Chancellor Kremlin
Mildly Dipped
OK, so I just played the RP (Restoration Project) mod for Fallout 2 which includes almost all of the locations, items and quests which were meant to be included in the original Fallout 2, but for whatever reasons, weren't.
Anyway, having seen what the developers had in mind, it has lead me to think about some themes and plot elements not fully explored in the Fallout series, and which could perhaps be explored further in the future or in other games.
The first thing that comes to mind is the 'Vault Experiment' program. The secondary objective of the vaults being a social experiment on a large scale, aimed at testing its inhabitants in circumstances akin to a 'Stellar Voyage', which breakdowns, prolonged stress, lack of resources and maintanence being common testing methods.
So the 'plan' was for the U.S to repopulate another planet, once this one had been destroyed. Seeing as the reason for war was a lack of resources, and that afterwards the planet was reduced to cinders and a shadow of civilization, this would make sense. However, this would plan would seem to indicate at the time of the war either space travel was already an established norm or within very short time of acquisition. The hubologist 'space shuttle' was apparently planned to 'travel the stars' and not just our solar system, and President Richardson in the oil rig hints towards star travel and not only space travel within our solar system.
This begs the question, at the time of the war, had humans already acquired technology to travel to other star systems? Had they already established perhaps lunar and martian colonies? This would be an interesting path for a future sequel, or something along those lines. With a martian colony, human civilization would not have been entirely wiped out, depending on whether it was auto-sufficient out not. Imagine a 'Fallout' on mars? That atmosphere and planetary geography already includes many elements akin to a nuclear wasteland, the only thing missing would be a good plot (so this effectively rules out bethesda).
Speaking of bethesda, in some ways im glad they did not come up with anything new, or anything of their own. This leaves open possibilities for the future. One aspect however, which I think they *may* be going in the right direction, is 'pre holocaust' war. Operation Anchorage I think its called. Sure, fighting the chinese before the nukes drop, and getting an insight into the fallout universe is awesome, but I would much prefer they simply made it into an FPS, a pure FPS, kind of like an 'addon' or expansion pack, and left the RPG elements and style to the main games. Although I suspect they will simply repeat the process of FO3 and rebrand them as these new 'Expansions'.
Another interesting point, which has been raised before here, and does not quite fit into the '1950's futurism style' is that of Artificial Intelligence. I quite like it, being a fan of the Terminator Films, I love the references to it in both games. FO2 in particular, and even FO Tactics, dwelled on the possibilities of super computers with vast AI, one appropriately called Skynet, and its effect/influence in the war. While I don't believe they were solely to blame, perhaps an element of guilt can be attributed to them, like ignoring chinese missile launches, or precipitating the war, things like that.
There is a part in FO2 which you can 'rescue' Skynet by giving him a body and allowing him to explore the world and collect date. There is also a part where the Brotherhood computer tells you she is lonely. I always though this would have been an unimplemented quest where you could unite both computers. That would have been pretty interesting. With self aware computers such as ZAX (was it ZAX? I only played FO1 once), Skynet, the Brotherhood computer, and the FO Tactics 'calculator' in Vault 0, many interesting plot elements and storylines could be invented. FO Tactics wasn't as sucessful as it could have been with that, but at least it touched the possibility.
Anyway, sorry for the wall of text, just thought i'd brainstorm the forum a bit, put some ideas that were in my head into context for discussion. Thanks.
Anyway, having seen what the developers had in mind, it has lead me to think about some themes and plot elements not fully explored in the Fallout series, and which could perhaps be explored further in the future or in other games.
The first thing that comes to mind is the 'Vault Experiment' program. The secondary objective of the vaults being a social experiment on a large scale, aimed at testing its inhabitants in circumstances akin to a 'Stellar Voyage', which breakdowns, prolonged stress, lack of resources and maintanence being common testing methods.
So the 'plan' was for the U.S to repopulate another planet, once this one had been destroyed. Seeing as the reason for war was a lack of resources, and that afterwards the planet was reduced to cinders and a shadow of civilization, this would make sense. However, this would plan would seem to indicate at the time of the war either space travel was already an established norm or within very short time of acquisition. The hubologist 'space shuttle' was apparently planned to 'travel the stars' and not just our solar system, and President Richardson in the oil rig hints towards star travel and not only space travel within our solar system.
This begs the question, at the time of the war, had humans already acquired technology to travel to other star systems? Had they already established perhaps lunar and martian colonies? This would be an interesting path for a future sequel, or something along those lines. With a martian colony, human civilization would not have been entirely wiped out, depending on whether it was auto-sufficient out not. Imagine a 'Fallout' on mars? That atmosphere and planetary geography already includes many elements akin to a nuclear wasteland, the only thing missing would be a good plot (so this effectively rules out bethesda).
Speaking of bethesda, in some ways im glad they did not come up with anything new, or anything of their own. This leaves open possibilities for the future. One aspect however, which I think they *may* be going in the right direction, is 'pre holocaust' war. Operation Anchorage I think its called. Sure, fighting the chinese before the nukes drop, and getting an insight into the fallout universe is awesome, but I would much prefer they simply made it into an FPS, a pure FPS, kind of like an 'addon' or expansion pack, and left the RPG elements and style to the main games. Although I suspect they will simply repeat the process of FO3 and rebrand them as these new 'Expansions'.
Another interesting point, which has been raised before here, and does not quite fit into the '1950's futurism style' is that of Artificial Intelligence. I quite like it, being a fan of the Terminator Films, I love the references to it in both games. FO2 in particular, and even FO Tactics, dwelled on the possibilities of super computers with vast AI, one appropriately called Skynet, and its effect/influence in the war. While I don't believe they were solely to blame, perhaps an element of guilt can be attributed to them, like ignoring chinese missile launches, or precipitating the war, things like that.
There is a part in FO2 which you can 'rescue' Skynet by giving him a body and allowing him to explore the world and collect date. There is also a part where the Brotherhood computer tells you she is lonely. I always though this would have been an unimplemented quest where you could unite both computers. That would have been pretty interesting. With self aware computers such as ZAX (was it ZAX? I only played FO1 once), Skynet, the Brotherhood computer, and the FO Tactics 'calculator' in Vault 0, many interesting plot elements and storylines could be invented. FO Tactics wasn't as sucessful as it could have been with that, but at least it touched the possibility.
Anyway, sorry for the wall of text, just thought i'd brainstorm the forum a bit, put some ideas that were in my head into context for discussion. Thanks.
