Anyone think they have cool ideas for a new fallout game?

[Monad]

Hawaii with weird ass tribal cults, boats, Sea Monsters, pirates and the menace of a huge Radioactive tsunami (or Volcanic eruption, or both)

I was actually in a Group doing a Conversion thinking about Hawaii but stopped when the lead left.

I have two ideas floating around, both are intended for potential future PnP campaigns but I thought about them as games at one point. One is isometric and the other first person.

Fallout: Vagrant Wastes

• Pre-rendered backgrounds, turn-based, isometric.
  
• Systems/Rules wise I'd port (with some further tweaking) my personal PnP system (primarily the combat portion)
  
• Worldmap travel would be more intricate with menu-based story vignettes and an Oregon Trail style system in an optional "Survival Mode" where ration management is relevant in order to make traversing the Wasteland less monotonous
  
• Soundtrack by Mark Morgan and Nobody's Nail Machine, focus on post-war Middle East/Mongolian Steppe/tribal fusions meant to represent new world
  
• Aesthetic focus on post-war culture, "desertpunk" tribalistic Mad Max stuff, this is the furthest "gone" the Old World has been visually - works with the rural setting.
  
• Vehicles are more prominent, albeit still sought-after and highly valued rare relics ala Fallout 2. Lots of choice in type (Motorbike, Truck etc)
  
• Optional "Stronghold" system where the player can help establish a single outpost for their faction of choice, doing detailed questlines to strengthen the location into a community and manage its various troubles, also acting as a home base for the player
• Non-ambient music: Bluegrass. Pre and Post war

Setting would be somewhere in the 2220s, in the Midwest. Effectively there'd be a clean up and clarification of the canon there, and a portrayal of the "real" events of Tactics. In short I'd write it so that the Brotherhood established a neo-feudal militia across the Midwest, clearing hostile warlords and aggressive tribal hordes such as the Beastmasters (Supers didn't make it to the Midwest in this canon), spreading far and wide due to their vehicular supremacy. The war with the Calculator's Army in the Rockies was prolonged and costly, spearheaded by a now infamous "Warrior" who dug into the western settlements and became something of a folk/war hero as he raised soldiers from the locals against the machines onslaught. As the situation grew dire, the Warrior and his western soldiers decided to utilize a captured nuclear warhead to destroy the Calculator at Cheyenne Mountain - a direct violation of their primary directive in securing the Calculator and its technology and the usage of atomic warfare a capital offense. The Elders in Chicago ordered the summary execution of The Warrior, to which his men denied. This would spark a civil conflict within the Midwest Brotherhood, the "Brotherhood" vs the "Warriors" of Steel. Eventually culminating in a final battle at St. Louis, where the Warriors were summarily defeated in a trap, and the remains of the city were razed to the ground - civilians included. Increasing tyrannical nature, loss of vehicular supremacy due to fuel shortage (and therefore breakdown of land control) and the atrocities of the Steel Wars lead to a common uprising against the Brotherhood in Chicago, breaking their already weakened state and sending the leadership to parts unknown.

The game would take place about 10 years after the conclusion of these conflicts, in a Midwest that has been thoroughly rocked by conflict (Taming of the Warlords and Beastmasters, Calculator War and finaly the "Steel Wars" ) and political balkanization. The Midwest is now an anarchic free-for-all, with many rising new factions, but also filled with broken remnants of many older factions destroyed by war. Remnants of the Beastmasters, old Warlord millitias, various fragments of the Brotherhood, you name it. This is a game with a lot of war stories. bad-blooded feuds, chips on the shoulder and those who can't let go are in every town. In this third dark age, tribalism is also flourishing across the post-nuclear prairies.

Main story would follow a similar pattern to New Vegas, initially a low-stakes and personal to the player story that then evoles into a broader factional conflict. The objective would be to have that feeling of many entangled, long post-war histories as in the Mojave, but over a much much wider and more diverse region.

Fallout: Broken Coast

• First person
  
• Rules wise uses NV as a jumping off point rather than 4/76 (I.E SPECIAL, Perks, Traits, Skills)
  
• Focus on survivalism and resource scarcity, takes more than a few pages from the Metro games for "immersion" factors
  
• "Crafting" and camp building but done within realistic proportions and not Minecraft style ala 4/76, carefulness to maintain weapon diversity
  
• Power Armor like Fallout 4, but with no fusion cores, massive rarity and the return of PA Training. Assembling a single suit should be a major achievement.
  
