Biggest Problem With Fallout 3?

[squeehunter]

Like one of my friends suggested me to ask you, why do you think there aren't any man portable nuclear launching weapons around in reality?

Let's not bring reality into this.

Wait... this is Fallout. Crazy stuff happens all the time.

 

[Moving Target]

Things that seem to bother a lot of you don't bother me.

-The BOS as a whole haven't gone soft. Only the ones led by Lyons have. The "outcasts" mentioned in the developer diary seem to only be interested in technology still.

That's not the issue.

The issue that they're there in the first place. Sure it's not unreasonable to expect that there will be remnants of the U.S. Army on the East Coast- just like it's not unreasonable to expect there will be some in the Midwest, and ESPECIALLY in Alaska.

But- the issue is, it's the Brotherhood of Steel. They're supposed to be insular, very protective of their technology, and not too keen on splinter groups.

If anyone left the group, unless there was a massive firefight or something, they'd probably just be tossed out unceremoniously without any equipment.

Just having them on the East Coast is a massive ret-con. That's the issue, really.

-I'm sure there's a good reason why Jet is in the east coast. If there's not, it's not going to bother me.

Myron was the only one who knew how to make the stuff. Unless he's on the East Coast (woooo.... anyone else sense a ret-con here?) or someone managed to get his notes- which might not even exist, anyway- there's no reason to have Jet in the game. Could've had any other made-up drug and it would've been fine.

-If you can have a super powerful BB gun than what's so wrong with a gun that shoots teddybears?

First off, the BB Gun was an easter egg- and a sort of lame one, at that. And it was ridiculous, no doubt about that.

But the important point is this- unless a teddy bear is jammed full of heavy metal objects, or rocks, or something, there's no way it'll do any appreciable damage. At which point you'd just ask "Why use a teddy bear in the first place? Why not just use what's IN the bear?"

To say nothing of the fact that the force of the blast would rip it to tiny bits of fluff anyway.

-A car powered by micro-fusion cells shouldn't explode when shot but neither should a car full of gasoline but I can live with both in a game.

Soooo... because it's a staple of stupid action movies and video games, it's okay?

These are cars that have sat for over two hundred years. The idea that, even if the fuel cells are nuclear, that they'd still be radioactive, and even moreso, that they'd be combustible, is so beyond moronic it's not even funny.

FO3 should have just stuck with how the original Fallouts handled cars: as rusted-out useless hulks. Well, except for the Highwayman, but that was kinda silly anyway.

-What exactly is wrong with the Fat Man? I can't understand that. It was an experimental weapon that you got your hands on. It's basically just a Davey Crockett.

-Radiation
-The Davey Crockett wasn't a short-range (nay, point-blank range) weapon like the Fat Man, and this point's been discussed to beyond death.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Like one of my friends suggested me to ask you, why do you think there aren't any man portable nuclear launching weapons around in reality?

Let's not bring reality into this.

Wait... this is Fallout. Crazy stuff happens all the time.

You're avoiding the question.

As for crazy stuff, perhaps but not on the level of the Fatman, and the Alien Blaster and Solar Scorcher were easter eggs so they don't count.

 

[Confalone]

Well you know... people in fallout use fucking MINIGUNS all the time. I don't think that's too common irl. Not to mention that it is after all, science fiction. Some aspects of it should be...fantastic and weird... like the fatman... wow I think I just changed my own opinion in that one post.

 

[Kahgan]

Yet in the original Fallouts nuclear weapons are depicted as huge chunks of metal and wires that you couldn't dream of lifting even with a power armour.

 

[Aero]

Wow talk about brick walls.

Ok lets start off with the BoS once more.

From Bethesdas site and their take on the BoS. I don't really find much to fault with the storyline.

It’s not enough for the Brotherhood of Steel’s members to use whatever high-tech gadgetry they’ve acquired, though. The organization’s entire existence is predicated on the acquisition of technology. Whatever they’ve got is never enough. Their best equipment? It could be better. Even if this endless search for high-tech toys means keeping the good stuff out of the hands of others who could really benefit from it, well, that’s okay with the Brotherhood of Steel.

