Idea for the next Fallout

[Mr Lepidus]

I apologize if this isn't the right forum for this, but I just can't find a 'general Fallout discussion' area in the Nexus Forums.

 

Anyhow, I was just thinking about a Fallout sequel, set in Massachusetts. I've thought of a few factions, and I'll flesh some of them out more later.

 

The plot is as follows:

 

You are the overseer of an unopened Vault, and are leading your people on an unremarkable day, when all of a sudden, your security chief comes running into your office with news that your front doors have been breached by a mysterious faction of savages. He rushes you to the Vault's armory, where, through your equipment choices, you determine your tag skills and traits. A two more officers arrive at the armory, asking for instruction. Depending on how you deal with your subordinates, your quality of character is determined. Once you are properly equipped with security armor and your choice of weapons, you and your officers head for the Vault doors. Along the way, you watch helplessly as your population of Vault Dwellers is ripped apart by the savages, who wear deer-hide pants and moccasins, and attack with whooping cries, machetes, and bows and arrows, accompanied by their vicious mutated attack dogs. Thanks to your leadership, however, the savages are pushed back. The remaining Vault Dwellers are saved... but the natives have forever damaged your vault. The water purifier, air filtration system, and food generation devices of the Vault will die within your lifetime. You alone must head out into the world and find a new home for your people. Your security officers give you the best your Vault's meager armory has to offer and wish you luck. You open the doors and look out on the dreary forests of post-nuclear New England for the first time...

 

Factions:

 

Puritans

 

The residents of another Vault, the Puritans are ultra-religious Anglican Protestants who used a GECK to re-create their colonial world of absolute religiously-dominated agrarianism. They are run by a board of landowners and priests, and their GECK-cultivated land allows clean food to be grown with pure water on clean soil. Their houses are all made of wood after a colonial fashion, but they still use Auto-Doc and Mr. Handy robots, regarding them as gifts from God. Puritans allow any to enter their city of New Salem, so long as they convert to Christianity and swear never to take chems, smoke tobacco, or drink alcohol. The Puritan city of New Salem is a haven from the radioactive world of post-nuclear New England, but its strict religious mindset is not for everybody.

 

The Centurions of Christ

 

The militant branch of the Puritans, these soldiers fashion themselves after their patron Saint Longinus, the Roman Centurion who pierced Christ's side with a spear at the Crucifixion. They wear golden, pseudo-Roman style Power Armor, called the Armor of God, and are marked by their undying loyalty to New Salem. They look to protect the devout, but destroy any who disagree with their unflinching moral standards.

 

the Witches

 

These women are enigmas wrapped in mysteries. Exiled from Salem, and persecuted by the merciless Centurions and their Inquisitors, the Witches are an all female part Ghoul, part human faction of misfits, rumored to wield magic to their advantage. Lord knows what secrets they hold in their cavernous underground lair of Tartarus...

 

the Institute

 

Long-time rivals of New Salem, these reclusive Technocrats reside in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where they conduct experiments of a highly secretive nature. Their synthetic men are, in theory, able to mimic real humans in every way imaginable. They may be the key to humanity's salvation or destruction, depending on your personal ideology. The Institute's scientific examination of the world and decidedly agnostic philosophy draw the ire of New Salem and their Centurions, who very much wish to assault the institute. If only the Centurions had the numbers to fight the Synthetic Men...

 

Native American Tribes

 

To the East, operating to the West in places like the ruined city of Springfield and its miraculously somehow-intact armory, the Native American tribes are as numerous as they are diverse. One of these groups may be responsible for the sacking of your vault.

 

LOCATIONS

 

New Salem: Puritan/Centurion hub

 

Holy Sepulcher: Centurion Haven

 

MIT: Institute city

 

Tartarus: Witches' coven

 

Springfield Armory: A Native American village

 

Boston Ruins: (Self-Explanatory)

 

And there's more where that came from!

 

Plot details

 

Try to find the tribe that assaulted your people. Make and break alliances based on your personal beliefs. Find refuge with Salem or enlightenment with the Institute, or forgo civilization and return to a lifestyle similar to those of the Natives. Be careful, though, Vault Dwellers make easy prey, and not everybody wants to be your friend. Just you could be a friend, you could be a Heretic... or a test subject.

[x0diak]

Very imaginative!

 

I have not thought it out, but an area that is completely crowded, like China for instance, would be interesting. Or Japan?

