Super Mutant Expansions (Spoilers)

[darkus37]

Spoilers Ahead – read at your own risk…

 

Hello everyone, while playing through them game, it kept bothering me that the supermutants were so under-developed. In Fallout 1, the supermutants were being dipped and hunting humans to build up the Master’s army, but upon reaching the Capitol Wasteland, why bother? I mean there has to be a reason for them focusing on the Plaza area, right? You have these humongous trenches and a battle between them and Talon Company in the Capitol Building as well as the BOS next to the Washington Monument -but why specifically are they going there? It’s a terrible place to defend and reinforce so why bother? Towards the end of the game, when the PC speaks to Elder Lyons, you can inform him that Vault 87 is where the mutants are coming from, so why haven’t they attacked Little Lamplight - a simple gate and one guard wouldn't stop a supermutant onslaught and the kids would be perfect candidates for experimentation, if not a light snack… I also question where they would get the FEV – it was supposed to be limited in number, and Vault 87 looks like it has no more. These questions deserve to be answered so here’s what I hope someone could do:

 

1. The first thing would be to show why the supermutants are in the plaza – I would imagine that the mutants would have wanted a new master after their old one was nuked into oblivion, so why not have a large underground facility – not a vault – where FEV was being researched – this area would have a bunch of abominations that have resulted from radiation and FEV combining and would have a monstrous being, perhaps something like a gigantic centaur for example, that the supermutants worship for whatever reason. There could be some holotapes (or just notes) around the wrecked facility that explained that this facility was another place where FEV was examined and stockpiled, so when the Great War started, all the scientists where combined or transformed into these monsters. The great centaur can be another reference to a Lovecraftian cult such as in the Dunwich Building. The supermutant exodus to the east coast could have stopped here when the facility was accidently uncovered. The entrance could be where the trenches are located next to the Capitol Building. The reason why these creatures haven’t escaped to the surface is because they are too big and the facility was reinforced to prevent a cave-in - they have survived this long by eating the numerous creatures that live in the facility (Mirelurks, molerate, radroaches). The super-mutants worship the creatures which also eat them. This allows an in-game explanation for why they are gathering in the Wasteland, why they need more mutants, and why they are focusing their attention on the Plaza.

 

2. As for the Little Lamplight situation, I would like the reason to be that the supermutants send only their dumbest mutants to vault 87 because their dipping didn’t turn out to well and the only way to enter (at least to the mutants) is the radiated pool in front of the entrance. They haven’t explored the caves to the fullest and thus have never stumbled upon the entrance. This explanation leads into number 3.

 

3. I would like for there to be some sort of major supermutant encampment somewhere in between the Vault and the plaza. This nexus would have tunnels reaching from one end of the map to the other, dug by supermuants and their slaves. This central hub can be a combination of multiple post-apocalyptic movies such as the Mad Max series and is essentially an entire ramshackle city completely underground. While reading the forums I read this awesome request for a fighting Arena

(http://thenexusforums.com/index.php?showtopic=81507) and I would really like it to be here (if it is even possible after the CS is released). Essentially, you would start off fighting other captured humans, ghouls, and monsters, before fighting the supermutants themselves. The successful conclusion would have you emerge as an honorary super-mutant with the run of the place (perhaps some sort of totem you can carry around that shows you to be who you are). Numerous quests can take place there, including a battle between several factions of super-mutants – a sort of Warhammer 40,000 tribute (the Orks), with the Greatest Chief running things. This could give another reason why the super-mutants haven’t steamrolled over every other faction – they are too busy fighting themselves to unit under a single banner. One group could want to move on, another group would want to kill everyone else, another group wants to try and become more human, etc. This could all conclude with the PC acting as a diplomat or assassin, using the tribes against themselves, or uniting them under a common banner. Some suggestions would be arranging the sending of one of the tribes leaders to Vault 87 as a punishment as an alternative to flat out murder. In the end, there would be several conclusions – if the supermutants could be convinced to continue their exodus, their numbers would decrease around the wasteland. If they could be convinced to help there could begin showing up in cities and acting as hired help or bodyguards, etc. As for the FEV, they could be getting it from underneath the plaza, caravans moving it to the central hub, and moved to the Vault. This would have supermutant caravans moving with slaves and Brahmin moving back and forth.

 

I realize that these suggestions might be a bit disjointed and impossible to do unless you make an expansion pack but if anyone is up to it, please do so. Thanks.

[duncanlambert]

hmm, okay, if i remember correctly, the supermutants all came from one place initially, the militarty base in fallout 1 Ask Harold in Oasis, he was there. the master unifyed them and organised them to assault the vaults and get more recruits, cos vault personnel were the only people who could be affected by the FEV. It would react violently with people that came in off the wastes, because it would only alter people who weren't mutated at all. People off the wastes were already mutated even by a small degree from a lifetime of living there, and were therefore unusable

 

the first vault dweller destroyed the base thus stopping the supermutants from reproducing. This was the same in the second one when alot of the mutants made peace with humankind because they couldnt afford the losses, as there was only a finite amount of them now.

