City Names: FO1&2 vs Tactics.

[brm130]

Someone over at Black Isle's boards brought up an excellent question. Fallout 1 & 2 used made-up names (mostly), while Tactics used their contemporary names. Now, most people chalked it up to Tactics being a product of a different team, but -
BoS would probably still use the archaic, 20th century names for these towns; The traders, tribals, bandits and raiders would have long since renamed them.

Ie, BoS is still hopelessly focused on the past. Like when 1800's Brits used to still call the US 'the Colonies.' It's an interresting (if probably unintentional) thought...

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Fallout 2 used normal names as well.. Redding, Broken Hills, San Francisco, Arroyo, Klamath, Reno, and so on, are all actual places in California, Oregon, and Nevada. I'd rather they stick with the Fallout style of naming things. Even though the towns MIGHT sync up with towns that exist today, they still should have new names like Necropolis was Bakersfield, California and Boneyards was Los Angeles.

 

[Fallout]

true, true, but it still bothers me, Reno is in Nevada..... yet its in California in Fallout 2....

 

[talk2michael999]

its good that they used real names though, after all, it is post apolyptic USA, so it mkes sense. it kinda gets the feeling it could happen, and makes it more realistic too.

 

[Sander]

I thought New Reno was in Nevada, considering the geographical placement, FO2 wasn't a california _only_ game, more the northern parts and a bit around it(I think).

Besides, how could the inhabitors possibly miss the huge Reno sign?
As for the other names, there are all normal explanations for it:
San Francisco was founded by those Shi, who came there just after the bombs, and therefore still knew what it was called.
Broken Hills: Never knew it existed, after all, it was refounded by Marcus and Jacob...

Well, probably stuff like that happened all over the place.

Oh, and wasn't Boneyard the LA Boneyard, therefore retaining it's normal name? I'm not entirely sure, though....

 

[[PCE]el_Prez]

it was stupid for FT to use real city names. St. Luis isnt a desert (even if a nuke wiped it clean off the map, cacti wouldnt just spring up after a few years).

 

[Kindo]

"a few years"? You mean a 100 years?

 

[Chronus]

el_Prez]it was stupid for FT to use real city names. St. Luis isnt a desert (even if a nuke wiped it clean off the map, cacti wouldnt just spring up after a few years).

Maybe the soil was tainted by the radiation making it impossible for anything to grow there..

 

[Montez]

Interesting coincidence: Broken Hill was the name of the place where "The Road Warrior" was filmed.

 

[Azael]

I think that a few real names could sneak into the game, but I'd prefer real world locations with new names and completely new locations like the Hub, Junktown or Vault City. Say that you came to the town of Holywood, in the Boneyards, inhabited by religious zealots who are to dense to understand that the big word on the hills just to have two L's (OK, crappy idea.)

 

[[PCE]el_Prez]

Interesting coincidence: Broken Hill was the name of the place where "The Road Warrior" was filmed.

i doubt it was a 'coincidence', its more like an easter egg.

 

[JJ86]

Especially troubling in Tactics was the fact that the Australians couldn't spell "Preoria". Unless there is a logical reason to use real names or some landmarks remain the same like Chinatown in San Francisco, keep out the real names. Most cities have neighborhoods with distinctive names that would probably remain more than the city name itself. LA would probably be divided into smaller cities of Watts, Brentwood, East LA, Century City, etc. And I am not talking necessarily about suburbs or official names, older areas have colloquial names that are familiar to the residents.

 

[OnTheBounce]

Especially troubling in Tactics was the fact that the Australians couldn't spell "Preoria".

Yep, there isn't even any internal consistency regarding Peoria/Preoria. One is a city in Illinois, the other is in Arizona.

...I am not talking necessarily about suburbs or official names, older areas have colloquial names that are familiar to the residents.

I agree. There is also the fact that people would alter the names to reflect the new condition, but still keeping some element of the original name. For instance, The Boneyard was also known as "the Angel's Boneyard" according some of the residents.

As for the Shi's retention of "San Francisco" I doubt they would do it since it would be hard for them to pronounce. Besides, why would the Shi care what the previous inhabitants had called the town, let alone some Spanish missionary out to "civilize" los Indios?

OTB

 

[navyguy445]

I think comparing the naming convention between FOT and FO1 & 2
isn't right. After all FOT was, as I understand it, a "parallel" universe
compared to FO1&2 wasn't it?. In our MOD over at Mutants Rising, I'm using real city names, Elko, Wendover and made up ones too. The only stipulation to using real city names is to get them at least close to being geographically correct. In a previous thread someone made mention that St. Louis was a desert. We have to remember that AFTER a nuclear war the climate will be drastically altered. So having a desert in a place that in the REAL world it isn't COULD make sence

Just my 2 cents worth, people

 

[KillaKilla]

I would prefer having FO:1 style naming, while the residents might nkow what the originol names were, they might not still be called that. Both sides of the argumant makes sense, so why not use F0:2's system of a mix of both? And dont gimme that BS biased argument, FO:2's plot holes have NOTHING to do with wether the city naming system works. I've already dealt with this on this sites brother, DAC.