What are some aesthetic features and aspects of lore that we would like to see a new Fallout, one presumably not designed by Bethesda?
For myself, I'd like to see the following:
* Pre-war architecture is once again gothic art-deco, as in the Fallout 1 intro.
* Real examples of post-war architecture. Remember Shady Sands in Fallout? It was not just made out of garbage from the old world, instead it had its own distinct architectural style that matched its own culture. Junktown was made out of garbage from the old world, but it was shaped into something distinctly new. In the new Fallouts, everybody is squatting in hundred-year old buildings that they didn't even bother to repair or repaint. If there's an area where a significant number of old buildings survived, fine, but some variety here would be appreciated.
* NO 50s music - all music should be ambient, and/or reflect the development of new cultures that are completely alien to the old world. Radio, if it exists, should be used primarily as a means of communication between settlements, not to broadcast records that would be considered antiques before the bombs fell!
* More realistic blast damage from warheads - if an area was hit by a nuclear bombardment, it should look like it was hit by a nuclear bombardment, not like it was hit with an economic recession. I'm thinking in particular of the descriptions of the Boneyard in Fallout 1 - think of the kind of bizarre landscape you would get from thousands of skyscrapers being leveled and melted, for example. If communities have developed in a ground zero location, they should have to adapt to the challenges of living in such an environment, and this should be portrayed in an interesting and somewhat realistic way.
* New kinds of mutants, not just super mutants and ghouls - humans with more subtle mutations, or mutations that are *gasp* actually adaptations to a new environment. The Slags from Fallout 2 are an example of how this could be done.
* Dwarves. There were dozens of these guys in the original Fallouts. What happened?
* Supermutants and Ghouls should be somewhat rare and highly intelligent, not just orcs/zombies. Enemy ghouls in particular should be frightening and formidible because of their cunning and centuries of knowledge to draw upon, not just because they are gross. If Ghouls characters are assigned Skills, then they should have many different Skills maxed out to reflect their lifespan.
* Psykers and other psionic phenomena - another feature of the original Fallouts that has been mostly dropped from the world. There should be at least a few people with some level of psionic ability.
* New Factions - especially, NO MORE BOS. If the BOS are present, they should have evolved into something quite different than what we've seen before (the idea of BOS turning into something like the War Boy cult from Mad Max: Fury Road would be awesome). It would be interesting also to see other groups that managed to hang on to pre-war technology, and see them do something different and unprecedented with it.
* Power Armor should grant significant bonuses to strength, etc, like it did in the originals. It should also be rare and hard to come by, or if it is common then it should be integrated into the world in a believable way - for example perhaps it requires an entire community with high level skills to keep a suit in working condition.
* Vehicles - this might be an interesting feature. I'm not talking cars, necessarily, but things like brahmin or other pack beasts, or even Power Armor if it's implemented properly. Make it so that some areas of the map are inaccessible without vehicles. This could be because of distance or harsh terrain.
* Successful examples of Vault Civilizations - like Vault City and Shady Sands. Given the sheer number of people running around, presumably there were more successful Vaults than there were failures, but it seems like we only ever see the wacky results of Vault Tec experiments gone awry. This doesn't seem to match the population numbers.
* Give raiders some kind of community structure, rather than just making them mobs of enemies you have no choice but to kill. Give them settlements, NPCs, ideologies. Every "raider" group should be like the Great Khans and be connected to some settlement hub. It would be cool to finally see the tribal structure of the Vipers or some similar band.
* Have realistic level caps - even in the original Fallout, it was relatively easy to become a god, and it just became easier in each subsequent Fallout. In my opinion, to really make the post apocalyptic world seem dangerous, combat should always have the possibility of a swift and unexpected death, even for high level characters. There should be wasteland creatures that are a serious challenge even for maxed out characters to take down. I'd like to see a Fallout where combat is fun, engaging and doesn't cater to power fantasy.
