Technology Barrier

Y

Yandaton

First time out of the vault
I've posted about this on a different forum previously but I'm going to ask you guys.

I am going to write a Fallout fanfiction, I want to know how far I can go with the technology. I know because it is a fanfiction I can go as far as I want but I also want it to appeal to the fans.

I love Sci-fi and I want to cram a bunch of technology into the story such as Power Armour capable of powered flight (the method can be debated here actually, how would you want to see it, if you want to see it at all, Iron Man style or Warhammer with jump packs?).

Quicklist of ideas (update as I go along)
* Powered flight
* Nanotechnology
* Actual HUD in Powered Armour
* Power Armour Accelerators, if it is designed to improve soldiers, why not make them run faster, jump higher, punch harder?
*
 
I wouldn't like the flying power armor, but I don't think that's outside of the tech boundaries, as long as it's experimental (or set several years after New Vegas). I think the most appropriate way would be whichever tech the vertibirds use to fly.

Nanotechnology is completely out of scope IMO, since it's bound to the same kind of tech microchips use. If they use vacuum valves, then microchips and related techs are out of context.

The other two items on the list are feasible, I think.
In fact, the last one is not to far from things that actually appear in game (the ST bonus with the PA on the first games, for example).
 
I find it interesting you mention Warhammer, as the Fallout power armour is chiefly inspired by the 40k power armour.

As far as jetpacks go, I think it's totally feasible. They exist today -- ones that use air turbines, while others still use water. Less common are ones that are much more like 'jet' packs (btw, this video IS real):
<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/h4arnATc04U" frameborder="0"></iframe>It does utilize wings and steering fins, and he launches himself out of a helicopter and lands using a parachute, but who knows how far this technology will develop in the next few decades.

Yandaton said:
* Power Armour Accelerators, if it is designed to improve soldiers, why not make them run faster, jump higher, punch harder?
Click to expand...
Power armour does do all of these things. In the real world of today right now, we do have armour plating that can offer lots of protection against the kinds of dangers that Fallout power armour is designed to resist. The problem is that if you strapped all that plating to a human being in such a way that didn't crush them, they'd unlikely be able to move all of the weight. That's where the 'power' part comes in with all the motorized servos and/or artificial muscle fibres (depending on which lore you're going with). I don't think it'd be at all unrealistic to say in your fan fiction that there were stronger motors developed that were able to improve all of the motion that conventional power armour gives you, to the degree of being able to sprint and jump and whatnot.

HUD technology is also quite developed. Military pilots utilize them in their helmets and vehicle cockpits, and for the consumer market, there are HUD devices you can fit into compatible ski goggles:

http://www.reconinstruments.com/products/snow-heads-up-display

The one I just linked will display whatever kind of data you want and can connect to a separate computer/smart device wirelessly using Bluetooth. Sensor technology is also quite refined as of today, and it would be possible to have many different live datafeeds streaming through a suit of armour -- I think the limitation is that we haven't really developed an exosuit (that would be practical) to install such a system in.

Nanotechnology has been in use for decades, and is a very broad category. I'm guessing that you're referring specifically to nanorobotics. Currently, there aren't really any working nanorobots, though there's a huge race between nanotech companies to develop the first ones. Since the bombs don't actually fall until around 2077 in the Fallout timeline, you've still got about 64 years to play with, which I think is a perfectly reasonable amount of time for a variety of nanomachines to be developed (though probably with a whole lot of kinks not yet worked-out).
 
bitwise said:
Nanotechnology has been in use for decades, and is a very broad category. I'm guessing that you're referring specifically to nanorobotics. Currently, there aren't really any working nanorobots, though there's a huge race between nanotech companies to develop the first ones. Since the bombs don't actually fall until around 2077 in the Fallout timeline, you've still got about 64 years to play with, which I think is a perfectly reasonable amount of time for a variety of nanomachines to be developed (though probably with a whole lot of kinks not yet worked-out).
Click to expand...

Get your Fallout lore straight. In case you haven't noticed, Fallout takes place in a retro futuristic alternative timeline where technology has developed differently than in our world.

Read again what Oppen wrote:
Nanotechnology is completely out of scope IMO, since it's bound to the same kind of tech microchips use. If they use vacuum valves, then microchips and related techs are out of context.

Read and understand it. Youre doing a lets play of Fallout. Have you seen what kind of Computers the Fallout world uses? I give you a hint: The Fallout world doesn't seem to think much about miniaturization. How do you think the scientists could have come up with nano-bots, when they are still using vacuum tube computers?
 
Wow dude, no need to be a total d-bag about it. I read what Oppen wrote, and I disagree with the both of you on this matter. I realize the '50s aesthetic that the games have. Regardless of the external appearance of their technology, they still have some pretty amazing stuff. A large part of the series revolves around science-fiction, and I think it's okay to take some liberties with fan-fiction, as well. A water chip that auto-magically recycles water? A robot that you can stick an animal brain inside of and download an AI into? There's even portable technology in the form of the Pip-Boy, which, for all you know, they could have miniaturized vacuum tubes inside of. A person can be familiar with the lore and still have a different interpretation.
 
Sorry I didnt mean to come off as rude. I still think you got the Fallout setting wrong though. First of all, regarding the Water Chip: I think its pretty clear that the Water Chip is just the crucial control unit (like a CPU) for a much bigger apparatus that purifies the water.