So it really didn’t come as a surprise to anyone within the Brotherhood of Steel when the order’s ruling council, based in Southern California, decided to send a contingent of soldiers all the way to the East Coast, with two important objectives:

1. To scour the ruins of Washington D.C., once the nation’s capital, and recover any and all advanced technology. After all, D.C. was the home of the Pentagon, the very headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. Who knows what secrets – or equipment – they left behind?
2. To investigate the reports of Super Mutant activity in the area. Could these creatures be somehow related to those that fled eastward after the Master’s destruction (as depicted at the end of Fallout 1). Or were these Super Mutants something else entirely?

Sounds cannon to me so far.

And so a small but hardened contingent of Brotherhood of Steel soldiers, led by an idealistic Paladin named Owyn Lyons (and accompanied by his friend and technological advisor Scribe Rothchild, as well as his seven year-old daughter Sarah) set out from the Lost Hills Bunker in California, and began the long trek east to what was once Washington D.C.

When the group finally arrived in the Capital Wasteland, it didn’t take long before they made some remarkable discoveries.

The Pentagon, as they had feared, was largely destroyed. But its sub-levels remained intact, and contained enough pre-war technology and weaponry to keep Lyons’ forces going indefinitely (once the defense robots were destroyed). But there was something else, as well… a technological marvel that, if restored, could help the Brotherhood rebuild a strength and reputation that had been declining steadily for years.

The discovery was significant enough to earn Paladin Lyons a battlefield promotion to Elder, and a new directive from his superiors – to establish a new, permanent Brotherhood base in the Capital Wasteland, and continue the search for any other advanced technology hidden in the capital’s ruins.

I don't have any problems with this either

Lyons accepted his new post gladly, and founded the Citadel, built into and beneath the ruins of the Pentagon. It was a fortress the Brotherhood of Steel desperately needed, and one they rushed to fortify, thanks to their other great discovery – Super Mutants.

It didn’t take long for Lyons and the Brotherhood of Steel to find the Super Mutants, mostly because they didn’t have to: the Super Mutants found them. In the Capital Wasteland – particularly in the urban ruins of downtown D.C. – the Super Mutants simply couldn’t be avoided.

That’s why, for the people of the Capital Wasteland, the Brotherhood of Steel was the answer to their prayers. Scattered, hungry, and largely disorganized, they had lived with the constant threat of death or capture by the Super Mutants for as long as they could remember. Elder Lyons and his brave Knights and Paladins changed all that. For the first time, the Super Mutant tide was stemmed. The D.C. ruins were still Super Mutant controlled and uninhabitable, that was true, but the number of incursions against outlying settlements dropped significantly. Life was still harsh and unfair, but at least now the people of the Capital Wasteland had a fighting chance – and they had Elder Lyons and the Brotherhood to thank for that.

So because of the BoS new presence in the area giving the Super Mutants something else to attack, the rest of the populace has a lessening of Super Mutant attacks on them. To these people that makes the BoS a godsend maybe even heroes in their eyes.

Fighting the Super Mutants, simply keeping them at bay, may have been enough for the area’s innocents, but for the Brotherhood, too many questions remained: how were these local Super Mutants created? Why were they capturing the people of the Capital Wasteland? Where were they taking them? Finding these answers would, ultimately, become Owyn Lyons' obsession.

The years passed, but not in a way anyone had foreseen. Indeed, the Brotherhood of Steel’s importance to the people of the Capital Wasteland was not something that Lyons ever expected. Nor was it something his superiors back in California cared at all about.

Still west coast BoS cannon

However Here is where the first factioning of the BoS happens. And it does come back to Bite the newest Elder.

Their newest Elder had a clearly defined mission – to acquire advanced technologies in and around the ruins of Washington D.C. Finding the source of the Super Mutant threat and destroying it was important too, of course. But that shouldn’t take too long… right? Surely the Brotherhood of Steel could handle a few Super Mutants? How hard could it be to locate and eliminate their source? Lyons’ prime objective was, first and foremost, the acquisition of technology. The Super Mutants were his second priority. Thus was the subject of every communication from the Brotherhood of Steel leadership in California.

But Elder Owyn Lyons had another priority, one he considered more important than his original directive or any orders received since – the protection of the innocent people of the Capital Wasteland. And so, Lyons sent word to his superiors that he would continue his search for technology when he was damned good and ready, and would not sacrifice the people who had come to rely on the bravery and strength of the Brotherhood of Steel.

