The purpose of the Press Gang in Fallout 2

[RetroAmerica]

So I was always curious who were the Press Gang hanging out around San Francisco working for? Were they unknowingly working for the Federal Government(incorrectly called Enclave by the good people at Bethesda), attempting to capture subjects for their modified F.E.V. experiments or perhaps they were being used by NCR to expand the army(since if I remember correctly or incorrectly, the NCR Army was mostly made up of conscripts, followed by volunteers on a more limited basis).

Does anyone know the answer to this?

For those interested in what the real Press Gang was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressment

**That or the NCR, for totally unfathomable reasons has an exceptionally large Navy**

 

[naossano]

Were they unknowingly working for the Federal Government(incorrectly called Enclave by the good people at Bethesda),

Did you finished Fallout 2 ? This is basically the main plot of this game. Bethesda didn't invented anything on this question. The Enclave always been the remnants of the US government. Considering the weigh of this group in the main plot it isn't unlikely that Tim Cain & Co wrote their concept before leaving in early develloppement.

 

[Gizmojunk]

IRRC, he said they had submitted an outline of the game plot and the team had just implemented the car +/- around the time they left.

*I wish I could find that quote again; to be sure that I don't have it wrong.

(incorrectly called Enclave by the good people at Bethesda)

Bethesda essentially grafted the plots of Fallout & Fallout 2 into a Wasteland Savior plot comprised mainly of both. The only things noteworthy that are new (besides their awesome landscape), are the mirelurks and behemoths. The Behemoths are noteworthy mainly because they shouldn't exist in DC. Behemoths existed in Fallout:Tactics, but they were quadruped robotic tanks. Bethesda pulled FEV from the West coast Fallout plot-line, and incorrectly included it in their East coast plot-line ~with vault 87 and their recycling of the (long dead and/or mostly died out) supermutants, ghouls, Brotherhood, Enclave, and even bottle caps of all things.

*(It's all a part of the "Me Too!" association of FO3 with the established series.)

 

[SnapSlav]

It's a good point that "even bottle caps of all thing" is little more than another copy of the older games. Despite FOT's problems, using bottle caps when the previous games clearly established that said currency wasn't universal... wasn't one of them. They used Ring Pulls, and while essentially the same in function, they still offered a "different" thing than the first game, which had established the lore behind the bottle cap as a Hub exclusive endeavor. FO3 just copying that and suggesting that the whole world over (or at least on the far other side of the country), despite there BEING no Hub-like trade associations, or much of any organized commerce to speak of, bottle caps being embraced as the universal currency was just stupid.

 

[Banestalker]

It's a good point that "even bottle caps of all thing" is little more than another copy of the older games. Despite FOT's problems, using bottle caps when the previous games clearly established that said currency wasn't universal... wasn't one of them. They used Ring Pulls, and while essentially the same in function, they still offered a "different" thing than the first game, which had established the lore behind the bottle cap as a Hub exclusive endeavor. FO3 just copying that and suggesting that the whole world over (or at least on the far other side of the country), despite there BEING no Hub-like trade associations, or much of any organized commerce to speak of, bottle caps being embraced as the universal currency was just stupid.

indeed, I liked how they implemented Legion and NCR currencies in NV, but they should've made their roles much more important. they should've made bottle caps a near-worthless currency in NV, used only by the poorest communities. with Legion and NCR currencies becoming the main currency in the later stages of the game. bottle caps were worthless even in F2.

 

[SnapSlav]

Snip

indeed, I liked how they implemented Legion and NCR currencies in NV, but they should've made their roles much more important. they should've made bottle caps a near-worthless currency in NV, used only by the poorest communities. with Legion and NCR currencies becoming the main currency in the later stages of the game. bottle caps were worthless even in F2.

The problem with that is that FONV explained that as a result of the war with the Brotherhood, the NCR's territories reverted back to the water-backed Bottle Cap as their standard unit of currency as opposed to the now questrionable, fiat-based Greenback, as the destruction of the NCR's gold mines means they could no longer print coins or back their printed currency with gold. It made sense that the Bottle Cap was the standard for currency in FONV, but just like you said, the Legion and NCR currencies should have had a larger impact than they ultimately did, in the game. Again, to use FOT as an example of doing it right, there were Brotherhood Scripts and Ring Pulls, and BOS Quartermasters would not accept Ring Pulls under any circumstances, and wasteland traders would not accept Scripts as payment. FONV's method of assigning a value to the NCR dollar that's ALWAYS worth a certain amount of caps just makes it another thing in the player's inventory that's always worth something, providing no incentive to consolidate your finances and no risk (or great reward) if you had large sums of cash in a particular currency in a particular location that liked one currency more or less than the others.