What happened to the USA after the great war?

[Sea Prince Gillywix]

Fallout 4 is the first fallout game I've played and one thing I was kind of curious about that I haven't really found a clear answer to thus far. I have noticed many destroyed US bases and technology through the USA. I saw the yangtze and see that some remnants of the Chinese are still around. But what about the US? Has everyone associated with the United States military been completely obliterated or is there still some remnants out there somewhere?

[darinbob]

I don't think anything survived from the USA government that matters. Enclave has only a tenuous grasp to the government, because it effectively died out in the war. All Enclave had was the guy who was president, but that's tiny. No real elections happened (don't believe Eden), it was an inside group voting for themselves. What Enclave had was a storehouse of technology and records, and they created their own militaristic society in isolation.

I don't think Enclave has more of a claim to USA than the Brotherhood does, or the Institute. Minutemen have a stronger claim, as they're trying to build back a community. NCR is an official government (at the time of FO2/3/4) but only of a segment of the USA, because USA no longer exists.

You may as well ask where are the remnants of the Holy Roman Empire.

[Wokelander]

Originally posted by darinbob:

I don't think anything survived from the USA government that matters. Enclave has only a tenuous grasp to the government, because it effectively died out in the war. All Enclave had was the guy who was president, but that's tiny. No real elections happened (don't believe Eden), it was an inside group voting for themselves. What Enclave had was a storehouse of technology and records, and they created their own militaristic society in isolation.

I don't think Enclave has more of a claim to USA than the Brotherhood does, or the Institute. Minutemen have a stronger claim, as they're trying to build back a community. NCR is an official government (at the time of FO2/3/4) but only of a segment of the USA, because USA no longer exists.

You may as well ask where are the remnants of the Holy Roman Empire.

They all voted, and decided they were in charge :D

But you're absolutely right, none of the survivor groups have any particular "claim" on the US, but then again only the Enclave really pretends to have one and it involves killing every single living being in the wasteland basically, because they're now some kind of omni-present cartoon villain nazi expy

[Shadow]

Originally posted by SkinGravel:

Aliens since FO1. Bethesda only added to it, and rightfully so.

True, but they were always more of an easter egg than anything. It's like when developers add a little something hinting at the Cthulhu mythos to their game. It's there, it clearly had some kind of influence on events, but it's exact nature and level of involvement are a complete mystery.

On a side note, the aliens do seem to have a bit of a safety issue with their ships....

[Mofuji]

Random encounters really shouldn't be considered canon. Because once you start doing that, you have to also state that Fallout 2 takes place in the Star Trek universe, because of the Federation crash site.

[peon]

Originally posted by Mofuji:

Random encounters really shouldn't be considered canon. Because once you start doing that, you have to also state that Fallout 2 takes place in the Star Trek universe, because of the Federation crash site.

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Alien

In Fallout, the Vault Dweller can encounter a device based on alien technology and a flying saucer with two alien skeletons.
In Fallout 2, the Chosen One can encounter two technologies based on alien technology: bio med gel and Skynet.[4]

Shrugs

[Shadow]

Originally posted by Mofuji:

Random encounters really shouldn't be considered canon. Because once you start doing that, you have to also state that Fallout 2 takes place in the Star Trek universe, because of the Federation crash site.

Not necessarily. Starfleet ships have crossed into alternate realities and timelines before. A random shuttlecraft falling through an interdimensional hole in space and crashing on an alternate post nuclear apocalypse Earth never to be seen again wouldn't by itself cause the two universes to merge together.

[Thanathos]

Originally posted by SkinGravel:

Originally posted by carl.wear:

I hadn't heard about the space part but fallout 3 and 4 have alien spaceships in them. Fallout 1 I can't remember if that had a UFO in it and fallout 2 I haven't played.

Who knows, maybe there will be a secret vault on the moon that is in a future game?

ETs have always been a part of Fallout, even in the first game, but I just can't remember if what I said is 100% accurate. I was piggy-backing off Thanathos' comment, since it rang a bell of a memory. Van Buren would've been the original FO3, and I think outer space was part of the direction in which Van Buren was headed until it all fell apart. Like I said, could be (probably am) wrong. Seems like I remember that tidbit for some reason, though.

I found it, look up timothy cain's youtube channel and the videos from april, he talks about the show and his involvenment in the first two fallout games and he goes into detail about the ET route when they conceived the first two games and the shelters, bethesda went that route for a bit, but that mission in new vegas Fly me to the moon with the ghouls was freaking hilarious, they did conquer space or never left the planet with their rockets hahaha.

