If Fallout would be real, how long does it take people to scrap things ...

[Qrsr]

In Fallout 4 it is said the war was 200 years ago ... i hardly believe that s#*! when i look at any location, interior, exterior no matter, everywhere is trash and paper debris, etc. Open office tables, etc. The game feels more like 20 days, 200 days, 2 days, 2 month or maybe 2 years after Fallout. Long story short,

How long would it take to scrap most of the structures still visible, such as:

- Subway Trains, Subway Rails, Subways,

- Any container, Vending Machines, Preservation chamber,

- Doors of all kind

- Shacks, Trees, etc.

I assume that after 2 years already - besides the fact the atomic bombs would nuke the entire worldspace (exterior, upper, surface) to dust and sand would be present everywhere - there would not be any notable loot, except (mutated) creatures etc. With radiation based on all kind of isotopes etc. It would be the most horrible environment, the most extraterrestial space on earth ...

- Metal would be scrapped soon

- Paper would be scrapped soon

- Wood would be scrapped soon, etc.

Objects not radiated to the core and still useable would be gone very soon right?

It would be stored in more or less guarded places. Factions would probably follow very primitive rules to survive the sourrounding. It would probably take tens of years till people would more trade than fight. All the scrapped material would - if not used for "self-defense" - be traded.

Back to the question, how would the vault dweller experience the world after time X. 200 years is to extreme considering the F4 environment, its bull s#*!. How long would it take to scraps things.

Edited March 20 by Qrsr
Extension

[Karna5]

I'll answer first using Fallout 4 lore. The lore friendly answer is it would all still be there but rusty. "But shouldn't it decay to nothing in two hundred and ten years?" No, because magic. Fallout 4 has magic. Fallout 4 has an old lady who takes drugs and sees the future in perfect detail and clarity and can even recite a super long computer password to a location no human has found yet and which hasn't even happened yet. Magic.

In addition, many humans instead of dying from radiation become immortal ghouls. Magic.

As for how long would it really take to decay? *shrugs* presumably for a long time the earth and everything was sterile, with even insects and microorganisms necessary to break down organic matter mostly all dead.

Would there be much left in 200 years in the real world? Probably not. But in Fallout 4? Magic

[Qrsr]

Now Fallout 4 magic is distorted Fallout 3 magic, and Fallout 3 magic is a fracture of the "real" magic of Fallout 1 and Fallout 2. I can remember various vlogs of the creators talking about their inspiration and that they wanted to create a video game by merging real world guessing of what will happen with some game specific elements.

So back to topic, if nothing would be present, well nothing is impossible i assume, it would be either super hot (desert) or super cold (atomic winter) while this is only guessing. Maybe with some volcanic eruptions here and there caused by the detonation. At this point i want to point at the Glowing Sea (GS) which for assembles the core of the game and what would probably be present to the entire worldspace with some exceptions.

Ultimately if the "upper" world would be almost totally vaporized, where would people seek shelter? Vaults, of course, but where is air coming from if any ventialtion system is sealed by dust etc? Would people dig deeper and create alternative vaults, such as caves like back in the stone age?

[Karna5]

42 minutes ago, Qrsr said:

At this point i want to point at the Glowing Sea (GS) which for assembles the core of the game and what would probably be present to the entire worldspace with some exceptions.

I like that. You're right. The Glowing Sea is kind of like the ending of Planet of the Apes where Charlton Heston discovers the statue of liberty half buried and suddenly realized he was on earth the whole time. The Glowing Sea is more like that, and you're right that the rest would probably be just some huts and villages with no original buildings left.

As for survivors, I have no answer to that except that I kind of like the Metro 2033 idea of people surviving underground until it's safe enough to venture out and where animals from the nearby zoo mutated into barely recognizable monsters. I also like the Metro 2035 idea of there being zones in the planet which escaped devastation and where survivors could continue living nearly unchanged lives.

[Qrsr]

20 minutes ago, Karna5 said:

As for survivors, I have no answer to that except that I kind of like the Metro 2033 idea of people surviving underground until it's safe enough to venture out and where animals from the nearby zoo mutated into barely recognizable monsters. I also like the Metro 2035 idea of there being zones in the planet which escaped devastation and where survivors could continue living nearly unchanged lives.

