Fallout Omega

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I don't know what the plot for the next Fallout game should be, but here's an idea for the LAST one!

Prior to the beginning of the game, some researchers discover fragmentary evidence of something called the Omega Device. It was supposed to be the ultimate deterrent against nuclear attack, but was developed too late to be useful. What was it, was it ever built, and what happened to it? Your character is dispatched to make some discreet inquiries.

The Omega Device is of course a doomsday bomb, a nuclear weapon of such power that it will ignite the very atmosphere, reducing the planet to a lifeless husk. It was built but never activated, and is sitting in a secret lab someplace, just waiting to be found.

What makes things really interesting is that you're not the only one looking for this thing. There are NPCs that travel around, doing quests, stealing clues, and in general getting in the way. Of course, they feel the same way about you, and if you and they are in the same location, a fight could break out.

The way I see it, there will be several teams, and the methods they use will depend on where they came from. The BOS and Enclave remnant teams will depend on firepower, the New Reno team will use theivery skills, and NCR diplomacy. PCs of course may do as they like.

OK, so you've found the secret underground base. Now all you have to do is disarm the thing, and the world is saved (as usual). Wrong! one of your rivals shows up, and accidentally starts the countdown. It's a nice long count, since the builders wanted plenty of time to change their mind and abort the detonation. Too bad the war came before they installed the off button!

So humanity is doomed, right? Not quite. You see, back when they were building the behavioral experiment vaults, they built one extra, in case someone had a last minute idea. No one did, so it's still out there somewhere, sealed up and ready to be occupied. It's the only place anyone can survive what's about to happen. Your new task is to find that vault.

Lastly, the whole campaign takes place against a dynamic background. In the beginning, everything's peaceful (or as peaceful as things ever are in a Fallout world). As the game progresses, rumors start to spread about the end of the world, and the trouble begins. In the later stages, panic in the streets sets in, with everyone shooting at everyone and buildings in flames. Finally, there's nothing left but empty burned out shells, as civilization collapses in the face of doom. The state of things affects things like availibility of quests and clues, NPC behavior, and access to services (no merchants or healers after the collapse, for instance).

Well, there it is. I'm sure there's no chance of this ever becoming a game, but I like the idea so much I felt compelled to share it.
 
Thank you for sharing. NOW STAY THE F**K AWAY!! :)

Seriously though, I think it'd add an interesting "panic" factor to the game. Running around, trying to find the vault before the world goes boom. Not too sure if I'd actually like to see it made. I just think it's a good idea.

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Moo..... Moo.... I'm an Interplay Cow. (Ready to be milked with a Fallout style MMORPG with aliens!)
 
I may not, atleast according to various people, have all that great of ideas for game design, but I can say for certain what cannot conceivably work due to physics. (My dad happens to design nuclear weapons.) This omega device, which you claim would be used as a deterrent against nuclear attack, could conceivably be built. The resulting plasma burst and radioactive fire winds from a several gigaton hydrogen bomb, for example we will say 20 gigatons, could indeed set the atmosphere over the greater portion of planet earth ablaze. Quite truely if such a thing were constructed it WOULD deter nuclear war; thing is NO ONE, I mean NO ONE, would build it. Here's why.
Problems associated with your idea:
1. Current concensus as to the placement of any device of several hundred megatons or greater places it in the ocean because such an object would have an enormous weight and would therefore require to many resources to transport effectively outside of water. (Minor technicality)

2. To be able to construct such a device under ground would require a massive tunneling effort in the earth's crust to create the space necessary to build this sucker. This requires great amounts of transportation access to be constructed, so the whole procedure could not be kept a secret to America due to construction efforts of several years and ENORMOUS funding. (Somewhat larger technicality)

3. Assuming that an underground laboratory were constructed, even with the fact that ENORMOUS amounts of funding were already going into the construction of nuclear vault shelters, and it contained such a device, setting off said device would SCREW your character over quite majorly. The explosive power of such a device would take out a sizable chunk of PLANET earth. The crater on that sucker would make the Great Salt Lake look like a kiddie pool. The fireball alone would at the very least have a diameter of 30 miles, and radioactive fallout would cover approx. 100% of planet earth. Unless the countdown is listed in days the character could not find the location, assuming the location was survivable like underground in Illinois with bomb placement in New Mexico, because No one knows where to look. (Major Technicality if the hero gets vaporized no matter what he does)

4. Even assuming a character does find this previously unbeknownst vault, the survivability post nuclear blast is statistically NILL outside the vault. Radiation will have blanketed the earth. Dust will be in the upper atmosphere for who knows how long, in GEOLOGIC time. The atmospheric ambient will dip well below freezing making Siberia look like a summer home. (You think the fallout landscape is desolate now, wait and see after this device goes off.) The geologic effects of such a blast would be unprecedented because it would expose and solidify the lithosphere, which would eventually bring an end to continental drift and possibly solidify fault lines while others are still active. This could bring catastrophic results to the geologic structure of the earth, who knows what the hell would happen? The blast would be such that it could have serious affects on the earth's orbit maybe even damaging the earth's rotation and in turn its magnetic field. If the van allen belts come down cosmic radiation pelts the earth for the remainder of geologic time. Even if for someone reason life inside the vault is indefinitely sustainable, AND life inside the vault survived the aftermath of the explosion, WHY in the HELL would anyone want to play a game where the human race for the rest of its entire existence is confined to living in a FUCKING cubicle.
(Umm... not really a technicality is it?)
 
