Going back in time

[Max Demian]

My vote goes for a prequel. Starting maybe just a few years after the bombs fell, from one of those prematurely opened vaults...or whatever else they're willing to think of. Now, that would be new - unlike a sequel...

 

[Endless Void]

i don't like the idea of starting before of FO1...them you wouldn't have new weapons and stuff, because they don't appear on the FO1 and FO2

who said there won't be any new weapons and stuff? A lot of them got worn away if not destroyed by the nuclear fallout... Who knows what loots you can find...

Personally, I think a prequel is the only way to retain the full post-apocalyptic world in the first two games. Depending on your ending, NCR begins spreading, creating a reasonably stable government. Doesn't this ruin the post-apocalyptic feel? The people would be developing and growing, not just surviving.

I agree with that one... There is no surviving left in the FO world...

Just my two cents. Unless the NCR has failed of course, along with the rest of the growing towns. In which case a prequel isn't completely necessary.

NCR can't have failed... They hold the major technologies of wasteland at hand with BoS withering away... Only The Enclave had the means for putting an end to NCR, and now they are gone... And they were having conflicts with Vault City... But as we all know Vault City is no match for NCR as military forces... So there must be either an another government organization like Enclave pop up and wipe their asses off (which most probably involves Vault 0) for them to fail or Chinese guys back at San Fran decides to wage war against them...

Also, a prequel would mean that radiation would play a much bigger part, an aspect which seemed lacking in F1 and F2, considering the setting.

which makes up for the loss of the post-apocalyptic atmosphere that was lost way back at F2... and let us re-live the post-apocalyptic survival thingy far better than the F1... It will give us more to worry about than just being good or bad... We will have our own problems to take care of then...

 

[Sander]

A prequel would indeed be a much better idea to retain the overall post-apocalyptic feel of doom and slight shimmers of hope of Fallout.

However, to avoid problems with the future Fallout world, either the game would have to be set far away, or it would have to be made in such a way that it would all work out well no matter what you did. One of the problems with Fallout 2 is that it assumes a certain path has been taken by the player in Fallout 1.

So, there are a number of options. Once could be that you're one of the people who had to leave Vault 15 after the schism. Although this is only shortly before Fallout 1, this would allow the oppotunity of basing the game off of the Vipers or Jackals, the two unused raider groups in the Fallout universe. That could lead to some very interesting things, as an area would have to struggle with the terror of the raiders, and you could be caught in the middle.

 

[Rev. Layle]

Yeah, other developers that make highly linear games do not have this problem... but Black Isle RPG sequels always seem to have this issue, not a bad thing, as it makes each individual game more interesting... however you end up thinking in a sequel: "But when I played the first game, that's NOT how it turned out!"

I would like to see a before-the-bomb game also in the future. Of course, the "Fallout" name would not really apply to such a game.

 

[The Vault Dweller]

I actually never said this to anyone, but I always secretly thought that at least one "Wasteland Themed" game should take place relatively soon after the war, namely to show a very powerful view of the effect of the radiation, destruction, and the survival of one other thing...depression. You'd have crazed people hiding or wandering alone simply, because their still in shock from the war and have decided to hide away from any possible threat from mankind (Like a survivalist hiding in a remote cave or in a secure basement.) as well as those mentally as well as physically permanently fleeing the death they saw in the city as the bombs fell. (With an intense fear of ever returning to anything even closely resembling what civilzation was or is.)

I'd really love to see that.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller

 

[Lazarus Plus]

While I think it would be possible to make a game that would tell the story of civilization directly before, during and after the effects of a nuclear war, I don't see how you could tell it in such a fashion so that it is compelling but also does not contradict canon material from Fallout.

I guess I'm the only one who'd like to see F3 being set further along the timeline, as opposed to a prequel.

 

[Sander]

While I think it would be possible to make a game that would tell the story of civilization directly before, during and after the effects of a nuclear war, I don't see how you could tell it in such a fashion so that it is compelling but also does not contradict canon material from Fallout.

Actually, that wouldn't be so hard. As I said, you could go with the Vault 15 break-up, which wouldn't be that long before Fallout 1, or you could make it happen somewhere else, meaning that it doesn't have much to do with Fallout 1's areas, and hence can hardly contradict canon.

 

[Ripper]

You can always set the prequel in some really far out place, like Manhatten so it won't affect the FO1 areas.

 

[Lazarus Plus]

You can always set the prequel in some really far out place, like Manhatten so it won't affect the FO1 areas.

Nevertheless you have watch out for far-reaching statements that would contradict FO universe canon.

I'm sure people still grit their teeth at some of the mistakes made in other, unmentionable, games.

 

[Sander]

Nevertheless you have watch out for far-reaching statements that would contradict FO universe canon.

I'm sure people still grit their teeth at some of the mistakes made in other, unmentionable, games.

If you set it far away enough, and pay attention to canon, it doesn't need to contradict anything at all. This isn't really that hard, since areas like New York or the south aren't covered much in Fallout canon.
What you have to look out for is using people or organisations that appear in the Fallout games, though. This is what Fallout: Tactics did wrong: it used the BoS, and fucked that, it also used the vaults, and molested that with Vault 0.

 

[Lazarus Plus]

If you set it far away enough, and pay attention to canon, it doesn't need to contradict anything at all. This isn't really that hard, since areas like New York or the south aren't covered much in Fallout canon.
What you have to look out for is using people or organisations that appear in the Fallout games, though. This is what Fallout: Tactics did wrong: it used the BoS, and fucked that, it also used the vaults, and molested that with Vault 0.