+1

Quote

I like that. You're right. The Glowing Sea is kind of like the ending of Planet of the Apes where Charlton Heston discovers the statue of liberty half buried and suddenly realized he was on earth the whole time. The Glowing Sea is more like that, and you're right that the rest would probably be just some huts and villages with no original buildings left.

This was the intention of the older games, like FO1 and FO2. Where we can see kind of clay huts, with some high tech buildings here and there. A very lost environment if you project it into 3D space, it was interesting to observe via an isometric view although. It was very dark and i think thats really missing in FO4.

When everything is dust you will probably see water caravans which where very important feature for FO1 too. But if there is water where is it? So caves with water would be number 1 priority probably polluted by the outcome of the last war yet still better than bereathing or eating dust ... With Fallout magic would cause people to rot and mutate to all kind of creatures?!

 

The ferals in 3 and 4 are the opposite of what we saw in 1 and 2 where they were slo-mo creatures and most of the time sub-surface. The hybrids in turn where humans burned and wasted to unrecognisable appearance.

[fraquar]

You can scrap a vending machine in about a couple of hours with the right "hobo"  tools.   (Sledgehammer, Pickaxe, Hacksaw)

Problem is you can't turn that scrap into raw components that are reusable in any fashion you see fit without the skillset(s) to do that - and the proper tools/machinery.

Ex.   A nail.   We take these for granted today but in Fallout 4 you'd literally need to have a Blacksmith fashion you a nail, and he'd need some good iron stock to work with.

Enter Saugus Ironworks - a useless facility in the Commonwealth as long as it is under Raider control - but a literally essential location to rebuild the Commonwealth.

I'm always amazed that this place is supposedly still functional - yet they completely wasted the location playing "raider games".

[363rdChemicalCompany]

Yesterday I had a nice long post with thoughtful (so I hoped) comments but the site game me a cloudfaree error just as I pushed submit, nuking my reply that had taken me 40 minutes to write 

[Qrsr]

I hope you can find the time again @363rdChemicalCompany

[Qrsr]

An example i had yesterday thinking about my current project, what would happen if subway stations would be used as kind of a shelter, or vault or protection from the exterior, upper world, surface.

- Would people use the trains?

- How if there is now power?

- Would power be used to power trains or something else?

- What would be a good power source if the exterior is human unfriendly and not able to use anymore cause of to much radiation ?

- If rails, trains, and wood under train lines would be scrapped for whatever reason how would it look? Probably like a simple tunnel ...

- Would it be worthwhile to dig deep to the earth core to come close to magmatic chambers and use the "power", energy, warmth from the earth core itself?

- Would people have enough knowledge to use magma to create minerals of all kinds?

- Would it be worthwhile to mine rare earth elements still?

...

[363rdChemicalCompany]

4 minutes ago, Qrsr said:

An example i had yesterday thinking about my current project, what would happen if subway stations would be used as kind of a shelter, or vault or protection from the exterior, upper world, surface.

- Would people use the trains?

- How if there is now power?

- Would power be used to power trains or something else?

- What would be a good power source if the exterior is human unfriendly and not able to use anymore cause of to much radiation ?

- If rails, trains, and wood under train lines would be scrapped for whatever reason how would it look? Probably like a simple tunnel ...

- Would it be worthwhile to dig deep to the earth core to come close to magmatic chambers and use the "power", energy, warmth from the earth core itself?

- Would people have enough knowledge to use magma to create minerals of all kinds?

- Would it be worthwhile to mine rare earth elements still?

...

Nuclear power would be one of the few ways to do it, that or a nearby underground river to power hydro electric. Even with nuclear power you would need underground water for your cooling loop.

I suppose a plot could also be written around a Above ground solar farm where vault members need to get out from underground, to make periodic repairs/maintenance exposed to the dangers of the surface. 2 repairmen plus 4 troops tp protect them perhaps.

Incidentally Germany had power for its factories up until the very last day of the war, despite an incessant bombing Campaign that made for a very hostile surface. Humans can adapt to even the worst conditions.