 

The idea of a Samurai - Wastelander or something along those lines would be cool!

[Mr Lepidus]

Any other feedback?

[marharth]

I said this before, but how do you expect there to be Native American tribes??

 

There culture would have been completely wiped out by the great war, and no one in a tribe would have survived in a vault to pass on the culture...

[BooneoftheWasteland]

Sounds great. But how the heck do savages open a vault? So it requires more plot depth.

[gunnars2]

oh how i would love to if fallout 4 would be like this, considering bethesda now has the id tech5 engine this could well be possible, the environment could have a lot of different textures as the tech5 engine allows a lot and i mean by a lot of different textures unlike bethesda has done with the gambryo wich is getting kind of old, trees with falling leaves and such.

[ScaleneAlloy]

sounds like fallout 1.

 

And they're not going to bring the plot backwards in time, that's like finishing every halo game only to figure out it was all a dream. It just sets you back.

[Rossum]

About the Native Americans, they could be something like Caesars Legion but more like the native american tribes? Like they were once various scattered tribes and raiders or members of vaults but developed a new culture based on what they learned about the old tribes and such. Could be a few genuine Native Americans in the mix as well who had kept the old culture going but the vast majority would people of all ethnic groups who joined up.

 

New Iroquois

 

After the Great War and the first few people came from their vaults and looked on the devastated world. One of those vaults had contained books about history, survival techniques, and vast information about nature. From that, the inhabitants (of whom a few were of native american heritage) vowed to restore the land to its former glory and live in harmony with it. They modeled their new society after the native americans and started colonizing the world.

 

The New Iroquois nation is not exactly like the old civilization it is named after but strives to keep similarities. The members are mostly nomadic (where possible) so that they can move about and patrole a great area. They build settlements and fortified areas as well where children, the elderly, the injured, and occasionally women stay. Marriage isn't officially recognized buy the society and all children born are effectivly property of the tribe and are taught, fed, and raised by the tribe (this was a somewhat new idea added to help humanity repopulate so that one woman isn't limited to just one mate and the burden of supporting children is handled by the whole society instead of just parents).

 

Every member of the tribe is taught how to make and handle weapons, how to survive in the wasteland, basic medicine skills, and they are imparted with a reverence of nature and all living things. The tribes built numerous water purification plants (which they protect in fortified settlements) and arranged ways to slowly restore the land using tools they had on them. While they don't have a magic GECK to restore the world, several generations of purifying, fertilizing, and tilling the soil should heal the land. Breeding projects have already found the Puma fruits and Cave Fungus that can trap and neutralize radioactive isotopes, using this they plan to systematically cure the land.

 

While the New Iroquois do eliminate the various wasteland creatures that threaten people, they also work to tame or live alongside them. Herds of Brahmin and Bighorns are raised by them while molerats and various dogs are also domesticated for work and food or pelts. There are even dedicated groups who are working on taming Deathclaws and wild bears.

 

While every adult in the nation has a tomahawk or bow and arrow, they do make regular use of firearms when dealing with human attackers. Scratch that... they make EXTENSIVE use of firearms, explosives, and whatever the heck else they can use when dealing with humans. While they like to give an appearance of being primitive savages, the elders and teachers are well aware of technology and medicine and make use of it when needed. Stories of the brutality that the old native Americans suffered at the hands of European conquerors are remembered and they make plans to ensure that nothing similar will happen again.

 

Notable tech and weapons:

 

1. Various simple melee or ranged weapons like bows and arrows or stone tomahawks. These are used mainly for hunting every member of the tribe who is legally seen as an adult can craft their own set of weapons even if left naked in the wasteland.

 

2. Advanced medicinal knowledge- the tribes medicine men make medical equipment for people and they know about germs and diseases. If they have the right equipment they can create vaccines for various diseases. Some experiments in germ warfare have been tried (if anyone tries taking their land this time then things will get ugly and it'll be the New Iroquois with the immunity).

 

3. Minefields and traps - Elite warriors know that they tend to lack the firepower of more industrialized civilizations so they componsate by knowing how to set up traps. They can build pulse mines or other technology disabling machines to deal with robots or power armored assailants. Also there are plenty of minefields and traps set up to protect their lands while they are away (some mines may be dormant until an activating signal enables them).

