The Fatman

[the4thlaw]

Everybody hates the fatman, mostly because of it's stupid "mini nuke" concept.

an easy solution would be to simply change the Fat man to something more plausible in the Fallout universe.

how about a "one use only" rocket launcher? or maybe an experimental weapon designed by the people behind this mysterious "Mr Burke" (or whatever his name is). some kind of laser/plasma gun that is scripted to malfunction and become defunct after that one use against the Behemoth.

but ANYTHING OTHER THAN A MINI NUKE!!!

nukes are designed to be big and devastating, not small and ridiculous.

it would not be hard at all to change the Fatman to something we'll like. just a graphic change, a shooting animation change, and no friggin "awesome small mushroom cloud lol".

any ideas for a Fatman replacement? and people who are just going to say "omit it from the game" please be a bit more creative.

 

[Black]

I'd have nothing against weapon like plasma launcher... something like plasma rifle but more powerful.

Everybody hates the fatman

Tsk, tsk. Go to TES forums, target audience loves it ;d

 

[xdarkyrex]

I don't hate the fatman....


I don't like it either though.
I'm pretty indifferent.

 

[Sorrow]

Plasma rockets for Big Bazooka.

 

[Vault 69er]

They should go really 50's-ish and make it a big shoulder mounted atomic raygun that's so powerful it disintegrates anything in one shot but takes a long time to charge and sends you flying with recoil if not wearing Power Armour.

I'm sure modders will turn the nukular catapult into something more sensible. They always fix Bethesda's mistakes. They shouldn't have to of course, but still.

 

[xdarkyrex]

I'm sure modders will turn the nukular catapult into something more sensible. They always fix Bethesda's mistakes. They shouldn't have to of course, but still.

Making things easily moddable was probably the best thing that bethsoft has done for its games.

 

[Vault 69er]

I'm sure modders will turn the nukular catapult into something more sensible. They always fix Bethesda's mistakes. They shouldn't have to of course, but still.

Making things easily moddable was probably the best thing that bethsoft has done for its games.

Todd Howard says it was his idea. I wonder about that. Since when does Todd have good ideas? I guess back in the days of Morrowind he was still semi-lucid.
Still, nowadays I think Bethesda would take that back if it could. It offers little support to modders, doesn't release requested file exporters and Pete Hines (master of PR that he is) called modders "hackers".

 

[xdarkyrex]

well technically modders are hackers if you wanna go back to the older terminology...

but these days thats sort of not a nice thing to say.

 

[SuAside]

nothing wrong with a mininuke launching bazooka. however, it should have great effective range, a huge destructive radius and a shitload of radiation. the fatman has none of that.

my alternative to the fatman would be a bazooka that fires a plasma warhead. note: bazooka and NOT a catapult... for the destructive radius shown by Beth, it makes no sense not to use more conventional weaponry. and since plasma grenades were the strongest thrown explosive, plasma warheads would make sense.

 

[the4thlaw]

Pete Hines (master of PR that he is) called modders "hackers".

oh god are you serious?

Pete Hines sounds like Grandpa Simpson: "THE FAX MACHINE IS MERELY A WAFFLE IRON WITH A PHONE ATTACHED TO IT!"

 

[zioburosky13]

nothing wrong with a mininuke launching bazooka. however, it should have great effective range, a huge destructive radius and a shitload of radiation. the fatman has none of that.

Which makes it one of the shitty idea of all time. It's like playing Unreal Tournament in Post-apocalypse theme...

 

[Dougly]

nothing wrong with a mininuke launching bazooka. however, it should have great effective range, a huge destructive radius and a shitload of radiation. the fatman has none of that.

Which makes it one of the shitty idea of all time. It's like playing Unreal Tournament in Post-apocalypse theme...

I'd see a mininuke launching bazooka more along the lines of a one time possible solution to a quest, rather than an ordinary use weapon.

For example, a lot of people have trouble with the Megaton quest in F3, because they find it odd that a town would be developed around a detonatable nuke. An "alternate" way to develope that quest, in a game that had a Davey Crockett type long range weapon instead of a Fatman, might be to have a shady character somewhere give you access to a nuclear bazooka, with the instructions to go out into the middle of nowhere and "fire" at a town (NOT build around a nuclear bomb - just a normal town) that he has some sort of axe to grind with. Say, for example, he represents the slavers, and the town is anti-slavery, and acitively interfering in the slave trade. Even if the weapon isn't accurate enough to directly "hit" the town, the detonation still might be close enough to irradiate the area and make it unliveable for them.