• Exploration of Fallout's relatively underexplored "Space Age" and space technology.
• OST is grim, Dark Ambient, lots of whirring electronics
• Non OST-music: "Space Age Pop"/Lounge Music

Setting would be Seattle, 2165. Prior the Great War, Seattle was America's showboaty "City of Tomorrow" thanks to the Space Needle and its ever-extravagant, specatcle of science the World's Fair (Where Dead Money's Sinclair met the Think Tank). Seattle and Washington State was America's spearhead (needlehead?) into the space age. Seattle was also at one point a launching pad for the Canadian Annexation, and many Seattle citizens helped the cause of "mindset adjustment" by moving in next to their (formerly) Canadian neighbors in the established province of New Jefferson (formerly Vancouver). Seattle in 2077 would be basically unrecognizable to our modern eyes, so superficially spiffy and full of cool but ultimately pointless technological conveniences.

Now, it stands in ruin. When it started snowing during the Great Nuclear Winter, it never stopped. Seattle and the majority of Washington exist in a state of permafrost. Plagued by blizzards, radstorms. The player would have diverse Washington environments to explore from the mountains (with lots of hidden Vaults), to the Olympic forests, to the ice-sheets and broken coastline, to the city of Seattle. You'd have to fight to survive, dressing for warmth, packing supplies and handling incliment, fatal weather. To make it you'd have to be a hardy survivalist or a tinkerer who can put those countless pre-war space age convenient trinkets to clever usage. Convert a mega-toaster into a personal heating unit? No problem!

Main story would be some kind of adaption of Van Buren, with the player beginning a prisoner in an automated facility, Bloomfield Space Center, BOMB-001, ODYSSEUS, the works. There'd be focus on the lost space age of america.

I also have this idea floating around for Wanamingos which I posted in the "Rewriting the Capital Wasteland" thread, and it'd be a good fit here. Monstrous, wildly mutating, nesting bio-terrors originating in Washington state.

I'm making a Conversion in Washington and was thinking about an outpost where it will grow based on the characters choices, and new road vehicles and police scouting areas near seattle.

 

[TheodoreRoosevelt]

what about Fallout: Texas?


A bunch of people hold up in the Alamo in san antonio seems pretty cool idea. Could be super mutants trying to make a home there. with one of the quest dealing with opening up trade between them and other settlements. as a sort of ambassador of the Mutants if they trust you enough to do it for them. Depending on how you complete the other quests you could make the mutants look bloodthirsty thus limiting their trade opportunities with only the bravest of settlements willing to deal with them. or none at all. sort of like how you could kill the NCR mercenaries who were bothering jacobstown which would lead to further human reprisals against jacobstown and less prosperity for the town overall.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

So far as I'm concerned, you could really only set a true successor in one of three places: Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains, or Four Corners. Fallout is thematically tied deeply to the West of America, and so is all of its lore. We've seen Cali, we've seen the parts of Nevada worth seeing, these are the only regions left. I suppose you could add Utah/New Canaan, but I sort of like this remaining an important but off-screen area.

Pacific Northwest seems most natural in some ways - after all, fromm Fallout 1 to 2 we move north just to the edge of Cascadia, so it only makes sense to keep going and see whats past those cannibal gangs. I have two concerns with this seeting, however. First, the lush climate of Cascadia feels very much at odds with the Fallout aesthetic, and I feel as though it would be difficult to reconcile without making it feel like a totally different game. Secondly, while I've read many concepts for a Cascadian fallout over the year, they seem to be pretty roundly dreadful.

Four Corners has a lot to explore in Fallouts established and semi-canon lore, and it still fits in well with the desertpunk aesthetic.

I am perhaps most enamored with the Rocky Mountains, which are sparser than the Four Corners in terms of preexistent adventure hooks but what few we have are very tantalizing to me. Further, something about a mix of High Desert, Dustbowl plains, and pine forests just works for me as different from the prior games and yet somehow still 'fallout' in a way that Cascadia just isn't.

 

[Atomic Postman]

So far as I'm concerned, you could really only set a true successor in one of three places: Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains, or Four Corners. Fallout is thematically tied deeply to the West of America, and so is all of its lore. We've seen Cali, we've seen the parts of Nevada worth seeing, these are the only regions left. I suppose you could add Utah/New Canaan, but I sort of like this remaining an important but off-screen area.

