Implants

Ozrat

Ozrat

Antediluvian as Feck
Orderite
We all know that you can upgrade your character in the later stages of the Fallout games by getting implants to increase specific stats of the character.

But why just stop there?

What if you could get an implant to graft an extra arm into your torso for extra weapon holding capabilities? Or an extra leg for walking/running speed? Perhaps even an extra eye for night vision?

We are talking about the rough and tough wastelands, so wouldn't it be more common for extremely experimental implants and whatnots to appear?

Thoughts?
 
Ozrat said:
We are talking about the rough and tough wastelands, so wouldn't it be more common for extremely experimental implants and whatnots to appear?

Thoughts?
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That was only in Vault City - since they had only recently emerged from their vault and weren't inclined to leave the city I doubt they had any reason to consider these things. Actually, even the implants they did have seem a little out of character considering their xenophobic nature and the huge gun turrets surrounding the city.
 
Montez said:
Actually, even the implants [Vault City] did have seem a little out of character considering their xenophobic nature and the huge gun turrets surrounding the city.
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That's probably why you couldn't get them made in Vault City proper. They had the knowledge of how to do it in their database -- which probably is both a combination of pre-war data and their own findings -- but the doctor was unwilling to perform the operation.

The big issue w/things like bionic arm additions, etc. is who exactly would be making them? Most places that are really rough and tumble don't have the means, and the places that have the means aren't that rough and tumble.

Personally, I wouldn't want to have something like an extra arm or anything that was too conspicuous. While these things might be intimidating to some, it would mark you as someone w/access to high-tech (and hence probably worth knocking over the head), not to mention that it would make you too recognizable.

From a balance perspective I'm not sure how these things would work, either. The various implants in the game were rather hard to come by, really, and when you look at it they don't exactly give earth-shattering benefits. To the extent that I never bother getting the second level for either type, particularly if my character has something of a large following (which most of mine do). Great if you're going to adventure w/few or no companions and need every advantage you can get to offset the enemy's superior numbers, but not worth loosing CH over if you're not.

My two cents,

OTB
 
Eeehm, couldn't you get implants from the BoS in both Fallout and Fallout 2?
 
Ozrat said:
Eeehm, couldn't you get implants from the BoS in both Fallout and Fallout 2?
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You could get stat enhancements in either game, but not any sort of implants.

I thought about the BoS after I posted and they might be the best bet for something like this. They have the tech and the need for it, also they live sequestered in bunkers and outposts, away from the prying eyes of outsiders. So I'd have to concede that one, and only the game balance issues would remain.

OTB
 
Why mutilate yourself?

There are night-vision goggles for seeing in the dark, there are drugs for speed, and a human brain is not made for operating 3 arms or 3 legs anyway.

Nevermind that people don't even have running cars, and you want them to make things even we, in the beginning of the 21st century, can't make either! I am absolutely at a loss as to how you can do an eye implant without ultra-modern facilities.

Then there's a question of why someone with access to all that and knowledge of operation would go to such risks associated with the implants. That is - why mutilate yourself, especially when you don't have to?
 
Okay, you've got some valid points about the brain not being able to handle the extra "hardware", but I still think that there would be people out there in the wastelands with bodily modifications.

Just look at the Phoenix Dermal Implants. IIRC, the implants were basically grafting metal plates into your skin for added armor and heat resistance.

I think the main reason for self-modification would be to have that special advantage or whatever in the wastes.
 
Sorry, this smacks of vanilla cyberpunk. I don't think it'd be appropriate.

As for 'special advantage' argument - look at the modern world. There are plenty of people who'd like to have special advantage, mercenaries, gangsters, assassins - but they don't replace their bones with metal or whatever. And I'm not talking about only U.S. residents either.
 
ApTyp is right, Oz. You're wrong for even suggesting things like that. Fallout isn't Dues Ex, and while you might think IMPLANTZ = K3WL, they just don't fit in with the setting at all. Surgery to enhance attributes is one thing, it's the stuff of pulp sci-fi and old comic books. Super Cyborg Joe didn't come a long until later on.

Also, OTB makes an excellent point about who would make these things. Remember with those dermal implants, they still needed the raw materials from cutting up Combat Armor. They couldn't just fabricate the polymers required for them at the local polymer plant because it closed it's doors a long, long time ago.

Even if you could, keep in mind that Fallout's technology is very, very different from even modern technology. If a computer is the size of a washing machine, do you think they could actually make a bionic arm? Sure, they could slap human brains in robots, but look at the robots.. They had treads, and filmy hose arms. I really don't think having a hose arm would be cool of a three foot long stick with a wheel at the bottom in place of a leg would be that grand either.

Even if you fast forward to Fallout 2's sentry bots, which were more like mechs than the Fallouty robots from Fallout, they were huge and bulky. I doubt your body could support an arm from one of those. Most likely, you'd stand up after the operation, and fall over on whatever side that arm was on - and never get up again. Well, that's assuming that the weight of it didn't just tear itself off your little fleshy body.
 
