This is a continuation of contemplating FEV/radiation in Fo1 sparked by the idea of Fixt to “not only dip the vault-dweller” but to “continue play after that” and the consequential questions: what does this mean, how will it play out, what is possible, what is impossible, how would SPECIAL look like etc.).
The start of the conversation (more focused on fixt) starts here: www.nma-fallout.com/threads/fallout-fixt-v0-90beta-is-being-worked-on-jan-2019.194562/page-201
with
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I was trying to look at it from new angles and realized that I probably made a mistake.
I think I have problems to accept that FEV is a potential “wonder drug”. And while thinking about it, I realized that the pre-war society was probably capable of creating a super-serum that would have eventually created an army of Captain Americas (super-soldiers). Rather than that being impossible or unfitting for the FO world. I mean they had advanced technologies in many fields, without anything being sinister about it (power armour, robots etc.). It's just how they got there (Vault experiments) that is sinister, and I projected those sinister methods onto the result (i.e. FEV should turn people into monsters like Horrigan). Which may still happen, but they also may have created actual “super-heroes”, like captain america.
That said it is more likely that Maxson and his men rebelled when they saw the methods and (possibly) before the scientist had gotten to that point of creating a super-soldier. So the “results” Maxson and his men saw probably rather reflected the “methods”, i.e. inconsiderate experimenting on human beings, than a final product. The pre-war scientist may never have gotten to that point of creating an actual super-soldier/mutant.
Which means FEV can potentially turn a human being into Captain America (if all factors allow (rad (aka DNA) and FEV having been developed to that stage). Or not. (i.e. neither is proven).
However there may be still side-effects like sterility or aggression (as seen in apes etc.). As both has been discovered by those scientists pre-war.
Regarding the scientist embellishing/lying about the project:
The way I read the pipboy files from the Glow, I would say the tests on animals promised potential and then the military got interested (and they moved to Mariposa to continue researching on people). And I think they didn't had much time there (about a year). Still, nothing is proven, except for the “mutiny of Maxson”. But that probably can't be stressed as much as I hoped.
P.S. I read it again and in the bible it says “they experimented on military volunteers (prisoners of war)” and it triggered the uprising. (…?) While in-game nothing eludes to why they got upset other than the mentioned “We finally found out what those bastard scientists are up to”.

Either the Enclave scientist fixed it (which means they also may have fixed it for Horrigan), or the pre-programmed FEV did it. Another option is that they got injected (not dipped) which may make a difference. Plus, intelligent deathclaws are not sterile (in opposite to super-mutants). Another difference.
Still, according to ZAX using FEV on something as heavily mutated as deathclaws should most likely be deadly (i.e. it messes up the DNA completely).
“Originally FEV was a defence weapon, then it got discovered that it may be used offensively. And the military stepped in (after the experiments on apes).” I'm so focused on post-war super-mutants I completely forgot that (lol). However this makes it even weirder considering the angle that “damaged DNA” causes complications. Does FEV fix DNA, or is it thrown off by damaged DNA? Or is the idea, that it must be used on a healthy specimen and then it can fix any damage of the DNA (the apes got infected with stuff (cancer etc.) and the FEV would heal them (like the “immortality” ZAX talks about). Perhaps it doesn't work the other way round, i.e. when already sick/damaged?)
Btw, I did look up Chernobyl some time ago and there was not much long term damage (like birth defects). The worst was the immediate radiation sickness (like after visiting the Glow) and although there is long term risk (cancer etc.) an accident like Chernobyl was apparently not devastating in that regard (i.e. massive amounts of defects). So realistically there should be little to no DNA damage among the people of the waste.
I guess story wise it needs to be assumed there is. Or that there is just enough DNA damage to throw off the FEV. But still that's another weird one.
Still, my thought process is that this “somewhat” adds up with so many super-mutants being intelligent (i.e. they were Vault 15 pure-strains). But there are still not enough to create an army, and as such, we have this weird mixture of super-mutants being dumb, them dying when dipped, many being fairly intelligent, but no-one turning into a super-intelligent super-soldier (at least on record).
I think it can all add up, but it requires some mental acrobatic.
And regarding “wild-FEV” that is borderline considered as never have happened (unfortunately). The bible and articles on wikis will say it's not true. Which is a shame, as it would explain why ghouls and animals could survive the fallout and mutate instead dying (i.e. the “wild-FEV” made them strong enough to survive radiation sickness). Plus, it would explain why the player visiting the Glow dies, instead of turning into a ghoul (i.e. radiation itself doesn't cause mutation in FO), unless the player steps into goo and grows a sixth toe (which is also inconsistent in how radiation/mutation is handled, i.e. sometimes it mutates, sometimes it doesn't). (Unless that toxic goo is FEV... That would be another wild one
.)
Anyway, “wild-FEV allowing creatures to mutate” would have assigned the whole process some structure and law. And explained why so many animals died. Only those exposed to wild-FEV (mutated) and those sheltered (pets (like Dogmeat) and lab animals) should have survived the fallout.
Still, it may totally be possible that this is the reason why FEV won't have an improving effect under perfect conditions (i.e. specific human being problem). Still, this is really the answer I would like to find (FEV treatment in perfect conditions) but there is just not enough information. Although it seems likely that the less the DNA is damaged the more intelligent/better the result is. Still it may not create a genius. Even the master (who was brilliant according to Harold) may actually not have improved intelligence wise. I mean there is no case of a dummy turned smart by FEV (except animals).
The start of the conversation (more focused on fixt) starts here: www.nma-fallout.com/threads/fallout-fixt-v0-90beta-is-being-worked-on-jan-2019.194562/page-201
with
Anyway, it moved more and more away from Fixt, so I moved here. (Anyway, you may have to read those posts to catch up. Or don'tThis is all some time ago... But I was still interested and looked into this from time to time. During that I found those “IN 10” “easter egg” dialogue options with ZAX. Which I thought may be interesting in regard to FEV/Dipping:

