Do you guys ever play Fallout like THIS?

[charwo]

After doing months and months of searching round the net, with a long hiatus for playing New Vegas, I finally got all the environmental mods I need to make my game MINE. Let me show you the fruits of my labors:

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img28/6112/screenshot1nyx.png

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img705/7003/screenshot0n.png

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img541/9127/screenshot6an.png

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img89/3412/screenshot3xp.png

 

 

There was a reason I waited four years before buying Fallout 3. Because I'm a Lore Freak, and THIS is what the DC Wasteland should look like given the how the Great War went down. Deserts are for the Mohave. Don't be fooled by the verdant growth and blue skies: you can't see the Fire Ants in Greyditch until its too late. Deathclaws emerge from forest cover to wreck humanity's junk, and their are boars and bears waiting to end you. The Grass makes firefights much more intense: they tend to be closer and far more brutal. Also, the Potomac will screw you up if you drink it, no matter how pretty it looks. Now if only I could find a mod that keep the rads from drinking river water, but not for swimming in it.

 

Still, I waited for a reason. And I think the method in my madness paid in spades. What say you?

[7thsealord]

Looks great to me. My compliments.

 

Never bought into the devastated look - in a century or two, plantlife would have well'n'truly returned in force.

 

I'm a bit more extreme. My system is lower end, so can't have ALL the bells and whistles, but I use the 'GreenWorld', 'Palm Trees' and 'Ground Of Green' mods together (making for a very pleasing mixed look). I also use the 'Saturnworld' mod for the night sky, to make the world look even more alien (and kewl).

 

Together with a few other lesser things, all that is probably enough to make some Lore-Worshippers have aneurysms. :)

[charwo]

Well, just tell them what I do: the atomic punk vibe was at least partially a past imperfect imitation of the real 1950s, much like Caesar's aping of Rome in New Vegas. There is nothing in the Fallout Lore that could cause the environmental devastation of late 2077 to last for more than a few years. But, given the stupidly awesome amount of biopunk, just tell em this, and they have no defense: If the prewar world could bio engineer Deathclaws and molerats and the Centaurs, creating a temperate suitable palm tree is nuthzing. NUTHZING! (you gotta say it like Sergent Schultz from Hogan's Heroes)

[Dweedle]

No. The idea of irradiated water creating lush green grass and healthy trees makes no sense at all.

 

Harold doesn't count.

[charwo]

ORLLY?

 

Take a look at real world victims of the 'atomic demon':

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img152/7152/tagianuketestinglake.jpg

The Tagia Nuclear Test Site (the lake is a bomb crater)

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img515/8902/bakiniatollatomictestsi.jpg

The Bikini Atoll, among others, the site of America's first Hydrogen Bomb

(And no, there were no H-Bombs used in DC, lore stipulates various tonnage limitation treaties to less than 30 kilotons, and the damage is consistent with multiple low yield hits to the DC area)

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img585/5503/tzarbombtestsite.jpg

This is from the Sukhoy Nos, a massive Soviet Nuclear testing site on the Arctic Island of Severny. Among many others, this site was the testing ground for the 50 megaton Tzar Bomb, by far the largest bomb mankind has ever even thought of making. The lack of trees is because this is inside the atric circle, but note the clear blue water in the background

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img842/9647/pripyat25yearslater.jpg

Downtown Pripyat 25 years after Chernobyl. Yes the Water is radioactive. Yes it is not safe for human habitation. Yes it is the largest animal preserve in the Ukraine and now the site of largest forest

 

Also if you want to read more on horrifically radiated areas, check out this article on the Red Forest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Forest

 

On one more thing, I'd like to introduce you to Lake Karachay:

http://imageshack.us/a/img213/1179/lakekarachay.jpg

 

Beautiful isn't it? Verdant and green, isn't it? It's the most polluted place on earth, pumped full of over 100 ton of high grade radioactive waste over the last 40 years of the USSR's nuclear weapon program. An hour on any of its beaches will kill you dead. You don't even have to touch the water. And its still prudy.