Saint_Proverbius said:
ApTyp is right, Oz. You're wrong for even suggesting things like that. Fallout isn't Dues Ex, and while you might think IMPLANTZ = K3WL, they just don't fit in with the setting at all. Surgery to enhance attributes is one thing, it's the stuff of pulp sci-fi and old comic books. Super Cyborg Joe didn't come a long until later on.
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:oops: Own3d?

I never played Deus Ex, so I wouldn't know about the implants and whatnots that they've got in that game. But I suppose I was showing the same logic as the DE fanbois?

Okay, so implants == bad and attribute-raising surgery == good, right? What would be some other aspects that could be improved by surgery then?
 
One of the reasons i always disliked implants in games is that there was a tendency to make us believe the organism would just receive an extra limb grafted onto it. An implant, such as a third arm, is only viable if the organism accepts it, and there is like extensive surgery to have the body and the limb behave like they should. Stat-enhancing surgery usually adds something like subdermal armor to resist damage, which is different (specially because subdermal armor works on its own; a third limb needs to act based on your will).

One thing i always thought was missing in Fallout. Random luck-based dialogue choices implying your body was feeling awkaward to the implants, and that you had sudden, terrible itches or pains.
 
To be honest I think that the power armour was the ultimate implant, I mean in increased resistances and strength. The way I see it the most reasonable thing would have been something like a visual enhancer included in the power armour. Besides that the only thing I can think about would be some sort of system that could administer extra adrenaline at will, but that would be very complicated, the operation is bound to be complicated, and then you would have to find a constant supply of chemicals that stimulate the adrenaline production, like a adrenaline rush without having to lose at lest half your hit points. You have got to ask yourself: how far can you push the human body?
Oh, and I think the tech freaks from Tactics were really into this implant thing, they ended up looking like shit though, there goes the charisma and the party... bad idea.
 
Hey, hey, hey, you guys are forgetting stuff here. The armour implants weren't the only sort of implants in Fallout 2. Did you guys forget about the lingual enhancer (you know, when you go to bed with Bishop's wife or something) and the medical enhancer (which you can get from Renesco if you... well, figure that one out yourself). That's more than enough implants in one game, me thinks.
 
deus ex-what kind of implants were there?there werent any bionic limbs,just the same stuff like in fallout...(you people take fallout to stats-y when i got an implant i just felt i got a cerebro-bywind-thinkfast thing in my head and NOT that i got +1 intelligence)
 
Al Bundy, I'm not sure but I believe that the main character in Deus Ex was a cyborg, meaning that he was part machine. He might not have gotten implants while playing the game, but you can be sure that he had implants anyways.
 
Blade Runner said:
Did you guys forget about the lingual enhancer (you know, when you go to bed with Bishop's wife or something) and the medical enhancer .
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I believe these were advanced learning devices, not implants as such.
 
Silencer said:
Blade Runner said:
Did you guys forget about the lingual enhancer (you know, when you go to bed with Bishop's wife or something) and the medical enhancer .
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I believe these were advanced learning devices, not implants as such.
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Keep that lesson in semantics to yourself dude. I'd say the Pip Boy Lingual Enhancer (+ 10% Speech) IS an implant, because when you use it, it "disappears" (becomes part of your character). Same goes for the Pip Boy Medical Enhancer (+ 10% Doctor). You don't eat it, you don't insert it in your backdoor, you don't keep it in your inventory (like the manuals in Arcanum). Nope, you attach it to your character's body and that way you improve your skills. "Implants" do not need to be inside the body. An extra arm would also only be attached to a body and still be considered an implant. Blah blah blah.
 
Blade Runner said:
Keep that lesson in semantics to yourself dude. I'd say the Pip Boy Lingual Enhancer (+ 10% Speech) IS an implant, because when you use it, it "disappears" (becomes part of your character). Same goes for the Pip Boy Medical Enhancer (+ 10% Doctor). You don't eat it, you don't insert it in your backdoor, you don't keep it in your inventory (like the manuals in Arcanum). Nope, you attach it to your character's body and that way you improve your skills. "Implants" do not need to be inside the body. An extra arm would also only be attached to a body and still be considered an implant. Blah blah blah.
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Yeah, they do, that's why they're called implants. An extra arm would still have to be placed partially inside your body.
 
Plus the books. You read the books, get permanent +% to your skills and the books disappear, which makes less sense than the enhancers disappearing. So would you consider the books implants? Nope.

Also there are the memory modules used at the Brotherhood in SF...
 
Plus the #5 Cat's Paw :) It says in the enhancers' description that they transmit information directly to the user's brain, like what been done to Arnie in "6th Day" :) Nothing about attaching anything to the character's body there. As for the memory modules, I believe that these are meant to be put inside ACE, not the player. Modules simply detail the operations meant to modify the player for better, not become the constituents of the said body themselves. These operations could be considered some sort of bio-engineering, not implantation. (Although perhaps a ST increase would involve grafting some additional muscles to the body :) ) Only the enhancements from VC medical database can be considered "implants" i.e. permanent attachments to the player's body.
 
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