Funny enough I just changed my mind about itWeren't all these positive claims about the virus actually made by the promoters of its research? They may have been heavily biased, if not outright 'embellishing' the truth about it. I think it'd make sense. Also, post-war results are pretty much great bio-weapons. That's enough motivation for the military and the scientists to lie to their superiors about how beneficial to the subjects the virus actually was, considering they were at war. Point being, I agree that it would fit Fallout's universe for the virus to almost never yield 'glowing' results.
I agree on the reaction of Maxson, too. If the subjects actually felt like they were given a gift, they would probably have tried to dissuade the mutiny, too. They were likely in no condition to attempt that.
However, conditions under pre-war research may have been much more controlled, so the results may have been better and more predictable.

I was trying to look at it from new angles and realized that I probably made a mistake.
I think I have problems to accept that FEV is a potential “wonder drug”. And while thinking about it, I realized that the pre-war society was probably capable of creating a super-serum that would have eventually created an army of Captain Americas (super-soldiers). Rather than that being impossible or unfitting for the FO world. I mean they had advanced technologies in many fields, without anything being sinister about it (power armour, robots etc.). It's just how they got there (Vault experiments) that is sinister, and I projected those sinister methods onto the result (i.e. FEV should turn people into monsters like Horrigan). Which may still happen, but they also may have created actual “super-heroes”, like captain america.
That said it is more likely that Maxson and his men rebelled when they saw the methods and (possibly) before the scientist had gotten to that point of creating a super-soldier. So the “results” Maxson and his men saw probably rather reflected the “methods”, i.e. inconsiderate experimenting on human beings, than a final product. The pre-war scientist may never have gotten to that point of creating an actual super-soldier/mutant.
Which means FEV can potentially turn a human being into Captain America (if all factors allow (rad (aka DNA) and FEV having been developed to that stage). Or not. (i.e. neither is proven).
However there may be still side-effects like sterility or aggression (as seen in apes etc.). As both has been discovered by those scientists pre-war.
Regarding the scientist embellishing/lying about the project:
The way I read the pipboy files from the Glow, I would say the tests on animals promised potential and then the military got interested (and they moved to Mariposa to continue researching on people). And I think they didn't had much time there (about a year). Still, nothing is proven, except for the “mutiny of Maxson”. But that probably can't be stressed as much as I hoped.
P.S. I read it again and in the bible it says “they experimented on military volunteers (prisoners of war)” and it triggered the uprising. (…?) While in-game nothing eludes to why they got upset other than the mentioned “We finally found out what those bastard scientists are up to”.
And despite them being a product of irradiation (and heavy mutation) it has no effect on the FEV treatmentIn the case of deathclaws, it sounds a bit farfetched, because they are created (at least partly) as a consequence of being irradiated, and this damage is most likely hereditary. However, using DNA extracted from the original species, a tailored FEV should probably be able to fix it (IIRC, the original motivation for creating FEV was to fix damaged DNA).
I believe there was in-game material mentioning raccoons, those were most likely unscathed.