True. With any luck moe FO games can be made that add to the series without silmultaneously taking away from it.

 

[Endless Void]

Actually, does anyone know what is the fate of Vipers and Jackals? it really made me wonder... Being one of them could be really interesting...
But then comes the problem to be a good-doer in FO as you're a raider after all... But I think that could be solved with this; the game would begin shortly before the fall of your raider band... Like, you would go on a raid to someplace but something goes wrong and you're the only survivor in the expedition... Then you'd go back to find your base destroyed... And went on to live a new life...
Well that last part sucked I know but really I'd like to see such a mod or something where we can find out what happened to Vipers or Jackals...

 

[FishO'Death]

How about telling F3 from the start instead of continuing from where the last game took of?

How about being the son of someone who survived the nukes. Playing as the father, as some kind of intro of gameplay in the beginning. What happened just before the nukes hit and how your father survived. Then it switches to current time. Your father is laying on his death bed or something like that. Telling you what has happened.
In F2 you play the first heros (F1) descendant, in this game you could play as the father of the first hero (F1). A theme you could say.

From there on you will meet BOS, the enclave and other of those kind of groups, when they are young(er) and you can get to know them better and their purposes. There are also room for other factions that can be found in F1 and F2, as the zealots.

How about giving an explanation about tribes? How about getting to know how the war really started and so on. The crisis about this time, what was peoples standpoint to the first mutants, and what has the mutants to tell you (FEV)?

I may be very well be wrong about times and years, as I has not THAT much knowledge of the fallout world. Correct if I am wrong. But what do you think of all this?

dude its a pretty cool idea

 

[Ataraxia]

I'm liking the ideas flowing through here and its giving me modding ideas. I like the idea of a 'before the nukes' game. The impending fear, the thrill of getting caught in a surge of people as they rush down the street trying to outrun the shockwave and getting blown to bits in the process.

An idea I had while reading Jahakob's idea on a 'split' game. ***NOTE WELL: THIS IS ALL THEORY AND SUGGESTION, DONT TAKE ANY OF THIS TOO MUCH TO HEART***
I like the ideas of both a prequel and a game further down the timeline in the same game. Most people probably wont like the idea but here goes:

A split game starting with you, before the war, in your lounge room holding your Vault [insert number] ticket. Your secured spot in the vault. Then you get to spend a week in your alter egos shoes [a sped up week of course, such as 12hr days instead of 24]. Talk to your friends, use the phone, order coffee, read the papers, get hassled by the guys in power armour about ID and homeland security. Head underground, boom go the nukes, and then the game goes into the second part which is the after the war section. As I said before for all the people like me who would wanna see what happens if I dont hit the vault within the week, you get to stand in the street and watch the nukes drop. You could do different things each time you played the game. There would be way too many people to talk to so each time you play you could ring a different friend on the phone and have a conversation, you could do things totally differently.

By now I'm sure people are frothing at the mouths, but I shall continue. The second part of the game is leaving the vault. Remember talking to people about the vaults 'Some opened prematurely, others had faulty food synthesizers...'. You could play someone stepping out of a Vault and slowly become a ghoul because it opened too early. Or you could choose another start point / Vault at the start of the game and become someone else, there is LOADS of possibilites and none of them are impossible. Imagine becoming a super mutant, a ghoul, hell even playing a Mr. Handy, or some sort of humanoid robot. [I just had an amusing image of playing Dogmeat.]

There is at least another 2 or 3 Fallout games left that can stay true to the series and still be loads of fun to play. Thats my little rant for the time being.

Cheers!

 

[Jarno Mikkola]

In the week(or how ever long it takes), you have to screw somebodys life, so after the bombs fell, it has been about 100 years, and the somebody has lived whit only the rage on his side form what you did to him and now he has come to the vault door to get his payback and the only thing that for certain is, that he is going to kill you. And the game begins. and gone totally

 

[Ataraxia]

Heeeey I like that idea. You could cause someones family/relative pain or distress and the descendant takes it on as their mission to kill you.

 

[Per]

And they should yell "You killed my father!" because that's like, the most original idea ever!

 

[Maphusio]

What’s this... A critic... of Fallout critics!>?!

Anywho, Bethesda reads this from time to time you see. They might take something someone says under advisement.

I honestly think too many people expect fallout to take place just where it did in the first two. What if it takes place in the Rockies as it did in the Black Isle FO3 story line? What if, what if, what if. I guess it's all just a thought or two.

 

[Jahakob]

In the week(or how ever long it takes), you have to screw somebodys life, so after the bombs fell, it has been about 100 years, and the somebody has lived whit only the rage on his side form what you did to him and now he has come to the vault door to get his payback and the only thing that for certain is, that he is going to kill you. And the game begins. and gone totally

I'd rather start with a neutral story.

For example, some slavers saves you from a certain death when you are wandering the wasteland.
Either you let them take you under their wings, maybe because you like the idea of slaving, maybe because you are thinking of double-crossing them later. Maybe you run away in the middle of the night, maybe you grab a weapon and shoot your way out.

 

[DirtyDreamDesigner]

Wouldn't that force you to play the game WITH A BIG "SLAVER" TATTOO ON YOUR FOREHEAD?! Oh, and if slavers found you in the desert it's doubtfull they would "take you under their wing", chances are they'd sell you to Bubba as a sex toy or to some tribals as tv dinners.