Pacific Northwest seems most natural in some ways - after all, fromm Fallout 1 to 2 we move north just to the edge of Cascadia, so it only makes sense to keep going and see whats past those cannibal gangs. I have two concerns with this seeting, however. First, the lush climate of Cascadia feels very much at odds with the Fallout aesthetic, and I feel as though it would be difficult to reconcile without making it feel like a totally different game. Secondly, while I've read many concepts for a Cascadian fallout over the year, they seem to be pretty roundly dreadful.

Four Corners has a lot to explore in Fallouts established and semi-canon lore, and it still fits in well with the desertpunk aesthetic.

I am perhaps most enamored with the Rocky Mountains, which are sparser than the Four Corners in terms of preexistent adventure hooks but what few we have are very tantalizing to me. Further, something about a mix of High Desert, Dustbowl plains, and pine forests just works for me as different from the prior games and yet somehow still 'fallout' in a way that Cascadia just isn't.

The issue I forsee with the Four Corners is the elephant of the Legion. You set it beforehand and everything is meaningless because it'll be gobbled up by Caesar in the future.

Set it afterwards and you've got to decide a canon outcome of NV and deal with the fact that the Legion effectively will have industrially ablated any interesting wasteland cultures and scoured the region.

Any conflict or major factions are going to have to be limited in scope - otherwise it's strange that it has no bearing on the Legion or mentioned at all in the Mojave.

Personally to maintain the western/desertpunk look I'd say Texas is a better spot, because it also allows for total creative freedom. In my head I have images of Fallout's Texas being this truly barren desert expanse raging with dust storms like Fury Road.

 

[bpolonifis]

Recently I completed the quatret Fallout Nevada, Fallout 2, Fallout 1.5 & Fallout 1 coming from Fallout Tactics and Xcom 2.

I have to admit and admire the complete universe that is Nevada, 2 ,1.5 and 1. It's incredible. Each game is different with higher qualities and different lows, all following the same template. What lacks as a whole is the connection game wise not only storywise. It's the need of the gamer to carry the "choices" from one game to the other.

Engine wise I believe the Nevada is the most advanced, with crafting and all, Fallout 1.5 has the best companions . Fallout 1 has the best story and Fallout 2 content is the axis of the universe.

The new mod idea is to connect the four Fallouts to make "Choices Chains"

Storywise would go as follows:

1st mod part) Chinese VS USA: The exodus of Maxson's Platoon ( Power Armor Tutorial & Radiation Tutorial) // Chinese occupation of Vault 16 "Creation of Aliens" ( Sabotage & Stealth Unarmed Tutorial) // Reno Police State (Hunger, Dehydration, & Crafting Tutorial)

> Choices Affect Fallout Nevada > [Introduction to New Companion Mode Tutorial,More Power armor type availability & more Radiation Spread, More Alien Encounters or Bigger Vault City, Reno's Families vs Old State Police Fragments]

2nd mod part) Foundation of Enclave and the Creation of Deathclaws. Oil Rig//Navaro//San Fransisco Sub Marine // Reno Wars (jet)

> Choices Affect Fallout 1> [ Deathclaws Encounters,Alien Encounters,More Power armor type availability & more Radiation Spread, New City of San Fransisco on Map, New Drugs, Enclave on Boneyard, The Defence of Junktown Scenario: Brotherhood vs Mutants, Friendly brotherhood and New Mutant Base in Glow]

3rd mod part) Foundation Of San Fransisco - The Chinese and The Mutant Wave // The destruction of Hub // The Foundation of Arroyo

> Choices Affect Fallout 1.5> [all misc above, Exiled Brotherhood of Steel Chapter & Children of the Apocalypse , Enclave Faction vs Imperial City "Chinese Faction"]

4th mod part) Jacob and Marcus - The Foundation of the Broken Hills & The Uranium Wars (Vertibirds and Zeppelins)

> Choices Affect Fallout 2> [Weakend or Empower BOS, Weaker or Empowerd San Fransisco (Chinese), Bike or Car, Childern of the Apocalypse, Companions]

5th mod part) Chinese Coop d' Etat in NCR State - Reno's Coop d'Etat in NCR State - Chosen's One Coop'Etat in NCR State - California Exodus The Birth of Caesar // NCR vs Children of the Apocalypse,BOS,Enclave,Chinese

For this Concept to work obviously you can't have the same protagonist but you will play different ones as: Paladin Maxson (BOS), Chinese Assasin, New Reno Child, Frank Horrigan (Enclave Trooper), Enclave's Deathclaw, Sinth Robot (Chinese Emperor), Harold (Ghoul), Crimson Caravan President, Marcus (SuperMutant), Jacob (Mutant Hunter),etc plus some extra content for your main characters on Fallout Nevada, 1, 1.5 & 2.