Either the Enclave scientist fixed it (which means they also may have fixed it for Horrigan), or the pre-programmed FEV did it. Another option is that they got injected (not dipped) which may make a difference. Plus, intelligent deathclaws are not sterile (in opposite to super-mutants). Another difference.
Still, according to ZAX using FEV on something as heavily mutated as deathclaws should most likely be deadly (i.e. it messes up the DNA completely).
“Originally FEV was a defence weapon, then it got discovered that it may be used offensively. And the military stepped in (after the experiments on apes).” I'm so focused on post-war super-mutants I completely forgot that (lol). However this makes it even weirder considering the angle that “damaged DNA” causes complications. Does FEV fix DNA, or is it thrown off by damaged DNA? Or is the idea, that it must be used on a healthy specimen and then it can fix any damage of the DNA (the apes got infected with stuff (cancer etc.) and the FEV would heal them (like the “immortality” ZAX talks about). Perhaps it doesn't work the other way round, i.e. when already sick/damaged?)
Btw, I did look up Chernobyl some time ago and there was not much long term damage (like birth defects). The worst was the immediate radiation sickness (like after visiting the Glow) and although there is long term risk (cancer etc.) an accident like Chernobyl was apparently not devastating in that regard (i.e. massive amounts of defects). So realistically there should be little to no DNA damage among the people of the waste.
I guess story wise it needs to be assumed there is. Or that there is just enough DNA damage to throw off the FEV. But still that's another weird one.
This is what needs to be assumed for the game to make sense. But another weird thing is that there should be hundreds if not thousands of “pure-strain” people. First, anyone not in a shelter would have died during the Fallout (only those protected, and those who turned into ghouls did survive). And after the fallout we see little to no radiation in the waste (there is the Glow and eating fruit), but people show no signs of radiation damage. But even when assuming all those got their DNA damaged (from eating fruit which can't be worse than the radiation we suffer pre-war (sun-burns)), what about the Vault 15 inhabitants (Shady Sands, Jackals, Khans and Vipers)? All those left the vault fairly recent (about 20 years before the start of Fo1) and should be all “pure-strain”. Even Harold was considered free of radiation and he came from a vault (like basically everyone; including the master who came from Vault City. The Enclave. Or the Brotherhood (i.e. Mariposa was a fallout shelter). Why is the vault-dweller “pure-strain” but everyone else isn't? I guess, one has to assume that 20 years in the waste (people from Vault 15) causes DNA damage. It won't show, but possibly derail FEV.)Big suspension of disbelief here, but maybe there's a subtle, base level of radiation, not enough to trigger symptoms (what is shown as rads in the interface) but enough to contaminate the DNA regarding FEV reactions. Still, animals are a strange case. Even when considering "wild FEV", they are exposed, and there's only so many species the FEV dispersed on the atmosphere is tailored to (assuming several strains here), so it's probably even worse for certain species. Maybe some of the creatures we don't see went extinct due to this.
Still, my thought process is that this “somewhat” adds up with so many super-mutants being intelligent (i.e. they were Vault 15 pure-strains). But there are still not enough to create an army, and as such, we have this weird mixture of super-mutants being dumb, them dying when dipped, many being fairly intelligent, but no-one turning into a super-intelligent super-soldier (at least on record).
I think it can all add up, but it requires some mental acrobatic.
And regarding “wild-FEV” that is borderline considered as never have happened (unfortunately). The bible and articles on wikis will say it's not true. Which is a shame, as it would explain why ghouls and animals could survive the fallout and mutate instead dying (i.e. the “wild-FEV” made them strong enough to survive radiation sickness). Plus, it would explain why the player visiting the Glow dies, instead of turning into a ghoul (i.e. radiation itself doesn't cause mutation in FO), unless the player steps into goo and grows a sixth toe (which is also inconsistent in how radiation/mutation is handled, i.e. sometimes it mutates, sometimes it doesn't). (Unless that toxic goo is FEV... That would be another wild one

Anyway, “wild-FEV allowing creatures to mutate” would have assigned the whole process some structure and law. And explained why so many animals died. Only those exposed to wild-FEV (mutated) and those sheltered (pets (like Dogmeat) and lab animals) should have survived the fallout.
Zax says FEV increases brain mass, which appears to make animals more intelligent (except dogs) but I'm not even sure size matters (i.e. simply increasing brain mass may not cause intelligence). But it may be that the human brain can't cope with the effects as animals can (for whatever reason). Then again FEV is not consistent either way. It neither makes people always dumb, nor always intelligent, but it various. As such the cause for this behaviour should be similar “flexible” and vary from person to person. Like differences in DNA (aka radiation damage).Huge speculation here, but maybe the issue is actually that the brain grows too much for humans? That may cause brain damage if it doesn't fit the skull, and IIRC (CITATION NEEDED!) the outer layers are the most related to intellect.
Still, it may totally be possible that this is the reason why FEV won't have an improving effect under perfect conditions (i.e. specific human being problem). Still, this is really the answer I would like to find (FEV treatment in perfect conditions) but there is just not enough information. Although it seems likely that the less the DNA is damaged the more intelligent/better the result is. Still it may not create a genius. Even the master (who was brilliant according to Harold) may actually not have improved intelligence wise. I mean there is no case of a dummy turned smart by FEV (except animals).