This was Lyons decision not the Main BoS deciding. From the time the BoS arrived in the Capital wasteland area the BoS was viewed by the locals as a god send. They looked up maybe even Idolized these newcomers. After a few years of this it would be easy to grow attached to such a community.

The Californian corridors of Lost Hills erupted in rumor and speculation. Had Owyn Lyons “gone native,” putting the needs of the people of D.C. above those of the Brotherhood itself? Or had a Brotherhood Elder finally exhibited the selfless behavior that should serve as a model for the entire order? Caught in the middle, the ruling Elders made the only decision they could – they would still recognize Elder Lyons as a leader of the Brotherhood of Steel, and the Citadel as their D.C. headquarters. But all support from the West Coast was thereby cut off. If Lyons wanted to pursue his own agenda on the East Coast, he would do it alone.

Pretty smart of the West Coast BoS really. They still want the tech so there gonna keep in contact. "But You guys over on the East coast are being bad so we are gonna stop any supplies. Oh You can keep your Elder title too."

Most of Elder Lyons’ soldiers supported his dedication to the people of the Capital Wasteland, and were proud of their leader’s commitment to honor and heroism. But there were those who voiced their opposition – loudly, and aggressively. They believed that by abandoning the Brotherhood of Steel’s primary mission of acquiring new technologies, Elder Lyons had abandoned the very values that defined the order itself.

One night, the dissenters departed from the Citadel, absconding with weapons, Power Armor, and other pieces of technology and equipment. This was, without question, Owyn Lyons’ darkest hour. He had become a man of compassion and understanding, and couldn’t help but sympathize with those who had left: he had abandoned the Brotherhood’s primary mission. He recognized that, and took full responsibility. Some of the Knights and Paladins who left had been his battle brothers for years. Together, they had shared victory and loss, pain and elation. But to those soldiers loyal to Elder Lyons, this dereliction of duty and theft of technology was an act of cowardice and treason. Lyons was left with little choice: he branded the dissenters “Outcasts,” traitors to the Brotherhood of Steel – it was a name they would ultimately wear like a badge of honor, proud of the distance it put between themselves and Lyons’ “soldier sycophants.”

So there was another split in the brotherhood. Why didn't these guys return to the West Coast Base. Maybe they were too small a group or any other logical reason. This also seems to take a while. Longer than a few years. Maybe more like 13 or so.

I think Bethesda has laid out their version of the East coast BoS with a great back story.

Well thats enough about the BoS and it's a long post so gonna end this one and continue on another.

Aero

 

[Black]

Some people don't get something... I can make even Alien invasion "plausible" as in, an alien race arrived to Earth because of amount of energy released ~200 years earlier. Heck, there's even an Alien Blaster and monsters called Aliens in FO2. See? Totally canon!
And at the same time unbelievably stupid, like talking deathclaws.

 

[Aero]

And other bits

Aero wrote:

The Virus didn't effect everyone the same some mutated physically some mentally some did both. Meaning some became dumb. Dumbs easy. they band together, mate, multiply like pack of dogs.

Sander wrote:

You are missing the point. Super Mutants were always dumb. But there were

Also, the main point was that the graphical style is completely different.

Thats not true at all. Go read the Fallout bible. It states that not all mutants were dumb. It did seem to depend on radiation levels in the subjects. Thats one reason the Enclave wanted the least contaminated subjects, and why they grabbed the vault and tribe populations instead of just snagging caravans and such. And your Right about the graphic style being completely different. There has been alot of improvment in tech, software, game engines, since Fallout 2 was released. Going 3d hasn't hurt other franchises. The thing with Fallout is that there has not been a new release every few years to slowly bring us to the point where 3d would be the next step. (I'm so not counting FoT or BoS)

I Do wish we could see what Van Burene looked like. I bet it would be 3D.

Yes, that's part of the not-nuking the town choice. The point wasn't that this wasn't possible, the point was that this is the closest thing we've seen to any kind of moral choice, and it's hardly a hallmark of moral possibilities.

Your talking about one quest so far. Here read this http://www.gamesradar.com/f/fallout-3-post-play-interview/a-2008072113277590042


Not much different than the quest in Fallout 1 and 2 if you ask me. Think of the Blades and Regulator quests in Fallout 1 or raiders vs rangers in FO2. Those were moral choices as well. They just were not called that. And yes I originaly got the link to that story from the NMA site.

