Main Questline: Better or worse than Fallout 3's?

More ponderings on SHAUN:

If he lived in the world of prewar Fallout as seen through Bethesda's eyes, wouldn't Shaun just already have exposision to Radiactivity right outof the womb? The Milquetoast family even has a Robotic nanny taking care of him, and he seems to work on some form of atomic battery and constantly does things like change his diapers and prepare their food. Not to mention that his dad is a soldier so he would've been exposed to one form of damaging radioactivity. There is also the segment at the beginning where they see a Nuclear detonation and the shockwave quickly got close to them while they descended on an elevator that one of the people you are with even calls Slow. Even assuming they somehow managed to avoid the negative effects of the, according to canon, much more radioactive nukes the Chinese used, he still has been around robots with nuclear bateries since birth. Also Kellog wasn't wearing any form of sterilized suit like the Institute Scientist accompanying him and he is apaprently a Merc that just walks the wasteland like mad so his clothes would probably be a biological hazard all by themselves.
Let's not even get into the damage cryostasis would do to a baby either. Shaun would be just as unsuitable for the Institute's synth project as all the other Vault Dwellers in there. Would've made more sense to get the genetic and reproductive material of the Dwellers and Invitro conceive a new actually unmutated human to get cells for.... not much use kidnapping a baby for that...
 
Walpknut said:
More ponderings on SHAUN:

If he lived in the world of prewar Fallout as seen through Bethesda's eyes, wouldn't Shaun just already have exposision to Radiactivity right outof the womb? The Milquetoast family even has a Robotic nanny taking care of him, and he seems to work on some form of atomic battery and constantly does things like change his diapers and prepare their food. Not to mention that his dad is a soldier so he would've been exposed to one form of damaging radioactivity. There is also the segment at the beginning where they see a Nuclear detonation and the shockwave quickly got close to them while they descended on an elevator that one of the people you are with even calls Slow. Even assuming they somehow managed to avoid the negative effects of the, according to canon, much more radioactive nukes the Chinese used, he still has been around robots with nuclear bateries since birth. Also Kellog wasn't wearing any form of sterilized suit like the Institute Scientist accompanying him and he is apaprently a Merc that just walks the wasteland like mad so his clothes would probably be a biological hazard all by themselves.
Let's not even get into the damage cryostasis would do to a baby either. Shaun would be just as unsuitable for the Institute's synth project as all the other Vault Dwellers in there. Would've made more sense to get the genetic and reproductive material of the Dwellers and Invitro conceive a new actually unmutated human to get cells for.... not much use kidnapping a baby for that...
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Stop asking completely logical questions! :razz:
 
Also watching the intro again it seems to imply that the beginning narration is actually Milquetoast Sr. practicing his speech for the Veteran ball they are attending (despite he stating that the world is already ravaged by war and scarcity in his own speech).

Man, Milquetoast Sr. is really going to be that douche that makes acompletely self centered downer speech on a party....


Also Codsworth doesn't seem to recognize "Shaun" as a name for your character despite him already saying Shaun on his normal dialogue...
 
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After getting sick of wandering around for so many hours I can't even recall I decided to follow the main quest again and went to Diamond City.
Well I have to say that the place looks a lot more believable than Megaton did and after having talked with several people I decided to look up the detective character I need to talk with to progress with the quest.

Turns out the detective, Nicky Valentine, is a synth who apparently broke its own programming and decided take on the career as private investigator, assuming the mannerism of an old time gumshoe like one of those hardboiled detective movies and novels. When I later met him I did not really mind that much as it gave him much more of a personality than the other companions I have had so far including the dog.
What I did mind however was how the quest to find him played out. Apparently the guy was investigating the disappearance of a woman who is hanging out with a local gang leader. This leader and his men have taken over a Vault which they now use as a base of operations.
No problem so far and it is not far fetched.

However what I find stupid is that this gang has also themed itself after gangsters from the 30s and 40, fedoras, pinstripe suits, tommy gun like submachine guns, slang. Once again Bethesda has taken an idea way to far into the territory of the ridiculousness.
First there is the 'future is the fifties stuff, but with robots, energy weapons and so on. And now its old timey gangsters.

Sure, people might bring up Fallout 2 but as many people here have mentioned over the years; it felt silly and out place there then as well.

