A thought about ammunition

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leitwolf

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What I don't like about the Fallout-Universe are the vast amounts of ammo you can find throughout the wastes.
You would think that, after the war, mass-production of bullets had stopped. Also the remaining supplies would surely have been pretty much used up or decayed during the 80 years that followed.
I somehow can't understand how everyone seems to be well supplied with ammo since the production of new bullets would be pretty hard without the knowledge and proper equipment.
Maybe I'm being ignorant of some facts but in my humble opionion it would have fit the game pretty good if you had to be more careful about using your bullets. I can only point to the Mad Max films, where every single bullet was precious (also such scarceness of ammunition would rather be a harassment than a positive feature).
What do you think?

--
If ignorance is bliss
Then knock the smile off my face
 
Well, ammunition isn't as a dire rarity as you assume, my friend. The ingredients to construct gunpowder is found relatively easily in the extracts of certain feces (bat or cow), charcoal, and sulfur. Then you merely have to combine the concoction with wine or urine and stir it with a determined vigor. After that, you set the mixture aside where it will harden to the consistency of a cake of soap. Then you break it apart and crumble it into a fine dust. Violia, homemade implement of death. And then you just need a blacksmith to cap and prime the cartridges for the bullets and that's it. In FO1, there was a doctor and a man namded Smitty who had just the exact business going on.

(BTW, Please do not attempt the above steps; there is a good chance that the measurements of each part, which I have purposely ommitted, were not correct and it can have the potential of blowing an arm off when you light it.)

"Credo Ut Intelligam"- I believe so that I may understand.
 
I Think he meant the overabuncance, like the fact that i run around with 1500+ rounds of rifle rounds etc. You would think it wouldnt be that plentiful. I can see vaults maybe having some, and places that werent directly hit, but its just way too easy to find. Personally i would've liked to have seen more melee action in my game, where one would hafta think twice about using a gun every encounter. Its kinda ridiculous that when you get to Klamath in FO2, you can shoot the rats and have no fear of ever running out of ammo (i know i never did for any gun, ever).
 
You're a fool if you wasting tons of money on buying bullets in Klamath, unless you use one of those gay shortcuts like a cheater. If you use up all your ammo in Klamath you'll be almost gone or gone by the time you get to the Den and then what, huh?

"Eat lead, chop shop boy!" - Chosen One
All hail Lord Phrog, #1 fan and veteran of Fallout series.
 
The over abundance of ammo, for Fallout 1 at least, can be attributed to the fact that the United States have been prepping for war for quite a while (hey, Canada is pretty big place to annex). So after the bombs have fallen, there's more ammo than people. I'm sure that not many people would want to risk the "do-it-yourself-and-save-a-buck-at-the-cost-of-your-life" instructions I've stated above for building gunpowder. More likely that the army utilized the masssive Colt machinery factories to surplus their supplies.

"Credo Ut Intelligam"- I believe so that I may understand.
 
Yep, like GuitaristsBane said, I meant the mass of ammonition that I think didn't fit.
Of course there would be people making new or refilling old bullets (like Smitty for example), but still not everyone would be able to run around with, let's say, 8 spare magazines for each of his 2 weapons.
Also the huge amounts that were produced before the war could have been decreased by ammuition depots and military bases being blown up etc., since a great part of the US were destroyed.

Besides, Phrog, what's the problem of being without ammo in the Den? Flick and Tubby got plenty. And it's for free...
--
If ignorance is bliss
Then knock the smile off my face
 
Honestly, if I were in the Fallout 2 universe, I would focus my abilities on energy weapons, and recharge the micro fusion cells or small energy cells using electricity from the Gecko powerplant, along with guidance from an electrical handbook and parts from either Gecko or the BoS. This would eliminate any "ammo" problems for a long, long time. Well, until Broken Hills dries out. Actually, the fact that the BoS haven't already done so is amazing.

Also, I hope you don't mind, but I must take this moment to get extremely technical.
Remember, Fallout 2 starts on Tuesday, July 25th, 2241. The war started on Sunday, October 10th, 2077. So, in actuality, it is not 80 years as you say, but exactly 163.79 years between that time, more than double your figure. You are most likely being confused by the fact that Fallout 2 begins exactly 79.64 years after the beginning of Fallout 1, which starts on Sunday, December 5th, 2161. Also, as a side note, Fallout 1 starts exactly 84.15 years after WWIII. Finally, just out of interest, Fallout 2 begins exactly 238.59 years from now. All the years are calculated assuming that Earth's orbit around the sun and Earth's current rotation period remain the same as they are today, and that any other celestial factors that may affect the aforementioned do not occur. I also took into account that a year is not just 365 days, but rather is 365.25 days, or 365 days and 6 hours.
 
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