How should the east coast have really been done?

wanamingo89790

wanamingo89790

First time out of the vault
I was thinking about another thread I made about whether or not fallout still had life or had dried out. From the answers, I got this general sense that there was something that fallout had left undiscovered, something new and original that might have been tapped if it weren't for the ip rights switching hands. I think Bethesda had the right idea when they decided to set their games on the east coast. I think it allowed them to separate from the classics and make an attempt at bringing out whatever life was left in fallout. Unfortunately, they fucked it up, and new vegas didn't bring complete closure either. Imagine an alternate universe where somehow van buren pulls through, fallout becomes a perfect trilogy and the nma user count declines because theres nothing to band together against and hate. A few years down the line, some company acquires the rights, they're the perfect company, and they say hey let's set our game on the east coast. What does this game/series of games look like?

TLDR: If bethesda never existed, how should the east coast have been handled?
 
wanamingo89790 said:
If bethesda never existed, how should the east coast have been handled?
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In any number of ways. The wasteland was ripe with new stories to tell that did not have to forcibly latch on to the elements of the original two other than the background lore and the central theme.

BoS, SM’s, Enclave, ghouls, deathclaws... they could’ve been fables in the new land told by travelers who had heard it from other travelers, while the area itself had its own things going on, personal and individual to it.

I once toyed around with a premise that I would’ve liked to see. A setup along the Mississippi river. No recurring factions or groups, and ghouls - the handful that’d been found - were curiosities to study, linked to the escalating situation of the area. One single vault that had a city around its entrance and few settlements scattered around.

It was about a spreading plague and trying to survive it, but there was more behind it as the story would unravel. In a sort of classic sense that the initial drive of the story would change to something else as the it progressed.
 
wanamingo89790 said:
TLDR: If bethesda never existed, how should the east coast have been handled?
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I would have expected aspect of a Warhammer 1950~ish vibe. Where the Pentagon would have been a fortress with PA suited infantry; the building covered in over-sized sculptural, and banner decorations. Not full on W40k, and the wearing of Civic documents on one's torso, or law books on chains and belts... But almost getting there.

Basically the smoking remains of a bureaucracy set in an uber-patriotist, distopic, Diesel-Punk* Washington DC, that was preparing for the impending war.

*Possibly more futuristic than Diesel Punk would suggest. The original games were not so shoved into the 50's as FO3 would have it believed. I can imagine a bit closer to the future of the Jetsons than the Jeffersons.
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14° East (for FO:Tactics) had a consultant in Black Isle, whose job included checking for reasonable appropriateness... and this is what Chicago looked like in the game intro:
Chicago.jpg
 
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Kohno said:
I once toyed around with a premise that I would’ve liked to see. A setup along the Mississippi river. No recurring factions or groups, and ghouls - the handful that’d been found - were curiosities to study, linked to the escalating situation of the area. One single vault that had a city around its entrance and few settlements scattered around.

It was about a spreading plague and trying to survive it, but there was more behind it as the story would unravel. In a sort of classic sense that the initial drive of the story would change to something else as the it progressed.
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I did the same as well, only mine was centered in the Rocky Mountains, around a summer camp that had been forgotten (and also mostly unnoticed/unaffected—un-targeted) by the war, except that they were isolated by radiation on all sides, and over time the elder camp counselors faded away, replaced by young adults with no parents, who grew up indoctrinated into the campground rules... and of course all of them being badge toting members of the Rad Scouts.

radscout3.JPG


You can see the eventual similarity with the child tribe from Mad Max 3.

Mine was also about an encroaching sickness, (and the search for a cure), that lead (at first) to a strip mining operation on the other side of the mountain... who's waste water was polluting the camp unbeknownst to its inhabitants. It would have likewise changed into a bigger narrative of which the mining operation was just a small part.
 
I’ve always thought about this as well. IIRC Van Buren mentions radioactive cyclones plaguing the Mideast (at least occasionally) which causes Ceasers legion slavers to come to Denver (I think it was Denver, can’t remeber right now) temporally until the cyclones pass. I think we can theorize that the east coast was always meant to be more inhospitable the more east you go.
If handled properly, I think the setting of the east coast had a lot of potential (at least in the hands of Interplay). I would have loved to see what kind of factions and creatures inhabitated the wasts but alas, we are stuck with the “capital wasteland” bullshit Bethesda spewed out.:shrug:
 
Ooh, what kind of bigger narrative? Please tell me it doesn't involve the enclave, the brotherhood, or super mutants.
 
It doesn't really matter, and I think thats what's so awesome about the traditional fallout formula. The thing about the east coast is that its relatively diverse topographically, historically, and culturally , and far enough from the west coast that an entirely different set of stories could be told.

If they could think of a good post apocalyptic story to tell, a good post apocalyptic world to build, and a good set of RPG mechanics to make the player feel immersed and engaged, they could probably find the setting they need somewhere on the east coast.
 
wanamingo89790 said:
Ooh, what kind of bigger narrative? Please tell me it doesn't involve the enclave, the brotherhood, or super mutants.
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It wouldn't have; outside of minor references... but I didn't really got far enough into it to have a draft that went past the initial setup. At the time I was thinking about the film Pale Rider.
 
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The big cities should had been blasted holes, full stop; maybe on the periphery of a map with some extensive vault/subway/tunnel dungeons serving as high end crawls. The rise of civilization on the East Coast would arise outside of the nuked areas; not from them.