[7thsealord]

@charwo - :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: for the additional pics.

 

@Dweedle - .... And yet a wide range of critters (Deathclaws, Molerats, Wild Dogs, Yao Guais, Radscorpions, Giant Ants, Btahmins, Radroaches, Bloatflies, Mirelurks, assorted Human subtypes and presumably a whole bunch of smaller lifeforms we don't get to actually see) are all apparently thriving in a (you claim) plant-free environment?

 

Sorry, I simply don't see it. Plants are tough. Bamboo groves in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were re-sprouting within a fortnight of the blasts ( - any professional gardener can tell you that bamboo is hellaciously hard to eradicate, even from a confined area). Mangrove sprouts will drift across entire oceans, just to wash up on tidal mudflats and begin growing. There are other plant types whose seeds lay dormant in the ground for years before sprouting. There are plants whose seed pods only open in the aftermath of major fires.

 

Plants tend to be more tolerant of irradiated or "tainted" conditions than animals, large or small. So if the DC Wasteland ecology was doing so well that so many different "large" (Man-sized plus) animals were managing, then it is logical for there to be a heckuva lot of vegetation to support said animals.

Edited January 30, 2013 by 7thsealord

[BarefootWarrior]

I can join this club, I also feel that vegetation would return, even it it isn't safe for humans (or other critters) to live. I was using 'Green World' and then just recently found 'BA Wasteland Restoration' and it really adds a nice touch to the game, including green grass. So there is an interesting element added to the game, a hostile, yet beautiful environment. Good topic. :thumbsup:

[charwo]

Ah sweet! Here's the general mod load:

BA Wasteland Restoration

KDS Recovering Wasteland assets

KDS Optional Tree Addon

Project Reality

Local Greener mods (Paradise Falls, Citadel, Megaton Healing)

Pure Water Very Clean, No Rad (Rads are still there when combined with FWE)

Summer (not available on Nexus)

 

And also for both Green world modders and realism junkies, Life After People full video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XDbcMND7fY

 

See it, live it, love it.

[Dweedle]

I still don't buy it. You still havn't taken into account airborn FEV. There is no reason plant life would exist apart from Harold.

 

This is just a lore perspective anyway.

 

BUT, I will try out some of those mods, just to see what the big deal is about.

[7thsealord]

Then what exactly are all those Brahmin eating?

 

And possibly Molerats too - some of their idles look a lot like 'grazing'. If 'smaller animals' is the answer, then what are those smaller animals eating?

 

Noting the deeply wacky "science" of this gameworld, it is clear that FEV did NOT affect all animals to the same extent - either by species or by individual. Which is why some Humans became Ghouls and others remained Human (in appearance at least). Dogs stayed 100% recognizable. Certain arthropods look the same, but have gotten much bigger. Other critters have 'changed' to varying degrees.

 

So why should all plant life have only been affected one specific way? I can easily accept that some plant species may have been wiped out by FEV but, noting what happened with animal life, other plant types would have been either unaffected or "changed" to varying degrees - some a little, some a lot.

 

Given the characteristics of certain plants I previously mentioned, it is also very easy to see how a few could have simply "dodged the FEV bullet" - seeds buried deep, etc.. Just as some Humans dodged FEV by being in Vaults when it all began happening.

 

Finally, note that if certain settings of the basic game are cranked up, one DOES get plant life in the DC Wsstes. It is just that notoriously crappy-looking grass and a few assorted shrubs. "Some" plant life, as distinct from "No" plant life, mind you.

 

 

Yep, how people want to play the game, or how they want their games to look, is enturely their own business. Whether blasted desert or jungle or whatever. I prefer the jungle-y look because, to my mind, it makes more sense and is much more pleasing to the eye. But not everybody feels the same, and that is fine.

Edited February 1, 2013 by 7thsealord