The water situation on the West Coast
- Thread starter TamaNeko
- Start date
Could be that fallout particulate tend to be heavier then water and sink rapidly. Besides, less humans, less water demands. Let California return to its desert roots!
Why is it a problem in the East, so long after the bombs dropped? . . . Bethesda needing an over-arching plot.
Or, the excessive use of Fat Man, and the excessive detonation of those new-thangled exploding-fusion cars.
There's a neat little Internetized book that MNA links to in one of the sections on the main website that says all you need to do to cleanse water of its fallout is to strain it through dirt . . . So, better purification? Unlikely.
Overthinking mode >> Well, it could be that after the bombs fell, the East, having primary targets (such as Washington) suffered heavy bombing. Although the fallout settled rapidly, it settled in soil. Because of the different climate, the East might have many more rain storms, washing the fallout into the rivers, polluting them . . . Not to mention farming operations disturbing the top soil. >>
Why is it a problem in the East, so long after the bombs dropped? . . . Bethesda needing an over-arching plot.
Or, the excessive use of Fat Man, and the excessive detonation of those new-thangled exploding-fusion cars.
There's a neat little Internetized book that MNA links to in one of the sections on the main website that says all you need to do to cleanse water of its fallout is to strain it through dirt . . . So, better purification? Unlikely.
Overthinking mode >> Well, it could be that after the bombs fell, the East, having primary targets (such as Washington) suffered heavy bombing. Although the fallout settled rapidly, it settled in soil. Because of the different climate, the East might have many more rain storms, washing the fallout into the rivers, polluting them . . . Not to mention farming operations disturbing the top soil. >>
Trithne
Still Mildly Glowing
Pretty much this. Cleaning water of impurities is easy, which makes the entire plot of FO3 moot. The Vault wanting a water-chip is more to do with their sterile and sealed nature.
Vault Maker
Vault-Tec Cartographer
The original games made relatively little use of radiation. Fallout 3 makes it more of an issue (one of it's saving graces).
DC would be heavily targeted. I'd be surprised if it looked as good as it does in Fallout 3.
Back on the west coast, depending on how similar the Fallout world is to ours, an arc running from north of LA south and east to San Diego would probably be hit hard (aerospace and other defense industry in the desert, Navy stuff on the coast). East of San Francisco, there was Alameda Naval Air Station, Concord Naval Weapons Depot (with nukes), Lawrence Livermore Labs, Tracy Weapons Depot, Beale Air Force Base (Strategic Air Command bombers)... So there should still be lts of radiation in the FO1 and FO2 areas.
An interesting real-world guide is the US Federal Emergency Management Agency's "Nuclear Attack Planning Base 1990". Look at Annex A, "Direct Effects..." to see where bombs fall, then at Annex B, "Fallout Risk..." You will see that fallout mostly travels west-to-east.
Oh, and the midwest is amazingly f-ed. All those silos demanded a lot of groundburst hits.
This was a model of a Soviet attack done in the mid-80's. It assumes casualties and damage that must be very low compared to Fallout's Great War, which must have used a lot more warheads and bigger yields.
DC would be heavily targeted. I'd be surprised if it looked as good as it does in Fallout 3.
Back on the west coast, depending on how similar the Fallout world is to ours, an arc running from north of LA south and east to San Diego would probably be hit hard (aerospace and other defense industry in the desert, Navy stuff on the coast). East of San Francisco, there was Alameda Naval Air Station, Concord Naval Weapons Depot (with nukes), Lawrence Livermore Labs, Tracy Weapons Depot, Beale Air Force Base (Strategic Air Command bombers)... So there should still be lts of radiation in the FO1 and FO2 areas.
An interesting real-world guide is the US Federal Emergency Management Agency's "Nuclear Attack Planning Base 1990". Look at Annex A, "Direct Effects..." to see where bombs fall, then at Annex B, "Fallout Risk..." You will see that fallout mostly travels west-to-east.
Oh, and the midwest is amazingly f-ed. All those silos demanded a lot of groundburst hits.
This was a model of a Soviet attack done in the mid-80's. It assumes casualties and damage that must be very low compared to Fallout's Great War, which must have used a lot more warheads and bigger yields.
