Synths; the purely robotic kind, who the Institute use as soldiers under Kellogg, the organic-mechanic hybrid like Nick Valentine who would be primarily an experiment/prototype, and the organic synths who are used as scientists and spies; most of the organic synths would actually be clones of original MIT scientists, some with their original consciousness downloaded into them. The Institute just wants to carry on with their experiments, but because of what has been happening in the Commonwealth they have become much more active.
The Railroad would be based in Gettysburg and would go beyond just "Institute's bad, mmkay?" They'd be an organization based about getting people off of the east. Helping synths would still be a big part of it, but it would also be about helping ghouls, other kinds of mutants, and humans go where they want to go.
There would be very few super mutants beyond Virgil and Fawkes, who are super mutants that have fled the west and found their home among a new kind of mutant, the Ape-men, based off of a combination of the Ape-Man theme in Conan and Tarzan, and the tales of North American primates. The Ape-men would be vaguely intelligent and travel in troops around Pennsylvania. Ape-men are not inherently hostile, but Fawkes's tribe is. Fawkes would be the leader of one such band and have ulterior motives to unite the Ape-men under him and create a force to be reckoned with. He has positioned himself as a prisoner of the Ape-men and can be recruited as a companion.
The Talon Company and the Gunners would be rolled into one force. They would be hunters from the far north, from the lands of radstag herders. They hunt humans for sport; in fact, their leader would be based off of the villain in The Most Dangerous Game, General Zaroff. The Talon Company philosophy is that those who cannot survive in the wasteland should be eradicated. They're sort of an inverse-Enclave in some respects.
The Pitt is the center of a nation beginning to form, built on slavery and conquest. The slave ring includes the Pitt, Paradise Falls, Little Lamplight, and Monroeville. The Railroad is directly opposed to the Pitt.
Locations:
The first location you find is a set of ruins in West Virginia. Here you meet Codsworth and can grab him as a companion; he used to be the Mr. Handy of one of your fellow vault dwellers and former neighbors, and with the vault dwellers gone you're the only person he knows.
You arrive in Megaton, which is a town built on top of an old nuclear silo that's mostly empty, save one last nuke. Because of the degradation of the nuclear silo, Megaton's main conflict is the radiation from the missile ghoulifying or killing their residents, or driving traders away. The problem is is that the security for the nuclear silo is still online, and so it's crawling with sentry bots. You can either mow your way through them, deactivate them with a high enough science skill, or sneak past them. The next part of the quest is getting rid of the radioactive material, but I haven't completely worked that out yet.
DC would have been relatively shielded from the nuclear missiles, but most of the missiles would have hit around the greater DC area. Places like Fairfax and Springfield would be intact, but further out from there and everything would be completely destroyed. Its citizens are just trying to keep surviving. The only major faction in DC are Lyons's Brotherhood, along with a few Enclave scouts. The Jefferson Memorial does not hold Project Purity, but Project Purity does still exist in this version. Despite the Brotherhood "helping" civilians (which really involves intimidation tactics and redistribution of rations), they allow nobody inside of the Pentagon (calling it the Citadel is silly.)
Rivet City would be a mostly-functioning ship that moves north and south. The ship is populated by mainly researchers and merchants, though there is a growing community of ne'er-do-wells who would like to call for a mutiny and become pirates. Rivet City docks in Boston, DC, Great Lanta, and Baltimore, and once discovered you can see where it has docked on the map.
Little Lamplight and Big Town are rolled into one town called Little Lamplight, located in a cave east of Pittsburgh. Little Lamplight is not populated or run by children; instead, they are actually a functional town. Much of the town used to be aboveground, but slavers from Paradise Falls and the Pitt had begun to raid the town, forcing what was left into the cave. This is where the player will first be introduced to the slave ring of the East Coast.
Paradise Falls is left relatively unchanged, just moved northeast of the Pitt.
Newton is a completely new town I've made up just now that would border Lake Erie in the northern part of Pennsylvania. The town was founded by Amish migrants after the Great War. Though the Amish lifestyle remained, technology became gradually accepted in small steps as it became necessary for survival. Newton is sort of the Hub of the East Coast, getting trade from the Pitt, Boston, Philadelphia, and Ronto. I'd like to think that Newton would be the primary setting in this game, where many quests stem from or take place in. The Newton Guard ride on mutated, partially ghoulified horses called Nightmares and defend the city from Ape-men.
Philadelphia would still be populated by some; the city's politics would mostly involve either getting more involved in the slave ring or shutting down the Pitt's slave ring; there'd also be concern for fighting off trogs on the outskirts. The faction in town supporting the end of the slave ring would be sided with the Railroad, while the side involved in getting involved in the slave ring is on the Pitt's side.
New York would be mostly a molten pile of metal and radiation. Some iconic figures would still be standing, but still be heavily damaged. I find it pretty unbelievable that New York is just turned into a crater while Las Vegas is protected from 77 nukes by a single entrepreneur; however, it's much more likely that New York would be targeted by a lot more nukes than Vegas and inevitable more would get through. The Statue of Liberty would be only a frame surrounded by copper slag. There would be a large synth contingent in New York, sent in to mine the metal. There would also be a redone Underworld in New York. Long Island (which is no longer an island) would be overgrown with mutated plants and animals from Central Park and the zoo collapsing.
The Glowing Sea would be an immensely huge irradiated area between Connecticut and Long Island. All of the water in it was evaporated by the force of the nuclear attack on New York.
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