You can customise them but within limits. For example Paladin Maxson to choose between Big Guns or Energy Weapons, Deathclaw to be Brute Unarmed or Quick Silent Killer,
etc
On that end, the death of each character has to be included as choice event. Maxson dies on the quest, Brotherhood is weaker and there is only the Council of Elders no Leader,etc.

3 new systems have to be implemented:
1) Hardcore System Counters (Fallout New Vegas)
2) Radiation on World Map (Wasteland 2) and in game map (Fog)
3) Improved Companion Mode System (like Resident Evil Zero) - might have to sacrifice second weapon slot for this to work.


Because this idea is linear in a way, it would be good to learn from the mistakes of Fallout Tactics and the strong points of it. In tactics the narration was first was the raiders, then the better armed bad raiders, then was the deadly deathclaws, then big gun mutants, then the energy weapons enemy and no freedom or moral choice and still the same classic SPECIAL human protagonist. aka in Fallout 1 Recipe: Khans then Jucktown/Hub then Boneyard then Necropolis then Military Base and Finally the Master Calculator, minus the vault rats and the Voice acting of the Master.
In this mod idea, you get a taste of overpowered lvl 15 -18 characters challenging end game content from the start (fallout 4 tutorial) but returns to your roots each time, with each Fallout game. Shufling the stories and switching sides as a Resident Evil minigame with Hunk trying to recover the Virus ( Frank Horigan & FEV).

There is no need for a lasting protagonist if it includes all these content in the story. You will forget the choices after four games. There is only catharsis.
We only have to keep the war alive - when it matters most.

Because war, war never changes.



PS. I have no modding capability what so ever. Creative writing is my main hobby- passion.

 

[Morgan_]

We need mutant jumping spiders in the next Fallout.

 

[Millim]

I'm probably going to get a lot of shit for this, but I'd like to see the Settlement system be expanded upon.
I'm one of the few that actually felt like it was a decent system and something very unique, but there's a lot of ideas that can be implemented.

It needs fewer settlements, but more options.
Maybe have a way to make deals with the other hubs of the Game World, be able to become your own Mayor and set up your own laws and create groups to savage different resources.
Having the possibility to create Cities rather than small settlements could also be a lot of fun to play around with.
Playing Blades, there's a lot of potential to utilise some of the settlement system from that game and combine into ideas from Fallout 4.
Maybe your deals with other hubs and factions could lead to some tension, bringing the reputation system back from New Vegas could lead to some fun ideas being played around here.

 

[Atomic Postman]

I'm probably going to get a lot of shit for this, but I'd like to see the Settlement system be expanded upon.
I'm one of the few that actually felt like it was a decent system and something very unique, but there's a lot of ideas that can be implemented.

It needs fewer settlements, but more options.
Maybe have a way to make deals with the other hubs of the Game World, be able to become your own Mayor and set up your own laws and create groups to savage different resources.
Having the possibility to create Cities rather than small settlements could also be a lot of fun to play around with.
Playing Blades, there's a lot of potential to utilise some of the settlement system from that game and combine into ideas from Fallout 4.
Maybe your deals with other hubs and factions could lead to some tension, bringing the reputation system back from New Vegas could lead to some fun ideas being played around here.

I think the settlement system could be great if it was something like the original idea for Fort Abandon or the homesteads in some of the Assassin's Creed games: i.e a single settlement/town that you develop with dedicated written NPCs and town issues that you, as the town leader, decide the outcome of. That I think is right up the street of Fallout. The Minecraft early access scrapheap stuff, not so much.

 

[Millim]

I think the settlement system could be great if it was something like the original idea for Fort Abandon or the homesteads in some of the Assassin's Creed games: i.e a single settlement/town that you develop with dedicated written NPCs and town issues that you, as the town leader, decide the outcome of. That I think is right up the street of Fallout. The Minecraft early access scrapheap stuff, not so much.