And then there is Fallout New Vegas in which there was a similar theme with the Omertas who run the Gomorrah. The thing is, this was not an identity that the tribe that would become the Omertas had assumed themselves. This identity and the mannerism of an old timey gangster were forced on them by Mr House, just like with Benny's tribe that would become the Chairmen, and the White Glove Society, when he wanted to resurrect Las Vegas as he remembered it.

I can buy that Nicky Valentine might have seen some old holotapes about 30s/40s hardboiled detectives and said to himself that these guys are awesome and that he wants to emulate their job and mannerism (sort of how Data wanted to emulate human behavior to become more human himself).
But an entire gang of temporal displaced gangsters who could have been in cryogenic hibernation themselves? Even the woman Nicky was looking for behaved like a typical mob moll. And these guys are not that far from several locations where raiders act and dress like headbangers.

What annoys me also is that during some conversations I discuss things with others as if it was the first time I had ever heard of these subjects but had never seen them in person such as Synths or Super Mutants.
At this point I had run into Synths several times now and have been eliminating nests of Super Mutants, so the idea that my PC character had never heard of either before, let alone ever seen one physically is contrived at this point. (especially as I had a fucking Super Mutant as a companion!)

Same goes with a conversation I had with the reporter, Piper, and Nicky Valentine. Together with Piper I had infiltrate the gangster Vault and freed Valentine after which we escorted him back to the surface.
When we started to investigate Kellogg (the mercenary in the intro) I switched partners and together with Nicky we went to Fort Hagen (following Dogmeat who had conveniently shown up) where we confronted Kellogg.
After defeating Kellogg and going through his computer Nicky suggests we talk to Piper so we head back to Diamond City (despite me having sent Piper to Sanctuary Hills when I dismissed her) where we find Piper at her house. Nicky and Piper start talking to each other as if it has been some time since they had last seen each other.

It is pretty clear at this point that I have 'broken' the progression of the storyline as characters that are not suppose to run into each other until their stage cue is given are already present and talking to each other.
Would it have been so hard to make it impossible at the time that I met Piper for the first time to recruit her? That she had been say to busy with investigating a story to come along with me to Valentine's office where I met his secretary and took on the quest to find him?
 
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The Dutch Ghost said:
spoilers
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I totally agree. I actually put the game down after seeing how stupid Nick Valentine's quest in Vault 114 was. It was out of place, it was silly, the "gangsters" were acting like that completely out of place. It was garbage, and it was the cheesiest thing I have ever seen in a videogame. I physically cringed in my seat at how embarassed I was for the voice actors.
 
Dr Fallout said:
The voice acting wasn't bad but you can sometimes tell when they aren't into their lines. Like the majority of the game.
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A lot of times it sounds like the actors were sent their lines individually by mail without knowing the other actors' lines, and were told to just record themselves reading sentences without any context. Then these random sentences were copied and pasted together to form the dialogue.
 
Irwin John Finster said:
Dr Fallout said:
The voice acting wasn't bad but you can sometimes tell when they aren't into their lines. Like the majority of the game.
Click to expand...
A lot of times it sounds like the actors were sent their lines individually by mail without knowing the other actors' lines, and were told to just record themselves reading sentences without any context. Then these random sentences were copied and pasted together to form the dialogue.
Click to expand...

Oh that feeling when the characters barely act as if they're talking to each other.
 
Walpknut said:
Let's not forget Shaun's convenient Cancer. The institute apparently can stop aging and keep some random heavy smoker and drinking dude alive for 60 extra years and create perfect synth replicas of people but they can't either detect or treat Cancer. This is just so you can become the Leader of yet another faction.

Why couldn't they just brainscan him an replace him with a Synth after death? They are aware that Synths are capable of sentience and what is even the point of inventing them at all? To sweep floors? To serve as hitmen? But they already have people like Kellog who they seem to be able to turn immortal with implants.... Just because they can? They created slave machines.... because? Why couldn't they just build regular robots? The human form isn't really that versatile when you want massive amounts of work done, specially if you built them with biological functions....
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This post killed the small credit that I gave to FO4
 
The Dutch Ghost said:
Turns out the detective, Nicky Valentine, is a synth who apparently broke its own programming and decided take on the career as private investigator, assuming the mannerism of an old time gumshoe like one of those hardboiled detective movies and novels. When I later met him I did not really mind that much as it gave him much more of a personality than the other companions I have had so far including the dog.
What I did mind however was how the quest to find him played out. Apparently the guy was investigating the disappearance of a woman who is hanging out with a local gang leader. This leader and his men have taken over a Vault which they now use as a base of operations.
No problem so far and it is not far fetched.
Click to expand...

