Question regarding the people of Las Vegas

[ChuckP]

Ok, so I finally decided to take the time and ask about something I've been wondering pretty much ever since I learned about the history of New Vegas (the city) and it's salvation by the work of Mr House. I know there's not a lot of material to work on, and the explanations and dialogue in regards to the subject are hazy at best, but it's still worth a shot. So here it is: what happened to all the millions of people living in Las Vegas when the bombs (didn't) fell?

We learn only 9 out of god knows how many bombs actually detonated in the surface of the state of Nevada, with 9 destroyed in mid air, and the rest disarmed on flight. None of them directly hit the Las Vegas metropolitan area, all thanks to House's OP laser defence grid thing, hence the lack of radiation in most of the Mojave wasteland. After that we are told he had some trouble with maintaining the reactor that powered his HQ at the 38, mainly due to buggy and outdated software. So after a whole lot of tinkering he managed to save the casino from a catastrophic explosion caused by a reactor overload, but at a great price, as he fell into a comatose state (info is pretty shoddy on that subject). A dozen decades later he wakes up, only to find the Vegas area overrun by filthy tribals. What happens after that is known by all, so I'm not gonna get into it. My question is what possibly could have happened in the shitload of years that House was sleeping like a log.

So we know for a fact that there were millions of healthy humans living in the city and its surrounding, and since it was untouched by nuclear fire, so was the population. Yet for all we know, before tribals settled in Vegas preceding Mr H's awakening the city was a ghost town, relatively abandoned and decayed. Where did everyone go? if they had water food and the means to sustain themselves how did the population of Las Vegas not prosper and grow during the hundreds of years of history in the Fallout universe, instead vanishing without a trace?

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

From the guide it was explained that while Las Vegas was not hit directly, it did suffer from the effects of the warheads that did manage to reach their target.

Most who were outside or not protected were immediately killed such as the visitors on the strip who were celebrating House's little display of power when his laser defences were shooting down missiles.

 

[2house2fly]

Zion also didn't get hit, but still got fatally irradiated once the fallout reached it. Likely the same thing happened with Vegas. Even without radiation though, there'd be mass panic and it probably didn't take long for the place to devolve into complete lawlessness.

 

[Dienan]

Ghost Recon Future Soldier - Crashed Satalite

 

[Walpknut]

The nukes are not the only thing that killed people in Fallout. When the bombing is done there comes the black rain, the FALLOUT. It kills plants and animals that are exposed, both killing unprotected people and the more likely source of food for the ones that managed to find shelter.
Add to that the chaos ensuing after all form of organization is destroyed, Riots would ensue for what little supplies they have available and even more lives would be lost.

Things like Hoover Dam would (and did) fall to disrepair when people lose both the knowledge and the desire to keep them working, they still manged to build societies but they were mostly tribal in nature, and before the NCR found House and his little oasis of civilization there was no reason for anyone to want to stay in the Mojave. Most of the people in Freeside are either former tribals or depossesed NCR travelers, and any settlement around it only started flourishing with the arrival of a major force like the NCR and the Followers.

 

[DarkCorp]

Those who weren't killed by rads or by others, or the nukes, most likely left the area if they did not become part of the new power structure.

 

[Akratus]

Those who weren't killed by rads or by others, or the nukes, most likely left the area if they did not become part of the new power structure.

Leave? Nah, they starved, or killed each other. I'd imagine few were able to leave.

 

[SnapSlav]

We learn only 9 out of god knows how many bombs actually detonated in the surface of the state of Nevada... None of them directly hit the Las Vegas metropolitan area, all thanks to House's OP laser defence grid thing, hence the lack of radiation in most of the Mojave wasteland.

No, not hence the lack of radiation in the Mojave. TIME is the reason for so little radiation in the Mojave. Just because FO3 depicted DC as an irradiated mess, 200 years later, doesn't mean that it was an irradiated mess due to being so heavily bombarded by nukes 200 years ago. FO1 established that a mere 60 years later, radioactive hostpots were highly unusual. Their very existence didn't make much of any sense. Another 140 year following that? Radiation permeating the surrounding should be expected? No. FALLOUT is radioactive material that is carried from the initial strike zone of a nuclear detonation by natural forces. Irradiated water collected absorbed into rain clouds, swept up by winds, rained down on locations never touched by the bombs. Radioactive dust blown across thousands of miles by storms and wind. The entire WORLD was affected by the Great War. The important distinction with Las Vegas is that the city was spared the direct destruction of the bombs. But the lack of radiation has nothing to do with bombs or no bombs. It's time.

