Fallout 3 - Realism, the world, and trees

[Wheelbarrow]

I'll try to keep this brief, so here we go:

I was thinking the other day about the effects of radioactive fallout, etc. and was thinking that after 200 years the plants would probably start to grow back a little more than they are in FO3.

I remember seeing an article a while back about one of the atolls created by a hydrogen bomb test back in the day saying that the sea life was thriving there simply because of the lack of human interference and wasn't having too much of a radiation problem.
Of course, this doesn't compare to a global apocalypse with a few years of nuclear winter afterwards, but it's still interesting.

So, if we wanted to modify FO3 to be more realistic, I'm thinking it would have at least some medium-dense forests and foliage, and maybe some unmutated wildlife. Even in Fallout 2 there were plenty of trees and plants.

How hard would it be to "naturalize" the world of FO3 and change things to be more in line with what is realistically plausible and fit with Fallout 2's rendition of the environment? I'm guessing this would be fairly difficult at first, but if the idea was taken all the way and incorporated into a larger world overhaul mod, it would be awesome.

Thoughts?

 

[Necro-]

well in a post-apoc world most trees would be burned to crisp or leafless at best

 

[Patton89]

well in a post-apoc world most trees would be burned to crisp or leafless at best

He is talking about REGROWN trees. In Fallout 2 there were some signs of plant life, some bushes and even some trees with leaves.
and some grass.
I would really like to see this, the way fallout 3 handles the plant life is awful really. grass would be nice, not dense grass but some grass here and there, and small forestswould really make it look better.

 

[Necro-]

well thats fine, but i wouldn't want all amazon-like ;p

 

[gregor_y]

I like the looks of wasteland no offence but if i wanted grass i would change game

 

[Dubby]

well thats fine, but i wouldn't want all amazon-like ;p

actually a freaky mutant-ridden radioactive amazon jungle of DOOM sounds like fun

also, I always disable the procedural grass in TES games. they look awful, and it pops up EVERYWHERE. plus, there's already lots of pre-placed bushes around.

 

[Slaughter Manslaught]

well thats fine, but i wouldn't want all amazon-like ;p

actually a freaky mutant-ridden radioactive amazon jungle of DOOM sounds like fun

Yes, it does! I think that's what happened with my land after the bombs: The radiation turned it into a crazy mutated amazonian forest, full of carnivorous plants, house-sized crocodilles, Mutant Ocelots, Anaconda-sized snakes and, of course, our good ol' Radscorpions, the worse version is probrably the descendents of the good ol' Black Scorpion (it lives in my state, deadlyest scorpion in Brazil). Unlike the wastelands, I doubt it would be full of desert, although I can imagine some semi-desert areas. It would be more like a mutant forest that growns quickly and threatens to overrun settlements. Water would be aplenty and only need basic cleaning, there are many rivers. However, I would be very scared of the Mutant versions of the creatures that live there.

 

[kilolima]

in Hiroshima there are two trees about 1/4 mile from ground center that survived the blast and are going strong today.

So it's not radiation in FO3 that is keeping trees from coming back... must be some other weird effect from the bombings.

 

[Necro-]

i never implied its the radiation, most likely it's the explosion or shockwave

 

[gregor_y]

Its a damn game not reality wasteland looks fine...you want green trees buy oblivion...

 

[Wheelbarrow]

well in a post-apoc world most trees would be burned to crisp or leafless at best

He is talking about REGROWN trees. In Fallout 2 there were some signs of plant life, some bushes and even some trees with leaves.
and some grass.
I would really like to see this, the way fallout 3 handles the plant life is awful really. grass would be nice, not dense grass but some grass here and there, and small forests would really make it look better.

Yes, I'm referring to regrown trees. And the Hiroshima example is good too. Using fallout 2 as a reference, I think that the DC/Virginia area would probably look almost like a combination of death valley and the Mediterranean climates around Greece, Turkey, Israel, etc.

I know that simply changing the grass color would probably be easy, but doing a complete landscape overhaul including trees, shrubbery, and other plants would be much more in depth.