There's a lot you can do with it.
I think one thing the Fallout games have always had, is that you were more of an observer on the politics in the game. Yes, you have direct involvement in it, but the conflicts that arise are more of you being a cowboy that comes in and helps solves People's problems. I think the politics would be interesting if they went 'you are in the line of the conflict and your choices could have caused the problems happening in the Wasteland'

 

[Atomic Postman]

There's a lot you can do with it.
I think one thing the Fallout games have always had, is that you were more of an observer on the politics in the game. Yes, you have direct involvement in it, but the conflicts that arise are more of you being a cowboy that comes in and helps solves People's problems. I think the politics would be interesting if they went 'you are in the line of the conflict and your choices could have caused the problems happening in the Wasteland'

I think the issue with the settlement system was how it trivialized post-nuclear civilization and the protagonist itself. Truthfully in the time-scale and role that the protagonist can play, they're only going to be an agent of change/drifter. Fallout 4 and to a lesser degree 76 make the player into a God raising eden and building scrap-cities in minutes with purifiers that trivialize most of the potential conflicts. It deifies the protagonist and makes the world less real.

 

[Millim]

I think the issue with the settlement system was how it trivialized post-nuclear civilization and the protagonist itself. Truthfully in the time-scale and role that the protagonist can play, they're only going to be an agent of change/drifter. Fallout 4 and to a lesser degree 76 make the player into a God raising eden and building scrap-cities in minutes with purifiers that trivialize most of the potential conflicts. It deifies the protagonist and makes the world less real.

I think it could work if you're trying it into a game (or with Elder Scrolls 6 which is what in led to believe they will do).

I think the short term drifter narrative is great, but I would like like see something on a larger scale, if only for a spin off or two, at least try and experiment with the formula a bit.
There's only so many times I can have a game like New Vegas before I say 'I don't want anymore New Vegas'.

I'll give 4 some credit, they tried to do something different, and it didn't work out as well. What they need to do is improve the elements of Fallout 4 that were promising and have the conclusion of the story have more weight. For that, you don't even need particularly good writing, you can do that by just creating a basic conflict in the game, allowing your player to slowly build their Town or whatever and when you get to a point where your character has reached the capacity, give us a good pay off.

I actually think Fallout 4 sets up some interesting ideas, all 3 main factions have something interesting to them, but they fell apart because the tensions between the 3 of them weren't interesting enough (that and the BOS wouldn't do what they did in a million years).
So by the time you get to the end, everything fell flat.
Put yourself in a direct line of conflict, make the story personal but with a broad idea of personal (think being shot by Benny) and now there's weight behind the conflict, making the pay off that more satisfying.

 

[Hardboiled Android]

I think the settlement system could be great if it was something like the original idea for Fort Abandon or the homesteads in some of the Assassin's Creed games: i.e a single settlement/town that you develop with dedicated written NPCs and town issues that you, as the town leader, decide the outcome of. That I think is right up the street of Fallout. The Minecraft early access scrapheap stuff, not so much.

This could be OK, but it odes feel a little weird that the player character becomes a faction leader in and of himself. I sort of like the model of the player character perpetually being an outsider, passing through and observing the struggles of numerous communities. He can intervene and help and get a good reputation, but he never become a prime mover and shaker, he's always a "fixer"

EDIT: Also I had no idea that was the original plan for Fort Abandon

 

[Atomic Postman]

I think it could work if you're trying it into a game (or with Elder Scrolls 6 which is what in led to believe they will do).

I think the short term drifter narrative is great, but I would like like see something on a larger scale, if only for a spin off or two, at least try and experiment with the formula a bit.
There's only so many times I can have a game like New Vegas before I say 'I don't want anymore New Vegas'.

I'll give 4 some credit, they tried to do something different, and it didn't work out as well. What they need to do is improve the elements of Fallout 4 that were promising and have the conclusion of the story have more weight. For that, you don't even need particularly good writing, you can do that by just creating a basic conflict in the game, allowing your player to slowly build their Town or whatever and when you get to a point where your character has reached the capacity, give us a good pay off.

I actually think Fallout 4 sets up some interesting ideas, all 3 main factions have something interesting to them, but they fell apart because the tensions between the 3 of them weren't interesting enough (that and the BOS wouldn't do what they did in a million years).
So by the time you get to the end, everything fell flat.
Put yourself in a direct line of conflict, make the story personal but with a broad idea of personal (think being shot by Benny) and now there's weight behind the conflict, making the pay off that more satisfying.