Only that's not how Nick came about being Nick at all.

Upon building a positive relationship with Nick, he reveals that his personality and memories are those of a pre-war detective who volunteered to have his memories encoded into an early synth model by the Institute, at the time still known as the Commonwealth Institute of Technology. Upon his synth body waking after the war years later, Nick, having these memories, describes his experience as confusing and disorienting as he attempted to navigate the Commonwealth. As synths and their associated technology were unknown at this time, most wastelanders regarded Nick with equal parts fear and awe, however, he was eventually accepted into a small local community in which a mechanic offered to repair the damage he had sustained in his travels for free. During this time, Nick befriended a small child whom he believes was named "Jim" and the pair formed a strong relationship. Nick eventually left this settlement and, upon visiting years later, found that it had been pillaged by Raiders, its populace slaughtered.

Source: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Nick_Valentine
 
Walpknut said:
More ponderings on SHAUN:

If he lived in the world of prewar Fallout as seen through Bethesda's eyes, wouldn't Shaun just already have exposision to Radiactivity right outof the womb? The Milquetoast family even has a Robotic nanny taking care of him, and he seems to work on some form of atomic battery and constantly does things like change his diapers and prepare their food. Not to mention that his dad is a soldier so he would've been exposed to one form of damaging radioactivity. There is also the segment at the beginning where they see a Nuclear detonation and the shockwave quickly got close to them while they descended on an elevator that one of the people you are with even calls Slow. Even assuming they somehow managed to avoid the negative effects of the, according to canon, much more radioactive nukes the Chinese used, he still has been around robots with nuclear bateries since birth. Also Kellog wasn't wearing any form of sterilized suit like the Institute Scientist accompanying him and he is apaprently a Merc that just walks the wasteland like mad so his clothes would probably be a biological hazard all by themselves.
Let's not even get into the damage cryostasis would do to a baby either. Shaun would be just as unsuitable for the Institute's synth project as all the other Vault Dwellers in there. Would've made more sense to get the genetic and reproductive material of the Dwellers and Invitro conceive a new actually unmutated human to get cells for.... not much use kidnapping a baby for that...
Click to expand...

A discrepancy sure, but this is shared with the Enclave abducting Vault 13's dwellers in Fallout 2 as well. Don't see anyone crying over their immersion being broken over that.. :shock:
 
SaucyLad said:
Walpknut said:
More ponderings on SHAUN:

If he lived in the world of prewar Fallout as seen through Bethesda's eyes, wouldn't Shaun just already have exposision to Radiactivity right outof the womb? The Milquetoast family even has a Robotic nanny taking care of him, and he seems to work on some form of atomic battery and constantly does things like change his diapers and prepare their food. Not to mention that his dad is a soldier so he would've been exposed to one form of damaging radioactivity. There is also the segment at the beginning where they see a Nuclear detonation and the shockwave quickly got close to them while they descended on an elevator that one of the people you are with even calls Slow. Even assuming they somehow managed to avoid the negative effects of the, according to canon, much more radioactive nukes the Chinese used, he still has been around robots with nuclear bateries since birth. Also Kellog wasn't wearing any form of sterilized suit like the Institute Scientist accompanying him and he is apaprently a Merc that just walks the wasteland like mad so his clothes would probably be a biological hazard all by themselves.
Let's not even get into the damage cryostasis would do to a baby either. Shaun would be just as unsuitable for the Institute's synth project as all the other Vault Dwellers in there. Would've made more sense to get the genetic and reproductive material of the Dwellers and Invitro conceive a new actually unmutated human to get cells for.... not much use kidnapping a baby for that...
Click to expand...

A discrepancy sure, but this is shared with the Enclave abducting Vault 13's dwellers in Fallout 2 as well. Don't see anyone crying over their immersion being broken over that.. :shock:
Click to expand...

What's the problem with that?
 
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