Ehm, Fallout 2 established that the President of the US fled to the oil tanker. Hell, they wanted to destroy all of mankind left on the surface of the world. This doesn't strike well with having a group on said mainland all the way on the other side of the continent that behaves in a completely different way.
If anything, there might be a seperate group on the East Coast, but there's no reason for them to have the same name, same suit of armour (that was developed by the West Coast Enclave after the War, by the way) etc unless they're the same group.

?!??!? There were more than likely factions inside the enclave as well. The BoS dosn't have a monopoly on groups splitting apart. Happens all the time. Look at how many factions of the original Catholic Church there are now. Maybe The west coast Enclave were remanants of the Republicans and the east coast were Democrats.

Ehm, source?
And ehm, what cars? The only cars in Fallout 1 were completely unuseable scrap metal.

Ok if there were no other cars Why was there a garage to mod cars near New Reno? Also In the fallout bible it is mentioned that 1 out of 200 cars were probably functional but couldn't run do to tires or some other maintanance issues.( I don't recall exactly the figure.) I think there would be alot more in an area Like DC than on the west coast.

However I think if you look at the map in Fallout 1 the boneyard area is actually part of a huge city (LA). Maybe the people drove all the usable ones away heading towards the mountains durring the initial bombing . I know if I lived in a big city and there was going to be a nuke off that I'd head to the hills, at least those in the suburbs before the huge traffic jams would. However in FO3 the videos we have seen so far are in the downtown part of the city. Thus the abundance of Cars. There are probably just as many along main highways. Maybe I didn't read it in any official docs (not saying I didn't. I just do not remember) that the cars would blow up. It may have been from a discussion or where ever. But if you think about it they probably would. Even a drained fusion cell would probably blow when shot. And not everyone would have the scientific ability to scavenge that kind of tech. Plus its still kinda hot from any near nukes. Even if most were shot out of the air. There would still be some fallout. That could just now be decayed enough for normal humans to walk around. This explains all the water sources being contaminated in the area. You would think the east coast would have gotten more nukes than the west coast.

I hope you can tell the difference between the darkly ironic type of humour Fallout featured, and the 'lol I can shoot teddybears' humour Fallout 3 seems to feature.

As apposed to a random encounter with a whale and a flowerpot? or any other Monty Python based humor? Don't get me wrong I enjoyed them. I also thought the teddy bear launcher was funny due to its absurdity. That's what made it funny. I doubt they made the launcher to specificly shoot teddy bears, but after it was made I'm sure the devs played with it untill some one said "hehe hehe. Lets make some teddy bears to launch outa this thing."
I bet there will not be that many teddy bears in the game. Most ammo will probbaly be coffee cups, empty nuka cola bottles, ect.

Now I don't understand the hate on the mini nuke. The nuke is probably taken from the pentagon or other bases in the area. And why wouldn't there be mini nukes? They had plasma rifles, laser rifles, plasma grenades, fusion cells and all the other sci fi type weapons. Hell I could think of a booby trap made with a mini fusion cell set to blow all it's energy in one burst.

Aero wrote:

Yes there isn't an Isometric view. Maybe if blizzard would have baought the franchise....Wait then everyone would say its just Diablo with guns

Sander wrote:
Strike one for trolling.

Hmmm I was making a point. Everyone bashing Bethesda. I't dosn't matter who makes it. Fault would have been found with any company. And at least my comment was a little bit longer and more in depth than your trolling remark which in of its self was trolling.


Aero

 

[Aero]

Some people don't get something... I can make even Alien invasion "plausible" as in, an alien race arrived to Earth because of amount of energy released ~200 years earlier. Heck, there's even an Alien Blaster and monsters called Aliens in FO2. See? Totally canon!
And at the same time unbelievably stupid, like talking deathclaws.

Both the aliens and deathclaws were explained as actually being experiments. and that the Wannamingoes oh screw it. here we go Pulled from FO bible 0

The eggs you see in Fallout 2 are the last generation of Wannamingoes to exist in the wasteland; the young Wannamingoes seen in F2 will perish in five years, and their parents a few years before that - an internal genetic clock will simply stop ticking, and they'll fall over dead. The Wannamingoes are a vicious mutant breed that had their moment in the sun, and now their sun has set.