Interesting points. I'll take them in order.

1. This is the Fallout universe, not the real one. Fallout is based at least partially on '50s science fiction, and the doomsday bomb is well known in that genre. This particular beast comes from the movie "Dr Strangelove". How does it work? Don't know, don't care. It's a plot device, not a science project.

2. The question of secrecy and expense could be asked of the entire Vault concept. Again, this is pulp fiction, not reality.

3. In case it wasn't clear, yes there is a very long countdown, 90 days or so.

4. And finally, this game is the series finale. It's intended to close the circle. The first game involved coming out of the Vault for the first time, the last one involves going back in the Vault for the last time. As to why anyone would want to play it, I could give a lecture about the cathartic effect of tragedy, but Aristotle has done a far better job of it than I ever could. Go look it up.
 
Ok, sure doomsday devices are part of the genre, but Dr. Stranglove was about a nuclear bom, not an end of the world device. Maniacs try to take over the world in the sci-fi genre not destroy it utterly. Nobody builds devices of TOTAL annihlation.
Questions of secrecy don't need to be addressed in the case of the vaults because the vaults were designed to house people all over the nation, and the vault concept passed through congress. No secrecy about it.
The fact that the countdown was ninety days was not part of your original post as such I had no idea how much time "long" was for purposes of your concept. A long bomb countdown could be construed to be hours, but with the redress of ninety days, sure it would possible to reach safe haven.
Quite certainly tragedy has an emotionally soothing effect, but there is more to tragedy even by Aristotle's own admission. Tragedy also leaves one with regret concerning the circumstances; tragedy in literature has a finite ending leaving to rest all the cares of the audience. You have left the audience to perpetual care because you have sent humanity to hell, and now the audience wants to know how humanity will manage afterward. Simply put, there is no closure.
 
>Prior to the beginning of the
>game, some researchers discover fragmentary
>evidence of something called the
>Omega Device. It was
>supposed to be the ultimate
>deterrent against nuclear attack, but
>was developed too late to
>be useful. What was
>it, was it
>ever built, and what happened
>to it? Your character
>is dispatched to make some
>discreet inquiries.

Somebody's just watched the second Planet of the Apes movie.

>The way I see it, there
>will be several teams, and
>the methods they use will
>depend on where they came
>from. The BOS and
>Enclave remnant teams will depend
>on firepower, the New Reno
>team will use theivery skills,
>and NCR diplomacy. PCs
>of course may do as
>they like.

BOS = Crippled
Enclave = Scattered and Crippled
New Reno = Worst Location in Fallout Ever
NCR = Pretty bad also

Seriously, don't root yourself in Fallout 2 or Fallout Locations for a sequel idea. There'd be way too many assumptions you'd have to make about how the player did Fallout and Fallout 2.
 
> Quite certainly tragedy has an
>emotionally soothing effect, but there
>is more to tragedy even
>by Aristotle's own admission.
>Tragedy also leaves one with
>regret concerning the circumstances; tragedy
>in literature has a finite
>ending leaving to rest all
>the cares of the audience.
> You have left the
>audience to perpetual care because
>you have sent humanity to
>hell, and now the audience
>wants to know how humanity
>will manage afterward. Simply
>put, there is no closure.
>

It does provide closure, to the Fallout series anyway. But if people really want to know 'what happens next', there's a little paper and pencil RPG they might like to try. Perhaps you've heard of it, it's called PARANOIA...
 
>
>Somebody's just watched the second Planet
>of the Apes movie.
>

Actually it was a late night double feature at the local art movie house, "Atomic Cafe" and "Dr. Strangelove".

>
>BOS = Crippled
>Enclave = Scattered and Crippled
>New Reno = Worst Location in
>Fallout Ever
>NCR = Pretty bad also
>
>Seriously, don't root yourself in Fallout
>2 or Fallout Locations for
>a sequel idea. There'd be
>way too many assumptions you'd
>have to make about how
>the player did Fallout and
>Fallout 2.

Fair enough, but the NPC teams do need to come from well defined rival communities so that you have some idea of what to expect from them. Militaristic societies will field teams that favor the direct approach, etc. I was just using previously established names and locations to illustrate the concept.
 
sounds a bit too james bondy to me, or for fallout for that matter. =]
 
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