 

[Yamu]

Time does have a lot to do with it, but I'm sure the initial contamination throughout the Mojave was low (negligible compared to DC and the Core) because of the low incidence of directly deposited Fallout and the basin itself is sheltered in the climatological shadow of the Coast Ranges, with its winds generated mostly from low-altitude atmospheric factors. I don't those things can be discounted. Nine nukes aren't a whole lot to deal with, and the low precipitation rate in the desert may have helped keep the rad count down the contaminated soil blowing Eastward, allowing for a relatively quick natural die-down in what would have been a comparatively very low radiation level to begin with. There would probably be some soil and groundwater contamination in the typical paths of the flood season runoff, but as most of the seasonal storm activity in the Mojave comes from the Pacific Northwest, it's possible that contaminant influx from storms could have been mitigated or wholly arrested by the drying out of the climate system out there (we don't have much direct evidence from the northwest in canon, but we know for a fact, at least, that Northern and Central California, once lush and mostly Northwestern in clime, were almost as dry as the great southern deserts).

There were likely more than a few radiation deaths, but a large proportion of the population probably survived to fall to anarchy and early-wasteland predation, with the remnants concentrating into the Mojave tribes.

 

[Wumbology]

This brings up the question: how is the rest of the world? How does the climate of a place like Alaska or the Pacific Northwest fair?

 

[ChuckP]

We learn only 9 out of god knows how many bombs actually detonated in the surface of the state of Nevada... None of them directly hit the Las Vegas metropolitan area, all thanks to House's OP laser defence grid thing, hence the lack of radiation in most of the Mojave wasteland.

No, not hence the lack of radiation in the Mojave. TIME is the reason for so little radiation in the Mojave. Just because FO3 depicted DC as an irradiated mess, 200 years later, doesn't mean that it was an irradiated mess due to being so heavily bombarded by nukes 200 years ago. FO1 established that a mere 60 years later, radioactive hostpots were highly unusual. Their very existence didn't make much of any sense. Another 140 year following that? Radiation permeating the surrounding should be expected? No. FALLOUT is radioactive material that is carried from the initial strike zone of a nuclear detonation by natural forces. Irradiated water collected absorbed into rain clouds, swept up by winds, rained down on locations never touched by the bombs. Radioactive dust blown across thousands of miles by storms and wind. The entire WORLD was affected by the Great War. The important distinction with Las Vegas is that the city was spared the direct destruction of the bombs. But the lack of radiation has nothing to do with bombs or no bombs. It's time.

Well, Point Lookout wasn't directly hit by the nukes, and the inhabitants survived all right, and if it wasnt't for the radiating carried by the Potomac and inbreeding they'd have been just fine.

This brings up the question: how is the rest of the world? How does the climate of a place like Alaska or the Pacific Northwest fair?

That, my friend, is a question for another thread.

 

[Oppen]

Well, Point Lookout wasn't directly hit by the nukes, and the inhabitants survived all right, and if it wasnt't for the radiating carried by the Potomac and inbreeding they'd have been just fine.

I wouldn't look for logic in one of Beth's DLCs.

 

[ChuckP]

Well, Point Lookout wasn't directly hit by the nukes, and the inhabitants survived all right, and if it wasnt't for the radiating carried by the Potomac and inbreeding they'd have been just fine.

I wouldn't look for logic in one of Beth's DLCs.

Man I was so waiting for that answer.

 

[SnapSlav]

Well, Point Lookout wasn't directly hit by the nukes, and the inhabitants survived all right, and if it wasnt't for the radiating carried by the Potomac and inbreeding they'd have been just fine.

I wouldn't look for logic in one of Beth's DLCs.

Bastard beat me to it.

Okay, maybe you were waiting for it, Chuck, but it's true. "Point Lookout" was my favorite DLC for FO3, but that doesn't make is a very good, or sensible DLC. People beg the question of how the Courier could survive 2 shots to the head, but they ignore the fact that the Lone Wandered suffered a completely pointless lobotomy (by some hick in the middle of a swamp, no less) without any drawbacks. Why? Because it's just silly, that's why. I alluded to this mindset in my original answer, but let me be more clear: DO NOT USE BETHESDA'S WORK AS A MEASURING STICK!!! They're chalk-full of errors and inconsistencies, and if the Fallout community refuses to let go of Hairy Intelligent Deathclaws more than a decade later, you should bet your ass we won't be overlooking radioactive-200-years-later nonsense and the like. If you want to take an aspect of another Fallout game as establishing some kind of precedent to make your point, use the originals. FO3 and FOBOS are not to be taken seriously without many a grain of salt.