RPGCodex: Fallout: Take Four

quietfanatic said:
Goweigus said:
that is pretty stupid they try to sell it that they made cars with nuclear exploding engines, what BS, maybe energy cell cars that blow up nice, but not nuclear!
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I believe you could argue a car with miraculously remaining microfusion cells could be described as nuclear, but it wouldn't explode with a small mushroom cloud, due to insufficient force. Neither would a thermo-fission generator. Enough conventional explosive will give you a nice little mushroom cloud, but you still won't live to appreciate it if you are nearby, as in the story.
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Clearly what's happened here is that Bethesda took a quick look at the Highwayman from Fallout 2 and went "ZOMG IT'S NUCULAR POWARED!!!!1".
Failing of course to realise that they are electric cars with nuclear fusion batteries, that fusion cells wouldn't blow up so easily and that if they did then Power Armoured soldiers would be turning into mushroom clouds upon being hit with heavy weapons thanks to the reactors on their backs.
Edit: Then again, that may be exactly how it'll happen in Fallout 3.
 
Great, so when wearing Powered Armour in Fallout 3, it is like wearing a small fission device on your chest or back, reading to blow at any minute.

Damn, so I guess when the US fought the Chinese back in Alaska and invaded China it was already a nuke fight.
Why did the soldiers even bother to fight, all they had to do was run into the Chinese who by then probably would have been scared out of their wits, facing an enemy that uses walking nuclear grenades.
 
Mushroom clouds are caused by large-scale convection, not by some "nukularity" property of the exploding material, right?
 
Oh, I wasn't responding to your post specifically, just echoing the general bafflement about this concept from the article that anything that contains fissionable material is eager to explode like a miniature A-bomb at the drop of a hat. Critical mass, what's that?
 
Power armour used a MicroFusion Pack, not fission technology.

A mushroom cloud results from the effects of particularly powerful explosions, not necessarily connected to anything nuclear in nature.

Using fission technology for a car would be retarded and nigh on unworkable.

Of course it is fictional though, so you can have fusion cells for cars etc. But I believe that even science fiction and comic book stuff should have some sort of internal logic and common sense. If you had insanely large amounts of energy from a family car, you could share the technology with other nations. You wouldn't want it to blow up with a small mushroom cloud, because if you follow the laws of physics, in an accident you would take out not only the other car, but also the surrounding city block.

I'd put it down to artistic license gone badly wrong. A joke of a joke, with somebody thinking that it would be 'cool' and allow them to try to put in another 50s trademark element. I don't mind some stuff like this, like the TV/radio in the intros, but this serves no purpose other than screaming 'clueless trash'. Producers or PR people might be to blame.
 
Nuclear catapult.... Handheld? It was in Fallout I? I don't remember any handheld nuclear catapult... Game Devs and disco biscuits do not mix fools.
 
10mmCurator said:
Nuclear catapult.... Handheld? It was in Fallout I? I don't remember any handheld nuclear catapult... Game Devs and disco biscuits do not mix fools.
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Haha. There is a weapon called "Nuke" in a mod for Quake 1, "Future vs Fantasy", which was useable by the (nomen omen) "Wasteland Warrior" class. :lol:

I can imagine it will work in a similar fashion in F3. Shame on you, Beth, stealing ideas from Quake mods. :roll:
 
Sorrow said:
quietfanatic said:
Power armour used a MicroFusion Pack, not fission technology.
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And cars in Fallout use the same technology as the PA :D .
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Well not exactly the same, since cars ran off micro-fusion cells while the micro-fusion reactor in PA suits could run continuously for 100 years. And you certainly didn't need to refuel your PA in game. :P
 
I think that it had more to do with the game balance than with all the cars running or MFC used for energy weapons. IIRC they planned the car to have it's own power plant.
 
Sorrow said:
I think that it had more to do with the game balance than with all the cars running or MFC used for energy weapons. IIRC they planned the car to have it's own power plant.
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True, and nuclear cars wouldn't be out of place in Fallout.
But I bet Black Isle's version wasn't intended to explode if sneezed on. :P
 
Sorrow said:
I know :P . BTW. does a fusion powered car count as a nuclear car at all?
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Well the official description would probably be nuclear powered electric car. But nuclear car just sounds cooler.
 
Sorrow said:
I know :P . BTW. does a fusion powered car count as a nuclear car at all?
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Yes. Depending on what exactly you mean by 'fusion powered'. A fusion reaction is still a nuclear reaction.
 
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