As far as quests go, that'd still have a hole in it - why, for example, would this guy give YOU access to the Davey Crockett, rather than just doing the dirty deed himself, or using one of his trusted underlings to do it? But having a "nuclear bazooka" as a one time quest type thing would, in my mind, make more sense than having some kind of weird short range weapon that fires nukes, and is available for general combat.

Edit - One option for above quest might be to instead take the bazooka to a position where you can fire it on the slaver HQ, rather than the town you're supposed to take care of. Doing so would obviously kill a lot of innocent slaves, but it would also severely cripple slaver operations in the area. Doesn't undo the "flaws" in the quest, but it'd be an interesting option for those who want to stab their employer in the back.

 

[Nology5890]

If they make it a lot stronger, have a larger blast radius, spill out a lot more radiation, and finally have the possibility to wipe yourself out after use (explosion + mushroom clouds = teh ultimate annihilation), I'd dig it.

 

[Sorrow]

Say, for example, he represents the slavers, and the town is anti-slavery, and acitively interfering in the slave trade. Even if the weapon isn't accurate enough to directly "hit" the town, the detonation still might be close enough to irradiate the area and make it unliveable for them.

I think that it would be more amusing if it was used against a slaver town that threatens the whole region - the mission would be to stop slavers from capturing more slaves and murdering people.
Of course, the slaver town would have a lot otherwise "decent" people (something a bit similar to VC?) and slaves who would die from the blast and radiation.

 

[Dougly]

Say, for example, he represents the slavers, and the town is anti-slavery, and acitively interfering in the slave trade. Even if the weapon isn't accurate enough to directly "hit" the town, the detonation still might be close enough to irradiate the area and make it unliveable for them.

I think that it would be more amusing if it was used against a slaver town that threatens the whole region - the mission would be to stop slavers from capturing more slaves and murdering people.
Of course, the slaver town would have a lot otherwise "decent" people (something a bit similar to VC?) and slaves who would die from the blast and radiation.

I like how you think. An alternate way to handle the slavers might be to go in and "take them out" via conventional means (allowing you to both spare "good" residents, and free the slaves). If I were designing the town, I'd make that available as an option - but I'd also make sure that it's damn near impossible to do without one hell of an unusually tough character. The slavers would be well armed, well defended, and there'd be a lot of them.

Having the alternative of using a Davey Crockett to nuke the slaver town would carry with it real moral ambiguity. The slavers are too poweful to be taken out by the PC, and all of the nearby towns are either too weak to mount an assault, or do business with the slavers themselves. If the slavers are allowed to continue operating, they'll continue with their enslaving and murdering and terrorizing of a large swath of the region. But, if you use the Davey Crockett to "put down" Slave Town, you'll kill a lot of "decent" people, as well as a lot of innocent slaves, to boot.

What's the "right" thing to do in that scenario?

It would certainly make for some interesting game endings.

 

[Sorrow]

I like how you think. An alternate way to handle the slavers might be to go in and "take them out" via conventional means (allowing you to both spare "good" residents, and free the slaves). If I were designing the town, I'd make that available as an option - but I'd also make sure that it's damn near impossible to do without one hell of an unusually tough character. The slavers would be well armed, well defended, and there'd be a lot of them.

I think that they could be so powerful that a one man army wouldn't be able to defeat them. Alternative could include uniting towns to fight against slavers. The problem would be that open war against slavers would result in either defeat or phyrric victory - the war would be so devastating that it would destroy both slavers and surrounding towns. The other thing could be that destroying slavers would leave the region vulnerable to attacks of other powers.

Simply - a situation where any choice except accepting the status quo results in situation actually becoming much worse for everyone .

 

[Grey_Wolf]

Yeah yeah, Fallout basically used it in a more... Metaphorical sense sometimes, as well as a weapon.
So i can see the reasons for not wanting it. (although it's always interesting to level half the screen in one shot).

To stick true to the Original FO universe, i do like the idea of swapping it out for a BFG Plasma Launcher.
It would show a gradual evolution from the Plasma pistol, Rifle, etc...

Ah! Or perhaps a special rocket launcher with some "extra strength" rockets. (Come on, it's the future. If you think the explosives we have now can make a mountain into rubble, wait a while.)

You find it in some munitions warehouse, labeled "Random_Gun_Name.obj" or w/e, and thats it.

It's an experimental one, limited number of shots, etc...

Other than that though, I'm still liking the BFG Plasma Launcher idea. As i'm interested in what the crater and/or splash of that weapon would be like.

All in all, the mini nuke launcher isn't that far off of a concept.
The idiots who would make it, in a post war setting, would probably not know of the hazards (*cough cough unless they are BoS cough*), and so would be felled by the radiation poisoning.
But enough of that,
if anyone here actually looked into how a nuke works (or taken even the most remedial of physics and chemistry classes), would know that it is possible.

