Fallout 1 Designer Jesse Heinig Shares New Details of The Cut Raider Factions The Vipers & Jackals.

[TheKingofVault14]

Recently on Twitter, TriangleCity asked FO1 Designer Jesse Heinig if he remembered any details of the original plans for the scrapped raider factions The Vipers & Jackals, and this is what he had to say...



Here's the transcript of the Twitter thread:

TriangleCity: "I know this is a longshot since Fallout was developed so long ago, but do you remember any details regarding the cut raider factions, the Vipers and Jackals?"


Jesse Heinig: 1/ "My original plan for the Vipers (but I didn't have time to implement them) was to make them kind of a snake-cult. (I like snake-cults okay?) They would be a mix of fragmentary hand-down traditions from charismatic snake-handling, indigenous culture knowledge, and..."


JH: 2/ "... misapplied fragmentary pre-War knowledge handed via oral history. Not much actual development was done on what kind of story they'd have for players to interact with, but there was a notion that you could ally with them, go through one of their snake-handling rites..."


JH: 3/ "... and gain a Perk that gave you a high level of poison resistance. The Jackals were even less-developed, so named because they were scavengers: Not just tech scavengers looking for bits of useful trash from the old world, but..."

JH: 4/ "... scavenging remains, trash, discards from other tribes or communities, including sometimes people who were exiled or lost."


TC: "Absolutely fascinating! Thank you so much! I'm a huge fan of all the amazing work you've done."


And that's that! Huge kudos goes to TriangleCity for doing this, all the research and cut content searching that he does is amazing. And I also want to thank him for sharing the link to this Twitter thread with me via Instagram, and for those who are curious to see the original posts, I'll put a link to them right now...



Enjoy!

 

[monsharen]

Awesome reporting @TheKingofVault14!

Merged version which is easier to read for the pre-Twitter boomer generation and myself

My original plan for the Vipers (but I didn't have time to implement them) was to make them kind of a snake-cult. (I like snake-cults okay?)

They would be a mix of fragmentary hand-down traditions from charismatic snake-handling, indigenous culture knowledge, and misapplied fragmentary pre-War knowledge handed via oral history. Not much actual development was done on what kind of story they'd have for players to interact with, but there was a notion that you could ally with them, go through one of their snake-handling rites and gain a Perk that gave you a high level of poison resistance.

The Jackals were even less-developed, so named because they were scavengers: Not just tech scavengers looking for bits of useful trash from the old world, but scavenging remains, trash, discards from other tribes or communities, including sometimes people who were exiled or lost."

 

[xxdemonxspawnnxx]

I thought jackals were cannibals. I read somewhere that Garl-Death hand was supposed to send you on a quest to kill Viper leader. There are also some stuff like betraying raccoons to a zoo.

I wish they were implemented, but I wonder if they will end up straying away from main plot too much, like FO2

 

[Iprovidelittlepianos]

I wish they were implemented, but I wonder if they will end up straying away from main plot too much, like FO2

Good point. I think the Vipers and Jackals would’ve helped flesh out the starting area, and give the Khans an actual quest like you mentioned. Thematically it would’ve been nice to see some conflict between the raider tribes to lend credence to the Master’s motivations and reinforce the whole “war never changes” thing. Because there really isn’t a lot of war going on in Fallout 1. There’s raiders and gang violence of course, but most communities seem to have pretty stable relations.

 

[Lexx]

I dunno. Feels like this would 1. break up the pacing in the beginning too much and 2. just have you waste more time while being on the search for the water chip.

The only way I could see this working is if there were a quest delay similar to how Tandi is kidnapped only after leaving Shady Sands for a day or two, so players might only accidentally stumble over it when leaving Vault 13 after returning the water chip.

That said, I always thought the raiders in the vs. BoS encounter were supposed to be Viper (remnants), since those encounter battles kinda fit the BoS lore.

 

[TheKingofVault14]

Heh yeah, I figured he'd use this!

Check out TriangleCity's new video that takes an in depth look into the cut content that is The Vipers and Jackals, the stuff that Jesse Heinig said in those tweets are used in the video.





NOTE: It's a 36 minute long video, so bear with it. Interesting info nonetheless!

 

[Mirin Lurker]

The real reason they weren't in the game because Tony and Chris robbed them.

 

[Iprovidelittlepianos]

Brotherhood of Steel Paladin: What’s that, your Boy Scout group?

 

[Gizmojunk]

Brotherhood of Steel Paladin: What’s that, your Boy Scout group?

Shouldn't that be RadSouts?