Now, you are correct that Fallout is not a realistical portrayal of 50s technology and science. You are right that many elements seem far to advanced in comparison to the basic tech that dominates in Fallout. Theres a simple reason for that:

The basic premise of Fallout is that the world is a sci-fi world that looks like what the people living in the 50 and early 60s IMAGINED the future to be.

Just like Jules Vernes with his coal-driven spaceship, people of the 50s and early 60s extrapolated their current level of technology into the future. They (well most) didnt think that microchips would replace vacuum tubes. They thought that it would be possible to achieve incredible things if they just advanced the vacuum tube-based technology.

Thats where the pulpy Science! elements like brains inside of robots come from. Is it realistic? No, but thats what people back then thought the future would look like. Thats what you could find in pulp sci-fi stories and movies of that time.


Nanobots though? Not so much. Few people in the 50s could have imagined nanobots, because miniaturization was a completely underdeveloped concept back then. Its not the matter if being realistical or not, it just doesnt feet Fallouts theme and basic premise.
 
Take a look at the New Vegas Nexus and look for the Powered Power Armor mod. It greatly revamps the usage of power armor, since the basic game simply treats it as "This protects you more" rather than how the lore treats it: a powered exoskeleton that greatly enhances the user's combat capability.

It has a ton of mods for power armor, as well as alternate vision modes like night vision and thermal vision (Project Nevada is a mod that provides overlays for headgear, among many other improvements, and it also lets power armor helmets and similar gear use small energy cells to power vision modes), and even digital zoom. All of them at least look plausible in scientific terms. I'll provide a quick overview of some of the details:

* Old armor like the T-45d runs on superconducting ceramic ultracapacitors, which require period recharging (which can be done in the field through things like fission batteries, electron charge packs, small energy cells, really any power source that can be plugged in and drained) but are safe to run at a higher power output. Newer ones like the T-51b and Enclave armor use nuclear fusion packs that provide nearly unlimited fuel, but can't accept as many upgrades because the power output is limited due to concerns over running a nuclear reactor too hot. You can convert armor to use the other power pack if you like its design.

* Underarmor can be worn that provides various benefits, like insulating underarmor for improved fire resistance.

* You can install a Thermal Regulation Override switch that lets you ignore overheating warnings to get extra functionality (certain upgrades require this to be switched on to use them), but you'll get badly burned if you heat up too much.

* Power armor can not only increase your strength (which allows higher jumping as well), but it can also lessen impacts enough that you can fall longer distances without injury.

* Power armor isn't silent. Even if you've turned on a Stealth Boy, you can still be heard. Some potential armor upgrades include methods to make it quieter.

Like I said, check out the mod. It'll give way more details on all of the individual upgrades, and all of them are definitely lore-friendly (like a system that directly injects liquid nitrogen into the armor to quickly cool it in an emergency).
 
chitoryu12 said:
Take a look at the New Vegas Nexus and look for the Powered Power Armor mod. - snip -
Click to expand...

If I hadn't enough of NV for a lifetime, I'd check this out. So far one of the coolest mods I've heard of.
 
Gaspard said:
chitoryu12 said:
Take a look at the New Vegas Nexus and look for the Powered Power Armor mod. - snip -
Click to expand...

If I hadn't enough of NV for a lifetime, I'd check this out. So far one of the coolest mods I've heard of.
Click to expand...

I haven't gotten any power armor yet in my game, but looking at all of the stuff, it really makes power armor what it should have been in the first place. There's something like 20 upgrades, various underarmors, vocal warnings of things like overheating, tracked power consumption and heat levels (so different upgrades use more power or create more heat), and so on. There's even a patch to make it compatible with an Ambient Temperature mod (which by itself does nothing but give the temperature and air conditions like dew point and humidity), with higher air temperature making the armor overheat faster.
 
This armor mod looks pretty interesting, as a mod. Canonically speaking, though, I do get a little wary the further and further PA gets from the pulp ideal of the plug'n'play supersoldier. Power Armor was designed as a boost to speed, strength, endurance, and combat efficiency, and as a one-man bastion of survivability.That's about where the tech level sits, I think. The more advanced suits are known to contain gyroscopic stabilization, lockable joints, waste reclamation systems, high-grade environmental seals/NBC protection, and comfort amenities like air conditioning.

I don't know about flight. At the very outside, jump jets might be feasible (if off-setting, IMO), but by the aesthetic and thematic hand that guides in-universe engineering that would probably be achieved via a cumbersome external unit that could last long enough for one insertion and one extraction if you were lucky. The hydraulics in the armor would probably be able to withstand high-speed rappelling or low-altitude drops from a vertibird, but I wouldn't push that too far. As much as I dislike the way Power Armor's been handled in the newer games, I think the combat chem-injecting armor from Fallout 3 is feasible, perhaps even likely.

As to heads-up displays and that sort of thing, Fallout's universe is geared largely toward analog technology, due in part (at least as regards miltech) to the expectation that it's going to be deployed on a nuclear battlefield where EMPs are a likely concern. That's why they put a headlamp and an analog targeting reticle on the T-51b. Night Vision tech probably wouldn't be too much of a stretch, as night sights exist in the setting and Advanced Power Armor has no visible means of illuminating its surroundings.
 
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