 

4. Domesticating animals - Most members of the New Iroquis naturally have the Animal Friend perk which really help them out. While they do raise dogs of their own they also make friends with all the 'wild dogs' in the area. If they hear the coyotes barking then they know something is up. Experiments in taming bears and Deathclaws have been going okay.

 

5. Terror warfare - The New Iroquios are swift to deal with anyone who threatens their land or upsets the balance. Gangs of raiders or bandits who enter the territory will soon find themselves with no allies and will either have to 'play nice' or suffer horribly. Generally the warriors will kill any enemy combatants they come across unless they surrender immediatly, criminals who commit murder of gross crimes are killed, those who commit crimes not worthy of death are either heavily fined (as in all their belongings confiscated and sent naked into the wilderness) or they are scalped and sent away... if they didn't learn the first time then the punishers will start removing limbs until the crimminal stops causing trouble. Note this is for clearly hostile invaders who disrespect the land, those who are nicer are treated better.

 

6. Agriculture - They have learned to farm and take care of the land as far as is possible in the post-war world. While they aren't super-farmers they tribes tend to be pretty well fed.

 

7. No chems - addictive chemicals are seen as a sign of weakness that tribe members are told to shun them. Most medicines and treatments are handled by the medicine doctor while others are in charge of the food. Outsiders who are obviously addicted to chems or are drunk are shunned and if they are lucky might be given help to 'clean up'. Anyone trying to sell chems to the tribe or get tribe members addicted will lose reputation with them (there might be some who will take the chems to have them properly disposed of).

 

7. They accept outsiders - The tribes tend to be nice to outsiders as long as the outsiders behave themselves. Any attempts to 'scam' the tribes result in trouble. Otherwise, they are quite willing to accept people who have been outcast by other societies and need a place to live. People can become tribe members by going through a series of tests to prove their fitness and loyalty. If the tribe has to wipe out another gang or a villiage they will often take any children to raise as tribe members.

 

 

Minor group members:

 

The Elders - The leaders of the various tribes. Each tribe has its own group of elders who deal with teaching, history, medicine, security, and so forth. These elders then meet together to the central government of the nation.

 

The Anti-Tech warriors - Knowing full well the destructive powers that technology possesses, the tribes work to understand it as much as possible and develop ways to counter that technology. For the most part that means developing pulse weaponry to disable circuitry and armor piercing guns. The tribe keeps track of powerful tech and makes plans to disable them if they might be weapons. This makes them similar to the Brotherhood of Steel in a way, but they basically do this so they can live at peace with nature and keep more advanced civilizations from devastating them. They might have secret bunkers of weapons set up and technicians to use and maintain the stuff in case a war breaks out.

 

The Interest - Kind of a fringe group. These people feel that modern European style civilization was a dead end that cause mankinds fall due to their lack of harmony with nature, their use of high-tech weapons in warfare, and overall corruption and lack of empathy. As such, they plan to retake the North American continent and restore it to the way it was before the European colonists came. They plan to pay back the 'civilized' nations for every indignity they wrought... plus interest. They freqently plot ways to disable the technology of enemy settlements, assist in the corruption and chemical addiction of the populations, and overall weaken other nations. They figure that their society is best adapted to the new world due to superior training and harmony with nature. Modern society and technology lets a corrupt and evil people prop themselves up and keep existing despite their faults. Plus... its inevitable that people like the Brotherhood or Enclave would want to storm in with power armor and attack them or the NCR would take their land... the more they can weaken their enemies then the better things will be.

[BlackCompany]

Nice ideas so far. Personally, there are a few things I would like to see for the next Fallout game:

 

-Return of Damage Threshold as opposed DR (yes, I am the one). With DT I feel like armor actually works, as opposed to just "catching" a percentage of my damage for me.

 

-Return of Hardcore mode. Except this time, make the settings global variables and make the needs actually matter. And make the items like fresh water actually somewhat rare. I mean hardcore is optional, so why not make it hard core?

 

-Return of item/ammo crafting. Lay off the alchemical ingredients. Picking flowers is NOT something that belongs in RPG's, despite industry opinions to the contrary.

 

-Return of ironsights

 

-dodging, diving, crawling, sprinting and additional support for melee characters (optional NPC's always use ammo mode?)