To put the tombstone on their extinction, the largest known nest of Wannamingoes were wiped out when the Great Wannamingo mine was reclaimed by Redding with the help of a traveling tribal. The mother was killed, and the last remaining eggs were hunted down, stepped on, and then the remains were examined by local scientists and doctors who came to the extinction conclusions mentioned above.

Again, Wannamingoes are not aliens – they are a curious mutant or genetically-designed fighting machine that has only been able to find a home in the cold, dark places of the wastes.

It is possible that the wannamingoes were old Enclave experiments (or even experiments from before the Great War), and if this is true, then it's likely their genetic/biological deadman’s switch was purposely engineered to keep them from breeding past a certain generation.

As for the Alien Blaster Who knows It may have been a prototype. I't did miraculously take micro power cells.

 

[Brother None]

edityourpost

Please don't double post

 

[Black]

Both the aliens and deathclaws were explained as actually being experiments. and that the Wannamingoes oh screw it. here we go Pulled from FO bible 0

Didn't you read what I just said? The point is that you can explain everything but even explained idiocy remain idiotic.

I could explain that radiation affected some people differently and now they have longer ears and like trees. It still would be a pathetic and blatant "hey guise, we have elves in our Fallot, isnt that asum??"

 

[Aero]

I'm not explaining it.

I'm not explaining away anything. Those quotes are directly from the Fallout Bible. Info put together mainly by Chris Avellone from questions sent in by fans.

Didn't you read what I just said? The point is that you can explain everything but even explained idiocy remain idiotic.

I could explain that radiation affected some people differently and now they have longer ears and like trees. It still would be a pathetic and blatant "hey guise, we have elves in our Fallot, isnt that asum??"

Didn't you read what I just said? Oh screw it let me break it down for you. Here is another cut and paste from the Fallout Bible. Where a fan already asked all the questions your statments are raising.

- FEV (Forced Evolutionary Virus) explains the more grievous mutations in the wasteland (the Master, the Master's pets such as the floaters and centaurs, super mutants, Harold), and radiation caused most of the other giant-style mutations you see (scorpions, rats, ants, etc.) and some of the others (ghouls).

- The Fallout world is much like Torg - physics and natural laws are not the same as in our universe, but are based instead on 50s sensibilities and pulp era comics - the Fallout universe is what people in the 50s believed the future would be (with a lot of nuclear warheads dropped on it). As a result, there are endless stretches of desert, radiation will cause giant mutations, rayguns and brains in jars are realities, you might trip over a few giant evil tentacular blobs with plans of taking over the world, see plenty of clunky robots with glass dome heads and lots of blinking lights, and science in general is not only heavily atomic and optimistic, but it is also much easier in the Fallout universe (or also, "Science!") thus allowing people to create ultrasound guns, death beams, and lasers, usually in little or no time (especially when an invasion from outer space occurs). Most modern day concepts concerning artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and so on aren't part of the Fallout universe, since people in the 50s didn't recognize that many of these concepts existed (well, except the terminology for artificial intelligence, which was officially used at the Dartmouth Summer Conference on Artificial Intelligence in 1956, if I have my facts straight).

- In case this is news to anyone, the Fallout world is a divergent Earth. Really. And the world blew up in 2077, not in 1950.

Don't believe me? then Check this out:

http://duckandcover.cx/features/bible/bible9.php#fevbitch


You have to realize Fallout is stylized after 50s \comics/movies/stories. Meaning all science is based on what they thought then (yes looking back, alot of what they thought dose seem idiotic) . just advanced to 2077 when the bombs were dropped. Yes they new war was coming so weapons did take the front burrner. Then the Brotherhood, and Enclave kept doing their thing in there bunkers and hidey holes. Untill 2161 when Falout was set then more advancements between then and 2241 when Fallout 2 took place and again another 30+years go by till 2277 when Fallout 3 Takes place.

And yes 200 years have gone by with only 1000 people in the vault. The question is how did they survive in the vault that long? How many generations have lived and died? what did they do for population growth? Did the vaults actually have that many supplies to sustain 1000 people for 200 years?

Edited for further info added[ and some spelling

 

[Heldelance]

Pass a tip to the Us military that terrorists are hiding in places where they make consoles.

They send some bombs over and the console problem is solved.

 

[Black]

Re: I'm not explaining it.

Don't believe me? then Check this out:

I've read the FO Bible few times, it has nothing to do with "believing you" or not. It's obvious to me that you're not even trying to understand what I'm saying.