Of course, this diminishes the further time goes on. I would love to see a New New Amsterdam on the tip of Manhattan but Manhattan should be a flooded, leveled mess or rubble and their eyes and reach should be going outwards and not inwards: maybe towards the fields of Long Island or the valley of Scranton; or the Delmarva peninsula instead of Baltimore and DC, or like we saw in Far Habor: more Maine Islands and less Boston.

The whole thing is a burnt coast north of Richmond and south of it a flooded, inundated mess. I have mused on more political factions arising outright and the East Coast basically turning its back on authoritarian leftism or rightism, striving either for classical liberalism, socialism, social democracy or other such states and modes; trying to see what would be 'right' for this new world, would be fine.

Should there even be pre-war factions or those claiming direct descent from them arising? The East Coast might see a new cultural enlightenment. We saw them form America out of the Age of Reason, the Age of Resource Wars might had produced something like that: a new splash of water onto their sleepy culture. Maybe they forgo big cities and consolidation and clustering outright - I mean, look what good it did to the millions who died in a flash. Maybe they seek to hide, keep themselves out of sight, and other such reactions.

This is a bit rambly, and I'll clear my mind and elaborate on it more, but the East Coast should had been vastly different than what we got.
 
Despite it all, one thing I do like about Bugthesda's fallout is the east coast being a hellhole, I would keep that aspect of it.
The west coast has become fairly civilized and any major conflict is now between humans.

I'd also keep Deathclaws being on the east coast, but give an actual good reason. As it is, Deathclaws are very large predatory carnivores, I imagine it's easy for a pack of them to wipe out all free roaming animals in an arena after a while, leaving demoesticated livestock as the only possible source of food for miles; meaning they either attack a town and possibly get mowed down, or migrate to more prosperous lands.
I think this would be a fine reason for Deathclaws to be found so far away from the west where they were created.
The non-prior existence of Deathclaws would also give reason for there to be a greater number of them post-migration as most post-war wildlife can defend itself better than their ancestors, allowing them to reproduce in greater numbers due to the lack of predators that can easily kill them.

I like the idea if there being a different, savage kind of supermutants that just roam the wasteland and ruin everything in their conquest to kill everything that moves, but there's honestly no way to do that that would make sense.
Instead create a new kind mutant not created with F.E.V., one to fill that role while still making sense.
 
MasterworkStone said:
Despite it all, one thing I do like about Bugthesda's fallout is the east coast being a hellhole, I would keep that aspect of it.
The west coast has become fairly civilized and any major conflict is now between humans.

I'd also keep Deathclaws being on the east coast, but give an actual good reason. As it is, Deathclaws are very large predatory carnivores, I imagine it's easy for a pack of them to wipe out all free roaming animals in an arena after a while, leaving demoesticated livestock as the only possible source of food for miles; meaning they either attack a town and possibly get mowed down, or migrate to more prosperous lands.
I think this would be a fine reason for Deathclaws to be found so far away from the west where they were created.
The non-prior existence of Deathclaws would also give reason for there to be a greater number of them post-migration as most post-war wildlife can defend itself better than their ancestors, allowing them to reproduce in greater numbers due to the lack of predators that can easily kill them.

I like the idea if there being a different, savage kind of supermutants that just roam the wasteland and ruin everything in their conquest to kill everything that moves, but there's honestly no way to do that that would make sense.
Instead create a new kind mutant not created with F.E.V., one to fill that role while still making sense.
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Deathclaw Packs should be mobile mini-boss mobs that roam the map in a circular fashion or have turf they protect and maybe even 'cultivate' to feed themselves.

And heh. A Swampfolk Empire. 'WE'S THE PUREST AND BESTEST FOLK, WE CAN TAKE DEM RADS JUST FINE'. HEH! SWAMPFOLK NEO-CONFEDERATE ENEMIES; WHERE ALL NORMIES ARE THE NEW SLAVES. Oh gods, that would be horrible. Or Swampfolk having this weird authoritarian, violent streak and can basically be like the Orges/Orgyns of Warhammer: some indig empires, some serve as mercs, most just wanna fight.
 
Eshanas said:
SWAMPFOLK NEO-CONFEDERATE ENEMIES; WHERE ALL NORMIES ARE THE NEW SLAVES.
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make the swampfolk the oppressed underclass and you could have a fallout set in Mississippi about freeing the swamp people from a tyrannical group of neo nazi confederates descended from a skinhead street gang who are secretly being funded by the enclave
 
Based on what I know of Fallout 3, WHY THE FUCK IS THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT A STEEL FRAME CLAD IN MARBLE BLOCKS? I've visited D.C. and the Washington Monument! It's overwhelmingly MASONRY! SOLID BLOCKS OF GNEISS, GRANITE, AND MARBLE! Not a steel frame anywhere! And the real Washington Monument is much further back from Capitol Hill. Bethesda's right within driving distance; did none of the developers ever actually VISIT D.C.?
 
WeissYohji said:
Based on what I know of Fallout 3, WHY THE FUCK IS THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT A STEEL FRAME CLAD IN MARBLE BLOCKS?
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One can extrapolate easy reasons.
  • The original could have been toppled, and rebuilt.
  • The interior could have been reinforced.
  • [ick] The original was different for them, than for us.
My peeve, is that there is no platinum* cap on the top. :(

*The cap is aluminum, but at the time, its material was chosen because aluminum was considered more valuable than platinum.
 
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