I think this is good space for a spin-off, a Fallout Tactics meets X-COM type game about running your own faction, but I think the mainline games should remain the stories of itinerant heroes.

 

[Millim]

I think this is good space for a spin-off, a Fallout Tactics meets X-COM type game about running your own faction, but I think the mainline games should remain the stories of itinerant heroes.

I think that would work just fine as an X-Com like work.
If Bethesda do go that way for Fallout 5, I wouldn't exactly be unhappy with it through. At this point the series is far removed from what made it great originally that I just want good games from it.
But I do imagine I'll play the shit out of that.
They could let the guys who made the Halo Wars games handle something like that.

 

[Morgan_]

I think this would make a great addition to a Fallout game.

Spoiler: pics

If there were to be another iso Fallout I'd like to see it allow for free roam while outside of combat instead of point and click at all times. I think the best option would be a mix between Larian Studios style and Disco Elysium with the squad based Xcom combat thrown in. Not a 1 to 1, but just similar so the squad tactics and tile movements. More verticality would be nice as well. You and your squad enter an old ruin area and you have your sniper/spotter party member climb the scaffolding to get a good vantage point. While checking the ruins they spot bad news headed towards town. Should you choose to lie low and avoid the battle or ambush them? Take the first shot with sniper perch and try to lure them into a choke point? I wouldn't want environments to have the blocky elevation that Xcom has though.

Being able to setup camps in either the wilderness or old buildings would also be really cool. When in your camping area and settlements you could even be allowed different viewpoints. Maybe have squad conversations either stay iso, or switch to the view points used in the drug store in the first walking dead game. This would be optional of course. Having some destructible environments would also be nice. Use a mini nuke on a building that enemies are in? The building will be gone as well as the surrounding area having various levels of damage based on proximity. Not the best option for collecting useful gear and spoils.

If used to often, or too close to a settlement locals may be wary of your approach. Possibly even firing on you once in town if your reputation isn't high enough and they find out it was you that used the nuke so close to them. Mini nukes should be a true last resort with varying consequences.

 

[Atomic Postman]

Fallout definitely needs to split Speech into Persuasion and Deception, generally have more focus outside of it being a win button. I'd love to see Disco Elysium style convos for Fallout

 

[Morgan_]

Yeah, I'm reaching a bit when I say to possibly use the Walking Dead game as an influence. Just throwing ideas out there and then either expand on them or whittle them down.
How neat would it be to have assets scanned into a Fallout game either for the whole game or just parts? What I mean is scan in building, etc so you'd have stuff that looks like this if you wanted, but it would be in game:

Spoiler

Could be hard to do without it looking odd. I'd def want the lighting to be in game.

 

[JustAShcookius]

Metro Exodus had a way of making the train rides infinite, the landscape passing along and giving a sense of actual travel. I want a procedurally generated wasteland that conveys the distance and feeling of hopelessness between civilization like OG Fallouts did. It shouldn't be very difficult at all considering the large deserts and exposed areas of the Midwest and California.

I am so sick of locations being 3 minute walks away from one another.

Some hastily cobbled together examples:

 

[Hardboiled Android]

Metro Exodus had a way of making the train rides infinite, the landscape passing along and giving a sense of actual travel. I want a procedurally generated wasteland that conveys the distance and feeling of hopelessness between civilization like OG Fallouts did. It shouldn't be very difficult at all considering the large deserts and exposed areas of the Midwest and California.

I am so sick of locations being 3 minute walks away from one another.

Some hastily cobbled together examples:
View attachment 19966 View attachment 19967View attachment 19968

This is actually a really fantastic idea, and I suspect if Black Isle had held onto Fallout or it had been acquired by Troika this probably would have been the approach taken to overworld travel at some point.

 

[JustAShcookius]

This is actually a really fantastic idea, and I suspect if Black Isle had held onto Fallout or it had been acquired by Troika this probably would have been the approach taken to overworld travel at some point.

Its interesting you say this. Mark Morgan put murmurs from passing wastelanders, periodic scorching heat and nightly sounds, brahmin moaning (?), wind moaning, and what I think are the creaking sounds of a steam truck at this bookmarked time:


Like you said, I likewise get the feeling that overworld travel was supposed to be ten times more interesting than it was...