 

In fallout tactics however, the supermutants seem to be amassed greater then ever before (prolly sommink to do with the gameplay style rather then the lore :D ) but at some point in the game, you come accross a supermutant lab thats trying to cure the mutant Sterility so they could have babies. You of course had the option of destroying the lab or leaving it intact in order to gain supermutant trust and some mutant recruits.

 

I was frankly a little shocked to find out that the vault behind little lamplight had been experimenting with FEV but concidering what them vault tec guys were up to, i wouldnt put it past them. But i just assumed that the mutants that were in there had always been in there and were from way back when, when they first escaped from their cells, but i found wastelanders corpses in there so that nulls that theory out. Y'right, damn plotholes.

[DDigit]

Good points, Super Mutants do seem to be a bunch of wandering gorilla's with goody bags full of organs, wtf? Needless to say i believe Beth misjudged the intelligence and complex nature of the gentle "cough" Super-mutant....

 

Here's some more ideas:

 

Intelligent supermutants! Make a few intelligent, friendly super-mutant npcs. Considering the points you've mentioned and the fact that a lot of time is supposed to have passed since F1 and 2, you'd think the super-mutant emancipation movement should be a little further along. (there was a SM Sherrif in F1 right??)

 

For example, A (rejected/wounded) super-mutant who has made friends with the ghouls of Underworld and now guards it loyally (they need some guards in there, seriously..).

 

Enslaved super-mutants! These big guys are handy for carrying stuff and manual labor. put some shackles around one and give him a slave AI script!

 

Change the model used for the "goody bags" to something less riddiculous, like something they could acquire easily and carry around, say a barrel or a drum about the same size as the goodybag. And remove most of the body parts. Hope that's possible.

 

Oh and there's a pretty much unused sewer in the middle of a bomb crater somewhere in DC with mad radiation. Lots of super mutants protecting it but not much in it, good place for a super mutant vault/lab? (cant remember the specific location, i believe there's a sewer in the trenches, but thats not the one i mean.)

 

Oh and any facility that claims to be using FEV needs some bloody dipping vats!! (Make em so i can jump in and become a Super mutant, w00t!)

[darkus37]

Thanks for the comment duncanlambert – when the super-mutants had to deal with an exodus to the west due to the master's death and the BOS at their heels, not every one of them were capable of living with humans, as I recall, the only place they were peaceful was in Broken Hills, and that was mostly because Marcus was intelligent. They were originally rather stupid until the master began dipping people from the vaults who has little or no radiation resulting in subjects with which the FEV didn't react as badly and created the second generation supermutants (I got this from the Fallout Bible I think). The military base was where FEV was found and researched - this is canon in Fallout 1 and 2, but now we have Vault 87 - a place where the supermutants are now dipping people again and increasing their numbers. They have more chances of getting viable supermutants because the capitol wasteland wasn't hit as hard as the rest of the country, I remember reading something about the US being able to shoot down some of the tactical nukes before Washington was hit, thus less radiation. This also means that the military base was not the only place where FEV was being researched – someone from Bethesda dropped the ball on this one I guess, but it would make sense for FEV research, the next step in biowarfare/cure to a disease (the reasoning behind FEV was that it was created to cure another disease and had an added affect of creating stupid mutant monsters) to be researched in multiple locations – perhaps for a different military purpose other than the other base. Even if you were to discount that the people in the wasteland could be successfully dipped so they would become second generation super mutants, I don’t see why they wouldn’t dip everyone, after all shock troops are a wonderful weapon to use against your enemy. DDigit – you added some really good ideas – I also agree that seeing the dipping vats would have been awesome but honestly, I don’t know where you could add them to Vault 87 unless you added another level or something. As for the location of the hub, there are plenty of places that could fit the profile, but I think it should be out of the way, otherwise why wouldn’t have the wastelanders already found it? My main problem is trying to figure out why the super-mutants haven’t just attacked each location enforce and steamrolled over everyone else – I figure lack of direct leadership and internal strife would be the only logical reasons. I think that this mod would fill in some plot holes but I want to leave it vague enough so that if a modder ever decides to do it, they can change it to their hearts content.

[yapjer]

If you're going to create a story about it, i woud suggest perhaps adding something about "uncle leo"

For those who haven't met him, uncle leo is a peaceful super mutant who was violently rejected by his kind

for preaching about peace instead of violence. Maybe you could put a post-script of something about him or

make on of the peaceful tribes idolize him.