Sorry Steam's not letting me post the link but looking up TImothy Cain's youtube channel should be fairly easy.

Something that always bothered about the games is like 200 years later and nobody tried to clean up or try to rebuild the USA? everthing's run down, the only dude keeping up the paint is abbot in fallout 4, but seriously, how are they going thave nuclear power but the freaking robots don't bother to clean up or pick up stuff.

I guess that's the point of the game but I figured eventually someone would fix that massive hole in a building for example. No wonder they got rad roaches

[Crusader (Banned13x)]

People are making this complicated, but basically:

The Enclave are the remnants of the U.S. government, who it is implied maintain a handful of secret main bases throughout the nation.

The Brotherhood of Steel are the remnants of the U.S. military that became its own authority (faction) without any governing body to lead them. They occupy several old military bunkers and abandoned government structures.

The majority of civilians who survived eventually became raiders, scavengers, mercenaries, ghouls, or survived in vaults/are the descendants of former vault-dwellers.

Some of the surviving inhabitants of the wasteland/former vault-dwellers started their own factions not long after the war, such as the NCR, which exist to the fictional present time. They have achieved the status of being their own military power but have no ties to the original U.S. armed forces.

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Thanathos:

Something that always bothered about the games is like 200 years later and nobody tried to clean up or try to rebuild the USA?

Large states require communication, transportation, or at least a common vision. The NCR is probably as big a state as Fallout's wastelanders can manage when they put their minds to it. The Brotherhood, were it to continue its new doctrine as seen in F4, could probably do a bit better, but overall there's just no impetus and no means.

[Rage]

and dont forget about fallout tactics which added a ai creating robots. You play a pee on in the bos and move up the ladder,
the ending consisted of you making a choice destroy the ai or join with it and become the harbinger of death ,

[Shadow]

Originally posted by Thanathos:

Something that always bothered about the games is like 200 years later and nobody tried to clean up or try to rebuild the USA? everthing's run down, the only dude keeping up the paint is abbot in fallout 4, but seriously, how are they going thave nuclear power but the freaking robots don't bother to clean up or pick up stuff.

Kinda hard to rebuild anything when there's always someone or something who thinks it's fun to shoot holes in it or blow it up. Before any real rebuilding can be done, you have to establish a working civilization with consistently enforced laws and rules, as well as a common vision. Not an easy thing to do in an area that is pretty much run by disparate and highly aggressive warlords, which basically describes the whole wasteland in Fallout.

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Shadow:

Originally posted by Thanathos:

Something that always bothered about the games is like 200 years later and nobody tried to clean up or try to rebuild the USA? everthing's run down, the only dude keeping up the paint is abbot in fallout 4, but seriously, how are they going thave nuclear power but the freaking robots don't bother to clean up or pick up stuff.

Kinda hard to rebuild anything when there's always someone or something who thinks it's fun to shoot holes in it or blow it up. Before any real rebuilding can be done, you have to establish a working civilization with consistently enforced laws and rules, as well as a common vision. Not an easy thing to do in an area that is pretty much run by disparate and highly aggressive warlords, which basically describes the whole wasteland in Fallout.

And the fact that it's run by warlords is already an indicator that the US are permanently dead.

Can't do nothing with the Germanic tendency to carve out a private little barony for oneself at first opportunity...

[Mofuji]

Originally posted by SievertChaser:

Originally posted by Thanathos:

Something that always bothered about the games is like 200 years later and nobody tried to clean up or try to rebuild the USA?

Large states require communication, transportation, or at least a common vision. The NCR is probably as big a state as Fallout's wastelanders can manage when they put their minds to it. The Brotherhood, were it to continue its new doctrine as seen in F4, could probably do a bit better, but overall there's just no impetus and no means.

You do know that the NCR has mass radio communication, right? And also fully functional ground vehicles? And also vertibirds? And also trains?

[SievertChaser]

Originally posted by Mofuji:

Originally posted by SievertChaser:

Large states require communication, transportation, or at least a common vision. The NCR is probably as big a state as Fallout's wastelanders can manage when they put their minds to it. The Brotherhood, were it to continue its new doctrine as seen in F4, could probably do a bit better, but overall there's just no impetus and no means.

You do know that the NCR has mass radio communication, right? And also fully functional ground vehicles? And also vertibirds? And also trains?

And who's going to clear the roads and build the railways, and refuel and maimtain the Vertibirds? Or perhaps they're just not ready to conquer enough to expand properly.

[Bandit]

from my understanding of FO4 it seems the brotherhood are the biggest remnants of the US military right now