How Bethesda explained that Boston is in such a great shape?

[NeeLot]

So, I'm about to buy Fallout 4 propably somewhere near christmas, but I would love to know why Boston looks like it wasn't hit too hard by some of bombs that Chineese sent to America. In older games cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco were almost completly wiped out. Reno was protected by mountains and Las Vegas was saved by Robert House, but Boston still looks better. You know... 10 000 bombs had to land somewhere. I find it pretty doubtful that they missed one of the major targets.

So Bethesda just retconned lore again like in Fallout 3 (oh... so Enclave still exist and BoS turnded into some white knights?) or they found some kind of legitimate explanation?

[Uzi [OTG]]

So a few missiles missed targets or were destroyed by a missile defense shield in some areas.
So a few regions didnt' get nailed as hard as you wanted.

That work for ya?

The rest of the damage was done by Boston residents themselves over the ensuing decades.
We all know how Boston folk are.
I can see it.
It could happen.

[supertrooper225]

Because not all games need to look like a pile of rubble or a desert.

[Frosty]

To be fair, they didn't really retcon the BoS... they just made the majority of the BoS that you interact with in Fallout 3 be part of a splinter group that the "real" BoS hated (which they made very clear in the game, yet people always seem to forget that detail...)

As for the Enclave, didn't they make it clear that while the NCR and BoS pretty much mopped up what was left of the Oil Rig being destroyed; a few people made it out and escaped (which isn't that unbelievable to be honest), hence their attempt at restructuring in DC.

But yes, Boston seems to be in decent shape. Though destruction in the Fallout Universe always seems to be a bit wonky considering that DC was still in decent shape comparatively, despite the White House taking a direct hit and so on. (It's been mentioned by Bethesda that much of the destruction was toned down so the maps wouldn't be barren wastelands...)

Also... I am not sure I'd consider Boston as important a target as say New York, DC, LA. SF, ect.

[snowhawk17]

1. They used ATOMIC weapons not the nukes that we are used to today. These are supposed to be 1950's era atomic weapons, which did leave a lot of things intact past the detonation point. (Nukes today detonate before hitting the ground which causes lots of structural damage, nukes back then impacted the ground and then spread out, causing lots of heat and radiation damage). Its why Japan is not a nuclear wasteland right now.

2. West Coast is closer to China and so would have been impacted a lot more heavily by missile strikes than East Coast. A missile launched from China to hit the East Coast would either travel over all of Europe or All of the US, giving it extra time to be shot down, disabled, or for people to take cover.

[Shahadem]

So much of Boston was exploded that it doesn't even exist anymore.

[Mansen]

Originally posted by snowhawk17:

1. They used ATOMIC weapons not the nukes that we are used to today. These are supposed to be 1950's era atomic weapons, which did leave a lot of things intact past the detonation point. (Nukes today detonate before hitting the ground which causes lots of structural damage, nukes back then impacted the ground and then spread out, causing lots of heat and radiation damage). Its why Japan is not a nuclear wasteland right now.

The Glowing Sea's nuclear impact crater would like a word with you about that - It is the ONLY nuke dumped in the area, and responsible for all of the damage you see in the game map.

[mimizukari]

wtf is this BoS everyone keeps talking about

[Mansen]

Originally posted by Fizar:

wtf is this BoS everyone keeps talking about

The... Brotherhood of Steel. You may recognize them as those laser tooting, power armor rootin gents.

[DeadMechGaming]

Originally posted by Fizar:

wtf is this BoS everyone keeps talking about

Brotherhood of Steel = BoS

[Soulfly205]

playing through the game I assumed the point of impact of the nuke(s) was at the glowing sea, which when you explore you find out that there are large military bases and nuclear facilities there. The distance between the sea and the city would leave it banged up but not demolished.

[Tyrant]

Originally posted by Fizar:

wtf is this BoS everyone keeps talking about

its Hugo Boss in a ghoul form with a ghoul army surely youve run into them.
they look like the WW2 Wehrmacht

[FlashBurn]

Nuke hit North of city. Blast wave and radiation would have killed everyone in the city while leaving many structures intact. Well, if it was a smaller tactical nuke.

An air burst over city could also kill everyone while leaving structures still standing. Only a ground zero hit would flatten everything. Nukes are vary powerful, but not anti matter devices. Look at Japan after it got hit. Rather close to ground zero brick buildings and walls where still standing. Everything wood and paper was blown away in blast wave or burned after strike. Population that survived blast wave died from radiation poisioning ranging from hours to decades later.

I hate nukes....

[Tyrant]

ironically you would only need a few nukes to disable a country once the nukes fallen and the EMP burnt out the powergrid and all communications with it the civilians will do the rest of the devestation whilst in shock

[Mansen]

Originally posted by Tyrant:

ironically you would only need a few nukes to disable a country once the nukes fallen and the EMP burnt out the powergrid and all communications with it the civilians will do the rest of the devestation whilst in shock

Ah but that's where you're wrong - The old tube computers weren't as susceptible to EMP damage as microchips are...which were never invented in the Fallout universe (before after the great war)

This is also why they can get away with (sort of) having most of the countries computers running two hundred plus years into the future without any maintenance. Hell most facilities still have nuclear generators running that run power to lighting and computers.

[Soulfly205]

Originally posted by FlashBurn:

Nuke hit North of city. Blast wave and radiation would have killed everyone in the city while leaving many structures intact. Well, if it was a smaller tactical nuke.

An air burst over city could also kill everyone while leaving structures still standing. Only a ground zero hit would flatten everything. Nukes are vary powerful, but not anti matter devices. Look at Japan after it got hit. Rather close to ground zero brick buildings and walls where still standing. Everything wood and paper was blown away in blast wave or burned after strike. Population that survived blast wave died from radiation poisioning ranging from hours to decades later.

I hate nukes....

Actually no The Nuke hit south of the city. During the intro of the game you look south towards the glowing sea when the nuke denonates while you going down into the vault. This is easy to figure out because Sanctuary is the northwest most point on the map.