Well most people here know that I would have liked to have seen Van Buren as the official Fallout 3. No discussion on that one.
Well yeah, NATURALLY "what could've been" could have been Van Buren FO3. But the topic's just about taking what we got, and changing story elements in such a way that would have made it workable. A different engine would be sweet, but that's beyond a "suggested improvement", whereas the other story suggested COULD feasibly be patched or modded into the game, as opposed to being built from the ground up, from scratch.
Vault 106. As suggested by another poster here, the source of a lot of East Coast raiders as result of the Social Experiment that was performed here.
*COUGH* That would be me. =) That's what I always wanted to interpret the result of 106, because it reminded me a lot of the premise to
Serenity, with the East Coast Raiders, non-organized groups of unreasonable rapist cannibal psychos, being the FO3 equivalent to
Serenity's Reavers. Sadly, I knew it was never that deep within the actual game, and they had other plans for the Raiders that they simply never realized, but given that 106 was the ONLY Vault where they drew from the FO Bible and didn't bullshit their own terrible ideas, they could've done so much more with their material, especially when their "unrealized" Raiders could be tied to 106 just like the Reavers to Miranda.
But as time goes on, the more opportunities I see for suggestions to present themselves.
Paradise Falls:
In my outline, I offered that Paradise Falls was the possible progenitor to the sweeping Slavery movement found in FO2 (since the timeline, as I'd tweak it, would have taken place hundreds of years earlier, WELL before FO2) and that the Slavers there would be a major faction that could be dealt with in the game. But with time, I've realized so much more that could be possible. Since Paradise Falls was a shopping mall before the war, it makes sense that the Slavers could have fortified it and made it their home, not unlike the Raiders who took over the Super Duper Mart, and it's the slavery trade itself that helped them stay sufficient when the "resources" of the mall dried up. They don't go raiding to steal more resources, they just capture people as slaves and sell them off to finance their sustainability. So naturally there would be a fragment of dissenting voices who see this is a short-term means of dealing with a long-term problem, although these voices wouldn't offer the Lone Wanderer the opportunity to have the entirety of Paradise Falls turn over a new leaf. No, that would be some childish notion of good vs evil as Bethesda would cook up. It would, at best, present a conflict that MIGHT be explored in ending tiles that Paradise Falls fell apart after a number of years, if those voices weren't quelled, or otherwise silenced. But as the progenitor tot he countrywide slavers guilds generations later, that obviously wouldn't be canon. But still an option to explore withing the game. In short, "helping" the slavers of Paradise Falls wouldn't amount to simply collecting more bodies for them to ship off to slave owners, but dealing with the politics of their own survival. Making alliances with groups that can work with them. "Dealing" with the dissent. And of course, collecting people to enslave.
Rivet City:
The unmarked quest regarding ousting council members would be a MUCH more involving task, and that could be explored with every member of the council. Dr. Li's removal from the facility would also be factored into the power struggle/vacuum, unlike how the actual game simply disregards her disappearance from the city. Most likely as a facet to the goal of recruiting major factions to help retake Project Purity, the player would have FAR more opportunity to play with who rules in Rivet City. I'd personally do away with "The Replicated Man" quest entirely, though, so there would be some other series of events to get rid of Harkness... assuming you wanted him replaced on the council, of course. Pinkerton's presence and his grudge towards the rest of the city would remain the same, though finding him would be more important than simply filling in Moira on how the city was really founded. Possibly, Pinkerton could return once Dr. Li makes her exodus- if convinced to, since his bitterness would most likely just compound his desire for isolation, though his strong willed nature would require equally strong willed council members to balance him out, otherwise he'd end up taking dictatorial control over Rivet City, another delicate matter to be handled by the player.
As you can see, my suggestions for FO3 would transform it from some lackluster wasteland exploration simulator in a MATTER political dance, where the grey lines of morality really shine through. Making everyone happy when certain individuals have their own (usually justified) agendas is really tricky, but going the "bad" route is usually much easier, hence why you'd do that instead. Time sensitive events would necessitate players progressing with the story, but the importance of the coalition subplot would also necessitate their involvement with all of the locations in the Capitol Wasteland. You couldn't just ignore the Talon Company Mercs, or they'd demolish what semblance of peace the player could ever accomplish with their lengthy negotiations. You couldn't just ignore the "Regulator" Outcasts, because they'd inevitably clash with the Citadel "Regulators", also destroying progress that the player would have otherwise established. And it wouldn't just be some Yes Man or House NPC telling you what to do; like the original
Fallout games, you'd just have to figure this out on your own, and it's most likely the ending slides that would tip you off to "what you missed". Ending Slides say that your best efforts at the happiest ending was foiled by the slavers of Paradise Falls rising to prominence and enslaving the whole region and occupying the water purifier anyway? Well then you'd know to try and "deal" with Paradise Falls the next time you play. Do that and the ending slides say that the strife between the coalition forces you gathered tore their alliance apart and within a few months/years things were far worse off than when you started the game? Well now you'll know that negotiating the power struggles with the coalition requires certain finessing. And so on and so on. After all, in FO1 there was no omniscient NPC that told you the crops needed their efficiency boosted and Tandi needed rescuing after a certain amount of time and the Radscorpions being dealt with was a MUST in order for Shady Sands to prosper in the end; the player just needed to figure this out on his/her own.
As I mentioned elsewhere, I also LOVED the idea of making some kind of "hybrid" system with the shitty Gamebryo engine's first person exploration in a tiny, contiguous map by splitting up said map into multiple, smaller maps, and changing the Pipboy's map into something similar to the maps in the original games, with random encounters and days/weeks elapsing mostly through travel time, and all that jazz. As a consequence of all the NPCs being rebalanced, the player could recruit more than 1 at a time, and it would give particular significance to having a dog in your company, since it would be able to "sniff out" encounters before you ran into them, like a free boost to your Survival/Outdoorsman skill, but they'd be weak, so you'd better look out for them!
So much potential lies in this game, if only the proper changes were made in the right places. It's really a shame that potential was never reached.
(But of course Afterburner would sell better to "everyone".)
