Super Mutant Army FO3

[Tagaziel]

A giant monster that a teenager with no combat experience can take out with a hunting rifle is a lot more ridiculous than androids. At least the androids kind of fit that whole "world-of-tomorrow" feel like the energy weapons, the only problem I had with them was that they were supposedly invented after the war which kind of tested my suspension of disbelief.

The calculators robots were androids, Harkness used to be the most bullshit thing that I had ever seen until the Seirra Madre Vending Machines. I can rule out my distain for sci-fi teleporters (like those in MZ) as science! but Harkness aparently contains a computer powerful enough to give him complete sentience and human levels of movement capability but also contains enough human system to make him think that he is human. So in addition to the ultra-miniturised ZAX-levels of processing power he also aparently digests food, uses the restroom; hell he says that he cut himself saving, wtf does little poly-fibre stubble grow from his chin or something?

Never watched the Terminator?

 

[The Enclave 86]

A giant monster that a teenager with no combat experience can take out with a hunting rifle is a lot more ridiculous than androids. At least the androids kind of fit that whole "world-of-tomorrow" feel like the energy weapons, the only problem I had with them was that they were supposedly invented after the war which kind of tested my suspension of disbelief.

The calculators robots were androids, Harkness used to be the most bullshit thing that I had ever seen until the Seirra Madre Vending Machines. I can rule out my distain for sci-fi teleporters (like those in MZ) as science! but Harkness aparently contains a computer powerful enough to give him complete sentience and human levels of movement capability but also contains enough human system to make him think that he is human. So in addition to the ultra-miniturised ZAX-levels of processing power he also aparently digests food, uses the restroom; hell he says that he cut himself saving, wtf does little poly-fibre stubble grow from his chin or something?

Never watched the Terminator?

Yeah but there are no Terminators in the game, I'll rephrase myself.

In Fallout's universe the Calculator's robots are androids...

 

[Tagaziel]

So? The Calculator emphasized utility and combat performance, so instead of artificially grown flesh it used combat plating and more artificial muscle fibers. The Institute apparently emphasizes discretion and/or human-likeness, so they cover metal endoskeletons with artificially grown flesh.

 

[The Enclave 86]

The Institute apparently emphasizes discretion and/or human-likeness, so they cover metal endoskeletons with artificially grown flesh.

And give them ZAX levels of processing power plus seemingly everything else I mentioned earlier, all of those human/biological functions; you don't think that that's just beyond the terms of believablity or just common sense?

 

[Wintermind]

It's not just that they made an android that looked human, they made them fully sentient and total human replicas. They have blood. They grow hair. They can delude themselves into thinking that they aren't actually an android. It's like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep except it doesn't fit, at all.

 

[Walpknut]

But then Harkness is the only character for wich it makes sense for him to be immortal.

 

[LinkPain]

And I'm pretty sure Behemoths would just kinda starve to death.

So what FO3 Mutant army were we talking about then?
You noticed it for yourself already, it is impossible. Only the Lone Wanderer can destroy everything and that's because Beth made him like that, to appeal to general public of omnipresence. It's a normal thing, gamers are addicted to it. But where is the logic? One single Vault Dweller... In the Bible the Dweller said he had a really big gun, Beth took it literally and copy pasted. Rest of the Capital Wasteland was fucked as were Mutants.

If we had Josh Sawyer or Chris on the script they could make the story with which the world could burn again. And not from the A-bombs. Mutants or Tribals or Humanoid Machines, take your pick. Sadly there was Beth.

That's the reason why I always stress that talking about pointless things in FO3 is a waste of time.

 

[Stanislao Moulinsky]

It's not just that they made an android that looked human, they made them fully sentient and total human replicas. They have blood. They grow hair. They can delude themselves into thinking that they aren't actually an android. It's like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep except it doesn't fit, at all.

