Question about the Megaton Bomb?

[cratchety ol joe]

just like many game flaws, the Megaton bomb is an irrelevant, out of place player character centric item...

I actually had to stop playing the other day regardless of all the mods I currently have installed... I walked into a metro station (one of may I've been through...)

The wall vendor and nuka cola machine both had goodies waiting just for me!

FUCKING HELL!!! RAGE QUIT RAAAAH

In the 100 years or so of post apocalyptic habitation of the region has NO other person/ghoul/mutant/whatever actually come past this vendor and thought to take the stuff?!?!!



As I say, at the time, this one tiny, tiny, tiny but entirely inaccurate player-centric occurrence made me stop playing for the day... To realise that there are so many loot-able places and SO much food just laying about has NOBODY ever scavenged in and around the DC area? WTF .... serious Immurshun breaker for me.

So yes, the bomb is yet another glaring annoyance (you need like what? 25 in explosives? ... but no-body in the history of the 'town' has ever reached such heady skill heights.)

There are soooo many things in the game which are player-centric it's frustrating, be it the bomb, or the 'locked doors that need a key' an open sandbox world should allow me to lock-pick whatever I want, steal whatever I want, Go wherever I want.. more over, i should be able to do this when I want... not because it fits a railroaded storyline.

and to directly relate to the original question why no BoS / Megaton interaction... because just like every settlement in the DC wastes, no one settlement has anything to do with another.. ever... the BoS probably don't even realise other places exist. (As if the story were deep enough for the BoS to care...)

 

[Michael of the Wastes]

Joe, again, going by that logic, nothing valuble could be found in the wasteland. I see where you're coming from, but it's nothing to be mad over.

And Megaton and Brotherhood of Steel do interact- theres plenty of it in Broken Steel.

All the settlements are aware of each other, you get sent to Arefu from Megaton to deliver a letter... etc. Caravans from Megaton, to Arefu, to Canterbury, etc.

 

[Tagaziel]

Joe, again, going by that logic, nothing valuble could be found in the wasteland. I see where you're coming from, but it's nothing to be mad over.

Failure at argumentum ad absurdum. The problem is with quantity - 200 years after the nuclear holocaust, Fallout 3 is stuffed chock full of loot and goodies at every single step. Compare that to Fallout 1&2 where loot was much harder to get and was placed logically. The only places stocked with goodies are pre-war locations that weren't disturbed since the apocalypse, like the Glow or Sierra Army Depot.

And Megaton and Brotherhood of Steel do interact- theres plenty of it in Broken Steel.

None of it is present in vanilla Fallout 3, so basically, you have to pay an additional 10$ to get a five minute encounter between the Brotherhood and Megaton.

Not what I call "plenty".

All the settlements are aware of each other, you get sent to Arefu from Megaton to deliver a letter... etc. Caravans from Megaton, to Arefu, to Canterbury, etc.

That's not interaction.

Interaction is where the towns are connected to each other and there is a situation between them that changes as the player progresses, as is the case with Redding and Vault City/New Reno/NCR. Or Gecko and Vault City. Or Adytum and the Hub. Or Vault 15 and NCR.

 

[Stanislao Moulinsky]

Failure at argumentum ad absurdum. The problem is with quantity - 200 years after the nuclear holocaust, Fallout 3 is stuffed chock full of loot and goodies at every single step.

What made this worse to me was a log you find in Germantown, where a nurse wrote that "The looting gets worse every day, and it's a small town. There can't be much left, and there's already been one scuffle at the canteen". And yet 200 years later...

 

[biggestantman]

Hell, why is anything there in Fallout? By your guy's logic, nothing would be there. The wasteland would be empty.

Why are there ammo boxes? Wouldn't other wastelanders grab them!

The Brotherhood of Steel aren't taking the bomb from Megaton because the extraction effort wouldn't be worth it, The Church of Atom would be pissed off, Assuming it wasn't disabled- it'd be very dangerous. The Brotherhood is occupied with a ton of things within the wasteland, retrieving the bomb may not just be very high on their priority list.

they would pissed off the Church of atom ya right they could have done what they did to the ghoul town in tactics. but that town may also explain why they didn't take the bomb in megaton they already had the info they needed from tactics.

 

[Crni Vuk]

yes but if we consider that (even after 200 years ... but letz forget that for a moment) the nuclear bomb is still armed and active that alone would be a reason enough for the Brotherhood to make sure no one else is using it. Like the idiot Tenn penny did ...

At least the outcast would have a huge interest in the bomb. And the Bethesdan knighthood should have some interest in it to make sure no evil person is using it. The Enclave could have made use of it. Or the Supermutants (the inteligent ones at least ...), or the Talon mercs or any other faction.

Its so sad how many oportunities have been missed by Bethesda to make a more complex story about Megaton and the different Brotherhoods and factions that it almost hurts. There could have been conflicts between the Outcasts, Bethesdahood, mercenaries and if you want Tenn Penny about the Megaton nuke. It could have been a great example for a quest to give the player a chance to make "choices" and thus "decide" for one faction. Either loosing or gaining influence with some faction by supporting them in their plane to get the nuke.