It would have a direct impact damage, and although the explosion would be limited to a couple of blocks (more or less), it would leave massive levels of radiation in the area. (no drinking toilet water here ).

So there fore, it IS plausible to have it. Just don't make the boom to big.

But now i'm interested in this BFG Plasma Launcher idea, so if they turn that way, i may be intrigued as well.

 

[Blackwing]

Yeah yeah, Fallout basically used it in a more... Metaphorical sense sometimes, as well as a weapon.
So i can see the reasons for not wanting it. (although it's always interesting to level half the screen in one shot).

To stick true to the Original FO universe, i do like the idea of swapping it out for a BFG Plasma Launcher.
It would show a gradual evolution from the Plasma pistol, Rifle, etc...

Ah! Or perhaps a special rocket launcher with some "extra strength" rockets. (Come on, it's the future. If you think the explosives we have now can make a mountain into rubble, wait a while.)

You find it in some munitions warehouse, labeled "Random_Gun_Name.obj" or w/e, and thats it.

It's an experimental one, limited number of shots, etc...

Other than that though, I'm still liking the BFG Plasma Launcher idea. As i'm interested in what the crater and/or splash of that weapon would be like.

All in all, the mini nuke launcher isn't that far off of a concept.
The idiots who would make it, in a post war setting, would probably not know of the hazards (*cough cough unless they are BoS cough*), and so would be felled by the radiation poisoning.
But enough of that,
if anyone here actually looked into how a nuke works (or taken even the most remedial of physics and chemistry classes), would know that it is possible.

It would have a direct impact damage, and although the explosion would be limited to a couple of blocks (more or less), it would leave massive levels of radiation in the area. (no drinking toilet water here ).

So there fore, it IS plausible to have it. Just don't make the boom to big.

But now i'm interested in this BFG Plasma Launcher idea, so if they turn that way, i may be intrigued as well.

No no no, see my impassioned arguement against any kind of BFG here:

http://www.bethsoft.com/bgsforums/index.php?s=&showtopic=732712&view=findpost&p=10583691

(Yes, on the Bethesda forums, I use my second handle of 'Nomen Nescio', mostly becaus of a slight paranoia that, should Bethsoft start banning people from NMA, rhey won't find me until they see this thread and.)

 

[Sorrow]

Could you post your argument against BFG here? I don't want to see the Bethsoft forum again.

 

[Grey_Wolf]

No no no, see my impassioned argument against any kind of BFG here:

Haha, i like that story! It's very concise and it proves a valid reasoning. And if they make your idea of a 'FPS BFG' then i agree, that will be bad.
But even Fallout2 has something like that. Frank(or Hank i forget), is the end boss, and you have the option of enlisting some help from some turrets or even from some soldiers (if your charisma or w/e was high enough. Rumor, i never checked out).
A some what "round about" of a BFG. instead of one big hitter, you have many little/medium hitters.
But still, my use of the term 'BFG' was just a for instance.

When it comes to the plasma weapon, they can do whatever story they want, and have however much ammo they want through out.

When it comes to the 'mini-nuke-launcher' i can find a very valid answer to explain it's 'limited ammo available.'

Basically, a bunch of Vault dweller scientists find an unexploded bit of ordinance (nuke), laying some where in the city.
Realizing the potential of this weapon, they studied it and carefully disassembled it to produce a smaller, more useful 'super' weapon (to them).
They could either be 'unaware' as to the extreme radio active qualities of the weapon, or some other stupid reason.
After completing the weapon(and exposure to their families, has caused massive damages), they no longer want this 'cursed' weapon, and give it to you gladly for any, and all, the rad away you can get.

~Or~

Some tribals see an unexploded nuke, and the "magic gas" they see that comes from it, kills many animals. Making their hair fall out and etc...
So THEY are the ones who package the 'material' for the mini-nuke-launcher. Praying to their Brahma god for some sort of protection, they feel that they can repel the effects of the 'magic gas.'
When most of their tribe gets wiped out by it (something 'similar' like the quest in Tactics where u have to get the Fusion batteries),
they give it to you gladly, as they believe it to be a "cursed weapon."

Anyways, if they use it as your version of a FPS BFG, then that would DEFINITELY take something away from the game. I agree, to an extent. (if i can kick his/her/it's ass w/o using it, is a BIG one. Cause i better be able to, and use the thing whenever i want after that).
BUT, if it's something that u can just use 'at your leisure' or w/e, then that will not be so bad.

Remember the Broom handle Mauser from Fallout2? That gun was kinda bad, and had VERY little Ammo to it(in the whole game), but it was an awesome gun (in real life ). lol
Totally off topic, but the 'limited ammo' thing made me reminisce ^^ lol