The most ridicolous part was that they were giving all those useless, complex and -presumably- extremely expensive features to slaves. This commonwealth sure has a lot of money to waste.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

I am pretty sure that the Calculator's humanoid robots are pretty much the definition of the term 'robot'.
Under android I perceive a machine that tries to mimic the human being or any other creature, giving it features that go far beyond just the humanoid form (really attempting to look like a human, expressions etc).

The Calculator's humanoid robots were simply designed to operate and interact in environments designed for human use (buildings), and use equipment and machines made for humans.

Their decision making capabilities were also limited, capable of carrying out instructions like standing guard, operating machinery, and so on, but requiring orders from more powerful robots like the pacification robots on what to do next.

I wouldn't rule out that more independent action capable humanoid robots would exist like the one the Mid West BOS salvaged but they are the exception rather than the rule and they still operate within strict set of parameters without deviating from them.

The humanoid robots were probably very new technology before the War, only barely out of the prototype phase when Acme was contracted to manufacture a workforce for Vault 0 but unknown to the rest of the country, making their Post War appearance such a shock to the wastelanders who were only familiar with broken and working examples of General Atomics and Robco.

Perhaps work continued on them in the Vault for a while but we know from Tactics that most people went into hibernation and suffered brain damage that left them in childlike or vegetable state, so whatever research was done was very limited.

The most ridicolous part was that they were giving all those useless, complex and -presumably- extremely expensive features to slaves. This commonwealth sure has a lot of money to waste.

That indeed doesn't make sense in the Fallout world, creating nearly completely human like androids for the purpose of a workforce.
Using them as assistants, agents, or infiltrators could make some sense, but for what they were used the Institute could just as well have build regular robots (they can build complex androids so why not robots), or just use slave labor or indentured servants like Vault City did.

Its far cheaper and far more efficient, especially in a world were advanced manufacturing resources are rare.

 

[Gaddes]

I really can't consider the Vault 87 Mutants to be much of an army. Just generic baddies to kill and get loot from. For me to take the Vault 87 as a genuine threat to the Capital Wasteland, they need to have at least some basic motivation behind them at the very least. Honestly, the Talon Mercs. could have filled the bad guy role nicely, but it's Bethsoft, so that might have been expecting too much.

 

[Slaughter Manslaught]

The Yellow Mutants (I refused to call them "Super") are doomed. It is made clear in Fallout 3 that they don't have any EEP anymore, because they were too dumb to know how to manipulate the equipment adequately and now their vault is a broken-down mess without any EEP and they're (vainly, methinks) searching for another source of the stuff.

I really can't consider the Vault 87 Mutants to be much of an army. Just generic baddies to kill and get loot from. For me to take the Vault 87 as a genuine threat to the Capital Wasteland, they need to have at least some basic motivation behind them at the very least. Honestly, the Talon Mercs. could have filled the bad guy role nicely, but it's Bethsoft, so that might have been expecting too much.

Indeed. What I also find really strange is that the BOS spends two decades fighting a war of attrition with them. They never try to find the source of the invasion. They also know the locations of FOUR Vaults and never attempted to scavenge any of them. One of these Vaults was also the source of the whole invasion, and if attacked, could've done a good damage to the mutants.

That indeed doesn't make sense in the Fallout world, creating nearly completely human like androids for the purpose of a workforce.
Using them as assistants, agents, or infiltrators could make some sense, but for what they were used the Institute could just as well have build regular robots (they can build complex androids so why not robots), or just use slave labor or indentured servants like Vault City did.

Indeed, they don't make sense as a workforce.
You know, I once had a crazy idea for a Fallout game where the Commonwealth or some other faction with Androids starts infiltrating though the gameworld with Androids built to be perfect replicates of people, both in mind and body.
At the early game, only a small number of characters would be Androids, but as the game goes, more people start getting substituted, with only the weakest hint at first. At first, they would be people in the lower ladders, like the odd security grunt, bodyguard, lowly trooper or town nobodies that are used as spies and connections to eventually scoop up the big guys. And as the game goes, more and more important people in the upper ladders of society start getting replaced, with the whole thing getting more clear for the PC and more complicated. That would be a good plot for a Commonwealth-focused game, I think.