 

[Aphyosis]

Brotherhood of steel with a interest in the thermonuclear weapon, with power armor suits and heavy weaponry vs the church of atom.

Fairly sure they don't get a say in it. Admittedly, this isn't the proper BOS but if retrieving a functional superweapon isn't high on their priority list i'd like to know what is.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Fairly sure they don't get a say in it. Admittedly, this isn't the proper BOS but if retrieving a functional superweapon isn't high on their priority list i'd like to know what is.

Protecting the innocent from the angry rad roach at The Mall.

 

[cratchety ol joe]

as far as BoS and nuke's go, i take FO: Tic-tac's as my guide here, the BoS weren't inherently interested in the weapon itself, other than 'making it safe' It was only the unforeseen rising of the robots that prompted them (and if I recall story correctly... only after great consideration of the matter) to use the weapon.

So as far as FO:3 goes, it would have made sense that the BoS would have taken steps to 'make safe' the bomb, probably by its removal and storage / disassembly... but in a *ahem* world where some upstart from a vault can willy nilly wander about launching mini-nukes at any object he doesn't much like.. I suppose the BoS of FO:3 couldn't care less...

 

[Allotrope]

because it is really heavy

 

[Eiseth]

The wall vendor and nuka cola machine both had goodies waiting just for me!

I found the six week restocking of the machines in 2 harder to swallow than that xD

 

[Argonnot]

I found the six week restocking of the machines in 2 harder to swallow than that xD

That ones easy, just think of it, theres some robot slowly making rounds replacing the cola's in the machines, it's been doing it for 200 years and doesnt know it can stop. Problem solved.

 

[Lexx]

And the cola is hidden in his super big body, which is able to fit cola to replace the stock for 200 years and also the robot is smart enough to hide 200 years from everything.

 

[matthewfarmery]

this is one of the reasons I stop playing FO3, it became too easy to find stuff, you find a box full of something, ammo a fun laying nearby, then there will be people nearby, and you think to yourself, why hasn't this loot been found, and there were a few places like that, all in all, it was too easy to find laser weapons and ammo, near the beginning of the game, it wasn't well thought out at all, unlike fallout 2, were its a fair bit harder, decent weapons are harder to find,

all in all, FO3 was a disappointment,

 

[DirkGently]

I've always wondered; how does an unexploded bomb leave a crater?

I mean, it's big, and probably heavy, but I doubt it was and big enough to smash that huge hole in the ground.

Never mind that when it blows, a supposdely thermonuclear bomb would clear out everything for miles (Depending on the size of course, and that bomb is huge; and you certainly wouldn't be dropping the older bombs on your enemy's front door.

Another thing that always irked me is that Megaton is supposed to be built using the remnants of airplanes from a nearby airport. Where the hell is this airport? That would've been cool. Airports are kinda interesting places and I'd like to see how one would have handled the bombs. providing that it was hit/overpressured off the face of the planet.

 

[Aphyosis]

I've always wondered; how does an unexploded bomb leave a crater?

I mean, it's big, and probably heavy, but I doubt it was and big enough to smash that huge hole in the ground.

How does a meteor leave a crater?

The kinetic energy from that bomb at terminal velocity would certainly put an impact crater of that size in the ground.

Another thing that always irked me is that Megaton is supposed to be built using the remnants of airplanes from a nearby airport. Where the hell is this airport? That would've been cool. Airports are kinda interesting places and I'd like to see how one would have handled the bombs. providing that it was hit/overpressured off the face of the planet.

Just another inconsistency within FO3

 

[DirkGently]

I dunno, it just seems a bit much for an unexploded bomb. Or rather, it's a bit for an unexploded bomb when there are craters from exploded bombs that don't really compare.

 

[Aphyosis]

I dunno, it just seems a bit much for an unexploded bomb. Or rather, it's a bit for an unexploded bomb when there are craters from exploded bombs that don't really compare.

Again, Just another inconsistency within FO3.

Something of that size and weight could easily punch a fairly big hole.

 

[Stanislao Moulinsky]

The kinetic energy from that bomb at terminal velocity would certainly put an impact crater of that size in the ground.

It would also destroy the bomb, though.

Another thing that always irked me is that Megaton is supposed to be built using the remnants of airplanes from a nearby airport. Where the hell is this airport? That would've been cool. Airports are kinda interesting places and I'd like to see how one would have handled the bombs. providing that it was hit/overpressured off the face of the planet.

Just another inconsistency within FO3

This one was explained, IIRC. They used the airplanes while, over time, the airport itself collapsed with the passage of time and nothing recognizable remains, or something like that.

At the same time, of course, wooden houses are still standing.

 

[Aphyosis]

The kinetic energy from that bomb at terminal velocity would certainly put an impact crater of that size in the ground.

It would also destroy the bomb, though.

Yeah, but its something along the lines of "Pick your inconsistency"

There's so many thing's wrong with the bomb being there you kinda have to grab the least unreasonable and run with it.

This one was explained, IIRC. They used the airplanes while, over time, the airport itself collapsed with the passage of time and nothing recognizable remains, or something like that.

At the same time, of course, wooden houses are still standing.

Yay for a consistent and believable game world.