 

[ngtank]

Only 2 things really angered me
1. Whats with the super mutants
2. I wanted more info on NCR and Vault city, as in a definitive answer on what happened.

 

[Aero]

Re: I'm not explaining it.

Don't believe me? then Check this out:

I've read the FO Bible few times, it has nothing to do with "believing you" or not. It's obvious to me that you're not even trying to understand what I'm saying.

Ok I think I get what your saying. I just don't agree is all. Differences of opinions and all that

 

[Moving Target]

Only 2 things really angered me
1. Whats with the super mutants
2. I wanted more info on NCR and Vault city, as in a definitive answer on what happened.

'sup, new person!

1. My guess is it's just Bethsoft recycling their models from Oblivion. Same reason the ghouls- who should look all flakey and green-skinned (or glowing and white, if they're Glowing Ones) look all skin-and-bones zombie-like. And can run now. *Sigh*

2. Well, since the franchise is in Bethseda's hands now, and they don't seem to have much interest in what happened on the West Coast (not-so-subtle jab at Bethsoft's ignoring of canon) we'll probably never know.

Though, canonically, really, what happened to NCR and Vault City depended on what you did in FO2. So, what happened at the end, really happened. There won't be a 'read FO3 manual to find out what happened to VC and NCR' moment like with the FO2 manual. Nope.

It's across the country; NO radios broadcast that far, not without an amazing amount of power. And there's the alleged radioactive twisters.... hell, even when the radiation dies down, there'd still be enormous weather systems, probably lots of flash floods, twisters, dust storms and so on. So radio interference, and probably no (or very few) caravans through the country.

So... yea.... FO2 probably won't get a mention in the storyline. Besides as the source material Bethsoft allegedly used.

 

[Herr Mike]

I thought I read that some cars were powered by rocket fuel, not only fusion cells.

Which is even more odd, considering any extractable fuel would have long ago been pilfered.

At any rate, who says fusion cells can't explode? Has anyone made one and tested it out? A nuclear reaction would need a catalyst, maybe a bullet would set it off on impact.

With that thought, I don't know that I would install something in a car that would level the city thanks to a fender bender...

eh, I'll just chalk it up to the fact that all games must have some variant of the good old exploding barrell.

 

[Scare]

It's too bad Beth couldn't come up with their own BoS type faction, bringing them to the east makes the world so much smaller than it seemed in 1 & 2. I have a friend that lives in North Carolina and it's no small feat for us to get together and our civilization is still intact (for now). It doesn't matter how it's explained, it's just weak storytelling.

My main problem with the back story of FO3, so far, is the area names- Capital Wasteland? Megaton? How can anyone take them seriously?

 

[Aero]

I thought I read that some cars were powered by rocket fuel, not only fusion cells.

Which is even more odd, considering any extractable fuel would have long ago been pilfered.

At any rate, who says fusion cells can't explode? Has anyone made one and tested it out? A nuclear reaction would need a catalyst, maybe a bullet would set it off on impact.

With that thought, I don't know that I would install something in a car that would level the city thanks to a fender bender...

eh, I'll just chalk it up to the fact that all games must have some variant of the good old exploding barrell.

As to rocket fuel, Initially they were going to be powered by rocket fuel during development of Fallout but it was changed pretty early on.

As to the safety of fusion cells there were probably tones of fail safes but over time these have degraded. (thus rigs in fallout 3 being explodeable (is that even a word? hmmm)

It's too bad Beth couldn't come up with their own BoS type faction, bringing them to the east makes the world so much smaller than it seemed in 1 & 2. I have a friend that lives in North Carolina and it's no small feat for us to get together and our civilization is still intact (for now). It doesn't matter how it's explained, it's just weak storytelling.

My main problem with the back story of FO3, so far, is the area names- Capital Wasteland? Megaton? How can anyone take them seriously?

How so? I havn't seen a time line on how long it took to get from west to east coast. Maybe they did it in a caravan. Put together a bunch of war wags or some such and mad max'ed it across the country. Maybe the BoS picked up some of the Enclaves radio freq's and realized DC wasn't a total nuke crater and that the pentagon might still be partially intact. The origin of the BoS IS military. They would want anything that was being developed at the time. Even if it was only holodisks with info on stuff. The BoS are tech hounds after all. I think the Pentagon would e a huge target for them.