In a world where the A-bombs never fell

[Ged]

Ok so I know the title sounds confusing, but in any way it is not about the so-called "pre-war" sections displayed on E3. It's about a larger issue prominient through the whole series. I was running across the Capital Wasteland in fallout 3 and I was looking at all this post-apocalyptic scenery, the ruins of a once-majestic city, a capital of a poweful country. This feeling grew even larger when I saw the f4 trailer: an empty house, left almost untouched as if the owners merelt left for somewhere far away and haven't returned for quite some time. And then something clicked for me - the fallout world doesn't just look like it simply aged 200 years with minor bombing (non-nuclear) here and there, it IS that way.
Simply put, in the world of Fallout (and most notably fallout 4) the nukes never fell, the nuclear war never happened. I know it sounds confusing, however one should take a look at what the bombs i the 60's were capable of and multiply that at least twice (because atompunk and all that) - in a 300-400 m area around the Ground Zero everything just turns into a lake of glass - what can burn burns and vaporizes, what can't - melts down. Moreover the zone of ABSOLUTE DESTRUCTION is 1 mile and that could happily level almost the entirety of Boston straight to the ground. None of these atmospheric skyscraper ruins.
And reinforcing that is a fact that Vault Tec has been conducting SOCIETAL EXPERIMENTS in vaults - that is they were meant to be opened one day and checked on - maybe they created this threat of nuclear devastation to test the new FEV virus (hence the irradiated surface) and prepare the vault dwellers for something... For the future I guess?
All in all just a theory, keep scrolling.

[Starbug]

You're reading too much into the scientific accuracy of the post apocalyptic society on show.

For one thing, gouls seem to go against the biology of normal people who'd die with the exposure they received. They've been allowed(?) to live as a bridge and narrative element between pre and post apocalypse society.

The implication is that they lived a much longer life because they were radiated and as such can regale your toon with pre-war tales that all other human characters would not know (having been born in the following 200 years).

Certainly there is discrepancies with the science and with the amount of time that has passed, but just put it down to videogame logic and enjoy the game :)

[Sonny]

I agree, the damage to urban areas in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 have never seemed realistic to me. Vegas, I can believe, since it wasn't hit, but DC? The only building in that town which is a crater is the White House, every other bulding in the city survived with just some scorched paint. Hell, alot of windows are even still intact.

But Vault-Tec using nukes to test FEV? That's a load of crap. Vault-Tec should never have had FEV in the first place, virus' that turn people into super-soldiers have nothing to do with societal and behavioural expirements. Not to mention that it directly contradicts Fallout 1.

[Morrandir]

in the fallout universe the nukes were ones that exploded in the atmosphere thıus killing off living things due to radiation but keeping most of the buildings intact.

[deRuyter]

Originally posted by Butcher:

Ghouls are result of both radiation and FEV. Radiation alone can't do all of this so quickly, so probably this could be real.

Acording to Tim Cain it is just the radation. The people were hit with just the right amount of radiation. Not high enough to kill them, but enough to cause mutations within. It was also made clear trough a lot of the old dialogues in the first two Fallout games where some Ghouls would talk about their transformation or ghoulification, what ever you prefer.

[deRuyter]

Originally posted by Butcher:

According to Chris Taylor and Chris Avellone in Fallout bible they are result BOTH FEV and radiation.

Both dropped the bible as actual source. It is why there is a lot of confusion. Yes Chris Avellone wrote it, but in the end even they had to admit it was just dribble. (The FEV having mutated everything bit)

[deRuyter]

Originally posted by Butcher:

Originally posted by stronke:

Both dropped the bible as actual source. It is why there is a lot of confusion. Yes they wrote it, but in the end even they had to admit it was just dribble.

Very well, I would take FEV and radiation version as it looks more real. You can pick radiation if that satisfied your needs.

That is exactly why they put the FEV bit in the bible. There were some people complaining that it did not make sense if it was just radiation. But in the end the desided to stick with the original. Back in the 50's we had no idea wat radiation did, and because that was/is the theme of Fallout, expecting crazy beasties was the norm.

[glowpiPe]

Da-ah. Some of the buildings were obviously on vacation when the bombs fell. Oh you people

Look at nagasaki and Hiroshima. Its more or less flat. Does that look like a fun gameworld to you ? No. They can't have the fallout be realistic or there wouldnt be anything to explore.

[Morrandir]

in the nuclear war low yield nuclear bombs that exploded mainly in the atmosphere were used, thus why most of the buildings remained intact.

[Ged]

Originally posted by Morrandir:

in the fallout universe the nukes were ones that exploded in the atmosphere thıus killing off living things due to radiation but keeping most of the buildings intact.

That's a nice explanation and quite a real one to be true, however the blast radius isn't 2-dismentional and really what point there is in atmospheric detonation (I know they all explode in mid-air, just the matter of height) if we're going for destruction of underground military facilities and probably cultural damage?

[Sonny]

Originally posted by Morrandir:

in the nuclear war low yield nuclear bombs that exploded mainly in the atmosphere were used, thus why most of the buildings remained intact.

Bombs that explode above the ground are actually MORE damaging, not less, because the explosion spreads over a much larger area.

[deRuyter]

Originally posted by Butcher:

You can see crazy beasties in every game about nuclear apocalypse. But only in Fallout they actually have sence cuz of FEV.

That is because those games always ignore our law of physics. Back then you had geeks being geeks who wanted to justify the mutations. Just like you are doing now. But thats fine, if that is what makes the story more fun for you then that is all that mathers. I never really mind the change Bethesda did when it came to the FEV virus as that made it possible for me to think of Vault Tech as if they were a Umbrella Corporation. Basicly satans company trying to rule the world and who caused the big war (wich I know of course they did not).

[glowpiPe]

Originally posted by Butcher:

Originally posted by glowpipe:

Da-ah. Some of the buildings were obviously on vacation when the bombs fell. Oh you people

Look at nagasaki and Hiroshima. Its more or less flat. Does that look like a fun gameworld to you ? No. They can't have the fallout be realistic or there wouldnt be anything to explore.

Don't want to sound offensive, but buildings in Hiroshima were not too sturdy.

Neither is plywood US homes. If a nuke the size of what we got today hit multiple locations. There wouldn't be much for survivors to explore. Not many survivors either :p

My point is still standing tho. They had to let a lot of building stand in fallout to make it a "fun" place to explore. If everything was rubble. The game would be rather boring. Thus sacrificing realistic setting for a good gameplay

[Morrandir]

actually some say that maybe it was indeed vault tech that was behind the great war.

[Angry Nord-Grunge Syndicate]

Here is picture from Hiroshima ground zero, as you can see some buildings are intact and it looks exactly like something from Fallout game.

https://aventadores.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/hiroshima.jpg

Yes maybe Fallout universe could have more powerful warheads, maybe, but this is the way they decided to roll.

[Sonny]

Originally posted by Angry Nord-Grunge Syndicate:

Here is picture from Hiroshima ground zero, as you can see some buildings are intact and it looks excatly like something from Fallout game.

https://aventadores.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/hiroshima.jpg

Yes maybe Fallout universe could have more powerful warheads, maybe, but this is the way they decided to roll.

That's just two buildings surronded by rubble, but DC in Fallout 3 is just about completely intact. None of the buildings in Fallout 3 were even close to this level of damage. Just about all of them still had their windows intact. While the buildings in that picture have no windows, missing most of their walls, and roofs.