Is Fallout Legitimate?

R

Raz

First time out of the vault
The history of Fallout was that oil supply ran extremely low and a war broke out over the remaining supply. Nukes got involved somehow, and several decades later the water chip in Vault 13 breaks, history in the making. My question is, if plasma and micro-fusion technology was already in place before the war(plasma rifle, the Highwayman and most cars run on fusion, the power-armor has a lifetime supply of power from its own fuel cell.) Doesn't that imply that fossil fuels are no longer neccessary? Not to mention the fact that I would assume that the A-bomb and H-bomb would become completely obsolete after the technological revolution that cold-fusion(it would have to be cold-fusion) would inspire.

I want to stress that i'm not trying to poke holes in what is possibly my favorite RPG ever, I'm just wondering if somebody has already ask and/or answered these questions, and can allay my fears of a true Fallout plothole.
 
Read the Fallout Bible.


MicroFusion weaponry was new..
The tech that the highwayman used was new as well, and the US had not fully rolled over to the new system of oil not mattering yet.
 
The Highwayman itself was a novelty item. When it was first released on the market, it was too expensive for anybody that didn't run multi-national companies to afford it.

While America may have been making a transition into an economy that relied on atomic power, the Chinese were not. They were oil's bitch, and had no practical means of ending their reliance without total economic upheaval.

It was also much more convenient for the United States to do so because we had been keeping all that oil in the Strategic reserve, and leaving the fields in Alaska practically untouched.

China has no natural resources, so when the global supply of oil dries up and the only oil producing nation (to some extent) is the US, the Chinese' only alternative to acquire the resources necessary would be to invade America.
 
dont forget that this is meant to be '50s pulp:
so it would take futuristic technology, but also 'todays' worries & expected problems. futuristic technology being: the powerarmor, mini nuclear reactors in vaults and the weapons. the problems being: providing everybody with cheap energy, the threat of a growing china, the depletion of oilreserves. and so on.

on the other hand almost all "fusion" technology is said to be pretty newly discovered. also check the fallout bible timeline for that, it does explain a lot. you also have to bring into account that if the army has it, doesnt mean the general populace have it too. these thing probably cost more than any normal man can afford (as example the highwayman).
 
I suppose I can buy that, but instead of withholding all of their resources from the rest of the nations, wouldn't it make more sense for America to sell it off at extremely high prices and use the money to transfer over to this new atomic age...
 
No. Because then you have no way to transition the energy source of transportation.

Selling all your oil before you've introduced an economically viable alternative to it for motorists is Hella stupid.

Also note, that fusion power, as it's been pointed out, was not yet economically viable.
 
Yes, you're right. Fallout is full of stupid mistakes, geez the devs were idiots... I suggest you leave this forum in disgust and find a nice new releastic game to play, go on now, bye!
 
Selling off the oil at unrealistic prices would cause the same thing as withholding it: aggressions.
So that doesn't really make a difference either.

If I remember correctly, the war was also fought on uranium. It does say that petroleum and uranium were what the war was all about and what it was fought with as well.

Apart from that, look at today's situation. We are capable of running cars on a lot of other, more cost-efficient and less depletable things, but rather than building on that, the large companies would rather make another petroleum powered car that does a tenth of a gallon less per mile than the car they advertised before, or if they are doing anything new at all, it's another hybrid.

There is a lot of money involved in the oil industry and thus oil would stay the primary focus for a long time until the industry has fully made its transition from oil to non-depletable resources.
Why should it have been any different in the 21st century of Fallout with micro-fusion being the new discovery?
 
Question:

Are micro-fusion batteries actually mini reactors, or batteries powered by the energy output of a fusion facility? The way they're used in the Highwayman suggests that they're simple fusion batteries. However, the power source for power armors is a miniature reactor in a compartment in the back.

Micro fusion was so new that it's practical aspects were only being pioneered by the military. (Though, one would think that a miniature sun on your back isn't the smartest idea, it's Sci-Fi, so who cares?) It seems to me that people confuse the micro fusion batteries with micro fusion because of a semantical mistake.
 
I have a much simpler explanation (and yet viable): Vault-tec and the US government conspired to start a nuclear war.

Remember: FO2 tells us that the Vaults were a social experiment.

Fallout's WW3 started right after WW2, in Fallout's universe, Vault-tec and the president were probably intrigued by Hitler's idea of a militaristic state ruled by 'ubermenschen'. So they rigged the vaults so that only the strongest and smartest of the already elite Vault populations would survive, then caused a nuclear war.

The FEV project was probably inspired by the same thinking, but only slightly less drastic measures.

And if you don't think anyone could be so insane: Have you met the Pres. yet?
 
I think they are mini reactors. Batteries don't store energy either, they produce it.
 
True, Micro-Fusion Batteries are micro reactors with a very limited fuel source, while power armours probably have powersource that lasts longer
 
I have a much simpler explanation (and yet viable): Vault-tec and the US government conspired to start a nuclear war.
Click to expand...

While it does hold weight as a conspiracy theory, its just that, a conspiracy theory.

The Vaults were never intended to rescue anybody from the Apocaypse. They were just a farce to keep people from panicking. As far as the government was concerned they were a convenient way to monitor human social behaviour.

And if that was their intent, then why did The Enclave intend to massacre the entire "mutant" population of the world?
 
Because the Nuclear war was an attempt to eradicate the 'lesser' people (Untermenschen) from the face of the world, they weren't supposed to survive.
 
Still, I highly doubt it. Adding a conspiracy theory to the mix unnecessarily overcomplicates the situation.

If the War was started because of crazy people instead of real world considerations then how are we supposed to apply the situation in Fallout to the present. The causes leading up to the war mirror the fears of the modern age. If it was some stupid ass conspiracy then there's not a whole lot to relate to.

Not to say that you would be totally wrong, hypothetically. Its just really stupid.
 
Well, they definately didn't cause the reasons for the war, they just used what was there.

Besides, Fallout, while being a great game, is still just a game, not a social commentary.
 
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