 

 

The biggest change I would love to see, however, involves atmosphere. As great a game as NV Is, and it is, it nonetheless feels like Oblivion in a desert. The world is settled, civilized (by which I mean established governments exist, the world is a place of order for the most part.) For the next game lets return to a real, honest, hit-directly-by-a-bomb Wasteland. Get rid of all the industry (I mean really, a post-apocalyptic wasteland where people work 9 - 5 jobs for arms merchants? Seriously?) and lets go back to a DC-esque "Wasteland" environment. Make it stark, dark and foreboding, including the weather from time to time.

 

Keep up the excellent work with choices, consequence and factions which matter; this is good stuff. Lets just change locales and maybe even introduce some new factions to the mix. A return to the Eastern seaboard would not be a bad idea. It got hit harder, loot would be rarer and the world more desperate.

[Rossum]

1. Improving energy weapons - Not necessarily make them super-powerful but at least give them advantages to differentiate them from other weapons. Like, you can collect the spent batteries easier from them and recharge them at recharging stations. Make lasers easily moddable, like every laser weapon can be modded to be semi-automatic or use the laser diode to make a 'targeting laser' to improve accuracy.

 

2. Cannibalism and some other perks are gained through specific quests... like if your character goes for several days without eating and is about to starve to death then they temporarily gain the cannibal perk (symbolizing that they are desperate enough to cannibalize to survive). If they eat from corpses 10 times in this manner then they gain the cannibal perk. No need to waste a perk slot on this.

 

3. I happen to like Hardcore mode aside from having companions dying on me... if there was a second difficulty option to handle allies then that would be good.

 

4. As with Hardcore mode, maybe have food expire after a while so you can't shove some noodles in your backback after finding them in an abandoned sewer home and expect it to be tasty after three game days.

 

5. Add various tools to use, like a blowtorch, cattleprod (Vegas has it but they aren't common), bunson burner, and portable lab equipment. You shouldn't have to expect fully equipped workbenches to lay around in the wasteland.

 

6. Something other than the glove/pipboy. I know there are PDA like pipboy replacers which would make more sense than having the main character always walk around with a big "I'm a guy with a pipboy! I'm special!" sign. Plus, how would you wash with that thing on permanently?

 

7. People occasionally run away from a fight. That would be nice if people had a sense of self-preservation, not sure if I would be bugged if it lowered my XP gain but if there were other ways to get experience then that would be nice. I mean, if you only had to 'defeat' someone to get XP and enemies tended to run away upon defeat then that would be good. Like if there were various safe areas in the wasteland and defeated enemies fled to their safehouses when defeated (unless you kill them in which case you've just got a corpse).

 

8. On the above... why is it that after humanity nearly goes extinct that I have to gradually drive our species even more extinct? Seriously, its like everybody is just running right at my gun with mouths wide open for a machinegun sandwich. Granted its mostly men... but still its like nobody has anything better to do then make me kill them.

 

9. Also, robots. Robots and cybernetic implants. There should be a faction thats dedicated to improving humanity by turning them into cyborgs that can survive in the radioactive wastes. I'd love it if there was an option to slowly replace my characters limbs with powerful cyborg appendages or just all-out become a Robobrain.

 

10. Have an all-out war with something. Aliens? More super-mutants? Robots? Cyborgs? Mutated fish-people? Anything that lets humanity and whatever bits of civilization are left gather together and fight for survival.

 

11. Factories, vehicles, and possibly a mobile base (even if its a boat). I want something cool thats more than just the clothes on my back.

 

12. On the above, either a horse or a motorcycle. Its like you can have one human companion, on animal companion, and then a mode of transportation (maybe your ally gets a horse as well).

 

13. Allies actually take some initiative. If I've got a mess of stuff like weapons and armor in my pack them maybe my allies offer to take some of that stuff off my hands. If Boone just killed a bunch of legionares then I would like him to take some of the spoils. Then he can sell stuff and buy himself a nice gun he likes. I hate acting like I'm the only kleptomaniac in the wasteland.

 

14. Allies act like we're part of a team. If I'm injured, maybe my ally offers to heal me. Maybe my companions don't automagically regenerate all their hit points without medicine (they ask for meds if they need them). We occasionally eat when hungry and share ammo. Perhaps different allies have skills... like one is a trader who I can give all this junk and he sells it automatically when we his a town. Or one is a doctor who regularly patches me up. Basically allies should compliment my skills so I don't have to be an expert gunman and a medic at the same time.

 

and

 

15. Maybe a randomly generated dungeon or two. Like ADOM or Nethack or one of those old roguelikes. Have one or two places that are truly different each play-through so its not always the same.