Vault Maker said:
I dont know i wouldent nuke DC...bad leaders still in chair are better than dead becouse they might find better ones for the job...
Any way lets be honest no nation can win nuclear war and amount of radioation would kill other half or whole world im not expert but wind is blowing in all direction sooner or later...
Back to radiation: That little book I meantioned seems to have it's mind set on the majority of radioactive fallout disipating within about a month of a bombing (the majority in the first 48 hours, the lesser about a week, and then there's just the modulus -- ultra cancerous kind).
For primary targets? They had enough bombs to put the earth (and every standing structure) down for the night likely. Key thing to remember is, if you want realism, go nuke the planet. If you want a game, play one.
"Any way lets be honest no nation can win nuclear war and amount of radioation would kill other half or whole world im not expert but wind is blowing in all direction sooner or later..."
Some people consider a stalemate a win; Gives them time to prepare for the shaft war, where people fight over underground fallout shelters, via shafting one another! ala Dr. LoveGood.
As far as weather patterns go, only thing to be concerned about would be the newly ionized gases, everything else? To damn heavy to keep goin' and goin' and goin, likely. But I dont' know what plutonium, and such, converts into upon big-bada-boom. And I'm too damn lazy to do the decomposition math.
For primary targets? They had enough bombs to put the earth (and every standing structure) down for the night likely. Key thing to remember is, if you want realism, go nuke the planet. If you want a game, play one.
"Any way lets be honest no nation can win nuclear war and amount of radioation would kill other half or whole world im not expert but wind is blowing in all direction sooner or later..."
Some people consider a stalemate a win; Gives them time to prepare for the shaft war, where people fight over underground fallout shelters, via shafting one another! ala Dr. LoveGood.
As far as weather patterns go, only thing to be concerned about would be the newly ionized gases, everything else? To damn heavy to keep goin' and goin' and goin, likely. But I dont' know what plutonium, and such, converts into upon big-bada-boom. And I'm too damn lazy to do the decomposition math.
JayGrey said:
The best founded/most widespread theories of the extinction of the dinosaurs hold that it was a sudden drop in temperature and sunlight, most likely caused by a giant meteor or a great number/one giant volcanic eruptions sending debris into the atmosphere.
The nuclear winter would be worse.
No, not really.
Mikael Grizzly said:
Agree - atomic bombs wouldn't give anywhere near the amount of debris thrown into the atmosphere, as hundreds (if not thousands) tons of rock (or an asteroid, if you wish) hitting the ground with enormous speed would. Unless those nukes would be somewhere not-too-deep underground, which would still give lesser effect.
Violator
Still Mildly Glowing
Julius said:
Ummm, no. One of the things that make Fallout universe alternative to our own is the fact that after the Great War there was nothing but complete absence of nuclear winter and similar effects; and no one knows why for certain. So says the St. Chris Avellone in the holy scriptures of Fallout Bible.
Vault Maker said:
Actually most of those hits would be our own bombs... kick up a lot of dust into the atmosphere to create a barrier for incoming reentry vehicles(IE the bombs) though which we can continue firing our missiles over the week or so the war would last.
Ravager69 said:
Say it with me, Son of a bitch...
Vault Maker
Vault-Tec Cartographer
Self-nuking? The last leg of a missile warhead is mostly or all "ballistic", i.e. it just drops according to gravity. Dust would be more likely (though dubious) an issue for outbound missiles, and (less dubious) one for aircraft.
Unless it was special dust. Antigravity dust? Maxwell's-Daemon-dust, that knows what objects to affect and what objects to ignore?
Then there's the self-inflicted EMP damage in the vicinity of the hits. So on balance, nobody would ever do that.
It would make a good storyline for a FOBOS sequel though.
Were you referring to something in Fallout, or a book/movie?
Unless it was special dust. Antigravity dust? Maxwell's-Daemon-dust, that knows what objects to affect and what objects to ignore?
Then there's the self-inflicted EMP damage in the vicinity of the hits. So on balance, nobody would ever do that.
It would make a good storyline for a FOBOS sequel though.
Were you referring to something in Fallout, or a book/movie?