Well, any modders out there know how difficult it would be to accomplish any of this?

 

[jbt308]

This was the first thing I hoped they had changed as part of the Fallout world, especially since it takes place so many years after the wars.

At the minimum, I'd like to see the heart of DC just like it is, almost like the "Glow" in previous games. But radiating out from that, the return of life, greenery, etc... So that on the outskirts of the map, you would have ovegrown buildings, forests, overgrown fields, etc... But as you get closer to DC, the world would be desolate and look like it is now.

And for those of you saying we should play another game, Why? How does the Fallout world have anything to do with the Oblivion world? The guy was just asking if it's possible.

 

[Gustavo Ganso]

it wolud be wonderful, trees growing up from the buildings, road.

 

[Jahnri]

The issue really stands as to how you change the trees in the game. Could foliage be added to some of the trees added by speedtree? I tend to enjoy a semi recovered wasteland theme. Even with multiple megaton class bombs the ground wouldnt be so sterilized that it cant grow. Albeit there are cases of some events which do that. Mostly volcanic in nature though. Another explanation may be that the plants couldnt deal with the rampant mutagens and died for the most part. To the extent almost all the trees died in some regions. Like someone said though some trees existed in fo2. So perhaps were just in a dead zone?

Storyline aside Id like to see some experiments done just for kicks to add leafed trees.

 

[Wolfehunter]

You should consider cancerous growths on these trees and plants. Some deformities may show also.

Their Genes would be altered too because of the FEV virus maybe?

Who knows its your mod. Goodluck.

 

[Gustavo Ganso]

check this, is a brazilian blog with pictures of chernobyl today.
http://russofilicos.blogspot.com/2007/09/cidade-perdida-de-chernobyl.html

it tells that are people living there today, despite radiation, which stills leaking.

Check this pictures in special:
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd172/leomcallister/Chernobyl/engrussia/018.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd172/leomcallister/Chernobyl/engrussia/033.jpg
http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/...172/leomcallister/Chernobyl/engrussia/060.jpg

every one shows trees or bush that grow after the acident

http://www.lang-arts.com/survivors/index.html
this a site about the tree taht survived in hiroshima, 75, to be more exact

 

[FrankManic]

I'll try to keep this brief, so here we go:

I was thinking the other day about the effects of radioactive fallout, etc. and was thinking that after 200 years the plants would probably start to grow back a little more than they are in FO3.

I agree. Having a desert in a bad destroyed California without human interference for irrigation made a certain amount of sense, but Virginia is a swamp without humans dickering with it. There should at least be some vegetation in the lowland areas near water.

Frankly, I was sort of wondering what everything eats. You can't survive on irradiated instant mashed potatoes forever, but no one in the capitol wasteland is growing crops. Or producing clean water, for that matter. There isn't much evidence of any economic production at all.

 

[your evil twin]

In Fallout 3 I am using two mods, that can be found on Fallout 3 Nexus, which greatly improve the believability of the landscape:

"Clear Skies" which gets rid of the omniprescent yellow/brown haze/tint to everything and makes the sky a natural blue colour.

"Green Green Grass of Home" which changes the grass and bushes and shrubberies to be green rather than yellow/brown. The download includes two versions, the "Green green grass" version which makes the plants look healthy and green, and the "Recovering Wasteland" version where the plants look a bit less healthy, like they are lacking in nutrients, but at least they are somewhat green and look ALIVE.

These two mods do a great job. The only thing that is needed now is replacement models for the trees, so they have some leaves on. Sickly-looking trees, but trees that look ALIVE.

 

[CrazyLegs]

In the Concept Art book Bethesda stated they figured there would be the growth of some foliage but they figured it would ruin the feeling of Fallout.

 

[thorhill]

Yes - It would be very logic - Natur can survive without mankind. Better than with I would say.

But a different Idea. After you handeld Oasis and you did the right thing (what is right) plants should be plopping up around there. Spredding around.